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Seerah 1 - Specialities of Prophet Muhammad - Yasir Qadhi _ April 2011-VOUp3ZZ9t3A

Al-Fatihah Surah Al-Fatihah. قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم ومن يطع الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. أما بعد Today inshaAllah ta'ala we will embark on a new series of lectures. A series of lectures concentrating on the life and times of the single greatest human being who has ever lived, ever walked on the face of this earth. And in today's lecture, I wanted to begin by talking about some of the broad characteristics of our Prophet ﷺ. Some of the, what in Arabic is called, some of the unique and specific characteristics that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to our Prophet ﷺ. Before we embark on the journey of seerah, and why we study seerah, and what is seerah, that will be inshallah next weekend, next week. And then we begin with the birth and the pre-Islamic Arabia. All of this will come. Before we even begin, a little bit of a tantalizing tidbit, if you like, of the characteristics, of the unique specialities that our Prophet ﷺ was blessed with. Because when we begin this series by talking about his specialities, even though all of us are motivated to study his seerah, when we study his specialities, we'll be even more motivated. and we'll be even more eager to learn about the life and times, the lessons and morals, the incidents that occurred in the life of our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so where then do we begin when it comes to describing the one whom Allah has chosen above the entire creation? How can we do justice to him when Allah azza wa jal Himself says, وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ Allah says, we have raised up your mentioning and remembrance. Allah has raised up his mentioning and remembrance. And Ibn Abbas and other scholars of the Sahaba, they said, Allah has raised up his remembrance such that whenever Allah is mentioned, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is mentioned right after that. And how true this is. Whenever Allah is mentioned, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is almost always mentioned right after that. Even in our shahada, La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah. In the adhan, in the salah that we pray, in the Quran itself, there's hardly a khutbah that we give except that we praise Allah and we send salah and salam upon the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Himself has called our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam a rahmatan lil alameen. You are the mercy to the entire world. You are the embodiment of rahmat. Allah has sent you and through you, you will be given rahmah. And you are a rahmah. And you are the channel of Allah's rahmah. So he is rahmah. The Prophet ﷺ is rahmah. And his sending is rahmah. And his message is rahmah. And his teachings is rahmah. And believing and acting upon what he has come with is a rahmah. He is everything associated with mercy. That is rahmah للعالمين. So how then can we begin to do justice to the Prophet ﷺ when Allah has praised him so highly. However, even if we cannot mention all of those blessings and characteristics, then at least let us mention some, so that they can be an indication for that which cannot be mentioned because of time and restrictions. And we begin by mentioning some of the names that Allah عز و جل gave our Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. For our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had many names. many of the names of our Prophet ﷺ were given to him by later people the sahaba tabi'un, the early scholars and one of the famous scholars of the seerah has derived over 250 names of the Prophet ﷺ and if we were to give a class on this we'd spend 3-4 weeks just talking about that list but I wanted to mention some of the names that Allah has given him because you see names come from Allah and names come from the people and we are obviously the ones that come from the people we can benefit from them. But the ones that Allah has given our Prophet ﷺ, those are the primary names that have the deepest meaning. And of the hadith that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned his names, he said, عَنْ جُبَيْرِ بْنِ مُطْعِمٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ عَنْ صَحِي مُسْلِمٍ The Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ لِي أَسْمَاءً I have a number of names. So the Prophet ﷺ is telling us he has a number of names. He said, أَنَا مُحَمَّدٌ I am Muhammad. وَأَنَا أَحْمَدٌ And I am Ahmed, I'm gonna mention each of these names. وَأَنَا الْمَاحِي And I am Al-Mahi. Of his names is Al-Mahi. And he explained, Al-Mahi is the one whom يَمْحُ اللَّهُ بِهِ الْكُفْرِ Allah erases kufr. وَأَنَا الْحَاشِر Of his names is Al-Hashir. الَّذِي يَحْشُرُ النَّاسُ عَلَى قَدَمِي People will be resurrected. حَشَرَ يَحْشُرُ means to be resurrected. On my footsteps or meaning after me. وَأَنَا الْعَاقِب of his name is Aqib. And he said, Al-Aqib is the one who has no prophet after me. Wa ana nabiyyur rahma, he said. I am the nabiyyur rahma. That is one of my names, nabiyyur rahma. Wa ana nabiyyur tawbah. And I am the nabiyy of repentance. Wa ana al-muqaffa. And he is the muqaffa. And the qaffa, we're going to explain what this means, but the one that who has come after all, or the one who, not predates, the one who comes consequently, the one who comes at the end of a long chain. That is المقفى. وَأَنَا نَبِيُّ الْمَلَاحِمْ And I am the Prophet of Malahim. We're gonna explain all of these names one by one. So, the most common names of the Prophet ﷺ, and the two that the Qur'an explicitly mentions. The Qur'an mentions many adjectives, but it only mentions two nouns. The Qur'an mentions many adjectives for the Prophet ﷺ, from those adjectives we can derive names. So نبي الرحمة, we can derive it from the Quran. رحمة للعالمين This is a description, an adjective. But in terms of proper nouns, or in terms of nouns, there are two names that are mentioned. And these names are Muhammad and Ahmed. The name Muhammad is mentioned four times in the Quran. And the name Ahmed is mentioned a few times as well. If my memory serves me correctly, it is two or three times. The name Ahmed is mentioned. And every time it is mentioned, it is mentioned from the tongue of Jesus Christ. The only time Ahmad is mentioned is from the tongue of Jesus Christ. نبي من بعد اسمه أحمد عيسى بن مريم says that I'm going to tell you of a prophet coming after me, his name is Ahmad. Both Muhammad and Ahmad come from Hamida. يحمد حمدا And Hamd means to praise. But not any type of praise. Hamd is the first word of the Quran Alhamdulillah And hamd means To praise Not in return for some favor given to you Because that is shukr Somebody does you something You praise them back That is shukr That is a praise Bimuqabil It's something that you give and take You give me some money I say thank you Or you're a generous man This is not called hamd This is shukr Because you have given something back in return for something he's given you. Hamd is higher than shukr. Shukr is a transaction in a way, even though it is something that is good. Higher than shukr is hamd, and hamd is the highest form of praise. Hamd is a praise that is given because of the inherent characteristics in the object that you're praising. Not because he's done you anything, you've given back to him. Because he deserves to be praised for who he is. Hamd is an object of perfection an object that is worthy of being praised. Regardless of what he's done or hasn't done, he is worthy of being shown praise. And so, the Prophet ﷺ has two names, and his two most common names come from the root which describes praise. Why? Because Allah has praised him. And the angels have praised him. And the people on earth have praised him. And all the prophets have praised him. and every single one of mankind praises him directly or indirectly. As for praising him directly, these are the Muslims. They praise him directly. And as for praising him indirectly, then the characteristics and qualities that he has come with are characteristics and qualities of perfection. So even those who reject him by the tongue, they must admit and they must praise the qualities that he came with. mercy, tenderness, rahmah, shafaqah. It doesn't matter even if their tongues deny his prophethood, they must praise the qualities that are in him. So he is worthy of praise from all of humanity. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ is praised in the heavens and in the earth. He is praised in the previous ummah and in the present ummah. He is praised in this dunya and in the akhira. This is the ultimate praise. There is no human being who has ever been praised, or is praised at this point in time, or who shall continue to be praised more than our Prophet ﷺ. And think about it. No millisecond occurs on this earth except that there are not millions, not tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people around the globe praising this one person ﷺ. either by sending dhulud and salat and salam or by giving a khutbah or lecture or by saying the salah because you cannot pray any salah you cannot pray any raka'ah except that what do you do in that raka'ah اللهم صلي على محمد وعلى آل محمد think about it there is no second on earth that goes by except that hundreds of millions of people are praising this one human being there is no person who is more praised than our Prophet ﷺ. And the ultimate praise that he will be given by humanity, of course the ultimate praise he is given is by Allah. As for humanity, the ultimate praise he will be given will be the praise that he will be given on Yawm al-Qiyamah, on the day of judgment. On that day, all kafirs will know the truth of Islam. You cannot deny Allah when you are seeing Yawm al-Qiyamah. Muslim and non-Muslim, they will know the truth. Of course it is too late to believe in the truth, but they will know it. So when they recognize the truth, the people will all go to Adam a.s. The hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim. They will all go to Adam a.s. And they will say, O Adam, you are our father. And Allah created you with His hands. And Allah blew His ruh into you. do you not see the situation your children are in? why don't you go to Allah and beg for forgiveness? why don't you go to Allah and beg him to start the reckoning so that we can move on so Adam a.s. will make an excuse and he will say I committed a sin that I should not have done meaning I'm not worthy to go and ask Allah a.s. I committed a sin and I'm worried about myself nafsi, nafsi go to another person, go to Nuh a.s. And so humanity at large will go to the Prophet Nuh and the same request. And the Prophet Nuh will say, I made a mistake which I should not have done. Allah told me not to ask anybody to be saved. And I asked him to save my son and I disobeyed him. And I'm worried about myself. Nafsi, nafsi, go to somebody else, go to Ibrahim. They will go to Ibrahim a.s. Ibrahim a.s. will say the same thing. That I made three lies, even though they were not lies. But he's so worried. He says, I made three lies. And I'm worried about those lies on the Day of Judgment. What are these three lies? Number one, he said, the big idol did it. Right? This is da'wah. It's not even a lie. But he's so worried now. I don't know, maybe Allah will call me to task. Number two, he said, I'm sick. When his people went out of the town, he said, inni saqeem. I'm sick, I don't want to go with you. Let me stay here. Why? Because he wanted to destroy the idols. And number three, he called Sarah, his wife. he said Sarah is my sister meaning in Islam because the king was about to kill him so he said she is my sister I'm not husband wife we are sister and brother meaning and he meant sister in Islam because he wanted to save his life these three things he was so worried about he said I'm too scared go to somebody else go to Musa and Musa will also make an excuse he will say I killed somebody in anger even though it was an accident I killed somebody in anger I'm worried so go to somebody else they will go to Isa. Isa a.s. will also say, I'm not worthy, go to somebody else. And so all of mankind will come to the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. All of mankind, Muslim and Kafir. And they will beg the Prophet s.a.w. to intercede, to be a representative, to be a messenger from them to Allah. And to be an intercessor. and to be a representative. So they choose one human being to be a representative, to go in front of Allah and plead for all of humanity. Plead what? To begin يوم القيامة. Because the qiyamah is taking too long and they are getting so worried. So if you like the punishment is increasing because qiyamah itself is 50,000 years. في يوم كان يقداره خمسين ألف سنة. Qiyamah itself is a type of punishment. And the people who have rejected Allah, they will be so exasperated by Qiyamah. They will say, whatever comes, let it come. Let's just get rid of this day. Let's move on to whatever it is. The tension is too much. So they will beg Rasulullah ﷺ to go in front of Allah and ask Allah to begin the reckoning. And so the Prophet ﷺ will say, this is my job. This is my responsibility. And so he will then go in front of Allah. and because he will be the representative, all of humanity will praise him. And he will be given the praiseworthy station which is called Al-Maqam Al-Mahmood. This is Al-Maqam Al-Mahmood. This is exactly what Al-Maqam Al-Mahmood is. What does Al-Maqam Al-Mahmood means? Al-Maqam Al-Mahmood means the station, Maqam, the rank. That is Mahmood. What is Mahmood from Hamd? it is for the one that is praised everyone will praise him no human being will be left except that he will thank the Prophet and be thankful to him and praise him for the Maqam al-Mahmood Allah will lift him up to the Maqam al-Mahmood the angels will praise him humanity will praise him every single being in existence will praise the Prophet at that point in time it is Al-Maqam al-Mahmood and because it is Al-Maqam al-Mahmood who better to than it be given to than the one who is Muhammad and the one who is Ahmed. Al-Maqam al-Mahmud is for Muhammad and it is for Ahmed. And both of them mean the one who is ultimately praised. What is the difference between Muhammad and Ahmed? Muhammad, for those of you who are learning Arabic, is Mufa'al. And Hamada yuhamidu tahmidan. Muhammad means that he is being given continuous praise, continuously, time after time, praise after praise. So Muhammad is for the quantity of praise. That every single point in time he is being praised. And as we already said, from the beginning of time up until our time, till the day of judgment, on the day of judgment, after the day of judgment, all of the time our Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam will be praised. So Muhammad is for continuity. Muhammad is for quantity. And as for Ahmad, على وزن أفعل, Ahmad means that he is being given the best type of praise, the highest quality of praise. So Ahmad is for quality, Muhammad is for quantity, and the both are combined in our Rasul ﷺ, that he is worthy of being praised the highest way that any human being can be praised. Of course, the praise that we give to Allah is a different type of praise, and that is a divine praise. But the highest praise for any human being is for our Prophet ﷺ, and the most continuous praise is for our Prophet ﷺ. So Muhammad is for quantity, Ahmed is for quality, and the both of them are combined in our Rasul ﷺ, who will be given al-Maqam al-Mahmood, which is the praiseworthy station. Now, as for the issue of why is it that the Prophet Musa ﷺ predicted our Rasul with the name of Muhammad, as the Quran says. And Isa predicted our Rasul with the name of Ahmed. The famous scholar Ibn al-Qayyim said that the wisdom behind this, the wisdom behind this, is that the largest ummah, after our ummah, is that of the Jews, the Bani Israel. They are the largest ummah of real followers. That is because the Christians, as we believe, the majority of them, they took a different path. That of Paul and his version of Christianity. The original Christians, the true believers of Isa, were few in number. And their religion died out very quickly. As you know, Constantine and all of these, they changed their religion, and it became a trinity, it became a divine nature of Jesus Christ. Of course, Isa never preached this from our perspective. So, the Prophet Musa alayhi salam, his people were the largest ummah of true Muslims. after our ummah. And therefore they were given quantity because they have quantity. So they are told the name that is conducive, that is fitting with them because they are large quantity. As for the Prophet Isa a.s., his followers were few, his disciples were few, and the people who truly followed the actual message of Jesus Christ were not that many. But they were great in quality. The disciples and those who followed them, They were persecuted, they were tortured. The pagan Romans killed them. They put them in front of the lions. They combed their bones and their flesh with combs of iron. Just like you see on the movies, these tortures. This was given to the early Christians, the real Christians, meaning the followers of Jesus Christ, the true followers of Isa ibn Maryam. They were few in number, but they were truly devoted and righteous. And so for them, they were given the name Ahmad, because they were people of quality. They were people of quality, and they were told that our Rasul ﷺ would be the one who is worthy of the best quality of praise. And so Muhammad and Ahmed are both his names. Of the third name that he mentions, an Al-Mahi. Al-Mahi, he explained it himself. Al-Mahi is the one whom Allah, يَمْحُ اللَّهُ بِهِ الْكُفْرِ And مَحَى means to efface, to wipe out. مَحَى means to wipe out. So through me, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will wipe out kufr. And we see this occurring in his lifetime, that the Arabian peninsula was immersed in kufr. And in his own lifetime, the entire peninsula was immersed in Islam. And within 20-30 years, major bastions of kufr were then converted to Islam, and they have been in Islam ever since. Within 60, 70 years, Islam reached the borders of China and Andalus, where it remains to this day. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used our Prophet ﷺ as Al-Mahi. Al-Mahi means to wipe away. And wallahi, if you look at a geographic map, if you look at a historical geographic map that tells you the expansion of Islam, you see exactly what Al-Mahi is. Literally, the religion of Islam is expanding 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years. it's as if the other kufr is being wiped away and the religion of Islam is spreading forth. All of this is al-mahi, the one who erases and effaces kufr. وَأَنَا الْحَاشِرُ The Prophet ﷺ said, الْحَاشِرُ He explained it as well. الَّذِي يَحْشُرُ النَّاسُ عَلَى قَدَمِي That mankind will be resurrected عَلَى قَدَمِي عَلَى قَدَمِي means two things. Means at my feet literally, but what it actually means is right after me. So the Prophet ﷺ is the signaling of the day of judgment. And in fact, the coming of the Prophet ﷺ is the first sign of the day of judgment. His sending is the first sign that judgment is now close. Compared to all the previous prophets, the very bi'tha, the very risalah of our Prophet ﷺ is the first of the signs of the day of judgment. So he is saying, another interpretation is that, I am the first person who will be resurrected and everybody will be resurrected after me. الَّذِي يَحْشُرُ النَّاسُ عَلَى قَدَمِي So after I am resurrected, I will be the first person resurrected. And even the order of resurrecting shall be a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And there is no question that the prophets will be resurrected first and foremost. And then the صَالِحُونَ and the شُهَدَى and then the rest of the ummah. So even the order of resurrection and the order of recognizing what's happening Because Allah mentions in the Quran that when they are resurrected, they'll be shaking off the dust and they will say, يَا وَيْلَنَا مَنْ بَعَثَنَا مِمَّنْ قَرْدِنَا What is happening to us? Who has brought us forth from our resting places? People will be confused what's happening. And the prophets will understand immediately what is happening. And the first person to be resurrected and the first person to understand will be our Prophet ﷺ. So he's saying, the one that is signaling the by his coming he is signaling the coming of the day of judgment and by his resurrection on the day of judgment he will be the one after whom everybody else will be resurrected and he said I am the he himself explained it there is no prophet after me so al-aqib means the successor the word seal is not appropriate because that's khatam But what it means is that, the one who cuts off basically. The one who is at the end is the best phrase here. Al-Aqib, the one who comes at the end. And then he said, I am the Nabi al-Rahma. And I am the Nabi al-Tawbah. And you understand Nabi al-Rahma. And Allah calls him Rahmatan lil'alameen. I am the Nabi al-Tawbah. Which means, I am the Prophet. That is the Prophet of repentance. I am the source of repentance. Meaning that by believing in me, And by following my teachings, people can be forgiven. And I am al-muqaffa. Al-muqaffa here means that the one who comes at the end and makes the previous prophets complete. Or the one who makes the message of the previous prophets, there's no need anymore because we have the full message or the complete message of the Prophet ﷺ. And in one hadith he called himself, I am the Prophet that will signal lots of trials. And that is because the biggest trials that the world has ever seen will occur with the ummah. And during the ummah of the Prophet ﷺ, trials such as the Dajjal, and trials such as the three major earthquakes that will signal the end of time, and trials such as the coming down of Isa ibn Maryam, and the Mahdi, all of these major trials, they will occur within the ummah of this Prophet ﷺ. So he called himself, I am Nabi al-Malahim. And this is a description that is more of a warning for us and for those who oppose him. That there is gonna be a lot of trials and tribulations in his time. And there are other names that are mentioned in the sunnah, and there are other descriptions mentioned in the Quran. And inshallah in the course of our lectures and series, we will be talking about some of them. As for his specialities, what is called in Arabic, khasais. Something that only he was given, and no other human being was given. And there are many books written by the early scholars about khasaisun nabi and about shamailun nabi. Which means that his characteristics and what is unique to him. And there are many many characteristics that are unique to him. Some scholars in our times have listed up to 50 specific and unique characteristics and blessings that only he was given. And no other human being was given. Some of these, again this is all a summary, there's so much more that can be said. Some of these, number one, he is the final prophet of Allah. No prophet of Allah has obviously ever been the final prophet. And there's only one prophet that can be the final. And Allah chose him to be the final prophet. And this is explicitly mentioned in the Quran, مَا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَىٰ أَحَدٍ مِّن رِّجَالِكُمْ وَلَكِ الرَّسُولَ اللَّهِ وَخَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّينَ And in another recitation, وَخَاتِمَ النَّبِيِّينَ and that is the seal and the end of the prophets. Number two, the prophethood of our Prophet ﷺ had been decreed by Allah even before Adam ﷺ existed. Even before Adam ﷺ was a living soul. Allah had decreed the prophethood of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ even before the ruhr was blown into Adam. One of the sahaba asked the Prophet s.a.w., when were you decreed to be a prophet, Ya Rasulullah? The Prophet s.a.w. said, that when Adam was between the tine, between the mud and the ruhr. In other words, Adam was not yet combined with ruhr and tine. When Adam a.s. was still two separate entities, And that is the ruuh and the teen. When before the ruuh was blown in, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had already destined and decreed that I will be coming for mankind. Of the specialities of our Prophet ﷺ, number three, is that he is the only Prophet to have been sent for all of humanity. In fact, the only Prophet to have been sent even to the jinn. No Prophet before our Prophet ﷺ was sent to all of humanity. no prophet every single prophet was sent to a specific nation now somebody can say here Adam a.s. was a prophet and he was sent to all of the people of his time because his children there were only his children there and Nuh a.s. was a rasool and he was sent to the people of his time and there was no other people of his time so he too was sent to the people of all of humanity How then can this be a unique thing for our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? The response is that Adam and Nuh were both exceptions that simply happened by a coincidence of early history in that Adam is the first human and the only human beings will be his descendants. It is not that Allah destined him with the title, you have been sent to humanity. It just so happens that the only humanity are his children. and the same goes for the first messenger ever sent and that is Nuh a.s. there's only one city in all of humanity there's only one city Nuh a.s. when he was sent there weren't villages and qaryas all over the place there's just one group one people one nation one community that's his people and so when Allah wipes that one village out the world is wiped out because that's only one village out there so once again it is not as if Nuh was intended to be sent for all of humanity it just so happened that all of humanity was one village. And that's why both of these are the earliest two prophets, right? No prophet after them, when there were multiple cities, was sent to both cities. No prophet after them, when there were other civilizations, was sent to more than two civilizations. Other than our Prophet ﷺ, he wasn't just sent to two civilizations. He was sent to all of humanity, and not just this, another speciality. He was actually even sent to the jinn. And this is a uniqueness that no other prophet has ever been sent for. And inshaAllah in the course of our lectures, we will mention a very famous incident in the early Meccan seerah. It is called the night of the jinn. The night of the jinn. And on this night, the jinn came to Mecca, Muslim jinn. And they wanted the Prophet ﷺ to teach them about Islam. So the Prophet ﷺ went and he taught them what they needed to know. And there are details that we know of that night. And we'll talk about it during that time. of the specialities of our Prophet ﷺ that no other nation and no other prophet has been given. Our Prophet ﷺ said that Allah has helped me with ru'ub. Ru'ub means a type of fear that Allah will inflict into my enemies even before I reach them. Even one month's journey before I come to them, they will become terrified of me. So Allah helped him without even physical combat. that in his time, of course this is unique to him only, not to the rest of prophets or even to his ummah, to him only, that when he went into battle against an enemy, then the people became terrified of him even before he reached them. And this he said, Allah help me with ru'ub. And ru'ub is frightening or fear. And Allah struck fear into the hearts of my enemies for the distance of one entire month. Of the specialities that he has been given, was that he has been given the largest ummah out of all of the prophets. And this is mentioned in a hadith in Sahih Bukhari that he said that Allah showed me the ummah and I saw an ummah as large as the eye could see. And I said, maybe this is my ummah. And I was told, no, this is the ummah of Musa A.S. And then I saw an ummah even larger than that. and then I was told and it was larger than the horizon it blocked my vision and I was told this is your ummah and in another hadith he said that to the sahaba do you wish that your ummah meaning the ummah of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam should be one third of the people of Jannah they said Allahu Akbar there have been hundreds and thousands of ummahs and if one ummah is one third of Jannah Allahu Akbar so he was silent then he said would you be happy if I told you that your ummah is one half of the people of Jannah? They said, Allahu Akbar. Then he was silent. And then he said, by Allah, my hope is that my ummah shall be two thirds of the people of Jannah. Not that we want to kick the other ummahs out, they're all gonna get in if they deserve it. But that our ummah will be so large. And subhanallah, modern estimates say, how many people are Muslim on the face of this earth? Around one billion, right? One billion. Do the math. From the time of the Prophet ﷺ until Yawm al-Qiyamah. Imagine, I mean already the percentages are so huge. And then compare them to the real followers of the Prophets, right? The actual true Christians, not the Christians who believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Christians who believed in Jesus Christ as being Rasulullah. How few must they be? And then the actual Bani Israel at the time of Musa, at the time of the Prophets of the old, who believed in the Prophets, They must have been in the hundreds of millions. Great number, mashallah, great number. But you cannot compare to the billion that we have now, and throughout history for 14 centuries. And Allah knows how many centuries till Yawm al-Qiyamah. And so when you look at that, inshallah you can see how true the Prophet ﷺ. And imagine he's speaking at a time when there's only one city of Muslims, that's Medina. He's speaking at a time when there are maybe 1500 Muslims on earth. And there are probably 2-3 million Christians. and hundreds and thousands of Jews. And he's telling a group of 50 sahaba in his masjid, that I hope that inshallah, you will be two-thirds of the people of Jannah. When we hear this hadith now, we say, of course, it's common sense. But when he said it, it was a miracle. And we see this now, رأي العين, with our two eyes. Of his specialities, that no other prophet has been given, is that he has been given the most powerful miracle. And that is the miracle of the Qur'an. I've given many lectures about this issue and inshallah one day we'll talk also about this issue in more detail, but there is no miracle that compares to the Quran there is no miracle that compares to the Quran and one thing will demonstrate this for you and that is that, look at any other miracle that you can imagine the splitting of the Red Sea or the resurrection of Lazarus Jesus Christ resurrected by the permission of Allah the dead, right? all of these miracles we have no access to them. We didn't see the splitting of the Red Sea. You weren't there when Jesus Christ called out to Lazarus and he came out walking from the grave. So how do we, it's not really a miracle for me and you except that we believe in it. But the Quran is a miracle that I can hand to a non-Muslim. Say here, this is the miracle of my Prophet. The Quran is a miracle I can recite and the people can hear. It's a living miracle. It's a miracle that all of humanity has access to. And there is no miracle that compares to the miracle of the Qur'an in many different ways. And that is the topic of an entire other lecture. Of the specialities that our Prophet ﷺ has been given, and no other Prophet has been given, and we will spend insha'Allah two or three weeks discussing this one speciality, is the night journey of al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj. No other Prophet has had the privilege of undertaking this journey. even when Allah Azza wa Jal spoke with one of the greatest prophets and that is Musa Alayhi Salaam it was the divine speech that was given to Musa while Musa was on earth Musa was on Turi Sayna and Allah spoke with him as for our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the only human being to have been called up to the presence of Allah Azza wa Jal no other human being has ever been called up to the presence of Allah. And the Prophet ﷺ undertook a journey that no other makhluk as far as we know ever undertook. And he went up to a maqam that Jibreel told him, my permission stops here, you must go alone. Even Jibreel said, this is my stop, my visa, whatever you want to call it. This is where it ends, I can't go any further. And so our Prophet ﷺ went up, فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ يَأْوَدْنَا according to one interpretation. And this we'll talk about inshaAllah in more detail in the journey of Al-Isra' wa Al-Mi'raj. But this is definitely one of the greatest blessings that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was given. Of his specialities that he was given is that he is the leader of all of humanity. And he himself told us this in the hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, انا سيد ولد آدم I am the Sayyid. The Sayyid here means, Sayyid, سَادَ يَسُودُ means, the one who is in charge of. The one who is the representative. The one who is the leader. أَنَا سَيِّدُ وَلَدِ آدَمِ I am the Sayyid of the children of Adam. And what does Sayyid here means? Many meanings. First and foremost, he is the master. Meaning, what does it mean Sayyid master here? Meaning he is the perfection of humanity. And he deserves to be the leader of humanity. and he will be the leader of humanity on the day of judgment. So the Sayyid here has multiple meanings and he is all of these meanings. So the Prophet ﷺ is the Sayyid of the day of judgment. Of the blessings that are unique to him is that the Prophet ﷺ will be the very first human being to be resurrected on the day of judgment as we said. Hadith in Sahih Bukhari tells us this. The first grave to open up when the second trumpet is blown. There are two trumpets, right? ثُمَّ نُفِقَ فِيهِ أُخْرَى The trumpet will be blown twice. The second trumpet will be when the graves will be opening up. So when the graves are opening up, the Prophet ﷺ said, the first grave that will crack open will be mine. The Prophet ﷺ will be the first human being, and that also explains his name, Al-Hashir. And he will also be the first human being to be clothed on the day of judgment. Of the specialities that he has been given, is that he will be given the largest حوض and حوض is a pool that our Prophet ﷺ has been promised. We talked about this when we talked about تفسير of سورة الكوثر and this is a pool, a حوض which is square in shape. He has told us it is square in shape. And it is so large that one side of it, one of these squares, it is as if it is from Mecca to Sana'a which is the entire Arabian, half of the Arabian Peninsula, right? From Makkah to Sana'a, this is just one side of it. Multiply that by four, you get the perimeter. And I described the Kawthar and the Hawd in a previous lecture, inshallah ta'ala you can go back to that. Of his specialty is the Kawthar. He has been given the main tributary, the main river of Jannah. And all the rivers of Jannah split from that. It is as if one can say, it is as if the people of Jannah will drink water from the gift of the Prophet ﷺ. Because it is Al-Kawthar, and Al-Kawthar is, إِنَّ أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ So the people of Jannah's water is all a gift for and coming from and given to our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Of his specialities is, he will be the first to cross over the Sirat, and he will be the one guiding his ummah to Jannah, and he will be the first to knock on the doors of Jannah, and he will be the first human being to ever enter Jannah after our father Adam has left it. And he will be the one in whose name the gates of Jannah will be opened when he knocks on the door and the angel in charge of the gate will say, who is it? And he will say, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The angel will say, to you I have been commanded to open. Meaning I can't open for anybody else, you are the one I have to open for. And so when his name is uttered, It is His name that will give me the permission to open up the gates of Jannah. And therefore as He told us, the very first footstep to be entering into Jannah will be that, the right foot of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And then his ummah will be the first ummah, even though we are the last ummah chronologically. But because we are his ummah, and because we are his followers, Allah will bless us, and Allah will gift us, and Allah will honor us, not because of us, but because of Him. And we will be asked to enter along with Him. So we will be the first ummah to enter Jannah, even though we are the last ummah chronologically. And this is of His specialities. And the final speciality we'll mention, and there is so much more to be said, but time is of the essence here. The final speciality that will be mentioned is that Allah has blessed him with the highest level of Jannah. It is a level that is the pinnacle of Al-Firdaus Al-A'la. It is an entire level. Some scholars have said that Jannah, you can look at it kind of like a pyramid, in that the higher up you go, the fewer the people. Right? The higher up you go, the fewer the people. So Jannah will be more populated at the lower levels. And there will be no crowding in Jannah, Alhamdulillah. But nonetheless, it will be more populated in the lower levels. And the higher up you go, fewer and fewer people will be able to get to those levels. And there will come a point and there will come a level that is an entire level of Jannah. And that is meant for only one person. The whole daraja, the whole plane of that field of Jannah is only meant for one person. And it is the pinnacle of Al-Firdaus Al-A'la. And it is immediately underneath the throne of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is called al-fadila. This is called al-fadila. This daraja is called al-fadila. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, that this fadila is a manzilah fil jannah. It is a level of jannah that Allah has chosen for only one of His servants. for only one of his servants. And then he said modestly that, فَأَرْجُو I hope that, أَنْ أَكُونَ أَنَهُ that I am that person. And this is out of his modesty. وَإِلَّا There is no other human being that is qualified to be of that place. And so he simply said, I hope, I pray that I am the person that that is destined for. And that is why he wanted us to pray that Allah gives him this wasila and fadila. And that is why every time the adhan is called, what do we say? اللهم رب هذه الدعوة التامة والصلاة القائمة آت محمدا الوسيلة والفضيلة That is the daraja of Jannah. Right? وَبَعَثْهُ So آت is for the Day of Judgment. آت is for after the Day of Judgment. You give him after the Day of Judgment, we give him al-wasila wal-fadila. That is الوسيلة والفضيلة. وَبَعَثْهُ And resurrect him on the day of judgment. مَقَامًا مَحْمُودًا الَّذِي وَعَدْتَهُ So the مَقَامًا مَحْمُودًا is on the day of judgment. We explain what that is. And that is all of humanity will be praising him. And all of humanity will be sending their salat and salam upon him. Even those who rejected him in this world. Even those who cursed him and ridiculed him and mocked him and drew diagrams against him. Wallahi on that day they will be praising him and sending salawat and salam upon him because they have to because it is maqam al-mahmood so all of humanity will be praising him on the day of judgment on maqam al-mahmood and in the akhirah he will be given al-wasila and al-fadila and that is why we make dua to Allah to give him all of these levels and characteristics and these are simply some of the khasais some of the specialities of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and unfortunately there's only a few minutes left so there's no point beginning the next section which is about his characteristics and how he looked and his mannerisms and his lifestyle, inshallah ta'ala we will be talking about that next Wednesday bi-idhnillahi ta'ala

Seerah 10 - The Second Revelation - Yasir Qadhi _ October 2011-WnQsjVWuiG0

Al-Fatiha. the Prophet ﷺ came back to his wife Khadija, Khadija took him to Waraqah Ibn Nawfal, and we were still talking a little bit about Waraqah and what happened after that. In this narration, the question arises, how could the Prophet ﷺ as a prophet, go to somebody who's not a prophet, here for example Waraqah, and get knowledge from him? This doesn't initially make sense. How could a prophet go to a non-prophet and asked this non-prophet, what's happening to me? Why is this happening? And in response, the scholars say, because at this point in time, he didn't recognize even that he was a prophet. He didn't understand what's happening to him. And this shows us that knowledge is so sacred and so important that even prophets have no problem learning from non-prophets. Because the one who knows is more knowledgeable than the one who doesn't. And therefore, even our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ even though he was a prophet. But he doesn't even recognize it now. So he goes to somebody who recognizes what is prophecy. And again we need to realize, the concept of a prophet was unknown to the Arabs. It was unknown. They had long forgotten how was Ibrahim inspired, and what was Ismail's message. They just knew it was Tawheed. They didn't have the concept of prophets, just like Hinduism or other religions of our time. They don't have the concept of a human being communicating with Allah. and therefore when he didn't understand he went to, who did he go to? Waraqah, and Waraqah is coming from a tradition there are plenty of prophets, right? Waraqah was a convert, we said to something that is, it's neither Judaism nor Christianity, let's call it Judeo-Christianity right? It's his own understanding so Waraqah understood what is a prophet and therefore when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam comes to him, immediately he recognizes, this is prophecy and what you've seen is the angel that communicates with all of the prophets, and it communicates with Musa alayhi salam. And of course, he mentioned Musa, because there's more of a similarity with Musa than with Isa. There's more of a similarity with Musa alayhi salam than there is with Isa alayhi salam. Now in that riwayah, in that hadith, Khadija says, or Aisha is the one narrating what happened. Khadija tells us the story of Waraqah, and Aisha then narrates indirectly from Khadija that's because again Aisha never met Khadija her conduit is the Prophet ﷺ telling as well that shortly after this Waraqah passed away, Waraqah died I looked up as many books as I could in the classic references I could not find any stories about Waraqah other than this, after his Islam so we only have one tradition from the Prophet ﷺ when he was asked about Waraqah ibn Nawfal and he said I saw him in Jannah wearing beautiful garments blessed with beautiful garments therefore this shows that Waraqa was the first convert to Islam and Waraqa was the first Sahabi and Waraqa was the first person who died of the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ and therefore Waraqa has entered Jannah and he is of the Ummah of the Prophet ﷺ returning to the Hadith that we talked about the long Hadith of the first revelation Jabir ibn Abdullah continues the story and he mentions that after this time, the Prophet ﷺ stopped getting any revelation. فَتَرَ الْوَحِي The revelation stopped. Ibn Abbas says that for many days, the Prophet ﷺ would wander around Mecca and the valleys of Mecca and the mountains of Mecca wanting to see Jibreel again. But Jibreel would not appear. Some scholars even said this period lasted two or three years. But this is way too much. There's a riwayah from Ibn Abbas, he said 40 days. and another famous Tabi' Ibn Shahab Al-Zuhri said that this period lasted for many days, for 40 days, many days that for around a month after so this is the month of Shawwal because it was in Ramadan when the revelation began, for an entire month and 10 days, the Prophet ﷺ is confused, I saw something but I don't see him again, what is going wrong with me, and this is when he says in the narration, he says I was worried for myself meaning he thought that he might be going hallucinating something is going mad with him he doesn't understand what's happening and he would go to the mountain of Hira expecting to see Jibreel again but every day he would go and there's nothing there until finally one day after we said around 40 days or so one day the Prophet ﷺ was coming down the mountain and he had come down and he heard his name being called so he says I looked in front and I couldn't see anybody. He heard the name again, he looked behind him, there was nobody. He looked again and he looked again and he couldn't find, but the name is being called. Now when somebody calls your name, you really don't think of looking straight up in the air. It's just not in our fitrah to do that. So when he's looking everywhere and he doesn't see it, then he said, I looked up and there was the angel that I had seen at Hira. There was the angel, Allah sees now Jibreel again, I had seen at Hira, on a kursi, on a throne between the heavens and the earth. And then he said, I began to tremble out of fear. Now subhanAllah, he's wanting to see Jibreel. But when he sees him, it's simply too much for him. And he begins to tremble. And in one report, he fell down on his knees out of shock and out of fear. He fell down on his knees. And then he got up again, and out of fear, out of panic, once again he begins to rush home. and this is when he runs home to Khadijah and he says this is the time he says this again cover me up and again this is something many of us have not experienced fear of this nature may Allah protect us but when you are so much afflicted with fear you literally begin to feel cold you begin to tremble that type of fear so he's feeling this fear after all he's seen the angel Jibreel in his original form he's seen a huge beast or creature if you like of Allah in between the heavens and the earth and therefore he begins to tremble So he runs back to Khadija, he says, زَمِّلُونِي زَمِّلُونِي And this was when the second revelation was revealed. And these were the first six or seven verses of يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُزَّمِّلُ قُمِ اللَّيْلَ إِلَّا Sorry, يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ قُمْ فَأَنذِرُ وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرُ وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَاهِرُ وَالرُّجِزَ فَحْجُرُ وَلَا تَمْنُنْ تَسْتَكْثِرُ وَلِرَبِّكَ فَصْبِرُ These seven verses, the surah Al-Muddathir. They were revealed and therefore this is the second revelation of the Qur'an. the seven verses of Surah Al-Muddathir. Now, here what is the wisdom of these 30-40 days that the Prophet ﷺ was not inspired? Scholars say that this was to prepare him for the second meeting. To make him recover, to recollect his energies, to make him feel enthused. Because now look what's happening, he's coming every day to try to meet Jibreel. And despite this preparation, when he sees him, he becomes terrified. Imagine if it had come immediately, he would have been even more terrified. so this was to prepare him to calm his nerves down despite that he still reacted the way that he did and all of this shows us over and over again the humanity of our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam it shows us that he didn't pre-plan this this is not the thing that a fraud, a charlatan a two-faced liar would do if somebody wanted to invent a grandiose story and there are people who claim to be prophets even here in America there's a person and there used to be a person 100 years ago claimed to be a prophet and in India there was a person who claimed to be a prophet 100 years ago if you look at their stories the stories that they invent are all grandiose they're all this happened and that happened and I did this they put themselves to be the hero if you look at the story of the Prophet ﷺ you find a human reaction a reaction that could not be except from a sincere person that he wasn't expecting this he didn't want it when it happens he's terrified And he goes to his wife and he says, زَمِّلُونِي زَمِّلُونِي And what is this revelation, what is the relevance of these verses? يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ Notice as well by the way, that from the context, a lot of people think that the revelation occurred when he saw Jibreel. No, the revelation occurred in the house of Khadijah. When the Prophet ﷺ went back, this means Jibreel must have followed him. And when he's covered up with the cloak, with the garment, in the house of Khadija. Jibreel inspires him. And Jibreel speaks to him. And Jibreel says, يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ O you who is wrapped up in a garment. O you who has the shawl around you. يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ And the symbolism here, O you who are living in comfort. Because when you're in a shawl, you're in comfort. يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ You're so comfortable here. Stop this life of ease. قُمْ Stand up. You were sitting down. You were easy. Now you need to be active. Get rid of this cloak. Stand up. Qum. So there's an element here of you need to do something. You need to be proactive. You need to go out. You need to leave the sheltered life that you're living. You need to leave that, if you like, warmth of the blanket. Get rid of this. You know the safety blanket. Even children have it. The safety blanket. You feel comfortable. And Allah says, no. Qum fa anzir. Stand up. Get rid of this comfort zone. And go out and warn the people. Qum fa anzir. وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّر And while you're doing this warning, then glorify your Lord. Praise Him. Worship Him. وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّر وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّر And your clothes, your garments, make sure that they are clean. There's again a lot of symbolism here. First and foremost, literally make sure you have clean clothes. Don't have any najasa on them. Have a presentable appearance. All of this is literal. Then there's a symbolism here. that make sure that you have no sins to pollute you. Just like you're gonna have clean clothes, make sure you have a pure soul, a good heart. وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَاهِرْ وَالرُّجِزَ فَهْجُرْ And ask for idols, get rid of them and leave them. وَالرُّجِزَ فَهْجُرْ Leave all idols. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells him, that as you're preaching to the public, make sure that you are worshipping Allah, purifying yourself, and leaving all false idols. وَلَا تَمْنُنْ تَسْتَكْثِرْ this is a complicated translation here manna means to remind somebody of a favor they've done to you this is what manna means and Allah tells him don't remind people of the favors that you've done because if you did this why does somebody do this? you do it because you want to get the favor paid back you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours so when you give somebody a loan then few months later you say remember I gave you a loan, can I just borrow your car for a week you just remind him of the favor and when you remind somebody of a favor then you get that favor back somehow so Allah is saying when you do good don't do it to get the favors back from people anything that you do do it for the sake of Allah don't do it to get repaid back by the other people and again this goes back to the concept of sincerity that when somebody does something purely for the sake of Allah nobody can challenge that person's intention. But when somebody has other intentions, then it tarnishes that person's reputation. And therefore the Prophet ﷺ was not allowed to take zakat money. He was not allowed to take charity. He was not allowed to do anything for the sake of the religion and get money for that. He didn't do that. Because Allah Azzawajal told him, قُلْ لَأَسَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مَالًا قُلْ لَأَسَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا Tell the people, I'm not getting your money, I'm not getting your sustenance. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminded him, and of course, وَلِرَبِّكَ فَصْبِرُ The last ayah that will be revealed, وَلِرَبِّكَ فَصْبِرُ And for the sake of your Lord be patient. There is an indication that you're gonna suffer calamities. There is an indication that life is gonna be difficult. You're gonna need patience. And the only way you're gonna be patient is by doing it for the sake of your Lord. The only way you will be patient is if you do it for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now this leads us to a little bit of a tangent here. and it is a necessary tangent but it is a theological tangent of what exactly is wahi and how does wahi occur and what happens when a person is inspired. Wahi or inspiration is of course a direct communication from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to mankind. And Ibn Al-Qayyim mentions that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was inspired by seven different means or methods or seven different ways. Because inspiration is not of one types. There's many different ways that the inspiration occurs. And the least of them, the lowest form of inspiration is true dreams. And this is the only form of inspiration that is still open to mankind. All other types of inspiration have been cut off. The lowest form of inspiration is true dreams. And our Prophet ﷺ would see dreams before becoming a Prophet and after becoming a Prophet. He could see true dreams before becoming a Prophet because true dreams are not restricted to prophets. Anybody can get true dreams. The second type of inspiration is the whisperings of the angels, other than the angel Jibreel. This is called ilham, the whisperings of the angel. And an example of this is the mother of Musa, being inspired by Allah. This doesn't make her a prophet. This type of inspiration does not make you a prophet. The mother of Musa was inspired by Allah Allah says in the Quran وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَىٰ أُمِّ مُوسَىٰ He inspired Ummi Musa Does that make Ummi Musa a prophetess? No Because this type of inspiration is different And that is We will never understand it But this is something that happens to The extremely righteous people That Allah chooses Similarly The mother of Isa Allah mentions in the Quran وَأَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْهَا that we inspired her, right? We told her that this type of inspiration, it doesn't make you a prophet or a prophetess. And it comes from Allah through the angels, that the angels give you this type of message to the heart. The third type of inspiration is to see the angel in front of you directly. And to speak to the angel directly. And this is what happened with Iqra. It happened with Ya Ayyuhal Muddathir. it happened many many times that Jibreel would come to the Prophet and speak to him directly and usually when Jibreel would come to him, he would come to him in the form of a Sahabi by the name of Dihya Al-Kalbi, this was in Medina, not in Mecca, in Mecca he would not take the form of Dihya, in Medina he would take the form of Dihya because Dihya is an Ansari, Dihya was in Medina, not in Mecca and he would take the form of Dihya and Dihya was considered to be the most handsome of all of the Sahaba. He was considered to be the most handsome of all of the Sahaba. And therefore Jibreel would just pretend to be in the form of Dihya and then come and people would see him and think he's Dihya but he was not Dihya, he was Jibreel. And Aisha on more than one occasion saw the Prophet ﷺ talking to Dihya and then she asked, what did Dihya want from you? And the Prophet ﷺ said, that wasn't Dihya, that was Jibreel who had come to me. And the Prophet ﷺ recognized him but other people would think that this is Dihya. This is the third type of Wahi. The fourth type of Wahi is that, so the third type, the angel transforms to a human form. The angel becomes human-like. And the Prophet ﷺ sees him, sometimes the Sahaba see him, sometimes they don't. Sometimes Jibreel will come and they couldn't see him. And sometimes he will come, as in the famous hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab, when we were sitting with the Prophet ﷺ, دَخَلَ عَلَيْنِ الرَّجُلُ شَدِيدُ بَيَاضُ الثِّيَابِ شَدِيدُ سَوَادَ الشِّعْرِ لَا يَرَىٰ عَلَيْهِ أَثَرُ السَّفَرِ وَلَا يَعْرِفُ أَعْدُ مِنَّا that he was extremely white in his clothing, extremely black in his hair, and not a spot of dust on him. And this turned out to be Jibreel. Usually when Jibreel will come, the Sahaba would be in the form of a man, the Sahaba would see him. But sometimes they would not see him. This was easier for the Prophet ﷺ to bear. That when Jibreel became a human, or looked like a human, the Prophet ﷺ remained in his form. He remained how he was. And he could communicate directly with Jibreel. there was a more difficult inspiration and that is number four now. We're number four now. Number four, Jibreel would remain in his form. He wouldn't transfer into a human. And the Prophet ﷺ would, something would happen to him. We don't know what. We're never gonna understand. But he would go into what we would call a trance. We would call it in English a trance. That he would lower his face, his eyes would close, and the world around him becomes unknown. Doesn't matter what's happening, he's in his own world. And that is the world of Wahi. And Jibreel is in his original form, meaning that the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam, something's happening to him to communicate with Jibreel. That he is getting some type of difference. Now what it is, we're never gonna know. This is ilm al-ghayb. But he would go into this trance and in this state, Aisha says, I have seen him on multiple times that when the Wahi was coming down on a cold day, he would break into a sweat. It's very difficult for him. And in another hadith in Sahih Bukhari, when Surah Al-Ma'idah came down, the Prophet ﷺ was on a camel. And Surah Al-Ma'idah was so heavy, the camel had to sit down. This is Surah Al-Ma'idah being revealed. The Sahaba cannot see anything. And camels can carry, mashaAllah, how many hundreds of pounds a kilogram. when Ma'idah came down the Prophet ﷺ on the camel the camel had to sit down shows you how difficult if this was the camel imagine our Prophet ﷺ as Allah says in the Quran إِنَّا سَنُلْقِي عَلَيْكَ قَوْلًا ثَقِيلًا we're gonna give you a heavy speech and this was the heavy speech also it is narrated that once the Prophet ﷺ was resting on the lap of one of the Sahaba and he was Wahy began and the Sahaba felt a pressure and a pressure and a pressure and a pressure until he thought that his thigh bone would crack. Can you imagine the thigh bone cracking because of the pressure of the wahi. This shows us that this was a very difficult process for our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Hakeem ibn Hizam asked the Prophet ﷺ, hadith is in Sahih Bukhari. Hakeem ibn Hizam asked the Prophet ﷺ, كيف يأتيك الوحي يا رسول الله؟ How does wahi come to you ya Rasulullah? So he told us numbers 3 and 4, even though there's more than these. He says, sometimes Jibreel comes to me in the form of a man. And I understand what he says. And sometimes he communicates with me, and I hear a noise like the ringing of a bell. He's comparing a noise like the ringing of a bell. It's a very loud noise, it's difficult to bear. He's hearing something, it's a type of buzz, a type of noise, and this one is more difficult for me. That's what we just said now. that Jibreel doesn't become a man. Jibreel stays in his form of an angel. But the Prophet ﷺ enters the world of Wahi, the world of Ilm al-Ghaib, whatever it is gonna be. And he communicates with Jibreel in a manner. And in both of these, the Prophet ﷺ said, and I understand what he tells me. The fifth type of Wahi was when he saw Jibreel in Jibreel's original form. In other words, Jibreel manifested himself to the Prophet ﷺ in his original form. And scholars have differed how many times this happened. For sure it happened twice. Once when Iqra was revealed, that was the original form. And once in the journey of Isra and Mi'raj. And some scholars add a third time. But these are the two that we know that Jibreel showed himself in his original form. What is his original form? All that we know is that he was so big, he blocked the horizon. Couldn't see anything else. And he had 600 wings. 600, so that's the largest number of wings that the angels have. Because Jibreel is the most noble of all angels. So the Prophet ﷺ saw Jibreel in Jibreel's original form. The sixth type of Wahi, the sixth type of Wahi, is the Wahi that, this is something that is disputed how and when it occurred, but Ibn al-Qayyim mentions it. Allah inspired him directly without the intermediary of the angels. Allah inspired him directly. Wahi. Without the intermediary of the angels. And this is something that Ibn al-Qayyim mentions. And I don't have an example. I'm still wondering whether this one I would agree with or not. Allah knows best. But this Ibn al-Qayyim mentions. The seventh I'm quoting that Ibn al-Qayyim mentions. The seventh is the highest form of Wahi possible. And that is Allah's direct speech. Allah's direct speech بِلَا وَاسِطَة Right? Number six is Allah's direct wahi Number seven is Allah's direct kalam Kalamullah Kalamullah And that happened once To our Prophet ﷺ In the journey of Al-Isra and Al-Mi'raj Only once did Allah ﷻ Speak directly Jibreel was not there As we will discuss in a few weeks When we get there even Jibreel said you go on ya Muhammad ﷺ I cannot go, I don't have permission I don't have the past to go beyond this and so our Prophet ﷺ went to a place where he could hear the scribes writing and he was closer than to both lengths and he could see the hijab of Allah ﷺ when he was asked did you see your Lord he said I could I see him there was a hijab of light and he saw this light of the veil. And that was when Allah spoke to him directly. Like Allah spoke to Musa, however, our Prophet was preferred over Musa. And Musa is indeed worthy of preference and respect, but our Prophet was preferred over Musa. In that, Allah spoke to Musa on Tauri Sayna. But Allah called our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to his presence in above the seven heavens. And so, our Prophet ﷺ reached a maqam that no other prophet ever reached before, and of course after him there is no prophet. Now some scholars claim that our Prophet ﷺ, he became a Nabi through the revelation of Iqra. And he became a Rasul through the revelation of يَا أَيُّهُ الْمُدَّثِرُ قُمْ فَأَنذِرُ That when Iqra bismillah came down, that's when he became a Nabi. And then when يَا أَيُّهُ الْمُدَّثِرُ قُمْ فَأَنذِرُ was revealed, he became a Rasul. So this leads us to another tangent which is again useful and interesting and we should know it. And if that is the case, well then, what exactly is a Nabi? And what exactly is a Rasul? And what is the difference between a Nabi and a Rasul? And what was our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ? There are many opinions about this issue. I will only mention to you four of them for the sake of brevity. The first of these opinions one group of scholars said there is no difference between a Nabi and a Rasul Nabi equals Rasul and Rasul equals Nabi they are synonyms just like Tawbah and Istighfar are synonyms just like Zakat and Sadaqah are synonyms so Nabi and Rasul are synonyms every Nabi is a Rasul, every Rasul is a Nabi this doesn't seem to be the strongest opinion because of many many many reasons of them is the verse in the Quran in which Allah says وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِيٍّ We didn't send before you either a Rasul or a Nabi except that. Allah clearly says مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِيٍّ And had they been the same thing then this would be against the eloquence of the Arabic language to praise something like this. Had they been exactly the same it doesn't make sense to put them together. وَمَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكِمَا رَسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِيٍ And there are other evidences that are given. So it doesn't seem to be a very strong opinion that Rasul and Nabi are the same. Another common opinion is that a Nabi is one who is inspired by Allah with a revelation, but he's not told to preach it to the people. Whereas a Rasul is somebody who is told to proclaim it to mankind. so a Nabi has a direct communication but he doesn't preach whereas a Rasul has communication and he preaches now this is doubly problematic this is problematic on multiple levels firstly well this very ayah that I just quoted look at the Arabic وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِيٍ أَرْسَلْنَا نَبِي so Nabis are also sent Nabis are also sent by Allah because Allah says and also our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in the hadith in Bukhari said I saw all of the prophets on the day of judgment and Nabis and there was a Nabi and he had a huge ummah and there was a Nabi and he had a small group and there was a Nabi and he had five people and there was a Nabi he had two people and there was a Nabi and he had no people following him what is this show? Nabis are also preaching to the people and Nabis have followings also it doesn't make sense because the scholars are told that if you conceal knowledge you're gonna be punished the scholars in fact the Muslim is told so the average Muslim has to preach how then can somebody be inspired by Allah and he just sits at home and does nothing. This doesn't make sense even logically. Even though this is a common opinion, many of you might have heard it. A Nabi is somebody who has Wahi, but he doesn't preach. Whereas a Rasul is somebody who has Wahi and he preaches. But it doesn't even make sense. لا لغة ولا عقل ولا شرع It doesn't make sense. The third opinion is that a Rasul is someone who has been given a new Sharia. And a Nabi is someone who follows the Sharia of the Rasul before him. A Rasul is someone who has a new code of laws. Whereas a Nabi is somebody who follows the Sharia of the Rasul. So the Rasul comes with Sharia X. 50, 100 Nabi come, they all have Sharia X. Then a new Rasul comes with Sharia Y. Then another 20, 50, 100 Nabi comes, they follow Sharia Y. So this is another opinion. Well, this opinion would seem to be good except for the fact that it doesn't match up to all of the examples. It doesn't match up to real life scenarios. You can give me a case where it doesn't seem to fit. The raw data doesn't fit with the hypothesis. Who? Well, that doesn't negate the fact that he is Rasul al-Nabi. Musa and Harun, what about him? Yes. So the two, Musa was Rasul and Nabi and Harun was Was Harun only a Nabi or also a Rasul? This is something that scholars have, we mentioned this a few weeks ago in Ramadan, we were talking about this. Scholars have, some scholars have said that Harun was only a Nabi. And some have said that he was a Rasul and a Nabi because of the other verse that we mentioned. Arsalna, what is it? Arsal ma'iya, not Arsal ma'iya of Israel. The other, it's not coming to me now, but the word Arsal is mentioned. Arsalna ma'ahu akhahu Harun, Arsalna ma'ahu. but there is an ikhtilaf but ok this would in fact support the data this would support the data how about another example that doesn't support the data Shu'aib and Salih Yusuf and his brothers what about Yusuf by this definition he wouldn't be a Rasul but was he a Rasul Yusuf was a Rasul what's your evidence for this no he's not a Rasul what's your evidence that Yusuf is a Rasul he has a chapter named after him Mariam has a chapter named after her and she's not a prophetess question were there women prophetesses very easy for you to deny our sisters might disagree our sisters what do you say oh mashallah these are I can assure you in many other gatherings I go to the sisters want there to be prophetesses prophets of the female species gender excuse me not species and they quote evidences they quote evidences we're going to a tangent from a tangent, but this is interesting. They quote evidences. Of their evidences is, of their evidences is, Jibreel a.s. come to Maryam. And Allah says, وَأَوْحَيْنَا And of their evidences is for Umm Musa. Because Allah uses the word Wahi for Umm Musa. Right? And of their evidences is, Allah says in the Quran to Maryam, that, that I have chosen you above every single other lady. And so if Allah has chosen her to that level, then she's got to be not just a regular person, but a dhabi. And in fact, a number of scholars of the Islamic tradition did argue that there were female prophetesses. Of them is Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari. Of them is al-Qurtubi. Of them is Ibn Hazam al-Andalusi. These people all believed that Allah sends men and women prophets. So for those who want to preach this, they have some precedence. They're not coming out of the blue. Okay? Now, if somebody were to quote them an ayah in the Quran, which restricts prophethood to the male... What is the verse? What is the verse? إِلَّا رِجَالًا إِلَّا رِجَالًا I like this. I like this. The word رِجَال has got to be mentioned somewhere. You're right, but what's the verse? You just quoted the one word, the man. رِجَالُ قَوَمُونَ What does that have to do with the prophethood? Right? وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالًا نُوحِي لَيْهِمْ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْقُرَى إِلَّا رِجَالًا نُوحِي لَيْهِمْ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْقُرَى Allah mentions two conditions for prophethood. For every person that we sent before you was a man from the people of the town, from the people of the cities. Allah never sent Bedouin prophets. Allah sent prophets of cultivations, of cities. Now, you quote this to Abu al-Hazan al-Ash'ari, to Ibn Hazm. They will say, yes we agree. Arsalna Rasool And we are saying Maryam is a Nabi So the ayah says we agree with it Any other ayah comes to mind? You see this is an interesting discussion here now And it's very relevant to our times When a lot of debates are happening about So they quote Of course the number one example for a female prophetess is who? Maryam, correct? So let us concentrate, I'm going to the tangent of a tangent by the way, but I think everybody's interested in this, so we can afford the luxury here. And inshallah we have plenty of time to have this here, inshallah. So a number of interesting points here. If Maryam is the example that they choose, let us see how Allah describes Maryam in the Quran. It is agreed that the angel showed himself to Maryam, correct? does an angel showing yourself to a human make the human a prophet? what's your evidence? the sahaba exactly, right? seeing an angel does not make you a prophet or else Umar ibn al-Khattab would be a prophet Aisha would be a prophet everybody would be a prophet, right? seeing the angel Jibreel does not make you a prophet and we already mentioned the types of wahi and one of them we said ilham, which happens when the angel's coming that's not necessarily the wahi of the prophets. Right? I mean, do you have another example where an angel has come to another human being in the absence of a prophet? In the absence of a prophet. When you talk of the father, the prophet himself was there. Yes, there are plenty of hadith that an angel came to one of the people to test him, the bald man and the man who did that. There are plenty of traditions. The angel coming and talking to the people directly. there's even a hadith in Bukhari that says a man was visiting his brother for the sake of Allah and he met an angel in the guise of a man and the angel spoke to him why are you going, what are you doing, what's your purpose you're only doing this for Allah then I am the angel that Allah has sent to you to tell you that Allah loves you because you're visiting your brother so clearly there are angels that visit humans and this is not restricted by the way to the prophets even it could happen right now, you never know there's no closure to this chapter you have something to add? somebody has we don't know if angel jabeel coming to somebody in the previous generations we don't know but we know for a fact he came to people of this ummah and people saw him and spoke with him right? therefore this is the first point the second point Allah mentions in surah al-imran about Maryam and Maryam and Isa what does Allah say? Hafiz Saab you need to help me out here the phrase is wa ummuho siddiqua kana ya'kulani tta'am right what is the phrase before it? this is the strength of Hifd when you can say what's before it, after it I can do it right وَأُنظُرُ كِيَفٌ فَصُرُ عَلَيْتُهُمْ وَأَنَّا يُؤْفَكُونَ What's before that? وَأُمُّهُ صِدِّيقًا Before this, Allah mentions that Isa is just like a Rasul. قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ الرُّسُلِ Right? Prophets have, Rasul have come before him. And as for his mother, his mother was a صِدِّيقًا Notice. Isa was a Rasul of the Rasul. And his mother was a صِدِّيقًا clearly Allah is mentioning their levels and we know that of the levels that أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ أَنَعْمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّبِيِّينَ وَالصِّدِّيقِينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَالصَّالِحِينَ right these are the four levels نَبِيِّينَ صِدِّيقِينَ شُهَدَاءَ صَالِحِينَ so when Allah mentions Isa he is of the نَبِيِّينَ and the رُسُلِ and then he mentions Maryam and he says وَأُمُّهُ صِدِّيقًا so clearly therefore putting all the evidences together the majority opinion has always been that the prophets of Allah have only been men there is a minority opinion and this is an opinion that does exist let us now get back, we are talking about these differences Rasul and Nabi and so we said Rasul has the new Sharia and Nabi has the same Sharia I am asking you, does this fit up with our raw data and we were talking about this, was Yusuf a Rasul or a Nabi? So let's get back over here. Was he a Rasul or a Nabi? Come on guys, we gave a whole tafsir of Surah Yusuf. 16 halaqats. You all failed. You all failed. Quote me an ayah of the Quran. Yusuf is on al-Azm? No, no, no. Yusuf is not. then he's a Nabi you have something to add he's a Rasul because first you want only the prophets to be men only now when you fail in answering the question you say go ask the sisters this is a contradiction in manhood but what is a Risalah this is circular that's your definition of Rasul this is a circular definition you see the problem here we're trying to define Risala and Nubuwa and then based on that definition you are classifying prophets but what's the evidence you see the problem here right it's a circular definition Yusuf appears to have been a Rasul that's not the ayah that I'm thinking of This is in the Quran, Surah Ghafir, fourth page on the top, first eye on the right hand side. clearly Yusuf is mentioned as a Rasul right? therefore this throws one spanner is there any other example? come on there is such an obvious example sisters let's see such an obvious example that doesn't fit up with the raw data and the raw data doesn't fit up with this definition sisters Adam okay mashallah you reclaimed some of your mashallah Adam if a Nabi is someone who follows the Sharia of the previous prophets was Adam a Rasul or a Nabi? Rasul so now we get into the whole issue then what's your evidence he's a Rasul? the definition of a Rasul he would know there's no Sharia before Adam If there's no Sharia before Adam, according to this definition, how can he be a Nabi? You have to be a Nabi. You have to be also on the Quran. He came, he was born, that was the Sharia, whatever he brought in. So you guys seeing, and you know honestly, I ask this to some of the advanced students when I teach in Al-Maghrib, and I do this on purpose, to demonstrate something. And that is, subhanAllah, these simple questions, we just cross over them from Sunday school and we never think about them. Such a simple question. What is a Nabi and what is a Rasul? And wallahi we think we know so much. And then now when we get confronted with raw data, with Qur'an, this and that, even this begins to crumble. And we realize how little we know. And that's why the scholars say, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know. Adam. Alhamdulillah. So far I've been thinking all this time that Yusuf was a nabiyyat. Yusuf was a rasul. And Adam was a nabiyyat and not a rasul. Hadith in Musnad Imam Ahmed, that Abu Dharr asked the Prophet ﷺ, that, Ya Rasulullah, a nabiyyan kana Adam? Was Adam a nabiyyat? And the Prophet ﷺ said, Na'mu kallama. Yes, Allah spoke to him. In Jannah Allah spoke to him. Na'mu kallama. And Allah spoke to Adam. وَقُلْنَا يَا آدَمُ اسْكُنْ أَنْتَ وَزَوْجُكَ جَنَّةً And in the hadith in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ said, أَوَّلُ رَسُولٍ أُرْسِلَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ نُوحًا عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامِ أَوَّلُ رَسُولٍ The first Rasul is Nuh. So this is really, this is raw data now. The first Rasul is Nuh. Adam is a Nabi, right? And therefore, this doesn't add up now. That if the first Sharia is him, it doesn't add up. And then of course there are other examples, I'll just tell you, you're getting already confused. Dawud and Sulaiman. How come Idris was a Sharia? No, Idris is a Nabi. Well, who's the one who said, I'm not the one saying that. That's the point. You're defining it and then you're making it circular back. You see what I'm saying? No, I said this is the third opinion. Yeah, this is the third opinion. It's getting too hot. People are getting... Right. And for Idris, again, it is also for the Shalabi. Yes, Idris was a Nabi, not a Rasul. Idris was a Nabi, and Idris was before Nuh. Idris was before Nuh. And Idris was a Nabi. He was not a Rasul. So this does not... That's what I'm saying. This third opinion does not make sense. Right? And then, the two other examples are, What did I just say? Dawud and Sulaiman. They were Rusul. Even though the Sharia they followed was the Sharia of Musa. They were Rusul. And they had books given to them. Wa atayna Dawuda zabura. But the Sharia they followed was the same. There was no change. The Zabur, even to this day the Psalms of David, it's nothing but praise. Singing. the tasbih and tahmid there is no law at all in the zabor because the zabor was not meant to be a law and therefore a rasool can even get a book but that doesn't mean that it's gonna have a new law right and so all of this doesn't fit up with the raw data the raw data doesn't match up with the hypothesis so we have to go back to the drawing board right, instead of going on and on there are other three or four opinions but I just wanted to illustrate this point that subhanallah we need to learn our religion. We need to study. And personally I find this the most fascinating subject, is theology, aqidah. That's why I love to specialize in this. Moving on now, so the correct opinion, inshallah, we'll give you the correct opinion. You wanted the way, correct opinion, okay. The correct opinion seems to be the one that Ibn Taymiyyah propounded. And of course you know I'm a big fan of Ibn Taymiyyah, he's my mentor and my person, I consider one of the greatest scholars of Islam. And you can see why. that when he discusses, he discusses with precision, with accuracy, with academic detail. And then Taimiyyah says, let's look at the linguistic meaning of Nabi and Rasul. Nabi comes from Naba'ah. And Naba'ah means information. عَمَّ يَتَسَأَلُونَ عَنِ النَّبَأِ الْعَظِيمِ And so a Nabi is somebody who informs you what Allah wants him to inform. So a Nabi has information from Allah. So a Nabi has to preach. And a Nabi has to teach. by the word Nabi, يُنبِئُ He gives information عن الله. Right? So the word Nabi automatically implies he's speaking to you a message from Allah. Okay? A Rasul comes from أَرْسَلَ يُرْسِلُ رَسُولًا Which means to send an emissary, a delegate, a representative, an ambassador. So a Rasul is somebody whom Allah sends. And you send a person, a Rasul, to a nation that generally you are not on friendly terms with. And so a Rasul is sent to a nation that does not believe in him. Whereas a Nabi teaches to a people that already accepts him. And if you look at this definition, all the raw data fits into place. All of it. Did any of Adam's children reject him? No. Did any of Idris' people reject him? No. Aha, let's get to Nuh. What happens? People rejected him. People rejected him. And he was sent to them. He was the Rasul ursila ila ahl al-ard. Right? Yusuf, now he becomes a Rasul and not a Nabi because he's sent to the people of Egypt. Right? Dawud and Sulaiman, they are sent to larger groups. and they are fighting. They established a kingdom. One of the very few prophets who established a kingdom on earth. Right? Only the ones that we know, Dawud and Suleiman and our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that we know. They established a kingdom on earth and a power on earth. And so they are Rasul. And look at the Anbiya. And the classic example is Isa and Yahya. Two cousins. Their mothers were sisters. Right? The one is a Rasul, the other is a Nabi. Why? What's the difference? They accepted Yahya, they rejected Isa. They accepted Yahya, they rejected Isa. So this definition seems to be precise. And then Ibn Taymiyyah says, generally every Rasul does have a new Sharia, but this is not a rule. It's just a symptom which has exceptions. It's an adjective, it's a description, which is generally true. But it's not the rule, and there are exceptions. So every Rasul does not necessarily have a new Sharia, But generally, every Rasul did have a new Sharia. And Abu Dharr al-Ghifari asked the Prophet ﷺ, Hadith is Muslim Ahmad. Abu Dharr al-Ghifari asked the Prophet ﷺ, how many messengers did Allah send? How many Rasul? And the Prophet ﷺ said, three hundred and ten and something. And this number is something that seems to have some type of power to it. because that is the exact number of Badr. Right? And it is also the exact number of of 310 and something. Well, of course Rasul, yes. And it is also the exact number of the people of Talut who crossed over the river. فَلَمَّا فَصْرَ طَالُوتُ بِالْجُنْدِ قَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهُ مُتَلِيكُمْ بِالنَّهَرِ فَمَنْ شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي When David and Goliath had the fight, and Talut took his army, right? The people who crossed over after that were around 310 and something. So this number, some seems to be recurring in a number of times. So the Prophet ﷺ said, how many Rasul? The Prophet ﷺ said, 310 and something, a large quantity. Meaning don't trivialize. Just because it's 310, don't think it's trivial. Their quality, their quantity is large. 310 and something. So he asked him, and how many prophets were there. And so he said, 124,000. 124,000. This hadith is in Muslim Muhammad, and it is inshaAllah ta'ala, hasan, authentic. And this is another indication that, Rasul and Nabi are not the same. And from this we derive, every Rasul is a Nabi, but not every Nabi is a Rasul. Risalah is higher. Risalah is higher than Nabi. And every Rasul is a Nabi, not every Nabi is a Rasul. And out of the Rasul, there are the Ulul Azim, who are five. Out of the Rasul, there are the elites of them. أُولُّ الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الرُّسُلِ And these are of course the greatest ones that humanity has ever seen. And these are Nuh and Ibrahim and Musa and Isa and our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And one more point, before we move on, and that is that the concept of mankind having prophets is wallahi a concept that we need to really, I wish we had more time for this, but this is a seerah class. Of course it's relevant, that's why we're doing all of this. Because what is the seerah? It's a discussion of the Rasul, the final Rasul, right? So all of this is a relevant tangent. But this tangent, wallahi it's so important, maybe we'll do another class on it separately. And that is basically, why does mankind need prophets? What is the purpose of Allah sending prophets? And this is the crux of the difference between us and the rest of humanity. that we believe that the only guidance, that is ultimate guidance, is the guidance that comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through the Prophet. Whereas the rest of the bulk of the world believes that we will find our own way in life. And we will experiment with different laws and different customs and find what is best for us. Whereas we believe the best law is the law of Allah. And only Allah has the right to ultimately legislate. The ultimate legislation belongs to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah knows what is best for us. We believe this as Muslims. And that is why Allah sends prophets continuously. To deny that Allah sends prophets is to deny the mercy and the power of Allah. I repeat, to deny Allah sends prophets. Because there are many people on earth who say, yeah, God created us, but then He let us be. You know, God created us, but then He has nothing to do with us anymore. And this is insulting to Allah Azza wa Jal. And the Qur'an mentions this. What is the ayah? Surah Al-An'am, verse 90-91, Allah says, وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ إِذْ قَالُوا مَا أَنزَرَ اللَّهُ عَلَى بَشَرٍ مِّن شَيْءٍ They did not, this is very difficult to translate, قَدْرُوا اللَّهَ قَدْرِهِ Which means, I'll translate metaphorically, tafsir, this is not the exact translation. They did not give the respect that is due to Allah. when they said Allah does not reveal anything to mankind. They insulted Allah by claiming that there is no revelation, there is no prophethood. وَمَا قَدَرُ اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ إِذْ قَالُوا مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَى بَشَرٍ مِنْ شَيْءٍ For God so truly loved the world, we would say, like Christians say, for God so truly loved the world that He continued to send prophets to us from the beginning up until the very end. This is a sign of Allah's love for us. That there's always gonna be prophets preaching the truth, and without knowledge of the prophets, there is no ultimate knowledge of truth. How do we know what is right and wrong? How do we know what is haram and halal? How do we know what is illegal and legal, moral and immoral? Unless they were prophets of Allah. And look around us, societies and nations, all of their laws differ. No two countries, in fact no two states within this country, have the exact same laws. One thing might be legal in one land, and illegal in another land, right? And logically, rationally, it doesn't make sense. I mean, if it's illegal in one land, why should it be legal in another? But this is the way mankind is. Because when they don't have a standard, this is what's gonna happen. For us, we have the ultimate standard. And that standard is the law of Allah. Getting back to the seerah, inshallah I have 10 minutes, we'll just wrap up this portion of it. And I think this was a necessary tangent about theology, about sending prophets, and the concept of prophets. In this early time, when Qumfa Andir was revealed, we only have a few brief stories of what the Prophet ﷺ would do and that is that he would preach to his immediate friends and family. And we already mentioned that the first convert, really the first convert would have been his wife Khadija. Because she converted without even knowing what it was she converted to. And this shows her faith in her husband that Allah is never gonna humiliate you. Allah is never gonna cause you to go astray. You are a person who is kind, who is merciful, who is tender. And so she converted without even knowing what it is she's converting to. That's the power of the strength that she had in her husband. And the second convert would have been Waraqa ibn Nawfal. Which a lot of people overlook. And a lot of people jump to the third. And that's Ali or Abu Bakr or what not. But Waraqa was the second convert. And he converted without even saying the shahada because there is no shahada to say at this point in time. Right? There is no shahada to say. But he converted by saying, you are a prophet. And that's conversion. Right? And he died without ever praying a prayer, without ever, but because he had that sincerity, and he affirmed that this is the Prophet of Allah, the Prophet ﷺ saw him in Jannah. The third convert, after all of this, people differ. Is it Ali, or is it Abu Bakr, or is it Zayd ibn Hadithah? These three, right? And people have all three opinions, and one of the easiest ways to resolve this, they say, the first child to convert was Ali, and the first slave to convert was Zayd and the first adult free man to convert was Abu Bakr. Right? It's an easy way out. All three are first. Right? Allah knows best who was the first but all three are first. Right? This is the good way out. We give respect to all of them. Of course, as for Ali, there's no question that he was of the earliest of converts. Why? Because he's being raised by Khadija and the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Right? In their household is Ali. And when they convert, obviously Ali as well is going to convert. And at this time he was probably around 10 years old. And we already mentioned that when the Prophet ﷺ got married to Khadija, he offered Abu Talib that I'll take care of your newborn. And that newborn was Ali. I'll take care of your newborn because Abu Talib was a very poor man. Very poor man. And so he offered to raise him and feed him and what not. And therefore Ali was raised up in the household of the Prophet ﷺ. And then of course Abu Bakr and the conversion of Abu Bakr is well known and the Prophet s.a.w. praised Abu Bakr like he praised no other companion and he mentioned the conversion. We don't know an exact story all we know is that when the Prophet s.a.w. presented Islam to him, he converted instantaneously and this is mentioned in a hadith that the Prophet s.a.w. said in Medina that once when the companions began to disagree amongst themselves and a little bit of a tussle happened a verbal fight happened the Prophet s.a.w. said to Umar, he got a little bit frustrated with something that Umar had done and he said to Umar that Allah sent me with the truth but all of you accused me of being a liar and it was only Abu Bakr who said you are telling the truth all of you accused me of being a liar but it was only Abu Bakr who said you are Sadaqta and he is As-Siddiq and in another hadith the Prophet said, there was not a single person whom I invited to Islam except that he had some doubts before he converted. Thinking should I or not, except for Abu Bakr. For as soon as I presented, he did not hesitate and he accepted. And that is why by unanimous consensus of all Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama'ah, Abu Bakr is the best of all companions. And anybody who curses Abu Bakr, may Allah's curse be upon that person. The Prophet ﷺ said, Allah has chosen me as a Khalil. So I cannot choose a Khalil. What is a Khalil? A Khalil is a sincere friend. A friend that is the highest level. And you can only have one Khalil. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah has chosen me as a Khalil. So I cannot have any other Khalil. But were I to choose a Khalil, it would have been Abu Bakr. This hadith is in Bukhari. Were I to choose a Khalid, it would have been Abu Bakr. And we already mentioned that the only Sahabi who is mentioned by name in the Quran is of course Zaid, right? And that is a great honor, no question about it. The only other Sahabi who is directly referenced is Abu Bakr. Right? In which ayah? ثانية نين إذ هما في الغار Allah calls Abu Bakr ثانية نين. And Allah mentions the pronoun, إِذْ هُمَا when the two of them are in the cave. So the only other companion that is directly by pronoun, not by name. By name it's only Zaid. But directly mentioned, Allah praises him, the second of the two. The first of them being Rasulullah. So Allah called him the second of the two. And that is enough of an indication of his rank in this ummah. He is second to none other than Muhammad s.a.w. Wallahi, what more do you need? What more do you need? Right? ثَانِيَةْ نَيْن Allah calls him in the Quran. And therefore, we have no problem saying that anybody who does not consider Abu Bakr to be a Muslim, that person is not a Muslim. Allah has no problem saying this. Because Allah calls him in the Quran, ثانية نين. And the Prophet ﷺ praised him to such a level that it is simply not possible for a believer in Allah and his Messenger to disbelieve in the status of Abu Bakr. And this is my opinion that I will defend very staunchly. Nonetheless, this is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. We say he is number, depending on how you want to put it, but he is number one of the adult males, right? The convert after Abu Bakr is Zayd. And we mentioned Zayd's story, and how the Prophet ﷺ adopted him, and at this time he is called Zayd ibn Muhammad, and then many years later in Medina he is called Zayd ibn Harithah. So much so that Ibn Abbas said, I never knew that Zayd was anybody other than Zayd ibn Muhammad, until Allah revealed Surah Al-Ahzab. That he is being raised thinking that Zayd is Zayd ibn Muhammad. And that is Zayd ibn Harithah. And these converts were directly from the Prophet ﷺ. Directly. The next batch of converts all converted from the hands of Abu Bakr. And this shows us how Allah helped the Prophet ﷺ by Abu Bakr. The next batch of converts, the next four converts, all of them are at the hands of Abu Bakr. Number one amongst them, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas. Number two, Uthman ibn Affan. Number three, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. number four, Abdurrahman ibn Auf. These are the next four converts in Islam. I repeat, Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas, Uthman ibn Affan, Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam, and Abdurrahman ibn Auf. And all of these four are of the earliest converts to Islam. They are all converts at the hand of Abu Bakr. But as soon as the Prophet ﷺ approached Abu Bakr, Abu Bakr converted, Abu Bakr then went to his immediate circle of friends and spoke to the people that he knew. and all of them converted within the next few weeks of this incident of the preaching of the Prophet Abu Bakr Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas was the youngest of them and he was a young boy probably around 16 years old when he converted and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas was from a great family of the Quraysh his mother when he left idolatry his mother threatened him tried to torture him and then she used emotional blackmail and she said I am going to stop eating and drinking until you worship idols. And I will die a painful death in front of you, the emotional blackmail, until you leave your faith. He tried to convince her, he tried to cajole her, he tried to, but she withered away. She was, you know, sickening and weakening and on her basically deathbed until Sa'ad became very emotional and riled up. And he said to his mother, Wallahi ya ummati, or I swear by Allah, O my mother, that I'm not going to give this religion, no matter what you do. And if I had 100 ruhs in me, and I had to give up every ruh, and see you die in every single one of them, then I will still not go back to worshipping idols. I can't do this. And so when his mother saw that determination, then she broke her fast and she started eating. And in response to this, Allah revealed in the Quran, وَإِن جَاهَدَاكَ عَلَىٰ أَن تُشْرِكَ بِي مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ فَلَا تُطِعْهُمَا وَصَاحِبْهُمَا فِي الدُّنْيَا مَعْرُوفًا If they force you to try to worship idols, don't listen to them, but be good to them in this world. Don't be harsh to them. Be good to them in this world. This came down as a result of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas is that person whom he was the first person to ever throw a bow and arrow for the sake of Islam. The very first person. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas is the only person that the Prophet ﷺ said to him, that may my mother and father be given for you in ransom. Now this was an expression in Arabic. May my mother and father be given for you in ransom. It's an expression in Arabic which basically means I will give up everything for you. That's what it means. And the Prophet ﷺ never said this to anybody except for Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas. And he said to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas, Fidaka Abi Wa Ummi. And that is a huge honor that the Prophet ﷺ is saying to Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas. and of course Sa'd was one of those who was chosen in the Shura when Uthman was killed he was assassinated Uthman is on his sorry not Uthman, Umar Umar is on his deathbed Umar says I will choose the only people left alive whom I am sure that the Prophet ﷺ was well pleased with when he died and he chose number one amongst them Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas number one amongst them Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas this is Sa'd Uthman ibn Affan you don't need to know the blessings of. More and more we have said enough of Uthman ibn Affan and we'll get to him more and more. And of course Uthman was one of those in the shura of Umar. Zubayr ibn al-Awwam was the third convert of Abu Bakr. Zubayr ibn al-Awwam is a direct cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. Like Ali, he's a cousin, except not through the uncle, but through the aunt. So Zubayr is also a cousin of Ali. And he's a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. His mother is Safiyyah binti Abdul Muttalib. His mother is Safiyyah binti Abdul Muttalib. And Zubayr ibn al-Awwam is a Sahabi, the son of a Sahabi, the father of a Sahabi, because his son is Abdullah ibn Zubayr, the brother of a Sahabi. He is of the most noble of all Sahaba in this sense. And the Prophet ﷺ said, every single Prophet has been given a special protector or friend, I should say. Hawari, so disciple. Every prophet has been given a special disciple, and Allah has given me as my Hawari, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. This is Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. And the other person is Abdurrahman ibn Auf. Abdurrahman ibn Auf, as you all know, to be the businessman, the trader, right? Abdurrahman ibn Auf was the eldest of these converts after Abu Bakr. He was in his 30s. He was already a young man. And he was very wise in business, even at this stage. and he was very honest in his dealings. And when Abu Bakr approached him with Islam, he accepted Islam. Abdur Rahman ibn Auf is the famous one who when he left Mecca, he had to give up all of his belongings to the Quraysh. He came a beggar, only having the clothes on his back. Right? And the Ansari said to him, that famous statement, the Ansari said to him, that I have two gardens, I'll give one to you, I have two wives, I'll divorce one, give one to you. I have two stories in my house, choose one. This is the famous, Abdur Rahman ibn Auf. He didn't even have a single thing except the clothes on his back. And he said, May Allah bless you. Just tell me where is the marketplace. And let me just go and start selling things. He took some butter that was his food for the day. He took that. And he started selling this and that, this and that. Until finally, he came with some gold. And he got married. And he's got perfume. He's wearing his garment. And he became a rich businessman, as you know. This is Abdur Rahman ibn Auf. The famous Abdur Rahman ibn Auf who lived a very noble and a very beautiful life after that. the next companion who converted was Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and the story of his conversion involves both Abu Bakr and the Prophet together. Ibn Mas'ud now all of these converts by the way that we mentioned were noblemen they're all from the Quraysh and all of them were to have very prominent lives in Islam and we as Muslims should really know these names by heart and we should know their stories and know the differences between them these are people, subhanallah one point brothers and sisters, every one of these early converts became a legend. And why not? Because it shows they converted early, right? Every one of these early converts is a mountain in and of himself. He's an ummah in and of himself. And his stories and his legends, and of course it is expected that these people who converted at that stage they would become the best of the best. And the next major convert that we'll discuss is Ibn Mas'ud. Ibn Mas'ud was one of the first to convert who was not of the noblemen of the Quraysh. But he was not of the slaves. He was a servant class. So he's not a slave, but he was not of the noblemen of the Quraysh. He was of the Yemeni tribes, and he worked as a servant. So he was not lowly, but he was not noble. He was not of the noblemen. He was not of the elite. He was in the middle. And Ibn Mas'ud was hired to be a shepherd for Uqba ibn Abi Mu'id, that enemy of Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ, he tells us the story of Ibn Mas'ud. and he says one day I was with my flock and I saw two men come in the distance and I didn't recognize them he didn't know who they were because he's a servant he's not paying attention to the people of Mecca and so the two of them come and say oh young man and he was a young man at the time oh young man we are thirsty can you give us some milk he has plenty of sheep give us some milk so Ibn Mas'ud says and this shows his honesty he says I'm afraid I can't because these don't belong to me I don't own them it's my right to give you their milk they belong to somebody else and so it's not my right and this shows his honesty that he's being so precise that I can't give you it's not mine to give I wish I could but I can't so the Prophet ﷺ said very well show us one of the the she goats that has stopped giving milk elderly she goat that doesn't give any milk anymore show us which one is that so he said that one now is beyond the age of milk so the Prophet ﷺ got this Abu Bakr got it for him and he made dua and he rubbed the udder of the goat and lo and behold it became full in front of the eyes of Ibn Mas'ud and they milked it right then and there and they drank it now this is the milk that is coming from this is not from any, it's a miracle from Allah right, they said we don't need your permission you're not the one, that this milk does not come except from the blessings of Allah so they milked this and they drank it and Ibn Mas'ud is just astonished because he's seeing a miracle with his own eyes and he asks who are you and he is told that this is Abu Bakr and this is Muhammad the Prophet ﷺ and so he converts right then and there and he became the sixth convert to Islam Ibn Mas'ud was the one whom the Prophet ﷺ said if you want to know how to read the Quran read the Quran the way Ibn Mas'ud does this is Ibn Mas'ud Ibn Mas'ud is the one who said that I learnt more than 70 surahs that is two thirds of the Quran I learnt more because 70 surahs is the bulk of the Quran I learned more than 70 surahs directly from the mouth of the Prophet ﷺ. I don't need you to teach me. I learned the Qur'an directly from the mouth of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And then after this, and with this we will conclude inshaAllah, the next batch of converts was a lot of the slave class. Those who were not the freemen of Mecca. And a lot of people converted. most famous amongst them is of course Bilal ibn Abi Rabah and Khabbab ibn al-Rat and Yasir and his wife Sumayya and their son Ammar and many other stories so all of these converts they began to convert after these elite noblemen of the Quraysh and Ibn Mas'ud had converted one final story inshallah I just need to conclude with this and then we'll move on next time a very interesting story of a Yemeni by the name of Amr ibn Abasa. Very interesting story. Very interesting. And it shows us a lot about early Islam. And it shows us a lot about the Prophet ﷺ. Amr ibn Abasa tells us in the first person, he's narrating his own story, that in the days of Jahiliyyah, I knew that idol worshipping was wrong. And I knew that my nation was upon misguidance. And I didn't do this. So, news came to me that somebody in Mecca was preaching something like I was saying. that idolatry is wrong. News reached me in Mecca that somebody is saying something like this. So I traveled all the way from Yemen to Mecca. And I found out who is this man. And I found him mukhtafi. This is very important. Next week we're gonna come back to this. Mukhtafi means that he was not public. He was hiding. I found him mukhtafi. He was hiding. And I asked him, who are you? he says I was gentle I was nice to him I kept on talking and then I asked him who are you? what are you? not who are you but what are you? so the Prophet said I am a prophet so he said what is a Nabi? by the way this shows us the Prophet he is a Nabi because every Rasul is a Nabi so he says what is a Prophet? and the Prophet said a prophet is someone whom Allah has sent Arsalani Allah so Nabi Arsal we said so he is a Rasul he is a Nabi I am somebody whom Allah has sent to mankind so he asks with what? what has he sent you with? so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to fulfill the ties of kinship to be good to the family and to break all idols and that only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala be worshipped this is my message Notice, no salah, no zakah, no hajj. It's just be good to one another and worship Allah alone. This is the basics of Islam. This is the basic message of Islam. So Amr said, who has followed you? Who are your followers? He said, one free man and one slave. Now there were more than this, but it's showing us this is early Islam. Abu Bakr and Bilal. These are my two main followers. one free man and one slave so Amr says I want to be your follower now Amr is the first non-Makki person to come and say he wants to convert in this early era the Prophet says you cannot do this now he rejects the conversion of Amr you cannot do this we're going to come back to this point next week he rejects the conversion of Amr you cannot do this now don't you see my situation I have to hide from my own people. You're not able. You're not a Qurashi. You're gonna be killed. You can't do this now. Right now I'm preaching. This was the early da'wah. We're gonna come to this. The early da'wah, he's only preaching to وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ He's only preaching to his own kith and kin. His own people. So he says, you cannot do this now. Go back to your people. Now listen, this is the phrase, it's really interesting. Go back to your people. And when you hear that I have been victorious over my people, then come back to me. Subhanallah. This is the first year of the da'wah. And he already knows that Allah is going to help him out. When you hear that I have been victorious, then come to me. And Amr says, I went back to Yemen waiting and knowing that eventually his da'wah would be supreme because I knew that this is a prophet. And when I heard that the Prophet ﷺ had immigrated to Medina, I went all the way back to Medina. and I entered the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and I said, Ya Rasulullah, hal a'raf thanee, do you recognize me? Subhanallah, it's been how many years now? At least 15 years. At least 15 years since this initial incident has happened. Right? And the Prophet ﷺ looked at him and said, Yes, you are the man who came to me from Yemen in Mecca. Subhanallah. He doesn't remember the name, but yes, you're the one who came to me. Right? And so that's when he accepted Islam and he became one of the muhajirun, one of the immigrants to Mecca. And this we will talk about inshaAllah to derive some of the points of wisdom and benefit and the issue of the secret da'wah. And I will mention next week, there's no such thing as a secret da'wah. We don't use this term at all. It is rather a private da'wah or a closed da'wah. And why was it private and why was it closed and what happened? InshaAllah ta'ala that will be next Wednesday bithnay ta'ala. And with that we conclude this halaqah and ask somebody to make the adhan. Thank you.

Seerah 102 - The house & grave of the Prophet (PBUH) - Dr

Al-Fatiha. a special session inshallah ta'ala it was advertised as the succession of the election of Abu Bakr and the Qabr of the Prophet ﷺ but as I was doing my research today I realized that there's way too much information just about the second point which is the Qabr of the Prophet ﷺ and there's no time to really do the caliphate of Abu Bakr until maybe next session so we will inshallah ta'ala begin with a description of the house of the Prophet ﷺ and also the and also some of the main architectural changes that took place and which everybody asks about. And there's no doubt that the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ is the most respected and the most worthy qabr in the entire world. And it is a part of our heritage and our history to discuss the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ. So I want to begin, if we can switch over to the computer, I want to begin by the house of the Prophet ﷺ and the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. Now, throughout our, mashallah, tabarakallah, three and a half years, we've always mentioned the houses of the Prophet ﷺ being next to the masjid. And there are some models that modern architectural designers have attempted to recreate. And these are all attempts to recreate. In the end of the day, obviously, we don't know exactly. but as much as we can glean as much as we can extract from the sources, these are some of the more accurate models and this is the model that the ministry of Medina the city of Medina has a heritage if you like ministry, they have replicated and this is on display in the museum of Medina in the Prophet ﷺ city and it is pretty accurate, I mean obviously they are in this regard even better experts than I am But looking at this, all of the references that we have seen seem to be extracted. So this is an out, this is a 3D, a bird's eye view of the masjid and of the house of the Prophet ﷺ and his wife. So this is the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. You can see in my marker here, okay. This is the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. This is the qibla, okay. This is the qibla, this direction, i.e. upwards. Now, where was the qibla when the Prophet ﷺ moved to Medina? Downwards. So when the masjid was initially built, this was the qibla. This was the qibla. And our Prophet ﷺ built his houses on the back side of the masjid, over here. And he built the house of... Okay, so let me see. When he migrated to Medina, how many wives did he have? Who? and Saudah and Aisha, which was done right after he migrated to Medina. And Hafsa very soon after that. So the first houses that were built were the houses of Saudah and Aisha, رضي الله عنهم أجمعين. And then right after that, the house of Hafsa. And so these houses were built in the back. And also very soon after this as well, the Prophet ﷺ married Fatima and Ali, رضي الله عنه. He married his daughter Fatima to Ali. And so he built for them a house as well, right next to the masjid. Now Ali had two houses. He had a house next to the masjid. He had a house in the Quba area as well. He had two houses. And so he built a house for his daughter Fatima. And so Ali's house, i.e. Fatima's house, was right in the same vicinity as the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is where they got married. This is where Fatima and Ali ﷺ got married. So the qibla got changed in this direction. So when the qibla got changed in this direction, then obviously the houses came in the front, whereas they used to be in the back. So here we see, this was now the new qibla. And the new qibla was also covered. Initially when the qibla was changed, there was no covering here. There was a small covering in the front. When the qibla direction was changed, so they built this lattice, this structure made out of date palms. and they then covered the roof with date palm leaves, which was the standard covering in those times. This is how they would cover the houses. Most houses did not have solid coverings at that time. They would simply have their, they would have a structure of lattice, latticing together the date palm, dried date palm leaves, they would do that. And so the Prophet ﷺ's houses were on the left-hand side. This is the qibla over here. And this became the mimbar of the Prophet ﷺ, the mihrab of the Prophet ﷺ. It's not shown here obviously, but the minbar of the Prophet ﷺ was not carved into the wall. That's why it's not shown here. As you know in the beginning it was simply a stump and then a small pulpit was made. So it's not carved into the wall. So this is the structure of the masjid. And then we're coming here, we have, pause right here, the house of Aisha. The house of Hafsa. The house of Sauda. So we have these three houses of the Prophet ﷺ. that were connected to the masjid. But only Aisha's house had a direct access to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. Only Aisha's house was literally next to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, meaning the doorway was the same. And the other houses, so here these doors were eventually closed. So we see over here the house of Aisha, direct access directly into the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. Then here is the house of Fatima. So the house of Fatima was right behind the house of Aisha. And this is where Ali radiallahu anhu married Fatima. So the house of Fatima is literally behind. Now those days houses are not fancy structures. It's one building, one room. That's how the houses are in those days. There's not these multi-massive. No, simplicity. This is how the people were. And we will see a rendering of the inside of the house of the Prophet ﷺ as well. and it is estimated that the size of the house meaning the actual room of the process room was 3 by 3.5 meters which is basically 10 by 12 feet 10 by 12 feet and this is the size of our living room carpets not our living rooms this is the size of our rugs that we put in our carpet even smaller than this, right? that is the rug that we have in our houses typically 10 by 12 is the standard size of rug that you buy in this part of the world at least that is the size of the entire house in that house is the attic space, the cooking, everything. Like all that you have, that will be your living quarters. And we will see one representation or diagram of the Prophet ﷺ. Now, this structure here, most likely there was probably some type of fence or some type of clay wall on the outer side of all of these houses. Most likely. So that there wasn't direct access for strangers to the houses of the Prophet ﷺ. And this seems to be referenced in the Qur'an. إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُنَانُونَكَ مِنْ وَرَاءِ الْحُجِرَاتِ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ Those that are calling you from behind the apartments. So there's something separating the apartments from the rest of the people. So there seems to be some type of barrier that would be a large wall. Clay wall made out of dried clay. that would be blocking all of these small apartments, which is the hujurat. These are the small apartments, these are small chambers. All of them together are the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. So there would be some wall, and that is what Allah is referencing most likely. We are not 100% sure, but it appears that there must have been some type of covering for the privacy of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. And also therefore, the Prophet ﷺ could go between the houses of his wives without exiting that complex. Without exiting that complex. And this seems to be the case. So here, as we said, we have Aisha, we have Sauda over here, and then we have Fatima. Here we have Zaynab bint Khuzaymah on the other side. On this side, this is Fatima. This is Zaynab bint Khuzaymah that was connected to Fatima. And then we have the other wives. In this structure, we don't have all of the wives. In the end, most of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ had structures over here. It is perhaps one or two of them did not have space over here, so they purchased nearby land and we also know from the seerah we also discussed this that Marya al-Qibtiya Umm Ibrahim she had a small room in the outer place of the city away from the hujurat of the Prophet's wives so this is one representation and it demonstrates for you this is again very good here very simple demonstration that between the house of Aisha now here's another small controversy so according to this representation there is a small alleyway between the house of Aisha and the masjid. You see this, right? This is one interpretation. Another interpretation is that this wall was this wall. And there's no alleyway at all. And of course there's no way to be 100% sure at this stage. You know, I mean you're reading, you're trying to extract this from the books. And there are references, for example in Sahih Muslim, it is mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ said to, Aisha, give me my prayer rug. ناوليني الخمر Give me my prayer rug. And the prayer rug was in the masjid. And so Aisha said, I am in my monthly cycle. I can't go inside the masjid. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ حَيْضَتَكِ لَيْسَدْ فِي يَدِكِ That your menses is not in your hands. I'm telling you to reach in, get me my prayer rug and put it here. So the fact that she could just stick her hand out and pull the prayer rug in seems to indicate what? That is the same wall. Right? It seems to indicate that they're in the room. He wants to stand up and pray. And he says, pass me my prayer rug. So she says, I can't. And so the Prophet ﷺ said that your haydah is not in your hands. So this demonstrates that all she has to do, she does not have to enter the full masjid. She doesn't have to exit. She just has to put her hand in and take it out. So my point is there's a controversy over, I shouldn't say controversy. There's two opinions, it's not a big deal. Whatever it is, it's a very trivial issue. Was the wall connected to the masjid or was there a small alleyway? Both are mentioned and Allah knows best. So these guys who made this 3D structure, they took the position that there's a small alleyway and so there's a little bit of privacy as well and there's obviously reason to suggest that as well. Okay, so this is the one example of the house of the Prophet ﷺ. We also have another example over here. Another example, unfortunately this video is not as clear, but I wanted to show you another example of the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is another 3D structure. This is not a physical structure, this is a cartoon or this is not a cartoon, but a drawing that was done. And just to demonstrate, so we have the entire structure 4.5 meters by three meters in length. And here we have another representation that this would be the inner chamber of Aisha and the Prophet ﷺ. And there would be a small door into the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ as well. And so it was as if there is an inner covering between the Prophet's ﷺ, if you like, room that he lives in and the masjid. That inner room is three and a half by three. We see it over here as well. That these would be the alleyways the Prophet ﷺ could use to get to other houses. You see over here, right? That this is the wall of the fence, or sorry, this is the fence surrounding, or not the fence, the wall surrounding the hujurat. This is the wall surrounding the hujurat. And so the Prophet ﷺ could use this to go to his other wives' houses. Now, according to this representation, we see there is no space between the wall of Aisha and the wall of the masjid, right? So they're following the other interpretation. That the wall of Aisha, This is the house of Aisha, this is the masjid of the processim, this is the qibla over here. According to this schemata, there is absolutely no space at all. And as I said, this also seems to be a valid diagram. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. So there is the door inside the masjid. This is the outside door that Aisha would use or the processim would use when he wanted to visit his other wives. The processim, when he wanted to go to the masjid, this door is right over here. And this is the door that he raised the curtain. and for the last time the people saw him, that was over here. This was the door, or this was the curtain, excuse me. And we'll get to it that, in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, his roof was never made out of solid material. His roof was made only out of intertwined leaf palms. What that means is that it was not watertight. It was not waterproof. Which means when it would rain, it would get wet. And even more surprising, and I don't understand, understand, wallahi this is so difficult even for me to understand, that I've lived in Medina for 10 years, for a decade the cold of Medina is very cold, very cold and to imagine that the Prophet ﷺ was not sheltered from that cold, because when you have roof that is not solid, you cannot warm the house up you might have a small fire but it's not you have the air coming in, it's not gonna be airtight, and they're living in that cold, freezing cold It gets very different type of desert cold over there. And so that cold, our Prophet ﷺ was not protected from it. In fact, it was only in the time of Umar ibn Khattab that they built a solid, so after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, that they built a solid covering on the house of the Prophet ﷺ. Also, these two inner doors that were used, it is very clear from the text that there was not a solid door. Rather, it was just a curtain. And this clearly demonstrates, in my opinion, that there must have been a wall. Because how can you have a curtain in your own personal house when there's no wall outside of it? So this for me clearly indicates, and this is Allah knows best, you cannot be certain, but it seems pretty clear to me. When you have curtains, then there must have been... Now as for this curtain, there is no danger or harm because this is inside the masjid. This is inside the masjid. As for this one, this is looking onto the street. and so clearly there must have been some type of wall that protected all of the chambers of the Prophet ﷺ and that is basically the inner sanctuary of the Prophet ﷺ and if we keep on going here we see another example so here we have the inner chambers where the Prophet ﷺ would walk down to visit his other wives he would also walk to visit Fatima's over here this is the masjid that he would pray in And it is also calculated that the door was around a dhira' and a half, which is like 70 centimeters. So the door was around 70 centimeters, which were around that much, small door. And also the height has been calculated to be around a meter and a half, which is basically just a little bit above normal height. And so some of us might even have to bow down to come inside. and as for the bed of the Prophet ﷺ once again we have two interpretations was there a raised bed or not? we can't know for sure if you look at the riwayat it appears there was not a raised bed rather the bed was on the floor this appears to be the case and so this diagram you see seems more correct we'll see another representation and they have a raised platform in there Allah knows best. But it appears that the bed of the Prophet ﷺ was of course, we would call a mattress. What was the stuffing of the mattress? It was dried date palm leaf. Once again, you take the leaves of the date palms and you just put them in, and that will be the bed of the Prophet ﷺ. And underneath that of course was a mat, if you like, made out of the barks. So just like in our times we have the wooden frame, and then we have the big mattress that we put on, right? so you need both of them, you need the support you need the soft material, so the wooden frame of the Prophet ﷺ was basically the bark of the trees, was basically the branches and then the mattress was basically some type of stuffing with the leaves and of course over the years you can imagine this was just gonna become more and more just thinner and thinner and it is narrated that Aisha and others tried to make it better, well none of the Prophet ﷺ did not need that and he wanted his old one back and these are other diagrams in and that is all that we need from this one inshaAllah ta'ala and here we have the final video that we're gonna do this replica was done in Jeddah by some scholars of the seerah and this is a complete guesstimation we have no idea but this is one interpretation what would have been inside the house of the Prophet ﷺ what do we know that the people would have had at that time so there's nothing that we know for sure except that we know for sure that Aisha had had a grinding mill we know this for example from the story of the slander that the maid servant said that Aisha falls asleep when she's grinding the flour or barley they didn't have flour, they had barley and we know that they must have had cooking utensils and they must have had the small fire to put there. Because obviously you need a fire to warm things up. So putting all of this together, we know that there was water canisters hanging from the walls. That's how they would do things. Putting all of this together, so an architect in Jeddah had a 3D model and this is what it is. So we can go to YouTube now and see this. So this model, he has a actual raised platform. And it's not impossible that this would have existed. Maybe it did exist, maybe. Or maybe this was used more as a sofa and not as a bed. And I think this guy actually puts both of them in just to be on the safe side, right? He has this one over here, which is clearly the bed. And then he has this one on the top over here. And clearly there was also, we know, some type of rug. Well, it's not quite a rug, but it would be made out of again dried date palm leaves again. So حصير we would call it in Arabic حصير some type of dried date palm leaf mattress if you're not a mattress but a carpet. This was their carpet that they would put on top of the sand. And of course he does a very good job here. The sand is not gonna be fully protected. So the inside of the house of the Prophet ﷺ will always have sand in it. Always have sand in it. And here we have the jugs of water that would be they were mentioned in the seerah as well. It was very common. that you would have jugs of water high up. You would have them high up also for animals because if you had them low, you might have rodents or whatnot come and drink. So you'd have them high up so that you could only drink from it when you needed to. And here we have a potential mattress of the Prophet ﷺ and the utensils that would have been in those times. The staff, we know that the Prophet ﷺ had a staff that was made out of a branch, carved out of a branch. And these are some of the utensils also at that time they would hang their swords and their shields from the wall that was a part of the house item so you will see over here swords and shields hanging from the wall that would be common here we find the barley making materials storage food for the food other containers that would have been common again all of this is guesstimation what others would have had some idea the architect is trying to bring what did the people at that time have by the way this room is definitely bigger than 10 feet by 12 feet so this is not to that but he's just showing what's inside oh sorry did I do that? my bad he's just showing what might be inside the room of the Prophet and he's using materials that are common at the time let's just move a little bit forward here we have a spear here we have a bow and arrow common at the time to have these things in the house. And he then goes back to where he began. Various cooking utensils would have been there. Clearly, there's no doubt that would have been there at the time as well. But you see a house of utter simplicity. There would not have been, here's the roof, clearly that would have been the very, very, very accurate presentation of the roof. This is how the roof would have been. Simple date palm leaves intertwined together. It would not protect you fully from the sun, from the cold. Here we have, obviously this is a far better curtain than the Prophet ﷺ could ever have had because this is a properly done. But this is a curtain, that's what it would have been. Just a curtain. And remember he lifted the curtain, remember the hadith? He lifted the curtain the last day of his life, right? This is what he would have done. He would have lifted the curtain. And they would have seen him directly. So this shows us there was no door into the masjid. There would probably have been shelves as well. This is some type of shelf you could put your things in as well. And then he goes back to the beginning. it's just a 3D of the entire house. And this is the other door. We said there were two doors, right? One door into the masjid. This is the door into the masjid, by the way, because his bed is over here. And so his bed was right next to the masjid. Right? And so his bed was next to the masjid. And we know that the room was pretty cluttered. Even though it was 10 feet by 12 feet, we know the room was pretty cluttered. There wasn't large areas. We know this because... Okay, we're done with this slide. We know this because when he would stand up for tahajjud, there would not even be room for him to pray fully unless he prodded Aisha to put her feet up. As the hadith mentions. So you can imagine that in this small room, all of the possessions they need, and of course there must be cooking stuff, there must be the armor, there must be any other things that are needed. So everything is scattered everywhere. And this is how they would live. And you can see the rudimentary development. They didn't have multiple rooms. They didn't have a kitchen and nothing of this was there. We already mentioned that in terms of the restroom, there would be a chamber pot, right? For the bowl, the urination. And then for the other, they would have to go outside the city. And we learned from the hadith of the slander, they would literally go once every two, three days. Because they ate so little food, they didn't need to go. So there was no concept of having that inside the city. Once every two, three days they would go outside of the city to relieve themselves. There was no need to do that inside of the city. So we know as well that our Prophet ﷺ was buried where he slept. Okay, that was, as we have said, Abu Bakr had said that our Prophet ﷺ had told him that all of the prophets are buried where they sleep. So his burial, as we mentioned, was done right in his bed. So his bed was lifted up. They dug a hole right there. And this hole was a hole that is known as a lahd. Lam, ha, dal, lahd. What is a lahd? There's two types of graves in the sharia that are allowed. The first is the lahd and the second is the shaqq. And the lahd means you go down, then you dig a niche inside. So it becomes an L shape. You go down and you dig a niche inside, typically towards the direction of the qibla. And then you place the body into the L You put it into the L Then you cover the opening of the L with bricks And then you throw the sand So that you cover up the grave So the body is not, sand is not thrown on it So the body is in a niche And that niche is called the La'at So our Prophet ﷺ was dug in a lahd Dug down and then in And the body is placed inside And the majority of the madhhab Say this is the sunnah And one of the evidences they use Is the Prophet ﷺ was buried in the lahd Everybody agrees to this And they say Allah would have only chosen the best for his Prophet ﷺ The other type which is allowed It's allowed But it's not the sunnah according to the majority And then one of the madhhab, the Hanafi says it is the sunnah The other three says it's not So the other madhhab say it is the sunnah they say the shak. And the shak is basically, you dig the grave straight down, and then you dig a small little hole, straight into it. And then you put the body into that hole, then you put a platform, which is how it's done in America, because that's what the law dictates. At least in Memphis and in Houston I've seen as well, the law tells us you have to do that. They don't want to have the L-shaped, or for whatever reason. So we dig it straight down here. And then we cover it. Now this is halal, it's not haram. But the majority say, it's not the best. The best is the lahd. And the minority say, no, this is the best. And that's difference of fiqh, not relevant here. The point is, for our perspective, what we're interested in is that, for sure, the Prophet ﷺ was buried in a lahd. Now, after his burial, we know that Aisha ﷺ continued to live in the house, in her own house. And the Prophet's ﷺ grave is on the side. so this is the grave of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam over here and Aisha radiyallahu anha continued to live in the rest of the house then Abu Bakr passed away and Abu Bakr is buried over here and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq is her father and so obviously she allows her father to be buried and she continues living in this part of the house then for another 10 years she lives in this part of the house and then we know what happens with the death of Umar ibn Khattab. We all know the story of Abu Lu'lu al-Majusi. He stabs Umar and Umar is basically about to die. The doctors tell him, you're going to die. We cannot cure this wound. And so he sends his son Abdullah to Aisha. And he says, say that my father Umar and don't say Amir al-Mu'mineen. So that she knows that this is not a request from the Khalifa. This is a request from a man named Umar. not the khalifa. My father Umar is requesting permission to be buried alongside his two companions. Sahibin, his two companions. And if she says no or hesitates, leave. Don't argue. That's her right because it's her house. It's her house. That's her prerogative. And if she agrees then come back and inform me. And so Aisha as you all know, this is a famous story. She said that I wanted to have this grave for myself. And I would never have given it to anybody except Umar. Except Umar, I'll sacrifice for him. That he deserves that. And so Umar ibn Khattab was then buried. And because Umar is non-mahram, ajnabi, so Aisha puts a curtain inside the house. And she lives in the small space that is left for the rest of her life. and she puts her curtain obviously because she out of respect out of the fact that this is not my father or husband now this is Umar ibn Khattab so she has a curtain now and she's living now sometimes I think about this and I just just feel very very emotional about this that she's living in and eating and drinking and sleeping she's in and she sees the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ and her father like for 12 years 12 years and Umar basically it's right there she's living in the same house as the qabr of her husband the Prophet ﷺ and her father and then Umar ibn al-Khattab and when of course we all know that when Uthman passed away the fitna had begun he passed away far away there was no question of bringing him to anywhere as you all know that was a very difficult time he was simply buried in his own garden and then some say he was transferred to where he is others say that was where the garden was In any case, he was buried outside of Baqir. He was not even buried in Baqir. Ali passed away in Kufa. So again, there's no question. There was one space left. There was one space left. Because Aisha is living there. But the other two Khulafa, they passed away in their own circumstances. And then it is narrated that Aisha herself, when she passed away at the age of, sorry, in the year 57 AH. So she lived way after Ali, in the time of Muawiyah. She passed away in the time of Muawiyah. That when Aisha passed away, رضي الله عنها, she said, don't bury me here. I want to be buried with my other co-wives, the other wives of the Prophet ﷺ. Why did she do this? Maybe because of Umar. Maybe because she felt it was appropriate to be with the women. We don't know. There was a space left over there. Now, in the lifetime of Umar ibn al-Khattab as well, Umar ibn al-Khattab was the first to really expand the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and solidify it. And in that expansion, he solidified the roofs of the wives' houses. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So the house of the Prophet ﷺ was solidified after his death. For his whole life, the roof was made out of leaf. And as for this, can we go back to the slide? As for this fourth grave over here, as for this fourth space over here, there are traditions in Sunan al-Tirmidhi and in a number of books of hadith, but all of them are weak or very weak but there are traditions there are narrations that Isa ibn Maryam will be buried over here okay so there are narrations found in our source books that this place where is my marker here it is that this place over here will be for Isa ibn Maryam nothing authentic so we do not say for sure but there are sources in our own books including Tirmidhi. Now the isnad is not fully authentic. So we say Allahu A'lam, that will be the case or not. Now, in the caliphate of Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik, who ruled from 88 to 91 Hijrah. In the caliphate of Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik, who ruled from 88 to 91 Hijrah, he decided to expand the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ in all four directions. Now, which way is the qibla? South The qibla is south So he decided To expand the masjid South and east And west and north All four directions And this raised a huge problem Because To the east To the east Are the houses of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ Still standing for 90 years. This is around 90 Hijrah. So they've been standing there for almost a century. Now nobody lived there. Nobody lived there. After all the wives of the Prophet ﷺ did not have biological descendants. And it was inherited by the Al-Bayt overall. By the family of the Prophet ﷺ. I mean Ali Zain al-Abideen and Al-Baqir. They're basically not by inheritance, I mean managed by them. That they're the ones taking charge of managing it. And Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik insisted that he will purchase all of these lands at whatever cost. He's gonna purchase from whoever is in control, from the Al-Bayt, and that the masjid will encompass all of these little houses. Why would he do this? Why would he wanna do this? This has raised a lot of discussion. Some say that he was a typical political ruler. One of the things the political rulers always want to do, they want to leave their mark on society. And of the ways they want to leave their mark is to build glorious masjids. Every ruler, there's a ruler now, I don't want to mention his name, of some Arab country, building one of the biggest masjids in the world at his state money and whatnot. And he's not particularly a religious man and state funds the people are starving. But no, he wants to build a masjid in his name. close to the beach and what not this is the way of the rulers that's the way they are so some say he was just being a typical ruler that he wants to now build a mega mosque and of course the mosque of the process is a very noble mosque to build and so he doesn't care about these things about the wives of the process sorry the houses of the process he just wants his will done and that is one interpretation and of course since he's the khalifa I mean he gets his will done doesn't matter who's gonna object And by the way, in 90 Hijrah, who's alive amongst the Sahaba? In Medina, nobody. Nobody. Not a single Sahabi is left in Medina. There's probably one or two in Kufa and other places, very old. Some of the younger children that were still alive, now they're 100 years old. Yes, some of the Sahaba lived beyond this. The last Sahabi died in 110 Hijrah. But not in Medina. Not in Medina. In 90 Hijrah, no Sahabi is left in Medina. they've all gone okay come on it's 90 Hijrah think about it who is alive I mean everybody the major Sahaba they all passed away in the maximum of the 50s 60s they're all gone by now so in 90 Hijrah none of the Sahaba are alive and he commanded that these Hujurat be purchased and that the Masjid be then expanded to include the grave and so he expanded it from a southern side so from the Mihrab is here he made it 20 feet forward and where he made it is where the masjid is in our times, the mihrab. Right? What he expanded forward is exactly where it ends in our times. Clear? Right? Nobody had the audacity or the foolishness or whatever you want to call it to go beyond. He did it and that is where it remained. And he was the only one in the history of Islam to expand eastward as well. and where he expanded was where it remained nobody after him had the audacity or foolishness call it what you will to go beyond what he did right even the latest Saudi expansions if you look at it they began from behind the Rawdah from behind the blessed grave they did not want to go from the blessed grave and that's why it's a little bit design is the front has a little bit of a you know jutting out and then the rest of it goes big. Correct? Right? They did not want to go beyond. Even in this modern expansion, which is the largest expansion in the history of Islam. They did not want to include that beyond. You know, it's just a matter of respect. Only Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik did this. Now, this is one interpretation. There is another interpretation as well. And this seems to have some legitimacy. Allah knows best. Seems to have some legitimacy. That it's beyond just wanting to build a big masjid. There is actually some politics involved as well. What are some of the politics involved? So, the Umayyads had some huge rivalry, major problems from the Al-Bayt, obviously. We talked about Karbala has just taken place a decade ago, right? We talked about the major, and the people did not like the Umayyads. And the descendants of the Prophet ﷺ are well respected and beloved. It's obvious, right? I mean, it is human nature that the Prophet ﷺ's descendants would be given that awe and respect. And this is, we need to understand, imagine, imagine if Hussain ﷺ was in front of us. How would you feel? How would you feel? Would you want him to be the khalifa or Fulan ibn Fulan in the palace? Who would you want? Psychologically, forget who Islamically, like whoever is in charge should remain in charge. Yes, that is the case, right? But psychologically, who would sway your vote as we say, right? And Hussain is now killed in a vicious manner. And his son, who is his son? Come on guys, please. Ali Zain al-Abideen, right? Ali Zain al-Abideen. Now returns to Medina. And the people, now Ali Zain al-Abideen was the most apolitical of the early Al-Bayt. Probably because of the massacre. Because remember, he was a young man sick in the tent. he was a young man sick in the tent he witnessed, he was there he lost everybody of the male relatives he was the only all of the progeny from Hussain goes to Ali because he doesn't it's all gone after that because everybody else was massacred so Ali Zain al-Abideen there was a lot of clamoring that he should take charge and the people loved him and who would not love him these are all Al-Albayt and it is said that he would regularly sit in the house of the Prophet ﷺ because after all that is his house. And sometimes even preach from there into the masjid. Because remember we talked about there not being any barrier, right? Now this is his house. How can he be prevented from going to his house and speaking in his house? The only thing to be done, eliminate the house. Get him out somewhere. Because psychologically preaching from the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ, imagine, like the background would be the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ, right? So this is another theory and it is mentioned in the early books as well. That this is a motive for expanding to include the houses, the hujurat of the Prophet ﷺ. And frankly, I am persuaded by that theory. It makes a lot more sense. Because I cannot imagine that it was just a matter... If you wanted to expand, I mean, come on. These are the hujurat of the mothers of the believers I mean, it doesn't matter how There's a little bit of common sense You don't do that Unless you're worried about your throne And when you're worried about your throne People go, they don't care To protect the kursi Everything becomes ja'is, right? That's just the way people are And may Allah protect us from ever sitting in such a kursi Because wallahi that is the biggest fitna known to man Power is the biggest fitna known to man So this is a theory that makes a lot of sense. Now, it is said that some of the scholars objected to this. And it is clearly mentioned in our books, Musannaf, Abdul Razzaq and other books of Tariq and Athar of the Tabi'un, that a number of senior scholars of Medina, the senior most amongst them was Saeed ibn Al-Musayyib. That Saeed ibn Al-Musayyib, he objected. and he said that this should not be done. Now, some scholars of our times, in particular the theologically minded, like many of the Salafi scholars for example, they say he objected for theological reasons. That he didn't want the qabr to be included in the masjid. But in fact this is not true. This is not true. If you go back to the actual athar and see what he has to say, this is not why he's objecting. Why was he objecting? He was objecting because he wanted the people to see the simplicity of the houses of the Prophet ﷺ. How rough and coarse they were. And he wanted them to gain a lesson. So this shows us even within 90 years, civilization had come to Medina. And we know this. Within 90 years, people are living fine now. Within 90 years, two-story structures are being built. within 90 years, embroidery, fabric, clothes. Money is coming in now. It's a different, you've conquered the Roman civilization, half of it you've conquered the Persian. Of course, money is gonna come, civilization is gonna come. So Saeed ibn al-Musayyib is saying, I want the people to see how the Prophet ﷺ lived. Don't destroy these houses. Let them see as they used to see. It will bring our heart softness. So he objected for reasons of tarbiyah, for reasons of raka'iqah, of having soft heart. Of course, politicians don't care about Islamic rules, as is always the case. And so, he did not care, and he ordered that all of the hujurat be demolished. Except for Aisha, because that's where the qabr is. And the governor of Medina at the time, was none other than someone who would become the khalifa in another 15 years. And that is Umar ibn Abdul Aziz. The famous Umar ibn Abdul Aziz. so at this stage, Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz who is of course a relative because he's from the Umayyad clan his mother is a descendant of Umar from his mother's side he's a descendant of Umar, from his father's side he's the Umawi, he's a pure he's a royal Umawi so Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz was at this time the young governor of Medina, and at this stage of his life, by the way he was not practicing that much when we say practicing, by the way when we say practicing I mean subhanallah that's a different thing of course everybody at the time is praying, fasting what not, but there is like a love of Islam extra love at this young phase of his life he didn't have it this came later on, before he became the khalifa and he became very zahid and abid and what not, but at this stage he is just the regular umawi prince, he is just living the life of the regular princes he is not concerned about theology and what not he wants to curry favor like every prince, like every governor you want to please the ruler So whatever he says, khalas, we'll do it. So Umar ibn Abdulaziz himself takes part in basically helping out and demolishing all of the houses of the Prophet ﷺ. Really sad tragedy. But this is when it happens. That it happens that all of the houses of the Prophet ﷺ are demolished other than, of course, the house of Aisha. And then they decide what is to be done now with the house of Aisha. So here's now two opinions that are done. According to one opinion, the original house is left. The original house is left. And around the house of Aisha, another structure is built. And according to the second opinion, which I probably don't agree with, I think the first opinion makes more sense. The second opinion says they did demolish the walls of Aisha's house, and they built another structure in its place, which is more permanent. In either case, the essence is the same. some structure is built. Whether it was built on the original structure or right around the original structure, this is the controversy. Most likely, most likely, Allah knows best. It's difficult to say. I mean, honestly, there's no way to do this. But I would hope he had preserved the original structure. But even if he did not, the point is that they wanted to build something more permanent. And they built it made out of thick blocks of asphalt. The same that the Ka'bah is built with. Big black box chunks, cubes. They built it and there was no door. They didn't want any door. So they covered it up. And they built a solid structure. And if we can go back to the slide for just one minute and then I'll come back to me. Hold on a sec. Where did we... Yeah. Here we go. this is the wall of Umar ibn Abdulaziz. Clear? This is that black wall. In your slide, it's blue over here. This is that black wall that was done in the time of Umar ibn Abdulaziz. Now, stay on the slide. Don't come back to me. It is said when they were building the wall, and this kind of seems to suggest that they destroyed the original wall, one of the workers jumped up and screamed or was aghast. And Umar ibn Abdulaziz came forward and he also was about to scream because lo and behold, there were two feet protruding from that place. And they were scared these might be, now this is 90 years on, the feet are completely fresh. They might be the feet of the Prophet ﷺ. Then they called the scholars of the time and one of the famous scholars of Medina, Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Umar ibn Khattab. So the grandson of Umar ibn Khattab who was obviously a second cousin of Umar ibn Abdulaziz from his mother's side, right? He said, don't worry, oh governor, this is the feet of our grandfather, Umar. So this is the wall. Sorry. This is this wall. They must have doing this wall. Now, this narration might seem to suggest that they actually destroyed the original wall. Might seem to suggest that. And yeah, maybe they did. Might seem to suggest they destroyed the original wall and then as they're destroying that wall, they see feet and they're worried, what is this? And they find out, no, these are the feet of Umar, not the feet of the Prophet ﷺ or Abu Bakr. And so they obviously bury it up and then they bury that wall, they bury the feet and then they build a wall. Now, stay on the slide. So now what Umar ibn Abdulaziz decided to do was to build a pentagonal structure. It's not fully a pentagon because you see over here some weird thing over here that this was a small door to go in if need be to go into this area. So there's a small door over here. And so they built a pentagonal structure. So this pentagonal structure was built in the reign of Umar ibn Abdulaziz. So not only did they build this structure which was the actual house of Aisha, they also built this pentagonal structure. and for at least 400 years. This was what visitors to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ would see. A pentagonal structure. Why was it a pentagon? Now you can get off the slide. Why was it a pentagon? Scholars say, some of the early scholars mentioned why. For a number of reasons. Number one, they didn't want somebody to pray to the qabr. When they're praying salah, so it's as if there's a qabr over there. So you have like a pentagon. So it's as if you can't really pray. to the qabr. And number two, they said that they didn't want some ignorant people to think there was another Ka'bah in Medina. Because these are new Muslims, people are converting. So there's a Ka'bah structure, cube, built of the same material, same shape, same color, smaller obviously. So they didn't want people to think that, so they covered it up. And so, this pentagonal structure remained for many centuries. now before we move on to the architectural thing books of history mention and I'm afraid we're not going to finish at 8.30 because I'm not going to come back to this and I know everybody is very interested so there's no problems there but we're going to go at least for 15 minutes if not more books of history mention that there were a number of attempts to smuggle the body of the Prophet ﷺ outside of the qabr some books mention three some mention four some mention five such attempts and I'll mention two or three of these and then give you my thoughts on this whole narrative or motif of the earliest attempts at least two it is said were attempted by the Fatimid Khalifa Al-Hakim bi Amrillah and the Fatimid Khalifa Al-Hakim bi Amrillah was one of the more, shall we say, colorful figures in Islamic history. He seems to have had a screw loose, as we say in English, quite literally. And by the way, the Druzi sect comes from him. The Druzi sect considers Al-Hakim to be God on earth. Al-Hakim is Allah on this earth. He is the zahir of the batin. So we get Ismaili thought over here. So the Duruzees, their whole religion is founded from the time of Al-Hakim. So all of them, they come from there. And Al-Hakim, it is said sometimes he would... I can tell you some disgusting stories, let's leave that. But he seems to have had a screw loose quite literally. Some of the most bizarre things he would tell his people to do. And then one day he sat on a donkey and walked out of the city. Nobody ever saw him again. That's how his rule came to an end. People feared him, people loathed him. He had some screw loose. One day he literally sat on a donkey and just walked out. And nobody ever heard from him again. Nobody knows what happened to him. And then of course, the Druzees have their theories of Zahid and Batil and Khuruj and what not. But the point being that, one of his goals maybe, and I don't doubt this, he seems to have been the type of guy. He wanted to transfer the body of the Prophet ﷺ to Qahira. Why? Prestige. Make Qahira like a capital. May Qahira, like prestigious. And it is said that he attempted multiple times. Two are mentioned in some of the books. One after another after a few years. And each of these times, somehow something happened. And Allah Azza wa Jal basically prevented this from happening. This, I don't have a problem at all affirming. But the more common story, which is the story of Nur ad-Din Zangi. Nur ad-Din Zangi was the precursor to Salah ad-Din Ayyubi. he was the one who put Salah ad-Din as a governor and after his death Salah ad-Din basically took over so Nur ad-Din Zangi was the one who facilitated the rise of Salah ad-Din al-Ayubi but he's before Salah ad-Din and he was the first to fight the crusaders in the manner that we now look back to, so Nur ad-Din Zangi it is mentioned in some books of history that he saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream and the Prophet ﷺ said that O Nur ad-Din, anqirni save me from these two people. And these two people were shown to him, to Nur ad-Din. He woke up frightened, he prayed two raka'ah, went back to sleep, saw the same dream. Woke up again, prayed two raka'ah, went to sleep, saw the same dream. Then he realized this is a real dream. He goes to one of the viziers and he tells the viziers what he saw. The vizier said, don't tell anybody else. Immediately go to Medina right now and find out what is happening. So he goes to Medina and he throws a big feast and he says, everybody gets a gift. Bring everybody from the city. And he sees in the crowd every one of them. He doesn't recognize. He says, anybody left? There must be some people. So he is told, there are two righteous hujjaj from Maghrib, Morocco. Nothing against the Moroccan brothers here. It's just that's what the book say. Right? Two righteous brothers from Morocco. From the Maghrib. And they are zuhad, ubbad. They are fasting. They are cut away from society. They don't come to these functions. They're religious people. They're good people. So he said, no, bring them to me. So when he comes, he recognizes them from the dream. So he says, what is your story? They say, we are Moroccan Hujjaj. We are Moroccan. From the Maghrib, we were living here. And we want to stay close to the Prophet ﷺ and do ibadah. So he said, tell me your story. They said, this is our story. So he said, hold them. And he went to their house. And he looked around and he picked up something. And lo and behold, there was some tunnel that was leading in. and it was close to the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ. When he saw this, he went back, he got the story from them that they were in fact Christians who pretended to be Muslims and they were paid by the crusaders to get the body of the Prophet ﷺ. And so, Nur ad-Din obviously had them executed and it is said he built a copper moat around the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ. Now, it's a great story. It's commonly told. it's found in many medieval classical works however I just can't believe it and I have done my research and I've asked enough people and it doesn't seem to be true it seems to be one of those things that is invented by later people to prop up the guy that they like it's just too bizarre and the fact of the matter is that this is rumored to have been occurred at 557 AH because that's when Nur ad-Din was there yet the first references in the books of history are 200 and something years after this. And there were books of history at that time being written. So the first reference is in a book of history, I'm not going to mention here, 772 Hijrah is mentioned. 230 years after this particular incident. And also, I asked one of the main people in charge of the sanctuary of the Prophet ﷺ's qabr and cleaning it and what not. And I asked him, because obviously if it is there then you will know it. is there. And he said, this is kathib, this is a lie. There is no moat made out of copper around the qabr of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And frankly, it is a bizarre story. It does not make any sense. And Allah knows best. I cannot, it doesn't seem to have happened. It does not seem to have happened. In any case, other incidents that are of interest that we should know, in the year 654 Hijrah, 654, one of the lamp keepers of the Prophet ﷺ went inside to put oil into the lamp and unfortunately he had an accident and the oil lit up and it caught fire, caught fire to a curtain and the curtain went to another curtain went to the pillar and this proved to be one of the most disastrous fires in the history of the Prophet ﷺ's masjid, it caused the whole masjid to burn down and the roof to collapse onto the structure of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz. So this is called the big fire, the great fire. And there were two great fires. This is the first of them we're gonna come to. The great fire of Medina. And another tragedy as well occurred and that is the original Mus'haf of Uthman was destroyed in this fire. The original Mus'haf of Uthman because everything was burnt. It was one mistake by one person. And Allah had willed it. Nothing could have been done. One of the oil keepers messed up. And the entire... And I feel sorry for that guy. Can you imagine? For the rest of his life. I mean, it's a very big tragedy for him. But the entire masjid was destroyed. But Allah protected the qabr even though it was charred and burnt around it. But obviously the room was protected Allah protected the qabr And we should have no doubt That Allah will protect the qabr There's a sanctuary there, there's no doubt The whole structure was burnt Collapsed onto the The original structure Now The roof as we said collapsed Onto that structure And they wrote to The khalifa It was now the Abbasids And the khalifa is al-musta'asim billah So they write to him in Baghdad What do we do? Now this is the qabr Nobody has been inside the qabr Since the time of Umar ibn Abdulaziz Right? 500-600 years have gone by 600 years Nobody has gone inside What do we do? Do we destroy the structure Build another one? Do we go on top of it And what do we do? We need the khalifa's advice They send a letter to the khalifa in Baghdad who can tell me what's happening in Baghdad right now? The Mughal invasion, the Mongol invasion, the Tatar invasion, right? You have now Hulaqu Khan surrounding Baghdad. And the next year after this great fire, Baghdad will be no more. Everybody will be killed. Over a million people massacred. One of the biggest massacres before World War I in human history. one of the biggest massacres takes place right now Khalifa is way too busy to worry about what's happening in Medina, he's about to lose his life in a year, he doesn't know that, of course no response comes back, the people don't know what to do, and so they decide you know what, we'll leave it as it is, and just build the masjid around it out of respect to the qabr they didn't touch it including the stuff that fell onto it, just who's gonna get on top so this is the respect they have for the qabr so they just leave it be and they just build a masjid around the qabr now obviously when they get to it they'll have beams that will have the roof but nobody is gonna touch the structure that was built by Umar ibn Abdulaziz the pentagonal structure we should say nobody touches that, nobody goes inside because they just don't so even though things fell inside who's gonna go inside we don't have permission and so they let it be. What happens is that the Mongols rape Baghdad completely. It was the biggest tragedy in my humble opinion politically speaking after the death of the Prophet ﷺ and then the Khilafah of Abu Bakr and what not. The biggest tragedy the Ummah has ever seen is the rape of Baghdad and that is a topic I have always been planning to do that one of these days I'll have one of those seminars I do on the rape of Baghdad which is the turning point. The Ummah is rising, rising, rising, rising it's as if nothing can stop it then Allah sends a race we have never heard of and that race completely halts the Ummah the Ummah completely comes crashing down and Europe begins to rise, rise, rise takes 500 years but eventually Europe is far advanced and then khalas is a matter of time before they get rid of the Ottoman Empire so it's the rape of Baghdad that begins it's the beginning of the end in any case, the Mongols continue going down they continue going towards Egypt until finally when it appears they're going to take over the whole Muslim world who stops them? Where are historians here? Who stops them? Genghis Khan stops them? Genghis Khan stops Genghis Khan. Al-Zahir Baybaras. Yes. Al-Zahir Baybaras stops them. Where does he stop them? What's it called? The battle of? Ayn Jalut. The battle of Ayn Jalut. The battle of Ayn Jalut, right? This is where everything changes. And we discover the Mongols are actually human. MashaAllah, tabarakallah. And that's when the Muslims start regaining. And so, Al-Zahir Baybaras, now that he's in charge, something has to be done. He's the one who finances the rebuilding of the masjid. So for a few years it remains in its charged state. Then there's no money, because it takes a lot of money. There is no government. The Baghdad government has been completely destroyed. So Al-Zahir Baybaras rebuilds the masjid, and he decides for the time being, you know what, this is a structure that is not in good condition, let's just cover it up so he builds for the first time a large square around the house of the Prophet ﷺ sound familiar? sound familiar? that large square is what is still the square that square that he builds in the year 678 is the square that we now see. Now it's not the grill, but the grail, but the foundation. That area is the area that Vahid Baybaras basically put aside. That this is now the square. And he built a dome on top of the grave for the first time. There was no dome ever in the history of Islam until 678 and it was a wooden dome. and that structure remained for 200 years until the second big fire took place and the second big fire took place in the year 886 Hijrah the year 886 Hijrah and this is a very interesting fire that corresponds to 1481 CE by the way 1481 so to put things into perspective Columbus has not yet discovered America the Andalus are still, the Muslims are still in Andalus 10 years are left, right? to put things into perspective. No, the Ottomans are not fully, the Mamluks are mainly in power right now. So in 1481 CE, when the Mu'adhin of Salatul Isha goes up to give his Adhan, and it is a dark and stormy night, and it is raining, lo and behold, a bolt of lightning comes from the skies and strikes the minaret. and the minaret comes crashing down killing the mu'adhin and a fire begins on the roof of the masjid and once again 200 years later the entire masjid is up in flames and it is said all the people of Medina rushed to the masjid because there is no fire department there you're gonna take your buckets of water you're gonna do everybody rushed to help preserve whatever was possible to preserve. And basically the whole masjid had to be rebuilt. And so Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay, these are all somewhat bizarre names because they're not Arab. They're actually Qipchaks. They're a type of Turks, ancient Turks, Ipchak Turks, not even modern Turks. This is like another Circassians, they're a different type. So Sultan Qaitbay was his name. The Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay ordered a complete rebuilding of the masjid. from scratch again. And he said, we're gonna go and clean in the mess from the fire 200 years ago. Can you imagine? That had not been touched. And the greatest scholar alive was chosen. And his name was As-Samhudi, who died 911 AH, 911 AH, As-Samhudi. And As-Samhudi later on wrote many books of history, including a seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, which is one of the most interesting seerahs as well, as he wrote a volume two three volumes about the seerah and so a samhudi was chosen to go inside to the very inner chambers and make sure everything was fine clean up, make sure that you know that the original structure of Umar ibn Abdulaziz could still be maintained and so after five six hundred years of nobody, no sorry more than that 700 years. After nobody entering the qabr. Even though some have said, maybe in the 2nd or 3rd century, somebody had to enter it, because one wall might have collapsed. There is one of these stories as well in the books of history. So maybe somebody had entered in the 2nd, 3rd century, that one of the walls collapsed, they rebuilt it. But for sure, 5 centuries at least. As-Samhudi cleans up the roof, he cleans up everything, he describes the pentagonal structure, he actually goes in from a bottom now obviously they didn't build a door but there was a way to go in I don't know how, he didn't describe how maybe there was one brick or something, I don't know does not describe, so he says from the very back entrance, he entered the sacred chamber the first human in 500 years and the last human for the last 600 years to have entered the sacred and he describes it in such emotional, vivid detail. He's writing in the first person. And this is a very amazing description. That, wallah, I wish I could do all of it, but already look at the time now, subhanAllah. And I have some, let me just, I just translated this today, one paragraph. That as I entered the blessed room from its rear, from the back, and I did not go any further. He did not walk inside. He stopped right there, out of respect. He did not go inside. Like, he's just at the tip of the door. he said I detected a fragrance the likes of which I have never smelt before this is no doubt about do you expect other than there will be an aura a spirituality something I mean how can you possibly deny this and anybody who denies this I actually feel sorry for them well what do you expect this is the qabar of the Prophet ﷺ you don't think that the angels are going to be there you don't think there's going to be barakah there's going to be something says I smelt a fragrance I have never smelled anything like it. And he said, I stood there as long as I could. He's not gonna move out of respect. Giving salams to the best of all prophets. And then to the closest of his two companions. And I made as many duas as I could. And it's very poetic language. I translated it very quickly into English. And he describes the room. I saw that the room was flat now. So no longer can the graves be seen. Right? Now the graves have now kind of gone in, settled, right? Except for one mound in the back that I assumed was the mound of Umar, still was a little bit up. The mound of Umar was still there. And I felt the sand in the ground, picked up a piece. And it was moist, subhanallah. It was moist as if it was fresh. And it was gravel. It was gravel. By the way, it is mentioned in Sahih Bukhari that Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr visited Aisha when she was still living there. And he said, Oh my mother, let me see the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ. So Aisha, this is in Bukhari, lifted the curtain up. Now she would never lift the curtain for a non-mahram. But Al-Qasim is? Is who? It's her? nephew Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr so she lifted the curtain and he said I saw three graves neither were they raised nor were they flat there's not raised nor are they flat just mounds and reddish gravel on them and another we also have in a book of history as well that when Umar ibn Abdul Aziz was rebuilding the graves one of the people there that was building and they chose scholars to take charge of this said that I saw the graves of Abu Bakr, the process of Abu Bakr they were raised four fingers from the ground so it's just a little bit of a mound in all three, that's all there is no stone, nothing just mound raised up by the time of Samhudi which is 890 something, 880 something 886 those qabrs have now become flat and he says that to get to the qabr I had to go down at least three arms length from the other so this also makes sense that the chambers are now settled down things are going down now as we would expect and civilization as you know even archaeologists know this we go higher and higher so in order when he got in he's going down down down a little bit so it appears that the inner chambers are now below the level outside. And it was at this time that the wooden structure that Al-Zahir Baybaras had built was converted into a metallic structure. So the wooden square was converted to a metallic one. And check this out guys, this exact structure built in 886 AH corresponding to 1481 CE is what we see today as the green lattice. That green lattice that all of us see, how old is it? 600 years old. 600 years old. Goes back to 1481. And we're now in 2015. And it was built by Sultan Qaitbay. Qaitbay. That's his name. Sultan Qaitbay of the Mamluks. and he converted the wooden dome on top which was built by Al-Zahir Bay Baras for the first time. He converted it to a proper dome made out of the cement of his time. Not our cement but whatever. They had their better structure. And that dome was modified until we have what we have today. So that dome which we have today was really built by Qaitbay. And the original structure is still there but of course they've made some additions and some lattices have been put on top. But the Sultan Qaitba's structure is what is the dome over there. And initially, by the way, the dome was metallic in color. And they like this because the sun reflected off, it seemed bright. And then they painted it different colors throughout its hundreds and hundreds of years. It was sometimes called the blue dome because it was painted blue. It was also painted white. And then in the reign of Sultan Mahmud around 1253 AH, which is 1837 CE, literally 150 years ago, 160 years ago, it was for the very first time painted green. So the green color only goes back 150 years. It's not that much long ago, right? And of course, since that time, it goes on and on. and one final thing before I show you some slides and then we're done the practice of hanging a curtain around the grave, this goes back to the earliest of times, it was first done in the early Abbasid time not the Umayyads, the Umayyads had the pentagonal structure in the Umayyads if we were alive we would see the pentagonal structure, we would see the what Umar Ibn Abdulaziz had built in the Abbasid time they decided to cover it up with a beautiful sitab, like the Kaaba has, the ghilaf and the first person to do this was the mother of Harun al-Rashid she gifted some beautiful embroidery and silk and what not to cover the walls of the Prophet ﷺ's qabr and then it became a custom and habit and so there's a long history of that until finally in our times those of us who go in our Umrah package you know this we visit the Kiswa factory of Kaaba and the Kiswa factory of the Kaaba also produces the ghalaf of the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ and it is changed once every 10 years. Once every 10 years they change that ghalaf, not every year. And that ghalaf, what does it cover? If we can go to the slide now. If we can go to the slide now. Okay. Okay. Okay, wait. So this is the outer wall of, who built this? Who can tell me? Qaitbay in 886. So this is 886. And obviously we're talking about these. Now these pillars have obviously been built later on. These pillars are supporting the modern masjid. But they retained the original lattice of Qaitbay. Of course it's been painted in its own colors. And this is the door that is used to this day to enter the outer qabr of the Prophet ﷺ. The outer qabr. As for the inner qabr, nobody has ever been there for the last 650 years. Nobody has access to it. There are no doors to get in. There are no keys and nobody should go into it. So there are people that have the keys to this door. And when you go inside, this is what you see. This is a picture from inside the inner chambers. And here is where we give salam from. We on the outside. This is where we give salam from. You look inside, this is what you will see. You will see the ghalaf. That is all you can see. Anybody who sees anything else, it is a figment of your imagination. Okay? This is all you can see. There is no qabr to see. There is no house to see. All you see is... Oh my God, what is going on? F5. All you see is this gilaaf. That's all that you can see. My thing is gone. Okay, you cannot see my pointer. In any case, you see what I'm pointing here. Now, when you enter from here, when you enter from here, this only takes you to the outer chambers basically this outer chamber who gets to go to this outer chamber? the people who change their curtain, very good who else? the cleaners, once every few months cleaners go in, and by the way these cleaners are not just cleaners they are students of knowledge scholars, there are people that are chosen by, there's a committee, I met one of the members of that committee, I had a long conversation with him and got a lot of information from him about this. These are people that are like not just hired workers. These are people that are ulama and people and they go once in a while and they clean the inner chamber. Who else goes inside? Well, this is how the reality works. Politicians and kings. Kings and the guests of the kings. That when the president of a country comes, Muslim country, VVVIPs, not just any dignitary. So they are given access to this hallway in front of you. This is where they go. And if you look at it, they're literally just three feet ahead of us. It's not that much of a difference, right? They are not, nobody will go into this. That's it, that is beyond going into. Okay, so they will just go into this inner, just behind the grill, that's it. And we are giving our salams from behind the grill. Okay, one final slide. This is the most complicated slide. this is the most detailed map that I could find of the inner chambers of the Prophet ﷺ and here we have that's what I tried to do for so long it's not possible here we have the qabr of the Prophet ﷺ Abu Bakr Umar number four is where it is alleged Isa will come either here or there alleged we do not know okay Now, this is the original house of Aisha, either protected by or replaced by the thick black cubes built by Umar ibn Abdulaziz, okay? This as well is the pentagonal structure built by Umar ibn Abdulaziz, okay? And this was what was there for the longest time, as we said, over 500 years. This wall was originally built by Al-Zahir Baybaras This was the wall that was built by Al-Zahir Baybaras The square wall You see the square wall? Right? This large wall was originally built by Al-Zahir Baybaras with wood But then the fire took place When the fire took place Then he built it by Not him but Qait Bay Built it in the metal And so this metal is what we see. And this metal structure is still standing to this day. Now this metal structure includes within it the area for the house of Fatima as well. So Fatima's house is included. And it is said that you still see a mihrab that was built in the time of the Umayyad. This is not the original, of course, Fatima did not have a mihrab. But it is said that the Umayyads built a mihrab. it is still over there Allah knows best I haven't been inside and Allah knows but it said it's still over there this is the house of Fatima it is inside the structure behind this is the raised platform that you see behind this is the raised platform okay that you will find people there inside this is Fatima's place house and then of course ahead of that is the pentagonal structure now what is this around here so when when Qaitbai rebuilt the entire haram, Qaitbay, in the 800s. He built a large wall around the pentagonal structure because the pentagonal structure had been harmed by the fire. So he built a wall to protect it from the fire and to fortify it and to put the curtains on it. So it is said that the curtains basically are hanging from this wall. The curtains are hanging from this wall, which is a wall outside of the pentagonal structure, outside of the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And of course, this is the Rawdah over here. And of course, when we give the salam to the Prophet ﷺ, we the men, we go and give salam from 18, 19 and 20 over here. You see that? This is where we walk by and we give the salams. This is facing the Prophet ﷺ. This is facing Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. this is facing Umar ibn al-Khattab. And there are at least, there's at least 10 feet, if not more, between us and the Prophet ﷺ as we stand here. And those who are inside, there's probably around 6 feet as well. So there's not that much difference. Where do they enter from? So the door that I showed you is this door over here. The door that I showed you is this door over here. Okay? this is the door that people enter from in the back there's a door that people enter from in the back and you can then enter the outer sanctuary and this is the only place you can go nobody has been inside you see if you look as well you see this round structure over here you see these dots this is the outline of the green dome on top this is the outline of the green dome on top that is the outline over there and this used to be a part of the Rawdah, this area, but of course with Qaitbay and Baybaras expanding to include all of this, so there's an area of the Rawdah that is not accessible anymore. And so many things happened over here, and that is why if you go over here and if you took the guided tour that some of our brothers did in Medina, they showed you some of these pillars, these are some of the great pillars of history, that things happened over here. Why is it over here? Because there's a good space between the house of the Prophet ﷺ and these pillars. And because of the fires and because of the expansion, the Rawdah, this used to be the Rawdah in the time of the Umayyads. The Rawdah has now simply been taken up by this space. And so much history also took place over here, but we cannot see it. But what we do see are the pillars that used to exist in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Those same pillars, of course not the exact same pillar, but the place of the pillars, they are called various names. so for example we have the the pillar of wufud, the pillar of the tying up, the tawbah where Abu Lubaba tied himself up, all of this you can find it in, and you find it if you look carefully you will actually see it, the names over there, in any case our time has gone but inshallah I hope that this was unique it was very different, I don't think anybody has explained this as far as I know in this manner so inshallah ta'ala that you have benefited from this and then in fact we will continue our seerah with the election of Abu Bakr and what not next week inshaAllah and then after that we'll continue with the mothers of the believers any quick questions before we conclude because I know this was a unique topic, quick questions, yes I was wondering about the why didn't they do it in the mosque, why did they write the inside and they have to go in small groups nobody would change the position of the body of the Prophet out of respect that's where he passed away that is where he's going to be so the utmost respect is given and because there's no leader so the one who would be leading them would pretend as if he's the one taking charge and nobody is in charge right now and so because of this there was no alternative other than to just have everybody pray individually one by one yes go ahead The green what? Remember when was it made? When was it done? 1830s. It was blue once upon a time before that. Before that it was white. Before that it was metallic. It's gone through five different colors. No, there's no religious significance to the green at all. Yes? so if you go from the backside behind that's not the roda and the left the grail is on the left hand side yes definitely much more history is taking place there but the mihrab of the Prophet ﷺ is the same that has not changed and so all of that area is where all of these incidents we talked about took place yes in the back go ahead the women are typically given maybe three or four rows for the rawdah so you have to go right to the very front of the women's section and you are given some of the rows over there of the rawdah no no this is not the map of the this is the map of the I can't show you here this is not the map of the this is a map of the it doesn't show you the at all I have to give you another map for that okay this is another history story altogether he is a slave who became the Khalifa MashaAllah, Tabarakallah literally he was a slave from the Russian states from Circassia up north and this is another chapter of history and he became the Khalifa of the Muslims Sultan Baybaras and he was the one who built the masjid there was another hand raised same question final question then we're done Bismillah the what? the Prophet ﷺ was not ever disrobed they did not disrobe him Aisha explicitly said yes yes on top of that they put three suhuliyya three suhuliyya garments yeah on top of the clothes inshallah with that we conclude for today we'll see you next Wednesday inshallah ta'ala Bismillah.

Seerah 103 - The 1st Rightful Khalifah of Islam Part 1 - Incident of the Scrolls ~ Dr

Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen. Wassalatu wassalamu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. So we will now continue from where we left off last time. And we were supposed to do the election of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. And the game plan is as follows. That typically speaking, Sira finishes not with the death of the Prophet ﷺ, but with the election of Abu Bakr and the sending of Osama's caravan or the Osama's expedition to Syria. because these things of course are related to, immediately related to the death of the Prophet ﷺ. And so we just to be full and complete, we really do need to go into these issues. And then after that inshallah we will start talking about the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and the family of the Prophet ﷺ. And of course the issue of the death of the Prophet ﷺ and what happens afterwards is extremely controversial between two strands of Islam. And this is where, of course, the Sunni-Shia split begins. And you cannot talk about this issue without mentioning both sides. And that's really what all of this controversy is about. So today, I will be talking about one particular incident. And because of what has occurred elsewhere in this land, we will have to cut short and then talk a little bit about that issue as well towards the end of our talk. So today's lecture is actually going to concentrate on one incident. And that incident took place in the final days of the life of the Prophet ﷺ. And I skipped over it intentionally because I was going to talk about it basically today. And that incident is called the incident of Thursday. or the incident of the scrolls, qirtaas. And qirtaas is like what they would write on, the parchment. So the papyrus or something, they would write on this. And this incident involves a very controversial issue. That issue is about whether the Prophet ﷺ intended to specify someone to be the khalifa after him and in particular whether that person was Ali رضي الله عنه or not. And much as I personally do not like to go back into history and talk about why and what, because in the end of the day what happened, happened. Still, this is an issue that every single Muslim that is involved with the religion at some point in his or her life is exposed to. And every single person at some point in his or her life finds some controversy where a person of the opposing side says, oh this happened, oh that happened, oh this happened, oh that happened. And therefore questions arise and so we have to go back to the very beginning which is where the split occurred between the Sunni and the Shia and then talk about interpretations of specific incidents. Now, I have already mentioned one incident in the final months of the Prophet ﷺ and that is the incident of the well of... the well of... Yeah, but what is it called? That's correct. Ghadir khum, the well of khum. Ghadir khum, the well of khum. So that incident is again a huge difference of interpretation. For the Shia, this incident is considered to be of utmost importance. And for us, we affirm this incident 100%. It is in our books. We have no problems affirming it. But our interpretation is very different. And that is that when you put it into context, the Prophet ﷺ was defending Ali and radiallahu anhu, and he said that whoever irritates Ali irritates me, whoever wants to protect me or whoever is my maulah, then Ali is also his maulah. So it's very clear that he was criticizing those groups or those people that found fault with Ali. And we have no problem in affirming any of this. And from our perspective, that was never intended to be the Khilafah. And what demonstrates this is a number of things, we'll just mention two of them. Number one, for us the most important thing over and over again, is the fact that the very last days of his life ﷺ, he always emphasized Abu Bakr. He always mentioned Abu Bakr. And he insisted that Abu Bakr lead the salah. For us this is a huge issue, in fact it is the decisive issue, that never has the Prophet ﷺ commanded somebody to lead the salah when he is alive and he is in the masjid. And he commands and he says, Allah and his messenger do not allow anyone other than Abu Bakr. And when they could not find Abu Bakr, and even Umar is found, what does he say? He says, no, go and find Abu Bakr and tell him to lead the salah. So Umar has to break his salah. And Abu Bakr is put. For us, these are not trivial matters. This is very significant. You cannot get more significant than this. So in light of all of these, we have to understand this particular incident that we're gonna talk about today. And this incident is also authentic. And it is mentioned in our books of Bukhari and Muslim. Mutafak Ali, completely authentic. And this incident, the hadith occurs in bits and pieces. I'll mention the longer version that Ibn Abbas narrated. Thursday, and what a Thursday it was. Meaning what a bad Thursday it was. when the pain of the Prophet ﷺ increased he said bring me a book and I shall write for you something that will never go astray bring me a qirtas bring me a pen and paper we would say in English bring me a pen and paper and I will write something that you will never go astray and Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a said the Prophet ﷺ is overcome by pain he is clearly suffering and we have the book of Allah and that is sufficient for us حَسْبُونَا كِتَابُ اللَّهِ that we don't need anything other than the book of Allah and some others said it does not mention who is the one who said this in any book of hadith it is not mentioned some others said that the Prophet ﷺ is speaking randomly because of his fever meaning you know when you have a strong fever then you do not speak properly you're just speaking things without understanding what he is saying and we don't know who said this none of the books of hadith mention who said this from the Sunni tradition. The Shia traditions say this was also Umar. But from our books, this is not the case. We do not know who said this. And others said, confirm what he wants, ask him. So they went to ask him. And they differed amongst themselves, the Sahaba, what is to be done. And the lagat or the voices went back and forth. And the Prophet ﷺ then said when he saw this differing, He said, قُومُوا عَنِّي, stand away or stand up from me, for it is not befitting that any ikhtilaf goes on in my presence. You should not be having any ikhtilaf in my presence. And then Ibn Abbas says, later on, maybe the same day, maybe the next day, he advised them three things before he died. Number one, expel the mushrikun from Jazirat al-Araf, from the Arabian Peninsula. Number two, treat the delegations that come to you in the same manner as I used to treat them. Any new delegation comes, treat them the same. And then one of the sub-narrators says, and I forgot what was the third one. I forgot what was the third one. Then Ibn Abbas said, what a calamity. The biggest calamity was what came between the Prophet ﷺ and the writing of that parchment. And this hadith is Bukhari and Muslim. Mutafak alayh. No ikhtilaf. It is authentic. It happened. We all agree it happened. Okay. Many issues to discuss. That will be our topic for today. And next Wednesday we'll come back and continue the election of Abu Bakr. Because this is one of the things that we need to talk about with the election of Abu Bakr. And today we'll talk about this issue, this controversy. And before we get to the actual controversy, there are some tangential benefits that Bukhari radiallahu anhu derived from this hadith. He narrated this hadith in seven different places in his book. Seven different places. And of the benefits that he derives, not related to the controversy, is the importance of writing down knowledge. The fact that the Prophet ﷺ commanded them to write. So this shows we should be writing down. Of them is the importance of treating delegations that come in a positive and a good manner. That when delegations come to learn Islam, to study Islam, we should be hospitable to them. And this was of the last pieces of advice that the Prophet ﷺ gave. Of the benefits we learned from this incident is that it is not good to differ. and especially in front of the Prophet ﷺ it was haram to differ. So he said, it is not befitting that differences occur in front of me. And so the Prophet ﷺ always disliked differences and especially in front of him. And of the etiquettes that are mentioned by Imam al-Bukhari that we derive from this hadith is we should not sit too long when we visit the sick. Because in fact it becomes a nuisance for the sick person. When we visit somebody it should be for a quick period of time, short period. find out how they're doing and then move on. So we should not prolong our stay or else obviously becomes irritating for the person who is sick. Also, as for the third point that the narrator forgot, Ibn Hajar compiles other hadith and he says, it seems to indicate one of two things. Either the third point was to send Usama's army to Sham or that his grave should not become an idol Because both of these things are narrated in other versions that he said towards the end of his life. That the Usama's army should go or that his grave should not become an idol. Now, let's get into the controversy. What is the controversy? The controversy is very simple. According to the non-Sunni groups, the Shia groups, the Prophet ﷺ explicitly intended to write the wasiyah for Ali ibn Abi Talib. that he wanted to say the person in charge should be Ali ibn Abi Talib. Clear? That is the whole controversy. That because of Umar according to them, رضي الله عنه, this didn't happen. And Ibn Abbas is saying, the biggest calamity, the calamity of Thursday, was the fact that the Prophet ﷺ did not get to write down that Ali should have been the Khalifa. Ibn Abbas didn't say that. But this is the interpretation of the groups, that this was the point. Okay, so today we'll talk about this controversy from three perspectives. Number one, the first one, not perspectives, three questions. The first question, how do we understand Umar's stance? Because Umar said, we have enough, the book of Allah is enough for us. And he diverted the command away to not execute the command. Our scholars have interpreted this in many different ways. and I spent a good amount of time today going over like at least 7-8 different classical scholars and we'll go over these opinions very briefly Imam Al-Khattabi one of the early scholars of Islam died 388 Hijrah he said that we cannot understand that Umar's statement was meant to imply that the Prophet ﷺ was making a mistake that's not what Umar meant rather Umar ﷺ saw the pain that the Prophet ﷺ was in that the high fever and he feared that he might say something vague or ambiguous that the munafiqun might take advantage of additionally he said it is well known that the sahaba would at times negotiate directly with the Prophet ﷺ if the circumstances required such as what happened at the camping of Badr such as what happened at the treaty of Hudaybiyah and so Umar assumed this was one of those times you can go back and forth. So this is Al-Khattabi's interpretation. Al-Maziri who died 453 Hijra and also an early commentator of Sahih Muslim, he says that it appears the Prophet ﷺ is giving a command bring me something to write. But he says, whenever somebody gives a command, there's always signs or indications that could be used to interpret that the command is not a command but a request. And it must be assumed that Umar saw something that downgraded the command to a request and therefore he wanted to go back and forth and Umar made an ijtihad based upon his assumptions and he will be rewarded for that. So according to Al-Maziri and Al-Qurtubi, the famous scholar from Cordoba, Al-Qurtubi the one from Cordoba who died 676 Al-Hijrah he also said the same thing that Umar radiallahu anhu must have seen something in the context in the circumstance that he felt that this was not a command Ibn al-Jawzi as well who died 595 and Ibn Hajar they narrated these positions and they agreed with them that Umar ibn al-Khattab out of care and concern he saw something in the pain of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and he felt that now is not the time to get involved in any type of side issue. Let us leave the Prophet ﷺ alone for his pain and suffering. So there's some circumstance that mitigates the command. And Imam al-Nawawi, the famous Imam al-Nawawi, 676 Hijrah, he comments on this hadith, and he says, scholars have unanimously agreed that this incident shows us the understanding of Umar and his excellence and his farsightedness. For he was fearful of something being written down that they could not perform, and might have been punished for. And he took the generalities of the Qur'an, that Allah clearly mentions in the Qur'an, that today I have perfected your religion for you. And that we have not left anything out of the Qur'an. مَا فَرَضْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ And realizing that the religion was completed at that point in time, he wanted to protect the Prophet ﷺ, and ease matters upon him, meaning his pain. and he wanted to protect the Ummah from misguidance. And this is also the position of Imam al-Bayhaqi who died 438, that Umar wanted to make things easy. He saw the suffering of the Prophet ﷺ, the pain, and he simply felt compassion and mercy for him. Now, the point here is that we really, and there's no denying this, that we as Sunni Muslims look at this incident and we are biased. There's no denying this. Just like the other group is also biased. Our bias is what? Our bias is in light of the track record of Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a. In light of the previous 20 years and all that he has done. And the next 13 years that he's also going to live and demonstrate. We have to understand what he has done in a positive light. Even if we don't understand the details, we weren't there. We don't know what Umar saw. But there must be a leap of faith, and knowing Umar's past, and knowing what he will do in the future, and knowing all of the ahadith that praise Umar ibn al-Khattab. Of them is the Prophet ﷺ said, if there were a Nabi, after me there would be Umar. Of them is that if shaitan sees Umar coming down a path, he will run away. of them is that there were people before who were inspired in Ummahs if anybody in the future were to be inspired it would be it would be Umar so many Ahadith about Umar ibn Khattab that are praising him and in light of his credentials and resume we simply have to have a leap of faith and we say whatever was his motivation there must have been a good reason for it even if we don't know the story. Now obviously the other group does not have a positive view of Umar from day one. And so when you don't have a positive view of somebody, and that person does something ambiguous, something semi-vague, and subhanallah this is the reality of the world we live in. If you really and truly love somebody, and they make a little mistake, you'll forgive and overlook, correct? If it is a mistake, I'm just saying, ambiguous. And if you don't like somebody, and you have a long history, they do the same thing, what are you gonna do? you're gonna read in and you're going to have a bad opinion so the fact of the matter is that and I'll be very honest here Umar's actions are ambiguous we really personally I cannot see something that is crystal clear these explanations are good attempts but in the end of the day they're attempts we were not there, these authors who explained it were not there, what did Umar see what was the issue at hand that caused him to not immediately execute the command of the Prophet ﷺ I wasn't there but my opinion of Umar ibn Khattab that we know from the seerah is that he must have had a very very very good reason and he felt that reason was valid and this is no doubt, I'll be honest as you know I'm not an apologist I don't sugar coat, I call a spade a spade this is a point of theology we jump a leap of faith that Umar must have had a good reason and those who don't believe this of Umar they will not do the jump so this is the first question why did Umar do what he did? the majority opinion, pretty much the standard opinion he saw something he felt the status of the process of his pain he wanted compassion for the process he was worried that somebody might mislead or misguide whatever the process might say in this time so for whatever reason he simply just turned it around the second question regardless of what Umar's motivation is What did he actually want to write? What did he want to write? What was this command? So in one version, we learn these three things that he wanted to say. Is this what he wanted to write? Many scholars say yes. And when he couldn't write it, he simply said it. Clear? That was the point, right? So these were the three. However, there's another opinion that a number of early scholars, including Sufyan ibn Uyayna who died 198 Hijrah, including Sufyan ibn Uyayna, that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam actually wanted to write the exact opposite of what the other group says and that is that he wanted to dictate a letter that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq should be the Khalifa after him. Should be the person in charge after him. The exact opposite. Where did we get this from? How could anybody say this? Because there are authentic narrations in Sahih Bukhari and in Sahih Muslim that before he fell this sick, now what day did this take place? this incident of Umar? Thursday, when did he pass away? Monday, okay, so before he fell that sick in the early part of his sickness he said to Aisha that and this hadith is also in Bukhari Muslim but it's not on Thursday, this is at least four days before, this is in the very beginning of his sickness, remember I said in the story that Aisha came in and she said oh I have a headache remember and the Prophet ﷺ said oh but I have the worst headache that day that in that incident the Prophet ﷺ said call for me Abu Bakr your father and your brother who is Aisha's brother Abdur Rahman ibn Abu Bakr so that I may write a letter because I am worried that someone meaning any person may desire or aspire for something meaning leadership and say, I have more rights. But Allah and his messenger will refuse anyone other than Abu Bakr. Now this hadith is also in Bukhari and Muslim by the way, right? But it's not the Thursday incident, is it? This is before that. Maybe it was Tuesday or Monday before. So this is way before by three days, not way before, by a few days. And this hadith is also in Bukhari and Muslim. So one can argue the exact opposite, and this is also the position of Ibn Taymiyyah by the way. Ibn Taymiyyah, he wrote a 10 volume book, Minhaj-e-Sunnat-e-Nabawiyyah, which is a book where he discusses these differences between the two groups, and he goes into 10 volumes of detail, and in this he clearly mentions that this letter, this is his opinion, this letter was a letter in favor of whom? Of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. So this is the position that Ibn Taymiyyah had in his position. And it was also supported by a number of early scholars. And Allah knows best. It seems to be definitely more evidence than the other opinion. But there are two opinions. So the first one was he wanted to write these three things down. Which were already mentioned. Expelling the mushrikun from Jizr al-Arab and what not. and the second opinion he wanted to write Abu Bakr's wasiyah. Obviously from our perspective, we cannot follow the other position, that he wanted to write the wasiyah for Ali, because there is no evidence at all for that from our tradition. Now we get to the final question, and then inshallah we'll conclude for today. And the final question is that, can it be imagined that he wanted to write a wasiyah for Ali ibn Abi Talib, and then that was supposed to be on the paper or on the qirtas? Can it even be logically or rationally or textually assumed? From our perspective, to claim this is to claim that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ failed in his mission. Because regardless of what you want to say about Umar ﷺ, regardless of what you want to say, the undeniable fact that both groups affirm, this incident occurred on Thursday. He passed away on Monday. That is Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then early Monday. Three and a half full days along with Thursday evening. So four full days. And if the matter was of such importance, then how could he have allowed four days to go by without saying anything about it? Regardless of your position. Put Umar's position aside. Let's make that whatever you want it to be. We have a position, they have a position. Okay, khalas. let's put that aside, the next issue then or the question is then, why didn't he do something for four days and who else is visiting him you don't like certain people clearly the people you favor and we also favor are also visiting him, Fatima is visiting him Ali radiallahu anhu is visiting him all of them are visiting him, he does not say anything so clearly then and Ibn Hajar points this out as well that it is not possible that the Prophet ﷺ would have left something so important without commenting on it for four days. And Imam al-Nawawi comments that we have two options here. Either Allah ﷻ told him to write something down, in which case, suppose a number of Sahaba diverted the writing, what should he have done? Was he ever stopped from doing what Allah ﷻ told him to do? Did he ever just give up? No. So if Allah Azza wa Jal commanded him, and it wasn't written down, the only alternative is that, that command was abrogated. Or else you are accusing the Prophet ﷺ of failing his mission. Correct? There is no... Or, it wasn't a command from Allah, but rather it was an ijtihad from himself. and after what happened happened with this incident he changed his mind and said no need to write it down these are the only two options we have either Allah told him and then it was or he felt it should be done and then he changed his mind ok no need to do it in either case if it was something of that importance it would have been impossible not to do so we say This incident, the incident of Al-Qirtas, no doubt it has been interpreted by different people in different ways. From our perspective, we assume that Umar ibn Khattab must have had some reason, firstly. Secondly, we clearly have evidences that what he wanted to write was other than what is claimed that he wanted to write. Either it was these three commands or the exact opposite and that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. And thirdly, regardless of the first two answers, what will we say to the fact that he didn't in the end write what you said he wanted to write? For four days, there's no indication whatsoever. And by the way, this is ignoring the fact that there's so many other evidences for as-Siddiq radiallahu anhu. So many evidences for the last, especially two weeks and then even beyond this, right? even we talked about hajatul wada' as well that the year that the Prophet ﷺ could not go on hajj he actually sent Abu Bakr to perform the hajj and even when Ali r.a was sent Abu Bakr said are you coming as the ameer or ma'moor and Ali said no I am not the ameer very explicit here so in hajj which is what you delegate the person to do and in salah he is delegating Abu Bakr as siddiqu so for us this is another track that clearly demonstrates that as-Siddiq radiallahu anhu was what was intended by our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And with that, we will pause and resume next Thursday, next Wednesday inshallah wa ta'ala.

Seerah 104 - The 1st Rightful Khalifah of Islam Part 2 - Election of Abu Bakr ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. many breaks that were unexpected because of the cold front and what not inshallah we are finally alhamdulillah coming back I think after one month how long has it been? more than a month? one month four weeks break I think so the what? mashallah so it is a four week break now we are coming back after that this is the fifth week to be very pedantic about it so alhamdulillah so four week break as I said alhamdulillah and we are now resuming our session and some people have suggested I should not call this seerah anymore and this is a valid point because of course the seerah is now over. Nonetheless what we're discussing today is related to the death of the Prophet ﷺ and it is of course the election of the Khalifa Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and as every single Muslim is very intimately aware, this is where the theological divide begins between Sunnism and Shi'ism. This is really where it all begins. So today's lecture is not just historical, it is also theological. Today's lecture is not just historical, it is also theological because we believe, and this is the difference between Sunnism and Shi'ism, we believe that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu anhu was the person who was the most suitable to be the Khalifa, and this is a religious matter, and not just a political matter, and of course the other group disagrees with this. So the question arises, and so today we're going to do a little bit about this issue. It's not going to be that detailed because this is not a class of Sunnism versus Shi'ism. And I'm not going to give you the Shi'i evidences and what not, that's a separate class, I have spoken about this in other seminars, not in this historical, but you cannot talk about the election of Abu Bakr without at least giving some indications of the theological differences as well. So the question that arises is, how was Abu Bakr as-Siddiq chosen? What was the methodology of his choosing? There are three opinions, if you like, about this issue within Sunni Islam. The first of them is that the Sahaba amongst themselves decided to choose Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. There's nothing from the Prophet ﷺ whatsoever. And this, some have said this is the majority opinion. Ibn Taymiyyah also seems to, in some writings lean to this opinion. That the sahaba amongst themselves thought and talked and then they chose Abu Bakr. The second opinion, and this is narrated from Al-Hasan al-Basri and others is that the Prophet ﷺ indirectly indicated that Abu Bakr should be the khalifa. Indirectly indicated, not directly. And neither was there nothing, which is the first opinion. And, well, let me be Precise, the first opinion does not say there was nothing. The first opinion says, no doubt the Prophet ﷺ said that Abu Bakr was the best in terms of his fadl, in terms of his status. But the first opinion would say, the Prophet ﷺ did not indicate who should be the political leader after him. All of Sunni Islam agrees that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq is the best Sahabi amongst all of the Sahaba. So the difference comes, how was he chosen to be the Khalifa? some group will say the Sahaba realized he was the best so they chose him to be the Khalifa the second opinion says the Prophet ﷺ subtly indicated that he should be the Khalifa and Hassan al-Basri and others held this position that there's nothing explicit but neither is it neutral rather there's hints, isharat that Abu Bakr should be the Khalifa And the third opinion is what's left now? The Prophet ﷺ clearly said. And this opinion has also been hinted at by some of the early authorities. And it is also the position of the famous Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm. Ibn Hazm said that the Prophet ﷺ explicitly commanded the Sahaba. It's a command, right? And this is an exact contradistinction to the Shia theology, which is that he commanded Ali to be the Khalifa. That's the Shia theology. And Ibn Hazm and others say, no, the exact opposite. He commanded Abu Bakr to be the Khalifa. Right? And this is a minority opinion. Minority opinion and frankly, I did some research today, I could not find another name other than Ibn Hazm. It has been narrated, you find it that some people said, who are these people? I could not find anybody other than Ibn Hazm. Maybe there are other people that are saying, this is a very small minority opinion that the Prophet ﷺ explicitly commanded the Sahaba that for example when I die the Khalifa should be Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. This is not the majority opinion. The majority opinion is between one and two. The majority opinion is between one and two. And frankly, the two opinions are not mutually exclusive, one and two. One and two are not mutually exclusive. Is that clear? In other words, both of them are valid. because the first group what is it saying? the first group is saying that the ahadith about Abu Bakr just mention how great of a person he is and he is the greatest but then isn't that an indication as well that that he should be the leader? so therefore in my opinion really the first and the second opinions are really the same opinion which is that the Prophet ﷺ did not explicitly say Abu Bakr should be the Khalifa. But there were enough indications that the Sahaba therefore understood who should be the Khalifa. So you can kind of combine between the two opinions and make it into one opinion. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. And interestingly enough, as time went by, many ulama and many scholars of tafsir and many theologians attempted to derive Quranic evidences for the Khilafah of Abu Bakr. Believe it or not. They attempted to derive Quranic evidences for the Khilafah of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq رضي الله عنه So much so that the famous Shankiti who is the author of Adwaa al-Bayan he actually derived a little bit of advanced convoluted evidence from الحمد لله رب العالمين From the first verse of the Quran he kept on going, going, going till he basically got to the conclusion that and this verse also indicates the Khilafah of Abu Bakr So I mean, there are all of these things. But there are some verses that are perhaps a little bit, perhaps more indicative than others. Of them, of course, is the verse that talks about Abu Bakr. What is the verse that talks about Abu Bakr? He's the what? Second in the cave, right? ثَانِيَ ثْنَيْنِي إِذْهُمَا فِي الْغَارِ Okay? ثَانِيَ ثْنَيْنِي إِذْهُمَا فِي الْغَارِ So, what is the... How can this be used to derive Abu Bakr should be the Khalifa? So they say, if he is the second of the two, then when the first one is missing, who is left? Abu Bakr. So Allah says he is the second of the two. So logically speaking, when the first is not there, the second must come and stand in his place. So when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala explicitly calls him ثاني اثنين, this indicates therefore that when the number one is not there and is missing, passed away number two will take that place and frankly that's not a bad evidence okay, it's actually somewhat of a good evidence here that when Allah says Abu Bakr is the second of the two therefore when number one is not there number two then gets into the place and in fact, linguistically what does khalifa mean? linguistically khalifa means the one who has been appointed to be in charge of. So, khalafah means to take over when the person leaves. So when somebody leaves, then the khalifah comes. So when Allah said, Abu Bakr is ثاني اثنين, then in fact this makes him kind of the khalifah. Because khalifah means when the one goes, so the number two comes in. Therefore this is one opinion. Sorry, one ayah. Another ayah that is used is Surah At-Tawbah, verse 100. where Allah says, وَالسَّابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنصَارِ وَالَّذِينَ تَبَعُوهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ And those who are as-sabiqoon al-awwaloon, the earliest who raised to convert to Islam, from the muhajirun and the ansar and those who came after them. So in this verse, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is basically indicating that the earliest converts are the best. and they are in order after the Prophet ﷺ. So after the Prophet ﷺ, who do you have? As-sabiqoon al-awwaluna minal muhajireena wal-ansar. The earliest of the batches who raced from, and then even there's a tarteeb, muhajirun then ansar. So who is the first adult convert of the muhajirun? Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala therefore is also indicating according to this interpretation, that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq should be in charge after the Prophet ﷺ. Now these are the two verses that in my opinion have at least, in my opinion it makes some sense. There are at least seven, eight others that are given that frankly I don't find much substance in. It seems more imaginative. Such as, Alhamdulillah bil Alameen. He goes through here and there until he gets this. I don't see this as being direct. But these two I think they have some semblance of authenticity that yes indeed the Qur'an is praising Abu Bakr indirectly or directly in the first verse. وَثَانِيَةْ نَيْنَ And from this you can somewhat extract the theological point that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq is the most qualified. Okay? So the Qur'an does seem to have some indication. As for the Ahadith, there are so many Ahadith about the blessings of Abu Bakr. We can give an entire lecture or two just about those Ahadith. But I just want to mention three or four that indicate that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq clearly has a status that the other Sahaba do not have. Even when it comes to issues of standing instead of or in place of the Prophet ﷺ. I.e. the Khalifa of the Prophet ﷺ. Because again, what does Khalifa mean? Khalifa means you're standing in place of somebody else. So, what are some of these Ahadith? of the most authentic and the most explicit is a hadith in Sahih Bukhari itself. That the Prophet ﷺ is seeing a dream. So he is predicting the future by seeing this dream. And he is saying, while I was sleeping, I saw in a dream that I was standing next to a well. And I pulled from this well as long as Allah will that I pull. So he is now pulling water. Then Abu Bakr came. and he pulled a bucket or two. And in his pulling was some weakness. It wasn't as strong as mine. There was some weakness in it. Then Umar ibn al-Khattab came. And the bucket became a, and the Arabic word is used, which basically means a much larger. So they have different, in English we have bucket. We say small bucket, medium bucket, large bucket. In Arabic obviously when you're drawing water from a well, you have so many different nouns to describe the size of the bucket. And the first word used is dalu. And dalu is basically a small canister. Then the next word is used, umar came and it became basically the much bigger bucket. The much bigger one that is used for watering camels or something. And so it transformed to this one. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I have never seen an abqari like umar. working with the bucket like anybody else. And عبقري, of course, in modern Arabic means genius. But in classical Arabic, it meant something above and beyond what is natural, supernatural, or above normal. So the process I'm called, by the way, for the Arabs here, the process I'm called عمر عبقري. He called عمر عبقري. And عبقري means more than regular. more than what not so the Prophet ﷺ said I never saw anyone like Umar in the dream obviously pulling the water out of the well so much so that the people returned with their camels to the camel pens end of hadith meaning so much water was given not only did the people drink the camels drank and they drank all the way to their full and the camels then went back to go to sleep so this hadith is in Bukhari and the symbolism is obvious it's beautiful, it's profound it's obvious, the process is saying that after I went away after I left, Abu Bakr took over and he continued my job for a year or two because he was only there for a year or two, for a bucket or two, right, for a year or two he continued and there was some jerkiness, it wasn't as smooth why? it's not Abu Bakr's fault, things happen in his Khilafah, that it wasn't as smooth. Because what happened in his Khilafah? Hurub Ar-Ridda. The whole Ummah fractured up. The Ummah was about to collapse and Allah saved it through Abu Bakr. So this is now, it wasn't as smooth. It's not that Abu Bakr is problematic. It's that there are things happening but he manages to continue the flow. No matter what happened, he's still continuing the flow. And this is what we believe that Abu Bakr Siddiq salvaged by the blessings of Allah, he healed the wounded Ummah. And were it not for Allah and then Allah's choosing of Abu Bakr, the Ummah would have splintered up and that's it. Islam would not be what it is today. So Abu Bakr managed to continue and he was needed for Umar to come. Because if Umar had come at that time and he tried to do it that fast, it would have broken. The rope would have broken. Wouldn't have lasted. You needed Abu Bakr to just continue the flow. Once the flow is back to normal, Umar comes in and then he takes the flow and he turns it into a river basically, right? Now hadith doesn't say river by the way, don't misunderstand me, I'm just trying to say the hadith says that the small bucket becomes the massive bucket and everybody and even their camels drink, meaning what? What's the symbolism here? The conquest of the ummah and it is amazing in our 14 centuries of Khilafah, 14 centuries of Islamic history, the conquests of Umar remain unparalleled. I mean honestly think about it. When our technology, our money, our weapon was nothing. Umar ibn Khattab's time. He managed to do what no other Khalifa has ever done. And it is really mind-boggling if you understand history and what not, and you understand the status, the military status of the Arabs versus the military status of the Romans and the Persians to completely decimate the assassinated Persian Empire, wipe it off the map of history the Roman Empire could not harm the Persian Empire for 350 years in fact the Persian Empire usually was stronger than the Roman Empire and yet here comes a bunch of Arabs uneducated, could not read and write, they don't have weapons they don't have military training they don't even have the horses and the regiments that the other troops have they don't have the armor nothing is there and for them to come out of nowhere and completely wipe off the Persians from the face of this earth as if they never existed wallahi to this day historians are scratching their heads like how could we explain this and of course they have their theories but of course we know the real story and that is that he tore the letter up of the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah will tear your kingdom up like you tore my letter up. And that's exactly what happened. Barely 10 years after the Prophet ﷺ said this, khalas, their kingdom was gone on the hands of Umar al-Khattab. And the Roman Empire, around half of it was carved up. The jewel of the Roman Empire, Damascus. For us, Damascus is associated with, of course, the Umayyads and the Muslims. Realize, before Umar conquered it, Damascus was the jewel of the Roman Empire it was on the on the route of the Silk Road the Silk Road pretty much ended in Damascus starting in China all the way to Damascus and then it moved on to the other lands this was one of the most important cities of the Roman civilization and of course, Bilad al-Sham, Jerusalem all of this and it was of course in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab that all of this was conquered and so all of this conquering This is the well becoming that river, and everybody is drinking. The water is so much, the power, the izzah, is just coming everywhere. And the ummah is still benefiting to this day from the conquest of Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala anhu. So, this dream clearly indicates, what does it indicate? That when I leave, Abu Bakr will take charge. When Abu Bakr leaves, Umar will take charge. Okay? Even though the hadith does not mention the khilafah. But it is understood. Other hadith, also in Sahih Bukhari. Also in Sahih Bukhari. A woman came asking for some money, some help, some financial aid. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I don't have anything now, but come back on such and such time, you'll get it. So basically nothing now, but come back and I promise you, you'll have it. So the lady is desperate, she wants the money. she says Ya Rasulullah what if I come back and you're not here meaning what if I don't find you she didn't mean if you're dead she meant what if you're not here what should I do then so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said if you do not find me then go to Abu Bakr of course the context of the hadith is one thing but the wording is much broader. And Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar comments on this hadith, and he said, this is an evidence that the Khilafah was to be given to Abu Bakr after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. If you do not find me, then go to Abu Bakr. Now the context indicates, or the context tells us, this is about money, the woman wants money, what if she can't find the Prophet ﷺ? The Prophet ﷺ said, go find Abu Bakr, he'll give you the money. that's the context but the wording is so broad that the Prophet ﷺ is saying in any case you do not find me there is a person that will do what I want him to do and that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and therefore this is another hadith as well and there is yetan and this is in Bukhari as well and there is yet another hadith as well that the Prophet ﷺ said in Sunan al-Tirmidhi he said اقتدوا بالذين من بعد أبي بكر وعمر follow those who will come after me Abu Bakr and Umar so he mentioned two by name follow those who will come after me Abu Bakr and Umar and this hadith is in Tirmidhi and there's also the famous hadith in Sahih Muslim that Abu Hurairah was sitting with the Prophet ﷺ and in the garden and there was a knock on the door and one version is Bilal one version is Abu Hurairah and the Prophet ﷺ said go see who it is and then whoever it is tell him that Allah gives him glad tidings of Jannah so it does Abu Bakr and then Umar and then Uthman and each one is the same thing and then when it is Uthman the Prophet ﷺ said to tell either Bilal or Abu Hurairah go tell Uthman that he will get Jannah after some problems he'll face in this world some issues he'll face but he'll then get to Jannah so again you have this indication Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman all three one after the other this hadith isn't Sahih Muslim it's another prediction. And this is also when it is narrated that the process was sitting in the well and he was sitting with his feet inside the well. Abu Bakr came Umar came and the well is now full. So Uthman could not find place to sit on the well. He sat behind them. Okay, so once again there's an indication that the time of glory really will be Abu Bakr and Umar's time. Uthman will have some issues which is what happened in his time of the fitna and the beginnings of the fitna in his time. And we also have the hadith in Sunan Abi Dawud, where the Prophet ﷺ after Fajr, he would ask the Sahaba, have any of you seen any dream? So one of the Sahaba said, I saw a dream last night. He said, and this is a dream from a Sahabi, not a dream from the Prophet ﷺ. But the fact that it was said to the Prophet ﷺ in his presence, and he was silent, indicates that this is a dream from Allah. Is that clear? Because a part of the Hadith and a part of the Sunnah is, whatever is said to the process and were done in his presence, it automatically becomes a hadith as long as he's quiet about it. So the sahabi said that I saw a dream that a mizan, the scales, came down from the heavens. And you, ya Rasulullah, were weighed against Abu Bakr. And you were heavier than Abu Bakr. Then Abu Bakr was weighed against Umar. And Abu Bakr was heavier than Umar. then Umar was weighed against Uthman and Umar was heavier than Uthman then the Mizan was lifted up now this hadith once again indicates specific Tarteeb specific order, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and that is exactly what happened so this is also a prediction and all of these are indirect indications and of course for Ahl al-Sunnah wa Jama'ah for Sunni Islam the strongest indication that Abu Bakr should be the Khalifa is in fact what? The salah that the Prophet ﷺ commanded him to lead when he was sick for how many days? Remind me. How many days? Three days and nights when the Prophet ﷺ was alive on his deathbed Abu Bakr as-Siddiq was commanded to lead the salah and so much so that when Umar the first time came, the Prophet ﷺ on his deathbed, sweating, feverish, barely conscious, in and out of consciousness, he became irritated with Aisha and others and he said, stop him and get Abu Bakr. For Allah and his messenger will not allow anybody other than Abu Bakr. This is a very strict, this is not just who's gonna be the Imam. Because had that been the case, what's wrong with anybody leading? But there's an indication wanting to be given. I want to demonstrate for you something. And that is, who is gonna be in charge after me? And the hadith is very explicit, فَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ إِلَّا أَبَا بَكَرُ Allah and His Messenger refused to have anybody stand there other than Abu Bakr. So Umar ibn Khattab, as we know, he had to break the salah. Because the Prophet ﷺ commanded it. And Abu Bakr has to be called. And then Abu Bakr leads the salah for three days and nights. And as well, in the last khutbah that he gave, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, sitting on the mimbar, what did he say? Close all of the doors of the masjid other than the door of Abu Bakr. The khawqah is the narrow alleyways that would come in, as I told you many times, and I showed you the diagram on the TV screen, that the masjid and the houses were connected with a small alleyway and whatnot. And those sahaba that had built their houses around the masjid, there's direct access to the masjid and at the death of the Prophet ﷺ he commanded that's it no more direct access you enter with the common door those of you whose houses are next enter in the common door except one man gets the blessing to enter from his house straight to the masjid and that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and this is the last khutbah that he gave on the minbar sitting down he couldn't stand up and in that khutbah he said that a person has been given the choice between this world and the next, right? That's the khutbah there. In that khutbah, he mentions, close all doors other than the door of Abu Bakr. So, we have so many evidences that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu anhu was the one whom the Prophet ﷺ wanted to. Now the question arises, why didn't then the Prophet ﷺ simply say, when I die, Abu Bakr should be the khalifa. And to this there are many responses. The strongest one, and Allah knows best, is he sallallahu alayhi wasallam did not want to open the precedent or the door that every khalifa must decide the next khalifa he didn't want to have this as the political philosophy it's open if the khalifa wants to decide it is allowed but if the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam had done it would have become wajib and that is why if you look at the four khalifa each one of them did something different. Abu Bakr specified the next person is going to be Umar. But Abu Bakr doing it doesn't make it wajib. Umar specified a group. These are six people. Choose amongst them. Correct? Uthman radiallahu anhu, nothing happened. He didn't specify anybody. There was a bit of a chaos. The people then chose Ali radiallahu anhu. Right? So each one of them did something different. and the sharia allows for all of this and the one that is the least encouraged is to specify your son this is not encouraged at all it does not invalidate the caliphate as some extreme people say if that were the case then we would never have had a caliphate since the time of the Abbases which means we only had a caliphate for 30 years nobody with sense on his mind says that but it is not ideal and it is definitely not the best and Muawiyah radiallahu anhu for a maslaha that he saw, for an ishtihad that he saw, he thought it was best to nominate his son. And so the last of the sahaba who was the khalifa, and that's Muawiyah, opened this door. And Muawiyah's blessing is not like the blessing of Abu Bakr. And his ishtihad is not like the ishtihad of Abu Bakr. Yes, it is halal. Yes, it is ja'iz. But it is definitely not the best to do. And so Allah allowed the last of the sahaba who was the khalifa to open this door. to indicate that it's not invalid if there's a dynasty. And the majority of the ummah has been upon a dynasty. But the ideal, which is Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, each one was done in a different manner. But the Prophet ﷺ did not want to open this door. He wanted to leave it open. And therefore, he indicated without specifying. Right? Without being too verbal. This is the wisdom that most of our scholars say. In any case, returning back to our story after this long introduction what exactly happened on that day so remind me again when did the Prophet ﷺ pass away? Monday morning, very good date? last? 12th 12th ربيع الأول إثناء عشر ربيع الأول 12th ربيع الأول so he passed away on a Monday early morning after Fajr prayer, early morning on the 12th of Rabi' al-Awwal. And that I do not know actually. I'll have to look that up. I do not know. I will have to look up other sources. So on the morning of the 12th, within a few hours, the same day on Monday, the Ansar began to gather at their usual gathering place. What was their usual gathering place? Their usual gathering place was a type of shack, a type of, if you like, a shed. And that in Arabic is called Saqifah. Saqifah is a covering or a shed. Something that's just covering up. And this shed or this Saqifah was in a garden. And the garden belonged to the most famous of the Khazraj tribes, which is the Banu Sa'adah, which is what Sa'adah ibn Ubadah belonged to. and this was the usual gathering place from the days of Jahiliyyah from before Islam they had a gathering place you know it was the culture of the Arabs that there is a gathering place so within a few hours of the death of the Prophet ﷺ everybody is coming and the Ansar began to gather and of course the conversation gets to what's going to happen now it is very important to note the Ansar did not send an announcement come let us discuss the Khilafah no rather it's human nature that at times of a joint calamity right, you want to go and meet at times of individual calamity you go and meet the person, somebody's relative dies you go and meet that person you go to the family in a joint calamity, something of this nature you want to find out what's happening, you go and talk so it's human nature and especially in that culture that when anything major happened the man would go to these types of these types of gatherings So the Ansar all began to trickle in To the Saqifah of Banu Sa'ada And of course Banu Sa'ada's Saqifah is well known in Medina I have shown it to you all the time we have gone for Umrah It is on the back of the Masjid of Nabawi If you're facing the Qibla On the back right hand side there is still an actual garden Right? The north western side It is still an actual garden And that garden is the Saqifah of Banu Sa'ada It is still there to this day and you can see it clearly when we stay in the groups that we go with and you need to go in our group inshallah this year when we go in our groups we always stay in the hotel right behind the Saqifah all of the blocks of hotels right it is on the back side and the right most hotel when you exit you will find the garden in front of you that is the Saqifah of Banu Sa'ada so the Ansar began to gather now again I want to point out there is no maliciousness that let us talk about the Khilafah But what is going to happen when all of the men are gathered and the procession has passed away, eventually the conversation gets to what's gonna happen now? Who's gonna take charge? Because everybody understands you need a leader, you cannot live without a leader, you need somebody in charge. And so eventually this conversation ensues. And the main person that they looked up to and whose name continually came up was their senior most figure at the time. And that is Sa'ad ibn Ubada. Sa'ad ibn Ubada was the senior most leader of the Khazraj. And of course the Khazraj and the Aus, the two of the Ansari tribes. The Khazraj were the larger of the two. remember, I had said this I think 2-3 years ago, so I'm sure all of you remember everything I ever said, so no problem inshallah so the Khazraj was the larger of the two tribes, okay and which was the richer of the two the Aus was the richer of the two but the Khazraj was the larger of the two so quantity counts here and so amongst the Khazraj, another blessing the Khazraj had was that the Khazraj were the ones who first embraced Islam and then the Aus embraced Islam so the first the first group who converted when the Prophet ﷺ gave da'wah the first group remember the Prophet ﷺ passed them by and he said which tribe are you? they said the Khazraj there was no oaths in the first converts from Medina so because of this the quantity and the earliness so the Khazraj have an upgrade status therefore the Khazraj began talking amongst themselves and Sa'ad ibn Ubada his name was basically understood that he is our leader. If anybody is going to be a leader from the Ansar is going to be Sa'ad ibn Ubadah. Now, pause here. Who is Sa'ad ibn Ubadah? We need to understand before we move on. Firstly, remember that there are two famous Sa'ads of the Ansar. Two famous Sa'ads of the Ansar. Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh and Sa'ad ibn Ubadah. And of the two, Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh is much higher in darajah than Sa'ad ibn Ubadah. and that both of them are blessed. But of the two, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh is much higher. Not only did he convert first, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, he was the one who spoke at the battle of Badr, which was one of the greatest blessings of any Ansari. Who was the Ansari who upgraded the pledge from mere protection to offensive fighting. That is Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh, the other Sa'ad, not our Sa'ad. Are you guys remembering what happened at Badr? You all remember what happened at Badr, right? When the Prophet ﷺ said, what do you guys think? And Abu Bakr stood up, Umar stood up, everybody stood up. He kept on saying, what do you guys think? What do you guys think? Until finally Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh, not Ubadah, stood up and said, perhaps you're wanting to know our answer. That's why you keep on asking, Ya Rasulullah, he said yes that is it so then he gave that beautiful eloquent speech which concluded in go charge in the water Ya Rasulullah we will charge behind you and we will not say to you like the Bani Israel said to Musa go and fight you and your Lord, no we will say go and fight you and your Lord and we are right behind you fighting along with you, that is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and when did he die? after the battle of the Khandaq and when he passed away the Prophet ﷺ said the throne of Allah shook at the death of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh the Prophet ﷺ said 70,000 angels came to take the soul of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and the Prophet ﷺ himself prayed janazah for Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and expressed a lot of dismay and regret at his death that is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and he is of course no longer alive he's gone in the seerah Sa'd ibn Ubadah was the second of the two Sa'ads. And this is the one we are talking about now. And Sa'ad ibn Ubadah also has a long list of resume of great things. But not like Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh. Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh is as we said much higher. Sa'ad ibn Ubadah he was of those who participated in the second treaty of Aqaba. Not the first by the way, the second. The second treaty of Aqaba. The second treaty which had 72. Right? And he was one of those who was chosen to represent his sub-tribe. So he's one of the 12 Nuqaba who are the chosen. So Sa'd ibn Ubadah is therefore one of the elite of Aqaba. And he participated in every single battle from Badr. And so he's a Badri. So automatically when you're a Badri, you get a huge upgrade. So Sa'd ibn Ubadah is from the Badr. He was also of the wealthier of the Ansar because of his father and grandfather. They were somewhat chieftain statuses. And so he has inherited money and inherited generosity as well. Both his father and grandfather in the days of Jahiliyyah were known for their hospitality and he inherited this from them. It is said that he would regularly feed most of the people of the Suffah. Ibn Hajar mentions that on days when somebody would take one or two or three, Sa'd ibn Ubada would take 80 of the people of the Suffah to his house to feed them. So Sa'd ibn Ubada was of those who had huge heart, very generous person, always feeding the poor. and many are the things narrated about him in the famous hadith when the Prophet ﷺ came to the house of Sa'd ibn Ubada so this shows you his status that the Prophet ﷺ for some reason he wants to speak about the Khazr or something he goes to the house of Sa'd ibn Ubada and from outside of the house he said As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh that's what you do there is no ringer, there is no bell how do you say As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh so Sa'd is so happy to hear the dua he whispers back wa alaykumussalam very whispering right and the Prophet ﷺ is outside he doesn't hear so he raises his voice for the second time and he says it and Sa'ad whispers back then the Prophet ﷺ raises his voice for the third time and Sa'ad whispers back what are you supposed to do after the third time leave so the Prophet ﷺ left when Sa'ad heard the footsteps he goes running outside he says Ya Rasulullah I heard you the first and second and third time and I responded to you but I wanted to hear your du'as over and over again so assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh when the Prophet ﷺ is saying assalamu alaikum you want more so Sa'ad wanted to hear the salams so he keeps on saying I responded Ya Rasulullah but not that loud so that you know you can keep on giving it to me he didn't say it like that but you get the point he said Ya Rasulullah I heard you outside I responded but you know come in so this is Sa'ad ibn Ubadah And also, we also have in a number of hadith that Ibn Abbas for example mentions, that whenever the Prophet ﷺ gave the flag in any army, he would always choose Sa'd ibn Ubada to carry the flags for the Ansar. And therefore, even in the conquest of Mecca, Sa'd ibn Ubada was the one carrying the flag for the Ansar. so he himself was representing the Ansar in front of the Prophet so the flag of the Ansar was given to him by the hands of the Prophet also we have other hadith where the Prophet specifically mentioned by name may Allah bless the Ansar and especially may Allah bless Sa'd ibn Ubadah from the Ansar so Sa'd ibn Ubadah definitely he has a long resume of blessings and what not and therefore it's understood that even the Ansar recognize who is Sa'd ibn Ubadah so going back to our story therefore when the news spreads that people are gathering together somebody comes and Abu Bakr and Umar are still in the masjid this is now we don't know the exact timing we're assuming this is now before Dhuhr time because the procession passes away early morning maybe 7 o'clock 8 o'clock very early morning we don't know exactly when but in a few hours the news spreads Abu Bakr and Umar are in the main masjid and somebody comes and tells them that, do you know that the Ansar are gathering together and they are talking about the conversation has now gone to basically who is going to take charge. So Umar said let us go to our brethren from the Ansar and discuss this matter with them. Let us go and discuss this matter with them. And of course Abu Bakr agreed. Now here is where we don't have any eyewitness report other than one. and that is from Umar himself and therefore there are many other details that nobody will ever tell us we don't know what the details are we only have one eyewitness who told us what happened and that is Umar Ibn Khattab himself it is not at all unlikely that Abu Bakr went and chose a number of people to accompany him we don't know this all we know is a group of the Muhajirun but who, how did they come about? how did that particular group come? I would theorize and Allah knows best that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq chose the right group to go with him because it's not a coincidence in my humble opinion that Umar ibn Khattab and Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn Jarrah just happened to be sitting and three of the Asharah Mubashara are right there in that gathering rather Abu Bakr must have chosen the delegation and the senior most members are of course Umar ibn al-Khattab himself and Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn al-Jarrah now as for the issue of Ali and Zubair ibn Awam and others from our perspective, Sunni perspective the Prophet ﷺ has just passed away and clearly somebody has to take charge of the inner household matters and of consoling the family and of ghusl and there is no doubt that Ali radiallahu anhu is the person who is the most closest to the Prophet ﷺ in terms of blood and lineage from the men's side and there is nothing about that that we have to be at all awkward and embarrassed about of course he is going to take charge of taking care of the inner matters of the household of the Prophet ﷺ of the ghusl of, and so Abbas and Ali, the uncle and the cousin and the son-in-law, these are the two who took charge of the inner matters, and that's understood. And as Zubayr ibn Awam as well, is of the cousins of the Sahaba, so this is understood. Also from our perspective, and just a little bit, and again this is a very deep thing, and I don't personally see the point in going into a lot of detail. These controversies between the Sunnah and the Shia have existed for 13 and a half centuries. and nothing I will say today will add or decrease these facts. And if anybody wants to study them, believe me, hundreds of books in every language imaginable has been written. The evidences for the Sunni, the evidences for the Shia, back and forth, each and everything, on and on and on. And we can't reinvent the wheel, this is all there. And I don't see much benefit in continually talking about this. But we as Sunni should know our history, just like they know their history, we should also know our history. from our perspective, Ali radiallahu anhu is now barely 30 years old. In his early 30s. And Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman even are almost double his age. And it really does not make sense to take somebody with some experience at the expense of somebody who has 3-4 decades of experience. in other words from our perspective Ali radiyallahu anhu became the khalifa when he deserved to be the khalifa when he came to the right age and the maturity and what not and that's when he became the khalifa at this stage and age it was not even on their radar that somebody so young and remember Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and others they have known Ali since he was a child and a baby and it is human nature that when somebody is that young and you've grown up with him they're not gonna be on the radar at this stage not only that there has been the tragedy of the death of the Prophet ﷺ and they're busy so it's not as if there's an intentional conspiracy from our perspective it is ludicrous to assume there's a conspiracy there is no conspiracy Ali ﷺ became the Khalifa when he deserved to be the Khalifa and that was when he came to that right age of maturity when Abu Bakr and Umar Uthman have moved on and then it was his turn and we admire and respect every blessing about him In any case, back to our story, I said it is not unrealistic to theorize that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq went and chose the right people for the delegation. Who is going to go and talk about this issue? And on the way to the Saqifah, they met two of the Ansar. And when these Ansaris found out where they were going, they expressed some worriness and they said, maybe you shouldn't go, it's best not to go. They're worried maybe there's going to be a shouting match. There is no worry of physical violence because that's not happened in the time of the Sahaba. But Umar said, no, inshallah we will go and there will be benefit in our going. So Umar continued on. And remember this is the only narration we have is from Umar himself. Umar is the only one who narrated the first person. He's there, he witnesses it. Unfortunately we don't have any other narrations or else we could have had a lot more details. And Umar narrated, I began his narration directly. He said, when we got there, we found the Ansar had gathered in the Saqifah. and between them was a man wrapped up in a shawl. We said, who is this? They said, this is Sa'd ibn Ubada. He is sick with fever. So it just so happened that he was sick. So therefore, he's wrapped up and shivering and whatnot. So he had a fever. It was just a Qadar Allah. It was at the time he had a fever. So after we had arrived, the delegation has arrived. You know, the trivial formalities are done. Then one of the Ansar stood up. And he said after praising Allah, as to what follows, so we are the Ansarullah, the helpers of Allah. And we are the vanguard of Islam, we are the ones who defended Islam. And you O group of Muhajirun are a group amongst us. And you came to us one by one, bit by bit and joined us. meaning in a very polite manner very nice manner there's no in back and forth there's no derogatory terms but each group feels at this time more qualified so the Ansar are saying in terms of sheer quantity you guys are minuscule the Ansar are probably probably two three thousand these are like the elite senior as for beyond them much more than this and the Muhajirun are probably two three hundred because again I mean who's gonna we're talking about the muhajirun from pre-conquest obviously right after conquest what not there is no so pre-conquest those who are like the senior of the Quraish probably one tenth of the ansar so the ansar from their perspective from their perspective they're saying I mean we are so large you guys came one after the other because how did the muhajirun come one two three and then slowly you guys came so it's pretty obvious that because we're so many we should be the leader and you are just one qawm from amongst us. You're like one mini tribe from amongst all of us. So they're looking at it from their perspective. And there's an element of truth from their perspective. So when he's speaking like this, Umar says so as he was speaking I thought to myself, what would I say? I'm thinking to myself what are my points I'm gonna say? And when he fell silent, I was happy that I have all of my points listed. Khalasi has his speech ready now. Okay? And I was gonna say something and I knew it would be a little bit harsh. And I knew Abu Bakr would find my statements a little bit harsh. When I was about to stand up, Abu Bakr pulled me down. And he said, stay put, O Umar. Stay put, O Umar. So Umar says, so I was scared to make him angry so this is Umar the only person that Umar is not wanting to make angry said I listened to him because I didn't want to make Abu Bakr angry then Abu Bakr stood up and he praised Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and gave a lecture and Umar is saying by Allah he was wiser and more gentle than I would have been and there was not a single point that I had in my mind except that Abu Bakr said it or better than it notice here Umar's humility Umar is narrating this in his own Khilafah by the way when Abu Bakr has passed away Umar is telling us this story it's a longer event which I don't have time to tell you but basically very quickly rumors began to spread in the time of Umar that Abu Bakr's khilafah was simply a coincidence, it just happened, that it wasn't thought out. And that if we had thought it out, somebody else should have been the khalifa other than him. When Umar heard this, he became angry. He became incensed. And he called the meeting of all of the sahaba. And then he told the story. So this story is what I'm narrating to you. Okay? So this is the first person. Now he's telling them. so he's praising Abu Bakr in this manner that no matter what I had in my mind Abu Bakr had something better than me and he said every point that I had and he said every hadith that we had heard about the praise of the Ansar and of what he said was that the Prophet said, sorry Abu Bakr is saying that and I know for a fact that the Prophet said if all of mankind took one path and the Ansar took the other path I would follow the path of the Ansar. So he is going on and on about the blessings of the Ansar. Look at the wisdom of Abu Bakr. You don't begin the speech by putting somebody down. You want to impress somebody, you want to change their mind? Well then, you show them, you respect them for who they are. This is the wisdom of Abu Bakr. And perhaps if Umar had done it, he would not have done all of this. He himself said, that I had some harshness, and I knew Abu Bakr would find my speech harsh. I knew that would happen, but he never spoke. Because Allah willed him not to speak. So Abu Bakr begins by praising the Ansar. Every hadith he can think of about praising the Ansar. Then he moves on. And he says, and O Sa'd. So he points direct to Sa'd. I know that you were sitting right in front of the Prophet ﷺ when he himself said, it is the Quraish who shall lead this matter of ours. The righteous amongst them shall lead the righteous of mankind and the impious shall lead the impious of mankind. So he quoted a hadith that the Prophet shall be from the Quraish. And he pointed to Sa'd who is the one contender. The one person that people might. and he says, oh Saad you remember that day when he said the hadith you were right there, I was there and this is so beautiful because by pointing to Saad and then quoting a hadith and then saying we were both there that day, how then can anybody go against this hadith so he mentions a hadith that kind of solves the matter, it can't be from the Ansar, then he gives so after hadith he then brings logic and he says and you know O Ansar that the Arabs will not follow anybody other than the Quraysh meaning their Jahiliyyah is still there in that regard and you O Ansar you're not going to be accepted by the rest of the Arabs whereas the Qurayshi they will accept him because they are the best of the Arabs in lineage and in house meaning in lineage meaning in terms of Sharaf they are the most honorable in the days of Jahiliyyah. And in terms of house, meaning Mecca. They have the most noblest of houses, meaning Mecca. And therefore, the leaders should be from the Quraysh. At this, Sa'ad said, Sadaqta, you have spoken the truth. You are the leaders and we are the helpers. Antumul umara wa nahnul wuzara. So Sa'ad, and this shows his Iman by the way. This shows his Iman, that when the evidence is presented, Khadas, you're right, I can't. How can you argue with the hadith? So you are the leaders, we are the helpers. Sadaqta, you are the umara, you are the wuzara. Then Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu held on to the hands of Umar and Abu Ubaidah. And here is my point here, and that is that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq clearly was planning this out to nominate these two. It's not just a coincidence that it so happened that these two people are sitting next to him. no, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq wanted these two people to be next to him and he brought them with him to the Saqifah Abu Bakr in his modesty did not want to be the Khalifah he did not want to nominate himself that's not the appropriate way but he has in mind the next two best people and of the next two best people and that's of the 10 who have been promised Jannah so he picks up the hand of Umar and he picks up the hand of Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn Jarrah and he said, I have nominated these two. Whichever of these two you like, choose him. And this is also hikmah. Because when you give somebody an option, it makes it easier for him to choose, even though before you gave him the option, he wouldn't have chosen either of them. In other words, the Ansar, they weren't thinking of the Quraysh, they were thinking of themselves. And Abu Bakr did not say, oh, here's Umar, give him because then they would feel they have to rather he opens up the door, he says you guys choose between these two matters okay and this is again, I mean, wallahi we find here wisdom of a leader we find here true psychology of leadership that Allah blessed him with to understand how to control an ummah, that without any tension nothing is actually you know, there's no battle day there's no swords being drawn, but still humans are humans and the sahaba are the sahaba and power is power and we say and there is no harm in saying this yes indeed some of them might have desired this for halal reasons you think you will do good for the ummah this is no doubt about it but who is the one who really should be chosen in this case it is the one whom Allah azza wa jal desired and that is Abu Bakr and so when he said this Umar ibn al-Khattab is narrating the story and he said that I swear by Allah this was the only paragraph of Abu Bakr's speech that I hated that he nominated me and Abu Ubaidah and he said it would be more beloved to me to be executed as long as there was no sin involved that I had done than to lead a group or be a khalifa of a group in which Abu Bakr was present in other words I'd rather die than be in charge of Abu Bakr I'm not qualified to do that. This is Umar speaking in his Khilafah to a group of people who said maybe Abu Bakr wasn't the best, maybe somebody else should have been the Khalifa. Umar is saying, I would rather have my head chopped off than be the Khalifa over Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. This is Umar saying this in his own Khilafah. So when Abu Bakr said this statement that choose one of these two, one of the Ansar then said, I have a solution I will give you another solution why don't we have two Amirs one from us and one from you minna amir wa minkum amir okay, so we're both going to be happy but of course you can't have two drivers and two captains on a ship and so when he suggested this a lot of lagat or raising of the voices, you know what happens when you're in a gathering obviously what happens somebody says this somebody says that and so it's all chaos and confusion and at this Umar said so I raised my voice when everybody's voice is being raised Umar has the loudest voice and the deepest voice and he says oh Abu Bakr stretch forth your hand and Abu Bakr put his hand forward and Umar then said we shall give the bay'ah to you and so Umar was the first person to nominate Abu Bakr and then give the bay'ah to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and then the muhajirun and the ansar followed. And therefore, this was how the matter was done. And there are, and I have to be again, part of my job in this series of lectures is to also tell you that which you might not have heard or that which might not be the rosy side of the picture. And I do this because you are aware. And there are plenty of narrations in various books that Sa'ad ibn Ubadah was not satisfied with this matter. According to some reports, he said that you guys have forced me to do this. And the response was given to him, it is better that you are forced to remain with the Jama'ah, than we let you go and you cause firqah. And if this report is authentic, there is nothing wrong with that. Because it is not haram to have these types of feelings and emotions, to desire certain things that are not haram to desire. You can desire fame and money for halal reasons. And if Sa'ad ibn Ubadah wanted to be the khalifa, he wanted it for good reasons. So there's nothing wrong with this. He thought he would do a good and better job. That is his prerogative. Now this is one report. Others, they say all of these reports are baseless. And they're just fabrications. So that is also an opinion out there. Then there are clear cut fabrications. We typically find them in pro-Shia sources. Okay. So there are historians that are Shia in nature or are quoting Shia narrators. Such as Al-Baladhuri. Such as the narrator Abu Mikhnaf Lut ibn Yahya. This narrator is the one who by the way when we talked about Karbala. the first shi'i author to ever write about Karbala was Abu Mikhnaf Lut bin Yahya and he wrote a book about Maqt al-Husayn and that book is the basis of all of the shi'i narratives about what happened in Karbala so this same guy, Abu Mikhnaf Lut bin Yahya whom we as Sunnis do not trust at all, I mean for us he is a kazab, he is nothing he is just nothing to do with history for us he is just a person who fabricates from his perspective But he has a narration which is a clear cut fabrication. We don't accept it at all. I'm only telling it to you so you know if you hear it, where does it come from? According to him, Sa'ad ibn Ubada refused to pray in the Jama'ah. Pray behind Abu Bakr. Refused to go for Hajj. Refused to participate in anything. And this is clear cut fabrication. In our Sunni sources, we find minor disapproval. for example he says you guys force me and then the response is to force you to join is better than letting you go it's within the acceptable parameters and some have said even this is not there and there are other references and this is from our own Sunni tradition so I'm just telling it to you so you know there are also references that when Abu Bakr passed away then Umar became the Khalifa so again Sa'ad felt that maybe it was more deserving and so eventually he decided to leave Medina. Rather than cause a fitna or what not, he just decided to go and live a separate life. And this is one interpretation. The other interpretation is he went for jihad and he died outside of Medina because of jihad. In any case, the point is that Sa'ad ibn Ubadah does not really have much of a mention after this incident. He does pass away in the conquered Sham area. He goes and he dies in Sham. And there are also by the way legends of Sa'ad ibn Ubadah which is one of the most bizarre legends of our traditions. And these are legends. These are not a hadith. These are not authentic narrations. These are simply found in the books that the jinn killed Sa'd ibn Ubadah. Okay, this is a famous thing that who amongst the sahaba was killed by the jinn? And this is a quiz question asked many times. And the response is Sa'd ibn Ubadah. Because he was discovered in his house basically with an arrow and they say a voice was heard. that the jinn were boasting that we have killed Sa'd ibn Ubadah. This is one of those bizarre things. As we said, it's a legend. And I don't see the need to... If it happened, it happened. If it didn't happen, it didn't happen. Our religion is not based upon this. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. In any case, Sa'd ibn Ubadah passed away within 2-3 years in the 14th year of the Hijrah. Or some say the early part of the 15th year of the Hijrah. Sa'd ibn Ubadah passes away. Also before we move on very quickly, inshallah we'll finish in around 5 minutes. before we move on as well I mentioned that Abu Bakr quoted a hadith that the Khalifa will be from the Quraysh this command from the Prophet is in fact mutawatir i.e. dozens of a hadith reported and we find reports in Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, every single book of hadith, so much so Ibn Hajar says I found over 40 narrations of different wordings all of which mention الْأَمَّةُ مِنْ قُرَيْشِ or الناس تبعا لقريش في هذا الأمر basically so many hadith that mention the leaders of my ummah must be from the Quraish now this hadith and these commands always raise a lot of eyebrows in many Muslims and they say why and the response to this is well frankly maybe we can't answer why, the Prophet ﷺ said it, end of story that's really the best way to say that, okay, khalas the Prophet ﷺ said it and some scholars have given reasons why, but in any case the sheer quantity of a hadith in this regard, one cannot negate them, and therefore Sunni and Shia Islam one of the things we actually agree about is that al-aimatu min quraish, except that the Shia say not just any Qurashi only Al-Albayt but the Sunnis say any Quraishi any Quraishi the only people who opposed this were the Khawarij and the Mu'tazila as for Ahl al-Sunnah and even the Shia they said the leaders have to be from the tribe of Quraish as for the Shia they said not only from Quraish but only from Al-Albayt so from our perspective and this is something all of those who wrote in Islamic political science like Al-Mawardi and like others of the classical tradition Al-Baqillani who has a little section about political sciences in his Aqidah book. So all of these great authors, they all mentioned, Ibn Hajar, they all mentioned that our leaders should be from the Quraysh. And of course for the bulk of our Ummah, that has been the case. The Umayyads are Qurashi, the Abbasids are Qurashi. It was only in the time of the Ottomans where this was taken away. And there's another question, what if he's not from the Quraysh? Does that negate his caliphate? or does it simply mean his caliphate is missing something but it doesn't negate it the majority of people said it doesn't negate his caliphate so the Ottoman caliphate is valid but it's better to have that if you had the option to choose then you should choose the person who has this noble lineage in any case frankly there's no explanation other than the process and commanded it and so be it and then we conclude with what happened on the next day and that is on the Tuesday on the 13th so on the Monday within hours of the death of the Prophet ﷺ Abu Bakr has now been decided amongst the senior muhajirun and amongst the senior ansar he has been decided and this shows us the severity of the matter that barely a few hours after the death of the Prophet ﷺ the sahaba have decided who shall be their leader and now the news spreads and the people are told, come and show up on Tuesday to give your bay'ah to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. So, after the morning prayer on Tuesday, so barely 24 hours after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, the sahaba gathered in the masjid and the Prophet's ﷺ body is still in the house of Aisha. He has not yet been buried. He has not yet been buried. And Abu Bakr comes and sits on the mimbar and this is most likely before Salatul Dhuhr. Most likely before Salatul Dhuhr. So the people have come in the daytime and they're waiting there and Umar stands up and he introduces Abu Bakr and he basically says that oh people what I said yesterday was something from me neither did I find it in the book of Allah nor did the Prophet ﷺ tell me about it anybody remember what did he say yesterday? so what did Umar say? So what did Umar say? Where did the Prophet ﷺ go? He's not dead. He's speaking with Allah. He's gonna come back. Okay? So now Umar wants to make up for what he said yesterday. Notice now. So he says, what I said yesterday, this is not something that I heard from the Prophet ﷺ, nor is it found in the Qur'an. I made a mistake basically. That's what he's trying to say. Okay? That don't think that, you know, it was basically from me and he said I thought that the Prophet ﷺ would not leave us until everything was over and he would be the last of us to go meaning we'd all die before him, this is what he thought so Umar is saying I thought we would all be gone before him, it never occurred to me he would die before us but Allah has left you with his book and in it is the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ so hold on to it and you shall be guided and Allah has gathered your affairs and chosen the best of you the sahibu rasulillah the thani ya thnaini idhuma fil ghar that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq so stand up and give bay'ah to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and therefore everybody stood in line and gave the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq one after the other until when everybody was done Abu Bakr then stood up and he gave that three sentence khutbah which is one of the most powerful khutbahs ever given. In fact, no, I should say, it is the most powerful khutbah ever given by any political leader after the Prophet ﷺ. And all of us have heard it on and off here and there. It's just three lines and it's something very beautiful. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said, O people, I have been put in charge of you even though I am not the best of you. So if I do good, then help me. And if I do bad, then correct me. being truthful is the essence of trustworthiness and lying is treachery and the weak amongst you is strong in my eyes until I return to him his right meaning the weakest amongst you are the closest to me until whatever he needs he gets it and the strongest amongst you is of least significance to me is the weakest in my eye in other words don't be fooled by who's weak and strong for me the weakest amongst you have the most power for my time and attention And the strongest amongst you are the ones who don't need anything from me until I take the right from them for the poor. And never does a group leave striving for the sake of Allah except that Allah strikes them with humiliation. And never does fahisha, lewdness and evil spread except that Allah envelops them with His punishment. Obey me as long as I obey Allah and His Messenger. But if I disobey Allah and His Messenger, then I have no right on you that you should obey me. that was his khutbah, then he said stand up and pray, may Allah Azza wa Jal have mercy on you, that was the first khutbah of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, and after he gave this khutbah, that was when the body of the Prophet ﷺ now being washed and prepared for burial, after this the discussion began where he should be buried, we talked about that already after this, the people began to pray we talked about that already, so all of the khilafah issues have already been done within less than a day everything is settled and the matter has been decided and the people continue to pray continue to pray upon the Prophet ﷺ until finally they began after Dhuhr of Tuesday and the sheer quantity of people continues now the goal was to bury him that day but the sheer quantity of people kept on kept on kept on until they were forced to bury him late late night we don't know exactly when but Wednesday had come Wednesday had come does this mean he was buried at Isha time at 12 o'clock we don't know but late night we would say Tuesday which in the Muslim calendar is early Wednesday right late night Tuesday was when the Prophet ﷺ was buried and that is of course early Wednesday from the Islamic perspective and of course he is buried in his house so there is no going out he is buried right then and there and with this we conclude the story of the election of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu anhu and inshallah we will continue inshallah our series about the sahaba and ummahat al-munin inshallah next Wednesday one quick question that was the one thing I was trying to avoid this entire this does not have a simplistic response and I am debating whether I should do this next Wednesday or not the problem comes so let me tell you a lot of you have been wanting me to do the khulafa ar-rashidun and I have not said yes, in fact I am saying no for one simple reason well multiple but for one reason and that is that when we talk about the Prophet ﷺ we have no problems reading everything in perfectly for him. Because he is Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Whatever he did, khalas, he did it, he is Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But the sahaba are not the prophets. And the sahaba are very human. And you already noticed in today's lecture certain things here and there that perhaps to gloss over it might even be better. And the sahaba did have minor issues amongst themselves and minor disputes, which is human nature. And here's the point, we don't have to agree with every ijtihad of every sahabi. Whereas we do have to agree with every ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ. So, when you talk about the sahaba, and then you talk about what happened in their time, and then especially, especially Uthman, and then especially Ali r.a. And you talk about Sifin, and you talk about the battle of Jamal. Wallahi this causes doubts In the minds of the average Muslim And The fact of the matter is Nobody discusses these matters Except that your heart becomes hard Rather than soft And It is better for the bulk of the ummah To really not know too much About what's going on Not every knowledge is beneficial Not every knowledge is beneficial These were times of fitna things happened, things were said people lost their lives people whom we admire and respect were fighting on both sides of the spectrum and we look up to the both of them ijtihad happened, shaitan caused divisions to flare up and I do not know of any scholar who has talked about these matters except that he himself has gotten into trouble because you're never gonna please everybody right, and the people that he's speaking to as well, more questions are raised up. So my philosophy about this issue is the philosophy Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal who said, when he was asked about this fitna between the sahaba, he said, that was a time that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saved our swords from getting involved. I weren't alive at the time, so let us save our tongues from getting involved as well. Meaning, let's just be quiet about it. It happened, it happened, let's just things move on let me give you an example you will all understand I know it's getting a little bit late let me give you an example in our own daily lives you know we all have our problems with our brothers, sisters, parents, wives, spouses you know we have issues fights, spats things go on Alhamdulillah things patch up is it wise to go back to a fight you had with your brother, your sister, your wife and go over each and every detail think about it something happened five years ago now it's gone, Alhamdulillah, you're now moving on is it wise to go back and say oh, she said this, I said this he said this, what's going to be gained well Allah is gonna bring more painful memories khalas, it's gone, it's gone so for us, we respect the sahaba more than we respect the anhi, it's better that we just let it go it's better that we gloss it over and not go into the minutiae he said this, she said that, and the other problem comes here is where the whole theological differences come between Sunni and Shia. And you are not going to please even, here's the problem, even within Sunni Islam, there's a spectrum. There's a spectrum. Especially when it comes to Muawiyah radiallahu anhu, right? That much is said between minor criticism, some even harsh criticism, some even more than this, right? Versus much praise and you're not going to please everybody here and my position is the position of majority of Ahlus Sunnah which is that Muawiyah radiallahu anhu is of the Sahaba and he is of the minor Sahaba, he is not of the major Sahaba but he is a Sahabi and what that means is we do not criticize any Sahabi, even if we disagree with an Ijtihad we don't criticize his integrity we think that he meant the best for the Ummah and let it be let his ishtihad with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he is he is of those whom Allah is pleased with not to the level of the great ten but he still made it as a sahabi young boy, young man when he is a sahabi he was 18, 19 but he is a sahabi and Allah azawajal will for him to be the founder of the one of the greatest dynasties we have seen and that is Umayyad dynasty it is best to be quiet about any other issue so I will not be talking about the sahaba in detail at least in terms of Abu Bakr and Umar Ibn Ali in that manner but I'm still thinking about what we should be doing after Umar Ibn Ali so let me think about that still but inshallah we'll begin inshallah next Wednesday we'll get an email what we decide to do Allah Azawajal knows best in any case it is late inshallah so let us stop for Salatul Isha and we'll continue next Wednesday inshallah Bismillah Thank you.

Seerah 11 - Declaration of Prophethood - Yasir Qadhi _ October 2011-_4VYHZ1vYZc

Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Amma ba'd. Last week we had discussed the beginnings of the prophetic da'wah, and some of the early converts, they went into a long detailed tangent of Nabi and Rasul, which inshallah was beneficial and useful, and we decided and we clarified the meaning of Nabi and Rasul. And we said that our Prophet ﷺ was both a Nabi and a Rasul. Now one point that we mentioned in passing last week, and now we're gonna continue inshaAllah with this week, is that this da'wah was a... A lot of people call it a secret da'wah, but this is not a good word to use. The better word to use, it was a private da'wah. What is the difference between secret and private? Secret means nobody knew about it. Private means you kept it to yourself, but people, it was an open secret. Our Prophet ﷺ did not do secret da'wah. His da'wah, when he started preaching Islam, rumors spread that he was preaching a new theology. The people heard about it. And this is proven in the story of Amr ibn Abasa who was in Yemen. We said his story last week. That he came from Yemen because rumors had reached him that a new prophet or a new message was being preached. And he's in Yemen. And when he goes all the way to Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ says, don't accept Islam now, it's too early. And this shows that at this time the Prophet ﷺ was not preaching to anybody outside of Makkah, because he went in stages. Initially the preaching is only to the people in Makkah. So much so that when Amr comes, the Prophet ﷺ says, not now, later. Go back to your country, when you hear that I have become victorious, then come back to me. Now, this is very important because it shows that even in this stage, the Prophet ﷺ's da'wah was known, but he didn't make it public. It was private. What does it mean private? He went to his friends, he went to those whom he trusted. He did not go stand up in public and say, Oh Quraysh, I am a prophet of Allah. And because he didn't go public, there could be no public opposition. How can you oppose him? He's not doing anything public. And therefore, for three years, some reports say four, but the correct opinion inshallah is for three years. The first three years of the da'wah, the Prophet ﷺ did not preach to the masses. He didn't preach to the pilgrims. He didn't preach to the visitors of Mecca. He didn't preach even to his own relatives whom he thought would not accept Islam. So Abu Lahab for example was not approached. Abu Lahab was not approached. His distant relatives Abu Jahl and others were not approached. Because he has a feeling that these people will mock him and ridicule him. Not now. so for three years the da'wah is private, Abu Lahab hears Abu Jahl hears, but what can they do because he's not doing anything to them he's not interfering with the trade of Mecca, he's not standing in front of the Kaaba saying anything, so they don't do anything to him, and therefore in these three years, the da'wah of the Prophet ﷺ did not face any public opposition, and in this of course is the whole point and wisdom why for three years was the da'wah private? many reasons First and foremost, because this private da'wah did not result in any confrontation between the Muslims and the Quraysh. No torture, no ridicule, nothing. Why? Because there's no threat. Because things are undercover. If somebody converts to Islam, he's not making a public announcement. He's simply minding his own business and not getting involved with his society at a religious level. And therefore for these first three years, there's no ridicule, no torture, no azab, nothing. For these three years, the Muslims are being taught their religion without any persecution. They need to know their faith, they're concentrating on the teachings of Islam, they're not worried about the torture, the politics. In fact, this is what prepared them to face the torture later on. This is what gave them the spiritual boost they needed to be prepared for what was happening later on. And this also shows that in some circumstances, it is permissible to give da'wah in private. If the political climate is one of fear, if the political climate is one of tension, then you don't have to go public about your da'wah. Now what is the difference between private and secret? We are not secretive. But you don't have to stand in front of everybody and proclaim the message of Islam. For an example, in communist Russia in the 90s, in the 80s, in the 70s, right? In places in China, there's still religious persecution. Alhamdulillah in America we don't have this. But in many lands, if you proclaim you are something other than the official faith, you will be persecuted. And there are many cases in the 20s and 30s, especially when communism took over, that they would literally kill people for claiming to be Muslim. Our religion does not demand that we do this. Stay private then. Keep a low key. You don't have to cause interference. Just mind your own business. Give your own da'wah. If somebody comes, now you cannot hide the truth. He wants to know what is Islam. is a potential convert. You cannot hide the truth. You preach to them what is Islam. But you don't have to go public if there is a fear of persecution. Also notice, we already said this last week, notice that every single convert in this stage becomes a leader, becomes a mover and shaker. Unlike some of the later converts, we don't even know the names of most of the sahaba by the way, right? The sahaba are more than 100,000. More than 100,000. Of those we only have the names of around 5000 That's it So the bulk of the Sahaba We don't even know their names Why? Because they just performed a Hajj with the Prophet They went in one Ghazwa And that's it So their names are not recorded The names of those that are recorded are few And of those the bulk of them We only have one or two incidents It is really only a handful 20, 30, 40, 100 or so That we have life stories about And each and every one of these, most of them were the early converts or of the Ansar, the early Ansar. And this shows that every single person who converted at this early stage, their Iman was so powerful that they went on to play a significant role in early Islam. also notice that in the first three years apart from the six or seven that I mentioned last week Abu Bakr and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas Uthman, Zubair, Abdur Rahman ibn Auf apart from those few the bulk of the converts were actually from the lower class there were a few that were from the elite and I mentioned their names Abu Bakr and you can even say Zayd ibn Harith because he was adopted by the Prophet ﷺ so his lineage even though it was not Quraish he was considered of the elite because he was adopted, quote-unquote, Zayd ibn Muhammad, they called him. But these were six or seven. The bulk of the Sahaba, personified by Ammar ibn Yasir, and Yasir and Sumayya, and Abdurrahman ibn Auf, and of course Bilal, and Abdurrahman ibn Khabbab ibn Arad, all of these of the Sahaba were of the lower class. And this is the general rule. It is so much of a general rule that Heraclius, the emperor of Rome, the first time the Prophet ﷺ wrote him a letter, he wanted to find out what is this religion. So he quizzed Abu Sufyan 10 questions, which I went over, I think, in the past, in which I will go over it again. One of those questions, who are his converts? Are they the rich and powerful, or are they the weak and the downtrodden? And Abu Sufyan said, well, the bulk of his converts are the weak and the lower class. And Heraclius explained and he said, this is the sign of a true faith. That the first people who accept it are the weak and the lower class. Because it doesn't appeal to the rich. It doesn't appeal to the oligarchs. It doesn't appeal to the elite. Because they're gonna have to give up their privileges. They're gonna have to give up their status. Whereas the poor, this is a message that they accept and understand because they know it is the truth. And also because when you're rich and powerful, you have more to lose when you change status quo, right? When you're rich and powerful, you want things to remain as they are. Whereas when you're weak and you're disenfranchised, then it is easier to see the truth, you don't have that much to lose. And of course Allah mentions this in the Qur'an, that even the earliest prophets, وَمَا نَرَاكَ اِلَّا تَبَعَكَ اِلَّا الَّذِينَ هُمْ أَرَاذِلُنَا بَادِيَ الرَّأِيِ The people of Hud. They said, we only find your followers to be the Bedouins, or the people who take care of the sheep. This is your followers. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions even the people of Musa, the Jews of Bani Israel, they were persecuted in Egypt and they were the lower class of Egypt. But in the beginning they're the lower class and in the end they always end up to be the victors. As Allah says, وَأَوْرَثْنَا الْقَوْمَ الَّذِينَ كَانُوا يُسْتَضْعَفُونَ مَشَارِقَ رَضِيُّ مَغَارِبًا لَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا That the people who were persecuted, the Bani Israel in this case, eventually they became the leaders. and they inherited the land even though they were the ones who were persecuted before. So in this early stage of da'wah, what was the wisdom? Once again, no persecution, make iman strong, allow the brotherhood to form, each and every one of these converts becomes a role model and many other blessings along with that. As we already mentioned, it seems there's no authentic narration but it seems that at this early stage, salah and wudu were legislated. And this is something that even logically makes sense. that from the very beginning, there was salah and there was wudu. Jibreel came down and he taught the Prophet ﷺ how to do wudu, and he taught him how to pray. And at this stage, prayer was voluntary, not obligatory. And it was made obligatory in Isra and Mi'raj. And that's why when Allah told him to pray, he didn't need to be taught how to pray, because he already knew how to pray. When Allah told him you have to pray five times a day, he didn't need to be taught at that stage. But at that stage it became legislated. also in this early stage prayer was only two rakaat there were no three rakaat or four rakaat all of the prayers were two rakaat and this is what Aisha says in a hadith in Sahih Bukhari so to summarize before we move on and this is an interesting summary that you should memorize or write down the stages of da'wah of the Prophet ﷺ the stages of da'wah the stages of da'wah are five the stages of da'wah are five and each of these stages is a legitimate stage for any Muslim community in the world depending on their circumstance. However we are, we choose which stage to be. The first stage is the private da'wah. The private da'wah means you don't have to confront the public. Let the public status quo remain. You're too weak or the political climate is too difficult, private da'wah means you don't have to become a martyr. In our religion, it's a very pragmatic religion. It's a very realistic religion. You don't have to go kill yourself if you're not going to gain anything. If the community is going to kill you, persecute you, just be a Muslim in your private life. Private da'wah. The Prophet ﷺ did it for three years. The second stage of da'wah, public da'wah, with no military commandments. It's just preaching with the tongue. And this was the bulk of the Prophet's life, 10 or 11 years of Mecca. Preaching with the tongue, and no military confrontation. And even if they kill you, you can't do anything back. Because now you're not capable of doing anything. You just have to bear in patience. And these are the commandments of patience in the Qur'an. The commandment of if they do something, turn away, leave the jahileen, don't engage with them. You just give your da'wah. And this was 10 years of da'wah. And of these 10, the last 6 or 7 were extremely difficult. to the extent of multiple assassination attempts, as we're gonna talk about inshaAllah today and next few weeks inshaAllah ta'ala. The first 3-4 years were difficult, but then they became even more and more difficult, and this led to the immigration to Abyssinia, this led to Ta'if, this led to the year of sorrow, this led to the boycott, all of this inshaAllah we will discuss. Throughout all of these 10 years, no physical confrontation. Even if they kill one of yours, there's nothing you can do, you don't kill back one of theirs. And this is the peaceful da'wah through the tongue. That's the second stage. The third stage, da'wah with the tongue along with physical fighting to one group only. Or to a particular group. And this happened for the first six years after the hijrah. That the Muslims fought only the Quraish of Mecca. They did not fight any other tribe. Because the other tribes had nothing to do with them. And so the Muslims had military battles only with the Quraysh, or if anybody allied with the Quraysh and attacked them, then of course the Muslims had to attack back. So this is the third stage of da'wah. Open da'wah along with military confrontation to a specific enemy. The fourth stage of da'wah was open da'wah to all with izzah. Unlike when they were in Mecca, they couldn't do anything. But the fourth stage, you attack if only you need to, in defense. Whereas in the Meccan stage, you didn't even attack because, meaning you didn't have any type of attack against them, retaliatory attack. If somebody kills one of yours, there's nothing you can do back, because you are persecuted. The fourth stage, you have political power, but you don't utilize it for military accomplishments, for military endeavors, unless you do so for defense. And this happened in the Medinan stage, after the treaty of Hudaybiyah until the conquest of Mecca. What was the treaty of Hudaybiyah? Remember the condition. One of the conditions was no fighting. And the Prophet ﷺ said, okay, no fighting. So there was no fighting even though he had the power. And he had the army. And he had the resources. But the political climate dictated no fighting and that was what was best. So they said, fine, no fighting. And we'll talk about that when we get there. That was one of the biggest victories of Islam. No fighting. and Allah revealed إِنَّا فَتَحْنَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا We've given you the biggest victory. And Umar didn't understand. We'll cut to that later. He said, how is this a victory? We have lost. How is this a victory? And Allah told him, this is a victory. And they saw with their own eyes and we're gonna come to that later on. And the fifth and final stage was open da'wah along with physical confrontation to anybody who opposes Islam. And this was the stage that the Prophet ﷺ passed away upon. that he was sending out not only delegations but armies he was sending he was sending Usama Ibn Zayd right to the Romans he was sending all these armies and the Sahaba continued along the fifth stage and that is why they conquered Persia and they conquered most of the Roman Empire they took over Damascus and Syria and Palestine and Egypt and North Africa and the Umayyad continued this and they conquered Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and Afghanistan and they conquered what is now Pakistan and parts of India and they went all the way to China and then finally in the mid stage of the Abbasids they decided to go back to the fourth stage and that is open da'wah to all and stop the fighting. Stop the fighting unless there's a need to. And for the bulk of the ummah, when we had a khilafah, we no longer have one, for the bulk of the ummah, the ummah was upon basically the fourth stage which is open da'wah to all and we only fight if there's a need to. And this clearly shows that military conquest is not a part of Islam it is a possible part that the ummah utilized when it wanted to and when it needed to the main thing is to preach the message and you utilize what is the best way possible and historically speaking our ummah has utilized all of these ways and therefore in our times there is no question that militarily this is not any time we can do anything especially as minorities in many lands This is the time we talk about public da'wah without any confrontation. Where we preach our message and those groups that are violent, those groups that are talking about these things, we say, no, this is not the way of our religion. Our Prophet ﷺ showed us the clear way. And his methodology is the best methodology and his seerah is the best seerah. So these are the five stages of da'wah that the Prophet ﷺ underwent. And every community throughout the world, its leaders, its ulama can see which of these five is best for that community. which of these five is the best for that community and each of these is a legitimate means of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so we now move on to the second stage of those five stages of da'wah and that is open preaching without any conflict, without any military of course there's conflict, there's gonna be persecution but without any public conflict from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam sides open preaching without any command for warfare this open preaching, it took place three years after Iqra came down. And Allah revealed a number of verses to command him to preach publicly. Two of them are the most important. Two of them were the ones that the Prophet realized this means I need to go public. The first of these is Surah Al-Hijr verse 94. Surah Al-Hijr verse 94. Where Allah says, فَاصْدَعْ بِمَا تُؤْمَرُ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْمُشْرِكِ عَنِ الْجَاهِلِينَ فَاصْدَعْ بِمَا تُؤْمَرُ اصْدَعْ means to publicly proclaim. It means to come forth and be clear. Don't hide anymore. Don't be private. Go forth brazenly and proclaim بِمَا تُؤْمَرُ what we have commanded you to. وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْجَاهِلِينَ and turn away from the ignorant people. Ignore what they're gonna do to you. So the Prophet ﷺ understood this is a command to go public. And then a verse came down which was even more explicit. And this is the verse that is commonly associated with the public da'wah. That is Surah Ash-Shu'ara verse 214. Surah Ash-Shu'ara verse 214. Where Allah says, وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ And warn your close relatives. Warn your close family. And Ashira here, of course, it applies not only to his uncles and aunts. It applies to the Quraysh because that is his Ashira. His Ashira, the Quraysh, all of the people of Mecca are his tribe. Warn your fellow tribesmen basically. And Ashira doesn't just mean family, it means your kith and kin, and that basically means the tribe. So when this verse came down, the Prophet ﷺ realized that he needed to go public. Now, looking at the source books of Sira, it appears that he did this in two stages. The first stage, he went public to the Banu Hashim only. that is his immediate tribe remember and this is something go back to lineage and ilm al-ansab or nasab remember I've said this many times the people of Mecca were all one tribe the Quraysh and within the Quraysh there were at least 6 or 7 major tribes of them were the Banu Hashim of them were the Banu Maghzum of them were the Banu Abd al-Daw and all of these different sub-tribes and the Banu Umayyah all of these different sub-tribes are of course related by great great grandfather three or four or five generations. None of them go back more than that. Four or five generations back, all of them come to the same lineage. So all of them know each other's nasab and lineage, they've memorized it. They know each other exactly how each one is related. So the Prophet ﷺ first invited his immediate tribe, and that is the sons of Hashim and Abd al-Manaf. And this is of course his immediate uncles and aunts, his immediate Banu of the Banu Hashim we call it and he invited them it is said to his own house and he told Ali ibn Abi Talib who was at that time a young boy he told him to prepare a little bit of food and broth, some soup and a little bit of food and they didn't have that much they only had one leg of lamb but he invited over 40 of their adults over 40 of the adults came and the Prophet ﷺ was the first to eat and he blessed it and the narrator says that even though the food was in one plate, all 40 of them ate to their fill as if they ate the entire plate themselves. This is one of the first miracles that is happening. And they drank from this soup that was in one cup as if this was their only cup and they all drank from it to their fill. And Abu Lahab sensed that something was going to happen. so Abu Lahab was scared that the Prophet ﷺ would make public what was now private so before they finished eating he stood up and he gave an excuse and he said he needs to go back and he will basically adjourn the meeting or not even a meeting, he has to go home and of course Abu Lahab is one of the seniors he's one of the elders and he is an immediate uncle so when he leaves, it kind of destroys the aura that was being created that something is going to happen now And so when he gave an excuse, a number of others gave an excuse and they left. The Prophet ﷺ understood that this was a tactic of Abu Lahab. Few days later he did the same thing. He told Ali to make another meal, he cooked it and he invited them again. This time before they could finish, he stood up and he began preaching. And he began by praising Allah ﷻ and giving what we call khutbatul haja. إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ And this khutbah was never heard of by the Arabs before. It was something that our Prophet ﷺ, Allah inspired him to do. And then he said, O Bani Abdul Muttalib, O my fellow tribesmen, I do not know of any Arab before me who is coming to his people with a message that is better than what I am coming to you with. I'm coming to you with something that will give you your deen and your dunya, this world and the akhirah. I'm coming to you as a messenger from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that if you leave your idolatry and you turn to him, then Allah will give you all the good of this world and give you the Jannah in the next. And he went on preaching and preaching. And this was the first time that the message of Islam publicly or openly reached many of their ears. Before this time, Abu Lahab is hearing rumors, but he's never heard his nephew preach. Before this time, other people have heard that their nephew or the Prophet ﷺ is preaching, but they have not been approached directly. So this was the first time that this message was reaching them. And Abu Lahab became irritated at this, and he said to the Prophet ﷺ, he said to the people around the Prophet ﷺ, he did not even address the Prophet ﷺ, he said to the people around the Prophet ﷺ, that this seems to be an unworthy message. We have our ways, and the ways of our forefathers, and who does this young man think he is to come and oppose the ways of our forefathers. And he was the only one who was harsh. The rest of his uncles and aunts took the message not that seriously. They had heard about it. And Ali, it is said in one of the source books, Ali stood up and said, O Messenger of Allah, I will help you. And he was the youngest of all of them. And this is not surprising if this is true. And there's no surprise in Ali r.a being this brave. So at this point, the people, his immediate relatives did not accept nor did they reject because again this is a private gathering it's in the house of the Prophet ﷺ and the only one who publicly expressed some irritation was Abu Lahab few days later or a few weeks later, again we don't have an exact chronology, but soon after this this is when the Prophet ﷺ went public to the whole city now he went public to the whole city of Mecca and this report is reported in Bukhari and it is mentioned here is the famous story that all of you know that the Prophet ﷺ climbed the mountain of Safa now the mountain of Safa is the closest mountain to the Kaaba as you know and it was in fact much taller than it is right now right now you can say it's probably gone down one third of what it used to be when people go up and down every time somebody goes up and down some minuscule amount gets eroded away This is just basic geology, basic knowledge. So if you go up and down, up and down, the mountain is going to get eroded away. And so over the course of the last 14 centuries, Safa has gone down much more than it used to be. So for a person in Mecca to climb to the top of Safa, this was their equivalent of, I have a message to tell you. Nobody climbed to the top of Safa unless there is an announcement to make. And this is well known. So the Prophet ﷺ climbed on the mountain of Safa, Safa, and he began calling the people. Now, you have to realize, Mecca probably had a thousand people in it, that's it. Small little village, and one voice crying from the top of the mountain of Safa is enough to tell the people something is going on. So when the Prophet ﷺ is calling, O Bani Abd al-Dar, O Bani Abd al-Manaf, O Bani Hashim. This is something, this is basically a town hall meeting, as we would say in old America, maybe like that, right? everybody has to come this is not something that is done except for a major event so people stop doing what they're doing and they come and they listen because this is how you get the news across and they waited for everybody to assemble and then the Prophet ﷺ gave that famous speech that all of us know and he said if I were to inform you he gave them the basic question what do you know from me? how do you trust me? and they said we know nothing but good from you you are our son and the son of our brother you are our nephew and the son of our that we know, have you heard any lie from me we have heard nothing but good, you are Al-Amin and then he said, if I were to tell you that there is an army attacking, because again he is standing on one side of Mecca and he can see what they cannot see so he says, hypothetically if I were to tell you I can see an army would you believe me, meaning would you take action right now am I that trustworthy that if I were to tell you that I see an army right now, would you take action and become panicked and and go and prepare yourselves? And this is something that otherwise you would require, you would go verify, you would go and check. But do you trust me that much, that without any verification, just with my word, you will listen to me that there's an army? And they said, أجل, yes. ما جربنا عليك الكذب. We never heard you ever say a lie. We never heard you say a lie. And so here is when the Prophet ﷺ said, then know therefore, know therefore that I am a warner, sent by Allah to proclaim the coming of a severe punishment on the Day of Judgment, unless you turn to him and leave your idolatry. O Bani Ka'b ibn Lu'ay, save yourselves from the fire of hell, I will not be able to help you. O Bani Murrah ibn Ka'b, save yourselves from the fire of hell. O Bani Abd al-Manaf, O Bani Abd al-Muttalib. And he began with the furthest tribe that was related to him, and he worked his way inward, closer and closer, until he got to the Banu Hashim and then he began mentioning his uncles by name. O Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib. O Safiyyah binti Abdul Muttalib. And in one version, O Safiyyah the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ. And then he concluded with the person who was the most dear and the most beloved to him. And he said, O Fatima binti Muhammad. And every time he mentioned a name, the same phrase is said. You need to save yourself from the fire of hell. I cannot help you at all. this is my message to you, you need to change your lifestyles, and you need to think about the hereafter because I'm not gonna benefit you and then with Fatima he added one phrase that he didn't add for anybody else, and that was O Fatima binti Abdul Muttalib save yourself from fire and hell, I cannot save you on the day of judgment except that from this world I will give you all that I have I'm your father, you ask me anything that I have, it is yours but in the hereafter, I cannot save you from Allah's punishment. So when he finished this message, and it was an inspiring, it was an emotional message, it was very emotional, he's telling his people that they need to save themselves, change their lifestyles, this is when the infamous incident happened, where Abu Lahab stood up, and he took up some sand and he threw it, and this is meant to show vulgarity, to show, what is this, it's not even worth my sand. It's not even worth this sand that I'm throwing. And this is a sign of arrogance to throw sand at somebody. And he stood up and he threw it in the direction of the Prophet ﷺ. And he said, تَبَّلْ لَكَ يَا مُحَمَّدُ أَلِهَذَا دَعُوتَنَا تَبَّلْ لَكَ means may you be cursed. O Muhammad, and I seek Allah's refuge from simply saying this, but this I'm narrating what Abu Lahab said. That may you be cursed. Is this why you called us here? You wanted us to leave our whatever we were doing. And you called us here in order to do this? And this is one of course Allah revealed in the Quran. تَبَّتْ يَدَىٰ بِلَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ مَا أَغْنَعَنْهُ مَالُهُ وَمَا كَسَبْ سَيَصْلَىٰ نَارًا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍ وَامْرَأْتُهُ حَمَّلَتَ الْحَطَبِ فِي جِيْدِهَا حَبْلٌ مِمْ مَسَدٍ And that is tafsir of the surah, surah al-Lahab that deserves its own time and place. Abu Lahab was the one, the first, the first person to publicly oppose the message and to publicly ridicule the message was Abu Lahab. And he went a degree more than what he did a few days ago. And this he's trying to show his quote-unquote bravery and manhood. That in private, in the house of the Prophet ﷺ, he was not that rude. He was not that vulgar. But now in public, he needs to put on this false sense of courage, this false sense of bravado, if you like. This is his own nephew. And so he needs to show how much he's opposed to it. And it was because of this arrogance that Allah ﷻ responded back in that kind. And this is of course the sunnah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that never has a messenger been sent except that he had to face a struggle against his own people. Most of mankind, most of mankind do not want to change their lifestyles. It's difficult to give up what you're used to, it's difficult to lead a religious life, and therefore even the Prophet s.a.w. themselves when they come, their own families and their own peoples reject them and this has been the sunnah of Allah from the very beginning of time. Of the benefits we gain here is that every single person needs to be responsible first and foremost for his immediate family and then for society at large. Because Allah Azzawajal revealed وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ Before He revealed verses that proclaim the message to all of mankind. And we'll get to those verses in a while. Initially, the Prophet ﷺ is told, preach to your relatives. So much so that when a Yemeni comes to him, he tells him, not now, go back later on. Not now. Because the message is not for now. The message for you is for later on. So, the responsibility of the da'i for immediate family is much more than for anyone else. And therefore the Prophet ﷺ first called Banu Hashim. And then he made the public call to Mecca. And then a few years later he made the public call to all of humanity. From this point onwards, the Prophet ﷺ started preaching everywhere. In public venues, in front of the Ka'bah. When the Hujjaj came, when visitors came to Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ would be waiting for them outside of Mecca. And when the visitors came, or when the hujjaj came, he would speak to them in the marketplaces of Mina. This is when the Prophet ﷺ's da'wah became public. And of course, this is when the public opposition began as well. How did they oppose the message? By many ways. And inshallah, today we'll summarize 8 or 9 of these ways that they opposed the message. And realize that what I'm mentioning today is not necessarily chronological. I'm simply summarizing how did these Quraishis and people of Mecca oppose the Prophet ﷺ in his da'wah. What did they do to try to prevent him? Number one, the first thing that they did is they tried to appeal to the highest authority of Mecca and that is Abu Talib. Now, you have to realize how did the people of Mecca live in terms of political laws? there was no one ruler out of all of Mecca they didn't have a king they were too arrogant to appoint one person and by the way one of the signs of a civilized society is to have one ruler this is one of the signs of a truly civilized society that they have one person in charge you need to have somebody in the top and when you don't have that civilized society you have a little bit of chaos then you don't have one ruler the people of Mecca did not have one ruler that was too much for them what they did have was a Darun Nadwa And that was a group of senior people, none of whom was actually in charge, but they had a say in the matter. Who were the people in this Darun Nadwa? Who were the people in this circle of, let's say, we cannot call it senators because there's no president, but you get my point. There's a group of people who are the main leaders. They are the representatives of each of the tribes. So each of the sub-tribes has a ruler. The Banu Hashim has a ruler. the Banu Makhzum has a ruler the Banu Abdi Manaf or the Banu Kilab-e-Mura they have a ruler each of the sub-tribes has call it a chief but it's not the chief of the Quraish, it's the chief of that one tribe and the affairs of that one tribe will be in accordance with what the chieftain says so the chief of or the leader of the Banu Hashim was of course Abu Talib the leader of the Banu Hashim was Abu Talib and it was of the ways of the Arabs that the leader of the tribe is never deposed. He's never gotten rid of, he's never disobeyed, he's given the utmost respect and then one of his children after him takes over that leadership. And that's why when Abdul Muttalib died, then Abu Talib took charge because he was the most respected of the sons of Abdul Muttalib. And so Abu Talib took on this leadership. So when the Prophet ﷺ started preaching, the first thing they do, they appeal to Abu Talib. And they went to him gently, and they said, Oh Abu Talib, this is your nephew, cursing our idols, preaching a message that is different than our forefathers, surely you cannot let this happen. And Abu Talib tried to basically stall them. And he did not want a confrontation, and we don't know exactly what he says, the riwayah says that he said to them, قَوْلَ اللَّيِّنَ He gave them some gentle words, and he had them go their way. perhaps he promised them, perhaps he did something but he didn't take a stand either for or against he simply sidetracked hoping that the matter would go away well it didn't go away few weeks later they come to Abu Talib again and as more and more people are converting as more and more of the hijaj go back bearing the news that there is a man in Mecca preaching a new message they realize that action has to be taken and so they increase the pressure on Abu Talib The first thing that they do is, they try to threaten him. They try to bribe him. They try to cajole him. They say to him, we cannot take this anymore. Your nephew is insulting our forefathers. Now, subhanallah, this is the way of everybody who opposes Islam. Look at the modern Islamophobes. They take a small thing and they make it so big as if the world is gonna collapse, right? Look at their fear of the sharia-tization of America and how ridiculous. The Prophet ﷺ did not curse their forefathers. It's his own forefathers, right? But what is he saying? Tawheed. So they take one plus one and they make twenty out of it. He's preaching tawheed. And he's saying, idolatry is not a good way, it's foolish. Now, they of course say, well if it's foolish, this means our forefathers were foolish. And if they're foolish, this means you're cursing them. And if you're cursing them, this means this. And so they make this statement which is true, and they make it into such a big deal and they come back exaggerated 20 times. And they say, your nephew is doing this and he's doing that and he's cursing our idols. The Prophet ﷺ never cursed their idols. Allah says in the Qur'an, وَلَا تَسُبُّوا الَّذِينَ دِعُونَ مِنْ دُنِ اللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدْوًا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ Do not curse their false idols. There's a verse in the Qur'an. And yet they accused him of cursing their idols. Again, this is what happens when you're full of hatred doesn't matter what you do they'll take one plus one, they'll make twenty out of it so they go back to Abu Talib and they say your nephew is cursing our idols he's ridiculing our forefathers again he didn't ridicule the forefathers but he's saying idolatry is foolish take it or leave it what your forefathers were, I'm saying idolatry is foolish, right? and again they take it and they take it ten different steps and so they say we cannot bear this anymore you either stop him from preaching yourself or you hand him over to us and we do as we please. One of the two. We give you two options. You either stop him yourself or you hand him over to us. And Abu Talib had never been confronted by his people in this manner. Now realize that every leader, wallahi every leader is outwardly powerful, inwardly very weak. because every leader is dependent upon the people that follow him for that leadership. And that is why every leader has to appease his own followers. You cannot be a leader without appeasing your followers. You cannot be. Even if you're a tyrant, even if you're a tyrant, you need to have a core group whom you appease and who execute your tyrannical policies. Even if you're a mass murderer as a leader, you need to have a core you can trust. and that core you give them everything that they want and you'll overlook any crime that they do or else you cannot be a leader it is only Allah Azza wa Jal who is truly Al-Malik everybody else is not really a true king because they are not powerful they're dependent on the people around them they need to have viziers they need to have ministers they need to have army so when your own people oppose you completely you don't have any power and Abu Talib had never been opposed in this manner that every single member of the tribe is coming and saying, you have one of two options. You stop him, or else if you don't have the guts, give him over to us. What do you mean give him over to us? Once again, you need to understand the way of the Arabs. They could not harm one of their own tribesmen unless the chief of the tribe allows this. This is the law of the Arabs. And if they were to disobey it, they would face shame and ridicule. never before had a tribe killed one of its own members with impunity. You have to understand the gang mentality. If you're on our side, you're on our blood, then that's it, doesn't matter what you do. If you commit a crime, we will deal with you internally. We're gonna deal. How do we deal with you? The chief or the leader has to decide. So as long as Abu Talib did not hand over the Prophet ﷺ, they couldn't do anything. They couldn't touch a hair on his head. because it would cause them shame because they went against their own tribal laws. So they go to Abu Talib and they demand one of two things. Never had Abu Talib been confronted with such hostility from his own Banu Hashim. And so this is when he went to the Prophet ﷺ, the famous story, all of you know it. And he called his nephew, the Prophet ﷺ, and he said to him, O my nephew, my people have come to me and they have said such and such. so be merciful to you and be merciful to me emotional blackmail here be merciful to you and be have some mercy on me, I'm an old man now have some mercy on me and do not place me in a situation that I cannot bear you're making me do something I cannot have it, this is emotional blackmail at its best because he's not threatening the Prophet ﷺ he's saying look at me, I'm an old man my own people are doing this to me have some mercy on me How much do you expect me to bear? And this is one of the most difficult and traumatic encounters of the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Abu Talib loved the Prophet ﷺ more than he loved his own children. And it was the son of his own full brother Abdullah. And he dealt with him more than how a father could deal with his own son. And the Prophet ﷺ also had the same type of love that he would have for his own father. And this was his full uncle. And here's Abu Talib begging and pleading with him. that have some mercy on an old man. How much do you expect me to bear now? Stop! What else do you want me to do? And here is when the Prophet ﷺ became overwhelmed with emotion. And he said that famous statement, that, O my uncle, Wallahi, if they were to give me the sun in my right hand, and the moon in my left hand, Wallahi, I could not give up this message until I succeed in what I'm doing, or I die a death in this path preaching what I am preaching. and in another version which is probably more authentic than this one he said to his uncle do you see the sun oh my uncle and his uncle said yes so he said wallahi I have no more power to stop preaching than you do to light your stick from the sun he has a stick in his hand to light your stick with the sun you cannot do that similarly I cannot do this as well what is the symbolism here of the phrase here the meaning here there is a dual meaning here The first is that the light that I have, the light of Islam, it is brighter than the light of the sun and moon. I cannot extinguish it. If they were to give me all of this light, I have a light that is brighter than this light, I cannot eclipse it. Nothing can eclipse this light. And then of course there's a symbolism here, even if they were to give me something that is beyond this world, forget money, forget wealth, forget fame, even if they were to give me something beyond this world, the sun and the moon I could not give up what I am doing until I meet my death or I succeed in my message and when Abu Talib saw this persistence he saw in the eyes of the Prophet that passion, that sincerity he said to him do what you will my nephew, fa wallahi I will never come to you again to stop what you are doing and he lived up to his word no matter what the Quraysh did no matter what they did he never once came back to reprimand his nephew why did you do this why did I have to do that even when he had to go and sacrifice his own livelihood and live a life of misery and poverty in the boycott as we're gonna come to next week when he couldn't even live in Mecca he was the only non-Muslim who actually went and lived with the Muslims in the boycott of the Shab of the valley as we'll talk about without even living a normal life. Because he told his nephew a promise, he said, I'm never gonna approach you again about stopping you. Do as you please, you have my protection. Even this did not satisfy the Quraysh. When they heard of this, that he tried and he failed, they then came to him again, a complete delegation of the Quraysh and not just the Banu Hashim. First have been only the Banu Hashim. Now the whole Quraysh are coming to him as a representative of the Quraysh against the Banu Hashim. And this is the stepping stone because the next step is going to be the boycott. We'll come to that inshallah next week or the two weeks from now. But for now, they come to him and they say to him, okay look, we heard you tried. We understand he is your nephew. We have a proposition to make. We have chosen the most noble of all of the people of Mecca. The most noble young man. And this is the son of Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, we're going to come to him in a while. he's one of the leaders of one of the other tribes of the Quraysh. Just like Abu Talib is one of the leaders, Al-Walid is one of the leaders of the Banu Maghzum. So it is his peer. Al-Walid is the peer. He's the same level as Abu Talib. Here is the son of Al-Walid, Al-Umara Ibn Walid. And one son for one son will hand over Al-Umara to you. And he will become yours. Will give him your basically you adopt him. He will become your son. And in return you hand over your son or your nephew to us and we do as we please. At this Abu Talib became extremely angry. And he said, what an evil bargain or what a foolish transaction. What an evil bargain that you're saying. You want me to take care of one of your own so that I fatten him with my food while you take my son and you kill him? What a foolish bargain is this? I take care of yours and you will go and kill mine? And this Jubair ibn Mut'im, and again Jubair ibn Mut'im is, at this point in time, Jubair is the eldest person alive in Quraysh. And he is considered to be as close to a ruler as possible. And our Prophet ﷺ has many ahadith about Jubair. He never converted. his son, sorry, Muttam ibn Adi I'm saying, Jubair ibn Muttam ibn Adi. So Muttam ibn Adi stood up and he said to Abu Talib, he said, O Abu Talib, I think that your people have done as much as they humanly can. You need to accept one of these offers now. And this was now basically the whole of Mecca united against Abu Talib, single-handedly. this is the senior most person who is the most reserved he was the one by the way backtrack, he was the one who prevented bloodshed when the Kaaba was being rebuilt and he was the one who suggested the first man to come in, he's gonna be the one who decides, the black stone, this is that person right, he was the one who again so many stories about him, this is that senior most person, he has the most sense, he's the least hostile to anybody right, for him to take sides, this is a big deal. And he says to Abu Talib, that oh Abu Talib your people have done as much as is reasonably expected. What more do you expect them to do? They've given you all of these options what more do you expect them to do? So Mut'im ibn Adi, it's not Jubair sorry, Jubair was the Sahabi. His father is Mut'im. So Jubair ibn Mut'im became a Muslim. In the battle of Badr we'll read his story. This is Mut'im ibn Adi this is the senior one. And by the way Mut'im ibn Adi the Prophet ﷺ said about him Mut'im, the father, this one the Prophet ﷺ said about him in the battle of Badr that Mut'im had died after the Hijrah by a little while so he never saw the battle of Badr he said when the Prophet ﷺ saw all of the prisoners of Badr, 72 prisoners with their hands bound and they're wondering what's going to happen are they going to be executed, are they going to be ransomed they don't know what's going to happen the Prophet ﷺ said one of the highest praises he ever said for any pagan and he said it for Muttam ibn Adi. He said, if Muttam ibn Adi were alive right now and he said to me one word about these 72 prisoners that he wanted them back, I would have freed them all for his sake. That is praise. That is praise for Muttam ibn Adi. Why did the Prophet ﷺ praise him so much? We'll talk about. This incident doesn't seem that nice because he's fighting against him, right? But this was maybe the worst thing Muttam ever did. Later on for the next 10 years, or the next six years, we'll see Mut'im doing a lot of positive for the Muslims. A lot of positives. And because of those positives, the Prophet ﷺ praised him. And this shows us very clearly that not all kafirs are the same. There are some kafirs that are very good. They have genuine hearts. And they help Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ praised them and took advantage of that. And there are others who are evil to the core. And the Prophet ﷺ cursed them. and despise them. You don't treat all non-Muslims the same. And this is very narrow-minded that some of us have. That some of us think that our religion preaches this. No, our religion does not preach that we hate all kuffar. Our religion does not preach that all kuffar are filthy and dirty. No. Some of them are very noble. And some of them are very ignoble. Some of them are very righteous and good in their affairs with us. Even if they have kuffar in their private lives and they worship other than Allah, their characters are good. In their mu'amala with us. In their standing up, let's say, for human rights, for civil rights. In our times, you have many non-Muslims who bend over backwards when they see Muslims being discriminated against. And they do more for the community than many Muslims do. These are the Mut'im ibn Adi's of our time. And we should help them and praise them. Like the Prophet ﷺ praised Mut'im ibn Adi. In this case, however, Mut'im, this is in the beginning of Islam, he seems to take a stance that is not that praiseworthy. later on he'll redeem himself partially he never accepted Islam so Mud'im says to Abu Talib like I said that oh Abu Talib your people have done as much as is reasonable to be expected in this situation take one of these options and now come on move on either give him over to us or stop him or take this young lad what else do you want them to do and this was literally you can say Abu Talib versus all of the people of Mecca and it is a very precarious situation because you don't know what's going to happen now. The next stage will basically be one of two things. And that is that they most likely, what would have happened, if Allah had not will otherwise, they would have told Abu Talib, you are no longer the leader of the Banu Hashim. And this would have been the first time in the history of the Arabs that a tribal leader had been replaced while he's still alive and healthy and mentally capable. Never before had they, this is a coup d'etat. Basically in our vernacular, this is a coup d'etat, you get rid of the ruler and replace him this is unheard of in the arrows because how can you have a coup against your own uncle or your own grandfather this is what a tribal leader is it's not some stranger, this is your blood relative your senior most blood relative it's unheard of in their tribal system and so Abu Talib takes on a bravery that is wallahi unbelievable to confront every one of his tribesmen in the whole of Quraish and he says to Mut'im directly O Mut'im, this is a plot that you have hatched. To stand up at this time and to publicly take sides, you had this plan from before. He sees through the plot basically, right? This is a staged event. You have a script that you have and you're playing the script now. And then he says and he threatens them, do as you please, I am not going to budge from my position. And this is what you call genuine bravery. because Abu Talib had no support whatsoever. Not one person to physically stand up and fight with him. It was literally his honor and prestige versus the whole of Quraish. And he literally put it at their hands because he told them, I can't do anything. Do what you please, I'm not gonna budge. You wanna kill me along with him? Fine. I'm not going to budge. And he also wrote some poetry. And by the way, a point of note here for the lovers of poetry, the classical poetry you all know that there are famous poets in this time the Muallakat al-Saba'a and all of this is of this era the seven most famous Arabic poems were of the era of the Quran being revealed and Allah revealed the Quran in a language that was far more powerful than the seven hanging poems they're called Abu Talib was one of the most famous poets of the Quraysh and his poetry is absolutely phenomenal and Ibn Hajar and many others comment and they say that in fact Abu Talib's poetry is more profound and more beautiful than the seven poems that were hung in the Ka'bah. And if you read his poetry which is recorded in many books, in Ibn Ishaq, in Ibn Hisham, in the Tabakat of Ibn Sa'd, you find it is a very powerful with message. And at this occasion, he composed a series of poems chastising his own relatives and accusing them of being traitors to their own way of life. That you are not respecting the sanctity of your own relatives. And Allah Azza wa Jal willed that the Quraysh back down. Even though he had no power on his side. Not one man to stand up. But it was that sense of dignity and that sense of sincerity that I am not going to budge and be inhumane. that you kill your own relative. And my nephew, I am not gonna let you do this. And the strength of his convictions won the day by the blessings of Allah Azza wa Jal. That's all it was. Because nothing else would have saved him. He didn't have anything else. And in this one incident, we open up a window to see the wisdom of the whole phenomenon of Abu Talib. What do I mean by the phenomenon of Abu Talib? the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not love anybody more than he loved Abu Talib this is his father and mother in one he didn't have a father and mother growing up this is his grandfather's son this is everybody to him and yet Abu Talib did not convert to Islam and when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam begged and pleaded with him even on his deathbed when he's about to die the Prophet ﷺ is 53 years old. Imagine my dear brothers and sisters, the Prophet ﷺ had this figure in his life till he was 53 years old. Many of us, we don't have our parents at a young age, he had this uncle if you like, a father figure till he is 53, and his uncle is there with him. What a relationship he has. And now he is on his deathbed, and he is about to die, and he comes and he begs with him, Ya Am, Qul Kalima Uhajuka Biha Inda Allahi Azza wa Jal I beg you say one kalima and I will be able to argue in front of Allah to save you. Just say one kalima and I will be able to argue in front of Allah to save you. And Abu Talib was about to say it. Because in his heart, actually Abu Talib knew that this religion is true. He had seen too many signs, he had seen too many miracles. and most importantly, he knew who his nephew was. And he knew his nephew couldn't tell a lie. But there was one thing that was more precious to him than his nephew, and that was his father. And that was the lineage, the prestige. You are the son of Abdul Muttalib. You are the inheritor of the legacy of Abdul Muttalib. That prestige of nasab, of lineage, which was everything for the Arabs, right? For the Arabs, that was everything. The Quraysh at that time, the Arab tribes, everything was who your father was. And he happened to be the son of the most famous Arab of the previous generation. We already said that a person's legacy pinnacles around 40-50 years after his death, right? We said this many weeks ago, that the legends grow after a person's death. Just like in our times, JFK for example, is actually more admired than when he was when he died. During his presidency, JFK had a lot of negatives about him and a lot of things. And now MLK as well, Martin Luther King, when he was alive, scandals, this and that. Now look at his legacy. It's human nature, you kind of aggrandize the people of the past. So Abdul Muttalib reaches his pinnacle of legacy, right? And now this is Abu Talib, the son of this giant, mythical giant. This is his son. And so, one thing is more precious to him than the truth, and that is his lineage. And he's just about to say the kalima, and Abu Jahl is standing there. The people of the Quraish surrounding him, and the Prophet ﷺ is begging him to say the kalima, and Abu Jahl sees his mouth open, he gets scared. Because if you convert, we're in trouble now. And so he says to Abu Talib, are you going to leave the religion of your father? The father. He didn't even say really paganism. No, the religion of your father, the way of your father. And that caused his mouth to close, and that's when the Malik al-Mu't came. And took his ru'ah, and he did not say the kalima. But our Prophet ﷺ was so emotionally moved. This is his uncle and his father figure. He said, I will ask Allah to forgive you even if I don't have permission. Because realize for the Prophets, all the Prophets, you need permission to take a step. Why did Allah ﷻ do what He did to Yunus? why did Allah Azza wa Jalla do what he did to Yunus because Yunus left his people without permission Yunus left his people without permission and you cannot do anything as a prophet without permission from Allah you need permission because you are a prophet, you are presenting the message of Allah the sharia of Allah and so the prophet s.a.w. would not do anything unless Allah told him to do it in this case, his emotions were so powerful he said, I will ask Allah to forgive you unless Allah stops me. I'm not going to ask permission, I'm going to ask Allah to forgive you. And he continued to ask forgiveness until Allah revealed multiple verses in the Qur'an. Of them is Surah At-Tawbah. مَا كَانَ لِلنَّبِي وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن يَسْتَغْفِرُوا لِلْمُشْيَكِينَ وَلَوْ كَانُوا أُولِي قُرْبًا It is not befitting for the Prophet and the believers to seek forgiveness for pagans, even if they're close relatives. You shouldn't do that. And of them is Surah Al-Qasas. إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ You are not able to guide those whom you love, but Allah guides those whom He pleases. Now this is what I meant by the phenomenon of Abu Talib. Why? Why? Why? This is Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And this is the most beloved person to him. The one whom he loves like no one else. So much so that many years later in the conquest of Mecca, when Abu Bakr comes to the Prophet ﷺ with his own father Abu Qahafa being carried by the people and his beard is completely white. And Abu Qahafa is a pagan and an enemy of Islam. and when the Mecca is conquered finally for the first time Abu Qahafa accepts Islam as an old man of 80 years old and Abu Qahafa holds on to the hand of the Prophet ﷺ and says أَشْهَدُ أَن لَا إِلَهَ لَلَّهُ أَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ رَسُولُ اللَّهُ Abu Bakr begins to cry and he says وَاللَّهِ يَا رَسُولُ اللَّهُ What I would give even my father's hand if I could see the hand of Abu Talib in your hand to accept Islam he would even give up his own father's Islam because he wanted the Islam of Abu Talib this is the father figure of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam what I would give even my father's hand I would give it up if I could see the hand of Abu Talib in your hand he knew how much he loved Abu Talib he knew it and so he said even this I would give up ya Rasulullah how I wanted to see Abu Talib hand in your hand this is how much he loved him and yet Allah did not why? what is the wisdom? here we see the wisdom we see the wisdom because the one person who could have physically protected him had to remain a pagan he had to remain a pagan because if he converted what would have happened? what would have happened? immediately he would have lost the leadership he would have lost the status he would have lost the protection he could have offered and so Allah knows best Allah knows better even than Rasulullah s.a.w. You don't know and I know. You needed Abu Talib. You needed him to do what happened to you. And so Abu Talib remained who he remained. Because that was his one claim to fame. That was his one claim to power. You are the son of Abdul Muttalib. How can we oppose you? And because of that power, the Prophet s.a.w. could preach as he preached. It was only after the death of Abu Talib, when Abu Lahab took charge that the Prophet ﷺ had to leave Mecca and go to Medina. He couldn't, he was gonna be killed. It was only after that. And he had to be who he had to be, Abu Talib I mean. He could not convert. And also of course, there is also the wisdom here that is clearly that Allah mentions in the Qur'an. Clearly the wisdom of nobody can dictate to Allah what Allah wants to do. Not even Rasulullah ﷺ. And in this is a clear indication that our Prophet ﷺ, even if he's the greatest human being, he is not God, he is not a demigod, he is not the son of a God, he is a human being. He does not control the lives of other people, including his own uncle. إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ You cannot guide somebody just because you want to jai Rasulullah. Only Allah guides somebody whom He wants to guide. Even Rasulullah ﷺ, as he said in his first khutbah, to his own daughter Fatima, I cannot protect you from the fire of hell. It's not mine to do so. And this clearly shows, there are many Muslim groups out there that have taken this love of Rasulullah ﷺ to an extreme level. And they make him out to be literally a god or a demigod. And in his own lifetime, we see he couldn't protect his own uncle because Allah had a higher wisdom than him. And notice as well, with this inshaAllah ta'ala we will conclude for this week. Notice as well, the example of four uncles of the Prophet ﷺ each one of whom occupies such a different level. Lineage means nothing in Islam. It is your own actions. Four uncles, all of them children of Abdul Muttalib. All of them direct uncles of Rasul ﷺ and all of them have places different from one another. The highest of them, Hamza, Sayyid al-Shuhada. No one of the Shuhada occupies a higher level than him. Hamza, the Sayyid of the Shuhada and then there is Abbas who is one of the great Muslims but he cannot be compared to Hamza or even of the ten elite he is a Muslim and he converted later on and he was not of that level of the ten elite, he was of the righteous and this is Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib the father of Abdullah ibn Abbas so these two are Muslims the one at the height of the ranks the other, Alhamdulillah, at a good level but not at that level as some of the higher And then you have two who did not convert to Islam. You had Abu Talib and you had Abu Lahab. As for Abu Talib, then he is the highest person ever amongst the non-Muslims in the history of our religion. No one occupies a rank higher than Abu Talib, even though he is still not a Muslim. And Al-Abbas asked the Prophet ﷺ, hadith is in Sahih Muslim. Al-Abbas asked the Prophet ﷺ, Ya Rasulullah, your uncle, he benefited you so much. Weren't you able to benefit him back? Listen to this hadith. His own brother is saying that my brother helped you so much. Couldn't you help him a little bit back? And the Prophet said, yes, I did. I did. Because of my dua for him, that Allah allowed me to make one dua for him, Abu Talib has been removed to one of the outlying perimeters of the fire of hell. And were it not for my dua, he would be in the pits and the depth of the fire of hell. In another version we read that Abu Talib has the least punishment out of all of the people of Jahannam. No one in Jahannam is being punished lesser than Abu Talib. No one. And this shows us the benefits that the Prophet ﷺ did manage by the permission of Allah to bring about for what he has done. The least person being punished. But he didn't get to Jannah because he is an idol worshipper. And Allah will not forgive the sin of shirk. And this is the highest of the kafirs ever. And then you have the opposite extreme. And that is Abu Lahab. For whom Allah revealed a surah that we recite in the Quran that curses him till the day of judgment. the one person who is cursed by name in the Quran we already mentioned Zaid is blessed in the Quran mentioned by name Abu Bakr is indirectly referenced the one enemy of Islam who is mentioned by name there is no other name amongst those enemies of Islam of that time there are indirect references yes, indirect many references to people without name but the one reference by name to the enemy of Islam is the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. تَبَّتْ يَدَا أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ مَا أَغْنَعَنْهُ مَالُهُ وَمَا كَسَّمْ سَيَصْلَى نَعْرًا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍ وَمْرَأَتُهُ حَمَّالَتَ الْحَضَبِ فِي جِدِيهَا حَبْلٌ مِّن مَسَنٍ We recite this surah till the day of judgment, invoking the curse of Allah upon him for what he had done. These are four brothers. And every one of them occupies such a different level, even though they're all sons of the same father, and they're all uncles of the greatest human being who ever walked the face of this earth, All of this to show us, my dear brothers and sisters, your fathers and your children will not help you on the Day of Judgment. It is what you have done, it is what I have done, it is what each and every one of us have done in this world. And that was the basic message, the first message, the first khutbah that our Prophet ﷺ gave in public. And that is, you need to save yourselves. Nobody is going to help you. You need to live righteous lives. I cannot help you. Nobody can help you against the punishment of Allah ﷻ. InshaAllah we will continue next week We have six minutes for questions Yes to God in response and we can all benefit from that. It's not directly relevant to the class. Inshallah, we'll just do two minutes of this then and try to get back to the class. Last week, the brothers at FedEx invited me to give a presentation to the workers there, the people there, where everything runs on time, I heard, Inshallah, at FedEx. And it was a call basically, you know, what is the Sharia? Is it something to be scared of or something to be worried about? And I gave a short presentation there and Alhamdulillah there was a good turnout there and there was some very tough and very specific questions and that's fine. I always welcome such tough questions. It's better that they ask me than they ask somebody else. So you wanted to know one of the tough questions. Well, there was one lady there who definitely had done some research. She's clear. Or she had been misinformed or what not, right? So, when I said, for example, that yes, there are elements of the Sharia. So, obviously the question is always about cutting off of the hands and the stoning of the adulterous and that. All these questions of the Sharia about, you know, this is a part of the Sharia. You all know me that I am not a progressive. I don't think we should get away with this. I am not somebody who wants to reform Islam inside out. I believe in our tradition and I am a firm follower of the sharia as it was revealed to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, at the same time I'm pragmatic and realistic and I try to be a part of the modern world and so when I said for example that yes our sharia did have these laws and this is how it was for many centuries that the thief's hand would be cut off and this would happen but we as American Muslims were not asking for this to be implemented as law of the land and it is true, I'm not asking for the constitution to be changed and the sharia to be instituted. We understand that we're a minority. We understand that we have to obey the laws of the land. We're not asking for a revolution at all. We said this very clearly. So she had done her research or she had been told this. So she goes, how can you believe in the sharia and not want to cause a revolution and bring about a change in the laws? If you're faithful to your religion because what they have been told, what Islamophobes tell them, is that every Muslim desires to overthrow the law and to institute the sharia, right? Or else they're hypocrites to their religion. So she's basically getting this from her sources, then she's throwing it back at me. How can you believe in the sharia and not want to cause a revolution? How can I trust you basically in this regard? And this is a very frank question. And I'm happy she asked it. I welcome any difficult question, inshallah ta'ala. And so I said to her, because we have precedent in our religion. Our religion allows for this. Our religion allows for this. Our religion clearly allows that we live as a minority peacefully in a land without causing any harm to the majority. Not wanting to overthrow the majority and the status quo. And the example of this is the Muslims of Abyssinia which we're gonna come to in two weeks from now inshallah ta'ala. The Muslims of Abyssinia provide a role model framework for us as Muslims in America. And I have to be very frank here, brothers and sisters, there are many Islamic movements in the Eastern world whose goal is to establish a Khilafah, right? I am not talking about them at all in the Eastern world. I will talk about them in the West. And I will say any movement that has as its goal to establish a Khilafah should not be doing so in the Western world. This is naive, this is political suicide, and this is un-Islamic even. You cannot live as a minority in a majority land, and your goal is to overthrow the majority. This is foolish. You are deluding yourself. Neither does our religion allow us to be double-faced. We have to be very clear here. Our religion does not allow us. That's why I don't like the word secret da'wah. I don't like it. The da'wah was private, not secret. We are not allowed to in the masjid preach quietly, guys, we're gonna want a revolution. And then publicly say, oh guys, we're peaceful citizens. No. Our message is the same. What we say in public, we say in the masjid. What we say in the masjid, we say in public. If we believe otherwise, we should leave somewhere else and not live here. This is my message to every Muslim. If you genuinely believe that you're not allowed to be a law-abiding citizen, then don't be a law-abiding citizen, go somewhere else. But don't be treacherous, and don't live a double face, because that's gonna cause harm to you and to us. So I told the lady, that we have a precedence in our religion. I'm not criticizing the sharia, where it exists. I'm not criticizing the cutting off of the hand Islamically I seek Allah's refuge, it's a verse in the Quran what do you want me to say to that? I seek refuge from any Muslim saying this is Jahiliyyah, it's backward Allah says in the Quran that when you catch the thief then you cut off his hand how can I criticize that anywhere in the world but I am saying, you asking me this question is irrelevant because I'm not asking for it to be implemented here I'm not asking for it to be implemented in America we have the precedence in our religion of Muslims immigrating to Abyssinia. Thousands, hundreds of them. Not thousands, hundreds of them. And their condition to the Negus and the Negus condition to them was basically what we are. And that is, you let us be Muslims and we'll be a part of your society and be peaceful citizens. You don't interfere in our religion. We're not going to interfere in overthrowing the laws of the land. The Muslims of Abyssinia did not plot and plan to overthrow the Najashi. the Muslims of Al-Hasiniya were not planning to take over Najashi, right? even when Najashi died and the next ruler came they lived their lives until finally the Prophet ﷺ called them back to Medina in the 7th year of the Hijrah and this provides a working role model for us it's not exactly the same there are differences but overall there's a working role model and that is that we're allowed to live as minorities in a non-Muslim land and we respect the laws of the land and they in return should give us the freedom to be Muslims. If they don't give us the freedom to be Muslims, then we go and find somewhere else to live. We don't have the right to be treacherous. This is not a part of our religion. We're never allowed to be treacherous. Never. Khayana is never allowed in Islam. And that is to promise somebody something and say, yes, I promise to be a law-abiding citizen. And then you go and you bomb and you plot. No. If you don't promise them, go somewhere else in the world, I'm saying. And you want to curse and preach against the country? go and do it somewhere else. But don't be a part of the society and give your land and your oath and your visa and your passport and then in your heart and in your speech you are a traitor. That's not our religion. That's not our religion. And so I said we have precedence in this regard. And when I told her this, you couldn't respond to that. But I mean, Alhamdulillah, I firmly believe we do not have a problem Islamically to be a part of this country. Yes, there are issues we're angry about and we resolve them in a legitimate manner and that's my da'wah is always about this inshallah going through the happy means the middle inshallah ta'ala one question about the topic so that we get to the topic yes is it true that Abu Lahab is given two drops of water every Monday because he flees on the occasion of Rasulullah s.a.w. the question is is it true that Abu Lahab receives two drops of water every Monday because he freed two slaves when the Prophet s.a.w. was born there is a hadith in At-Tabarani that mentions this and it is inshaAllah an authentic hadith. And therefore, even Abu Lahab received something which is minuscule, but it is still nonetheless symbolic. And that is that he gets two drops of water. Two drops of water for having shown happiness at the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. Where does this narration come from? I can look it up for you, but it's in Tabarani. But I can look it up for you exactly and give it to you, but it is in Tabarani, Al-Mu'ajam Al-Kabir, inshallah. With this, inshallah, we need to conclude for Maghrib, inshallah.

Seerah 12 - Opposition from the Quraysh - Yasir Qadhi _ October 2011-tcEZ3f0lDko

And number two is, وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ These two verses came down, and when these two verses came down, that was when the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to go public. That was when he had to go public. And we said a number of things began immediately. Of them is they tried to convince Abu Talib, and then they tried to block the da'wah indirectly, and then they had a showdown with Abu Talib. We all mentioned this last week. Now we're continuing. What else did they do in order to prevent the prophetic message from being taught to others? The third thing that we'll mention is that they tried to ban the recitation of the Qur'an in public. They tried to make it that if the Qur'an were recited, they would drown it out with their voices, Or they would not even allow it to be recited. Ibn Abbas mentions that whenever the Prophet ﷺ raised his voice for the Qur'an in front of the Ka'bah, the Quraysh would begin shouting and yelling and screaming. And cursing the one who revealed it, and the one upon whom it was revealed. Cursing him. They would curse him and try to drown out the voice of the Qur'an. and they would not allow anyone to listen to the Qur'an. And therefore Ibn Abbas said, if somebody wanted to listen to the Qur'an, he would have to pretend as if he's not listening. And try to hear the Qur'an over the din of the Quraysh yelling and screaming. And that was when Allah revealed in the Qur'an, Surah Al-Isra verse 110, that Allah says, وَلَا تَجْهَلْ بِالصَّلَاةِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِدْ بِهَا وَبَتَغِيبَيْنَ ذَلِكَ سَبِيلًا that do not say loudly the Qur'an. Do not say it loudly, and do not say it in a whisper, but say it in a moderate voice. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ wanted to raise his voice above the voice of the Quraysh. And Allah said, No, that's not gonna win. You recite the way you're supposed to. You recite the way you're supposed to. Ignore that din, ignore that shouting and yelling and screaming. You do what you're supposed to, and the da'wah will spread. And once the companions came together in the house of Al-Arqam. We'll talk about Dar Al-Arqam inshallah in our next lesson. They came together in the house of Al-Arqam and they said, no one has recited the Qur'an in public other than the Prophet ﷺ. Who is going to volunteer? So subhanallah, no one had the courage to recite the Qur'an in public. It was banned basically. No one had recited the Qur'an in public. Who is going to volunteer? And so Ibn Mas'ud said, I volunteer. They said, O Ibn Mas'ud, we want somebody else because, who can tell me why? He's not one of the Quraysh. He's not even Qurayshi. Forget Ilid, he's not even Makki. He's not even from the Quraysh. He's from one of the Yemeni tribes. So they said, Oh Ibn Mas'ud, we don't want you because you don't have family members to help you and protect you. You don't have an Ashira. You don't have a tribe. And basically as we said over and over again, everything in that time is based upon lineage. Everything. We need to understand, just like in our times, the American passport abroad, as for Muslims in America, that's a different story. But abroad, the American passport is supposed to hold something, right? If a government stops you, you say, hey, ho, I'm an American. Careful. You pull out the passport. This is your protection. So in those days, you're Qurashi. You have that protection. Or you're Banu Makhzum, or you're Banu Hashim, or whoever you are. Ibn Mas'ud is nobody. he's a Yemeni, he's not a Qurashi so they said no no we don't want you, we want somebody else Ibn Mas'ud said no I'm the one who wants to do it, he volunteers and he said I put my trust in Allah Allah will protect me, and subhanallah this is Ibn Mas'ud Ibn Mas'ud is the one whom the Prophet s.a.w. said if you want to read the Quran as it was revealed then take it from Ibn Ummi'ab that is Ibn Mas'ud, right غَضًّا طَرِيًّا كَمَا أُنزِل يعني fresh and ripe as it was revealed. If you want to recite the Qur'an properly, Ibn Mas'ud is the one take the Qur'an from these four and Ibn Mas'ud is them. Ibn Mas'ud is the one who says, I have taken more than 70 surahs directly from the Prophet ﷺ's mouth to my mouth. I don't have anybody else as a Qur'an teacher. More than 70 surahs I took. And so Ibn Mas'ud is an expert in Qur'an and it is his passion. And so he goes, no, I want to do this, right? And he has every right to because of who he is in terms of his Qur'an and status with the Qur'an. And so they said, Okay, if you are insisting, then go. So he began, he went to Mecca the next morning, he went to the Ka'bah, excuse me. He went to the Ka'bah the next morning, when the people had gathered. You know that this was their, the Ka'bah was basically their place of socialization. When they finished their chores, when they finished their buying and selling, there was a time they would all just sit in the shade, and they would just gossip and chit-chat. This was their, the version of the coffee shop, right? This was their majlis in front of the Ka'bah. So this was where everybody sat in the afternoon, in the time when they sat. So Ibn Mas'ud went at that time. And he stood at the maqam of Ibrahim. And he began reciting in a loud beautiful voice. And Ibn Mas'ud had the voice of a qari. He was the qari of the sahaba. He was the qari of the sahaba. He began reciting in a beautiful voice, Surah Ar-Rahman. One of the early surahs, right? And one of the most beautiful surahs. And it was so beautiful, people began gathering around him to listen. People began gathering around him to listen. And one of them said, what is this that he's reciting? And he's reciting tilawa. And the Quraysh had never heard this type of tilawa. They had never seen this type of tilawa. Realize that the whole science of tilawa, of tajweed, it is specific to the Qur'an. The Arabs didn't choose to speak in ghunnas and mudud. Right? They're not speaking the way that the Qur'an is recited. The whole art of tilawa, and the words of the Qur'an, all of it is to a different level. All of it. And so they're not used to this type. And it is mesmerizing. And so Ibn Mas'ud begins to zila, where the people come around him. And they begin talking, because he's not answering, he's reciting. And so they begin talking, what is this? This is interesting. What is he reciting? One of them finally says, Oh, this is what Muhammad has claimed has been revealed to him, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is now the Qur'an. Now the cat is let out of the bag. Oh, this is what Ibn Mas'ud is reciting. So immediately, some of them pounced on him. Others are wanting to listen. Some of them pounced on him, and began beating him, and taking their shoe off and hitting him. Because he's not a Quraishi, nobody is going to defend him. Nobody is going to defend him. He is by himself. And they continue to physically beat him until he could not continue reciting. He wasn't able to finish two pages of Surah Ar-Rahman. He wasn't able to finish that. And he came back bloodied and battered and bruised. And the Sahaba said, وَاللَّهِ هَذَا مَا كُنَ نَخْشَعْ لِكِ This is exactly what we were worried about. That's why we didn't want you to go and do this. And Ibn Mas'ud said, Wallahi, after today nothing has increased other than my contempt for the Quraysh. And I'm willing to go do this again tomorrow. Come, just challenge me. I'm gonna do this tomorrow. I've only increased in my contempt that how could you have done this and stooped to this level? I wanna do this again tomorrow. And so the sahaba said Kafaq, enough. Enough is enough. We didn't expect you. And you've done enough to distress them. They have heard the Qur'an and you have caused them to be distressed. And of course you all know the famous story that Ibn Ishaq mentions and Tabarani and others mention. The famous story of the three leaders of the Quraysh, Abu Jahl, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, and Al-Akhnas ibn Shariq. Abu Jahl, Abu Sufyan, and Al-Akhnas. These three were of the seniors and elders. That because the Qur'an is not being recited publicly, and yet they've heard bits and pieces, they have been mesmerized by it. and so they have a desire to listen to it but you can't do it in public so when do they do it? you all know the story and it is an authentic story that because the Prophet ﷺ would pray tahajjud every morning and in tahajjud he would raise his voice with the Qur'an and he would recite it and of course remember this is a small society a peaceful village you don't have the traffic noise when the Prophet ﷺ is reciting in his house at 3am the neighbors will hear if they want to it's the dead of the night It's that type of society, small village. As I said, less than a thousand people in Mecca. And it's dead quiet at 3-4 a.m. So when he's in his house reciting the Qur'an, at that time, you have the opportunity to listen from outside. And so, it so happened that, as we said, Al-Akhnas, Abu Sufyan, and Abu Jahl, these three, they bumped into one another at Fajr, because that's when the Prophet ﷺ stopped reciting. Right? They bumped into one another at Fajr, and they all three realize that there's only one reason they're outside at 4 a.m. right? close to the Prophet ﷺ and that is to listen to the Qur'an. And they all try to make an excuse and this and that but inside they all know the reason. But they don't want to admit it. Right? The second night the same thing happens. And they again bump into another. And so they're all listening from a different alleyway because their houses might be in different areas. But when they're going home and they're returning they go down the main alleyway and they bump into one another again when the Prophet ﷺ stops. Right? So they're mesmerized up until basically the pre-fajr. As you know, tahajjud lasts until that time. So when the Prophet ﷺ stops, they then return home and once again. So then they say, okay, we're not gonna do this again. But for the third time it happens. And they're so embarrassed, they say, look, if the people here that were doing this will lose respect in their eyes, let us make a promise to Allah, we're not going to come and listen to the Qur'an again. Now before I move on to this riwayah, I want you to understand what passion will motivate a person to get out of bed at 3, 4 in the morning and to walk to somebody else's house to listen and stand in darkness in the chill of the night complete you leave your bed to go listen to the recitation and you know subhanallah one of the things that I pray that Allah blesses me and all of you with we always love to hear the beautiful qura' of the Quran my favorite is Husari and Manchawi and Abdul Basit, many of you like Afasi. Can you imagine those who were fortunate to listen to the Prophet Muhammad's voice? Can you imagine how that would have moved them? If these people move us and they are basically normal Qurra, can you imagine the voice and the tilawa of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself? And I sincerely make dua to Allah that one day He allows me to listen to that tilawa and to all of you inshaAllah. So the tilawah coming from the tongue of the Prophet ﷺ, can you imagine what emotions would be playing? So for these three men, and they're all elders, they're all in their 50s, right? They're all old people. To leave bed and to come and stand outside, to listen to the tilawah of the Prophet ﷺ, it is something that they cannot do in public, they have to do in private. And so they make a promise to Allah, okay, that's it. If we are discovered, it's gonna be a big embarrassment. So let us keep this secret. The next morning, the morning of the fourth day, in At-Tabarani it's reported, Al-Akhnas came to Abu Sufyan, and he said to Abu Sufyan, Oh Abu Sufyan, what is your opinion about what we heard? What is your opinion? Abu Sufyan is embarrassed, and he goes, First you tell me your opinion. Well I like kids. Like kids, because he's too embarrassed, you know. First you tell me yours, then I'll tell you mine. I'm not gonna say it until you say it. This is Abu Sufyan, because Abu Sufyan is the most sympathetic of the three. and Abu Sufyan will be the one who accepts Islam the earliest, right? This is Abu Sufyan. So you can tell automatically something is happening. As for Al-Akhnas, people have differed, did he accept Islam or not? One opinion is that he accepted Islam. We don't know much about Al-Akhnas, what happened to him. Of course Abu Jahl is Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl is the Fir'aun of the Ummah. So Al-Akhnas goes to Abu Sufyan and he asks Abu Sufyan, what did you think of the recitation? Abu Sufyan says, first you tell me, then I'll tell you. So Al-Akhnas says, Wallahi, it seems to be Al-Haqq, the truth. It seems to be the truth. Abu Sufyan is embarrassed to admit fully. And so he says to Al-Akhnas, some of what he said, I understood everything, and others was beyond my comprehension. In other words, he didn't give a correct opinion. He basically said, it was so eloquent, I understood certain words, and I didn't understand other words. So he gave a wishy-washy answer. He gave a vague answer. He didn't give his full opinion. Of course, his full opinion, he knows it's the truth, eventually he accepts Islam. But for now he goes, well my opinion is this, he's being, Abu Sufyan by the way, he's a politician, right? His son is Muawiyah and they founded the Umayyad dynasty. Okay? This is, he does not want any slip to come out. He's guarding, you have to be a politician. I mean this in a positive way because you have good politicians as well. And as Ibn Hajar says, the best politician or the best king the ummah has ever seen is Muawiyah because he's a sahabi. Okay? So we have nothing but praise for Muawiyah as father Abu Sufyan, but he's the politician. So he doesn't want any phrase to be spread, even accidentally. So he doesn't give his full opinion. He said, something of what I heard was good, and other things I didn't understand. He gives a wishy-washy answer. Then Al-Akhnas goes to Abu Jahl. And he says, Abu Jahl, I want to know your honest opinion about what we heard. What is the verdict? Because Al-Akhnas thinks this is the truth. He's moved. And so he goes to Abu Jahl. What tribe was Abu Jahl from? The sub-tribe. Banu Makhzum. Banu Makhzum, right? Abu Sufyan is from the Umayyad tribe. And so these three are the main tribes of the Quraish. You have to know this by now. The Banu Makhzum, and that's Abu Jahl. That's Khalid ibn al-Walid. These are Makhzums. And then you have the Umayyads, and then the Banu Umayyad, and of course they become the Umayyads later on. And then you have the Banu Hashim. You have more than this, but these are the three main ones that we are interested in for the seerah in particular. so Abu Sufyan is the leader of the Banu Umayyah Abu Jahl is the leader of or one of the leaders he's not the main leader one of the leaders of the Banu Makhzum he's one of the tall guys or the big guys of the Banu Makhzum the elites of the Banu Makhzum so he goes to Abu Jahl he says what did you think and Abu Jahl says and this is now he is coming clean about why he doesn't accept Islam and Abu Jahl says the same thing to another person who converted to Islam and he tells us the same statement So we have this from two different people. Exactly what Abu Jahl says. Abu Jahl says, the Banu Manaf, the Banu Hashim, because Manaf is the grandfather, the Banu Manaf and us, we have always been in competition with one another. And when they began to give food to the pilgrims, we also began to give food. When they began to give water, we began to give water to the pilgrims. Because the Banu, as we said many many months ago, the Banu Manaf, they excelled in hospitality. And so they became the most noble of the sub-tribes of the Quraysh. Whenever they did something, the Banu Makhzum had to follow suit. Okay? And so when they gave water, we also started giving water. When they showed the bravery, we showed bravery. When they had the flag of battle, we had the flag of battle. Until finally, we were like two horses about to get to the finish line. كفر سيريحان means just about to get to the finish line. We're battling, you know, right at the end of the race. and now they come and they tell us they have a prophet whom Allah inspires from the heavens. How can we compete with that? How can we win the race? And so wallahi, as long as I live, I will never accept him. Notice his response is honest. Honest. That the reason I cannot follow him is because he is my competitor. Not because he doesn't have the truth. Because I am from the Banu Makhzum and he is from the Banu Manaf or the Banu Hashim and we have always been trailing behind them. Now if I'm going to admit it, and again it goes back to Jahili, nose, snobbery, arrogance, my lineage, my father and grandfather. It all goes back to that, right? Subhanallah, even Abu Talib had the same reason he couldn't accept Islam. You understand how much this was a part of their culture. And so, as we said, one of the tactics was to try to prevent the recitation of the Qur'an. And Allah mentions this as well. That when they hear the Qur'an, they say to one another, ilghaw fihi la'allakum taghlibun. that you just start murmuring, start shouting, so that you will overcome the Qur'an. And Allah says you're never going to be able to do that. So this was the third tactic we mentioned. The fourth tactic was to ridicule the Prophet ﷺ and the believers. To say things about them to make others laugh at them. To make others scoff them. And this is of course the general methodology of all the people who oppose the truth. Even in our times, how they ridicule Islam and how they ridicule what Muslim cultures might do. They make fun of it and they'll just give us a racist joke about Islam. This is common to this time. And so many reports are reported here. Once the Prophet ﷺ did not receive any new revelation for a number of weeks or a number of months. And so one of the ladies of the Quraysh, perhaps it was the wife of Abu Jahl, we don't know. One of the ladies of the Quraysh mocked him in front of him and said that, I see that your shaitan has abandoned you. meaning Jibreel. I see that your shaitan has abandoned you because you haven't recited anything new. And so the Prophet ﷺ really felt hurt at this. And he felt grieved. And at this Allah ﷻ revealed, وَالضُّحَىٰ وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ Your Lord has neither abandoned you nor shown you any anger or hostility nor has He left you. وَلَلْآخِرِ ذُو خَيْرُ لَكَ مِنَ الْأُولَىٰ And the future is gonna be better for you than the present. and this means the future in this world and the future in the next world. Be patient. He was greatly grieved when one of the women is mocking him. Subhanallah, it's human nature when somebody makes fun of you. How about an elderly lady making fun of you? He really felt hurt at this and so Allah calmed him down and Allah consoled him and said, وَلَا الْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مَنْ أُولَىٰ وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَىٰ And you will be given until you are content. Be patient. And the surah goes on and I have given a khutbah about this surah and we talked about this surah in that khutbah. Also, especially Abu Jahl. Especially Abu Jahl would go out of his way and personally try his best to smear the religion. If the person were a person of status, he would make fun of him. And if he were a person of lowliness, he would get physical with him. And if he were a person of status, he would go and tell him, how can you leave the religion of your forefather? Was your father worse than you or are you better than your father? Again, this is a common Arab thing. your father and your grandfather must be better than you. So they ask him bluntly, are you better than your father and grandfather? And they mention whoever was their grandfather, the famous founder of the tribe. Whether it's Makhzum, whether it's Rumayyah, whether it's Manaf. Are you better than them? Or are they better than you? And he would try to boycott them, and not engage in trade with them. And if he were weak, he would physically intimidate them. And one of the stories mentioned by Ibn Ishaq in his seerah, one of the stories mentioned is that once someone did not pay Abu Jahl, sorry, someone purchased something from Abu Jahl. Someone purchased something from Abu Jahl and refused to pay him the amount. Abu Jahl did not pay him. And he kept on stalling and stalling and stalling. And so, one day, when this man came and he wanted to get his money back, Abu Jahl said, he wasn't from the Quraysh, he didn't know all of this. Abu Jahl said to him, go to Muhammad and he will get it for you. He will get it for you. He will give it to you. So he said it to him as basically a joke. Go to Muhammad and he's going to give the money back. So the man came and he didn't know what's happening. He didn't know that this is just a joke. The man came to the Prophet's house knocked on it told him that Abu Jahl owes me money and this is the amount and he's told me to come and collect it from you. Because what the idea was was that the Prophet ﷺ might owe Abu Jahl money, so instead of giving it back to Abu Jahl, he'll give it to the man. So you understand the point. There's a debt here. So the man thought, you must owe Abu Jahl money. Instead of giving him the money, give it back to me. I'll take it. So the Prophet ﷺ said, don't worry, I will get your money back for you. I will get your money back for you. He took the man by the hand, and he walked right then and there to the house of Abu Jahl. And he knocked on the door. And when the door opened, Abu Jahl was shocked to see the Prophet ﷺ with this man. And the Prophet ﷺ said to him, Ya Aba Jahal, give the man his money back now. Abu Jahal, his face changed to complete white. And he began trembling. And he rushed back home, and he handed a whole bag that he had without even counting, he just threw it at the man. And he said, here, go. And so the man did not understand. He thought, okay, well, Abu Jahal was right that he would get my money back. He got my money back. The man went his way. Later on, Abu Jahal's friend came and said, how could you have given the man his money when you kept on refusing and when the Prophet ﷺ asked or when Muhammad asked you gave it to him he said I saw behind him I saw behind him what you didn't see right behind the Prophet ﷺ right I saw behind him what you did not see that terrified me according to one report he saw a herd of angry camels waiting to pounce on him and this is of course Allah's miracle he saw a herd of angry camels and camels can get very angry and nasty right waiting to pounce on him and his flesh just changed because he knows these are not human camels or not regular camels, right? He knows this is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so his face changes he just throws him his whole wallet he goes, khalas, go this is your money and go. So, of course, here is Abu Jahl trying to smear the Prophet ﷺ and in fact the opposite happened. Another tactic, the fifth tactic is false accusations not just joking but slander not just throwing these pranks but downright, outright lies. and here is where the Quraysh of course they stooped to a level they had never stooped to before and they began to lie about the Prophet ﷺ the Qur'an mentions 3 or 4 or 5 of their particular lies and what is amazing is that to this day every non-Muslim who rejects Islam has to say one of these lies about the Prophet ﷺ he cannot get out of the same lies that are mentioned in the Qur'an so of these lies وَيَقُولُونَ إِنَّهُ لَمَجْنُونَ he's crazy even though the Quraysh knew the Prophet ﷺ was not crazy right فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمْرًا مِّنْ قَبْلِهِ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ the Qur'an says I lived a whole lifetime amongst you you know me can't you think you know me who I am and so they say he is crazy of them they say he is a kahin a fortune teller of them they say he is a saahir وَقَالَ الظَّالِمُونَ يَنْ تَتِبْعُنَ إِلَى رَجُلًا مَسْحُورًا he's either a saahir or a mashoor they can't even make up their minds Sometimes he's the magician, and sometimes magic has been done on him. Right? Both of these accusations are given. And to this day, those people who reject Islam, they have to say some things like this. And the most common understanding that most academics who are not Muslims have, is that the Prophet ﷺ was deluded into thinking he's a prophet. Which is a type of madness. You think you're hearing voices. Right? And it is impossible for a man to be crazy in one area, and completely sane in every other area. As a family man, as a person of a leader, as this and that, everything else is completely top-notch. And yet in one area, they say, he must have been hearing, because they cannot doubt his sincerity. He was sincere in his message, they know it. How can you be sincere when you're not telling the truth? Well, then you think you're telling the truth. How can you think you're telling the truth, when God is speaking to you? This is your imagination. Right? And they accused him of being a poet. And this is standard to this day. He was a marvelous poet, they say. He had a command of the Arabic. But Allah tells us in the Quran, I lived 40 years before this. I never wrote any book. وَلَا تَخُطُّهُ بِيَمِينِكِ إِذَا الَّارْتَابَ الْمُبْطِلُونَ I never wrote any poetry before this. I was not known for poetry. And the Prophet ﷺ, till the day he passed away, he hardly mentioned any lines of poetry. Perhaps two or three lines of poetry ever crossed his mouth. right? أَلَا كُلُّ شَيْءًا مَا خَلَ اللَّهَ بَاطِلُوا أَصْدَقُوا قَوْلِ الشَّعِيْنِ قَوْلُ الْأَبِيدِ One phrase, in fact, according to one scholar, Ibn Hajar, he said, never did the Prophet ﷺ give a full couplet of poetry. You know, Arabs have couplets. You have rhyming, you know, they have the two halves of a sentence, right? Couplet. Never did the Prophet ﷺ give a whole couplet of poetry. Only one half of it, at max. And if you look at the seerah, it seems to be the case. So the Prophet ﷺ never gave poetry. And yet when the Qur'an comes out, it is beyond what they can understand. And the main story that I want every one of us to know and memorize is the story of Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira. Because really this is the standard story that shows how they had to interpret the Qur'an. And this is something, again and again I point out, the Qur'an was something unprecedented. They had never heard a language, a style, the words, the rhythm, the tone, everything is completely unprecedented. And all of you who are Arabs and who speak Arabic, compare the Qur'an to any poetry. Compare it to any poetry. Wallahi, it is nothing like human poetry, right? Compare it to the Diwan of Al-A'isha, Diwan of Mutanabbi, Diwan of Al-Shafi'i, completely different. The Qur'an is, nothing is like it. Because it is the speech of Allah Azza wa Jal. So imagine the Qur'an being recited to the masters of the Arabic language, right? These are the living legends are alive. And the greatest poet of Mecca was Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira. And Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira was also the chieftain of the Banu Makhzum. Just like Abu Talib was the chieftain of the Banu Hashim, Al-Walid was the chief and Abu Jahl was his vice minister. Right? The second in command. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira was the big guy of the Banu Makhzum. And he was the unparalleled poet of Mecca. He was the Shakespeare of Mecca. When the people of Quraysh competed with Hawazin, with Thaqif, with the other tribes in poetry, Al-Walid would represent. He is going to the matches, he is going to the finals. This is who Al-Walid is. He is the father of Khalid ibn Al-Walid. Khalid is his son. Khalid ibn Al-Walid, his father is Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughira. So Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughira. Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughira is the senior of the Banu Maghzum. And once the Prophet ﷺ was reciting the Qur'an, in Mecca, in front of the Kaaba. And Al-Walid managed to listen uninterrupted for the first time. Because before this, they're drowning out the voices. For the first time, Al-Walid listens to the Quran, and he's mesmerized. He stops in his tracks. And he listens until the Prophet ﷺ finishes. And he goes away a changed man. And he mutters something that spread in the people of Mecca. The people of Mecca were few. Anybody says something, everything spreads. Gossip is rampant in Mecca, right? And he says something when he's walking away. وَاللَّهِ لَقَدْ سَمِعْتُمْ مِنْ مُحَمَّدٍ كَلَامًا آنِفًا مَا هُوَ مِنْ كَلَامٍ الْإِنسِ وَلَا مِنْ كَلَامٍ الْجِنْ I have heard a speech from Muhammad right now. It is neither from the speech of men or the speech of jinn. إِنَّ أَسْفَلَهُ لَمُغْدَقْ وَإِنَّ عَلَاهُ لَمُونِقْ وَإِنَّ لَهُ لَحَلَاوَةً وَإِنَّ عَلَيْهِ لَطَلَاوَةً وَإِنَّهُ يَعْلُو وَلَا يُعْلَى عَلَيْهِ even what he said is so beautiful it's a ridge it's not poetry but it is a type of beautiful, even to translate it as problematic prose it's a beautiful prose what he is saying is the top of it is fertile the height of it is beautiful it has a halawa and it has a rhythm again these are synonyms here we don't translate word by word and it surpasses everything I've heard and nothing can surpass it. He is describing the Qur'an as a pagan. I've never heard anything like this. Neither from the Kalam of Ins, nor from the Kalam of Jin. The people panicked. Our poet is admitting defeat in one instance? Just one recitation? And this is his... So the news spread everywhere, right? When it reached Abu Jahl, he said, leave it to me, don't worry. I'll take care of it. Abu Jahl is the second in command. Abu Jahl immediately goes to the house of Al-Walid. And he tells Al-Walid that, Your people, O Al-Walid, your people have heard that you have praised the Qur'an. And they will not be satisfied with you until you dissociate from Muhammad ﷺ. Your people have heard your praise of the Qur'an, and he's one of them by the way. You meaning, your people meaning me too. They will not be satisfied with you until you say something against it just like you praised it. Pause here. Footnote. Compare this to Abu Talib. Compare this to Abu Talib. Last week when we mentioned about Abu Talib. When the people of Mecca came and said, we will not be satisfied with you until you hand over Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And he stood his ground. And he did not bow down or cower. And he said, do as you please, I am not going to do it. This is what you call a true leader. Al-Walid is your regular politician and when he's told you're not gonna get the votes you've gotta sing the tune instantaneously because as we keep on telling wallahi when you understand Tawheed you cannot fear anyone or respect any of those who are not fearing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a politician is one of the most servile of all human beings because they go with the wind they will sell their the average politician, they will sell their morals for the sake of the votes. They are not leaders, they are followers as Ibn Taymiyyah says. That the politicians, the ones in siyasah, they are not leaders, they are the followers. They have to follow the whims of society. And this is a classic example. That here you have a Walid al-Mughira who pretends to be so bossy and so famous and what not. As soon as he hears he's getting unpopular, you gotta sing another tune. He says, Abu Jahl, what do you want me to say? Tell me. First thing, what do you want me to say? tell me I'll say it and so Abu Jahl says call him a madman Al-Walid says but he's not a madman and everybody knows he's not a madman and we've seen crazy people and he has no symptoms of a crazy man so then Abu Jahl says okay call him a kahin call him a fortune teller Al-Walid says but he's not a fortune teller like he's trying to be honest here he's not a fortune teller and he doesn't have the dandana or the mazmara of the kahna, the kahna are a way of speaking. And he doesn't have that. So, say he's a magician. But he's not a magician. And the magicians have you know, their invocations and their tarot cards, whatever they had over their time. He doesn't have any of this, right? So say he's a poet. And then Walid said, by Allah, I am the best poet amongst you. Here he wouldn't agree that I am the poet, right? Because I am the best poet amongst you. And none of you can compete in poetry than me. And I am telling you that this is not the type of poetry that we are used to. Right? So then Abu Jahl said, you need to say something. And we will not be satisfied. Now he says, we. We will not be satisfied with you until you say something. So he said, leave me alone for a few days. And he began walking around in his house, thinking about what he is going to say. And he is frowning. And he is going about back and forth. What am I going to say? and then he finally comes across an idea I know what I'm going to say that this is and before he could say it Allah revealed in the Quran exactly what is happening in the privacy of his house and the feelings in his heart and the expressions in his face that nobody even his family did not know and Allah revealed it in the Quran right look at the beauty of the Quran coinciding with reality that before he can say something, the Prophet ﷺ recites it and exposes him. Surah Al-Muddathir, the second portion. ذَرْنِي وَمَنْ خَرَقْتُ وَحِيدًا Allah is speaking directly to Al-Walid. And wallahi, nobody wants to be in Al-Walid's shoes now. Directly Allah is speaking in the first person. Leave me alone with the one whom I created. All alone. وَجَعَلْتُ لَهُ مَالًا مَمْدُودًا وَبَنِينَ شُهُودًا I gave him all of his money and so many sons he had so many sons Khalid is one of them and he's one of the Baneen Allah references Khalid indirectly وَبَنِينَ شُهُودًا وَمَهَدْتُ لَهُ تَمْهِيدًا and I prepared everything for him ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ وَنَزِيدًا and he still wanted more right كَلَّا إِنَّهُ كَانَ لِآيَاتِنَا عَنِيدًا verily he was an obstinate stubborn person when he heard our verses and Allah goes on and describes that when he heard the Quran إِنَّهُ فَكَّرَ وَقَدَّرْ فَقُتِلْ كَيْفَ قَدَّرْ He began plotting and planning and thinking. May he be cursed, how he tried to plot and plan, right? ثُمَّ أَبَسْتَ وَبَسَرَ ثُمَّ أَدْبَرَ وَاستَكْبَرَ He frowned and he's walking around, he's pacing in his house. Allah describes it in the Qur'an. And nobody knew this, how he's feeling, and what his expressions are. Not even his family, because he's all alone. And Allah tells it to him. In the Qur'an, we recite to this day. And then he said, and Allah said what he would say, that the worst he could say is, إِنْ هَذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ يُؤْثَرُ إِنْ هَذَا إِلَّا قَوْلُ الْبَشَّرِ This is a special type of magic. Special type of magic that is coming from a man. It's a special type of man. That's all he could say, right? And Allah says, سَأُسْلِيهِ سَقَرْ I am going to cause him to go into the blazing fire. And wallahi, even these verses are so powerful in the Arabic language that Allah is challenging al-Walid. Do you think you can beat my speech? Even the verses of Muddathir are so powerful, of the most powerful of the early revelations. And this clearly shows us that, of course, Al-Walid died a pagan, because again, the same arrogant. He was the chieftain of the Banu Maghzum. Al-Walid died a pagan. And subhanAllah, both of his sons accepted Islam. Both of his elder sons, Khalid and the elder brother, they both accepted Islam later on in their lives, not at this point in time. So we said this is the fifth point, and that was to try to smear the Prophet ﷺ. And there are many stories. It is also narrated that Abu Jahl would stand outside of Mecca during the pilgrimage season. And before the pilgrims arrived, he'd make a public announcement, that listen, careful, there is a madman in town. Sometimes Abu Lahab would do this as well, and he would say, that's my nephew. My nephew has gone crazy. And I warn you, do not listen to him, because if you do, you will be mesmerized. He is a magician who will mesmerize you, who will completely captivate you. So when you see him, turn around, put your hands in your ears, right? You cover your ears up, Do not listen to him. And subhanAllah, this was the cause of the conversion of more than one person. One of them said that, Oh, he's a madman, I'm a doctor. I'll cure him. So he went to the Prophet ﷺ. And he said to the Prophet ﷺ, that I have heard that you are a madman or you have possession or something. And I'm a doctor and I don't mind curing you. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, No, I'm not a madman, but listen to my message. and he said, the khutbatul haja innal hamdalillah nahmaduhu wa nasta'eenuhu wa nasta'gharuhu wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa min sayyi'ati a'malina man yahdihi allahu falamu dhillilah He went to the... He didn't even get to the message. And the man said, stop. Repeat what you have just said. He repeated the khutbatul haja. Yani this is not even the khutbah. This is what you say in the beginning. He goes, wallahi I have never heard anything as beautiful than this. What are you? I am a prophet and then he began and he accepted Islam subhanallah right so of course it backfired on some but the bulk of people I mean imagine being stopped before you enter a seat and you're told that's a disaster that's a person a crazy man of course you're gonna listen and so the bulk of the people did not listen and they and they were persuaded to avoid the Prophet because of Abu Jahl because of Abu Lahab and the other leaders the sixth point that we'll mention of their tactics again all of these are tactics that we're mentioning what did they do the sixth point we'll mention sometimes they try to challenge the Prophet ﷺ for a miracle. And they demanded to see something with their eyes. And again Allah mentions many such challenges that they ask for. One of them is mentioned in Surah Al-Isra. Surah Al-Isra is an early Meccan surah, mid Meccan surah. In Surah Al-Isra they say, وَقَالُوا لَن نُؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّى تَفْجُرَ لَنَا مِنْ الْأَرْضِ يَنْبُوعًا They say, we're never going to believe in you until you cause the earth to spring forth water. ينبور ينبور is a place of water coming forth, right? A well coming forth. We're never gonna believe you until we see with our eyes a well just created. أو تكون لك جنة من نخيل وعنب Or you are simply blessed instantaneously out of nowhere in the desert. The desert is transformed into grapes and dates. grapes were not a Meccan fruit they don't grow in Mecca but grapes everybody knows they're the most luscious of fruits so they say if you truly are a prophet convert this desert into grapes and dates and so we can eat from it أو تسقط السماء كما زعمت علينا كسفا or break up the skies as you say that Allah says in the Quran إذا السماء انفطرت إذا الكواكب تثرت Allah is saying that the sky is gonna break up on the day of judgment do it now show us the skies breaking up Or why don't you bring Allah Himself and bring the angels so that we see them. Or have your house transformed into gold, into jewelry. Or go up to the heavens as we're watching you. Right? And they say, وَلَنُؤْمِنَ لِرُقِيِّكَ حَتَّى تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا كِتَابًا نَقْرَأُهُ And we're never going to listen to your murmuring. murmuring, ruqiyyik here means you're muttering, until we see a book coming down from the heavens. And then Allah tells them to say, قُلْ سُبْحَانَ رَبِّي هَلْ كُنْتُ إِلَّا بَشَرًا رَسُولًا Say, Subhanarabbi, I am only a bashar, I am only a rasool, I am not God walking on earth. Now, question arises, why didn't Allah give them all of these miracles? Why not? He is a prophet. To respond, number one, He did give them some miracles. He did. And of those miracles, the most famous of them is mentioned in the Quran. اِقَتَرَبَتِ السَّاعَةُ وَانْشَقَّ الْقَمَرُ And they challenged him and they said, if you are truly a prophet, show us the moon splitting. And so he made a dua to Allah and they saw the two halves of the moon. And this is mentioned in the Quran. They saw the two halves of the moon. One on each side of the mountain of Safa. Right? And they turned around and they said, Oh, he's bewitched our eyes. He's bewitched our eyes. Number two, the second reason that no miracle was revealed was that Allah revealed the greatest miracle, and that is the Quran. And Allah kept on emphasizing this, that this is your miracle. Number three, why didn't Allah Azza wa Jal reveal a miracle is that Allah knows that they are asking out of stubbornness and arrogance. And this is proven by the fact that when the miracle is shown, they reject it, such as the moon. And Allah says in the Quran, وَلَوْ أَنَّنَا نَزَّلْنَا إِلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَكَلَّمَهُمُ الْمَوْتَىٰ وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلًا مَا كَانُوا لِيُؤْمِنُوا إِلَّا أَنْ يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ Allah is saying, if we were to stand down the angels, and we were to resurrect the dead in front of them, and all of the creation were to speak to them face to face, they would still not believe. So this is another wisdom for not answering. Another wisdom is that Allah Azzawajal is above being so petty, that every time somebody asks, you're going to get. And Allah Azzawajal has given enough signs, that you should believe in those signs. Another wisdom is that Allah Azzawajal, if He is challenged, He takes the challenge but with a challenge back. He takes the challenge but with the challenge back. And the challenge back is that, if you reject, then you will face the punishment. And this is authentically mentioned in Sahih Bukhari. That once they begged the Prophet ﷺ to convert Safa into gold. Of course they're greedy, they want the gold as well, right? So they begged to convert Safa into gold. And so the Prophet ﷺ felt that they're really sincere. And so he made a special dua to Allah. And he said, O Allah, convert Safa into gold for them. The mountain of Safa. By the way, the mountain of Safa was three or four times bigger than what you see. Even now it will be worth a few billion. Back then you are talking about half the gold of the whole world. So the Prophet ﷺ felt that they're really close. So he said, O Allah, please convert the mountain of Safa, they will believe. And so Allah sent Jibreel down. And this is the sunnah of Allah, that Allah said, if you want I will convert Safa into gold. But if they reject, they will not have a second chance. Because I don't play games. Allah says in the Quran, that Allah, I didn't do this as a joke. I didn't create everything as a lahoo and la'ib. Allah does not, it's too petty. You want to challenge Allah, it is not dignifying that Allah Azza wa Jal just give you everything you want on a silver platter. And so if you want, Allah said, I will change it. But if they refuse, the punishment will come instantaneously. And if you want, I will not change it, but they will have the opportunity then. Right? So the Prophet ﷺ realized that he has a safer bet, right? with hidayah than by leaving it open. And so he said, no, I'd rather leave it open to get the opportunity for guidance. And this is of course exactly what happened. And of course, there are many verses in the Quran, at least 20 verses that are about this. Allah says, وَمَا مَنَعَنَا أَنْ نُسْرَ بِالْآيَاتِ إِلَّا أَنْ كَذَّبَ بِهَا الْأَوَّلُونَ The only reason we don't send signs is because even the earlier nations all rejected the signs. Allah says, وَمَا يُشْعِرُكُمْ أَنَّهَا إِذَا جَاءَتْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ How do you know, Ya Rasulullah? I know. How do you know that when the miracles come, they will actually reject the miracles. I know this Allah is saying. So the Prophet ﷺ is being told, there is a reason why I'm not answering all the miracles. And he is being told, you have enough miracles with you. And so he was given some miracles and denied others. The seventh tactic that they did, the seventh tactic that they did was attempts of a middle ground or attempts of outright bribery directly. Attempts of a middle ground. So negotiating directly with the Prophet ﷺ. We've already said they negotiated with Abu Talib They negotiated with others Now they try to negotiate directly with him And different tactics are done Of course the classic example Surah Al-Kafirun So they came to the Prophet ﷺ and they said Okay, let's reach a compromise One day we'll all be Muslim And the next day We'll all be Kafir basically The next day we'll worship our gods One day we worship our gods And the next day We worship Allah alone okay so this is the compromise because it's getting out of hand now people are converting you're breaking up society let's reach this compromise of course there is no compromise in Tawheed and so Allah revealed in the Quran قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ say oh you who have rejected Islam لَا أَعْبُدُوا مَا تَعْبُدُونَ I don't worship what you worship وَلَا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ and neither do you worship who I worship pause here they did worship Allah how can Allah say what does it mean when Allah says you don't worship what I worship response because when you worship Allah via shirk, you are not worshipping Allah. When you worship Allah via shirk, you are not worshipping Allah. So, وَلَا أَنْتُ عَبْدُنَا مَا أَعْبُدُ And then, وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدُنَّ مَا عَبَدْتُمْ Notice this is different than وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدُنَّ مَا عَبَدْتُمْ There's a difference. It's not the exact same. وَلَا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُنَا مَا عَابِدُنَّ This is repeated. So there's four verses, back to back. The second and the fourth are exactly the same. وَلَا أَنْتُ عَبْدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ The first and the third are different. لَا أَعْبُدُ وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدُ And scholars have differed over ten opinions about what is the difference between them. Shaykh Nusaymin al-Taymiyyah has a position which is that the first verse here, or the second verse of the surah, قُلْ يَا أَلْكَافَرُونَ لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ وَلَا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ The reference is to the God. The Gods and Allah. the reference is to the object of worship and then the reference is to the actions of worship what do you do to worship so I pray, I fast I give zakah you have arrows that you throw in front of the idols, right, and you clap, and you whistle وَمَا كَانَ صَلَاتُمْ عِنْدَ الْبَيْتِ إِلَّا مُكَاءً وَتَصْطِيَةً What is their prayer in front of the house except clapping and singing and whistling? So the verse, وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدٌ بَعَدٌ وَلَا أَنْتَ عَابِدٌ بَعَبُدٌ It actually refers to, according to Ibn Taymiyyah, what you do to worship. And the first two verses refers to who do you worship, right? So there's a difference here. لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَدِينُ That there is no compromise. You have your way, I have my way. I cannot compromise. And once they sent a delegation to the Prophet ﷺ along with, in Abu Talib's house. So they call for a meeting. So they try to go behind his back to Abu Talib. Now they call for a meeting with him. And they proposition to him directly that what can we do so that you get rid of this message? What do you want? And so he says, I only want one word from you. Now they understood this as one condition. One word from you. And so Abu Lahab stood up and said, one word, wallahi will give you ten. And you want any, by one kalima, one kalima, he meant like one, you're saying, I want one statement from you. Right? So you understand, like I just want one condition. That's how Abu Jahl understood it, right? And so he stood up, he goes, one, wallahi will give you ten, if you stop doing this. And so the Prophet s.a.w. said, the kalima that I want is, la ilaha illallah. La ilaha illallah. And so, Abu Jahl says that, أَجْعَلَ الْآلِهَةَ إِلَٰهٍ وَاحِدًا إِنَّ هَذَا لَشَيْءٌ عُجَابٌ And Allah revealed this in the Quran, Surah As-Saud. That has He made our objects into one, objects of worship into one. This is something that is crazy. We've never heard of this before. And of course the most famous incident of outright bribery, the most famous incident is that of Utbah ibn al-Rabi'ah. And Utbah ibn al-Rabi'ah was from the Banu Hashim, and he was of the distant uncles of the Prophet ﷺ. and he was a man of wisdom and a man of learning. And in fact, the Prophet ﷺ himself called him a man of wisdom and learning. Who knows when? Quiz question. Who knows when Uthbah ibn al-Rabi'ah was praised by the Prophet ﷺ? Very close. Before Badr. Not after Badr. Before Badr. Right before Badr. At the battle of Badr, before Badr had begun. Right? so footnote here Utbah ibn Rabi'ah who is he? he is from the Banu Hashim, the Banu Abd al-Banaf he is a distant father's cousin basically of the Prophet s.a.w. and by the way he is the one whom when the Prophet s.a.w. is returning from Ta'if, he is all bloodied, he is all bruised and he is close to Mecca he sits in the garden of Utbah ibn Rabi'ah and Utbah sees him bloodied and bruised and he is the one who commands the Christian, the historian Christian Adi to go and give him the grapes this is Uthbah ibn Rabi'ah, he has some soft spot and he has wisdom, and when was he called wise? on the battle of Badr, on the day of the battle of Badr before the battle of Badr, when the Prophet ﷺ was looking at the distance, and he sees the armies lined up and he sees a man racing back and forth on a red camel, saying something nobody can hear what he's saying, because there's half a mile away, he's saying something and the Prophet ﷺ said to the Muslims, he said to the Muslims that if the Quraysh have any good in them they will listen to the wise man on the red camel that was Utbah ibn Rabi'ah and he was trying to prevent the battle of Badr and he was going back and forth saying oh people there is your brother there is your father there is your uncle how can you fight them? right? you're going for war? you're gonna kill these people? who's gonna be the victor? we're gonna get to this inshallah whenever we get to it, right? who's gonna be the victor? if you die, you die if you win, you've killed your brother how would you like to be the murder of your own brother? so he gave them a moving sermon but of course Abu Jahl annulled it Abu Jahl stood up and completely abrogated with his rhetoric so Uthbah then fought and he was killed in the battle of Badr him and his brother and his son all were killed in the battle of Badr they were killed in the very beginning when the Mubaraza happened between Ali and Hamza and others we'll talk about that, I'm jumping the gun That's a different topic inshaAllah. Get back over here. Where are we? Uthba ibn al-Rabi'ah. So, the Quraysh are sitting in their nadi, in their gathering, their senate, their congress, and they are simply cursing the Prophet ﷺ and making fun of him saying, what are we gonna do? Things have gone too much. Uthba says, have any of you actually tried to negotiate with him? And they say, well, no, we haven't done that. Well, Uthba says, well, obviously, then that's what needs to be done. look, he's a nephew of mine send me as your representative allow me to speak on your behalf I'm sure we can work something out with the guy and he's a sane man we know him since he's a child he's been a good person let's just work some compromise out so this is Uthwa ibn al-Rabi'ah and so they say whatever you need, you are our representative go and try to negotiate a treaty with the man and so the Prophet ﷺ was sitting in front of the Kaaba. Ritba comes to him and says, Oh my nephew. Again, he's an elder. And the Prophet ﷺ is 45 years old. And he's in his 50s or 60s. He knows him since he's a child. So, oh my nephew. You know your status. And you know your lineage in your society. You are the grandson of Abdul Muttalib, the son of Abdul Muttalib. You are who you are. Now you've come forth with a matter that has really caused havoc in our society. O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Are you better or Abdullah? O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Are you better or Abdul Muttalib? These are trick questions They're loaded questions You cannot answer them Right? Because in fact who is better? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Right? But from Utbah's perspective This is blasphemy No young man is gonna say he's better Than his father, grandfather The founder of the tribe especially Abdul Muttalib come on you know are you better now for me this is a beautiful point of wisdom here when you're asked trap questions you're not allowed to lie I've said this many times our religion does not allow us to have double faces I say one thing to you in private and another to them in public no we are open about what we believe but you can't answer every question to satisfy the questioner because their intellectual level is different I mean this is a man steeped in jahiliyyah. And for him, it is just completely a given that Abdul Muttalib was the greatest Arab ever. And you're his grandson. So it's a trick question the Prophet ﷺ did not even answer. This is wisdom. Many of our youngsters would have blurted out, of course I'm better because I'm Tawheed and this is shirk. But you're gonna lose the battle for the sake of a trick question. Quiet. Because you're not gonna understand or Uthbah? So he didn't answer. Uthbah, understand this to mean victory. But the Prophet ﷺ was quiet. And then he kept on going and he goes, we have never seen any young man as promising as you flip around and become so unpromising. Yani you were such a symbol of optimism. We had our hopes in you. And Astaghfirullah he's saying, what a desolate failure you have become. Astaghfirullah. Why? Because you have broken our society. You had so much potential, we have not seen any young man bring forth more harm to his people than you have. The Arabs are all making fun of us. The people are mocking your call. You have split us up. And it is just a matter of time. He used an expression which is interesting in the Arabic language. We don't have it in English. He said, we're waiting for the cry of the pregnant woman. You know, the pregnant woman in the ninth month. Those of you who have children know this. You're on call all the time. Right? That last moment, you're just waiting for that phone call or that cry that it started. And khalas, panic mode begins. Right? This is an expression in the Arabic language. Okay? The cry of the pregnant woman. This means that any second is gonna happen. We're just waiting for the cry of the pregnant woman to have civil war. Wallahi, this was true. Badr was around the corner, few years down the line. Right? We're just waiting for anything to have a civil war. So, you're an intelligent man, listen to me, I will propose certain conditions. Perhaps you'll agree to one or more of them. And then he gives his list. Because this is the list coming from his mind that he's used to. If you wish for money, if that's why you're doing this, then I have the power of the Quraysh invested in me, we will give you more money than anybody of us have. Collectively we'll raise funds for you. I have fundraisers, give it all to you. and you shall be the richest of the Arabs. If you want power, we will make you our king. The Arabs did not have a king. The Quraysh did not have a king. But now they are so desperate, they are saying, we'll give you the title of king and anything that we want, you will have to agree and sign to it. You'll become our ruler. And can you believe in their hatred of Islam, they're willing to unify. Can you believe that? Because they're never unified. Every tribe is wanting to be boss. But if they're that desperate, we'll make you our king. And if you want women, go choose any woman that you want. And we'll make sure that she is married to you. I mean, after all, this is what three things that men want, right? Power, money, and women. That's what men want. What else do they want besides this? So if you want women, choose any woman that you want. And we will make sure that she is married to you. Right? And so he gave all of these conditions. Of course he also added a fourth one. If you think you're sick, we'll hire doctors to cure you as well. If it's a mental problem, we'll go to the best doctors in the nation. And we'll make sure that we will get this cured. So when he's finished, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Are you done, ya Aba al-Walid? His kunya, Aba al-Walid. Al-Walid ibn Utbah also died in the battle of Badr. His son was al-Walid. Are you done, ya Aba al-Walid? And subhanallah, this is the wisdom of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He never interrupted. He never interrupted. the simple habit that we are used to in this society I have to say Muslim culture has abandoned but the west still has it you don't interrupt a person when they're speaking you let them finish not just that, you then ask are you done for anything else? he goes no, that's all I have so then he said, now listen to me now it's my turn and then he began أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم حاميم والكتاب المبين and he begins reciting Surah Fussilat. He begins reciting Surah Fussilat. Now just like the rest of the Quraysh, Utbah has never actually listened wholeheartedly to the Qur'an, i.e. a passage or a section of the Qur'an. And so Utbah was sitting back because he goes when he's done, he put his hands back to relax basically. Yes, I'm done. Now it's your turn. And as the Prophet ﷺ continued reciting and he continued going verse by verse Uthbah's expression begins to change and he begins to palpitate and there's a verse in Surah Fussilat that says فَإِنْ أَعْرَضُوا فَقُلْ أَنذَرْتُكُمْ صَاعِقَةً مِثْلَ صَاعِقَةِ عَادٍ وَثَمُودٍ now I wanted to actually recite it and go over verse by verse unfortunately as usual I don't have the time to go into that much detail but wallahi these are things that need to be done I want you all to go back and read Fussilat not translation read it and see the power the rhythm, the tempo is building up and then Allah says if they turn away then warn them that a punishment will come and a destruction just like the destruction of Ad and Thamud when he recited this Uthbah jumped up and he put his hand on the mouth of the Prophet and said I beg you by Allah and by the rights that I have over you as your blood relative to stop and don't send this punishment. I beg you, أنشُدُكَ بِاللَّهِ يعني it's moved him. Can you imagine hearing the tilawah of the Prophet ﷺ? Right? It's moved him that he is now trembling. And he turns and he runs back to the same group who has now sent him as their authority and delegates. And he says to them, listen to me. Like he tried to listen to them in Badr, but they never listened. Listen to me. Leave this man alone. Leave this man alone. Because I have heard a speech from him that I have never heard before. Again, the power of the Qur'an. And I could not comprehend all of it. Scholars have differed why people say this. Some people say because the words were so advanced. But in fact, they were not that advanced. What really it is, is that as Allah says that when there is so much shirk, there is a gishawa on their hearts. And so they accept, they understand some phrases, and others, it's just beyond them. At that point in time, until they accept Islam. I could not understand all of it, however, إِنَّ هَذَا سَيَكُونُ لَهُ شَأً He is gonna have an importance. شَأً He's gonna have, he's gonna cause some scene in the world, if you like. And, if the Arabs get rid of him, for us, then our hands are clean because he's a fellow Qurashi we're not allowed to touch him right if the other Arabs get rid of him then our job is done but if he wins over the Arabs then wallahi his victory is our victory and his power is our power I mean isn't this a pragmatic wise man he's not a believer he never accepted but this is what you call pragmatism look leave the guy alone if he really is not worth it somebody else will do the job and kill him let us not do it because he's our tribesman. And if he is what he is saying he is, then his victory is our victory. And his success is our success. Allah says in the Quran, لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ كِتَابًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ We have revealed to you a book, in it will be your honor. Your dhikr. The Arabs would have been, I'm not trying to be racist because I'm not an Arab, they would have been a footnote in history. Wallahi, they would have had nothing to give, just like some of the tribes of Africa, or whatever that we don't even know about in the past. Some of the Aborigines, we don't know anything about them. The Arabs would have been another footnote. But Allah says, we have given you a book, you will become the rulers. لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا إِكُ كِتَابًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ Your legacy will be through the Qur'an. And that's exactly what happened. That because of the Qur'an, the Arabs became the rulers of the world. And the Arabs went to a height that even the Romans and the Persians and everybody else was left behind. And so this is what Uthba is telling them, many many decades before the actual rise happens, when Uthbah said this, they said as they always said to everybody else, he has bewitched you like he bewitched everybody else, right continue and they cannot accept the truth as it comes to them and there is much more to say but as usual unfortunately we have run out of time and so inshallah ta'ala I open the floor for 5-6 minutes of questions and then we will continue, resume later on inshallah ta'ala questions, yes When Abu Jal was given the title of a Muslim? When was he started getting called this? Some scholars say that this was a title given to him by the Prophet ﷺ. Of course his name is Amr. His name is Amr. And he was called the father of wisdom before this. And the father of power. And so some say that when he rejected Islam, than he was called Abu Jahl. However, it sounds good to say that, however, he was also called Abu Jahl by the Quraysh. And therefore, I don't have a definitive answer. I do not have a definitive answer. When was he called Abu Jahl? Was it the Prophet ﷺ and then the Quraysh took it from him? Or was it something that happened before Islam? There are two opinions. I don't know which one is the stronger one. Allah knows best. Sisters, any question? Yes, Sabrina. Did the pre-Islamic Arabs believe in jinns? Jinns stories, huh? Did the pre-Islamic Arabs believe in jinns? Yes, they believed in jinns. In fact, every society on earth, without exception, believes in something called the jinn, or supernatural, or ghosts, or spirits. Every society on earth, whether it is African tribes Aborigines we just mentioned every society, if you look at it anthropologically, historically and this is to this day ancient Europe, medieval Europe it's only in modern times where we think we have left superstition otherwise it was a well known fact amongst every society that there is an entity that is not human and they gave it different names, they called it spirits they called it ghosts, of course for us we know that it is a jinn. So yes, the Arabs did believe in the jinn. Yes? So this is a question about the whole theory in general. One of the most important relationships that we have as people is our relationship to our parents. What was the wisdom or what was the reason that knowing that we were not able to see how the Prophet interacted with his parents? The question is about what is the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ being an orphan. In fact, five, six weeks ago, I talked about this for like 20 minutes. About this exact question. Exactly. What is the wisdom? Why didn't Allah ﷻ just give the Prophet ﷺ parents and the lap of luxury? Why was he an orphan? And we talked about this for around 20 minutes. I recommend you go back. But to summarize, some of the wisdoms was so that the Prophet ﷺ, his tarbiyah or his taking care could literally, it would be from Allah directly. Nobody could have said that he had that type of influence. Because an orphan really is an independent person in many ways. Even if you're taking care of by food and drink, but in terms of thought, in terms of nourishment, in terms of intellectual nourishment, the Prophet ﷺ was left to himself. And so Allah took care of him. Another reason is that orphans, they grow up to be more mature, and more intelligent, and more merciful. And the Prophet needed all of these characteristics, right? And there's a sense of independence that the orphan would have, that would help them to be braver when they're facing persecution. And all of these characteristics, the Prophet ﷺ needed them to be a Prophet of Allah. and there are other wisdoms that scholars derive but these are the main ones and Allah Azawajal knows best yes two of the daughters of the Prophet were indeed engaged to Abu Lahab's sons, you need to realize that in that culture it was common for young children to be engaged because they wanted to book they wanted to lock it into place, everything is lineage everything is lineage so you want your child's husband or wife to be a person of good lineage and so before the coming of Islam no doubt Abu Lahab is an uncle and Abu Lahab's children is obviously the grandchildren of Abdul Muttalib as well and so two of the daughters Abu Lahab had already booked them for his own sons and so even though they were not of marriageable age they were young girls at the time but they had been booked and then when Islam began, then of course Abu Lahab annulled it. Not in the Mecca period, no. The consummation had not occurred anyway. Not in the Mecca period. Other questions? Two minutes left. Yes. What was the relationship between Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab? A lot of people get confused. Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab are two different people. A lot of people get confused. Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab are two different people, two different tribes. Abu Lahab is mentioned in the Quran, that's how you'll remember it. Tabbat Yadah, Abi Lahab. And Abu Lahab is the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. Right? He's the uncle from a grandmother who only had him. Abdul Muttalib had five wives. Abdul Muttalib had five wives. One of them gave birth to Abu Lahab, and they had no other children besides that. So Abu Lahab is a unique mother. And then another of them is the grandmother of the Prophet ﷺ and also Abu Talib's mother. So Abu Talib and Abdullah were full brothers. Abu Talib and Abdullah were full brothers. And that's why Abu Talib took care of the Prophet ﷺ. Abu Jahl has nothing to do with the Banu Hashim. He's from the Banu Makhzum, a different tribe. And Abu Jahl is the one whom the Prophet ﷺ called the Fir'aun of my Ummah. So Abu Jahl is the Fir'aun of my Ummah. That's what the Prophet ﷺ said, right? And so that is a status that even Abu Lahab does not have. Okay. Is that his real name, Abu Lahab? Abu Lahab was his kunya before Islam for sure. He has a name, it doesn't come to me now. Abdul Uzza, that's the one. Abdul Uzza was his name. But Abu Lahab was given to him before Islam. And it was a name of praise that he is a man of fire. And so Allah used it as a name of mockery. So Abu Lahab for sure, the kunya was before the coming of Islam. and that was a name of praise for him final point this weekend is a packed weekend Alhamdulillah for MIC because I'm here for a long time so on Saturday we have a very special guest speaker coming I really strongly encourage you to attend he's a good friend of mine as well mashallah very intellectual very good historian he's finishing up a PhD from NYU in Islamic history and he's going to be giving a talk about Andalus and some benefits from Andalus. I'll be joining him for barakah inshallah, for his barakah, not mine. I might give a few words, but I'm not an expert as much as he is in Andalus. So he'll be talking about Andalus. That is on Saturday. At what time? Balani, yes, at what time? You don't know? Huh? What time do you advertise? After Maghrib? Okay, so it's Saturday. So after Salatul Maghrib. So be here for Salatul Maghrib. Inshallah you don't have a problem coming on Saturday for Salatul Maghrib. So after Salatul Maghrib, we'll pray Maghrib, and then after all we'll start the class inshallah. On Sunday at 11 a.m. the sisters have their halaqah. We'll resume that. I give a halaqah once a month for the sisters. So please send that to the sisters list as well. The sisters have a halaqah on Sunday. And on Sunday night there is a family activity. Everyone is welcome. After Maghrib prayer, presentation starts at 6.45. Searching for the stars, learning about astronomy, We are inviting the Memphis Astronomical Society to come here. And they will bring some telescopes. Let me add, if any of you have telescopes, bring them as well. We'll have some more telescopes. So they're going to bring four or five. I'm sure each one will have a long line. So the more telescopes you have, just bring them and inshallah it will be beneficial for us. And we're going to be looking at the stars. We're going to be looking at Venus and the Sirius and the North Star and whatever else they'll tell us. and so we're looking forward to that on Sunday night at 6.45 and so after Maghrib so both Saturday and Sunday mashallah busy and Sunday afternoon for the sisters at 11 what is this? faith, family and fun tired of turning off your lights? oh this is for Halloween oh this is I'm supposed to be speaking yes okay I see my name on the flyer so apparently I'm supposed to be speaking here okay this is on Monday well we'll have a very busy weekend this weekend Saturday, Sunday, Monday all three days unfortunately you'll be seeing me So on Monday, instead of pretending you're not home and turning the lights off, right? Inshallah, come over to PVS and we're going to be having a little bit of a carnival over there. Games, ice cream, and there's going to be Islamic book fair as well. And stories for Muslims, cakes, balloons, toss the balloons, soccer kick, etc, etc. Aha, no costume allowed. it's a Muslim ethnic day let me say costumes are allowed if they're ethnic wear your shawar kameez, wear your thobes but please no shayateen al-insi wal-jin, please we don't want any shayateen okay, so this is gonna be on Monday at 6 to 8, and it's a good way to get out of your houses really, instead of just pretending to be out of your houses inshallah and yes by the way, I do believe we should not be celebrating Halloween. Some of you asked me this. Clearly, this is a festival that has too much pagan elements in it. It's a bit too clear. And so we draw the line here. I might not draw the line elsewhere, but here we draw the line and we say Halloween and Christmas and these things, it is not a part of our sharia. And even we should avoid giving even candy. Give candy on another day. Yaqee give candy on Eid. Why don't you want to give sweets on Eid? Our Eid, go give sweets to the neighbors. Right? But on Halloween, you don't want to participate in such a festival try to avoid it, it is safer for our deen inshallah ta'ala and inshallah ta'ala with this we will call the adhan for salatul isha

Seerah 13 - Torture and persecution of the weak - Yasir Qadhi _ November 2011-7xedNPpAR2M

This is not an Arab phenomenon, it is a Jewish phenomenon. The Jews understood who is a prophet, the Arabs did not know who is a or what is a prophet. And that is why Allah says, لِتُنذِرَ قَوْمًا مَا أَتَاهُمْ مِنْ نَذِيرٍ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ That you can warn a nation who didn't have a prophet before them that they knew. Of course the Prophet Abraham was there, but his legacy was almost forgotten. They didn't really know what is a prophet. And so Allah says he had not sent a prophet before to the Arab nation. And therefore when the Arabs heard of this, that you are a prophet of God, the only other nation that they knew who believed in prophets were the Jews and Christians. And so they sent emissaries to the Jews, they sent emissaries to the people of the book, in order to say, okay, this is a phenomenon that is from your religion, is happening in our culture. And we know it's not true. We don't believe in this. So why don't you tell us something that we can quiz the Prophet with. We can try to ask the Prophet ﷺ. And obviously because they thought he was a false prophet, he was not going to be able to answer. So his lies will be exposed. And so they sent a number of delegations to Medina. At that time it was called Yathrib. And that is because Yathrib was the only place that were Jews living close by. And so they sent a number of delegations to Yathrib. In one such delegation, the Ahli Kitab said, ask him about Isaac and Ya'qub, Jacob and Yusuf. Because that is their lineage. The Jews are Bani Israel. And who is Israel? Israel is, who is Israel? Ya'qub, right? So ask him about Ya'qub and his father and his son. Ask him about what happened to the family of Ya'qub. And so, they went to the Prophet ﷺ, they asked him about the family of Ya'qub and Yusuf. And Allah revealed all of Surah Yusuf as a response to that. And Allah says in Surah Yusuf, that you didn't know this story. You were not there when they plotted against Yusuf. Remember when we did Tafsir to Yusuf, we talked about this, right? Now we link it to the Sira. That this is one of those questions the Jews asked the Arabs to ask the Prophet ﷺ. Because the Arabs, the Quraysh had no clue who Yusuf was. And so the Prophet ﷺ is quizzed, do you know who is Ya'qub, who is Jacob and the family of Jacob and what happened to the family of Jacob. The inner struggle between the children of Ya'qub. So the Prophet ﷺ answered miraculously in one of the most beautiful surahs in the Quran that we spent 3-4 months doing a tafsir of. And all of this goes back to one point of trying to quiz the Prophet ﷺ. Another famous incident occurred also and this is again in the early Meccan phase. that they sent a delegation to the Yathrib and they asked, what should we ask? Tell us some quiz questions to ask. And so, they said, there are three questions we can tell you. Nobody would know this except a true prophet from the prophets of Israel. Because again, from them, they only understand the prophets of Israel. These are three questions, only somebody who is from within that understanding will be able to tell us, otherwise he will not be able to know. And so ask him about three things. Number one, ask him about the story of the young men who entered a cave and slept a long time. The young men who entered a cave and slept a long time. These are folklores and legends, only a prophet knows the details. Number two, ask him about a man who traveled the world from the east to the west. And who had experiences that are legends. And number three, ask him about the ruh. what is the ruh and what is it made of what is it coming from and so and this is a report in Tirmidhi and it is slightly weak but again we don't have a problem with weak traditions overall the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he was asked these three questions he responded confidently that come back to me tomorrow and I will tell you the answers to these three questions and because he was over confident and because he didn't say inshaAllah and this shows us who is the Rabb and who is the one who is the servant, the chosen, who is the master and who is the slave of Allah and the slave of Allah is not a derogatory title, it is the highest honor and Allah calls the Prophet the slave of Allah, four times in the Quran, four times وَلَمَّا قَامَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ سُبْحَانَهُ لِلْأَسْرَاءُ بِعَبَدِهِ تَبَارَكَ لِلنَّزِلِ فُقَانَ عَلَىٰ عَبَدِهِ four times Allah calls the Prophet, and this is not derogatory, it is the height of praise because Allah is saying, this man is my chosen servant. He is my perfect worshipper. There is no honour for a human higher than being a worshipper of Allah and a slave of Allah. And so Allah says this is my slave. And therefore the Prophet ﷺ expressed over confidence and he didn't say inshaAllah. And so instead of one day it was dragged on to two weeks. And the Quraysh began to mock the Prophet ﷺ that has your false spirit abandoned you? What has happened? And eventually Allah revealed as you all know Surah Al-Kahf, all of Surah Al-Kahf came down. Surah Al-Kahf was a response to these three questions. And these three questions are all answered in Surah Al-Kahf. Of course, the story of Kahf comes from the men of the cave, right? Tell them the story of the men in the cave, what happened. And so details are given that even the Jews did not know. But these are found in the Qur'an. Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ is asked about the man who traveled all over the world from east to west and nobody knew who he was. And so Allah revealed that this is Dhul Qarnayn. Now point here, some people say that Dhul Qarnayn was Alexander the Great. There is not just no evidence for this. It is in fact contrary to many things that we know. Alexander the Great was a well-known pagan. His sheikh was Aristotle. Aristotle was the private tutor of Alexander the Great. And there is no question that Alexander the Great was a pagan idol worshipper. And Aristotle was a believer in the gods of the Greek mythology. And so Dhul Qarnayn is not Alexander. And there's other things as well. which is not the place to get into. But though Qarnayn is a figure, we don't know who he is. He's not mentioned in Western sources. But he seems to have been a worldwide traveler. Was he a prophet or not? Scholars have differed about this. Whether he was a prophet or just a king. Allah knows best. And then the third question was about the spirit. And Allah revealed in the Quran, وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلِ الرُّوحِ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهِ وَمَا أُوتِيتُ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا They ask you about the spirit. The spirit is from the affairs of Allah, from the mysteries of Allah. And no one knows about the spirit except for, or sorry, no one knows about knowledge. None of you have been given knowledge except for a little bit. And therefore, the spirit, Allah did not answer about it. But he answered that this is of the mysteries of Allah that you're never going to know. And so the trick question was in fact answered in that the Jews knew that nobody has knowledge of the spirit. and so if he had answered a detailed knowledge then it would have been against the question because the question was a trap it was a trick question that the spirit is one of the mysteries of Allah nobody will understand what is the human soul وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ and so the Jews now the other two questions facts came out the third question was a double trick if you get the point here and the answer was no answer because if he had answered he would have shown according to the Jewish knowledge that he is not a prophet. Because certain knowledges Allah has kept to himself. And of the knowledge that he has kept to himself is the nature of the spirit. And to this day we don't really know what the spirit is. Modern science doesn't even believe in it anymore. But all of mankind, one of the interesting points, every single culture on earth, every single civilization that has been documented, even ones that we have discovered in the past, two or three or four things are common amongst all of them. And again, this is an anthropology sub-tangent, but just for your information, number one, religiosity. We have never discovered and there will never be a discovery of an atheistic nation. It's against human nature to not believe in a God, right? And so every single society that we've come across, modern or pre-modern, that is still living in the jungles of Brazil or Africa or the Aborigines or pre-modern, they have number one, religiosity. Number two, they believe in the human soul. every single nation on earth every single society has beliefs in the human soul number three they believe in evil spirits call them ghosts, call them jinns, call them ghouls they believe in a power an entity beyond our entity other things as well that comes to mind right now subhanallah very amazing thing every single society believes in a great flood myth it's called the great flood myth because modern anthropologists consider it to be a myth but the fact of the matter is that every single society believes that there was a massive flood and this is something, google it if you don't believe me, look this up yourself the aborigines have a flood myth the native American Indians who have been cut off from western civilization for 10,000 years they've been cut off before Columbus came they've been cut off for 10,000 years and they have a great flood myth that they have this notion that a great flood destroyed all of humanity and they have a savior, the ancient Hindus the Vedas, if you look at the Vedas the ancient Hindu scriptures they have a flood mit and they say that from the waters of the flood the one man came, and what is the name of this man in Hinduism does any person remember from India, Pakistan, this is folklore well it's Indian folklore, Manu Noah, Manu, the Noah is there Manu is the this is in the ancient Vedas, right? Even the N-A is there, but they have an M in front of it, Manu. My point being, this was a trick question. The Jews knew nobody has the knowledge of the Ruh. And so if the Prophet ﷺ had answered, he would have actually shown that he's not a true prophet, right? And so he answered the first two in detail, and that's in Surah Al-Kahf. And the third one in Surah Al-Kahf clearly also says that no one knows the Ruh. and you have only been given a little bit about knowledge. So this was another tactic that they tried and they failed in this tactic as well. The ninth tactic that they used is outright torture. Outright torture. Now as we said over and over again, the Arabs of old were a tribal society. Everything was based upon tribalism. And therefore your protection is based upon who will protect you. Not the law, not the government, but rather your own tribe. And therefore, those who had tribal bonds, like the Prophet ﷺ, like Abu Bakr, like others, they were somewhat protected. Somewhat. Even though they too faced hardships. We'll talk about that as well today and inshallah next Wednesday. But overall, their status of Quraysh, being Quraysh, protected them. However, as we know, many of the earliest converts were from the slaves and the Mawali. a mawali, a mawla it's a very common term you'll find it in Islamic literature you'll find it in the seerah a mawla is a freed slave and in those days a slave could be freed for many reasons of them is that a freed slave had more liberty than an actual slave and so many times an owner would free a slave and then make him a mawla and what this means is that in English it's called a client relationship what this means is that the freed slave is still you know the concept of indentured servants is something similar to that is that it's not fully free but the man owes his allegiance to his master and this is called mawla and in Islam, Islam came and gave some rules for mawla and therefore there's even mawla's in Islam as well so we said that there was outright torture to the slaves and the Mawali, the Abid and the Mawali. Sa'id ibn Jubair asked Ibn Abbas, Sa'id ibn Jubair is the main student of Ibn Abbas. Sa'id ibn Jubair asked Ibn Abbas, how did the pagans torture the Muslims? What happened? So he's curious, he's inquisitive. What is happening in early Islam? Was the torture really that bad? Now again, these are Sa'id ibn Jubair, there are no seerah books he's reading. His knowledge comes from living authorities. Ibn Abbas is a living authority. And so Sa'id ibn Jubair asked Ibn Abbas, What happened? So Ibn Abbas responded that the believers were tortured in early Islam so severely. And they were starved and they were deprived of water until they could not even sit up out of pain. They would have to be almost semi-conscious on the ground. And until one of them would be told, is Allat and Al-Uzza your God? And they would respond, yes, Allat is my God. Yes, Al-Uzza is my God. Just to get rid of the torture. In fact, Ibn Abbas says, so much so that if an insect passed by them, and they would have been asked, is this insect your God? They would have responded, yes, it is my God, just to get rid of that torture. And as we know in Islam, alhamdulillah, we have this concession given, that if you are tortured to death, then you are tortured almost to death, you may say whatever you want and your heart remains firm in Islam. The main culprit behind all of this torture was none other than Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl was the main culprit and Abu Jahl had a series of tactics he would do. If the person who converted was from the nobleman of Quraysh, then he could not touch him. So he would begin verbal abuse. And he would taunt and ridicule without touching him. Because if you touched him, the Quraysh would respond back. If he were a businessman who's doing business with the Quraysh, then he would initiate a boycott. no more buying and selling in Mecca and if he were from the slave and the Mawali then Abu Jahl would tell the owners and he would participate himself in physically trying to kill or torture slaves and so Abu Jahl participated in multiple torture sessions and as you know Abu Jahl the Prophet ﷺ called him the Fir'aun of my Ummah there is nobody who is more evil in early Islam than Abu Jahl Even Abu Lahab is not as vile and cursed as Abu Jahl is. And there's a famous story in Bukhari by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud r.a who said that the first people, the first group of seven who embraced Islam, he mentioned them, they were himself, ibn Mas'ud was one of those, Abu Bakr and Ammar and his mother Sumayya and Suhaib and Bilal and Al-Miqdad. These are the names that ibn Mas'ud mentions, that himself, Abu Bakr, Ammar ibn Yasir, his mother Sumayya, Suhayb, Bilal, Suhayb is the Roman, Suhayb al-Rumi, Bilal al-Habashi, and al-Miqdad. And then he goes on. As for the Prophet ﷺ, Allah protected him through his uncle Abu Talib. And this shows us the wisdom of why Abu Talib remained a pagan till he died. I mentioned this two weeks ago. As for the Prophet ﷺ, his uncle protected him, Allah protected him through his uncle. Also notice the beautiful way of phrasing it. Allah protected him through his uncle. He didn't say his uncle protected him. Because all of it goes back to Allah. Allah protected him through his uncle. As for Abu Bakr, then Allah protected him through his own tribe, the Banu Qahafa. Allah protected him through his own tribe. And as for the rest of them, then the Quraysh rounded them up and began torturing them. So the rest of them are Ammar, his mother Sumayya, Suhay, Bilal and Al-Miqdad and he mentions they would sometimes put iron on their bodies and take them out into the sand and leave them there and every one of them, this is Ibn Mas'ud narrating every one of them eventually gave up and said what the Quraysh wanted them to say, of course this is allowed nothing wrong with that, so the ones that you know others that we mentioned, they basically gave up. And they said what they wanted to say, except for Bilal. Ibn Abi Rabbah, Bilal al-Habashi. Except for Bilal. Ibn Mas'ud says, Bilal considered his soul not worth anything in front of Allah. He was willing to give up his soul. He considered his soul insignificant. And he refused to budge one bit. And so they concentrated their efforts on him. And they did to him what they did to nobody else. And Ibn Mas'ud said, I myself saw that Bilal was handed over to the ruffians, the teenagers, the gangs of Mecca. You know, every society has riffraff. Every society has people who just do, you know, I mean, they don't have any life of their own. And they're just people who live for the moment, the pleasures. And so Bilal was handed over to this group of ruffians, of gangs. And they would run around with a rope around his neck and drag him through the streets streets of Medina, all the while he was saying, Ahadun Ahad, Ahadun Ahad. This is what Bilal is famous for. He is crying Tawheed, he is crying the oneness of Allah Azza wa Jal. And of course, it didn't help that the owner of Bilal, the owner of Bilal was one of the worst of the Quraysh, and that is Umayyad ibn Khalaf. Umayyad ibn Khalaf personally participated in the torture of Bilal. Now realize it's a delicate line that you're drawing because slaves are very expensive materials and goods right? slaves are more expensive than camels, slaves are more expensive than houses and therefore if you want to punish your slave, you are harming your own income, you see the conundrum here, that slaves are precious property you know many people daydream once upon a time they were slaves and what not, we wish we could have them but the point being the slaves are much more expensive, you know you don't think they're like 5-10 dollars, they would have been in the equivalent of 50,000-100,000 dollars, right? And so it's a massive amount of money. It's counterintuitive to beat your own slave. Because you want him to live a long life. And you want him to serve you, right? So this shows us the depths of their animosity. It shows us how much hatred they have. They are destroying their most precious property. Because human life is the most precious property that they own. You can buy an animal for much cheaper than you can buy a slave. And for them to be torturing the slaves in this manner really shows the depths of their own profanity, if you like. And so Umayyad ibn Khalaf would, he had a sadistic streak, it's pretty obvious when you read the stories. Umayyad ibn Khalaf would personally take Bilal into the desert in the morning and put a large rock, he had other slaves as well, the other slaves would put a rock on his chest and leave him there without food, without water, trapped and pinned under the rock throughout the day when the sun is now at its zenith and its height. and many people narrate to us more than one Hassan ibn Thabit who is from Medina. He's an Ansari. Of course at the time he's not a Muslim. Hassan ibn Thabit says, I remember doing Hajj in the days of Jahiliyyah. I remember doing Hajj and I saw how severely Bilal was being tortured and I wondered how he is still alive. This is Hassan ibn Thabit speaking. Amr ibn al-As, also one of the, he's one of the leaders of the Quraysh. Amr ibn al-As, he himself narrates that when he was not a Muslim, Amr was not a Muslim. I passed by Bilal when he was being punished upon the rocks of the desert. The rocks were so hot, this is Amr ibn al-Aas saying, that if I were to have put raw meat on them, eventually would have cooked and I could have eaten it. The rocks were so hot in this desert sun that you can cook literally on it. And this is literally true, it's not just a phrase like that. And Bilal was there for the entire day. and I heard him saying, أَكْفُرُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْعُزَّةِ وَأُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ I reject Allah and Al-Uzza and I will believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so Umayyah continued to try to punish him but he refused to budge and he kept on saying, أَحَدٌ أَحَدٌ أَحَدٌ أَحَدٌ And many years later, Urwat ibn Zubayr, the nephew of Aisha, narrated, many years later, Urwat narrated that Bilal was tortured by the people of Mecca and by Umayyad ibn Khalif in particular, but he never even gave them one word to please them. In other words, he didn't budge one word. Most of the others who were tortured, they had to collapse and they agreed. And they are completely forgiven. Allah knows we would have given up way before even they had. But Bilal was one of those few who remained all the way to the end. And look at how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rewarded him. For we as Muslims firmly believe that there's an expression, memorize this expression, it's a common expression in Arabic, and it goes back to our religion, even though it's not a hadith. A lot of people think it is a hadith. الجزاء من جنس العمل The reward or the punishment will be the exact same as what you were doing to get that reward or that punishment. هَلْ جَزَاءُ الْإِحْسَانِ إِلَّا الْإِحْسَانِ If you do ihsan, Allah will give you ihsan. And if you do evil, Allah will give you evil. So, your reward will be based upon, will be the same type as what you did. and so will your punishment be. Al-jaza'u min jinse al-amal. And this is a maxim, this is a rule that we apply in our religion that Allah Azza wa Jal will either punish or reward based upon and in the same type of what you did. So, look here, this is Bilal. He is yelling at the top of his lungs. He's screaming, Ahadun ahad, ahadun ahad. Hassan ibn Thabit can hear his torture. He cannot hear what Umayyah is saying. All he can hear is Bilal screaming out, I reject allat an al-huzza and I believe in Allah. And so he hears the torture. Wherever he is in Mecca, he can hear it. Eventually, what is Bilal rewarded with? We all know, Bilal is rewarded by becoming the first and the most important and the only official mu'adhin of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. As he was calling out the unity of Allah in Mecca, persecuted and alone, eventually when Islam reached its pinnacle and it became powerful, he would announce the unity of Allah instead of in humiliation at the pinnacle of Izzah. And he would announce the best and the most perfect Adhan. Because when the dream of the Adhan was told to the Prophet ﷺ, one of the Sahaba said, I saw a dream about the Adhan. The Prophet ﷺ himself chose Bilal and he said, go teach Bilal this because he has the best voice amongst you. He has the best voice amongst you. So the Prophet ﷺ chose Bilal to be the Mu'adhin. And therefore, the voice that was persecuted for the sake of Allah, the voice that was calling out, One, One, One, was the voice that is calling out, Allahu Akbar, Ashadu an la ilaha illallah, Ashadu anna Muhammadun Rasulullah. And when the Prophet ﷺ reconquered Mecca in the 8th year of the Hijrah, and he cleansed it of all of the idols, the first thing that he did, he commanded Bilal to climb on top of the Ka'bah. and that very Bilal whose voice of Ahadun Ahad could be heard in the valleys of Mecca being persecuted, right? That same voice was then hoisted on top of the Kaaba at the pinnacle of honor, at the height of dignity. And he was told to give the first Adhan ever in the sacred precincts of the Haram. And so the first voice to ever call out Tawheed in Mecca, all the valleys of Mecca, out loud was the voice of Bilal ibn Abi Rabah. And look at how Allah rewarded Bilal as he was being persecuted by the Quraysh, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rewarded him. And look at the blessings of the mu'adhin, subhanallah, so many blessings of the mu'adhin that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, that if people knew how much reward would be in the giving the adhan, and in standing in the first row, and they had no other way out other than by drawing lots, they would have drawn lots in order to give adhan or to stand in the first row. What this means is that, the fact of the matter is that people don't know how important it is. And so, you know, whoever first come first serve and you know, whatever, it's no big deal. But if they really understood how much blessing was there, then they would not just give it up and they would demand, let's be fair here. We'll just have anonymous lots. It's gonna pull, who gets to have the first row? Who gets to have the adhan? If they knew how blessed it was. And the Prophet ﷺ said, hadith is in Ibn Majah, that any mu'adhin who gives adhan, whatever hears his adhan from animate or inanimate object من رطب ولا يابس it literally means wet or dry but the meaning of wet in Arabic here is it's moist meaning it's a living entity يابس it means rock and stone and trees so no entity living or dead animate or inanimate will hear the adhan except that it will testify for him and in the hadith in Bukhari the Prophet ﷺ said to a shepherd that I have been told you are a shepherd. Whenever you are in your lands, give the adhan. Even if you are alone, it's sunnah to give the adhan because no jinn or ints will hear your voice except that on the day of judgment they will testify to what you have said. So they will testify to your iman. Now, subhanallah, can anybody click the one plus one together here? the one person who's giving adhan in front of the Prophet ﷺ. Right? What did the Prophet ﷺ say? Whoever hears the adhan, what will he do? Testify on behalf of the mu'adhin. Right? And who was the mu'adhin of the Prophet ﷺ by designation and appointment? Bilal. And who's adhan to the Prophet ﷺ here? Five times a day in Medina. Back and forth, morning and evening, for 13, for more than 10 years here and then in Mecca as well, whenever they give the adhan and darul arqam as we're going to talk about, at least 11-12 years, right? He is hearing non-stop, every single time, the voice of Bilal. And he is the one saying that the mu'adhin, whoever hears his voice will testify on behalf of the mu'adhin on the day of judgment. So subhanallah, look at how the darajah, the maqam of Bilal ibn Abi Rabah, and of course our Prophet has many more hadith about the blessings of the adhan. Of course of them is the famous hadith in Bukhari that the mu'adhin will have the longest necks on the day of judgment. What does it mean they're going to have the longest necks? It doesn't mean they're going to be like giraffes. أطوروا أعناقا It's an expression in Arabic it could mean they will have the greatest honor. Because again Arabs love the classical Arabic loves symbolism, right? And so when you look up to somebody this means he is worthy of honor. right, and therefore if he has a long neck, this means, even in English we say I'm looking up to you, even in English you know, even though he might be shorter than you looking down at him, right, but I'm looking up to you, meaning you respect him, okay, and so the meaning of the mu'adhin will have the longest neck, it primarily means they will be the most respected on the day of judgment, right, all of these are hadith about the blessings of the mu'adhin and the official mu'adhin of the Prophet ﷺ is Bilal, another early name that we just mentioned is Khabbab Khabbab ibn al-Arat and Khabbab ibn al-Arat was one of the first ten converts of Islam as well and he was a slave an Arab slave and generally they treated Arab slaves better than non-Arabs as you know it was a racist society so Arab slaves had it a little bit better and so Bilal really was the most tortured because he was not even an Arab he was an Abyssinian and by the way I have to point out here as well Subhanallah look at the psychology of that society that the rafraaf, the ruffians, the youth can torture this slave and drag him through the streets with a rope around his neck. I mean, this is the height of barbarity, right? And even if these teenagers that they're giving bilal over to, these ruffians, they have nothing at stake other than sadistic pleasure, basically, right? And the only way that you can get away with this as a society is to dehumanize a group of people. Consider them to be just not even human. And we've seen in history what the Nazis did to the Jews, right? That you have no sympathy, no mercy, mother, woman, child, doesn't matter. Elderly, it's just this sense. Not just to the Jews, to the gypsies, to the Romanians, to anybody they didn't like. The Nazis had this, we are superior. And therefore anybody who's not of their race becomes dehumanized, he's not even human. And therefore whatever happens, society doesn't pay attention. You see all of society sees this torture happening to Bilal. They don't blink an eyelid. Because for them, Bilal is not human. Because, you see what I'm saying, it's just they're not considering any respect given because he's not an Arab or he's not a Qurashi. Especially Qurashi. And of course they have, and that's why Islam came and demolished this whole jahiliyyah of having caste systems based upon one's lineage and based upon one's skin color. the Arab slaves, and there were Arab slaves as well obviously non-Qurashi, there was no such thing as a Qurashi slave, obviously all slaves are from inferior classes, you cannot enslave your own and so you have Iraqi slaves you have Yemeni slaves, slaves that are Ibn Masud is from a tribe in Yemen so he's one of the Arab slaves Khabbab Ibn Arath was one of the Arab slaves and his master actually was female, not a male and her name was Umm Anmar Ummi Anmar. And Ummi Anmar purchased Khabbab because Khabbab was a sword maker. He was a forger, an iron smith. And he would hammer out swords. He would make swords for the people of Mecca. And he was one of the earliest converts to Islam. And when Ummi Anmar found out that he converted, she immediately went and gathered a gang together. She's a woman. What's she gonna do? So she gathers others together. She didn't have a husband. She gathered others together and told them to beat up Al-Khabbab. And Khabbab bin Arad said that I came back and I saw a whole group of Quraysh around me at my place of work. And they began to taunt and ridicule me about where were you, what have you done until I confessed I'm a Muslim. They had been told by Umm Anmar. And when I confessed I'm a Muslim, they began hitting me so much, the next thing I woke up and I was bloodied and bruised. He didn't even remember what had happened because they completely beat him up. And his master, his Umm Anmar, would many times, when he was working to make that iron and to make the swords, she would take some of that iron that he had just taken out, and she would use it to burn the back of Khabbab ibn al-Arat. Now Khabbab cannot do anything physical because if he does, he's gonna die. This is a Quraishi lady. So he would use it to burn the back of Khabbab ibn al-Arat. and many years later when Umar was the Khalifa Khabbab ibn al-Arat visited Umar once in Medina and so Khabbab said tell me some of the stories about Umm Anmar tell me what did she used to do to you he didn't say anything he just turned around and he took off his shirt and he showed his back to Umar ibn al-Khattab and Umar said Wallahi I have never seen anything as I have seen today and he made him sit with him on the majlis and he gave him a lot of honor. And subhanAllah, once the Prophet ﷺ passed by, khabab, and the screams were coming from his shop. And so the Prophet ﷺ passed by and he sees what Umm Anmar is doing. Umm Anmar is taking that iron and putting it on. And basically, you can imagine the worst type of torture. There is no torture worse than fire, right? And that is why in our religion, in fact, we are prohibited even when the state has to kill and execute. we are prohibited from execution and killing by fire, the Prophet said, hadith is in Bukhari no one is allowed to kill by fire except the creator of the fire, or no one can punish by the fire except the creator of the fire because fire is the worst type of torture imaginable, it is nothing is more painful than that, and Khabab was tortured by this caultering metal put on his back over and over again, when the Prophet saw him in this state. He raised his hand, he said, Oh Allah, please help Khabbab, unsur Khabbab, help him against his enemy. Be on his side against his enemy. And subhanAllah, that's it, the dua came. And so what happened? Few days later, Umm Anmar woke up, and she had a type of sickness and disease that she was acting like a rabid dog. Panting around and crawling around the house, she became like, completely she lost senses. And the doctors of Mecca came, whoever was, they had their own ways of medicine. And they said, that's the only cure that we can think of is that she be cauterized. And what is cauterization? It is to burn the skin. Those, they had a system of burning the skin. Which is still practiced in some cultures and countries that a small wound is maybe burned or festered or something like this. And so they said, this is a type of disease, the only cure that we can think of that might possibly work is to cauterize her on the back and the head. And so this was done to her, كَمَا تَدِينُ تُدَانَ الجزاءُ بِنْ جِنْسِ الْعَمَلِ This was done to her, and she died as a result of this. And that was just her punishment in this dunya. Ask for what awaits her in the next, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best. But this shows us, as we said, الجزاءُ What is the maxim in Arabic? الجزاءُ من جنسِ العَمَلِ Right? The same thing, or in Arabic it's also كَمَا تَدِينُوا تُدَانُ As you do it shall be done unto you. And the torture of Khabbab was in fact so severe that it was Al-Khabbab who went to the Prophet ﷺ and I'll mention this hadith if not today, the next Wednesday. It was Al-Khabbab who went to the Prophet ﷺ when the Prophet ﷺ was sitting in the shade of the Ka'bah along with another group of Sahaba. This is in Bukhari. And Al-Khabbab was the one who said, Ya Rasulullah, ila mata? For how long? How long can we bear this, Ya Rasulullah? how long are we going to be tortured like this can't you just ask Allah to bring about Izzah and glory can't you just get rid of this state of humiliation and there's a famous hadith in Sahih Bukhari and the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with his back against the Ka'bah the shade of the Ka'bah he put his back up and he said verily the people before you were tortured more than you and he mentioned some of their tortures that they would be sawed in half and this and that would happen and this would not prevent them from worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala verily I tell you that Allah will fulfill this matter layutimman allahu hadhal amr Allah will fulfill this matter you are complaining to me about persecution and humiliation a time will come when a woman can travel from Hadramaut to Sana'a i.e. in the periphery regions far away from Mecca and there's so much safety for her the only thing she's worried about is a wolf attacking her sheep she's scared of Allah and then she's scared of a wolf attacking her sheep it will be so much security in the land you're worried about this from now this is Al-Khabbab is the one of course Al-Khabbab, what else do we know about Al-Khabbab who can tell me, very famous story about Al-Khabbab no that's not Al-Khabbab Ibn al-Arat, that's Hudhaif Ibn al-Yaman Khabbab, should ring a bell among some people famous story of Khabbab Umar Ibn al-Khattab's sister Umar comes to his sister's house to kill her remember and who is in the house of Fatima bint al-Khattab Khabbab and this shows us that even as a slave he is secretly volunteering his time to teach Islam to other people as a slave he is going secretly to the house of other people to teach them the Quran and this shows us that he was one of the more knowledgeable of the Sahaba and Al-Khabbab participated now his master, his mistress died Al-Khabab participated in all of the expeditions of the Prophet ﷺ and he lived up until the 17th year of the Hijrah now, Umar had an interesting policy this time a little bit different subject here Abu Bakr had one policy, Umar had another Abu Bakr had a policy that all of the Sahaba should get the same salary from the government and when he was asked about this he goes, who am I to prefer one over another Allah knows who has daqwa everybody should get the same stipend everybody gets the same salary right? Umar when he came he said no I don't agree with this policy those who accepted Islam earliest will get grade A pay and grade B will be those who accept in second, third, fourth and the lowest pay will be for those who accepted Islam the last now ironically and of course this is Umar here, that put him at a grade C basically right? there was a whole group of people before him and this shows us that he's not doing this to prefer himself because even he is basically not even the first batch, not the second batch he's in 6th, 7th BH he's way after all of these people so Khabab is getting one of the highest salaries any Muslim is getting because he's of the top 10 the top 10 is still alive, I mean Al-Bakr was there and few more were there Bilal and Khabab, this batch were getting the largest salary from Baytul Mal and so Khabab with this salary he was living in Kufa at the time he built himself a modest house and he built a or he had a sunduq al-mal it's like a treasure box let's say that was open no key and it was known in the city anybody who has any monetary problems can simply take it from the house of Khabab with no questions asked you come and you take whatever you need and you go no questions asked so the money that he got he is spending it basically the bulk of it is spent on the fuqara and he has built for himself a house and when he was about to die it's a famous story of Khabba when he was about to die he began to cry on his deathbed and the people around him and his children said why are you crying you have suffered so much you have reached the highest level and you will meet the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he died by the way in 37 AHF if I'm not mistaken 37 AHS so why are you crying and so he said, I am not crying out of pain, I'm not crying out of fear of meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I'm crying because of what you see around you, this house which will I answer Allah for my luxurious living verily I was with a group of people, all of us were on equal footing and all of us were being tortured and punished but every one of them has gone before me without tasting the sweetness of this world. And Allah has left me to enjoy the fruits of this world. And I am scared that because I've enjoyed the fruits of this world, my share of the next will not be as much as the share of my companions. Subhanallah. He's crying about this because he's saying, I knew a group and then he was brought his kafan. Now he is a wealthy man now, even though he's not living a wealthy life, but he is. And his kafan, beautiful large sheet, is being prepared in front of him. He's on his deathbed. He's literally gonna die the same day. And he gets to cry again. And he goes, Wallahi, I remember Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. He didn't even have enough cloth for his own kafan. If they covered his face, his legs would be bare. And if they covered his legs, his face would be bare. And here I have this luxurious kafan in front of me. What will I meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with? And so, this is Al-Khabbab ibn al-Arad subhanallah. What a story of iman. And this is one of the earliest converts of Islam as well. Again, there's so many stories. And again, it's interesting and important to know these stories. I mean, of course, the story that I grew up, it was my favorite story because that was the name my father gave me, the story of Yasser and his family, right? Because Yasser and his wife Sumayya and their son Ammar, of course, Ammar is named because of this as well, my own son Ammar. And I was Abu Ammar even before I met Umm Ammar, right? I had taken the kunya Abu Ammar because I had made it up. I wasn't searching for any Sumayya, don't worry. My wife is sitting in the back. Don't worry. It was all written, alhamdulillah. But I was already Abu Ammar, because of the name of Ammar. And of course the family of Yasir and the family of Ammar is one of the best known examples of the sacrifices of early Islam. And subhanAllah, one of the things that is really touching about this story is that in every one of these cases, it is the person himself being tortured. But in the case of Yasir and Sumayya, and they had two sons, Abdullah and Ammar, they are a family being tortured in front of each other and that's why their story is even more pitiful because wallahi every man to think of being tortured himself is tough enough then to think of your wife and your children being tortured in front of you I mean this is the nightmare of nightmares you cannot get worse than this and this is what happened with Yasir and with Sumayya that they are tortured with their two children and Abdullah was the older son and Ammar was the younger son and so all four of them are slaves and again they are from a slave client of Arabs and their Mawla tribe was the Banu Bakr. And so they're being tortured in front of one another. There's a lot of narrations about how they were killed. But one thing is for sure is that Yasir and Sumayya became the first martyrs of Islam. One after the other. Yasir and Sumayya became the first martyrs of Islam. And their torture was the most pitiable in all of Mecca. And that is why the Prophet ﷺ is authentic. Hadith is authentic And of course I love this hadith as well The Prophet ﷺ said We ask Allah Azza wa Jalla to make that dua applicable to all of us The Prophet ﷺ said And this is when he passed them by And they were all being tortured in front of his eyes And he couldn't do anything Subhanallah can you imagine how painful it must be Even for our Prophet ﷺ To see this torture and not be able to do anything So he said Be patient, O family of Yasir. Indeed, your place that is appointed for you by Allah, it is Jannah. And so, Yasir was the first to die. And people have differed, early authorities have differed about exactly how. Some people say that he was dragged in the streets with a rope. Others say that horses pulled him apart. We don't know what brutal pleasure they took. And this made his wife Sumayya, of course, even more full of Iman and bitter and angry. And one, maybe the next day, we don't know. Again, stories are so scantier. tried to do research and we really don't have much but we just know that when Abu Jahl then came to her she rebuked Abu Jahl as a slave you don't do this and so Abu Jahl took a spear and may Allah forgive us for even saying this but he thrusted up her private area all the way up and he killed her in this brutal vicious inhumane manner and this is in front of Ammar and Muhammad and so the two are killed like this and then they turn on Muhammad and eventually they kill him. This is all happening one after the other. And then they turn on Ammar ibn Yasir and this time he's probably around 15 years old. Probably a young, maybe even less than this. And they turn on him and this kid has seen too much. He cannot take anymore and so he gives up and he succumbs and he's the youngest of the four so they let him go. And subhanAllah he's just seen his father killed, his mother killed, he's seen his brother thrown into a ditch and now he comes running to the Prophet ﷺ in Darul Arqam and he's crying and he says, Ya Rasulullah, I uttered words of kufr. I said statements of shirk. You know, what am I gonna do now? Subhanallah, it's now blanked out. His mother, father become secondary. He goes, I've disobeyed Allah ﷻ. What am I gonna do? And the Prophet ﷺ asked him, how do you find your faith in your heart? كيف تجو قلبك? He goes, as it always is. I haven't changed anything in here. They can only change this. They can't change this. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, if they return, then you return. In other words, if they do the same thing to you back, then you do back what you just did right now, not a problem. And Allah revealed Surah An-Nahl. Surah An-Nahl was revealed, and in Surah An-Nahl, Allah clearly mentions, that, إِلَّا مَنْ شَرَحَ بِالْكُفْرِ صَدْرًا فَعَلَيْهِ وَالَّهُمْ مِنْ اللَّهِ That whoever says words of kufr in a state of torture, will be forgiven. This is in the Qur'an now. So, إِلَّا مَنْ أُكْرِهَا وَقَلْبُهُ مُطْرِحًا وَإِنَّمْ بِالْإِيمَانِ Whoever is forced, but his heart is at peace with Iman, this is the one Allah says, not a problem. And of course, Ammar ibn Yasir became one of the most famous sahaba. There are so many authentic hadith about Ammar ibn Yasir in Bukhari, in Muslim, in so many books of hadith. Ammar lived a ripe life. He lived all the way until the fitna of Ali and Muawiyah. And Ammar ibn Yasir, the Prophet ﷺ said, Iman has been filled in his heart all the way up until here. not just in his heart, it's up until his neck. His Iman is just overflowing. And he said to Ammar that, he used to call Ammar Ibn Sumayya, as a respect to Sumayya, because of her death. He used to, nickname of Ammar was Ibn Sumayya. So he said, Ibn Sumayya ala al-fitra, that the son of Sumayya is upon the pure nature. That whenever he is faced with two choices, he always chooses the more correct of the two. And in the most famous hadith of Ammar ibn Yasir, because it's a political hadith as well, Ammar ibn Yasir, the Prophet ﷺ said to him, May Allah have mercy on you, O Ammar, you shall be killed by the rebel party. تَغْتُلُكَ الْفِئَةُ الْبَاغِيَةُ You shall be killed by the rebel party. And subhanAllah, many many many years later after this hadith, 40 years after this hadith, in the civil war between Ali and Muawiyah, Ammar chose the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib and in the battle of Siffin the battle of Siffin he died he was killed by an arrow from the side of Muawiyah and this hadith was then used as a huge victory point that the more correct side was the side of Ali now we as Ahlul Sunnah we never say anything bad about any of the Sahaba and we say that Ali and Muawiyah both intended good but the one was closer to the truth than the other. And we don't say evil about the other. And we say Allah will forgive all sides. رضي الله عنهم ورضو عنه And that was a great fitna and time of fitna. But later on we can, you know hindsight is 20-20. It's always easy to analyze after it happens, right? Later on we can say that the more correct side was the side of Ali, right? And we say this for the sake of the truth and not because of any political correctness or reason. The more correct side was the side of Ali. Many other stories as well. Suhaib al-Rumi is a famous story as well. And by the way, these names, Ammar and Suhaib al-Bilal, these three names, they were always mentioned together in the seerah. Why? Because they were very close friends. They were a gang of Muslims, a bunch of Muslims, right? And they were all young, meaning in their 20s and 30s. Ammar would have been the youngest. Ammar, Suhaib and Bilal. These three. And these three by the way, these are the three that once it was Abu Jahl and Uthman ibn Khalif and Umayyad ibn Khalif, all of the leaders of the Quraysh, they began talking with the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ became hopeful that yes, they're coming close to Islam. And then these three passed by. Suhaib, Bilal and Ammar. And so Abu Jahl said, and he's worried that they're getting sympathetic, Abu Jahl said, O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, how is it possible that if you're upon the truth, these people are following it before us? Look at his evidences myself basically, right? If it was true, then I'd be following it. That's his evidence, mashallah. And so how is it possible? If you want us to accept your religion, you have to get rid of these people. Again, this is an empty threat basically, right? If you really want us to follow, and maybe some of them, maybe Umayyad and others might have been serious about this, maybe, okay if you really want us to, we cannot join a faith that has slaves in it right, and so Allah revealed in the Quran Allah revealed in the Quran, do not repel those who are calling those who are calling those who are calling Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanting his face do not prefer not this verse, the other ayah I cannot remember the Arabic now but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that these are the people what is it? يَدْعُونَ رَبَّنَا غَدَاتَ وَعَشَيْرِ إِذْنَ وَجْهَهُ مَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ حِسَابِهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ وَمَا مِنْ حِسَابِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَتَطْرُدَهُمْ فَتَكُونَ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ Surah Al-An'am, correct? Surah Al-An'am. So Allah revealed in Surah Al-An'am verses that is the highest praise for these people. Once again, so hey Bilal and Ammar are all three together, always mentioned. And so Allah says, if you were to reject them, you would be from the losers. Subhanallah. Look at this ayah. Allah is telling Rasulullah s.a.w. If you reject these three, and choose them over these three, you will be the khasireen. فَلَا تَطْرُدُوا Do not get rid of them, or else you will be from the khasireen. And Suhaib al-Rumi, of course al-Rumi means what? The Roman. What's Suhaib al-Ruman? No, Suhaib was not a Roman. Suhaib was actually an Arab. He was actually from Iraq. Suhaib was an Iraqi. But he was captured by a Byzantine party when he was a young boy. And so he was captured as a young slave, sent to Rome. He grew up in Rome, and he forgot Arabic completely, and he spoke fluent Latin. He became a slave in Rome. And he remembered his roots. He knew he was Arab. And so eventually he fled away, and he sold himself. I mean you were a slave, you needed to be a slave back then apparently. So he sold himself to some Arabs or he got into some Arabs. Eventually he was sold to Abdullah ibn Jud'an in Mecca. Abdullah ibn Jud'an in Mecca. And ibn Jud'an was one of the more merciful of the slave owners. And so the torture of Suhayb was not as bad. But nonetheless the others tortured him. Ibn Jud'an did not torture himself. Abu Jahan and others tortured him. But ibn Jud'an overall dealt with him in a good manner. and he actually made him a business manager because Ibn Jud'an was a wealthy businessman. So because Suhaib was so intelligent, he knew how to read and write and everything, so he became a business manager, he became wealthy. When Ibn Jud'an died, he became a free man because he wrote in his will that Suhaib is going to be free after I die. So he became a Mawla. And so when Ibn Jud'an died, Suhaib decided to immigrate to Medina. And when he was immigrating to Medina, the Quraysh heard about this. And so they stopped him on the outskirts. And they approached him as a caravan. And Suhaib turned around and he took out his bow and arrow. And he said, you know I am the best sharpshooter, marksmith amongst you. And I promise that none of you will be able to touch me until every arrow in my quiver has touched human flesh. And I promise that none of you will be able to touch me until my sword is bent and broken upon your bones and blood. Go ahead, challenge. Ten of them versus one of you. But they didn't love their lives that, they didn't love Suhaib's life that much as their own. And so they just surrounded him, kept on threatening him, until finally they said, Suhaib, you came to us penniless. You came to us without any money, without anything. And now you're leaving us as a rich man, taking our wealth? Give us back all of this money, and then we'll let you go. And this is subhanAllah, the way of, you know, you still hear it now that these illegal immigrants come and take over our jobs as if it belongs to them, as if they would do the jobs that the others are doing. So I mean this type of mentality, don't think it's new. Wallahi, when you study human history and anthropology and psychology, been there, done that. Nature of man doesn't change. The issues might have different fancy names, it's still basic racism and what not. So they're attributing all of Suhaib's success to themselves. this is my money, not your money this is our money, so Suhaib said is that what you want from me, you want all of my wealth they said yes, even the horse that you're riding subhanallah, you can't just leave a man in the desert without a camel even the camel that you're riding so there was no alternative so Suhaib said, okay, here's the camel here's my wealth, and the rest of my wealth is buried in such and such a place because again, there's no bank accounts, you're gonna bury it somewhere go there and you shall find the wealth and so Suhaib al-Rumi became the only Sahabi that we know of who performed the Hijrah on foot. Walking in the desert without any, not just the clothes on his back, that's all he owned. After being the richest Mawla, there was no Mawla, there was no freed slave richer than Suhaib. Because he was the business master of Ibn Jud'an. He became the richest Mawla, he gave every penny of it in order to free himself and go to Medina. and it is said, the books of seerah say that he was literally crawling on all fours because he doesn't have food and drink except what he could find in the desert he was literally crawling on all fours by the time he got to Quba and that's where he met the Prophet this is in Quba, right after the hijrah the Prophet stayed there for a few days, as you know so he crawled on all fours to Quba his complete emaciated, dehydrated about to collapse and die dusty, disheveled and the Prophet himself wiped the dust off of him and gave him food and drink and he smiled and he said to Suhaib, رَبِحَ التِّجَارَةُ يَا سُحَيْبَ رَبِحَ التِّجَارَةُ that your business transaction has been the most successful. And Suhaib said, no one could have told you about this, Ya Rasulullah, except Jibreel. Nobody knows except Jibreel. And Allah revealed in the Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah, and Surah Al-Baqarah is the first revelation, and Medina, Allah revealed a beautiful verse, that is because of Suhaib al-Rumi. It's attached to Suhaib al-Rumi. And that is, وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابتغاء مرضات الله There are those who sell everything they have in themselves in order to benefit, in order to get the rewards of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And all of this, of course, are some of the stories of the early tortures. And the last point that we don't have time to talk about, inshallah we'll talk about this later on, a few weeks from now. The last tactic that they did is the tactic of the boycott. and the boycott is its own topic that we're going to talk about inshallah I will call it a day today because for those of you who came late I said I'm not feeling well there was a bit of an issue yesterday with my leg was infected and so I'm taking some medication for that and inshallah we will continue next Wednesday next Wednesday we will continue with the sacrifices of the Prophet ﷺ what happened to him and the tortures that he underwent his tortures were different than the tortures of Bilal But he was physically harassed and intimidated as well. And the question, and we're going to talk about this a lot next week inshallah, the question, why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow such hardship? What was the wisdom? Why couldn't He just have made things easy? And given everything to everybody in day one. Why such struggle? That's the question that we need to ask ourselves. And this is the question Khabbab is asking the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. It's a question of great wisdom. InshaAllah next week, the struggles of the Prophet ﷺ and asking ourselves why this occurred. I will inshaAllah stop over here and open the floor for a few minutes of Q&A and then we'll pray Salatul Maghrib, inshaAllah. Yes, questions? Yes. Is there an association between the word Mawla and Mawlana? Yes, of course. Mawla is Mawla. Mawla is Mawlana. Mawlana means my Mawla, our Mawla. That's the exact same word, not just association. Why do we call our Lord Mawla? Anta Mawlana. Right? The word Wali means close friend, protector. It means a person of deep sympathies and bonds. Right? And so, wali could mean, wulaya or wali could mean that, Allah is the protector of those who believe. Allah is the one who protects us. In this case, the slaves are the maulas. Meaning, that if you don't have a US passport, You don't have the Quraishi passport, right? You're not Quraishi. How can you get the Quraishi passport? You will become the mawla of the Quraish. The Quraish will give you protection. Okay? So the status of that passport or whatever we're going to call it, the Quraish have given it to you. And this is why we call them mawla. Now, calling the scholars mawla is something that's Indian Pakistani. It's not Arab. Right? the Arabs do not call their scholars Mawla but we say Mawlana Sahab right, we say Mawlana which is, and then you get the Iranian Mulla from this, right the Mawla, this is a traditional thing, nothing wrong with it it's just the one who is protecting us through his knowledge, because of his knowledge, right nothing wrong, there is nothing wrong with this Allah's names can be used by the creation with some conditions as long as the Alif Lam is not there, generally speaking, right? Allah is Al-Mawla. Allah is Ar-Ra'uf. Allah is Ar-Rahim. Allah is As-Sami' Al-Basir. But you are Sami' and I am Sami' you are Basir and I am Basir. I can hear and see. We are not As-Sami' and Al-Basir. So to use the word Mawla in a generic sense is permitted. But to use it and say Al-Mawla, there is only one Al-Mawla And that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Anta maulana Questions, sisters have any questions? Yes, go ahead What determines What revelations were included As part of the Quran Versus those that are narrated By the hadith What determines what is Quran Versus those narrated by hadith Do you mean hadith Qudsi? Well, revelations See, the Ahadith are a different type of revelation. The Ahadith are a revelation. We believe that the Prophets, Ahadith salallahu alayhi wa sallam, are a type of Wahi. Because Allah says in Surah Najm, He does not speak of His own desires. Rather it is from Allah. وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى إِنْهُ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَى And in Surah Al-Ahzab, Allah says, قَدْ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةِ Allah has given you the Kitab and Hikmah. Now that's in Surah An-Nisa. In Surah Al-Ahzab, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَاذْكُرْنَ مَا يُتْلَىٰ فِي بِيُوتِكُنَّ مِنْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَالْحِكْمَةِ The wives are told, remember what was recited in your houses. The wives of the Prophet s.a.w. are told, remember what is recited in your houses from the ayat of Allah and the hikmah. Therefore there is something being recited in the Prophet's house other than the ayatullah. And that is, what else is being recited? The sunnah. The hadith, right? So Allah calls the hadith hikmah. And Allah says anything that He says is the truth. And the Prophet ﷺ himself said, nothing comes from here except the truth from Allah. The Prophet ﷺ is not allowed to say anything that is false. And therefore, we believe it is a type of wahi, but the wahi that he has is a very different type of wahi than the Qur'an. The Qur'an is inspired in wording and meaning. the actual love comes from Allah the alfad are inspired by Allah and recited but the ahadith the meanings can come from the process but the concept comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so there is a difference between Quran and hadith in that the ahadith are not wordings from Allah this is the process of speaking as a human being but his speech will be divinely protected as a prophet the Quran is coming it's tilawa, it's from Allah. And Allah is reciting it. And therefore it has a station that is more sacred than hadith. Does that answer your question? Okay. Two more questions inshallah. Yes, go ahead. All these conversations are hadith? All of the conversations, the word hadith has and sunnah has many meanings depending on how you use it. When we use it as the scholars the scholars of the seerah or the scholars of the sunnah a hadith is every single statement of the Prophet ﷺ every statement of the Prophet ﷺ is a hadith therefore whatever he said is a hadith even his jokes even his jokes and he did crack jokes by the way our Prophet ﷺ cracked jokes he had a sense of humor and there are many stories inshallah one day I might give a lecture about the humor of the Prophet ﷺ even his jokes are statements of fact we derive aqeedah and fiqh and adab from his jokes. Right? I mean, you all know the famous joke of the old lady. Right? The old lady. It's a theological point that we derive. All people will not enter Jannah. They're all gonna be young. It's a joke he cracked at the old lady that old ladies are not gonna enter Jannah. Right? And the old lady started wailing and crying and goes, Ya Amatah, O my dear mother. Yes, old ladies are not gonna enter Jannah. Allah will cause you to become a young lady then cause you to enter Jannah. Right? It's a theological point of benefit. that we derive. And fiqh as well, and other things that we derive. You know, the famous hadith that the Prophet ﷺ was on his deathbed, and Aisha fell sick as well on his deathbed. Aisha had a fever as well, right? And she began complaining about her head, her head, and she felt she's about, I mean, she's a young girl, she felt she's about to die or something. And so the Prophet ﷺ is joking with her and saying, what is the matter with you if you die? Why are you worried? You're going to be so fortunate and blessed that I'm going to wash your... He knows he's about to die, by the way. So he's cracking jokes on his deathbed to make the mood easier for Aisha to bear. And so he tells Aisha, if you die, even though he's about to die, if you die, Alhamdulillah, I'll wash your dead body. And I'll pray over you. And I'll give you a dafn. I mean, what more can you want? So he's joking with his wife. And then of course Aisha replies, I'm sure you're waiting for that day because then you won't have anybody between you and your other wives, right? Because Aisha was the main barrier. She was the one, mashallah, controlling any of the rest of this matter, right? And so, from this we derive the fiqh perspective point, which by the way, our culture does not agree with, the Hanafi culture, but the fiqh point, husbands can wash the bodies of their wives and vice versa. Because he clearly said, I would wash your body, right? And pray over you and whatnot. So, we derive a fiqh from this joke. That, you know, there is a cultural thing, the nikah breaks. This is not true at all. This is just a cultural thing. And the husband cannot. This is clearly inside Bukhari hadith. So everything that comes from the Prophet ﷺ is a hadith. No questions about that. Final question in the back. Or two questions. Go ahead. Yes, go ahead. Bilal's Christ status. Do we have any narrations from him? Do we have a hadith from Bilal? Yes, we do. Muslim Ahmad has a whole section of a hadith of Bilal. That's a good question. Let me look up some of them. I don't remember any of them offhand, what he actually narrated. But Bilal is mentioned in so many Ahadith and there is Musnad Bilal. I am 100% sure. Some things go back to him. A very good question for me to look up, inshallah. Remind me again and inshallah, next week hopefully, inshallah, I will bring something for you. Yes, sister. I have never heard a hadith the one who will conquer Turkey Constantinople big difference There is a hadith about the conqueror of Constantinople, and there's a praise about him. And Constantinople was conquered in 1493 by Muhammad the Magnificent. Muhammad the Magnificent, right? Or is it Muhammad al-Fatih? Muhammad al-Fatih. Muhammad the Conqueror, not Suleiman is the Magnificent, sorry. It's Muhammad al-Fatih, Muhammad the Conqueror. So there is a hadith about that, and inshallah we hope the praise will get to him and applies to him. As for the difference between Quran and Hadith Qudsi, the strongest opinion seems to be that the only difference is that Hadith Qudsi has not been preserved in wording. It was revealed in wording, but it hasn't been preserved in wording. And so the same Hadith Qudsi, we find it in many different wordings. Bukhari might have one wording, Muslim might have another. so the hadith qudsi have been narrated by meaning, just like the other hadith but the Quran has not been narrated by meaning, the Quran has only been narrated by words, actual words has been narrated, so that's the main difference between Quran and hadith qudsi inshallah, hopefully next week we'll have a regular longer session waazakumullahu khairan, assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh if we can give the adhan

Seerah 14 - Torture to the Prophet & Abyssinia - Yasir Qadhi _ November 2011-kN1Hnvo8Lo4

In our short class last Wednesday, we mentioned some of the tortures and some of the trials that the Sahaba had to undergo in the early Meccan phase. And today insha'Allah ta'ala, we will continue from where we left off. In our last class we mentioned the tortures of Bilal, Ammar, Yasir, Sumayya, Khabbab ibn al-Arat, and many of the other of the Sahaba, especially the Sahaba who were not from the Quraysh, from the Mawali, from the slave class, because of course those Sahaba were not protected by the society of Mecca. Now the question arises, what happened with the Prophet ﷺ himself? Did he undergo any physical torture, any physical pain and suffering? There's no question that he underwent a lot of emotional, a lot of smear campaigns. But how about physically? Well, physically, no doubt that the Quraysh overall and the Prophet ﷺ as well were relatively protected. But this does not mean that nothing happened to them. This does not mean that they were completely immune. Rather we have a number of incidents in which the Prophet ﷺ was physically harmed. Eventually of course they talked about assassinating him, and then they had multiple assassination attempts, culminating in the grand assassination attempt that took place the night before the hijrah. So even the Prophet ﷺ suffered physically. And we have a number of incidents that have been narrated from this early period of time. Sometimes Allah ﷻ and His divine wisdom protected him. and sometimes for wisdom Allah knows he was not protected and this is for wisdom Allah knows sometimes he is protected and sometimes he is not protected so of the times that he was protected there was a time when Abu Jahl when Abu Jahl was boasting to his peers to his colleagues in Quraish and Abu Jahl said to the people that I swear by Allah and Al-Uzza that if I see this man again one more time, the Prophet ﷺ, I am going to put my foot on his neck, meaning when he's in sajda. I'm gonna put my foot on his neck. And I'm going to throw sand onto him. Because the Prophet ﷺ was one of the few people who would pray in front of the Ka'bah. Most of the Muslims would not pray in front of the Ka'bah. Most of the Muslims would pray privately in their homes. But the Prophet ﷺ was one of those few who would pray publicly in front of the Ka'bah. And they got irritated at this, And Abu Jahl said that the next time I see him, I swear by Allah that I am going to put my hand, my foot on his neck. And the Prophet ﷺ came that day, Abu Hurair narrated, and he started praying. And when the Prophet ﷺ went into sajda, Abu Jahl came forward trying to or attempting to put his foot on the neck of the Prophet ﷺ. But before he got to him, the people around him saw that he turned backwards. He started walking backwards. And he started pushing with his hands away. And they couldn't see what was happening. And when he returned back, they said, what happened? What happened to your threat? Why did you walk away? We saw you putting your hand out. And so Abu Jahl said that, I saw between me and him a pit of fire. I saw between me and him a pit of fire and there were wings hovering above that fire when the Prophet ﷺ finished he told the Muslims that this fire was brought by the angels the wings were those of the angels and had he taken one step closer the angels would have shred him خِرَقًا خِرَقًا basically to bits and shreds they would have shredded him into bits and because of this Allah ﷻ revealed the conclusion of surah Iqra. The first five verses are the first verses of the Quran, and then Allah revealed the rest of the verses. كَلَّا إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَيَطْغَى أَنْ رَآهُ السَّغْنَى إِنَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ الرُّجْعَى أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يَنْهَى عَبِدًا إِذَا صَلَّى This is a reference here. Have you seen the one who tries to stop the slave when he worships? أَرَأَيْتَ إِنْ كَانَ عَلَى الْهُدْءَ وَمِرَ التَّقْوَى أَرَأَيْتَ إِنْ كَذَّبَ وَتَوَلَّى Meaning Abu Jahl. أَلَمْ يَعْلَمْ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ يَرَى Does he not know that Allah is watching him? كَلَّا لَإِلَّا مِنْ يَنْتَهِ If he doesn't stop doing this, if he doesn't stop coming close, كَإِلَّا لَمْ يَنْتَهِ لَنَسْفَعَنْ بِالنَّاصِيَةِ We are going to grab him with strength from the ناصية. This is the ناصية. We're gonna grab onto him. Now this is an expression in Arabic for those of you who have any interaction with camels on the farms. If you hold onto the forelock of a sheep, a goat, a cow, you are holding, the animal is in your control. So this is an expression in Arabic, which means he will be in our control completely. لَنَسْفَعَن بِالنَّاصِيَةِ نَاصِيَةٍ كَاذِبَةٍ خَاطِئَةٍ This is a nasiya, it's a head, it's a brain that is full of lies and it is a wrong brain. خَاطِئَة, it's completely deluded. فَلْيَدْعُوا نَادِيَةً Let him call whomever he wants. نَادِيَة, this is an allusion to the nadi of the Quraysh. What is the nadi of the Quraysh? is the parliament of the Quraysh. And he was sitting in the nadi of the Quraysh when he said this threat. When he said this threat, he's sitting in the parliament, in the nadi. And he says to the people in this nadi, what is the parliament? The parliament is one area of the Kaaba, one area of the Haram. This was where they would sit. Abdul Muttalib would have his high chair over there. That was the nadi. And so Allah says, فَلْيَدْعُوا نَادِيَةً Let him call these people that he's boasting to. سَنَدْعُوا الزَّبَانِيَةً we are going to call our helpers and that means the special angels كَلَّا لَا تُطِعْهُ don't worry about him وَسْجُدْ you do your sajda وَاقْتَرِبْ so if you understand the story surah iqra comes completely into place here that the prophet says he is doing sajda and he is praying and Abu Jahl is trying to stop him and this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed in the Quran that أَرَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يَنْهَى عَبْدًا إِذَا صَلَّى كَلَّا لَا تُطِعْهُ وَاسْجُدْ وَاقْتَلِبْ All of this is a reference to Abu Jahl. In this case, Abu Jahl was unsuccessful. Allah Azza wa Jal, in a wisdom known to him, wanted to protect the Prophet ﷺ this time. It is also narrated, Urwa ibn Zubayr, and Urwa ibn Zubayr, as we said many times, Urwa ibn Zubayr himself is not a sahabi. He was born right after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. His father is Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, and that is the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. and his mother is Asma binti Abi Bakr and that is a sister-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ and his aunt is Aisha and his older brother is Abdullah ibn Zubayr he is the most famous tabi'i in terms of lineage unfortunately or Allah willed he did not become a sahabi because he was too young his older brother by 30 years is Abdullah ibn Zubayr but he himself is much younger and so he never met the Prophet ﷺ so Abdullah ibn Zubayr asked Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As another famous sahabi from Mecca tell me the worst thing that you saw happen to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in Mecca and this shows us I mean this is a curiosity imagine if you had been of that generation you too would want to ask those who had witnessed right what happened tell me so he wanted to know what is the worst thing that you saw that the pagans or the mushrikun did to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam so Abdullah ibn Amr narrates what he saw and he says once the Prophet ﷺ was praying next to the Ka'bah, when Ruqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt, he is one of those four or five who are considered to be the most dastardly, the most ignoble of the enemies of Islam. I have said multiple times that you can divide the enemies of Islam, the enemies of the Prophet ﷺ into two very general categories. Of course there's a fine line, and it's sometimes difficult to place some people in the middle, but clearly there are two extremes amongst the opponents. There were those who were somewhat of a noble character. And they never stooped to low tactics. Low tactics meaning like this one. I'm gonna step on his foot. I'm gonna throw sand on him. Or what Uqba ibn Abi Mu'aythu is one of the meanest characters. Worse than Abu Jahl in his, if you like, ignobility. Really Uqba is probably the worst. even worse than Abu Jahl. That's the other extreme. The first extreme, people like Khalid ibn al-Walid, Umar ibn al-Khattab. They're angry, they're nasty, but they're not... Maybe even nasty isn't a good word. They're opponents, but they don't get nasty. In other words, they're honorable opponents. Their tactics are... They're gonna keep it above the belt, as we say. Right? Generally speaking, those who kept it a little bit noble, Allah eventually guided them to Islam. Greatest example, Abu Sufyan. Greatest example is Khalid ibn al-Walid. Now these people, Umar ibn al-Khattab, they were not followers of Islam from the beginning. They were enemies and they did a lot of harm. But their harm was within the system as much as they could. Legally, using their tongue. Sometimes they got physical, but even that was not ignoble. They didn't torture innocent slaves like Umayyah ibn Khalaf did to Bilal. They didn't do that type of stuff. Whereas we had the other opposite category, and this category, people like Abu Jahl, people like Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayth, people like Waleed ibn al-Mughira, the famous poet, the most famous poet of Mecca. That he wanted to keep his position, so he invents lies and he knows it's a lie. So that category of people, by and large, they were eliminated. And they were not guided to Islam. And so Uqba is one of them. So, Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As said, that one day the Prophet ﷺ was praying in front of the Ka'bah, when Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayth came from behind him. And he took off his thawb, his garment, could have been like a type of shawl, and he threw it around his neck, the Prophet ﷺ's neck, and began to choke him. Began to choke him. And the Prophet ﷺ was struggling with that choking, And the people did not intervene at all. Until finally Abu Bakr was told that your companion is being tortured. And so he rushed to the masjid, and he began beating up from behind now, because now he is, the process of being choked from behind. And so he attacked Uqba, and he said to him, أَتَقْتُلُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهِ Are you gonna kill a person just because he said, he says, my lord is God, my lord is Allah? That's why you're gonna kill him? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed verses in the Quran. And to this day, أَتَقْثُلُ الرَّجُلُ أَن يَقُلُ رَبِّ اللَّهُ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ بِالْبَيْنَاتِ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ Surah Ghafir is in there. This exact phrase of Abu Bakr, Allah quoted him in the Quran. And this verse is now a verse in the Quran. And Allah azawajal quotes Abu Bakr saying this in the Quran. And this shows us Abu Bakr is not a regular sahabi. He is somebody whom Allah has explicitly mentioned is a sahaba. Right? إِذْ يَقُولُ لِصَاحِبِهِ The only person whom Allah testifies is a Sahabi. By name basically, not by name, but by indirect name. When he says to his Sahabi, to his companion, and Allah quotes Abu Bakr in the Quran, and we said the only other Sahaba who has been quoted by name is who? Zayd. So these are the two Sahaba, they are definitely at a different level than the other Sahaba. And so, in this time, Allah Azawajal will that Abu Bakr save the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And there are other examples of this nature where they physically harmed him. Sometimes the harm was not physical but rather emotional. It wasn't that he was gonna die, like this time they tried to kill him, but it was rather that it was emotional distress or it was something that, a matter of prestige. And this is of the worst that has been narrated in this case. Ibn Mas'ud narrates, and this version is in Bukhari and it is mentioned in many books of hadith. Ibn Mas'ud narrates, and Ibn Mas'ud saw this as an eyewitness. And he could not do anything because Ibn Mas'ud was of the slave class. Ibn Mas'ud was of not a Qurashi. Had he done anything, his life would have been taken immediately. And they had to leave it to the others to do. So Ibn Mas'ud said that once the Prophet ﷺ was praying again in front of the Ka'bah. Look, they're usually attacking him in public in front of the Ka'bah. Why? To drive the point, to make the point, to embarrass him, to humiliate him. when Abu Jahl and a group of his ilk, of his peers were sitting around each other and the day before a camel had just been sacrificed. Camels are not sacrificed on a daily basis. Once every few weeks somebody is going to sacrifice a camel. So Abu Jahl said, who amongst you will go to the carcass of that camel? There is a dump area outside Mecca. there's an area where you would throw your trash so who will go to the carcass of that camel and bring the entrail, the intestine the guts, that which nobody is going to eat it's been thrown away, bring that and throw it on the back of the prophet of Muhammad when he is praying to his lord who can do this, it's a challenge it's a challenge that he's giving now, who's going to do this, and so the worst of them, Ibn Mas'ud says, the worst of them, Uqba ibn Abi Mu'id, the one that we just mentioned. The worst of them stood up and he went. Now can you imagine, this is a nobleman of Quraysh, right? Can you imagine, he must have been wearing his fine clothes, he's considered to be of the leaders. He goes to a dead carcass and he puts his hand inside this filthy, decomposing body. And he carries with his own two hands, entrails, blood, this disgusting, sticky substance. Can you imagine the hatred that is even more disgusting than the body, the hatred that it is in his heart for him to do this. And he comes from that yard, from that lot, and he walks all the way into the city, and the Prophet ﷺ is still praying, because as we know, the Prophet ﷺ prayer was long. It's not like our prayer, two minutes and we're over. Literally, if you calculate some of his prayers would be two, three hours, sometimes minimum will be ten, fifteen minutes. This is the prayer of the Prophet ﷺ. So, he waited for him to go into sajdah. The Prophet ﷺ is unaware of what's happening behind him. And when he fell into sajdah, then uqbah came and he dumped all of the stomach and the entrails and the intestine this big, it's a camel, it's not a trivial animal, you know. And he dumped it all onto the head of the Prophet ﷺ while he is in sajdah. And all of it fell onto him and the weight of it was so heavy that he could not lift himself up. He could not lift himself up. Ibn Mas'ud said, فَاسْتَضْحَكَ الْقَوْمِ The people began to laugh so hard that some of them had to fall onto their sides. And others were hitting themselves. You know how they do when they laugh like this. And others were hitting themselves. And I was standing from a distance looking, but I had no way to help. I didn't have mun'a, meaning there was nobody that would have supported me. I am Ibn Mas'ud, these are Abu Jahl and what not. Ibn Mas'ud is like Bilal and others, they would have instantaneously been killed because they don't have any honor. This is not their society. They are slaves in this society. And I was of those who were seeing him, but I could not do anything. And the Prophet ﷺ remained sajid, remained in sajda, until some persons went to tell Fatima, who at this time was probably around 8-9 years old, went to tell Fatima, that your father needs your help. Somebody with some mercy, we don't know his name, whoever he went to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ. And so Fatima was a juwaydiya, was a little girl, Ibn Mas'ud is saying. She was a little girl at the time, and she began crying and running towards the Prophet ﷺ and helped him get this dead animal off of his back. And the Prophet ﷺ then stood up, he managed to stand up, and he turned and he faced them. And he raised his finger up to Allah ﷻ, and when they saw him in this fashion, they became quiet. and he began making dua against them by name. Allahumma alayka bi Abi Jahil. Allahumma alayka bi Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt. Allahumma alayka bi... And he mentioned every single one of them. And he mentioned each of them three times until all of them had a deadly pale in their faces. The blood drained from their face and the people that I mentioned here, Abu Jahil ibn Hisham, Utsba ibn Rabi'ah, and Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah, Waleed ibn Uqba, Umayya ibn Khalaf, Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayyad, ibn Mas'ud said and there was a seventh and I forgot his name seven people were in this gathering and then ibn Mas'ud said so I swear by the one who sent Muhammad with the truth that I myself saw every one of these seven dead in the battle of Badr the first engagement Allah took care of all of them the first engagement that took place every one of these seven as I said the enemies that didn't have any nobility there is no point Allah did not save them they don't have any good in them this shows you have no humility completely callous your hearts are sealed so every one of these seven Ibn Mas'ud said I swear by Allah I saw with my own eyes every one of these seven I saw them dead in the battle of Badr and I saw their bodies dragged into the well and thrown into the well of Badr and eventually of course the matters got worse than this and talk began of assassination it is narrated in Ibn Ishaq that once the news spread that they had planned to assassinate the Prophet and a neighbor told Fatima that a lady neighbor told Fatima that you know they're talking about assassinating your father and Fatima ran home and told the Prophet that they're planning to assassinate you and the Prophet said He said, fear not, Allah Azza wa Jal will take care of me. Bring me water. And so she brought him water. He did wudu, he made dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and he walked into the masjid. And this is towards the end of the Makkan era. So I'm making incidents together. This is not in the beginning. Towards the end of the Makkan era, because the assassination talk only began in the 8th, 9th, 10th year of the da'wah. Technically we're still in the 4th, 5th year, but I'm just giving you some examples. so they said we're going to assassinate him and they had their weapons prepared so he did wudu and he walked into the masjid and they had their arms and they were ready to kill him but not one of them could move they all became paralyzed they could not stand up and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam took some sand and threw it at their faces while they're sitting and looking at him and they were completely paralyzed and he said may these faces be cursed. And in this riwayah as well, the sahabi says, every one of these were of those who were killed in the battle of Badr. Every one of these were of those who were killed in the battle of Badr. And there are many more incidents as well. Again we cannot mention every one of them because there's too many. But the point I'm trying to stress, the Prophet ﷺ himself was physically and emotionally tortured. Now the question arises based on last week's halaqah and this week's. Of all the torture, all the pain all the suffering. A question should come to the mind of every one of us. We firmly believe that our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the best Prophet. And all of the Prophets are great Prophets. We firmly believe that his followers were the best followers. We firmly believe that Allah loves the Prophets and loves the followers of the Prophets. So why then were they tested in this fashion and manner? What is the wisdom in such persecution, in such hardship. Why not just protect the believers and give them immediate victory and cause them to have the Medinan state in Mecca? Immediately, let the people believe. And in fact, it's not just in our religion. Even Jesus Christ, His followers were persecuted and they suffered from the hands of the Romans, right? And the prophets before them, Moses and the followers of Moses suffered at the hands of Pharaoh. Why did the prophets and their followers undergo so much suffering when they are on the side of Allah, they're on the side of God. What is the purpose of the greatest man on earth being tortured? Our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., there's a dead carcass being thrown on him. Why? In response to this, there are many reasons, not just one. First and foremost, to remind them and through them to remind us that Allah did not create us to live a comfortable life in this world. there is a purpose for Allah creating us and that purpose is the next world Allah says that he is the one who has خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا he has created life and death Allah says هُوَ الَّذِي أَضْحَكَ وَأَبْكَ Allah is the one who causes you to laugh and causes you to cry every human being has good and bad things happen to him every human being laughs and cries you have occasions where you're happy you have occasions when you're sad So Allah reminds them and through them Allah reminds us that you are not created to just live and live in this world. You have something greater and that is the next world. And therefore of the wisdoms is to earn in whatever way possible. When I say earn here, of course you don't earn paradise. But you earn Allah's mercy that will get you to paradise. You have to do something to gain that mercy from Allah. paradise is too precious to be earned by a lifetime of good no matter what you do it's too much to be earned but Allah will magnify the small that you do and that will then give you Allah's blessings and that will then give you paradise and so it is the wisdom of Allah to test mankind to see those who are pure and firmly believe in him and those who are worthy of being blessed in the akhirah versus those who are not and those who are not worthy of those blessings Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in surah al-ankabut, أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا أَن يَقُولُوا أَمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ Did mankind think that they would be left without being tested? Without being tried? Verily we tested the people before them. And through these tests Allah will show who are those who are true and who are those who are hypocrites. Allah says in surah al-Baqarah verse 214, أَمْ حَسِبِتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَعْلَمِ اللَّهُمْ Do you think you're going to enter Jannah just like that? Do you think Jannah is going to be given to you for free? And Allah has yet to test you. In another verse, And Allah has told you what has happened to the people before you. They were shaken and they were afflicted with hardships and with poverty until they called out, when will the help of Allah come? Verily the help of Allah is indeed close. And I already mentioned in last week's halaqah, the one whose slave owner that lady Umm Anmar would take hot iron from the coals from the furnace and use it to torture him on his back she would literally take this furnace this coal the iron that was in the furnace and torture him with this one day he came to the Prophet this one and he said Ya Rasulullah ila mata for how long for how long are we going to be like this you are the prophet of Allah aren't you how long for how long are we going to be tortured like this why don't you ask Allah to help us against these people and so the prophet was sitting against the Kaaba with his back to the Kaaba he came forward to show the importance he came forward to show the importance of what he is going to say and he said indeed the people before you the people before you, they would be tortured worse than this. And they would have a comb of iron, one of them would have a comb of iron that would strip his flesh off of his bones. And another would have a saw or a knife cut himself in half so that he would be completely cleaved. And still that would not turn them away from the worship of Allah. Verily I swear to you by the one who has sent me that Allah will perfect this religion. لَيُتِمَّنَّ اللَّهُ هَذَا الْأَمْرُ Allah will perfect this matter. Until you will see a day in which a lady shepherd, a shepherdess, will take her flock from Hadhramaut to Sana'a, very far away, two small villages or cities in Yemen. Forget Mecca. From Hadhramaut to Sana'a, she's gonna take a flock of sheep. And she will only be scared of Allah and the wolf to eat her sheep. a Muslim lady will do this and she's not going to fear anything now that's exactly what happened many times in history the peace, the security in Muslim lands was so much and the Prophet ﷺ said Allah is going to fulfill his promise وَلَكِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ but you are those who are being hasty notice the Prophet ﷺ had full faith this religion will succeed but there's going to be trials in the beginning and you guys are being hasty about this And subhanAllah, these punishments that the Prophet ﷺ described of iron combs and a being cleaved in half, this is exactly what happened to the early Christians at the hands of the Romans. The Romans were a pagan nation until Constantine converted as you know. Constantine in 321 or so he converted and adopted Christianity. Until that time, Romans were a pagan nation and they persecuted the Christians. The emperor Nero burnt the Christians, he used the Christians as light bulbs. literally he doused them with petrol and he used them as light bulbs in his city of Rome they became the light bulbs for a few days because he got irritated at them for some reason they were persecuted much, very severely in some cases worse than the early Muslims and so the Prophet ﷺ is saying there were Muslims before you because we believe these to have been Muslims at the time there were Muslims before you who were persecuted worse than this and they did not swerve away from the worship of Allah Allah is going to give you victory but you need to be patient and therefore from this we learn and this is of the wisdoms of why they have to undergo so much hardships that the blessings of Allah are earned through trial and struggle they don't just come you need to earn them through whatever tests come your way فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا with difficulty will come the ease with the difficulty will come the ease فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا The yusr will come with the usr. There must be the usr, the difficulty. And then there will be the ease. Even the prophets of Allah are not handed the blessings on a silver platter. They need to struggle to earn it. They need to struggle to show it. And in this is wisdom. Because a later person could come and say, if they didn't undergo these struggles, suppose, and we a thousand four hundred years later are undergoing struggles. then we will say subhanallah they didn't have any struggles they're the prophet of God they came and Allah gave them peace and security instantaneously because they suffered worse than us automatically we realize they were better than us this is human nature and this leads us to the last point of some of the blessings here the companions and even the prophet in his own way they through these struggles clearly demonstrated their superiority over us. Without any question, they demonstrated. رأي العين You see it in their struggles. It's not just speech of Allah that Allah is pleased with them, they are pleased with Him. It's not just the speech of the Prophet ﷺ that my sahaba are the best of all generations. You see it in what they do, in how they live their lives. And even amongst the sahaba, not all of them are the same. Those who converted in Mecca have a higher degree than those who converted in Medina. Those who converted in early Mecca have a higher degree than those who converted in late Mecca. وَالسَّابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنصَارِ The earliest who converted, سَابِقُونَ الْأَوَّلُونَ They have a degree higher of the muhajireen. And then the ansar. So Allah gave them preference depending on their level of iman. And the last point is that so that we can have real examples. shining lights of guidance such that when we face trial and tribulation we can take comfort we can find solace we can find role models and subhanallah there is no society that has undergone the type of persecution that the early Muslims of Mecca did and therefore every persecution that takes place we can find some type of comfort when we look at what happened to the early Sahaba moving on to the next point in the seerah when the Sahaba reached around we don't know the exact number but roughly a ballpark figure around 20 or 30 of the Sahaba were present the Prophet ﷺ realized that he needed a place to congregate because they couldn't do so in Mecca in the Ka'bah because it was too public a lot of Muslims were secret Muslims they hadn't informed their relatives and friends of their Islam especially some of the slaves who had converted they hadn't told their masters so they needed a place that they could congregate there was no mosque that they could pray in other than the Kaaba the first mosque that was ever built in Islam was the Masjid al-Quba Masjid Quba was the first masjid ever built in Islam there was no masjid before Masjid Quba a physical masjid and that's why Allah calls it أَوَّلُ بَيْتٍ أُسِّسَ عَلَىٰ تَقْوَى Allah calls it in the Quran the first house of worship built upon taqwa meaning in Islam so there was no masjid in Mecca the Kaaba at this time is a holy land but there's idols around it there's no sanctuary so the Prophet ﷺ decided to choose the house of as you all know Al-Arqam ibn Abil Arqam and his name is probably Al-Asad ibn Abdul Uzza Al-Arqam ibn Abil Arqam is his title his common name Al-Arqam ibn Abil Arqam and so Darul Arqam became the place where the Sahaba would meet. When did this happen? We don't have any year. But probably around, we would estimate around the middle of the third or the beginning of the fourth year. In other words, as soon as the da'wah went public, within a few months after that. Remember the da'wah went public after three years, right? After three years, the da'wah went public. Before three years, there is no public da'wah. So we don't have people converting that much. After three years, when the da'wah becomes public, all of this persecution begins, the Prophet ﷺ needs a place, so he chooses the house of Al-Arqam. Now, question. Why the house of Al-Arqam? What is the wisdom behind choosing the house of Al-Arqam? The books of Seerah do not mention this, so we need to study who is this person Al-Arqam, where his house was, and then we try to derive some benefit. Al-Arqam, point number one, he was from the nobleman of the Quraysh, but he was not from the tribe of Banu Hashim. He was from the tribe of Banu Makhzum. Who can tell me who is the most famous person from Banu Makhzum? Abu Jahl is from Banu Makhzum. So, by choosing somebody from the Banu Makhzum, automatically, nobody is going to suspect that a Makhzumi is going to help a Hashimi. Because there is huge rivalry between them. right, so the Prophet is choosing somebody from the tribe, from a tribe that is a rival tribe, now Islam is more important to Muslims than Makhzum and Hashim right, but the Jahili Arabs cannot look beyond their their tribalism their Jahiliyya, so the Prophet number one, he chooses somebody from the Makhzum so it's not going to be suspicious number two Al-Arqam was of the first people to accept Islam, they say he was of the first ten. So clearly then he could be completely trusted. Because this is a secret place in Mecca. Nobody is supposed to know about it. So you need somebody that you can trust your life with. And so he chooses somebody who is of the earliest converts and they know him inside out. So he is of the first ten converts to Islam. Number three, according to one report, Al-Araqam had inherited this property from his father. He was a young man. Probably in his late teens maybe even, 18, 19 years old. And so once again this is added to the disguise that you wouldn't expect an 18 year old kid to be such a brave. Of course 18 year old for them was a young man. For us they're considered kids still, but for that age he was a young man. Nobody would think that an 18 year old would risk everything to help the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Point number four. According to another report, Al-Arqam had not announced his Islam. He had kept it secret. And so yet another added, if you like, cover of secrecy. That nobody would know that Al-Arqam would be helping because they don't expect him to be a Muslim. Point number five, the house of Al-Arqam was located behind the mountain of Safa. Now, the mountain of Safa, you all know where it is. Is that in the center of Mecca or is it outside of Mecca? The center of Mecca. So, why would you want a secret meeting place in downtown? One would imagine you would want a secret meeting place on the outskirts where nobody would see you, right? Why would you want a secret meeting place smack dab in the middle of downtown Mecca, which is behind Mount Safa? Who can figure this one out? True, but there is another point. Close by to what? The Kaaba. So how will that help them? Okay, but there is still much more. That's true, but there's still a much more clearer point. They can monitor the Quraysh? You're not going to be able to eavesdrop from inside the house, but maybe a point. Imagine if 40 people are walking towards a small house outside of Mecca. Traffic. Traffic. Everybody has to go to downtown. Every day. Mecca, everybody has to go. There, every day. That's what you do in the afternoon. When all of the chores are done, you go and you sit in the nadi, or around the Kaaba. That's what you do for socialization. So, getting to that area, walking to and fro, is the most natural thing in the world. And so, as Dr. Saab said, it's basically right under their noses. That they're walking to a house that is smack in the middle of downtown, because it's a stone's throw away from the Ka'bah. You literally are attached to basically the area of the Haram, right? And so, right before the Haram, they go into an alley and there's the house right there. And so when they walk out, it's as if people are gonna think they're coming from the Haram. Or they're walking, they're walking to the Haram. So it's a location or an area that it would be very easy to explain why you're going in that direction and coming back from that direction. And why there's so many people coming and going basically around the Ka'bah because they would do that every day anyway. and in fact they would probably, we don't know this for sure but we can assume they would probably make sure they even went to the haram after they went out of the house and then come back so that they actually were physically in the haram as well for a while and so no suspicions are raised right? and there is no doubt as well and this we can infer from the sources we don't, again we have to when it comes to these seerah reports you need to be a little bit more analytical and think you cannot just read it at a superficial level there must have been a very common sense reason and that is his house must have been large as well. Because we had at least 40 people congregating in the house and 40 is a large number for Mecca. Large number. So for 40 people to be in a room clearly means that the house of Al-Arqam was a relatively larger house as well. And of course the house of Al-Arqam, this is where Ammar ibn Yasir accepted Islam this is where Suhaib al-Rumi accepted Islam this is where Umar ibn Khattab accepted Islam remember the story of Umar ibn Khattab we're gonna come to that next Wednesday when Khabab brought him when he was gonna kill his sister Fatima right and then he repented he changed his mind and so when he made sure that he's sincere Khabab brought him to Al-Arqam house and he gave the code word because there was you needed a code word to get in and he gave the code word and Al-Arqam stared at him, who have you brought here? How could you bring Umar ibn Al-Khattab? I mean, have you lost your mind? Right? So, he's bringing Umar to the house of Al-Arqam. Right? And he explains him, no, there's a reason, let me speak to the Prophet ﷺ. And they bring Umar in and he accepts Islam. Right? So, all of this is happening in the house of Al-Arqam. This is basically the central station of where the Prophet ﷺ was. And when you look at the reasons why this house was chosen, once again you find a lot of wisdoms And you find clearly the Prophet ﷺ obviously, he was a highly intelligent, the most intelligent human being ever. He's not just choosing any random house. There's reasons why even this house is being chosen. The next major incident that is narrated in the seerah, is the first immigration to Abyssinia. The first immigration to Abyssinia. When these tactics of open intimidation, of humiliation, of torture continued, the Prophet ﷺ eventually suggested to the Sahaba that this land has become too constricted for you why don't you emigrate for those of you who want to why don't you emigrate to the neighboring land of Abyssinia for there is a Christian king there who is a just king and he shall allow you to worship without interfering in your worship And this announcement was made in Rajab, in the fifth year of the da'wah. So, the third year of the da'wah he goes public, less than a year and a half later. So you can imagine now, all of this torture we're talking about is happening in this year and a half. All of this hardship is happening in this year and a half. It gets so difficult in Rajab of the fifth year of the da'wah. This is still 6BH, 6B4 Hijrah. don't get confused, don't think 5 AH no, this is 5 after da'wah which is not anything in our calendar so we say 6 before hijrah or actually 7 before hijrah because the hijrah is in the 12th slash 13th year of the da'wah you guys following this right? 13 years in Mecca or to be more precise 12 years in some months in Mecca and so this is around 7 BH you can say, before the hijrah so in the 5th year of the da'wah in the month of Rajab the Prophet ﷺ allows the Sahaba to emigrate to Abyssinia. Now, for most of us, dare I say all of us in this room, we will not understand what hardships this would mean to emigrate to a new land. Especially us here in America, we are so used to traveling from city to city and place to place. Most of us in this room, most of us have lived in multiple cities in our lives. I myself have lived in 4 or 5 cities for years at times. And we're completely natural to us. Because the world has changed immensely in this time. So we don't understand that uprooting yourself from, you know, even a hundred years ago, the bulk of mankind I think the estimate I read somewhere was 90 something percent they were born and they lived and they died within 20 miles of the radius of where they were born. Of their father's house. This is the bulk of mankind. That's just the way it is. You take over what your father is doing and you live the local line and you go on. And in Jahili Makkah, it was much more worse than this. You couldn't even emigrate to another city because as we said, the whole concept of tribalism. As a Qurashi, you had to be linked to Makkah. That was your only way of survival. If you want to even Ta'if or Medina, the people there are not of your tribe. And you are second, third class. You don't have any izzah. You can be plundered, raped, looted, anything could happen, nobody is going to protect you because there is no government there is no law, there is no society there is no civilization, this is even within Arabia, imagine going to a foreign land on top of that you don't have bank transfers, you're not going to take your wealth and then wire it to the different land, no your property is your property you can't sell it at market price because you're not telling anybody you're leaving people are just going to take over when they perform the actual hijrah to Medina the sahaba suffered a huge financial loss even sahaba who were rich became poor in the migration because they couldn't take their money with them it's too dangerous to carry your gold and silver with you you cannot just carry it in an unarmed guard fleeing for your life and property from Mecca and so when you're making hijrah what you're doing is you are entering into a strange world where you don't have honor, you don't have protection, you don't have a passport basically. And you are at the mercy of those around you. To make matters worse, they have been told to go to a land where you're not even speaking Arabic. Where the people are not Arabs. It's a different culture. It's a land in Africa, in modern day Abyssinia, Habesha. Where the culture, the people, everything is different. So, this underscores how difficult Mecca would have been for them to prefer going to Abyssinia over remaining in Mecca. And therefore, when the Prophet ﷺ gave this command, 15 people immigrated. 11 men and 4 women. 11 men and 4 women. Amongst them, the first to migrate was Uthman ibn Affan. and Uthman ibn Affan was married to who was he married to? Waqiyah the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ and so the first couple to migrate were the Prophet's ﷺ own son in law and his daughter and he was followed by Uthman ibn Mad'un, another famous Sahabi and Abdurrahman ibn Auf the famous Sahabi whom we are all familiar with Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam Mus'ab ibn Umair who was the one who was made shaheed in the battle of Uhud this is the Mus'ab ibn Umair, Abu Salama and his wife Umm Salama, right? Abu Salama would be the first Sahabi to die in Abyssinia, and Umm Salama would be left all alone without any support. She's cut off from her relatives in Mecca, and now her husband has died in a strange and foreign land, and she was under a lot of trauma, it was a complete stress for her, that she is literally cut off. And so, out of mercy to her, the Prophet ﷺ sent a proposal to Umm Salama, we're gonna talk about that later on. So Umm Salama was actually proposed to, because her husband had passed away in Abyssinia. And a number of other sahaba, so there was 11 men and 4 women. Now it is unclear whether they, all of them secretly immigrated, or was it known that they would immigrate. Some reports seem to indicate that they left secretly. And they made their way to Juddah, which is now called Jeddah. They made their way to the modern port of Jeddah. And then from Jeddah they took a ship to, Abyssinia. Other reports seem to suggest that the news was spread amongst the Quraysh and if this is true then there's nothing strange about that because imagine at this point in time the Quraysh are not expecting them to immigrate and if the news has spread that they're immigrating, because the Quraysh have not there's no reason why they would have stopped them at this stage. Later on they will. But if the news was public, it's not impossible. It could also be the case that it was made public. And there is one report in Al-Tabarani's Al-Mu'jam, which is one of the books of Hadith, that seems to suggest that the news was made public. And it is an interesting story, because it involves Umar ibn al-Khattab, and it shows the side of him that we're going to see later on. And it involves one of the couples emigrating. There was only four couples, right? Four women, so there was only four couples, and the rest were all single males, such as Uthman ibn Mardoon is not married at this time. Musa ibn Umayl was never married. he died a bachelor, so these were all unmarried men so there were four couples, one of these couples one of these couples was Amir ibn Rabi'ah and his wife Layla Amir ibn Rabi'ah and his wife Layla so in this book of hadith Mu'ajam al-Tabarani, it is narrated that Layla was packing her bags for Abyssinia and loading the camel, so this clearly means that she's doing it in public, loading the camel and taking whatever she can to the port of Juddah and Umar ibn al-Khattab passes by and sees that they're traveling. You don't load a camel, you're packing your bags, you're putting it. And so he asks, where are you traveling to? I mean this is not the season of رحلة الشتاء والصيف or what... Traveling is a big deal for them. It's not like I travel every week somewhere, every two weeks. Traveling is a very big deal for them. Where are you traveling to? What is this traveling for? And you can imagine, she's so irritated and so angry, she's leaving her homeland and you know packing always makes you irritated anyway you know and so she just barks out at him in complete anger this is all because of you it's all because of you and your terrorizing of us and your persecution of us just because we want to worship Allah because of your persecution we have to go somewhere else and find a land where we can worship Allah in so she basically snapped at him instead of getting angry Umar seemed to for the first time she saw in his eyes compassion and he said to her has the matter reached that level meaning I never thought it was that bad we're just torturing Bilal on the streets I never thought it was that bad we killed Umar or Yasir and I never thought it was that bad so he's not thinking has the matter reached that level and then he said may Allah be with you makes dua for her and he walks on his way so she is completely flabbergasted that she sees a side of Umar that they have never seen before so when her husband Amir ibn Rabi'ah comes home she excitedly tells him, guess what happened, Umar ibn Khattab came by and you know he actually had some compassion her husband snorted in contempt. And he said, do you really think that he's going to be merciful to us and accept Islam? Wallahi, the donkeys of his father's house will embrace Islam before he does. Lahimaru Baitul Khattab. Right? The donkeys of his father's house will embrace Islam before Umar ibn al-Khattab does. Right? Now, subhanallah, what happened? Within two years, Umar ibn al-Khattab is a Muslim. And subhanAllah, what this shows us really, is that Umar ibn al-Khattab, as we all know this, he had an outer hardness, but inside he was a very soft man. He had an outer strictness, sternness, but even in this stage, inside, and the same we see it in his Fatima's incident, right? He raises his hand and he hits his own sister as soon as she bleeds, what happens? We're gonna talk about this next week, I'm jumping the gun. But you understand, you all know this story, He has an inner softness in him That we expect from a good person And especially from one of the best sahaba And it also shows that indeed Allah will guide whomever he wills The sahaba never expected Umar to be a Muslim And he The Amir utters a phrase Which he is forgiven for But he is so You really think this guy is going to embrace Islam As we say in English, pigs will fly Hell will freeze over He just says this Come on, get real but Allah knows so this also shows us that we should never ever condemn people to hell we should never it's not our job we leave it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah knows who will be guided and so Umm Salama narrated first person is in Bukhari Umm Salama said so we began to live in a good land with good neighbors and we were safe with regards to our religion and did not fear any persecution now, number of points here notice that the immigrants all of them, look at the names that I mentioned Uthman ibn Affan, Uthman ibn Mad'un Mus'ab ibn Umair not Zubair but Abu Salama Abdurrahman ibn Auf in fact Zubair ibn Awam, yes he did migrate what's common about all of them? they're all Quraishis they're all Quraishis they're all high status people right? why couldn't the low status immigrate? they were slaves they were slaves they were slaves they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were they were why were all of these from the noblemen of the Quraysh? Because the slaves didn't have the political luxury to emigrate. Right? And this really shows us an interesting point. Subhanallah, if you think about it, the people who needed to emigrate the most, couldn't do so. Bilal could not emigrate. Ammar could not emigrate. Ibn Mas'ud could not emigrate. Khabbab could not emigrate. Right? And the ones who were the most elite, Uthman ibn Affan, I mean he was, he was the one they sent in Hudaybiyah because they know the Quraysh loved him so much they wouldn't dare hurt him. Right? Remember Hudaybiyah 10 years later. This is Uthman. They know that he is the most noble amongst them. Even Umar says, Ya Rasulullah, you know me, Uthman has a better position with them. Right? So the elite of the Quraysh who are Muslim, immigrate. and this shows us that subhanallah, I mean the fact of the matter is that a person does have to take care of himself and if these people even though they're not as persecuted as the rest but they have an opportunity to have less persecution they should avail themselves to the opportunity right? there's no point in them remaining and being persecuted just because there are other people who are being persecuted worse than them you guys, following this point here there's an element of يَا يُنَّذِينَ آمِنُوا عَلَيْكُمْ وَإِنفُسَكُمْ Take care of yourselves. And there's nothing un-Islamic about that. That our Prophet ﷺ is telling those who have the political capability, go ahead and immigrate. Right? Even though there were people who needed to immigrate worse than them. But what are you gonna do? So you make the best of a bad situation. And this is, in Arabic, there's a qa'ida, a maxim. I'm always scared using the word qa'ida. Because, you know, Qaeda of course means a legal maxim, a rule, right? And that's why those guys called it Al-Qaeda because it's the base, right? But we use the word Qaeda all the time. The funny joke is that when you teach the kids the Quran, what is the book that they use? Huh? It's like, so there's a joke that if somebody sent an email that I need to teach my kid the Qaeda, right? And so it was intercepted by the FBI and it caused a huge issue. It's like, you're going to teach your kids Qaeda? No, the Noorani Qaida is the... Alif Bata. We're teaching them the alphabet. So the point being that there's a maximum fiqh that says that you basically have to choose a khaffu dararain, or the lesser of the two evils. You always have to go with the lesser of the two evils. You can't save everybody. You can't. Does that mean that all of them suffer? No. Well, those who can go, can go. Let them go. and let them have a better life over there. This also shows, and this is a very important point, this also shows that not all of the lands of the non-Muslims are the same. Some of the lands of the non-Muslims are peaceful, you can live there and worship Allah. And others are hostile. Mecca and Abyssinia were not the same lands. Abyssinia was a land they could emigrate to and live in peacefully Mecca was not and this is a very important point that we especially need to extrapolate from in our times that not all of the lands are the same there are lands where freedoms are guaranteed and there are lands where people are persecuted and so in our religion we have the clear cut political notion that there are certain lands you are allowed to live in and you should live in. What is the condition? You have the freedom to worship Allah there. And if we have that freedom, then we remain law-abiding citizens of that land. And this is, I have talked about this in many lectures. The model of the Abyssinian Muslims is a model that we here in America can benefit from. I'm not saying it's exactly the same. There's nothing, no two things are exactly the same. But I'm saying overall there is a model. And that model is what? You live as a minority in a majority non-Muslim land, and you obey the laws of the land, and you understand that you are citizens, you are under the government of that land. And you don't intend to overthrow the constitution of the government. The Muslims of Abyssinia were not plotting and planning to overthrow the Najashi, were they? And they were not even allowed to do this. They were entering on a visa, basically the equivalent of a visa. And that visa allowed them to live and worship and participate in the community without any problems. And therefore this is a model that we here in America can basically emulate. A lot of the extremists are on the vibe of basically you cannot live in America. It is haram to live in America. That is their opinion. In response we say the Muslims were living in Abyssinia. And their goal in Abyssinia was nothing other than the freedom to worship Allah. Correct? Right? They had no political ambitions. None. And they remained there for more than a decade. And this is interesting. The Muslims in Abyssinia way after Medina was founded. In fact, not just more than a decade. they remained there for 14 years. For 14 years. 7 years after the Hijrah, the Muslims were still in Abyssinia. It was only after the battle of Khaybar that the Prophet ﷺ sent them a letter to Ja'far. Ja'far did not participate in Badr and Uhud. Why? Because he wasn't there. Ja'far was in Abyssinia. Taking care of the Muslims over there. Only after the battle of Khaybar, and that's in the 7th year of the Hijrah, Did the Prophet ﷺ send them a letter and tell them to come back? And this shows that there was a community of believers even when there was a Darul Islam in Medina. There was a community of believers living in Abyssinia, even when there is a fully functioning Darul Islam. How about when there is no Darul Islam in our time, and there is no Khilafah in our times, how can it possibly be wrong to live in a land where we have the freedom to worship Allah ﷻ in? Also notice another point here, a very interesting point. The Prophet ﷺ described Najashi, of course his name, Najashi is not his name, Najashi is his title. Just like we say the Caesar. The Caesar is not the name of one emperor, it is this title. Just like we say the king of England, it's the king, the Caesar. The emperor of Persia is called Khosrow. the emperor of Abyssinia was called Najashi or the Negus in English. And the Najashi, his name actually was Asluma. The actual name of his was Asluma. The Najashi was a Christian king and the Prophet ﷺ said, this is interesting, he is a just king. Why is he a just king? Because he does not persecute his subjects and he does not interfere in their religion. Notice, allowing people the freedom to worship is considered to be a just kingdom. Now, there are some narrow-minded Muslims amongst us who think that an Islamic state is one, a utopic Islamic state, would be one in which all freedoms are banned of religion. You have to be a Muslim. and if you're not Muslim, then you have a million and one restrictions on you. Our Prophet ﷺ is praising a Christian king, calling him a just king. Why? Because you have the freedom to worship. Now, is it possible that a Christian can be praised for this freedom and yet our sharia tells us that we shouldn't have this freedom? Think about it. I'm just asking you to think about it. Is it possible that a Christian king can be praised? That he is a just king? He has a Malikun Adil. Why? Because he's not gonna persecute you for your faith. The government, the government, the Islamic government, does not have the right to ban other religions. We're talking about an ideal Islamic government, if it even exists. Of course it doesn't exist. I'm talking about this utopic government that some of our more narrow-minded, overzealous youngsters especially daydream about. It's not a real vision. And historically speaking, we have always had non-Muslim minorities living in Muslim lands. Always. If that were not the case, 10% of Egypt is still Coptic Christian. 10%. I mean, do you think that for 14 centuries, they have this freedom? And it is un-Islamic to infringe on those freedoms. Now no doubt that the laws were slightly different. There's no question about that. But in essence, the government cannot ban a religion. It cannot, and scholars have differed, does this apply only to Judaism and Christianity or other religions as well? And the correct opinion is it applies to any religion. What is the evidence for this? When the Muslims conquered Persia, the Prophet ﷺ only said Jews and Christians. It's true, he said that. When the Muslims conquered Persia, the Persians were of what religion? Zoroastrians, Parsis, Zoroastrians, Majus, right? And so, they, by unanimous consensus, and the Majus are fire worshippers, they are not Ahl al-Kitab, right? By unanimous consensus, the Muslims accepted them as basically similar to Ahl al-Kitab, right? And therefore, the correct opinion, and Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn al-Tamiyyah mentioned this, is that this applies to any religion, even paganism. And this is of course the Muslims of India, the Mughals of India, they follow this position, right? That even if you're a pagan, doesn't matter. We're not gonna ban the religion. No doubt there are different laws. Nobody's saying that. You know, you cannot proselytize. Clearly. Yes, you cannot proselytize to your faith. But you cannot ban the religion. You have the right to worship in your centers of worship and do in your localities as you please. And this is something that the Islamic Sharia guarantees. And this shows us that the perception that many non-Muslims have of our religion and even some of our overzealous Muslim brothers, this is an incorrect perception. The fact of the matter is, we are guaranteed the freedom to practice our faith, whatever that faith might be, in an Islamic state. And the last point that we'll mention, the wisdoms of why Abyssinia was chosen. We already mentioned the number one wisdom, in the process I mentioned it. The number one wisdom, it's a just king. It allows you the freedom of worship. Number two, Abyssinia was familiar to the Quraysh and to the Muslims, because Abyssinia, they had some trade agreements, they would go and buy and purchase there. And so they had some type of contact. It's not as if he said, go to China. They have some type of contact. Number three, it's easy passage. You go to Jeddah, which is literally a two day, a day and a half walk, not too far, right? And then in the relative scale of things, it's neighboring cities, right? And then from Jeddah, you take a ship to Abyssinia, and that ship is five, six, seven hours. Again, so basically within two days you could be in Abyssinia. It's a very short distance. It's not a far away distance. It's much closer than even Yemen or Rome or any other place. It's a very close place. Number four, that they are Christians. They're not pagans. And Christians are very close to us. In fact, Allah says in the Quran, لَتَجِدَنَّ أَشْهَدَّ النَّاسِ عَدَاوَةً لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Who? أَشْهَدَّ النَّاسِ عَدَاوَةً Who are they? الْيَهُودَ وَالَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا وَلَتَجِدَنَّ أَقْرَبَهُمْ You're gonna find the closest of the people. مَوَدَّةً love to the Muslims, right? The ones who have the most love for the Muslims الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّا نَصَارًا Those who say we are the Christians, the followers of Jesus Christ, right? And so generally speaking, Christians have been more tolerant and open-minded than many of the other religions. And that is why this king of Abyssinia, it is also said by the way, and this is a... we're never gonna find out for sure, but there is a theory there that this king, he followed a version of Christianity that was not the common version of Christianity. Pause here for a second. When, Christian, this is a very interesting tangent, but we don't have time, we only have three minutes left, so I'm going to really summarize this. When Jesus Christ was raised up, we don't believe he died, as on the cross says, when he was raised up, his followers and the people around him were immersed in a huge confusion. What happened to him? Where is he? And within a generation, the question became, who is he? What was he? And so, one group, and these were the real disciples of Jesus Christ, like Barnabas and others, they believed, as we believe, that Jesus Christ was a prophet, a messiah, that he was a noble person, that he obeyed the law, he was a follower of the law of Musa. Another person came along by the name of Paul, as you know, and Paul had never met Jesus Christ. He pretends he claims to have met him. We think this is a lie, but he says he met him. And Paul begins teaching a version of Christianity which is a completely different version. That you have to believe in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And most importantly, you have to believe that Jesus Christ came to abrogate the law. You don't have to follow the law. That's why the Christians don't have a sharia. They don't have a law. The Jews do have the halakha and the kosher. They circumcise themselves, right? The Christians for them, these version of Christians, they have no law. Even though Jesus Christ never ate pork, and Jesus Christ was circumcised, and Jesus Christ lived the life of a Jew. But modern day Christians ignore this, and they say, well Paul says that he has basically abrogated the law. And this controversy continued for 300 years. We never had any equivalent in our religion of who is God. because the question is who is God? Is Jesus Christ God or not? Is Jesus Christ the son of God or not? How many gods are there? Some early Christians, believe it or not, said there are two gods. Believe it or not, there are clear questions that said there are two. Some said there are three. Some said there is one. These are major questions. And there was a lot of controversy. One group of Christians remained firm. Modern day scholars call them Jewish Christians or Messianic Jews that they considered Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, which is what we believe, right? And these were the real Muslims. one group of Christians were the Pauline Christians and they said Jesus Christ is the son of God and he abrogated the law and eventually Paul never preached to Trinity by the way eventually the Trinity was added to this belief that there's three gods there are three that rule in heaven you never find this anywhere in the Old Testament again even in the New Testament with a lot of difficulty you find some references to this concept you never find it in the words of Jesus Christ to make a long story short So Constantine the emperor comes along. And this is in 321 he embraces Christianity. Right? And Constantine makes a huge council. Called the council of Nicaea. And he invites all the bishops of the Christian world. The first time ever that all the bishops come together. And you have opposing factions. Some who say there's one God. Some who say there's three. Some who say he's the son of God. Some who say this. And Constantine basically makes a decree. And that is called the creed. creed, the Nicene Creed. And this creed, the Nicene Creed, says there are three that rule in heaven, but these three are not three, but they are one. And there are three essences of the same being. Three usawi of the same being. Basically, I'm not a Christian theologian, so I don't want to go too deep into this, but basically three equals one, in a very simplistic manner, right? This is the Nicene Creed. Now, the main opponent of the Nicene Creed at the meeting was a man by the name of Arius. And after this meeting, Constantine says he has to be executed. Because obviously he doesn't agree with this. Arius did not agree with the Trinity. Arius was the main opponent of the Nicene Creed. Arius fled for his life, and he fled down south. What is down south? Well, this is now the theory. This is the theory now. And Allah knows. that he fled down and the Nicene Creed spread to the official Roman Empire and every single version of Christianity afterwards, there's three main branches in our times, Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox right, and then there are the modern ones the Seventh Day Adventists and the Mormons but the three classical branches Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox they all go back to the Nicene Creed those that are pre-Nicene Creed have all disappeared there is not a single branch of Christianity that is existent in our times that was of the original pre-Nicene Creed Christianities right? but it is legend that some small versions of it survived in pockets this legend I believe it and you should believe it because it's mentioned in hadith we mentioned some of these hadith remember Salman al-Farsi? remember Salman al-Farsi? what was his story? what did his priest tell him? I don't know of anybody left upon my religion except that guy go to him remember that story? right? and then he goes and he goes until finally when he meets the last one what does that guy say? I don't know anybody left upon our version of Christianity didn't he say that? right? and that version of Christianity was true Islam and therefore there is a theory that Asfuma Najashi was influenced by Arius' group and therefore when Islam came to him that's why instantaneously what did he say? what did Najashi say? this comes from the same well as Jesus Christ came from right? he instantaneously recognized it and this is the theory that because Arius' influence was in that part of Africa we know this for a fact perhaps some of those influences remained and therefore Najashi was influenced by that final point, Najashi's grave is a well known grave in Abyssinia, it's still known to this day where it was and sadly some people have taken it as a shrine, but it's a well known grave and I know a number of people that have been there and seen the grave of Najashi, inshallah next Wednesday we have a very very interesting halaqah, where we will talk about the quote on quote satanic verses and what are the satanic verses and so that is inshallah a very interesting halaqah, so make sure you come prepared with paper and pen because that's going to be very academic as well. Unfortunately, we don't have time for Q&A.

Seerah 15 - The Incident of the Satanic Verses - Yasir Qadhi _ November 2011-X8CDvhM3arg

In our last week's halaqah we had begun to discuss the famous incident of the immigration of the Muslims to Abyssinia. And we had mentioned that in the fifth year of the da'wah, in the month of Rajab, the Prophet ﷺ had allowed the Muslims to immigrate to Abyssinia. And we had mentioned that the reason why Abyssinia was chosen is because they had the freedom to worship Allah ﷻ. And we derived a number of benefits and important morals that we can derive. And especially for us here in America, there's a lot of wisdom and benefit with that parallel of living as a minority in a non-Muslim land. Now, shortly after the immigration to Abyssinia, the Muslims returned back to Mecca. In fact, so much so that it is narrated that they came back within three months, the month of Shawwal. So, they immigrated in the month of Rajab, it takes around four or five days to get there. And so, Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadan, and then Shawwal. And in the month of Shawwal, they all returned. Now, why would they return just after three months? What happened that caused them to change their minds after emigrating to Abyssinia, and then come back to the very land of persecution, the very land of torture? This incident is the famous incident that some have called the satanic verses. And so we need to discuss what exactly was this incident, and why did these sahaba, why did these 14 or 15 people, 11 men and 4 women, so around 15 people, why did they return back? They returned back because of one rumor. And that rumor was, the Quraysh have accepted Islam. Now, you can imagine life in this strange land. And anybody who's moved, even when we move in the modern world, the most difficult time of moving, the most difficult time is the first week of actually getting there. When you don't have a house or you're not settled down, you don't have friends, the most difficult time of any movement is basically as soon as you get there. Even in the journey, okay, you're waiting to get to the destination. Once you get there, and then you realize it's such a different place from what you're used to. so it was an extremely difficult time even though they weren't persecuted but just acclimatization different language, different culture you can imagine a whole different set of norms they're not used to it and so some rumors spread that they just pounced on some rumors spread that they just embraced instantaneously and that rumor was the Quraish have accepted Islam no matter how wild the rumor sounded their hearts were yearning to go back and they didn't have the connections that we do, the modern facilities, to verify. There's no way they're gonna send a party there. There's only 15 of them and the rumor spreads that Quraish have accepted Islam. So they decide, well, if they've accepted Islam, khalas, we don't need to live here. So they pack their bags and they come back all the way back. And on the way there, they discover that this is in fact not true. It was a lie. Or it was an exaggerated rumor, to be more precise, it's not a lie, but it is an exaggerated rumor. What is the basis of this rumor? How did it come about? Here we need to now talk about what some people have called the satanic verses. Now, before we begin, we need to understand that the whole controversy comes over whether this incident is authentic or not. The whole controversy comes over how do we understand this incident? So let us talk about the different versions of the story that exist. And to be simple, even though this is pretty academic inshaAllah, but still to be simple, I'll talk about three versions. Even though there are more than these, but we'll talk about three versions. Version number one. Version one is the version that is reported in Sahih al-Bukhari. And it's the version that is obviously the most authentic. And it says in this hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, That in the month of Ramadan, well the date is not given, but we learn from Ibn Ishaq. The month is not mentioned in Bukhari. But in the month of Ramadan, in the fifth year of the Hijrah, two months after the Muslims have emigrated, the Prophet ﷺ recited Surah An-Najm. وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى The Prophet ﷺ recited Surah An-Najm in its entirety from beginning to end. And Surah An-Najm is a very powerful surah, very eloquent surah and when he came to the very end of the surah when he finished the surah the very last verse in the surah basically says fasjudu lillahi wa'abudu that prostrate to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and worship him and so the momentum built up in the surah and the excitement built up and the power of the Quran affected the entire congregation, Muslim and non-Muslim. Such that when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, فَاسْجُدُوا لِلَّهِ وَعْبُدُوا The Muslims fell into sajda. And when the Muslims fell into sajda, the Quraysh were so overwhelmed with emotion, they too fell into sajda. And Muslim and non-Muslim for the first time united together in worshipping Allah. Now they're worshipping Allah, there is no idol here, right? فَاسْجُدُوا لِلَّهِ وَعْبُدُوا Muslim and non-Muslim, for the first time, they all united behind the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم Right? Except for one person, the riwayah says, الْوَلِيدِ بْنَ الْمُغِيرَ He was too arrogant, and he was an old man, so he picked up some sand, and he put it on his forehead, and he said, this is good enough for me. You guys prostrate, I just put the sand to my head. Right, this is good enough for me. Except for him, now that's the side point, not related to the story. But the point being that everybody prostrated behind the Prophet ﷺ. Now by the time the rumor made its way from Mecca to Abyssinia, right? The rumor begins a hand span and it returns back an arm's length, right? By the time it reached Abyssinia, the rumor had become what? They've all accepted Islam, they've united behind. the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Simple story, right? Simple story. And this is the story of Al-Bukhari. And I want to really, I wish we had the time to really go over all of Surah Al-Najm. But the fact of the matter is that Surah Al-Najm is such a powerful surah. And it is such an eloquent surah. And the last verses, especially they build up a pitch. They truly build up a pitch. and there's an element of excitement that's being built up and verse by verse and there's so many questions being asked towards the end that even the Quraysh according to the version of Al-Bukhari even the Quraysh were overwhelmed by the sheer power of the surah. And just to finish up the surah I want to just recite some of the verses at the very end to give you an idea of what this surah is talking about. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Or has he not been informed of what is in the books of Moses and Abraham, who died that no other burden would be burdened? And that it is not for man except what he strives for. And that his striving will be seen. Then he will be rewarded with the reward of the best. And that to your Lord is the end. And that He is the most laughing and the most crying. Surah Al-Fatihah. Surah Al-Fatihah فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكَ تَتَمَارًا هَذَا نَذِيرٌ مِّنَ النُّذُرِ الْأُولَى أَزِفَتِ الْآزِفَةِ لَيْسَ لَهَا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ كَاشِفَةً afamin hadhal hadithi ta'jaboon wa tadhhaquna wala tabkun wa antum samidoon fasjudu lillahi wa abudoon This translation, the very last, now the process I'm obviously reciting from the very beginning and it builds up even more so. This translation, the very last ten ayat, Allah says, Is not the listener aware of what is in the book of Musa, and in the book of Ibrahim who fulfilled his engagements? Namely, that no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another. And that every man will be rewarded or punished for what he has done. For the fruit of his own striving will soon be in front of everyone to see. Then will he be rewarded with the complete reward. And indeed to Allah is the ultimate goal. For it is Allah who makes people laugh, and it is Allah who makes people cry. And it is Allah who makes people die, and it is Allah who gives them life. And indeed it is Allah who created everything in pairs, male and female, from a seed that is large in its place. And it is Allah who has promised a second creation. This is the first creation. Allah has promised the second creation. And it is Allah who gives wealth and satisfaction. and it is Allah who is the Lord of the mighty Sirius the star in the sky the mighty Sirius and it is Allah who destroyed the ancient people of Ad and the people of Thamud they too are not around and before them even the people of Nuh for indeed they were the most unjust and the most insolent of transgressors and it is Allah who destroyed the overthrown cities hear the scholars say of Sodom and Gomorrah so that the ruins have covered them up then which of the signs of your Lord will you argue about? فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكَ تَتَمَارَى هَذَا نَذِير This is a warner, the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Just like the warners of old. Allah has destroyed عَادًا ثَمُودًا نُوحًا You are not any different. Allah has destroyed the people of all of these prophets. This prophet is the same vain as them. And the judgment is ever approaching, coming closer. None but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can reveal its time. أَفَمِنْ هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ تَعْجَبُونَ Do you marvel at this recitation? وَتَضْحَكُونَ وَلَا تَبْكُونَ And you are laughing and making fun of it and not crying. وَأَنْتُمْ سَامِدُونَ And you're going around your daily activities ignoring what is gonna happen the day of judgment. فَاسْجُدُوا لِلَّهِ وَعْبُدُوا Rather, ignore all of this. Fall down in prostration to Allah and worship Him. Now the reason I recited these 10 verses and did the translation is to show you that imagine the Prophet ﷺ reciting the entire surah, at least 15-20 minutes of beautiful recitation. And it's a powerful recitation. It really is an emotional surah that makes people follow along verse by verse. These are short verses. They're rhetorical questions. And the people's emotions are getting higher and higher. And then when the Prophet ﷺ falls down in sajda, the Muslims fall down. Even the Quraysh fall down. And so version 1, which is the Bukhari version, is the authentic version. No question about it, and it doesn't need any far-fetched tale to explain it. Now we get to version 2 and version 3, which is where it gets a little bit mucky, a little bit dirty. Now the version of Bukhari, by the way, is narrated by Ibn Abbas. And Ibn Abbas said, the hadith is in Bukhari, Surah An-Najm, Tafsir Surah An-Najm, the chapter of Surah An-Najm. Ibn Abbas said that the Prophet ﷺ recited Surah An-Najm and he prostrated. And all of the Muslims and the Mushriks and even the Jinn and the Inns prostrated with him. Everybody who heard the Surah couldn't help be overwhelmed, even the Jinn prostrated with him. And he said, except for one man, and this is Al-Walid Ibn Mughira, he took sand and he put it on his head and he said, this is sufficient for me. In another version it is Umayya Ibn Khalaf. basically one of the two really strong or staunch enemies they were arrogant and they didn't prostrate that's just a detail not really relevant to the surah now this is version 1 it is the authentic version there is no mention of shaitan there is no need to mention shaitan we now get to the disputed versions version 2 and version 3 version 2 and version 3 revolve around riwayat or reports that are not found in the famous books of hadith they are not found in the 6 books they're not found in Muslim Imam Ahmad they're not even found in Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham which are the standard sources of Tafsir, rather they are found in the more obscure works and the larger collections the encyclopedias, the tertiary works they're found usually in the books that collect everything such as Tabari's Tafsir Tabari's Tafsir, we need to understand one thing Tabari did not intend to write a summarized Tafsir for the masses, he wanted to write an encyclopedia for the scholars and he collected everything that he found. And he mentions this in the beginning of his famous book. He says, I'm gonna mention everything that I hear. I don't care if it's authentic or not. My job is just to report. So Al-Tabari's reporting doesn't mean anything. He's just collecting. It's just like any unfiltered news source. It just narrates everything. Al-Tabari is not Bukhari. Bukhari is a critical collector. Tabari is saying, I'm not a critical collector. I'm just collecting everything. And so these reports are found in Tabari, in more obscure books that are not standard books, such as Al-Wahidi's Asbab al-Nuzan and others. And it mentions a story involving shaitan, involving Iblis. And because it involves Iblis, a western researcher, one of the first researchers of this century to specialize in Islam, they were called orientalists, his name is Sir William Muir. Sir William Muir, and he died 1905. he was the one who for the first time said this is something we'll call it the satanic verses. The name satanic verses is not found in the Quran and Sunnah. It's not found even in these weak narrations. It's found or it's coined by a western researcher Sir William Muir. Sir William Muir is a Presbyterian minister who specialized in Islam and he became one of the professors of Islam in Scotland. And he's a very famous orientalist. This is a hundred years ago. Hundred years ago. And he's written a very big book about the seerah in English. And it was one of the first books of seerah in the English language from a modern perspective, a hundred years ago. And so he labeled the chapter, the satanic verses. So the term satanic verses comes from William Muir. The Islamic sources that do mention it, they call it qissatul gharaniq. And gharaniq is the name of a bird. I tried to find out the equivalent modern Arab linguists have differed what is the English equivalent of the bird is it the heron, is it the pelican, is it the crane some people have said it's a pelican some have said it is a crane but it is a bird with a long neck and some have said it is a heron H-E-R-O-N and others have said it is a pelican but it is a bird with a long neck so in Islamic sources this is called the story of this bird قصة الغرانيق why? we'll understand now what is this story? so now let's talk about the two versions of the story in essence they're the same but there's one crucial difference and we'll explain this difference so let's get on to version 2 of why the Abyssinian Muslims why the Quraysh returned or why the Muslims emigrated and then returned version 2, remember version 1 is Bukhari that's clear cut and it's definitely authentic no question about that Version 2 and 3 are adding details that are not found in Bukhari. So we need to now discuss them. What is version 2? Version 2 is reported by At-Tabari in his tafsir. And it goes back to Urwa ibn Zubair, the famous tabi'i. He's not a sahabi. And this is the main weakness that Urwa never saw the Prophet ﷺ. And Urwa is not narrating from the Prophet ﷺ. So there's a missing link, right? And this is one of the biggest weaknesses right now. Urwa ibn Zubair said that when Surah An-Najm was being recited, now pay attention to this. In the first page of Surah An-Najm, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I'll give you the ayah number right now, ayah number 19 and 20. Najm 19 and 20. أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ اللَّاتَ وَالْعُزَّةَ وَمَنَاتَ ثَالِثَةَ الْأُخْرَىٰ Have you not seen Allat and Al-Uzza and the third of them, Manat? have you not seen allat and al-uzza and the third of them manath, what are these three, these are the three the three gods, the three idols right, now in the Quran, verse 17 have you not seen, verse 19 have you not seen allat and al-uzza verse 20 and manath the third of them, verse 21 are you going to get the females and you will give him the males remember the Arabs look down at women right, so Allah is telling them. So you give him what you discard. You're gonna kill girls. And yet you want your lord to have daughters. What an unfair sharing. This is what the Quran says in front of us. Now, what is the story? You need to pay attention. A little bit of academic things here. So verse 19, verse 20. Have you seen Allat and Uzza and the third of them Manat? Urwa ibn Zubayr said, after verse number 20, Shaytan cried out. And he added two verses that were not in the Qur'an. And these verses were heard by the mushrikun but not by the muslimun. Shaytan cried out in his own voice, in his own tongue. And he added two verses. Have you seen allatana al-uzza and the third of them manat? This is in the Qur'an. Then he added, تِلْكَ الْغَرَانِيْقَ الْعُلَىٰ وَإِنَّ شَفَاعَتَهُنَّ لَتُرْتَجَىٰ غرانيق, this is where we get this from. These idols are the mighty pelicans or cranes. غرانيق العُلَىٰ These are the high and mighty pelicans, beautiful pelicans. Right? وَإِنَّ شَفَاعَتَهُنَّ لَتُرْتَجَىٰ And their requests will be granted. now this is the first time that the idols are being praised apparently the idols are being praised that these idols are beautiful birds and their intercession will be accepted you should worship them and so Urwa says when the Mushrikun heard these verses they thought the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has compromised finally he's come to a middle ground he's willing to accept our gods and did they have a problem accepting Allah? did they have a problem? no, they had no problem accepting Allah right? because they believed in Allah but their problem was you're rejecting our gods and so they said according to this version 2 they said the prophet Muhammad has agreed to accept our gods. And so when he finished the surah and he prostrated, they basically said, we're all in agreement now, we don't mind worshipping along with you. Do you see version 2 now? Right? This is version 2. Now, why are the gods called gharaniq? Gharaniq because some, again this is interpretation, is that just like the beautiful birds with long necks are going up to Allah, so these are idols that are gonna take you up to Allah. This is how it is interpreted. So this is version number, what version are we talking about now? Version number 2. Now, version number 3, in yet other narrations, and these are found in Al-Wahidi and other sources. So, we have to be very clear here, and our religion tells us to be academic. The satanic verses story is not concocted by non-Muslims. It's found in some of our sources. We have to be very clear here, right? And by the way, a lot of you are confused. Salman Rushdie's book, of course it's named after this incident, but it's a whole work of fiction. But the point of the book is that, and this is why this is such a thing that the non-Muslims jump on. Apparently the Prophet ﷺ could not tell the difference between Jibreel and shaitan, or at least he's reciting verses. Now from the perspective of non-Muslims, if this story is true, what would this mean? That the Qur'an is obviously being changed per whim. And one day the Prophet ﷺ, I'm just saying what they say, so that we understand as Muslims. So don't quote me on this, this is kufr to say, right? I'm just saying what they say. So the Prophet ﷺ, I'm just saying what they say, tried to change his tactic, and said, let's see if this is gonna work. and he decided to change from Tawheed to Shirk. And so he said, Khalas, let's worship all the gods together. But then there was a backlash from the Muslims and so he said, Oh no, these weren't verses that I said, these were verses Shaytan said. Hence, satanic verses. Right? So from the perspective of non-Muslims, this story clearly proves to them that the Prophet ﷺ is, I seek refuge with Allah, inventing the Qur'an. That's what they say. Right? And so he's just changing his theology one day to the next. As any leader, as any politician does, he sings the tune of the people, right? One day he'll say this, one day he'll say that. So he's, according to them, changing his tune to get the people to come to him, right? And so this is why this story is a very important story that we talk about it academically. And I have to say clearly, this story is not fabricated by non-Muslims, it's found in our sources, right? And so they jump on it, and they then make a very big deal out of it. And this is something that we need to discuss. academically. So this is version number 2. Version number 3 is even worse than the second one. In version 2, shaitan recites out. And the people here, correct? Version 3 is even worse. In version 3, the prophet Muhammad s.a.w. hears shaitan's recitation and thinks it is Jibreel reciting to him. And he then, when his own tongue recites أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ الْلَاتَ وَالْعُزَّ وَمَنَاتَ ثَالِثَةَ الْأُخْرَىٰ تِلْكَ الْغَرَانِقَ الْعُلَىٰ وَإِنَّ شَفَاعَتَهُنَّ لَتُرْتَجَىٰ Do you see the difference between two and three now? And this is of course even worse because we are now saying or those people who say this are saying that the Prophet ﷺ couldn't tell the difference between Jibreel and Shaytan. And this is the premise of Salman Rushdie's book. that he begins the whole story with that. And it's a fictional book, but this is the premise. And he called the book satanic verses, and then that caused a whole fear. That's not relevant to our discussion. The book and what happened, that's a different discussion. We're interested in the actual story as found. Now once again, we have to be academically true here. This is a version that is found in early Islamic Arabic sources. It's not something that I looked about myself to be on the 100% sure that this is not something they're inventing. It's something that is found. Some early books do mention it. So, we have now three versions of the story. The first version, Sahih al-Bukhari, and this is the version that is put in the six books, and Muslima Ahmad. In other words, from our perspective, basically the most authentic, the New York Times or whatever, the most authentic sources, they have this version. Then you get lower and lower in your authenticity, and then you have some details that are very strange. in version 2 the details say that shaitan screamed out and the mushrikun heard and the muslims didn't hear right? and so the muslims didn't understand why the quraish prostrated and they just thought that the power of the surah was that in the third version which is the most difficult for us to swallow in the third version shaitan pretends to be basically who? Jibreel. And when Jibreel is reciting the Quran, Shaytan throws in two verses. And the Prophet ﷺ could not tell the difference. And so the Prophet ﷺ recited those two verses in the middle. And then, when the Quraysh prostrated, according to these reports, Jibreel came back to him and said, what did you recite? And so the Prophet ﷺ recited with those two verses. and Jibreel said, I never recited these two verses to you. I didn't come with these two verses. And the Prophet ﷺ became very depressed and very hurt that he thought that he was inventing this and then Allah revealed, now this is another version of the incident, Allah revealed Surah Hajj verse 52. Surah Hajj verse 52. Surah Hajj verse 52, what does it say? It's a very important verse and according to this interpretation it is linked to the satanic story. Surah Hajj verse 52 says, وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِيٍّ إِلَّا إِذَا تَمَنَّى أَلْقَى الشَّيْطَانُ فِي أُمْنِيَّتِهِ فَيَنْسَخُ اللَّهُ مَا يُقِي الشَّيْطَانُ ثُمَّ يُحْكِمُ اللَّهُ آيَاتِهِ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ That never did we send before you a prophet or a messenger. except that when he when he now here's what does mean for now let us just say it means to recite even though there's another interpretation one interpretation says when he recites Shaytan adds something to his recitation and then Allah abrogates the Shaytanic recitation and Allah affirms his own ayat ثُمَّ يُحْكِمُ اللَّهُ آيَاتِهِ For indeed Allah is all knowledgeable and Allah is all wise so that the one that shaitan said or the thing that shaitan said will become a fitna for those who have a weak heart and for those who have a disease in their heart and for those who have a hard heart قَاسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ So shaitanic revelations or shaitanic verses will become a fitna, a test for those who have a disease in their heart. Now, that's in Surah Al-Hajj, it's in there. So, according to this version, shaitan actually succeeds in deceiving the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and the Prophet s.a.w. recites satanic verses and Allah then corrects the satanic verses and the proper recitation is revealed and therefore the Quraysh who initially said, okay let's all join hands they say no we're not going to join hands and so this reaches the Muslims of Abyssinia and then they return now let us spend a little bit of time academic study let's look at these three reports there is no question that the first report is authentic it is in Bukhari the issue comes of course those who follow the second or third opinion don't find a contradiction in Bukhari and this because the gist of the story Bukhari has an outline He recited Surah Al-Najm, everybody prostrated. Version 2 and 3 can accept this outline, correct? Right? So Bukhari's version doesn't contradict version 2 and 3. Therefore this is the problem. We don't need 2 and 3, but Bukhari's version doesn't contradict. So those who accept 2 and those who accept 3, they accept Bukhari as well. And they say, khalas, Bukhari is also authentic. Now, what do we do with all of these? The first thing we do as lay people, As lay people, let us see what the scholars say. Sadly, the scholars did not all agree. Usually scholars agree about many things, but sometimes they don't all agree. And that's why it becomes a little bit more difficult. So we have, for example, a good group of scholars who rejected version 2 and 3 and they stuck with version 1. Alhamdulillah. And these were big names. People like Ibn Kathir, the most famous scholar of Tafsir. People like Al-Qadir Iyad, who is a specialist in seerah. People like Fakhreddin al-Razi, people in our times like Shaykh al-Albani, who is one of the greatest scholars of hadith of our times. He passed away 5, 6, 8, 9 years ago, 10 years ago actually, subhanAllah, time flies. Shaykh al-Albani passed away, but he was the greatest scholar of hadith alive in our times. He wrote an entire booklet about this story. Just this story he wrote a booklet on it. And he went over every single report, wherever it's found. and he shows in academic detail that everyone is weak everyone is weak and so we have a lot of very famous people saying versions 2 and 3 we cross them out version 1 is enough one of the famous scholars of the past Muhammad Ibn Ishaq Ibn Khuzaymah Ibn Khuzaymah is a great scholar of hadith he died 311 Hijrah and he was one of the few people who wrote a sahih book there's 4 people who wrote sahih books a little bit of a tangent here Bukhari Muslim Ibn Hibban Ibn Khuzaymah four people wrote Sahih books Ibn Khuzaymah is one of them and so Ibn Khuzaymah is one of these great scholars of Hadith he was asked about this story the story of Shaytan inspiring the Prophet ﷺ he said this is a fabrication that the enemies of Islam did to try to destroy Islam this is going back 311 Hijrah from the very beginning some people are saying this is a fabrication that the enemies of Islam have done to try to destroy it so this is one group of scholars. How I wish that we could have restricted ourselves to them. Unfortunately, there are scholars who do follow the other versions of the story as well. And they are big names. And because of this, we have to be academically fair. Our religion tells us to not hide the truth. Our religion tells us to be frank and honest. Our religion tells us to be academically inclined. So we need to talk about this academically. By the way, interesting point here. In 1966, there was an entire worldwide conference in Cairo over this story. The whole conference was over this story. To discuss it academically and to find out. And all the people presented papers and they talked about, discussed it. 40 years ago. And a lot of major scholars were present there. And the conclusion of the conference was that the story is fabricated. The story is not true. so we can say that the bulk of the scholars of our times want to cross out number 2 and 3 and they say there's no need for it and this is true to say this and if you read almost any modern book of seerah from Sheikh Safir Iman Mubarak Furi to any of the famous books you will find that this story is either not mentioned or it will mention it as a fabrication okay as we said academically speaking we have to be honest here we have to say well that's not the only position even within Sunni Islam. Some scholars have accepted version 2 and some scholars have even accepted version 3. And had they been small names, we could have ignored them, but they're all big names. Version 2, which says that Iblis said out loud, and the Prophet ﷺ had no idea. Even this is easier to swallow, right? Because I mean, if the Prophet ﷺ didn't do anything, well then how can you blame him, right? You know, there's no deception. Iblis simply used his own tongue and he threw it upon the people this version is accepted by a lot of scholars most importantly amongst them Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Hajar is a great scholar of hadith he is the greatest scholar specialist of Sahih Bukhari he accepts this version and his point is that look it's true that every individual version of the story is not reported with an authentic chain but when you put all of them together, each weak chain kind of sort of gives supporting evidence and it becomes acceptable. Now this leads us to a little bit of a one minute tangent. In the sciences of hadith, when you have a lot of weak individual chains, but it's of the same incident or the same hadith. The scholars of hadith then put these weak chains together and they say okay, little bit of weakness in chain X, little bit of weakness in chain Y, put together it means that the hadith is authentic. And this is a true principle, and Ibn Hajar applied it to this incident. He said there's five or six reports, all of them are weak. He says this, I read this myself, all of them are weak. But put together, it shows that there's some basis to the story. So Ibn Hajar accepts version two. Now, by the way, Shaykh al-Albani in his criticism of the story, he says, what Ibn Hajar says is true, that weak reports put together become authentic. but not every single time there's a science behind it and in this case and then he goes into academic detail in this case you cannot apply the rule now that's a little bit advanced for this class for this lecture but you get the point that he agrees with the rule two or three weak traditions become authentic but then he says this rule has exceptions if this is not met if this is not met and then he applies those exceptions and that's the whole purpose of the book that he has the booklet it's to show that you cannot take these weak traditions in this case and then put them together. And that's a little bit of an academic discussion. Now, that's version number two. Version number three, had it been supported by anybody else, I would have left it. Unfortunately, or whatever, this is the fact of the matter, it is supported by one of the greatest scholars of Islam that Islam has ever seen. And it is someone whom I admire immensely, and that is Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullahu ta'ala. supported version 3 and Ibn Taymiyyah writes about this in a number of his books and his tafsirs and Ibn Taymiyyah says that not only do all of the reports add up and make it authentic but the verse of Surah Hajj is crystal clear the verse of Surah Hajj is crystal clear that it clearly says That, Ya Rasulullah, it's not only you. Every single prophet before you. وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ مِنْ رَسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِيٍّ إِلَّا إِذَا تَمَنَّى Now, some of you who understand Arabic will say, doesn't تَمَنَّى mean to wish? Right? Now, here is where we get a little bit more technical. That the word تَمَنَّى actually, originally it did mean to recite. And there are many poems in pre-Islamic, the Muallakat and others, they have the word Tamanna to mean to recite. And that's why many, even of the Sahaba, Ibn Abbas himself said Tamanna, he means to recite. Later on, one of the meanings of Tamanna means to wish. So even this becomes now another dimension of complexity. And now you're getting a little bit, I'm opening up a little bit of a window of Islamic academics. It is a very complex science. So this ayah can also be interpreted two ways. إِلَّا إِذَا تَمَنَّى Interpretation one, except that when he recites, أَلْقَى الشَّيْطَانُ فِي أُمْنِيَتِهِ Shaytan produces something and throws it into his recitation. فَيَنْسَخُ اللَّهُ مَّا يُلْقِ الشَّيْطَانُ Allah will abrogate what Shaytan said. ثُمَّ يُحْكِمُ اللَّهُ آيَاتِهِ Then Allah will make His ayat firm and clear. وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ So that, لِيَجْعَلَ مَا يُلْقِي شَيْطَانُ فِتْنَةً لِلَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ So that, Allah will cause this to be a test. For those whose hearts have a disease. And for those, قَاسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ Their hearts are hard. This shaitanic recitation will become a test for them. So Ibn Taymiyyah says the verse is very clear. And this is what happened with Surah An-Najm. Now, the other school or the other interpretation says this verse has nothing to do with Surah Al-Najm and the satanic verses rather it's a general verse take it at face value that no prophet or messenger has wishes tamanna here would become wishes except that shaitan tries to tamper with his intentions make you insincere make you think of something else and Allah will get rid of what shaitan says and Allah will affirm his ayat. So they understand Surah Hajj verse 52 in a whole different tangent. I.e. it has nothing to do with Surah Najm, it has nothing to do with satanic verses. You understand this point? Right? Now Ibn Taymiyyah responds to them and says, but then how do you understand the verse after this? لِيَجْعَلَ مَا يُلْقِي الشَّيْطَانُ فِتْنَةً لِلَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ That whatever the shaitan has said will become a fitna for those whose hearts have a disease. This means Ibn Taymiyyah says that they have heard something. It's not internal in the mind of the Prophet. This means that they've heard something and it is a fitna for them. Now, there's another dimension here. I have to go into more dimensions here because this is the whole purpose. And this is a theological dimension. The majority of those who said version 2 and 3 cannot happen, and especially version 3. they said we don't care what the riwayat, what the versions say we cannot accept this as theology, as aqeedah why? because you're claiming that shaitan and and jibreel, right could pretend to be each other that the prophet couldn't tell the difference that and this is the key point now the revelation itself has the possibility to be corrupted and tampered. The integrity of the wahi becomes compromised. So, as one of them says, a famous scholar of our times, I don't care if the isnads are like the sun, the brightest the sun. I'm not gonna accept this story. This is a scholar of our times writing this, right? And a lot of the previous scholars as well, they said some similar things. Is that, we can't, Al-Qadir Iyad is one of them. Al-Qadir Iyad is, he has one of the best books of seerah, Ash-Shifa bi-Huquq al-Mustafa. Ash-Shifa bi-Huquq al-Mustafa. That which causes the heart to be cured, by talking about the rights of the Prophet ﷺ. It's a two volume book, and it's all about seerah, and Prophet's specialities and miracles. And he says, how can any Muslim believe in this story, basically, right? How can anyone who loves Rasulullah ﷺ believe in this story? So he uses an emotional argument, right? And he says, how can anybody accept that the Prophet ﷺ could basically slip into this and take shaytan's wahy or shaytan's recitation. And so they say, because the prophets can never commit mistakes, because they are, what's the Arabic word? Ma'asum. This is a theological concept. Because they are ma'asum, ma'asum means they cannot commit mistakes. we cannot accept that this incident occurred Ibn Hajar basically says look version 2 doesn't compromise the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's Isma, you understand this point? do you understand this point everybody? version 2 in which shaitan recites without the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam hearing doesn't compromise his Isma, so he says therefore we'll neglect version 3 get rid of that one and we'll accept version 2 because I'm not willing to compromise the Prophet's Isma. You guys following this point, right? So Ibn Hajar accepts version 2 because it has nothing to do with the Prophet's Isma. It's not his fault. Shaytan recited. Okay, we can accept that. And if you are to accept that, that's not that big of a deal because it's Shaytan reciting. Now, Ibn Taymiyyah said, did Ibn Taymiyyah not believe in Isma? Of course he did. Every Muslim, every Sunni Muslim I should say because Mu'tazila didn't agree with this every Sunni Muslim says that the Prophet ﷺ is Ma'soom no Sunni Muslim says otherwise so then how did Ibn Taymiyyah understand this? he said his definition of Isma is basically different than that of the other Sunni Muslims and this is now a theological controversy can the Prophets commit sins and mistakes or not. According to Ibn Taymiyyah, the prophets cannot commit major mistakes and sins, number one. Number two, they cannot commit fawahish or lewd sins, right? Sins are of different types, and fawahish means vulgar sins. No prophet can commit vulgarity. Number three, they cannot lie ever. Lying is simply not possible for the Prophets. But Ibn Taymiyyah says, they can make judgmental errors. Judgmental errors is not a sin. It's an error in what you want to do. And he then quotes many examples from the Sira. The number one example is what? Who can tell me? Prisoners of the Battle of Badr. The prisoners of the Battle of Badr. The prisoners of the Battle of Badr. The number one example. clearly the Prophet ﷺ decided to do something and Allah revealed in the Qur'an that مَا كَالَ لِلنَّبِيِّ it's not befitting for the Prophet أَن يَكُونَ لَهُ أَسْرًا that he take prisoners of war حَتَّى يُذْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala basically let it go but he wasn't he said this isn't the best decision you made so this is a judgmental error it has nothing to do with a mistake but then Ibn Taymiyyah says something which of course it sounds very bad but if you think about it it's actually very easy to swallow and true the prophets can commit minor sins, but two things. Number one, they do not persist in the sin. Number two, they repent immediately. And then of course he gives the number one example that nobody can argue with, and that is, why are we here on earth? Our father Adam a.s. committed a sin. Did he not commit a sin? I mean Allah says in the Quran that, وَعَصَىٰ آدَمُ رَبَّهُ He was a Nabi or a Rasul? Adam was a Nabi, but it says, Nabis are also Ma'soom. By unanimous consensus, Nabi and Rasul are all Ma'soomin. They have a category above us. And so, Adam was told not to eat, and he ate. Also, Ibn Taymiyyah quotes, Surah Al-Fatah, verse 2. لِيَغْفِرَ لَكَ اللَّهُ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرُ What does this verse translate as? So that Allah can, can do what? Forgive. So clearly, Allah is forgiving. مَا تَأَقَدَّمَ مِن ذَنْبِكَ وَمَا تَأَخَّرْ Ibn Taymiyyah's conception of our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is that he is the best human. But he is a human. And he can commit minor mistakes, minor errors, like all the prophets. But he cannot persist in them. and he will repent immediately. And then he says, and in this repentance is the perfection. That Allah made the prophets true role models for us. Because if he had made them like angels, how would they be role models? So Ibn Taymiyyah actually has a very interesting point here. That they are human, they're not superhuman. But their humanity is as perfect as possible. Now, when it comes to this issue of the quote-unquote satanic verses, as I said this name is not found in Islamic sources but just to understand it we can call it قصة الغرانيق but this story Ibn Tamiyyah says that this does not show at all that the Wahi has been corrupted rather it shows it has been protected and that the Prophet ﷺ is the most truthful of all those who speak the truth. Why? Because of the very fact that he came clean with the story and that he said to everybody, this story that would actually impugn him and make him look bad. But he still said the truth. You guys following this point here, right? And then he quotes the famous hadith of Aisha and Sahih Bukhari that Aisha says, we're gonna talk about this inshallah many many months from now when we get to that story. Let me just say as a footnote, there are two stories that are highly sensitive in the seerah and highly controversial and highly emotional and highly problematic. keep on saying so many things two stories in particular and both of them require us to be calm collect, academic the first of these is this satanic verses and the second is the story of Zaynab and we'll get to the story of Zaynab when we get to it and that's a very that's a very difficult story very difficult story and again the non-Muslims have a field trip with it and we need to talk about it academically but that's easier to resolve that is easier to resolve nonetheless it is it has its own problematic issues now, story of Zaynab we'll talk about when we talk about it, but Allah revealed in the Quran verses about Zaynab and about who was Zaynab married to? Zayd, right? Zayd ibn Harithah the very one whom the Prophet ﷺ adopted right? Zayd ibn Muhammad and Zayd ibn Harithah and so, Zayd and Zayd were married, and then eventually they were having a lot of problems and then eventually Allah revealed in the Quran that Zaynab is your wife after the divorce so before the divorce Zayd came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wanting to divorce Zaynab Zayd came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wanting to divorce Zaynab now the Quran says that basically you advised him not to divorce her and you were scared of the people this is in the Quran wa takhshannasa And you should have been scared of Allah. You understand the verse so far. As for what it applies to, we'll get to that. I don't even want to start that story right now because that's a whole different tangent. We'll get to there someday inshaAllah. InshaAllah ta'ala. And we will talk about it fully academically because I personally don't believe in hiding the truth. And I think that if we especially, if we were living maybe in a Muslim country, even then I would say, khalas let's just ignore these tales and then tell you the easy stuff. but subhanallah when a non-muslim is going to come and say look this is what your book says and you don't know what it says and you have no idea wallahi i have met muslims who when they are told of this story the way that it is found in non-muslim books they get ideas of audhu billah how is it possible they have no clue and so we are living in an environment where our religion is being attacked and the best mechanism to defend ourselves is to be armed with knowledge ignorance is not bliss knowledge is power and we need to embrace these stories and say them and then critique them so when we get there I'll talk about the difficult issues and they are difficult issues for now let's just take the verse at face value you were scared of the people you should have been scared of Allah that's in the Quran correct Aisha says this hadith is in Bukhari if the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had hidden anything from the Quran he would have hidden this verse but he still recited it to the people and to this day, it is in the Quran. You guys following this point, right? He didn't have to tell us the verse, meaning, he could have hidden it. Of course Allah would have exposed him, but he could have hidden it, right? Nobody knows Jibreel is coming and telling him anything, except if he tells us, correct? Still he recited all of these verses to us. And to this day we have Surah Al-Ahzab, وَتَخْشَى النَّاسَ وَاللَّهُ أَحْقُّ أَن تَخْشَى فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدُ مِنْهَا وَطَرًا زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا this is in the Quran, Allah is not embarrassed of the truth and so when Zaid has finished his divorce of her, you have been married to her زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا and therefore this is the only nikah that didn't require any witnesses any wali, Allah has done the nikah in the Quran, we recite the marriage contract every day, we recite salah every time this ayah is revealed, this is the marriage contract without any nikah without any wali, without anything Allah says زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا what else do you need to say, right? And so, when the divorce was finished, and the iddah was finished, Zaynab became a wife to the Prophet ﷺ instantaneously. Without any ceremony being done. Now, you understand non-Muslims have a field trip, we'll talk about that then. But for now, the point is, Aisha says, if the Prophet ﷺ wanted to hide something, he would have hidden this verse, but he didn't hide it. Ibn Taymiyyah says, why can't we apply the same thing too? To this story. that yes this is exactly what happened that Allah allowed because everything happens by the will of Allah Allah allowed the shaitan to get in two verses and then Allah abrogated what shaitan said and Allah perfected his verses and the Prophet ﷺ came clean and said everything and so my point being here if you really think about it all three versions they have their they have their possibilities right? and there are major scholars on all three on all three sides of this equation, now what is my opinion about this, and saafullah who am I to compete with these great great scholars, but nonetheless I need to give you some as a minor student of knowledge, and I do not compete at all with the great people we have mentioned we have Ibn Kathir, we have Ibn Hajar we have Ibn Taymiyyah, and subhanallah all three are major giants in our religion. At the same time, we're allowed to give our own opinions on this issue. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows the truth. In my humble opinion, version one is the one that we need. And we don't need version two and three. And we can cross them out. For the following seven reasons. For the following seven reasons. Number one. Number one. it is true to say that claiming that shaitan can inspire the Prophet ﷺ even though Ibn Taymiyyah explained it away and there is a way to explain it away like he did still it does seem to interfere with the process of wahi and Allah Azza wa Jal has guaranteed the process of wahi and Allah Azza wa Jal says لا يأتيه الباطل من بين يديه ولا من خلفه And Allah says إنا نحن نزل لذكره وإنا له لحافظون And Allah says وإنه لتنزيل رب العالمين نزل به الروح الأمين In other words, so many verses talking about the purity of revelation that no one can falsify the revelation. Now if Ibn Taymiyyah had been in front of me, he would say, but the revelation was not falsified. And we know what is true from what is false. You understand his reputation, right? Still, my heart inclines towards the fact the purity of revelation should not be compromised. Number two, there is no authentic version of the shaitanic incident at all. Every single incident that is reported in Tabari, in Al-Wahidi, is weak, every one of them. And none of them is an unbroken chain back to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. None of them. The strongest one, Al-Baqbaq. And I came across this in one of the ancient theological texts of a dadimi. When he was talking about his opponent, he goes, this opponent, all he can do is give baqbaq like the baqbaq. And I was like, wow, as a desi, I actually understand this. Because most Arabs have no idea what baqbaq is now. But this is now, we know what baqbaq is very well. So I haven't memorized his baqbaq, Musaylimah's. But people have attempted to fabricate the Quran. The point is, they've never succeeded in that. Right? That's the point. So it doesn't go against this thing. Any question from the sisters in the back? I have a timeline question. A timeline question. Yes, go ahead. When was this surah exactly revealed to Prophet? And particularly this incident, when he is reciting, that means it is already revealed. Yes. So how can there be addition or deletion? Because you already revealed something, it is fixed. So when he is reciting, he is under pause for two minutes. So, according to version number 3, Shaytan added while Jibreel was paused. Shaytan added something, and the Prophet ﷺ thought it was Jibreel. This is version 3. That's all that we know. Another timeline question, yes. In the chronology of Revelation, how immediate was verse 52 of Surah Al-Haqq A very perceptive question. The question is, when was Surah Hajj verse 52 revealed? Surah Hajj overall, most scholars say was revealed during the Hijrah. It was the only revelation that occurred during the Hijrah. However, that doesn't mean much because we don't have a chronology for every ayah of the Quran. and a lot of times we have the bulk of a surah revealed one place but one or two ayahs somewhere else and then they're put in there right? and so even if we know now some people have tried to do this as well to say that surah al-hajj was generally revealed later on but in response it can be said okay maybe the bulk was revealed later on but this ayah itself there's nothing incorrect to say it might have been revealed earlier because for most of the verses of the Quran we don't have a specific timeline of when they were revealed any questions for the sisters? I don't see any hands from the sisters brother go ahead in the back you're next it was just interesting for me not to hear from the arguments against version 2 and version 3 just from a simple logical perspective that Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to teach at Tauhid understood at Tauhid and uttering those words is going against everything that he understands. And I just imagine that happening. It's just like, it seems that this is just what he would have turned up on. You know, this doesn't make no sense given what I'm here to bring. Is there any comment on that? Why that argument was not brought? So the question is a very good one and for those who didn't hear it is that why somebody could say why didn't the Prophet ﷺ if versions 2 and 3 are authentic why didn't he himself, red light start going off and saying what's wrong with this of course those who follow version 1 story will say that's the whole point and they will say he didn't because it didn't happen you understand this point right those who follow versions 2 and 3 of course version 2 as well doesn't raise that issue because version 2 he didn't hear it it's only version 3 that raises this issue and where there's a will there is a way to interpret it. And so what they would say is, this is his complete submission. That whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, it will be accepted. And he's not gonna question. If Allah azza wa jal is saying that you may go through these beings to reach me, then that is what he is saying. Because his job is to give the balagh and not to question. That is going to be the response. I don't agree with this version 3 aslan. So, I would agree with you. And say, it doesn't... There's something, فِي الْقَلْبِ مِنْهُ شَيْءٍ Something is just not right. You have a question, go ahead. Is anybody of the scholars saying these two verses are supposed to be added to the Quran? Oh no, no, no, no. The question is, does anybody claim that these two verses are a part of the Quran? Only non-Muslims claim this. Nobody. Because even the language, even the... It doesn't fit the style of the Quran. Even the language. Yes. I think there are a lot of... You brought up a lot of academic points. I mean, there is a lot of questions about, for example, the power of Jannah, what can he do and what can he not do. Number two, you raised about the level of quote-unquote minor mistakes that you said the Nabi or the Rasul may do. In this sense, this does not seem like a minor mistake because this is, you're talking about the revolution, you're not talking about judgmental decision. Then the third point I was going to bring to you is you brought in another point of how the way is processed. For example, one of the points to bring in as the Waheed, not just processed as it is being revealed. But sometimes it is like in DNA, we have a medicine, it's called splicing of the genes. The genes are corrected in a way once the genes come together. So may Allah, is Allah in a position to reprocess the message. Okay, you're asking three questions. I need to go one by one. Two minutes is like... These are the key points I'm referring to basically. No, no, these are three different points. So let's go one by one. What was your first one? I completely forgot. the question is how much power does shaitan have? as much as you give him as much as you give him in the kayda shaitan he kana da'ifa right? i've performed my shaitan to a level that he he's now a shaitan he's now for Allah no but that's his shaitan, this is Iblis himself doing it you're getting confused, that's his personal shaitan every one of us has a qareen the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Allah has allowed his qareen to become Muslim in this shaitanic verses that's Iblis doing the job the big shaitan, Iblis doing this so that is not a Muslim Iblis is not a Muslim I will forward the second question to the third one the question is when the caliph has been processed it seems that Allah has in some application Allah says it's up to him but it seems from what you said from Surah Al-Hajj that the processing of the way has been done even beyond the way it's been entered by the Prophet. So for those who accept version 3, they would have to modify. For versions 1 and 2, it's not a problem. For those who accept version 3, Ibn Taymiyyah clearly says this, that the Wahi was not tampered with. That's the whole point. That Allah did make His verses clear. Are we confused about what the Quran is? No. And that's the point. So Wahi was not tampered with. an attempt at tampering was made and Allah rebuffed the attempt. That's Ibn Taymiyyah's point. It was made, but it was rebuffed. And so there is no confusion in our times. Right? Sisters, no questions at all. I'm wondering, usually you have questions. Huh? They're scared of the story? Yes, go ahead. From a Muslim perspective, how would you respond and how does a prophet, any prophet, between a and somebody trying to from this incident and also from the instance of Hazrat Rahim where he was inspired to offer his son for sacrifice so how does he know is that true message so do you understand this is why the non-Muslims love this story that's exactly why they love this story that there is one of the question is, how do you defend that the Prophet, any Prophet, not just our Prophet, can differentiate between the Wahi from Allah and between Shaytan. Now, for those who don't believe in our Prophet or any Prophet, how do they explain Islam? One of two things. Either, I seek refuge with Allah, the Prophets are outright liars, in which case this story becomes a political maneuver, right? That he's trying to appease as a politician, then he comes back. Or, I seek refuge in Allah, he's deluded. And he's hearing voices and he doesn't know who they're from. Either it's an internal or it could be you know, once upon a time, Christian missionaries literally thought that, I seek refuge in Allah and to this day, Pat Roberts and others, they say he's inspired by the devil. He did get an inspiration, I seek refuge in Allah, but that's what they say, right? And so again, this is the story that they jump on. Now, we need to be academic here and say even if they misinterpreted, there is a correct interpretation that Ibn Hajar Ibn Taymiyyah can also get out. We need to be clear here. Their misinterpretation should not cause us to reject Ibn Hajjah's or Ibn Taymiyyah's even though we disagree with it academically. But to defend is very easy and that's what Ibn Taymiyyah says that we do know what is Qur'an and we do know what is not Qur'an. And in the end, ثُمَّ يُحْكِمُ اللَّهُ آيَاتِ Allah will make his ayat crystal clear. يُحْكِم means to make it crystal clear. And that is exactly what happened. In the end, there is an element of faith. I can't scientifically, you know, demarcate between this and that. There is an element of faith, and we can give us proof that the Qur'an has never been disagreed about since its very beginning. All Muslims have agreed, what is the Qur'an? These two verses have never been falsely attributed. Even those who say version 3, no, it is not a part of the Qur'an. So there is an element of faith that they will believe this Qur'an to be from Allah عز و جل. We need to call it... Thank you.

Seerah 16 - The second migration to Abyssinia - Yasir Qadhi _ November 2011-RBDX11n0I20

Al-Fatiha. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. As-salatu wa-salamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala amma ba'd. In our last week's halaqah, we had discussed the infamous incident of the satanic verses and we had mentioned the number of opinions and Allahu a'lam, but it appears that there was no such story. And the fact of the matter is that the Quraysh prostrated simply because of the power of Surah An-Najm. And this rumor, as we said, led to the Muslims to return back from Abyssinia. And when they came back, they discovered that this rumor was false. Now, number of points here before we get back to the actual story. The question arises about the number of people who immigrated the first time to Abyssinia and who was and who was not a part of that initial batch. Now we're not gonna go over all of the opinion, that's a little bit too advanced. But the main point is that from the immediate Sahaba of the Prophet ﷺ, of course the greatest companion is Abu Bakr, right? We'll discuss his case. Umar, at this point, why didn't Umar emigrate to Abyssinia? Who can tell me? He wasn't even a Muslim yet. Okay. Uthman, is he emigrating to Abyssinia? Yes. He was of those who emigrated. And then who is left? Ali ibn Abi Talib. Ali at this stage is still a young child really. You know, he's probably at this stage, he's probably around 9-10 years old. So the question of Ali immigrating could not come about. Therefore, out of the four, let's say the main sahaba, the only two who qualify are Abu Bakr and Uthman. Uthman immigrated. How about Abu Bakr? We didn't mention his story. The story of Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr initially decided to immigrate. And he decided to accompany Uthman and the people to go to Abyssinia. But on the way to the ship, on the way to Juddah, they passed by the neighboring tribe. The leader of that tribe was Ibn al-Daghina. Ibn al-Daghina was the leader of that tribe. And the tribe name is not known to us here, so we're not gonna confuse you more with more and more names. the main point is the leader or the chief, Ibn al-Daghina, he saw all of them leaving. And they packed their bags, they have all of the camels loaded. So he said, where are you going? So they said, we're going to Abyssinia. He said, why? So they explained, our people have tortured us, they have not allowed us to worship, and we're all going to a land where we can worship Allah. Now Ibn al-Daghina had used to have a good partnership with Abu Bakr in buying and selling. He was somebody whom Abu Bakr knew personally. So Ibn al-Daghina, when he saw out of all of these people, he picked on Abu Bakr. And he said, someone like you does not deserve to leave the land of Mecca. And if your people have persecuted you, then let me intercede on your behalf. And let me go and talk to them and give you my protection. Now remember, the whole Jahili system is based on who's gonna protect who, right? And the tribe of Abu Bakr has basically accepted that they're not going to protect Abu Bakr anymore. Okay? And so Ibn al-Daghina said, let me go and negotiate on your behalf. And maybe they'll take my protection so that they're not going to harm you. And so Abu Bakr said, okay, let's give it a try. So Abu Bakr and Ibn al-Daghina returned back. The rest of the Sahaba emigrated to Abyssinia. And Ibn al-Daghina entered Mecca and he approached the Kaaba and it was the time that everybody sits. As we said many many times, they had an afternoon time where basically when everything is over in the day, you come and you sit in front of the Ka'bah. And Ibn al-Daghina announced that, O people of Mecca, would you accept it if I offered my protection to Abu Bakr? Now notice, he cannot do so instantaneously because it's the land of Mecca. And Ibn al-Daghina is not from the Quraysh, he's from another tribe. Right? And so it's like a neighboring country saying, this is our citizen, can he live amongst you? And he has our rights. It's as if he's my tribe member. So this is an adoption if you like. So Ibn al-Daghina said, I'll adopt Abu Bakr, let him live amongst your own people. Like basically, imagine America going to Canada, the Canadian government saying to America, that okay look, forget his American citizenship, pretend he's a Canadian. That's basically what's happening here. That Ibn al-Daghina is saying, let me offer my protection to Abu Bakr, but then he needs the permission of the Quraish. Are you gonna accept? And Ibn al-Daghina was a trading partner, Ibn al-Daghina was the chieftain of a neighboring tribe, the tribe that is next to Mecca and so they basically had to agree because it's a neighboring tribe and they wanted to just make him happy so they said okay we will accept your protection for Abu Bakr and therefore Abu Bakr did not emigrate because of Ibn Daghina however they said to Ibn Daghina they said to Ibn Daghina we're only going to allow this with one condition and that is Abu Bakr cannot pray publicly because Abu Bakr was of the elite of the Quraysh before this, he would pray in front of the Kaaba. And he was of the few people who was brave to pray in front of the Kaaba. Everything changed with the conversion of Umar. When Umar converted, then Muslims could pray in front of the Kaaba. Before that time, you had to be a really brave person. And it was really only the process of him who would regularly pray. Once in a while, Abu Bakr joined him. So, they said, you have to, we're not gonna allow Abu Bakr to pray publicly. And if he agrees to this, we'll agree to your protection that he can do as he pleases in private, but not in public. And therefore the Quraysh agreed, and Abu Bakr agreed. And therefore what he decided to do was, he was the first person to ever build a masjid. This is what it says. The first person to build a masjid. He didn't build a masjid structure, he basically extended his house, and he made a room into his place of worship. Because they didn't allow him to worship publicly, so he decided to make a public masjid. He's using the loopholes here. So he builds an extension of the house, and he begins praying in that extension. And he prays out loud because it's his house, and the condition was he can pray in his house, right? So he's basically reading through the lines here. He builds an extension, he makes a masjid, and then he starts praying out loud in his house, which is now a masjid. Obviously what's gonna happen? The people, Abu Bakr's tilawa was a very gentle tilawa. and Abu Bakr's recitation of the Quran was a very melodious recitation and Ibn Ishaq says the women and the children would gather around in amazement listening to Abu Bakr's recitation because it was a beautiful recitation and his own daughter Aisha tells us that Abu Bakr كان رجلا بكاء he was a man who very easily began to cry and he would weep from the fear of Allah and so when he recited the Quran he would cry and he would beg Allah for forgiveness. So it's a very emotional recitation. So the people began to gather around his house every time he's praying. You know, it's a small city, it's a quiet time at night, you're reading Fajr or Maghrib or Isha or Tahajjud, anybody walking by can hear you. You know, it's dead silent, it's not like the city. It's not like the houses are far, far away. It's a small, you know how it used to be in those days. Many of you might remember from back home, still houses are small, narrow alleyways. So Abu Bakr's recitation is going five blocks, let's say. Because that's what a block is for them. You know, each houses are there. So people began gathering outside of his house. Now technically the condition was, he could read in his house. And that's what he did. But this got to a point where they sent a messenger to Ibn al-Daghina. And they said, we have to take back our condition. He cannot even pray in his house. Subhanallah. We have to take back our condition, he cannot even pray in his house. You have to tell him to stop praying even in his house. So Ibn al-Daghina came to Mecca, when the messenger came, Ibn al-Daghina came to Mecca, and he said to Abu Bakr that, Oh Abu Bakr, I have no choice except to ask you to stop praying even. Or allow me out of this protection, because I can't give you that type of protection. Right? You have one of two choices, that you either stop praying, or I can't protect you anymore. Obviously, I don't need to tell you which one Abu Bakr chose. Right? So he said, I throw back your protection to you, and I accept the protection of Allah. I throw back your protection to you that you're free now, you have done your job, you did it now, you couldn't stand up basically, because Ibn Daghana didn't fight at all, he just basically agreed. And in one sense we understand, because it's not his territory, it's not his, and he's really going out of his way to help Abu Bakr. So Abu Bakr said, okay, you know, thanks but no thanks, take your protection back, and I trust in the protection of Allah. And after this, he was in Mecca without any protection other than the protection of Allah. And that is why I told the story two weeks ago that when Abu Bakr came to protect the Prophet ﷺ, they almost beat him to death. And nobody lifted a finger because he was not under anybody's protection. I told you the story two weeks ago that somebody came and tried to choke the Prophet ﷺ. Abu Bakr came and pulled it out and said, أَتَخْتُلُوا نَجْهًا أَن يَقُولُ رَبِّيَ اللَّهِ Are you gonna kill a person just because he said Allah is my Lord. And they began beating him until he was the equivalent of hospitalized. He was immobilized for more than a week and he could not move in his house because of the severity of beating. How could they get away with this even though Bakr was Qurashi? Because his own sub-tribe had basically withdrawn and Ibn Daghna had withdrawn. So now he is a homeless person. And he's living at his own risk. And he continued to live at his own risk until the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Medina. Now we already mentioned that around 14, some say 15, some say 16, some say 17. Between 14 to 17 people emigrated. Allahu'alam the strongest opinion would be 12 men and 5 women. So that's a total of 17. 12 men and 5 women. So we talked about the fact they heard the rumor, they came back. As they're coming back, they're eagerly asking, have the people of Mecca accepted? Have the people of Mecca accepted? They're waiting for a caravan to get the news before they get to Mecca. the first caravan they meet, they ask and the people of the caravan said you have heard false, this is not the case the people of Mecca are as they were and the new religion is being persecuted and so this jolted them this was a big shock for them so much so that some of them said let's just go back before entering Mecca, let's just go back now can you imagine, put yourself in their shoes Mecca is right in front of you this is your homeland, your relatives your possessions, everything is there literally you're just one step away and now debate occurs should we go back or not until obviously emotionally psychologically they said look we're so close let's just go back and see what the situation is like right life would have been very tough as we said imagine a different culture a different language they don't speak Abyssinian it's a whole different land whole different environment it's much worse than we can imagine and I forgot to mention one point when I mentioned this issue that subhanallah one of the punishments of Islamic law which is no longer practiced pretty much anywhere in the world because the world has changed. And this shows us sometimes change is permissible. One of the punishments of Islamic law for certain crimes is called التغريب. التغريب means leave your land and go somewhere else. If you're from, let's say, the Hijaz, go live in the Najd. If you're from the Najd, go live in Syria or some place, right? One of the punishments for certain types of petty crimes, right? That you're not gonna be whipped, you're not gonna be jailed, just go live somewhere else for a year. That was a punishment. In our times, that's not a punishment, it's sightseeing. Right? This is a vacation. You're telling me to go for a year, it's a vacation. Okay. So look at how times have changed, that to leave your society, to leave your land, was a type of punishment. And so the Sahaba had to self-inflict this punishment when they went to Abyssinia. When they come back, they decided, okay, let's just go see what is happening in Mecca. Now, when they left Mecca, they had basically, again I'm speaking in modern equivalent, they had cancelled their passports. They had renegaded from their tribe. Because that's the whole point now. So when they go back in, they cannot just expect the same protection. So each one of them has to find new protection. Each one of them has to find a new sponsor. Like what's gonna be my entry visa to get into Mecca? And we have some stories about what happened here. Uthman ibn Mad'un. Uthman ibn Mad'un one of the famous Sahaba and he has a lot of stories in the Sira and he died an early death in one of the battles of Shahid Uthman ibn Mad'un reached out to Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira the same one who is the famous poet because he had a friendship with him and Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira agreed and so Al-Walid marched with him and they publicly announced this is how they enacted treaties they publicly announced Al-Walid said I have given my protection to Uthman ibn Mad'un. And so, Uthman remained completely protected. Waleed is one of the most powerful men in Mecca. We already said Allah revealed verses in the Quran. This is the father of who? Khalid ibn Al-Waleed. This is the father of Khalid. Right? This is the one whom Allah revealed Surah Muddathir. ذَرْنِي وَمَنْ خَلَقْتُ وَحِيدًا وَجَعَلْتُ لَهُ مَالٍ مَمْدُودًا وَبَنِينَ شُهُودًا All of this Allah is talking about. This is Al-Waleed. The one who فَكَّرَ وَقَدَّرَ He thought, what am I going to say about the Prophet ﷺ? And then he said, this is a strange type of magic. This is Al-Walid, one of the most powerful men rivaling Abu Jahl. So Al-Walid gave protection to Uthman. And because this is Walid, Uthman, not a hair on his head was touched. Now, Ibn Ishaq says, when Uthman would go back and forth in the city, and he would see the Muslims being persecuted, and he would see that he himself was untouched, his guilt began to get the better of him. even though he's not doing anything wrong. And he said, how come they are suffering and I am in safety? How come they are suffering and I am in safety? So one day he went to Al-Walid ibn al-Muhira and he said that, Oh my uncle, Walid is a senior man, elder man. Oh my uncle, please take your protection back. رُدَّ عَلَيَّ جِوَارَكَ Your jiwar is called the protection. Just take back your jiwar. So Al-Walid said, My nephew, what has happened? Has anybody harmed you? Have I not done my service? I mean, is anything, you know, why do you want to return it? It's a very obviously big thing. You know, why do you want to return it? So he said, I cannot bear to see my fellow brothers and sisters suffer while I have this freedom. Subhanallah. Look at, now there's nothing sinful per se about Uthman's situation. But his conscience was so strong, he said, why do I have, just because I have a friendship with Waleed from the days of Jahiliyyah, now he's protecting me. how about the rest of the people? How about Ibn Mas'ud? How about Bilal? How about even the other people who returned from Abyssinia and who didn't get the protection I got? It's not fair. And so he voluntarily returned Al-Walid's protection. And Al-Walid came to the Ka'ban and he said that, O people of Mecca, Uthman has asked that I return his protection to him. And Uthman announced that, yes, I have done this and it's not because of any issue of Al-Walid. He wants to make sure that people don't think that Al-Walid fell short. It's because I have my own reasons, it's nothing to do with Al-Walid. So okay, announcement is made. They're not gonna just jump and attack on him. I mean, okay, the announcement is made. Now he comes walking back, and he passes by a very famous poet who was visiting Mecca at the time. One of the most famous poets, so much so he is of the Muallakator. He is of the poets who has written the most famous poetry. in pre-Islam. And he is one of those poets who eventually accepted Islam. Eventually, right now he's not a Muslim. He's one of the few of the mighty poets, if you like, who eventually accepted Islam. His name is Labid. His name is Labid. And he passed by, and Labid was sitting on the majlis, and all the people of Quraysh were surrounding. You know the poetry, this is their entertainment, right? So Labid is reciting poetry. And Labid was not from the Quraysh, he was a visitor. They had invited him for their festival. So, Labid is reciting poetry. And so, he begins to listen. Labid says, and he recites a line of poetry, أَلَا كُلُّ شَيْءٍ مَا خَلَ اللَّهَ بَعْطِلُوا Now, pause here, footnote. The Prophet ﷺ said, the most truthful statement that any poet has ever said is this statement of Al-Walid. أَلَا كُلُّ شَيْءٍ مَا خَلَ اللَّهَ بَعْطِلُوا The Prophet ﷺ said, he quoted this. One of the few lines of poetry the Prophet ﷺ actually quoted. He hardly quoted poetry. But this is one of the lines he quoted. In fact, it's half a line, half a stanza. And so what does it mean? It means, thoroughly, everything other than Allah is useless. أَلَا كُلُّ شَيْءٍ مَا خَلَ اللَّهَ بَاطِلُ So he said this line. And so, he's very impressed. Meaning Uthman. eventually Labid accepted Islam but right now he's a mushrik so obviously you're happy he's very impressed and he said sadaqta you have spoken the truth everything besides Allah is useless the only thing that's worthy to concentrate on and to make an ultimate goal is Allah everything besides Allah is just useless and then he said wa kullu na'imin and every single blessing la mahalata za'ilu without any doubt it will disappear. Every enjoyment will disappear. Now, Uthman's heart had gone so high that what a beautiful line of poetry. Then he said something that he didn't agree with. So he said, كذبت You have just lied. Because Jannah will never disappear. Right? This is, the line of poetry is that everything besides Allah is useless. and every pleasure, there is no doubt about it, will come to an end. And here Uthman said, no, you're lying. The pleasures of Jannah will never come to an end. Now this is in a large, you imagine this, you know, this is the dignitary, this is the VIP, right? All of the Quraish around him, he has just withdrawn his protection, right? And right then and there, literally on the way back, because they had the Nadi over there, On the way back, he utters this statement. And Labid gets irritated. I mean, he is the guest of honor here. And he said, since when have you treated your guests with this matter? I mean, if you stand up and, you know, a speaker has come from another place. Since when have you? This is rude. I am your guest. You've invited me to recite my poetry. And now, he doesn't know what's going on obviously. Labid doesn't know that Uthman is a Muslim. He doesn't understand all of this, right? So he considers Uthman a heckler in the audience. right, you understand this, right and so he says to the Quraysh since when has this become your custom that you heckle your your visitors and so somebody stood up in anger and gave him a hard smack and basically gave him a black eye and his left eye became completely swollen and he went home and when Al-Waleed heard, Al-Waleed came rushing to his house and said my nephew why did you get rid of my protection? I mean I could have it's foolishness come, come back with me I'll give it back to you. I mean you see what's happening here and so Uthman responds that no this is not a problem at all verily and this is a classic line of Uthman he said verily my other eye is now in need of the blessings that this eye has gotten my other eye is jealous now it needs to get the same thing as this eye. And he refused to get back under the protection of Al-Walid. And this shows us that subhanAllah, I mean, some of the sahaba did get that protection. Some of them remained in it, right? And this shows us people are at different levels. And there's nothing wrong with those who remained. But some of them did not feel comfortable and so they returned their protection. Of those who kept the protection is Abu Salama. Of course, Abu Salama is the husband of Umm Salama Abu Salama is going to die shortly and the Prophet ﷺ is going to marry Umm Salama so this is that Abu Salama so Abu Salama returned back because Abu Salama and Umm Salama migrated first and then they migrated again as we're going to talk about there were two migrations to Abyssinia as we're going to talk about so Abu Salama comes back Abu Salama is actually a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ but he's a cousin from his mother's side not the father's side so Abu Salama is not Banu Hashim Abu Salama is actually Banu Makhzum Banu Makhzum is Abu Jahl. Right? Abu Salama is from the tribe of Abu Jahl. But his mother is the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ. I.e. Abdullah's sister. Right? You guys following? Abdullah's sister is Abu Salama's mother. So, Abu Salama doesn't want to reach out to Abu Jahl. I mean, come on, Abu Jahl is not going to give me protection. So who can he reach out to? His uncle from his mother's side. Who is? Who is? Abu Talib. Abu Talib, right? Abu Talib is his mother's brother. So he sends a message to Abu Talib that look, can you basically sponsor me? Can you get me into your tribe? Basically protection. So Abu Talib said, of course, yes. Now, what do you think Abu Jahl is going to do when he hears that somebody else has taken one of his tribe members? Who do you think you are? So, a delegation comes from Banu Maghzum to the house of Abu Talib again. You're interfering in our politics. This is our guy. Who do you think you are to offer him protection? Because it's a matter of honor, it's a matter of snubbing their nose, basically, right? And so Abu Jahl and others, they get angry at Abu Talib. And Abu Talib said, well, if I'm gonna give protection to one nephew, meaning the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, why can't I give protection to the other nephew? Meaning Abu Salama. I mean, if I'm gonna protect one, why can't I protect the other? And so they were not going to budge, and they surrounded his house, and an argument broke out. And then Allah brought about a solution from a source we would never expect. Abu Lahab. Abu Lahab stood up, and he said, Have you not irritated this old man enough? I mean, Abu Talib is a senior figure, you know, he's an elderly person. Abu Lahab is now feeling compassion for his brother. not because he loves the Prophet ﷺ but just as a brother because after all they are brothers and so he stood up and he said have you not irritated this old man enough let him be come on let him be how much are you gonna pester this guy let him be if you're gonna continue then I'm gonna have to force my side I'm gonna choose him this is Abu Lahab speaking and he's not speaking out of a love for Islam he's speaking out of his love for his tribe and the protection of his chieftain and as we said that type of love is not going to help you in Islam even Abu Talib loved the Prophet ﷺ but not a religious love it was a love of uncle it was a love of a fatherly figure it was a love of a fellow Hashemite but it was not a religious love that we have for our Messenger ﷺ he didn't have that religious love he had a paternal love and that love is not going to necessarily save you from the punishment of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, even though it helped a little bit for Abu Talib's case. So Abu Jahal, sorry, Abu Lahab stood up, and defended against Abu Jahal. Can you imagine, it's an amazing scene here, right? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chooses whomever he chooses to help this religion. Somebody like Abu Lahab, there have been more than one time, where he's done small things that have brought some benefit to Islam, even though he didn't do it for the sake of Islam. and our Prophet ﷺ said in Medina many years later he said verily Allah can help this religion from a kafir, from a pagan Allah will help, sorry this is a better translation إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَيُؤَيُّذُ هَذَا الدِّينَ Allah sometimes helps this religion from a person who is not even a believer of it and these types of incidents they demonstrate the truth of what the Prophet ﷺ said so the point being that the situation in Mecca remained status quo. It didn't change at all. And the Quraysh continued to persecute the Muslims, and so the initial batch that had immigrated from Abyssinia came together and decided, what do we do now? And the bulk of them said, let's go back. It was a mistake to come back, now let us go back. But, in the meantime, they had stayed in Mecca 2-3 weeks, and the news spread amongst all of the Muslims about how good life was in Abyssinia, at least in terms of physical harm. Yes, it was difficult culturally, and language, and climate, but not hostile. And you know, in the end of the day, if you're living, as we said, the two best blessings that Allah gives, الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُمْ مِنْ جُوعٍ وَأَمَنَهُمْ مِنْ خَوْفٍ These are the biggest blessings that Allah gives after Iman. And they have that in Abyssinia. They had food, and they had safety. These are the best blessings. and so when they heard this a large percentage of Muslims, we don't know how many Muslims were in Mecca at the time, there were no census but it is probably correct to say that at least 30-40% of the Muslims of Mecca, if not 50% decided to immigrate, now that's a huge number, right? half of your people are now leaving, half of the Muslims are leaving, it's a huge number and so, it is as if, and this is my opinion and Allah knows best. The wisdom why Allah allowed these early Muslims to come back only to return was so that the bulk of the Muslims or a large group of Muslims would then be convinced to travel to Abyssinia. Because as we all know, the number one way to be convinced is what? Word of mouth. It's the number one way to actually be convinced. My friend told me. right? that's the number one way and there was no other way that so many Muslims would have emigrated to Abyssinia no way unless Allah allowed the very Muslims who benefited to come back tell the people status quo and then people were convinced and so for the second emigration more than 80 Muslims emigrated that's more than quadruple the number that went the fourth time more than 80 Muslims migrated and this time they were headed by Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, the direct obviously cousin of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. Now, please note though, of that initial batch of 17, not all of them returned in the 80. 17 went and came back, some of those decided to remain. The most famous person who remained, Uthman ibn Affan. Uthman ibn Affan decided to remain and he then immigrated to Medina, he participated in Badr and Uhud and all of the rest of the battles. So Uthman ibn Affan did not go back the second time. Of course Abu Salama went back and Abu Salama then passed away over there. Other Sahaba that did not go back, it is said that Mus'ab ibn Umair, the famous Mus'ab ibn Umair, who was the first to immigrate to Medina. The first person of the Prophet ﷺ sent to Medina because his own parents had tortured him the worst torture, his own mother and father. So the Prophet ﷺ first sent him to Abyssinia, then when he came back he decided that he wanted to stay with the Prophet ﷺ so he stayed with the Prophet ﷺ, but then within three years, before the immigration that he himself did the Prophet ﷺ, he sent Mus'ab, as soon as the first batch of Muslims accepted Islam the Prophet ﷺ said to Mus'ab, go to Medina, you can live there, so Mus'ab also did not return to Abyssinia other Sahaba as well, some of them returned some of them didn't, now when over 80 people and Mecca at this time probably had only a few hundred people in it. So 80 people in Mecca represents more than 15%, 20% of the people of Mecca. It's a percentage of the city. Remember, Mecca is not a thriving metropolis. It is composed of, and I said this way back in the beginning, when we say tribe, don't think a thousand people. Think more like ten. Look at the Banu Hashim. There were ten brothers. There were ten brothers, the descendants of Abdul Muttalib. That's all they were. Ten brothers. So don't think of like massive. No, these are small sub-tribes and there's only 6 or 7 sub-tribes of the Quraysh. So you do the math. Again, we don't have census records but they were for sure, they were not more than a thousand people in Mecca, for sure. If, and that's if there were a thousand, most likely they were even 600 or 500. Out of that, 80 are migrating. I mean that's like more than 10% of your population, right? And it's a big embarrassment that your own people are leaving. This is unprecedented in all of Arabia. You never have your own tribes men migrate out of your tribe. It's a huge embarrassment. And this is the Quraysh, the one that is the strongest tribe, the most elite, the most protective, the custodians of the haram. And now they have 10-15% of their own tribes people emigrate. This is a shame. And they cannot bear this. And so, when they immigrated to Abyssinia, now the Quraysh decided we cannot allow this emigration, we need to stop it. We need to stop it. So what did they do? They decided to send two people to Abyssinia. And appeal directly to the Najashi. Najashi is the title of the person who rules Abyssinia. Like Caesar is the title of the ruler of Rome. Like Pharaoh is the title of the ruler of Egypt. It's not the name. Najashi is not his name. And in fact his name was Al-Suhuma. His name was As-Humah. The name of the Najashi with a saad and a ha. As-Humah. This is what we have narrated. And by the way, the grave of Najashi of As-Humah is still well known to this day. And some of my friends have visited it. I have not gone to that land, but some of my friends have visited it. They said this is well known. The grave of Najashi is well known in the land of Abyssinia. So they sent two delegates. Amr ibn al-As and another person. Scholars have differed who that second person was. Amr ibn al-As, for those of you who know who he is, you know who he is. For those who don't know who he is, he was a very intelligent and shrewd politician. And when he accepted Islam, he retained that know-how of how to rule. And he became Muawiyah's main advisor, Amr ibn al-As. And of course he's a companion, so we say nothing but good about him. But at this stage he's not a Muslim obviously. and he was a very cunning person at this stage. Later on Iman came and so alhamdulillah he accepted Islam. And as a sahaba we say nothing but good of him. But he had that mind of a politician. And he was, he had that blood in him. He had that prestige of being a ruler in him. This is Amr ibn al-As here. So Amr ibn al-As was sent by the Quraysh because they know who he is. And they sent one more person with him. So they traveled all the way to Abyssinia. Now, Umm Salama who was to become our mother, Umm Salama has left us many reports about life in Abyssinia, and about the details. And Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah for this, because she is the main reporter of the events of Abyssinia. And Umm Salama narrated, and this is in Sahih Bukhari, Umm Salama narrated, when we landed in Abyssinia, this is the second Hijrah, when we landed in Abyssinia, we were treated very hospitably with thee by the Negus. He granted us security in our religion. He allowed us to worship Allah without persecution or any hindrance. In fact, we did not even hear one ridicule against us by the people. You know that when you're a minority and a majority, usually there's racial slurs. Usually there's, look at what's happening in America now, right? You know, these people are taking our jobs. They're this, they're that. You know what's happening. You know, it's a common thing. so Umm Salam is saying that we didn't even hear one word spoken against us but then the Quraysh heard of our status that we have Izzah and so they plotted against us and they decided to send two strong men by strong she meant people who would do their job not physically strong that two strong men and they gave them precious gifts they loaded them with gifts what were the gifts of Mecca? primarily leather skins. Mecca was known for a special type of camel leather. Which was obviously, I mean you're not gonna get that type of leather in Abyssinia. And so Mecca was very well known for exporting. The main export of Mecca was that type of leather. The main export of Medina always was dates. So they sent all of these luxurious camel skins and many other gifts. And the two dignitaries, emissaries arrived in Abyssinia. The first thing that they did was they went to all of the viziers, the ministers of Najashi. And they gave each of them expensive gifts and leather. Basically bribed them. They gave each of them expensive gifts and leather. And they said to them, that we have in your midst a group of renegades and rebels. And we will speak to the Najashi tomorrow about their case and we want you to hand them back to us and support us in this cause. So basically this is open bribery. Okay, this is open bribery. And so make sure that you help us out in this regard. When we give the Negus his gifts, remember our gifts to you. Because they're gonna bribe the Negus tomorrow. And Subhanallah, look at the hatred really of the Quraysh here that they can't even bear to see the Muslims live in a foreign land. It affects them that they have so much freedom. So, the next day, they approached the Negus. And they said, some foolish youth from amongst our nation have emigrated to your country. They have left our religion and they have not embraced your religion. They've invented a new religion. They have left our religion and they have neither embraced your religion nor any of the other religions that we are aware of. And the leaders of our community have sent us to you in order that you hand these young foolish people back to us so that we can deal with them because we are more knowledgeable of their faults than anybody else. And so they presented the negus with lots of fine gifts and incense and they presented them with all of these leather goods. And subhanAllah this is the reality of in our times we call this lobbying basically, right? in our times we call this lobbying that you go and you give politicians money and when you give them money for their campaigns for their funds and this is perfectly legal in this land as you know it's perfectly legal in fact that's the way the system works right and subhanallah just as a comment here it's not directly related to the seerah it's a comment here subhanallah our religion is so perfect that our Prophet ﷺ before all of this modern system came about our Prophet ﷺ strictly forbade what we now call lobbying strictly with the most harshest words. You're not allowed to give a public servant money. You're not allowed to. In our religion, I'm talking about in an Islamic state, we're not allowed to give the employees of the state any money at all. Their money comes from the treasury, from the state, because they're employees. They have no right to get any money from you because that is gonna sway them from their job, right? This is basically the essence of bribery. And subhanAllah, in this land, this is not called bribery, it's called lobbying. it's completely legit, even though and this is the irony here, if you pay them money directly to their pocket, this is bribery but if you pay to their campaign or you pay something else, this is lobbying and they just have their ways around it you all know the famous hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that he appointed somebody to go collect zakat, right? and the zakat collector came back and he said all of this is for you and I was given a gift of something small this is my gift, right? this is my lobbying I got the Prophet ﷺ became so enraged that he stood up and he called the people to come to the masjid and he gave a khutbah in the middle of the day not on Friday, he gave a khutbah about this and he said what is wrong with some of you he didn't mention the person here because he never did that what is wrong with some of you that we appoint him to do a job and we pay his salary and then he comes back and he says this is for you and this gift is for me and then the Prophet ﷺ said something that is very, very blunt, but it shows how angry he was. Why didn't this man sit in his mother's house and see if a gift would then come to him? This is wallahi the essence of Islamic political science. Why didn't he sit in his house and then see if somebody would give him a gift, right? You have no right for the public's money. You're getting paid to do your job, do it. You're not getting paid to take the people's gifts and take a cut from them, right? But subhanallah, the way that other systems work, it's a completely different system. And that's why money talks in this part of the world. And that's why if you have money, you will be able to get things passed, even at the highest levels of political power. And if you don't have money, even if the truth is on your side. And so the Quraysh know this tactic very well. And they're basically greasing the hands of Najashi and all of the people there. now notice here they are frightening the Najashi by religious differences, political differences, social differences and perhaps even some scholars say economic bribery and differences religious differences, Najashi and his followers are all Christian so they come and they say these guys are religious fanatics, they're neither our religion nor yours, they're a cult social differences they say they have broken away from the elders, they're a bunch of youngsters. They're just dismissing them. Economic differences well, perhaps not differences but they're attempting to bribe and some scholars try to say that and Allah knows how true this is, that there was also insinuation that the economic treaties between Abyssinia and Mecca would be weakened and Allah knows how true this is. Political as well, that these are a group of strangers, we don't know what's gonna happen. We can control them, send them back to us. And every government in power is scared of unknowns. Every government is scared of unknowns. And so they're trying to frighten the jashi religiously, socially, politically, culturally. These guys are all weirdos. And to this day that's the common tactic. That these people we don't know what they are and who they are. So when they finished their petition the vizier stood up. They've been bribed. And they said, oh our ruler verily what they have said makes complete sense. These are strangers in our land. We don't know anything about them. return them back to their people let them deal with their affairs subhanallah money talks they were bribed and they listened to the bribe so the viziers all of them that had been bribed stood up and agreed with the two Qurashis Najashi said no by Allah I cannot just hand them back after they have chosen my land now remember when they entered Abyssinia even though the books don't mention this but it must have happened. They must have sent a petition to Najashi asking permission to live. Because there's no other way you can live in that land. And Najashi must have granted that petition. Even though the books of Sira don't explicitly write it out but it's understood. There's no other way. So Najashi is aware what's happening. That there's a group here from Mecca. So he said these people have chosen me over all the other lands they could have chosen. And they ask for my protection. The least that I can do is to listen to their side of the story. Subhanallah. Look, he's a king. He doesn't need to listen to 80 people. Right? But what did the Prophet ﷺ say? مَلِكٌ عَادِلٌ Didn't he say that? He's a just king. And a just king will listen to both sides and decide what is right and wrong. Did not decide what is in his power or what is in his benefit. So he said, I will not return them back until I listen to them. He didn't say, I'm not going to return them back. He said, let me see what they have to say. and then we'll make up our minds. I can't just, and subhanallah look at this, I mean this is way before we have modern law. Najashi has common sense that you have to listen to both sides of the story. And so Najashi says that we need to listen to their side. And this shows us how true the Prophet ﷺ was when he said he is a just king. And it also shows us that when Allah is on your side, Allah will plot and plan no matter what the others plot and plan. وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ So the Negus sent a messenger. Najashi sent a messenger to Ja'far ibn Abi Talib. And he said, Come all of you to the palace tomorrow and explain to us why your people are opposed to you. Now they had never seen the Najashi. Najashi is the king, right? They had never had any direct contact with him. Now they're being told, the emperor himself wants to meet you. Come to the palace, all of you. And so they became frightened, which is only natural. And they said, what are we gonna say? What are we gonna tell him? And so Ja'far said, we will only say what our Prophet ﷺ told us to say, and we're not gonna change the truth, no matter what happens. i.e. we'll speak the truth. And it shows that when Muslims stand up for the truth, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will protect them and stand up for them. So when they arrived at the palace, they found the Negus surrounded by his advisors by his, the Arabic word is Batariqah and Batariqah actually has a Latin original which was then made into English which is Patriarch the word Patriarch is from Batariqah it's the same thing so the Patriarchs are basically the senior figures of the religion they are the ministers so he was surrounded by the Viziers and the Patriarchs this is an official meeting all the congressmen and senators are present if you like they all come to the palace and you have Amr ibn al-As and you have his companion on one side and you have Ja'far ibn Abi Talib and the delegation of the Muslims on the other side now Amr ibn al-As entered first and him and his companion as was the custom of the Najashi they prostrated in front of him because as with most emperors even the Roman emperor, the Persian emperor the Abyssinian emperor, people always prostrated in front of the king This was the common practice of all kings of the time. And, I mean, these people are pagans, if they're prostrating to rocks and stones, prostrating to a living being makes more sense than prostrating to rocks and stones. They don't mind, who cares? It's just, it's all the same to them. So they prostrated in front of Najashi. Jaffar ibn Abi Talib entered. And he walked in erect, firm. And he did not lower his head one inch. The minister said, how dare you walk in without prostrating to the Najashi. And subhanallah, this was at a time where their life hangs in the balance. Their future in Abyssinia hangs in the balance. But they have a principle. And that principle is, we cannot worship other than Allah. We cannot bow our heads to other than Allah. This is not issue of compromise here. We can't change that. And they're coming at a state of weakness. This is not a state of strength, right? But they're not going to compromise their iman. And so Ja'far says, our Prophet ﷺ has told us that we can only prostrate to our Lord. This is our religion. We can only prostrate to our Lord. And so Najashi says, and obviously all of this is through a translator because they couldn't speak Abyssinian and he could not speak Arabic. Najashi says, tell me, what is this religion of yours that you have now invented? Now this is, you're showing me this religion by not prostrating. What is this new religion that you have invented? And what is the matter that you have forsaken the religion of your people and you haven't embraced my religion, nor have you embraced the other religions on earth? Right? If you had become Christian, we understand. If you become Jew, there are people that are Jews. But how about this new religion? What is it? And so Ja'far gave that eloquent response that all of you have read and have heard so many times. It is wallahi the pinnacle of eloquence and it shows us why the Prophet ﷺ chose Ja'far to be the leader. Because to be a leader, you need to have a personality. And you need to have eloquence. Without this, you really cannot be a leader. And Ja'far had both. And that's why Ja'far marches infirm. He's not gonna bow his head down. Had it been others, maybe they would have collapsed under the pressure. Not Ja'far. And when he was sincere to his faith, that sincerity automatically brings about respect. And you know, the fact of the matter brothers and sisters, When you stand up for what you believe, even if your opponent doesn't agree with you, they will in some sense, even if they hate your guts, they must respect you for being firm to your principles. This is just a fact of human life. It doesn't matter whether they agree or disagree. They could hate you more for being so stubborn. But one part of them will respect. And this is what Ja'far is basically doing. He's staying firm to his religion. So Ja'far responds and, you know, you all know this beautiful passage which really should be read many times and memorized. I'll just narrate it and it's something that we have read since we were kids. Your Highness we used to be a nation steeped in Jahiliyyah and we would worship idols and we would eat this dead meat. You know if an animal dies we'll eat it. Now of course the people of Abyssinia are Christians, right? And they have some sense of ethics and morality and they have some civilization. You know they have structure, they have buildings, they have society, they have morals Mecca, as we said over and over again, really and truly was just completely backward. And it's something many Muslims, doesn't click for them. Uneducated, backward people, they have no clue what is civilization. So, Jafar is trying to explain, we were basically, you know, we're living in Jahiliyyah. That's exactly the word he uses. We were living in Jahiliyyah. And we used to perform Fahisha. We didn't have a sense of right and wrong. Fahisha means sexual immorality. We didn't have laws. we just go do zina. It's not something we had ethics to do. And we would break the ties of kinship and treat our neighbors in contempt. The strong amongst us would eat up and devour the weak. It was all about who was the stronger one. And we remained in this state until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent a messenger to us. Now again he's very wise here because the negus knows what is a messenger. The Quraysh had never seen a messenger. It's not in their culture. The Negus is a Christian, he knows very well what a messenger is, right? And the whole speech of Ja'far shows that he understands the psychology of Negus. And he shows how to give da'wah. So he says, Allah sent us a messenger. This messenger was known to us, he's from our community. We know his house and his lineage. And we know his truthfulness. And he never spoke one lie in his life. And he invited us to believe in one God alone. this is the religion of Christianity and Judaism monotheism and to leave idol worship and he told us to abandon the ways of our forefathers and to leave the worship of stones and statues and he commanded us to be true when we speak and to fulfill our promises and to fulfill the ties of kinship he told us to be good to our neighbors and he commanded us to avoid all evils he told us to not spill blood to give true testimony He forbade us from eating the property of orphans. He forbade us from accusing others of adultery. And He commanded us to worship Allah alone without associating anything with Him. He told us to pray and to fast and to give charity. So we believed in Him. And we followed Him. And we had faith in Him. And we worshipped Allah alone. And we gave up worshipping idols. And we forbade upon ourselves everything that He told us to forbade. and we made permissible all that he allowed for us. But our people opposed us. And they showed hatred towards us. And they tortured us. And they punished us. And they tried to force us back into idol worship. And they were unjust to us. And they made life miserable. And they prevented us from being who we were. So when they did this, we emigrated to your land. And we chose you above all other rulers. and we wish to come under your generosity and hospitality and we put our trust in you that we would not be shown injustice in your land, O exalted Highness. Now, the whole speech is, you couldn't have invented a better one if you had the imagination and the time to do so. And he did it on the spur of the moment, right? He appeals to the emotions, the justice, the generosity, the common sense, the religion of the Negus. he puts instantaneously himself in the positive and the two emissaries in the negative in a five minute speech the whole table has turned even the Arabic is eloquent and this shows us why the Prophet ﷺ chose Ja'far ibn Abi Talib and again the point of praising Najashi and praising the intelligence and wisdom of Najashi subhanallah it shows you are you need to appeal to the court of Najashi and so this speech swayed Najashi and it moved him. And he said to the Muslims, do you have any revelation that this Prophet says he has? Do you have any speech that he says that Allah gave to him? So Ja'far said, yes I do. And so he said, recite it for me. And so Ja'far ibn Abi Talib recited the beginning few pages of Surah Maryam. And even in this, of course, I mean it's obvious, the choice here. could have chosen a million surahs well I'm not a million but you get my point could have chosen so many surahs but he chose the one surah that talks about the virgin birth talks about Mary talks about Jesus beautiful and again can you imagine the voice of Ja'far booming in the halls of Najashi reciting Quran in that beautiful melodious voice all of the priests and ministers all of the elite people are hushed and humbled and the walls of the palace are reverberating with that tilawa which must have gone on for at least 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Do the math as they say. Three and a half pages of Surah Maryam would be the story of Jesus, right? And he's reciting all of it. It's not just a one minute thing here. Imagine again, put yourself in that shoes for 15 minutes. Beautiful tilawa. And obviously it is said, Ibn Ishaq himself says this, that even the batariqah, even the patriarchs, Without even understanding what was being recited, they were moved to tears. I mean this is the Qur'an. And we believe the Qur'an has this impact. And so even the patriarchs were moved to tears. And Najashi himself began to cry. When it was translated to him, he too began to cry. And then he said, I swear by God, this recitation, this tilawa, and the messages of Moses and Jesus have sprung forth from the same fountain. this is the same source and he spoke to the two emissaries and said go away from me because I'm not going to hand these people over to you and I'm not even going to think about it basically don't even think about handing these people back so Amr ibn al-As and his companion exited in humiliation and as they were leaving Amr whispered over to his companion and said don't give up yet I have one final trick tomorrow I will come back and bring one final trick out of my hat his companion said now his companion some people say it was Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah others say it was his cousin Umar ibn Al-Walid Allah knows who it was there's a little bit of a difference who the companion was his companion was the more gentle of the two and his companion said leave it ya Amr khalas leave it we tried, we failed because look even if we don't agree with them in the end they are our relatives I mean realize this is your cousin, your brothers, your uncles, your nephews. They are our relatives. I mean, leave it alone from now. But this is Amr ibn al-Aws. And at this time he is not a Muslim. So Amr said that, No, one more attempt. Just wait tomorrow. So the next day, they sought permission again. And the Negah said, What do you want? We already have decided. And you are not going to get them back. And so Amr said that, Oh, Holy Emperor, we forgot to mention to you one thing. That they say something blasphemous. about the God that you worship, Jesus Christ. They didn't tell you that bit. Go ask them what they believe about Jesus Christ. Now, what is blasphemous? He's not the son of God. Right? This is blasphemous because it's not Christianity. And so, Najashi is now interested. Like, what is this? So, Najashi sent the emissary again on the next day. And said, come immediately to the palace. Come immediately to the palace. We're waiting for you now. we want to know what your position is on Jesus Christ at this the Sahaba were struck with terror much more than they were on the day before because now this is like come right now and they know this is now Amr is doing because what else is going to happen now and so once again they say what are we going to say Ya Ja'far and so Ja'far said we will say exactly as what the Prophet ﷺ told us to say and that is that Jesus Christ is the abd of Allah, he is the servant of Allah and he is the Rasulullah and he is the Ruhullah and he is born of the Virgin Mary and we will not change this for them, subhanallah he is not gonna change what they believe just because he wants to please Najashi and this is the way of the believer because they stood up for the truth Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protected them and they went to the emperor again, and by the way, before I move on to the story itself, subhanAllah, one of the most important lessons we learned from this whole story is that the sahaba used the system of the time to fight the oppression of the time. It's not an Islamic state, is it? Right? Najashi is not a Muslim. Not now, he's not. And they are being charged, if you like, in a manner of the system of Najashi. And I say this because we have some people still left. You know, honestly, pre-911, there were much more. Post-911, most of these scholars have had to wake up and smell the coffee. And I speak as being a part of that group that used to say similar things many, many years ago. This ultra-conservative vision of Islam, that's not going to be realistic or practical. There were still people, there are still people who say, you're not allowed to be a part of the system. You're not allowed to be a part of the democratic process. You're not allowed to do this and that. There are still some minority of scholars who say this. Before, for those of you who were active in the past, this used to be much more common. And it was very common to hear, ask the fatwa, is it halal or haram to vote? Right? Now here we find, that Jafar ibn Abi Talib, is using the system of the land, to fight against oppression, and to fight for his freedom. Is he not? Right? And nobody is saying, oh hold on a sec, the ways of Najashi are the ways of Kufr. These are democracy or this or that. No! You have no choice. This is the way you need to fight for the truth. And you have to use the resources given to you. And the land, whatever system it has, you use it. And Jafar had no qualms using the system. So we will do the same thing in this land. We will fight against oppression through the courts, through the media, through the public pressure. The same opportunities that everybody has, we too have them. And we must do so like Jafar ibn Abi Talib did. Jafar used his opportunities we need to use our opportunities and therefore Jafar ibn Abi Talib said that we're not going to change the truth and so they come back to the Najashi and Najashi is a bit irritated and he asks them what is this that I have heard that you have a blasphemous opinion about Jesus Christ so Jafar said your royal highness we say exactly what our prophet said Now notice he said this phrase multiple times. And this also shows us that he's trying to impress upon the Najashi, I am remaining firm to my principles. This is what I believe. And he's quoting what is an evidence for him and Najashi should understand that it is an evidence for him. And we should also not be embarrassed to say the same thing. Why do your women wear hijab? Because our God told them to do so. Why do you pray five times a day? Because our book tells us to do so. this is an evidence that even if you don't agree with the book you must understand this is a legitimate evidence for us correct? right? it's nothing wrong and in fact it's a watertight evidence in its own way and I've spoken about this in other lectures that I've given the best evidence that we can give to any non-Muslim is to say because the Lord that I believe in who created me told me to do this and that's why I do it it's a watertight argument you cannot attack this argument you have to go back and say well I don't believe in that God and that's the point we say yes you don't It's a different religion. So the point being, he says, our Prophet told us that Jesus Christ is the Abdullah and Rasulullah and Kalimatullah that he gave to Maryam. Al-Batul Al-Adhra, the virgin, the innocent, the chaste Maryam. And that he was a righteous Prophet. Now, he stopped there. Notice, and this is a key point as well, that what he said was absolutely true. But he didn't go and be on the offensive and say, and we say that the Trinity is blasphemous. And we say that, saying that Jesus Christ, the son of God is insulting. Even though that's what the Quran says, right? But he didn't get there because, look, you don't need to go to that level yet. He's not hiding the truth. But he's telling it in a wise manner. And we do have some who really don't understand how to give da'wah. That, look, right now, you just need to establish your credentials. He's not lying. Everything he says is positive, but he just stops before he gets to the point of saying, what you guys believe is blasphemous in our religion. There's no need to say that. He says what he believes, and Najashi gets the point. You don't think he's the son of God, basically, because he doesn't say that. And even in this is wisdom. And I've said this many times before, we're never allowed to lie. But there's also a manner of speaking, and an audience in which we speak in, and a methodology and a wording, and Ja'far uses the appropriate wording. And so, when Ja'far said the truth, now it comes out, and we can read into the lines here, that the Negus was not in fact a believer in the Trinity. And he didn't believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And in this he resembled Heraclius, his contemporary and colleague, the emperor of Rome. In that, once upon a time, politicians were educated. Those were fairy tales of the past. They no longer exist in our times. You know, we must believe that once upon a time, politicians used to be smart people. That was a time long gone. So, politicians actually were intellectuals. And both the Najashi and Heraclius believed in versions of Christianity that their own priests did not believe. And so, when Ja'far speaks the truth, Najashi is even more impressed because this is what he himself has been believing all this time and so he picks up a little branch that was in front of him a twig and he says Wallahi what you have just said does not exceed what Jesus Christ said by this much of a branch in other words your message is the message of Jesus Christ he never said he is the son of God he never said that he's a third of a trinity and there are many Christians who secretly believe this or who know this but then society is simply too much of a pressure upon them and so when he says basically what Najashi himself believes then Najashi now makes a final decision and he turns to the emissaries and he says to Amr ibn al-Aas that be gone from here and take all of your gifts back with you I have no need for them he returned the gifts at least the day before he kept the gifts now to add insult to injury, right? I don't need your cheap bribes, go return all of these gifts to them, and so Umm Salama is narrating all of this and she concludes by saying, the two emissaries left, humiliated debased and degraded khalas, that's like you know they've lost everything, having been returned the gifts that they had come laden with, all that they came with they went back with, and this is really it's a slap in the face because gifts are typically accepted, right? And the day before had they left, the gifts would have been there. But now every gift, even the minister's gifts was returned. Nobody is allowed to take anything from them. And we remained in the land receiving the best hospitality and the most neighborly treatment until we finally returned to the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca. Few more points, inshallah we'll go for another 10 minutes and then stop for Isha because we need to finish the story of Najashi. now when Najashi said this that he picked up the twig and he said Jesus Christ never said anything more than this rumor spread that Najashi has become a heretic he has abandoned the religion of our forefathers Najashi has become a heretic and so the ministers and you know how politicians are there's always internal battles and a lot of people there's always inner struggles and inner cores So another group began to speak against the Najashi privately. And they began to taint him that he's not Christian enough. And he has heretical beliefs. And there was a possibility of a coup d'etat. And Najashi is aware of what's happening. He has his own sympathizers telling him. And so one day, he decided to confront that batch of instigators. and he wrote on a parchment, in his own language, أَشْهَدُ أَن لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ that I bear witness that, لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ and that Isa is the Ruhullah and the Karimatullah and the Abdullah. He's a Christian, this is what he believes, right? And this is what we believe. And he put this parchment inside his robe. You know, he's wearing all of this fine robe, he put it inside his robe. And then he calls these instigators and he brings them into his private chambers. And he says, what is your problem with me? What is the matter? Have I not been a good king to you? They said, yes. Have I not been a just ruler? They said, yes. Have I not improved the situation, this economically, whatever. And overall, everybody loved Najashi. Overall, he was one of the better kings. They said, yes. So he said, what is your problem with me? Come out with it. Tell me what is your problem. And he knows because of his own sympathizer. So they finally come out and they say, you have abandoned our religion. And you have heretical beliefs. so he asked them what do you say what do you believe and so they say we believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God he is our lord he is our savior he is the third of the trinity basically Christianity and so Najashi said and I swear by Allah that this and he pointed to the piece of paper which was on his heart that this is exactly what I believe and he left it at that now this is of course tauriya, complete double meaning completely he said something which is true right, but the way they understood it is completely different, right I swore by Allah, this is what I believe and by this he means what is in the parchment that is next to my heart right, and so when he swore by Allah that this is what he believes the Christians were satisfied because of course what he had said before was I agree with you all Muslims that Jesus Christ is not the son of God basically, right? And so when he said this, that internal struggle stopped. It is mentioned that before he had this meeting, he sent a messenger, secret messenger to the Muslims. And he said to them that I am having issues and problems and it is possible that I will be killed soon. So this was a major issue, right? And if you hear news of my death, I have instructed one of my ships to be at such and such a place as soon as you hear that I have been killed go to that place that ship will be yours with its captain go wherever you please but he actually won the battle and so that plan was not needed but look at how much Iman he had and look at where he he has thinking about the Muslims and Al-Bayhaqi narrates in his Sunan sorry in his Dara' al-Nubuwa that the Prophet ﷺ eventually wrote him a letter when he emigrated to Medina. The Prophet ﷺ wrote Najashi a letter and he invited him to Islam. And Najashi wrote back to the Prophet ﷺ saying that, I am a Muslim. And I believe in you. And I believe in all that you say. And if you command me, Ya Rasulullah, I will come right now to Medina and serve you. If you command me, I will come right now to Medina and serve you. So Najashi publicly, well not publicly, privately to the Prophet ﷺ said that he is a Muslim. And there's only, I have tried to look as much as I can in the stories of the seerah for the stories of Abyssinia because the Muslims lived there for more than 10 years. For more than 10 years the Muslims were in Abyssinia. In fact, 12 years they were in Abyssinia. And unfortunately we don't have very many stories. There's one more story mentioned about the Muslims of Abyssinia. And that is a story that involves a pretender to the throne. not an internal struggle within the palace no, another force another Abyssinian royal family was struggling with the Najashi and trying to seek power in the land and matters began to get bigger and bigger and it was all heading towards a civil war and Umm Salama narrates that we began to be scared that Najashi would be defeated and an enemy our enemy or somebody else would be installed in his place. And we didn't know what to do. And we began making dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to help Najashi win and remain in power. And the situation finally reached the level that there was a civil war. There was a battle between the two sides. And so we had a meeting in which we said, what are we gonna do? And so we said, who is gonna find out what happens at the battle so that we hear before somebody else comes and tells us. Right? In other words, let one of us go and spy on the battle, see who wins, and then if the other side wins, we need to get out of here, right? So, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, another cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, volunteered, and he was, Zubayr is a strong man, and so he said, I volunteer. He packed his stuff, he took some food and stuff, and he went, and the battle was taking place, the books say, on the banks of the river Nile. The Nile goes all the way down into Abyssinia, as you know, it's not just in Egypt, it keeps on going all the way down into Africa. And so the battle was on the banks of the Nile. So Zubayr ibn al-Awwam camped on one side as far away as he could and he waited to see who would win the battle. And Umar sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, in the meantime we were praying to Allah the most serious prayer that O Allah allow the Najashi to remain in power and give him tamkeen fil ard give him authority in the earth. And Zubayr ibn al-Awwam came back in a few days with a great smile on his face. And he said, Abshiru rejoiced that indeed Najashi has won the battle and so he will remain in power. And this shows us as well that, I mean of course in this era it's black and white. Najashi is a secret Muslim. The Muslims know this. Najashi will support them. But one important point here. Najashi and his contemporary were not fighting over Islam. This was not a jihad being fought. This was pure politics. Pure politics. And the Muslims sided with one over the other, emotionally. Now they couldn't get involved in any other way because they're not citizens of the land. This is not their war to be fought. This is not their battle. Let's extrapolate to 2011, soon to be 2012. There's nothing wrong when there's two parties in the land, one of whom is more sympathetic to Muslims, that you want that sympathetic party to win. And had the Abyssinian Muslims been in a position to help Najashi, do you think they would have not helped him? Right? Of course they would. And again, when you read the seerah, thinking about the modern world, changes your whole perspective. It's a matter of survival. This is not just the American way, it is the Islamic way. That when you have an opportunity to defend your rights, to defend your freedoms, you must do so. Whether it's through the media, whether it's through campaigning, whether it's through public awareness, whatever it might be. But there is a party that is sympathetic to your needs. In this case, it's the Najashi. In our cases, we'll talk case by case basis, right? But for sure, one of the two parties in our era, they're like leap frogs. Which one is gonna be more Islamophobic? Every one of them says, every Muslim must be profiled in the airport. One of them running for president said this, as you know, every Muslim should be profiled. All of them are racist against non-white people, as you know this. Even the one who's not white himself said that he wants a fence that's going to electrocute every single Mexican that dares to cross the border. I mean, this is down insanity, sheer stupidity. It is. Everybody knows this, you know. Everybody's making fun of this. Do you know how much it's going to cost to build a fence to... Anyway, I'm going into my tangent here. But my point being, it shows how, you know, bringing to reality what is wrong. In fact, it is Islamic that you want a party that will be more sympathetic to you and your rights as a Muslim, right? That you make dua to Allah, that you facilitate the affairs. And more than dua, the Muslims of Abyssinia could not do anything more than dua because they're not citizens, right? They are foreigners, they're on visa status. It's not their battle to be fought. What if they were citizens? What would they do? Would they just sit on their backs and do nothing? No. Umm Salama said, we were never as terrified as we were when we heard that the Najashi might lose. So they are desperate to get their freedom. Well, we are in similar, well not that similar, but nonetheless we have some types of similarities here. The final point inshallah and then we will conclude. That Najashi eventually died a number of years later. and the Prophet ﷺ came out one day in Medina and he said, Jibreel has come and informed me that a pious brother of yours has died in a neighboring land. Before anybody could come and tell him. Two weeks journey, instantaneously, on that very minute, the Prophet ﷺ was informed that Najashi has died. And he commanded the Sahaba to come and pray the one and only prayer that was ever prayed in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, Salatul Janazah alal Ghaib. The only time ever in the history of Islam that the Prophet ﷺ prayed over somebody without a body being present. It's called Salatul Janazah alal Ghaib. Never before or after except over Najashi. And I've written a long article on this, you can google it online, or I can send you the link, or maybe you can send it here, about the fiqh of praying Salatul Jinnah over Ghaib. When should it be prayed? The four madhhabs all have different opinions. The question arises, why did the Prophet ﷺ only pray over Najashi? Was it because, A, he was a famous person? So that, anytime a famous person who helps Islam, let me say, a famous person who helps Islam. Anytime a famous person who helps Islam dies, then the whole world should pray janazah al-ghaib over him. Or was it because B, nobody in Abyssinia prayed janazah over him because he was a secret Muslim. And so because nobody prayed over him in Abyssinia, the Prophet ﷺ prayed over him in Medina. Based on this ikhtilaf, the four madhhabs had their own opinions that even within the four you have more. And I have written an article about this, you can find it online. In my humble opinion, the reason is because nobody else prayed over him. And that is because many famous sahaba died in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. And they died either in battles or in other places. And he didn't pray janazah over them. And therefore this shows, and Allah knows best that, we pray janazah, salatul ghaib, over people whose janazah was not prayed over. But if somebody has prayed janazah over somebody, then it doesn't make sense to pray salatul ghaib. Nonetheless, this is a fiqh issue. nothing to do with seerah, I'm just saying as a point of interest inshallah we have gone slightly over our time we'll take some questions next week inshallah ta'ala just remember them and write them down and there's an announcement to make and inshallah we'll see you all next week inshallah as well go ahead, yes very pertinent question we're already running late inshallah we'll do a short salah as well then this is of course the month of Muharram and it is the year 1433 and the month of Muharram is a very special month it is a month that the Prophet ﷺ has said it is the only month that the Prophet ﷺ has called it the month of Allah the Prophet ﷺ said there is no other month that has been ascribed to Allah shahrullahil muharram and muharram was chosen by Umar ibn al-Khattab to be the first month of the calendar year, you all know that the calendar year was decided by Umar ibn al-Khattab in the 16th year of the hijrah the 16th year of the hijrah Abu Musa al-Ash'ari sent a letter to Umar and he said to Umar that oh Umar your letter comes to us but we don't know when it was written and when you want us to do something by. There's no dates, i.e. So, please set for us a schedule or a calendar that we can implement the commands by. And so Umar said this is a great idea. So he called the gathering of the Sahaba and he asked them, when should we begin our numbering system? And there were many opinions at the birth of the Prophet ﷺ, at the death of the Prophet ﷺ, and at the Hijrah. And Ali said it should be at the Hijrah. Ali ibn Abi Talib suggested at the Hijrah. and he said because this was when Allah changed the situation of Islam from being persecuted to being protected from being humiliated to being at the state of Izzah it's the Hijrah, that was when things changed, so let's make the Hijrah the first year, okay the Hijrah is the first year what's the first month, because they don't have a first month, right the 12 months, the names were in pre-Islam but because there's no calendar no month is the first month, so one opinion says Ramadan because that's the holiest month. Another opinion says Rajab because Rajab is the only of the four Ashurul Hurm that is by itself, right? Another says Dhul Qa'dah another says, sorry, Shawwal. Shawwal because that's the first. No, sorry, Dhul Qa'dah. Dhul Qa'dah Dhul Hijjah Muharram. Another says Dhul Qa'dah because the three holy months there's four holy months. Dhul Qa'dah Dhul Hijjah Muharram and then Rajab by itself. Right? So one opinion was we choose Rajab, another opinion was we choose Dhul Qa'dah because that's the first of the three. Another opinion was Dhul Hijjah because that's when the Hajj takes place because there's lots of opinions now. Until finally, it was Umar as well who suggested and others then agreed. Umar said it shall be Muharram. Why? Scholars have differed. But the why in my opinion is very clear. Later scholars have said because in Muharram, Nuh was saved with the ship and Musa was saved with the Fir'aun. This is all valid, but that's not why Umar ibn al-Khattab chose it. He said very clearly, this is because the Hujjaj returned home, and so basically a new life begins for the Hujjaj. It's a very interesting point here, right? When you come back from Hajj, you turn over a new leaf, right? And so by Dhul Hijjah, when you're in Hajj, now you come home, that's when you change. so it should be when the hujjaj return and in those days most of the sahaba would do hajj right I mean this is Mecca Medina it's not like America and Timbuktu it's Mecca and Medina most of the sahaba are going for hajj every year so every year should be like a new beginning basically right and so muharram should be chosen as the first of the year later scholars then tried to bring it back to the hijrah that the niyyah to make the hijrah by the Prophet ﷺ was actually formulated in Dhul Hijjah and so the first month that was seen was the month of Muharram but again this is reading back what Umar himself said makes the most sense so I've gone into my tangent as usual but inshallah you benefited with this Muharram is a blessed month it is a sacred month Aisha said that I have never seen the Prophet ﷺ fast in any month other than Ramadan as much as Muharram and the Prophet ﷺ said that fasting on the 10th of Muharram forgives the sins of the year before. Don't get confused. Always the fast of the 9th and 10th of Dhul Hijjah, both years, back and forth. The 10th of Muharram is the year before. Only the year before, which is big enough. We're saying only the minor sins of the whole year. And on this day, as we know, Musa was saved from Fir'aun. Another version adds that Nuh's ship landed on Judi, on Mount Judi. Nuh's ship, alayhi salam, was saved on Judi. and Fir'aun was destroyed on this day. And as for the sad event that happened in Karbala on that day, it is a time of sadness, there's no question about it. But it has nothing to do with the Tent of Muharram being sacred. It was just a coincidence that it happened on that day. And our heart bleeds for the evil that happened. But it has nothing to do with the sacredness and sanctity of that day. That was made sacred before what happened at that instance. And so inshallah I remind myself and all of you to fast on the Tent of Muharram if it is possible to do.

Seerah 17 - Conversion of Omar & Hamza and Boycott - Yasir Qadhi _ December 2011-q2bsjom_y8o

Al-Fatiha. day that Negus died, the very hour that he died, he told them that he had died and the Prophet ﷺ prayed Salatul Janazah over the Najashi. And this was the only time in the whole Sira that the Prophet ﷺ prayed Salatul Janazah al-Ghaib. And we said there's some fiqh issues then derived from this. What should we do if somebody dies who's famous? Should we pray Salatul Janazah over somewhere else? Or is it only the one who has not been prayed over? Does somebody else pray over them? And there's the former that have different opinions. just a few last issues of Abyssinia before we move on. The Muslims of Abyssinia remained there for another roughly 10 or 11 years. And this is a very significant point because the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Medina in another 2-3 years. Right? He emigrated to Medina, and yet the Muslims remained in Abyssinia after Medina, and after Badr, and after Uhud, and after Khandaq. The Prophet ﷺ is basically telling them to stay there. It was only after the battle of Ahzab, and when the Prophet ﷺ had expelled basically all of the Yahud from the surrounding areas, the battle of Khaybar took place, and after this the Prophet ﷺ sent a letter to Ja'far telling him to bring all the Muslims to Medina. Now, this is interesting because one wonders why did the Prophet ﷺ want the Muslims to remain in Abyssinia when he was in Medina, and when he's already winning battles, and he needs manpower, and he needs people there. What is the reason? And Allah knows, but the only reason that makes sense is that the Prophet ﷺ had a backup plan. Plan B. In case Medina does not work, there is plan B. And this shows us the long-term planning of the Prophet ﷺ, that he's not just, يعني توقّل على الله خلاص everything. Of course he has توقّل, but he's tying his camel. He's planning and he's thinking, what's gonna happen if Medina does not work out? Right? And only when he is firmly established in Medina, which is basically the battle of Khaybar was the last significant, basically, interaction with the Yehudahs in the surrounding areas. And then he expelled all of the immediate threats around Medina. And he is now completely solidified in Medina. so it seems therefore that Abyssinia remained a plan B until Medina was 100% secured then he told Ja'far come back now and after this then of course there were no Muslims remaining in Abyssinia now there remains a controversy which I don't think will ever resolve unless we discover some new books did any of the Abyssinians convert to Islam when the Muslims were there in other words did they give da'wah to the locals and did the locals convert to Islam? Allahu'alam, there doesn't seem to be any type of numerous reports but there might be some indications that a few Abyssinians embraced Islam with their interaction with the Muslims. But for sure, and we have to be frank here, Islam did not pass down in Abyssinia until basically Islam conquered lands in Abyssinia. And this of course happened after another 50-60 years. So Islam did not make a strong presence just by da'wah in this land of Abyssinia. And there might be many reasons for this, but they did of course convert Najashi. Did they convert anybody else? Allahu'ala. Maybe they did. There is some reports that indicate maybe there were some Muslims in Abyssinia. But there wasn't any large presence of Islam until Islam came back to Abyssinia and conquered it as a political power. One more incident that we need to mention about Abyssinia, and that is the fact that Ubaydillah ibn Jahsh. Ubaydillah ibn Jahsh. A cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. He passed away. He died. And his wife was Umm Habiba binti Sufyan. His wife was the daughter of Abu Sufyan. And so Umm Habiba then became a widow. And there was no one to take care of her in Abyssinia. And the Prophet ﷺ sent her a marriage proposal while she was in Abyssinia and of course this is after her iddah and he sent it through the Najashi. He sent it through the Najashi and so the Najashi took charge of the marriage and he was the one who gifted the mahr on behalf of the Prophet. Even though the Prophet didn't ask him to do this, right? But he was the one who gifted the mahr to Umm Habiba and she then went back to Medina. Najashi had a delegation take her back to Medina and she became one of the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen. We now return to the affairs in Mecca. What was happening in Mecca during this time? Notice, Abyssinia does not involve the Prophet ﷺ directly. The Prophet ﷺ never went to Abyssinia. It doesn't involve him directly. However, because it involves the Muslims who are obviously taking commands from the Prophet ﷺ, it is always discussed within the realm of Sira, even though there's no direct contact between Abyssinia and the Prophet ﷺ. What's happening in Mecca? In Mecca, two major conversions took place after the emigration to Abyssinia. After the Muslims had left to Abyssinia, the second emigration, remember we said they came back, they stayed there for a while, and then this convinced around 80 or so men to emigrate again, another 20 women. So from 14, they went to around 110, 120. So they went five times more. the number increased five fold so the Muslims left to Abyssinia and therefore the number and quantity of Muslims went down very little some scholars said it was around and they have a very precise number 38 or 37 men only the bulk of the Muslims had left to Abyssinia more than 100 had gone to Abyssinia so at this time there is only 150 180 of all of the Sahaba so Allah Azza wa Jal then blessed two people to embrace Islam that caused a huge factor of safety for the Muslims. The first of them was Hamza, the uncle of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The story of Hamza's conversion is one of the most strange stories of conversions ever. And it is narrated that Hamza was a well-known archer, he was a well-known hunter. He would go on long expeditions and every time he would return home, the first thing he would do is that he would go to the Ka'bah, do tawaf and then go back home. This was the sunnah of most of the people of Mecca. They would respect the Ka'bah. So during one of these trips, it so happened that the Prophet ﷺ was in Mecca and Abu Jahl met him close to the mountain of Safa. And Abu Jahl was in a foul mood that day for some reason. and he just began his insults and his cursing and his shatim and his rude manners and he cursed him like he had never cursed him before verbally he didn't touch him he just kept on cursing him and his ancestors and the Prophet ﷺ remained silent not saying one word back until Abu Jahl basically got tired and went on his way and the women of the Banu Hashim got extremely insulted because they don't care Muslim or non-Muslim. This is you're insulting our tribe. Abu Jahl is the Banu Makhzum, remember, right? And they are the Banu Hashim. And when he's insulting his forefathers, and obviously it's the Banu Hashim being insulted. So the women of the Banu Hashim got very insulted. But who does this man think he is to curse our fathers and to make fun of our member? And there was no man of the Banu Hashim close by. So when Hamza returned, some of the women began to basically taunt him that what type of uncle are you? what type of leader are you of the Banu Hashim? when your own nephew is insulted and no one stands up to defend him basically where is your honor for the Banu Hashim? doesn't matter Islam or no Islam it's a matter of family honor right? that we have no honor left if one of our members can be insulted so he said what happened? so they said Abu Jahl stood there for 15-20 minutes however long just haranguing him just insulting him and not one person stood up to defend and he said this and he said that and he narrated all that he said and Hamza's blood began to boil and this caused him to become so angry and he asked did the other people see was this a public insult because it's a matter of pride for him did the other people see this humiliation they said the whole of Mecca saw it everybody thought it's a public insult and so he basically lost it and he marched to the Kaaba still with his bows and arrows and hunting equipment and he marched straight to Abu Jahl and took his bow and smacked him across the face with his bow caused a huge gush of blood to come out and he said how dare you curse my own nephew and then he didn't even realize what he was saying and he blurted out and I too am a follower of his religion. He didn't plan this. It was just anger. That what are you gonna do now? It's a matter of look now. I also say that I'm following his religion. And I'm upon his faith. And this of course shocked him as much as it shocked everybody else. He didn't even think about saying this statement. It just came out of, as the Quran says, حَمِيَّةَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةَ which is basically the bigoted feeling of just ancestry. This is a type of pride that has no basis to it. So he just wanted to defend the Prophet ﷺ because he's his nephew, and he's saying, he's my nephew, and I'm also one of his religion, now what are you gonna do? And Hamza was also known to be a strong man. There were a few men who were, mashaAllah, well known in Mecca. And Hamza was one of them. And when he hit Abu Jahl like this, and Abu Jahl was sitting down, and he was standing up. The Banu Makhzum that were around him stood up to go and defend him. But Abu Jahl said, leave him be. Fawallahi, today I cursed his nephew like I never cursed him before. Meaning, I know why he's angry. Leave him be, I cursed his nephew like I never cursed him before. And then Hamza returned home. Confused, dazed. What am I gonna do now? What am I gonna do now? I didn't plan to accept Islam. I don't know if this is the truth or not. and he made a dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he said, Oh Allah, you know that I am one of the leaders of the Quraysh and I have now said something that I don't know, I cannot take it back. It's too embarrassing to take back. So if this matter is true, then cause my heart to be guided to it. And if it is not true, then cause me to die right now. I can't, I'm in a trap now. because I just said I'm a Muslim but I don't believe in Islam and so he made this dua to Allah and he spent the most miserable night of his life tossing, turning, thinking what to do and the next morning he went to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, oh my nephew this is what happened yesterday and he explained what happened now what should I do he hadn't intended to convert so the Prophet ﷺ stood up and began talking to him, admonishing him telling him about Islam, exhorting him convincing him of La ilaha illallah until finally after that conversation Hamza said I testify that you are a truthful person and you're speaking the truth and now I don't ever want to return to the paganism or the religion of my forefathers so Hamza's conversion story was not one that initially he was sincere for Islam rather he was sincere for tribalism and it just came out but when it came out what is he gonna do now? and so he made a dua to Allah if it is really true O Allah then open my heart to Islam otherwise cause me to die well he didn't die and as he thought about it and the Prophet ﷺ convinced him he said this is indeed the truth and of course Hamza then became the Sayyid al-Shuhada the leader of the Shuhada in the battle of Uhud in the battle of Uhud as you all know he died a very tragic death and he became the leader of the Shuhada so when Hamza accepted Islam this was a big boost for the Prophet ﷺ because he finally had support from the elders of the Quraysh. He finally had, this Hamza's conversion was the senior most Qurayshi to convert up until this point. I mean he's the son of Abdul Muttalib, what more do you want? He's the brother of Abu Talib, the chieftain. What more do you want? So the senior most person to convert was Hamza up until this point. And when Hamza converted, Ibn Hisaq says, they had to tone down their animosity. They had to tone down the irritation of the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims. So the conversion of Hamza was a big boost. A few days later, according to one report, three days later, Allah followed it up with another boost. Noorun ala Noor. And that was of course the conversion of Umar ibn al-Khattab. The conversion of Umar ibn al-Khattab. And the conversion of Umar, along with the conversion of Hamza, it most likely occurred in the month of Dhul Hijjah, of the sixth year of the da'wah, i.e. around four or five years before the hijrah, the sixth year of the da'wah. And so, both of them, they converted, as we said, very short after one another. One report says only three days between them. And I already mentioned to you last week, the story of Layla binti Abi Hathman, that when she was packing her bags and going to Abyssinia, I already mentioned the story, and she was in a very irritated mood, because they're leaving their homeland. this is for the second hijrah, not the first one the second hijrah when they have to leave again and Umar passes by and he sees the baggage and he sees the camels being loaded and he asks where are you going? and she says that you dare ask? you have no manners, I mean you're asking because of you we're having to immigrate and because of your animosity and because you have made this world so difficult for us we have to leave our land and leave our belongings and leave our family in order to go to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the land of Abyssinia. And she was very irritated at him. And Hamza, and she was expecting a harsh response back. But for the first time she saw Hamza affected. She saw Umar affected. And Umar softened at her comments. And Umar said, has it reached this level? Has it reached this level? Meaning, I didn't realize I was that bad. Has it reached this level? and he then made dua for her and he said that may Allah give you barakah wherever you go and he actually got soft for her may Allah give you barakah wherever you go and so as I said last time when her husband came back she was so excited you'll never guess what happened Umar ibn Khattab himself he said this and he said this and he seemed to soften up and you know the response that her husband said that do you really think he's gonna accept Islam by Allah his father's donkeys will accept Islam before he does, right? And this is of course his perception of what would happen. But he didn't know that the Prophet ﷺ had made a dua to Allah. And this dua is narrated in Sunan al-Tirmidhi. That Ibn Umar, Ibn Khattab's son, Ibn Umar says that the Prophet ﷺ had made a dua to Allah. اللهم أعز الإسلام بأحب هذين الرجلين إليك بأبي جهل أو بعمر بن الخطاب The Prophet ﷺ had said, O Allah, bring glory to Islam with one of these two men who is the more beloved to you. Either Abu Jahl or Umar ibn al-Khattab. And these two men were the most severe enemies to Islam. And these two men were also of the physically most powerful, and also in terms of lineage the most powerful. So the Prophet ﷺ said, one of these two, O Allah, give him to me. The one who is more beloved to you. And Ibn Umar said, Umar was the one who was more beloved than Abu Jahl. And indeed it shows us that guidances from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, these two people were beyond hope. Nobody could ever have imagined that either could convert to Islam and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala caused the heart of Umar to come to Islam. We should never give up hope for anybody. We should never just pass a stamp and a verdict that khalas. No, Allah knows best. And Allah knows whose heart has some good in it. And it also shows us as well, that there's no denying that people of influence and people of power have more of an impact upon the masses than other people. And therefore it is also a sign of intelligence to talk to them, concentrate upon them. Of course not to ignore the others, but it's a sign of intelligence. The Prophet ﷺ is making dua specifically for these two people. There's a reason for this, right? Because the masses by and large look up to certain people. And if one of them converts, if one of the symbols or leaders of a society converts it brings about a sense of recognition a sense of peace, a sense of ease I mean here in America there is nobody who has done more positive image for Islam than Muhammad Ali the boxer nobody in the last 40 years and nobody can do except a person of that figure because this is a person who is beloved a person who everybody admires and then he basically publicly converts to Islam and shows the people this is what Islam is you can have a million scholars they're not gonna do what Muhammad Ali did this is just the reality and it is wise for us to then concentrate on this and to realize that there are people who will have a bigger impact on communities than other people and so Allah Azza wa Jal guided Umar ibn Khattab to Islam and of course Umar's conversion it was a watershed moment it was a black and white it was a day and night moment Ibn Mas'ud said when Umar ibn Khattab was on his deathbed Ibn Mas'ud said we have ever remained in Izzah since Umar has converted up until now. We have ever remained in Izzah. From the time of Umar's conversion up until his basically Khilafah. And of course his Khilafah was truly the pinnacle of the Muslim Ummah. Without any question in terms of political strength, there is no question what happened in the time of Umar. The battles of Yarmouk and Qadisiyah and all of these futuhat, all of these conquests in Egypt and in Azerbaijan and Armenia and in Damascus and in Jerusalem and everything of Umar is just amazing. In his khilafah what happened. So when he was about to pass away, Ibn Mas'ud said, we have ever remained in Izzah. Ever since Umar converted to Islam, we were not even able to pray in the haram. Ibn Mas'ud never once prayed in the haram. Until on the day Umar converted. That was the day we all were able to pray in the haram. Ibn Mas'ud is saying his own eyewitness, we were never able to pray in the haram until Umar converted. And it was in his one report says, Ibn Abbas asked him, O Umar ibn al-Khattab how did you get the title Al-Faruq? How did you get this title? Because we have Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Umar Al-Faruq. How did you get the title Al-Faruq? Al-Faruq means the one who divides truth from falsehood, the one who divides good from evil. This is what Al-Faruq means. So he said that, the Prophet ﷺ gave me this title when I converted and we marched to the Ka'bah on that day for the first time. All of the Muslims publicly marched to the Ka'bah and headed by two rows. I was in the first row and Hamza was in the second. The two people who had just converted. Right? And we marched to the Ka'bah and we basically had a jama'ah of saf for the first time we prayed in public. And that was when the Prophet ﷺ said, you are Umar Al-Faruq. You have now basically separated. You have allowed the truth to come public now. So the Prophet ﷺ gave him the title of Al-Faruq. How did he accept Islam? Actually there is more than one story narrated. I know all of you know the one story. There is more than one story narrated about his conversion. And usually when that is the case then his conversion then is a combination of all of these factors. This happened, this happened, this happened. Finally his heart then basically accepted Islam. It is narrated that once, Umar ibn al-Khattab went during the evening, and Umar was, as most of the men were, he loved to drink. He loved to drink. And he had drinking companions. So he went out at night, having a craving for drinking. He went to the house where all of the young, he was young at this time, 25 years old or so, where all of the young men would go and drink. and he found that none of them were there. He went to another house, then for some reason they were not there. He went to the wine cellar, even the wine cellar was not there, the one that they get their wine from. So he said, let me just go to tawaf now. It's amazing, instead of the pub he goes to the haram. He just wants to get out of his mind basically, right? Let me go to tawaf now. Get my mind off of this craving. So he went at night to the Ka'bah, and there are no lights there, it's a dark place, you know. And he heard the Prophet ﷺ reciting Qur'an. all alone, in the middle of the night basically, right, praying in front of the Ka'bah, subhanallah. No fear, no nothing. No guards, he's just praying in front of the Ka'bah. And so, Umar thought to himself, now is my time to beat him up, do something. Nobody's here, all alone. This is my time to basically get some revenge, and you know, do some dastardly deed, and nobody's gonna see me. So, he quietly crept up behind the Prophet ﷺ, and obviously he's reciting Quran what's gonna happen? he stopped and he began listening and I keep on telling myself and all of you subhanallah we look and we want to listen to these qaris and we're enthralled by their voices we pray that inshallah one day we can hear the prophet says and recite the Quran what will his voice be like and how much it will move us to listen to that so Umar had never actually stood and listened to the Quran I mean they're all just busy hating to actually, and this is, you know, people just want to hate. They don't want to listen. And so Umar for the first time is basically stopped in his track and now listening to the Prophet directly reciting the Quran. And nobody knew he was there. Even the Prophet was oblivious. He was completely lost in his recitation. And Umar is narrating the story himself. It is narrated in Muslim Ahmed. He's narrating in the first person. And he said, I stood behind him and he began reciting Surah Al-Haqqa. Al-Haqqa, Mal-Haqqa, Ma Adraka Wa Ma Adraka Mal-Haqqa. Kazaba Thamud Wa Azim Al-Qari'a. And he said, Fa Ta'ajabtu Min Ta'lifihi. I was amazed at the rhythm, the sequence. Allah has every surah, but especially these Makkan surahs. The Makkan surahs, they are just powerful. The Madani surahs are eloquent in a longer style way. But the Makkan surahs, you all know, the small verses, each one is like a upper right and upper left, one after the other. And so Umar said, فَتَعَجَّبْتُ مِنْ تَأْلِيفِهِ I was just amazed at its composition. And while the Prophet ﷺ is reciting, this is an amazing story, he began to think to himself, where is this coming from? So he said, هَذَا وَاللَّهِ قَوْلُ شَاعِرٍ This is, this must be the statement of a beautiful poet. Just like the Quraysh are saying. And as soon as he thought of this, Surah Al-Haqqah says what? وَمَا هُوَ بِقَوْلِ شَاعِرٍ قَلِيلَ مَا تُؤْمِنُونَ So then Umar says, okay, it must be a kahin. It must be a sorcerer. What is the next verse? وَلَا بِقَوْلِ كَاهِنٍ قَلِيلَ مَا تَذَكَّرُونَ Right? So Umar says, where is this from then? What's the next verse? تَنْزِلُ مِنْ رَبِّ الْحَالَمِينَ What if he's inventing it? وَلَوْ تَقَوَّلَ عَلَيْنَا بَعْضَ الْأَقَاوِيلِ لَأَخَذْنَاهُ بِالْيَمِينِ ثُمَّ لَقَطَعْنَا مِنْ هُلْوَتِينَ basically it's a conversation that Allah is having with Umar ibn al-Qattab through the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ doesn't even know about it doesn't even know about it because he's just reciting the Quran and Umar is just thinking thoughts to himself right what if this is a poet this cannot be the poet you have no thinking you're not thinking through well what if it's a kahin it's not a kahin don't you see well where is this from it's from Allah azza wa jal what if he's inventing it if he were to invent anything and ascribe it to us, we would hold him by the right hand and cut off his jugular vein. He would never dare ascribe anything to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So basically every doubt Umar is thinking, Surah Al-Haqqa is responding back to at that very time until he finished the whole Surah. And Umar ibn al-Khattab said, that was the first time Islam entered my heart and took over it. He didn't accept yet. but that was the first time that he became little bit sympathetic to Islam and he didn't do anything to the Prophet ﷺ and he went back home then of course the famous story happened that all of you are familiar with that one day the people of the Quraysh were sitting around and Umar was with them and Abu Jahl once again began his tirade against the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Jahl said this man has done more to insult our fathers and gods than anybody else he has cursed our religion He has said that anybody who worships idols will be punished and going to hell. This means our forefathers, he is making fun of our forefathers. Who will finally rid us of this man? And by the way, there were multiple assassination attempts, multiple talks of killing the Prophet ﷺ. And of course towards the end, it got more and more and more. And that's why he had to make hijrah. So this is one more talk like this in the sixth year of the da'wah. Abu Jahl says, by Allah, anybody who succeeds in doing it, I promise him 100 camels red and black the choicest colors and as I said red camels actually means dusky brown that's what they called red camel not a red like we have red there is no such thing as a red camel but by red they mean the camel the color that we think of when we think of a camel they call that a red camel and then of course black camels were also prized these were the two most expensive camels so he said I'll give him 100 camels red and black and I'll also add 100 pouches of silver basically I give my entire wealth whoever goes kills this man so Umar now got greedy and said let me go do it this is a good amount of money let me go do it and so he went back home he took his sword out and he walked with an unsheathed sword as you all know the story he walked with an unsheathed sword and here the riwayat of Ibn Ishaq and others say that a number of things stopped him along the way and he heard voices with poetry with eloquent Arabic, telling him that, what are you doing? This is just a man saying, La ilaha illallah. So basically there seems to be some supernatural events happening, and he kept on ignoring, and just not thinking about it. Until finally he passed by, Nu'aym ibn Abdullah al-Nahham. And Nu'aym ibn Abdullah had just accepted Islam, but he had not told anybody about it. And he saw Umar with this anger, walking with a sword up and down the streets of Mecca, and he says, where are you going? Umar, what happened? you can see death in his eyes where are you going? and so Umar ibn al-Khattab said that enough is enough we have been cursed too long and our ancestors have been ridiculed I am now going to kill this man Muhammad so of course Nu'aym panicked because this was Umar ibn al-Khattab he is going to kill the Prophet ﷺ and so Nu'aym said have you lost your mind oh Umar? do you really think that the Banu Abd al-Manaf the tribe of the Prophet ﷺ the Banu Abd al-Manaf the Banu Hashim will allow you to walk on the face of this earth after you kill one of their own, you're not gonna live any longer. And if you really wanna do something, go back and fix your own family first. What do you mean, fix my own family? Don't you know? Know what do you mean? Your own sister and your own brother-in-law have accepted Islam. Why are you going to the Prophet ﷺ? Go fix your own family first. Now Nu'aym of course, he's thinking, let me just get him off the back of the Prophet ﷺ. He's not gonna harm his sister, is he? So, go to your own family. Get him off the way. Let him calm down. When Umar heard this, he became even more enraged. Because this is now a slap on his face. This is insulting. My family has converted. My sister has converted to the faith. No way. And so he marched to his sister's house in anger. And as he came close to the door, he heard the recitation of the Quran. He heard the recitation of the Quran. Because the Prophet ﷺ, every time somebody converted, he would be assigned a teacher. he would be assigned a teacher and so they had assigned Khabbab ibn al-Arat we talked about his story before the slave who had been burnt by his master the lady who owned him so Khabbab had been assigned to Fatima bint al-Khattab that's his sister and her husband Saeed ibn Zayd and this is the Zayd that is Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufail this is the Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufail who remembers Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufail one of the Hunafa one of the people who had stopped worshipping idols and he had died five years before the coming of Islam and the Prophet ﷺ said I saw him in Jannah, he was his own man his own Ummah, he didn't have any Ummah because he is his own Ummah this is his son, Sa'id ibn Zayd and Sa'id ibn Zayd had married Umar ibn Khattab's sister so this is the husband wife couple and the Prophet ﷺ has named them Khabbab ibn Arad. By the way, subhanAllah, this shows us that even in times of persecution, education of Islam was paramount. Even in times of hiding like this, you needed to know your faith. And you need to be assigned a teacher to learn the faith. And subhanAllah, this shows us how important it is to know your religion, to know the Qur'an. Without knowledge, you have no Islam. Even in this persecuted time, the Prophet ﷺ had an educational program up and running. Somebody converts, he's assigned a teacher. and the teacher goes and teaches him how to pray, how to fast how to read the Quran and subhanallah, this was at the time of persecution fast forward to 2011, 2012 in America somebody converts, we all come and hug him and jazakallah and then khalas never hear from him again wallahi it's a sad state of affairs that we don't have any sense of community, any sense of taking care of those who convert whereas those in the time of the Prophet ﷺ in this persecution, complete secrecy and there is clearly a educational program clearly there must be people in charge telling of you get this you get that come here go there subhanallah it's just amazing if you think about it right so khabab was there teaching them the quran and umar was hearing this as he's walking to the door and so umar barges up began slamming on the door and he hears scurried sounds of khabab is being put in the closet and fatima took the quran and basically almost sat on it she put her skirt on top of it so that she wouldn't see he wouldn't see there was a copy of a parchment or maybe it was written on stone. We don't know what it was written on. But in those days, they didn't have paper as you know. So something is written on it. Maybe it's most likely it would be some type of stone or tablet. So she puts it on the bed and then puts her skirt on top of it. Basically as if she's sitting on it almost, right? So that Umar doesn't see. Come in, come in. What are you doing here at this time of the day? What was this noise I heard? This humming and drumming, what was this? She said, no, no, you didn't hear anything. She goes, by Allah, I know what I heard. And rumor has reached me, or I know now, that the both of you have accepted Islam. I know it, it's been told it. And they began to deny it, and Umar is already enraged. And he took a step forward to basically punch Sa'id, his brother Allah. To punch Sa'id ibn Zaid. And when he took the step forward, Fatima stood up to try to stop him. The blow landed on her forehead instead of his. and when he punched her her lip basically burst open and the blood began to flow down and when this happened the both of them became enraged and they said yes, so what do as you please do as you please we can't beat you, you're sorry, do as you please we have accepted Islam and we believe in the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam now when he saw the blood and he saw the sincerity really that's all it is, the courage from both of them again his heart softened and again and again we see Umar had a harsh side and he had a soft side and this continued throughout basically his khilafah as well Umar is known as a really harsh man but inside he has a soft heart right he was a very strict and stern person but inside he had a very merciful and tender heart and so when he saw his sister bleeding again he calmed down and he said let me see what you are reading perhaps you remember al-haqqa that he had heard before you know let me see what you are reading and his sister got worried that what do you mean we don't want to give because the Quran needs to be respected we don't want to give you the Quran he goes no I swear I am not going to do anything except read the book and Umar was one of the few who could read and write Umar was an educated man he could read and write so she said as you know that you are a mushrik you are a pagan and you are not allowed to touch the Quran until you have purified yourself and this shows us that even in this early stage the people knew that the Quran the book of Allah Azzawajal is a special book you need to even have wudu to touch it it's that special that you need to be physically clean to touch the Quran and so Umar said let me quickly take a ghusl he went to the corner of the house where they took it and he took a ghusl and he came back and he read Taha as you know and Islam then entered his heart and he knew that this was true and so he asked Saeed where is the Prophet ﷺ now? And so Sa'id saw that his eyes had completely calmed down. He wants to confirm. Where is the Prophet ﷺ? Sa'id said, he is in the house of Al-Arqam. He is in the house of Al-Arqam. And nobody knew this. This was top secret. He is in the house of Al-Arqam. So Umar ibn Khattab then proceeded to Al-Arqam's house. The sword is still in his hand. Because he hasn't let go of it. And he goes to the house of Al-Arqam. And he bangs on the door of Al-Arqam's house. One of the Sahaba stand up to go see who it is. and he looks through the holes of the door and he sees Umar with the sword. And he comes back in trembling. He says, Ya Rasulullah, Umar ibn al-Khattab is outside with a sword in his hand. And Hamza, of course, had just accepted Islam. He's in the room as well. So Hamza says, let him in. For if Allah wants good, he's gonna accept Islam. And if Allah wants other than this, then the very sword that he's holding will be the end of him. we're gonna use his sword against him the very sword that he's holding will be used against him and so some of the sahaba went to the door, they opened it up they escorted Umar, they held on to his arms two people holding on to his arms, right? he's a big guy, and they escorted him to the Prophet ﷺ and he sat down in front of the Prophet ﷺ Ibn Ishaq says the Prophet ﷺ held on to his collar and dragged him closer to himself and said يَبْنَا الْخَطَّابِ What are you doing here? Why did you come here? The Prophet ﷺ has no fear. Straight, what are you doing here? What is your purpose in coming? And he says to him, For by Allah, if you continue in this path, Allah will destroy you with a punishment. If you continue this way, you're gonna meet your demise. And this was when Umar said, Ya Rasulullah, I came to accept Islam, believe in Allah, and believe in you, and testify in the truth. here the prophet himself said Allah Akbar so loud that everybody in Al-Arqam's house knew that Umar had accepted Islam and this was when after the conversion of Umar they for the first time publicly went to the Kaaba and they prayed publicly for the first time and they said the riwayah says they were around 40 people Hamza and Umar went together Hamza and Umar went together at this time so Hamza and Umar were basically leading the way because nobody would dare harm them these were the two people they had just fresh converts as we said three days apart nobody would dare harm them and it is many stories are narrated about his conversion of them is that he wanted to personally, personally inform Abu Jahl of this to rub it in. And so he went knocking on Abu Jahl's door. And he marched to the house of Abu Jahl, and Abu Jahl had not heard the news yet. And Abu Jahl opened the door, he saw Umar ibn al-Khattab, he said, Ahlan wa sahlan, welcome, what has brought you here? So Umar said, I have come to personally inform you that I now believe in Allah and in His Messenger, and I am now upon the religion of Muhammad So Abu Jahl slammed the door in his face and said, May Allah curse you and what you have come with. And this shows the bravery to march to the house of Abu Jahl. And Umar ibn al-Khattab said, Who is the one who cannot keep any secret? Who is the one who is the most rumor monger? The most tatter tail in all of Mecca? So somebody said, Oh that is Jameel ibn Ma'mar al-Jumahi. Jameel ibn Ma'mar was the tatter tail, the gossiper. Everybody knows he is the town gossiper. so he went to Jameel directly and he said to Jameel do you know I have a secret do you know I have just accepted Islam and I'm following the religion of Muhammad Jameel was in his house he jumped up barely grabbing a garment to cover his nakedness and rushed outside because he wants to be the tatter tail and he wants to go tell the people of Mecca he began screaming in the streets of Mecca before he gets to the Kaaba and he's screaming along the way O people of Mecca O Quraish Umar ibn al-Khattab qad sabaa sabaa is what they called accepting Islam because there was a religion at that time called Sabianism and they would say that anybody who left the religion of idolatry had become a Sabian so qad sabaa and Umar gently corrected him no I haven't become a sabaa I have Aslamtu I have accepted Islam and it is said that on that day a number of people came to Umar ibn al-Khattab publicly in front of the Kaaba and tried to have a number of fights and jostle and shoving with him until finally it is said that Al-Asr ibn Wa'il, the father of Amr ibn Al-Asr, the famous Amr ibn Al-Asr, Al-Asr ibn Wa'il came and he said, what is the matter with you? Let this man be. If he's chosen a path different than yours, it's none of your business. So basically common sense. This is Amr ibn Al-Asr's father. And so Amr ibn Al-Asr's father, Al-Asr ibn Wa'il, gave him protection and let him be. And of course there are so many blessings of Umar ibn al-Khattab, one of the most authentic and simplest blessings narrated by Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ said that, there were people before you who were communicated with, that's what it says, مُحَدَّثُونَ who were communicated with, meaning by the angels, but they were not prophets. There were people before you, angels would communicate to them, but they were not prophets. If there is anybody in my ummah like this, then it is Umar. If my Ummah has this type of person, then it is Umar. And Umar ibn al-Khattab's blessings go on and on. It is enough of a blessing as we said, that you see what happened in his Khilafah. And you see the Izzah of Islam, and how strong Islam became. Islam quadrupled in size in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab. Abu Bakr saved Islam by preserving the Arabian Peninsula. But he didn't really, Allah just will. We needed the Abu Bakr to basically solidify. or else it would have fragmented. Umar came and then it literally quadrupled in his time. And Uthman's first six years were just a continuation of Umar's policy. So with these two conversions, the Quraysh really felt threatened. Two things that happen now that is just astounding. Number one, the bulk of the Muslims have fled to a foreign land. And this is humiliating. It is threatening because they don't know what they're going to do over there. They're out of their power. number two, two of the most promising men of their town have converted and so this caused them to really come together and think about what they would do and it is said that in the seventh year of the da'wah, we don't know an exact timeline for this, in the seventh year of the da'wah all of the Quraishi tribes came together and discussed what needed to be done until they agreed we need to kill Muhammad, that's the only thing on their minds, to kill, kill, kill they need to kill Muhammad, and they said how can we do it the Banu Hashim are not going to give him over to us. So they said, we will offer whatever blood money. Open check, blank check. Whatever blood money they want, we'll offer it. And we'll even concede to them that none of us will kill him. We'll get some other tribe men to pay him and then do the job. Right? But they must hand over Muhammad s.a.w. to us. So, for the final time, they went to Abu Talib. They had done it many years before. They had given up. Now they're coming as a delegation again. And they say to him that you do not have any choice in the matter. Either you will hand over Muhammad ﷺ and we will give you whatever blood money and none of us is going to do the job, it's not going to be a Quraishi, or we will have to cut you off from the Quraish. Again, this is unprecedented. In all of Arabia, this had never happened once before. How are you going to cut us off? We're blood relatives. None of us will allow you to get any food and water. We will boycott you. We will cut off our marriages with you. If anybody is married to one of us, our daughters, we're gonna gut him off. And if it's our sons, he's gonna divorce. So, no marriages and no money and no business transactions. Any of us who owns a business, we're gonna tell him that he cannot buy and sell anything for you. Food, water, drink, nothing. It was a boycott. And when the Quraysh came to Abu Talib like this, Abu Talib himself became furious. And he said, do as you please, I'm not going to hand my nephew over to you. And most likely voluntarily, one report says they were forced, but most likely voluntarily, Abu Talib therefore decided that if we're not going to be able to buy and sell in Mecca, we're not going to have any access to the shops of Mecca, then let us go and live elsewhere. And so they emigrated to, not even immigration is called, they basically imposed this type of exile from the city, and they moved to some of the valleys that the Banu Hashim owned and they were called the valleys of Abu Talib, Shay'bi Abu Talib. And that's because the Banu Hashim had basically claimed some valleys as their own. I mean outside of Mecca's empty land. Nobody's gonna... So every sub-tribe had basically said, this is our camping ground, this is our hunting ground. So they owned some valley or it was basically claimed by them. And so Abu Talib then left to live in that valley and every single person from the Banu Hashim and the Banu al-Muttalib. These are the two twin tribes or the two cousin tribes. Basically, the Banu Abd al-Manaf. So the great grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ, all of his sub-tribe. So the Banu Hashim and the Banu al-Muttalib, they voluntarily went into what is called the famous boycott. And this is the incident of the boycott. And in order to solidify this, the Quraysh came together and wrote a pact amongst themselves. they wrote a treaty amongst themselves that everybody has to uphold this treaty what is the treaty? nobody will buy and sell to the Banu Hashim nobody will marry into or from the Banu Hashim nobody will basically socialize with the Banu Hashim so it is a boycott of an economic a political, a social level everything is gonna be cut off from the Banu Hashim and they wrote a treaty and they hung it inside the Kaaba and of course nobody entered the Kaaba So they locked the door and it was inside the Ka'bah. It is said that Bu'aid ibn Amir was the one who wrote this treaty. And the Prophet ﷺ made dua against him. And his hand became paralyzed until he died. So this complete boycott forced the Banu Hashim to leave Mecca. And they lived outside of Mecca for how long? Some say two and some say three years. There doesn't seem to be... One of the interesting points is also sad for us. We don't have too much information about this period. why not for many reasons firstly who lived from this time until way after Medina to tell us what happened there were very few people Bilal has a few reports, Ibn Masud has a few reports otherwise who lived secondly as we all know bad memories we tend to just gloss over them we don't narrate them in detail we don't want to think about these things so those who went through this time they didn't narrate that much about what happened it was a very difficult and traumatic time for them and so for two or three years they lived in this abandoned basically valley eking out an existence getting rain water eating from the shrubbery and the leaves Bilal says that we began defecating like goats defecate droppings our droppings couldn't be told different from the goats this is how we had to live and one of their main sources of food was that every few weeks somebody felt sympathy for them and would send in some secret supplies into the valley. It was a somewhat closed valley which had one main entrance where a camel could go through. And so they would go to the entrance in the middle of the night. The most famous amongst them was of course Mut'im ibn Adi. Mut'im ibn Adi. And we mentioned his name many, many, many times. His son became a famous sahabi, Jubair ibn Mut'im. But Mut'im died before the battle of Badr. Mut'im did not see the battle of Badr. He was alive up until the Hijrah. Right after the Hijrah, about a year he passed away. Mut'im ibn Adi was one of the most sympathetic non-Muslims ever. And the Prophet ﷺ praised him in many a hadith, we mentioned this, of them after the Battle of Badr, he gave the famous phrase, he said, if Mut'im ibn Adi were alive, and he spoke to me about these captives I have, all of the people of Badr, 70 captives, I would have handed them back to him without any question. No ransom, no nothing. If Mut'im just asked me, and hand them all back to him. This is Mut'im, the one who every few weeks, every few months, he would just go with a large camel laden with food and supplies and water and grain and just hit it on the back and send it into the valley. And of course when they caught it then they could dry the meat, they could keep it and last for many, many weeks. The Arabs knew how to take care of the camel in that sense. It is also reported that a few other people, Hakeem ibn Hizam who was Khadijah's nephew and he later became a famous sahabi. Hakim ibn Hizam also would do this once in a while he would send in some food secretly otherwise they eked out in existence it is said that when they tried to go to the city even when foreigners came because foreigners are not under the boycott during hajj season they're coming with supplies sometimes they try to sneak in some food sometimes they were successful other times if they were caught or the people saw them Abu Jahl would come and say do not sell to these people I will pay you double whatever they're offering you I'll pay you double because those people are not barred, right? It's only the Quraysh who are barred from selling to the Muslims. So when a foreign businessman came, even then Abu Jahal would say, don't pay anything, I'm gonna pay you double. Even during these two, three years, the Prophet ﷺ continued to give da'wah during the Hajj season. He would go out of the valley and he would meet with the tribes during the Hajj season and continue to try to find converts to the faith. When did and how did the boycott stop? As we said, the buhukat probably lasted two or three years. And a number of incidents happened that brought about its conclusion. The first of these is that the Prophet ﷺ made a dua against them and said, Oh Allah, send upon them a famine like the famine of Yusuf. That bad. Send upon them a drought and a famine like the famine of Yusuf. And so, the famine became so bad for the people of Mecca, that they were forced to eat carcasses and to chew on dead animal skin. They had nothing else left after that time. And they realized this was because of the dua of the Prophet ﷺ. And they sent some messengers to try to bring about some reconciliation. The second incident, and again all of these things shows that two, three, four things happened at the same time. The second incident is that some of the people of Quraysh whose hearts were softer, we already said this, some of their names, they decided that they should do something to break the pact. And so the main one here was Hisham ibn Amr. And Hisham ibn Amr was the grandson of Abdul Muttalib through his mother. His mother was Atiqah. His mother was Atiqah, binti Abdul Muttalib. So his mother is the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ. So the Prophet ﷺ is his cousin through his mother. So his mother's brother is Abdullah. so Hisham ibn Amr Hisham ibn Amr felt that he needed to do something so he called his friend Zuhair ibn Abi Umaymah and they said what can we do to bring about an end to this boycott so they said first thing we need to do is to bring about all of the people who are sympathetic get them together, common sense get some strength together so they thought who can they invite and they invited the people whom we mentioned Muhtamim ibn Ali, number one on their list Mutamim Ali, let's bring him in. Abu al-Bukhtari ibn Hisham. Other people, three, four, five people whom they knew did not like the boycott. Strength in numbers as always brings you that strength. And then they said, what can we do? What plan can we do? So Zuhayr said, I have a plan. Tomorrow, when all of the people are in the gathering of the Quraysh, in the Nadi, in the parliament, let's not. This is what we're gonna do. So he laid out a plan. The next day, they went to the Kaaba and they all seated where they usually sit. Everyone goes to his place in this corner, that corner, that corner. Then Zuhayr stood up. And he began asking, and Zuhayr was the one who was the farthest removed genealogically, so the least doubt will be about his niyyah, about his intention. Yani if Hisham has stood up, they're gonna say, you're his cousin, who are you? So Zuhayr is a bit farther away. So Zuhayr stood up and he said, for how long are we going to starve our own kith and kin to death? This is a evil thing that we have to, is brave, he's basically speaking the truth Abu Jahl became furious who do you think you are? we all agreed to this treaty so when he said this Hisham stood up, no I didn't agree, you agreed this is your idea what do you mean it's my idea, we all, we had a meeting here, Mut'im stood up no, we didn't, this was something you forced on us, right I didn't force it on you, we all agreed then the fourth one, Abu Bukhtari stood up, right? So one by one, every single person planted strategically around the Nadi is basically publicly challenging Abu Jahl. And Abu Jahl did not have anybody to support him to that level. Because he was the one who was the most antagonistic, right? And so Abu Jahl realized something is wrong. People are just standing up one after the other. And he said, Wallahi, this is a plan that all of you have hatched. This is a plan that all of you... And that was true, right? It was a plan they had all hatched. This is a plan that all of you have hatched. But of course they didn't confess to this, and it seemed as if the public support had now shifted away. And then the final thing happened that of course completely turned the tide. One day the Prophet ﷺ went to Abu Talib, in the Shab, in the valley, and he said that, Oh my uncle, Allah has informed me, that the treaty that they wrote, has been eaten up by termites or ants. Except for the phrase, بِسْمِكَ اللَّهُمْ Just in the name of Allah. The whole treaty has... Now the Ka'bah is locked up, nobody goes in. And if the termites are on the paper, they should also be on the Ka'bah. I mean, you wouldn't expect the termites just to go there. And how would anybody know this? And of course, it is in a sealed pouch. You know, they have a parchment, they seal it up, it's in a cloth and everything. so the Prophet ﷺ said Allah has told me Allah has informed me that the whole contract has been eaten up except for Bismillah Abu Talib said your Lord has told you this he said yes he has told me this Abu Talib said I will stake my whole case on this he said yes stake it on this so Abu Talib then for the first time since the enactment of the treaty marched back with the group of basically non-Muslims of the Banu Hashim and this shows us subhanallah how strong are the ties of jahili kinship. That even though they're not Muslims, still, it's a matter of pride. How could you have done this? There was only one coward I forgot to mention. One coward who refused to be deprived of the luxury of living in the city. And that is Abu Lahab. Abu Lahab was the one person who basically publicly denounced, like I have nothing to do with these guys anymore. I am now on your side. and he basically defected away if you like from the Banu Hashim so Abu Jahl did not live in the boycott he was in the city of Mecca so the Prophet ﷺ told Abu Talib Abu Talib went back into the Haram for the first time and he said oh my people let's forget about everything let's just bring out this treaty and let's see if we can reach a negotiation and deal so they became happy that maybe you're gonna agree to hand over the Prophet ﷺ. So they took out the treaty from the, it's still in the capsule, it's still in the cloth, right? And they put it here. Now, Abu Talib said, my nephew has informed me that his Lord has told him that the treaty is no longer in existence. Everything has been eaten except Bismillah. So my challenge to you is, Abu Talib stakes it all on his iman in the Prophet ﷺ telling the truth. My challenge to you is, if that is the case, then let us be and we'll return to Mecca. And we'll ignore the whole incident basically. And if it's not, then I'll hand over him to you instantaneously. Do with him as you please. He staked everything on what the Prophet ﷺ told him. Right? So they said, well of course, I mean it seems obvious to them, why would that possibly harm them? And so they opened up the bag, they opened up the cloth and lo and behold there was no treaty except for the phrase Bismik Allahum and they were furiated, they said this is of the sihr or magic that he's done but they couldn't do anything because the promise had been given and therefore this allowed them to return back to Mecca and this was what caused the treaty to be annulled and during this time there's an incident that we cannot narrate because there's too advanced Arabic, one of the things that's most interesting of this time Abu Talib wrote what is considered to be the most eloquent poem of the Arabic language during this time. And it is called the Lamiyah. It is called the Lamiyah of Abu Talib. Because every single verse ends with the letter Lam. Every single verse ends with the letter Lam. So it's called the Lamiyah, the poem of Lam. And it is around a hundred lines of poetry. And it is universally acknowledged to be the pinnacle really of it's not quite pre-Islamic poetry but the poetry of that era Ibn Kathir says this poem beats all of the seven mu'allaqat as-saba'a the seven hanging oaths, it beats all of them not just in style but in content because the seven hanging oaths they talk about women and love and romance and wine whereas this one is talking about the Quraysh's treatment of them and how evil the Quraysh were and what they did. And the fact that the haram has not even protected the Quraysh from doing this to their own kith and kin. And so the content is absolutely powerful. Unfortunately, because we're giving the talk in English, and wallahi, even if we were doing it in Arabic, I challenge any Arab to read this lami and understand it. You understand what jahili poetry is like, right? Yani, it's very advanced and very beautiful. Nonetheless, Abu Talib composed it during this time. And it is recorded, all Ibn Hisham and others record all of this poem. Some of the benefits we gain from this, and inshallah we'll open the floor for Q&A. Some of the benefits we gain. It's amazing to see the ties of kinship amongst the Banu Hashim, the Banu Abdi Manaf. Even those who are not Muslim, they're going to suffer along with the Muslims, merely out of a nationalistic pride, an anger that they could be treated this way. Abu Talib was not a Muslim, and he stayed there in his tent. He stayed there for two or three years. it is all a part of the wisdom and da'wah. Therefore, to utilize those who have a soft spot. To take advantage of those who want to stand up for truth and justice. Here we see that 3, 4, 5, 6 people from the Quraysh, they wanted to help the Muslims. They wanted to help the Muslims. And the Prophet ﷺ took advantage of that help. Every single nation and society has some people that are mean, and some people that are nice. Every religion has some good and some bad. and we take the good from the people when they offer it and we use it against their own bad which is what the Prophet ﷺ did these were Quraysh not all of them were evil and mean spirited even if they're all pagans and idol worshippers some of them wanted to break the boycott and so the Prophet ﷺ took advantage of that and we too in this land we're gonna find people who they have nothing but hatred of Islam they don't wanna hear anything and there are others who wanna stand up for truth for freedom they wanna be open minded and tolerant And just like the Prophet ﷺ, we need to take advantage and reach out to those who are open-minded, reach out to those who want to support freedom, and use it against their own bigotry. Like the Prophet ﷺ did. And therefore from this story, we learn that the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba, they returned back to Mecca probably two and a half years, because some rewires say two, some say three. probably around the 10th year of the da'wah when the Prophet ﷺ was around 49 years old they finally returned to Mecca but unfortunately as we'll discover soon inshallah as we continue Allah ﷻ tested them with some of the most traumatic and troubling tests and trials at this time the death of Abu Talib the death of Khadija and then the incident of Ta'if one low after the other this was the lowest period of the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ and this will all be a precursor to the emigration to Medina and inshallah that is something we will continue talking about later on if there are any questions now inshallah we can take them and then break for Salatul Isha the issue of Mi'raj we will talk about inshallah as well later on there's so many opinions when mi'raj took place some say 5th year of the da'wah some say 7th year of the da'wah some say 10th year of the da'wah some say the last year of the da'wah there's even an opinion that there were multiple mi'raj one of the biggest problems that the researcher of the seerah has, there was no calendar at that time, there was no dates nobody said in the 5th year of the da'wah, in the 7th year of the hijrah nobody said that, we all know the calendar was initiated by Umar in the 17th year of the hijrah, correct? so nobody is telling us dates they're just telling us things that happened and every single book of seerah that you read in our times, is a reconstruction of many many small tidbits narrated, that the author of the seerah book has to reconstruct, and Ibn Hisham himself is no exception but even Ibn Hisham has to reconstruct events because he doesn't know when exactly it took place so Ibn Hisham is one opinion you might find another opinion in Ibn Sa'd you might find another opinion in other books and it is difficult to say for certain when the Isra and Mi'raj took place most scholars say that it took place after the death of Abu Talib and the death of Khadijah and the incident of Taif And if this is the case, then it makes a lot of logical sense. But the fact of the matter is, at an academic level I have to tell you, we don't have anything definitive about when it took place. In terms of linking it to a year, we don't. Not even Amul Fil? Amul Fil. That was used as... We don't have a definitive Isra I'm talking about. Okay, no, they used to use that as a reference. No, there's nothing narrated about that. The way that the Arabs would have calendars is the way that many pagan societies had calendars. And that is that they would reference a year by something major that happened in it. This was the year that Abdul Muttalib died. This was the year that the elephant attacked. This was the year... This is how Jahiri... So, you know, as you grow older, you are witnessing the years. So you remember, this was the year the tsunami struck. This was the year the hurricane came. This was the year... So, they would mention one event of the year. and the year would then be known by that incident. Right? But we don't have records of what these years were called. When Umar instituted the calendar, khalas. And even that, the records that we have are incidents, not years and dates. This happened, that happened. Then we need to reconstruct. And this is the biggest problem of the seerah. Not just for this issue, for any and every issue. I've done a lot of research into the battle of Uhud. And one of the most confusing things about the battle of Uhud is you have maybe 150 small hadith. Well, how do you know what's the order of these hadith? And not just the order, but in fact there are simultaneous things happening, right? It's the three-dimensional battle, right? There's one front here, another front there, another front there. It's almost impossible really to state definitively. You just have to have a little bit of guesswork, a little bit of tawakkul ala Allah, you know, when you say this. And it's a very difficult thing at an academic level. Of course, at a simple level, you read a book of seerah, alhamdulillah, good. but at a more advanced level, it's very difficult to try to piece this together. And I feel it is not fair to not tell you this. So I think it is appropriate that you should know academically, Isla wal-mi'raj. Of course we believe it happened, it's mentioned in the Quran. There are so many ahadith, but when did it happen? We really don't know. If somebody were to say the fifth year of the da'wah, there would be evidence for that. And if somebody were to say the tenth, eleventh year of the da'wah, there's evidence for that. Allahu a'lam. So the question is, how do we know when to stop and when to continue? there's no doubt that we have a limited life and limited resources. And we need to prioritize, you know, basically we plant seeds where there's fertile soil. There's no doubt about that. You know, we are active where there is a room for being active. And when we find a stubbornness, a wall being put between us and the person, we feel disinclined to engage. Notice that the Prophet ﷺ in the early phase of the da'wah, i.e. when it was a private da'wah, he only went to those whom he thought would be open minded and he didn't even go to Abu Lahab that's why Tabati Dabi Lahab came down he didn't go to Abu Jahl so we need to have this sense of well who do we think is going to be more productive to go to, when I said we don't lose hope I mean we don't pass a verdict on somebody and say khalas there is never any hope for him, there is no doubt our resources are limited, we will have to choose the people that we feel are more conducive, more open minded and that will be a judgment call even if we're wrong, our ijtihad will not be punished by Allah we're doing our best, and if somebody comes to us like Umar came to the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ never approached Umar, because he didn't think it was wise to do so, he didn't approach Abu Jahl, but he did approach many other people, who didn't accept Islam Al-Walid ibn al-Ghira, we mentioned him, right? he went to Al-Walid multiple times many of the other seniors of Quraish, so we need to use our better judgment and also, of course, there's a common sense point whoever you have access to. Your circle of interaction is unique to you in the whole world. Nobody has your degrees of influence, right? Nobody has your circle of interaction. So you need to see what is the best way, the best time, the best methodology. And inshallah, whatever ijtihad you do, you're gonna be rewarded for this, inshallah. Sisters, any... Go ahead. What was your approach, Abu Jahl, when you were talking about that? That was in the CR book, when you mentioned that you were approaching with the dawah part of it. In private or with a group? Because I don't remember in private ever. Maybe there is some, but what I recall... It was a rain and it was a... Somebody is going to come to my door and ask for something. I would give it to him. And then Prophet ﷺ... It was a story that he went and he knocked on his door and said that... I would have given it, but I'm not going to accept it. It was a story which was... I'll have to look this one up, Allah knows. from what I recall he never approached Abu Jahl one on one, it was always in a gathering but if this is true then this is true regarding Omar since he was from his collection he paid for Abu Jahl and Omar why Abu Jahl? because these were the two most powerful, most influential people. So he's saying, oh Allah, give me one of these two people. Give me one of these two people. And he knew that Allah could do whatever he wants, right? So, from this we derive like I said, it is a part of our wisdom to concentrate and to give extra attention to those who are people of respect and power and knowledge and what not. There's no question about that. Sisters, any questions with the sisters? Yes, go ahead. In the nation, although the vehicle was actually against Muslims, but they went with them because they were their king. How far can the Muslims reciprocate? How far can the Muslims reciprocate? There is no clear-cut line about this, and it's something we need to leave to the scholars of every era to discuss how much reciprocation is allowed. You know, as long as the sha'air of Islam are not compromised, as long as we don't have to worship false gods or do haram, right? To defend with life, limb and property, this is something the scholars will decide. That to what level can we go to? It's a very deep question and it's a very pertinent question in our times, looking at the circumstances we're in. And it is a question that varies from time to time and place to place. And it varies from conflict to conflict as well. Right? What might be permitted in one conflict might not be permitted in another. So, we leave it to the scholars of that era. And I know it's a cop-out answer, but it is the truth. It's not... We cannot have a precise answer for this. At times, we will defend them to the death, and we expect Allah to reward us. Right? And at times, it's not something that is worth our lives, and we'll just defend financially and verbally. And it depends, as we said, time to time, place to place. with this I'm afraid I have to

Seerah 18 - Death of Khadija & Abu Talib - Yasir Qadhi _ January 2012-j8aAK6BUav0

Al-Fatiha. them. And our last halaqah, we had talked about the incident of the boycott. The incident of the boycott of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And the fact that for, and again we don't know for how long, a year and a half, two years, maybe even three as some people said, but most likely lesser than that. Or maybe a year, year and a half. The Banu Hashim took on a self-imposed exile because of the economic boycott. As we had explained, the boycott was economic. the Quraysh said we will not buy and sell to the Banu Hashim we will not marry any of our daughters or our sons are not going to propose to the Banu Hashim and so in anger in self-righteous anger Abu Talib said we're just going to leave Mecca if you're going to treat us this way we have no need for you and so they lived in the valleys that was owned by the Banu Hashim and they Allah Azawajal allowed them to eke out an existence with great difficulty, until finally we explain how other members of the Quraysh sympathize with the Banu Hashim, and they orchestrated the annulment of the boycott. And when this occurred, Abu Talib along with the Banu Hashim returned to Mecca. And this occurred in the 10th year of the da'wah, around 2.5 to 3 years before the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ. The 10th year of the da'wah. Now, barely had they returned when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala willed for three great calamities one after the other. Three great calamities one after the other. Each one of which was its own difficulty. We cannot say each one was bigger than the one before. Each one was its own difficulty. And these three calamities all took place in the span of two months. and because of these three calamities this whole year is called the year of sorrow the year of sorrow عام الحزن because of the calamities that the Prophet ﷺ underwent the first of these calamities which took place around six weeks some even say five weeks after the Banu Hashim returned to Mecca was that Abu Talib fell sick and the pangs of death began upon him it was clear that he was about to die after he had lived a full life after he had done what he could for the Prophet ﷺ to support him and protect him now the pangs of death came upon him and he eventually passed away in the month of Shawwal of the 10th year of the da'wah in the month of Shawwal in the 10th year of the da'wah and we have a number of authentic reports about his death the most authentic one we have a detailed paragraph in Sahih Bukhari itself a detailed paragraph in Sahih Bukhari about the death of Abu Talib and it says that when Abu Talib reached the nearness of death when the pangs of death began upon him the Prophet ﷺ entered in upon him while Abu Jahl was there and the Prophet ﷺ said to him O my uncle, say La ilaha illallah one kalima that I will be able to argue with you in front of Allah ﷻ If you just say this kalima, I have an excuse. If you don't say it, I don't have an excuse. And he was about to say it. He was about to say it. But there with him was Abu Jahl. And Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah. And they said to him, Ya Abu Talib, Are you going to leave the religion of Abdul Muttalib? are you going to leave the religion of Abdul Muttalib, your father? And they kept on saying this to him. Every time they thought he was going to say it, they said to him, Ya Abu Talib, you're going to leave Abdul Muttalib's religion. And they kept on going back and forth until the last that he said, he is upon the religion of Abdul Muttalib. He never actually said, La ilaha illallah. And so when the Prophet ﷺ saw this, he said I shall continue to ask Allah to forgive you I will continue to ask Allah to forgive you until Allah stops me from doing so now pause here for a while the Prophet's role was to obey the commandments of Allah and the general rule all of the Prophets, they don't just make up their minds about what they want to do they have to wait for Allah's commandment. And generally, the Prophets obey this commandment. However, the Prophet ﷺ in this case felt so emotionally attached, he said, even if Allah hasn't told me to, I will ask Him to forgive you unless He stops me from doing so. So his emotion dictated to him something that Allah had not told him to do. And that is that I'm gonna ask Allah to forgive you unless Allah stops me from doing so. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed in the Quran, مَا كَانَ لِلنَّبِيِّ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ يَسْتَغْفِرُوا لِلْمُشْرِكِينَ وَلَوْ أَنْ كَانُوا أُولِي قُرْبًا مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُمْ أَصْحَابُ الْجَحِيمُ This is Surah At-Tawbah. Surah At-Tawbah that Allah says, it is not appropriate. مَا كَانَ لِلنَّبِيِّ And it's a beautiful way of reprimanding. Allah didn't say to him, you made a big mistake. Allah didn't say to him, that how could you have disobeyed me? Rather Allah said to him in a very gentle manner, مَا كَانَ لِلنَّبِيِّ It is not right for the Prophet or for the believers that they ask Allah to forgive anyone who's going to hell, even if they're relatives. It's not right. I mean you are the Prophet of Allah, you know that he didn't die upon Tawheed, it's not appropriate that you then ask Allah to forgive him when you know that he didn't die upon Tawheed. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed this verse, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam desisted from seeking his forgiveness. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also revealed Surah Al-Qasas at this time. And in Surah Al-Qasas, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ That you, Ya Rasulullah, will not be able to guide those whom you love. Rather, Allah guides those whom He wishes to guide. You, Ya Rasulullah, will not be able to guide those whom you love. Rather, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will guide those whom He wills. And in another hadith in Abu Dawud's sunan, we find that it was in fact Ali ibn Abi Talib who eventually came to inform him that his father had died. So from this we actually come together that the Prophet ﷺ visited Abu Talib on his deathbed, but he wasn't there when he died. So he tried, he tried, he tried, then he went back home. Then perhaps a little bit later, Ali came and said to him, that your uncle has passed away. Your uncle has passed, meaning his own father. In another version, إِنَّ عَمَّكَ الضَّالِ Your misguided uncle. Now this is the son, and the son had, obviously you mean he felt more of a disappointment in his own father that he hadn't accepted Islam so there is more harshness in Ali than there is in the Prophet to Abu Talib because Ali feels you understand and he feels a double disappointment that this is my father and he didn't accept Islam and so when he dies he goes to the Prophet and he tells him your uncle and in Abu Dawud's report your misguided uncle not even my father your misguided uncle has died. So the Prophet ﷺ said to him, go and bury him. And Ali said, but he died a mushrik, meaning how can I bury him? He's not a Muslim. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, go and bury him. And come back as soon as you have finished burying him, don't do anything on the way. Come back as soon as you have finished. So Ali went and buried him, and then he came back and the dust was still on his body, and the Prophet ﷺ made a long dua for him, And Ali said that I would not give up all of those duas for this world and all that is in it. That the Prophet ﷺ made dua for him to calm him down and to bring him solace and comfort. So Ali ibn Abi Talib said that I would never exchange all of this for the world and all that it has contained. In another version, and this is a version that we have mentioned this story before, but according to some narrations this occurred right now. And let me pause here for a bit. And say that, as we have said many times before, these 13 years of Mecca, we actually have only a handful of incidents. We don't have that much. And to make matters worse, we really don't have a chronology. Unlike we know Badr occurred this year, Uhud occurred this year, Ahzab occurred this year. When it comes to the Meccan events, a chronology is very difficult. For many reasons, because we hardly have narrations. And when we do, one person is narrating one incident, and there's no context to provide when it occurred. So, according to one interpretation, and this does make sense, the famous story where the people visited Abu Talib and they begged him to prevent the Prophet ﷺ from preaching no matter what. And Abu Talib said to the Prophet ﷺ that, look, my people have surrounded me, what do you want me to do? One version has this at the beginning of the seerah. Another version has it on his deathbed. Abu Jahl and Utbah ibn Umayyah and Waleed ibn Utbah they all came to Abu Jahl, Abu Talib and they said you are about to die resolve this conflict now or else it's gonna get into civil war and this also makes sense that they tried one last attempt through Abu Talib and the condition was as long as he keeps to himself we'll keep to ourselves so fair and square now enough is enough let him cut off from us let him do what he wants don't interfere in our affairs we won't interfere in his we're not gonna win over him we're not gonna kill him in your lifetime now that you're about to die prevent a civil war by telling him to mind his own business and we will mind our own business and this is reasonable as well to understand this story as taking place now and of course as we have said some people said the beginning of the seerah they came we have multiple instances of them coming to Abu Talib is my point right and it does make sense that before he died they attempted one more time and according to this narration in fact then when the Prophet ﷺ came that was when Abu Jahl is standing there and Umayyah is standing there and Abu Jahl attempts one more time through Abu Talib to prevent the Prophet ﷺ from preaching Abu Talib says that my people have surrounded me basically what do you want me to do now? give them this one condition just do what you want but don't interfere in their affairs What does it mean, don't interfere in their affairs? Don't speak against them. Don't ridicule their idols. Don't say their idols are meaningless. You preach your own to your people. Mind your own business, they'll mind their own business. So, the Prophet ﷺ said, يَا عَمْ I will give them this if they just give me one kalima. Meaning one condition, right? The meaning of kalima means one phrase. If they were to promise me one kalima, I will give them what they want and I promise them that all of the kingdoms of the Arabs and the Ajam will be theirs. So Abu Jahl stood up and said, we will give you not one, ten conditions, ten kalimas, whatever you want. And this is when the Prophet s.a.w. said, the kalima I want from you is La ilaha illallah. Give me this kalima, I will be quiet and you will have the Arab and the Ajam under your control. And this is when Abu Jahl said, that we will never give you this kalima. And then he tried it with his uncle, Abu Talib. That Ya'am, you say this kalima. And I will have an excuse in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Abu Talib was swayed. Abu Talib was about to say. In another version of Ibn Ishaq, it mentions that when they left, he told the Prophet ﷺ directly, that I would have said it, were it not for the fact that my people will accuse me that now they're about to die, and I'm scared of death, I will accept it out of khajl, out of fear. And he has this sense of pride. So, all of the good things of Abu Talib aside, he clearly has an element of pure racism in him. It's racism, it's jahiliyyah, right? All of the good aside, he has this element of, I am better than all of these people because my father is Abdul Muttalib. And I am a representative of Abdul Muttalib and I have a legacy and I don't care what, I have to keep up this legacy. And this shows us that it's possible for a man to combine so much good and so much evil. The only real crime of Abu Talib was this arrogance of pride, this ancestry. And he would not give that up even until death. Even he knows his nephew is truthful. He knows his nephew is truthful. And in his poetry which is recorded in many books including Ibn Ishaq's seerah, In his poetry he says, وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُ أَنَّ دِينَ مُحَمَّدٍ That I know that the deen of Muhammad, من خَيْرِ الْأَدْيَانِ That this is the best of all religions of this world. وَلَوْلَ الْمَلَامَ And were it not for the fact that people would criticize me, i.e. his ego is more important than the truth. That people are gonna make fun of him. That you have left the religion of your father, and embraced the religion of your nephew. Right? You have left your father Abdul Muttalib. And do you know who Abdul Muttalib is? We already went over this over and over again. Do you understand who Abdul Muttalib is? He is the legend of the Arabs. The legend. And this is the main son and the leader and the carrier of the legend. The eldest of the children alive is Abu Talib. And so for people to say, he left the religion of his father and he embraced the religion of his nephew. This was too much for him. And so he refused to accept Islam, even though in his heart he knew that his nephew is not lying. And he's witnessed with his own eyes the miracles of, so many miracles, of them is the miracle of the eating up of the treaty. Right? That we already said he challenged the Quraysh. And he told them that, I believe my nephew, my nephew told me that the entire contract has been written up, except for Bismillah. Right? And he rested his entire prestige on that challenge, and it came out to be true. And yet still he died without accepting Islam. Al-Abbas, the younger brother of Abu Talib, he asked the Prophet ﷺ, that, Ya Rasulullah, هل أغنيت عن عمك شيء؟ Have you benefited your uncle anything? فَإِنَّهُ قَدْ كَانَ يَحُوْتُكَ وَيَغْضَبُ لَكَ He used to protect you and be angry on your behalf. Did you benefit him at all? He used to protect you and be angry on your behalf. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, نَعَمْ Yes, I was able to benefit him. هُوَ فِي ضَحْضَاحٍ مِنَ النَّارِ He is on the peripheries of the fire of hell. وَلَوْ لَأَنَا لَكَانَ فِي الدَّرْكِ الْأَسْفَلِ And were it not for me, he would have been in the depths of the fire of hell. That because of my shafa'ah, because of my shafa'ah, Allah has removed him to the peripheries. And were it not for me, he would be in the depths. In a hadith in Sahih Muslim, in fact we have even more details, that the Prophet ﷺ said, that the person who is أَقَلُّ النَّاسِ عَذَابًا فِي النَّارِ the one who is being punished least in the fire of hell out of all of the inhabitants of the fire of hell meaning all of the inhabitants who will be there forever and ever and ever right all of the eternal inhabitants of the fire of hell this is because we believe that those Muslims who shall enter Jahannam and we seek Allah's refuge from ever being amongst them those Muslims who shall enter Jahannam their punishment will never be as similar or as bad as the eternal people who are in Jahannam. They have a separate punishment completely. So of those who are being eternally punished, أقل الناس عذابا is gonna be his uncle Abu Talib. And what is that punishment? Subhanallah, what is that punishment? He shall be made to wear sandals of fire because of those sandals, يغلي منها دماغه. That his dimaag is going to be, I seek refuge with Allah, boiling. and this is the lowest punishment of those who are eternally damned to hell نَسْأَلُ اللَّهَ السَّلَامَ وَالْعَافِيَةِ so this is what we know of Abu Talib's death and there are so many lessons in the life and in the death of Abu Talib of those lessons we have to be careful of simply following what the people are doing even if those people are the majority or even if they are our ancestors or even if they are our parents nothing is more sacred than what Allah Azza wa Jal says and what the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says and those who follow others will not be excused on the day of judgment even if those others were great people Allah says in the Quran we followed our leaders and our elders but they all led us astray what was the point of this? إِنَّا وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا عَلَىٰ أُمَّةً وَإِنَّ عَلَىٰ ثَارِهِمْ مُقْتَدُونَ We found our forefathers in a way, and we're gonna do this no matter what. And Allah says, قَالَ أَوَلُوا جِئْتُكُمْ بِأَهْدَىٰ مِمَّا وَجَدْتُمْ عَلَيْهَا أَبَاءُكُمْ What if I'm bringing you something that is more correct than what your forefathers were upon. Now, just because we're Muslims, brothers and sisters, don't think that we are completely scot-free from this. Many times, it is our understandings of Islam that might be wrong. And it is the understandings that our forefathers have given to us. that, oh, this is what my grandfather used to do, how can it be wrong? No, it doesn't matter. Your grandfather, my grandfather is not an evidence in Islam. The evidence is what Allah and His Messenger say. Another very powerful message that we get from the story of Abu Talib is that indeed only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the true Rabb and the true Ilah, the true Lord and the true being who is in control of everything. For the Prophet ﷺ, despite being the most beloved creation to Allah, still he could not guide the one whom he loved the most in this world. The one whom he loved the most in this world, he couldn't guide him. إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ You cannot guide those whom you love, or the one whom you love. It's in the singular. You don't have that power. And if this is the power he doesn't have in his life, how about now how about now to control the heaven and hell how about now to dictate who is going to go to Jannah, who is going to go to Jahannam subhanallah those groups of Muslims that elevate our Rasulullah S.A.W. to basically become a God, these incidents completely contradict that understanding in his lifetime Allah is telling him, just because you loved him doesn't mean you had the power to guide him, walakinnallaha yahdi man yasha Allah will guide those whom he loves And this shows us that the status of the prophets and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ cannot ever be compared to the maqam of Allah Azza wa Jal. Never ever allow our emotions to get confused in this regard. Because this is unfortunately when many Muslim groups get involved in that. They begin their praises of Rasulullah ﷺ in a legitimate manner, and then they allow those praises to basically go into levels of kufr and shirk. Right? And this is where we have to be very clear. her, no. إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتْ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ And another benefit here that we get is that Allah affirmed that the Prophet ﷺ had a love for Abu Talib. What is the benefit here? There are some extremist Muslims out there that say that we have to hate all the kuffar. Maybe some of you have heard these types of phrases. We're not allowed to love the kuffar. We have to hate all of them. And this is a complete misunderstanding of certain texts in the Qur'an and Sunnah. Complete misunderstanding. How can anybody say we have to hate the kuffar like this when Allah Himself says, you used to love Abu Talib. You used to love Abu Talib. إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبَتَ Right? Rather, it is possible... Now, when Allah says in the Qur'an that we're supposed to have animosity towards those who have rejected Allah and His Messenger, we have animosity because of their rejection. But we can love them because of other reasons. We don't love somebody because they hate Allah and His Messenger. A'udhu Billah. It's not possible. Anybody who rejects Allah and His Messenger, we cannot have a religious love for them. And Allah says, لَا تَجْذُقُوا مَنْ يُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَالْيُومِ الْآخِرِي يُوَادُونَ مَنْ حَادَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَلَوْ كَانُوا أَبَاءَهُمْ أَوْ أَبْنَاهُمْ إِخْوَانًا وَعَشِيرَاتَهُمْ You will never find people having wood, which is a strong love, for anybody who opposes Allah and His Messenger, even if they be their fathers or brothers or sons. Now we have those Muslims who have this message of, Islam preaches hatred of non-Muslims. This is their message. I disagree. And they use terminologies of aqeedah, which I think they have misinterpreted, such as al-wala and bara and other of these terminologies. And this is a broader topic which we don't have time to get into now. But in a nutshell, to summarize, the love that Allah is talking about in these verses, and the hatred Allah is talking about, is a religious love and religious hatred. We have religious love for the Muslims, no question. And we do not have this religious love for anybody who opposes Allah and His Messenger, no question. Even if they are close relatives, we don't have a religious love for them. But we may have a natural love for them. Because they are father or mother. Because they are, for example, Allah says in the Quran, the Muslim man can marry a non-Muslim lady, a Christian or Jewish lady. And how can a man remain married to a lady that he is required to hate her according to the Quran? It's impossible. The love that you have for somebody could be natural. And that natural love is Islamically permissible. A father, a mother might be a non-Muslim, a wife, anybody might be a non-Muslim, and you have a natural love. but you are not supposed to have the religious love except for those who follow your religion so Allah is affirming a love that Rasulullah ﷺ had for Abu Talib even though he died a pagan and this is important that it is permissible to feel a natural affinity with people of one's tribe or one's ethnicity or one's even nationality or whatever there is a natural affinity and that is permissible but it cannot become a religious one except for those who have the religion another benefit that we get from the story of Abu Talib and I have said this before many months ago that there is a wisdom that we can derive from the kufr of Abu Talib that why did he have to be a kafir and that wisdom is that the only thing that allowed Abu Talib to remain the chieftain of the Quraysh was the fact that he truly was a representative of Abdul Muttalib and so by being a representative of Abdul Muttalib when he protected the Prophet ﷺ they respected that had he converted to Islam instantaneously his own tribe would have taken him out and they would have said to him we're not going to keep you as a leader because there's nothing that would keep Abu Talib then as the leader so by allowing him to remain in Kufr indirectly this was in fact protecting the Prophet ﷺ and to spread Iman. And therefore we can derive a clear wisdom. Yet at the same time, if somebody were to say, I understand this wisdom. Why couldn't he have converted at death? Okay, fine. Throughout his life, let him be a kafir. Then on his deathbed, because he was so good, because he was a father figure, why couldn't he convert? This leads us to another benefit of Abu Talib's story. And that is, we will never understand ilm al-ghayb. Wallahi we will never understand ilm al-ghayb Our hearts might find something But we don't know why It's possible we like something and Allah knows it's bad It's possible we hate something and Allah knows it's good What is the wisdom Why couldn't he have converted on his deathbed What can we say Al-ilmu inda Allah And a part of having iman is Alladhina yu'minuna bil-ghayb And a part of having iman is As Allah says La yus'alu amma yaf'aluhum yus'aloon They have no right to ask Allah At what he does and Allah will ask them at what they do. And this is a part of showing servitude to Allah. We don't challenge Allah's wisdom because challenging Allah's wisdom is satanic, literally satanic. That's what shaitan does, right? What did shaitan do? I know better than you, O Allah. I know better than you. We don't challenge Allah's wisdom. We accept. We accept the decree of Allah even if we don't understand the decree of Allah. And this is one of those things that clearly tawheed is understood through this in that, what is the wisdom of Abu Talib remaining in this matter? In the end we don't know. In the end only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows. Another benefit of this, and it's a very important benefit, that iman, belief in Allah, is more than just acknowledging the truth of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. In other words, and this is again a deep point of theology but it's one that needs to be said. The perception that some Muslims have. What is the definition of a Muslim? Somebody who says the Prophet ﷺ is telling the truth. This is the definition for some people. But it is not. That is not the academic definition. Because Abu Talib believed that the Prophet ﷺ was telling the truth. He has said so himself. He said it to him directly. On his deathbed. that I would have said la ilaha illallah but I don't want them to criticize me. I know what you're saying is true. Right? He's affirming that he knows the truth. But he refuses to accept. Therefore, somebody who knows the truth doesn't mean that that person is a Muslim. It's a very deep point here. What is a Muslim then? Someone who submits to the truth. Because the meaning of Islam is not knowledge, it is submission. That's what Islam means, right? To merely know the truth doesn't make you a Muslim. Iblis knows the truth. Iblis accepts everything in his heart, he knows it conceptually. Think about it, does Iblis deny that Allah is the Rabb? No. In fact, Iblis affirms Allah is my Rabb. and he says to Allah, رَبِّي قَالَ رَبِّي Iblis is saying in the Quran, قَالَ رَبِّي And Iblis affirms that the prophets are prophets. Iblis does not deny that Adam is a prophet. Iblis does not deny that Allah sends prophets. He knows this. Iblis does not deny that there is a day of judgment. قَالَ رَبِّي أَنظِرْنِي إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ Allow me to live until the day of judgment. In fact, Iblis even worships Allah occasionally. Because he makes dua to Allah to allow him to live. right? If he didn't worship Allah he wouldn't make dua to Allah. Yet is Iblis a mu'min? Does Iblis have iman in Allah? Obviously not. أَبَا وَاسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ Allah calls him a kafir. How is he a kafir if he knows Allah to be true and knows the prophets to be prophets and knows that Allah gives life and resurrection. How is he a kafir? Allah says, أَبَا He refused to obey when Allah told him to do something. He was too arrogant to prostrate. And therefore, a kafir can be somebody who doesn't know the truth. A kafir can be somebody who doesn't recognize the truth. A kafir can be somebody who rejects the truth. But a kafir can also be somebody who knows the truth but for some reason, whatever that reason might be, refuses to act upon it. And this gets to the very controversial issue. I'm just going to mention it, make your mind stimulated, but unfortunately I don't have time to whip up a nice academic talk now. I give that in other places. But what do we say then to the Muslim who knows Islam to be... I call him Muslim meaning he calls himself Muslim. Who knows Islam to be true, but he never does anything that he is required. to do? Think about the question here. The Muslim who know, meaning he calls himself Muslim. Right? What is the difference between Abu Talib and such a Muslim? In that, they both recognize Allah is one. Abu Talib did not worship idols. We know this. Right? Abu Talib did not. His poetry is pure tawhid. He knows idolatry is ridiculous. so they recognize Allah is one they recognize the Prophet is a true prophet but the both of them are refusing to submit to the laws of Islam the only difference is that the one says I'm a Muslim and the other says I'm not and in fact the one who says he's not a Muslim linguistically it makes more sense because he understands what a Muslim is and so he said I haven't submitted so I'm not a Muslim whereas the one who says he's a Muslim is saying I submit but in action he's not submitting at all and therefore and this is I know this is a deep topic but the fact of the matter is somebody who says he or she is a Muslim but never ever does anything of this religion he doesn't pray, he doesn't fast he doesn't give zakah, he doesn't do anything of the sharia of this religion, this theoretical saying I'm a Muslim is not much different than the iman, quote-unquote, of Abu Talib and of Iblis. It's not much different. Think about it, right? It's not much different. And as for the ahadith, whoever says, لا إله إلا الله will enter Jannah, we need to understand this in light of the other ahadith as well. Whoever says, لا إله إلا الله sincerely, whoever says, لا إله إلا الله from the heart, all of these things come into play. There are conditions attached, right? Not simply verbally saying that. But whoever says upon it, and acts upon it properly. This is the one who shall enter Jannah. And Abu Talib's story proves this. That Abu Talib had what we call theoretical Iman. But that theoretical Iman didn't benefit him. And in fact, one final point with regards to this issue, that is why it is incorrect to translate Iman as faith. Because Iman is not just faith. You can say Abu Talib had faith. Think about it. You can say Iblis has faith. Think about it. Do you know what faith means? Iblis has it. Because Iblis believes things to be true. But that doesn't make Iblis a mu'min. So iman and faith are not synonymous. Faith is but one part of iman. You need to have faith to have iman. But iman is more than faith. Another benefit from Abu Talib's story is the danger of hanging around evil company. Because Abu Talib's final compatriots were Abu Jahl and Al-Waleed Ibn Utbah and that ilk. And he would have accepted Islam, he himself said. But those people and the ego of being around those people was too much for him. So one needs to look at one circle of friends because one circle of friends will influence him. A fiqh benefit here, a fiqh benefit here, that being a non-Muslim and dying as a non-Muslim doesn't mean that the Muslim relatives have nothing to do with the funeral. No. Ali thought that because my father is a non-Muslim, I cannot even do anything with the funeral. And so when the Prophet ﷺ said, go and bury your father. The first response of Ali, he is a mushrik. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I know he is a mushrik, go and bury your father. And therefore this shows that when a non-Muslim relative dies, one may attend the funeral and help with the processions and even financially contribute but the condition is that you don't do the religious ceremonies you don't do the religious ceremonies now of course Ali was the one who was put in charge of the body and so there were no religious ceremonies but if there were to have been religious ceremonies so in our case if there's a convert and a relative of theirs who's a non-Muslim dies they may go to the funeral wake the procession, but they don't participate in the church services, because that's not our religion. Let them do as they please, but we cannot participate in the religious services. But some people say that you're not supposed to go to the funeral of a non-Muslim relative. This clearly shows us that not only going to the funeral, he took charge of burying, he dug the grave himself, and he put the kafan in the shroud, he put it in, and of course you put the kafan in the shroud on the dead person, even if they're not a Muslim. And so Ali took charge of this, and the Prophet ﷺ corrected this misunderstanding. And this shows us the fiqh principle, that you may attend the janazah of a non-Muslim relative. A point of benefit here as well, is that out of the four uncles that the Prophet ﷺ, that witnessed the Prophet ﷺ's Islam, you know he had ten uncles total, or there were total of eleven brothers, one of them was his father, so he had ten uncles. Of those 11 brothers, i.e. the sons of Abdul Muttalib, of those 11 brothers, 7 of them died before the Prophet ﷺ began preaching the message. 7 of them died before the Prophet ﷺ began preaching the message. So 7 of them never heard the Prophet ﷺ preaching Tawheed. 4 of them. The 2 of them who converted and 2 of them rejected. Right? And it is just ironic or it is qadr of Allah or it is a coincidence that the two who rejected, they had pagan names. And the two who accepted, they had beautiful names. The two who rejected, their kunyas of course were Abu Talib and Abu... No, not Abu Jahl, Abu Lahab. People always get confused, we've said this many times. Abu Jahl is from the Banu Makhzum he's not from the Banu Hashim Abu Lahab is from the Banu Hashim Abu Lahab is the uncle Abu Jahl is a very distant relative don't get confused a lot of Muslims get confused Abu Jahl is somebody else Abu Lahab is somebody else two different people completely and the Quran mentions Abu Lahab Abu Lahab is the uncle Abu Jahl is a very distant relative now Abu Talib his name was Abdel Uzza His kunya was, sorry, Abu Talib, his name was Abdi Manaf, my mistake. Abu Lahab's name was Abdul Uzza. Abu Lahab, his actual name that Abdul Muttalib gave him is Abdul Uzza. And he was a very handsome man, and so they called him Abu Lahab as if fire is coming from his cheeks and face. Right? And so Allah mocked this name in the Quran by saying, this fire is not just a metaphorical, it is a real fire. Sayasla naran dhata lahab Right? But they called him Abu Lahab because he was a handsome man And he was a single son of the wife that Abdul Muttalib Mary Abdul Muttalib had five wives Abdul Muttalib had five wives And one of them gave birth only to Abu Lahab So Abu Lahab had no full brothers and sisters Right? So Abu Lahab's name was Abdul Uzza And he became one of the worst enemies Abu Talib, his name was Abdi Manaf and Abu Talib was of course the full brother of Abdullah and for wisdom Allah knows he did not accept Islam as we said the two who converted of course are Hamza and Al-Abbas and both of these names are their original names and both of them mean the same thing what do they mean? the lion, both of them mean the same thing Hamza and Al-Abbas are two names for the lion in Arabic they say that Arabs have 500 names for a lion and Allah knows, I mean some people have tried to make this 500 list but they've only gotten 150. But they have a huge number of names of the lions, right? Both Abbas and Hamza are names of the lion. And Hamza also has the connotation of strength. And Abbas has the connotation of bravery. But they both signify the lion. And for some reason, the two names that are pure and good meaning, they converted. And the two names that are pagan names, Abdul Uzza and Abdi Manaf. These are of course names of the idols. منافع عزة they did not convert whether this is قدر whether this is whatever Allah knows best but this is an interesting point here and by the way of course now that we're talking about the uncles as for the aunts how many aunts did the Prophet ﷺ have? how many aunts did the Prophet ﷺ have? meaning when he was born how many did he have? how many were the daughters of Abdul Muttalib? one, three, four going once, going twice, higher eleven seven Where did you hear this from? You just made it up. Wallahi, I know of six, but maybe there's seven. I know of six. I know of six, that he had six aunts. And we only know of one of them converting to Islam, and she is of course Safiyyah, right? We know for sure of one converting to Islam, and we know for sure that one of them heard of Islam, i.e. she was alive when Islam began to be preached. And this is Atiqah who saw the dream at the Battle of Badr, which we'll talk about inshallah in a few weeks. That was Atiqah. We don't know who else converted. Some rumors have it that more than Safiyyah converted. And some have it that more than one died before Islam. But the fact of the matter is the rest of the answer to the process and remain shrouded in mystery. we don't know who amongst them converted and truth be told the fact that we don't know should seem to indicate that they didn't because had they converted we would have known about it had they converted it would have been and so the more academically minded scholars of seerah say that this means that the rest of them did not convert we don't even know how many of them lived to hear about Islam except for Atiqa and Safiyya we don't know the rest of them did they or did they not but even if they did then it's apparent that they did not accept Islam a final issue about Abu Talib's death before we move on many of you know that some other groups of Islam consider that Abu Talib died a Muslim and I don't mind mentioning there are two such groups in our times the one of them is the Shia the Shia believe that Abu Talib died a Muslim and if you say otherwise they are insulted by this And they say that this is a big insult. Of course they are insulted because from their perspective, they do not think the imam's father, like you know they have 12 imams, and all of these imams they go back to of course Ali. Ali is the first imam. So for them it is an insult that the imam's father would not be a Muslim. And this is a huge insult for them. Of course in response we say somebody better, even if you say they are imams, we don't believe this, even if you say they are imams, somebody better than these imams had a father whom Allah says in the Quran was a pagan. And that is Ibrahim a.s. And that did not diminish the level of Ibrahim that his father Azir was an idol worshipper and an idol maker. It did not diminish the level of Ibrahim. So we disagree with this completely and there's no textual evidence that Abu Talib converted. The second group in our times is some extreme Sufi groups and also in our times, some, you know, the Pakistanis, some Barelvis as well. People like this guy, Qadri, what's his name? Tahir al-Qadri and them. They say this. Now their reasoning, wallahi, I could not I could not believe they were serious until I read this myself. I don't know, I mean, what can I say? They are my people, so allow me to make some jokes about them. But I mean, I can't believe somebody's mentality is this backward, but somebody says one of these people says that because Abu Talib did the nikah of the Prophet ﷺ with Khadija, he must have been a Muslim or else the nikah would have been invalid. That's his evidence. I don't know how to respond. I mean, this is such an ignorant argument here. But these are major groups in our homelands of India and Pakistan. And they have this feeling that the one who does the nikah for the Prophet ﷺ in the jahiliyyah days, before the coming of Islam, How could he have been a Ka'af? He must have been a Muslim. So therefore, or else the niqab is not valid. And this is again, if somebody is using this as an evidence, but again, if you try to argue with them, they get very flustered and opponent. But these are the two groups that claim that Abu Talib did not die a pagan, he died a Muslim. But the fact of the matter is that we have multiple evidences, even verses in the Quran. Three verses in the Quran will reveal that Abu Talib's death. Three verses in the Quran. We have a hadith in Bukhari and in Muslim. We have incidents in Ibn al-Haqtira. Basically, we have everything we need to clearly show that Abu Talib did not die upon Tawheed. Moving on, the death of Abu Talib was followed by another loss that was no less insignificant and in many ways even more painful than the first one, and that was the death of Khadija radiallahu ta'ala Anha. And Ibn al-Jawzi says, this death occurred within 40 days of the death of Abu Talib. And Abu Talib passed away in the beginning of Shawwal. Khadija passed away on the 10th of Ramadan. Literally a one month and five days. Just less than 40 days had gone by when the death of Khadija occurred. And when Khadija passed away, the salah had not yet been revealed. So there was no janazah performed over her because there was no salah at the time. But the Prophet ﷺ took charge of burying her. He himself entered into the grave and he himself put her body there and took charge of the burial. And a number of Sahaba reported that after the death of Khadija, we did not see the Prophet ﷺ smile for months on end. After the death of Khadija, it was a very traumatic loss for him. And there's no question that these two people were the closest to him. Abu Talib is his father figure and Abu Talib protected him externally. Khadija is his wife, his closest friend, his first supporter, and the one who protected him internally, the one who gave him support inside of the house, Abu Talib gave him support outside of the house, and both of these two together proved to be a very traumatic time for the Prophet ﷺ. And it is because of the death of these two that this entire year is called the year of sorrow. Meaning that he was overcome by grief so much that the whole year was called the year of sorrow. And the blessings of Khadijah I have spoken about many many times and I've mentioned, I've even given a long lecture to the sisters about the whole life and times of Khadijah and how much the Prophet ﷺ loved her and how jealous Aisha was of Khadijah even though Aisha never saw Khadijah. She never saw Khadijah. But her heart burned with jealousy because of the love of the Prophet ﷺ. And even when Khadijah's sister Hala came to Medina to visit the Prophet ﷺ. And Hala knocked on the door and asked for permission to enter. The Prophet ﷺ was lying down half asleep and he jumped up and you could see the fluster on his face because he thought it might be like, you know in that state he thought it might be Khadija. And Aisha saw this and her feeling of jealousy went almost overboard. And when Hala left Khadija said sorry, Aisha said, Ya Rasulullah for how long are you gonna keep on remembering? And she used words that are not appropriate, but she was a young woman that was full of jealousy, lateral jealousy, an old hag basically of the Quraysh, whose teeth have fallen out, and whose cheeks are, she hasn't seen them, but she's assuming that Khadija is 65 when she's died. She's mashallah at this age, you know, 14, 15 at this age. And she's like, how long are you gonna remember this old lady? You know, I mean, Allah has given you someone better than her. the Prophet ﷺ might have overlooked the first phrase. But this phrase, he became irritated. That Allah has given you someone better than her, this phrase he became irritated. And he said, لا والله Allah has not given me someone better than her. Don't say this, O Aisha. Allah has not given you someone better than her. She supported me when no one else supported me. You don't have that blessing, Aisha. And she spent upon me when everybody boycotted me. You don't have that blessing, Aisha. And she comforted me when the world gave me grief. Again, you don't have that blessing, Aisha. And Allah gave me children through her when Allah deprived all of my other wives of this blessing. Aisha said, after that time, I never opened my mouth about Khadijah. Right? She learned her lesson. That she never opened her mouth after that about Khadijah. And the stories of Khadijah go on and on. And we'll just mention a few more things and inshallah begin the incident of Taif. next week inshaAllah ta'ala. And that is that when Abu Talib died, this proved to be a very politically difficult time for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Why? Because Abu Talib was his, in our times, visa or passport to living in Mecca. Right? Abu Talib was his protection. Everybody wanted him out. None of the elders of the Quraysh wanted him to be in Mecca. And so with the death of Abu Talib, he was in a very precarious situation. And Ibn Ishaq says that after the death of Abu Talib, the Quraysh could increase their irritation and their persecution of the Prophet ﷺ like never before. And another tabi'i says that with the death of Abu Talib, the Quraysh could finally come out what they were forced to hide in the time of Abu Talib. That finally the persecution could be completely public. and many things happen here and again some of these we've already heard before because we don't know when they happened so some scholars say they happen now of the most significant things that really if you think about it this time seems to be more than when we mentioned before is the infamous incident of six or seven of the elders of the Quraysh conspiring to throw a dead carcass on him in sajda we mentioned this story twice before right? Uqba ibn Abu Mu'ayt and Abu Jahal and Abu Lahab was amongst them we mentioned the story before that when he went into sajda Uqba ibn Abu Mu'ayt went out of the city to carry the carcass with his own hand the entrails and the dung and the blood and the gore and the parts that are not eaten and he brought it all the way back and he threw it on the Prophet ﷺ in sajda we mentioned this before in early Mecca but the fact is if you really think about it it makes more sense now because Abu Talib is not mentioned as protecting him. And there is no mention of reprimand. And no one helped him. So what did he have to do when he stood up and the blood is on his body? That was when he said, Oh Allah, I complain to you because there is no one else at all. I complain to you. You deal with Uqba ibn Abu Mu'id. You deal with Al-Walid ibn Uqba. You deal with Abu Jahl. You deal with Abu Lahab. Every one of them that he mentioned, and there were seven, exactly seven. Every one of them died within two, three years by the battle of Badr. So in fact, this incident makes more sense now than it does in early Mecca. That this occurred after the death of Abu Talib when there's no one to protect him. Now, before this incident happened, in fact, there's a really interesting story that Abu Lahab seems to have a soft spot all of a sudden. What happened was that in one particularly severe incident, one of the other Qurashis, not from the Banu Hashim, rebuked the Prophet ﷺ severely. And now of course you understand Abu Lahab takes charge of the Banu Hashim, right? After the death of Abu Talib, the only pagan son and the eldest after Abu Talib is Abu Lahab. So there's no question, there's no power struggle, I mean he's the only one that can take charge. both Hamza and Abbas are Muslims Abbas is very young so there's no question he cannot be in charge Hamza is senior Abu Talib, sorry Abu Lahab is even older so with the death of Abu Talib Abu Lahab takes charge so when Abu Lahab takes charge and somebody curses the Prophet from outside of the Banu Hashim he seems to get a soft spot and when he hears this he goes to the Prophet and he says Ya Muhammad, go and do as you used to do in the time of Abu Talib. I.e. be as you were. Be as you were. What the privileges you had in the time of Abu Talib, you have them now. For as long as I am alive, you shall live in the same manner. So he felt some responsibility to protect the Prophet ﷺ in a manner that his brother used to protect. Not out of love for the Prophet ﷺ, but as a chieftain of the Banu Hashim, and as somebody who's taking over from Abu Talib. And this is amazing, but simple human psychology, that before you get responsibility, you can say things. You can brag and boast. But when you get those responsibilities, you act differently. You act differently. Right? And this is very common. Very common. The youngsters here, before you get married, you will say whatever you want about how you're gonna be a man when you get married. Right? And mashallah, when the woman comes, all of a sudden we see where that manhood goes. Okay? When you don't, I mean that's a semi-joke, but when you don't have the real responsibility, it's easy to just make perceptions of how you would do things. Right? Before Abu Lahab comes to power, he has this attitude that basically, if I could I'd kill you right now. Once he becomes the chief of the Banu Hashim, what happens? He kind of needs to settle down. That there is a leadership role. And so he tells the Prophet, can you believe Abu Lahab? But not because he loves the Prophet, but because there is a prestige element. He is the chieftain. He has to guard his own people. And so he tells the Prophet, as you were. Nothing more, nothing less. Whatever Abu Talib gave you, I'm gonna simply pass that on. As you were. And so when the people heard this, they came to him and they said that, in fact when Abu Lahab said this, the people spread a rumor that he had accepted Islam. So they came to him and they said, have you become a Muslim? And so he said, no, but I am protecting my flock. I'm not a Muslim, but I'm protecting my flock. So Abu Jahl and Utbah, the two worst amongst them, decided to hatch a plot. to remove the protection of Abu Talib, Abu Lahab from the Prophet ﷺ. So Abu Jahl and Utbah came together and they devised a plot. And they said to Abu Lahab, why don't you ask your nephew about the fate of your father Abdul Muttalib? The one that you're protecting him in the name of, right? because that's the whole point, he's a tribesman the one that you're protecting him in the name of why don't you ask him what he thinks of Abdul Muttalib and so Abu Lahab went to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and said what is the fate of my father Abdul Muttalib this is a trick question so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam answered generically he is with his people he didn't say he's going to Jahiz, he is with his people and this shows the wisdom of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that you don't give incendiary remarks. You don't have to make it worse. But you cannot lie. He is with his people. And so Abu Lahab thought that meaning he's with his people is a good thing. He went back happily and goes to Abu Jahl. He said he's with his people. And so Abu Jahl said, you fool. Where are his people according to the Prophet ﷺ except in the fire of hell? He is meaning that he is in the fire of hell. And of course that was the point, right? That was the point. And so Abu Lahab felt such rage that my own father, you're gonna say he's in the fire of hell and I'm protecting you in his name. Then he said, La Wallah, you are not going to be protected from me anymore after this. So after giving him protection, within a week Abu Jahl had managed to get him out of it, right? Abu Jahl and his plot had managed to get Abu Lahab out of that protection. and so the Prophet ﷺ was left without any protection in Mecca, and this was then what caused him to try his qadr, if you like, in the closest city next to Mecca, and that is Ta'if, and that is what we will come to, insha'Allah ta'ala, in our next week, insha'Allah, next Wednesday, we will be talking about this, bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. There's a very sad announcement. Do you have more details? Do you want to... How old is he? How old is he? 10 years old. What is the name of the sister again? Sister Marvat. The sister of Sister Fatima Hassuna. Sister Fatin. Sister Fatin Hassuna passed away today in a car accident. and her son in the car, 10 year old, do you know his name? Muaz. Muayyad. Muayyad. Muayyad. Her son was also in the car and he is in the ICU, the med center in critical condition now. The janazah is tomorrow at 12.30 at Masjid As-Salam. Masjid As-Salam. The janazah is tomorrow at 12.30 at Masjid As-Salam. please try to be there and let this be a lesson for all of us that this sister was in her early 30s she was active in the community Sunday school teacher, many of us knew her many of our children studied with her in the Sunday school إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ إِنَّ لِلَّهِ مَا أَعْطَوْا لِلَّهِ مَا أَخَذُ to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return complete instantaneous to something obviously completely unexpected and at the same time it is also a good death when it happens suddenly because our Prophet ﷺ said that the sign of a good death is a sudden death a sudden death is a good death we don't want a prolonged death we seek Allah's refuge from a prolonged death and we also hope that inshallah this type of death is also a shahada for her because these types of death the Prophet ﷺ considered some types of death to be equivalent to shahada and of them is if a wound kills you and so we hope that inshallah

Seerah 19 - Incident of Ta'if - Yasir Qadhi _ January 2012-o_LsNYWbddk

Al-Fatiha. traumatic grief in his life, the two deaths of his uncle Abu Talib, and then his wife Khadija, the external and the internal support of the Prophet ﷺ. We also mentioned that initially Abu Lahab gave him protection. For a few days or a few weeks, Abu Lahab gave him protection. And then Abu Jahl and others basically tricked him to make him understand that the Prophet ﷺ did not respect Abdul Muttalib the way that Abu Lahab thought he should respect him. And that he assumed that Abdul Muttalib would be going to the fire of hell. And so Abu Lahab withdrew his protection. Abu Lahab withdrew his protection and he took back the promise that he had given the Prophet ﷺ. And therefore, when all of these circumstances combined, life in Mecca became almost impossible. Because there was nobody to really protect the Prophet ﷺ. So when life became this difficult, this is when the Prophet ﷺ began thinking about leaving the city of Mecca. Notice, for the last 10 years, he has not once thought of leaving Mecca. For the last 10 years, he has remained a part of Mecca. No matter all of the opposition, he didn't think of leaving. Only when politically it became almost impossible to remain in Mecca, this is when he began thinking of another city. and the first city that he thought of was the city of Ta'if. What this shows us is that the base ruling or the general rule is that every person remains in the society that he feels a part of. Even if it is an evil society, even if it is an Islamophobic society, even if it is a society that has issues and problems, one remains a part of the society that one belongs to. As the Prophet ﷺ did. In fact, we have examples of other prophets as well. Nuh a.s. How long did he remain in his people? 950 years. For 950 years he remained a part of his nation. He didn't just give up throwing the towel. He stayed there battling it out at least verbally. And for us here there is a huge lesson. For us here there is a huge lesson that even if life gets difficult, even if people put barriers between us and our religion, still we have a responsibility and an obligation in our own communities in the places that we find most compatibility with in terms of political alliances in terms of our maisha, our living and people like myself and many others who have been born and raised here and there is no other culture that we feel more at home in this culture and when we look at the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ we gain this fact that a person remains in his society and culture for as long as it is feasible. There was once upon a time some scholars who were talking about all the time hijrah and leaving and this and that. By and now those voices have kind of sort of muted out because they've understood the reality of the situation. They've looked beyond and they've seen the situation in many other lands and they're like, where are we going to move to? But even, forget other lands and situations. From the seerah we have, when did the Prophet ﷺ do hijrah? Yes, he did hijrah, but when? when life became impossible to live in Mecca. As long as it was possible, he remained. So, the first thing that he thinks of is the city of Ta'if. Let me go and try my luck at Ta'if, what is going to happen in Ta'if. Why Ta'if? What's so special about Ta'if? Ta'if was the natural choice for the Prophet ﷺ coming from Mecca. For many reasons. First and foremost, the largest city that is closest to Mecca, the closest city that is a large city is Ta'if. And Ta'if and Mecca were twin cities. Ta'if and Mecca had a love-hate relationship. At times there was a lot of peace and treaties, and at times there was rivalry between them. Because they were so close, there was rivalry. Because they were so close, they couldn't afford too much animosity. And so there was rivalry and also peace treaties between them. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala references Ta'if in the Quran when he quotes Al-Walid ibn Utbah saying, وَقَالُوا لَوْلَ نُزِّلَ هَذَا الْقُرْآنُ عَلَى رَجُلٍ مِّنَ الْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمَينَ That why wasn't this Quran revealed to a great man from one of the two major cities. One of the two major cities. A'i, Makkah or Ta'if. And Al-Walid said this out of jealousy. Al-Walid is the father of Khalid, Khalid ibn Al-Walid. Al-Walid said this out of jealousy that why wasn't the Quran given to me or to somebody in the city of Ta'if. And he called it the two major cities. Ta'if also was a perfect choice because the people of Ta'if and the people of Mecca knew each other very intimately. Because they were so close. Unlike if he had gone to a strange city, they would not have known him, they would not have known his people. The people of Ta'if knew the people of Mecca family by family. Because they're so close together. And because there's such strong relationships between the two. In fact, so much so, one of the chieftains of Ta'if whom the Prophet ﷺ went to talk with, he was in fact married to one of the distant aunts of the Prophet ﷺ. So there's even a blood relationship. One of the distant aunts, not the immediate aunt of Abdul Muttalib. One of the distant aunts of the Quraysh, she is married to this chieftain. So there's even a blood relationship. And so the Prophet ﷺ decided in the month of Shawwal, basically the same month that Khadija dies, a few weeks after Abu Talib dies. And so a few weeks after Abu Talib dies, what this means is that the whole fiasco with Abu Lahab only lasted maximum 20 days. Maximum, Abu Lahab gave him protection 20 days, 30 days at max, and then he withdrew it. So as soon as the protection is withdrawn, literally it's as if a person is an illegal alien, we will call him. He doesn't have any visa status, he doesn't have any protection, anything could happen at any time. Nobody is going to protect him. And so the Prophet ﷺ decides to leave and try a secret attempt. He doesn't publicize this. Secret attempt, because if he publicized it, anything could have happened. Anyone could have stopped him. So he along with Zayd ibn Harithah, we talked about Zayd previously, his quote-unquote adopted son. He along with Zayd ibn Harithah ventured on foot, so as not to arouse any suspicion. They didn't even take a camel or a horse. Ta'if was walking distance, two days or so, but they could have used an animal, because Ta'if, for those of you who have been there, it's a resort city, it's in the mountains, it's high up. In our times it takes an hour and a half by car, going, winding up the mountains. An hour and a half by car, it's very precarious roads, winding up the mountains. To walk up there is a day and a half or two days. An amount would have been very beneficial. But the Prophet ﷺ did not want to arouse any suspicion. And this all shows us the tactics and the planning of the Prophet ﷺ. Trusting in Allah doesn't mean you act foolishly. Trusting in Allah doesn't mean you act in a manner that will bring suspicion. He has the greatest trust in Allah. But why arouse people's suspicion? Trusting in Allah means you plot your plan to the perfect, crossing the T's and dotting the I's. Everything is done perfectly. And then in your heart you realize, it's up to Allah. And so he leaves quietly, just as if he's going for a stroll in the town, him and Zaid, there's nothing to arouse suspicion. Why? Because if they knew, they might harm him right then and there. And also by leaving the city, basically he is literally and metaphorically turning his back to any last ties that he has to the Quraysh. At such a precarious situation, it's a gray area, it's a limbo, because Abu Lahab has withdrawn protection, right? So he's living in a gray area. For him to take a move, any move, is a sign that he has basically accepted the status. And he has cut off all ties from the Quraysh. And that's exactly what this symbolic movement meant. And so he and Zayd ibn Harithah leave towards the city of Ta'if. And we have a beautiful narration from Aisha r.a reported in Sahih Bukhari, that Aisha r.a said, that O Messenger of Allah, was there any day that was more difficult for you than the day of Uhud? So Aisha does not know of the Makkan Seerah. She was not cognizant of the Makkan Seerah. from her life that she has experienced with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam she can only think of the battle of Uhud as being the worst and the battle of Uhud the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is almost about to lose his life two or three wounds come to him we'll get to that in a few months so Aisha remembers the battle of Uhud as being very traumatic so she asks him was there any day more traumatic than Uhud and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam immediately says yes immediately says yes there was indeed your people have hurt me a lot your people have irritated me a lot and the worst irritation that I got was on the day of he called it day of Aqaba Aqaba is where the stoning took place this was outside of Ta'if the day of Aqaba the worst was the day of Aqaba meaning the incident of Ta'if on that day I presented myself to Abdialil Ibn Abdikulal we'll get to these names in a while and he phrased it in a very beautiful manner because he doesn't want Aisha's sympathy. So he phrases it in a very simple manner. And they didn't respond the way that I wanted them to. That's all he said. He didn't want Aisha's pity. He doesn't have to go into the sordid details. That's for others to tell us. The process in himself left it generic. They didn't respond to me the way that I wanted. And so I found myself in grief and sadness. that's how he described it I found myself in grief and sadness and I didn't notice where I was until I reached Qarnat Tha'alib Qarnat Tha'alib is a place around 7-8 kilometers outside of the city of Ta'if now this is what he himself narrated about the incident of Ta'if we have more narrations from other people in this we learned so many things first and foremost even though Uhud was worse physically, in terms of the physical pain, almost death is reached, Ta'if was worse psychologically. The psychological trauma was worse. And we all know that a psychological trauma is more painful than a physical one. A trauma that hurts the soul, the heart, is more difficult than a physical one. And so the Prophet ﷺ said that yes, Ta'if was worse than Uhud. Also, notice what he said. And this is a great point of benefit here. He said, I didn't notice where I was until I reached Qarnathaalib. We in our times would call this being in a state of shock. A trauma has happened to him. We know what happens. He was stoned. He was stoned by the riffraff, the ruffians of the city. No doubt this is gonna be very painful physically and emotionally. And he doesn't even understand where he is because he's basically in a state of what we would call shock. right? so to be in a state of shock in and of itself is nothing wrong with that, the Prophet ﷺ said فَلَمْ أَشْعُرُ I had no idea where I was until I noticed I'm in قَرْنَ الْمَنَازِلِ which is miles outside of the city, therefore when something traumatic happens it's natural for us to react in this manner that we don't know what is happening but we recover our wits we get over it, like the Prophet ﷺ got over it, and another benefit, we already mentioned this the Prophet ﷺ did not tell us too many details. Because he doesn't want us to feel pity for him. These details are left for others to narrate to us. And were it not for the fact that Aisha asked him and prodded him, he wouldn't have said, the worst day that ever happened to me was life. He wouldn't have said this. A Muslim is not somebody who whines. A Muslim doesn't whine for sympathy. A Muslim doesn't victimize, oh, how poor we are. And this is an attitude, especially in the American Muslim community, we need to get over it. The Muslim is not a victimizer always putting the victim card out. It's not of the characteristics of having izzah for yourself. The Prophet ﷺ suffered worse than us and he didn't grovel for the sympathy even of those who looked up to him and respected him. Much less those who opposed him. So we need to learn our lesson from here as well. Our izzah comes from Allah not from groveling in front of others. And so just because Aisha asked him he opened up a little bit and he said, yes this was the worst day. Had his wife not asked him, he would never have opened up and even said this. Ibn Ishaq provides us many more details. And the story is well known too. This is one of the most famous stories of the seerah. We hear it when we are children. And it is a very well known and authenticated story that the Prophet ﷺ walked to Ta'if, which would take at least a day and a half or two days. And he presented himself to the leaders of Ta'if. And there were three brothers, Abd al-Yalil and Mas'ud and Habib, the sons of Amr. their father Amr had been the chieftain when their father died they made a strange treaty amongst themselves and they said we're not going to have any type of fighting all of us shall rule simultaneously all three brothers we will have a shura if you like amongst us and we will be the chieftains of the tribe of Thaqif of course I forgot to mention Ta'if was the tribe of Thaqif Mecca is the tribe of Quraysh Quraysh and Thaqif were the ones that are always in rivalry Quraysh and Thaqif So the leaders of Taqif are these three brothers all together. So, and one of them as we said had married a distant aunt of the Prophet ﷺ. So there's also a blood relation there. So the Prophet ﷺ sets up a meeting, tells them that he's in the town, he needs to talk to them. And so he presents himself to the three of them. And he presents the message of Islam and asks them to convert to this message. But all three of them rejected and they rejected in the utmost sarcastic manner. One of them said that if Allah has sent you as a prophet, I might as well tear down the curtains of the Ka'bah. Meaning in animosity and remorse. If Allah has chosen you, I might as well tear down the curtains of the Ka'bah. It's mockery. The second one said, I seek refuge with Allah. The second one said, has Allah not found anyone better than you? Has Allah not found anyone better than you? And the third one said, I cannot speak to you. Because if you really are a prophet, then you're too holy for me. And if you are, I seek refuge with Allah, a liar, then you are too beneath my dignity that I respond to you. So all three of them mocked him with the utmost mockery. and the Prophet ﷺ stood up to leave and said very well if you have rejected my message then at least do not tell the Quraysh of my visit notice here even to the end the Prophet ﷺ is tying his camel there is a plan don't go and tell them I have come or else it will make life even more difficult and it appears that they gave him this request and that the Quraysh did not hear about this immediately so they gave him this and this shows us as well that very well, okay, if you're going to reject me in this manner, the least that I ask you is, do not tell the Quraysh. Once again, it's a matter of sensibility, plotting. It's a matter of having a vision and a plan. And if this is our Prophet ﷺ having such a plan, making sure that he didn't just say, okay, I'm gonna put my trust in Allah. Putting your trust in Allah comes after you have a plan, after you have a vision. You do what you can and then you put your trust in Allah. And so he asked them, do not tell the others of my visit. Now, according to the more authentic reports, he didn't just leave Ta'if right then and there. Rather, he stayed there for around a week. He stayed there for around a week, trying to give, if the leaders rejected him, maybe some of the individuals would accept him. So he preached there for a week, and we have authentic reports of some of the later Muslims recalling from Ta'if, later converts recalling, I remember the Prophet ﷺ preaching in Ta'if, in the suq, in the marketplace. And nobody responded to his call. I.e. nobody converted to Islam. And in one such incident, when somebody might appear to have converted, this is what sparked the mob. The way that many of us know the story is that right after this he walked out of the city. What appears to be the case, Ibn Ishaq says he stayed in Ta'if for many days. And in another report, basically stayed around six or seven days. So even after the leaders rejected him, he stayed in the city approaching the laymen. And this is again a sign of wisdom. You approach those with power, with money, with status. You approach the politicians, the noblemen, but you don't ignore the masses. And we have said this many times before. that indeed to reject the lowly people is un-Islamic. But the concentration always begins with the people on top. With the people who have the clout. It's human nature that when somebody rich and famous converts, when somebody who is a powerful person converts, the masses follow. It's human nature. So we as Muslims as well, we look to those who are indeed the ones who are looked up to. And we give more emphasis to them. it is not un-Islamic to give more emphasis to them it is un-Islamic to ignore the common folk if they come to you عَبَسَ وَتَوَلَّىٰ أَن جَاوَ الْأَعْمَىٰ that would become un-Islamic but to emphasize the leadership this is Islamic completely and that's what the Prophet ﷺ did the first step, go to the leaders they rejected, go to the masses and he stayed there and then from what we gather and again there's only the reason why we have so few reports is the only Muslim that was with him was Zayd and Zaid of course dies in the battle of Mu'tah. Zaid does not live after the process and to tell us these stories, he might have told somebody a little bit. And so we have little bit of pieces here and there. We don't have the full story. What we can glean is that there was a potential of some people converting. Obviously the da'wah is going to, I mean it's inevitable. You preach the truth, somebody is gonna come. So there was a potential of some people converting. And that was when the leaders of Ta'if panicked. that was when they panicked and they sent the mob against the Prophet ﷺ they gathered together the rafraaf, the ruffians they gathered together you know the people who have nothing better to do and they told them they told these people to go and stone this man out of the city kick him out of the city so that he stops doing this preaching and so here is when the story that we are all familiar with that they came and they pelted him with stones and Zayd ibn Harithah tried his best to protect him. He himself was injured from head to toe. But how much can you protect when the both are running? And this was when the Prophet ﷺ bled and his sandals were soaked with blood. And there is no protection from an entire mob that is pelting them until finally they let him out of the city. And that was when as he's walking out of the city, he said, I didn't realize until I'm in Qarn al-Manazil. This is this period he's talking about. I didn't understand where I was, I don't have too many memories until I'm at Qarn al-Manazil. So for 7, 8 miles or kilometers, he is in what we would call a state of shock. And obviously what else would happen in this state, right? And he doesn't understand where he is until he reaches Qarn al-Manazil. And that is where we learn of the famous story as well, that the Prophet ﷺ, he saw some shelter, he saw some shade, he sat under a tree that was next to a garden wall, it was a wall that was the garden and he did not know that this garden belonged to Utbah ibn Abi Shaba that was a distant basically his father's second cousin and pause here many of the Quraysh had gardens outside of Ta'if because Ta'if is a very beautiful city Ta'if has luscious trees the climate of Ta'if is almost unheard of in Arabia only two or three places have a climate like Ta'if and the greenery of Ta'if and to this day Ta'if is a desert resort. In the middle of the desert, there is a resort. In the middle of the mountains, it's lush, it's green. Different trees and shrubs grow there because the climate is very different. And there's plenty of water because rain falls copiously on the mountain tops. And the soil is different. So you have different fruits and vegetation in Ta'if. In Ta'if you have, for example, grapes. And you have other fruits that you don't have in the city of Mecca or Yathrib or other places. So many of the people of the Quraysh had small little plots of land, their summer resort if you like, and of them was Utbah and his brother, the sons of Shaybah. And he was where the Prophet ﷺ sat down, and he said that famous dua, which is mentioned in the seerah of Ibn Ishaq. And this dua, as one of the scholars of our time says, that it doesn't need to have any isnad. The wordings of it, you know from the wordings, that this dua comes from the heart of a prophet. Because the fact of the matter is this dua does not have an isnad. Ibn Ishaq narrates it. It's not in Bukhari, it's not in Muslim. Ibn Ishaq narrates it and there's some missing links in it. But the dua is simply so perfect and so moving that as one of our modern scholars said, it doesn't need an isnad. The content is authentic enough to tell us that this comes from the heart of a prophet. And this dua is one that we should all ponder over and even memorize. اللهم إني أشكو إليك ضعف قوتي Oh Allah to you I complain of my weakness and strength. I don't have strength, my weakness. وهواني على الناس And my helplessness and lowliness before men. Oh Allah to you I complain of my weakness and my lowliness before men. أنت أرحم الراحمين وأنت رب المستضعفين وأنت ربي You are the most merciful of all those who have mercy. And you are the Lord of those who are humble. And you are my Lord. إِلَىٰ مَنْ تَكِلُنِي To whom do you leave me with, O Allah? Who else can I go to other than you? إِلَىٰ بَعِيدٍ يَتَجَهَّمُنِي To somebody who is a stranger, who is going to treat me harshly. أَمْ إِلَىٰ قَرِيبٍ مَلَّقْتَهُ أَمْرِي Or to a close relative, whom you have given power over me. Who are you going to leave me with? A stranger, like these people of Ta'if, who will treat me so harshly, or a close relative, who you have given ultimate power over me. إِلَّمْ تَكُنْ غَضْبَانَ عَلَيَّ فَلَأُبَالِي As long as you're not angry with me, then I don't care. غَيْرَ أَنَّ عَافِيَتَكَ أَوْسَعُ لِي Except for the fact that your protection from tribulation, your ease and comfort, this is more easy for me. غَيْرَ أَنَّ عَافِيَتَكَ أَوْسَعُ لِي Your ease is easier for me. اللهم إني أعوذ بوجهك Oh Allah, I seek refuge in your face. الَّذِي أَشْرَقَتْ لَهُ الظُّرُومَاتِ وَالصَّلُحَ عَلَيْهِ أَمْرُ الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ Your face, that is the source of all of the light that releases or that gets rid of the darkness. and because of which all of the affairs of this world and the next are rightly guided. أَنْ يَنْزِلَ بِغَضَبُكَ أَوْ يَحِلَّ بِسَخَطُكَ I seek refuge in your face, that your anger comes down upon me, or your wrath envelopes me. لَكَ الْعُتْبَى حَتَّى تَرْضَى It is your right to criticize until you are content. You have the right to criticize until you are content. وَلَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِكَ And there is no power or change except with you and through you. And this dua is really one of the gems of the seerah that deserves its own long commentary. And we'll summarize some bits of it here. That this dua, think about it from beginning to end. That the Prophet ﷺ is saying, that, O Allah, to you I complain of my weakness and my lowliness before men. To you I complain. and this shows us that there is a legitimate concept of complaining to Allah. We do not complain to men. We complain to Allah and this is a part of our Tawheed. And we have this in the Quran. Who is complaining to Allah in the Quran? Who is complaining to Allah in the Quran? Ya'qub a.s. Ya'qub a.s. إِنَّمَا أَشْكُوا بَثِّي وَحُزْنِي إِلَى اللَّهِ I am complaining of all of my grief and sorrow to Allah. When his children come and they try to irritate him, they try to ridicule him, for how long are you gonna remember Yusuf? And he tells them, I'm not wanting any sympathy from you. All of this that I'm saying, I'm complaining to Allah. Complaints to Allah are of two types. The first type is haram and even a type of kufr. And that is to reject the decree of Allah and to reject the wisdom of Allah. And this type of complaint is manifested in why? Why are you doing this O Allah? Or this should not happen. I don't deserve this. This type of complaint is not just a sin, it is kufr. And we have Iblis as the prime example of this. You did this O Allah, not me. رَبِّ بِمَا أَغْوَيْتَنِي You're the one who let me go astray. This type of complaint is kufr. The opposite of this is the essence of Tawheed. And that is, you complain to Allah, seeking refuge in Allah, from Allah, turning to Allah for Allah's sympathy. This is the essence of Tawheed. And this is shakwa ila Allah, not i'tirad anillah, which is a different thing. Shakwa ila Allah, which is the complaining to Allah to get Allah's mercy. and here is the example of this is Yaqub and our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that oh Allah I complain to you of my weakness look at me I'm complaining to you meaning I'm wanting your sympathy this is the meaning of complain the English word complain might not do justice here the meaning of shakwa here is ya Allah look at me help me please this is what the shakwa means not ya Allah why are you doing this that type of shakwa is never allowed so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is saying O Allah, I am complaining to you of my lowly status and my desperation and my lowliness before men. You are the one who is the most merciful. And you are the lord of the lowly and the weak. And you are my lord. Who else are you leaving me to? O Allah, this is the complaint. Who else are you leaving me to? I only have you. There is nobody else. Are you gonna give me to a stranger who will treat me like this? Or are you gonna give me to a relative whom you have given full power over me. Oh Allah, as long as you are not angry with me, I don't care. Everything is fine. But, and this is how perfect is the complaint here, right? But, your ease is easier for me. عَافِيَتَكَ أَوْسَعُ لِي Your ease is easier for me. As long as you're not angry, I'm happy. But, if you send me your ease, this is easier for me to bear. O Allah, seek refuge in your face that you are ever angry at me or your wrath ever descends upon me and indeed you have the right to criticize, to punish you have the right to do as you please I am your servant, I am in your control you may do as you please until you are content and indeed لا حول ولا قوة إلا بك there is no power or change except with you and through you notice here there is an element of Oh Allah, I'm worried, are you angry at me? This is, there's a clear element in the dua. After all that's happened to him, his main fear is not, why is there blood on his hand? Why is my shoes soaked with my own blood? That's not his main fear. His main fear is, have I done something wrong? Are you angry at me? As long as you're not angry, then I'm fine. And you have the right to criticize and punish. Again, because this is in his mind. Am I falling short here? So what is causing him distress is not the pain of the body, but the possibility of having done something to earn the displeasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so he seeks refuge in Allah's anger. O Allah, seek refuge in your face from ever being angry at me. أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِكَ That you're ever angry at me. That your عذاب ever descends upon me. As long as this is not your عذاب. If you're testing me, then I'm not going to complain. I'm not complaining. except that your ease is easier for me than this test. And even in asking for a substitute, there's a beautiful perfection of, if this is what you've decreed of Allah, and you're happy, then alhamdulillah, however, your afiyah is easier for me. Right? And this also shows, by the way, there is a misunderstanding among some groups of Islam, that we accept whatever Allah decrees for us. And this hadith shows, well not quite, not quite. Allah had decreed this for the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ is accepting it but he's saying, oh Allah, if you give me something easier is better. This is permissible, right? When somebody is in a, and this is a common motif of some strands of tasawwuf, of Sufism, that some strands of tasawwuf will say that the servant has no right to ever complain whatever the master gives him. You should be content with whatever happens. You're sick, your loved one is dying, your child is... Quiet and accept. But we find from the du'as that this is not the attitude of the prophets of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Every person is pained by the trials of Allah. And so we ask Allah to protect us from those trials and to lift those trials up. And so this type of rida that this group has is an incorrect understanding of rida. Rida means to be content. To be content means you don't challenge Allah's decree. But it doesn't mean that you don't ask for something better. You don't challenge, but you ask for something that is easier for you. As our Prophet ﷺ said. Also notice that he concludes with, وَلَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِكَ And this, as the Prophet ﷺ said, is a treasure from the treasures of Jannah. كَنْزٌ مِّنْ كُنُوزِ الْجَنَّةِ And it is a perfect conclusion. O Allah, only you can change my situation. La hawl. Only you can change my situation. And right now I have no power on this earth. Only you can give me that power. La hawla wa la quwwata illa bik. Any change that I want, any power that I want, it will come from you. Also notice, as is the common phrase, and it's a true phrase, that ad-du'a silahul mu'min. That du'a is the weapon of the believer. Here the Prophet ﷺ has been abandoned by his own people, the Quraysh. He doesn't have a city to go back to right now. How he enters Mecca we'll talk about in a while. He has no city to go back to. The sister city has made fun of him and rejected him. He is literally alone with no one other than his adopted son. That's all that he has. He does not even have money in his pocket or food in his belly, nothing. And so, what does he do? He makes dua. Dua is the weapon of the believer. As long as you have dua, you will find a way out. As long as you have dua, you will carve a way out of your problem. The mu'min is never trapped because the mu'min always has dua. And dua will grant what nothing else will grant. Dua is so powerful that as the Prophet ﷺ said, the only thing that changes qadr is dua. It even changes qadr. And that is another topic altogether. but dua is indeed the weapon of the believer. So the Prophet ﷺ says this dua under a tree next to a wall. And little does he know that this wall actually belongs to his distant uncles, Utbah and Shaybah ibn al-Rabi'ah. Utbah and Shaybah ibn al-Rabi'ah. And they had seen the Prophet ﷺ being pelted from the distance. They had seen the blood coming from him. They had seen him sitting down under that tree. and they felt pity for their blood relative. This was their cousins or their second cousin's son. This is a Qurashi, falla Qurashi. They felt pity for the Prophet ﷺ and they also felt a sense of حَمِيَّةَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةَ In other words, how could they do this to one of our own? How could the Thaqif do this to a Qurashi? And this is how they viewed the world. Everything is based upon tribalism. And so they decided to gift him some of the fruits of their orchard. And of course the Prophet ﷺ accepts gifts. And so they sent their servant whose name was Ad-Das. And Ad-Das was an Iraqi Christian. Ad-Das was an Iraqi Christian. And they sent their servant Ad-Das with some grapes. A bowl of grapes to the Prophet ﷺ. And notice here it is as if as soon as he says, O Allah, there is no power except from You. Right then and there, some of the most precious and the most energetic fruits come right in front of him. As if Allah responds instantaneously. And these fruits are not fruits that he is accustomed to in Mecca. These are of the most, I mean to this day, grapes are considered of the most soothing, of the most comforting fruits, of the most luscious. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just gives it to him right then and there. And so Adas comes to him and says, this is a gift from my master. And because he said it's a gift, then he can take it. Had he said sadaqah, sadaqah is of course not allowed for the Prophet ﷺ. So the Prophet ﷺ took it and he said, Bismillah. And he began eating. Adas was shocked and he goes, what is this phrase, Bismillah? This is not the phrase of the local Arabs, Bismillah. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, this is something that my Lord has taught me. And where are you from, O Adas? Meaning, he's saying this is not from the people of this land. It's not the phrase. Adas said, I am from Nineveh. I am from Nineveh. So the Prophet ﷺ smiled and he said, from the city of Yunus ibn Matta. Jonas, the son of Matthew. Yunus ibn Matta. Adas was shocked. and he said how did you know Yunus ibn Matta of what knowledge do you have of Jonah Yunus ibn Matta nobody in this whole land has ever heard of Yunus ibn Matta and the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam said how do I not know Yunus he is my brother and I am his brother we are both prophets of Allah and as soon as he said this this is a miracle because Yunus ibn Matta the Arabs have nothing to do with Jonah and the whale that is completely a separate branch of religion. And Adas is the only Christian in this whole land. Allah knows that. We don't know any information about Adas by the way. I looked up as much as we can. We don't have any information. How did he end up as a slave? How did he end up in Arabia? He is the only Christian, practicing actual Christian for hundreds of miles around. And here he meets a man, he knows what Nineveh is. And he's just shocked. Do you know what Nineveh is? Yes, that's the city of Jonas. You know who Jonas is? yes, the one of the will. And so, Adas instantaneously began kissing the feet of the Prophet ﷺ, as the Christians did to respect their elders and their rabbis and their priests. He began kissing the feet of the Prophet ﷺ, and he believed in him right then and there. The two masters are staring in shock that they send their slave with grapes, and all of a sudden he is kneeling and kissing and touching the Prophet ﷺ. And when he comes back, they tell him, وَيْحَكْ وَوْتُ يُوْ Why are you kissing his hands and his feet? And Adas said, Oh my master, there is no one on earth who is better than he is. No one on earth who is better than he is. For he told me things that only a prophet could know. He told me things that only a prophet could know. And they said to him, Oh Adas, he has bewitched you from your religion. your religion is better than his religion. And later on they tried to force Adas to fight in the battle of Badr. Because they actually died in the battle of Badr. These two they died in the battle of Badr. And they tried to force Adas to come with them. And Adas said, you want me to fight that man who was sitting under the trees? Wallahi the mountains could not harm him. And he refused to obey his own masters, which was unheard of, you don't disobey. He refused to obey his own masters and his own masters met their death at the battle of Badr. And after this, the narration in Bukhari continues. And this we now get to Bukhari. What I told you all the time before, this was from Ibn Ishaq. And Ibn Ishaq, as we said, there's a missing chain here. But inshallah, it's an authentic story, no problem there. We go back to the one of Bukhari and the Prophet ﷺ said, When I reached Qarn al-Manazil, at this stage now, فَرَفَعْتُ رَأْسِي I saw something in the heavens, I looked up. فَإِذَا أَنَا بِسَحَابَةٍ قَدْ azalatni. There was a cloud that had given me shelter. If the people rejected him and stoned him, Allah sent a cloud to protect him and shelter him from the sun. And in this cloud there was Jibreel. And Jibreel said to me that, Ya Muhammad your Lord has heard what your people have said to you and their rejection of you. And he has sent me with the Malakul Jibal. This hadith is in Bukhari. He has sent me with the Malak, or the angel of the mountains, to put at your disposal, and to do with as you please. Then he heard another voice. And he said, I am the Malakul Jibal. And the Malakul Jibal salam alayhi. He said salam to him. And then he said, Ya Muhammad s.a.w. Qul ma shi'ta. Say what you want. I am at your disposal. If you want, I can Ta'if is between two large mountains If you want, I can Squeeze the city in between the two mountains I am at your disposal So the Prophet ﷺ said The Prophet ﷺ said No, don't do this No, don't do this Rather, I hope that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will extract from their progeny, from their children, those who will eventually worship Him without associating partners with Him. So many lessons we can learn from this incident before we move on. First and foremost, the trials that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was inflicted with. All of this so that Allah could raise His ranks in this world and the next. so that Allah Azza wa Jal could tell us that the comfort of this world is not what we're living for. That the comfort of the Akhirah will only be given through the sacrifices of this world. And if this is the case with our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, then where exactly do we stand? Also look at the dua of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. A dua that while it is screaming out its iman, its faith in Allah, still the blame is being placed on himself. Oh Allah, maybe I did something wrong. Did I do something wrong? O Allah, as long as I didn't do wrong, then I am not worried. His main concern is the pleasure of Allah and not the suffering of his body. His main worry is that this might be a punishment from Allah. O Allah, I seek refuge in you from you sending me any punishment. And if it's not a punishment, he's satisfied. But he'd be even more satisfied with some extra mercy from Allah. And this is the perfection of Tawheed. Also notice here, the effects of being firm to your identity even under stress and grief. Here is the Prophet ﷺ, the blood has not yet dried on his skin. And Adas comes, and he shows who he is by simply saying, Bismillah. He's not hiding his identity. By simply following one small sunnah, it's not even wajib, right? By simply remembering Allah before eating, and being proud of this identity. one simple act of Bismillah led to the conversion of Ad-Das obeying Islam always brings about good in this world and the next not being embarrassed of your religion being proud and practicing whatever faith Allah has given you practice it and inshallah ta'ala even a Bismillah can lead to a conversion look as well how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala responded to what has happened first by sending him someone from Iraq. Now Iraq is like the furthest land known to the Arabs at the time, right? This is the furthest land known. There is a symbolism here that Ya Rasulullah, even if your own people and the people that are closest to you, Ta'if and Mecca, have rejected you, know Ya Rasulullah that you are upon the truth. And even a person from the furthest world, from the furthest corners of this land, even these people will recognize your truth and a time will come when his people as well the people of Iraq and the people of all of those far away lands will recognize this there is a symbolism here that even if the near have rejected you now the far shall accept you soon and that's exactly what happened with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and see as well how immediately Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala responded physically and spiritually physically by sending the fruits and the grapes spiritually by sending Jibreel down. Right then and there. Allah responded to the dua and the plea immediately. Giving him food, sheltering him with the clouds. That's another physical thing. And then sending Jibreel down to command him, what do you want? Here is the Malak of the Jibal. Here is the Malak of the angels. Do as you please. And see as well, the response of the Prophet ﷺ. It has barely been a few days since that sarcasm has been ringing in his ears. If you're a prophet, I might as well tear down the walls of the Ka'bah. If you're a prophet, I cannot speak to you. If you're telling the truth, you're too big. If you're telling a lie, you're too low. Hasn't Allah found someone other than you? These words must have been ringing in his ears. And if not to make matters worse, his blood is still soaking on his skin. The shoes are still wet. And now the angel comes and says, do as you please. Here is the tools. It's at your service and disposal. The miracle, brothers and sisters, is not that Allah sent the angel down to be at his service. The miracle is not that the angel says, I can crush the two mountains. No, Allah, this is not the miracle. The real miracle is that the Prophet ﷺ after such a rejection, and after this bleeding, and after this physical and emotional trauma and stress, still has the mercy in his heart to say, bal no, don't do that. That is the real miracle. To save the people of Ta'if. not even these generations but perhaps there shall come a generation after them that will worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if this is not rahmatan lil alameen then what is rahmatan lil alameen if this is not wa innaka la ala khuluqin azeem that you are upon the most noble characteristic then where is the characteristics what type of man is this that after wallahi brothers and sisters if somebody says one word to me or you we don't even want to speak to them we don't even want to look at them We don't want to say salam to them. If somebody says one mockery, one sarcastic joke, we will remember it for 10 years. Imagine our Prophet ﷺ suffering such a severe manner, and it's still fresh, and he still becomes the man, and he still becomes who he is, the rahmatal lil alameen, and he makes dua that one day this city will be a Muslim city. And indeed, our Prophet ﷺ himself was the one who barely 10 years after this incident reconquered Ta'if. In the battle of Hunayn, after the conquest of Mecca, he was the one who reconquered Ta'if. And many of the people at that city, alive at the time, eventually converted to Islam. And to this day, Ta'if is now one of the most visited tourist resorts by Muslims in that land now. Ta'if is considered to be a tourist resort. You have all of these fancy hotels and tourist places and what not. and anybody who has been to Ta'if, you will see an amazing city there. Amazing city. If Allah had willed, if the Prophet ﷺ had willed, because Allah gave it to the Prophet ﷺ, do as you please. If he had willed, there would be no city. But subhanAllah, instead of that, and I have been to Ta'if myself, the very place where the Prophet ﷺ was stoned, that very place has been made into a masjid where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is worshipped. This is what you call rahmatan lil alameen. And this is what you call the dua of the Prophet ﷺ being responded to. That, oh Allah, maybe their children will accept Islam. And not only did they all accept Islam, but the city is full of masajid. Even the place where he ﷺ tortured is now a place where Allah ﷻ is worshipped day and night, five times a day. See as well, we already mentioned this, that the immediate reaction of the Prophet ﷺ, that he is in a state of shock. He doesn't know what's going on. And he only recognizes himself and what is happening when he reaches Qarnat Ta'alib. And as we said, this is many miles outside of Ta'if. And therefore, when something traumatic happens, to withdraw a bit is natural. To feel a sense of shock, it's natural. But you don't let the shock remain forever. You get over it and you move on. And you think rationally, you don't act emotionally. The Prophet ﷺ did not react emotionally. He reacted long term. And this as well is a lesson for us, that we use our intellects and our wisdom. And if we don't know, we turn to those who have knowledge. We ask our ulama and see the long-term benefits. Wallahi brothers and sisters, things happen daily, on a daily basis, that make our blood boil. Make our blood boil. Whether it's national news, whether it's foreign policy, whether it's another thing. We do not act emotionally. We don't react emotionally. We react like the Prophet ﷺ, which is calm, collect and long term. Also brothers and sisters, here we see that in this incident, there is a role model for us for every problem that we suffer, for every rejection, for every Islamophobia. Surely what happened to the Prophet ﷺ is much worse than what can happen to anybody else. And when we see how the Prophet ﷺ reacted in this, we find, لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنًا There is a perfect role model in the Prophet ﷺ. So we find that the incident of Ta'if, although it might not have been what we call a political success, it resulted in many things. It resulted in the conversion of Ad-Das. And this one conversion, the Prophet ﷺ said, if Allah guides one man through you, it is worth many hundreds of camels. It resulted in the conversion of Ad-Das. And it was not the only group who converted. On the way back to Mecca, The Prophet ﷺ camped outside of Mecca in a small grove, in a small desert grove, in the valley of Nakhla, which is still present to this day, in the valley of Nakhla. And as was his habit, he stood up to pray tahajjud. He stood up to pray tahajjud. No matter how tired he was, he has not yet taken a bath from the wounds. The wounds are still on his body. The scars have not yet healed. he is still not yet home he is in journey for the last 10 days Ibn Ishaq said the whole journey back and forth lasted 10 days and yet he never once gave up his act of tahajjud subhanallah after all that has happened he never forgets his relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there is nobody there it's the middle of the night it's a cold desert his blood has not yet dried from his skin and been taken away and yet he never forgets tahajjud. Our Prophet ﷺ never left tahajjud even when he was in safar, even when he was bleeding, even when he was injured, even when it was freezing cold in the middle of the desert. He never once gave up his tahajjud. If that was the case with his tahajjud, look at the fact that most of us can barely make it five times a day, fard salah in our comforts that we live in. So our Prophet ﷺ stood up for tahajjud and he began reading his Qur'an in tahajjud, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told us what happened. And had He not told us, we would never have known. Because what happened is another miracle. What happened is a miracle that the eyes of men cannot witness. And only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could have told us. What happened is what Allah mentions in surah al-ahqaf. وَإِذْ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that, وَإِذْ أَرْسَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ وَإِذْ وَإِذْ صَرَفْنَا إِلَيْكَ وَإِذْ صَرَفْنَا إِلَيْكَ نَفَرًا مِّنَ الْجِنِّ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقُرْآنِ When we caused a group of jinn to pass by you, and they started listening to the Qur'an. وَإِذْ صَرَفْنَا إِلَيْكَ نَفَرًا مِّنَ الْجِنِّ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقُرْآنِ Allah is saying, these jinn didn't just come out of nowhere, I had a plan. And I had sent them in that area, in other words, Allah knows where they're going. And Allah had caused their travel plans to go, such that they are wandering right next to the Prophet ﷺ as he's standing in the middle of the night praying tahajjud. وَإِذْ صَرَفْنَا إِلَيْكَ نَفَرًا مِّنَ الْجِنِّ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقُرْآنِ فَلَمَّا حَضَرُوهُ قَالُوا أَنصِطُوا When they were in your presence and they heard this Qur'an, they all said, quiet, listen. If the world of men had rejected him, the world of jinn says, quiet, listen. If the world of the people of Ta'if had mocked him, the world of the jinn stopped dead on its track. And they said, stop and listen. قَالُوا أَنصِطُوا فَلَمَّا قُضِيَ Once you finished your tahajjud, so they listened to the whole tahajjud of the Prophet ﷺ. And that tahajjud as we know, was not like our tahajjud. It was a real tahajjud, two, three hours long, minimal. And when they finished, فَلَمَّا قُضِيَ وَلَّوْا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِمْ مُنذِرِينَ They were transformed not just into Muslims, they became warners and scholars and da'is to their own people. Not just Muslims. وَلَّوْا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِمْ Not Muslimin, منذرين. They became many messengers guiding their people. And they returned all the way back to their people. And they said, قَالُوا يَا قَوْمَنَا إِنَّا سَمِعْنَا كِتَابًا أُنزِلَ مِن بَعْدِ مُوسَىٰ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ يَهْدِي إِلَىٰ الْحَقِّ وَإِلَىٰ طَرِيقٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ يَا قَوْمَنَا أَجِيبُوا دَاعِيَ اللَّهِ وَآمِنُوا بِهِ They said, O our people, we have heard of a book that has come after the book of Musa. And it is calling people to righteousness and guidance. O our people, respond to the caller of Allah and believe in Him. And this shows us, by the way, that these jinn were in fact Jewish jinn. They had believed in Musa and the Torah. and we know that the jinns follow the religions of men. There are Jewish jinns, there are Hindu jinns, Christian jinns, Buddhist jinns, there are Muslim jinns. The jinns follow the religions of men. And so these were Jewish jinns. And when they heard the religion or the Quran, they knew that this was from the same being who had sent down the Torah. And so they converted and they went to their people calling them to Islam. And therefore, there is a huge symbolism here from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that is that, Ya Rasulullah, even if all of mankind right now, you think they have rejected you, the world beyond mankind has accepted you. And that is the world of the jinn. Even if the people of Mecca have rejected you, the people of Iraq from the furthest corner, know you are upon the truth. These two conversions are not out of the blue. There is a huge symbolism here. That the furthest corners of this world and beyond this world. And that is the world of the jinn. And this was the first batch of jinn converts to Islam. And there were many other jinn converts as well. And these very people, they went to their people, and their people converted to Islam. And they came back to Mecca, while the Prophet ﷺ was in Mecca. And they wanted to learn Islam from him. And we know this from the companion Ibn Mas'ud. Ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala was asked by his student Al-Qamah was anybody there when the Prophet ﷺ experienced the Laylatul Jin it is called the Laylatul Jin this hadith is in Sahih Muslim did anybody amongst you witness the Laylatul Jin there is two reports the first one is in Sahih Muslim and it goes as follows Ibn Mas'ud said no, nobody was there one night we were with the Prophet ﷺ he was salam, and then he disappeared. We didn't know where he was. One night we were with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and then he disappeared. And we started looking for him everywhere, fil awdiyati wa sh-sha'ab, in the valleys and in the nooks and crevices, we're looking for him. And we could not find him. And we thought that he had been kidnapped or assassinated. And we spent the worst night of our lives. Can you imagine? the Prophet ﷺ just disappears instantaneously you're around him and you're wondering, you're wondering and they could not find him until when the morning broke we saw him coming from the direction of Ghari Hira so this is in Mecca because Hira is in Mecca from the direction of Ghari Hira so they said, Ya Rasulullah, where were you? we missed you, we couldn't find you faqadnak, where were you? and so the Prophet ﷺ said da'ani ataani da'in minal jinn that one of the callers of the jinn came to me. One of the callers of the jinn came to me telling me there's a congregation waiting for you. So I went out to meet with them. And I recited Qur'an to them. He said, do you want to come with me to see the remnants? They said, of course. So Ibn Mas'ud said, he walked with us and he showed us their campsite. He showed us the fires that they had lit and the after effects. You know when the people leave, there's always some things left behind. So he showed us the after effects of that, even though of course the sahaba were right there. They didn't see it. All of this is happening, and they don't see it, because this is the world of the jinn. This is the version of Sahih Muslim. There's another version in Mustadrak al-Hakim, which gives slightly different details, and perhaps we can reconcile between them, or perhaps there are two separate instances. Allah knows how to say this. Whether there are two separate instances, or whether it's the same one. And Ibn Mas'ud is simply giving two slightly different versions. And that is that the Prophet ﷺ once while he was in Mecca, he said, whoever wants to come with me to be with the matter of the jinn, amr al-jinn can come with me. So Ibn Mas'ud said, I was the only one who went. So in this report he's saying, I went with him. And we started walking until we came to a valley outside of Mecca and he drew a line in the sand. the Prophet ﷺ. And he said, sit here and do not move from this spot until I come back. Do not cross this line. Do not move beyond this spot until I come back. And so the Prophet ﷺ continued walking and he recited Qur'an. He started reciting Qur'an and black clouds started appearing around him until he disappeared into those black clouds until I could hear him but I could not see him. I could hear him, but I could not see him. And there was a whirling of clouds around him, until it just disappeared in front of my eyes. And one group of these clouds remained in the distance, but the Prophet ﷺ was gone. I couldn't see him. So basically the group split up. Some remained, and some took the Prophet ﷺ somewhere. And I waited until Fajr. And then I saw the Prophet ﷺ come back, and when he came back he said where is the other group of jinn so Ibn Masud pointed to the clouds in the distance and said it's over there so the Prophet ﷺ gave them some bones and some and some animal dung so the droppings of camels and he told them that these bones would be food for them and the animal dung would be food for their animals now this portion of the hadith is mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim and in many different portions And that is that the Prophet ﷺ said that the jinn basically asked him, where will we get our food from? Where will we get our food from? So the Prophet ﷺ said, every bit of bone that my ummah eats and mentions Allah's name over, every bone shall become flesh for you. So whatever meat that we eat, while we say Bismillah or we sacrifice an animal, we say, Bismillah, we eat the meat. But then there is another type of meat in another world beyond our senses where the Muslim jinns can eat of this meat. Because you see, the reason why the jinns are asking this is because the shayateen eat that over which Allah's name has not been mentioned. The shayateen eat of that meat. And so the shayateen eat haram meat basically. So the Muslim jinns said, now that we've accepted Islam, where will our food come from? So the Prophet ﷺ gave them the counter, that from now on any Muslim who eats anything that food will become food for you. And the animal droppings of the animals that the Muslims have, they will become they will be transformed into the food for your animals. And therefore this shows us by the way, that even the jinns have animals. So there's something called animal jinns as well. There's the jinns of the animals. There's species that Allah has created to help the jinns in their whatever they need. Allahu a'lam what it is. So, of course here the symbolism, I've already mentioned it, and that is if the people of Mecca and Ta'if rejected him, then the people of faraway lands and the jinns acknowledge his truth. And there's another symbolism here as well. And that is the people of Mecca might be able to prevent some from accepting Islam. Ta'if can put up a barrier between you and them. But who is gonna prevent you from giving the da'wah to the jinns? Who's gonna chain up the jinns and torture them? Who's gonna tell you to not speak to the jinn? So there's a symbolism here, that your power is not going to be contained by the men. Your power in the truth will be spread beyond this, nobody can prevent the spread of the truth. So there's a lot of beautiful symbolism here, in the story of Ad-Das and the story of the jinn, that really is a perfect timing of this incident happening, and one more very important incident and then inshallah we'll take our Q&A and that is how did the Prophet ﷺ re-enter Mecca? We already said that by turning his back and walking out, he's basically cutting off. Officially, Abu Lahab has left him in a grey area. We already explained. Abu Lahab has left him in a grey area. What is he gonna do now? By walking out of Mecca and disappearing for 10 days, khalas, the fate is sealed now. This is basically exit, no re-entry. that's basically a stamp now you have accepted your fate that Abu Lab has given you and he put his trust in Allah and went to Ta'if and Ta'if turned out to be as well nothing so now he was basically in limbo his adopted son Zaid asked him Ya Rasulullah how are we going to enter Mecca now that you have been expelled from it in other words what are we going to do now Ya Rasulullah now that you have been expelled how are we going to re-enter Mecca. He said, Ya Zayd, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make a way out for us. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will help his prophet and make his message supreme. Nasirun rasulahu wa mudhirun deenahu. Oh Zayd, I don't know what's gonna happen, but I know one thing, that Allah is not gonna abandon us. That's basically what he's saying. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I know that Allah will help us. And subhanallah, look at this point now. There is no Mecca, there is no Ta'if, he is literally camped in the middle of the desert. And he says, I know, that's his tawakkul. There is where tawakkul comes into play. I did everything I could. Now sub to Allah. I didn't make fall short in anything. And the Prophet ﷺ then began sending emissaries to two or three allies within Quraysh that he thought might be sympathetic to his call. The first of these was Al-Akhnas ibn Shuraik. And Al-Akhnas ibn Shuraik sent a message back saying that, I'm not in a position to give you protection. What's happening here, you understand? Banu Hashim has rejected him. Abu Lahab has rejected him. So he doesn't have the visa. He doesn't have protection. He needs to get protection. If the Banu Hashim have rejected him, there are 15 other sub-tribes of the Quraysh. Perhaps one of them might accept. Obviously not the Banu Makhzum. Who's in charge of the Banu Makhzum? Abu Jahl and Al-Walid, right? So he didn't even send, obviously. So of these, basically, how many sub-tribes did the Quraysh have? At least 15, maybe 20. So the Banu Hashim is only one. The Banu Umayyah is another. The Banu Abd al-Shams is another. So the Banu Makhzum is another. So there's around 15 or 20 sub-tribes of the Quraysh. The Prophet ﷺ first sends it to one of the sub-tribes. Response comes back, we're in a weak position. We cannot give it to you. he sends it to Suhail ibn Amr Suhail ibn Amr is the same one who negotiated the treaty of Hudaybiyah Suhail ibn Amr by the way Al-Akhnas eventually becomes a Muslim Suhail ibn Amr eventually becomes a Muslim and this shows us that the Prophet ﷺ is not sending it to random people these are people he knows they sympathize with him because they eventually accept Islam these are people he knows they are different than Abu Lahab and Al-Walid and Abu Jahl so he sends it to Suhail ibn Amr Suhail ibn Amr sends back that I am Banu Amr ibn Lu'ay and Banu Amr ibn Lu'ay have never given protection for somebody from the Banu Ka'b I don't want to start a precedent in other words they both gave flimsy excuses both of these are not true excuses the Prophet ﷺ knows what he's doing and if they wanted to they could have given him protection now in the fact that they give a flimsy excuse it shows that their animosity is not the same as the animosity of Abu Jahl and others, right? I mean, when do you give a flimsy excuse? When you're embarrassed, correct? When you're embarrassed, when you know you should do something. And so the Prophet ﷺ knows exactly where he's sending the emissary. So the both of them come back basically with a polite rejection, basically. And then he sends it to the third one, and that is Mut'im ibn Adi. Mut'im ibn Adi, we've come across his name before. and this is basically the last time we're going to come across his name because he dies very shortly after this. Mu'tam ibn Adi is the chieftain of the Banu Nawfal ibn Abdi Manaf. The Banu Nawfal, another sub-tribe. The Banu Nawfal ibn Abdi Manaf and he's the only one who died a pagan in this list of three. He's the only one who died a non-Muslim. Who is the Mu'tam ibn Adi? Mu'tam ibn Adi was the main one who broke the... What did he break? The boycott. He broke the boycott. This is Muttam ibn Adi. Who is Muttam ibn Adi? Muttam ibn Adi is the one who would send camels when they were in that boycott, right? He would send an entire camel. That's like, you know, in our times, $50,000 is a camel. It's a massive amount of money. And the camel has food and drinks and water and stuff. So he's sending another 10,000, 20,000 of good on the camel. This is Muttam ibn Adi. This is Muttam ibn Adi. So Muttam ibn Adi, he sent a message, the Prophet ﷺ is saying that, will you give me your ajid, your protection? He knows the whole story. And so, Mut'im doesn't just send a messenger back. Mut'im tells his sons, he has four sons. Mut'im tells his sons, go arm yourselves, put your armor on. Get your weapons. And go and follow the messenger back. And come as armed guards, guarding the Prophet ﷺ, and bring him straight back to me. and so an entourage of the sons of Mut'im ibn Adi went outside of Mecca all of them dressed to fight and they came in with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, protected and Mut'im went to the Ka'bah to receive him and he said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, do tawaf I'm waiting for you, because he knew that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam always began everything with tawaf do tawaf, I'm waiting for you so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam did tawaf armed, the guard is doing tawaf with him, to guard him, right? And then when he finishes, everybody's wondering, what is going on here? Mut'im stands up and he says, O people of Mecca, I have given my protection to Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Abu Sufyan stood up and said, are you his follower, or are you giving protection basically still as a pagan? He didn't say as a pagan, but are you a follower? Or are you just giving a protection? So he said, no, I'm not a follower, I'm just giving protection. Abu Sufyan said, in that case we shall accept it. Notice, if he had converted to Islam, no. The Quraysh would have rejected it. And in this there is wisdoms of why certain people did not convert to Islam. And so the Prophet ﷺ remained under the protection of Mut'im for another year and a half, less than two years, as we're gonna come to, right? But he knows this is a very precarious situation. This is not his immediate tribe. It's not the Banu Hashim, it's a distant cousin. And he remained in the protection of Mut'im, and he kept on figuring out another way, another way, another way, until finally Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opened for him the door of Medina, and he left surreptitiously in the middle of the night, as we're gonna come to, and within a month or two after the hijrah, Mut'im passed away. Mut'im died. And therefore in the very first encounter, when the Prophet ﷺ engaged in the battle of Badr and 70 plus prisoners of war, 73 prisoners of war were taken hostage, were taken as POWs. The Prophet ﷺ said that one badge of honor that forever remains until the day of judgment. لو كان مطعم حياً ثم كلمني في هؤلاء النتنا لأعطيتهم إياه If مطعم had been alive right now and he just gave me one word, that he wanted all of these natna, these filth because they're just trying to kill us. He wanted all of these people back. I would have returned them to him, no questions asked. This is a badge of honor. This is a parade. This is a medal given here. The Prophet ﷺ is praising Mut'im who died a pagan, kafir, mushrik. He's praising him in a manner that hardly any Muslim has ever gotten. Right? But he's not praising him religiously. He's praising him politically. And in this wallahi so much benefit. Not all non-Muslims are the same. You have non-Muslims, they might be kafir, but they have truth and justice when it comes to political rights, civic duties. They might not believe in the same God as you, but they believe in some type of justice. And this is mut'im, one of them. And there's no problem in honoring them from a worldly sense. The Prophet ﷺ didn't go pray his janazah. The Prophet ﷺ didn't make dua for him, he drew a line. Look, religion is religion. But there's a civic honor given to him. There's a pride, there's a repaying back of the good that you've given me. And the only way I can repay back is to mention you in a way that until the day of judgment there will be some respect and some looking up to you with sympathy even if you're being punished for your beliefs. But there will be some looking up to for and some honor that the Prophet ﷺ gave him. Look, just one word I'll give all of these people back to him and indeed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said in hadith in Bukhari Allah can help his religion through a kafir inna allaha lay yudha hadad dina bil rajul al-fasiq bil rajul al-kafir bil rajul al-fajr, all of these jawahirat are there that Allah helps this religion through people who are evil Mut'im might have been evil in his religion but in his other affairs he was a good man and he wanted truth and he wanted the tribalism that he believed in was a good type of tribalism. Therefore brothers and sisters, the fact of the matter is, we need to form relationships with the mut'ims of our times. We need to look around, who are the mut'ims of our times? Who are those that are standing up for civil liberties? Who are those that are standing up for freedom? Who are those that are telling the masses out there, don't be scared of these people, they're not terrorists, they're not evil, we are our mut'ims. And when we find them, we form allegiance, We form relationships. We praise them. They praise us. But we have the line. We don't praise the religion. Many of these are whatever. They might be atheists. They might be anything. Not a problem, brothers and sisters. Not a problem. Here is mut'im. And mut'im is an idol worshipper. Right? In our times, brothers and sisters, I'm gonna shock you by saying this, but wallahi sometimes, some of these groups that want to support our rights, they have a lot of evil that we don't like. For example, many times it's the homosexuals, many times it's the gay movement. Because they have been persecuted, right, by the other people, they are the ones who are very vocal about types of discrimination. And the fact of the matter is, a lot of times they're supporting the same civil rights that we're supporting, right? And a lot of Muslims balk and draw the line, No, no, how can we get their help? How can we do this and that? If you can get the help of an idol worshipper, then there is no sin that is worse than idol worshipping. No matter what the other sins are, you're not approving of their religion, you're not approving of their lifestyle, you're simply coming together on something that is agreed upon by both parties. And the fact of the matter is, their freedoms are our freedoms, and our freedoms are their freedoms. This is the fact of the matter. The same freedom that gives others the right to be different from mainstream society, it is also the freedoms that allows us to be free in this country as well. It's a very difficult, touchy subject, But it needs to be said. Especially in the pressures that we're living in. We are a minority in this land. We are a minority. And unless we form relationships with as many Mu'tami bin Adiz as possible, this is called tying your camel. Tawakkul is in Allah, yes. But we need to have a vision and a plan. And in this story, it clearly shows us that if Allah Azza wa Jal expected His Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam to get the help of other people, and then He gave him the help, How about us? And one final point here. Notice, and this is subhanallah so pertinent. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is all alone outside of Mecca. He's already got two rejections. Twice the visa is denied. He could have done something else. What could he have done? Well, he could have tried another third city. Ta'ifah said, no, khalas, go somewhere else. Turn your back and try another city. There are plenty of, ardullahi wasi'a. he could have even decided to live his life as a hermit somewhere you'll eke out an existence, find an oasis somewhere and live he could have even emigrated to the land of Abyssinia where Najashi he knew would have accepted him, correct? he knew Najashi would have accepted him but he still wants to live in Mecca, the land of persecution, why? because in the end of the day, this is his land, this is his people this is his family everything is around that he is familiar with. Despite the pain, despite the suffering, despite the persecution, there is no other place he calls home. Correct? And so he keeps on trying his best to remain there, and he only leaves when literally it becomes a matter of life and death. Isn't there such parallels to us right here? There's nothing haram, brothers and sisters. Don't let anybody make you feel guilty. there's nothing haram for us to want to remain here despite all the persecution despite all what is this? this is persecution compared with the Prophet ﷺ let's not even use the word Allah is an insult right? despite the minor irritation right? this is what we'll call it right? despite the minor irritation and there are clerics beyond who say you should feel guilty for wanting to remain here right? I don't feel guilty I'll tell you I have no guilt at all I think this is my Islamic duty to remain looking at the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, seeing his situation. Wallahi if he wanted to get back into Mecca, one time, two times, three times he's trying. Right? How about us? If something happens to one of our brothers and he wants to be deported, not a problem. You go to the courts, you battle it out. Even if you disagree with so many things, in the end of the day, at least for me, this is my land. This is my people. These are my nation. This is the place I feel the most comfortable. And this is the reality that I think the bulk of us here, and especially all those who have been born and raised here, and all those who have lived here for more than a decade or two, this is where we feel comfortable being. And there's nothing wrong whatsoever, and it's not un-Islamic to have a sense of loyalty, a sense of relationship and camaraderie, even with those who are persecuting you. That's exactly what our Prophet ﷺ went through. InshaAllah with this, we will not be able to have time for questions. InshaAllah next Wednesday, inshaAllah we'll have one question no no this is not that's another one that's another one inshallah with this we will

Seerah 2 - Specialities of Prophet Muhammad Part 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ May 2011-udjM4dBVicE

Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala amma ba'd. In our last halaqah, in our last weekend, or last Wednesday when we began, we began talking about the khasais or the specialities of our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And we mentioned around 15 of them and the fact of the matter is that they are closer to 50 special things that only he was given and no other person was given. Today inshallah ta'ala we will continue talking about his characteristics and his appearances and his mannerisms. And as I told you last week, the purpose of this is to give you a little bit of a taster of the seerah. We're not going to begin the actual life for another 2-3 weeks. But I want to give you a little bit of a taster, a little bit of a summary if you like, a bird's eye view. So we get the summary of who exactly our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was. And we will begin today by talking about his physical appearance. How he used to look, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And realize that it is the sunnah of Allah. It is the custom of Allah. that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends prophets and messengers with the most perfect characteristics, inner and outer. And the reason he does so, is so that mankind has no reason to reject this messenger. Every messenger has come with the most perfect characteristics, the most perfect mannerisms, and also perfect images as well. So the prophets as a general rule are all handsome, in nature. And they are all with beautiful characteristics. And as we know, the Prophet Yusuf a.s. was given half of all beauty. And some scholars say that half of all beauty means half of all beauty of mankind. And this is the majority opinion. But there is another opinion as well, and I'm just mentioning this because to tell you there is another opinion there. And that is some scholars say that when the Prophet s.a.w. said half of beauty, he actually meant half of his own beauty. This is one opinion as well. He actually meant that half of his own beauty. Because according to this opinion, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is the most handsome and the most jamal of the entire creation. He has the greatest jamal of the whole creation. And so they say when he is saying he's been given nisfal husn or half shatral husn is the hadith, half of beauty. Some scholars have interpreted this to mean half of his own sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's beauty. And we have many characteristics that have been described, the physical features of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And some of the more beautiful ones are for example, Ar-Rubayy binti Mu'awwith, one of the Sahabiyat. When her son asked her, what was the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam like? This is later on after he has passed away, and she is now an old lady. So people are coming to eagerly describe the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so all she could say, and this is reported in Al-Tabarani's Kabir and also Al-Bukhari's Book al-Manaqib. All she could say was, Ya Abu Nih, O my dear son, if you were to have seen him, you would have thought that the sun had risen up. It's all he could describe, I don't know how to describe it to you. If you were to have seen him, you would have thought that the sun has now risen up. This is the rising sun. And it is amazing that Rubai' describes him as a sun, beautiful sun. Ka'b ibn Malik describes him as a moon. Ka'b ibn Malik, another famous companion, he said that whenever the Prophet ﷺ was happy, his face would light up as if it was the full moon. And it is beautiful that the Sahaba are describing the Prophet ﷺ with what they know to be the most beautiful. And that is the sun and the moon. So we have one sahabi as she's saying he's like the sun shining Another one is saying he's like the full moon And one of my favorite introductions if you like to this whole topic We're not actually describing him yet We're simply saying how the sahaba could not describe him They couldn't describe how handsome he was Because it was too much for them And my favorite tradition of Allah it is a tradition It almost makes you want to cry when you listen to this And this is the beautiful tradition of Amr ibn al-As Amr ibn al-As is this sahabi Amr ibn al-As used to be of the leaders of the Quraysh who were against Islam. Amr ibn al-As is of the Malak, he's of the noblemen who rejected Islam. He's like Abu Sufyan, he's like Khalid ibn Walid, this category of people who were noble enemies. They weren't evil enemies, right? What I mean by this, you cannot compare them to Abu Lahab, to Abu Jahl. These are the vulgar enemies. There was a group of people, they opposed Islam, but they didn't stoop to dirty tactics. And the amazing thing by the way, and we'll talk about this later on. Allah guided all of them to Islam. And this shows that amongst the kuffar, there are two categories. Those who have a good heart, you say this, well Allah we can say this, that they had a good heart. And because they had a good heart, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Ikrimah the son of Abu Jahal, Amr ibn al-As, right? Abu Sufyan. Their hearts, they had amount of good in them. They had nobility. But they opposed Islam. And Allah guided all of them to Islam. Because, عَلِمَ اللَّهُ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ خَيْرًا Allah knew there was good in their hearts, right? Whereas the others, they weren't like this. So Amr ibn al-'As is of those who converted to Islam very late. And he only had the opportunity to be a sahabi, basically for a few years, two years or so, or a little bit more than two. And later on in his life, and he lived a life of political career, he lived a life of grandeur and majesty, he became the vizier of Muawiyah, he lived a grand life. Amr ibn al-'As later on would say, that there was nothing that was more sweeter to me, more beloved to me than to stare at the face of the Prophet ﷺ. Now I want you to pause here. This is not how a man talks usually, right? There was nothing more beloved to me than to stare at the face of another person. It's not how a man talks. But the beauty of the Prophet ﷺ is so overpowering. His jamal, his nur is so great that Amr ibn al-As is saying, there was nothing that I got more peace from, more serenity from, more ahla, there was nothing sweeter than to simply look at the face of the Prophet ﷺ. And yet, and he said, and I could never get enough of looking at him. I never got tired. There was no malal, I never got tired of looking at him. And yet, were you to ask me how he looked, I couldn't describe him. were you to ask me how he looked I couldn't describe him why? he said because along with this desire to stare at him there was also this awe, this reverence that I had that couldn't allow me to just stare directly at him and I'd have to lower my face in other words there are two emotions if you like there's two powers if you like, I don't like being metaphysical but there's two types of powers emanating from the Prophet ﷺ. The first of them, he's attracting Amr's vision to him. And the second is that awe, that overpoweringness, that Amr cannot stare directly. This is Rasulullah ﷺ. How can you stare at him? You have to sit with dignity. You have to sit with what we call in Arabic, haybah and waqar. You show a type of dignity in front of the Prophet ﷺ. And therefore he's saying, even though I love to stare, I couldn't stare. and because of this I'm always battling between these two emotions I really cannot do justice in describing the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam it's a beautiful hadith that shows us and this is coming from somebody he is a nobleman of the Quraysh and yet this is how humbled he was just by the appearance just by the shakl if you like just by the surah of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and if Amr ibn al-As could not stare at him as much as he desired, and this is a beautiful point by the way as well most of the descriptions of the Prophet they come from the younger Sahaba not from the older Sahaba, and of the greatest or the most explicit descriptions is from Anas ibn Malik who was a little kid so Anas does not have the same type of, if you like, emotions that the elder Amr ibn al-As has and Anas ibn Malik he was introduced to the Prophet ﷺ when he was seven years old. His mother came to him and she gifted her son as a servant. And basically Anas would wake up and run to the Prophet ﷺ house, stay there all day and then go back to his mother's house. So he would serve the Prophet ﷺ, fetch him water, do this and that for him. So this is Anas ibn Malik. And so Anas ibn Malik has given us one of the most explicit descriptions of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is found in the Shama'il of At-Tirmidhi. Anas ibn Malik says, that the Prophet ﷺ was neither very tall such that he stood above the crowd, nor was he short such that he would be ignored. He was in the middle. He was of a medium stature. And the Prophet ﷺ was neither extremely white, and nor was he a ruddy brown. Now, pause here for a while. The Arabs, they called what we call white, they called it yellow. They called it yellow. What we call white is the Caucasian color white. Okay? And this is generally called Asfar. And that's why they call the Romans Banu Asfar. They call the Romans the tribe of the yellow people. Just like over here the American Indians, what did they call? Whites. Pale face, right? This is not a skin color that they're familiar with. Okay? Generally speaking, when the Arabs used the word white, it is a lightish brown. This is their, what they call white is a lightish brown. It's not the white that we consider Caucasian white. Okay, that white they called Asfar, which then was, it's not really white, it's yellowish to them. That's how they considered it, okay? So the Prophet ﷺ was a very lightish color of brown. the actual skin color that he had was a lightish color of brown a lot of people say he was white no he's not white the English word white no when we say the word white that means he is Caucasian color no he wasn't and by and large the Arabs were not of that color the Romans were of that color the Arabs they had a different color so the Prophet ﷺ had a lightish brownish color so Anas al-Malik is saying neither was he purely on that side nor was he ruddy brown nor was he the rusty brown color he was in the middle The Prophet ﷺ's hair was not in curls, nor was it straight. It was firm hair like most men's hair is. And Anas ibn Malik said that, I never felt any velvet or silk softer than the hand of the Prophet ﷺ. His hand was very soft, softer than velvet and silk. And he said, nor did I smell a musk or a perfume more fragrant than the sweat of the Prophet ﷺ. In other words, his natural odor that would emanate from him. The natural odor that would emanate from him, Anas ibn Malik said, I never smelt any fragrance more sweeter than this smell. And of course you know that Umm Salamah and others, when the Prophet ﷺ would go to sleep, she would in fact collect his sweat in a jar. So it's hot, there's no AC, there's no fan, he's sweating. So she would collect this sweat in a jar, in a small bottle. Why? They would use it as perfume. They would use it as perfume. And they would also use it as medicine. Put it in a drop of water, like this is their medicine. They put it in some water, and they drink it. This is the sahaba, they're living with him, they see with themselves, they smell. They see the reality of the miracle of the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Bara' ibn Azib described the Prophet ﷺ, and he said, the Prophet ﷺ was of medium stature, رَجُلٌ مَرْبُورٌ He was of medium stature. He wasn't extremely tall, 6 foot 6, nor was he short, you know, 5 foot 6. No, he was in the middle of an average stature. And he had broad shoulders. His hair was thick. And by the way, this thickness of hair and lusciousness of hair has been narrated by at least 5 different sahaba. كَثِيفَ اللِّحْيَةَ His beard is very bushy. And his hair is very full. And the Prophet ﷺ would usually grow it until it went down to his earlobes. And then he would shave it all off. Let's say he went for Umrah or something, or Hajj, he would shave it all off. But it would typically be low to the earlobes. He would have a full hair. And Al-Bara' ibn Azib said, that once I saw him wearing a red hulla. Hulla is a cloak, a thing you put over, a type of, we would call it a jacket. Let's say they didn't have the arms, but over that. And he said, مَا رَأَيْتُ أَحْسَنَ مِنْهُ قَطْ I never saw anything more beautiful than him on that night that I saw him wearing that red ulla I never saw anything more beautiful than that and Ali ibn Abi Talib the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ he also described in a lot of detail the Prophet ﷺ and he said and of course Ali was his cousin Ali was somebody who grew up with him and knew him even before the Risalah began and Ali was his son-in-law so Ali is a close family member who definitely has seen the Prophet ﷺ more than many of the other sahaba Ali ibn Abi Talib says that the Prophet ﷺ did not have a very fleshy face, nor was it completely round. They're trying to describe him as being, imagine now, we're not allowed to draw pictures obviously, the Sahaba didn't draw. So they're trying to use words to get the imagery across. So they're saying he wasn't like this and he wasn't like that, he was in the middle. His face wasn't fleshy nor was it round, it was slightly ovalish. He had a whitish skin, tinge. And as I explained before what they meant by this, he said white with a reddish tinge. And what they mean by this is, as I said, a lightish brown. It's not the pure white, it is the lightish brown. His eyes were large with jet black pupils. So he had black eyes, his eyes were large with jet black pupils. And his lashes were long. His joints were large as was his upper back. So you could clearly see the fingers on his joints. His upper back is broad. The Prophet ﷺ was broad-shouldered. And he did not have hair all over his body. He wasn't hairy on his body. He had hair on his head and the beard was full. But he did not have hair on his body. But he did have a fine line of hair extending from the chest to the navel. The chest to the navel. So he had the normal masculine hair that is there. When he walked, he would walk briskly, fast. It is sunnah to walk fast. When he walked, he would walk briskly, as if he's descending down a slope. In other words, he's so fast, it's as if he's walking down a slope. Some scholars have also said that it is as if Allah made the earth mudhallal. So Allah made the earth humble to him. That wherever he's walking, it's as if the earth is giving him the place to walk. And others said this is metaphorical. What it means is that the Prophet ﷺ would walk briskly, and he's walking so fast that most of us, we can only walk like that when we're going down an inclined plane. And that is how he would generally walk. When he turned, he would turn to face with his whole body. So he's walking, somebody calls him, he doesn't say yes, no. He turns to face him with his whole body. And subhanallah, modern presenters and modern speakers, they tell you the exact same advice. That when you speak to somebody, never speak with your head turned. Face him. Speak with him one on one. And this we find written 14 centuries ago. And as a footnote here, just a side point, I read a lot of books about public speaking. A lot of books about presenting and what not. Wallahi, every single point of benefit that we find, we find that the Prophet ﷺ, he has exactly done this. And I've wanted to give a lecture, maybe someday I will, about the speaking techniques and style of the Prophet ﷺ, and how perfect it was. And here we find one thing, just off the top of my head, I'm remembering this, that this is one of the advice that the speakers, committees always give. Turn and face the entire body, face the audience like that. Never just turn the head. Here we find Ali ibn Abi Talib saying, whenever he would turn, he would turn with his whole body to face the person he is talking to. Between his two shoulders was the seal of the prophethood. Now we're gonna talk about this inshallah in a few weeks. The Prophet ﷺ had a physical khatam. physical seal. A physical something that Allah gave him on his body, on his jasad. And this was to be a sign by which he would be recognized by other people. So the Prophet ﷺ had a physical sign and this sign is the seal of the Prophets. And And Ali ibn Abi Talib says, he had this seal, and he was the seal of the prophets. وَهُوَ كَانْ خَاتَمًا نَبِيِّينَ He is the Khatim, and he had the Khatim. What is this Khatim? We're gonna talk about it later, but it is basically a outgrowth of hair in an area where hair does not grow, and it is of a different color. And it was between his shoulder blades, shaped like a pigeon's egg, an oval, small oval, like a pigeon's egg. And it was in a place that nobody's hair grows, And that's all it was. It wasn't any growth of skin, it wasn't anything abnormal. A small, if you like, growth of hair, of a different color than the usual color of his body, of the hair. And it was in between his shoulder blades, at the bottom of the shoulder blades, over there. And Ali ibn Abi Talib says that between his two shoulder blades was the seal of the prophethood. We're gonna hear about this later on, when a number of people accepted Islam, most famously Salman al-Farsi. Salman Al-Farsi accepted Islam because his Christian teacher had told him that the sign of the Prophet is that he's gonna have the seal between his two shoulders and so when Salman Al-Farsi came and this is the story we're jumping the gun here Salman Al-Farsi came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam testing him does he have the signs or not one day he came he had the first sign check he went home second day he came he had the second sign check he went home and these two signs were physical apparent signs nothing on the body the third sign is on the shoulder how am I going to see the shoulder so the third day Salman al-Farsi comes he's wondering how am I going to see the Prophet ﷺ is wearing a shirt how am I going to see his shoulder so he walks behind trying to see maybe, maybe, you know I see something I don't know, and when the Prophet ﷺ saw him walking behind, subhanAllah the Prophet ﷺ lowered his shoulder, lowered his his shirt and showed him just without a word being passed, the Prophet ﷺ just lowered it and showed him. You wanna see? Khalas, I'll show it to you. Here it is. Because he realized what Salman is doing. And as soon as he saw that, Salman accepted Islam, and he told his long story, which we will give an entire, inshallah, lesson about. We continue with Ali's statement, that whoever unexpectedly saw him, would stand in awe of him. In other words, just if you weren't expecting to see him, you saw him, you would just stop for a millisecond. So much reverence from his body, emanating, who would stand in awe of him. And whoever accompanied him and got to know him would love him. Once you got to know him, you would get to love him. And those who described him would always say, now Ali is saying, this is what everybody else says, and this is exactly what everybody else says. What did he say? I have never seen anyone before him or after him who was like him. This is exactly what Ali is saying the other people say, and this is what already saying, Barat said this, and Rubay' said this, and so on. So all of the Sahaba are saying the same thing. I've never seen anyone before him or after him like him. And of course there's a beautiful hadith which is well known to many of you and that is the hadith of Jabir ibn Samura. Jabir ibn Samura radiallahu ta'ala an, who says that he was going home one day in the middle of the night, and it was a clear moon in the sky, and he's walking home and he just happens to pass by the Prophet sallallahu alayhi who was also out in the middle of the night in the streets of Medina and he was wearing a red hulla the same red hulla that has already been described by Al-Bara' ibn Azim red hulla like the red over covering and he said I looked at the face of the Prophet ﷺ and I looked at the full moon now he's physically comparing the two right well it's amazing he's literally comparing the two I looked at the face of the Prophet ﷺ and there is the full moon فَوَاللَّهِ He said, He was more beautiful in my eyes than the full moon. And this really shows us that Allah had given the Prophet ﷺ not just these physical, but these spiritual characteristics that is just emanating from him. And one of the best examples of this is the fact that many people accepted Islam just by seeing his face. The most famous convert like this is the chief rabbi of the Jews of Medina. And his name was Abdullah ibn Salam. Abdullah ibn Salam was the chief rabbi of the Jews. And he was the most respected of the Jews. And he heard this man coming, claiming to be a prophet. So he said, let me... And this was the first day that the Prophet ﷺ came to Medina. The first day. And so he said, let me go see. Now, he wants to go see what his message is, right? Notice, now he's describing in the first person, the hadith is in Bukhari. He's describing in the first person. He said, As soon as I saw him, now he's not coming to discuss theology, he's not coming to convert to Islam, he's simply coming to see what the commotion is, to see who this guy is, right? He goes, As soon as I saw him, عرفت أن وجهه ليس بوجه كاذب. As soon as I saw him, I knew that this face that he has cannot be the face of a liar. And one conversation and he accepts Islam right then and there. Just by looking at the face of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and he was not the only one to do so. Along with the external beauty, of course our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was blessed with internal beauty. And he was blessed with humility. And he was blessed with modesty. And of his modesty, and of his simple lifestyle, is the famous hadith that you all know of Umar ibn al-Khattab who entered in upon him when the Prophet ﷺ was lying down in his small, he had a small compartment in the masjid as well. And that was his own compartment. It was not with any, he did not have any wife living there. It is his own compartment. And in that compartment there was nothing other than a jug of water and a bed that he would lie down on or sleep on. And this bed was made not out of the leaves of the date palm, but out of the branches of the date palm. You know, many of you who have been to back home, there is the bed that they make from that type of, if you like, fiber, right? And then we put the mattress on top of the fiber, right? You know what I'm talking about. Like that type of fiber you have here. And then you put the mattress on top of that. The Prophet ﷺ only had that fiber, if you like. He only had that with no mattress. and so he's lying down on that and so when Umar comes in he sits up to greet him and when he sits up you all know the famous hadith that's when Umar sees that that fiber that stick, those date palms if you like the roots or the stalk it has left a mark and you can see the reddish you know when you can lying down you come up you see the reddish mark and Umar al-Khattab begins crying when did this happen? this happened in the 7th, 8th year of the Hijrah this happened when the Prophet ﷺ is the undisputed leader, not of all of Arabia right now, but at least of a large chunk of Arabia. And he has money coming in and pouring in. And so Umar cannot control himself, he begins to cry, he goes, Ya Rasulallah, how can we allow you to live like this? Look at the kings of Rome and Persia, look at the Qais, look at the Caesar, look at the Shah, look at these people, look at how they live. Surely, Ya Rasulallah, you deserve better. Instead of saying, maybe you're right, O Umar, instead of saying, I'll think about it. He got irritated at Umar. He said, Umar, is this what we're here for? Umar, aren't you happy that they have the dunya and we have the akhira? He rebuked him, this is not what our religion, I'm not here to do this. I'm not even thinking about this. And Aisha describes that the bed of the Prophet ﷺ, this is in the Tirmidhi as well, the bed that the Prophet ﷺ would sleep on was a leather skin. That was sometimes, he would stuff it with date palm leaves. The bed that he would sleep on was leather. Leather is not what you sleep on. Leather is something you put on the saddle, right? Leather is not what you sleep on. But that was his bed. He goes, sometimes I would put some date palms to make leaves, to make it a little bit softer. And once it is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ's bed, one of his wives, she folded up her own half to give him extra, right? So she made it a little bit more comfortable. because it was more comfortable he slept longer than usual and then when he woke up he said what happened who did this so when she explained he rebuked her and said bring it back to the way it was I need to pray my tahajjud basically I need to wake up for tahajjud don't make my bed too soft for me now this is something subhanallah again I'm the most guilty everybody here like we buy our beds mashallah I don't know what ratings are these days they are different this and that we compare this now to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam he didn't want this type of bed he wanted a bed that is a little bit harsh because it provides him now opportunity to pray tahajjud. And sometimes the Prophet ﷺ as Aisha says, would not taste meat for six weeks. For six weeks he would not eat meat. And even by the time of the tabi'un, this was unbelievable. So Urwa, 40 years later is saying, Oh my mother, Urwa is his nephew, but he calls him mother because the mother of the believers. Urwa is saying, Oh my mother, how did you live? Now even for us, six weeks without any type of serious food if you like, even within 40 years, Ur was saying, how did you live? So she said, by eating al-aswadan, the two dark things, dates and dirty water. Because they didn't have this clean filtered water, did they? They get their water from the well. They get their water from the streams. And there is no purification system. Even the water is going to be filthy in terms of looking at it. So she said, we subsisted off of these two aswadhan. And once, Abdurrahman ibn Auf, now Abdurrahman ibn Auf, as you all know, he was a businessman. He started poor. The famous hadith, you all know. He started with nothing, right? He came, and he came with only the clothes on his back. And that famous sahabi of the Ansar said, look, I have so many things, I'll split everything in half. Everything in half. And Abdurrahman ibn Auf said, may Allah bless you, keep your wealth, tell me where is the suq? And he had some butter with him. So he came and he started buying and selling, buying and selling, buying and selling. And slowly he became one of the richest people of all of Medina. One of the richest people of all of Medina and he came with nothing on his back. And so once, many years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, Abdur Rahman ibn Auf now is now living that life and he is brought a dish with meat and with bread. And of course to this day, meat and bread is the staple food item. This is what you pay good bucks for to get a nice steak here. This is what you do. This is to this day, meat and bread. Of course, rice, they never ate it. The Prophet ﷺ never ate rice. Rice was not a commodity that was available in Arabia at the time. Rice is a water crop. You're not gonna get rice in Arabia. So he would only eat bread. So he was brought meat and bread. And as soon as he saw this platter, he began to cry. He was asked, O Abdurrahman ibn Auf, why are you crying? He said, the Prophet ﷺ, till the day that he died, he never ate wheat bread. Forget this fine refined bread. He never ate wheat bread to his fill. Forget with the meat. He never ate wheat bread to his fill. And not even his family. Not one day they could eat to their full. And I worry, he says, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has allowed us to remain for such a long time, that we're seeing all of these blessings come. and the Prophet ﷺ has gone on to something that is better. In other words, I'm worried that I'm getting everything back now and I want something back then. And I'm worried that Allah is allowing me to live much longer and everybody else has gone by. And as for Aisha, many times it is narrated that she will begin to cry when good food was given to her. Now remember, Aisha she lived until 40 years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ and the ummah began to, the money began to come in as they say. And so she would get gifts and she would get a stipend from the government. And she would get, so she would get, and alhamdulillah she would be generous with the poor. But sometimes people would gift her large items, good food. And it is narrated multiple times that when she saw all of this food, she would begin to cry. And she would say the same thing, that the Prophet ﷺ never ate rusty bread or hard bread to his fill even one day in his life. He never got to eat all of this full. Of course he ate bread, but to his full. even one day of his life. And we all know the story of the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr and Umar. The famous story reported in Tirmidhi that Umar ibn al-Khattab did not have anything to eat. And I just like to point out here that the Sahaba lived very tough times in the early part of Medina. Before the conquest began, before the money began pouring in, Medina was a very difficult place to live in. And when you didn't have dates, there's only one season dates are there. once they run out for the rest of the six months you are living a very difficult life in the middle of the desert and there's many stories of this nature and so once Umar ibn Khattab is walking in the streets and he sees the Prophet ﷺ sitting and this is at noon and at noon nobody walks in the streets in the summertime it's too hot so he says to the Prophet ﷺ Ya Rasulullah what are you doing outside? and the Prophet ﷺ knows that Umar is outside for one reason and that is he doesn't have food at home So he says, the same reason as you. Same reason as you. I mean, they're just sitting outside, there's nothing to eat at home. And as they're sitting there, Abu Bakr as well is walking. Because you cannot sit at home and you're hungry, you just wanna walk around, just go outside. And the three of them, the three of them are sitting there just talking, when one of the sahaba, Abu Haytham, is rushing back to work, to home from work. So he finishes his chores, he's rushing home. So he says, Ya Rasulullah, what are you three doing at this time of the day? And so Umar says, well, we didn't have anything to eat, we're just sitting here basically talking. So Abu'l-Haytham says, no, this is not possible. This is not possible. That the three best people, now you're sitting here. So he tells, he knows that he has a goat, an old goat at home. So he tells them, come to my house and I'll give you food. I'll prepare food for you. Come to my house. So he rushes home. He only has one goat that is past the age of giving milk. It's an old goat. So he tells his wife, by Allah, we need to sacrifice this goat. We need to get rid of the goat. And you cook the food, I will knead the dough, we're gonna make some bread so we will give him meat and bread and so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Abu Bakr and Umar, they came and they ate meat and bread which is of course the luxurious food item of that time and to this day and then what was the response of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he finished all of this after not having anything at home he reminded Abu Bakr and Umar he reminded them that they left their houses hungry and Allah gave them this meal يَا أَبَا بَكَرًا عُمَرًا ثُمَّ لَتُسْأَلُنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ عَنِ النَّعِيمِ Allah is going to ask you on that day about this food. What did you do with it? And did you thank me enough for it? Subhanallah, I mean, Wallahi one of us, three meals a day, we don't even think about Allah's blessings, right? And the Prophet ﷺ is so conscious that Allah is going to ask you about this na'im. ثُمَّ لَتُسْأَلُ You're going to be asked about this blessing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given you. And as for his humility, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam frequently rode donkeys. And even though he had the money to purchase a horse and a camel, and he had a camel, he had a camel. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had no problem riding a donkey frequently. And during the battle of Badr, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had to distribute the camels amongst the entire group of people. How many people came to Badr? You all know. How many people were in Badr? 300 and? 14, 15. And there were roughly 75 camels. Do the math. How many people per camel? Three or four. Three or four people per camel. Okay, every single camel was given. Now some people had horses, others. So roughly it came out to three people per camel. Has to be divided. And so the Prophet ﷺ assigned Ali and Abu Lubaba to himself with the camel. So the one camel with these three people. And everybody else has their own three camel. Now, put yourself in the shoes of Ali and Abu Lubaba. You're supposed to share a camel with the Prophet ﷺ. What are you gonna say? Take it. It's yours. So Ali says, Ya Rasulullah, both of us are young men. He's trying to make him feel as if we're doing this. We're not doing you a favor. Ya Rasulullah, I am young. I'm in my 30s. Abu Lubaba is also young. Ya Rasulullah, we're young. you go ahead and ride the camel. Now, there's many things. The Prophet ﷺ could have said, okay, fine. And subhanAllah, he is the leader by the way. And wallahi, forget everything aside, the leader deserves extra protection. Forget religiosity, spiritual. The leader deserves extra respect, right? The commander, he's not the person that should be treated like the private, right? The four-star, five-star general, he's reached a level now, you don't treat him like the private, right? So he could have said, okay, fine. and nobody would have said anything. Or he even could have said, no, no, let's all share it. But he didn't want to make them feel that I'm doing you a favor by doing this. What did he say? He smiled back at them. And he said that, neither are the two of you any stronger than me, and nor am I in any lesser need of the reward than you two. I also need the ajr of walking. We're gonna share. Subhanallah. Look at, neither are the two of you any strong. He couldn't fight with younger. I mean, Ali is younger. So he says, neither are the two of you any stronger than me. Okay, you might be younger, but in terms of physical health, yes, I am just as strong as you. And nor am I in any lesser need of Allah's rewards for walking and struggling. So we're going to share the camel. And so, he was a man of his word, and he shared the camel, even though, truth be told, it was not necessary at all, right? He is the leader, he is Rasulullah, and yet he shared the camel with them. And as for his good manners, subhanallah, how much can we say about his good manners? Anas ibn Malik said, and Anas ibn Malik lived one of the longest of the sahaba. He lived until he was over 110 years old, Anas ibn Malik. He lived one of the longest lives. Why? Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam made dua for him, right? After all that he had done, one day his mother came, Anas' mother. And she said, Ya Rasulullah, your little servant, Khuwai dimuka Anas, your little servant Anas, he's done so much for you, make dua for him. That's all the mother wanted, wasn't it? She just wants the barakah from the Prophet ﷺ. Ya Rasulullah, Khuwai dimuka Anas, make dua for him. So the Prophet ﷺ said, O Allah, barik lahu, give him barakah in his life, and in his wealth, and in his progeny. one dua. And Anas lived to see the results of this dua. Give him barakah in his life. He was one of the last of the Sahaba to die. And he lived to be over 110 at a time when the average death rate was what, 30, 28, something like this. He lived to be 110. And he said, give him barakah in his money. They used to say that if Anas turned a rock over, he would find gold underneath it. He was so rich that anything he did, just as they say, the gold touch, right? It was like that. And people would love to become business partners with Anas. And they would just say, look, just sign the paper, we'll do the money, everything. They just wanted to get the barakah. I mean, not sign the paper, you get the point. Anything, just be a part of this. People would love to be business partners with Anas because they knew it would be successful. And he amassed a large fortune at the end of his life. and he had so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, he couldn't even count them. Could not even count them. In his own lifetime, because the Prophet ﷺ said, بارك له في أهله وفي عمره وفي أهله وفي ماله And these three things, the Prophet ﷺ made dua for, and all three of them, he was given that barakah. This Anas ibn Malik, he says that, I served the Prophet ﷺ for 10 years. I served him, I didn't just visit him, I lived with him for 10 years. And not once did he rebuke me. Not once did the word uf come from his mouth. Now uf, as you know, is the least word to express irritation. It's not even a word of anger. It's the word to express irritation. It's like, just like that. Like that. It's just that is the equivalent of uf. And the Prophet ﷺ never ever said the word uf. And Anas said, he never said to me, why did you do this? And he never said to me, why did you not do that? And subhanallah, as they say, by how a person treats his family, you know him. By a person's treatment of his inner circle, that's how you know him. What side we show to our family, to our spouses, to our children. That is the real us. It's easy to be somebody else in the masjid. It's easy to be somebody else in the workplace. But who you are in front of your wife, in front of your kids, that is the real you. And Anas ibn Malik is saying, for 10 years I never heard the word uf come from his mouth. That is the perfection of his manners. And it's a beautiful narration as well later on, that once the Prophet ﷺ sent me on a chore to do, and on the way I saw some kids playing. So I started playing with them. Now imagine the process in telling, go tell somebody something, go do this and that. And this is a kid in the end of the day, he's seven years old in the end of the day, right? So he's going to do the chore, he finds some kids playing and I completely forgot about the chore. And then the Prophet ﷺ came out in search that whatever the chore was, it's not happening, right? So the person maybe he calls somebody, it's not happening. So he's searching, what happened? and he finds Anas playing with the street children there. Right? And so somebody held on to my ears and picked me up and I turned around and it was the Prophet ﷺ smiling at me. It's like playing with him. It's like, you forget your chore now. Playing with him, not even getting irritated at him. Right? And subhanAllah, where do we stand when it comes to our own families and how easy, and I'm just as guilty as the rest of you, how easy it is to get irritated and get angry. But again, he is our role model. Sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And even when people showed him the utmost contempt and the utmost disrespect, he maintained his dignity and his composure. Once a group of Yahud came and they wanted to mock him. And they said, winking at one another, As-salamu alaykum, as-salamu alaykum. Not as-salam, as-salam. And as-salam means may death be upon you, may a curse be upon you. It's like they're changing it, right? And they're winking at one another. And so the Prophet ﷺ maintained his composure and said, wa alaykum. Maintain this composure. Aisha got so angry that from behind the curtain she screamed out. It's like, may you be cursed and may Allah Azzawajal cause you to perish. How dare you say this to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. To which the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam rebuked Aisha and said, calm down O Aisha, calm down. Don't you know that whatever is gentle is beautiful and whenever gentleness is in something, it makes it beautiful. And whenever harshness is in something, it makes it ugly. So after they left, she said, Ya Rasulullah, how could you have controlled your temper? They came and they cursed you and they said, Assalamu alaikum. So he responded, didn't you hear my response? Wa alaikum, back to you. So what I said, back to you. But he maintained his dignity and his composure. He didn't stoop to their level by doing what they did. He said, yes, you want to do this? Okay, back to you. as well. And as for his bravery, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Ali ibn Abi Talib says, and we're gonna talk about this in the battle of Badr, this relates to the battle of Badr, that when the fighting would become severe, we would seek refuge around the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When the fighting would become severe, we would seek refuge around the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And Anas ibn Malik said, that once in Medina, in the middle of the night, the people heard a loud commotion and a loud sound coming. And they didn't know what it was. So timidly, they came outside their houses wondering what is this noise? Is there an enemy attacking? Is there some type of beast out on the loose? What is happening? And they found that the Prophet ﷺ had already gone in the direction of the sound alone. And he found the horse of Abu Talha and he simply rode it without a saddle. That's manliness. Without a saddle. And he's galloping towards the sound and he had his sword around his neck because he's galloping without a saddle. And he's coming back to the people of Medina saying, you have nothing to fear, I've checked it out, you have nothing to fear. Anas al-Malik is narrating one incident, right? What does that show us of the bravery? That he hears the sound, he's the first person to go jump on a horse without even the saddle, takes his sword, and then he's running back to the people of Medina. I've checked it out, nothing to fear. Whatever it was, it wasn't anything for them to be worried about. This is the bravery of the Prophet ﷺ. Once, generosity. As for his generosity, the Prophet ﷺ would never refuse any request. He would never refuse any asking of him. And that is why one of the sahabiyat said, that it was possible for any little girl to go to the hand of the Prophet ﷺ and ask him to do something for her. The little girl had some help, she needed maybe to carry something, and she would have no fear to go and ask the Prophet ﷺ to help her out. And it is once narrated that the Prophet ﷺ was wearing a garment that had holes in it. It was not appropriate that the Prophet ﷺ was wearing a garment like this. So one of the Sahaba gifted him a very beautiful and a very good garment. And he went home and he wore that garment and he came outside. One of the sahaba immediately said, Ya Rasulullah, can you give me this garment as a gift? So the Prophet s.a.w. turned to him and said, Naam, yes. He went back home, he wore the same cloth that he had just took off. He literally been wearing it for one minute. And he came back wearing the tattered garment and he gave him the new one. After a while, he went back inside his house. All of the sahaba, they jumped on this other one. How could you have asked the Prophet ﷺ? You knew he wouldn't... Look at what they said. You knew that he would never turn down a request. Look at how they rebuked him. You knew that he wouldn't say no to you. How could you do this? So he said, before you get angry at me, I'm not doing this to wear. I want to use this as my kafan to show the generosity of the Prophet ﷺ in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I want to use this as my cloth to be buried in. That's why I did it, right? So he had his own reason for doing that. I mean, no doubt, perhaps it was better to leave it for the Prophet ﷺ, but he had his own reason. I'm not doing this to take it off. I want this to be worn around me. In the qabr, this is what I want to be wearing. And so I asked him to give it to me. Along with all of these, the Prophet ﷺ actually was also a person who was blessed with a great sense of humor. He was blessed with a great sense of humor. And having humor shows your humanity. Having humor shows your humanity. It shows your down-to-earthliness as they say. And there are so many instances of the jokes of the Prophet ﷺ. And all of the jokes of the Prophet ﷺ, they are pure, and they are clean, and they are truthful. Even his jokes are true. Even when he caused people to laugh, it is something that is true. And there are many instances of this. And of the instances is an old lady coming to the Prophet ﷺ. An old lady coming to the Prophet ﷺ saying, O Messenger of Allah, make dua that Allah causes me to enter Jannah. And she's an old lady, wizened, you can tell like 70 years old, very old lady. So the Prophet ﷺ looked at her and said, Oh my aunt, haven't you been informed that old ladies cannot enter Jannah? Didn't you study theology? I mean, don't you know? Old ladies cannot enter Jannah. And she began wailing and crying and what am I gonna do now? And then he told her that don't cry, don't cry. For wallahi, old ladies cannot enter Jannah. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make her into a young fair maiden. and then she will enter Jannah. It's a joke. She was supposed to be like, you know, give her glad tidings. It's that you're not gonna be an old lady when you enter Jannah. You're gonna be a young. You're gonna go back to your days as a lovely maiden. That's how you will enter Jannah. And then he recited the verse, إِنَّا أَنْشَأْنَاهُنَّ إِنْشَاءً It's that we bring them forth with a new beginning. إِنَّا أَنْشَأْنَاهُنَّ إِنْشَاءً We bring them forth with a new beginning. We're gonna take them back to that beginning. and the story of Aisha radiallahu anha when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was on his deathbed he was on his deathbed he literally has 4 or 5 days left to live of course the sahaba don't know this they're hoping that this is just a disease a fever is gonna go away he's literally on his deathbed and it so happened that Aisha herself felt a little bit sick on one of the days and she had a severe headache she had a severe headache and so she was crying out oh my head, oh my head she was crying out so the Prophet ﷺ said rather oh my head I have a worse headache than you oh my head and so Aisha ﷺ to calm her down the Prophet ﷺ said because he understands he is about to die he understands he has a premonition if you like and perhaps he even knew that he is about to die in a few days so to calm her down to crack some jokes the days of his death, he says, Oh Aisha, and what would you lose if you died right now? And the one to do ghusl for you, and to bury you, and to pray your janazah would be me. In other words, what a great honor, right? What would you lose? Now, he's probably doing this to basically break the ice, and you know, bring the topic of death up, you know, bring like this, so saying, what would you lose? But he's the one that's about to die, right? So he's saying, what would you lose? And so Aisha radiallahu anha, she smirks back at him and she says I'm sure you would like that to happen because then you would be free to go to your other wives. Because Aisha was that woman who had the grasp on him. So she's saying I know the one I go away you will have free access to all of them after that. Now this joking that he's doing on his deathbed right? Subhanallah scholars of fiqh have derived fiqh from this. And they have talked about the permissibility of a spouse doing ghusl for his or her spouse. From this joke, they derive fiqh. Because he never spoke except the truth, right? From this joke, they derive fiqh. And Ash-Shawkani has a chapter, the chapter concerning the permissibility of a husband giving his wife a bath, of the ghusl, of the death, and vice versa. And then he mentions this hadith. fiqh is derived from a joke of the Prophet ﷺ and a very beautiful story reported in Tirmidhi as well that there was a young man by the name of Zahir whom the Prophet ﷺ used to love a lot and we don't know much about him wallahi I looked up as much as I could we don't know much about this person Zahir we don't know hardly anything about him this is his most famous story but there was something about him that caused the Prophet ﷺ to love this man. And he would have an immense amount of affinity for him. He was a simple sincere believer. We don't know much about him for his jihad, for his knowledge, for his ghazawah. He just simply seems to be a nice guy that the Prophet ﷺ liked. Once the Prophet ﷺ saw him in the merchant, in the suq, in the marketplace, selling some things. And he's screaming out, who's gonna buy this from me? Who's gonna buy this from me? So in those days they had the suq and they mentioned the market, they mentioned what they have, who's gonna buy this from me? And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came from behind, quietly. He's literally playing a practical joke on Zahid. He came quietly from behind, and he grabbed him, Zahid is standing up, he grabbed him from behind, and he basically locked him, he gave him a lock, a bear lock, a hug, right? So Zahid is trying to see, who is this? What are you doing? Let go of me, I'm trying to sell my stuff here. and when he saw it was none other than the Prophet ﷺ immediately he became limp and he touched as much of the chest of the Prophet ﷺ as he could to get the barakah from his body soon as he recognized him he went limp and he began to touch the body of the Prophet ﷺ and then the Prophet ﷺ began joking and crying out in the suq who is gonna buy this from me? who's gonna buy this abd from me this slave from me so Zahir was crying out who's gonna buy this merchandise now he's being clapped and the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is saying who's gonna buy this abd now in a marketplace in those days when you're saying who's gonna buy the abd you mean the slave but of course even the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is true Zahir was not an abd to mankind but he was an abd of Allah so even in this joke he's not saying any lie even in this joke he's not lying So who will purchase this abd from me? So Zahir says, Ya Rasulullah, in that case, you're gonna get a very bad bargain if you're gonna sell me. I'm not gonna be very expensive. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Innaka lathameenun. You are very expensive in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Subhanallah. It's a beautiful story here that shows us the humanity of the Prophet ﷺ. And as for his love for his ummah, inshallah with this we will conclude. We have so much more to go. but unfortunately we have to save things for other lessons and what not and open time for Q&A. And ask for his love for his ummah. Ask for his love for his ummah. And this is a point of theology as well. That the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam had an immense amount of love for his own ummah. And Allah azza wa jalla says in the Quran, لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ There has come to you a messenger from amongst you. عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُمْ He finds it difficult to bear your hardships. He finds it difficult to bear your hardships. حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ He's ever eager for you. He's حَرِيص. It's like how you describe how a mother is or a parent is. He's حَرِيص for the child. He's eager to bring good for you. بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَؤُوفُ الرَّحِيمِ Allah uses two words which are actually names of Allah with the alif-lam ar-ra'uf ar-ra'him right? he strip away the alif-lam then you can use it in a human being so the prophet system is described by ar-ra'uf and ar-ra'him that he is ra'uf and rahim to whom? to the believers bil mu'mineena ra'uf ar-ra'him to the believers he is ra'uf ra'uf means full of compassion رَأُوف is a type of tenderness in mercy and رَحِيم is general mercy as you know so رَأْفَ is a type of compassionate mercy it's a special type of mercy and it is very appropriate that a mother or father have this for the child this is what رَأْفَ is that you want the best so Allah عز و جل who is الرَّأُوف is describing the Prophet ﷺ as being رَأُوف for the believers بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَأُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ and the Prophet ﷺ once was reciting the Quran. And he came across a number of verses. Of them is the famous verse when Ibrahim a.s. says, رَبِّ إِنَّهُنَّ أَضْبَلْنَ كَثِيرًا مِنْ نَاسٍ فَمَنْ تَبِعْنِي فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي وَمَنْ عَصَانِي فَإِنَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ Ibrahim is making a dua for his people. O Allah, whoever follows me, then he is of me. Whoever disobeys me, then you are forgiving. Even him, O Allah, forgive. This is what Ibrahim is saying, basically. For those who are following me, then of course he's with me, O Allah. Protect him. But even those, وَمَنْ عَصَانِي Even those, فَإِنَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ Forgive them. And he came across the verse of Isa A.S. And this is in Surah Ma'idah, إِنْ تُعَذِّبْهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ عِبَادُكُ وَإِنْ تَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ فَإِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ That, O Allah, if you forgive them, sorry, if you punish them, then it's your right, they're your servants. But if you forgive them, then you are aziz and hakim in other words I want you to forgive them so he recites two verses both of them are regarding prophets making dua for their ummahs and then he starts thinking of his own ummah and he raises his hands to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he says ya Allah ummati oh Allah my ummah and he began to cry thinking about his ummah and we are a part of that ummah thinking about his ummah after reading Ibrahim's dua for his ummah. And Isa's dua for his ummah. Now he is thinking of his ummah. And he is saying, O Allah, my ummah. O Allah, my ummah. And so Allah Azzawajal told Jibreel, go to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and ask him, why is he crying? This hadith is a Sahih Muslim, it's an authentic hadith, very beautiful hadith. Ask him, why is he crying? So Jibreel came to him and asked him, why are you crying? and of course Allah knew why he was crying and Allah knew why he was crying when he sent Jibreel and Jibreel found out and the Prophet ﷺ said that I'm crying thinking of my ummah and thinking of what will be their fate and so Jibreel went back to Allah and Allah Azzawajal said Ya Jibreel, idhhab ila Muhammad O Jibreel, go back to Muhammad faqul lahu and tell him inna sanurdiika fi ummatika wala nasuuka We are going to please you for your ummah. Because we want to please you, we're gonna bless your ummah. وَلَا نَسُوءُكَ And we're not gonna cause you any irritation. In other words, because of you, Ya Rasulullah, that you want your ummah to be blessed so much, إِنَّا لَنُرْضِيكَ We're going to please you, and we're not gonna cause you any harm and irritation. And the greatest indication of the love that the Prophet ﷺ had for us. The greatest indication, and this is something that each and every one of us should think deeply about. I want you to think about this, not just today for the rest of your lives. What sacrifice the Prophet ﷺ did with this particular issue. And that is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given every single prophet one request. As we say in English, one wish. One request. every single prophet, this is a blessing that Allah has given them. That one dua that they really want to be answered, they will get that dua. And some of the prophets, they used it against their people who disobeyed them. Because they're so frustrated, they used it against their people. And so for example, Nuh alayhi salam, after making da'wah for 950 years, He became so frustrated, he said, لَا تَتَلْ عَلَىٰ الْأَرْضِ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ دَيَّارًا Oh Allah, I don't want you to leave one house of kafirs on this earth. And so Allah destroyed all of the humanity of the time. And that was one town. One town. The whole town was destroyed. And only Nuh and his three daughters came from there. Nuh and his three daughters, that's it. all of humanity started again because Nuh made that dua. And Ibrahim a.s. made that dua for the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. رَبَّنَا وَبَعَثِيهِمْ رَسُولًا O Allah, send from amongst them a Rasul. So the Prophet s.a.w. said, and we'll talk about this next week inshallah, أَنَا دَعْوَةُ أَبِي إِبْرَاهِيمِ I am the dua of my father Ibrahim. This was the dua he made. I am that dua. and Musa Alayhi Salaam made dua against Firaun because Firaun had he was a mass murderer, he was a genocidal killer he had killed these babies of imagine, this is basically he was the Hitler of his time, Firaun so Musa made a dua that oh Allah, do not guide this person, whatever happens then never guide this person and that's exactly what happened that that Firaun was never guided to. Until even he tried to accept Islam, it was too late. It was too late. And so many we can give examples. Sulaiman a.s. right? Sulaiman made the dua. This was the special dua. His dua was, قَالَ رَبِّ هَبْلِي مُلْكًا لَا يَنْبَغِي لِأَحَدٍ مِّن بَعْدٍ Give me a dominion. A lot of people translate this as a kingdom. This is not correct. Mulk here is control, not just a kingdom. Give me a dominion. give me that control that you have given to no other human before me this was his dua I want powers that nobody has had so Allah gave him powers that nobody had فَسَخَرْنَا لَهُ الْرِيحَةَ تَجْرِي بِأَمْرِهِ رُخَان حَيْثُ أَصَابٍ we made for him the wind and so the whole legends of the flying carpets and stuff it came from Sulaiman Sulaiman would sit on a carpet and the carpet would take him one night it would take him the journey of one month and bring him back. Take him all the way across the world. That's where this journey and legend comes from. And the trapping of the genies in the bottles. It all comes from Sulaiman, right? فَسَخَرْنَا لَوْهُ الْرِيحَةَ تَجْجِبْ أَمْرِي وَرُخَانَ حَيْدُ أَصَالٍ وَالشَّيَاطِينَ And the shayateen. We made them subservient. كُلَّ بَنَّاءٍ وَغَوَّصٍ They were building and they were diving deep and they were doing everything for Sulaiman. Bringing the treasures of the ocean and building palaces for him. So Allah gave control of the jinns, mighty and powerful creatures. The control of the jinns was given to Sulaiman. And he could speak, وَعَلَّمْنَاهُمْ مَنْطِقَ طَيْبٌ We told him how to speak to animals. So all of the animals became his servants. That he had, جُنُودَهُ مِنَ الْإِنسِ وَالْجِنِّ وَالطَّيْرِ فَهُمْ يُزَعُونَ He had the beasts that were under his command. This is the dua of Sulaiman, right? You see now what this dua can give you if you want it. It can give you a lot. Our Prophet ﷺ had the biggest dua. and he had the greatest dua. He has this one dua. And so what did he use it for? The Prophet ﷺ said that every single Rasul and every single Nabi, Allah has given him one dua that he has guaranteed that he will respond to. And every single Nabi has used up this dua for himself in this world. everyone has used it up except for me I have saved it and I have not used it and I will not use it in this dunya I have saved it ikhtaba'tuha I have kept it li ummati for my ummah I have kept it for my ummah and I will use it for them on the day of judgment and the dua will be oh Allah forgive my entire ummah billions of people, this is the dua of the Prophet s.a.w. anybody who believed in me, oh Allah forgive him and Allah will accept that dua in that every single Muslim as we all know shall eventually enter Jannah, where did this come from? from the dua of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. every single Muslim who believes in this Prophet s.a.w. and who acted upon even a little bit of his teachings, no matter how sinful he was. Eventually, and this of course eventually, you might go through Jahannam for a while, but eventually you will be forgiven. And you will enter Jannah. And where did this come from? Because the Prophet ﷺ saved that one dua, that one request that he could have done, he saved it and he sacrificed it for us. And there can be no greater sacrifice than that. And that shows us the love that he had. And what is the purpose of all of this love? We conclude by mentioning a beautiful hadith in Bukhari that Anas al-Nimalik narrates when he says that a man came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and he said, O Messenger of Allah, when is the day of judgment? مت السعى And this is a question that has no benefit. And it's not gonna gain you anything. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam doesn't know when is the day of judgment. So he said, instead of saying, I don't know, instead of saying, what do you care? He asked him, he directed him to a more pertinent question. He said, what have you prepared for it when it comes? Instead of asking, when is the day of judgment? What have you prepared for it? And so, the man was silent for a while. It completely jolted his perspective, right? And this shows us, when somebody comes and asks you a foolish question, don't make fun of him. Don't make him feel... Direct him to something more pertinent, more useful. And so the man was completely shocked. He remains silent. And then, he spoke and he said, I really don't have that much salah and that much siyam and that much sadaqah. Walakinni uhibbu Allah wa rasulahu. But I have a genuine love of Allah and His Messenger. So the Prophet ﷺ said, The man shall be with he whom he loves. Anas says, Fawallahi, we were never as happy and overjoyed as we were, then on that day, when we heard that a man shall be with he whom he loves, because we loved the Prophet ﷺ, and we wanted to be with him, but we thought that because our levels would be so different, we'd never get to see him. But when he said this hadith, we were never as happy as we were on that day, with the realization that the person is with he whom he loves. And so, let us have a genuine love for the Prophet ﷺ. Let us understand the sacrifices he made for us. Let us understand what a great personality he was. And most importantly, let us study his life and times so that we can implement and follow his teachings and come closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah says in the Quran, قُلْ إِن كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبِكُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ Say, if you truly love Allah, then follow me Allah will love you and forgive your sins follow me Allah will love you and forgive your sins may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst those who truly follow the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and may he forgive our sins wa akhir da'wan alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen

Seerah 20 - Night Journey & Ascension to Heavens 1 - Yasir Qadhi _ January 2012-lNBtUF7-uhQ

Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi, wa man wala. Before we begin, do the sisters want the lights on or off? How do you like it? On or off? Off. Okay, some people want it on. Okay, inshallah. Inshallah, so last week we had discussed in a lot of detail the incident of Ta'if. The incident of Ta'if. And we have mentioned many of the wisdoms, the blessings, the hidden wisdoms that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala conferred upon the Prophet ﷺ. And it is because of these incidents, the death of Khadija and the death of Abu Talib and the incident of Ta'if that the entire year was called Aam al-Huzn or the year of sorrow. Now, as we have said many times before and the khutbah they gave a few weeks ago as well, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised, فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised that He is never going to test or try us except that there will always be ease along with and also after that trial. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told us that those who are patient will taste the fruits of their patience. And therefore after the lowest downs if you like in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, the most traumatic incidents in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, it was only natural that the Prophet ﷺ would then be gifted by one of the all-time highs. And in some ways, this is the all-time high. In some ways. Because of course there are many multiple victories of the Prophet ﷺ. So, after all of these personal losses and griefs and encounters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed him with one of the greatest miracles. In fact, some scholars have said this is the greatest miracle that the Prophet ﷺ has been given personally. Not the miracle to his ummah, his personal miracle. And that is the incident of al-isra wal-mi'raj. The incident of al-isra wal-mi'raj. And this incident, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has referenced it twice in the Quran. Once he has referenced the isra, and in another verse he has referenced the mi'raj. So what is the isra and what is the mi'raj? The word isra means to travel at night. This is the linguistic meaning of the word Isra, to travel at night. And therefore, Al-Isra means the travel that occurred at night. There's a specific travel that occurred at night. And of course, in Islamic terminology or in Sira terminology, Al-Isra means the night journey that the Prophet ﷺ undertook from Mecca to Jerusalem. This is Al-Isra. المعراج معراج actually means the if you like, item or the mechanism of rising up high المعراج على وزن مفتاح which is the آلة for those who understand صرف المعراج is the instrument that you use to rise up okay there is a mechanism of rising up this mechanism call it a lift call it an elevator right call it some type of spiritual creation of Allah that causes a person to ascend up. This apparatus is called Al-Mi'raj. From A-Rajah which means to rise up. From A-Rajah which means to rise up. So Al-Mi'raj, that which causes you to rise up. So Al-Mi'raj is the actual apparatus but we refer to it as the actual ascension. Not the apparatus but what the Prophet ﷺ did and that is to rise up to the heavens. And so Al-Isra from Mecca to Jerusalem. Al-Mi'raj from Jerusalem to the heavens. So Al-Isra is one journey that is on earth. This is a journey that happened on this earth. Al-Mi'raj is a journey that has nothing to do with this world because it is an ascension. It is going up to the heavens. And this journey as we said is referenced both the Isra and the Mi'raj. And two separate surahs reference them. As for the Isra, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed an entire surah. And the surah is called Surah Al-Isra. And the surah begins by the famous phrase, سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقَصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيحُ Allah is saying that He is worthy of being praised. Subhana. Subhana means exalted. Subhana means free of imperfection. Subhana means He has no evil, no defect. This is what Subhana means. So we say, Subhana allazhi. All glory be to the One. Why should glory be to Him? What is the reason why glory is to Him? Because He blessed His servant with the miraculous journey. In other words, Allah is saying that He is worthy of being praised because of this journey. He is worthy of being venerated because of this journey. He is worthy of being tasbih because of this journey. That's how important, how miraculous, how grand the journey is. That Allah is being praised because of it. سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَ بِعَبْدِي سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَ بِعَبْدِي سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَ بِعَبْدِي The one who took his servant. And here, the word عَبْد is the highest praise that Allah has given to our Prophet ﷺ. Because when Allah says in the Qur'an that I have created men and jinn for no other reason except to worship me, عُبُدِيَّة. This is why I have created men and jinn. So when our Prophet ﷺ is being called عَبْد, what عَبْد here means is the perfect worshipper from عِبَادة. Right? The perfect worshipper. so no one has perfected the worship of Allah or the purpose of creation like our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and therefore Ibn Taymiyyah says that Allah Azza wa Jal generally calls our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam not by his name but by his title to show his honor and rank because when you call somebody by name of course that's okay but when you call somebody by title that is even more that is even more honorable to call somebody by title that's why even in America when we meet somebody you know Mr. President or Mr. Senator right or we meet Ambassador your excellency we don't mention names because there is a title that is given much less in Arab and Muslim lands mashallah we have plenty of royalty there you know hadith wa lahara so we have plenty of highnesses and princes and what not so we refer to them and this is the culture of mankind Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala refers to our prophet sometimes by name sometimes rarely, right? Generally in the kalima, the shahada, Muhammadur Rasulullah, right? Muhammadur Rasulullah. Twice Allah says this in the Quran. But more often than his name, Allah refers to him by his title, and that is Abdullah. It's not a name, Abdullah is not a proper noun. It is an adjective. It's a description. That our Prophet ﷺ is the one who has perfected the worship of Allah. وَلَمَّ قَامَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ Meaning the Prophet ﷺ When the Prophet ﷺ stood up سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ الحمد لله أنزل على عبده الكتاب Allah praises himself Because he has done something for To the Prophet ﷺ الحمد لله الذي أنزل على عبده الكتاب All praise be to Allah Who has sent the book to his abd سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا All praise be to Allah Or may Allah be exalted Because he has taken his abd in one night, laylan, minal masjidil harami ilal masjidil aqsa. From the masjidil haram in Mecca to the masjidil aqsa in Jerusalem. Alladhi barakna hawlahu. This Jerusalem, Allah is saying, we have blessed the land around it. Alladhi barakna hawlahu. Linuriyahu min ayatina. In this verse, Allah tells us, why Isra wal-mi'raj? Why? What's the wisdom? Allah says, so that we may show him of our wondrous miracles. لِنُرِيَهُ Singular. The entire journey of Al-Isra' is meant for Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. The entire journey of Al-Isra' is meant for Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And that's why for us, we simply have to believe. We didn't experience it. We haven't seen it happen. We simply have to believe that it happened. Who was it for? It was for Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. and in surah so this is the isra as for the mi'raj where does Allah reference the mi'raj surah al-najm not surah al-mi'raj I was thinking somebody would say surah al-mi'raj it's not referenced over there surah al-najm Allah references the mi'raj and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says ma kadhab al-fu'adu ma ra'a that the chest is not lying the heart is not lying when it narrates what he saw. He's not saying, telling you a lie. مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَ أَفَتُ مَارُونَهُ عَلَى مَا يَرَى Are you gonna doubt what he saw? أَفَتُ مَارُونَهُ عَلَى مَا يَرَى وَلَقَدَ رَآهُ نَزْلَةً أُخْرَى عِنْدَ سِدْرَةِ الْمُنْتَهَى عِنْدَهَا جَنَّةُ الْمَأْوَى And indeed he saw him for a second time. We'll talk about this, what is this reference here. He saw him at the Sidrat al-Muntaha. What is the Sidrat al-Muntaha? We'll get to that. إِذْ يَغْشَى صِدْرَةً مَا يَغْشَى مَا زَاغَ الْبَصَرُ وَمَا طَغَى The eyes did not go beyond their mark. They didn't blink, they didn't become scared. i.e. the Prophet ﷺ gazed with bravery. The Prophet ﷺ took in all of these sights that he saw. مَا زَاغَ الْبَصَرُ وَمَا تَغَى لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَى He saw of the miraculous signs of his Lord. Notice. لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَى لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا الْكُبْرَى You see the parallel? Right? In al-Isra and in Najm, the exact same phrases or roughly the same, right? لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا الْكُبْرَى So that we can show him of our magnificent signs. And in surah al-Isra, Allah says, And indeed he saw of his Lord's magnificent signs. Both surahs mention Isra wal-Mi'raj with one reason. And that is to show our Prophet ﷺ the magnificent signs of Allah Jalla Jalaluhu. And therefore the entire journey of Isra wal-Miraj was a personal gift to Rasulullah ﷺ. It's a personal gift. This is yours. For you. We just hear about it. We're not even witnesses, right? We're just hearing about it as a blessing to Rasulullah ﷺ. And the timing here is perfect because we already said, Allah never tries a person and that person is patient except that Allah rewards him Allah never tests a person and that person passes the test except that he faces the fruits of that test immediately now the journey of Al-Isra Al-Mi'raj is a little bit problematic from an academic perspective for many reasons realize my dear brothers and sisters in Islam that the journey of Isra and Miraj has been narrated by the Prophet ﷺ in numerous ahadith. It has been reported by over 20 sahaba. In Sahih Bukhari alone, there are six companions who narrated portions of it. And in fact, now listen to this, it's an interesting fact here. If you were to compile all of the ahadith about the Meccan era, except for Isra and Miraj, and put it in a volume, and you were to compile all of the Ahadith about Isra wal-Mi'raj, you will find more Ahadith about Isra wal-Mi'raj than you will find about the entire Meccan era minus Isra wal-Mi'raj. In other words, there are so many narrations. Now, we will say, Alhamdulillah, great. Well, this leads us to some issues. First and foremost, this story has been taken up by storytellers in the earliest of times. and storytellers were known to be exaggerators and fabricators. Hussas they were called in Arabic. They would just tell stories. And therefore, this journey of Asra'ul Miraj actually has been narrated in many obscure books, not the authentic books, with such vivid details and imagery that actually is not even true. It's not even true. So that's one problem that we have. That the academic scholar has to sift through all of these things. Now for those of you who are not aware, in early Islam, a phenomenon began. Before Islam or before academic Islam flourished and became solidified, a phenomenon began of people preaching to the masses based on ignorance. Just they would go mosque to mosque and you know stories are always the most enlightening of things to hear. Everybody loves to hear stories. And so these people made a whole profession of telling stories. Some of these stories were stories they heard from friends and peers of the local times and places. Some of these stories were stories of the prophets of old, complete fabrications. Some of these stories involved our Prophet ﷺ. These were unscrupulous people who just wanted to, and after they told the stories, people would give them money. You know, just like in our times as well, we have people, they do things and then they're just given money. So they would give them money, so their storytelling became very popular. Especially in the second and third generation of Islam. and then the scholars of Islam rose up and they preached against this. And they said that these types of things need to be stopped. So much so that a number of Khulafa banned the storytellers. They said this is not allowed anymore in the masjids. But during this interim, certain stories became very popular and they entered into this literature. And therefore, the most popular story was the Prophet ﷺ going up to Isra and all of these weird things happening that have no basis to them. So that's the first problem. The second problem, Okay, even if we go through and find out which is authentic, which is not. And alhamdulillah, many people have done this. And I myself have spent a lot of time going over these riwayat. Once we even do that, we have another problem which is even bigger. Because to sift through authentic and inauthentic, this is the exact science. We know exactly. We go through the chains, we figure out authentic, inauthentic. Once we get all of the authentic, what's the problem? We have pieces of a large puzzle. and there's nothing or very little to link these pieces together in a proper chronological order. You guys see the point here? The Prophet ﷺ might have said, I saw this, this happened. Jibreel said this to me. Phrases, right? Imagine for example, you attended a whole day conference or you saw whatever, football match, whatever, soccer match, basketball, whatever. When you come back, you're gonna be talking about that for the next few days maybe, right? And you'll be giving snippets to various people. Right? The problem comes, how do you know, if you were to compile all of these snippets, how do you know the actual order of the original thing that you saw? It's very difficult. And therefore, in one sense, it is in fact, really, to be honest, it is impossible to absolutely verify the full chronological order of exactly what happened when. And in fact, and this is human nature, as the Sahaba reported, again let me give you an example that suppose one of you even this lecture that I'm giving now even this lecture I'm giving now suppose one of you went back and tomorrow summarized it for somebody who wasn't here you would maybe mention 5-10 things but you might not remember exactly which order I said it in and you would narrate with your own wording so the same thing has happened with the journey of Isra and Mi'raj that all of these 20 sahaba who narrated it all of these 20 sahaba even if they're authentic the ones that are authentic are 20. All of these 20 sahaba, around 20 sahaba, they're mentioning things, sometimes those things contradict what another sahabi said. For example, in order of detail. For example, in one version, Jibreel comes to the Prophet ﷺ while he is in the masjid of Bayt al-Maqdis, and he hands him the two vessels of milk and of wine. And he chooses between the two. In another version, Jibreel hands him these two when he's taking him up to the heavens, and he's in the heavens. What does one do here? Because they're both authentic. And obviously one of the narrators kind of sort of mix things up. And how do we know? Some scholars said it happened twice. Others said, well, you know, we just have to figure out which one of the two is more authentic. So you see, this is another job that the scholars will always be engaged in. And therefore, I have to give this little bit of an introduction before I jump in to illustrate to you some of the problems that we face in talking about the seerah and also to point out that even not just for this lesson that you're learning from me, but from any lesson, that sometimes what I say might be a little bit different than what you'll find in some of the, you know, generic textbooks, right? Because there is, there are some differences within the seerah, and some details and some variants. So I want you to know this before we move on. In fact, not to confuse you too much, because I try not to make the class too advanced in academics, but you should know that some scholars, because there are so many narrations of Isra wal-Mi'raj and so many different details, some scholars, very famous, including for example, the Nawawi felt this way, that perhaps there were multiple Isra wal-Mi'raj. Perhaps it happened more than once. Why were they forced to say this? Because they're getting reports that they cannot reconcile. So, Imam al-Nawawi for example, in one fatwa that he has, perhaps the Prophet ﷺ had two Isras maybe. Now, for some of you who have never heard this type of stuff before, but it actually is a very common opinion. Ibn Abi Jamran, many famous scholars of the past, they actually felt there's multiple Isra and Mi'raj's because why? Because there's so many narrations and they cannot reconcile them. However, in my humble opinion, and this is the majority opinion, this is the opinion all of you are aware of, it's only one Isra and Mi'raj because Allah clearly says, سُبْحَانَ لَذِي أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِ What's the next word? لَيْلًا It happened at one night. right? it happened at one night therefore it's pretty clear that there's one Isra wal-mi'raj and if there are any discrepancies we try to reconcile them and that's what we have inshallah ta'ala done because Isra wal-mi'raj is so long we're not gonna finish today, we're gonna take at least two if not three just to go over all of the Isra wal-mi'raj weeks, so let us inshallah ta'ala begin, first question when did it occur? when did the Isra wal-mi'raj occur? we find in early literature from the tabi'un taba tabi'un that they're trying to put some dates on the Isra but we don't have any narration from a sahabi any companion so some of the early tabi'un said Isra happened one year before the Hijra and this is the opinion of pretty much most of the early commentators and the early writers of the Sira including Ibn Ishaq And Ibn Ishaq as we know is the number one authority. Other scholars said it happened a year and a half. Others said two. Others even said five years before the Hijrah. However, there's one very important clue that we can at least eliminate some of the more extreme opinions. And that clue is Aisha telling us something about Khadija. Aisha said about Khadija, رضي الله تعالى عنها, that Khadija died before the Salah became Fard. What has that got to do with anything? So what if she died before Salah became Fard? Because Salah became Fard at Isra'ul-Mi'raj. Okay? So the fact that Khadija died before Salah became Fard clearly shows that Isra'ul-Mi'raj happened basically in the last year and a half of Mecca. Right? So we can eliminate all the other opinions they say two years, five years, seven years. Clearly incorrect. Because we have clearly Aisha authentically saying Khadija died before salah became fard. Therefore, the Isra occurred after Khadija's death. And obviously, Khadija's death and Abu Talib's death and Ta'if were literally one after the other. So it makes complete sense therefore, and this is the majority opinion, that Isra occurred after these three incidents and before the Hijrah. And that's basically our timing when we're doing the Sira class. I finished the year of sorrow and now we move on to the incident of Al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj. As for the month that the Isra' took place in, there are no opinions narrated from the early scholars of Islam. All the opinions began after the first 200 years. And this clearly shows therefore that we don't know which month it happened in. You know, some of these early scholars said Rabi'ul-Awwal, some said Rabi'ul-Thani, some said Rajab, as you all know the famous month in Muslim culture and lore is Rajab. Some said Ramadan, some said Shawwal. These are the five opinions I found. I found five opinions about various early scholars. None of them have any authentic basis from the Sahaba tabi'un. And therefore, the fact of the matter, we don't know which month it occurred in. We don't know which month it occurred in. So automatically, anybody who celebrates a day and says, this is the day of Isra'ul Mi'raj, when we don't even know the month, forget the actual day it occurred. This is simply an unknown time when it occurred in. And you know what? and the fact of the matter is, the fact that the sahaba didn't preserve the date, shows that they didn't care what day it occurred. What's important is the incident. See, the Muslims don't commemorate specific days of the year when something happens on it. This is not of our culture. Allah gave us these two days of Eid, remember those two days. The rest of this, the sahaba did not record what exact date it happened on, because they realize it's not important. What's important are the details of the story. So, the first question, when did it happen? Probably the strongest position around a year before the Hijrah. That's all we know. Around a year before the Hijrah. The second question, where did it happen from? And here is where we get the first difference of opinion. Because we have a number of different reports, all of them authentic. Two of them are in Bukhari itself. The first report says, that the Prophet ﷺ says that, while I was sleeping in Al-Hateem. What is Al-Hateem? It is the semi-circular region that is outside of the Ka'bah. Right, this is the Hateem. The Hateem used to be a part of the Ka'bah in the time of Ibrahim a.s. And then the Quraysh, when they rebuilt the Ka'bah, I explained when I showed you that chart many months ago, they didn't have funds to build the full Ka'bah. So they said, let's build a half Ka'bah, when we get money we'll build the full Ka'bah. Right, so they built a square Ka'bah rather than a rectangular, as the original Ka'bah is rectangular. And ever since then basically, the Ka'bah has remained square, and it was the wisdom of Allah that the Hatim remained open for everybody, because praying in the Hatim is basically praying inside the Ka'bah. Right? Praying in the Hatim is praying inside the Ka'bah. And this is the wisdom of Allah that He let the Hatim open. So in this version, and this is the most authentic version, the Prophet ﷺ said, that when I was in the Hatim, lying down, Jibreel came to me. So this is the most authentic version. There is another version that says that, the Prophet ﷺ says that, when I was in my house, I saw the roof open up and Jibreel come to me. And then there are other versions that are not as authentic. Ibn Hajar says, this shows that he was in his house and Jibreel first took him to the Hatim. And this makes sense because why would he be sleeping in the open in the Hatim when he has a house in Makkah, right? So we see that not every contradiction is at face value a full contradiction. In fact, Ibn Hajar makes a good point. That is, he was sleeping in his house, and Jibreel came to him, and the first thing that he took him to was the Ka'bah. To pray two raka'at over there. And then from there, Jibreel then took him somewhere else. Okay? So, this is how you reconcile sometimes, to take both of them at face value. The process of, in one story, he begins from the Hatim, in the other one, he begins from his house, and there's no contradiction, because from his house, he was taken to the Hatim. and he says that in the Kaaba or in the Hatim Jibreel opened up my chest and he brought a bowl made out of gold that was full of in one version it says Zamzam in another version it says full of Iman and again there is no contradiction because whatever is in that it is gonna give him Iman and it was also Zamzam so again there is no contradiction here full of Iman or full of Zamzam. And he took out my heart and washed it and put it back. And this was the second time as we all know that this happened. So the Prophet ﷺ's heart was taken out twice. Once when he was 4 or 5 years old, but that time there was a detail that is not mentioned here. What is that detail? Who remembers? Very good, a black spot was taken out. Right? Now when this is happening, there is no black spot to take out, obviously. because it's already been taken out. So there is no black spot. So then what is the purpose of washing the heart when it's already been washed and it's already the black spot has been taken out? The purpose is to strengthen the Prophet ﷺ for what he's about to see. Because he's about to see, فَقَدْ لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَةِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَى He's about to see things as Ibn Hazm says, that if another man were to have seen even a fraction of what the Prophet ﷺ saw, he would have gone mad. If you just saw a fraction of all of these wondrous, amazing things. He's entering a different world. He's entering عالم الغيب. He's entering another dimension if you like. If another man were to have done this, he would have gone crazy. Our Prophet ﷺ, Allah says, مَا زَاغَ الْبَصْرُ وَمَا طَغَى The eyes took everything in firmly. And so to fortify him, to strengthen his iman, the Prophet ﷺ's heart was washed. And that's why in one version he says the bowl was filled with Iman. And in another version he says it was filled with Zamzam. Then he says, then Jibreel brought me a Dabba. Dabba is a beast, it's an animal. دون البغل وفوق الحمار It is smaller than a mule and larger than a donkey. So he's describing it with precision. So it's not as big as a horse. A horse is much bigger, right? it's smaller than a mule bigger than a donkey دون البغري وفوق الحمار أبيض pure white and it was called البراق البراق and البراق of course comes from the root of lightning lightning speed this is the root of lightning and the Prophet ﷺ explained that it puts its hoof where the eye can see every hoof of this buraq it puts it as far as the eye can see now here is where some legends began the image of buraq with wings has not been narrated this hadith clearly says that buraq is a physical creature it's not a mythical it's not a spirit it is a daba flesh and blood it's something that Allah created that is a creature and this creature it can run much faster than a normal horse. So fast it jumps as far as the eye can see. Now can you imagine, we see sometimes 8, 9, 10 miles in the distance. Every foot is like 10 miles let's say. The other foot is another 10. So within a millisecond, 20 miles. Within a minute, how much are you doing? So if every second you're going like 20, 30 miles a second, imagine this is something way faster than anything that we know. But this is a physical creature. according to another report in Tirmidhi the Prophet ﷺ said it had a muzzle on it you know what you put on the harness it had a harness on it and it had a saddle so this is a physical creature and so the Prophet ﷺ Jibreel was holding on to the harness and the Prophet ﷺ stepped on to Al-Buraqi, basically mounted Al-Buraqi, what does an animal do that is mounted by a strange person jumps up, it nays, right? So Buraq tried to do that. And Jibreel basically smacked him. Jibreel yanked the harness. And he said, Woe to you! Are you not ashamed? How dare you do this? So Jibreel is rebuking Buraq. How dare you do this? For wallahi, no one has ridden you more blessed in the eyes of Allah than your current rider. no one has ridden you that is more blessed in the eyes of Allah than your current rider. What does that show by the way? That Buraq has been ridden by other, whoever, whatever, we don't know. But Buraq has been ridden by other creations. Allah knows what they are. Maybe they were not even humans, Allah knows. But this shows by the way, this clearly shows that Buraq is a physical creature. Right? because it's acting like creatures act. It's acting like animals act. And when it became agitated, Jibreel is rebuking. So Buraq understands. Buraq knows what's going on. But it's still an animal. So Jibreel is rebuking him. How dare you do this? You know, this is the most noble rider that you have ever had. And this also shows, it's just a glimpse that Allah has created things beyond our knowledge. Right? You know, Allah says in the Quran, وَيَخْلُقُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ that Allah has created that which you have no knowledge of last week we talked about even the jinn have beasts and creatures remember we talked about this hadith even the jinn have jinn animals this is of the creation that is amongst us we have no knowledge of them so how about of the other world or how about even like al-buraq which is a physical creature that lives in the other world and it's only brought down for these types of times and occasions or maybe this was the only time it was brought in this world We'll never know. This is a ilm al-ghayb. So, Buraq comes and the Prophet ﷺ mounts him. And the Prophet ﷺ said that, I rode him and he took me until we came to Bayt al-Maqdis. Until we came to Bayt al-Maqdis. Now, here we have to pause here. It's very interesting to note that at this time, there is no sanctuary at Bayt al-Maqdis. there is no structure at Baytul Maqdis, there is no mosque, temple or synagogue do you know why? because the Christians wanted to make a point to the Jews that they have no respect for their sha'air, for their heritage, remember Rome is a Christian country, empire now and they control Jerusalem, but the Christians historically were usually very anti-semitic they were always, there was this thing that they had. And this is historically well known that they've always had this type of thing. And so the Roman emperor had basically decreed that this holy site of the holy temple should be converted into a'udhu billah a trash, you know, gutter, like this sewer. Basically it was a filthy area. Okay. What this shows is that when the Prophet ﷺ came here he is seeing the Baytul Maqdis as it was. so Allah Azza wa Jal basically brought about probably the original of Sulaiman or something, whatever it was that he is praying there, because as it is it is a trash dump this is not the Baitul Maqdis don't think of the Dome of the Rock obviously when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is coming there there is no Dome of the Rock, there is no Masjid Khalil all of this is of course later on so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said I came to Baitul Maqdis and what clearly proves that there is a structure here that mankind cannot see is that he says and I tied al-Buraq to the animal post that is used by the prophets. Subhanallah. Buraq has to be tied up. Because if you don't tie him up, he's gonna run away. Okay? So Buraq has to be tied up. Not only that, but he ties up Buraq to the post that is used by the other prophets. Which means what? The other prophets that used to pray there, they had a post that they would use to tie their animals to from this I joke having an imam parking is not anything that's wrong that it's permissible to have imam parking outside of the masjid because here we have the prophets coming to a special place right outside the masjid of course that's a joke don't take it too that's for horses so we make qiyas for our times to cars we make qiyas for our times that's of course a joke but the point is interesting that the Prophets had a special place to park their animals. That they would put their animals, because that's what the Prophet ﷺ said. So I tied it to the post that was used by the previous Prophets. And this by the way again, clearly shows that he is seeing a structure that is not seen by men at this time. Because obviously, the post that Prophet ﷺ used is not gonna be present, you know, for 3000 years later. Obviously, right? So, Allah Azzawajal is basically showing him the original Baytul Maqdis. And he is physically there. And this is Allah's capability. I mean, this is beyond our understanding. And then he says, ثُمَّ دَخَلْتُ فَصَلَّيْتُ فِيهِ رَكْعَتَيْنَ I went inside and I prayed two raka'at. I prayed two raka'at. And of course, this is before tahiyyat al-masjid was legislated. So this shows us that the concept of tahiyyat al-masjid, of when you enter the masjid, you should pray two raka'at, this is even before the Prophet ﷺ legislated it in Medina. Because that's when he legislated it. But he himself was practicing things in Mecca. This is before salah is fard, right? But he's still praying. And he's praying when he enters the masjid. Now here's where we get another minor narration difference. According to one narration, the Prophet ﷺ prayed two raka'at, and when he turned around, فَالْتَفَتُّ فَرَأَيْتُ جَمِيعَ الْأَنبِيَاءَ He saw all of the prophets lying behind him. So the impression we get from this narration, he didn't know that there were prophets behind him. Okay? From the other narration that we have, the Prophet ﷺ actually says that, I saw myself with the other Prophets. And there was Musa praying, قائم يصلي And he was a strong and tall and strong and muscular man, of a brownish color. As if he is a man from the tribe of Shanoa. We don't know what the people of the tribe of Shanoa look like in our times. But for the people whom the Prophet ﷺ is speaking, He is saying Musa is like the people from the tribe of Shanu'ah. And they saw Isa ibn Mariam alayhi salam standing and praying. So there's one place Musa standing. Another place Isa is standing. And the one who looks most like him is Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi. Once again, we don't know what Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi looks like. But for the Sahaba, there's a resemblance going on. He's trying to show them that this is what he looks like. in another version the Prophet ﷺ said he was whitish in color of course the Arabic is red as I said before the Arabs called white people red just like the American Indians call white people pale face so the Arabs would call red or yellow they would call the white people either red or yellow because that's how they perceived that type of whiteness as being reddish or yellow so he said he was basically a Caucasian looking or whitish looking and his hair glistened with water, as if he had come out of a steam bath. So his complexion is, it's basically, you can imagine this, I don't know how to describe it, but the hair is coming, it's glistening, and he is a rather short man compared to Musa. So Isa is not as tall as Musa. And then he said, and I saw Ibrahim alayhi salam, qa'imun yusalli. Notice, Isa standing and praying, Musa standing and praying, Ibrahim is standing and praying, right? As he enters the masjid. All of them are standing and praying. And the one who resembles him the most is your own companion, meaning himself. In another hadith he said, that I could not see anybody more closely resembling to Ibrahim than myself, and I could not see anybody more closely resembling myself to Ibrahim. In other words, Ibrahim and our Prophet ﷺ were almost mirror images of each other in their physical appearance. And then it came the time to salah. فَحَانَتِ الصَّلَاةِ فَأَمَمْتُهُمْ So I was put the imam of them. So this version has it that he knew exactly what's going on. And this is again one of those things that, well it's difficult, I mean, how do you reconcile this Allah knows best? Did he know? Did he not know? There's two versions. But the main point is, he is leading the anbiya and the mursaleen behind him. And what is interesting, what is interesting is that all of the prophets he's seeing are already standing and praying. قَائِمٌ يُصَلِّ And this shows us the importance of salah, that even after death, at least for Ibrahim and Musa, as for Isa, he's still alive, right? But even after death, the prophets are praying. And in fact, our Prophet ﷺ said that, when I was going to Isra'ul-Mi'raj, I passed by the grave of Musa. So this means he passed by his grave, and then Allah took him to Masjid al-Aqsa, right? And then Allah took him to the sixth heaven. So he met Musa three times. So he said, I passed by Musa in his grave. What was he doing? قائم يصلي. Then he gets to Baytul Maqdis. Now Musa doesn't need buraq because Musa is already in the spirit form. Musa does not need buraq to get to Baytul Maqdis. So Musa was there. What's he doing? Standing and praying. Isa, he only saw him there for the first time. What's Isa doing? Standing and praying. Ibrahim, what's he doing? Standing and praying. This is enough of an indication of the blessings of salah that the Prophet ﷺ is seeing all of these anbiya and mursaleen even after death, they are standing and praying. It also shows, and of course this is clearly understood, the fact that the Prophet ﷺ becomes the imam of all of the prophets behind him, of all of the anbiya and mursaleen, clearly shows that he is being given an honor that is unparalleled and unequaled. that not only is he Sayyidul Anbiya and Imam al-Mursaleen he is the Imam of all of the Prophets not only this but by extension since every Prophet is the leader of his Ummah and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is leading the Prophets who leave all the individual Ummahs our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is the leader of every single Ummah i.e. as he himself said ana sayyidu waladi adam yawmal qiyamati wala fakhr he is the sayyid the sayyid here means the leader the master, he is the sayyid of all of the children of Adam on the day of judgment and then he said I'm not saying this astaghfirullah to boast to be arrogant, this is just a fact and this incident clearly proves this that by leading the prophets in salah and every prophet is the leader of his ummah, so the leader of all of the ummahs therefore is our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Another point here that the scholars have commented on is that because these prophets are obviously in a different, like they're in their spiritual form or what not, so there's no space barrier as it is anyway, they're actually all standing in one saf, saf al-awwal, right? So there is no sufuf behind him. There's one long row that we can basically extrapolate is 120,317 or something people long. because we know there's 120,000 prophets. Remember a lecture long back, we spent a whole hour talking about prophets and messengers. Remember that one? Long time ago. And then we said that there's 120,000 prophets and 315 or so messengers. So in this hadith we learn, جميع الأنبياء ورسلين are standing behind him. This means there's a saf that is 120,000 and something people long and they're all in the same saf. And this proves another point and that is in one ayah, excuse me, لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُمْ That all the prophets are the same. In one sense. And then in another sense, تِلْكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ Right? Some prophets we have preferred over others. So the Qur'an says, no difference, and then the Qur'an says, yes, we have preferred some over others. How do we reconcile? They are all the same. They're praying the same prayer, they're praying to the same Lord, doing the same ruku' and sujood. Their message is the same. But amongst themselves, some are better than others and our Prophet ﷺ is the best of all of them. Then he says that after he finished, فَجَاءَنِي جِبْرِيلُ As I said, this is one of those differences. In this version, Jibreel comes to him right now and presents two utensils. In another version, Jibreel does this when they ascend up to the heavens. Minor difference, it doesn't really matter that much. So what are these two utensils and what is inside of them? One of them has khamr and the other one has laban. Right? So there's wine and there is milk. Now remember, up until this time, wine has not been made haram. Wine is still halal. The Muslims of Mecca are drinking wine. Wine has been made halal. At this point, there is no tahreem. So Jibreel hands him these two. And Jibreel says, choose and choose for your ummah. In other words, this choice will affect, will affect not just you, will affect your ummah. So the Prophet ﷺ chose the milk, and Jibreel says, you have chosen the fitrah. Asabtal, you have chosen the right one, and that is the fitrah. And this is a huge symbolism here that again I have to summarize, but I have spoken about this in my theological lectures in more detail. The difference between wine and milk is very profound, and it's very symbolic. Milk comes pure from the animal. As Allah says, يَخْرُنُ بَيْنَ الْفَرْثِ وَالدَّنِيَةِ لَبَنًا خَالِصًا From between the filth and the blood, Allah says, we bring forth لَبَنًا خَالِصًا سَائِغًا لِلشَّارِبِينَ Pure, wholesome milk for those who drink it. And in the hadith, it says that nothing substitutes for both food and drink other than milk. Nothing substitutes for both food and drink other than milk. So milk is a blessed delicacy that Allah mentions in the Quran. that the Prophet ﷺ praised, that he is reported to have drunk many times, he used to drink milk, he used to love camel's milk and sheep's milk. Milk is pure and it comes straight from the animal. And it is wholesome and healthy. And it is nourishing and nutritious. As you all know, we are instructed to drink, you know, at least a glass or two everyday, kids even more than this, right? What is wine? Wine is corrupted, fermented, filthy. Wine is something that was pure, and then bacteria, literally bacteria have infested it and corrupted it wine stinks literally it stinks you smell it and you feel disgusted Alhamdulillah I have never drunk wine I have never tasted alcohol but I remember clearly the first time when I was a teenager I passed by a group of young people partying with wine and what not and the first time I smelt it and wallahi I thought that somebody had urinated on the street. Wallahi, I thought somebody had urinated on the street. What is this? My friend said, don't you know the smell? I said, what is this? He said, this is beer. This is what wine smells like, alcohol smells like. It's disgusting. Just to smell it, it's disgusting. Right? And then what does it do when you drink it? Is it wholesome? Is it pure like milk? Is it nourishing? No. It makes you lose your mind. It corrupts you. It makes you think strange and act strange and act foolish. And one of the sahaba said that wallahi even if wine had not been prohibited, any intelligent man would have avoided it. One of the sahaba said that even if wine had not been prohibited, any man, proper intelligence will understand how foolish it is when you drink wine, you act like this, right? So compare and contrast what is milk, what is wine. The Prophet ﷺ chose that which is pure, comes from the pure and sustains you purely. Versus the wine that is corrupt, That is corrupted and that corrupts the body. Right? So the Prophet ﷺ automatically chose the pure and Jibreel said, this is for your ummah. i.e. your ummah will also be pure. And your ummah will be upon the fitrah. And our Prophet ﷺ said, look, Jibreel called milk the fitrah. And our Prophet ﷺ said, every child is born upon the fitrah. It's pure, it's wholesome. And it is a good child. It's a child that is good in it. The base instinct of man is good and not evil. So the Prophet ﷺ chose the milk and that is when the Jibreel came to him and the Prophet ﷺ says, the doors of the Samah opened up for me. This is the Mi'raj now. Okay, so from Jerusalem, this is the Mi'raj. From Baytul Maqdis, the doors opened up for me. So notice the Dabba or Buraq is still tied at the post. So the journey is very simple. From Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa. From Masjid al-Aqsa up to the heavens, then he's gonna come back down, and then use Buraq to get back to Mecca. Okay, so this is the journey of Al-Isra wal-Mi'raj. So, he says, Jibreel asked permission for the doors of the heavens to open. And the gatekeeper behind the door asked, Who is it? So Jibreel says, It is Jibreel. And the gatekeeper said, Do you have anybody? and Jibreel said, yes, I have with me Muhammad ﷺ. The gatekeeper says, has he been sent for? Does he have permission to pass? Jibreel says, yes. So then the doors open up. So this shows that there are doors that are locked because Jibreel cannot go through. There are doors that are locked. There is a special type of lock. It shows that every door has a doorkeeper, a gatekeeper. and it shows that the gatekeeper is not allowed to let anybody pass unless they have permission. And because these are angels and angels cannot lie, what is the permission? You don't need a paper, you don't need a visa, you don't need a stamp. The angel simply says, Allah has told me to do this. They don't lie, right? So the angel has to verify, who is there, who is with you, does he have permission? That's all. And if the person says yes, or the jibreel says yes, khalas, permission is given. So for every single one of the seven heavens, the same story happens. They get to the second heaven, and it's closed. Jibreel asks permission. The gatekeeper says, who is there? Jibreel says, it's Jibreel. He says, is anybody with you? The same conversation. Every single one of the seven heavens. Okay? Now let's pause here. We need to explain, what are these seven heavens? سَبَعَ السَّمَوَاتِ This is one of the biggest confusions that people have. that they confuse Jannat with Samawat. They confuse Jannah with Sama. And these are two separate words, and two separate concepts. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, that He is the one, خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ طِبَاقًا خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ طِبَاقًا Allah has created seven Samawat. one on top of the other. طباق means in layers. طباق means in layers. طبقا عن طبق. Right? It is layer upon layer. And so Allah says, وَالَّذِي خَلَقَ سَبْعَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمِنَ الْأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ And Allah has created a similar number of earths. That's a separate topic. We don't want to go into that tangent right now. It's confusing enough as it is. سَبْعَ السَّمَاوَاتِ So there are seven samawat. Okay. So samawat are physical heavens above us. And in my humble opinion, I think I've said this before in this class, in my humble opinion, everything that we see around us, the furthest star, hundreds of billions of light years away, all of the millions and billions of galaxies that we know, everything is the lowest heaven. i.e. heaven number one right at the bar you can say the sama'at dunya is how the Quran refers to it the lowest of the seven beyond this there is a sixth beyond that there is a five beyond that there is a four and why do I say this? because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says wa laqad zayyanna sama'at dunya bima sabiha we have beautified the sama'at dunya and we know the sama'at dunya is the first because even in this report, it says, فَانطَلَقَ بِي جِبْرِيلِ حَتَّى أَتَى السَّمَاءَ الدُّنْيَا فَاسْتَفْتَحْ Even in this report in Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ says, Jibreel took me until we finished to the Sama'at Dunya, and then he asked permission for the door to open. So Sama'at Dunya, what is it? Allah says in the Quran, وَلَقَدْ زَيَّنَّ السَّمَاءَ الدُّنْيَا بِمَصَابِحًا We have beautified the Sama'at Dunya with its lamps and its lights. meaning? meaning what? the stars so all the stars that we see and if you study even the most basic astronomy your mind begins to just lose track of how big this space is, right? if you study even the most basic lengths and distances and light years and the furthest galaxy is literally billions of light years away which means that it doesn't even exist anymore what we're seeing was what it was you know, billions of years ago the mind just boggles every telescope mankind keeps on inventing it keeps on looking further into the universe we still have not discovered just what the physical eyes with the telescopes can see you guys understand this that this is unbelievable how large wallahi your mind cannot comprehend how large this created universe is we have no idea we have no clue because everything we keep on creating when we did the Hubble the Hubble telescope is still sending us information we cannot digest and every time we'll create a bigger one I am sure that that bigger one will not be able to see except to a distance and all of this Sama'at Dunya just the lowest heaven what is beyond that? Ilm al-Ghaib we'll never really going to find out in this world and in the next life we wouldn't care about it anyway so that's of the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so what are the Samawat? physical places one of which is our universe our everything that we know our cosmos beyond this there are second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh now what are the Jannat? the Jannat are the heavens that are promised as the reward for the believers Sama is different than Jannah where are the Jannat? it appears there's two interpretations here one of them says that the Jannat are in the seventh Sama, all of them so the Jannat are hundreds and thousands of layers as well right, and where do they occupy their place is the seventh heaven right, so the seventh Sama is where all the Jannat are this is one interpretation another interpretation which is very similar is that the Jannat began in the sixth, but then they work their way to the seventh. And there's evidences for both, and you know, to be honest this is ilm al-ghayb, we're just trying to find bits and pieces here and there. But the bottom line is the Jannat are at the top of the Samawat, right? The Jannat are at the top of the Samawat and this is what we get from the Ahadith. Now, what happens? The Prophet ﷺ goes to the first door, the first door opens, and there is a man standing. The Prophet ﷺ described him as being tall, huge. And Jibreel says, this is your father Adam, so say salam to him. So the Prophet ﷺ said salam and Adam responded and said, marhaban bil ibn al-salih wa nabiyy al-salih. Welcome O noble son and O noble prophet. Welcome O righteous son and O righteous prophet. Then we went to the second heaven and then the same conversation. This is a very long hadith, it is in Bukhari. And this hadith only describes who's at each heaven and what happens at each heaven. So this paragraph of Jibreel's conversation with the gatekeeper, multiply that by seven. You understand what's happening here. In the second heaven, there is Yahya and Isa, Ibneya al-Khal, i.e. their two mothers were sisters, right? So Maryam and her sister, their two children are, Yahya and Isa, or Isa and Yahya. And the Prophet ﷺ was told, this is Yahya and Isa, say salam to them. And so I said salam to them, and they said, welcome O noble brother and O noble prophet. Adam said, O noble son and O noble prophet. They were saying, O noble brother and O noble prophet. Then the third heaven, and in the third heaven was Yusuf ﷺ. And the same thing, welcome O noble brother and O noble prophet. and here is where the Prophet ﷺ said the famous phrase, I saw Yusuf and lo and behold, it was as if he had been given half of all beauty. شطر الحسن So this is where that famous phrase comes from. That in fact, this is the only time he saw Yusuf. And he goes, I saw Yusuf, it was as if he had been given half of all beauty. Then I went up to the fourth heaven and in the fourth was Idris ﷺ. And Idris also says, Welcome O noble brother and O noble prophet. then I go up to the fifth heaven and there is Harun and the same welcome O noble brother O noble prophet I go up to the sixth heaven and there is Musa and he described Musa as well as being stout tall muscular and brownish color and he goes again one rewire says as if he is from the tribe of Shanoa and if anybody knows what somebody from the tribe of Shanoa looks like I would like to know I don't know is there something still known or is it now gone from our times then I went up Musa began to cry. This has a story that the others don't have. Musa began to cry. So he was asked, why are you crying? So Musa says, I am crying because this young man, who was sent after me, shall have a larger following that will enter Jannah than my own ummah. I am basically jealous that this man, who is a young man, Musa called the Prophet ﷺ Ghulam now the Prophet ﷺ is how old now? 52 51, 52 right? Musa is calling him Ghulam some of you should be happy inshallah why is he being called Ghulam by Musa? because Musa died when he was 130 or something years old okay? so compared to Musa this is a man half my age right? and so Musa says ya ghulam, this is a ghulam it's a young boy basically so Musa is allowed to describe the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in this manner because his own age is more than double that of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam when he passed away so he cries and he says that he's basically jealous in an Islamic manner as we'll talk about because this is a positive thing that you're jealous for more hasanat he's not jealous against the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam but it's good to be jealous for more rewards right? You should be jealous for the Qari of the Quran, the Hafidh of the Quran, the Alim, the generous, you know, rich man. You know the hadith, right? This is a positive jealousy. So this is what Musa is that, this is a positive jealousy. I wish I was like this, right? It's not a negative that why did he get it? It's the positive that we're all supposed to have. And then the Prophet ﷺ said, after the seventh heaven, notice by the way, each one of these welcoming committees, welcoming parties, is after he enters the heaven. Right? So he enters the first heaven, there is Adam waiting for him. Then he enters the second heaven, and then there is Yahya and Isa. Right? And then the third is Yusuf. So, I wish you memorize this by the way. This is a quiz question. You should memorize the order from now on. So let's start again. The first is Adam. The second, Isa and Yahya. The third, Yusuf. The fourth, Idris. the fifth? Harun. The sixth? Musa. Excellent. And then the seventh we all know. And then he said that I went up to the seventh heaven the same question back and forth with Jibreel and then I saw Ibrahim alayhi salam and he was sitting with his back leaning on the Al-Baytul Ma'mur We're getting there. He was sitting on his back leaning on Al-Baytul Ma'mur. And Jibreel said to me, this is your father Ibrahim, هذا ابوك Ibrahim, say salam to him and so the Prophet ﷺ said salam to him and Ibrahim responded the exact same way that Adam had responded, notice the beginning and the end, the same response right, مرحبا بلبن الصالح والنبي الصالح the only two who said this, right are Adam and Ibrahim, because everybody else they said الاخ الصالح but Adam and Ibrahim were the only two who said welcome O noble son, they're proud of their son subhanallah, right? this is a natural, they're proud of their son welcome O noble son and O noble prophet now, so inshallah today what we'll do is we'll finish up with the wisdom of these ordering and then we'll have to stop inshallah because there appears to be some wisdom in this ordering why these prophets in this order realize that this order common to popular misconception this order has nothing to do with blessings of the prophets. No, this is not the case. Some people say that, astaghfirullah, that Adam was the lowest, and then, no, that's not the case. That does not seem to be the case. And what appears to be is that these are basically, as I already referenced, some scholars have said, these are basically welcoming committees, welcoming parties, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent some of the noblest prophets, and some of the most famous prophets, to simply greet the Prophet ﷺ as he comes in. And subhanallah, this is a custom that we still have. You know when a noble person comes, when the president or dignitary comes, the president comes out to meet him, or the dignitary comes out to meet him. This is the sunnah of Allah even in the creation. And so when our Prophet ﷺ is coming up, he is basically being given the royal carpet welcome. That every single heaven, every single sama', there's gonna be a welcoming party, or welcoming Prophet to greet him, and to then help him to move on to the next stage. and in each of these seven choices there seems to be some wisdom and some hidden reference and each one of them we can derive that for example Adam a.s. it is befitting that he is the first to greet him because he is the father not just of all the prophets but the father of all of mankind and by seeing Adam what you remember is that he was a man whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose with Jannah but he had to leave Jannah but eventually he shall be returning to Jannah. And there is a symbolism of leaving your security and comfort and leaving, if he left the holiest place in the next life, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam has to leave the holiest place in this world and that is Mecca. But eventually he will return to that holiest place. Just like our father Adam will eventually return to his holiest place. If Allah azzawajal will that Adam had to leave the holiest in that world, our Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam just the next year is gonna have to leave the holiest of this world. And that is Mecca. Because we know Mecca is the holiest city. So he will have to be expelled from Mecca, like his father Adam was expelled from? From? Jannah. And the people who did it, Shaytan did it there, and the evil people are doing it now. Abu Lahab and these others are doing it now. Okay, so there is that symbolism there. Seeing Isa and Yahya. Isa and Yahya are the perfect second candidates, second Jannah. Why? Because they are chronologically the closest to the Prophet ﷺ in time. In time, no prophets came after Isa and Yahya until the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So, they are the closest contemporaries. They are the peers in terms of chronological order. And there is also a symbolism here that the Yahud, their own people, tried to kill the both of them. And they succeeded in killing Yahya. You know John the Baptist? They actually cut his head off. Can you believe? Their own prophet. this is not, I'm not saying this, this is in the New Testament I'm not the one saying this, this is in their own books that they killed him in Baytul Maqdis, what can I say that's how Allah describes them so they killed him in Baytul Maqdis and this is John the Baptist, Yahya they tried to kill Jesus, we all know the story they even tried to kill Isa ibn Maryam, there's a clear symbolism here Ya Rasulullah, you're not the only one who has been opposed, you're not the only one whose people have rejected you, right and if that doesn't bring the point home let's move up to the third heaven Yusuf a.s. who tried to harm him his own blood brothers his own blood brothers tried to harm him but what happens and here is the symbolism his own blood brothers re-accept him back and they accept his faith and they repent and they are guided and therefore there is a symbolism that your own people will return to your faith your own blood relatives who have expelled you shall come back and subhanallah what did our Prophet s.a.w. say or who did he quote when he conquered Mecca? Who did he quote when he's standing on the Kaaba? Who did he quote when the people of Quraysh said, what are you gonna do? What are we gonna do with you? Right? And they said, you are, أَخٌ كَرِيمٌ وَبْنُ أَخٍ كَرِيمٌ Right? The brothers of Yusuf say the same thing that, you know, oh brother, we wronged you. You're our brother, we wronged you, do something. So, the Quraysh say this to the Prophet ﷺ. And what does the Prophet ﷺ respond? He responds by quoting Yusuf. Just as he saw Yusuf now. Right? قَالَ لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْيَوْمِ يَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ There is no sin on you today, Allah will forgive you. Moving up to the fourth heaven, the only thing we know about Idris is what Allah says in the Quran, وَرَفَعْنَاهُ مَكَانًا عَلِيَّ And that's all we need to know. We have raised him to a high place. That's the only thing we know about Idris. And so the Prophet ﷺ is meeting someone whom Allah has described as in a high place. And by the way, he's in the fourth heaven out of seven. That's a high place, right? وَرَفَعْنَاهُمَا كَانًا عَلِيَّةً And so our Prophet ﷺ is being told, وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ Where you have raised your own rank as well. Harun and Musa both have similar reasons. In that, Harun was despised by his people and then accepted. And Musa is the one Prophet that has the most similar experiences to our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Musa has the greatest number of trials and tribulations that are similar to our Prophet ﷺ. And he has the second largest ummah after our Prophet ﷺ. So his experience is unrivaled amongst the Prophets. And when the Prophet ﷺ met Musa, Musa had a lot more experience than him. Because the Prophet ﷺ is still in the middle of his da'wah. Plus Musa has 6 decades, 7 decades more than the Prophet ﷺ. And so Musa is being shown as some type of role model. and how many times did our Prophet ﷺ say, and this is an authentic hadith, that when something happened that harmed him, that irritated him, he said, indeed Musa was hurt more than I was. And he was still patient. He kept on reminding himself of Musa. Indeed Musa was harmed more than I was by his own people. And he kept his cool, he kept his patience. And of course in the highest heaven, and remember these are heavens and not Jannat. So don't think that Adam is in the first Jannah. No, these are not Jannah. All the prophets are in the highest of Jannah. This is the common confusion. That Adam is in the lowest Jannah. No, he's not in the lowest Jannah. He's in the lowest Sama. And the two are not the same as we said. They have been taken from their places and they have been brought to these Samawat to be welcoming parties for the Prophet ﷺ. Right now they're not in Jannah. Because Jannah has not been occupied since Adam has left it. right? Jannah is not occupied until after the day of judgment so wherever the prophets are and they are as our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in their graves standing and praying because he saw Ibrahim in his grave standing and praying the only exception to all of this is of course Isa because Allah says وَرَفَعْنَاهُ مَكَانًا عَلِيَّ that sorry إِنِّي رَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ that I will raise you up to myself so the only one who is physically had to come down to meet the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was Isa, right? And this is a symbolism that he will come down again. Because that's the whole point of him coming down towards the end of time. That he's come down once to meet the Prophet ﷺ, and then he will come down again to meet his ummah at the end of times, and that's what's going to happen. So by showing Ibrahim ﷺ, of course the Prophet ﷺ is being shown his own ancestor, and the highest of all the Prophets. Because Musa was indeed very high, but he was Kaleemullah. And Kaleemullah is the one whom you speak to. Ibrahim was higher because he was Khalilullah. And our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and Khalil means close friend, confidant. And our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Allah has only taken me and Ibrahim as a Khalil. The only people that Allah has taken as a Khalil is basically Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam and myself. There's only two people that have reached that status, that the title of Khalilullah. And that is Ibrahim and the Prophet ﷺ. And the fact that Ibrahim is sitting with his back on Al-Baytul Ma'mur is of course completely appropriate. What is Al-Baytul Ma'mur? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, وَالطُّورِ وَكِتَابٍ مَصْطُورٍ فِي رَقٍّ مَنْشُورٍ وَالْبَيْتِ الْمَعْمُورِ It's in the Quran, Surah Al-Tur. وَالْبَيْتِ الْمَعْمُورِ Al-Baytul Ma'mur literally means the frequented house. Al-Bayt al-Ma'mur means the frequented house And We only have basically one hadith about Al-Bayt al-Ma'mur That is authentic With different versions but one hadith That's all We have no other information about Al-Bayt al-Ma'mur And if you hear anything else Then trust me it is fabricated or weak The only information we have about Al-Bayt al-Ma'mur Is that the Prophet ﷺ said It is a house Similar to the Ka'bah in one version it is the Kaaba of the heavens. Just like there is a Kaaba on earth. In another version it is above the Kaaba on earth such that if it were to fall it would fall on the Kaaba on this earth. So it is above the Kaaba of this earth. And every single day since Allah has created the creation. So way before the Kaaba was here. Every single day 70,000 angels enter Al-Bayt Al-Ma'mur to basically do tawaf and pray. and those 70,000 never return and every single day this happens. Do the math. After 10 days you get 7 million. So you do the math and after a while your brain starts spinning. Every day 70,000 angels who have never come before and they're never gonna come again since the beginning of time up until Yawm al-Qiyamah and Ibrahim is there because he is the one who built the Kaaba on earth so he deserves to be associated with the Ka'bah in the heavens. And we know, الجزاء من جنس العمل The reward will be in accordance with what you have done. Right? What you sacrificed, what you did, Allah will reward you in the same category as what you did. And so when Ibrahim a.s. built a Ka'bah on earth, he was rewarded by being associated with the Bayt al-Ma'mur in the heavens. And that's why the Prophet s.a.w. saw him with his back to Bayt al-Ma'mur, resting and relaxing over there. And if the angels are not allowed to come back, Ibrahim is over there. Subhanallah. He has a higher status, right? If the angels can only come once, Ibrahim a.s. is peaceful and content and relaxed that he is in the Al-Bayt Al-Ma'mur. Our time is up. As we said, probably another three lessons maybe at the rate we're going, subhanallah. Maybe three or maybe we'll see if we can do it in two of Isra and Mi'raj. And as we said, this is... We have a lot of incidents and a lot of hadith of Isra and Maraj. And inshallah we'll continue next week. Before I open the floor for Q&A, some announcements. Firstly, the program this weekend. I hope that inshallah all of you are as excited as I am about this program. We're having somebody who's a specialist in child psychiatry. Someone who was the head child psychologist at the UT Medical Center in Houston. very prestigious position, he was there for many years and now he's dedicated more of his time to the Muslim Ummah, he's a licensed counselor and licensed medical practitioner and we will be doing a program that deals with dealing with teenagers basically and therefore on Saturday starting at 10.30, what time? 10.30 Saturday at 10.30 this will be for a session just for the teenagers and by teenagers we mean basically 11 and 12 and up. So inshallah 11 and 12. And if you feel that your son who's maybe 10 is mature enough, then that's fine. But do realize that these are going to be topics that you understand teenagers face with. So you know your son better. And you know your daughter better. There will be very frank talk. And you understand what this frank talk is. You know, it's not going to be that explicit. But at the same time, it's going to be some very explicit questions are going to be asked and anonymous surveys are going to be done. Because we want to hear from them what are their problems. You know, they can't come to us. They're too scared to come to us directly. Let them come to us indirectly. Let them fill out the forms, you know, anonymously. And there's gonna be surveys, there's gonna be open Q&A, there's gonna be just chilling out time. Of course, there's gonna be lunch included as well. So, you know, have your kids dropped by 10.30. No adults allowed. This is a private, you know, for the teenagers, basically. And, you know, Dr. Arif Shoaib is gonna be here. He's our guest. And he'll be, he has plenty of experience, especially with Muslim teenagers. So he'll be here up until, what's the end timing? 10.30 to? 3.30. 10.30 to Asr. And there will be lunch and some chilling out time. It's not just going to be all lectures and stuff, some games and activities. So 10.30 to 3.30. Saturday night at 6.30, there's a lecture for the converts. But it's open for everybody. But it's going to be geared towards the converts about marriage in Islam. And basically some of the issues they need to know. The fiqh of getting married, for example. Some basic stuff for them. and inshallah Dr. Arif will also be our guest but I'll be the main speaker but he has a lot of experience by the way in marriage and in youth he has a lot of experience but we wanted to emphasize one we're doing a marriage thing with another speaker in two months as you know so that's on Saturday two events on Saturday on Sunday 10.30 to 3.30 will be the same session but for the adults for the adults no teenagers allowed and especially if your teenager came on Saturday you really need to come on Sunday because we will share with you the results of our surveys. Your own teenagers have filled out forms. Of course, we don't know who is what. They're not going to be with names. But the comments that they have said, the concerns that they have expressed, we will hear them. And you will hear perhaps your own child speaking to you indirectly. And if it's not your child, it's the child of your brother or sister in this masjid. So this is something you need to be very familiar with. Do not think this is only a children's event. If you are a parent, you need to send your child and you should show up yourself. If your children are too young, then you just show up yourself to learn about teenagers. If you've already gone through the teenage years, I don't know. It's up to you if you want to come or not. I don't know what to say. I'm sure some of you have gone through the teenage years and your kids are already, mashallah, adults. It's up to you if you want to come or not. I'm not saying anything. Or maybe we can benefit from your wisdom. How about this? We'll benefit from your experience because believe me, I need to know and I think many of us need to know. We need to benefit from your wisdom and experience. So this is going to be Saturday and Sunday, 10.30 to 3.30. However, we need to cater, we need to make sure the chairs are set up, we need to have appropriate lunch. So please register. The registration forms are with Brother Hasnain. Are you going to hand them out? Just register for it so that we know how many people will be coming inshallah. And if you want to take a form for somebody or you can do it online. If you know somebody who has not registered, do tell them to show up. InshaAllah we'll try to accommodate. But lunch we need to know how many people are coming. so do try to do that inshallah ta'ala with that we have just 2-3 minutes for questions and we break for salah inshallah so questions for this so Dr. Nadeem says can we derive from the hadith of Isra the benefits of organic milk versus hormonally changed milk, right? It's a very valid question. Let me just say though that we cannot compare organic milk versus with those modified to khamr, to alcohol, right? So it's a bit of a stretch to compare there. You know there is a movement now in America, it's very small, but there is a movement to drink fresh unpasteurized milk. And I was actually very surprised when I heard this. but when I went to Houston this last summer I was told that there is a place that the farmers they come in the morning to sell the milk that they extracted one day ago just literally and it's unpasteurized to get the full now I have never drunk that milk but those who have have told me it tastes completely different than pasteurized and then this hormonally modified and I have no doubt personally that that is the case now I mean I don't know what to tell you other than it makes sense but to derive this from the hadith of Isra I kind of sort of it is the drink of fitrah but there is nothing that goes against boiling it for pasteurization I have no doubt that if you try to genetically modify something you are messing with the perfection of Allah I have no doubt about that I mean this is in the Quran that shaitan will try to cause you to change the creation of Allah so we can derive this directly from the Quran to be honest we do not know any other authentic hadith about Buraq or who wrote him or his description what we know is exactly what I have said smaller than a mule, larger than a donkey white and its hoof goes where the eyesight can see that's all that we know and there's a tether and there's a saddle we don't know any other details about who has ridden Burak but it is not surprising I was wondering I was wondering I mean you know the source of that that particular series used a book that is simply full of stories and I am a little bit more academically inclined. I just don't just quote the book that he quoted. Okay. Sister in the back, was your hand raised? Yes. Yes, I made a mistake. I said there's going to be a sister's halaqah two weeks ago, but I forgot that we had invited Dr. Arif Shoaib. So the sister's halaqah will be, inshallah, sometime in March, inshallah, we'll announce it. Sorry, sorry, February. Not that. Sometime in February, inshallah, Allah will announce it. So there's not going to be sisters halaq on Sunday. Yes? So going back to the milk and the wine issue, just like pork, why wasn't alcohol prohibited for earlier? Why wasn't alcohol prohibited for earlier ummahs? There's no explicit reason given in our texts. But it is possible, some scholars have derived this, that because our sharia was the perfect and the perfection of the sharia, of all sharia, because Allah clearly says in the Quran that we have given you this Quran that is مُهَيْمِنٌ عَلَيْهِ that is going to supersede all other previous scriptures and sharia's. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says of course that this is the religion that will be manifest over all other. So because of this Allah gave us a sharia that is the most perfect. And He might have allowed imperfections in other sharia's maybe because the people were not qualified or they didn't deserve those perfections. And sometimes it was intentionally made difficult as a punishment for them as what happened with the Bani Israel. And sometimes it was maybe because they didn't have enough Iman to live up to it. So these are the wisdoms that we can derive. Apart from this we do not know why was it that Allah allowed the previous sharia's this issue but He prohibited it upon us. Because it is true, the brother's fact is true that the previous sharia's did not prohibit wine. However, we have references that the prophets of Allah never drank. So even if it was allowed for them, the prophets never did it. And this in and of itself shows the perfection. And Allah knows best. Still there are some Christians that don't drink. Yeah, Baptist. Yeah, go ahead. The celebration of Isra and Mi'raj, as we already said, there is no precedent for the date or the month it occurred. We have no clue. And therefore to specify is really to speak from no knowledge. Number one. Number two, to take this day as a day of doing extra things. And as we know, we try to stick to our Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba's actions. They have the purest Islam and they had the best knowledge. and if they didn't do it then we really should avoid it and there is nothing authentic to tell us to celebrate on you know, what is it, 27th of Rajab or the 15th of Sha'ban or all of these dates really all of these dates it's just simply best to avoid them and Allah knows best. Final question, I saw a hand raised here final question, ya Allah, bismillah we will talk about this when we wrap up but it is very clear that he went physically, and this is something that there is إِجْمَاع in Sunni Islam. No scholar ever said that he went only by the soul or imagination, because if you say that he went by the soul, or that it was a dream, there is nothing miraculous about it. سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ Why? What's the big deal? And the next morning when he woke up and he told the Quraysh that last night I went, we can go to the moon and back in a dream who's gonna deny us, right? we can go across the world, we can go to different lands what's so strange? the very fact that the Quraysh found this strange and they said, you expect us to believe this? that's what they questioned him, right? and Abu Bakr was called a Siddiq because it's a physical journey had it been an imaginary journey a journey of the mind a dream what's the point of subhanallah the asra bi abdi what's the point of why should we believe you, right? so there is unanimous consensus that Isra and Mi'raj took place that with the body and the soul i.e. in the physical Yaqadah and there are also Riwayat and reports that show that the Prophet ﷺ says that when he came back his bed was still warm right? which means the entire journey took you know, few minutes, 5-10 minutes because it's a different dimension you know, Burak is going at the speed of light his name comes from lightning he gets there, he prays two Rakaat he then goes up that's a different dimension there is no time and space there he comes back down he comes back and his bed is still warm so all of these clearly show that it is a physical journey and we'll talk about this in more detail inshallah whenever we finish inshallah with this we conclude for this week inshallah I'll see you I have the khutbah this week Friday and then on Saturday, Sunday I hope that all of you show up inshallah for our teenager thing Jazakumullah

Seerah 21 - Night Journey & Ascension to Heavens 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ February 2012-128GJfzeMwI

Al-Fatihah and the Mi'raj. And we had just finished the Prophet ﷺ rising up through the seven heavens. And I think we had also explained that the heavens are not the same as the Jannat. The Samawat and the Jannat are two separate entities. And most likely, the Jannat occupy the seventh heaven. Most likely, the Jannat occupy the Sama'a As-Sabi'a or the seventh heaven. And we mentioned the wisdom of why the Prophet ﷺ met certain prophets at each one of these levels. Now, as we said, one of the biggest problems of Al-Isra'ul-Mi'raj is to piece together the narrative. There are specific ahadith. We don't know when they occurred. So to put a chronology, to put a A to Z, a picture, is very difficult to do. So we have, for example, one narration which seems very clear that the Prophet ﷺ is engaging in conversations with the other prophets. Where did this happen? Did it happen in Baytul Maqdis? One possibility. Did it happen when he's moving up to the heavens? Another possibility. And it's a very interesting narration that Abdullah ibn Mas'ud says that the Prophet ﷺ said that on the night he went to Isra' wal-Mi'raj, he met Ibrahim and Musa and Isa. So we know he met them. So they began talking about the Day of Judgment. So we learn from this that there are some conversations taking place between the Prophets of Allah. and Ibrahim was the first to be asked tell us about the day of judgment so Ibrahim said that I don't have any knowledge about the day of judgment I don't have any knowledge they asked Musa and Musa as well said I don't have any knowledge they asked Isa and Isa said that I have been promised or informed that between it and that one of the signs of it is that I will be coming back And Allah Azzawajal knows when that is. And Dajjal will come. So Isa knows that he has a job of killing Dajjal. And he told the other prophets this. So Isa says that, I know that Allah will send me back to this earth, and I will kill the Dajjal, and the people will then go to their various countries and lands, and Ya'juj and Ma'juj will come forth, as Allah says in the Quran, من كل حدب ينسلون From every single valley, from every single area they're going to come. and every water they pass by, Ya'juj and Ma'juj, will be drinking this water and finishing it up until I will make dua to Allah that they be killed. And so Allah Azza wa Jal will kill the Ya'juj and Ma'juj and the entire world will be stenched with their decomposed bodies. As far as one can smell, one can smell their scent, their putrid smell. And I will then make another dua to Allah. So all of this Isa is saying, that this is what Allah has told me, I know I'm gonna do this. So he's telling the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ is telling us. I will then make dua to Allah, to get rid of these bodies, so Allah will send rain from the sky, and these bodies will be washed away. And when this happens, I have been told, the day of judgment will be like a pregnant woman who's about to give birth, as soon as she screams the... Basically she's in labor, any minute is labor, there's an expression in Arabic that like the pregnant woman who is about to give birth meaning you don't know when it's just about to happen you know we all know the time frame is gonna come but when it comes exactly we don't know soon as she says the water breaks khalas so Isa is using this metaphor that as soon as ya'juj and ma'juj disappear from this earth that is when he said the day of judgment is like the pregnant woman about to give birth it's gonna happen at any time and the Prophet s.a.w. says what Isa says, we find it in the Quran. So subhanAllah, he's basically confirming. This is what's found in the Quran. حَتَّى إِذَا فُتِحَتْ يَأْجُوجُ وَمَأْجُوجُ وَهُمْ مِنْ كُلِّ حَدَبٍ يَنسِلُونَ He quotes one of the references to يَأْجُوجُ and مَأْجُوجُ. So clearly, it's very interesting to know that this conversation has been preserved. How about the other conversations? اللَّهُ عَلَمْ What else did the Prophet ﷺ talk about? اللَّهُ عَلَمْ All of this is علم الغَيْب. What would he have asked them? Of the things he's asking them is the Day of Judgment. So they're talking amongst themselves, and both Ibrahim and Musa say, we have no knowledge at all. But Isa has knowledge. And Isa tells the Prophet ﷺ, and therefore, we have a lot of hadith based upon this. Because Isa told the Prophet ﷺ the details of what he was supposed to do, what he is supposed to do. And therefore, when you look at hadith literature, we find the Prophet ﷺ telling us so many things about Ya'juj and Ma'juj, about Isa coming about this. And where is he getting this from? Well, we have one source right here. And that is Isa is the one telling him directly when he went up to Isra wal-Mi'raj. There's another conversation that is recorded. The Prophet ﷺ said, لَقِيتُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ لَيْلَةَ أُسْرِيَ بِي I met Ibrahim the night that I went on the Isra. And he told me, Ya Muhammad, O Muhammad ﷺ, أَقْرِئْ أُمَّتَكَ مِنِّ السَّلَامِ give my salams to your ummah. So Ibrahim is telling his salams to us. And he's telling it through his own son, the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. So he's telling his own son, the Prophet s.a.w. Go tell your ummah that I am giving them my salam. And this is a beautiful blessing that the Prophet Ibrahim is giving each and every one of us his salam. And inform them, وَأَخْبِرْهُمْ أَنَّ الْجَنَّةَ طَيِّبَ التُّرْبَةِ That Jannah, its soil is beautiful and luscious. وَأَنَّهَا قِيعَانَ But it is barren. Jannah is Qiyan, is flat land. Without any trees in it. Right? And then he explained where will the trees come from? وَأَنَّ غِرَاسَهَا سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَلَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ And the seedlings that we put in this soil will come from everybody saying Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, La Ilaha Illa Allah, Allahu Akbar. So what Ibrahim Alayhi Salam is saying, tell your ummah I have seen Jannah. And Jannah is fertile soil, beautiful land. But it is barren. You need to plant your own trees in Jannah. How are you gonna plant your trees in Jannah? Every Subhanallah becomes a tree. Every La Ilaha Illa Allah becomes a tree. Every Allahu Akbar becomes a tree. Every dhikr that you do becomes a tree. So Ibrahim is saying, you're guaranteed to get a fruit because the land is luscious and fertile. That in anaha tayyibat al-turba that the soil of Jannah is beautiful and luscious. Another conversation and a message that our father and prophet Ibrahim a.s. wanted us to know through our prophet Muhammad s.a.w. that go tell your ummah this is how Jannah is. It is also narrated and again we don't know when perhaps this happened in Baytul Maqdis perhaps it happened after the seventh heaven. These are the two places that it happened that he met Malik. And who is Malik? No, not the angel of death. The angel of death is called Malakul Maut. That's his name. The angel of death is called Malakul Maut. Who is Malik? The? The gatekeeper of Jahannam. وَنَادَوْا يَا مَالِكُ لِيَقْضِي عَلَيْنَا رَبُّكُ His name is in the Quran. وَنَادَوْا The people of Jahannam. يَا مَالِكُ لِيَقْضِي عَلَيْنَا رَبُّكُ O Malik, go tell your Lord to exterminate us. We don't want to live anymore. Go tell your Lord to just get rid of us. That's what we want now. We don't want to sustain ourselves anymore in Jahannam. So Malik is mentioned once in the Quran. And Malik is therefore the khazin or the gatekeeper of the fire of hell. So our Prophet ﷺ said that Jibreel said to me, O Muhammad ﷺ, this is Malik, the Khazin of Jahannam, the gatekeeper of Jahannam, give him salam. So the Prophet ﷺ said, I turned around to greet him before I could say anything, he was the one who greeted me, so I returned the salam. And he did not smile at all, he seemed completely somber and completely sad. And so the Prophet ﷺ asked Jibreel, why is he like this? Because all the other angels clearly had, therefore from this we derive, the other angels clearly had a very positive vibe coming from them. Happiness and joy. Whereas Malik did not even smile upon seeing the Prophet ﷺ. So Jibreel asked him, how come he's different basically? And this shows us that the angels were happy when they saw the Prophet ﷺ come because he had to ask about Malik. And so Jibreel responded that he has never smiled or laughed since he has been created. Because his job is Jahannam. And once he's seen Jahannam, he has never smiled or laughed since he has been created. But Jibreel added, were he to have smiled for anybody, it would have been you. But his association of guarding Jahannam basically has made him so somber that he has never smiled or laughed since he has been created. Now, there is a wisdom here as well that even though we're gonna learn later on that the Prophet ﷺ saw Jannah and Jahannam, but he didn't visit Malik while he was on duty, if you like. Malik came to him to say salam to him. You understand the point? That even though we're gonna come to this in a few minutes, after all of this is over, where the Prophet ﷺ saw Jannah and Jahannam, which means that, you know, if he wanted to, he could have basically stopped by Malik at the gate and said salam to him. But he didn't. Malik was brought up to say salam to him. Why? From this, one of the wisdoms we derive, to emphasize that the Prophet ﷺ is as far away from the fire of hell as the seventh heaven is from the lowest of the creation. That Malik is brought to him and not the other way around. And that is why Malik says salam to him, to show him superiority, to show him respect. That Malik is the one, because he said, I turned around to say salam, but Allah didn't will that he say salam first. Malik was the one who said salam to him, and he was then responding to the salam, just to show that there is no relationship at all, even though Malik himself is a noble angel, right? But, what is he associated with? Jahannam, and guarding Jahannam. And so the guard of Jahannam is giving his respects to the Prophet ﷺ as a superior, which clearly shows that he has nothing, obviously nothing to do with it. So this is just of adab or respect. Otherwise, of course, even if the Prophet ﷺ had said, Salam, we're not going to derive anything from that. But to clearly show the distance and to show the superiority of the Prophet ﷺ from ever coming close to anything to do with the Nauru Jahannam, this is why Malik is brought to him, and Malik is the one who says, Salam. He then proceeded onward. So we are now basically above the seventh heaven. He has met all of the prophets, including Ibrahim a.s. And now he proceeds onwards above this. What is beyond this? He said, ثُمَّ رُفِعَتْ إِلَيَّ سِدْرَةُ الْمُنْتَهَا And then I saw in front of me the Sidratul Muntaha. What is the Sidratul Muntaha? The Sidra is a type of tree is a type of tree that is known for its large branches, that it covers a wide area, it goes very vast, and it's known for its delicious fruit and sweet scent. So it is a tree that grows primarily in the desert, the type of Sidra that the Arabs knew, there's many types of Sidras in our times, the type that the Arabs knew when the Prophet ﷺ was saying Sidra, what comes to mind is a type of tree that it grows in the desert and its branches are very vast so there's a lot of shade coming out from it and its fruit is luscious and its smell is sweet and muntaha means the very end so the sidra at the end this is how it translates into sidra tul muntaha the sidra at the very end in english this is called the lot tree it's called the lot tree in english this is the translation and the prophet s.a.w. said fa-iza nabaquha mithlu qilali hajar the the fruits of this tree were as large as the water jars of hajar. The water jars of hajar, unfortunately, we don't know how large they were. But we can imagine, you can even remember if you go back to, you know, cartoons and whatnot, you have these large jars of oil, large jars of water. So this is like the largest jar they had was a storage jar. You know, you can imagine small, you know, closet size if you like. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying, the fruits of this tree were as large as the jugs of the people of Hajar. And, now realize this is what you call eloquence by the way, that you're explaining something in a way that they'll understand. This is metaphor, this is explaining things in a symbolic language that they fully understand. All the people of the time know how large the jars of Hajar are. Unfortunately we have lost track of that, but the people he's speaking to know it. And then he said, and its leaves are like آذان الفيالة Its leaves are like آذان الفيالة Which is the ears of the elephants, right? Its leaves are like the ears of the elephants. Now it's really interesting here in that it is not authentically reported that the Prophet ﷺ ever saw an elephant in his life. Right? But he is describing it like the ears of an elephant. Now we all know, at least we all know the ears of an elephant, right? big flappy things, right? So the process is saying, the leaves of this tree are like the آذان الفيالة And then I was told, هذيه صدرت المنتهى In other words, he's seeing this tree, and then he is informed by Jibreel, this is the صدرت المنتهى In a hadith in Bukhari, he said, ثم انطلق بي Then Jibreel continued going up with me. So this is, he's met all of the prophets. He's met Ibrahim. Now Jibreel goes up with him even higher. حَتَّى أَتَى صِدْرَةَ الْمُنْتَهَا Until we got to the صِدْرَةَ الْمُنْتَهَا فَغَشِيَهَا أَلْوَانٌ لَا أَدْرِي مَاهِ It's a beautiful phrase here, very interesting. غَشِيَهَا means it was enveloped. So we can imagine it was enveloped, meaning it's changing. And Allah Azzawajal Himself says in the Quran, إِذْ يَغْشَى صِدْرَةَ مَا يَغْشَى That when the tree was covered up by what it was covered up with. Allah doesn't tell us what. It's a circular thing. إِذْ يَغْشَىٰ السِّدْرَةَ مَا يَغْشَىٰ When the tree was covered up by whatever was covering it up. And so the Prophet ﷺ is saying, فَغَشِيَهَا أَلْوَانٌ There were colors, basically going up and down the tree. لَا أَدْرِي مَاهِ I don't know what those colors are. It's a beautiful phrase here, that there are colors beyond the spectrum that we know of, right? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. This is a very small spectrum. Beyond this is of course, many other types of energy and light. and the Prophet ﷺ is seeing something that in this world cannot be seen. Because in this world, this is the spectrum of the colors. So he is definitely in another zone, another dimension, whatever you wanna call it. He is witnessing colors coming from this tree. He said, I don't know how to explain these colors to you. And I find this phrase very fascinating because it actually fits in very well with whatever we know of science. Not that we wanna scientifically interpret it, but you get my point that he is saying something so simple for the observer, the casual observer, But there's a deep and profound truth to this. And that is that he is seeing something completely different dimension, different world. That he is seeing energy and light coming to him from a completely... He doesn't know how to describe this color. Now, what is the Sidratul Muntaha? We have very little information about the Sidratul Muntaha. All that we know, this is the last thing that the Prophet ﷺ saw before he went above to meet Allah ﷻ. This is the final. And we know that everything that rises up from earth stops at Sidratul Muntaha. Allah says in many verses that Allah raises things up. Give me an example, what does Allah say He raises things up? The souls, okay, what else? No, no, no, this is, rafa'at to this, no. Raises it up. Prayers, duas. wal amalus salihu yarfa'uhu good deeds kalimat tayyib, all of these things Allah raises it up so we learn from one hadith that in sahih muslim, abdul abdul masud said that the prophet s.a.w. said then when I went on the isra I stopped at the sidratul muntaha and he said wahiya fis sama'is sadisa it is in the sixth heavens إِلَيْهَا يَنْتَهِ مَا يُعْرَجُ بِهِ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ At the Sidratul Muntaha, everything that ascends up from the earth stops there. فَيُقْبَضُ مِنْهَا And it is basically absorbed by the Sidratul Muntaha. وَإِلَيْهَا يَنْتَهِ مَا يُهْبَطُ مِنْ فَوْقِهَا And from it descends down everything that is coming to this earth and it emerges from it. So Allah's rahmah and the rain And anything that Allah wants to send down, the origination, where does it begin from? Sidratul Muntaha. So everything that is raised up goes to the Sidratul Muntaha. Everything that comes down starts from the Sidratul Muntaha. And the Prophet ﷺ said, اِذْ يَغْشَى الصِّدْرَةَ مَا يَغْشَى That when the tree was enveloped by what it was enveloped by, the Prophet ﷺ said, فَرَاشٌ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ Butterflies made out of gold. So one of the things that is surrounding the tree are beautiful butterflies with exotic colors made out of gold. So this is of the things that is surrounding the tree. And there are other things as well that we don't know because Allah has said, إِذْ يَغْشَىٰ السِّدْرَةَ مَا يَغْشَىٰ That when the tree was enveloped by what it was enveloped by, مَا زَاغَ الْبَصَرُ وَمَا طَغَىٰ The eyes of the Prophet ﷺ did not move beyond that, nor did they go astray. Meaning he absorbed this beautiful sight. Then Allah says, لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَىٰ Looking at this tree, Allah says, he has seen of the ayat al-kubra. And if Allah is saying, this is a major ayah, then what is bigger than this, right? So by viewing the Sidrat al-Muntaha, Allah is saying, he has seen of his most magnificent creations of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the Sidrat al-Muntaha. And in one version of At-Tabari, the Prophet s.a.w. said, إِذْ يَغْشَى صِدْرَةَ مَا يَغْشَى when it was enveloped by what it was enveloped by, the Prophet ﷺ said, it kept on changing until nobody can describe it for you. So the tree is not a static tree. We can, whatever image we get, it's an ever-changing tree. Colors are going up and down. There's butterflies of gold. Its leaves are massive. Its fruits are as large as the jars of hajj. So we get some impression that it is a dynamic tree. It's a beautiful majestic tree. it is an otherworldly tree. And this is the Sidratul Muntaha. Now, question. In one hadith it says that, so I passed basically Ibrahim in the seventh heaven, and then I saw Sidratul Muntaha. In the other hadith, that's in Bukhari. In the other hadith in Sahih Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said, and then I went to Sidratul Muntaha, and it is in the sixth heavens. So there is a clear contradiction. Because in one hadith, it's in Bukhari seventh. In the other hadith, it's in Muslim, it is 6th. Imam An-Nawawi tries to explain this, and it seems like a good explanation. And he says, the trunk of the tree begins in the 6th heaven, but its branches finish at the end of the 7th heaven. Because that is the end of the creation as we know it. Nothing of the creation of this world at least is beyond the Sidratul Muntaha. The only thing that is beyond it is the throne and the one who is above the throne. So the Sidrat al-Muntaha is the end of this creation. And therefore, this is a good point that Nawawi brings, there is no contradiction. The Prophet ﷺ is saying that the Sidrat al-Muntaha begins in the sixth heaven, and then it continues, the trunk of it, all the way through, until the leaves finish with the top of the seventh heaven. And this seems to be a good narration. and in fact later scholars have found that one of the tabi'un qatada, the student of Ibn Abbas he himself says that the Sidra finishes in the seventh heaven which means it begins somewhere else so the Sidra finishes in the seventh heaven and therefore from this we derive that the Sidra is a massive tree a tree that there is like no other tree and by the way the motif of a tree is very common in the Quran and the tree is a symbol of Iman and a symbol of life and subhanallah it is in the fitra of the children of Adam that when we see a tree, we are optimistic. That to this day, look at any NGO that's a peace NGO or think green NGO, whatever it is, right? What is their symbol? A leaf or a twig or a tree? It's ingrained in our fitrah, right? That Allah created us that the tree is peace. The tree is life, right? And the motif of the tree is throughout the Qur'an and Sunnah so much so that the very end of creation, what is it? The Sidratul Muntaha. And that is the most magnificent of all trees. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, and at the base of the Sidratul Muntaha, fa-iza arba'atu anhar. There are four rivers coming down. Nahrani ba'tinani wa nahrani zahiran. Two of these are hidden, and two of these are open. So I said to Jibreel, what are these rivers? So Jibreel said, amma al-ba'tinani fa-nahrani fi-jannah. As for the hidden ones, they are ones in Jannah. You're not gonna see them in this world. وَأَمَّا الظَّاهِرَانَ And ask for the ones that everybody can see فَالنَّيْلُ وَالْفُرَاتِ The river Nile and the Euphrates river. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, the Prophet ﷺ is saying, Jibreel is telling him, that the Nile and the Euphrates are blessed rivers. The Nile and the Euphrates are blessed rivers. And subhanallah, well I mean this is just such a small fact here, that now we know, that the cradle of civilization has always been associated with these two rivers. That the earliest people on earth is basically Mesopotamia, which is the Euphrates, right? The earliest, where is the land of Iraq or Babylon? All of these is basically around the Euphrates. And the second civilization is basically on the Nile. And there have been continuous human habitations as far back as we know, upon the Euphrates and the Nile. And these two rivers have always been rivers of life and rivers of civilization. from the beginning of time. And subhanAllah, the Prophet ﷺ just makes a passing statement that clearly these two rivers, you cannot compare this to the Mississippi for example, right? There is no comparison, nothing against. I mean, you know what I'm saying? You cannot compare this, right? You cannot compare these rivers to any other rivers on earth. These rivers are the rivers where the origins of life as we know it on earth, right? This is, as we said, the earliest civilizations go back to these. And look at every great civilization, 5,000, 4,000 years ago, they're associated with these two rivers. And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying that, Jibreel showed me this and he said, these two rivers are a blessing from Allah that everybody can see. They emanate, Allah knows how, they're starting from up there but they're apparent for everybody to see. An-Naylu wal-Furat, the Nile and the Euphrates. As for the two rivers of Jannah, they are Al-Kawthar and Sal-Sabil. As for the two rivers of Jannah, they are Al-Kawthar, Inna A'taynak Al-Kawthar, and I have given Tafseer of Surah Al-Kawthar here and it's online as well. And Salsabil as well as mentioned in the Quran. Aina fiha tusamma Salsabila. So the Salsabil is the second river in Jannah. So these are the two rivers of Jannah. Then over here in one version, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Thumma rufi Ali al-baytu al-ma'mur. Then I saw al-baytu al-ma'mur. In another version he says, I saw Ibrahim when I saw him in the seventh heaven sitting with his back on baytu al-ma'mur. Allahu'alam, was this one incident and somehow it got into these two or was it two separate times that he saw Baytul Ma'mur Allahu'alam, there is really, I've thought about this a lot I don't know what to do whether we say that he saw it twice once with Ibrahim and then once when he saw Sidratul Muntaha he was shown it a second time or was it really just one and because again remember all of these different narrations of the Isra and Mi'raj are being reported by different Sahaba. And as we said, even here in this gathering, if all of you were to go home after you listen to a lecture about Isra and Mi'raj, every one of you is gonna kinda sort of muddle things up and put things here and there. You'll remember interesting anecdotes, right? But somehow, you know, along the way, things are gonna happen. And this is the human element of documenting the hadith that we need to be aware of. There's a human element that the Sahaba, they're not, you know, it's not a lie, but I mean, you know, things move around a little bit. and there is a problem sometimes in some of these narrations and we find it especially in incidents. Even by the way the battles as well, the battle, any battle, it's impossible to reconstruct A to Z. Because when you narrate a battle, I'm jumping the gun here, when you narrate a battle, what do you narrate? One incident, right? How do you know when that incident happened and to link it to the other incidents does require imagination. Same thing here with the Isra. We're not sure, maybe he saw it again and this is when he said that the Baytul Ma'mur is a house, a Ka'bah similar to the Ka'bah. And in one hadith he said, it is above the Ka'bah on this earth such that if it were to fall down, it would land on the Ka'bah. It would land on this Ka'bah. So there is a bayt that is in the heavens like there is a bayt that is on this earth. And this is when he said, every day 70,000 angels enter it, never to return. And this has been happening since Allah created it until the day of judgment. 70,000 angels on a daily basis and they never repeat ever again between any two angels. And if you do the math after a while, your mind starts boggling away how many angels are there. And it's of course as Allah says, وَمَا يَعْلَمُ جُنُودَ رَبِّكَ إِلَّا هُوَ Only Allah knows the quantity of angels. And then he saw Jibreel a.s. in his original form. He saw Jibreel a.s. in his original form and he described him in many ahadith. One of them, Sahih Bukhari, he said, لَهُ سِتُّ مِئَةِ جَنَاحٍ Jibreel had 600 wings. قَدْ سَدَّ الْأُفُقِ He blocked the entire horizons. And he said in another hadith in At-Tabari, he says that from the feathers of Jibreel's wings, pearls and corals were dripping. So again, these are not static creatures, neither Sidrat al-Muntan nor Jibreel, that there is this mystical reality to them, that from his feathers, so Jibreel has feathers, And Jibreel has 600, and that is the maximum number. Allah says in the Quran that, جَاعِلُ الْمَلَاكَةِ رُسُرًا أُولِي أَجْنِيحَةٍ مَثْنَى وَثُلَاثَ وَرُبَعٍ Most of the angels, Allah says, two or three or four wings. But Jibreel alayhi salam, in this hadith we learn he has 600 wings. Because he is the most chosen of the angels of Allah, and he has been preferred over all of the other angels. Ibn Mas'ud said, when he saw Jibreel, this is the reference in the Quran, لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَىٰ He saw of his major signs. So what does it mean he saw of his major signs? Well, three things he saw one after the other at the highest level. Number one, Sidratul Muntaha. Number two, Baytul Ma'mur. Number three, Jibreel. And every one of them is من آياتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَىٰ Every one of them is من آيات ربه الكبرى. The Baytul Ma'mur represents the spiritual Ka'bah. It represents the Ka'bah of the heavens. It represents the worship of Allah by the angels. The Sidratul Muntaha represents the highest portion of this universe. There's nothing higher than that. And of course Jibreel is the most chosen of Allah's servants amongst the angels. And the Prophet ﷺ is the most chosen of his servants amongst the children of Adam. So the angel and the child of Adam, the two best of them, they see each other in their original forms. And it is said that the Prophet ﷺ only saw Jibreel in his original form twice. Only saw Jibreel in his original form twice, and this is one of those two occasions. Somewhere in this period, he was also given Surah Al-Baqarah. We don't know when. All that we know, hadith in Sahih Muslim. that Abdullah ibn Mas'ud said, when the Prophet ﷺ went on his journey of Isra wal-Mi'raj, he stopped at the Sidrat al-Muntaha, and it is in the sixth heaven. This is the same narration I quoted you before. He stopped at the Sidrat al-Muntaha, and it is in the sixth heaven, and then he explained, what is Sidrat al-Muntaha? Upon the Sidra, everything that goes up stops. From the Sidra, everything that originates comes down. Then ibn Mas'ud said, the Prophet ﷺ was given three things. Number one, the five Salah. We're gonna come to that. Number two, خَوَاتِيمُ سُورَةِ البَقَرَةِ The ending of Surah Al-Baqarah. And number three, Allah promised him, that whoever worshipped him from his ummah without doing shirk, that he will be forgiven and caused to enter Jannah. This was a promise, a gift that Allah gave. So three things were given to him at Sidrat Al-Muntaha or above Sidrat Al-Muntaha. Number one, the five salat, we're gonna come to that. Number two, خَوَاتِيمُ سُورَةِ البَقَرَةِ from this narration some scholars have said that the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah occupy a special status that no other verse of the Quran has, what is it? this is an opinion, and this is not something that we can say for sure, but it is an opinion based upon this that is the rest of the Quran, Jibreel came down with it and recited it to the Prophet There is only one passage of the Quran where, a theory, Allah recited it directly to the Prophet ﷺ in his presence without it coming down to this earth. And so the messenger was brought up to receive the revelation rather than the revelation being sent down to him via Jibreel. What is that revelation? The last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah. and the Prophet ﷺ said that in another hadith he said I have been given this from underneath the treasures of the throne of Allah so that adds to what Ibn Mas'ud said that the last two verses of Surah Baqarah I have been given them from underneath the throne of the treasure of Allah and we know that whoever recites these two verses Allah will protect him in another hadith he said whoever recites these two verses on a nightly basis يعني كفتاه they're gonna be enough for him he doesn't need anything else If you make a daily habit of reciting these two verses before you go to sleep, it will be sufficient for you. Scholars have interpreted what does it mean sufficient? It means it is sufficient to be protected against shaitan. Some said it means it is sufficient that even if you don't pray tahajjud, Allah will write you amongst those who are not ghafil. I mean various interpretations, but the process I'm left it open. Whoever recites the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah every night before he goes to sleep, it will be enough for him. So we should make it a habit, especially after learning where the Surah Al-Baqarah, I mean the last two verses came from, we should make it a habit, memorize it and recite it every single night. It was then that the Prophet ﷺ went to the Jist of Al-Isra, and that is the divine appointment. That is the divine presence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. and I have tried my best to read as many of the classical books and narrations and many of the dissertations written about the Isra'ul Mi'raj. Sadly, there is nothing that is authentic about the details of this meeting. And there are many legends that are not true. There are fabrications that are not true. Of the most common fabrications is that the tahiyyat that we say in salah is a summary of this conversation. this is fabricated there is no basis to this for those of you who don't know the fabrication and please know this is fabrication so don't, if you're sleeping, wake up now, listen to me carefully don't quote me that I said this say that I said it's a fabrication what is the fabrication? the fabrication is that the Prophet ﷺ allegedly began the conversation by saying At-tahiyyatu lillahi wa salawat wa tayyibat and Allah responded by saying As-salamu alayka ayyuhan nabi and the Prophet ﷺ wanted to expand the salam by saying, السلام علينا وعلى عباد الله الصالحين And then the angels chimed in and they testified, أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وإشهد أن محمد رسول الله It sounds weird, it is weird, and it is not reported in any authentic book of hadith. So we can discard this narration. One thing that I was looking for in particular, did the Prophet ﷺ go beyond the Sidrat al-Muntaha alone, or was he accompanied by Jibreel? And I've looked in as many sources as I could and I have access to, I could not find anything except for an indirect reference. And that is in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ says, ثُمَّ عُرِجَ بِي حَتَّى ظَهَرْتُ لِمُسْتَوَى أَسْمَعُ فِيهِ صَلِيفَ الْأَقْلَامِ Then I was caused to ascend forth in the singular. Not Jibreel brought me forward. Because before that, it was always Jibreel who was bringing with me. And Jibreel tells me, this is Sidratul Muntaha. Once he gets to Sidratul Muntaha, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam speaks in the third person, that someone caused me to ascend. Not Jibreel anymore. And I rose to a level where I could hear the pen writing. Now, what is the pen? And who is the writer? We know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as the Prophet ﷺ said, the first thing that Allah created was the pen. أَوَّلُ شَيْءٍ خَلَقَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ الْقَلَمُ And then Allah told the pen, أُكْتُبْ So the pen asked Allah, what should I write? And Allah said, write everything that will happen until Yawm al-Kahm. Write everything. So the pen is being written directly by the command of Allah. There is no scribe doing the writing. The pen is the creation of Allah that is doing the writing. And the Prophet ﷺ is saying, I rose to a level where I could hear the pen being inscribed. Allahu a'lam, we can assume from this, that the Prophet ﷺ rose beyond the Sidratul Muntaha alone. for two reasons. Number one, Jibreel is not mentioned at all. Jibreel is mentioned as having shown himself in his original form where? At the Sidra. At the Sidra. That's what the Prophet ﷺ said. That once the Sidra has basically been shown, then I saw Jibreel. So it is as if now, Jibreel has left off his shackles. He is now free to be who he is. But that's all he can be. At the Sidra. Then the Prophet ﷺ says in the singular, then I, Bia, singular, I was caused to ascend up there is no mention of Jibreel at all until I could hear the pen who is doing the writing there is no angel above the above the Sidratul Muntaha there is no living creature above the Sidratul Muntaha as far as we know that's where everything stops now we hear that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has gone beyond this and therefore it is inshallah legitimate to say that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam went to a level that no living creature has ever been to, as far as we know. No living creature. He went beyond Jibreel, he went beyond even the Sidratul Muntaha, and he heard the divine pen as it was writing in the book that Allah Azzawajal has with him. Because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, that Allah wrote in a book that he has with him. كتاب عنده فوق عرشه There is a book that Allah has above the throne. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is saying, I rose to a level, I could hear the pen inscribing in the book. Who else is there in this audience other than the owner of the throne and the one who tells the pen to write. So this was an elite audience, the likes of which we don't know ever occurred with any other being, any other creature. But we don't have any details about what was said except for the 50 salawat. even though we can assume that other things were also said but the only thing that has been reported to us is that the Prophet ﷺ said that 50 salawat were prescribed for me and then from there we go on to what everybody knows so this particular and this is the pinnacle and perhaps there is a wisdom that what happened is something that is private what happened is something that is so precious that is so noble that is such a blessed gift that the Prophet ﷺ doesn't need or want to tell us. And that is something that only Allah and the Prophet ﷺ know, the full conversation what took place. And that is perhaps a wisdom as well. What do we know of this conversation? Just one thing. And that is, Allah told him to pray 50 times. That Allah Azzawajal, فُرِضَتْ عَلَيَّةً The Prophet ﷺ said, فُرِضَتْ عَلَيَّةً الصَّلَوَاتُ خَمْسِينَ صَلَاةً كُلَّ يَوْمٍ 50 salawat every single day now you know the story from here and he goes back down and he meets Musa now he must have passed by Ibrahim because Ibrahim is in the 7th Musa is in the 6th he must have passed by Ibrahim says nothing why not? two reasons number one Ibrahim alayhis salam is at a higher level and it is not in the nature of Ibrahim to or to try to second guess. Whatever Allah says will go. Whereas Musa is not at that level of Ibrahim and he wants to try to negotiate. Another point, Ibrahim has no experience with large ummahs. Whereas Musa is the most experienced prophet up until this time. Up until this time, when he meets the Prophet ﷺ, he is the most experienced prophet. now the Prophet ﷺ is gonna have experiences in the Madinah phase especially but in the Meccan phase he's only been active for 11-12 years right and Musa has had how much 80 years or something of interaction with the Bani Israel if not more than this we don't know probably more than 80 to be honest we don't know exactly when he became a prophet but at least 80-90 years so he has more experience and therefore Musa is the one who asks him oh there's a third reason as well by the way there's a third reason So, the first two we mentioned. The third one, Musa knows that something is going to happen in this meeting. How does he know this? Because he's been there, done that at a smaller scale. Way smaller. Because Musa is the only Prophet whom Allah Azza wa Jal spoke to directly before the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. There is of course a reference to Adam being spoken to as well by the way, but that was in Jannah. That was in Jannah. but Musa only went up to a mountain and Allah spoke to him on this earth our prophet Muhammad s.a.w he was granted a divine audience in the presence of the king of kings and he was called up as the messenger so Musa has been there done that at a way smaller scale and that is on earth and Musa knows now by the way this also shows Musa was there for how long? how long was he in Tauri Sayna? 40 days the appointment was for 30 and then Allah increased it 10 this clearly shows that a lot happened what do we know of what happened? nothing other than the 10 commandments correct? right? nothing other than the 10 commandments that's what Musa tells his people and what we know similarly the prophet system must have been there for a time frame time doesn't have meaning up there right? there's no watch over there this is in the world of Allah Azza wa Jal When he comes back to this earth, only a few minutes have gone by. But what happened and how long? This is another dimension for us if you like, right? So how long was he in the presence of Allah? What happened? Zero details. So Musa has been there, done that. He knows there's gonna be a message, a commandment. Like he was given the ten commandments, the Prophet ﷺ is gonna be given something. So he asked the Prophet ﷺ, what did your Lord tell you for your ummah? Because he knows. He knows that such a meeting would not be except for multiple purposes. One of them being, what did your Lord tell you for your Ummah? So here the Prophet ﷺ says that my Lord told me that I should tell my Ummah to pray 50 times a day. To pray 50 times a day. Here Musa says, ارجع إلى ربك Go back to your Lord. وَسَلْهُ التَّخْفِيفُ And tell him to lower this because I have more experience than you with the Bani Israel and your ummah will not be able to do 50 times a day. So, this is a detail that many people don't know. It's in Musnad Imam Ahmed. The Prophet ﷺ looked at Jibreel wanting to get his opinion. كَأَنَّهُ يَسْتَشِيرُهُ The riwayah says, as if he's getting his opinion. And Jibreel nodded to him, yes, do that. And this shows us that despite Musa being who he is, the Prophet ﷺ did not feel content until he got a second opinion. A second opinion. And you know in the world that we live in, anything that's major, we should always get a second opinion. Here, even in the next world, the Prophet ﷺ is getting a second opinion. Musa's opinion is good, but it's not good enough. So he looks to Jibreel, كأنه يستشيره Getting his istishara. What do you think? And so Jibreel nods to him, اي نعم Yes, you should do it. So basically backed with the second best prophet and the first best angel, right? The procession feels empowered. So, and this is by the way another evidence that Jibreel did not go up with him. That Jibreel is still down. That he's going up by himself, right? So he goes back up because if Jibreel had gone up, then he wouldn't have needed to do the asking there. Jibreel is in the seventh heaven, in the sixth heaven. So the procession went back up. Now here is where the riwayah differ. some of them say it went down 5, 5, 5 others say it went down 10, 10, 10 there is no way to resolve this they're all authentic but really the point is the same and that is multiple times back and forth, back and forth if 5 times or was it 9 times but it went back and forth, we don't know exactly how many because the riwayah differ but it was clearly at least 5 times at least 5 times he's going back and forth and every time Musa is telling him the same thing that go back to your Lord and ask Him to lower it because I have tested the children of Israel and they will not be able to do this. Your ummah will not be able to do this. Until finally when he came back down with five, this was when Musa said it one more time and the Prophet ﷺ said, I have gone back and forth حتى استحييت. Until I am embarrassed now. How much am I gonna do? How much am I gonna go back? ولكن أرضى وأسلم. But I am content and happy. So when he said this, نَادَى مُنَادٍ A voice called out. And this is the voice of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. أَمْضَيْتُ فَرِيضَتِي وَخَفَّفْتُ عَنْ عِبَادِي My faridah has been established, and I have made things easier for my servants. It is five, but it shall be rewarded with fifty. it is five but it shall be rewarded fifty what this means is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala somebody who is with weak iman will say why didn't the Prophet s.a.w. go back, get it down more the response is firstly, be careful of your adab with the Prophet s.a.w. if anybody is thinking this secondly, Allah had already decreed it would be five and the Prophet s.a.w. Allah basically gave him that ilham to know when to stop that Allah had already decreed it would be five and that's why when the Prophet ﷺ said I'm embarrassed to go anymore the voice came out and the two people hearing it are the two people who've already had an audience with Allah Musa and the Prophet ﷺ the two people hearing this have already had experience with Allah so Allah is speaking to them because He's already spoken to them and what does Allah say? this is my fadila and it will pass and I have already basically made it easy for my servants and it is five, but it shall be rewarded with fifty. It is five, but it shall be rewarded with fifty. Now, over here, I mean again, so much can be derived over here. So much can be derived. But of the things that we benefit from this, of the things that we benefit from this, first and foremost, the status of the salah. The status of the salah. That, just like we talked about, Surah Al-Baqarah, the last two verses being given at this time. In fact, the Salah is in fact an even higher level if you like than this because the purpose of the divine audience was to establish the Salah. That every single commandment from the Zakah to the Hajj, to Tahajjud, to Quran, to Jihad, everything Allah Azza wa Jal sent Jibreel down to the Prophet ﷺ to command us to do things. but for one commandment it was so important that the messenger was called to the king of kings to receive the message directly from the divine there was only one thing that was so important that our Rasulullah S.A.W. is told you need to come up because there is a message that needs to be delivered directly to you so the messenger is summoned to the presence of the divine and what is then decreed? the one commandment, only one commandment that we know of, and all the rest come down indirectly through Jibreel, and that is the Salah. And if this was the only blessing that we have of Salah, it is enough of a blessing. But you can add to this that the Quran is full of the importance of Salah. وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ لِذِكْرِي أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ طَلْفَ النَّهَرِ وَزُلْفَ مِنَ النَّهِرِ Every single prophet is mentioned in the Quran as praying. The Prophet ﷺ says, I passed by the grave of Musa, he was praying. The Prophet ﷺ says, I entered Bayt al-Maqdis, Ibrahim is praying. Musa is praying, Isa is praying. Salah is a standard, every single prophet. And so many verses in the Qur'an, and there are plenty of khutbahs you can listen to about the blessings of salah. The very first verse in the Qur'an, that this is, خُذَ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةِ From the very beginning, right? Isa in the cradle, as a baby, he says, that my Lord has commanded me with salati wa zakati ma dumtu hayya. As a baby he is saying, my Lord has commanded me to do salah and to pay zakat as long as I live. All of this shows salah was important and it was so important for our ummah that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala himself invited the Prophet ﷺ to receive this direct commandment. Another benefit that we gain from this is that, and I mentioned this in a previous halaqah here, that subhanAllah, when the Prophet ﷺ was told that he needs to pray 50 times a day, even though it was lowered to 5, he himself, it was his regular habit to pray 50 times a day. Because the commandment had come down. Even though the lightness came, right? But when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said 50, the Prophet ﷺ in his personal life on a daily basis would pray 50 rak'ahs. You want to do the math with me all together? We did this once before. You want to do the math with me all together? What are the faraid? How many? 17. 17. Okay, we agreed. 17. How many are the sunan al-ratiba? 12. 17 plus 12 gives us? 29. Okay. How much is the regular witr and tahajjud that he would pray? 11 8 and 3 here is where 11 or 13 because generally he would also pray two rak'ahs before he began the 11 Aisha says these were the shortest two rak'ahs I've ever seen so 13 is also a number that is given in many riwayat that the two rak'ahs were an introduction to the tahajjud so one riwayat says 11 and others say 13 and others bring in 2 raka'at in other places. So let us say for this one it is 13. So how much do we get now? 42. And then he would pray a salah after fajr and before dhuhr called salat al-duha. And how much was duha? 8 raka'at. 42 plus 8? 50. Right? So 50 raka'at on the dot was the regular routine of the Prophet ﷺ even though he didn't this is not what is wajib for the ummah right, but in his own and this is by the way the regular every time he enters the masjid, every time he does wudu every time he is istikhara, this is additional to those 50, right the regular salawat, 50 rakaat and this is from the commandment of Allah azawajal initially, that is going to be 50 another benefit that we can think of or derive what is the wisdom of bringing down a number when Allah knows that it's gonna be brought down. To be very blunt here, why go through this whole routine of 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 20? Why? When Allah knows that it's gonna go down to 5, why not just say 5 and get it over with? Many wisdoms. First and foremost, to show the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that Allah azza wa jal does not wanna make life difficult for us. That if Allah had wanted to, He could have. But He doesn't. That's not what Allah wants. Allah says in the Qur'an, يريد الله أن يخفف عنكم Allah wants to make things easy. Allah says in the Qur'an, يريد الله بكم اليسرى ولا يريد بكم العسر Allah wants to make things easy for you. He does not want to make things difficult for you. Allah says in the Qur'an, وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ That Allah has not put a haraj in this religion for you. Allah has not put this religion to be complicated and convoluted and difficult for you. So, there is a wisdom here to demonstrate that when the Prophet ﷺ goes back and says that, oh my lord, my ummah is weak, they cannot do 50. Allah listens and He keeps on going down and down and down. And this shows us the majesty and the mercy of Allah ﷻ. Another wisdom of decreeing at 50 and then bringing it down to 5 is that there is a clear indication given that, oh son of Adam, you were only created for one purpose and one purpose only. And that is the worship of Allah ﷻ. Because do the math, what does 50 prayers translate into? Every 15-20 minutes you're gonna be praying, right? Do the math, right? What does 50 prayers translate? Your entire day and night is gonna be salawat. Right? And so there is an indication here, that O son of Adam, you have only been created for ibadah. And the asr or the general rule is that you should be praying to Allah like the angels pray. Because the angels, يُسَبِّحُونَ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَةَ لَا يَفْتُرُونَ They pray day and night and they never get tired. That's what the creation is supposed to do. Goes back to the khutbah I gave last week, remember about the purpose of creation is the worship of Allah Azza wa Jal. And we're supposed to worship Allah. So Allah is indicating here that had I told you to pray 50 times a day, this is what you should be doing, but I know you can't do it. So I'm gonna say, do as you please, but pray these five salawat. And subhanAllah, isn't it so sad then, that after all of this, the bulk of the ummah cannot even spend literally it costs 20 minutes of our day if not less than this for those who don't pray sunnah. It costs 20 minutes of our day and many of us find these five daily salawat difficult. And that is a real sadness and a reality of the ummah. So all of this basically, this is now the, it's not the grand finale, there's more to follow. But this is the main, if you like, incident. and that is the meeting of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam goes back down and he tells us many things that he saw on the way down. And he says that, then I saw heaven and hell. And that we're gonna talk about next week. But the question here, why did he see heaven and hell and see all of these things after meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Why not before? Because what is the whole, if you like, cycle? he's basically going up and up and up and up and as he's going up he meets all of these prophets going through all of the samawat and he gets to the very end of creation and he sees Sidratul Muntaha and he sees Jibreel in the original form and he still continues to go up and there is where he meets Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then on the way down a lot of other things happen the wisdom here is obvious and that is it is not befitting that the meeting with the king of kings be delayed for anything. He has been called for a divine purpose, a divine audience. So he is going up, straight up, and up and up. And he is simply going through to get to that divine meeting, to get to that interaction with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then once he meets Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, once he speaks with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then he may go and do other things. It is not befitting that even in our times, when the dignitary comes, the first thing that the dignitary takes, he goes and meets with the king or the president or the emperor, then if he wants to go sightseeing, then it's fine, right? But the initial audience must be with the king of kings. And so it makes complete sense that the Prophet ﷺ immediately goes to see Allah ﷻ. Everything else is just on the way up. Then after that divine meeting, the rest of it begins. And there is of course a lot more that's going to happen. And inshaAllah we'll talk about that next week. The time for today is up. but I use the word meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that is an appropriate word however as we'll come to next week there is a controversy did he see Allah or not there is a controversy some scholars said he did some scholars said he didn't the strongest opinions we'll talk about he did not see Allah but he had a private meeting in which he saw the veil of Allah he didn't see Allah he saw the veil of Allah there is a veil And this is yet another indication that he went to a level that Jibreel did not go to, that it was beyond what any being has been to. And to conclude here, Surah An-Najm, the beginning portions of Surah An-Najm, describe certain of these incidents in, as usual, indirect language. You need to understand the context. وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى مَا ضَلَّ صَاحِبُكُمْ وَمَا غَوَى وَمَا يَنْطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى that when the star, when it goes down, your companion has neither gone astray nor has he erred. وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى And he's not speaking from his imagination. i.e. what he saw is not just a dream. Now you understand Surah An-Najm in light of Isra. Right? Read Surah An-Najm, the first page, in light of Isra. So Allah is saying, وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى What he is saying is not just coming from his whims and desires. No. what he is saying in huwa illa wahyun yuha this is wahi from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not just the Quran everything that he is saying is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in huwa illa wahyun yuha allamahu shadeedul quwa he has been taught by the one who is mighty in power the reference is Jibreel allamahu shadeedul quwa he has been taught by the one who is mighty in power thumirratin fastawa thumirra means he is free of any defect dhum mirra means he is perfect fastawa wa huwa bil ufuqil a'la and he I'm translating colloquially not specific or not pedantically or accurately because the point is fastawa wa huwa bil ufuqil a'la means Jibreel revealed himself at the highest of heavens wa huwa bil ufuqil a'la when he was at the very highest part i.e. where is the highest part This is where Jibreel revealed himself And that's why Allah describes him as The embodiment of perfection ذُو مِرَّةٍ فَاسْتَوَىٰ وَهُوَ بِالْأُفُقِ الْأَعْلَىٰ ثُمَّ دَنَىٰ فَتَدَلَّىٰ And then Jibreel came closer and closer فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدَنَىٰ Jibreel was closer to the Prophet ﷺ Than two bows length You know bow and arrow Two bows length Jibreel was closer So Allah is describing the miraculous encounter between Jibreel and the Prophet ﷺ. And there is an even more miraculous encounter about to take place, right? But this is an encounter right now between the original form of Jibreel and the Prophet ﷺ. فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِي أَوْ أَدْنَىٰ And then, فَأَوْحَىٰ إِلَىٰ عَبْدِهِمَا أَوْحَىٰ After the encounter with Jibreel, he moved on to an even higher encounter. Where Allah inspired his servant with whatever he inspired. there's secrecy here, you guys don't need to know فَأَوْحَى إِلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ مَا أَوْحَى all you need to know, 50 salawat right, so Allah doesn't mention the details as we already said, we don't know anything فَأَوْحَى إِلَىٰ عَبْدِهِ مَا أَوْحَى مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَ the chest is not lying in what it saw Allah ascribed the vision to the chest because the eyesight absorbed it in and when he's speaking, he's speaking the truth now مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَ afatumarunahu ala ma yara Are you gonna argue with him with what he saw? You're gonna argue what knowledge do you have? He knows what he saw. And if he saw the truth, laqad ra'a min ayati rabbihil kubra He saw of the most amazing miracles and signs of his Lord. What did he see? Sidrat al-muntaha, Jibreel, al-bayt al-ma'mur, the heavens, the samawat, the earth. He saw the jannah, annaar, all of this he saw. لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَى So this Surah An-Najm summarizes for us Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala defending the Prophet ﷺ and praising him as having seen everything and then praising his bravery and courage مَا زَاغَ الْبَصَرُ وَمَا طَغَى that the eyes did not go beyond nor did they transgress. In other words, as we said, the eyes absorbed all that they saw and they were supposed to. And Allah says, لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَى InshaAllah ta'ala we will open the floor for Q&A next week. we'll come back and we'll continue the journey down. And then the journey back from Jerusalem to Mecca. And then the next morning, what happened when the Prophet ﷺ woke up and he had to... And he did wake up by the way. And that's another controversy. Because the phrase says, I woke up. So does this mean that it was a dream? Or does this mean it was a physical transportation? Again, that's the controversy we'll talk about as well. InshaAllah ta'ala next Wednesday. We open up the floor for a few minutes of questions inshaAllah. And then break for Salatul Isha. Yes. it seems if we had to do 50 prayers we would not have to worry about food and all and that would have kept coming because obviously that's the mercy of Allah if we had to do that the question is you talked about the pen writing and that action is going on would it be right to assume that the Qadr of Allah is being written all the time but is that dynamic in which this is not something that's stuck in that home store because it seems to be an ego which is going on and the prayers can change that or the prayers can modify that So the question is, since the pens are still writing, does this mean that the qadr is still being written as we speak? The response is, it's a very perceptive question by the way, the response is, there are multiple levels of qadr. And in fact to be academic, there are five levels of qadr. There are five levels of qadr. there is the qadr al-azali which is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wrote before he created the heavens and earth by 50,000 years there is a qadr al-azali this was before Allah created anything Allah azza wa jal wrote down everything that would happen there is also the qadr that is the yearly qadr there is also the qadr that is the lifetime qadr that when the child is in the womb of the mother Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala writes down hadith is in Sahih Bukhari writes down عمره and عمله and شقيون أو سعيد all of this is written down there is also by the way ليلة القدر is the yearly qadr ليلة القدر is the yearly qadr there is also a qadr that is a daily qadr كل يوم هو في شأن and that's a daily qadr every day there is decisions and things going on so certain types of qadr never change. The qadr al-azali never changes. Other types of qadr, the daily and the yearly qadr, they can change, and Allah has already decreed that they're going to change, but nobody knows this other than Allah. Even the angels don't know this. Right? And so, the daily qadr, for example, it might come down, in the daily qadr, that to the malak al-maut, that take the soul of so and so. Take the soul of so and so. And the Malak al-Mawth, by the way, every one of us has a Malak al-Mawth. Every one of us. There is an angel whose only job is to take our soul when our time is done. قُلْ يَتَوَفَّاكُمْ مَلَكُ الْمَوْتِ الَّذِي وُكِّلَ بِكُمْ There is Malak al-Mawth that has been assigned to you. The purpose that this angel exists is to take my soul and your soul. And you have an angel and I have an angel. And that's his job. He's just waiting for it. Whenever the command comes, that's what he's gonna do. That's why Allah created him. Right? So, the commandment comes down on the daily qadr, that you're gonna take the soul of so and so. Right? I didn't mean to point at you, just take it back. But one day, it's gonna happen. He was the one who asked the question, okay? But one day, it's gonna happen. Me and you. Right? So, one day, the Malak al-Maut will be told, you're gonna take the life of so and so. That is the daily qadr. It is possible that at the very last instance, the Prophet ﷺ said, if you're good to your relatives, you will increase your life. صلة الرحم increases عمر. Right? For example, there are other things that increase عمر as well. So, on that day, you happen to be generous to your relatives. And somebody was being rude to you, but you swallowed your pride and you said, whatever, I'm gonna be good for the sake of Allah. At the last instance, Allah has already decreed al-qadr al-azali, right? The angel doesn't know. Everybody thinks, the angels think, khalas, this is his last day on earth. But you've done something, and Allah sends the decree that give him a respite, give him another year, another five years because of this act, right? And that's what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, yamhu allahu ma yasha'u wa yuthbit wa indahu ummul kitab. Yamhu allahu ma yasha'u wa yuthbit. Allah will erase whatever he wants. and Allah will allow to stand whatever He wants but He has Ummul Kitab and that's the Qadar al-Azali right? which doesn't change and Allah knew that it would change because of what you had done ok, other questions, yes just on Malakul Maut, you said that there is a Malakul Maut for every individual and there is a head Malakul Maut as well, yes yeah, the one in Israel, so that's different from yes, sisters any questions, yes I'm not going to repeat the question it's a bit of a very controversial question so I'm not going to repeat she said that some groups pray three times a day firstly the group that you mentioned does not pray at all so they don't pray at all the group that you mentioned does not pray they do not pray at all. There are other versions of that particular understanding of Islam. Pray three times a day. They pray three times but they pray five prayers. So they believe that basically imagine you are always a traveler on this earth so you can always combine Zohar and Asr and Maghrib and Isha let's say. So they combine Zohar and Asr and they combine Maghrib and Isha. Okay? And so they do pray five prayers, but they pray them at three times. So it is incorrect to say that they only pray three prayers. They don't pray three, they pray five prayers. No Muslim group in classical Islam that did offer prayers prayed except five times. This is unanimous consensus of all Muslims who pray. But the group that you mentioned do not have a Sharia. their sharia is abrogated they don't have a sharia so there is no halal and haram for them there is no salah and zakah for that group so they don't pray at all yes go ahead what's the real story? we don't have any real story the real story is lack of a story we do it because the Prophet ﷺ told us to do it this is fabricated in the Qutub al-Sunnah Go ahead. Allah's throne was carried by six angels, right? Which level are the angels? وَيَحْمِلُ عَرْشَ رَبِّكَ فَوْقَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ أَمَانِيَة So what level are they at? يَوْمَئِذٍ On that day. The day of judgment. What the hadith from when the Sahabi died and Allah's throne shook? Allah's throne shook, yes. That was Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. هزّ العرش The throne shook. What about it? لا لا لا لا So the throne shook. So Allah's throne shook. I don't understand the question. I'm sorry. The angels shook. It doesn't say the angels shook. It says هزّ العرش The throne shook. It doesn't say the angels shook. It says Allah's throne shook. Now Allah... There are descriptions of the carriers of the throne. but the ayah tells us that it will be brought on the day of judgment. وَيَحْمِلُ عَرْشَ رَبِّكَ فَوْقَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ ثَمَانِيَةً Right? So, and again this is, subhanallah, we don't have a map of the samawat, right? These are all guesses that people have. So, one understanding, and this is the understanding that I think can explain all of these hadith and ayat is that above the Sidrat al-Muntaha there is nothing other than the throne and the one who is above it there is an interpretation that says as you very correctly pointed out that there are a category of angels separate from the angels of this world and Jibreel is, but see the problem therefore would come with this interpretation that Jibreel would therefore not be the best angel and we know Jibreel is indeed the chosen, we know this from numerous a hadith, and also, نَزَلَ بِهِ الرُّوحُ الْأَمِينُ And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, تَنَزَلُ مَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا So Allah mentions one out of all of the angels, Allah mentions one. وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا So clearly, Jibreel is the best of angels. If we were to say that there are حَمَلَةَ الْعَرْشُ right now above the Sidrath al-Muntaha, this kind of sort of might clash. Others can say, well, it doesn't, they have a job and Jibreel has a job. so the bottom line nobody can be sure but Allahu'alam the interpretations that suggest that that is gonna occur and that there is a category of angels who have been assigned to do that job on the day of judgment this does seem to make sense wallahu'alam final questions yes So, for the more academically inclined, I have a very long article on Muslim matters about the history of the celebration of the Prophet's birthday, I encourage all of you to read that. It is around 25-30 pages long and inshallah without any exaggeration or immodesty, it is the most comprehensive study in the English language about the history of the celebration of the Prophet's birthday. And you can just Google it with my name, it is on Muslim Matters, a three-part article. And in it I clearly point out that for the first 600 years of Islam, the celebration of the Prophet's birthday was unknown in Sunni lands. I say Sunni because it was done by the Fatimid Ismaili dynasty. And they had it actually on the 13th and not even on the 12th. And eventually in a very far away province, it became popular in that province around 610 or so. AH, 610. So 600 years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. It started and then it just spread after that time. and initially many of the scholars opposed it. And there are a number of fatawa in the 7th century of scholars saying that this has no basis to it. But it turned out to be a very popular celebration because this is a very slippery slope. Love of the Prophet ﷺ is a very slippery slope because it's very easy to exaggerate that love. Because everybody loves the Prophet ﷺ, right? And that's why the Prophet ﷺ said, be careful about exaggerating praising me. And he said, hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim. لا تطروني Do not exaggerate in praising me. You know, even in Urdu, اطراء. اطراء means exaggeration in praising, right? لا تطروني كما اطرطت النصارى عيسى بن مريم Like the Christians did with Jesus Christ. A perfect hadith that shows what happens when you let your love go blind and uncontrolled. Perfect example, right? our Prophet ﷺ is Sayyidu Waladi Adam, Khayru Khalkillah, Imamul Mursaleen, Sayyidul Mursaleen we keep on going on and on but he is not the object of worship he was sent so that Allah be worshipped and not him and therefore these types of celebrations لو كان خيرا لسبقونا إليه if there was good in it the Sahaba would have done it the Tabi'un would have done it the fact that they didn't do it shows that they didn't consider. In fact, as I said, even the day he was born, if you remember, we said it's unknown. And this shows that the Sahaba did not make a big deal of it. The true birthday of the Prophet ﷺ, if you really want to celebrate it, it should be done every Monday by fasting. And you're never going to find these people who defend the 12th of Raviyah al-Awwal wanting to fast every Monday. And by Allah, in this there's an indication something is wrong. There's a hadith in Bukhari, sorry, in Muslim, where the Prophet ﷺ was asked, why do you fast on Monday? And he said, because on Monday, the Wahy came down to me. And on Monday, I was born. And he went and said two, three other things. So if you really want to celebrate the Prophet ﷺ's birthday, it's a weekly event. And how do you celebrate it? Not by halwa and puri. Sorry. But by fasting from halwa and puri. I can have that in the evening. Alhamdulillah nonetheless I say that brothers and sisters please be careful here as well bid'ahs are of levels and some bid'ahs are trivial compared to others and if people gather together to sing the praises of the Prophet in a legitimate manner and to mention his seerah in a legitimate manner and they do it on the twelfth rabi' al-awwal thinking that this is encouraged, this is a very trivial matter in the grand scale of things. Had they done it on any other day, it would have been completely permissible. Suppose we did it today, what we're doing, right? So if we did it on the twelfth rabi' al-awwal and we thought that, of course if it was an accidental twelfth rabi' al-awwal, it's fine. But if we thought that there's something extra on this day, I mean it's such a trivial thing so we should not cause controversy we have far bigger things to worry about than to divide the ummah I know some groups will celebrate the mawlid even here in Memphis let them go and do it I'm not going to give a khutbah against the mawlid because most of the people who celebrate the mawlid let's be brutally honest don't even pray five times a day so why should then I prioritize something like this at the expense of something far more important, right? Tell these people, if you really love the Prophet ﷺ, why don't you pray more often? Just change it like this, right? Okay, what you're doing, it's coming from good intentions. We don't doubt that, right? It's coming from good intentions. But the true celebration of the coming of the Prophet ﷺ is by following his message. قُلْ إِن كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِ يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ Ibn Abbas said, this verse is called the verse of the test. This is Ibn Abbas speaking. This verse is called the verse of the test. Say, if you truly say that you're loving Allah, the proof is in following me. فَاتَّبِعُونِي Then Allah will love you. Right? So, for those who are celebrating the Mawlid in a legitimate manner. What is a legitimate manner? Seerah, in Pakistan, knots that are permissible. because there's knots that go to impermissible levels, right? Knots or hymns that are permissible. In that, you know, they say, خَيْرُ خَلْقِ اللَّهَ مُلَّهُمُ صَلِّ عَلَى الْحَبِيرِ This general stuff which is permissible. What is impermissible? To make dua to the Prophet ﷺ. What is impermissible? To say that he is نُورِ إِلَهِ What is impermissible? To go beyond what our religion says about him. To stick to the Qur'an and Sunnah. And then to do something on the 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal is a matter that I find so insignificant that I don't give public talks against it. And had you not asked, I would not have said anything. Right? I don't like it, and I don't participate in it. But as an ummah, we have far bigger things to worry about. And therefore, if you have friends or relatives doing these things, don't come barging in and saying, shirk, bid'ah, kufr, haram. Yani understand that, I'm being serious here. Understand that they're doing something based on their good intention, and there's a time and a place to correct them, and there's a methodology to correct them. Right? And whenever you say something is bid'ah, always provide them the opposite, the sunnah. Because the problem comes, you become the one with the stick. And you never come with the carrot or the honey. Right? Halwa le karaja is good. Bring the halwa. And say, don't do your halwa. Come, bring halwa to MIC on Sunday. Let's do this. Who agrees that Dr. Nadeem should bring halwa next Wednesday? Right? Yes, okay. So next Wednesday, we've all ijma'a, unanimous, right? That instead of the halwa over there, have halwa over here. Okay? We all agree now. We've solved your problem for you. You can have your halwa and eat it too. Inshallah. With this inshallah, with this happy note inshallah, they're all looking forward to halwa next week.

Seerah 22 - Night Journey & Ascension to Heavens 3 - Yasir Qadhi _ February 2012-YrotFQRti0k

Al-Fatiha. Testing, testing. Is that better? Hmm? Yeah, okay. So inshallah, last Wednesday we had discussed the journey of Isra and Mi'raj and we had reached the place where the Prophet ﷺ had been assigned the 50 salawat. And then, if you like, the descent began. And the problem with, as we said, the descent or the problem with even most of the narration of Isra and Mi'raj, It is almost impossible to piece together the exact order of events. We simply have a hadith. And therefore, from this point onward, what we have is just a collection of incidents. We don't know the exact order they occurred in. And of the first incidents that I will mention, we don't know chronologically which one came first. There's a very long hadith in Musnad Imam Ahmed, where the Prophet ﷺ mentions one incident that he came across. And then there are other hadith in Bukhari Muslim about other incidents. Of this hadith in Muslim Imam Ahmad, the Prophet ﷺ said, On the night that I went on Isra wal-Mi'raj, I smelt a fragrance that was very sweet. And so I asked Jibreel, what is this beautiful fragrance? So Jibreel said, this is the fragrance of the one who used to comb the hair of the daughter of Fir'aun. the one who used to comb the hair of the daughter of Firaun and her children, so the fragrance is coming from her and her children, so the Prophet ﷺ said, I asked Jibreel what is their story, how come their fragrance is so strong so Jibreel said, once when she was combing the hair of the daughter of Firaun, the comb fell from her hands, and she said, Bismillah so the daughter said surely you mean the name of my father because for her daughter's perspective my father is God and so this woman said no my Lord and your Lord is Allah and the Lord of your father is Allah so she told this girl that your father is not God is not Allah rather Allah is my Lord and your Lord and the Lord of your father and the girl said do you want me to tell my father you said this? and this woman whose name we don't even know said yes go ahead and so when Firaun found out he called this slave girl because she is a servant and a slave girl and asked her are you saying you have a Rab besides me? because Firaun used to say ana rabbukumu ala'la and Firaun used to say as the Quran says Qala hal alimtu lakum ilahin ghayri Did I ever teach you there's another God besides me? Because he has to teach his people about God. And this is exactly what he asked this lady as well. Did I teach you? Do you know there's another God besides me? And so the woman said with the same bravery that she said to this young girl, she said to the Fir'aun himself, she said, yes, my Lord and your Lord is Allah. My Rabb and your Rabb is Allah. And so, Fir'aun ordered that a cauldron be put of fire, and it was boiled in front of her, and she was told that she has to throw her own children into the fire. She has to throw her own children into the fire, one by one. We don't know how many children she had. She has to throw her own children into the fire one by one, or else acknowledge Fir'aun as her Rabb. And so, faced with this dilemma, faced with this dilemma she said I have one request oh Firaun Firaun said what? he said that you bury me and my children all together you take all of our flesh and bones and you bury them in one location don't split them up into different locations so Firaun said this is a condition that we have upon you if that's what you want then you will get this condition fulfilled and so one by one her children were thrown in until finally the last one that was left was her baby that was suckling at her bosom. And this was the one that she could not, she paused at. And so the baby spoke to his own mother, we don't know if it was a boy or a girl, and said, Oh my mother, go forth and drop yourself in. Proceed forward. Because this punishment of this world is nothing compared to the punishment of the next. And so she threw herself in, and then Ibn Abbas commented that there were only four who spoke from the cradle, from being a baby, and he said this one, and Isa when he was a baby, and the story of Juraid, which we mentioned in a halaqa after a Friday night, and the witness of Yusuf. This is Ibn Abbas' opinion, that Shahid of Yusuf is a baby. We talked about that when we said the class, that it doesn't seem to be. It's not a hadith, it's something that Ibn Abbas derived. And Allah knows best, but that is not a true thing, that Shahid Yusuf is not a baby. But this hadith clearly mentions the story of Fir'aun's daughter's seamstress or helper. And what is amazing is that subhanAllah, we don't even know her name. but the Prophet ﷺ recorded her plight and narrated it to the ummah her courage and bravery Allah had willed that it would be preserved for the ummah her sacrifice Allah had willed that the people of Fir'aun might not know of her sacrifice but it would be remembered and mentioned by the greatest ummah and the largest ummah and the world would know of her story and the story of her children and she would become a role model for all of the future Muslim generations so Allah preserved this story and it is amazing that this story even though it happened for Musa's Ummah yet it is preserved in our Ummah and the Iman is of course exemplary and yet it is preserved in our Ummah and it is not preserved in the Ummah of Musa a.s. because this story is not mentioned in the Old Testament and it's not found in the Jewish tradition and scriptures the Prophet s.a.w. also said in Sahih Bukhari that after Salah had been prescribed upon him ثُمَّ دَخَلْتُ الْجَنَّةِ Then I entered into Jannah. Then I entered into Jannah, and I saw in it tents made out of pearls, and I saw that the soil of Jannah was made out of musk, which is of course the most expensive perfume. We already mentioned last time that the wisdom of entering Jannah after meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is obvious, and that is that the priority is to meet Allah. It is appropriate that as he is going up, he is going up directly to meet Allah. Once he meets Allah and the meeting is over, then he can go and see the other sites that Allah Azzawajal had willed for him. And this is exactly what happened, that after the meeting with Allah, then all of these other incidents happened. Here we have a theological question, and that is, it is narrated, or at least this is the interpretation of many scholars, that nobody has entered Jannah since the time of Adam A.S. And this is something that perhaps there's even some references in hadith literature as well. That the first person to enter Jannah after Adam a.s. will be our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. This has been narrated in some hadith. So how, and this is after the Day of Judgment is over, after the Sirat, all of this, when the doors will be open for the first time. Of course, as for the issue of the Shaheed, a lot of people get confused. The Shaheed, he is not living in Jannah. The Shaheed is flying around in Jannah. There's a difference between living in Jannah, occupying Jannah, versus seeing Jannah. And the shaheed is not in his body in Jannah. The shaheed is in the body of a green bird. And he is hanging from the chandeliers of Jannah. But he's not actually in living in Jannah. So he's close, but not quite in there. This is the shaheed. The question therefore comes for the Prophet ﷺ, how do we interpret this? and to be honest there is no clear cut interpretation. One can say that the phrase, the first person to enter Jannah after Adam is our Prophet ﷺ, still applies because he entered it in Isra and Mi'raj, and then he will enter it in Yawm al-Qiyamah. So there is no contradiction, that the phrase that the first person to enter Jannah after Adam, will be our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, is true. Except that he entered it once at Isra and Mi'raj, and once he will enter it of course for the final time, And that is after Yawm al-Qiyamah. And another interpretation is that when he entered Jannah, he is entering it again similar to the shaheed, i.e. looking at it or and there are some versions of the hadith which says طلعت على الجنة I saw Jannah. And that's different than saying enter Jannah. So to see Jannah is different than entering Jannah. So perhaps this is an uninterpretation that he didn't actually enter Jannah because there is also another theological point and this is not as explicit, but there is this point of whoever enters Jannah will never exit from it, especially when the, you know, the hisab happens. So how then does one interpret the process and came in and out? Again, there is no clear-cut response. We have one of two interpretations. Firstly, it's an exception, which is possible. Secondly, he didn't actually enter, rather he surveyed Jannah. And this is also a plausible interpretation, which is supported by some of the ahadith that mention Isra and Mi'raj. The Prophet, that's all he said about, by the way, of this entering of Jannah. The Prophet ﷺ also said he saw many of the punishments of hell. And this perhaps gives credence to the fact he didn't actually enter Jannah, because obviously he didn't enter hell, obviously, right? So when he's describing Jannah, then he's describing hell, this looks like he's describing it as an overseer. Somebody who's looking in, peering in, telling us what is in Jannah and what is in Jahannam. So this does seem to make sense that the Prophet ﷺ is basically telling us as a description of what he saw and not necessarily as somebody having entered Jannah. But if somebody were to say this, it is not problematic also that he entered Jannah. Of course, obviously he did not enter the fire of hell, but he saw the punishments of the fire of hell. and a number of them are mentioned explicitly. And I'm putting together a lot of different narrations. Again, the Prophet ﷺ is giving many different hadith. When I went to Isra, I saw this punishment. When I went to Isra, I saw that punishment. So I'm putting it together. This is not in one hadith that all of these punishments are narrated. So in one hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, I saw the punishment of the one who stole an orphan's money. Who stole orphan's money. That they had noses like that of camels. Disfigured. they're looking ugly and they would be eating coals made out of fire and their mouths would swallow these coals and it would come out through their anuses and that's exactly what Allah says in the Quran that those who eat أَمْوَالَ الْيَتَامَ ظُلْمًا إِنَّمَا يَأْكُلُونَ فِي بُضُونِهِمْ نَارًا that they're eating the fire of hell so the Prophet ﷺ said I saw people they were literally eating coals from Jahannam and it's going through their bodies and these were the people who would eat orphans' wealth and property the Prophet ﷺ said in one hadith that he saw people who had nails of copper and they were scratching their bodies and their faces with this and these were the people who used to backbite all the time speaking of others so their flesh will be disfigured on the day of judgment because they would disfigure the flesh of others because when you backbite then you are scarring their flesh their honor, their prestige so in retaliation this will be the punishment for the one who does this the Prophet ﷺ said I saw in each of these he said he sees something he asked Jibreel who are these people in each of these ones he cannot understand he asked Jibreel who are they Jibreel tells them the Prophet ﷺ said I saw people they had in front of them pure meat and they had rotten infested meat and they were eating the rotten and infested meat and avoiding the pure meat and I said to Jibreel who are these people and Jibreel said these are the people that used to fornicate they would leave the halal meaning their spouses and they would go to the haram they would leave the halal and they would go to the haram in another hadith the Prophet ﷺ said that he saw people with such large bellies that they could not stand up they were on the ground and animals were being brought over them to trample over them as a punishment and when he asked who they were Jibreel said these were the people who would get their money from riba. These were the people who would get their money from riba, from interest. And of course the connotation here is greed. The connotation here is, go get as fat as you can. Because that's what you wanted, you wanted to get money, go and get your fatness, and these are your animals, and these are all that you own. Because once upon a time when you were rich, you had a lot of animals. It was a package of being rich. In our times if you're rich, you have fancy cars and houses. In those days if you were rich, you had to have a lot of animals, right? So the point being here, these are your animals. See what good they have done you on the day of judgment. And the Prophet ﷺ also said that he saw people who were cutting their own lips and their tongues, with nails of scissors of copper and scissors of punishment and fire. And he asked Jibreel who these people were. Jibreel said, these were the people who used to tell others to do good and they would forget themselves. and we seek Allah's refuge from being amongst such people. The Prophet ﷺ also said, and I saw Dajjal. And I saw Dajjal. And one of his eyes was bloated. One of his eyes was basically not seeing. So he is describing Dajjal. In another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, that I saw Dajjal and I will tell you something about Dajjal that no other Prophet has ever told his people. and that is that his left eye is like a rotten grape. So one of his eyes is basically bloated and not normal. So you look at it, you know that he is deformed. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Know that Dajjal is A'war, and A'war is one-eyed. Know that Dajjal is A'war, and A'war means he is one-eyed. These are some of the things that we hear about when the Prophet ﷺ is coming back down. We don't have any detailed narration as we do when he was going up. he met every single heaven, he met a certain prophet. We don't have any such narrations. All we have is these tidbits, we put them together, and Allah knows what order it happened in. We don't know the exact order it happened in. The Prophet ﷺ came back down to Jerusalem, and he then rewrote Buraq. So Buraq is tied up in Jerusalem, right? Remember, Buraq is an animal that is for this world to transport him from Mecca to Jerusalem. As for the transportation from Jerusalem to the heavens, this is what is called Al-Mi'raj. So when he gets back down to Jerusalem, he then rides the Buraq back to Medina. And there are some narrations that are not fully authentic, but there's no problem in them to affirm them as well, that the Prophet ﷺ passed by three caravans of the Quraysh that he recognized. He recognized three caravans of the Quraysh on his way back. and on one of them he recognized certain of the people of the Quraish because again everybody knows everybody in Mecca in another one he was feeling thirsty so he drank some of the water from the there's an urn or a public if you like well that every not a well but a big canister that everybody is going to drink from in the caravan so he just took a canister from this and he drank because this is not private property this is where the large urn that the water is in and in a third caravan he said that I saw so and so and he mentioned him by name looking for a camel that they had lost they could not find it they could not find a camel and they were searching for a camel that had been lost so these are the three caravans that he said that he saw when he came back to Mecca the Prophet ﷺ went back to sleep he said and he woke up in the Haram he woke up in the Haram and this clearly shows therefore that the actual Isra took place from the Haram itself to Baytul Maqdis and then back to the Haram. And this is in conformity with the Quran because the Quran says Subhanallahu asra bi abdihi laylam minal masjidil harami ilal masjidil aqusa So any report that says the Prophet ﷺ was sleeping in his house or in the house of Ummi Hane, we interpret this by saying he was sleeping there then Jibreel took him to the Haram. And then from the Haram Jibreel took him to Baytul Maqdis. Then from Baytul Maqdis Jibreel brought him back to the Haram. So the Prophet ﷺ the actual Isra took place from one masjid to the other masjid. From Mecca to Jerusalem. The Prophet ﷺ when he woke up, he himself told us the story. So this story we have in the first person. This story we have in the first person. That the Prophet ﷺ said, when I woke up the next morning, I felt an anxiety. I felt an anxiety about how am I gonna tell the people of what happened to me? And this shows that Allah had told him that he has to tell the people. Because the Prophet ﷺ never did anything without being told. The role of the Prophet is that he has to be told what to do. He doesn't do anything of his own accord. So Allah must have told him, you need to tell the people. So the Prophet ﷺ said, I felt an anxiety. How am I gonna tell the people? And what will they say? And they're going to reject me. And this shows his humanity that despite being the Prophet of God sallallahu alayhi wasallam, he's also a human being, he feels the anxiety, he feels the stress that any of us would feel for our mundane jobs, can you imagine the stress for his job, the stress for having to tell people about this and how are people going to respond back maybe if we can close the door maybe it'll be better, let the kids play but they shouldn't be disturbing us as well so he said, I woke up in the morning and I had an anxiety, how am I going to tell the people about this. And as I was sitting anxious and nervous and worried. Anxious and nervous and worried. He's sitting in front of the Ka'bah. Allah Azza wa Jal willed, the Prophet ﷺ is saying that the enemy of Allah Abu Jahl passed by me and he saw me in that state. He saw me sitting anxious and worried and grief struck. hazin the Prophet ﷺ is very sad because he knows his people are going to mock him he's wondering how am I going to tell the people this and so Abu Jahl said to him in a sarcastic manner kal mustahzi' what is the matter with you has anything happened and so the Prophet ﷺ because he cannot tell a lie even if it's Abu Jahl the Prophet ﷺ said yes something happened so Abu Jahl said what hal kana min shay' what happened? So the Prophet ﷺ said, yesterday, last night, I was taken from here to Jerusalem. Usriyabi min masjid al-haram ila bayt al-maqdis. So Abu Jahl was shocked and he said, and you are now here amongst us, you claim to go to Jerusalem, and then you're here amongst us the next morning, thumma asbah dabayn al-thurina, you're now waking up amongst us, and so the Prophet ﷺ himself said, he didn't know whether to make fun of me then or to wait so that I would not retract when he called the other people, right? So he's being serious right now. Abu Jahl is being serious. The Prophet ﷺ said, he didn't know. Should he reject me now? Or should he delay the rejection? You know, like to let the bait go more. To make sure the people will hear this. So, the Prophet ﷺ said, yes, I'm waking up amongst you here. So Abu Jahl said, if I call your people, meaning the Quraysh, will you tell them what you have just told me? Because if I tell them, they're not going to believe me, right? If I call the Quraysh, will you tell them exactly what you have just told me? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, yes, I will. And so Abu Jahl began screaming out to the people, which is the great grandfather of the Quraysh, come forth, we have an announcement to make. And so the people came slowly from the places of Mecca. Mecca is a small city as you know, and Abu Jahl is a leading figure, and when he's making this announcement, eventually the people come. And they all came and they sat around, Abu Jahl is standing there, the Prophet ﷺ is sitting there, and there's this announcement, something strange. These two enemies are saying there's an announcement to be made. So the people are very curious, what is going on? And so Abu Jahl says, tell them what you promised you would tell them. You promised, right? Don't go back now, right? Tell them what you just told me you promised you're going to. Tell them. And so the Prophet ﷺ said that last night... Now notice here, the mi'raj is not mentioned. So perhaps Allah told the Prophet ﷺ to mention the issue of the Isra. I went to Bayt al-Maqdis and I came back. And the mi'raj he told to the Muslims later on. So last night I went to Bayt al-Maqdis and I went to pray in the Masjid al-Aqsa, the Bayt al-Maqdis. So the people, the Prophet ﷺ is narrating this, right? The people began reacting in different ways. Some of them began, مصفق, just like clapping like in, what is going on here? Others put their hands on their heads, not knowing what to do. And others began snickering and laughing. But they didn't know what to do because he's saying it seriously, right? That he's never known to have told a lie before. so people are reacting basically in shock what exactly to do until one of them said and he had been there to Baytul Maqdis can you describe it for us because everybody knew that the Prophet ﷺ had never been to Baytul Maqdis he's never been to Baytul Maqdis so one of them who had been there put him to the test and he said can you describe it for us and so the Prophet ﷺ said I began describing the Baitul Maqdis until they began to ask me about specifics that I wasn't able to recall. And again this shows his humanity. That he is a human being. He went in the middle of the night, he prayed in the masjid that we already said had must have been resurrected, the image of which had been resurrected. But the city, the streets, the suq, he went through it. but he doesn't remember every single thing, right? Imagine when you drive through a city at night, what do you actually remember of the city? And so as they began to ask him questions, the Prophet ﷺ said, التبس عليّ I got confused. And again and again we see his humanity. I got confused what to do. And I became so worried and anxious that I wasn't able to answer, that I had never been so worried before ever. And the word actually, qurba is used, and qurba means terrified. It literally means terrified. I was so terrified that I wasn't able to respond that I had never been this terrified before. Now, why is he terrified? Because this is a very legitimate question from their perspective. Can you describe the city? And from his perspective, he doesn't remember each and every detail. Somebody is gonna say, where was the suq? Another will say, what was the tallest building? Another will say this and that. So each one is asking a question that, perhaps, you know, if you really had memorized the city and you had a few days, you would know it. But the Prophet ﷺ only went in at night, prayed, and then came back. He doesn't remember all of these details. And so he is now terrified, what am I gonna tell them now? And he said, as I was waiting for what to respond, I saw in the distance, Baytul Maqdis rising up in front of me. Baytul Maqdis rising up in front of me. Until I saw it descending beyond the house of Aqeel ibn Abi Talib, his cousin Aqeel ibn Abi Talib, right? And this is the house that he grew up in because Abu Talib had died and Aqeel is now living in it, right? So this is his house basically. So you can imagine basically, until it is behind my house, basically that's what he's saying, the house that he grew up in, not the house he's currently living in, that's Khadijah's house the house that I grew up in and no question they asked of me except that I saw the Baytul Maqdis, right basically being shown to me and I looked at them and I answered every question that they had, looking at Baytul Maqdis in front of me and of course the Quraysh could not see anything of this happening, until finally one of them said as for the descriptions of Baytul Maqdis of Jerusalem then he is accurate everything that we've quizzed him he seems to know and it was at that time that Ibn Hisham mentions this that the Prophet ﷺ said I will give you some signs as well and he mentioned the three caravans he mentioned the first caravan is of so and so and they will be returning soon because they were the closest to the city the second caravan is so and so and they had lost a camel and you can ask them about that camel they were searching for it. The third caravan is such and such, and they had this urn of water that I drank from. So he described every one of these three caravans. And in the version of Ibn Hisham, Abu Jahl said, if this is the case then, the caravan should be coming, if you saw them at such and such a place, the caravan should be coming right now, because it was very close to Mecca. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I saw them at this place. And while they're discussing, the news arrives that the caravan is entering Mecca. And so Abu Jahl goes and sees, and it is exactly as the Prophet ﷺ described, And he comes back and saying, this is clear sorcery. This is sihr, this is sorcery. They cannot respond to this. Here there is a phrase here that has caused a lot of scholars some issues and problems. And the phrase occurs in Ibn Hisham only. It doesn't occur in Bukhari Muslim or the six books of Hadith. It occurs in Ibn Hisham and it doesn't have an isnad. And therefore, we can be a little bit lax about this phrase and say perhaps it's not accurate. And fortunately a lot of the translators of seerah and authors of seerah write this because Ibn Hisham mentions it. And this phrase says, when the news spread amongst the Muslims, some of them couldn't grasp it and they left the religion. ارتدوا Right, now this is problematic for a number of reasons. Most importantly, we don't have a single narration of any Muslim becoming murtad in the Meccan era. we don't have any narration of a murtad in the Meccan era and this contradicts what we know for a fact in a hadith in Sahih Bukhari that when in the 9th year of the Hijrah sorry, not the 9th 7th year of the Hijrah when Abu Sufyan was in Jerusalem and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wrote a letter to Heraclius the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wrote a letter to Heraclius Heraclius asked Abu Sufyan a series of questions about the Prophet ﷺ and his message. Abu Sufyan was not a Muslim at the time. And of the questions he asked, has anyone of his faith ever left the faith after having embraced it? And Abu Sufyan said, no, this has never happened. This hadith is in Bukhari. It's a very beautiful long narration. We'll come to it when we talk about the letters the Prophet ﷺ sent. Heraclius asked like 20 questions to Abu Sufyan. Wanting to find out who this man is. What is his message? What is his lineage? What is he saying? Where is he coming from? All of these questions. And one of the questions was, tell me about his followers. Do they increase or decrease? They increase. Who follows him? The meek and the rich? The meek and the poor? Or the rich and the nobles? No, the meek and the poor. Do his followers ever leave the faith after converting? No, they never leave the faith. And then Heraclius explains, that this is the sign of a true faith. That the meek and the poor follow before the rich and the elite. that the faith increases and not decreases, and that nobody ever leaves a true faith. So Abu Sufyan is saying, in the seventh year of the Hijrah, that he's never heard of a Murtad. And yet here in Ibn Hisham, we have because of the story of Al-Isra, Ibn Hisham says, some people irtaddu. Allahu a'lam, but many of the scholars have said, that because we don't have an authentic chain for this, This story should not be relied upon, because it doesn't even make sense that in the Meccan era, anybody would have become a Murtad. And of course it was at this time when the news reached Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, this is authentically narrated in Al-Tabarani and in a number of books, that before the Prophet ﷺ could tell Abu Bakr, because he was in the masjid, he woke up in the masjid, Abu Bakr is in his house. One of the Quraysh came running to Abu Bakr and said, do you know what your companion has just said? Do you know what your companion Sahibuq has just said? Said what? he said your companion claims to have gone all the way to Jerusalem which is a month's journey and back which is another month's journey and he did all of this in one night so the prophet Abu Bakr said and this shows his intelligence he didn't say yes he did that he said if he said that then it must be true because I don't know what you're saying I don't know maybe you're lying to me right if he said that then he must be saying the truth so the man said to him أَتُصَدِّقُهُ do you believe him in such a claim أَتُصَدِّقُهُ في مثل هذا you believe him in such a claim and so Abu Bakr said أُصَدِّقُهُ فيما هو أَعْجَبُ من ذلك I believe him in something that is even more amazing than this he claims that the revelation from above the seven heavens comes to him instantaneously which is more amazing just to go to Jerusalem and come back or that Allah is communicating with him instantaneously. And so, فَسُمِّيَ بِذَٰلِكَ الصِّدِّيقِ Because of this, Abu Bakr was called As-Siddiq. From this time onward, he got the title, the laqab of Abu Bakr As-Siddiq. Abu Bakr As-Siddiq. Now we've already mentioned that Allah mentions the Isra in one surah, and the Mi'raj in another surah. The Isra is of course mentioned in Surah Al-Isra, and the mi'raj or incidents or details of the mi'raj are mentioned in Surah An-Najm. And it is interesting to note that Surah Al-Isra begins with the Isra and it's just one ayah, that's it. And the bulk of the Surah, especially the first two pages, talks about Bani Israel and it talks about the Yahud and the transgressions of the Yahud. It's amazing. That as an introduction, the Isra immediately jumps into the sanctity of Baytul Maqdis and the holiness of Baytul Maqdis. And then what is going to happen towards the end of times about Baytul Maqdis. فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ الْآخِرَةِ لِيَسُوءُ وُجُوهَكُمْ وَلِيَدْخُلُ الْمَسْجِدَ كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ أَوَلَ مَرَّةً وَلِيُتَبِّرُ مَا عَلَوْا تَتْبِيرًا And some ulama have interpreted this verse to be something that might happen now. Some ulama have interpreted this that the second threat might be something we are still awaiting. and Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. And as for Surah An-Najm, of course it mentions issues of the Mi'raj. Two theological questions. Firstly, did the Prophet ﷺ see his Lord? Did the Prophet ﷺ see Allah Jalla Jalaluhu? We have narrations from some of the Sahaba where there seems to have been some slight difference of opinion. It is narrated from Ibn Abbas in one riwayah that he said, he saw his Lord. قَدْ رَآهُ and from Aisha in Sahih Bukhari the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Aisha says this hadith is in Bukhari Aisha said whoever says that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has seen his Lord has said a huge lie a massive lie against Allah because Allah says in the Quran la tudrikuhul abusar Eyes cannot encompass him. Eyes cannot encompass him. So Aisha said this and Masrook who is one of the students of the Sahaba was sitting there. And so Masrook sitting behind the curtain because Aisha never appeared publicly. Aisha never appeared publicly. She appeared behind the curtain or the hijab. wa idha sa'altumuhunna mata'an fas'aluhunna min warai hijab Allah says in the Quran about the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. That if you're going to speak to them for anything, speak from behind a hijab. And this hijab was a hijab above and beyond what normal women have to wear. This hijab was a hijab that physically separated them from men. So, the regular hijab, we all know what it is, right? But this was a level of hijab that they could not even see the figure of the mother of the believers. she has to be behind an actual curtain. And even when she went outside, Aisha, she would have an actual curtain, a hawdaj, that she would put on her camel. So here in her house, she's teaching, there's a physical curtain. So Masrook is behind the curtain. And he was listening with his back on the wall. And when Aisha said this, Masrook is narrating, he said, I stood up, meaning I went forward. And I said, Ya Ummah, my mother, allow me to ask something and don't get angry at me. Allow me to ask something and don't get angry This hadith is in Sahih Muslim Masrook says Didn't Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say in the Quran وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ بِالْأُفْقِ الْمُبِينِ وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ نَزْلَةً أُخْرَى وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ بِالْأُفْقِ الْمُبِينِ So he quotes two ayahs in the Quran Which says And he saw him in the highest place And he saw him And فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِيَ أَدْنَى He was closer than two bows lengths so Aisha responds back Subhanallah my hair is standing on end because of what you're saying in other words I'm trembling how dare you say that he saw Allah I was the first person to ever ask the Prophet ﷺ about these verses Aisha is saying I was the first person to ask the Prophet ﷺ about these verses that is Jibreel the reference is to Jibreel وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ نَزْلَةً أُخْرَى وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ بِالْأُفِقِ الْمُبِينِ فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِيَ وَأَدْنَى All of these references are to Jibreel, not to Allah Jalla Jalaluhu. And then she said to Masruq, have you not read in the Quran, that Allah says in the Quran, that لا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ لا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارُ Eyes cannot encompass him, and he encompasses all eyes. It's a beautiful verse. لا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارِ Eyes cannot encompass him, but he knows what your eyes are seeing. And he can encompass your eyes. And have you not read in the Qur'an, وَمَا كَانَ لِبَشْرٍ يُكَلِّمُ اللَّهُ إِلَّا وَحْيًا أَوْمِ وَرَى حِجَابٍ أَوْ يُسِرْ رَسُولًا That Allah says in the Qur'an, it is not permissible, it is not allowed for any man to speak to Allah, except it be through inspiration. Or from behind a curtain. Or an angel comes and communicates. So Allah says three things. Either I inspire directly into his heart, or he speaks from behind a curtain, or an angel comes and speaks to him. So notice here, beautiful here, that Aisha clearly knows her stuff. Aisha's quoting verses left and right. Masrook thinks he's out with it, Aisha's like, come on, doesn't the Quran say he saw him? He saw him, right? وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ He saw him. So Masrook is saying, I've read the Quran, it clearly says he saw him. Aisha saying been there done that I've talked to him directly I know exactly what these verses refer to and they refer to Jibreel and not to Allah and they cannot refer to Allah because Allah says la tudrikul absar eyes cannot encompass him and Allah says no man can speak to Allah except from behind a curtain and this is clearly proven in a hadith in Sahih Muslim that Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari asked him directly and this hadith is Sahih Muslim Ya Rasulullah, hal ra'ayta rabbak? You cannot get more explicit. Did you see your Lord? Did you see your Lord? And the Prophet ﷺ responded, Noorun anna arahu. Noorun anna arahu. There was light. How could I see Him? There was light. How could I see Him? And the scholars have said, the meaning here is, there was the light of Allah's hijab. there was the light of Allah's hijab because another hadith of the Muslim says hijabuhu nur hijabuhu nur Allah has a hijab of nur Allah has a hijab of nur lau kashafahu laahraqat subuhatu wajhihi man tahaylahi basaruhu min khalqihi if Allah were to lift this veil then the rays that come from his face subuhatu wajhihi Subuhat means the rays, literally subuhat of the shams. Subuhat means the rays. The rays that come from his face would destroy everything that it sees. Which means everything, because Allah sees everything. So, from this the scholars have said that Allah Azza wa Jal, he is of course a type, and in his own, we affirm the language and we don't affirm how. Allah says he is nurus samawati wal ard. so Allah is Nur and Allah's guidance is Nur and Allah has created the Nur all of this is the meaning of Allah Allah is Nur and we affirm Allah is Nur how he is Nur we don't think, our mind should not think just like we say Allah is living but we don't think how, Allah is hearing but we don't think how, Allah is seeing but we don't think how every name or attribute we affirm it but we don't, we shouldn't think how we know the Arabic meaning, we don't think how it's not part of our, what Allah has told us to do so Allah has said he is Nur and that Nur is so powerful, the Prophet ﷺ is saying, that it would have destroyed the whole creation. And this is proven in the Qur'an itself, in the story of Musa. Right? In the story of Musa. That Musa says, قَالَ رَبِّ أَنِنِي أَنظُو إِلَيْكَ And Allah says, قَالَ لَنْ تَرَانِي وَلَكِنُ انْظُرِ إِلَى الْجَبَلِ فَإِنْ اسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُ فَسَوْفَ تَرَانِي فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّى رَبُّهُ لِلْجَبَلِ Allah Azzawajal lifted that veil between him and the mountain. And what happened? The jabl collapsed. It couldn't. This is what's gonna happen when the veil is lifted up. No creation can withstand this in this dunya. And that's why Allah says, لا تدركه الأبصار That eyes cannot encompass. Eyes cannot encompass Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So, in this hadith therefore, the Prophet ﷺ is saying, in order to protect the creation from his magnificence, Allah has taken a veil. And the veil in our dunya is always a veil of darkness and cover. But in Allah Azza wa Jal's case, the veil itself becomes created light. The veil is light, whereas for us a veil is always covering. And it's always a darkness, you cover it up, right? But in the case of Allah Fi Haqqillahi Azza wa Jal, the hijab itself becomes nur. And so when Abu Dharr said, did you see your Lord? The response, there was light, how could I see him? And that is the light of the nur of the hijab of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this also clearly shows back to our talk last Wednesday, that the Prophet ﷺ went to a place that no other being had gone. Because he saw the hijab of Allah. He saw the hijab of Allah, so he said, there was light, how could I see him? Now if somebody were to ask, How then will the creation see Allah in the next world? The response is, that next world is not a world of physical bodies that we have now. It is a different world. That next world, the resurrection, will be a perfect resurrection. And it will be a resurrection of eternity. And it is not gonna be of the type of flesh that we have now. It is gonna be its own type of existence that only Allah knows about. And in that existence, and only in that existence, we will be able to see Allah Jalla Jalaluhu. Otherwise in this world, this seeing is completely impossible. It's not even possible. No one has seen Allah in this world. Of this creation, no one has seen Allah, nor could they see Allah. And therefore, Ibn Abbas' statement, he saw him, can be interpreted that either this was a mistake from his part, and Aisha is more knowledgeable than him because she asked directly, and Abu Dharr asked directly, or it could be that, and there's one version that supports this Ibn Abbas said he saw him with his heart and this is a different type of ru'ya, it's not the ru'ya of the eyes so if Ibn Abbas affirmed this then it doesn't contradict the fact that nobody has seen Allah with the eyes another question that was debated by some of the early scholars and in our times it is being resurrected is the question of whether the Prophet went on Isra and Mi'raj in his physical body or was it a dream? Was Isra and Mi'raj a dream or was it an actual journey? And the reason why some of the early scholars interpreted it this way is because some of the tabi'un, some of the students of the Sahaba, they do have narrations in which they said Isra and Mi'raj was a dream. And they base this on certain narrations that said that the Prophet ﷺ said, I woke up, for example, in Mecca, I quoted this, I woke up in front of the Ka'bah. And so with this phrase they said, well because he woke up this means it must have been a dream. But the people who narrated this are only one or two in number. And it is clear that they're misinterpreting the whole incident based on one phrase. The fact of the matter is throughout medieval Islam and throughout pre-modern Islam, basically for the 1200 years in the middle, the Muslim Ummah has unanimously agreed that the Isra and Mi'raj was in body and soul, was in flesh and spirit, was in a state of wakefulness and not in a dream. And the evidences for this are too many to mention. Of them is had the Prophet ﷺ gone in a dream, what was there miraculous about him going to Jerusalem and back? We can go to the moon and come back in our dreams, and nobody's gonna find this amazing. So if he had gone in a dream, why would he have found it a problem to tell the Quraysh the next day? Of them is the fact that there's a physical ride, Buraq, needing to take him to Jerusalem. For dreams, you don't need physical rides. You'll wake up tomorrow in your home country, no big deal. Of them is the fact that the Prophet ﷺ got thirsty on the way back, he drank the water. And the fact that he's drinking water, clearly shows he's in a state of wakefulness. So clearly, the Prophet ﷺ's journey was in a state of wakefulness, body and soul, spirit and mind, all of it together. Of course, in our times, there have been a number of people, the progressives and modernists, they try to trivialize any miracle. They don't like any miracle because it's not scientific enough for them. And so they interpret the parting of the sea and everything that the Quran mentions as a miracle, they try to reinterpret it because they find it embarrassing that we believe in miracles. And so there are some people and there are some modern books of seerah as well, that try to state that the entire Isra and Miraj occurred in a dream. And of course it is nonsensical to say this because the whole purpose of Isra and Miraj would be no point. If it's a dream, who cares? Why is it miraculous? In a dream you can go and do more than this. The whole miracle is that it was in body and in soul. So, we conclude now by talking about some of the benefits of Isra and Mi'raj. Some of the benefits of Isra and Mi'raj. We realize that Isra and Mi'raj is something that is narrated in the Quran, and in the Mutawatir, authentic sunnah. Mutawatir means narrated by too many companions. It's not just one or two narrations. We have 40, 50 narrations about the Isra and Mi'raj. And therefore anybody who denies the Isra and Mi'raj is denying the Qur'an and the authentic sunnah. And no Muslim can do this. The explicit Qur'an tells us there was Isra and Mi'raj. The primary wisdom of Isra and Mi'raj is to show the Prophet ﷺ his own status. And to console him after all of the hardships that he himself had undergone. and a smaller example that helps you illustrate this point remember Musa alayhi salam's first encounter with Allah azawajal at Turi Sayna and that's a minor example of what the Isra al-Mi'raj is that Allah spoke with him and Allah azawajal said to him go back and tell Firaun this is your message right and Allah azawajal told Musa that you have been given certain miracles what are those miracles Allah told him right then and there, throw your staffs, see what happens. And put your hand into your pocket and take it out. See what's gonna happen. Now, when Musa did this, who is witnessing these miracles? Who is witnessing it? No one except himself. Why are these miracles happening? What's the psychological reason of these miracles? Of who? Of Musa. Exactly. strengthening the faith of Musa that I know this is true right? even the prophets of Allah can help with the boost I mean does not Ibrahim say doesn't Ibrahim himself say I know oh Allah you can resurrect the dead but you know I'd like to see it right? so that I feel content even Ibrahim a.s. he wants so Musa this is his liyatma inna qalbi? And for our Prophet ﷺ, what is liyatma inna qalbi? It is the greatest miracle of all, and that is Isra wal-mi'raj. To show the Prophet ﷺ that everything that you are preaching is true. That everything is real. That your Lord is communicating with you that Jannah is real, Nahr is real. That the angels are like this, that you see min ayati rabbihil kubra. And that's exactly what Allah says, liyariyahu min ayatina kubra, laqadara'a min ayati rabbihil kubra. Another really interesting point here, is that this entire miracle is a personal gift from Allah to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. It's a personal gift. I mean, we don't benefit except that we believe that he went there. It's not a gift to the ummah as much as it is a gift to him. Directly from Allah to the Prophet ﷺ. Because you see generally miracles are meant to prove to the unbelievers the truth of the Prophet. Right? That's what a miracle is. But sometimes Allah gives a miracle for the sake of the Prophet himself. Not to believe because he knows. وَلَكِن لِيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِهِ And so this was a personal gift to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The likes of which no other Prophet had ever had. The likes of which no other Prophet had ever been given. yet another point here is that this miracle and this gift occurs at a time of great sadness and it is completely unexpected no indication that it's gonna happen and both of these points make us understand why this is such a beautiful gift because when we're feeling down right, I mean even for us as regular mundane issues when our friends surprise us with something when we're feeling down doesn't that cheer us up so much more than if something has been planned for weeks in advance and we know what's gonna happen the gift came completely unexpectedly out of the blue at a time when the Prophet ﷺ just lost his wife just lost his uncle had just been rejected by the people of Ta'if it's the lowest of the low at the time and Allah blesses him with the highest of the high and that is the direct journey to Isra wal Mi'raj and this clearly shows us that فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا That with every difficulty there will be ease. And the greater the difficulty, the greater the ease. And the greater the burden, the greater the gift at the end. This clearly shows us that no matter what Allah Azza wa Jal puts us through, if we remain firm and faithful, what we get back will be commensurate, proportional, or more than what we have suffered. The Prophet ﷺ had to suffer so much in order to be blessed with what he was blessed with. another blessing and point of benefit here is that as Ibn Kathir said the famous Ibn Kathir the Mufassir if any person had seen even a fraction of these miracles he would have woke up a madman to imagine I mean seeing these signs he would have woke up insane but our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came back and went back to sleep and this shows us the Iman that Allah Himself references مَا زَاغَ الْبَصَرُ وَمَا طَغَ the eyes did not blink they didn't falter that He took in all of these miracles and He took it in stride مَا زَاغَ الْبَصَرُ وَمَا طَغَ لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَةُ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَ the eyes did not falter nor did they go beyond and Allah is praising the courage of the Prophet ﷺ praising the Iman that if anybody else had witnessed as Ibn Kathir says A fraction of this, he would have gone insane. Woken up a madman. But our Prophet ﷺ comes back to his bed, he goes to sleep. Complete. Calm. Collect. And this shows us the courage and bravery of the Prophet ﷺ. And this also is indicated in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ as well, in Sahih Bukhari, that, لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ مَا أَعْلَمْ لَضَحِكْتُمْ قَلِيلًا وَلَبَكَيْتُمْ كَثِيرًا That if you knew what I knew, you would not be able to laugh that much and you would cry a lot if you knew what I knew you wouldn't be able to stand your enjoyment of life that's what he's saying in another hadith he said you would have left your wives in their beds you would have left them you couldn't even go and you would have gone out to the fields you would have gone out to the deserts meaning you would go insane if you knew what I knew but we don't know what he knows and if we did know that we would not be able to we would not be able to keep that within us we would not keep our sanity. But the Prophet ﷺ can keep his sanity. Yet another benefit that we gain here is that it shows the humanity of our Prophet ﷺ. We've said this over and over again. That we see the joys, the fears, the sorrows, the ups and the downs. We see that he wakes up and he is hazeen. He is sad because he knows his people are gonna reject him. And yet he still tells them and that shows his bravery as well. Even if it's Abu Jahl, he'll still mention it because Allah told him to say it this also shows us the and of course the benefit here we don't distort the message of Islam we don't, it's not our job even if we're embarrassed about it and this is a big problem that unfortunately a lot of us fall into that we get embarrassed about what Islam says and we want to sugar coat it we want to try to change it to appease the people but that's not our job it's not our job, our job is to sell the product, not modify the product and if people don't like it it's not my fault. I didn't, it's not my product that I can change it, right? I am the salesman. I'm just teaching, telling others about what my religion is. If they don't like it, I haven't, it's not my problem. إِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ الْبَلَغُ وَعَلَيْنَا الْحِسَابُ And so, we benefit from this, that the Prophet ﷺ did not change or distort. What Allah told him to tell, he told. Yet another benefit we gain here, the permissibility of using physical proofs to show the truthfulness of Islam, in that when they asked him about what Jerusalem was like, he didn't say, just believe me, don't worry about that. Rather he began answering them. He began answering them. And when he wasn't able to answer, he felt terrified. And Allah عز و جل gave him the victory by basically picking up Jerusalem for his benefit and showing it to him any direction he needed until he answered all of the questions. And this clearly shows us in our times, we may use physical evidence, whether it's miracles of the Qur'an, whether it's any other things of this nature to prove the truthfulness of our religion. Another benefit of Isra and Miraj is to link the messages of the two sons and the two great traditions of the Prophet Ibrahim and that is Ismail and Ishaq that clearly the Masjid al-Haram represents Ibrahim and Ismail and the Masjid al-Aqsa represents Ishaq and his progeny. And the linkage is very clear and the precedence is given to Mecca because the journey begins in Mecca and it ends in Mecca. But there is a direct linkage to Baytul Maqdis. That the two are not separate from one another. They are the same message. And this clearly shows us the blessings and the fadila of the Masjid al-Haram and the Masjid al-Aqsa. And this is proven especially by the first page of Surah Al-Isra. In fact, the first two pages, all of it is the blessing of Baytul Maqdis. And what happened with the Yahud and what is going to happen to the Yahud. and of course this links it into the fact that the Baytul Maqdis is something that will occupy center stage for many many incidents and things to occur and this incident of Isra' Miraj the story of Surah Al-Isra the first page of Isra and that's a whole different issue by the way what does the first page say and what are the two incidents of the first page of Surah Al-Isra that's beyond the scope of this class but as I said some of the scholars have their interpretations that make this reference a modern reference rather than a reference of the past. And we know for a fact that the Bayt al-Maqdis will be the sign, the site of the final battle as well between good and evil, between Dajjal and Isa al-Masih. It will be in the vicinity of Bayt al-Maqdis. So this will remain something that is center stage till the end of times. and it was of importance in the life of the Prophet ﷺ and it shall remain important as well. And that is why when Umar ibn al-Khattab conquered Bayt al-Maqdis, when he conquered Jerusalem, subhanAllah, as we said, the actual temple of Sulaiman had been desecrated by the Christians because the Christians were very anti-Semitic generally. They really did not like the Jews because they viewed the Jews as being people who rejected Jesus Christ, as being the rejecters of Jesus Christ. And they felt them as basically having tried to kill their Lord and God, right? So they had made Baytul Maqdis into a trash dump. They had made Baytul Maqdis into the junkyard of the city. The actual temple of Solomon. Temple of Sulaiman. And when Umar ibn al-Khattab conquered it, he ordered that all of this junk and trash be cleansed, and he built the masjid that we are now, familiar with on that location. He built that masjid to purify because he knew the status of Baytul Maqdis. Even if the Christians did not at the time, he knew the status of Baytul Maqdis. And therefore he purified it and he was the one who restored the honor to Baytul Maqdis. Not because it's a Yahudi site, because it is an Islamic site. It is a site of Allah Azzawajal having praised it in the Quran. And so there is a clear connection between Jerusalem and between Mecca and there is a clear connection between the tradition of Ishaq alayhi salam and the tradition of Ismail alayhi salam there is also a sign and some callers have derived this as well that the Qibla will be changed as well, that the Prophet eventually he starts from Mecca, he goes to Baytul Maqdis, he prays there but then he comes back and he prays basically Fajr in the Kaaba, so there is going to be this shifting or this change from Baytul Maqdis to the Kaaba and this was to happen literally a year later. Or maximum, depending on when we say, but Isra occurred maximum a year and a half to two years later, the change in direction came. That Bayt al-Maqdis' direction is shifted to the Ka'bah. In the existence of Al-Buraq and the Mi'raj and all of these creations, we clearly find that there are worlds beyond our world. And there are creations beyond our creation. Man should never think that he is the only creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Rather, there are many other creations, many other species, many other existences that only Allah is aware of. And Allah says this in the Quran, وَيَخْلُقُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ That Allah has created what you do not know. Also in the existence of Buraq, and in many other instances as well, we clearly find that Allah Azza wa Jal has linked efforts with causes. I'll clarify what I'm saying. Nothing comes for free. There must be an effort before you get your goal. In other words, you don't just sit at home and tawakkal ala Allah and you think things are gonna happen. Rather there's always an effort you need to put in to get to the goal. And even if Allah is blessing you with a miracle, there must be an effort from your part to get the miracle. So buraq has to be mounted and saddled. And that's what the Prophet ﷺ did. To ride the buraq to get to Baitul Maqdis. And then to tie buraq at the post that buraq is tied upon. Right? And this is shown throughout the Qur'an. Maryam a.s. Allah is gonna bless her with fruits falling from the heavens. But those fruits, they're coming from the tree. How is Maryam gonna get it? فَوَهُزِّ إِلَيْكِ بِجِدْعِ النَّقْرِ It doesn't just fall. You need to put in some effort. You need to do something. Even if it's small. but Allah Azza wa Jal has linked your goal with some effort you put in for it, right? And if this is for a miracle, how about the daily occurrences that are not miraculous? Allah Azza wa Jal never gives anything like that. You need to show your dedication. You need to put in the effort to strive to get it. You want money? You're gonna have to work for it and Allah will give it to you. You wanna be cured? You're gonna have to go to the doctor and get the medicine but Allah will give you the cure. Whatever you want, Allah has created the paths to get there. Even the miracles that don't have general paths, Allah still said you need to do something to part the red sea Allah didn't just say to Musa stand there and it's gonna happen Allah said to Musa throw and hit your staff you need to do something to get that that red sea parted right all of this clearly shows that Allah Azza wa Jal has created the causes and the efforts to get to the goals that you want the goal isn't just gonna come to you from the heavens even if it is a miracle there must be an effort that is put in to get that miracle. In the story of the milk and the wine, we clearly see the purity of the Prophet ﷺ soul, in that even before wine has been made haram, he knows that he doesn't want wine. And he chooses the pure over the corrupt. And Jibreel says, you have chosen the pure, had you chosen the wine, your ummah would have gone astray. And you chose the pure, and that is honey. And we talked about the difference between wine and honey. Wine, between wine and milk. Milk comes out pure, directly from the animal, and we drink it. Whereas, wine has to be fermented, has to become corrupt. Whatever it is, you have to basically, you know, ferment it, and allow the bacteria to go and corrupt the taste. Milk serves as food and drink. And it nourishes like nothing else on earth. Wine does not nourish at all, it corrupts the mind. Wine does not nourishing, it is corrupting of the mind. And so the difference between milk and between wine is the difference between Islam and all other ways. And the Prophet ﷺ chose Islam which is pure and all other ways are corrupted and evil. In another interesting point, in one version, and I didn't mention this at the time, and it was my mistake, I should have mentioned it back then. When the Prophet ﷺ went up and he saw Adam ﷺ, he actually saw Adam surrounded by many many people beyond what he could count. And on the right side of Adam was one group, on the left side another group. And when he saw Adam a.s., saw the people on his right, he was happy. And when he saw the people on the left, he began to cry. So he asked Jibreel about this, and Jibreel said, these are all of the children of Adam, the Ashab al-Yameen are the people of Jannah, the Ashab al-Shimal are the people of Jahannam. So when he looks at the people of Jannah, he's happy. And when he looks at the people of Jahannam, he is saddened. So this is a benefit, and we derive from it yet another benefit, and that is that if you think about it, in this journey of Isra wal-Mi'raj, the Prophet ﷺ physically saw all of the pillars of Iman. All of them, or at least indications of them. He saw the hijab of Allah, and he spoke directly with Allah. He saw numerous angels and he saw the angel Jibreel in the original form. He met all of the prophets and he spoke to them. And this is the prophets in the books, right? And he spoke to them about the day of judgment and he spoke to them about the signs of the day of judgment. And he saw heaven and hell, which are gonna take place after the day of judgment. And he even saw the reality of Qadr. How? By seeing Adam with the right and the left and by, one more thing, the pen. The writing of the pen. Hearing the pen. So he physically saw the reality of qadr as well. So if you think about it, the iman of the Prophet ﷺ after literally seeing with his own eyes all of these pillars of iman, you understand that this was a personal gift to the Prophet ﷺ to increase his own iman. Of the benefits we gain is the brotherhood of all the Prophets, that all of them, there's no hatred, there's no animosity, they're all loving towards one another, and they acknowledge the differences of their statuses, when the Prophet ﷺ led them in prayer, they all accept this because Allah has decreed it. And if this is the case with the Prophets, then who are we to deny the decree of Allah if some people are richer than us, others have higher positions than us? We should accept the decree of Allah. The Prophets have no problems accepting these decrees as well. Even in Musa crying, why did he cry? Not out of anger or jealousy of the Prophet, but out of mercy and love for his own ummah, because he wanted his own ummah to be the largest ummah. So he has a feeling of wanting good for his ummah. There's nothing negative against the Prophet ﷺ. It's positive for himself that I wanted to have the best ummah. And that's basically natural that I want to have the best good deeds. Right? I want to have the best so the competition with other people should be in hasanat and not in the worldly things. And we see this in Musa and the Prophet ﷺ that he felt a positive jealousy, not a negative jealousy that I wish I had the largest ummah. And Allah has willed that He has the largest ummah. Of the benefits that we see, clearly, and we mentioned this before, the status of the Prophet ﷺ as being someone who clearly is the most chosen of the entire creation. The Sayyidu Walad-i Adam. The one who leads the Prophets. The one who goes up beyond Sidr-ul-Muntaha. The one who sees the veil of Allah and hears the pen writing on the tablet. No other person has been there. And this is clearly of the blessings that Allah Azza wa Jal has given to our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Of the blessings we get from Isra and Mi'raj is the status of Salah. And I talked about this last Wednesday as well, that no other commandment has been shown in this manner. Salah is the crux of our religion and it is enough of an indication to show us how we got the Salah. of the blessings of Isra and Mi'raj is the superiority of our ummah over the ummah of Musa. Because Musa said, my ummah would not be able to pray five times a day. And yet, this ummah has taken it on and by and large, even if it's not 100%, we have a healthy percentage of the ummah that is praying five times a day. And the righteous followers of the Prophet ﷺ are all praying five times a day. Even though ummah said, I have experienced, sorry Musa said I have experienced you don't have and my ummah could not have done that but Allah Azza wa Jal knew that we could and so he gave us the five salawat and we are fulfilling the five salawat there are many theological benefits as well briefly we'll just go over them, just list them the fact that Allah is above us the very fact that the Prophet ﷺ went up shows that Allah is above us and this is a clear refutation of those extreme groups who believe Allah is everywhere. Which is really a strange belief if you think about it. Allah is not everywhere. We're not walking through Allah. Allah Azza wa Jal is above us. The Mi'raj clearly shows that. Of the benefits of Isra and Mi'raj is that heaven and hell exist right now as we speak. Heaven and hell exist right now. Of the benefits of Isra and Mi'raj theologically benefits is that the fitrah is the purity represented by milk. And the religion of Islam is that purity. Islam fits in with our being and creation and it does not corrupt us and there are other theological benefits as well believe it or not there are even some fiqh benefits and with this we'll conclude some fiqh benefits of Isra and Mi'raj we learn some legal rulings first and foremost of the legal rulings we learn is that we need to ask permission before entering doors where do we get this from? Jibreel knocking and asking permission. And we learn as well that when somebody says, who is there? We respond with our names. Because Jibreel said, this is Jibreel. And not, it's me. Because even our Prophet ﷺ said, don't say it's me. Right? We respond with our names. And this is a fiqh benefit we even learn from Isra'ul Mi'raj. Because Jibreel says, this is Jibreel. Right? I am Jibreel here. And so he mentions himself by name. Of them is that the one who is walking should start the salam with the one who is sitting and standing. Even if he is more noble than him. Because the prophets were waiting for the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. And they're the ones who said their salams. And in the case of Malik as well. When the Prophet s.a.w. turned around, Malik was the one who began the salam before the Prophet s.a.w. could say the salams. Of the fiqh blessings here, it is allowed to, and encouraged to give glad tidings and good news to those who are worthy of receiving it, because the prophets gave glad tidings to the Prophet ﷺ, and they're telling him news about yawm al-qiyamah, about the signs of the day of judgment. Of the fiqh blessings here, is that it is permissible to give and encourage, to give advice that will bring about good for the people. in other words, ad-dinu nasiha, because Musa is giving advice even though the Prophet ﷺ didn't ask for it. Musa is giving advice even though the Prophet ﷺ did not ask for it. And this shows us that when there's an opportunity to help somebody, you should try to help them out. And it's a part of our religion, ad-dinu nasiha, we already know that. Of the fiqh blessings we get, is that it is completely permissible to sit with your back facing the qibla. Where do we get this from? Ibrahim alayhi salam was sitting with his back actually on baytul ma'mur and some of our cultures in particular my culture, consider this to be impermissible, but this clearly shows us that it is permissible to do so, and of the final blessing we'll mention these are fiqh blessings and this is clearly proven in the hadith that night traveling is actually preferred to day traveling and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself said that when you are traveling, then travel at night because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes the distance easier to go by. And so, Isra is better than doing it during the day. Isra means night travel. And this is something we can derive incidentally, not directly, but there are authentic hadith about this as well, that the Prophet ﷺ encouraged night travel rather than day travel. And of course this is nothing wrong with day travel, but he's saying, if you can choose between the two, the night travel is better and obviously in those days in the sun and what not it was easier to do it when the sun had gone down of course night travel means after Maghrib you go to as long as you can go, this is what Isra would mean, these are some of the benefits that we get from Isra and Mi'raj inshallah next Wednesday we will start the next chapter of our seerah and that is laying the foundations for Medina and what the Prophet ﷺ was doing during this time to think about emigrating to the city of Medina that will be inshallah next next Wednesday unfortunately we really don't have time for Q&A I really went a bit late so inshallah we'll try to take them in the next Wednesday are there any announcements do you know no announcements inshallah so we will stop over here Jazakumullahu khairan and of course Dr. Dr. Nadeem mashallah took us to the challenge and he did indeed bring halwa mitai mashallah right so alhamdulillah mashallah takbir but after salah after salah please pray that it expands as if you keep telling us please pray that we expand when we eat it no no no we don't want to expand when we eat it inshallah we pray that the barakah descends on the sweets inshallah so let's pray salah and then

Seerah 23 - Planting the seeds for Yathrib - Yasir Qadhi _ February 2012-uKbqn5YuOV8

Al-Fatiha. life resumed, so too we also need to return back to Mecca, and resume with the seerah from where we left it off. Now, remember we had talked about the death of Abu Talib, and the fact that the protection that the Prophet ﷺ enjoyed being from the Banu Hashim, initially Abu Lahab felt obligated to give him the protection, and then within a week or two, he rescinded it, cancelled it, and so who can tell me who took over the protection? Who could tell me how was the Prophet living in Mecca? Yes? No, not Abu Talib. He had passed away. He had died. Who was giving him the protection? Yes? Close. Mu'taim. Actually, Mu'taim ibn Adi, mashallah. You're right. My son corrected me. Okay. Mu'taim. Mu'taim ibn Adi. Mu'taim ibn Adi was the one who had given protection to the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and it was under the protection of Mut'im that he had been living. Now, this was a very precarious situation, very awkward. Why is it awkward? Because his own tribe has abandoned him. The Banu Hashim has abandoned him. And Jubair is from another tribe. And it's a very awkward situation that the Quraysh is not too happy with what's going on. Also, Mut'im himself was a very elderly man, very old man. And in fact, after the process of immigrated, Mu'taim passed away within a year. Within a year. Before the battle of Badr, Mu'taim died. Before the battle of Badr, he had already died. And therefore, it's a very awkward situation. And so the Prophet ﷺ realizes he needs to leave Mecca. He's already tried Ta'if. Ta'if has failed him. So what does he do now? The Prophet ﷺ began going to the tribes that he used to come for Hajj. And presenting himself. The Arabic word is, يَعْرِضُ نَفْسَهُ عَرَضَ نَفْسَهُ Presenting himself to the tribes, asking any of them to sponsor him, to transfer allegiance. Now this was something known but very rare. The Arabs had this concept that sometimes somebody had to change tribes for a political reason, for a dramatic reason. Sometimes it would be for a marriage reason, that a person might choose the tribe, if let's say the tribe of the woman said, we will only marry you if you come to our tribe. So the concept was there. of changing tribes. But it was a rare concept. And the Prophet ﷺ therefore utilized this concept by approaching the various tribes during Hajj. Now, what happened during Hajj? We already mentioned Hajj was a phenomenon that was coming from the time of Ibrahim ﷺ. Just like in our times, every country would send representatives, right? And what happens in Mina? In Mina, Mina is divided up into zones. just like in our times you have the Americans are here the Nigerians are here, the Iranians are here the Chinese Muslims are here it was exactly the same except that it wasn't nations, it was Qabail there were tribes that had spots in Mina, every tribe knew where we're gonna camp, it was something customary and so the Prophet ﷺ would utilize the fact people are coming to him and he would then approach the tribes and he began doing this in earnest Now, there are records that he was doing this from before the death of Abu Talib, but he was only doing it for da'wah reasons. He was not asking them to adopt him, right? So he's simply approaching the tribes to preach Islam. There are records of this, that he's going to the tribes to preach Islam, and later on we'll mention, perhaps even we know of some pseudo-converts who had accepted Islam or maybe not, we'll find out some more details later on. But the key is, before the death of Abu Talib, he's not approaching them to ask for political asylum. He's approaching them for da'wah. After the death of Abu Talib, the tune changes. And it is not just accepting Islam, but it is also political asylum. And there are numerous reports from eyewitnesses from the other tribes, some of whom were not, in fact all of whom were not Muslim at the time, reporting what the Prophet ﷺ would say. And of them is the story of Rabi'ah ibn Abbad who said that when he was a young child, he remembers as a young man coming to Mina, his father was the chieftain of their tribe, coming to Mina and he says, I remember a young man coming. He was a child, he remembers a young man coming. The Prophet ﷺ was not young at this time, but clearly his beard was all black at this time. So the child remembers a young man. A young man coming and speaking to my father, telling him to embrace the worship of Allah and leave idolatry and to accept him into his tribe. And he said, I saw a man standing behind him waiting for him to finish. An elderly man wearing a Yemeni cloak, having two ponytails. The Arabs had ponytails, men would have ponytails. Islam came and said, generally speaking, men should not be doing this. But the Arabs of old, they had du'ab, they would braid their hair. You know the masculine ponytails, which is common now in some cultures, they have these masculine ponytails. So he had these two ponytails coming out. And he was wearing a Yemeni cloak, elderly man, waiting in the background. When this young man finished and moved to the next tent, this elderly man came forward and said, O people, this is a person who is calling you to give up your God's allat and al-uzza. And he is calling you to give up the way of your forefathers, so do not give up that way and stay with the way of your forefathers. So Rabi'ah said, I asked my father, who is this young man and who is the older man who came to cancel what he said? So his father said, this is the young man they claim is a prophet. So people have heard of a man claiming to be a prophet. And that elderly man is his uncle Abdul Uzza, meaning Abu Lahab. That elderly man is his uncle Abdul Uzza ibn Abdul Muttalib. So the matter of the Prophet ﷺ had become a bit of a common knowledge now. This is the man who claims to be a Prophet. So his matter had spread amongst the tribes, and the Prophet ﷺ kept on going tribe to tribe. In another narration reported by many of the classical books of Seerah, the Prophet ﷺ said, Who will take me? Who will adopt me basically, so that I may preach the message of Islam, the message of La ilaha illallah, because Quraysh has prevented me from preaching the kalam of Allah. Quraysh has stopped me from preaching the kalam of Allah. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ is calling people not only to Islam, but also to accept him politically, to adopt him politically. And the Prophet ﷺ approached multiple tribes. He approached of the tribes that we know, the famous tribe of Kindah, the tribe of Banu Abdullah ibn Kalb, the tribe of Banu Hanifa, the tribe of Banu Amir ibn Sa'asa'a. All of these tribes, they rejected the message. Some of them more harshly than others. Some of them more harshly than others. Some of them were rude, some of them were sarcastic, and some of them did it more politely. one of the so we have a number of interesting stories about what happened with these tribes two or three interesting stories one of these is from the tribe of Kindah the tribe of Kindah was a tribe that once upon a time had a lot more prestige than now they were a glorious tribe of old and they were one of the few Arab tribes that actually had something of a king they had a kingdom once upon a time in their land once upon a time maybe 500 or 400 years ago and they had lost that prestige and now they were simply the stories of old, but they had lost the power that they used to have. So when the Prophet ﷺ approached the chieftain of Kindah, or one of the chieftains of Kindah, because again remember, the way that the tribal system works, there is no one leader for the whole tribe. You have leaders of every sub-tribe coming together in a parliamentary system if you like, right? So even for example, Abu Talib in his lifetime, was not the chieftain of Quraysh. He was the chieftain of the Banu Hashim. And Mut'im was the chieftain of the Banu Makhzum, and so on and so forth, right? And so each of the sub-tribes has their chieftain, and it's not as if there's one king. That's one of the signs of a jahili society. There's no unified civilization. No one person is in charge. And we already mentioned, Abdul Muttalib had almost broken that, and almost become the unified leader of the Quraysh, but even he did not become the king. So he approached one of the chieftains of the kindah, his name does not concern us, will confuse me more by the names, and the chieftain listened with great attention. And he said, this is a very interesting message, come with me, I will grant you an audience with our other chieftains, i.e. the other elites. Come with me, I'll grant you an audience, and what you said to me, say to them. so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam followed him they went into the gathering and he convened the gathering and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam preached the message to them then the man who had brought him in spoke up so he has, he's thinking two steps ahead and he said oh my fellow tribesmen if we were to take this matter from this young man again he called him a young man Because again, the Prophet ﷺ is now in his late 50s, and so the elders, the chieftains, would be definitely in their 60s and 70s. So, he's just calling him, he's still relatively young, compared to the chieftains. If we were to take this young man from the Quraysh, and adopt him, we will have a message through which we can conquer the other Arabs. Notice, he's thinking politically. this man is coming with his message I have my message what is my message? to regain the glory of kindah to regain the tribal ancestry the kingdom of kindah he is presenting me with a message that will allow me to devour the other Arabs i.e. to control and rule the other Arabs so he is telling the tribes this is why I invite him in think not in terms of theology in terms of politics think not in terms of Iman in terms of the fact you're coming with something new it's interesting, it's exciting the Arabs are gonna follow it and we will have a different ethics and a different code that we can then use to conquer the other Arabs so then he turned to the Prophet ﷺ and said now tell me if we were to follow you in this matter of yours and then Allah gives us victory over all those who are your enemies he's being very political here if we were to join you and Allah gives us victory over your enemies will you give us control of this affair after you? meaning will we be the rulers after you? you can be the ruler as long as you're alive no problem but once you're gone will it return to kindah? so the Prophet s.a.w. said very accurately and correctly إِنَّ الْأَرْضَ لِلَّهِ يُرِثُهَا مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ That the kingdom, the mulk, belongs to Allah, the land belongs to Allah, and Allah gives it to whomever He pleases. Notice the beauty, He didn't say yes, He didn't say no. He said, this is a condition I cannot agree to. Allah عز و جل is the one who owns this earth. But He is seeing that the reason they want to embrace the faith is not genuine iman, it is politics. And so he's not attracted himself to this group. And he says, إِنَّ الْأَرْضَ لِلَّهِ يُرِثُهَا مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ So this chieftain said, so you're asking us to follow you, stick our necks out behind you in order to have them cut off, meaning this war, and then after we have spilled our blood, and you have used it to conquer the Arabs, then you will take the kingdom? Go, we have no need of this. so the whole point for them was politics the kindah wanted to reclaim their kingdom of old and they did not find any use in a message that would not give them power and look at the wisdom and also the sincerity and also the firmness of the Prophet he is, Allah has placed him in a very precarious situation if one were to say it is desperate it would not be far from the truth. He needs somebody to sponsor him. And the kinder tribe is one of the super power tribes of the Arabs. It is one of the heavy weights. It is rivaling the Quraysh. It used to be much more powerful than the Quraysh. The kinder tribe is definitely one of the heavy weights of the entire peninsula. And so they're asking him to compromise. And yet he cannot compromise on the message. you're not going to gain victory by compromising what is a part of your religion and so the Prophet ﷺ said no we are not going to give you this condition and because of this he gave up an opportunity that many of us were we to try to do it in our time we would have no problems compromising much more than this but the Prophet ﷺ realized two things firstly he's not allowed to compromise the message secondly this group of people will not be true believers. And Allah helps this religion through true believers. And not through the power and might of Kindah or of any other tribe. And so the Prophet ﷺ went on his way. Another story we have is that of the Banu Shayban ibn Tha'labah. Which is an interesting story. It doesn't give us many morals but it shows us that some people were interested for genuine reasons. The Banu Shayban ibn Tha'laba. Generally the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam would go with Abu Bakr. Why? Because Abu Bakr was the expert of genealogy, of nasab, of ansab. And Abu Bakr knew more about the ansab of the Arabs than any other person. And therefore, whenever they would go to a people, Abu Bakr would tell the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam, this is Fulan ibn Fulan, this is the tribe of Fulan ibn Fulan. and of their positives is this and of the things we should be aware of is that and of their leaders is so and so. And this shows us that the Prophet ﷺ would take advantage of the knowledge of the people. That Abu Bakr had a type of knowledge and the Prophet ﷺ took advantage of this. There is no question that he is Rasulullah, that Allah is inspiring him. But his perfection and his isma comes in religious knowledge. Comes in how to worship Allah. comes in ibadah, rituals, theology. As for the matters of this world, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sometimes chose to give him more than anybody, and sometimes he didn't, in which case he took advantage of the people of knowledge. And if this is the case of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that he had no qualms benefiting from other people's knowledge and experience, where do we stand? And this is multiplied many times in the seerah, right? And this is something, by the way, many Muslim groups find amazing or awkward. How could the Prophet ﷺ have benefited from the knowledge of other people? But we keep on telling and seeing in the seerah, the humanity of Rasul ﷺ. He is indeed Rasulullah, but he is not عالم الغيب والشهادة. He doesn't have علم الظاهر and علم الباطن. And Abu Bakr spent more years studying genealogy than even the Prophet ﷺ. And so the Prophet ﷺ had no problem that Abu Bakr advised him and tell him about the positives and negatives about each and every tribe. So when they go to this tribe, Abu Bakr asks them, he is with the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr says greetings and says the salam, and asks them, مَنِ الْقَوْمِ which is the polite way of asking, you know, who are you? Because you cannot recognize them by seeing them. Who are you? So they say, we are the Banu Shayban ibn Tha'labah. So the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr leans over to the Prophet ﷺ and says, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ The Banu Shayban are of the most noble, and the most illustrious, and the most intelligent tribes of the Arabs. i.e. these are people who are valued for their wisdom and they have amongst them fulan and fulan and fulan he mentioned their tribal leaders they have amongst them these people who are known for their karam, for their generosity for their sincerity so Abu Bakr knows all of this and so he's preparing the Prophet ﷺ that these are people of intelligence so they exchange some pleasantries back and forth and they ask who are you Abu Bakr says I am the son of Abu Qahafa from the Quraysh, and this is the grandson of Abdul Muttalib, so they introduced themselves, and then the Banu Shayban say, what is your matter, why are you here basically, right? In other words, it's not the custom of the Arabs or the Quraysh to go knocking on tents, there's a reason you're coming. So, what is the matter, what is the issue that you are here with? And so here the Prophet ﷺ spoke, so Abu Bakr introduced him. Abu Bakr was his press secretary here, he was his ambassador, opening the doors. Once the doors are opened, the pleasantries are finished, then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam speaks up. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, we have come here to invite you to ibadat Allah azza wa jal. That ibadat Allah wahdahu la sharika la. And that you reject the false gods. And we also ask you to accept us, to take us into your tribe, because the Quraysh has asat wa baghat, i.e. they have been arrogant and they have been evil and they have rejected us or they have stopped us from preventing us from spreading the speech of Allah and Allah is Al-Ghani Al-Hameed I am asking for your help but Allah does not need your help I am asking for your help but then he finishes and Allah is Al-Ghani Al-Hameed so don't think that Allah needs you we are saying help us out if you want and Allah will reward you but Allah Azza wa Jal is Ghani and Hameed So the tribal leader said, what else? Is there anything more than this? So the Prophet ﷺ recited to them the famous verse of Surah Al-Anfal. قُلْ تَعَالَوْا أَتْلُمَا حَرَّمَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ أَلَّا تُشْرِكُوا بِهِ شَيْئًا وَابْلِوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا Say, come, I will tell you what your Lord has forbidden for you. That you don't worship any besides Him. You don't do shirk with Him. And you be good to your parents. And you be good to your relatives. and the verse goes on and you don't eat the property of orphans and you do this and you do that and you do not do fahisha and you be trustworthy in your judgment. So it's all about ayat of ethics and morality. The chieftain said anything more than this. The Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَلِّ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَيْتَأَيْذِ الْقُرْبَى وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَالْبَغِي يَعِذُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ So he gave a brief khutbah basically and it can be said that this ayah because the Prophet ﷺ used it it has become a custom to use this ayah in every single khutbah tul jum'ah even though he didn't use it in khutbah tul jum'ah but he used it in this khutbah and it shows us the comprehensiveness of this ayah that inna allaha ta'ala inna allaha ya'mur bil adli that Allah commands to everything that is just wal ihsani and perfection of manners wa ita'i lil qurba and to be good to one's relatives wa yanha anil fahsha'i wal munkari wal baghi And Allah forbids lewd deeds and transgressions and evils. يَعِذُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ Allah is admonishing you so that you think and you be rightly guided. So the chieftain said, You have indeed come with good. And you have called us to the best of akhlaq and morals. Your message is very good. And the Quraysh has lied against you. Notice, even before the Prophet ﷺ has come, they know the Quraysh has come they know what the Quraysh has said and they're aware and this is an important point the message of the Prophet or the phenomenon of the Prophet had spread amongst the Arabs and even the Banu Shayban they've never met the Prophet they know that somebody is from the Quraysh who has some message that they have already been warned against and when he presents the message they tell him the Quraysh have already lied against you and your message is not what they have said. So I refer you to our Shaykh, our elder, Hani ibn Qais. Hani ibn Qais turab. And he said, I have heard what you have said, O member of Quraysh, Ya akha Quraysh, which is basically their way of saying, O person of Quraysh, I have heard what you have said. And I feel that if we leave our religion and our ways and embrace your ways, after a first meeting. We've never met before, we haven't met again yet, i.e. the first meeting. This will be a hasty decision. And it might cause us harm in the long run. And we also have people we have left behind. Not everybody comes for hajj, what percentage come for hajj? We have also people that we have left behind whose advice we have not sought on this matter and whose support is necessary. and so I think that we should wait and you should wait and we shall return and you shall return i.e. next year this is an intelligent response and I also ask the advice of our military leader Al-Muthanna Ibn Haritha Muthanna what do you have to say? notice clearly Abu Bakr was right when he said these are wise people these are intelligent people these are people of nobility no one man is making a decision They're all referring to their elders. What do you say? What do you say? What do you say? And when their elder, the most elderly person speaks, it is actually a very wise speech. What does he say? Look, I've only met you once. We can't just accept your message, even though it sounds interesting, without thinking about it, without asking our people. And if we just are hasty here, we might come later on to regret it, and neither you nor us will be happy about this. So give us time, you take time. Let us go back to our people and we will come back again. Muthanna, what do you have to say? Muthanna was their military chief. Muthanna said, what our elder Hani has said is true. And we will not take any hasty decision in this matter. And there is another matter as well. So, Muthanna brings another problem. We are a group of Arabs who have loyalties and treaties with two groups of people. number one, our neighboring Arab tribes and he mentions them, no need to go into more details and number two Kisra, who is Kisra? Kisra is not the great Roman Caesar is the great Roman Kisra is the Sassanid emperor Kisra is the Sassanid so clearly these are people who are living in the bordering regions of the Persian empire so they're saying we have two groups of treaties. Number one with the Arabs around us, this would be towards the south. Number two with the Persians, this would be towards the north or towards the east. Right? So, Muthanna said, as for the Arabs, we don't have any fear or worry about them. Whatever we do, we'll be able to manage our affairs. But as for Kisra, we have a deal with him to be neutral in all affairs in the Arabian Peninsula. We have a deal with him to be neutral. And look at Muthanda, this is a very wise statement. Shows the guy knows what he's talking about. Shows he's an intelligent politician and military leader. And this matter of yours does not seem to be something the kings would approve of. You're bringing something strange. So, he said, if we were to accept it it would only be on the Arab side we're gonna be half Muslims if we were to accept it it would only be in our dealings with the Arabs and not with our dealings with Kisra so the military leader brings forth a condition and he basically says we would not be able to do anything for you or against you vis-a-vis the Persians you want us to help you against the Arabs if we choose to do so we will do it we're not worried about the Arabs but Kisra now this is a super power Kisra this is the Sassanid Empire you know the Sassanids and the Romans were at each other's throats for 350 years right this was a mighty nation this was a mighty nation and each one every few decades would have victory over the other we already talked about did we? I get confused sometimes We didn't talk about this one yet? Not yet? Okay, well inshallah, it will come in the seerah. Alif, Lam, Mim, Ghulibat, Ar-Rum, Fi, Ad, Al-Ardi, Muhim, Ba'di, Ghulib, Mim, Sa, Ghulim, Muna, Fi, Bid'i, Sinid. The Romans and the Persians were at each other's throats. For 350 years there was a battle between them. And Kisra and his empire is a mighty empire. The Persian empire controls what? What is now Iran, what is now Iraq, what is now Afghanistan, what is now Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This is a massive empire. And the Romans are of course, they began at the border of Syria now. The border of Syria and Iraq, roughly this region is where the border of the Sassanids and the Romans, they were fighting each other. Some of you have seen this ancient movie 300. Remember that, not that I'm using istishada, but to make people understand. This movie 300 is basically about this war between the Romans and the Persians. Not that I'm telling you to watch movies here. But I'm saying sometimes you guys don't know history. we tell you this is what the history is about, right? And this is the romanticized version of the Roman and the Persian wars between these two superpowers. So, this Arab tribe said, we don't want any problems with the Persians. We don't want any problems with the Persians. If you want, we'll be Muslims with the Arabs basically, not with the Persians. And so, the Prophet ﷺ responded, your response has been good, and has been sincere. You're being fair. And you're being fair about your concerns, but, listen to this Allah's religion will only be helped by those who have embraced it fully Allah's religion will only be helped by those who have embraced it fully and so for example he basically says this condition is not acceptable there is no such thing as half Muslims Allah's deen will only be helped by those Allah says in the Quran يَا أُولَذِنَا أَمَنُوا أُدْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافًا It doesn't work if you're half Muslim. The Quraysh tried this before. One day kafir, one day Muslim. And what did Allah say? قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ لَا أَعْبُدُوا مَا تَعْبُدُونَ وَلَا أَنْتُوا عَبْدُوا مَا عَبْدُوا وَلَا نَا عَبْدُوا مَا عَبْدُوا لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينُ You can't be half-half. Right? And so the Prophet ﷺ stood up to leave with Abu Bakr and then he said, And what if I were to tell you? and what if I were to tell you that this matter of Kisra Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will grant you victory over the kingdom of Kisra and you will enjoy their land and their money and their captive women would you then accept if I were to promise you this whenever the younger one said yes of course, there is no question we would do this right? but they didn't believe that this would actually happen how could it happen when the Roman Empire could not destroy the Persian Empire? are you expecting us the Banu Shayban to be able to conquer the Sassanids? and so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam left them at this and they did not embrace Islam at this stage of course later on in the Fath-e-Makkah phase everybody embraced Islam right? but they gave up embracing Islam now and because they gave it up now they gave up all of the riches and fortunes that the Ansar and the Muhajirun acquired. And this is an amazing prediction that subhanallah, even though the Prophet ﷺ seems to be in a very dire situation, he has yaqeen in Allah. That these lands, it's only a matter of time. That you're wanting, you're scared of Kisra, the time will come when you will be enjoying the palaces of Kisra. All of that wealth will be yours if you only had faith. and what is really amazing is that this prediction was for Kisra and not Qaisar Allah's promise is specific and true because had it been for Qaisar it still hasn't happened yet but for Kisra what happened with Kisra when the Prophet ﷺ sent his letter to Kisra and Kisra, what did Kisra do? you all know what did Kisra do? he tore the letter up the prophet s.a.w. said because they tore my letter up Allah will يُمَزِّقُمْ كُلَّ مُمَزَّق Allah will tear their kingdom up like he tore my letter up and for 400 years the Roman Empire could not damage the Persian Empire like the Muslims dissolved it in two years it is an amazing and to this day by the way historians are mystified. To this day, historians are completely astounded. How could this have happened? How it is literally, I mean, if anybody were to have predicted that the Persian empire would collapse, this would have been considered something, you've gone crazy. And in fact, the opposite was true. That there was a feeling that the Roman empire would collapse. Because the Persians were so strong. Alif Lam Mim, Ghulibatir Rum. That's the whole point. The Persians won. And there was this fear that the Roman Empire would have to give up Syria and Damascus for the Persians. Because Damascus was the key. Damascus was where the Persians were aiming for. Right? Little did they realize that Syria and Damascus would come into Muslim hands. And the Persian Empire in its entirety would collapse. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made them, كَخَبَرِ كَانَ There was nothing left of them. Just like fables and tales and legends left. And it is one of the most astounding incidents in history, if you understand what the Persian Empire was. The might, and if you see even on, log on to Google and just type in the Sassanid Empire, see the images, their palaces in Tassifan. The pillars just go out of the middle of the desert. Pillars that are like 50 meters high or something, just amazing, massive palaces in the middle of nowhere. And this mighty civilization was conquered by literally a group of Bedouins who had converted to a new faith. without military might, without the power, without the cavalry. You all know, Ribi' ibn Amir and his story. Ribi' ibn Amir and his story with the emperor, the Persian emperor, Rustam, right? Where the Rustam basically said, what are you guys doing here? We're gonna kill you tomorrow. Go back and we'll ignore that you ever irritated us and scratched us. Rustam said to Ribi' ibn Amir, have you gone crazy? You're coming from your land to attack us with what? And for what? Go back and we'll just forget about all this. And of course Rustam gave that brave response, that we have come out from our land, لِنُخْرِجَ الْعِبَادَ مِنْ عِبَادَةِ الْعِبَادِ إِلَىٰ عِبَادَةِ رَبِّ الْعِبَادِ to get people out of the worship of other people, and to embrace them into the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and of course go on and on, and it is amazing that within two years, the entire Sassanid empire crumbled and collapsed, and it became into non-existent history of the past. all of these lands, Iraq, Iran, Khorasan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, all of these lands, within a few years of the death of the Prophet ﷺ, were all in Muslim lands, and under Islamic control. And this is something the Prophet ﷺ told to the Bani Shayban. Would you believe me if I told you that it's only a matter of time? And literally, the same people whom he's speaking to, were the ones who conquered the Sassanid. Not ten generations, not two generations, the same group of people, if only they had faith. You're scared of Kisra? Would you believe me if I told you that you are going to be sharing their land? This shows us his yaqeen, that even though it is a desperate situation, he has trust in Allah, and subhanallah, this is exactly what happened. So, we have some interesting stories, as we said, of some of these, and there are other stories as well. Of course, the main story that we're gonna then take from here, is the story of a small group of people who came from a city that the Prophet ﷺ was not too familiar with his people, even though he had visited it once or twice, because he had akhwal, he had relatives from his father's side. His father's grandmother was from Yathrib. He had relatives there, so he had visited it once, and it was on the way back from Yathrib that his mother had passed away. Remember that they had gone and visited Yathrib. So it was a group from Yathrib, from a small obscure tribe that didn't register with the Prophet ﷺ immediately, that the story of Islam would take a whole different turn. And before we get to there, we need to talk about the city of Yathrib. The city of Yathrib was composed of three main groups of people. Two of whom were Arab and one large group of Yahud. The Arab tribes were the Aus and the Khazraj. and the Yahud were going to talk about them in a lot more detail in a few months but for now they were the Banu Nadhir, the Banu Qaynuqa and the Banu Qaraida, where did they come from how did they get in the middle of Arabia this is something we'll talk about later on but for around a hundred or so years the city of Yathrib had been a flourishing oasis it wasn't an ancient city it was a relatively modern city and it had one of the only areas in the entire Arabian Peninsula where the Yahud were living. Yathrib and Khaybar were the only areas in the entire Hijaz where there were Yahud. The closest Yahud were in Yemen, far far away. There was no other Yahud in the entire Arabian Peninsula. So, the year that Abu Talib died, the year that Abu Talib died, that's the 10th year of the da'wah, the Prophet ﷺ met the first group of the people of Yathrib who were to convert to Islam. And there were a number of things that happened in Yathrib that facilitated this conversion. The most important was a battle that is called the Battle of Bu'ath. Harbi Bu'ath or Yawmi Bu'ath. The Battle of Bu'ath, that was the culmination of a civil war between the Aus and the Khazraj that lasted for over a decade. So, the Aus and the Khazraj were having a civil war. Minor skirmishes over typical Bedouin issues. Land rights, watering rights, grazing rights. Typical stuff that just gets bigger and bigger, right? One person gets killed, two person retaliate, ten person. Typical, standard stuff that happens. Small things get bigger and bigger and bigger. Until finally, they had a major all-out battle. And that was the most severe battle that the Aus and Khazraj ever had. and that was the battle of Bu'ath. And this battle, it took place around three years before or two and a half years before this meeting. i.e. around four to five years before the Hijrah. Right? Aisha says, listen to this narration from Sahih Bukhari. Aisha says, the day of Bu'ath, i.e. the civil war, was a gift that Allah gave to the Prophet ﷺ. Allah works in His own ways. the day of Bu'ath was a gift that Allah gave to the Prophet why is it a gift? how is it a gift? Aisha explains it was because of Bu'ath that their unity had been completely fragmented and their leaders had been completely decimated the battle of Bu'ath killed the bulk of the senior members of the Aus and the Khazraj It was such a severe battle that it killed the bulk of their leaders. And those who were left were generally the younger generation. And this younger generation had seen 10 years of blood and war. And they're sick of it. And so they are wanting something new. And they're wanting something that will give them meaning and purpose in life. And they themselves are young, not old. and so youngsters are easier to think and change. Elders are set in their ways. There was one senior member of Yathrib who had not died in the battle of Buath. Only one. And that was Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul. The only senior member who survived the battle of Buath. And it was his seniority that gave him that kibr and that nifaq that he was to become the leader of later on. because he was the undisputed leader of Medina in terms of seniority and rank. And had it not been for Islam, there would be no opposition to him and against him. He was the senior member that is remaining behind, and so eventually he of course becomes the leader of the Munafiq. I'm jumping the gun here, let's get back to what is going on. Now, before the Prophet ﷺ met these people, there are indications that the message of Islam had already reached Medina. And of them, the story is that of Suwaid ibn Samir. Suwaid ibn, sorry, Suwaid ibn Samit. Suwaid ibn Samit was from the Banu Auf, which is from the Khazraj. And Suwaid ibn Samit was the poet of the Khazraj. He heard that there is this magician slash poet in the Quraysh. News of the process of them spread to him. So when he went for Hajj, this is before the battle of Buath. This is before all of this. This is before the Prophet ﷺ is asking political asylum. This is when he's just preaching Tawheed. So when he went to Mecca for Hajj, he hunted the Prophet ﷺ down. Why? Because he's been warned against him. But because he's a poet, he's heard the Prophet ﷺ is a spectacular poet. So he wants to meet somebody of his own type. So he goes to the Prophet ﷺ, and listen, look at his arrogance here. He says, I have heard that you have eloquent speech. I have something similar to you. We are both the same. Because he is the poet of the Khazraj. And so the Prophet ﷺ says, what do you have? Let me listen to it. So he recites his poetry, which I have no... Of course the eloquence is such that to be honest, even I have to look up words and what not. And I don't think even any of you will be able to understand it. But clearly it is at an advanced level. And Ibn Hisham and others, not Ibn Hisham, other books mention some of his poetry, which is typical, beautiful, classical, pre-Islamic poetry. So he goes, this is what I have. The Prophet ﷺ says, هذا حسن وما عندي أحسن What you have is good, but what I have is better. What you have is good, but what I have is better. Because what I have is تنزيل من رب العالمين so Suwade said let me hear so the prophet Sassan began reciting the Quran to him and Suwade was dumbstruck, speechless you can't compete with the Quran you cannot compete with the Quran and so Suwade said let me think about this this is deep let me think about it Suwade returned to Yathrib and it was in that year that the battle of Buath took place and he died in the battle of Buath. Later on his people, his tribes, the Banu Auf said we are certain that he died a Muslim. This is their assumption of Suwait. We are certain that he died a Muslim. There are also other references. One of them is to a young man from one of the tribes of the Khazraj that when the Prophet ﷺ approached him he almost converted. But the chieftain of the Khazraj said to him, get back, mind your own business, don't worry about this guy. We're coming for another reason, don't worry about it. So he returned back to Yathrib as well, and he was stabbed in the battle of Buath, and as he's dying, he began saying the tasbih and the tahmid and the takbir. Subhanallah, alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar. And he died with the tasbih and tahmid coming from him. And this is again before sajda, before salah. This is of course in those days, right? So, there are references to Islam having reached Yathrib before any treaty of Aqaba, before anything happening. So, there are some stories. But the main conversion, the first conversion takes place in the 10th year of the da'wah. The 10th year, the same year Abu Talib dies. Abu Talib dies Ramadan or Shawwal. Around this time. Again, we don't have exact dates, but roughly around this time. Therefore, the next month, two months later, the Qa'idah or the Hijjah. Again, we don't know exactly, but roughly, because people would come before Hajj, and then stay, and then go back after Hajj. The Prophet ﷺ is making his rounds in Mina. And of course, he's concentrating on the big tribes. The Banu Kalb, the Banu Kindah, the Banu Hanifa, these are the big tribes. And by the way, as a footnote, as we always say, it is clear that the Prophet ﷺ is interested in the heavyweights. it's common sense and you don't equate somebody whose conversion might lead to a whole tribe converting the same as somebody whose conversion might be prevented by the chieftain as has happened and this is a part of the wisdom of Islam so he's going on his way to the major tribes and he sees a small group at Aqaba, you know where the Aqaba where the stones are thrown, Aqaba he sees a small group at Aqaba, close to what is now Masjid Al-Khaif and he says manil qawm, this time Abu Bakr is not with him manil qawm, who are you? so they said we are from the Khazraj so he thinks which Khazraj? it's not one of the big tribes and Abu Bakr is not there to help him out, which Khazraj? the Khazraj that are from the neighbors of the Yahud because he's trying to figure out which Khazraj he's wanting some memory connections here, which Khazraj? is it the Khazraj who are the neighbors of the Yahud i.e. from Yathrib, they said yes Khazraj who are the neighbors of the Yahud so the Prophet ﷺ said may I speak with you they said yes, go ahead so he sat down and he explained to them the teachings of Islam recited to them the Quran, explained to them Tawheed and warned them against Shirk with the same passion the same sincerity the same zeal as he used for the Banu Hanifa, the Banu Kindah the Banusa, all of the big tribes even though they were but six people without any tent this is not one of the rich tribes and the Khazraj by the way, we'll come to this later on, the Khazraj were the not the more richer tribe let's say, they were the poorer tribe the Aus were the ones who owned more the Aus were the more business inclined and the Khazraj were the ones who were the more farmers and laborers right, and generally speaking businessmen to this day are the ones who have more money than the workers, even the doctors know this right, you might get a good salary but the real rich have to go into business so it was the Aus who were more into the business, and it was the Khazraj who was the more into the farming and taking care of the land, so the Khazraj don't even have a tent, they don't even have a large nothing, just six people sitting there so the Prophet ﷺ said can I speak with you they spoke, and he told them the teachings of Islam and he moved on and subhanallah Allah Azza wa Jal had willed that Islam would be helped by this obscure tribe whom the Prophet ﷺ did not even recognize. Not by the massive tribes or the mega glorious tribes of Kindah and the Banu Kalb and the Hanifa. No. By one of the smallest tribes. And this shows us and an amazing point here that we are never supposed to trivialize any opportunity that presents itself to us. How do we know what will happen with this opportunity when we do good? We might trivialize the person, but Allah knows this person will go and change an ummah afterwards. And so indeed the Prophet ﷺ is concentrating on the elite, but he doesn't ignore the others. And that's the whole point. He's concentrating on the powerful, but when he passes by the Banu Khazraj, he gives them the same passion, the same da'wah, the same message, with the same zeal as everybody else. And he moves on his way. And these six people convert to Islam. The first major converts from outside of Mecca come from Banu Khazraj. Now, why did that happen? I mean, why did these people convert to Islam? Well, of course, firstly we say that indeed it is up to Allah Azza wa Jal whom He chooses. And Allah had chosen the people of Yathrib and the people of Khazraj to become basically the first Islamic republic. But secondly, and there are reasons other than of course, Allah's wisdom that works in alternative ways, right? That there's wisdoms that Allah had placed in front of us to see and benefit from. And of them is that the Khazraj were a group of people, the only Arab group in the region that had knowledge of monotheistic religions. They're interacting with the Yahud. so they understand the concept of Tawheed of Risala and Nubuwa of Ibadah and rituals of law and ethics coming from a book, scripture right? these are alien concepts for the Arabs the Arabs don't know the concept of prophets, right? لِتُنذِرَ قَوْمًا مَا أَتَاهُمِ النَّذِلِ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ so that you may warn a nation who's never had a prophet before you they've never seen a prophet but the Khazraj know what a prophet is and the Khazraj understand what a book does and the Khazraj felt inferior to the Yahud because the Yahud had a higher civilization than them the Yahud could read and write the Yahud had madrasas the Yahud had places of worship and the Khazraj were always and the Osses were both of them they were always feeling inferior to the Yahud. And the Yahud flouted this. The Yahud made it a point of, we are better than you. And we have a book, and we have a prophet, and we have this and that. The Yahud flouted it, and of course, their religion does not allow conversion. Right? Their religion is ethnic religion. It doesn't allow conversion. You cannot become one if you wanted to, unless with great difficulty. And this Arab didn't even have these difficulties, the Arab Yahud at that time. So basically, they're flouting their superiority, and not giving the any opportunity to convert. And this is happening for generations and generations. So this flouting of arrogance worked against them. Do you see how now? That the Yahud are claiming that they're superior. The Khazraj understand Tawheed now. They understand what it means to have a book. Now an opportunity presents itself and they have an opportunity to have the same civilization. The same type of book and law and ethics and morality that has been flouted in their face for the last hundred years. Additionally, the Yahud were boasting against the Arabs. And this is mentioned in the Quran. What were they saying? Who can tell me? What is the verse? يَسْتَفْتِحُونَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ مَا عَرَفُوا كَفَرُوا بِهِ Allah references it indirectly. وَكَانُوا مِنْ قَبْرِ يُسْتَفْتِحُونَ عَلَىٰ لَذِينَ كَفَرُوا This is the reference. What is the reference? The Yahud would say to the Aus and the Khazraj, whenever these battles would take place, because the Yahud also got involved in the civil war. The Yahud also had battles with each other, over these issues. And so the Yahud in their moments of irritation, would say to the Aus and Khazraj, it's only a matter of time before we win over you. We'll massacre you down to the last person. because we're waiting for a prophet who's about to come. And as soon as he comes, it'll be over. وَكَانُوا مِن قَبْلُوا يَسْتَفْتِحُونَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا They would say they're gonna win over the pagans. فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ مَعَرَفُوا When this, what they were waiting for came to them, كَفَرُوا بِهِ They rejected it. They were waiting for a prophet to come. They were waiting for a new message. They were waiting for a new book. but when it came in the Quraish kafaru bih so this boasting backfired this arrogance backfired the aws and the khazraj were all of a sudden the tables are turned and they see an opportunity to embrace the religion, the faith, the iman the book, the risala that they had been deprived of and deep down inside they know it's gotta be true right, because they've seen the civilization of the uh yahood and so the six people who were with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam they converted to islam and they returned back home spreading the message of islam uh and amongst them uh were some of the uh famous of the ansar all of you should know the name of jabir ibn abdullah he is of the six and even though he was very young at the time perhaps even pre-baligh but he was with his tribe uh there was also uqba ibn amir another famous ansari uh asad ibn zurara asad As'ad bin Zurara has many stories in the early seerah. All of these were of this initial six tribe. And six converts. And they converted to Islam, and they rent back, and they began spreading the message of Islam, until in the next few months, everybody in the city of Yathrib, which would be called Medina in a year and a half, everybody had heard of the new message, and knew that some of their own had converted, and they were curious and interested what is this man and what is his message that has caused six of our own to convert. And what is really amazing about this story, and to me especially, I've given an entire lecture at Islam in other places just about this incident, to derive benefits from it, that the Prophet ﷺ was being equally sincere to all the tribes. And he's just literally like throwing seeds. Allah knows where they're gonna be planted. Allah knows which one will give fruit. and he plants the seeds in the Khazraj, and didn't expect anything to come from the Khazraj. He himself said so. He himself said so. That when I was in Mecca, Allah showed me that I would be immigrating to another land. So he knows there's gonna be another tribe accepting him, right? And he showed it to me, and it was a land of greenery, a land of palm trees. So I thought that it might be in Yemen. He wants the big tribes. He wants civilization. He wants all of this, right? فَإِذَا هِيَ يَثْرِبْ But rather it turned out to be, يَثْرِبْ Right? And he then changed the name of Yathrib to Medina. And the point here, the Prophet ﷺ did not expect it to come from Yathrib. Neither was Yathrib on his immediate radar. But he gave the people of Yathrib the attention, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave him back the fruit. And this is an important lesson for us, as I said, we should never trivialize any opportunity, any good that we see a potential to do good, any type of khair, any type of da'wah. Allahu a'lam, this person we give da'wah to, what he is going to become, who is going to do that, Allahu a'lam. It's not, only Allah knows best. And because our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did not trivialize the da'wah, this initial seed of six people gave fruit and the next year more than doubled the number came back the next year more than ten times that quantity came back and the next year they demanded from the Prophet ﷺ you're not going to live amongst those people who are persecuting you you will come to us with Izzah and honor and we will give our lives and our souls to protect you right? that da'wah gave its thamara that planting of the seed gave its fruit in just three and a half years. And Allah Azza wa Jal, وَمَنْ يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبْ Allah will provide, but you won't expect from where, you won't know from where. But if you have taqwa and sincerity, this is what we find from the Prophet ﷺ. And inshaAllah next week, we'll come back and resume the da'wah of the people of Yathrib, which was to be called Medina, and how eventually the tide changed so quickly that within two and a half years, just two and a half years, that's it. An entire city could be demanding, we want you to come and be our leader. What an amazing change. Not just we're gonna adopt you and be one of our tribesmen, as the Arab tribes were saying. No, as he was asking from the Arab tribes. He wasn't asking to be their leader. He was simply saying, adopt me and protect me so that I can spread the message. And subhanallah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed him in a manner that of course would forever change history after that. And this is of course the wisdom of Allah, the planning of Allah, the power of Allah. We'll resume inshaAllah next week. Now we'll open the floor for questions inshaAllah and then break for Salat al-Isha. Questions about this interim period. Yes. Yes, go ahead. I actually did say this, so let's see who can remember. Where are the Jannat in respect to the Samawat? What? We said that it appears that the Jannat are in the seventh heaven. And they might begin in the sixth because we have one riwayah that says that the roots of Sidrat al-Muntaha are in the sixth heaven. In the sixth sama. So perhaps the roots are in the sixth and then the Jannat are all the seventh. And perhaps the Jannat begin in the sixth and continue to the seventh. We don't know that much detail. But we know that the very end of Jannah is of course Firdaus. And Firdaus is the highest of the creation. And above the Firdaus is the throne of Allah Azzawajal. And therefore Sidratul Muntaha ends in Firdaus. Sidratul Muntaha ends in Firdaus and above that is the throne of Allah Azzawajal. That's all we know and to be honest, I personally do not believe that our minds can even comprehend or imagine that world or anything. It's beyond our comprehension. I personally believe, if we cannot even understand how this entire creation is just the first sama, what is beyond this? I mean, that's it. Our minds are blank. This everything that we see is still within the first sama. Sama al-dunya. This is sama al-dunya. What is beyond this? We can't even understand what is in this world. Do you think we'll understand? So, in my humble opinion, this is just words that we say as Ibn Abbas said there is nothing of the Akhirah that we'll understand except the names used apple, apple Jannah, Jannah garden, garden but that's the only thing that's the same the realities of the apples the realities of the gardens you'll never understand there's nothing of this world in the next he said except for the name that's all there is this is what Ibn Abbas said and if this is for what Allah has given us explicit descriptions of, how about that which Allah has not given explicit descriptions of, and that is, what is in the other samawat, and is there other creation or what not, all of this, wallahu ta'ala a'lam. We don't know. Yes? Did any of the, did the hud accept Islam? Did any of the hud accept Islam? Indeed they did. Of course, Abdullah bin Salam is the greatest example. But there are others as well. Abdullah bin Salam was their most famous convert, but there are a number, a handful who did accept Islam. And we will talk about this when we get to the Yahud, inshaAllah. Yes, go ahead. In the first six that converted, were there any members of the Aus around there at the time? See, the Khazraj were camped in their own camp. Was there a camp of the Aus? There are no reports of the Aus converting at this time. So we don't even know, did they come, did they not come? All we know is that the Prophet ﷺ gave da'wah to the Khazraj and six of the Khazraj converted. And even the next year, when 12 people converted, 90% of them were from the Aus. There's only one or two that were from Khazraj. Only one or two were from the Aus. Because still, Islam will spread from family and friends. So very few of the Aus had converted initially. Khazraj was one of the main to convert. And the reason of course is that the Khazraj as we said were of the lower socioeconomic status and it's easier for them to convert to Islam. Yes, go ahead. Thank you for coming on. فَحِجْرَتُهِ لَمَا هَجَرَ إِلَيْهِ This is a very deep question which deserves more response. But in a nutshell, firstly, realize that the Prophet ﷺ did not say that it is haram to migrate for the dunya or for a woman. He simply said, if you do so, that's what you're doing it for. Correct? So, if you migrated for a land for economic reasons, it's for economic reasons. فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَىٰ مَا هَجَرَ إِلَيْهِ So, don't call this a shari'i hijrah. You have done a lugawi hijrah from your land to this land. This is not a shari'i hijrah. So, this is not something that in and of itself will get you any reward when you did the deed. Second question, can you convert the niyyah? You can always convert a niyyah, but the reward will be proportional to what you've done after the niyyah and not before. Okay? Third question, what is the permissibility of making linguistic hijrah from an Islamic land to a land that is not Islamic? This is something that our scholars have discussed in our times, and in my humble opinion, it is completely jais and permissible with some conditions. And of those conditions is that, he have the freedom to practice sha'air al-Islam. Sha'air al-Islam means the main pillars of Islam. Right? If any country does not allow you to practice the main rituals of Islam, you're not allowed to pray, you're not allowed to fast, you're not allowed to proclaim your Islam, right? Then it is not allowed to go to that land. Because, ارض الله واسع Go find a place where you're able to do that. First condition. Second condition, that he has enough Iman from which and through which he feels confident or expects to be able to avoid the major sins. And as for the minor sins, this is everywhere in the world. But at least the major sins. That he shall avoid the kabair. And the third condition, he has enough ilm that he feels he is safe from doubting his faith. Okay, so there's three basic conditions that need to be met. Number one, there must be freedom in the land. Number two, there must be enough iman that he's able to live as a Muslim without... And this is of course, there's never a guarantee. Rather this is your Your husn al-dhan with Allah Azza wa Jal You can become the fasiq even in your country Right And you can become a fasiq in this land as well So there has to be ghalabat al-dhan There has to be tawakkul in Allah And number three enough ilm that you're not worried about You or your children Becoming murtad You protect your faith in this regard Now as for the issue that some people have That the only reason that it is allowed To live in a non-Islamic land Is if you are giving da'wah I do not agree with this phrase in such an unconditional blanket manner because there is no evidence for it rather if you are living in a land as a practicing Muslim for the sake of the dunya then you are not committing any sin and your reward will be for your Islam no doubt if you were to do more and above and beyond. This is good and you will get rewarded. But to make it a condition upon all of the Muslims, not only is this impossible because most Muslims are not qualified to give da'wah, it is also burdening them with something that Allah has not burdened them with. Allah has burdened you with the five pillars, with avoiding the major sins. Do this and you are safe. And you will not be punished for not going above and beyond what this is. Now by the way, da'wah also means people know you're a Muslim. This is da'wah. Khalas. You don't have to go knocking on doors or preaching in synagogues and churches. You are a Muslim. Your co-workers know this. This is da'wah. Your friends know this. Your relatives, your neighbors know this. This is da'wah. That's good enough da'wah. So you don't have to go above and beyond this point. Also, the point, there was an extreme opinion that still is common to this day. You still find people saying this, that it is haram to live in a non-Muslim land because the Prophet ﷺ said this and that. The fact of the matter is all of these hadith do not indicate that it is haram to do so. Rather, there are authentic narrations that he allowed Muslims of his time to live in non-Muslim lands with conditions. The most important is of course the Abyssinians, right? Secondly, there is no Dar al-Islam that we can apply these hadith upon anyway. There is no khalifa, there is no anything of this nature, such that we say, there is Dar al-Islam, and then there is Dar al-Kufr. Right? Thirdly, there is a whole modern talk going on, about dividing the world into Dar al-Islam, and Dar al-Kufr, and Dar al-this, and Dar al-that. Where does it come from? And the fact of the matter is that, these distinctions come from early fuqaha, early scholars. They don't come from the Quran. there's nothing in the Quran about this there's nothing explicit in the hadith that divides the world into 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 and that's why early scholars divided the world into 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 depending on which scholar therefore when we understand this then there is no problem in actually going back to the Quran and Sunnah and redefining the territories of the world with a new description that is not found in the classical books because this is not... Now if Allah had said the world is of two types, khalas, end of story. If the Prophet ﷺ has said the world should be divided into three, khalas, end of story. But it's not. We don't find Qur'an and Hadith. Rather this is from the ijtihad of the early scholars. And then they applied rules. Dar al-Islam, dar al-harb, dar al-kufr, dar al-ahd. What should each one be done? All of this talk generated in a particular political climate. We need to, our scholars, not the average Muslims, our scholars need to go back to the books, go back to the Quran and Sunnah, and have a similar discussion. What does it mean to be a citizen in a western democracy? What does it mean to be a citizen in a land that guarantees you freedom of religion? Guarantees you freedom of expression? Right? Can we take a book from the 7th century and open up Dar al-Kufr, these are the rulings, and then cut and paste to America? in my humble opinion, no we cannot do this right, we need to rethink things through and this is where one of the areas where I think reform is definitely needed because it's not explicit in the text so this is a deep topic I didn't think you realize the profundity of it, but this is a topic that many scholars are thinking about Tariq Ramadan has written many books about this and I agree with much of what he has written, what it means to be a western Muslim what it means to be a European Muslim these are very good books And he is beginning the discussion and dialogue, and it needs to be taken further than this. But inshallah, it's a very profound question. The bottom line, I have a statement that I say, the people who are the most concerned about hijrah, should be the last people to ever do it. Stay here. And the people who are the least concerned about hijrah, they're the ones we don't need, we'd rather they go back and live back home. so the very fact you're asking the question means what? stay here stay here because it means you're conscious of the religion means you're thinking of Islam and Allah Azza wa Jal's commandments we need you to stay the American Ummah needs you we need people like you and as for those who couldn't care less about Islam we never see them in the masjid wallahi they are better off going back home because their sins will be less and their Islam will be safer. Right? So, the very fact you're asking means, khalas, you must stay here. Inshallah. Yes? There's a nice fact about, for the people of the north, the salaf of those people of my north living in non-Islamic land, that they are as bad as their prayer, a different reward than the average Muslim living among the Jewish people. So the brother is asking, is there any extra reward for being a Muslim in difficult circumstances? Of course there is. Of course there is. The Prophet ﷺ warned us, the Sahaba, of a time that would come where the one who is faithful to his religion will be like al-qabid al-jamr. Will be like the one who is holding burning coals in his hand. Imagine coal, picking it up and holding it. Qabid al-jamr. And the Prophet ﷺ said, whoever does so will get ajru khamsina minkum. The reward of 50 of you. Even the Sahaba were shocked. they said surely you mean 50 of them and he said no 50 of you no no I am not saying it applies to America 2012 but what does it show you to be a Muslim at times of difficulty will get more reward the Prophet s.a.w. said al-ibadatu fil haraji kal hijrati ilayya worshipping perfectly at times of chaos and strife it is like making hijrah to me we talk about hijrah worshipping Allah at times of bloodshed chaos, fitna being perfect in this time, it is like you're immigrating to me, because that's what you're doing basically that's what you're doing you're leaving the chaos and worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so clearly there is no question that the one who worships Allah in difficult times will get more reward than the one who worships Allah at times of ease. And this is an inspiration, inshaAllah, a reason for us to look forward to our own situation and times.

Seerah 24 - The Covenant of Women & War protection - Yasir Qadhi _ February 2012-HFLeh7y7j6w

Al-Fatiha. of the Prophet ﷺ. And we had mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ had passed by a group from Yathrib. And he asked, who are you? Small group, he didn't recognize them. And they said, we are from the Khazraj. And he didn't recognize which Khazraj, because it's not one of the big tribes. He sat with them, he gave them da'wah. And they converted, and some of them thought of converting. But the point was, there was an openness. And they said, let us think about this affair, and we'll come back the following year. so this is not a formal conversion of all six it's rather the six people are interested in this new religion is it something interesting is it something we should be thinking about or not and perhaps they converted on the spot perhaps they converted at when they went back to the city of Medina of course remember at this time Medina is not Medina Medina is Yathrib Medina is Yathrib it will be called Medina after the emigration of the Prophet ﷺ he will change it to the name Medina But now it is called Yathrib. So they go back and for the next year, they simply spread the message that there is this new religion, there is this new prophet preaching the message of monotheism, of worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone. And the next year, they sent a message to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that we're coming for Hajj, we're coming for the pilgrimage with 12 people who have converted. These are now converts to the faith. And this is the largest group of converts from outside of Mecca, since the beginning of the da'wah. Never have 12 people, it sounds so small, but never have 12 people converted from any group outside of Mecca, and outside of the Quraysh. And therefore, in the 11th year of the da'wah, remember we're talking still before the hijrah, so this is 2 before hijrah. In the 11th year of the prophetic preaching, 12 people came from the city of Yathrib, ten from the Khazraj and two from the Aus. Ten from the tribe of the Khazraj and two from the tribe of the Aus. And they met with the Prophet ﷺ in the plains of Aqaba. There was no need to be secret because there's only twelve. And these are just the regular pilgrims coming from Yathrib. Unlike the year afterwards, it's gonna change. But now, it's nothing to be twelve people having a conversation with the Prophet ﷺ. Also we notice that for the first time, the Aus and the Khazraj seem to be forgetting about their hostility and coming together under the common platform of Islam. The Aus and the Khazraj were enemies of one another. The Aus and the Khazraj had a civil war between themselves for five years in which they had decimated each other's populations. Now this new religion comes and this new religion causes them to forget about the past. It's a positive beginning. Never before have the Aus and the Khazraj come together for anything. now for the first time we see what's gonna happen with this new religion of Islam it will cement bonds it will overcome that which disunited the people, it will unite them together, nonetheless it's still the beginning, so 10 are from the Khazraj, 2 are from the Aus so there's still some familial ties there's still some tribalism because the first converts were from where were the 6 converts from? the Khazraj, and therefore the next year, the bulk are still from the Khazraj. It's gonna take a while to overcome this split. It's gonna take a while. But nonetheless, slowly but surely we see Islam will unite these pagan tribes. Islam will come and cause them to forget about their problems in the past. In this meeting of 12 people of Medina, of Yathrib with the Prophet ﷺ, this was the first time a formal conversion took place. and in those days when anybody converted we already said that they would give an oath to the Prophet they would literally place their hand in his hand and they would swear a conversion that they are converting to the new faith and Ubada Ibn Samit was one of those who witnessed the famous Ubada Ibn Samit all of you know the name is very familiar to anybody who reads the seerah Ubada Ibn Samit is one of those who attended this first covenant and it is called obviously the first covenant of Aqaba. بَيْعَةُ الْعَقَبَةِ الْأُولَى The first covenant of Aqaba. Don't get confused. A lot of people get confused here. What happened the year before is not called a covenant. The six people who spoke with the Prophet ﷺ, this is not called a بَيْعَة. Because there was no formal بَيْعَة. It was just a conversation. And we don't even know did they accept Islam on the spot or did they go back and accept. It was simply the opening up of their hearts to Islam. So, Ubadah ibn al-Samit said, he's narrating this himself and this is in Bukhari I was of those who took the first the first covenant of Aqaba, it's called Aqaba because one of the areas of Mina is Aqaba, this is where the Jamarat are, this is where the three Jamarat are and the people of Yathrib their camping spot was close to the large Jamra we already said that in those days even in our days actually the entire Mina is divided according to geographies, according to ethnicities, right? Even to this day when you go for Hajj, American pilgrims, one area, all of us. We have one area on Mina. So in those days, every tribe had it. So the tribes of Medina had a small area in Aqaba. And this oath took place on the plains of Mina. On the plains of Mina, in their campgrounds, there's no need for any privacy because the Prophet ﷺ is going publicly preaching his message. Nobody needs to care that another few people have converted, even though it was the largest conversion outside of Mecca. So, Ubadah ibn al-Samit said, I was of those who participated. And it was the oath of the women, he called it. بَيْعَةُ النِّسَاءِ What is بَيْعَةُ النِّسَاءِ? The oath of the women was an oath that had no political connotations. It's just an oath of morality and theology. because later on the next oath will be an oath of support, an oath of alliances, an oath of political support. And that's a different type of oath. The second bay'ah, it's not gonna be called the oath of women. When women would convert, the Prophet ﷺ would only ask them to live moral and righteous lives and to be good Muslim worshippers of Allah. So, this is called the oath of women because there are no political connotations. There's nothing to do with protecting the Prophet ﷺ. Nothing to do with if somebody attacks, you have to defend. No, nothing like this. So, Ubadah said, the first covenant we did, it was like Bay'atul Nisa. And we swore our allegiance to worship Allah alone. That's the main point of Islam. We're gonna give up our idols. We're gonna worship Allah alone. And we're not going to fornicate. We're not going to steal. We're not going to kill our children as they did in the days of Jahiliyyah. We will not live immoral and unrighteous lives. And we will obey the Prophet in all good matters. So we will be basically good Muslims. And remember at this time the five prayers have not firmly been established. At this time Zakah has not quite been established. At this time there is no Ramadan. At this time there is no Hajj. So what do you have to do to be a Muslim? Basically, worship Allah and live righteous lives. Give up not even alcohol, because alcohol was banned in the third year of the Hijrah. Still alcohol has not yet been banned. So what did these early Muslims have to do? Give up fornication and murder and stealing, and worship Allah alone. So we all gave him our oath of allegiance. We all gave him our oath of allegiance. One of the things of this oath, the Prophet ﷺ said, whoever fulfills this whoever lives a righteous life his reward will be with Allah Allah will give you paradise and whoever falls short and repents then Allah will forgive you and if you don't repent then you might be punished so basically it's pure theology it's pure simple Islam you live good lives you'll get to paradise you live bad lives try to make it up and Allah will forgive you it's a very simple oath there's no political connotations at all. When these 12 converted to Islam, they requested some help in terms of teaching Islam. In terms of somebody to tell them, teach them the Quran. I said salah had not been legislated. Of course it had been. My mistake. The Isra has occurred by this time. The Isra wal-Mi'raj has occurred. The salah has been legislated. And so the Prophet ﷺ chose out of all of the converts, there were at least 250 converts now at this stage. At least 250 male converts, at least. The Prophet ﷺ chose Mus'ab ibn Umayr to send back with them to go to Yathrib. He chose Mus'ab ibn Umayr to teach them the Qur'an and to lead them in salah. And it is narrated that within a few weeks of Mus'ab reaching Yathrib, 40 people had converted to Islam. Within a few weeks. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ told them they may establish Jum'ah salah. And so the very first Friday prayer ever in the history of Islam was actually not done by the Prophet ﷺ. It was done at his command. But in Mecca they couldn't pray in public as you know. In Mecca they could not pray in public. In Mecca they would have been persecuted and killed. So the very first Friday sermon was delivered by Mus'ab ibn Umair in the house of As'ad ibn Zurara who was the Ansari who hosted Mus'ab. So he was the one who Mus'ab allowed to live in his house. He had a large house with a large garden, a date palm grove. And this was where the first Jum'ah took place with 40 people. Now, just a little bit of a tangent of fiqh here. What is the minimum required people necessary for Friday prayer? What is the minimum required people necessary for Friday prayer? The fuqaha or the scholars of fiqh have differed over this issue. One madhhab said the minimum is 40. And they based it on this narration of Mus'ab and As'ad ibn Zurara. That the first Jum'ah took place with 40 people. And they say, this is their reasoning, the reason why Jum'ah became obligatory upon them was because they reached the number 40. But if you really think about it, was it because they reached the number 40 or it just so happened coincidentally that they were 40 when the Prophet ﷺ sent the letter to do Jumu'ah. You see, which of the two ways do you look at it, right? And if you really look at it, the Prophet ﷺ didn't know how many people had converted. He didn't ask them for a survey, send me how many people. When the number 40 came, he then told them, oh, we have to now do Jumu'ah. No. Rather, he gave them the command to do Jumu'ah and it just so happened they were 40. This is the Hanbali Madhhab, by the way, that you have to have 40 people. Therefore, according to the Hanbali Madhab, if you have 39 men, you should not pray Jumu'ah. This is one opinion of the Hanbali Madhab. This is, obviously, doesn't seem to have very strong academic merit. Other Madhabs say, you need to have a large group of people without unspecified number. But the fact of the matter is that there doesn't seem to be any number specified in the Sharia. And therefore, it goes back to what is the minimal congregation that you need to have. most scholars say the minimal congregation consists of three people one of whom is the imam so if you have two people according to this opinion then you should do jum'ah if you have two people and an imam then you should do jum'ah and according to another opinion actually if there are two people including the imam you should still do jum'ah so you have one person give the khutbah and you have masha'allah one person in attendance and then you should also give jum'ah, so there is an ikhtilaf amongst the scholars and allahu a'lam, this is something that if there are ever two people muqim in a place and they decide to give jum'ah, inshallah there is no haraj on them, and if they say, you know what, there's only two, so we'll wait till we have one more to have a jum'ah of three, then that too is good, somebody will say, has there ever been a jum'ah of only two people that you have one person and one imam and one person following I say to this, I have participated in such a Jumu'ah I have participated in such a Jumu'ah not that when the people heard I was coming the masjid is empty, don't worry, that wasn't the case rather, when I was a young teenager this is a personal story, so just going back a little bit when I was 19 years old I used to work in Freeport, Texas at Dow Chemical and there was no masjid and there was no musalla even there wasn't even a mosque or a musalla at the factory over there And this is in the early 90s. I'm sure they have a masjid now. So I sent out an email to all the Muslim names that I could find. Probably not the wisest thing to do these days, but back then it was excusable. Plus my age also excused this. And mashallah, tabarakallah, one person responded. That khalas, let's have Jum'ah. So we showed up at his house, expecting a lot of people to come. Alhamdulillah, afterwards, you know, 5-10 people came. But for the first time, it was just me and this one brother in the living room of his house. Because there is no musalla, no masjid. So the only khutbah in my life that I delivered was, I was giving the khutbah, there was one man in front of me. And I gave a very short khutbah, it was a very strange khutbah. And then I led the salah, and I'll never forget that. And this was the first Jumu'ah in Freeport, I'm sure now they have a masjid. Even when I was there over the next few months, more and more people heard, this is how you start, right? This is how you start. So if anybody says, has this ever happened? I actually have witnessed this myself, and it is possible. Nonetheless, a fiqh point here, aqal al-jum'ah, is it two or three? Scholars have differed, and some even say 40 because of As'ad ibn Zurari. Getting back to the story. Okay, getting back to the story. The Prophet ﷺ sent Mus'ab ibn Umair, as we said, to Yathrib, to Medina, and eventually it is said that every single sub-tribe of the Aws and Khazraj had a household at least of Muslims. Remember that their jahili society is divided into sub-tribes and every sub-tribe lives in its own sub-division. Because in those days where you lived was where your tribe was. So eventually there is not a single locality of Medina except that there's one or more households that have embraced Islam. And the conversion of two people in particular led to a mass conversion, instantaneous conversion amongst the people of Yathrib. And these two were the up and coming leaders of the Khazraj. The up and coming leaders in the vacuum created by the wars of Buath, these were As'ad ibn Zurara and Usaid ibn Hudayr. As'ad ibn Zurara sorry, As'ad ibn Zurara is the one who's housing Mus'ab, it is Usaid ibn Hudayr and Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh my mistake, Usaid ibn Hudayr who knows his story, what is the famous about Usaid ibn Hudayr there's a story in Bukhari about him anybody remembers this story Usaid ibn Hudayr is the one who whenever he recited the Quran he would see the angels come down to listen to him. This is Usaid ibn Hudair. That he would see some light coming down and listening to him. And he went to the Prophet ﷺ, he would recite it after Fajr. He went to the Prophet ﷺ saying, every time I see these lights and my animals start getting agitated and I get worried what's going on. The Prophet ﷺ said, these are Sakinatul Rahman. These are the peace and the angels of Ar-Rahman coming to listen to your Qur'an. So basically continue reciting. And then Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was the second convert who opened up the door for all of the other converts. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, who's Sa'd ibn Mu'adh? Who can tell me? The famous hadith about Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. When he died, Arshur Rahman shook. This is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. Hazzah. It shook out of anger that somebody had killed him. This is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. Right? So Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Usaid ibn Hudayr were close friends. And Mus'ab was preaching in the house of As'ad ibn Zurara. You see these names already are very different from the Quraishi names. This is the Madani names, the Yathrib names. Much more Ayns and much more Hamzas if you like. So, Usaid ibn Hudayr was sent by Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh. Sa'ad and Usaid are talking. And Sa'ad says to Usaid, this new religion has come to our city and my cousin As'ad so As'ad is his cousin my cousin As'ad is housing the man who's spreading the faith who is? who's the man? Mus'ab Mus'ab is being housed in Medina, right? my cousin is housing this man because he's my cousin I feel awkward going why don't you go and expel this man from our city? go and get rid of Mus'ab because who is he to come and preach against the religion of our forefathers and so he went with his spear this is a sign of war he went with his spear he went to the house of As'ad and when As'ad saw him marching with his spear he said to Mus'ab oh Mus'ab this is one of our leaders this is one of the leaders of the Khazraj he's getting scared now that he's coming with his his javelin with his spear to come and attack you one of the leaders of the Khazraj. Make dua, have ikhlas. Something's gonna happen here, right? So when he came, he began speaking in an angry voice. And he said, why have you come to our land? Have you come to brainwash those of us who don't have strong intellect to take our women and children away from our ways and to convert them to the ways of this new prophet of yours? Go back to where you came from if you value your life. It's a threat. if you stay here I'm gonna kill you go back to where you came from if you value your life Mus'ab responded with a calmness and confidence that only Iman can bring you and Mus'ab said to him why don't you sit and listen to what I have to say if you find it agreeable then good and if not then I'll stop at least listen I mean you haven't even heard what I have to say so he found this to be a very reasonable request and he He sat down and he listened to Mus'ab preach to him the basic message of Islam. It was only after listening to some basic teachings of Islam that Usaid, his heart opened up to Islam. And he said, what you have said makes complete sense to me. How does one embrace your faith? Coming with a javelin to kill him, five minutes later he's saying, makes sense to me. How do I convert? What do I have to do? and so Mus'ab said go to ghusl and say the shahada and pray to raka'at, that's all you have to do so he washed himself and said the shahada pray to raka'at and he said, I have a person who has sent me and this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, I have a person who has sent me, if you can convince him of this then you will have no opposition left, if you can convince him what you have just convinced me, you will have no opposition left, Mus'ab said go send him to me, go send him to me so Usaid went back to Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh and as Sa'ad saw him he's sitting with his friends Sa'ad said this is not the same man who has left us because wallahi when you leave paganism and you embrace la ilaha illallah you change when you embrace tawheed you change and Sa'ad said this is not the same man that has left something is different about him this is not the same man that has left us and he went back to Sa'ad and he said and As'ad asked him, did you succeed? Husayn said, I tried talking to them, but why don't you try? Why don't you go and talk to them? So he's trying to get him to go, right? And to add some salt, some urgency, he said, and it has reached me that the tribe of such and such, he mentioned another tribe of Medina, the tribe of such and such has decided to kill As'ad because he's housing Mus'ab and also because he's your cousin and you're not doing anything. In other words, he's riling up his Jahili tribalism. And he's saying, unless you do something, the other tribe will go kill him. Now, where did he get this from? Obviously, we will assume that there was an element of truth that there were rumors that this tribe is going to kill As'ad. Because As'ad is the one housing Musab ibn Umair. And so he's basically telling these rumors just like the father of Yusuf says, I'm worried the wolf is going to eat Yusuf. It's not a blatant lie. It's kind of sort of stretching the truth. It's a white lie basically, right? So he's making a sense of urgency. You better go right now. Make sure they don't kill him. If anybody kills him, it should be you. That's the point, right? Make sure they don't kill him or else it's gonna become a tribal warfare. So Sa'ad became alarmed at this and Sa'ad took his weapons. Sa'ad took his weapons and he went marching to the house of As'ad ibn Zurara and he said to As'ad, O As'ad, he's speaking to As'ad, not even Mus'ab now. O As'ad, this is his cousin, had you not been my cousin, these weapons would not be hanging at my side. i.e. they would be unsheathed and out at you. Had you not been my cousin, these weapons wouldn't be hanging at my sides. And it's just because of our blood relationship that I am not taking this more. But get rid of this guest of yours, get rid of this person and tell him to leave our land and stop spreading his pollution amongst us. Mus'ab took over immediately without even asserting. And Mus'ab said, same thing, at least listen to what I have to say. You haven't even listened to what I'm preaching. Sit down and listen to what I have to say. And if you find it agreeable, then good. And if not, then I will stop. I mean that's a very big condition. And Mus'ab gave it. Khalas. if you don't agree then don't worry I'll leave, okay, and that's a very big shows his confidence, I mean it's a bit over confident, but this is only the confidence of a sahabi and his iman one of us could not make this condition but Mus'ab made it, because if you don't agree, then I'll stop and so the calmness and the confidence of Mus'ab made Sa'ad think, okay well that's a valid point, it was the calmness and the confidence, that he's not wavering, he's not frightened. Here's a man who doesn't even care about killing Mus'ab much as his own cousin, he's gonna kill his own cousin. Right? And yet Mus'ab is just staring him straight down and speaking with that gentleness and that politeness that only Iman can bring. And he says, listen to what I have to say. And once again he sat him down, and this time he recited Surah Zuhruf. حَامِيمُ الْكِتَابُ الْمُبِينِ Surah Zuhruf he recited. Beautiful recitation we can imagine now. And this completely changed Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. Having heard the Quran, because again, the Quran is the miracle. It is the miracle, right? And having heard it directly from Mus'ab's mouth, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh immediately said, how do I convert? Once again, exact same question. How do I convert? Where do I sign? What do I do to convert to this faith? And so Sa'd ibn Mu'adh as well converted to the faith. And with the conversion of Sa'd and Usaid, the entire tribe of the Banu Al-Ashhal it is called, which is one of the sub-tribes of the Khazraj, the entire tribe converted along with them, because these two were their leaders. And with their conversion, the tribe automatically had no problems converting. Within the span of a few weeks, the entire tribe of the Banu Al-Ashhal converted, and that was the largest conversion ever, mass conversion, up until that point in time. with the conversion of these two. And, by the way, there's one exception. There's an interesting story. One person from the tribe did not convert. And his story is a tangent as well, but it's very brief. His name was Usayrim. And Usayrim was the only pagan of the tribe of Banu Ash'hal for the next four years. Three years, he remained a pagan. And he refused to convert. Slowly but surely, everybody converted. Usaidim remained on his paganism. And then he converted on one particular day. Abu Hurairah used to quiz his students. Abu Hurairah would say, Who can tell me the name of the man who entered Jannah while he never prayed one rak'ah to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? This is obviously Usaidim. Who can tell me the name of the man who entered Jannah without having prayed a single rak'ah? And of course the Dabi'un would not know. And Abu Hurairah would say, he is the Usayrim of the Banu Abdul Ash'hal. This is the sub-tribe of Usaid and Sa'ib. He is Usayrim of the Banu Abdul Ash'hal. He remained firm on his paganism until the day of Uhud. Until the day of Uhud. And on the day of Uhud, on the morning of the battle of Uhud, he decided to convert. And when he came to fight in the battle, his people said, O Usaidim, we have no need of you. You can't fight. You're not a Muslim, we can't have your help here. We have no need of you. Usaidim said, I am here to fight. They said, are you going to fight out of tribal loyalty or out of love for Allah and His Messenger? Why are you defending us? Because again, they're being attacked by the pagans of Mecca. Are you defending us out of your tribal loyalty? in which case, we don't want you. Amazing. They are outnumbered 3 to 1. The Quraysh are 3,000, the Muslims are 1,000. They're being attacked. But they realize victory comes from sincerity and not from paganism. Victory comes from belief in Allah and not from belief in the idols. So they quiz him. Are you helping and are you coming to us now? Because you're a member of our tribe and you feel threatened? Or are you coming to us because you love Allah and His Messenger? so he said no I am now a Muslim, I have converted and I want to fight for the sake of Islam and they took him to the Prophet the Prophet quizzed him, he embraced Islam he converted, he took the shahada and he embraced Islam after Salatul Fajr, he became a shaheed before Salatul Dhuhr and so no Salah ever came at his time he never had to pray, because there was no Salah to pray. And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, إِنَّهُ عَمِلَ قَلِيلًا وَأُجِرَةً كَثِيرًا He did very little. But he was rewarded a lot. وَإِنَّهُ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ And he is of the people of Jannah. Because he obviously, if the time for Salah had come, he would have prayed. But it's not his fault. He converted at let's say 9 a.m. He became a shaheed at let's say 11 a.m. Right? So how is he gonna pray? What's he gonna do? So because there was no time to pray, he is the only Sahabi that we know of who converted to Islam and mashaAllah died without ever having prayed a single salah. Nonetheless, getting back to our story, so Mus'ab ibn Umair with his da'wah manages to convert a good population and a good amount of the people of Yathrib. And therefore in the second year of Mus'ab's coming, which is the twelfth year of the da'wah, rather than twelve people coming, we now have around seventy-five Muslims who came to give the bay'ah to the Prophet ﷺ. And by the way, these are seventy-five who went and did the hajj. One can imagine for everyone who went, there must have been at least two or three who cannot go that year. Because again, not everybody goes for hajj every year. And so around 75 people are actually coming from Medina to Mecca In order to perform the pilgrimage And these are the ones who undertook the second bay'ah Bay'ah al-aqabat al-thaniya And for every one of these there must be at least 2 or 3 who are Muslims in Medina And so in the 12th year of the da'wah Which is one year before the hijrah Or to be more precise it is only a few months before the hijrah Because remember, the hijrah took place in the beginning of the 13th year of the da'wah, right? And therefore, the hajj is taking place at the end of the 12th year. And therefore, within a few months of the second bay'ah, the hijrah occurs. Remember, there's no zero year. There's no zero year. You have one year before the hijrah, then the first year is the year of the hijrah. Time doesn't go zero. So one bh and then you have one ah. There is no zero. So the year of the Hijrah is year one. The year of the Hijrah is year one. And a few months before the Hijrah is when this Dayatul Aqaba takes place. Which is in Dhul Hijjah, the month of Dhul Hijjah. And the Hijjah took place, as we will mention, two months after this. So in the twelfth year of the Prophethood, Mus'ab ibn Umair returned with around 75 converts. he's been gone for one year and in one year he manages to convert a minimum a minimum of 250 to 300 people this is the largest group of converts outside of Mecca and they are now rivaling in quantity the Muslims of Mecca subhanallah why did the people of Yathrib embrace Islam so quickly when the people of Mecca were so stubborn that in 13 years The quantity of converse is just a little bit more than what it is in Medina. Why? Who can tell me? Well, number one, no persecution. Number two, the monotheism tendencies of Medina, the people of Medina. But there is a biggest reason. They had a fight which did what? The tribal leadership had been decimated in their civil war. and so they had a younger generation a fresh generation who hadn't been raised up in the ways of paganism and who have tasted the ludicrousness of paganism they have seen with their own eyes the foolishness of paganism they've seen it because they've killed half of their leadership half of their city has gone all of their leadership has been killed of what good has that done? now there's a new message that's teaching us to be moral to give up bloodshed, to live good lives, to worship one God. So they were young, they had seen with their eyes the foolishness of their old ways, and they're wanting a change. And this is of the reasons that the people of Yathrib began to embrace Islam en masse. And so around 75 people come for Hajj that year, and the Prophet ﷺ communicates with them and says, we shall meet up on the last night of the hajj before everybody returns home. On the last night of the hajj, before everybody returns, meet me before the fajr prayer by a few hours. Basically, in the last third of the night. Meet me in the valley next to Aqaba. It's a valley that is behind where the Ansar, where the, they're not Ansar yet. Remember, I'm jumping the gun here. They're not Ansar and they're not Madanese yet. They're still Yathrib. And they're still people from Yathrib. Ansar they would become after the muhachirun come. So we're being a little bit quick here, hey Stephen, inshallah it's excusable. The people who were to become the Ansar. Because eventually they're going to be called the Ansar. So the Prophet ﷺ says, meet me the very last night of Hajj, in the last third of the night, in the valley of the Aqaba that is behind where you camp. Jabir ibn Abdullah, the famous Jabir ibn Abdullah, who's probably one of the most famous of all of the Ansar. Jabir ibn Abdullah was an eyewitness to this conversion. And Jabir ibn Abdullah narrates that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam stayed for more than 10 years in Mecca preaching to the people in the Hajj season. And he would ask them, this is Jabir summarizing the Meccan Sira in one line basically. Jabir is a Madani, he doesn't know the Meccan Sira first hand. So he's summarizing it in one line. So the Prophet ﷺ stayed in Mecca for more than 10 years, trying to find support from the other tribes when the Quraysh rejected him. And he would ask the other tribes, who will support me so that I can spread the message of my Lord? And he would not find anyone embracing his faith except for a man or two from Mudar, or from Yemen, or from this tribe. In other words, the converts were not en masse. The converts were one or two. How is that gonna help? You need some political base, right? Remember we said there had been converts, but not en masse. Until finally, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guided us to Islam. A group from the people of Yathrib guided us to Islam, and we believed in him and we recited the Quran. We believed in him and we began to recite the Quran, until not a single sub-tribe, Rahd, which is a sub-tribe, out of all of the people of Yathrib were there, except that some amongst them had embraced Islam. And therefore he's talking about the fact Islam spread in that one year. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala caused us to come together. And we spoke to one another and we said, this is a beautiful line here, إِلَىٰ مَتَىٰ نَذَرُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّىٰ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمُ يُطْرَضُ فِي جِبَالِ مَكَّةَ وَيُخَافُ For how long will we allow the Prophet ﷺ to be repelled from one valley to another outside of Mecca and to fear for his life. For how long are we going to let him do this? In other words, the idea comes, now that we have two, three hundred converts here, why don't we tell him to come to our land? And Jabir says, Allah gave us this idea. He didn't even say, we thought of it. Because he's being modest. Because Allah gave them the idea. So Jabir says, until Allah gave us this idea, that we said to one another, ila mata, for how long are we gonna let the Prophet ﷺ be rejected and be fearful of his life for how long are we gonna do this and so we gather together Jabir is saying, we gather together in the last night of the Hajj another person who witnessed, I'm gonna come back to Jabir's report another person who witnessed this is Ka'b ibn Malik, who is Ka'b ibn Malik you should now know these names now who is Ka'b ibn Malik the one who Tabuk. He's one of the three and the most famous of them and the one who narrates the story. And the one whom Allah revealed in the Quran. وَعَلَىٰ الثَّلَاثَةَ الَّذِينَ خُلِّفُوا Right? Ka'ba ibn Malik is the one who refused or initially he didn't go to Tabuk and then Allah revealed his repentance. Allah revealed, this is Ka'ba ibn Malik. So Ka'ba ibn Malik is witnessing here. And by the way, it goes without saying that every single one of these people becomes a famous sahabi, obviously. When they sacrificed when Islam was small, Allah rewarded them when Islam was big. They sacrificed when Islam was difficult, Allah rewarded them when Islam became easier. So, Ka'b ibn Malik also witnessed this treaty. And he said that, when we went for hajj, we hid our Islam from our pagan relatives. Many of these Muslims were secret Muslims from their pagan relatives. This is the Khazraj. And we all agreed to meet at a particular place in the last third of the night. This is the valley behind Aqaba. And so, in the middle of the night, we began sneaking out of our tents one by one, so as not to arouse suspicion amongst the people of Yathrib, amongst the Khazraj. So as not to arouse suspicion, we began sneaking out to meet with the Prophet ﷺ. And we waited for him. and eventually he came with his uncle Al-Abbas, even though Al-Abbas was still upon the religion of his people. Interesting. Abbas is coming, even though Abbas is still a pagan. He's still an idol worshipper at this time. And then we go back to the version of Jabir, and Jabir says that when his uncle Abbas came, Abbas said to the Prophet ﷺ, looking at all of these people, remember Abbas is a trader Abbas knows the elders of Yathrib from his travelers days but these elders have now died the elders that Abbas would trade with are no longer there so Abbas looks at all of these people and he says oh my nephew I don't know any of these men and I don't feel comfortable because Abbas is thinking in terms of Jahiliyyah Abbas is thinking in terms of tribalism who are these youngsters they're none of the senior people that I recognized from from Yathrib and I knew many of them but I don't recognize a single one amongst them and this shows why Abbas is coming Abbas feels a sense of loyalty out of tribalism out of his nationalism Abbas feels look the Prophet ﷺ is leaving Mecca he's leaving the Banu Hashim I need to negotiate It's a transfer of visas, right? I need to negotiate. If his uncle, Abu Lahab, has rejected him, I haven't rejected him. And as the senior most member of the Quraysh who still acknowledges him, I need to negotiate his release, if you like, to the people of Yathrib. And it shows us that, subhanAllah, al-Abbas, like Abu Talib, loved him with a natural love. And eventually he's gonna convert to Islam. Remember, Abbas is one of the later converts. In the battle of Badr, in the battle of Uhud, Abbas is still in Mecca. Abbas has not come to Medina for a long time. Unlike Hamza, Hamza comes immediately and Hamza becomes Sayyid al-Shuhada and Uhud. You all know the story of Hamza, we're gonna get to that. Abbas took a while, but he has genuine love for the Prophet ﷺ and also Abbas and the Prophet ﷺ were of a similar age. And they were also foster brothers as well. They were foster brothers being uncle and nephew. And so there was a strong bond of friendship even though it was uncle and nephew but there was a strong bond of friendship and the Prophet ﷺ trusted Al-Abbas and so Jabir says that we came in front of the Prophet ﷺ and Abbas was the one who stood up to speak on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ and he said Ya Khazraj he called them by Khazraj even though there were some Os people because the majority were still Khazraj and in the eyes of Abbas, he cannot see Muslim and kafir, he only sees Khazraj and Quraysh and Aus, right? This is the eyes of Jahiliyyah. When he looks at the people, he can't see them as Muslims. He is viewing them as Khazraj and Aus, and the majority are Khazraj, so he goes, Ya Khazraj, O people of the Khazraj, you know the status of this man amongst us, meaning the Prophet ﷺ, you know his status amongst us, the Banu Hashim. And we have protected him from his own people. Even though we agree with our people, i.e. we agree with the same religion as our people, but we have prevented the Quraysh from harming this man. He has izzah and honor amongst us, and he has protection, but he has decided to leave us to go over to you. So, if you are sure that you can live up to your conditions with him, and protect him from those who disagree, then you shall bear his responsibility otherwise let him be from now make sure you can promise him what you're gonna live up to and realize Abbas concludes that he is honored amongst his people Abbas is clearly not trusting of the Khazraj Abbas is clearly very hesitant at what's happening and he's also embarrassed at the fact that his own nephew has to leave the Banu Hashim clearly, and so he's trying to overcompensate by saying he has Izzah and he has protection but that's not true amongst the Quraysh, they tried to kill him multiple times, the assassination plot is gonna take place 3 weeks after this conversation, the major assassination, the night before the Hijrah, few weeks after this conversation, right? this is not true but Abbas feels embarrassed that our own, my own nephew has to leave Mecca because we couldn't do our job, basically So he tries to reclaim that honor by saying, look, we are great people and we've done this and that. Typical, you know, typical tribalistic, nationalistic jingoism here. Just like talking about what good he's done. Even though they didn't do much good. Even though the Prophet ﷺ has to leave his own nation to go and find protection with the people of Yathrib. So, the people, the Muslims replied, O Abbas, you have spoken, now let the Prophet ﷺ speak. Enough, khalas, we don't need you to speak. Now let the Prophet ﷺ speak. And Ya Rasulullah, put the conditions that you want. What do you expect from us? Because again, the message that they had sent the Prophet ﷺ was, come and live with us. This is the message they're sending him. Leave the people of Mecca and come and live with us. And it is really important to note that the offer came from the people of Yathrib. The Prophet ﷺ didn't impose on them. The people of Yathrib said, come and live with us. so they said what conditions do you need in order to move to Yathrib what are the conditions that you need that what are the conditions you are going to put upon us the Prophet ﷺ then stood up and this is taking place in the middle of the night there are no lights there are no, it's just the moon there it's not even the full moon it's going to be the 11th of the month the 12th of the month not the full moon there but there will be this bleak if you like darkness along with whatever is in the distant light and the Prophet ﷺ began preaching and advising them to hear Allah Azza wa Jal and reciting them the Quran and then said, I shall give you the allegiance or the bay'ah. In other words, I will allow you to give the bay'ah in return for mun'ah, protection. That you shall protect me like one of your own. I.e. what would you do if I was a part of the khazraj or a part of the aus? You would protect me as one of your own. this is a protection i.e. I'm gonna leave the Banu Hashim I'm coming over to you and as long as you agree to make me the same as one of yours then I will basically agree with this with the Bay'ah and so Al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur stood up one of the Ansar Al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur stood up and he said we are people experienced in the arts of war they've just gone through a civil war we are people who have experienced the arts of war we have inherited it from our forefathers this is an easy condition we know we can protect nobody is going to harm you, don't worry stretch forth your hand and we will give you the allegiance hasty but also iman he wants to get it done with, yes we're here another Ansari stood up, I'm saying Ansari here you know what I mean, they're not called Ansari yet but they will be called Ansari and this is the famous Abu'l-Haytham ibn Tayhan Abu al-Haytham is the one who passed by the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr and Umar when all three of them had no food to eat. And each one has the stone on his stomach. And Abu al-Haytham said, I can't bear to see this. And he went back to his wife and said, Whatever you have, we're gonna cook it and give it. She said, we only have one old goat left. Just get rid of it. we're gonna dabah and have a feast for the Prophet ﷺ. So this is the famous Abu al-Haytham. This is that one. And there are other stories about Abu al-Haytham as well. So Abu al-Haytham stood up. This is a man of intelligence. Al-Bara is a man of impatience and he wants to get over with. But it's also Iman as well. Abu al-Haytham stood up, little bit smarter. And he said, Ya Rasulallah, we have ties with the Yahud. We have political treaties with them. by accepting you those treaties will be broken and we know it he's a smart man, he knows exactly what he's talking about by accepting you that means those protections are broken so once you come over to our side and then Allah gives us victory will you then leave us and go back to your people this is his fear and worry that if we were to now be with you eventually Quraysh will be conquered he has Iman Allah is going to give victory to us right he knows this is the messenger of Allah these people firmly believe this is Rasulullah they have no question they are going to change their whole lifestyle so he is saying once we win over the Quraysh what an amazing man there are 70 people the Quraysh or 1000. But he knows the day will come that they will win over the Quraysh. And what is his fear? When we win over them, are you gonna go back to Mecca? Subhanallah. This is what he's worried about. Are you gonna go back to Mecca and then you're gonna leave us in a very difficult situation in Medina? Because we would have broken all of our political alliances with everybody else. And so the Prophet ﷺ smiled and he said very profound phrase in Arabic when you translate it, it loses everything. لَأْبَلِ الدَّمِ الدَّمِ وَالْهَدَمِ الْهَدَمِ Which basically means, no, my blood is your blood. And my destruction is your destruction. i.e. we are one people. In English we say, we're gonna live together, we're gonna die together. That's what it basically translates as, right? But no, this is a permanent emigration. Once I cut off ties from Mecca, I am going to be a مَدَنِي. I'm going to be a part of you. and this was the condition that they wanted and subhanallah, isn't it amazing? Look at the people of Yathrib, the Ansar. What were they worried about when Allah will give them victory that the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam will leave them? Contrast this to the people of Kindah a few months ago, right? When Allah gives us victory, will you make us the rulers? That's what their condition was, remember? And that's why Allah said, you're not worthy of it. No, sorry. Even though the irony, they would have become the rulers. But when that was their goal, no. You embrace Islam for the sake of God. You are righteous because you expect your reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Also, there's an element here of the iman of the Aws and Khazraj, the iman of the people of Yemen. Why do I say people of Yemen by the way? Because the Aws and the Khazraj, we're going to come to this maybe in two weeks. The Aws and the Khazraj are in fact Yemeni Arabs. the Aws and the Khazraj are Yemeni Arabs they came from Yemen 300 years before this and their tribes go back to the tribes of Qahtan remember way back we did Qahtan in Adnan remember should I quiz you now or I should just ignore no no don't do that so these are the Qahtani Arabs these are the Qahtani Arabs and this is one of the major forefathers of the Arabs and the Aws and the Khazraj are from a totally different branch than the Quraysh. Totally different branch than the Quraysh. And the Aws and the Khazraj are from a branch that is basically Yemeni. And there are so many Ahadith about Ahlul Yemen, right? The Prophet ﷺ said that the people of Yemen are the softest in their hearts and the gentlest in their chests. i.e. they're very good people. The Prophet ﷺ said, الْإِيمَانُ يَمَانٍ وَالْحِكْمَةُ يَمَانِيَّةٌ That Iman is Yemeni and wisdom is Yemenite. And these things, even in the Aws and Khazraj, We see their wisdom here. Also subhanallah, notice the iman of Abu Tayhan. And also his bravery. I mean what a frank and a blunt question. It might even border on the sacrilegious. But there is freedom here. There's no fear that am I allowed to ask such a blunt question. Straight to the Prophet ﷺ. What are you gonna do once we win? What are you gonna do when we do everything you want? Are you gonna then abandon us? Or will you stay with us? Because he wants to be with the Prophet ﷺ. And there is this openness and freedom that is really amazing to see. And also, once the Prophet ﷺ gave his word, obviously, he lived up to it. بَلَ الدَّمِ الدَّمِ وَالْهَدَمَ الْهَدَمِ Right? When he did reconquer Mecca, and in front of him is the house of Khadija where he lived for 20 years. And in front of him is the house of Abu Talib where he grew up for 40 years. and he is with his tribe and his family and his entire extended family is there. And they have now all accepted Islam. And he could have moved back to his hometown. What did he do? Eventually he turned his back to Mecca and he walked back to Medina and he lived in Medina and he died in Medina and he is buried in Medina. He lived up to his word. Once I leave, I will be with you. And the Prophet ﷺ praised the Ansar in so many hadith, we'll talk about them inshaAllah, in a while. So they said, O Messenger of Allah, what should we give you bay'ah then? Khalas, we agree. What is the phrase of the bay'ah we should give? So the Prophet ﷺ said, you must give the bay'ah, you must give the oath of allegiance that you hear and you obey in ease and in difficult, i.e. in times of difficulty and times of ease, and that you spend of your money in the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and that you command the good and forbid the evil and that you speak the truth no matter what the consequences. Never lie no matter what the consequences and that you help me once I come to Yathrib. And this is one of the only times he called it Yathrib. One of the only times he called it Yathrib because he was going to change the name very soon. And that you help me when I come to Yathrib just like you help your own family and your own wives and children. I.e. I become your family. I become a part of you. so these are now political conditions it's not just be a good Muslim and pray and worship it's also that you will protect me if the Quraysh come and attack we will attack and fight back this is not the bay'ah of women this is another bay'ah this is a political bay'ah and so this is the second bay'ah and these oaths were much more stringent once the Prophet ﷺ said this a voice cried out from amongst them and what shall we get in return? what is in it for us and the Prophet s.a.w. said the one word that they wanted to hear Al-Jannah I can't give you any money I can't promise you fame and fortune paradise will be yours you help the messenger of Allah and Allah will give you his pleasure that's all I can promise you and that's all they wanted to hear and so they all stood up to give bay'ah to him and before anybody could embrace the Prophet s.a.w.'s hand As'ad ibn Zurara held on to the Prophet ﷺ's hand and kept it down. This is a freedom of expression that is unbelievable. He did not allow him to raise his hand. And he said, wait everybody. Remember As'ad is the one housing Mus'ab. As'ad is one of the first converts. As'ad is one of the six who spoke, was two years ago. So As'ad is one of the leaders of the Muslims. As'ad held on to the Prophet ﷺ and said, Ruaiden, wait. calm down O people of Yathrib we haven't traveled all of this distance and undertaken this long journey except that we know that this man is the messenger of Allah we know this and once his people expel him i.e. he leaves over to us then you will be asking for war this is a very big decision once his people expel him they will try to kill him now you will be asking for war and so if you're ready that your necks meet swords you're ready to die then go and give him the oath of allegiance and realize that the best of you will be killed the best of you will be killed and fathers will lose their sons and sons will lose their fathers and you will cause death amongst yourselves by accepting him realize this if you're prepared to do this then give him the oath if not then stop now perchance Allah will forgive you because you didn't give the oath i.e. are you ready? you're really sure? you're up to the standards this isn't a joke this is the last chance once you put your hand in his hand end of story and this is the intelligence of As'ad that he did not want the punishment of Allah to come if his tribe eventually said, I can't do that, sorry, too much. Telling them one last chance. And they said, Oh As'ad, you have spoken enough. Get your hand off the hand of the Prophet ﷺ. We want to put it. They're eager. We want to embrace his hand and give him the bay'ah. And so, one by one, all 72 men amongst them gave the bay'ah of the Prophet ﷺ and in return promised them Jannah one by one. What a beautiful blessed group that is. And the two women that were present there, and there were two women there, the Prophet ﷺ took their oath of allegiance verbally. He did not take it in his hand. As we know, the Prophet ﷺ never touched the hand of a woman that was not related to him. And this is well known, and this is another instance here. The Prophet ﷺ did not take the oath from their hand and he simply took it shafahatan or verbally. and when the entire oath was finished Abbas was looking along in great worry and great anger and great irritation and he said to the Prophet ﷺ these are people I don't know any of them and all of them are young kids I don't know who they are I don't know what you're doing he's very worried about the Prophet ﷺ but if Abbas did not know them then Allah Azza wa Jal knew them if Abbas did not recognize them then Allah and his messenger did indeed recognize them. And they all finished up the Bay'at al-Aqaba and inshallah ta'ala we will continue. We need to stop here for a few announcements in Q&A. We inshallah continue talking about the very last incidents in this Bay'ah and then also the actual Hijrah which will be done inshallah ta'ala next Wednesday. We'll talk about the Hijrah and some of the benefits that we get from this incident of the second Bay'at al-Aqaba. with that if there are any questions inshallah we can take a few questions now yes go ahead yes we already said that the Prophet ﷺ had relationships with Yathrib clearly Allah Azza wa Jal had planned this that the Prophet ﷺ great grandmother was from Yathrib and so he had some distant cousins from Yathrib and even Amina went to visit Yathrib and died on the way back. So this is all in the plan of Allah. We talk about Ashraf but it seems there are many more people who were given. Yes, there were many more people. What is the separate significance of Ashraf compared to the 70? You just told us that the 70 were also guaranteed and then the one who came earlier they're also going to be... Multiple people, it's not just the ten. Multiple people. But these ten were of the earliest who were promised paradise. And these ten were promised paradise in a hadith that actually lists all ten of them by name. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Abu Bakr fil Jannah, wa Umar fil Jannah, wa Uthman fil Jannah, wa Ali fil Jannah. And he went on and he listed all ten. So they have a special significance over the others. The rankings of the Sahaba, we mentioned before, there's multiple rankings of the Sahaba. and the muhajirun have a ranking and the ansar have a ranking. The highest amongst the ansar are those who attended the first bay'ah and then those who attended the second bay'ah. So they have a ranking that is of the highest of the ansar.

Seerah 25 - The Early Emigration to Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ March 2012-UaWVK-vD4_s

Al-Fatiha. for the Hijrah. And we were talking about the two types of Bay'ahs, the two types of covenants that took place with the people of Medina. The first covenant and the second covenant, Al-Bay'at Al-Aqaba Al-Ula and Al-Bay'at Al-Aqaba Al-Thaniya. And remember that the second covenant, it took place in the twelfth year of the prophethood. And the main difference between the first and the second covenant, who can remind me? What was the difference between the first and the second covenant? So which one is the woman's covenant? the first one, why was it called the woman's covenant? بَيْعَةُ النِّسَاءِ there was no commitment there was no political commitment, there was no commitment to fight, there was no commitment to protect hence this was called the women's covenant, and then the second covenant was called the covenant of war basically, this is the covenant where the Prophet ﷺ asks them to protect him like they will protect their own women and children. And notice, and it's a key point here, the covenant mentions defensive protection, not offensive attacks. Right? And this is gonna come up in the battle of Badr. We're gonna mention this again. That the battle of Badr was not a defensive battle. And so when the Ansar participated in it, the Prophet ﷺ had to then basically ask them, are you agreeing? Is this fine with you? We're gonna mention this later on. But the covenant, the second bay'ah, was about a defensive covenant. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ said, you will protect me like one of your own. They asked, what will we get in return? The Prophet ﷺ said, what do they want in return? Jannah. You will get Jannah in return. Now, I think we had mentioned Asa'id ibn Zurara standing up and reminding them that before you give this covenant, I think we stopped over here if I'm not mistaken. As'ad ibn Zurara stood up and he said perhaps if we close the door let the outside noise there and he said that oh people don't be hasty don't be hasty we have traveled all this way from Medina knowing that he is Rasulullah we know this to be true but realize that this covenant is not like the first one he is basically saying realize that if you say yes to this you will lose children you will make women widows you will have to fight the other people and so if you're ready to do this then take the oath of covenant otherwise excuse yourself now perhaps Allah will excuse you because you didn't stand up to the commitment don't promise and then back out before you do this so As'ad ibn Zurara clearly he shows that he's a leader he shows he's thinking about the future and of course As'ad ibn Zurara has a lot more stories later on after this when As'ad said this, the people of the they're not yet called Ansar, we're calling them Ansar a little bit loosely here they're not yet Ansar, they're gonna be Ansar after the Muhajirun come to Medina in fact it's not even Medina yet, remember it is Yathrib, right, it's all going to be built up the people of the Khazraj, the Aus, or the people who would be the Ansar said Oh As'ad, remove your hand we want to take the oath of allegiance from the Prophet ﷺ. And so one by one, all of the 70 plus men took the oath of allegiance. And there were two women there. And they gave the verbal allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ. As Aisha said, that the Prophet ﷺ never touched a woman that was not his mahram. It's definitely against the sunnah. Whether it is haram or makruh is an ikhtilaf. But there is no question that it is not of our sharia that men and women should be shaking hands or freely touching one another. Most scholars say it is haram, just a thick point. A minority says that it is makrooh. But they all agree that it should be avoided. And the Prophet ﷺ never touched the hand of a woman even in shaking hand, even in giving the oath of allegiance. So the two women gave their oath of allegiance verbally. They didn't shake the Prophet ﷺ's hand. And all the while, Abbas was standing there not pleased. He was not happy at what his nephew was doing. he felt very awkward and he kept on saying to himself I don't know any of these people they're all youngsters, I haven't dealt with any of them and Al-Abbas is thinking in the ways of the Jahiliyyah of old that you don't have the protection of the elders why would these people do anything for you because again for them it's all about loyalty, it's all about we all kind of understand the gang mentality whatever leader says goes in the gang this is what tribalism is If the leader says it, then the whole tribe has to follow suit. And Abbas is saying, I don't see the elders. These are not the people I know. These are all, حُدَثَاءُ الْأَسْنَانِ They're youngsters. And I don't know whether they'll fulfill their treaty with you or not. And of course, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had already chosen them for this issue. It is narrated in Ibn Hisham, that while this oath was going on, they heard a loud voice in the middle of the night. Now remember, this is pre-dawn. and if anybody's been outside in pre-dawn, it's in the desert, it's deadly silent. And one voice can carry a long way. And as they're taking this pack, they heard a loud voice in the valley of Mina. Remember they're in Mina and they're just in Aqaba which is close to the Jamarat. It's a valley behind the Jamarat. They heard a loud voice cry out, O people sleeping in the tents, meaning the Hijjaj. O people sleeping in the tents, Do you not know that a group of rebels, a group of blameworthy people have gathered together with the Sabi' to wage war against you? What is a Sabi'? A Sabi' is mentioned in the Quran, As-Sabi'una wa'l-Nasara. The term Sabi' comes in the Quran. That Yahud and Sabi'una and Nasara. And the Arabs would call anybody who left their religion a Sabi'. They would call anybody who left their religion a Sabi. And many times when the Sahaba converted, the news would spread, قَدْ صَبَأَ So and so has Sabaa. And Sabaa for them meant to leave their religion and to become a monotheist. Now just as a footnote, who are the Sabi'un that the Quran mentions in the Quran? In this hadith, the term Sabi'un is not meant as the same as the Quranic one. I reiterate, the Arabs would call anybody who converted away from their paganism, صابئ. This is a generic term. صابئ means for them, monotheist. That he's become صابئ, he's become a monotheist. However, the Quranic term for صابئون is clearly a group of people. Right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran, that, what is the verse of Baqarah? إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمْنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَى وَالصَّابِعُونَ مَنْ آمْنَا بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآخِرِ The believers and the Yahud and the Nasara and the Saba'oon. So Allah is talking about a specific group of people. And just FYI, which is a bit of a tangent, but everybody always asks about this, that who are the Saba'oon? The Saba'oon are a group who go back, it is said, to even before Christianity. so much so that they claim to have a book from sheath who is sheath? who is obviously some prophet mashaAllah but who? sheath is the son of Nuh sheath is the son of Nuh and so they say that they have a book from that time and they still exist in our times very small quantity, probably less than 30,000 still alive. 30,000 is one of the smallest religions in the world. And I looked up some of their beliefs and aqa'id and culture, and it's very strange that they still have a concept of tahara, they don't eat pork, they have to do ghusl after janabah, they have certain rulings that clearly they show they have some type of sharia. And they believe, in these days, they believe in the stars, that the stars have some type of power and effect on them, the Sabi'un. And they come from the land that is the cradle of civilization that has all the religions and the subcultures and the sects of the world, which is where? Iraq. Iraq is the land where everything comes from. So they are actually, these days they're all Iraqis. And they are called, maybe some of you have heard of them, they're not called Sabi'un in our times, they're called? Zoroastrians or Majus? No, Kurds are an ethnicity. Kurds are an ethnicity. They are called? No. Almandaiyun. Have you heard of these? Any of you? Huh? Mandaiyans they're called. Mandaiyans. Almandaiyun. And they still are around. This is the Sabi'un. These days they're in Iraq and then there's a huge amongst them in America obviously as well because they came as refugees. So there are Manda'iyun groups here in America as well. Anyway, that's the point. Getting back here. The term Saba'ah used by the Quraysh means leaving paganism to monotheism. The Qur'anic term for Saba'ah means, as we said, the Manda'iyun. Now getting back here. So they heard a loud voice scream out, O people of the tents, don't you know that there's traitors plotting to wage war against you? Under the Saba'ah, with a capital S, the big Saba'ah. Meaning of course the Prophet ﷺ. So the voice comes out to awaken the people in the tents, in the middle of the night. And the Prophet ﷺ said, This is Azab ibn Uzayb, the shaytan of Aqaba. Azab ibn Uzayb, the shaytan of Aqaba. I swear by Allah, Ya Aduh Wallah, I will deal with you. So shaytan felt so overwhelmed at this time, that he actually went public because shaitan is private, right? Shaitan is hidden. He rarely comes out and screams. But he felt so overwhelmed that things are gonna change now that he actually screamed out to the human world. And he screamed out to the people of the tents that do something. Here are the traitors that have come to kill you. Do something. And so the Prophet ﷺ, subhanallah, he knew the name of the shaitan. He knew which one this was. and this also shows that, and we know this from other things as well, that the shayateen live in abandoned valleys, the shayateen live in the places that people don't frequent, and they have leaders, and they have... So this is the leader of the valleys, shaytan, the shayateen of the valleys of Aqaba. And he said, this is the leader of the shayateen of Aqaba, Azab ibn Uzaib, and the names of the shayateen are always very weird and convoluted with lots of consonants and vowels, and the Prophet ﷺ obviously knew the name of the shaytan and the jinn, and he said, wallahi, I will deal with you. The ansar, when they heard this, they said, ya Rasulullah, should we not launch an attack now? If they're gonna fight us, shouldn't we preempt the attack? And we're 70 strong, we all have our swords, they are unarmed. Remember, it's hajj. Remember, it's hajj, they are not armed. In hajj, you're only allowed to carry one weapon. And that is the weapon that you use to fight against an animal if it attacks you. It's not the fighting sword. There's different types of swords. They don't have the fighting swords, they have a defense sword. A sword just to protect yourself, or in case something happens, it's an emergency sword. So the Ansar said, we're 70 strong, and they are not prepared. We can attack them in the middle of the night, and we can have a huge victory over them. The Prophet ﷺ said, I haven't been commanded to do this. This is not my methodology. I have not been commanded to just go kill the people like this. This is a key point. We'll come back to this. I have not been commanded to go kill these people. When this news spread, the Ansar then basically the meeting wrapped up quickly. The Bay'ah was finished. And they went back to their tents silently just as they had come. And the next morning, a delegation from the Quraysh was sent to every single camp. Because the news has spread, the rumors have spread. A delegation from the Quraysh is sent to every single camp. Do you know of any meeting that took place with this man Muhammad? Do you know anybody who met? Did anybody from your tribe meet? Until finally when they went to the tents of the Khazraj, when they went to the tents of the Khazraj, remember every tribe has its area. When they went to the tents of the Khazraj, the Quraysh come in and they say, who amongst you has met with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ? Has any amongst you met with this man? And so the Muslims remained silent. And the pagans spoke up and they said, no, by Allah, we have no idea what this is. We swear by Allah that none of us have gone to meet him. And the Muslims remained silent. They didn't say anything because they're not allowed to lie. And the Quraish, I mean, sorry, the pagans of the Khazraj, because again, Khazraj are not all Muslims now. They're the ones who basically spoke up and the Muslims went in behind that oath and the matter was resolved. And this clearly shows that the Ansar are developing their Iman, their strength in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, their courage, their fear. Not only do they say, they're the ones who say, for how long are we going to take the Prophet ﷺ and let him be persecuted? For how long will we allow him to be repelled from one tribe to another, begging for protection? Why don't we adopt him? Why don't we take him on? And then they are the ones who volunteer. What if we launch an offensive? Even though this was wrong at the time, but it shows their iman. And the contract had not been for an offensive jihad, it had been for a defensive jihad. But automatically they're eager to protect the Prophet ﷺ. And therefore, when the battle of Badr took place, which was offensive and not defensive, they all volunteered. None of them held back and said, hey hold on, you only promised us defensive. None of them had that type of iman, that they're shortchanging. even though the letter of the law was defensive. That's what the treaty says. That you will protect me against attack like you protect your own children. Just like you protect your own family, that's all I'm asking. Protection. And when the time came, the Ansar, none of them held back and they went forward like the greatest of the Muslims. And indeed, we talked about the blessings of the Ansar over and over again. And that is why the Prophet ﷺ said that this hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim. And he said this after the conquest of Mecca. He said, لَوْلَ الْهِجْرَةِ Were it not for the hijrah, لَكُنْتُ إِمْرَأً مِّنَ الْأَنصَارِ I would have been a man from the ansar. It's the hijrah that's forcing me to be a Makki because I was born there. But otherwise, I would have been a person of the ansar. And if the ansar went in one direction, and all of mankind went in the other direction, I will follow the direction of the ansar. This is a hadith praising the ansar. and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said and this hadith is in Bukhari simple Arabic, everybody should understand that loving the Ansar is a part of Iman and in another hadith the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said hating the Ansar is a sign of hypocrisy hating the Ansar is a sign of hypocrisy and therefore as Muslims we are commanded to love Not only all of the sahaba, the muhajirun have a type of love, the ansar have a type of love. And in another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, اللهم اغفر للانصار ولأبناء الانصار Oh Allah, forgive the ansar and the children of the ansar. And on and on, so many of the blessings that are given for the ansar. And of course, one of the most beautiful ones, after the conquest of Mecca, when the Prophet ﷺ, especially after the battle of Hunayn and Ta'if, When the Prophet ﷺ gave many of the leaders of the Quraysh, and the people of Hunayn, and the people of Thaqif, he gave them large amounts of money. He gave them large amounts of money. Especially the people of Thaqif, they were not willing converts. The people of Thaqif were one of the last tribes to convert. And the people of Hunayn as well. So he gave them lots of money. To one of their leaders, he gave an entire valley full of sheep. This is like few thousand sheep. and the Ansar felt a little bit like look we're the ones who participated, we're the ones who fought we're the ones who got all of the booty and now it's being given to them so they felt something and news spread that you know there's a little bit of mumbling and after all they are human, all of us we are human at the end of the day and they felt something that how come we're the ones who fought and yet they get the bulk of the booty of course they got their share but then there's an extra amount that is given voluntarily. And that's the rules of distributing ghanima are a different topic, but it is up to the commander. Every single warrior gets a share, and then it's up to the commander what to do with the surplus. If he wants to give it back to the army, he wants to give it to Bayt al-Maal, he wants to give it to others. So the process in that particular battle didn't give it back to the warriors, the surplus. He gave it to these particular leaders whose iman was very weak. As you know, one of the types of zakat is what? Muallafati khulubuhum. right, to gain their, to gain and you know the tribal leader, what did he say? when he got these sheep, he went back to his people and said, oh my people embrace Islam, for wallahi, I have met a man who does not fear poverty, he does not love wealth, i.e. he must be a prophet so he told his people to embrace Islam, and that little bribe basically, made him genuinely convert, that no human being can give this many sheep you know, and feel nothing in his heart This is a man who is truly a prophet of God. So in fact it worked. But again getting back to the issue here, the Ansar felt something in their hearts. You know what the Prophet ﷺ said? He called a meeting just for the Ansar, none of the Muhajirun. Just for the Ansar. And this also shows by the way, and again we love all of them, but the Muhajirun, no doubt Allah had preferred them over the Ansar. Right? The Muhajirun, Allah had preferred them over the Ansar. And Allah says in the Quran, that Muhajirina wal Ansar, He always mentions, whenever Allah mentions the both, he mentions muhajir first. And there's no doubt that the level of the muhajir is higher. The murmuring was not amongst the muhajirun. The murmuring was not amongst the ansar. So he made sure there was no muhajir in the tent. And then he said, he reminded them, O ansar, didn't I choose you above the people? Didn't I leave my people for you? And then he mentioned this hadith here. Were it not for the hijrah, I would be a person of the ansar. And if you went in one direction and all of mankind went in another direction, I would go in your direction. And then he said that beautiful phrase, O Ansar, O people of the Ansar, are you not happy that these people go back with sheep and dirham and dinar, and you go back with the Prophet ﷺ? And of course they began crying at this because, how true, I mean subhanallah, how true. They're going back with these, you know, I have chosen you. I could have stayed in Mecca now, but I gave you my word. I gave you my word at the time of Aqaba, right? even after the conquest of Mecca. The Prophet ﷺ did not stay in Mecca. Because of this عقبة, he said, that's what the Ansar said. Remember their fear was, once you win over everybody, will you then leave us? That was their fear. So he said, no. الدم الدم والهدر الهدر And this is an expression in Arabic, which means, my blood is your blood. My destruction is your destruction. We are now one. We are now one. And therefore, when this incident happened, he reminded them way back in this. and he said look I'm coming back with you and everybody else is going back with money and sheep and gold and dinar aren't you satisfied with this and of course that was the last of the murmuring and this shows us the wisdom and the leadership of the Prophet ﷺ now before we move on some wisdoms of building up the Ansar and again I stress and I've said this point before but wallahi it is one of the most important lessons in my opinion from these stories and that is the element of being genuine and sincere at every opportunity that is presented to you. This is for me one of the most important lessons here. That the Prophet ﷺ was not expecting victory to come from this small Khazraj. It was not even on his radar. He was concentrating on the larger tribes. And this is common sense, nothing wrong with that. But he didn't trivialize the smaller tribes. six people from Khazraj he didn't even recognize which Khazraj the Khazraj of the he couldn't even, it didn't register which Khazraj, right, they said yes six people, they didn't even have a tent that time they're sitting in the middle, they're not like the big ones that he's going, the kinder and the this is small tribe but this is what we do, you don't know the opportunity, you don't know the person you're speaking to, who he's gonna become or who he might be and you don't know you don't trivialize any opportunity So he didn't trivialize and look, he planted the seeds and these seeds became the entire Islamic Republic. Also look at how the Prophet ﷺ built them up. Now this entire series is taking three to three and a half years. Firstly he talks to them, they think about it. They say, well think about it. Some of them perhaps converted and they died, we don't know. But it is then said that they did, the wars of Bu'ath were going on. So some of them it is said they died as Muslims and Allah knows best. They come back the next year, the first batch of actual converts. So they are given the bay'ah of women. Then they come back the third year, and by the way, the second year the Prophet ﷺ then sends them mus'ab. And he sends them somebody to teach them. Islam spreads to every household in Medina. In one year, Islam spreads to every single tribe. Some people convert. They come back the next year, more than 75 roughly come back. And for every one of them, there must be at least two Muslims in Medina. So we have already 200 Muslims in Medina. In one year is da'wah. And they invite the Prophet ﷺ back. Also notice the wonderful ways of Allah. And here's the point, when Allah is on your side, Allah will work things out for you. Look at how many things were set up. Firstly, the civil war between the Khazraj and the Aus, the wars of Bu'ath. Aisha says, these were a gift Allah gave to the Prophet ﷺ. But the gift was being given when the Prophet ﷺ didn't even realize he needed one. Right? When Abu Talib is alive, the wars of Bu'ath are going on. You see, Allah has His plans. Simultaneously, what's happening in Medina is unknown to the people of Quraish, not relevant to them. But Allah Azza wa Jal has a plan here. Things are happening in the world, we might not understand, but there is a divine plan that everything will become clear to us. Also notice the irony of that group of Ahlul Kitab in Medina who felt themselves superior to the pagans. and they kept on boasting over the pagans, the Ansar basically, we are better than you. We have a book, we have a prophet, we have a civilization, you have nothing. And our prophet has promised us that one prophet is going to come. And when he comes, he will be the conqueror and we will kill all of you. So for decades, for centuries, this is being instilled in them. Right? Notice, this da'wah actually flips against the very people who are giving the da'wah. Right? The very people who are saying this, they don't accept the message. And the people whom they're mocking, they are the first ones to accept it because it makes complete sense now. We knew that a Prophet was coming. We knew that somebody would be coming to preach the message. We've been hearing this for generations and centuries. Obviously, this is the person. Right? Again, it's the mysterious ways of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that they are trying to consider themselves superior, but in fact, the people whom they think are inferior are really the ones who are superior. And again, these are the ways of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Also notice as well, how the iman slowly grows in the ansal. We already pointed this out, that they became brave, they wanted to protect the Prophet ﷺ. And it's important to point out, they were the ones who offered to sponsor the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ didn't ask to come to Medina. They're the ones who said, Come and we will protect you. And so his condition was, Okay, if you're going to protect me, yes, I'm going to come. And this is a very important point to point out. That he did not impose himself on the people of Medina. The people of Medina wanted him to be their ruler. And initially, they were not the majority. But as the people converted, they became the majority. And as they became the majority, then the tensions arose. And that's gonna be a constant theme of the Medinan seerah. Notice as well, the important phrase, when the Ansar, or the Neo-Ansar if you like, the people who are going to become the Ansar, when they say, why don't we just kill all of them? Why don't we just launch an offensive? They're all sleeping in their tents, right? Every one of us takes a few tents, and will just, will cause huge damage. Because again, this is the middle of the night, it would have been a bloody massacre. Would have been a massacre of immense proportions. Because they're unarmed, and they're not expecting an attack. It's the last day of Hajj. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? This is not our religion. I haven't been commanded. This is not what I've been commanded to do. Our religion is not about war and bloodshed and killing. That's not what Allah told me to do. Even if we have the upper hand that you're 70 and you have your swords with you and they're sleeping in their tents. No. Our religion is not about violence. Allah didn't tell us to go kill the people. No. Allah didn't tell me to do this. I have been commanded to do this. This is not my religion. let us be persecuted. We're not going to be killing them like this in their sleeps. So, clearly shows us that at such a time when for the first time in the history of Islam at this point, the Prophet ﷺ finally has a mini army. Compared to what is going on, 70 people is a mini army. And they're all with their swords. And if he wanted to get retaliation, to get revenge, to make a statement, now is the time to do it and then run to Medina. He could have easily done that. But once again, this is not what our religion is about. لم أُمَر بذلك And then again and again we find the clear message of Islam. Islam is not about violence and bloodshed. Even in such a situation, when the Quraysh have done what they have done, this is not what I have been commanded to do. Clear example here that we can quote over and over again to those who say that Islam is a violent religion. Also notice the beauty of the preparations of the Prophet ﷺ that he is a very wise, obviously the wisest of all human beings. This meeting is taking place in the middle of the night on the last night of Hajj. Everybody is dead tired. Everybody is sound asleep. The next morning they're gonna be going back to their places, the 13th of Dhul Hijjah. The next morning is the end of Hajj, that's it. And so the meeting is taking place when the people least suspected. And it is taking place literally under their noses in the next valley. he's also stationed people Ali and Abbas, Abbas comes with him to represent, Ali and Abu Bakr as we already mentioned, were stationed as lookouts, to make sure that nobody is coming and if they are, they're going to be warned notice he's the prophet of Allah he knows Allah will protect him, but there must be a plan tie your camel, then put your tawakkul in Allah, there must be a plan even the prophet ﷺ is planning a logistical sensible plan, in the middle of the night away from the eyes. We're gonna meet at this time. This is what we're gonna do. We have two lookouts here. If this is the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and he knows Allah will protect him without any doubt. How about us? We need to also have a vision. We need to have a methodology. We need to have a realistic, pragmatic plan taking into account the situation of our times. Also notice as well that clearly, and this is not being apologetic, it is a fact that there is a clear participation of women even in these matters. that the Prophet ﷺ didn't say, keep your women in the tents, don't bring them. They came, they participated, and he took their oath, except that he didn't put his hand in their hand. Right? So women clearly have a role to play. And by the way, this treaty or this covenant was not the covenant of women. Even though these are women, this is the covenant of war. Right? Even though these are women, the actual promise that they gave was the same as the other men. And this clearly shows us that no doubt, I mean, women and men are different and there are differences that Allah Azawajal clearly mentions, but still, women have a role to play and sometimes that role is going to be a public role. And the Prophet ﷺ didn't say, oh, you're women, I don't see any need for you to participate. No. He took the oath from these two women and indeed, they lived up to that role. Of the stories that we have, the names of these two were Nuseyba binti Ka'b and Asma binti Amr. as for Asma, we don't have any details you understand that, it's a sad reality that most of the Sahaba we don't have lots of details about, right this is just a sad reality, that most of the Sahaba, if we even know two or three things about them, it's a big deal you realize that the names that we hear all the time, MashaAllah these are the big names, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, we can write books about them, how about the rest of them and there were tens of thousands tens of thousands of Sahaba, how about the rest of them the bulk of them we don't even know their names not even their names those who participated in the final farewell pilgrimage who knows who they are from all over Mecca, from all over Arabia they came from every tribe, we don't even know their names and for those whose names we know sometimes we don't know anything other than the name because the hadith has their name in it right? because again, imagine if we were to document all the people of Memphis of one generation how is this possible? who's gonna remember? so no doubt the same thing happens here so for Asma binti Amr we don't have any stories I tried to look up I could not find anything from Asma binti Amr all that we know is that she was the cousin of Muadha bin Jabal because Muadha is an Ansari Muadha bin Jabal the famous the Prophet said the one who knows halal and haram the most is Muadha this is her cousin this is his cousin as for Nusayba we have quite a number of stories and this clearly shows that when this Ansariya, this Sahabiya took this oath, she understood what it was and she lived up to it. Nusayba binti Ka'b participated in the battle of Uhud. And she was severely wounded with over 12 wounds in the battle of Uhud. She had 12 wounds by the end of the battle of Uhud. She also witnessed the Bay'at al-Ridwan. And she gave the oath again to the Prophet ﷺ at Bay'at al-Ridwan. Do you all remember Bay'at al-Ridwan? With Uthman ibn Affan, the rumor spread he has died. This is Bayatul Ridwan. And she was there as well. So she witnessed that oath as well. And so she becomes one elite and another elite. Because these are two separate blessings. These are badges of honor. These are real badges of honor. Not the fake ones that people put on. This is the real badge of honor. She gave the oath of Aqaba. And then she gave the oath of Ridwan. Her son became one of the generals under Khalid ibn al-Walid. And he was martyred in front of her eyes. She was fighting alongside Khalid ibn al-Walid against Musaylimah al-Kadhab. Musaylimah al-Kadhab in the wars of Ridda. And her son was martyred in front of her eyes by Musaylimah. He cut him to bits in front of her eyes. This is Musayba. And she participated in the war against the Romans. She's now in her 60s. And she goes and she fights against the Romans in the battle of Yarmouk. And her hand was cut off in that battle. as an old lady, she's still fighting behind Khalid ibn Walid in the battle of Yarmouk, and her hand was cut off and then, we don't know what time she died or anything after this, the history basically dries out, I tried to look up as much as I could about her, these are the tidbits that we found but what is interesting she gave the oath of allegiance to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, and she lived up to it, she lived up to it at every opportunity, in Medina, after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam's death, and even in the land of the Romans. Because Yarmouk took place basically in the land of the Romans. She went all the way up there as well. And subhanAllah, this shows again, this is a lady doing as much as she has done. Clearly as well, doesn't need to be said, the tactics of shaitan, the desperation of shaitan. Here is shaitan, generally he is hidden. And yet, now he becomes so overcome with anger, so overcome with jealousy and hatred. He's calling out to the people to do something, because he cannot do anything. And this shows us again the desperation of shaitan. As Allah says in the Quran, that, oh you who believe, shaitan is a clear enemy to you, so take him as your enemy. إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوًا And this is clearly manifested over here. And one final point before we move on. We are already sensing a change beginning. For the first time, and in fact, this ironic what Abbas said, because that's exactly what the point is. These are new faces. I haven't seen them before. Right? That's actually very true. These are new faces. There's a new phase beginning. Right? A new sense. A sense of for the first time, these people are saying, let us defend against you. Let us fight against you. And from a time of humiliation and weakness, overnight, the Muslim shall be transformed into a state of power and izzah, which is gonna continue to grow and grow and grow. And this is the change from Mecca to Medina. And thus, the second bay'ah was completed, and the Ansar returned home even more excited, waiting for the Prophet ﷺ to come to their city, to come to their new town, the city of Yathrib, that would eventually be called the Medina to Rasulullah ﷺ. Also again before we move on, another very important point to be mentioned here. And this point is one that has very clear ramifications in our modern era. When we look at this era, this is an important point, I need you to understand this. When we look at the seerah, we find the Prophet ﷺ utilizing different tactics, different methodologies, and different visions for different circumstances. We have the early da'wah of Mecca. We called it the private da'wah. We had the public non-confrontational da'wah in Mecca. We had the political asylum immigration to Abyssinia, Habesha. we have as well the political state emigration to Medina which is gonna happen now, right? in the Medinan phase we also have times of peace and times of war with the people of Mecca, right? sometimes all out hostility sometimes peace treaties such as Hudaybiyah, right? we also have all out war with all of the tribes such as Ahzab when they come and attack this is all the tribes now the question here that arises does this mean that we should take the final phase that the Prophet ﷺ basically died upon? Or are all of these phases equally legitimate based upon the circumstances and the situation? Do you understand the question here? We see multiple phases in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Multiple phases. The question is, are all of these phases equally valid? Such that we choose which one is the one that's conducive to our situation. Or, are all of these phases merely like the prohibition of alcohol, it didn't come down once. It came down gradually, right? Initially Allah says, khamr has a lot of evil, some good. Then Allah says, don't pray when you're drunk. Then Allah says, that, avoid alcohol. So this piecemeal. We don't go back to the original understandings of the original verses, which basically meant you could drink at night, after Isha you could drink. That's what the verse means basically. Don't drink in the daytime, drink at night basically as the understanding. So are these phases consecutively abrogated one after the other? Such that we have to go to the final or are they all equally valid? This is a classic controversy. It's not a modern one. Goes back to the earliest scholars. And a small minority of them and the most hardcore in this was the Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm. Ibn Hazm was the most hardcore. He said all of the earlier phases cannot be resorted to. We must go with the last phase. And that is all out offensive war. And he was writing at a time of the beginnings of the decline of Andalus. So there's a desperation here. We need to do something. Ibn Hazm witnessed the glory era, but he is seeing the decline. So there's a level of desperation that unless you do your something, we're gonna lose all of this. And that's exactly what happened in Andalus as well. However, this is a minority opinion. The majority of scholars have always understood that these phases are not abrogated. There's no reason to consider them to be abrogated, right? All of these verses still apply in every situation and phase. And therefore, alhamdulillah, we thank Allah, our religion has given us many options politically. This is a key point, and let me be very frank here. It's a difference that I have with many of the Islamic groups in the world. That they only have one vision for the whole ummah. You understand what I'm saying here, right? I can be even more frank, wallahi I don't mind. The Ikhwan, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Hizb-e-Tahrir, all of these groups. This is as frank as I can get, okay? They have one unified vision for the entire ummah, whatever that might be. And in my humble opinion, this is, to be very gentle, this is not very wise or precise or academic. This seems to be not very gently, naively foolish. This is my position. That you're gonna have one unified goal for the whole ummah doesn't work that way. Every group of people needs to look at their own situation. Every group of people needs to see what is happening in Pakistan is not what is happening in Egypt. What is happening in Egypt is not what is happening in Tunisia and Algeria. What is happening in Algeria and other Muslim lands is not what is happening in America. Subhanallah, even in western countries, what is happening in France is not what is happening in America. And if you study the political climates of every country, you find so many scenarios, so many. So, in my humble opinion, this is why I disagree with the basic premises of some of these groups. And with respect to all of them, there's good in all of these. And there's mistakes. We're all humans. We all have our good and our bad. My point is very simple. The scholars of every locality need to study the seerah fresh and new. Need to study it in light of their circumstances. Because the seerah will always be a source of inspiration, a source of model, a source of looking at how to live our lives. After all, he is role model for all of us, correct? And so every single group of Muslims should always go back to the Qur'an and Sunnah, should always go back to the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, and find for themselves that which is the most suitable for their time and their place. And in my humble opinion, it is very clear that, and I've said this many times, that one of the models that is closest to our model is that of the Muslims of Abyssinia. One of the models that is closest, and of course you're never going to get 100% hand fitting to a glove. That's not going to happen. But you have an overall model that you take as a basic example. The Muslims of Abyssinia had no political ambitions to conquer Abyssinia. None whatsoever. their goal was to live peacefully and it is narrated that some people also converted this was free land at the time the Negus as we know converted it is also narrated even though there is nothing authentic but there are if you like legends in early books nothing within Isnad but there are rumors if you like in the early books that some groups of Abyssinians converted to Islam but that's besides the point the main point that we all agree upon they had no political ambitions to challenge the authority of the status quo. They had their business to worship Allah, to be free in their daily rituals, and the political system is what it is. And this is a basic premise that we as American Muslims can use. I'm not speaking about Muslims in Pakistan, Muslims in Egypt, that's not my business. I can comment as a human being, but I'm not an expert in their affairs. Let the scholars of those lands deal with it. For us as Western Muslims, and in particular as Americans, because even Western Muslims have differences. France is getting much more xenophobic right now Sarkozy just said yesterday or is it today that we have too many immigrants in France and you know what he means there's one large group of immigrants and that's Arab Muslims in France we have too many immigrants we have to do something by the way that type of talk is really bordering on the final solution more and more this type of racism is basically reminiscing us, reminding us of the 30s of Germany this type of talk and Allah knows what's going to hold. But my point being, the scholars of every land need to look at their own situation. And in my humble opinion, it's very clear that the seerah gives us many alternatives, not just one vision. No doubt there is a perfect vision and that's the conclusion. There's no question, خِتَامُهُ مِسْكَ There's no question that that is the perfection. But does this mean that all of the others are invalid? No. We have options to choose from and that's I think one of the beauties of the seerah. Now, after the battle of Aqaba, sorry not the battle, the treaty of Aqaba, the Prophet ﷺ made a public announcement to the Muslims. In fact, some scholars even say he made this announcement before. We don't have a date when he made the announcement. He made an announcement in Mecca to the Muslims, most likely in the house of Dar al-Arqam. And he said, Allah has shown me the land that you shall emigrate to. I saw it in a dream. Allah has shown me the land that you shall emigrate to and it is a land of date palms between two volcanic plains بين لابتين and لابة is a volcanic plain and actually Medina it's very interesting that Medina is surrounded by if you ever have the opportunity to take a flight to Medina take one in the daytime and then look outside the window when you're close by to Medina and you will see clearly large places outside of Medina with volcanic rock around this big volcanic rock and this rock is very you cannot walk on it you cannot traverse it with horses there must have been a volcano thousands of years ago and therefore that molten lava you see it porous I've seen this many times the rock is a very different type of rock it's porous, it holds in it very rough, very ragged very difficult and Medina is in between two volcanic plains and it has date palms. Two volcanic plains and date palms. So, according to one version, the Prophet ﷺ announced it, but he didn't know the city. He said, I have been shown it, and I think it is such and such. But he didn't know the city. Then a few days later he said, Allah has told me it is Yathrib. In one version he said, I thought it might be Khaybah, but it is in fact Yathrib. In another version he said, I thought it might be, he mentioned a land in Yemen. Because there's only a few places in the Arabian Peninsula that has date palms in a large amount. Khyber is one of them. Khyber is well known for its dates as well. And this place in Yemen is also. But both of those places don't have volcanic mounds around them. It's only Medina that has both of these signs. The sign is date palms and volcanic plains. So the Prophet ﷺ said, I saw it. And then in a later hadith he said, Allah has told me that it is Yathrib. So he gave them permission to emigrate. So the Muslims began emigrating by ones and twos secretly. None of them did so in public except for one or two exceptions as we'll come to. And the reason of course for this is because, the reason for this is of course that the Quraysh would not be willing to allow them to emigrate. The things are at their worst. Remember the tension right now in Mecca against the Muslims. And so the people began emigrating in small secret groups. And it is said that the first person who emigrated to Medina was Abu Salama Ibn Abdul Asad. Abu Salama, the husband of Umm Salama. Umm Salama is going to become one of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ later on. Of course at this time she is married to Abu Salama. Abu Salama was not from the Quraysh. Umm Salama was from the Quraysh. Abu Salama had been one of the few, this was known at the time, it wasn't common but it was there. that sometimes a man would leave his tribe and go live with the tribe of his wife. Right? And that also is referenced in the hadith, وَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَىٰ دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوَمْرَأَةٍ يَنْكِحُهَا فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَىٰ مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ The famous hadith, right? That if a man makes hijrah for the sake of a woman, then his hijrah is for the sake of the woman, it's not for Allah. That's the reference here. That people did have this notion that sometimes the man would adopt the tribe of the wife. So, Abu Salama was one of such Arabs, That he was an Arab, he was a free man, a noble man, but he was not a Quraishi. And he had married Umm Salama from the Quraish. So he had moved to Mecca. When the persecution increased, he was not a blood Quraishi. So he was persecuted more. So he left with his wife Umm Salama to Abyssinia. Then when the rumor spread that the conversion took place, remember the satanic verse history said, they returned back and they decided to stay. Rather than go back, they decided to stay. so Abu Salama, Umm Salama are of the few who are called those who made both hijras they made both because you see the bulk of those who emigrated to Abyssinia from Abyssinia they went directly to Dar al-Islam Medina right? that's majority, very few of them and Umm Salama is one of them and Abu Salama is one of them they did two hijras for the sake of Allah and they are called the people of the two hijras because they emigrated both to Abyssinia. Then they came back to Mecca. And then they emigrated again to Medina. Right? So that's two hijras. This is Abu Salama. So the first person to emigrate, it is said, was Abu Salama. And Abu Salama gathered his belongings, took his stuff, he put his wife and he had one child at the time, put them on his camel, and he made his way out. And he was the first, so he didn't do this secretly. He thought, this is my business, I can take whatever I want. Right? This was one of the reasons why people started migrating secretly because of this story. So Abu Salama didn't do this secretly. He just packed his bags. Everybody knew he's about to leave. The news spreads amongst the people. So when he leaves, the Quraysh come and confront him with their weapons. And they said, Oh Abu Salama, where do you think you're going? He says, I'm going to Yathrib. What business is it of yours? I have a free man. I'm allowed to go. So they said, as for you, we have no right. Okay, you're not. We renounce your Qurayshi. You're not a Qurayshi. Take her passport back. Basically, you know. retract your passport. As for your wife, she is ours. She's a Quraishi. And we will not let you take her or her son because he is our son now. This is pure dhulm. Not that they have any interest in Umm Salah. It's just pure dhulm. You know. And so they forced him to leave his wife and child and they expelled him without anything. So he thought he's gonna go with the family and everything is taken from him including his wife and his son and he has forced to basically flee to Medina on his own when Abu Salama's tribe found out that he had been treated this way their Jahiliyyah got the better of them as well and they marched to the Quraish and they said ask for the lady she's yours but this boy is ours and they took the boy and the Quraysh held on as well to the boy this was, we know very little details obviously it's being described in some graphic terms here but they picked up the boy to take him and the Quraysh held on and it became a tug of war with the two year old until his hand was dislocated and Umm Salama cried out that let them take the boy because it's her son be gonna be killed now basically I mean you know tug of war this is all jahili not that they care but it's again a matter of prestige and you know we call it the nose you know the issue of being arrogant this is my how dare you do this to to our to our son you know this is our son so Abu Salama's tribe took the baby Umm Salama's left with the Quraysh and Abu Salama goes to Medina and Umm Salama's narrating the story herself she said for more than 16 months, every day, year and a half. I would go to Al-Bathha, which is the farthest place outside of Mecca that is still within view of the city. Crying in the desert because that's where her child and her son and her husband have gone. Crying every day, not able to do anything because subhanAllah you can imagine she's a young mother, she's lost her baby boy, she's lost her husband, and she cannot live and function normally. Every day I would be going, crying to the desert until finally some of my cousins had sympathy on me and they came and they begged the elders. They begged the elders to, what do you have to do? She's just a lady, she wants to go with her husband and child, let her go. So after a year and a half, they let her go, she went to the tribe of her husband and by this time as well, tempers had calmed down. So they gave back to her the boy and so she took the boy and she just walked into the desert, putting her trust in Allah that I need to get to Medina somehow, right? How is she gonna go to Medina? She has no, she doesn't know anything, I mean, but what else is she gonna do? But Allah Azza wa Jal saves such people, I mean, when you have such tawakkul in Allah Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala saves such people, and so she says that by the time I got to Tan'im, you know Masjid Aisha, Tan'im, that's the outside of Mecca where we go, by the time I got to Tan'im, there I met Talha Talha, Uthman ibn Talha excuse me, Uthman ibn Talha and Uthman ibn Talha is from the Quraish he's one of the young men of the Quraish and he's not a Muslim at this time I met Uthman ibn Talha coming back from one of his expeditions, maybe he went hunting, something and he's coming back, he sees me all alone at Tan'im, which is way beyond what you can see from the city this is dangerous for a woman to be alone you understand this, she's a young lady she has her young son here, you know wolves animals of prey, of obviously evil people. She's all alone. So Uthman says, what are you doing? So she says, I'm going to my husband Abu Salama. So he says, you're all alone. He says, I have no one. I have Allah Azza wa Jal. So Uthman says, Wallahi this will not be. I will take you. And so Uthman Abu Salama says, that I don't think there is any more noble gentleman amongst all of the Arabs than Uthman. I don't think there's any more noble gentleman than Uthman. He walked the entire way and he led the camel with his hand. He's walking from Mecca to Medina and he didn't say a word to me but when it was time to stop, he would tell the camel to come down and he would go forward and turn his back on me. Because she's a woman, she has to come out, something might show her, her leg might show something, turn his back on me. When I would get down, he would put me under the tree, let me sleep and he would sleep by the camel. And then in the morning I would get back on the camel and we proceeded this way. All the way from Mecca to Medina until finally when I could see the houses of Yathrib basically, he said, your husband is over there and he then let me go on the camel. This is Uthman ibn Talha, right? Not even a Muslim, but his honor. And he's a young man as well at this time. His honor and his gentleman, if you like, qualities, right? They're shining, how can I let this lady and her young child go? And wallahi, imagine, would we have done even a fraction? Yani from Mecca to Medina, walking. Walking. This is at least a two week journey. One way. On the way back, he doesn't even have a camel. Doesn't even have a camel. Right? Uthman ibn Talha who is Uthman ibn Talha? no doubt Allah Azza wa Jal will reward him, right? no doubt, I mean, you cannot even he's a pagan by the way even he's a pagan but still there's some type of karam, some type of akhlaq do you know who Uthman ibn Talha is? well firstly he converted the very last batch before the conquest of Mecca Allah gave him that honor along with Khalid ibn Walid and Amr ibn As there were three people who converted the very last batch of converts before the conquest. Right? And that gave them an honor. Because Allah says in the Quran, not equal are those who converted before the conquest versus those who converted after. Right? لَا يَسْتَوِي وِنْكُمْ مَنْ أَنْفَقَ مَنْ قَبْلِ الْفَتْحِ وَقَاتَلْ أُولَٰئِكَ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةً They have a higher level. So the last batch was Uthman ibn Talha. And then, in the conquest of Mecca, when Mecca is conquered, the Prophet ﷺ is handing out the prizes, if you like, The big prizes of the Kaaba. What are the prizes? Who will get to have what is called the siqaya. Siqaya means the right to give the water. Who will get the right to the keys of the Kaaba? Who will get everything? So Abbas was given the siqaya. Abbas was given the right to feed the pilgrims. It's a very big privilege, right? He says, O Messenger of Allah, give me the keys as well. I want both. Give me the keys as well. And at this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed that إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا Allah commands you to give the amanah to those who deserve it. So the Prophet ﷺ gave the key to Ali ibn Abi Talib and he said, Go give this to Uthman ibn Talha. And it shall be with him and amongst his descendants until the day of judgment. And anybody who tries to take it from him will be a ظالم. So Ali went and gave it to Uthman ibn Talha. Uthman said, I thought that you guys were getting it, the Bani Hashim. Because the news has spread that they want it, right? And so Ali said, Allah revealed in the Quran this about you. إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمَنَ تُؤَدُّ الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا Allah revealed in the Quran basically that we need to give the keys over to you. The Prophet ﷺ gave it to Uthman ibn Talha. can you believe for the last 14 and a half centuries it has been amongst his descendants. To this day, to this day, the keeper of the keys of the Ka'bah is from the descendants of Uthman ibn Talha. Because this is something, again Allah will reward. You know, you do something for Allah. And even though subhanAllah, he wasn't even a Muslim at the time. But still there was a sense of honor. And who did he do this to? someone who was going to become our mother. This is Umm Salama. There's not just any sahabi. Someone is about to become our mother. He didn't know it. Nobody knew this at the time. She's married to Abu Salama. Abu Salama dies and then the Prophet ﷺ marries Umm Salama. She becomes our mother. Showing respect to her. Still as a pagan. Yet Allah Azza wa Jal will give that blessing to him. The keys of the Ka'bah to this day are in the hands of the descendants of Uthman ibn Talha. Also there's many other stories as well. about this early immigration and the problems that people suffered. Of the famous stories is the story of Suhaib al-Rumi. Suhaib al-Rumi, the only Sahabi who spoke fluent Latin, by the way. The only Sahabi who spoke fluent Latin. Suhaib, by the way, was not a Roman. A lot of people think he was a Roman. No, he was not. Suhaib was from a northern Arabian tribe, the Arab tribe. He was conquered in the days of Jahiliyyah and sold into slavery to the Romans. So he grew up in the land of the Romans. Where? We have no idea. Was it Rome itself? We don't know. But he grew up amongst the Romans. And he spoke fluent Latin. And it is also said he had a ruddy complexion, i.e. a whitish type of complexion. So this gave him the laqab, sohaib, the Roman. Because you speak Roman, you look like a Roman, we might as well call you a Roman. And it is even said that he spoke Arabic with an accent. Because he grew up in the land of the Romans as a child, right? So he's ethnically Arab but his culture, his civilization, what he grew up with was Romans. So he became a slave amongst the Romans and because he was ethnically Arab, I guess one of his masters sold him back to an Arab tribe eventually. Eventually he works his way as an Arab slave. He works his way to the house of Abdullah ibn Jud'an who has been mentioned in many hadith and he was Aisha's distant relative and he works his way to freedom. Clearly, he's an intelligent man. And even in the days of Jahiliyyah, of course in Islam by the way, Islamic law guarantees if there are such a thing called slavery. Now there is none, but once there were slaves, Islamic law guarantees the slave the right to become free if he wants. It's called mukataba. If the slave wants to become free, then you make an agreement with him and you give him the time to work and he will purchase his freedom. Even in the days of Jahiliyyah, they had this. So Suhaib clearly, he's an intelligent guy, he's a smart guy, he works his way to become free. In the days of Jahiliyyah. And he becomes a free man, he becomes a minor businessman. In Mecca. And again this clearly shows the impact if you like, even with Roman culture on him, that he's not gonna take this slavery thing, he becomes a free man. And he accepted Islam amongst the earliest batch. And his closest friend, and the person who gave da'wah to him, and they both converted the same day, was Ammar ibn Yasir. Ammar ibn Yasir and Suhaib al-Rumi were always together. They were always their closest friends. And so they accepted Islam together, and they were well known throughout the seerah for being together. So Hayy decided to leave as well. Now remember, the process is still in Medina. Sorry, Mecca. The process is still in Mecca. These are the early batches of emigrants, right? So still it's not clear what's gonna happen. So Hayy decides to leave as well. It looks like he tried to leave surreptitiously, but eventually his news spread. And do realize, I mean, Mecca was a small town. Everybody is watching everybody. You know, news spreads very quickly, very fast. If you're going to leave, you have to pack your stuff, you have to have a certain mount, a certain animal, you have to have a lot of baggage for the food, water, etc. It's not that easy to be done. So however, it was the news spread that Suhaib is leaving. So a delegation from the Quraysh, not a delegation, a militia from the Quraysh, marched outside of the city and surrounded him. Suhaib was armed. He was a single person by the day, and he has nothing except himself and his belongings. So he was armed. He pulled out his bow and his arrow, and he said, O people of Quraysh, I have 40 bows in my quiver. And I swear by Allah that none of you will get to me until I've used all 40. And then when you get to me, here is my sword. And I swear by Allah, nobody will be able to get me until I get to him first. Now the Quraysh didn't want Suhaib to leave, but they loved their life more than they loved Suhaib leaving. Life is precious. And so they were wondering what to do. There's this tension, standoff. They're outnumbered, I mean Suhaib is outnumbered, but who's going to make the first move? And face the wrath of Suhaib. So Suhaib said, what if I were to tell you where I hid all of my wealth? Because there's no bank accounts you transfer money to Yathrib, right? It's physical gold, physical money. And you have to hide it somewhere. Go out in the desert and hide it under a tree, whatever. And then later on you come and you discover it. What if I tell you where all of my wealth is? Will you let me go? They said, okay, deal. Deal. You give us all your wealth and you walk away free. And so Suhaib told them where he had put all of his wealth. And he has to tell the truth because if he lies, he's one man. they can catch up to him later on. Not just that he's a Muslim, he's not supposed to, but he has to tell the truth. So he tells them all of his wealth where it is buried. And so he literally arrived in Medina with just the clothes on his back. After having won his freedom, after having become a mini businessman, after having a good amount, a decent amount of wealth, he literally arrived in Medina to start completely from scratch. And as soon as the Prophet ﷺ saw him, he smiled and he said, Allah has revealed in the Quran about you, ya suhaib, وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ There are those who sell everything that they have, they sell themselves for the sake of Allah. And he says, يَا أَبَا يَحْيَةً That was his kunya. يَا أَبَا يَحْيَةً قَدْ رَبِحَ التِّجَارَةَ قَدْ رَبِحَ التِّجَارَةَ Your transaction has been successful. Your transaction has been successful. Without Suhaib telling him what happened. Well, this is the miracle. Without Suhaib telling him what happened, then nobody could have arrived before Suhaib. Of course, Jibreel has told him what Suhaib has done. And so the Prophet ﷺ tells him, your transaction has been successful, your transaction has been successful. One more story and then inshallah we'll call it an evening for tonight. And that is the story of Umar ibn al-Khattab and his emigration with two people of the Quraysh. The story of Umar's migration we'll talk about in a while. But he mentions his companions. when Umar decided to emigrate he chose as his companions for the journey two other sahaba Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ah and Hisham ibn Amr ibn al-As who is the brother of sorry Hisham ibn al-As who is the brother of Amr ibn al-As so he chose as his companions these two and the deal was on such and such a day we'll meet up at that valley outside of Mecca. And when dawn breaks, whoever is there will go. If you're not there, then we'll assume that you were stopped, right? Because it's again difficult to be migrating at this time. So the deal was, we're gonna meet up at this particular place outside of Mecca on this particular day. If you're there when dawn breaks, we're gonna be going together. If you're not, then we're gonna have to leave and whoever is there will go. At the appointed time, Hisham did not show up. Which means that he was basically stopped and prevented. Hisham did not show up. And so Ayyash and Umar were the ones who migrated to Medina. And they made it to Medina. By the time they got there, Abu Jahl and his brother were actually Ayyash's half-brothers. So Ayyash and Abu Jahl and a third person all shared a mother, but different fathers. So Abu Jahl is the half-brother of Ayyash. And Abu Jahl had a brother as well, who's also the half-brother of Ayyash. You understand? Same mother but different fathers, right? So Abu Jahl and his brother, this is still the process, he was in Mecca, remember? He's still in Mecca. Abu Jahl and his brother traveled all the way to Medina. And they went to their half-brother Ayyash. And they said to Ayyash, Oh Ayyash, don't you know what you've done? Do you know the state of our mother after you left? She cannot eat, she cannot drink. She has made a promise to Allah that she won't taste the shade and she's in the sun since then. And she is in such a state that lice has made her hair completely full of lice. And she cannot enjoy any food. She's on the verge of death, etc. She's made a promise to Allah, she's gonna sit in the sun until she sees her son again. And they kept on going about stories and stories until Ayyash's heart melted. His mother, you know. And so he decided to go back with them. And said, let me just take care of my mother, then I'll come. Umar said, oh Ayyash, they're tricking you. they're tricking you but this is his blood brothers here I mean you know I have brothers right they're tricking you and then he said if she's hungry she can eat food if she has lice she can shave her hair off you don't have to go back and do that for her so Ayyash said no I'll be a good son let me go back to my mother and I also have some money I left it now that everything is secure here I can bring the money back with me Umar said to him if it's money wallahi I'll give you all that you have don't go now Umar is not even his blood brother by the way but he's his Muslim brother. If it's money, I'll give you all that you want. Don't go with them. I'm worried they're gonna trap you. And if it's your mother, then she'll deal with herself. And they kept on insisting that, no, no, come back. Your mother needs you, this and that. And so Ayyash's heart became soft for his mother. So Umar pulled him aside and said, look, if you're going to go, take my camel. Because my camel is stronger and faster than theirs. And if you find any treachery, ride back immediately to Medina. So he gave him his own camel. Subhanallah, I mean this is amazing here. That Umar is bending over backwards and his own blood brothers are gonna do... You understand this is a trap, right? His own blood brothers are gonna do this. But Umar feels more love for him than his blood brothers do. Giving him money, offering him all that you want. Just take it, just don't go with these guys, please. Giving him his own camel. Because it's faster than their camel. And then eventually as the road goes on, they start chit-chatting. You know how it goes in the Safar. you open up and they're laughing and joking. Abu Jahl then says, Oh, looks like my camel is wary and tired. Why don't we just ride on yours because it is stronger. So let me ride on yours and then we'll let the camel take a break. And so Ayyash doesn't realize that this is a trap. So he makes the camel sit down because he's on his own camel now. He makes the camel sit down. As soon as he do this, they jump on him. And they tie him up and they make him a prisoner. and they carry him back to Medina as a prisoner and they march him around Mecca saying, this is how we treat our fools. This is the result and the process was in Mecca at the time by the way, remember. This is still, he hasn't made the hijrah, right? So they bring Ayyash back and he discovers that Hisham, the one they were supposed to meet, is also being held prisoner. So he gets thrown into the dungeon with Hisham. They set up a prison in Mecca for these two. special just for these two. And they throw him in with Hisham. And the Prophet ﷺ eventually migrates, we're going to talk about his history obviously next lesson, migrates to Medina. And when he first migrated, his first dua qunut was about Hisham and Amr, Ayyash and all of these people. He would make dua for them after standing up from ruku' and he would say, O Allah, save Ayyash. O Allah, save Salam ibn Hisham. Oh Allah, save the mustadafeen. Oh Allah, send your punishment upon the Quraysh. So he's so much concerned for these prisoners in Mecca. Right? And he kept on asking the Muslims, Who will volunteer to save Ayyash? Who will volunteer to save? Now saving Ayyash means you're gonna walk into the lion's den. And you're gonna save them from, clutch them from the middle of the Quraysh. Right? Nobody wanted to do that. Until finally, Al-Waleed ibn Al-Waleed, Khalid ibn Al-Waleed's older brother. And his story I think I mentioned it, but we'll mention it later on anyway. Al-Waleed ibn Al-Waleed, finally when he kept on asking, he said, I will do it Ya Rasulullah, I'll do it. And so he traveled to Mecca, entered it in the middle of the night, and Allah Azza wa Jal blessed him, his story is a long story, but he blessed him to basically find out where this dungeon was, because it's not public knowledge. And in the middle of the night, he broke into the dungeon, and he cut the bonds of Ayyash and Hisham and saved and rescued them and brought them back to Medina. And again, that's all we know. But imagine, wallahi, these are the stories of legends if you really think about it. Walking into Mecca single-handedly. I mean, that's all we know. That's the details of the story. But can you imagine being in the shoes of Al-Walid ibn Al-Walid? Can you imagine trying to figure out where this place is and then figuring out, you know, the guard, the arms, Allah knows what he had to do, we have no clue. But he then, it is said he had to jump over the wall, he didn't enter from that door, he literally climbed into the roof and then made his way down. This is literally a story of legends, like Hollywood movies couldn't get better than this, you know. This is the real stuff. This is the real stuff here that he's doing. And he saves the two prisoners of war, and he brings them back, and Khalid ibn al-Wali's brother, I mean it's the same blood there, that bravery is there. And eventually they come back to Medina, and the both of them become famous Sahaba. As for Hisham, he's a very brave warrior and he actually dies fighting against the Romans in the battle of Yarmouk. He had a big victory in the battle of Yarmouk. It's Hisham, the brother of Amr. And again, these are Sahaba. Clearly Allah has written for them destiny. Allah has written for them Qadr. And inshallah in our next week we will talk about the Prophet ﷺ's hijrah himself with Abu Bakr and the stories and what happened and the lessons we derived from there. We have around a few minutes for questions and then inshallah break for salah bismillah yes you mentioned earlier what are the powers of Zubur of the book of Zubur referred to the Zubur is the book of David Dawud alayhi salam therefore the psalms of David are in the old testament therefore the Yahud are the followers of the Zubur there's not a separate religion there is no separate group who follows only David and not Moses the people who follow Musa also follow Dawud they view it as a continuation which it is so the Yahud are the ones who primarily follow the Psalms the Christians look at these books and pick and choose what they want from them because for them the Old Testament abrogates the New Testament but as you know the Christian Bible is composed of the Old Testament The Old Testament has in it the Psalms of David. The Old Testament has the Pentateuch, which are the five books of Moses, right? Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and the others, I forgot them. The first five, the Pentateuch. And then you have the Psalms as well. The Psalms of David in the Old Testament, that's the remnants of the Zibur. And even in the Psalms of David, the most poetic of the Old Testament is the Psalms. the most hymns, the most singing that is done and we as Muslims believe that Dawud alayhi salam, that was his book that it was that oh mountains and birds sing along with him and we believe that the greatest voice ever given was the voice of Dawud so his book that was given to him was a book of tilawa and a book of recitation and if you read the psalms of David clearly, I mean obviously we believe there's been changes and what not but the essence, some of the passages are still there, very moving and there's so many hymns and so many praises of God and the God of Israel and describing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with the most beautiful ways, so we believe that there are elements of truth in the Psalms of David and that's what the Yahud and even the Nasara, the Christians also believe in the Psalms of David other questions, yes you compared us to the immigration of Habesha, but how much of the immigration or the temporary immigration, it was all told me that they were going to come back and go to the nation. So that's it. It seems we are closer to the Madani immigration and those of us who are here in America, in that sense, not me, but the American robot here, they are trying to be part of the political process. The only issue for the Sharia, they are trying to make sure that they base their view that when your child or my child goes for that, they say they are going to bring Sharia. We are not planning to bring Sharia. But the issue is that we are more likely to permanently... If you say we are not planning to bring Sharia, this is closer to Abyssinian than Medinan. That's the key point. How do we know this when they immigrated there? How do we know this when we immigrate? Some people have surmised No, this is hindsight is 20-20. Looking back we can say Abyssinia was temporary. There is an interpretation of the Sira and again this is all open term interpretation that Abyssinia was a backup plan. Yes, there was always this plan B in case Medina fails. And that is why, and this does make a lot of sense, because as soon as the procession migrated to Medina, he didn't tell the people of Abyssinia to come. In fact, it was only after, basically, the battle of Khaybar roughly, the 7th year of the Hijrah, right? Ja'far joined basically at the time of Khaybar. and the reason that Khyber is so significant is that for the first time it can be said there is no dire threat to the survival of Medina whether it takes place Uhud takes place Ahzab take place and they are over there and there is always an internal threat Khyber was what eliminated the final existential threat to Medina so the question arises we can now look back and say, Abyssinia was temporary, but at the time, perhaps they didn't think it to be temporary. Point number two, even if it was temporary for them, they stayed there 10 years, which is to say we cannot extend that for 50 years, 100 years. And we live in a land in a temporary method for a while. Point number three, even in this temporary status, it is not as if they did not participate in the political process. We mentioned that they resorted to the courts, they went to the palace, they argued for their rights, right? Their rights to live as Muslims in this land, majority land. So that is being a part of the process. But they didn't intend to overthrow the status quo. Whereas in Medina, that was the intention. So, one needs to be careful. If one says that, then you are basically going a different tangent, in my humble opinion. And that is one that the Islamophobes will jump on. if you make that. And me personally, I think it is very clear. It is unrealistic to think of this as Medina. We are in a land of Abyssinia. In other words, we are a minority. We're 2-3%. And our goal is to preserve our rights to worship Allah as the Muslims of Abyssinia had. Allahu'alam. You had a question? Yes, go ahead. Jews, you know, well-researched as they were, were they anticipating that, you know, someone from their tribe would come? Oh yes, there's clearly no doubt that the Yahud were expecting one of their own to become a prophet. There's no question about this, right? Because, remember Safiyyah's father, Yasir ibn Huyayy, Safiyyah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, her father and her uncle, Al-Akhtar and Yasir, the both of them, when they met the Prophet ﷺ for the first time, Safiya narrates that I was a young girl, you know, you can imagine 6 years old, 5 years old. And my father and my uncle, I was their darling. They would always play with me. When I rushed back, when I saw them, they didn't even give me the time of day. And they were drained out of energy, they were, you know, lethargic. They didn't, they seemed to be greatly stressed out. And I heard them speak to one another. And they ignored me because she was a little girl. And Safiya's father says, her uncle says, Ahu Ahu, is that the one? And her father says, Ay Wallah, it is him. It is him. So her uncle says, What are you going to do? And the father says, We will oppose him till we die. Right? No, we don't know about that, if they saw the seal. Salman was the main one with the seal. But the characteristics that had been predicted, had been mentioned. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Himself says, فَلَمَّا جَاءَهُمْ مَعَرَفُوا كَفَرُوا بِهِ when what they recognize came to them. Allah says, يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ They know him and recognize him as they recognize their own sons. So clearly, and this is what they were saying, that we're gonna be victors over you when the Prophet comes, we're going to massacre you. They expected this. There's even a theory that that's why they were in Yathrib. There's a theory, this cannot be proven, because the question to this day by the way nobody has a solid answer what were these Yahud doing in the middle of the Arabian desert? I mean there's no solid answer. Where did they come from? Were they original Yahud or were they Yahudi converts? These are questions that nobody has any solid knowledge for because we don't have historical documents. All that we have is from the books of our seerah that's all that we have. We don't have their remnants, we don't have their histories so one theory is that this was a group who went out in search for the Prophet. And the signs that they had indicated, date palms, desert, volcanic mounds, and that's why they settled in both Yathrib and Khaybar. Right, that's one theory out there. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows best, okay. Sisters, any questions from the sisters? Yes, go ahead. I was wondering about the keys to the Kaaba. Is that known as a power thing? The keys to the Kaaba are symbolic these days. And no doubt the political powers have the authority to demand the person to open the door or not. But the one who keeps the key and the one who will go and open the door has always been from the descendants of Uthman. right, so the descendants of Uthman to this day to this day, this is called the sadana, the sadana means to take care of the Kaaba every time the Kaaba is washed they are called, every time the Kaaba ghalaf is changed, they are called because they are technically still in charge of the sadana, right so the sadana means the maintenance of the Kaaba, so Uthman ibn Talha got the maintenance of the Kaaba and his descendants had it and they still have it to this day So, no doubt it is a symbolic office. But it is nonetheless, I mean, who wouldn't want that symbolism, right? To go to sleep with the keys of the Ka'bah in your house. I mean, maybe even they, I'm sure they don't even keep it in their house. They probably have it. But my point is, technically they are in charge. And nobody opens the door other than that tribe. It's a tribe now, obviously. And obviously one of their members always gets chosen. When every time they die, then another one is chosen. So, it is a symbolic honor. no doubt the political powers will tell them this is the day we're going to watch the Ka'b I mean I don't think they would have that power to do that, but once that day is decided who's going to go and who's going to be the one opening the door, it's going to be Uthman bin Talha's descendants inshallah the church of nativity right, it's still in their descendants I wouldn't be surprised it's still in the descendants of the original one who was added to? This happened, this was kept from the even the I wouldn't be surprised

Seerah 26 - The Hijrah - Emigration to Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ March 2012-utKZzIWZ0I4

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wasalatu wasalamu ala ashrafil mursaleen. Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een. Amma ba'd. We were discussing the stories of the seerah and we're trying to lay the foundations for the actual seerah of the Prophet, the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ. We discussed many of the other hijrahs that took place and the point that we need to underscore the Prophet ﷺ was really one of the last if not the last adult Muslim to emigrate to Medina. The only people left after the Prophet ﷺ were some of the women and children such as the family of Abu Bakr, such as Ali. Otherwise basically all of the adults had migrated before. And there's only one story left before we get to the actual story of the Prophet ﷺ's hijrah and that is the story of Umar ibn al-Khattab which is a very brief story and it shows the bravery of Umar and the methodology that Umar ibn al-Khattab had, Ali ibn Abi Talib narrates that I don't know of anybody who did the hijrah publicly except for Umar. I don't know of anybody who did the hijrah publicly except for Umar. Everybody was sneaking away. Everybody was doing it in the middle of the night. Except for Umar ibn al-Khattab, he was the only Muslim to do the hijrah and make it public. He packed his bags, he armed himself and wore his shield and his arrows and everything and he went to the Ka'bah and did tawaf seven times and he's dressed as a traveler he's prepared as a traveler and then he makes a public announcement O people of Mecca whoever amongst you wishes that his mother lose him tonight or that his children become orphans or that his wife becomes a widow then know that I'm performing the hijrah and you can meet me outside of Mecca in such and such a valley. This is the only person who performed hijrah, making it public, and of course, nobody took up Umar on that challenge. And this again shows us the status of Umar, and this is why our Prophet ﷺ made dua, اللهم أعز الإسلام بأحب العمرين إليك that, O Allah, bless Islam with the more beloved of the Umars to you. The other one was being Abu Jahl, because his name was also Amr. And so Amr is a type of Umar, one of the ways of saying, Umar is Amr and Uweymir and Amir all of these from the same root of Amr and Umar and so the Prophet ﷺ said bless Islam with one of the two Umars who is more beloved to you and so Allah ﷻ loved Umar ibn al-Khattab and Abu Jahl has a different fate as we know. So this is the final story that we have of the Hijras of the other Sahaba and I mentioned the rest of them before Suhaib al-Rumi and Ayyashi ibn Rabi'ah and Salam ibn Hisham I mentioned all of them last week. And so we now get to the actual hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ. And as usual, we need to piece together the incident of the hijrah from many different stories. Again, one of the problems of the seerah is that the seerah is not written down in one story. We have different reports, just like we have for Isra wal-Mi'raj, just like we have for Badr. We need to piece together the puzzle. So, we have a number of stories. the first of them, the most authentic of them, Aisha narrating in Sahih Bukhari, the first person. Aisha narrating her memories of the Hijrah as a young girl. Aisha at this time is around 6 or 7 years old, so this is basically her first memories of Islam. And Aisha radiallahu anha says, and the hadith is in Bukhari, so it's fully authentic. I don't remember any day except that my parents were Muslims. I.e. as far back as I can remember, my parents were Muslims. so Aisha obviously was born and Abu Bakr was already a Muslim at the time right Aisha is born and Abu Bakr is already a Muslim and she is the younger of the two Asma' bin Tabib Bakr is older and Asma' has a different mother and Asma' mother was not a Muslim she was a Mushrik so Abu Bakr divorced her Abu Bakr divorced Asma' mother and he married Aisha's mother and so Aisha says I don't remember a day except that both of my parents were upon the religion of Islam. And I don't remember any day except that the Prophet ﷺ would come visiting us in our house. So her earliest memories, every day Rasulullah ﷺ is coming to us, sometimes in the morning and in the evening. And then Aisha narrates that when the Prophet ﷺ was given the permission to migrate, and he told the Muslims to migrate, Abu Bakr prepared a camel to migrate to Medina. And he asked the Prophet ﷺ for permission. Every Muslim asks the Prophet ﷺ for permission for everything that he did. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Wait, for I hope that Allah ﷻ will give us permission. I hope that Allah ﷻ will give us permission. فَإِنِّي أَرْجُو وَنْ يُؤْذَنَ لِي meaning I'm waiting for Allah to give us this permission. So Abu Bakr understood that the permission that the Prophet ﷺ is waiting for is permission for him to accompany the Prophet ﷺ on the Hijrah. And so when Abu Bakr heard this, he asked, As-suhba ya Rasulullah, are you hoping for my companionship? Meaning, can I be with you? Is that what you're hoping for? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, yes, this is what I'm hoping for. And this shows us as well that the Prophet ﷺ never did anything except with the permission of Allah and after asking Allah. The Prophet ﷺ did not undertake any major decision without getting permission from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so everybody is allowed to emigrate but he's not migrating. Why? Because Allah did not tell him to do so yet. So he says, wait Abu Bakr, I hope that perhaps you might be given permission. so when Abu Bakr heard this he prepared two camels instead of one he prepared two camels what does it mean to prepare a camel? you all know that a camel is the ship of the desert you all know that a camel is able to carry its food and its water on its back but in order to do so you need to feed the camel special diet and you need to cause it to drink extra water and you actually have to give it salt in order to cause it to drink water believe it or not obviously. You have to give the camel salt so you force it to drink water. So you prepare it for a few weeks and then the hump appears. You give it a special type of diet you keep it locked up so that it doesn't burn its fat and you just feed it, feed it, feed it and you give it water and it will have that extra hump on its back. So this is what Abu Bakr is saying I'm preparing two camels. When the Prophet ﷺ said this, I prepared two camels. And he said I did this for four months. now scholars say this might be like a little bit of exaggeration because it's actually been three and a half months so he's making it up to four so because when the Prophet ﷺ told the people to emigrate and then when he emigrated this is an interim of three and a half months so he's just rounding up as we say not exaggeration but rounding up not three and a half but rather four months and this took place in Dhul Hijjah of the 13th year of the mission Dhul Hijjah of the 13th year of the, to be more precise, the 12th year of the prophetic message in the month of Dhul Hijjah, and then Muharram it becomes the 13th year. Because Muharram is when we begin the year. So in the Muharram of the 13th, and then the Safar, the Prophet ﷺ according to our best estimates, he didn't say this, it's not in any hadith, but we're trying to estimate. according to our best estimates how do we estimate? we know a number of details we know that he was the last to emigrate we know that he emigrated on a Monday because Ibn Abbas as a Sahih Muslim that the Prophet ﷺ reported that on Monday Iqra was revealed to me I became a prophet and on Monday I was born and on Monday I emigrated so Monday is the day all of these things occurred so looking back at the calendars that we are able to derive, we see which of these dates corresponds to a number of facts. And the closest date that some of our modern researchers have developed is the 26th of Safar. The 26th of Safar in the 13th year of the da'wah, this would basically be the first year of the hijrah. Right? Because the hijrah actually occurred in Safar and not in Muharram. And I mentioned in other places in a khutbah why the sahaba chose Muharram to mark the beginning of the calendar. That has nothing to do with the Prophet ﷺ, it has to do with something else. So, Muharram of that year, then Safar, the 26th of Safar, the Prophet ﷺ actually emigrated. What happened on that day in the daytime, in the daytime of the Monday, Aisha is narrating the same hadith, that when we were sitting in our house at the peak of the heat of the day, at noontime, shiddat al-zahira, it's a hot day. And in Arabia, in fact in every hot climate, in Spain is one example of this, they have the siesta and all of this, in every hot climate in the middle of the day everything just shuts down and people just take a nap because there's nothing else they can do it's too hot to go outside, it's a qayloola, it's a siesta you take a nap and this is a culture that not only did our Prophet ﷺ find, he encouraged it and he encouraged the Muslims to take this afternoon nap and everybody knows, scientists, doctors, they all tell us When you take this nap, it makes you energetic and it makes you better prepped for the day. To have a little nap in the afternoon. So the Prophet ﷺ advised us and encouraged us to have this afternoon nap. So this was the time, in this nap time, where Aisha says that in the hot time of the day, we saw a figure approaching. And the streets were deserted, nobody is there. And the figure had wrapped his turban around his head. مقنع it's like the man who wraps the turban around his face you cannot see him until we recognize from the distance that it is the Prophet ﷺ now obviously when you know somebody very well even if they cover their face you can recognize from the body from even the thawb anything you can recognize this is that particular person and so we said wallahi the only reason he must be coming is for something very grave to have occurred this is an emergency nobody comes at this time for something very grave to have occurred. So the Prophet ﷺ asked permission to come in, Abu Bakr granted it to him, and he said, remove everybody from the room. Now in those days, the houses were not divided into different rooms, they were divided into compartments, hujurat. The houses didn't have these massive mansions as we do, you walk in here and there. Rather, you built a house, and then you would have chambers, you would have curtains, that would have private rooms in it. So the Prophet ﷺ does not know who is inside these rooms. So he tells Abu Bakr, get everybody else out. Whatever woman is here, get her out. And Abu Bakr said, Ya Rasulullah, they are but your family, that's it. i.e. Aisha and her sister, that's all that was there. And of course, Aisha had already been engaged to the Prophet ﷺ. The nikah had been done and the consummation had not yet occurred. So the nikah has already taken place. And Abu Bakr says, Ya Rasulullah, this is only your family. Nobody else is here. And so Aisha is narrating first person. She's hearing from behind the curtains. She's hearing because she's in the house. So Aisha is narrating first person this story. And so Abu Bakr says, There's only your family here. Meaning Aisha and Asma. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah has given me permission to emigrate. Allah has given me permission to emigrate. Now Abu Bakr was waiting for permission to come to him as well. And so he asked him, Ya Rasulullah as-Suhbah, O Messenger of Allah, did Allah allow me to be the companion? Ya Rasulullah as-Suhbah, bi-abi anta wa-ummi, I beg you by my mother and father, did Allah give this permission? And the Prophet ﷺ said, Yes, the permission has been given for you to accompany me. Aisha says, this hadith is in Bukhari, and this edition is in Ibn Ishaq Aisha says that I saw Abu Bakr cry and I had never believed that people could cry out of happiness until I saw Abu Bakr cry out of happiness on that day Aisha is saying I never believed that people cried when they got happy crying is something you do when you're sad when you're worried when you're distressed Aisha says I never believed that people could cry when they're happy until I saw my own father Abu Bakr cry when the permission was given to migrate with the Prophet ﷺ. And so the Prophet ﷺ told Abu Bakr that he was going to migrate with him. Abu Bakr said, Ya Rasulullah, I have prepared two camels, one of them is yours. Subhanallah, the Prophet ﷺ did not have a camel even in Mecca. He didn't have a camel. I have prepared two camels, one of them is yours. And the Prophet ﷺ said, إِلَّا بِثَّمَنٍ Only if I pay you, the price of the camel till it becomes mine. I'm not going to take it as a free gift. I'm not going to take it as a freebie. Subhanallah, why? Because this is of the perfection of his manners, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. It's the perfection of his manners, even though he's Rasulullah, he doesn't take advantage and flout it, do this and do that. Until I pay its price, then I'll take it from you. And also because he wanted the full reward of doing the hijrah. Because as we all know, if you help somebody doing some good deed, what happens? You get a share. and so the Prophet ﷺ wants the full reward I'm gonna pay for it myself and I'm gonna migrate on the camel that I own and so Abu Bakr is basically forced to take a sum from the Prophet ﷺ to give him that camel and Asma who is Aisha's older sister Aisha is too young to do anything and Asma is at least 15 years older than her 10 to 15 years older than her Asma is basically an adult already and Aisha is a little girl she cannot prepare anything So Asma had already prepared food and reserves for them. And so in the panic of the moment, she bundled up all of the food and she didn't have anything to tie the bag with. And so she took off her belt. And in those days the belt is nothing other than some, you know, grope or something. She took off her own belt and tore it in half with her teeth and used half of a belt for her own garment and then used the other half for the bag of the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr. And that is why she was called ذَاتٌ نِطَاقِينَ She of the two belts. This is the لَقَب. This is the title. If anybody says, who is she of the two belts? This is the title that was given to Asma' binti Abu Bakr because of this incident. That she took off her own belts, cut it in half and then she just used half of it to try to keep her own blouse and skirt on and the rest of it she used for the food of the Prophet ﷺ. And Abu Bakr had at this point in time 5,000 dirhams and Ibn Ishaq narrates that when Abu Bakr accepted Islam, he was a wealthy man who had 40,000 dirhams. And by the time he emigrated, 35,000 of them had been gone. For what? For saving people like Bilal. For basically purchasing almost every single slave he could find in Mecca that was being persecuted. He spent 90% of his wealth completely for the sake of Islam. And when he emigrated, he took the entire amount with him. 5,000 dirhams he took with him. And side tangent here, but when he took this amount, Abu Bakr's father Abu Qahafa, and Abu Qahafa did not accept Islam until after the conquest of Mecca. Abu Qahafa was an open enemy, a sarcastic enemy, in that he always mocked his own son. How could you have accepted the faith of this man? And he was already a bitter old man, he was a blind old man, who had a sharp tongue, already had a sharp tongue. And Abu Qahafa, when Abu Bakr left with the Prophet ﷺ, we're jumping the gun, but just to tell the story, Abu Qahafa came to Asma, mocking Abu Bakr for having abandoned the two little girls without any money. what type of father is this he has left you with no money he had all of this wealth, he's taken it all for his companion has left nothing for you and so Asma look at her Iman and her intelligence and he's a blind man Asma took the money jar it wasn't a jar, it was a sack cloth that Abu Bakr kept his money in and quickly picked up some pebbles and threw them in there and wrapped the money jar in some more cloth and said, no my grandfather he has left us some money, here look and she gave him the bag that Abu Bakr kept for his money, so you know this is the bag that is the money bag, and so he felt it and he felt it a heavy amount right, so he said okay I'm mistaken, if this is what he has left for you then there is nothing to blame even though Asma' says he didn't leave us a penny why? because he wants every penny for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he expects somebody will give them food and water and they're not gonna starve to death in Mecca, they're not in the middle of the desert, there are people that are gonna give them the basic to live, we are going in the middle of the desert, we don't know where we're gonna need this money, who we're gonna have to pay off so he took every last dirham that he had, and he left nothing with Asma and Aisha, and of course Allah took care of them and eventually they made their way to Medina, now there is, this is the version of Bukhari and the version of Bukhari is as always Bukhari's versions are always the most concise, the least detailed you want the juicy details you need to go to the other books and the problem with the other books is many times they don't have authentic isnads right, so as we said many times over and over again these types of traditions, no problem in narrating them but we should sift through that which we know as a fact, versus that whose isnads might be slightly weak when we turn to Musnad Imam Ahmed we have a hadith that gives us a little bit more description about what happened on that particular night. And Ibn Abbas says, Allah revealed in the Quran one ayah describing that night, the night of the Hijrah. And that is Surah Al-Anfal verse 30. Surah Al-Anfal verse 30, Ibn Abbas said, this is an ayah that talks about the Hijrah. What is Surah Al-Anfal verse 30? وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَخْرُجُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ When the people who disbelieved plotted secretly to either try to imprison you, لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يُخْرِجُوكَ or to exile you, أَوْ يَخْتُلُوكَ or to kill you. When they plotted secretly to do one of these three things, and Allah Azzawajal plotted, and they plotted, and Allah is the best of those who plan. So Ibn Abbas says this ayah talks about that night. What happened that night? They came together in Dar al-Nadwa. Dar al-Nadwa was their parliament. And they came together in the middle of the night. There was a secret meeting. And representatives from all of the tribes of the Quraysh came, except for the Banu Hashim. Except for the Banu Hashim. But the Banu Hashim did not come. They weren't invited. And so Abu Lahab was not invited for this meeting. because it would have been a conflict of interest even though his heart would have been with them his presence would have jeopardized it this is a bit deep here think about this they intentionally left Abu Lahab out of the meeting why? because they were planning to harm one of his relatives immediate relatives, his nephew and no matter how much Abu Lahab wouldn't have minded that he couldn't have officially given the green light for that. As they say, ignorance is bliss. So if Abu Lahab didn't know, Abu Lahab doesn't have to answer. Even though they knew that his heart would have been with them. You guys following this point here? Is that very crafty of them to leave Abu Lahab out. They know exactly what they're doing. And they also left out another very important figure. And that is Mutamib ibn Adi. Who is Mutamib ibn Adi? Mut'im ibn Adi is the one who's basically allowed the Prophet ﷺ to remain in Makkah it's his protection, not Abu Lahab's they've left him out because once again Mut'im has given his word and he cannot take it back in a private meeting right, and this shows us despite their evil and conniving there is some sense of dignity, there is some sense that we cannot invite these two people even though they're pagans, they're not Muslims but Mut'im has given his word right, he's the one the passport if you like, the visa is from Mut'im, that I'm giving you protection so they can't invite Mut'im to the meeting right, and Abu Lahab no matter how much he hates his own nephew and he's even withdrawn his protection but Abu Lahab cannot get his hands guilty with the blood because that would be something that forget, he doesn't care but it's embarrassing for the public not that he loves this nephew, he doesn't at all right, if he had his way he would have been killed long time ago, but it's a matter of tribal honor. It's a matter of the customs of the time. How could Abu Lahab allow his own nephew to get killed knowingly? This would have been a shame for Abu Lahab as long as he lived. So, he also was not invited. Who was invited? The rest of the seniors and the elders. And in one, so basically the descendants of Abd al-Manaf, the descendants of Qusayd, the descendants of other sub-tribes of the Quraysh, not the Banu Hashim, and not Mut'im ibn Adi. and it is also said in a narration that has a slight missing link in it Qatada who is a tabi'i narrates from this time and he never saw this time there is a missing link that an old man came knocking on the door in the middle of the night I mean this is a secret meeting nobody is supposed to know about it and when they opened the door they saw a man they could not recognize who he was they said who are you? he said I am a leader from the Najd I am not from here I am the leader from the Najd and it has reached me that you are having a meeting and allow me to come, perhaps I can benefit you with my wisdom about what you're planning to do. And Ibn Abbas says, this was shaitan. This was shaitan who wanted to seal the plot, make sure that the actual plot that was done was that of assassination. When they came together, they began talking to one another, and they said, the Muslims have now migrated to another land. And we are scared if we allow this man to leave, they will become a political threat to Mecca. Because again, up until now, the Muslims have been in their control. Up until now, they've all been in Mecca. Now everybody has migrated, they all know that one person is left, that's the Prophet ﷺ with Abu Bakr. Everybody else has gone. So they have a meeting, the very night before the Hijrah, the very night before the immigration, they have a meeting, and they say, we need to do something. Now realize, the Hijrah was because of this meeting. The timing of the Hijrah was because of this meeting. because they plotted, Allah Azza wa Jal plotted. That's what Allah is saying. So they came together on that night and they gave some suggestions. The first suggestion, let's imprison him in a house. Now there's no such thing really as a prison in Arabia at the time. They didn't have a concept of a prison. And if they had to imprison somebody, it was an exceptional thing. It was not the concept of putting somebody in jail was not known to the early Muslims or to the Arabs. And if you think about it, it's a very inhumane concept to lock somebody up for 20 years in a room. This was not known to the Arabs. So they said, let's basically put a house and put him into that house. And this is what Allah is saying, لِيُثْبِتُوكَ They want to tie you up, put you down. And the old man, basically Iblis said, if you were to do this, his words would still reach his followers. People would smuggle out the Quran and whatnot to his followers. It's not a good enough plot. Another said, let us send him into exile أو يخرجوك Allah says in the Quran let us send him into exile at least he'll be rid of us here in Mecca again Iblis said sending him into exile is to send him back to his followers it will strengthen them rather than weaken them you can't get rid of him and here is where Abu Jahl of course was in the audience and Abu Jahl said you still haven't said the point that is on everybody's mind but they're scared to say it every one of you is thinking this but nobody has the guts to come and say it well let me say it Abu Jahl why don't we kill him but now the problem would come and I've said this many times before it's a matter of honor for the Arabs it's a matter of law that you don't kill one of your own it's something that they have never done before you don't kill one of your own in cold blood this is something that is something, for them it would be a mark of humiliation. It would be something their enemies would criticize for the rest of the Quraysh's lives. They'd be criticizing this, right? So Abu Jahl said, but we'll do this in a way that nobody can get angry at any one tribe. And this was the dastard plot of Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl said, rather than one of us attack him, why not every single tribe sends one representative. And they fight him like one man, such that by the time he's dead, his blood is on all of their swords. So nobody knows who killed him, and all of the tribes are equally to blame. If we do this, no one tribe can be made fun of, because they're all guilty. At least the ones in the room, the tribes that were in the room. And he said, the Banu Hashim will have no choice but to accept the blood money. Otherwise, the Banu Hashim would have had to declare war. You see this is again tribal honor. Has nothing to do with the fact they love or they hate this man. It's tribal honor. It's gang mentality. You harm my gang, I have to kill one of your gang. You kill me, we're gonna kill you back. It's gang mentality. So the Banu Hashim, if any other tribe had attacked them, the Banu Hashim would have had to declare war until they killed a good amount of the other enemy. And then they said, okay, this is qisas. Now if all of the tribes in Mecca and in the surrounding regions equally participate, the Banu Hashim cannot declare war against all of them. So what are they gonna have to do? They're gonna have to accept the blood money, the dia. And the concept of blood money and qisas was pre-Islamic. Islam came and gave it some rules, qawanin. But the concept of having blood money, dia, and the concept of having qisas, it is pre-Islamic Islam fine-tuned it and made it precise and so they had this notion of blood money so Abu Jahl said if we do this, the Banu Hashim will have no alternative except to take the blood money and khalas, it will be a done deal this was when Iblis stood up and said this is the ra'ya as-sadeed, this is the smart decision, this is the intelligent decision that there is no other decision to take other than this one. And this was therefore what they all plotted to do. And right then and there, every one of the tribe's people thought of one person in their tribe, a young strong man, whom they could choose for this deed. And they sent them immediately to the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And this was when Jibreel came down to the Prophet ﷺ and informed him that you must make the hijrah now. So this was on the same evening that he spoken to Abu Bakr, the same evening. He does not know what's happening. But Jibreel comes and tells him, you need to leave right now. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala informed him of that plot. And Ibn Ishaq reports without any isnad. And so there's no isnad at all. But this is the famous report that we all know. That as they surrounded the house of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam went outside reciting Surah Yasin. Reciting Surah Yasin. and they did not recognize him or they did not see him at all. Because Allah Azza wa Jal says, وَجَعَلْنَا مَنْ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ سَدًّا وَخَلْفِهِمْ سَدًّا فَأَغْشَيْنَاهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ We put barriers in front of them and behind them, so we caused them to go blind or we covered them up and they couldn't see anything. And so the Prophet ﷺ recited Surah Yasin, the first verses, and they were blinded to his presence. They didn't see a thing. and Ibn Ishaq mentions that he threw dust on their hair he threw dust on their hair as a sign of humiliation like it's something that is disgusting even if one of us has dust on us we don't like it, right? so he threw dust on every one of them as he walked out and they didn't even see this until after he had left until after he had left and it is said that at the time he was still living in the house of Khadija of course because Khadija has passed away so he's living in the house and with him is of course Ali because he's supposed to be taking care of Ali. Ali grew up in the household of the Prophet ﷺ. And Ali at this stage, Ali is a young boy at the time. Ali is a young boy at the time. He's a teenager. He's a young man, I should say. He's a teenager because Ali has been a Muslim since he was around 7, 8 years old. So he's around 19, 18, 19 now at this time. He's a young man at this time. And Ali was told to remain behind in the bed of the Prophet ﷺ. You know, they didn't have closed windows. For them, there is this opening there. You look inside and you will see the people inside the house. And so, he told Ali to stay in his bed, so that if the Quraysh looked in, they would find somebody lying there. And it's dark, nobody sees who it is. They would assume that this is the Prophet ﷺ. All of this, this details of the story, it is found in Ibn Ishaq, but without any isnat. So, there is not 100% authenticity, but at the same time, there is nothing wrong with affirming these stories. now, Abu Bakr had already prepared the two camels the Prophet ﷺ came to the house of Abu Bakr in the middle of the night the two of them in the middle of the night rode their camels and they went to as we all know, the cave of Thawr Ghari Thawr now, Ghari Thawr is very interesting because it is in the exact opposite direction that Medina is Medina is due north, straight line Gharithor is due south exact opposite you literally are turning your back to Medina and walking away to get to Gharithor literally and it's a two and a half three hour walk from Mecca and so they had already devised a plot a plan to go to this cave and stay there for three days and three nights in utmost secrecy and then after three days and three nights They would then meet with a guide who would take them from a path that was unknown to the Quraysh. A path that only some of the Bedouins of other tribes knew. Not the main road, not the highway, a back road. And in fact they had to circle down to what is now Jeddah. And they were very close to Jeddah and then they made their way to Medina from Jeddah. And so they didn't take the highway from Mecca to Medina. they actually took the highway if you like from Jeddah to Medina and the modern highway that is that they have just now built, the modern highway that they have just now built, I say just now has been at least 15 years but for 40 years before this, back in the 60s and 70s there was a very old you must remember it uncle if you're sitting here, you must remember that old, I still have memories of that as well when I was a kid, this very old highway from Mecca, that's, that was another path, the new path it is actually called Tariq al-Hijrah that's the name of the highway in our times طريق الهجرة because when the engineers actually found out when they had a maps and they figured out what's the best way to get from this place to that place they actually figured out, believe it or not actually we firmly do believe it, that the best way is طريق الهجرة the easiest way and this was not the way that was known to the Arabs at the time, because in order to do it you have to go towards Jeddah, so therefore if you're going from Mecca to Medina you actually circle a little bit towards Jeddah and then you work your way up. That's the highway of our times. And so the highway that you go to is actually closer to the Hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ than the old highway that they had built back in the 50s, back in the 40s and 50s. Now, we had said that Abu Bakr already had this point in mind. And Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu had a plan how to undertake this journey. We're gonna get to this in a while. Before we get there, it is said that when the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca, at Tirmidhi reports in his Sunan, when he passed the final shops of Mecca, because the suq of Mecca was on the outskirts. When he passed the final suq of Mecca, the middle of the night he turned around to take one final look, and he would not enter Mecca again except as a conqueror. So many years later, except for the one interlude in the Umraat al-Qadha, he came for two days or three days and then left otherwise he would not enter Mecca again except as a conqueror eight and a half years later he turned around and he said speaking to Mecca generically or metaphorically he said to Mecca that you are the most blessed land on earth and the most beloved to me وَلَوْلَا أَنَّ قَوْمِي and were it not for the fact that my people أَخْرَجُونِي have expelled me I would never have left you were it not for the fact that my own people have expelled me I would not have left you and this is exactly the wordings that Waraqa ibn Naufal told him almost 13 and a half years ago when he accepted Waraqa ibn Naufal told him who that was Waraqa ibn Naufal said I wish I were a young man to help you the day that your people will expel you the exact same wordings and the Prophet ﷺ said awa mukhrijiyahum my own people are going to expel me he is saying 13 years later my qawmi akharajuni exact same wordings 13 years have gone by and this is the fulfillment of the prophecy that Waraqa says because Waraqa knows reality Waraqa knows what has happened in the past and so Waraqa says yes every prophet has been expelled and you're not going to be any exception and so the Prophet ﷺ said this Ibn Kathir has over here that he also made a long dua. And he has the dua recorded. It's a long beautiful dua where he basically asks Allah for protection. He asks Allah to make the safar easy for him. He asks Allah for his mercy and his protection. All of this is mentioned in Ibn Kathir's seerah. I have not found it in any earlier, one of the classical books Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best. Now, getting back to the story of Abu Bakr and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and also the version of Aisha. Aisha says that Abu Bakr had planned to stay in the Ghara Thawr for three nights. And they had made an arrangement with two different people. Or I should say three people actually. They had made an arrangement with three people to do three chores. So Abu Bakr has been thinking about this for a long time. The planning has been done. The first was his son Abdullah. Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr. this is Aisha speaking he was a young strong man very intelligent and very quick to understand Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr he is his oldest son and he is younger than Asma the oldest is Asma than Abdullah and then you have Aisha and then you had Abdul Rahman and then you had a third daughter that was born after Abu Bakr died his wife was pregnant and that is Umm Khadija no, Umm Kulthum the very last daughter of Abu Bakr Umm Kulthum that when Abu Bakr died he was on his death bed and he told Aisha take care of your two sisters and your two brothers Aisha said what? two sisters? I only have one sister and Abu Bakr said that I feel that my wife he had another wife after that my wife is pregnant and she will give birth to a daughter. And he didn't even know this, she was not visibly pregnant, but he had an intuition from Allah. He had an intuition from Allah, and so he died, and eight months later, his wife gave birth to Aisha's youngest sister. Aisha's youngest sister. This is Abu Bakr's intuition that Allah had given him. Anyway, getting back here, so Abu Bakr had said to his son Abdullah, he is the oldest son, Asma is the oldest daughter, His son Abdullah. That every morning, he would come out with some food and drink for the cave. Because they're not going to leave the cave at all. So this is going to be their provision inside the cave. And he would listen to the people of Mecca, what they're doing. Which direction they're heading in. He's a young child, people are not going to pay attention to him. He's going to be going in the marketplace and eavesdropping. What are the people talking about? Where are the expeditions being sent to? so he would inform them on a daily basis in case they need to modify their plan so this was Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr's task and he would do this every day he would just go around as if he's doing his chores purchasing what needs to be purchased taking out the goats, doing this and that in reality this is just a guise to listen to what the people are talking about and because he's a kid, nobody's paying attention to him that's why Aisha says he was a smart kid he was way ahead of his years the second person Aisha says Amir ibn Fuhayrah was Abu Bakr's personal servant i.e. a slave whom he had freed. Amir ibn Fuhayrah. He was Abu Bakr's freed servant. Abu Bakr had a slave, Abu Bakr freed the slave. And so there is a clear sense of loyalty to Abu Bakr. Amir ibn Fuhayrah. Amir ibn Fuhayrah had the job of taking out the flocks. He would take some money to be a shepherd for the people of Mecca. This is the most menial job you can do. The Prophet ﷺ himself did it. He would be a shepherd. His job was to take out the flocks and make sure that the footsteps of Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr are erased away. Notice. The footsteps of Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr are erased away. Right? And so Amir ibn Fuhairah takes the flock of sheep and he grazes back and forth over the footsteps. So that nobody knows where the Prophet ﷺ has gone. And then there was a third man assigned for the job, and that is Abdullah ibn Arqat or Uraqiq. Both are mentioned. Abdullah ibn Arqat or Uraqiq. Both are mentioned, we don't know the exact name. And his job, he was not from the Quraysh, he was from a far away tribe, and he was from a Bedouin tribe, and his job was to lead them down this, what we now call طريق الهجرة. Because they're not going the famous way, they're going a way that nobody travels. now I know this is difficult for us to understand they actually did have highways back in those days, believe it or not they did, what is a highway back then? it is a well traveled road well traveled road and they would have wells and they would even have provisions for those who are completely out of everything they would sometimes build, this would depend on the political and the economic state of the people but they would have provisions on the road, for those who don't have anything they would put it up. If you're out of everything, there's going to be some water under some rocks or something. There would be marks. There would be markings. People would know this is the path. And people would love to take the path. The same reason why we take the major highways and not the back roads. Safety, security, something happens, a major caravan will come. The exact same reasons. Nobody just takes a 4x4 and goes into the desert unless they are of a different spirit. That adventurous spirit. That's not something the average person does. the same thing happens at the time of the Prophet so they hired Abdullah ibn Arqat or Uraqiq to tell them of this back road that nobody ever traveled, you wouldn't find a soul on this road unless they happen to be of a similar adventurous spirit this was not the road that other people travel, and the point was, or the goal was, or the plan was, that Abdullah ibn Uraqiq would meet them on the morning of the third night three nights in the cave nobody knows, and then on the morning of the third night, they would meet Abdullah ibn Arqat and he would take them on this new road. Now, in a narration that is muttafaq alayhi alayhi as Bukhari and Muslim, Anas al-Imanik says that Abu Bakr narrated to us the details of the journey. Abu Bakr narrated to us the details of the journey, and this is the famous story that all of you know, that Abu Bakr said that, now Ghari Thawr, some of you I'm sure have been there, who's been to Ghar-e-Thawr? the two, three huh? you've seen it, you've been inside it you have been inside you haven't been inside Ghar-e-Thawr so Ghar-e-Thawr, when you Ghar-e-Thawr is not like Ghar-e-Hira, it's very different Ghar-e-Hira is very different Ghar-e-Thawr is a very small cave and the entrance is more on the top, like you have to wiggle your way in and then jump into not really jump, but put your way into the Ghat. Now, in our times, if you go to Ghat-e-Thawd, it's actually a small chamber. That's because there's been probably 5 million people that have come in and out of it. Every time somebody comes in, you know, it gets a little bit bigger. You know, you take a little bit sand out, you literally carve out a bigger cave just by walking into and out of it, right? This is basic geology, basic physics. I mean, everybody who comes in, believe it or not, every human being who walks into that cave and walks out, the cave will actually expand because of that, right? Another example is the mount of the archers, Jabal al-Rumah. Jabal al-Rumah in the time of the Prophet was at least four times higher than what it is now, right? Nobody came and destroyed it, but what happens? We all go up and we go down. As we go up and we go down, we take a little bit of the sand with us, right? So what happens over the last 14 centuries, this Jabal has become a little bit of a hill that's maybe what, three times the size of this masjid, right? Three, four times, it's very small. Even an elderly person can walk all the way to the top and come back down, no problem. That wasn't the way it was back then. Back then it was much higher. By the way, the same happens for Safa and Marwa. Safa and Marwa were much larger than they are now. We only see 10 feet. It was actually more like 100 feet back then. So the point being, this is basic geology, basic human, basic sciences. Jabal Thawr was a very small chamber. And it is said that there was only space literally for two people in that Jabal. So it's not like a little massive chamber that there's, mashaAllah, ventilation and running water. No, this is not. It's literally a crevice. That's more like what it is. Just a little crack. And Abu Bakr had planned this to be there for three days. That stay in there. Now Abu Bakr saw the Quraysh walking up and down the cave. Question arises, how did they get there? And this is not mentioned in this narration. It is mentioned in other books, Al-Baladuri and other books mention, that when the Quraysh figured out that the Prophet ﷺ had not gone the usual road, because all the other muhajirun had taken the usual road. All of the other muhajirun had taken the usual road, but the Quraysh didn't send expeditions to bring them back. You all know the story, they only did it for Suhaib and a few people. Otherwise they didn't send an expedition to send them back. If they got to the road, then khalas, okay, who's gonna go and get them back? For the Prophet ﷺ, they sent out riders, they sent out every direction, they figure out he's not there. So then, Al-Baladuri says, one of the ancient books, it says, they hired an expert scout. They hired an expert scout to figure out the traces of the camel from the house of Abu Bakr. And so, this scout managed to, despite all of the precautions, now he's an expert scout, right? So he has his ways. Allah knows, I have no idea how this person can figure it out. But whether it's through camel dung, yes, camel dung. Because even camels have different dungs. And once you figure out which one this is, you can figure this out. Or I don't know other ways as well, but they have their ways. So they hired this expert scout from outside of the city, private detective basically, right? And they bring him to Mecca, and they say, trace the footsteps of these two men. And so he leads them to the base of Ghar Thawr. And he goes, this is where I can trace it. From here it's a mountain, I can't follow anymore. From here it's a mountain. Now, this is skeptical, it's iffy. Like, this is one theory. So they're not 100% sure he's on the mountain. But this is the best hint they've had for the last three days. So what happens? They all send in the troops and the forces, right? Abu Jahl is there. Al-Walid ibn Uqba is there. Umayyad ibn Khalaf is there. All the big names come. Because this is the hint now that they've been wanting. This is better than anything they've gotten. And so this is the famous incident that Abu Bakr looks out and he sees Abu Jahl and Umayya ibn Khalif and all of them. That's why they were on the mountain. And this is when he whispers to the Prophet ﷺ that all they need to do is to look into this crevice and they will see us. All they need to do is to look into this crevice and they will see us. He says, لَوْ نَظَرْ أَحِدٌ مِنَا قَدَمَيْهِ لَأَبْصَرَنَا If they just look down at their feet, where we are now, they would see us. Because the entrance to the cave, it's at feet level. And so the person who's walking outside, might see a little bit of a crack. And they would assume that the crack is not a cave. They would assume it's just a crack. You know how mountains have all these cracks. So Abu Bakr became panicked, and he whispered, if they just look down, they'll see us. And this is when the Prophet ﷺ responded to the famous phrase that all of you should know and memorize. فَقَالَ يَا أَبَا بَكَرُ مَا ظَنُّكَ بِثْنَيْنِي أَللَّهُ ثَالِثُهُمَا Oh Abu Bakr, what do you think of two people? Allah is the third of them. What do you think is gonna happen? What do you think of two people? Allah is the third of them. Now over here of course we all have the famous stories of the spider and the tree and the pigeons and all that. And again they are mentioned in some of the books. The story of the spider web is mentioned in Musnad Imam Ahmed. and there's a slight weakness in it. And so out of all of the stories, this is the best story. There's a slight weakness in it. As for the narration of the tree leaning down over the mouth or the two pigeons setting up a nest, these are reported with massive missing links. So third, fourth generation reporting what happened at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. So no problem narrating it, but we should know that this is not in Bukhari and Muslim. This is not like 100% authentic, but nothing is surprising if Allah had willed it then we don't have any problem affirming that. So they crossed over the Ghar Thawr and they didn't realize they were in there. And so after the third day, they met Abdullah ibn Arqat or Abdullah ibn Uraqiq and the three of them began going on their way to Medina towards the direction of the shore. Now Jeddah is at the shore as you should know. Jeddah is at the shore. Mecca is inside, inland. So they worked their way down south and then from south they worked their way out basically to what is now Jeddah right outside of Jeddah and then they began going northwards towards Mecca which is a road that is parallel to the main road from Mecca to Medina but not the main road. It is parallel to it. But it is not the main road. And this is the road as I said today in our times this is the main highway that runs from Mecca to Medina. It actually goes this way and then upwards because we have discovered that this is actually the fastest way to get to Medina in our times. And that's what this discovery was only recent. And on the way to Medina, a number of stories are narrated. Most important of them, two stories are narrated that are clearly authentically narrated. The first of them is the story of Suraqa ibn Malik. And the second of them is the story of Umm Ma'bad. Suraqa ibn Malik and Umm Ma'bad. Very briefly, these are stories that all of you should be familiar with. and they are narrated with authentic chains Suraqa ibn Malik was from the tribe of Malik ibn from the tribe of Ju'ishm and he was not from the Quraysh basically he was from one of the Bedouin tribes and he was the leader of the tribe he was the leader of the tribe and the booty, the bounty the war money of a hundred camels had been placed on Abu Bakr and the Prophet ﷺ dead or alive, anybody who finds them gets a hundred camels That's a lot of money. A hundred camels is a lot of money. The Prophet ﷺ didn't even own one camel until the hijrah. A camel is like a car. Imagine a hundred cars. It's a lot of money. And so there's a hundred camels. Whoever catches the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr, dead or alive, no questions asked. Suraqa ibn Malik narrates the story to us himself in the first person. That's why it's very interesting. He narrates the story after he accepts Islam. And Suraqa ibn Malik says that he was sitting with his fellow tribesmen, tribesmen, and the news comes that they're searching for three riders. Because now they've discovered the plot. They discover Abu Bakr and the Prophet ﷺ and a guide. Three people have left. So the news goes out. It's on the grapevine. Three riders in the desert. If you find them dead or alive, and they are the Prophet ﷺ, then they are. You get a hundred camels. So Raqqa says, I was sitting with my tribesmen, and one of my people came back from a hunting expedition. and he says I saw three people in the distance I'm sure this must be the three the Quraysh are looking for Suraqah got greedy and Suraqah wanted the hundred for himself not to share it with anybody so immediately he lied and he says oh no no that's not those three that's the party of so and so they told me they're going on an expedition in that region he lied that's not those three there's somebody else I know who they are, don't worry about that. So he sat down, the man who thought it was, came home excited, he sat down, conversation continued. Suraqah says, when they forgot about the incident, because he played it cool, he slipped away, rushed back home, got his war horse ready, put on his armor, and galloped at lightning speed as fast as he could to get to those three people. Because he has bows and arrows, and it says, dead or alive, he can kill them without even coming close, and he'll get a hundred camels. And Suraqah says, the story is famous, I have to summarize it because time is limited. That when he saw them for the first time in the distance, all of a sudden my horse sunk into the ground. And threw me, flipped me over. And it had never done this before. In another version he said, that I could see a smoke between me and the three riders. Something is clearly wrong. And so he said, I pulled out my azlam. Islam is their method of predicting the future. Islam is like tarot cards or reading your palms or something like this. They had a type of istisqa bil-Islam, which basically means they're gonna ask the gods what should be done. Call it a pagan salat al-istikhara. Okay? Call it a pagan salat al-istikhara. That's really what it is. Okay? So, he said, I pulled out those Islam. What is Islam by the way? It's arrows. that has certain things on it. You know, literally like you have the tarot cards or Ouija boards that has these weird symbols and what not. You need to interpret it your own way. So he has those things with him. So he said, I threw out my Islam onto the sand to see which direction is gonna go, see all of that. And the response that I got was, do not proceed. I ignored it and continued going. Because he wants the money, right? The second time I came closer, once again the exact same thing happened. Once again I was thrown across the horse. Once again I took it out. Once again it says, do not proceed. I ignored it and went for the third time until finally they were within yelling distance. I could speak to them. And for the third time my horse did it even more violently and I knew that this was a force beyond me. I knew that this was a man I could not reach. Beyond my taqa, beyond my power. and he said in this hadith he said and I knew that the affair of this man would spread i.e. Islam would spread I knew that the affair of this man would spread so I called out to them that I am a safe person, I'm not going to harm you give me permission to come close subhanallah from the hunted he becomes the one asking permission, right? from the one who's hunting he becomes the one asking permission and he narrates an interesting thing he says when I saw them in the distance I forgot to mention this when I saw them in the distance I saw that one of the two i.e. Abu Bakr was riding in a very agitated state always looking right and left sometimes behind sometimes going to the front sometimes going back behind sometimes going to the front because he's so worried about the Prophet ﷺ that he's worried he's gonna be attacked from the back he goes in the back then his paranoia gets the better of him what if he's attacked from the front, he goes to the front he cannot concentrate whereas the other rider was riding calmly and peacefully not turning once left or right, reciting something reciting the Quran, reciting something the status of Abu Bakr is the status of the Prophet ﷺ, right? Abu Bakr is very worried wanting to protect, and the Prophet ﷺ لا يلتفت يمينه he's not even looking, no, he's just He knows Allah will protect him. So when he finally got permission to come forth, Suraqa ibn Malik says that, I ask permission from the Prophet ﷺ to give me protection in writing. Allah is an amazing thing. One minute he wants to pull his arrow to kill them, the next minute he says, I knew that their affair would spread everywhere, so I wanted protection when that happened. I didn't want to be hurt when that happened. So I asked for protection, aman. Aman means we're not going to harm you, right? Wallah amazing. Look at how in one instance, from the hunted to begging permission to live basically. And the Prophet ﷺ allowed Abdullah ibn Arqat to write down on a scroll, write down on a parchment, a man for Suraqah ibn Malik that you will be safe Suraqah ibn Malik you're gonna be safe we're not gonna harm you you protected us today we're gonna protect you tomorrow whenever the need comes Suraqah said I offered them some food and the both of them refused they had no need of it they were prepared for that they had no need of this but Abu Bakr said don't tell anybody about us that's the one request we have don't tell anybody about us and so Suraqah didn't tell anybody about them until finally he went when they did arrive in Medina by the way Suraqah told them all the story that happened and Abu Jahl wrote him a scathing poem where he called Suraqah the foolish that you let them go and you did this and this and you know you're basically an idiot basically it's very harsh poetry he wrote him that they slipped out of your hands and Suraqah wrote back poetry that's all in Ibn Ishaq and he said to him that had you been there on that day and you had seen what I had seen then you wouldn't be saying what you're saying. I know what happened, you don't know what happened. Okay? I saw with my own eyes, you didn't see what I saw. And so eventually, after the battle of Hunaym, of course, by the way, in one riwayah, Ibn Abdul Bar says this. What I mentioned to you is Muslim Imam Ahmed, Ibn Abdul Bar, another very early author says, that when Suraqah turned to leave, the Prophet ﷺ for the first time turned to him, and said to him, Ya Suraqah, kayfabik? O Suraqah, how will you be the day that you put on the bracelets of Kisra? How will you be the day that you put on the bracelets of Kisra? Suraqah, shocked, couldn't say anything other than Kisra, the son of Hormuz. Like as if we said the president, there's only one president. As if you said the king in any land of kings, there's only one king. There's only one Kisra. right? but he can't, Kisra the son of Hormuz, meaning the emperor of Persia, you want me to wear his bracelets or I'm gonna wear his bracelets? and that's it, the Prophet didn't even respond how will you be the day that you put on the bracelets of, now Kisra was well known for the jewelry that he would wear as a man but he would wear jewelry, right? not to mention things that you shouldn't be seeing but if you seen the movie 300, you've seen the leader of the Persians dressed in all these weird things, right? That's basically Kisra there. That's the idea of the Roman or the Persian emperors. There would be bracelets and earrings and what not. They would dress like this. And he had very expensive jewelry. And very expensive gold and decorated bracelets. Well known. Everybody envied him for this. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying, how are you gonna be the day that you wear those bracelets of Kisra? And on the day of Hunayn, which is after the conquest of Mecca the Prophet ﷺ conquered basically the other tribes outlying Mecca and he finally conquered the tribe of Suraqah ibn Malik Suraqah pulled out the very piece of paper that he had it's not paper, it's actually parchment he pulled out the very piece of leather that he had that the Prophet ﷺ had written to him almost 10 years ago, 8-9 years ago and the Prophet ﷺ recognized Suraqah and he gave him the security he gave him the aman and Suraqah accepted Islam and Suraqa became a well-known Sahabi after this. And he migrated to Medina, he lived in Medina, the Prophet ﷺ passed away. Within 6-7 years of his death, the mighty nation of the Sassanid Persians collapsed, as we talked about, in the battle of Qadisiyah, was the beginning of the end of the Sassanids. And eventually, Peresopolis, which is still standing to this day, still standing to this day, Peresopolis, which is a city outside of Tehran, which was the capital of the Sassanids. You have pillars in the middle of the desert, literally like 100-200 feet just in the air going, it's amazing. You just see pictures of it in our times. We are astounded to this day. These massive palaces, completely empty and abandoned, right? From the middle of nowhere you see, to this day, it's amazing architecture. Eventually Peresopolis was conquered, that is the capital of the Sassanids. And as is typical, all of the jewelry, all of the treasures of the palace are gathered and sent to Umar ibn al-Khattab. And in the masjid, they're opened up. The masjid of the Prophet ﷺ is full of treasures and gold. And when he sees the palace treasure, he says, where is Suraqah? Call Suraqah for me. And so Suraqah is called. He's found in the city. He called. And Umar puts him on his own chair. And Umar finds in that gold the bracelets of Kisra. Because everybody knows the promise. Everybody knows what the Prophet ﷺ said. These are now legends. everybody's heard. He finds the two bracelets of Kisra, he puts them on the hand of Suraqa ibn Malik. And the entire congregation starts saying, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. This is the fulfillment of what the Prophet ﷺ said. And in fact, the version Ibn Abdul Barth says, they took Suraqa around Medina. Can you imagine the bracelets of Kisra, the most powerful man. Now, and Umar ibn Khattab said, Alhamdulillah who has taken these bracelets away from Kisra, the son of Hurmuz, and given them to Suraqah, a Bedouin from the tribe of the Bani, the tribe of the Banu Mudhlej. Alhamdulillah, who has taken them from this mighty man and given them to this Muslim, as what the Prophet ﷺ predicted so many years ago. Subhanallah, what an amazing story. And it is clearly mentioned in our books. And it is one of the many, many miracles that are mentioned in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. We don't have time for the story of Umm Ma'bad. we will continue the story of Umm al-Ma'bad inshallah next Wednesday and then as well talk about the entrance of the Prophet to Medina and inshallah also next Wednesday we'll talk about a very important topic and that is why Medina, we didn't talk about this yet why Medina, why did Allah choose this city and not so many other cities, that's a question that has many responses and reasons to there's a deep and profound wisdom and that is inshallah something we'll talk about inshallah next Wednesday if we're able to do all of that. We have a few minutes left for questions and then some announcements as usual and then we'll break for Salat al-Isha. Yes sir, is there a comment on the religion of the guy who was not Muslim? Is he a Muslim? So, yeah, inshallah, next week and next Wednesday, so we're going to talk about some of the wisdoms of the seerah. One of the wisdoms of the seerah that we learned, of the hijrah, excuse me, one of the wisdoms of the Hijrah, Abdullah ibn Arqat or Uraqiq, was not from the Quraysh by the way, he was not from the Quraysh, he was not from the Quraysh, and he was also not a Muslim. He was upon the religion of his people, i.e. he was a Mushrik. And it's very amazing that they paid him a sum that must have been a fraction of a hundred camels. He's a guide, he gets paid, right? He gets paid a small amount, they paid him a sum that is a fraction of the hundred camels but he still did it why? many scholars, not just me, have tried to find out as much as they can about Abdullah ibn Arqat we don't have any references in fact we don't even know if he accepted Islam at the time he was clearly a pagan the earliest scholars, ibn Hajar himself I joked of today, ibn Hajar says I searched and I couldn't find anything about this man after this incident, we don't hear from him again. Did he accept? Did he not accept? We don't even know. One can assume he accepted, but we don't have anything narrated, if he accepted or not. Clearly therefore, we have to assume that the Prophet ﷺ knew something about this man that we don't know, and that he was a trustworthy person. And this is something we know for a fact, that many non-Muslims can be very trustworthy, and many Muslims can be very untrustworthy. We know this for a fact. So, Abdullah ibn Arqat was somebody that they both trusted. That he was an honest man, and he would do this for them, and not betray them for a larger sum of money. And the fact of the matter, Allah says in the Quran, وَمِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ There are people of the Ahlul Kitab, if you were to give them a treasure, they would be honest and return it to you. And there are others, if you were to give them a few measly coins, they try to trick you out of it. This is the reality. That you will find people who are non-Muslims, pagan, idol worshippers, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, and they're honest. Islam doesn't necessarily make you automatically honest if you don't practice it. Correct? We all know this. The hard way many of us, right? And vice versa as well. That you will find people who have good manners. Allah mentions this in the Quran. But they don't have Iman. And so this shows us as Muslims, we clearly are allowed to use the services even trust non-Muslims if we feel that they're honest people. Honesty is what is important here. And it's clear that both of them felt Abdullah ibn Arqat was an honest, trustworthy man. Other questions before we have some announcements? Yes. How did the Prophet knew the departure of the Prophet? They were in the maqam. How come the Prophet did not go and interview him and find out his identity? Excellent point, and I was going to mention this next Wednesday as well. Abu Jahl came to interrogate Asma. And in fact, he beat her up until she bled. But she refused to say a word. So, they did interrogate. But they couldn't get it out. Aisha was too young. And of course, the father is Abu Qahafa, he's a pagan, he doesn't know. the father wanted to criticize Abu Bakr and he ended up being tricked by Asma so Asma was doubly punished once by her grandfather who taunted her and then by Abu Jahl who physically beat her Abu Jahl came and tried to get it out of her but he wasn't able to do so inshallah with this

Seerah 27 - Lessons from Hijrah Blessings of Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ March 2012-ptvkYQuWgmU

Al-Fatiha. how this Bedouin from the Banu Mudlaj is told that he's going to be wearing the bracelets of Kisra, the bracelets of the emperor of Persia. And that is exactly what happened. The story of the Hijrah has a number of small stories. And one of the significant ones is the story of Umm Ma'bad. Small, still paragraph about the story of Umm Ma'bad. And the story of Umm Ma'bad is narrated from her directly. And she converted to Islam at the end. Umm Ma'bid narrates the story herself and she says that she is an elderly lady and she is a complete like Bedouin she is living in the desert in a tent wandering from place to place finding food and water so her husband had left to find some food and she is in her sheepskin or goat tent she is in the tent waiting for her husband to return and she hears the rustling outside of some travelers who ask permission to come in and she comes in she asks them to come in because she is not worried about anything she's an elderly lady and she has nothing to be stolen she's very poor and it turns out it's Abu Bakr and the Prophet but she doesn't recognize them because she doesn't know who they are and she describes what's significant Umm Ba'abad is one of the few Sahabiyat who describes the physical looks of the Prophet most of the Sahaba did not describe him in that detail Umm Ba'abad is one of those who describes him as being wasim for example handsome and he had long hair and he was neither short nor tall. So she gives that description that I've already mentioned in the beginning. I mentioned Umm Ma'abah's description right when we began the seerah. I mentioned that description from Umm Ma'abah. And this was by the way outside of Medina by an hour and a half drive in our time. In our time this place is still called the same as it was called then and it's called Qadid. Qadid, when you're driving from Mecca to Medina or Jeddah to Medina you will pass by a sign that says Qadid, exit. And that's where this incident took place. So the Prophet entered in and Abu Bakr and they said may we purchase any food from you we are travelers and we would like some food to purchase and this is of course the adab of Abu Bakr and the Prophet and they didn't ask for free food even though if they had asked for free food this is also customarily acceptable when travelers are going they just want some water or some basic bread whatever you have can you share but they asked food to be purchased and Umm Ma'bid replied that she apologized she has absolutely nothing to give them nothing at all because her husband has actually gone out in search of food. They asked for do you have any milk, anything? She said we have absolutely nothing to give. So the Prophet saw in the tent an old goat in the corner. And it had long, you know, the heyday of this goat, the era of this goat had not been on the decline. It's basically about to be slaughtered. It is no longer giving milk. It is no longer capable of giving birth is just an old goat that's basically about to be slaughtered one day when they want to have some type of meat. That's what it's waiting for in the corner. It's not even grazing outside. So the Prophet ﷺ asked permission to milk the goat. Umm al-Ma'bad smirked and said, that day has long gone. You can't get any milk from this. That's gone. This is now no more. And so the Prophet ﷺ once again said, but do you allow me to? Of course, I mean, there is no question in her mind where is the milk gonna come out, you can do what you want the goat is beyond giving milk and so Umm Ba'aba said if you want to go ahead, I mean if that's what you wanna do and the Prophet ﷺ made dua and he mentioned the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he moved his hand under the udder and the udder filled up with milk right then and there, the udder filled up with milk and Abu Bakr then milked the milk from this goat and it brimmed all the way to the top and the Prophet As-Salam drank, Abu Bakr drank, and they left the remainder for Umm Ma'bad and her husband. When her husband returned, he shocked to find the milk, because they want milk for many days, and they haven't had milk. Where did you get this milk from? From this goat. How did this goat give milk? So she gave the whole story, that two strange men came, and this is where she described the Prophet As-Salam. She described the Prophet As-Salam in detail. One of them, you know, was taller and handsome, and this and that, and the other looked like his companion. She described all of this. Her husband said, those are the two the Quraysh are searching for. Because the news has spread and those are the two do you not know that one of them claims to be a Nabi, one of them claims to be a Nabi and when she heard this she realized this is not just a claim, he is a Nabi he is a Nabi and so both her and her husband accepted Islam and this is one of those small stories of Ummul Ma'amid, it is also narrated by the way that two or three other people accepted Islam but we don't have their stories, that the Prophet ﷺ passed by them and spoke to them and they accepted Islam And in this, even though it's so insignificant, we don't even have the names of some of them, right? But still, the point is, subhanallah, when he's basically running for his life, right? Even though he knows Allah is gonna protect him, but still it is running for his life. He still pauses to give da'wah to people, he's still inviting people to Islam, and subhanallah, at least we have references of at least 4 or 5 people converting in this journey from Mecca to Medina. Yani subhanallah, wherever the Prophet's system is going, he's spreading good. no time, no place is basically lacking for da'wah any opportunity that the Prophet ﷺ gets he is giving da'wah it is also narrated once that a caravan passed them by a caravan, of course this is the middle of the desert and caravans are going back and forth, a strange caravan in those days, if a caravan passed by in the desert they would make way to meet each other just to, you know, pass news and find out what's happening and say salam or greetings can you imagine, you're in the middle of the desert you haven't seen a human for many days, you see somebody in the desert, you'll simply kind of sort of meander towards each other, talk a little while, and then move on. So when a caravan saw the two riders, they veered away to go and say hello, or to give greetings to them, and lo and behold, one of them recognized Abu Bakr from a trading expedition. This is not the Quraysh, this is not the Ansar. This is a caravan, we don't know which Arab tribe it is, but at some fair or at some business transaction, Abu Bakr was a trader, they recognized Abu Bakr. and so they greeted Abu Bakr now this is a caravan coming from another area they haven't heard of the bounty they haven't heard the two people have fled from Mecca so they recognize Abu Bakr and they find out some information whatever they wanted to and then they asked Abu Bakr who is this man with you? who is this man with you? and Abu Bakr instantaneously responded in what is called Tawriya Tawriya as I've said many times is double meaning and this is allowed in Islam for a reason this is not lying in English we call it a white lie It's not a lie, it doesn't give you an untruth. But it's rather a double meaning. And so Abu Bakr said, he is my guide guiding me to the path. He is my guide guiding me to the path. And of course, what Abu Bakr meant was, he is my guide to Siratul Mustaqim. Guiding me to the path to Jannah. But what they understood was, this is my hired guide that is guiding me. This is the double meaning that Abu Bakr instantaneously said. This also shows us by the way, that at a certain point in time, the guide Abdullah ibn Uraqi left them. That finally when they got to the road that they understood, he went back and returned and it was just the two of them. Because obviously when they entered Medina, the guide had already left. So the guide basically brought them to a place where from that point onwards they knew how to get to Medina. And so this caravan intercepted them at that point in time. And that's when Abu Bakr said, innahu lahadin. This is my guide. Yahdini ila tariq. He's guiding me to the tariq. He's guiding me to the salatul mustaqim. And of course Abu Bakr until one thing and another thing was understood. Now, some lessons from the hijrah before we move to the city of Medina and its strategic importance. Some lessons from the hijrah. Subhanallah, look at the meticulous preparations for the hijrah. The Prophet ﷺ is telling Abu Bakr, don't travel. I need a companion and insha'Allah it will be you. Abu Bakr instantaneously prepares two camels, fattens them up, force feeds them, makes that hump nice and large so that they can travel in the desert. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam then comes to him when everybody is asleep so that nobody can see that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is basically planning something. And even when he comes, his face is covered, muqannia, his face is covered so that just in case, nobody can recognize. But of course Abu Bakr recognizes because that's his best friend, his companion. and when he enters the house, he tells the people, everybody leave. Now all of these preparations are coming from somebody who has ultimate tawakkul in Allah. Correct? Still, he takes precautions. And this manifests the reality of our religion. Tie your camel and then put your trust in Allah. Right? اعقلها وتوكل You do everything you can. Look at the secrecy. Look at every single aspect. leaving Ali in his bed so that when somebody looks in over the window they find a body over there tossing and turning right so much down to this detail leaving Ali in his bed so make sure that nobody gets suspicious coming to Abu Bakr first in the middle of the day and then in the middle of the night when they actually leave for Hijrah they leave in the dead center of the night covering their tracks Aamir ibn Fuhairah coming and covering their tracks Abdullah ibn Abu Bakr coming every morning telling them the news finding somebody like Abdullah ibn Abu Bakr whom they can trust and whom the Quraysh would not suspect. Giving some food, giving them every single detail. It is just amazing that they took the best precautions. And yet what is beautiful, when they're out in the desert all open, the Prophet ﷺ is not worried, he's not grieved, he's not troubled, he's walking reciting Qur'an, and not even looking left or right. As we saw when Suraqah came, Suraqah was the one who's noticing from afar. Abu Bakr is worried. Abu Bakr cannot concentrate. Abu Bakr's heart is palpitating. Sometimes before, sometimes behind. He's worried, what if I go behind, somebody comes from back, let me go behind. When he comes behind, what if somebody comes to the front, let me go in front. Back and forth. While the Prophet ﷺ, he's done everything he can. Now, he puts his trust in Allah. Right? This is the essence of tawakkul. That you do everything possible. You don't act like a fool in our religion, this is not tawakkul. You do everything meticulously, meticulously down to the last planning. But your heart is not attached to these preparations. Your heart is attached to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And therefore, once you've done everything, again in the cave, right? Abu Bakr begins palpitating again, right? Ya Rasulullah, if they just look down, they'll see us. He can't, he's worried. Not for himself, for the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ has to calm him down. This is tawakkul. They're hiding in a cave. This doesn't go against tawakkul, right? This is tying the camel. This is taking precautions. They don't stand up and say, here we are, do what you can. Allah is gonna protect me. This is not tawakkul. This is tawakkul, to hide in the cave, so that they don't see it. Allah will then send the pigeon, or Allah will then send the spider, if these riwayat are authentic, and there's nothing wrong with confirming them. Allah will make sure that, Ubayy ibn Ka'b and Umayy ibn Khalaf don't look down. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will protect you, once you've done your job. And the same applies to each and every element of our lives. That when we want something, we have a goal, Allah has told us the path to the goal. We need to make sure we undertake this path. But our tawakkul is not in the path, it is in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Just like our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And there is a beautiful verse in Surah At-Tawbah, which is one of the last surahs revealed at a time when the Muslims were at the peak of their power. After the conquest of Mecca, Allah reveals, إِلَّا تَنْصُرُوهُ فَقَدْ نَصَرَهُ اللَّهُ At the peak of Islamic power, Allah Azzawajal says to the Sahaba, if you're not gonna help the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, don't worry, Allah has already helped him. إِلَّا تَنْصُرُوا فَقَدْ نَصَرَهُ اللَّهُ إِذْ أَخْرَجَهُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا When the kuffar expelled him from Mecca, ثَانِيَةْ نَيْنِي And he was the second of only two people. There were only two people, and an entire city was out to kill them. ثَانِيَةْ نَيْنِ He was the second of only two people. إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ When they were in the cave, the cave of Thawr. إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ إِذْ يَقُولُ لِصَاحِبِهِ لَا تَحْزَنْ When he said to his companion, لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَنَا Don't worry, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is with us. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, فَأَنزَرَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَيْهِ At that point Allah sent His sakinah upon the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ was not worried. He was not anxious. He was completely calm because Allah had sent his sakinah down. وَأَيَّدَهُ بِرُوحٍ مِنْ And Allah helped him. وَأَيَّدَهُ بِجُنُودٍ لَمْ تَرَوْهَا And He helped him with an army that you didn't see. A lot of scholars say, this army is basically the dove and the pigeon and the spider. This is the tafsir, according to one interpretation. This is the army that Allah Azza wa Jal did not allow the mushrikun to even think that in this crevice, there might be Abu Bakr and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And it is amazing that Allah revealed this verse when the Muslims were at their pinnacle. And Allah says, this strength is not gonna, I don't need this strength. I already helped him when there was none of you. None of you were able to help him. When there were only two. And I sent an army that you could not see. Also by the way from this verse, an important point here. The only companion of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, whose companionship has been testified for by Allah, is Abu Bakr. The rest is inferred indirectly. It's there but it's indirect. But for Abu Bakr it is direct. How so? Allah says, اِذْ يَقُولُوا لِصَاحِبِهِ Allah affirmed Abu Bakr as being a sahib, a sahabi. Right? The only sahabi who actually Allah mentions this is his sahabi. so if anybody denies Abu Bakr as being a Sahabi he has gone against what Allah has said in the Quran and again this is no wishy-washiness here this is exactly what Allah says and by unanimous consensus of all the groups of Islam even they will admit that it was Abu Bakr in the cave and not anybody else if it was Abu Bakr in this cave and not anybody else and Allah says إِذْ يَقُولُ لِصَاحِبِهِ لَا تَحْزَنُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعْنًا So anybody who denies suhbah of Abu Bakr, he has gone against what Allah Azzawajal is saying in the Qur'an. Now, before we get to the arrival of the Prophet ﷺ in Medina, that will be inshallah next Wednesday. So right now we're basically right outside the city of Medina, and the Prophet ﷺ is about to come in. So before we get there, that is next week inshallah ta'ala. I wanted to talk about why Medina? what is, out of all of the cities of the world or of Arabia or even of the world because there were Muslims in Ethiopia right now, in Abyssinia there were Muslims in Abyssinia if Allah had wanted to, he could have told the Prophet ﷺ, look the king of Abyssinia has already embraced your religion why don't you go to him and he can then become a public Muslim or do something like that but why did Allah Azza wa Jal choose Medina, so a little bit about Medina, Medina of course is not its original name. Its original name is Yathrib. Its original name is Yathrib. And Yathrib is an ancient city surrounded by volcanic rock. And it is blessed with an undercurrent of water. There is I don't know the geological term but there is a river that flows basically underneath. There is an undercurrent of water. Not a public river. Not an open river. But there is a river that basically from the mountains around it It comes and there is a water source underneath the city that allows for this fertile date palms to grow. And that's why Medina is known for its date palms. It has always been famous for its dates. There are two places in the Arabian Peninsula that had such large date palms, Khyber and Medina, Yathrib. These were the only two places that had these large date palms. And in fact, our Prophet ﷺ was shown Medina by its date palms. In hadith in Sahih Bukhari, when he's in Mecca, He said, رَأَيْتُ فِي الْمَنَامِ أَنِّي أُهَاجِرُ مِنْ مَكَّةَ إِلَىٰ أَرْضٍ بِهَا نَخْلٌ فَذَهَبَ وَهْلِي إِلَىٰ أَنَّهَا الْيَمَامَ أَوْ هَجَرُ فَإِذَا هِيَ الْمَدِينَةُ يَثْرِبُ The Prophet ﷺ said, this is in the 10th or 11th year of the da'wah, two years before the hijrah, he tells the Muslims, I saw a dream that I'm gonna emigrate to a land, and I saw a lot of date palms, and so I thought that it might be al-yamama or hajr, and these are two cities far away on the other side of the peninsula in Yemen this is not in the Hijaz and Yemen does have some date areas but in the Hijaz the only places are Yathrib and Khaybah so I thought it might be the Yemen Yamam al-Hajjah but it turned out to be Medina when did the Prophet ﷺ find out it turned out to be Medina? when the Khazraj embraced Islam and when they invited him to come so subhanallah in his own dream he saw the city but he couldn't recognize it he couldn't recognize it until the sign came from the embracing of the Khazraj, and then the oath of Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ said, in Sahih Bukhari as well, أُمِرْتُ بِقَرْيَةٍ تَأْكُلُ الْقُرَىٰ يَقُولُونَ يَثْرِبْ وَهِيَ الْمَدِينَةِ I have been commanded to emigrate to a city that shall devour all other cities. تَأْكُلُ الْقُرَىٰ يَقُولُونَ يَثْرِبْ They call it Yathrib. وَهِيَ الْمَدِينَةِ But it is Medina. From this hadith we learn that it is not allowed Islamically to use the name Yathrib anymore. Because the Prophet ﷺ said, they call it Yathrib. This is what mankind has called it. But its name now is going to be Medina. يَقُولُونَ يَثْرِبُ وَهِيَ الْمَدِينَةِ And so the Prophet ﷺ changed its name from Yathrib to Medina. And it is clear that the Qur'an itself emphasizes this point because the Quran mentions يَثْرِبْ only from the tongues of the مُنَافِقُونَ. Only from the tongues of the مُنَافِقُونَ. وَإِذْ قَالَتْ طَائِفَةُ مِنْهُمْ يَا أَهْلَ يَثْرِبَ لَا مُقَامَ لَكُمْ فَارْجِعُوا When the مُنَافِقُونَ, in the Quran, when the مُنَافِقُونَ are trying to stoke up fear of the Muslims, they call out to the people and they say, يَا أَهْلَ يَثْرِبْ so the munafiqun used to call the city still yathrib because they didn't like the name medina and in one hadith the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said whoever says yathrib should say astaghfirullah whoever calls medina yathrib should say astaghfirullah because it is taba because it is taba we're gonna get to this name in a while what is taba Now, Allah Azza wa Jal therefore always calls the city Medina. Allah calls it Medina. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam calls it Medina. So Allah says for example in Surah Tawbah, لَإِن لَمْ يَنْتَهْلْ مُنَافِقُونَ وَالَّذِنَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَجٌ وَمِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ مُنَافِقُونَ مِنْ حَوْلِ الْمَدِينَ Allah Azza wa Jal calls the city Medina in Surah Tawbah. And it is the Munafiqun who call it Yathrib. Also our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said they call it Yathrib. and it is Medina. So what does Yathrib mean? Yathrib, some scholars say it comes from Tathrib, which means to criticize. Surah Yusuf, لا تثريب عليكم اليوم There is no criticism on you today. And others say it comes from Tharb, which means evil and corruption. And we know that our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not like bad names. And a number of people converted to Islam with bad names and he changed their names. And he said, no this is not your name, this is your name. Right? In one hadith, a woman comes and converts, what's your name? Sour. You're not sour, you're sweet. Right? And then similar like this. So the Arabs had a superstition, and it is still prevalent in our culture, India, Pakistan as well, that they say something bad about somebody else. If somebody says something good. So if somebody says your child is handsome, the mother might say, no, no, he's very ugly. Right? This is common in our culture, for those who know. Why? They'll say nazar. They'll say evil eye. This is in fact not the Islamic way to counter evil eye. This is what the Arabs would do as well. It's not the Jahiliyya Arabs. And our Prophet ﷺ did not like this. We don't do this. We don't counter evil eye in this manner. But that's a separate topic. I'm not talking about that now. The point being, bad names are avoided. So when Yathrib has a bad meaning, the Prophet ﷺ changed it. And he called it Al-Madinah. And what a beautiful name. Al-Madinah means it's the city. The city. Capital T, capital C. Al-Madinah. And a longer name is Madinah Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But the Prophet ﷺ primarily called it Al-Madinah. Now Al-Madinah also has many names. In fact, some of the scholars who wrote about the history of Madinah, such as As-Samahudi and others, have actually listed over a hundred names of Madinah. Over a hundred names of Madinah. And another scholar who wrote about the history of Islam, early scholar said, no city has more names than the city of Madinah. And the Arabs when they considered something grand, they would give it many names. And so the city of Medina has the most names of any city known to early Islam. However, our Prophet ﷺ called it only two or three things. Of them is of course Medina, of them is Taba. Taba is also the name of the city, and Taba and Tayba, both. Taba and Tayba. So Taba and Tayba both mean the same thing. Taba and Tayba mean the pure, and the source of purity. So in one hadith It's for example the hadith of Muslim Ahmad The Prophet ﷺ said Whoever says Madina فليستغفر الله فإنها الطابة فإنها الطابة فإنها الطابة And this actually shows that يثرب meant evil and corruption Because the opposite of evil is طيب and طابة So don't say يثرب Say طابة الطابة الطابة And also in another hadith he called it الطيبة So الطيبة الطابة المدينة these are all names of the city. Medina has many many blessings associated with it. Of them is that the Prophet ﷺ made dua that Medina become beloved to him. In a hadith in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ said, اللهم حبب إلينا المدينة كحبنا مكة أو أشد Oh Allah, cause us to love Medina as much as we love Mecca or even more than this. Cause us to love Medina as much as we love Mecca or more than this. And Ibn Abbas narrates that whenever the Prophet ﷺ would come back from an expedition and he would see the silhouette of Medina in the distance, he would become excited and tell his camel or his horse to go faster. So he became excited to see the city of Medina and he would love the city of Medina. And of course Medina has the mountain of Uhud. And the mountain of Uhud, the Prophet ﷺ said that, هذا جبل يحبنا ونحبه This is a mountain, we love it and it loves us. So we believe that the mountain loves the Muslims. The mountain of Uhud is a blessed mountain. And the Prophet ﷺ said that Uhud is one of the mountains of Jannah. And this is in Medina. And our Prophet ﷺ told us that Dajjal will not be able to enter Medina. Dajjal will not be able to enter Medina. He will come to Medina trying to destroy it. But he will not be able to enter it because two large angels will meet him at the door and expel him and kick him out. And so one of the cities that Dajjal will never be able to enter is Medina. And therefore, in one hadith, basically in the early tradition, we are told that if we hear of Dajjal, we should go to Medina. Because Medina will protect you from the Dajjal. Also our Prophet ﷺ said that no plague shall ever infest Medina. no plague will ever wipe off the city of Medina and subhanallah in its 14th centuries famines have come but no plagues there have been famines in Medina because the Prophet ﷺ made dua against plague but there has never been a plague, even when the plagues happened in the past, the bubonic plague or in 1918 there was the famous Spanish influenza that killed one third of the world you should know this, 100 years ago, literally one third of the world died in this Spanish influenza, the second bubonic plague it didn't touch the city of Medina. The city of Medina was protected, which is amazing because people come to Medina from all over the world. But the plague did not enter Medina. Also our Prophet ﷺ made dua that Medina be blessed. Medina be blessed. The Prophet ﷺ said that, O Allahumma, badik lana. O Allah, give us baraka in the city of ours. And he said, hadith is in Bukhari, that O Allah, your servant and abd and khalil Ibrahim qad harrama makkah he declared makkah a haram and I too am your servant and your abd and your rasool so I make dua to you to make madina a haram to make madina a haram and so madina is considered the second the second haram in our religion and in one hadith also in sahib bu khali the prophet s.a.w. said O Allah bless us in our weights and our measurements of Medina. What is the weight and measurement في مدينة وصعنة In those days when you purchased grain or barley or dates or anything, they would weigh it. That's how they used to do it. And so the Prophet ﷺ is saying, Bless us in our units of measurement. What this means is, the food that you buy in Medina will be a blessed food. i.e. what does barakah mean? زيادة الخير Barakah means it will suffice more people. And so the food that you purchase in Medina by the dua of the Prophet ﷺ, it will suffice more people. And our Prophet ﷺ, and by the way, this hadith has been interpreted. So in one hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said, اللهم جعل في مدينة ضعف ما جعلت في مكة من بركة O Allah, make Medina double the blessings you have given to Mecca. Now, this hadith has proven a little bit problematic for some scholars because does this mean that Medina is more blessed than Mecca? Because that's what the dua is being said. And there's been a lot of discussions, some of the classical scholars of them is like Imam Malik because he was Madani, so he's a little bit biased towards his own hometown. They would consider Medina to be the holiest land, even if Mecca has more reward for praying. Because Mecca prayer has 100,000, whereas Medina prayer has 1,000, not 50, 1,000. Medina prayer has 1,000. And so clearly there's that difference. But for Imam Malik and others, they said the city of Medina has more blessings because of this hadith. And other scholars have said that each city is blessed in its own way. We don't compare the two. No doubt Mecca has superiority in some angles. Of them is that Mecca was blessed, some say from when the creation was created, and then Ibrahim announced its blessing. This is the majority opinion. That Mecca was blessed the day Allah created the heavens and earth. And then Ibrahim announced its blessedness. Whereas Medina became blessed with the emigration of the Prophet ﷺ to it. so that's clearly a superiority for Mecca another superiority of Mecca is Mecca is the first masjid on earth awwalu baytin wudhi alin nasi lalladhi bibakka the first mosque or temple or structure meant to worship Allah on this whole earth the first mosque was Mecca, that's a blessing of the blessings is that Mecca has a hundred thousand and Medina has one thousand so it's not appropriate to compare each one has its fadila and its blessings and this is something that we experience when we go there. Of the blessings of Medina, our Prophet ﷺ said, that Iman returns to Medina like a desert animal returns to its hole in the desert. Al-imanu ya'ziru ila al-medina. Al-iman rushes back and goes in. It's a beautiful analogy. When the desert animal feels threatened, when there's anything attacking it, immediately disappears and jumps into its hole. Right? So subhanAllah, when the people of Iman are attacked, or when Islam is facing a crisis, Medina will be the place where Iman will be protected. Medina will be the bastion of Islam. And this is proven as well that Dajjal will never enter it. Of them is that Medina will be protected against the plots of its enemies. The Prophet ﷺ said, again all of these are hadith of Bukhari. Subhanallah the blessings of Medina are so authentic. We find them in Bukhari and Muslim. That no one shall plot to harm Medina except that Allah will dissolve him like salt is dissolved in water. Like salt is dissolved in water, he will be disappeared. And in the same book, Sahih Bukhari, he says, that whoever, مَنْ أَحْدَثَ فِيهَا حَدَثًا Whoever, what the meaning of حَدَث here is either a sin or an innovation. Whoever does the crime in Medina, whoever innovates something in Medina, or helps a criminal in Medina, he shall have the لَعْنَة of Allah, and the لَعْنَة of the angels, and the لَعْنَة of all of mankind. And Allah will not accept from him any obligatory or nafil deed. لا يقر الله من صرف ولا عذر Nothing will be accepted of him. This is a huge blessing of Medina and at the same time a very dangerous warning for anybody who wishes to harm Medina. And of the blessings of Medina is that it is a blessed place to live in. It is a blessed place to live in. The Prophet ﷺ said, again hadith is from Bukhari, المدينة خير لهم لو كانوا يعلمون al-madinatu khayru lahum law kanu ya'lamoon Madinah is better for them if they only knew better for anybody if they only knew no one leaves it not wanting to live there except that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will replace him with someone better than that no one leaves Madinah not wanting to live there except that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala replaces him with someone better than that and no one is patient at the difficulties of Madinah Medina is a very difficult land to live in because it's very hot because of its extreme hot and cold by the way both of them are present in Medina also before the advent of modern technology food was also the seasonal it was seasonal when you don't have the date season it's difficult so there's some problems that were in Medina so the Prophet ﷺ said whoever is patient at the difficulties of Medina I will be an intercessor for him on the day of judgment and in fact Medina is not just blessed to live in it is blessed to die in as well. Hadith al-Muslim Imam Ahmad, the Prophet ﷺ said, مَنْ اسْتَطَاعَ مِنْكُمْ أَنْ يَمُتْ فِي الْمَدِينَةَ فَلْيَمُتْ Whoever amongst you is able to die in Medina, let him die in Medina, because I shall intercede on behalf of anybody who dies there. اللهم أن نسألك الموت في مدينة رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وَالدَّفْنَ في بقيع الغرقَدِ Dying in Medina is a very big blessing in and of itself. and our Prophet ﷺ said, whoever is able to die in Medina, let him do so. And we all know that Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala, and this hadith is in Bukhari, Umar ibn al-Khattab would make a strange dua and his own son Ibn Umar would scoff him and say, my father, how can this ever be true? Umar ibn al-Khattab would say, oh Allah, I want to die a shaheed and I want to die in Medina. And his son would say that, oh my father, how can you combine these two things? If you want to die a shaheed, you're going to have to go to the borders. of the Muslim empire, right? And if you die in Medina, you're not gonna die a shaheed, right? And Allah Azza wa Jal accepted that dua because Umar died a shaheed in Medina, right? And so Umar didn't want to leave Medina and he wanted to die a shaheed and Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala gave him that. And of course, Baqi' al-Gharqad especially has a very particular blessing, what we call in our culture, Jannat al-Baqi' the proper name is Baqi' al-Gharqad. Baqi' al-Gharqad has a very blessed, it is the most blessed graveyard in the world because Ibn Hajar says that over 10,000 Sahaba are buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. Over 10,000 Sahaba are buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. All the nine wives of the Prophet ﷺ other than Khadija, all the nine wives of the Prophet ﷺ are buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. The Prophet ﷺ's son Ibrahim is buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. The Prophet ﷺ's great-grandson and great-great-grandson and great-great-great-grandson are buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. The Prophet ﷺ's aunt Safiyyah is buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. so many of the close companions Uthman ibn Affan is buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad as you know Bakr and Umar are buried in the Hijr along with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Uthman ibn Affan is buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad also of the famous Tabi'un and Tabi'un and scholars Imam Malik and Imam Nafi' these are famous names, they're all buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made a special dua for the people of Baqi' al-Gharqad and in one evening when Aisha woke up and found that he wasn't there he comes back and he tells her Jibreel came to me in the middle of the night and told me to go and pray for the people in Baqi' al-Gharqad and so he left his bed in the middle of the night to go to Baqi' al-Gharqad to pray for the people in Baqi' al-Gharqad from a fiqh perspective from a fiqh perspective Medina is something we call a Haram and this is something we need to talk a little bit about because we need to understand what exactly is a Haram Haram comes from haram And haram means forbidden Haram is an area of land That certain things which are halal outside of it Become haram inside of it That's why it's called a haram That's why the root is the same Certain things that are halal outside of the haram Become haram inside of the haram For example Carrying weapons is haram in the haram You cannot carry weapons except for a necessity for the ummah. For example, the armed guards that are protecting the imams. This is an exception, right? But armies do not come in. Even the Prophet ﷺ when he conquered Mecca said, Allah has given me special permission سُوَيْعَاتٍ مِنَ النَّهَارِ for a little bit of time in the day to come in with an army. Otherwise it is not allowed to enter and march into Mecca with an army. It is not allowed to instigate any type of bloodshed in Mecca is not allowed. To pluck the leaves and the fruits of Mecca is not allowed. It's such a haram that you cannot even pluck the grass that you see. That much of a haram, right? It's so sacred, any living object is protected. That's how even a leaf, even a leaf on the tree, you cannot pluck it. This is a haram. And a haram means everything is safe. and Allah says in the Quran وَمَنْ دَخَلَهُ كَانَ آمِنًا whoever enters the haram shall be safe and therefore Ibn Abbas says, Ibn Umar says that in the days of Jahiliyyah a man would see the murder of his father doing tawaf around the Ka'bah and he wouldn't do anything to harm him this is even in the days of Jahiliyyah قَاتِلُ أَبِيهِ would see but he wouldn't harm him why? because Mecca was a haram from Ibrahim's time and so the Arabs knew it is a haram and Islam came and affirmed that a haram means everyone is protected there and therefore if you find a lost object in the haram for example, you're not allowed to pick it up you're not allowed to do that whereas you are allowed to pick it up in other places in Mecca you leave it you leave it, you're not even allowed to pick up a lost item all of this is haram it's protection of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and whoever intends any harm in the haram his punishment will be manifold. وَمَن يُرِدَ فِيهِ بِإِلْحَادٍ بِظُلْمٍ نُذِقْهُمَا الْعَذَابَ نَنِيمٌ Allah says, whoever desires to cause fasad and harm, whoever desires it, forget doing it. If you desire to cause harm to the harams, Allah says, I'm gonna cause you to punish a severe penalty. And so, the harams of our religion, now pay attention, I don't want people to get angry at this because it's gonna cause a little bit of an issue now. So listen carefully. there are only two harams of our religion. Mecca and Medina. There are only two harams. Al-haramayn al-sharifayn. Mecca and Medina. Now, everybody is going to say, hold on a sec, how about Bayt al-Baqtas? How about Aqsa? The response, it is a blessed land. And it is the first qibla. And it is something that we should visit and pray in. And whoever prays there gets extra reward according to the most authentic narration, 250 times. So, Mecca is 100,000, Medina is 1,000, Masjid al-Aqsa, 250. And all of these blessings are there, but it is not a haram. From a fiqh standpoint, it's not a haram. Even if the people call it, al-haram al-sharif. The people of Jerusalem, call that area, al-haram al-sharif, right? The Palestinians know this, right? It is known in the popular vernacular as al-haram. But from a fiqh standpoint, it is not al-haram. Because these rulings don't apply over there. You may hunt the animals of Jerusalem, you cannot hunt the animals of Mecca and Medina. You may pluck the trees of Jerusalem, you cannot pluck the trees of Mecca and Medina. And by the way, this is not something I am saying. None of our scholars, none of the madahib, none of the ulama ever said that Jerusalem is a haram. it is Ardal Muqaddas. It is a blessed land. So don't get confused between blessings and haram. Every haram is blessed, but there's only two harams, Mecca and Medina. But not every blessed place is a haram. Right? And Jerusalem is the best example for this. Jerusalem is blessed, but it is not a haram. So this is something about Medina. Another 3-4 minutes about why Medina was chosen. And then inshaAllah, next week we'll start from the Prophet ﷺ entering Medina. why was Medina chosen? now obviously when we answer this question we need to put the disclaimer this is from what we understand and Allah knows the real reasons if they are more or less than this this is what our scholars have derived and in reality Allah knows there might be many reasons we'll never understand and figure out of those reasons, the most obvious reason it's strategic location it is reasonably close to Mecca without being too close it's not too far and too close from Mecca to Medina an average caravan would take 7 to 8 days and a very fast rider could do it in 3-3.5 days so from those standards this is a distance that is not threateningly close an army could not just surprise you but it's also not on the other side of the world such as let's say in Abyssinia you see the point here it's a reasonable distance from the center of where the da'wah began and that is Mecca. The place where that needs to be conquered in order to subdue all of Arabia. Also, so basically the strategic location, the central locality of the Arabian Peninsula, of the Hijaz, Medina is right dead in the middle of the Hijaz. And Hijaz in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula. So it's very strategic. Also another reason is the natural protection of Medina. And this is clearly manifested in the battle of the trench. Medina is an amazing city from a military standpoint. How so? Ibn Ishaq points out that it is protected from three sides naturally. An army cannot attack it from three sides naturally. On the two sides, south and, sorry, east and west. East and west. Al-Hara Sharqiyah and Al-Hara Ghurbiya. And they're still called exactly to this day. Harra Sharqiyah and Harra Ghurbiya. The Prophet ﷺ said that, Al-Madinatu Haramun Baina Labbateyha. That Madinah is a haram between its two labba. a harrah labba we said a few weeks ago is lava labba is lava and labbateha it's two lava foundations and medina there was a volcanic activity maybe a few thousand years ago Allah knows when and so this volcanic activity spread outside the city of medina and formed a type of material that is neither sand nor rock nor gravel it's very you've seen volcanic rock semi-porous up and down it's not something you can walk on easily so two areas of Medina the east and the west are surrounded by these large labba, harra and the Prophet ﷺ said between these two is the haram of Medina so no army can walk in because you cannot walk with a thousand, two thousand people, you cannot ride camels in this area it's just naturally protected a third side of Medina and this is the southern side which is the side closest to Mecca when you come. The southern side of Medina is generally a very luscious cultivation of date palms. And it was densely populated with date palms. And you cannot take an army through all of these date palms either. It's not gonna be possible. You know, one person can wander through, but you can't bring an army through this dense cultivation and small little plantations everywhere. So, there's only one area, one stretch of land left. and it was that stretch that the Prophet ﷺ had to protect when he dug the trench the ahzab, the khandaq that's the khandaq that he dug it was a few miles long so subhanallah this natural military strategic location it actually clearly was a divine wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that was used in that was used in the battle of the khandaq had it been any other city this would not have been possible you can't dig a moat around the entire city in a week but they're able to dig a moat a few miles long. That's all that was the open area that an army could attack in and they successfully did this. Another benefit of Medina was that the people of Medina had never been conquered before. They had always been an independent principality. And this gave them a sense of izzah and a fighting spirit. Because when a nation has been conquered, generally their spirit has been broken. And it is easy to reconquer and reconquer and reconquer. But the people of Medina had never been subservient to any other fiefdom, any other tribe. They had always been independent from its inception. And so they had this independence that was necessary for the beginning of Islam. They had an izzah that was necessary to translate into the early portion of Islam. Also Aisha points out one of the blessings of Medina was the wars of Buath. The civil war that took place, we mentioned this many times before. the civil war that took place some scholars say it had been going on for a hundred years before the hijrah and some say 40-50 years we never know exactly but more than a generation of civil war more than a generation of fighting and this fighting had done many things Aisha says this was a gift that Allah gave to the Prophet as I said before it was a gift coming out of nowhere because the people of Mecca are not monitoring the wars of Bu'ath but Allah has a plan and when everything finishes you can connect the dots but when the dots are being drawn out we don't know what's happening the wars of Bu'ath did many things most importantly it eliminated the senior leadership of the city the leadership that's the older generation the power hungry the ones stubborn in their ways and it gave fresh blood a chance to come up and fresh blood many things happen with younger blood they're open minded they're not as stuck in the old traditional ways they're willing to experiment with other ideas other religions such as Islam they're also tired of the bloodshed they're just tired of having been raised in a whole generation of blood everybody's died their fathers, their uncles, their grandfathers so they want change they're embracing change and so they want a new leader from outside of the bloodied tribes because everybody else is gonna be tainted they're wanting a fresh neutral leader and they found this in the Prophet and so this is as I said gift to the Prophet of the miracles that Allah chose Medina for and this is clearly a divine wisdom that subhanallah out of all of the tribes of Arabia out of all of the places in the peninsula the Prophet had a direct blood connection with the people of Medina clearly this is willed by Allah. And he had no blood connection with the people of Habesha. He had no blood connection with the people of Yemen, with the people of the Najd. There's no connection. But Allah chooses his place of immigration to a land that he is actually related to. In fact he is the second cousin of some of them. Second cousin is not that far off. Right? Second cousin is not that far off. How so? Go back to one of the early lectures that we gave. And we talked about the Prophet's great grandfather Hashim. the Banu Hashim, he is the Banu Hashim the prophet since the great grandfather was Hashim and Hashim was a trader, a traveler and he would go through Medina on his way to Syria and one time when he went through Yathrib, of course it was called Yathrib at the time, he saw a very energetic, dynamic beautiful lady called Salma, who was a business lady, and she was a very strong personality lady as well. In fact it is said she would marry and divorce men of her choice, not the other way around. That's how strong personality she was. And she was the daughter of the chieftain, so that gave her that independence. She was the daughter of the chieftain. And so when he was in the marketplace he was attracted to this lady. And he found out that she's single, she's been divorced a number of times, she's now single so he sends a proposal through her father, she lays the condition down, because she is the mashallah, that type of lady. She's like I'm gonna stay here and any children we have are gonna be with me and I'm not gonna give any of my business entrepreneurship up I'm still gonna remain who I am I'm gonna be who I am, I'm not gonna become a housewife I'm gonna become a I'm gonna remain a business lady and so Hashim agreed to this and it is said that they were only able to be together for a short period of time because then he died actually he died in Gaza, believe it or not in Palestine he died in Gaza, of course but at that time Gaza was Roman Empire. He was traveling and trading over there. So Salma is pregnant with his son and she didn't tell the Quraysh that she's pregnant because she wants to keep the child. The son is born, he has a white streak on his head so he is called Shaybah. He is called Shaybah. And he grows up and the Quraysh have no idea that there's a son that belongs to them because she didn't tell. She's again independent minded. Finally when somebody finds out they're going through and they look at this guy this is not, his features are all Quraishi. His features are all, and they can tell this, right? So he asks this boy, who is your father? And the father, of course he knows who his father is. He's proud because his father is Hashim, the leader of the Quraish, what not. So he said, my father is Hashim, you know, of the Quraish. Instantaneously he goes back and tells the Quraish, do you know, you have a son over there, you have somebody. So immediately, Al-Muttalib, the brother of Hashim, secretly goes in, finds the kid, and convinces him to come back with him. basically you can say the type of kidnapping but it's a voluntary kidnapping because he bribes the kid that you're the son of a chieftain you're gonna come back this is gonna happen that's gonna happen you can't stay here and give up a future and the kid was probably 12-13 years old at the time Abdul Muttalib of course Shayba and so he is seduced by these talk of grandeur and majesty which would all come true by the way which would all come true and so Hashim sorry Al-Muttalib puts him on his camel and quickly rides away without telling Salma because or else, as you know, what would have happened if the mother found out. So they go back to the Quraysh and when they enter, the Quraysh ask, who is this kid? Is he your slave that you purchased? And he doesn't want to say anything because he's worried about the news spreading back. So he remains quiet. So Shaybah is called Abd al-Muttalib. And who is Abd al-Muttalib? The grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ. Is this not a divine miracle that the grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ is raised in Yathrib? Right? The very streets, the very houses, that the Prophet ﷺ is going to be living in basically, right? His grandfather has seen them and lived there. I mean, is this out of all the cities in Arabian Peninsula? Allah is planning. Yani Allah's plan is working through history, right? There's no question about it. So, Abdul Muttalib is raised in Medina until he's a teenager. And his relatives are still there. And of course, Salma is from the tribe of the Banu Adi ibn Najjar from the Khazraj. from the Khazraj. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ is a second cousin to the Khazraj. Because his grandfather, his grandfather's mother is a Khazraji. Right? His great-grandmother. His grandfather's mother. And you need to understand, the Arabs memorized their lineage inside out. They knew every ancestor for 20 generations. This was how they were. And the Prophet ﷺ to them was not a stranger. He was a second cousin. He was somebody related. Now, to be frank here, somebody related through a female is not the same as a male for that culture, even in Islamic law. Nonetheless, it is a relation. So they considered it to be a akhwal, the relation through the mother. Not like the amam, which is a much stronger bond. But it's not as if, so this is why somebody might say, why would the Khazraj choose the Prophet ﷺ when he's a stranger? Well, he's not quite a stranger. He is blood. In the end of the day, he is blood. And they know this. And in fact, when the Prophet ﷺ did migrate to Medina, it's not a coincidence he stayed in the house of whose house did he stay in? whose house did he stay in? Abu Ayyub al-Ansari who is from the Bani Adi ibn Al-Jar Abu Ayyub al-Ansari is his closest relative of the Ansar, it's not a coincidence I mean that's exactly the point that he is staying in a relative's house Abu Ayyub al-Ansari is his relative also of the reasons that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala again we can assume and Allah knows best chose the city of Yathrib was that the people of Yathrib the people of Yathrib the Arabs of Yathrib the Aus and the Khazraj the Arabs of Yathrib were the Aus and the Khazraj and they were descendants of Qahtan and Qahtan now go back all the way to my second lecture of course everyone has remembered everything about the genealogies of the Arabs and I don't need to quiz you right you all have completely memorized this right and so let me actually quiz you who were the two main progenitors of the Arabs? MashaAllah, see, some of the sisters do remember, MashaAllah. And none of the brothers are any... You remember, MashaAllah. Okay, one brother also remembers, Alhamdulillah. Qahtan and Adnan. Qahtan and Adnan. Qahtan are the Yemeni Arabs, and Adnan are the Hijazi Arabs. Very simplistic, right? These were the two main tribes, and there was still tension between them. There was still, you know, a little bit of civil issues and what not, skirmishes. Now, again, it's not a coincidence, clearly Qahtani and Adnani are merging together to form the new Islamic state. Subhanallah, out of all of the local tribes, they were all Adnani, other than the Aws and the Khazraj. Again, it's not Allah has plan. Allah has a plan that He is putting in place. The surrounding tribes of the Quraysh were all Adnani, except for the Aws and the Khazraj. They were Qahtani. And so, in the early Islamic state, For the Adnani and the Qahtanis to come together, nobody could oppose them on nationalistic grounds anymore. Nobody could oppose the Muslims on nationalistic ethnic grounds, because they're both Adnani and Qahtan. And this is a sign of what's gonna happen, that Islam will come to obliterate these ethnic differences. Islam will come to get rid of this tribalism. And of course, the Qahtanis, there's also benefits of this as well, and I mentioned this before, the Prophet ﷺ praised the people of Yemen. And Aus and Khazraj are Yemenite. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Wisdom is Yemeni and Iman is Yemeni. Beautiful hadith. That the Yemeni people are good people. The Yemeni people are wise people. They're faithful people. They're loyal people. And wallahi this is so true that our Yemeni brothers, mashallah, they really are humble, nice, gentle brothers. We all know this. And the Prophet ﷺ praised them, you know, 14 centuries ago. And these are the Ansar. Because they are Yemeni in their blood. They are originally Yemeni. One final point, I know I'm getting a little bit late. We cannot really talk about this in detail. But the unique combination of the Yahud and the Arabs in Yathrib was very necessary as well. And it has of course some cons came out of it as you know of the presence of the Yahud but there were also many benefits that came out as well. And of the greatest benefits, and we mentioned this 2-3 weeks ago, the Aus and the Khazraj had rubbed shoulders with a monotheistic people for 2 centuries. And they're familiar with the concept of prophets, the concept of a book, the concept of a Sharia. And the Yahud have always been flouting it in their face that we're better than you because we have all of these things. Right? And the table was flipped against them because this arrogance served to empower the Ansar, the Aws and the Khazraj to embrace the truth when they saw it. That they were flouting their arrogance and the Aws and the Khazraj realized that it does make sense to have a Sharia. It does make sense that Allah sends Prophets. But as you know that religion doesn't want converts, right? It's not a universal religion, it is a localized, it is an ethnic religion. So the Aws and Khazraj cannot convert to the faith. But they know the truths of the faith. For two centuries it's been being rubbed in their faces basically, right? And so when the truth comes, the people who are waiting for it, reject it. And the people who weren't expecting it, know it's the truth and accept it. Do you understand this point? The Aws and the Khazraj therefore accept it and the interactions of the Yahud as well have a lot of positives and also some negatives came out of it as well. We'll talk inshallah next week about where did these Jewish tribes come from. It's a very very important question which has many different theories. Question is very interesting. In the middle of the Arabian Peninsula, where did these Jewish tribes come from? Who are they? What is their origin? What were they doing there? I mean the centers of Judaism are Babylon and Jerusalem before the expulsion after the expulsion they go to so many different places. They were in Baghdad, in Iraq. What are they doing here, in the center of the Arabian Peninsula? There are a number of theories out there, and we'll talk about them inshallah next week, along with the relationship of the Aws and Khazraj and the Yahud. And then we'll talk about the entering of the Prophet ﷺ into Medina and start the new phase, the Madani phase. InshaAllah we have a few minutes left for questions, so if there are any questions now, we can take them inshallah. First hand, second hand, yes. The question is about what did Salman do when Al-Sam was taken away without a husband? It is said that because Shayba or Abdul Muttalib had now become a young man, there's nothing much he could do because remember, you're independent when you reach puberty, and he had already reached puberty, right? And he basically, now we don't know too much, But what we do know is that he reassured his mother that this is his choice. What can be done now? He's a man. No. Abdul Muttalib basically reassured his mother that this is now my choice now. I want to be here, basically. Now when he's a young man, what are you going to do now? This is just the reality of life. In our times when a 25 year old wants to do something, what is the father going to do? Some of us face this problem already. It's just the reality of life. So in those days, he's now a young man. He can make his choice. And he did make his choice and he remained where he was. Yes, Dr. Singh. We know from the Prophet's life that he knew about Khabar as the eventual subject. Let's look at this fact. But it seems as far as Medina is concerned, he did not recognize that. Although his family came from Medina, he must have traveled to Medina on his expedition. He did travel to Medina. It did not come to his mind when he was shown those date properties. He was five years old when he went to Medina. he was 5 years old and he only visited it once perhaps for a few weeks and again why did Amina take him to Medina to visit his second cousins to visit the extended akhwal because the Arabs did have this concept of family extended family so the only reason Amina traveled all the way to Yathrib is to allow the Prophet ﷺ to see some of his fellow second third cousins if you like and then on the way back Amina passed away so when the Prophet ﷺ was shown the city he clearly did not recognize it. This is not then part of No, Medina was not Medina was a stopping point when they would go to Syria. Did he travel this route as a trader? If you remember back when we talked about the incident of Buhaira, the monk, we said that it is very problematic and it is very likely that the Prophet ﷺ never traveled as a trader. Right? So, if the story is not authentic, the only time, therefore, he would have gone to Medina is when he was five years old. Okay. Question from the sisters. Yes, go ahead. You said that in Mecca, not even a need to be trapped. So, how is it that they were able to do all this construction and expand? So, obviously, there are a number of exceptions. Of the exceptions is Al-Abbas when the Prophet ﷺ said it is not allowed to pluck any leaves. Abbas said, Ya Rasulullah, make an exception for Al-Idkhir. Allow us this one tree at least. Al-Idkhir because it has so many benefits. And they use it for a number of things. So the Prophet ﷺ said, إِلَّا الْإِذْخِرِ Okay, we'll allow you to pluck Idkhir. Also the scholars say, this does not apply to trees planted by humans for cultivation. This applies to natural trees. so farmers are not prevented from plucking their crops again I'm not giving the fiqh so I just glazed over these rules farmers are not prevented from plucking their own fruits because how else are you going to live but natural vegetation is protected also when there is a need or a necessity to do it then the scholars allow it to be done so for example the Prophet ﷺ when he was building the mosque he had to cut the date palms to build it. So anytime you need to construct something, there's a legitimate reason to do it. So this is considered to be a necessity in order to cut it off. So the point being that when there is a need then you may carry weapons. So the guards of the Haram carry weapons. They have guns, you know. And for good reason they have guns. Because there have been attempts to, you know, do strange things in the Mecca. We want them to be protecting the Kaaba, you know. So they're allowed to carry weapons. This is an exception to the rule. So the same applies when you need to construct something that for legitimate reasons you may pluck, you may destroy the trees, you may cut it off. As I said, the Prophet himself had trees cut off when he was building his own masjid. Even though he calls Medina a haram. So construction is a necessity that allows trees to be plucked. And other reasons as well. Yes? There is a tradition at least in the Pakistani culture that if you go visit Medina, you stay for 8 days and pray 40 prayers. Is there any there is a tradition that is close to being fabricated it's one level above fabric the question is this notion of praying 40 prayers for 8 days where does this come from and the response is there is a tradition reported in the Musnad of Al-Bazar which is a very obscure work relatively speaking meaning it's one of the more tertiary works of hadith and it is almost fabricated, if not fabricated it is almost fabricated and it mentions this tradition of whoever prays 40 salawat with takbiratul ihram in Medina will be saved from nifaq having said this there's nothing wrong with praying 40 prayers in Medina, you know it's very good so this is one of those things that we should be a little bit wise about, there's nothing from the sunnah to stay for 8 days and pray all 40 prayers but if somebody is doing it what are we going to say Alhamdulillah he is in Medina doing this but our scholars do point out that if you have so many days to spend do realize that a prayer in Mecca is worth a hundred thousand whereas in Medina is one thousand our scholars have said this very clearly that Mecca is a hundred thousand and Medina is one thousand so the emphasis should be on Mecca for this reason and visiting Medina is a very big blessing and it's a very important thing but it is not a rukun of our religion unlike Mecca it is a pillar of our religion if you can afford to correct? visiting Mecca is a pillar if you are able to do it you cannot do Hajj without visiting Mecca now we will say it is not proper that you go all the way to Mecca and then don't go to Medina nonetheless if somebody were to do this there is no sin and there are people who can only let's say go for 8 days for Hajj 6 days for Hajj there are many people like this and if they can only get this package that okay we can only go for Mecca do the 5 day Hajj and come back they have done the thalid of Hajj we will all agree to this not very good that they didn't go to Medina but there is no sin at the same time so visiting Mecca is a pillar of our religion if we can afford it and visiting Medina is very strongly encouraged and recommended yes go ahead Could you tell us the boundary of Mecca? The boundary of Mecca is more difficult. And it's something that... In fact, to be honest, both boundaries. Realize that geographical surveys are a modern phenomenon. Right? And to have satellite maps or Google Earth where we draw a line with such precision, it's a modern notion in the time of the Prophet ﷺ it was vague areas and therefore even if you go to do hajj for example there is a sign that says stops here, begins here and our scholars say that even if you're within visual sight of that sign on the other side of the sign this is something overlooked because these are generic regions so if the sign is right here and then you're two feet away it's not as if you're outside of Mina because this is a generic region now if you're half a mile away oh no that's not good but if you're 5-10 feet away this is not a theoretical scenario in Muzdalifah for example many times you try to find a place to sleep you know this personally maybe first time many times this has happened you don't find a place and as soon as you get to the sign it's dead empty there is no sin at all for you to sit right outside the sign and the sign is right here and you're sitting here Not at all because the Prophet ﷺ didn't draw a line in the sand. You see my point here, right? So that's one point. The same applies for the Haram. So the Madani Haram is demarcated clearly, more clearly than the Makki Haram. And the Madani Haram, the Prophet ﷺ said, المدينة حرم ما بين عير إلى ثور And another hadith, فهو حرم بين لابتيها So لابتيها means the two volcanic plains of east and west. and Ayr and Thur are north and south small mountains and Ayr is a mountain behind Uhud and Thur is a mountain on the other side small mountains so the Prophet ﷺ clearly demarcated four points, the two labas east and west and Ayr and Thur north and south and so from this, modern scholars in fact there was a survey done in the previous generation amongst my teachers in Medina in the 1970s in the 1970s and I read their survey myself when I was in Medina, they did a survey where they tried to form a type of more precise boundary. And they have their conclusion, which is then the official Saudi government position now, based on this. But again, imagine the process and gave you four points. How are you going to connect the dots? So there is an element of vagueness. And then there is, you have a general limit. So behind Uhud is not Medina. From Uhud to the Haram is Medina. between the two plains is Medina like this you are asking very deep questions you don't realize the profundity of them I think very well this is the final question this is a deep question Medina let's start with Medina Medina in Medina the reward of a thousand prayers is restricted to the masjid the reward of a thousand is restricted to the masjid not the rawdah a lot of people think only the rawdah has a thousand no the entire masjid will be a thousand right And if the masjid is expanded beyond what it is now, it will be in that expansion. When Umar, the first person to expand the masjid was Umar ibn Khattab. And he saw some people hesitate to pray in the extension. He saw some people hesitate to pray in the extension. And he said, Wallahi, it will be the masjid even if it goes to Dhul Hulayfa. Dhul Hulayfa is the miqat. If I expand it, that is the masjid. So from this, the scholars say, whatever is the physical masjid of the Prophet ﷺ at any current time, that will be the thousand reward. So if you pray in the furthermost corner of the masjid, you will get a thousand. And if you pray in Saffa al-Awwal, you will get a thousand. But you will get more for being in Saffa al-Awwal, but the thousand will be the same. Correct? Rawdah has blessings separate from this. Now, your question about Mecca is a profound one. Why? Because there is a classical ikhtilaf from the time of the Sahaba regarding what is it mean to say al-haram al-Makki? Does it mean the masjid only? Or does it mean the haram, i.e. the haram haram? Do you understand this point? The fiqh-i haram. Within the boundaries. Within the boundaries. This is an ikhtilaf that goes back to the tabi'un, taba-tabi'un. Goes back to the earliest of times. and they both have their evidences they both have their evidences so for example we just talked about Isra and Mi'raj Sahih Bukhari tells us that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was in his house was in his house his house was outside the masjid correct? Allah says in the Quran سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى so Allah called his house masjid al haram and that's one of the evidence it's not really majority it's a 50-50 split maybe one of the evidences that is used to say that all of Mecca is the blessed haram and it's not just the masjid around the Ka'bah right, that's one opinion and another opinion is that no, it is the masjid and the congregation of the masjid and to be honest I lived there for 10 years and I was not able to find an opinion that made sense to me both have very strong evidences but Alhamdulillah when I went to Mecca I always prayed in the Haram so I never had to worry about this issue it's like you know who would go to Mecca and then go a mile away to pray you know what I'm saying it's like in the Hajj time if the congregation is connected to the hotel places then it will count as the congregation of the Kaaba so we don't have to worry about this we're asking about the other masajid in Mecca will you get the 100,000 reward or not and many scholars say yes all of the haram of Mecca is the 100,000 and many say it is only that masjid but for us, alhamdulillah, when we go there we don't have to worry about this the people of Mecca can debate and of course they prefer the other opinion obviously but for us, we don't have to worry about this because we always pray inshallah in the the center haram, which is the haram majlis. InshaAllah we will continue next Wednesday. Any announcements, Danish? The what? One final question. Go ahead. Bismillah. You told that the Prophet ﷺ is very afraid to pray. So what prayer we should do for the deceased if somebody goes to cover the grave? The Prophet ﷺ's dua in front of the graves was very authentically reported. As-salamu alaykum ya ahla qawmin min al-muslimin wa al-muminin wa inna insha'Allah baykum la hiqoon. Nasrullah alayna wa lakum al-afiyah. And other du'as are mentioned. The Prophet ﷺ's du'as are numerous in front of the grave. And we mentioned before two weeks ago was it about the issue of reading Qur'an and what not. It has never been narrated that the Prophet ﷺ would read Fatiha in front of the grave or do anything like this. So we should stick to the sunnah, it is better. and make the du'as of the Prophet ﷺ. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. InshaAllah with this we will conclude and continue next Wednesday. InshaAllah. Bismillah.

Seerah 28 - Introduction to the Madani Phase - Yasir Qadhi _ March 2012-j41qC7kVfCc

Al-Fatihah have mentioned about the city of Medina. Today we're gonna continue on and talk about the demographics of Medina. Who lived there and can we have any population estimate? The demographics of Medina. We all know that there were two major ethnic groups living in Medina. The Jewish tribes and the Arab tribes. So the first question we need to ask ourselves, where did these Jews come from? What are they doing in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula? And then the second question, which Arabs are these? How are they related to the other Arabs? And what is the relationship between the Yahud and the Arabs in Yathrib, in Medina? Realize, before we even begin, that this issue is a very politicized, very polemical one. It causes a lot of debate. And that is because the accusation that non-Muslims give of our religion amongst many other accusations, one of them is that it is anti-Semitic. And anti-Semitic means that the accusation is the religion is racist against the Jewish people. And that the Prophet ﷺ had certain inclinations to disregard the Jewish people or to treat them in a negative manner. This is the accusation, right? And the way that the three Jewish tribes were treated, the Banu Quraidah, the Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Nazir, the way that these three Jewish tribes were treated one after the other, this is their basis for this accusation. Okay? So this is a very sensitive topic. And it is one that whenever, if you ever give da'wah to non-Muslims, eventually this comes up. Number of things, the process of marrying multiple women, the age of Aisha, and then one of the most important things, how he dealt with the Yehudi tribes. Right? So, when we talk about it in this context, especially in North America, we need to understand clearly what happened. Without being apologetic, by now all of you know me, that inshallah, you have no doubt, inshallah, I'm not an apologetic. I'm not an apologist. What is an apologist? Somebody who wishes to water down Islam and make it compatible or palatable to all the enemies of Islam. I don't care what people criticize Islam. If it is true, we will have to defend it. And we have to believe it. And if it's not true, then we tell them it's not true. So if they say that, you guys do XYZ. XYZ is what we do. We say, yes, we do this. Whether you like it or not, this is our religion. And if they lie about us, then we say, no, this is not true. And if it is true, then we also have to explain. So did the Prophet ﷺ have multiple wives? Yes, he did. Then we need to explain the rationale. There's wisdom behind it. And in explaining this, we are not watering Islam down. We're simply defending and we're simply explaining that people should not be critical. so this is one of those topics I'm just talking about it for the first time but do realize that throughout the next few weeks and the next few years because the Madani Sira is three times the Makki Sira inshallah if Allah gives us life we'll continue this I will have to go into a lot of detail into these Jewish relationships because it is important for American Muslims to be aware of the details of what happened some of which sound politically very incorrect and some of which have no problems with, our basis is not political correctness. Our basis, did the Prophet ﷺ do it? If he did, what is the wisdom? That's what our methodology is going to be. So before we even go on this tangent, today we need to discuss a very important question that will contextualize the rest of this dimension. And that is, where did these Jews come from? And what are our sources for the stories about the Prophet ﷺ and the Jews? Now realize, one of the biggest problems that we face is that non-Islamic sources have no mention of these Jewish people at all. So the only reference we have to these tribes is from within the Islamic tradition. As of yet, we have not discovered any history, any chronicle that mentions the tribes in Medina. Now, there are references to Jews in Arabia, in other sources. But from the Islamic sources, we get all of the details. Now, this is considered problematic by non-Muslims. For us, it doesn't really matter that much. By non-Muslims, it's considered problematic. Why? Because they say, these sources are biased. They all have an agenda. And what is the agenda to defend the Prophet ﷺ, no matter at what cost? Because they're all Muslims, so they're not gonna be fair and balanced. that's only one network is fair and balanced right? otherwise the Muslims can never be fair and balanced right? because according to them they will have this bias to defend the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam so we'll never know the full story anybody who opposes the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam according to them will be painted in a negative light and can you believe there are articles that I have read myself that defend Abdullah Ibn Ubayy Ibn Salul as being a noble man as being a leader why? because again the point is anybody who opposes the process and is painted negatively, he must have been a good person. So they flip the entire narrative around. And they make the leader of the munafiqeen the real true gentleman and nobleman of Medina. And the same applies to the other stories as well. So we need to be very cautious and careful about how we're gonna interpret the sources. So, we begin by saying there are a number of theories about where these Jewish tribes came from. Some of these theories were simply said by the early scholars and some are propounded by later scholars. The first theory is that these tribes were sent by the Prophet Musa alayhi salam himself. That the Prophet Musa alayhi salam sent a small group to the land of Hijaz. Why? Because he knew that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. would come from that land and so he wanted a group of his followers to believe in him and welcome him. This is a theory that one finds in early Islamic sources, and Allah Azza wa Jal knows best, it does seem a bit strange to be honest, and it doesn't seem very sound. Yani why would Musa alayhi salam send some of his followers when he is the prophet of that time, and the people should remain with him. And he knows that there's gonna be another prophet, Isa, between him and the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and Allahu'alam, but he probably knew that the other prophet would come after a long time. And that's over 2-3 thousand years. Allahu'alam, but this is one theory that some Muslims have. Another theory, which seems more reasonable, and this actually might have some references in non-Islamic sources as we'll mention. Another theory is that the Jews of Medina settled in Medina after they were expelled from Jerusalem. now let's pause here and everyone should know that once upon a time Sulaiman a.s. when Sulaiman was the king and Sulaiman was the prophet all the Yahud of course were in Jerusalem obviously that is very true we don't deny this it's obvious they were there and Sulaiman a.s. had built the big temple the Heikal he had built the big temple of Sulaiman now over the course of the next hundreds and thousands of years the power of that state collapsed, the Romans became in charge, and then the Christians, and at times even the Persian emperor was in charge of Jerusalem. So over the course of the next 1,500 years until Umar ibn al-Khattab conquered Jerusalem, Jerusalem was in between many different people. It was controlled by pagan Romans. Pagan Romans, they hated the Christians as well. It was controlled by the Persians at times, and at times it was controlled by Christian Romans. So different groups had controlled it. Now, there were two major expulsions of the Jews. And according to the majority of scholars of Islam, it is these two expulsions that are mentioned in the Quran in Surah Al-Isra. If you read the first page of Surah Al-Isra, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions two expulsions and two punishments sent upon them. the majority of Quranic scholars consider these two to have been the ancient two of the past and I should just add as a footnote some modern scholars of the Quran and I don't I haven't really studied and I don't have an opinion myself some modern scholars say that this reference in Surah Al-Isra is to a future event and not a past one and if you understand Surah Al-Isra this changes the whole dynamics of what the surah is talking about, right? And that is a tangent that is not relevant to this class. But there is a new group of scholars that is saying, surah al-isra is not history, it is prophecy. Surah al-isra is not the past, it is the future. And that changes the entire dynamics if you understand the surah and what is being mentioned. But that is one theory. The majority of scholars in our history have always understood surah al-isra as being history. I.e. the two expulsions. What are these two expulsions? The first expulsion took place in 587 BC before the Christian era 587 BC and this was when Nebuchadnezzar who was an evil tyrant rule Bukhtanasar in Arabic Nebuchadnezzar surrounded Jerusalem and for the first time in the history of the Jewish empire destroyed the Haykal of Sulaiman the original Haykal the actual temple that Sulaiman had built and this was considered to be one of the wonders of the world why? because the jinn built it obviously it was a structure the likes of which man had never seen it was massive and beautiful it was a feat of architecture it was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world you might have heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world seven, if you like, creations of man that were just unparalleled one of them was reputed to be the haikal of Sulaiman and of course we as Muslims we believe the reason why was because he had the jinn building him Allah says in the Quran that the jinn are that they were architects and diving deep into the water to get what they needed so they're doing things in the water what did they get from the water what pearls, what beautiful exquisite treasures and they're building structures So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that Sulaiman was given this, so the haikal of Sulaiman was an amazing structure that stood solid for four or five hundred years, untouched. And then Allah azza wa jal will that the first of the destructions occur. And this is as I said in 587 BC, and this was when the original temple was destroyed. this temple when it was destroyed it was the first time the Jews had to flee it is called the diaspora and the Jews are known throughout history for having many diasporas they call themselves the wandering people the wandering peoples why? because since that time they've never had a unified land up until as we know 1947 so they have always been in different lands that was the beginning the first diaspora and it was at that diaspora that large groups left for many lands. We know for a fact they went, the majority of them went to Iran. And they stayed there for many decades or hundreds of years until finally King Cyrus allowed them to come back. And so many of them came and many of them remained. And Iranian Jews therefore are considered to be of the most ancient of the Jews. And there are plenty still in the world. If you go to Los Angeles, there is a whole area of Iranian Jews over there an entire area over there where you can see their restaurants and their stores and what not and they're well known this is perhaps one of the largest groups of Jews in the Middle East before the creation of Israel that was in Iran so that's one area they went also they went to areas of Iraq and we know that Iraq had a lot of Jews in the time of the Umayyads early Umayyads was full of Jews Baghdad as well Kufa and Baghdad. Where did they come from this first diaspora? It is also said that some went to Yemen, but it appears that the majority of the Yemenite Jews are from the second expulsion, and Allah knows best. Do they go back that ancient or not? We know that Yemen had a lot of Jews in it. We know this up until now, they were Jews until 1947, and the Yemeni Jews and the Fallasha of Ethiopia are of course related. They are in fact the same branch. So from Yemen they then went to Habash or Ethiopia, so those two are also the branch of the Yahud. So, there is one theory that a small group of Jews in 587 BC emigrated to Hijaz. This is a theory, there is no architectural evidence, there is no, you know, records. This is one theory. Personally, I doubt this because that is taking the presence of the Yahud back a thousand years before the Prophet ﷺ, and that seems too early, Allahu a'lam, it seems too early for the entrance of the Yahud. But this is one theory. Now this was the first expulsion, the first diaspora. The second destruction of the temple, so eventually the emperor, the future emperor becomes kind and he builds the temple again. But of course he builds it, so it's his structure, not Sulaiman's structure, right? So it's a fake imitation, a cheap imitation of the real structure. Nonetheless, it is a magnificent structure from his perspective. In other words, he does a good job, right? So he, one of the emperors was basically, took some kindness on them, and built a massive temple for them. This as well was about to be destroyed in a few decades. And this is, the second destruction according to the majority of scholars, that Allah Azza wa Jal sent upon them. And this happened, after the coming of Isa ibn Maryam. After the coming of Jesus Christ, under the emperor Titus in 70 CE. Under the emperor Titus in 70 CE, there was a second destruction of the temple. And this led to a second diaspora. A second time that the Yahud fled in many different areas. And there was a third, not destruction of the temple, but a third major diaspora, when in 132 CE, a group of Jews decided to rebel against the ruler. Because the ruler forced them to, I believe, don't quote me here, I think that they were forced to commit shirk. I think the ruler wanted them to sacrifice a pig to an idol or something. So they revolted against this, right? So it was sacrilegious. And obviously, our sympathies are with them in this revolt. They revolted against the emperor with an armed revolt. And the emperor brutally slaughtered hundreds and thousands of them. He surrounded the city. He just basically massacred them. And this is the emperor Hadrian. The emperor Hadrian in 135. He didn't destroy the temple. But he slaughtered hundreds and thousands of Jews. And so they fled once again. it is said and this seems to be Allahu'alam the one that makes the most sense that this wave of immigrants some of them running and fleeing helter and skelter some of them wander down south into the Arabian peninsula because Jerusalem is due north and they're just wandering down and they come across this fertile ground that has lots of date palms there are no inhabitants there at the time and they settle down over there and this is the original Yathrib then So the Yahud are the ones who actually found Yathrib, according to this narrative. And one group settles in Yathrib, another settles in Khyber. And Yathrib and Khyber are relatively close to each other. One group settles in Yathrib and Khyber, and it is also said another group continues down, and the largest of them continues down until they reach Yemen. And the Yemeni Jews were the largest quantity of Jews in the Arabian Peninsula. In fact, when the Prophet ﷺ sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal to Yemen, what did he tell Mu'adh? He said, you're going to go to a land that is Jews and Christians. Ahl al-Kitab. And that is because in Yemen, there was a Christian Himyarite kingdom, and they were Christians because Abraha had conquered parts of Yemen, and he had installed a governor there. A lot of people converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. and the Jews were there from this expulsion. So Yemen was a land where there were a lot of Christians and Jews. Only Yemen, the only land in Arabia that had Christians and Jews. Yathrib, as we said, one theory, these people who worked their way down to Yemen, one group of them settled in Yathrib and then the rest continued down. This is one theory. Yet another theory is the exact opposite. And that is, well not the exact opposite, modified. And that is that the people of Yathrib are actually, the Jews of Yathrib are actually from the Jews of Medina. So the first theory has it that the people from Jerusalem are wandering down, and small pockets remain in Yathrib, and the bulk goes to Yemen. Right? The other theory has it the other way. And that is that from Yemen, small pockets emigrated. And they worked their way up. and so some of them ended up in Yathrib. Now in either case, and this is an interesting point, it establishes some type of relationship between Yemen and the Yahud. Correct? Either case. Because the first batch, the first theory, they would have eventually found out that their relatives migrated to Yemen. Correct? And the second theory, they are the descendants of the Yemeni Jews. Correct? So both of these theories link them to Yemen. And in my humble opinion, this makes complete sense as we're going to come to now. This makes complete sense and it fits in perfectly as we're going to come to now. A tangent here. Some modern researchers looking at the reports of the Jews in Medina. And seeing what they had of institutions and trying to find phrases that are found in Arabic that the Jews used. This is a very meticulous research. You're trying to reconstruct who these Jews were. So some researchers have a theory that the Jews of Medina were not from the sects of mainstream Judaism. They were from a very ancient sect called the Karaites. K-A-R-A-I-T-E, Karaites. Pause here. You should be aware that Judaism has many sects as we all know. we in America are only used to three of them. The conservative, the reform and orthodox. The Hasidics are a branch of the orthodox. The conservative, the reform and the orthodox. These three sects are completely modern. They go back a hundred years in America. Has nothing to do with classical Judaism. So we can ignore all of this for classical Judaism. Classical Judaism we don't want to talk about the sect of Judaism that's a different class altogether. but realized there were two main streams once upon a time. Two main streams. The first of them was called Rabbinic Judaism. And all of the Jewish groups in our times go back to Rabbinic Judaism. Rabbinic Judaism, look at it as the Jews who are required to follow the Rabbis. Rabbinic. So the Rabbis interpret the law and they follow the Rabbis. the second group of Judaism of Jews and this is the theory that this group is from that second group are the Karaites by the way in our times the Karaites are only 40,000 in the whole world they are very minuscule and I have never met one in my life they are a very small group they are still around the Karaites reject the authority of the Rabbis and they say we need to follow the Torah directly we're not going to have the intermediary of the rabbis we're going to follow the Torah directly now this is a bit simplistic but the point is that there is something called Rabbinic Judaism which has look at it this way books of fiqh the Rabbinic Jews are going to follow books of fiqh they're not going to go back to the Quran and Sunnah I'm being equivalent here the Karait Jews reject these books like this is not the original sharia the actual sharia is the kitab and sunnah the quran and sunnah so they're gonna go back directly to the quran and sunnah this is Karait Judaism now the point being some scholars have tried to research this and it appears that the Jews in Medina were Karaits if this is the case then we can say that the theory that they emigrated when they were expelled from Jerusalem makes sense because that was the time when Karaite Judaism was predominant. Rabbinic Judaism began around 4-500 CE. And the expulsion took place 70-120 CE. You see why we're interested in what type of Jews there are. Because Rabbinic Judaism, after 400 CE, the bulk of Jews are Rabbinic Jews. So these Jews have nothing to do with Rabbinic Judaism. So therefore they arrived in Yathrib before 400 CE. Therefore this adds weight to the fact that they are from the expulsion of Hadrian and Titus. You guys following me? I'm going a totally different tangent, but this is the introduction to a very important series of topics afterwards. Now, Allahu a'lam, I also have an opinion, and may Allah Azza wa Jal forgive me for daring to have an opinion, but at the same time, with all humbleness and modesty, very few people try to study the seerah also looking at other sources, like western sources, Roman sources, Greek sources, other sources that we can find things about. And this is unfortunately one of the problems that very few people are doing it in this manner. You either have people who are not Muslim, who reject the Qur'an and Sunnah, and rely completely on these sources. And then you have Muslims who are not even aware of the other sources, and they completely rely on this. We have a lot of information from other sources, and we're trying to piece together a picture. Allahu'alam, I have a little bit of a theory in this regard. Take it or leave it. And that is that. The question is very interesting. There were three famous Jewish tribes of Medina. You should memorize these names. We're going to keep coming up over and over again. The Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Nazir, and the Banu Quraida. Okay? Banu Qaynuqa, Banu Nazir, Banu Quraida. Okay? Question. Jews do not divide themselves into these types of tribes. Jews don't have tribes. This is an Arab phenomenon. Jews do not have tribes. They were considered... Now if somebody says the 12 tribes of Israel, that was ancient. This is now long gone. Even in the time of the expulsions, there weren't these tribes anymore. That was ancient in the time of Dawud, in the time of Musa and Harun. Yes, they had the 12 tribes of Bani Israel. But this, they just merged together. They did not continue that tradition. And they became one nation, one ethnic group. So the question arises, how did these Jews of Yathrib get divided up into three tribes, when, if the story is correct, they're all coming from one area and settling in Yathrib. It doesn't make sense for them to be three separate tribes, and these three tribes were having battles with each other in the wars of Buath. In other words, there's a civil war taking place between the Arabs and between the Jews. In this civil war, the Aus is on one side, the Khazraj is on the other. And the Jewish tribes themselves are divided and fighting each other. You see the problem here, right? If there were one unit, one group of people, how come they're divided into tribes and how come there's a civil war? You understand the question here, right? So the theory that I have and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best is that there's an element of truth in more than one of these stories. And these three tribes represent three different emigrations of the Yahud to Yathrib. three different time zones and therefore when each time, when each new group arrives, they're not considered part of the old one because this is now completely broken away, right? and so this is one theory and again I don't know anybody who has suggested this but there is very little discussion in the Islamic sources of the origin of these tribes anyway if you look at Ibn Ishaq, no mention at all where these Jews come from, look at Ibn so this is not something that people are thinking about where all of these people come from nonetheless, this is one theory and Allah knows best and we're never gonna know unless we find external information but it does make sense that there must be some reason why these three tribes were separate from one another that's the theory I have now, this is the first group of people the Yahud the second group of people are the Arabs the Arabs were themselves two tribes now Alhamdulillah we know the Arab tribes the Arab tribes their lineage is mapped out and by the way some modern groups of scholars they actually even denied that they were real Jews in Medina some modern non-Muslim scholars they denied this, why? many reasons, perhaps some of them felt embarrassed that this happened to the Jews so they said these weren't real Jews, who were they? they were Arab converts to Judaism they weren't, you know, in the Jewish religion you have to be ethnically your mother has to be a Jew for you to be considered a Jew so if you're a convert then most orthodox groups of Judaism don't consider you in fact all of them don't consider you really to be a Jew So there is a theory that these Jewish tribes were not actually Jewish. That they were Arab converts to Judaism. This is a ridiculous theory for one simple reason. If they were Arab converts, we would know their lineage. We would know where they're coming from. The Arabs, whatever they did, they preserved their lineage. And these three tribes appear out of nowhere. There is no connection with Adnan and Qahdan at all. So when there's no connection, we have connections with every single Arab tribe to Adnan or Qahdan. Remember we talked way back about the two main founders of the Arabs, right? Adnan and Qartan. We have every single tribe you can think of. The Kindah, the Kinana, the Thaqif, the Quraysh. We can trace it all the way back. As for the Qaynu, even the names by the way, Qaynu, Qa' and Qurayza. These are not names that are familiar to the Arabs. They're Jewishized Arab names. So the theory that they are converts holds no weight because there's no lineage. And all Arabs have a lineage to these two. now, the original settlers therefore in this land were Yahud, where did the Arabs come from and who are the Arabs, the Aus and the Khazraj the Aus and the Khazraj, we know much more about them because they're Arabs, so when we're talking about Arabs, we can map out the lineage the Aus and the Khazraj they are descendants of Qahtan Qahtan, Adnan is the Prophet's ancestor right, remember, go all the way back there were two major founders of what we now call Arabs, Adnan and Qahtan. And generally speaking, Qahtan was more southern and Adnan was more central, generally speaking. And Ismail's descendants mixed with Adnan and his descendants. And so the Prophet ﷺ and the Quraysh are called Adnanis. And Qahtan is the other major tribe. Now, the bulk of Middle Arabia, Hijaz, is Adnani. Quraysh is Adnan, Thaqif is Adnan all of these tribes are Adnani in fact the only group of Qahtani Arabs in the whole region is in Yathrib and as I said last Wednesday clearly again we cannot be 100% sure we don't speak on behalf of Allah but it does appear that this was what Allah intended that the Qahtani and the Adnani tribes would merge together in early Islam to show the real unity. That there would be no more animosity between Qahdani and Adnani. That anybody who opposed the Muslims could not do so on ethnic grounds. And this was the precursor to unite all of the Arabs. Out of all of the tribes, the Prophet ﷺ is Adnani, and he settles in Qahdani, and the two come together under the banner of Islam. It seems more than just a coincidence is the point. It seems Allah ﷻ intended this. So where did these Qahtani come from? What are they doing here if they live in Yemen? Here we go back to the story of Qahtani Arabs. Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you too much. If this is boring, personally I find this very interesting, but people are different. Some people don't like this ancient history. Qahtani is the people of Yemen, if you like. The Aws and the Khazraj go back to the city of Ma'rab. and ma'rab is the people of Saba the people of Saba you know Saba is mentioned in the Quran there is a surah in the Quran surah Saba the people of Saba Allah Azza wa Jal mentions them in the Quran and Allah mentions one thing about them that is an amazing feat that the whole world knows about them and that is they were the first human beings ever to build a dam never before had a dam been built. And by the way, that dam still stands to this day. It is what, 2,000, 3,000 years old. Not all of it, but you see still to this day, outside the city of Ma'rab, you will still see the dam. And this dam was a feat of engineering. It blocked up the waters so that there could be rivers flowing. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran, لَقَدْ كَانَ لِلسَّبَأٍ فِي مَسْكَنِهِمْ آيَةٍ جَنَّتَانِ عَنْ يَمِينٍ وَشِمَالٍ كُلُوا مِنْ رِزْقَ رَبِّكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا رَفْبَ بَلْدَةٌ طَيِّبَةٌ وَرَبٌ غَفُورٌ Allah blessed them like He hardly blessed anybody else at that time. And Allah mentions this in the Quran. And they had rivers flowing from this dam and the rivers gave them beautiful gardens. جَنَّتَانِ عَنْ يَمِينٍ وَشِمَالٍ You know, there were gardens that on the right and the left of the city and it was a beautiful place. And then Allah punished them. How did He punish them? The dam collapsed. فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ Sayl al-Arimi This is Sayl al-Arim. Sayl al-Arim is the Arim dam collapsing. Sayl is the water flowing, right? Sayl al-Arimi. So because of their insolence and their arrogance, they were punished and the dam collapsed. And this led to, again, hundreds and thousands of people dying, many villages destroyed, and many other Yemenis had to migrate away. And this occurred most likely around 300 CE. most likely around 300 CE so around 3 centuries before the coming of the Prophet 250 years before the coming of the Prophet the Ma'rab dam collapses and Allah references in the Quran and so groups of Yemenites have to emigrate now here is where I go back to what I initially said some of them Aus and Khazraj were cousin tribes they literally go back to the same person Aus and Khazraj were cousin tribes so there is some blood relationship so we can understand why the two are together so Aus and Khazraj they end up in Yathrib why Yathrib? again nobody knows but this is all theory again take it or leave it but there is nothing wrong with giving theories and Allah knows the truth if we say that the Yehud of Medina had relationships with Yemen it makes complete sense for the Yemeni Qahtanis to be aware of an established settlement that has nothing to do with the Adnanis. Because remember there is animosity between Adnan and Qahtan. There always was tension. Up until the time of the Prophet ﷺ, there was tension. In fact, even the Hilf al-Fudul that took place, it was a war between Adnanis and Qahtanis. Up until that time, they were still fighting. So, if there was some relationship between Yemen and those Yahud, and I gave the theory that there is, then it makes complete sense that the Aws and the Khazraj would have known again some travelers they would have known of a group of Jews they would have felt comfortable being with them because they are already comfortable with Jews in Yemen perhaps even there was some trading Allah knows again this is who is going to have records in 300 CE this is all theories that we are going to have but the question still and it is an unanswered question why Yathrib? how did the Aws and Khazraj end up in Yathrib and there's already a Yehud over there unless there was some type of relationship beforehand you see my theory here some type of knowledge beforehand so the Aws and the Khazraj settled down in Yathrib and the two of them benefited each other the two of them benefited each other how so? the Yehud were skilled in agriculture in weaving of course they were businessmen the Arabs had knowledge of war the Arabs had knowledge of the language and so the Arabs Arabicized the Jews i.e. the language became theirs the culture became theirs, they're living in Arabia so all of the Jews began speaking fluent Arabic now they still spoke Hebrew by the way, we know this from the Sira, we know this from the Sira and obviously it's understood, I mean any minority retains its language for many generations, you know especially when you're in the middle of the desert so they retained their Hebrew but they spoke fluent Arabic as well and they took on the culture of the Arabs and the language of the Arabs and the dress of the Arabs with some you know Yehudi as well influence but they kept much of their culture and they adopted Arab culture so when the Pahdani's the Yemeni's the Aus and the Khazraj arrived in Yathrib it appears that they didn't arrived together, and again this is a theory. Nobody was an eyewitness writing chronicles of 300 CE, i.e. 200 before the Hijrah. 250 before the Hijrah. Who's gonna be recording this? The theory goes as follows. Now, we know for a fact that the Aus had asked permission from the Banu Quraizah and the Banu Nadir, the two Jewish tribes, and formed an alliance with them. And the Khazraj had taken permission from the Banu Qaynuqa. So the question once again arises, how come these two Jewish tribes, sorry, these two Arab tribes have different Jewish alliances? The theory, the two of them didn't arrive at the same time. Maybe 10-15 years apart. Or a few years apart. That the first tribe arrived, and that is the Aus. And the Aus got the alliances and took some protection from the largest of the Yahudi tribes, and that is the Banu Quraizah and the Banu Nadir. And this also explains why the Aus were richer. Because the Aus were richer than the Khazraj. And the Aus had a higher income. They were socio-economically better off. And they occupied the better land of Medina. Because in those days land was also tribal. Your house was where your tribe was. It's not like in our time anybody buys any. No. You lived where your tribe was. For protection, for safety. So the Aus had the best plots in Medina. The most luscious gardens of Medina. And the Khazraj had the lower territories. The ones that were not as luscious. So, therefore, it appears that the Oaths arrived before, and one theory goes, the Yehud needed manual labor. They needed people to basically farm the land. It's too large for them. And so they allowed the Oaths, the opportunity to basically, what's going to be a good word here, not rent to own, not lease to own, but basically, fraction it out. You take charge of the land, you give us a fraction, and you take the rest, right? it's basically, you do the manual labor and you give us a percentage of the produce and you can basically man the land and take charge of it so the Aus and the Khazraj therefore settled down in this manner and over the course of the next 150-200 years this solidified the relationship the Aus and the Khazraj had their alliances with the Yahud and each of them had wars with each other. And therefore, when the civil wars took place, and I said the civil wars lasted for more than 100 years. The civil wars lasted for more than 100 years. The worst of them was the Bu'ath war, which took place 5 years before the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ. And it is also known that the Jewish tribes financed the Aus on the one side, the Banu Nazir, and the Banu Qaynuqa finance the Khazraj on the other side. So they actually were involved in the civil war. Did they actually fight or not? We don't have references. But there was clearly a divide between the Jewish tribes. And the two Jewish tribes were helping different sides, the Aus and the Khazraj. Now, question arises. The number of people living in Medina, how many? very difficult there was no census nobody is going to go house to house and see how many people but we can kinda sorta get a glimmer kinda sorta how so? well by looking at the battles of Badr and Uhud and Khandaq seeing how slowly but surely the city is growing the total population of the three Jewish tribes seems to have been around 2000 men we get this by doing a tally of Banu Nazir, Banu Qainuqa and Banu Quraidah, each time something happens, we have a number roughly of men. Adding all of these men together, 2,000 men. Multiply that by 3 for women and children, you get 6,000 Jews roughly in Yathrib. When the Prophet system emigrates, roughly 6,000. We also know that in the conquest of Mecca, the Ansar had around 4 to 5,000 men participating in the conquest. Right? so 4 to 5 thousand multiplied again by average of 3 you have 12 to 15 thousand Arabs so quantity wise the Arabs seem to be double the Jews but the Jews had the power because they had the money and because they had the land and because they had fortresses the Aws and the Khazraj did not build fortresses the Jews did not live in Medina proper. They lived outside. And they had fortresses, each of these three. And so a rough quantity we get of the people of Medina, roughly around 20,000 people. And this is a relatively large town. It's not a small town. For the time, to have 20,000 people seems to be a very good number. And we already said that the Jews were more, sorry, the Arabs were more than the Jews. We just have one narration we have time for, and then it is time for Dr. Bashar to make a presentation and Dr. Bashar we can go late because Isha is just starting in 10 minutes so you can go for 20 minutes inshallah not a problem inshallah and the final thing that we just want to mention here is we talked about the demographics and I need to now basically go back to where we left off from the story of the seerah connect the demographics in Medina to the story of the seerah and the next lesson we start talking about the Prophet's first few days in Medina And so we conclude today by talking about the Prophet ﷺ's arrival in the city of Yathrib. That when we had already talked about Suraqah ibn Malik, we had talked about the story of Umm Ma'bad, we had talked about the number of people who converted along the way, and now the news has spread that the Prophet ﷺ is about to arrive. And so every single day, the Ansar would go outside of the city towards what is now Quba, waiting for the Prophet ﷺ to come, because they know it's only a matter of time now. And every day they would go there in the morning and wait until around 10, 11 o'clock when the sun got too hot. And then they would have to go back and go to sleep because it was too hot. And so one day they went in the morning waiting and nothing happened and they came back by 10, 11 o'clock and in the distance the Prophet ﷺ appeared but there were no Ansar there because they were already back home in their houses. And it so happened that one of the Yahud because they were the ones on the outskirts and because they were the ones who had that plot of land. One of the Jewish men was on the top of the tree plucking the dates. So he was the first to see in the distance the Prophet ﷺ coming. And the excitement of waiting for the Prophet ﷺ was so immense that it had even affected the Jews. I mean it's an exciting thing, it's about to happen. And this is the case in any community, anything is happening, everybody feels happy about it. So the Jew became so happy, he cried out at the top of his lungs, that, O Arabs, your king has arrived. Notice, he knows that they have adopted, quote-unquote, the Prophet ﷺ as their king. Or, O Arabs, your king has arrived. And he too is excited, and notice he says, your kings. Because from the beginning, they did not expect the Prophet ﷺ to be their, forget prophet, even ruler. And there was gonna be tensions to come. because he didn't say my king he said your king has a right he's excited because everybody's waiting but he doesn't ascribe it to himself because that's not they felt that until this point they always felt that that's their business, we have our business, they will not interfere in our business but slowly but surely that did happen and so the Prophet ﷺ when the news spread the Ansar rushed out in hordes, hundreds and hundreds of them and the Prophet ﷺ entered according to one report on the 2nd of Rabi'ul-awwal, according to another, on the 12th of Rabi'ul-awwal, on a Monday, in the 14th year of the da'wah, which was to become the first year of the hijrah. And Al-Bara' ibn Azim narrates in Sahih Muslim, that I saw the Ansar all dressed up, coming out. In other words, as soon as they heard the Prophet ﷺ, they actually dressed up in good clothes to come and to greet him. And over 500 men came outside, all of them armed, meaning as a welcoming committee. armed and dressed and they accompanied the Prophet ﷺ. The women climbed up onto the houses. The children are thronging around to see. And the Prophet ﷺ is surrounded by literally hundreds, if not thousands of people, all of whom believe in him, all of whom are happy that he is coming. And for the first time, we get a glimmer of hope. Change is in the air. It's not like Mecca, where he's persecuted, where he's tortured. For the first time, there's excitement, there's buzz, there's a freshness happening that for the first time people in the hundreds and thousands are thronging to welcome him to greet him we can sense the joy the vibrancy the change in the air we can sense that a new tide is coming that the change has begun that the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will signal a new era and this is the seed of the first Islamic nation and the story of its nurturing and its expansion and its flourishing will inshallah ta'ala be the story of the madani's seerah the madani seerah and that inshallah ta'ala we will resume in our next seerah class I will now hand over to Dr. Bashar one final point I will not be here next Wednesday I will be abroad so the seerah class will be resumed two Wednesdays from now so we'll get an email and then inshallah two Wednesdays from now we'll resume the seerah class Dr. Bashar the floor is all yours we already announced the Isha timing from the 1st of April will be 9pm Isha from the 1st of April 9pm inshallah any questions while they set up the powerpoint, you have any announcements as well? yeah sure, whatever you want to do any questions? All of this will come. I don't want to be hasty. Each one of them has a long story. And we need to be very careful and cautious. We need to explain the details and rationale. So when the time comes. Yes. the last no, the Quran itself references they're waiting for the next prophet yes, the Quran references this but they expected that prophet to be one of their own they didn't expect him to be someone else the Quran references this, Surah Baqarah وَكَانُوا مَنْ قَبْلُوا يَسْتَفْتِحُونَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا I think it's verse 130, 140 something it's in that area that Allah says they were expecting a victory over the Aus and the Khazraj. And the Aus and the Khazraj say that whenever we had a war, right? The Yahud would tell us that it's only a matter of time before our Prophet comes and will massacre you. So they're waiting for a Prophet. According to our legends and sources, they are waiting for a Prophet. Does it answer your question? Yes, in Medina. They're waiting for a Prophet in Medina. Yes. Yes. this is the theory that is given and that is that just like Salman Al-Farsi knew that one of the signs of the prophet is what? that he is going to come in a land of dates right? so this knowledge was known we know this for a fact it was known why shouldn't these Yahud have it as well? they probably also had it and so again it doesn't negate the theory that when they're fleeing from Hadrian or from Titus, they settle in a land of dates because they know that the Prophet will come in a land of dates right? Inshallah, yes what was the relationship between the people of Medina and the people of Medina one of the the specialities of the people of Medina is that they had never been conquered by any tribe even though two, three times this was attempted. But they had never been conquered by any tribe. So there was a relationship of izzah. People would come, trade and leave. There was never a conquering. So the Aws and Khazraj were independent in spirit. Okay? Jazakumullah khair. We will continue inshaAllah not next Wednesday, two Wednesdays from now inshaAllah.

Seerah 29 - The Beginning of the Madani Era - Yasir Qadhi _ April 2012-zeka7Ci0iV8

Al-Fatiha. one is the Ansar, number two are the Muhajirun, number three are the Yahud. These are the three main groups of Medina. We talked about where the Yahud came from, the theories about where the Yahud came from. Roughly, how many people are we talking about here? We know that each of the three Yahudi tribes had around 700 men. Each of the three tribes, the Banu Nadi, the Banu Qaynuqa, and the Banu Qareel had around 700 men, roughly. So this means that roughly the three Jewish tribes had 2,000 men. And on average, that's how demographics works at the time, they have a figure of for one man, there's three women and children. So you multiply that by three, so you get around 6,000 Yehud over there. 6,000 of the Yehud. We also know that in the conquest of Mecca, there were around 4,000 of the Ansar participating in the conquest of Mecca. 4,000 men. So four times again, roughly 3, you get 12,000 Ansar. So roughly for every one Jew there were 2 Arabs in Medina. Right? Roughly at the time. For every one Yehudi there was 2 Arabs. Now the Muhajirun were the smallest of the lot. And we know for a fact that in the battle of Badr, pretty much all of the Muhajirun participated except for Uthman and a few handful. Right? In the battle of Badr every one of the Muhajirun went out and they were exactly 82 in number. Okay? So, apart from one or two who weren't able to go. So, roughly then, they were around three to four hundred muhajirun, women and children and men. Right? So look at the statistics. The muhajirun are clearly the small quantity. The bulk of the Muslims are the Ansar. The bulk of the Muslims are the Ansar. And of course, in our religion, we firmly believe that the muhajirun occupy a higher level than the Ansar. And whenever Allah mentions the two of them in the Quran, Allah always prefers the Muhajirin over the Ansar. Right? Minal muhajireena wal Ansar, Allah says in the Quran. Always He mentions Muhajireen and then He mentions the Ansar. So clearly, even though the Muhajireen were less in quantity, their quality is higher in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now, and by the way, that's why of course the whole issue came when the Prophet ﷺ passed away. One group of the Ansar felt it's natural for them to take over, right? Because they felt that we are the majority and you know, we have been supporting and this is what Sa'ad ibn Ubadah r.a felt remember the Banu Saqifah, we'll get to that many months later, inshallah ta'ala maybe even a year or two later, maybe even three years depending on how much time we spend, but we'll get there eventually, inshallah, that Sa'ad ibn Ubadah, he felt logistically it makes sense for us to be in charge, because we have the most quantity. And that was the tension, a little bit of tension arose between the muhajirun, between Abu Bakr and Umar and the other Ansar, because they're outnumbered, like literally by a factor of one to four by that time, right? And yet Abu Bakr and Umar with their eloquence, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opened the truth at their tongues, and so eventually the leadership was given over to the minority, despite the fact that they were the minority. Now, at this stage, hijrah was obligatory on every individual Muslim down to women and children. It was fard'ain on every single Muslim to emigrate from Mecca and come to Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ was considered to be the last of the Muslims to emigrate other than Ali ibn Abi Talib because he had left Ali in Mecca to return the amounts and the items that had been given, entrusted to the Prophet ﷺ, the amanat. Right? I had already explained before, many weeks ago, that there is no bank account, there is no security deposit, there is no safety box. What are you gonna do when you have a precious item, you're traveling, or even if you don't wanna keep it in your house for personal reasons, you give it to a trustworthy person. And so subhanAllah, despite their animosity to the Prophet ﷺ, despite their hatred of him and his message, still when it came to entrusting what they needed to entrust, his house was the safety deposit. His house was where a lot of these amanat were kept. And so the Prophet ﷺ had to leave somebody to return these amanat, and that was Ali ibn Abi Talib. Otherwise, he was basically the last one to emigrate to Medina. Now Allah ﷻ then revealed the commandment stricter and stricter. There are many verses, we don't have time for every one of them. We can say around 8 or 9 verses in different surahs. Every one of them is getting more and more stricter about, you have to emigrate. If you don't emigrate, you are going to be of the people who are ظالمون or sinful. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala encouraged them and He threatened them both. He encouraged them to emigrate and He threatened them against emigration. Meaning if they don't emigrate, they will face punishment. So for example, in Surah Al-Hajj. And Surah Al-Hajj was a surah that was revealed, some say even during the Hijrah. Some say even during the Hijrah, but it is one of the middle surahs. Some say some verses in Mecca, others in Medina, some say during the Hijrah. In Surah Al-Hajj, Allah says, وَالَّذِينَ هَاجَرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ قُتِلُوا أَوْ مَاتُوا لَيَرْزُقَنَّهُمُ اللَّهُ رِزْقًا حَسَنًا إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُوَ خَيْرٌ رَازِقِينَ لَيُدْخِلَنَّهُمْ مُدْخَلًا يَرْضَوْنَ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَعْلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ Whoever emigrates for the sake of Allah, and then they are killed or they will die. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give them the best of all rewards, and indeed Allah is the one who gives the best rewards. Allah will cause them to enter into the best of all places and they will be pleased with this and Allah is Alimun Hakeem this is encouragement there's no threat here this is one of the first verses of Hijrah fast forward like a year or two Surah An-Nisa Surah An-Nisa came down we can say some of it pre-Uhud some of it post-Uhud so that's two three years down the line Surah An-Nisa one of the strictest verses that if you don't emigrate you are in serious trouble and this is the Sunnah of Allah that laws don't come down and smack, you have to do it. It's always gradual. The first one is encouraging, enticing. And then there's many more, we don't have time to get into every one of them. And then one of the last ones that basically says, if you do not emigrate, you are a major sinner. You have committed a major zulm, and it is possible Allah will punish you if you don't emigrate now. And this is in surah An-Nisa, Allah says, that, إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ظَالِمِي أَنفُسِهِمْ قَالُوا فِي مَا كُنْتُمْ قَالُوا كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ وَاسِعَةً فَتُهَاجِرُوا فِيهَا Allah says, those people whom the angels take their souls while they are committing sins against themselves. The angels will say, why were you in this state? And the reference here is, why were you in Makkah? They will say, we were persecuted in this land. كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ and the angels will not accept this excuse and the angels will say wasn't the land of Allah a vast place that you could have emigrated somewhere else did you have to remain in Mecca couldn't you have gone somewhere else and Ibn Abbas makes a tafsir of all of this Ibn Abbas says that a group of Muslims had converted but they kept their conversion secret now there's two groups of people here the first group are those who were Muslims when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated we don't have any particular names of these people the sahaba did not record their names we don't know who is being referenced here but there were some people who were Muslims but they didn't emigrate when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated then there is the second batch and we have some of their names and they are those who convert in Mecca while the Prophet ﷺ is in Medina remember the da'wah of Islam will continue still people will convert in Mecca even though the Prophet ﷺ is in Medina even though they have been with him for 13 years but eventually the light bulb goes off in their heads. Eventually they say, okay, Islam is the truth, right? And we have some references to these people as well, that they converted in Mecca after the Hijrah. And Hijrah was made obligatory on them. So Ibn Abbas says that a group of Muslims remained in Mecca, both of these categories, right? And in the battle of Badr, they didn't tell their Islam to the people, i.e. they were scared of telling the Islam. So they kept their Islam hidden. They were closet Muslims, for lack of a better term. They're not coming out of the closet. They're scared of announcing their Islam. Why? Because they're scared of persecution. So in the battle of Badr, they were forced to participate on which side? The wrong side. But they didn't actually fight. They kept in the back, or they did whatever they did. And some of them were killed by the Muslims, because of arrows, because of things, because they're on the wrong side. They're on the wrong side. And so Allah revealed the surah An-Nisa verse for this group of people. That you were killed on the wrong side. And the angels will ask you, what were you doing? How could you be fighting against the Muslims? And they will say, we were weak, we were forced to fight. And so the angels will say, you weren't forced to remain in Mecca. You could have left and you could have gone to Medina. You could have gone to another place. so they were told Ibn Abbas is speaking this is Ibn Abbas' tafsir they were told by Allah they have no excuse to emigrate and this verse of Surah An-Nisa was sent to them now this shows us a little bit of a glimpse we get here that there is a secret correspondence going on between the Muslims of Mecca now obviously the Prophet ﷺ knows who are the Muslims because they have informed him right? so there is some messages being sent by the Prophet ﷺ to these Muslims in Mecca So Ibn Abbas says, they were sent this verse, that you have no excuse, you need to come to Medina. And some of them tried to emigrate, Ibn Abbas is telling us. But the pagans prevented them. They put some pressure up. The word used is, fatanuhum. And fatanuhum means, they could have hurt them, they could have persecuted, details are not given. And so they stayed put again. They didn't emigrate. and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reveals surah al-ankabut which is even stricter now and surah al-ankabut says that that they are those who say they are they are those who say we are believers we believe in Allah this is verse 9, 10, 11 of surah al-ankabut when they are now the word uziya is beautiful it means irritated And it could mean persecuted, but أَذَا means the slightest irritation. So Allah Azawajal is saying that they could have just been verbally rebuked, we don't know. It's a broad term. فَإِذَا أُوذِيَ فِي اللَّهِ جَعَلَ فِتْنَةً نَاسِكَ عَذَابِ اللَّهِ When he's irritated or hurt by the people, he considers the fitna of the people to be as bad as the punishment of Allah. i.e. he has no priority. a little bit of a pressure and he collapses that's what Allah is saying little bit of a pressure and he cannot take it and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says that but when the help of Allah comes, i.e. any victory for the Muslims comes, they say oh, inna kuna ma'akum, we're actually believers in other words, they want to have their cake and eat it too, right? they want to be in Mecca because why would they want to be in Mecca? remember, this is a world where your property, your wealth are around you. They cannot take this property and wealth to Medina. Okay, if they were gonna leave, they can only take what their camel is gonna carry. The bulk of their possessions, the bulk of their... they will not be able to take it. And so, emigration automatically means poverty. This is the point for them, right? So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is describing, this is a small group, we don't have any numbers, but probably 5 or 10 people. It's a small group here, but Allah is being very strict with them. That they are preferring living in Mecca, for the sake of their wealth over emigrating to Medina. So Allah says, when any blessing comes, فَإِذَا جَاءَ نَصُلٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ قَالُوا إِنَّا كُنَّا مَعَكُمْ Oh, we weren't believers. We should share in this blessing. And Allah says that, أَلَيْسَ اللَّهُ بِأَعْلَمَ بِمَا فِي قُلُوبِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ That verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows what is in the hearts of the believers. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows who is the true believer and who is not the true believer. And we have the story of one of these Sahaba who converted after the Prophet ﷺ emigrated, right? He converted after the Prophet ﷺ emigrated. His name is Junda ibn Damura. Junda ibn Damura. Ibn Abbas tells us that when Surah An-Nisa was sent. So this also shows us by the way that anytime a Qur'an was revealed, they would get it. There was as we said this secret emissary or this message is being transferred. anytime Quran came down the Muslims of Mecca would be sent that's what Ibn Abbas said that the verse was sent to them and this shows us many things of them is the importance of the Quran of them is that the Muslims need to study the Quran and so even the Muslims of Mecca are hearing every new revelation so when the verse of Nisa was sent and the verse of Nisa what does it say those whom the angels come to and they are wronging themselves the angels will ask them what were you doing and they will say we were weak in the land We were persecuted in the land. And Allah will not accept this excuse unless Allah goes on and says, إِلَّا الْمُصْطَضَعْفِينَ Except for the really weak, and we're gonna get to this point. It was because of this Sahabi, Junda ibn Damura. Junda ibn Damura was so elderly and so weak, he was in fact blind, and he could not walk. He could not even walk. But when this verse came down, he said, I am not of those who have an excuse. I can emigrate to Medina. How? He's blind and he can't even walk. But he goes, I don't have an excuse. I will not spend another night in this city. I'll not spend another night in Mecca. And so he commanded his servants to lift him up on his chair or on his bed. Sareed is like a couch, if you like. He could not walk. And to walk with him outside the city, that he'll find some way to get to Medina. That's basically, he cannot stay another night in Mecca. and it is interesting what would have happened and he was blind, he cannot even walk but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was merciful to him and he died right then and there at Tan'im which is outside of Mecca, right? He met his death right outside of Mecca and it is said that while he was dying and the pangs of death are coming so literally that was his last day on earth when the verse came down he said, I have no excuse and he went outside telling his servants just to take him and leave him there he'll figure his way out When he was on his deathbed, he put his right hand in his left hand. And he said, O Allah, this is my bay'ah to Rasulullah ﷺ. Meaning, I couldn't do it in person. I couldn't do it in person. This is my bay'ah, this is my oath of allegiance that I'm giving to the Messenger of Allah upon what he wanted me to do. In other words, I don't have the opportunity to do it in person. Whatever I can do, O Allah, except from Him. And he died right then and there in Tan'im, which is what we call Masjid Aisha now, that place outside of Mecca. He died over there and he was buried over there. And when the news of his death came, the Sahaba said, basically how unlucky, he almost made it. Right? So they were so strict with him, they weren't even willing to give him. Like he didn't make it to Medina. And at this Allah revealed the next verse of Surah An-Nisa. For us it's the next verse. Remember verses came down, sometimes one and then the next came down a few weeks later. We put it together. The next verse of Surah An-Nisa is, إِلَّا الْمُسْتَضَعَثِينَ min al-rijali wal-nisa wal-wildani la yastati'una hila wa la yathiduna sabila fa ulaika asa allahu an ya'fu anhum wa kana allahu afuwan ghafura Except for those who are genuinely weak of the men, women and children that they cannot find a way out nor can they find a passage to get to Medina. For these people, subhanAllah, even then Allah says, perhaps, asa. Now, by the way, whenever Allah says Asa, Ibn Abbas says, every Asa for Allah's sake is certainty. This is Ibn Abbas' statement. Asa for Allah's sake, he will do it. But still, it was given like a bit of a grudgingly, a bit of a reluctance that they're not an open blanket, but still they will be forgiven. To show what the severity, now they are forgiven, that's what Ibn Abbas is saying. But to show the severity of those who don't have a genuine excuse for remaining in Mecca. right? So this is one of those sahaba that Allah Azza wa Jal basically said he's forgiven them because he even tried to get out of Mecca and he wasn't able to do so but Allah Azza wa Jal basically took his soul at that point in Tan'im now by the way just as a point of benefit, remember the purpose of our seerah classes over and over is to derive practical benefit, that's what we want to do, it's not just stories of old, it's stories of living Islam in modernity and the whole issue of hijrah and living in Dar al-Kufr and Dar al-Islam and all of these is of course a very very relevant topic for us here in North America and it is worthy of a long fiqh discussion. I don't think it's appropriate to go into that long fiqh discussion but I will summarize one or two points and that is that the ruling of Hijrah, the ruling of Hijrah from Mecca to Medina, it was fard'ain for the Muslims of that time. Now after the battle of Ahzab, after the battle of Ahzab in the fifth year of the Hijrah, when it became clear that the Muslims are the more powerful, laxity began. That the ruling began to be a little bit more lax. And then after the conquest of Mecca, this ruling was abrogated. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, hadith is in Sahih Bukhari, لا هجرة بعد الفتح There is no hijrah after the conquest of Mecca. This is a famous mutawat well-known hadith. لا هجرة بعد الفتح There is no hijrah after the conquest of Mecca. Meaning, what does this mean there is no hijrah? Nobody can do hijrah after the conquest of Mecca? No. The hijrah, with a capital H in English. Right? The hijrah from Mecca to Medina has now been nullified. And if anybody emigrates now, that's their personal business. They're not gonna get the rewards of the hijrah. Right? Now that Mecca is also in Darul Islam, well then if somebody wants to live in Medina they're not going to get the rewards that Allah promised in the Quran for that emigration also La Hijrata Ba'da Al-Fatah means the commandment to emigrate to Medina is now abrogated you don't have to emigrate to Medina you may live anywhere you want Mecca, Medina or anywhere else now this then led to a controversy in later fiqh amongst the four madhhabs about is it permissible for Muslims to voluntarily and willingly live in a land that is not a land of Islam. And just to point out in medieval Islam when there was a Darul Islam, when there was a real Islamic land, there were two opinions on this issue, maybe even one can say three opinions. The first opinion which is the majority of the Hanafi and the Hanbali opinion, and also the standard Shafi'i opinion, is that it is permissible for a Muslim to live in lands that are not Darul Islam with some basic conditions. And of these conditions is that the Muslim is secure in his religion, he's not being tortured, he's not being forced to do haram, and he can live an Islamic life. That's basically the general conditions. And they base this on an authentic hadith which is as explicit as possible. So this is also my position as well. It is a hadith of the Sahabi known as Fudayk. We don't have his full name. Fudayk is all that we know. And towards the end of the Prophet's life, after the conquest of Mecca, Fudayk came to Medina. And he was not from Mecca or Medina, he was from Central Arabia. He came to Medina. And he said, Ya Rasulallah, the people are saying that whoever does not do hijrah will be destroyed. whoever does not do hijrah will not be destroyed and in one version he said my people are upon shirk my tribe has not yet all accepted Islam but I am a Muslim and so I have been told that I have to make hijrah so this is basically as explicit as you can get his land is not a land of Islam i.e. his tribe, his village, whatever you want to call it is not a land of Islam so people are telling me that I have to emigrate So the Prophet ﷺ said, يَا فُدَيْكُ أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةِ O Fudayk, establish the Salah, and avoid the sins, avoid basically, fawahish and evil deeds, and live with your people wherever you like. This hadith is reported in Ibn Hibban's Sahih. Now, this hadith is as explicit as you can get, because Fudayk's people were mushriks, he accepted Islam, He comes to the Prophet ﷺ to ask the question, because people are telling him, his Islam is not valid. Because he's living with people that are committing shirk. And the Prophet ﷺ says, Ya Fudayk, as long as you are praying, and living a good life, then live with your people wherever you want. You don't have to live there, you can only live here. But if you want to live there, you may live with your people as well. The Maliki school was the strictest school in this regard. And generally speaking, they considered it to be impermissible for a Muslim to willingly and voluntarily give up living in Dar al-Islam and go and live in Dar al-Kufr. And the reason that they were the strictest in this regard is because of what happened to the Maliki school and the Maliki scholars and the Muslims of the Maliki regions in the famous land of Andalus. Andalusia really changed their perspective about Muslims living in Dar al-Kufr. Because Andalusia was Maliki. Spain was Maliki. And of course the greatest Maliki scholars, Ibn Rushd and all of them, they're all Maliki. So when Spain was reconquered, and the Reconquista began, and the Muslims began being persecuted, tortured, more and more rulings, they were forced to stop saying Arabic in public, stop wearing Islamic dress, the women were forced to take off the hijab, bit by bit, if you study especially post-inquisition, post-inquisition what happened with the Muslims of Spain is very, very sad. And it's something we hardly ever hear about, but it is very sad. They were forced to eat pork, they were this and that. So many things, one after the other. And it wasn't immediate. It took like a hundred years. Right? Because initially, I mean I'm going into a whole different tangent, this is not Sira related. Initially when the Ferdinand and Isabella conquered the very last kingdom of Granada, they initially promised freedom for the Muslims. And they said, we'll only deal with the Yahu, don't worry about you guys, you're the majority. After all they're the majority, right? So Ferdinand and Isabella promised freedom. But within a hundred years, basically, there were no public Muslims anymore in Andalusia. They had to hide their Islam, or they had to emigrate, or they were forced to convert the inquisitions, then began torturing them. First it was only the Yahud, and then the Protestants. Then they began torturing the Muslims as well. And they began sending secret police to spy on you, check if you actually have a mushaf in your house. It was a very sad time. So the Andalusian scholars basically said, this is what happens to those who remain in Darul Kufr, basically. And so they became very strict on this issue. And in their madhhab predominantly, the fatwa is that it is not allowed to live in Darul Kufr. Now, the fact of the matter though is that we also have to think about how realistic is it for us to import these fatwas from 500 years ago, 1000 years ago, when there was a Darul Islam, and there was a Khilafah, and there was all of this, whereas now there is none of this. And this is one of those areas where we do need to exercise independent ijtihad and go back to the books again and see how realistic, even if those who follow the Maliki position, and of course the majority, for the Aslan, they didn't believe that it is wajib to emigrate. There are still people who say to this day, there's still a small minority who say Muslims should not be living in any non-Muslim land. But subhanAllah, I mean this is such a theoretical fatwa, let's get realistic here. In India alone, India is majority Hindu. In India alone, there are how many? 120 million? 200 million. Every day there are a few millions increase, you know. 200 million Muslims, right? Where do you expect these 200 million Muslims? They are a minority. They are a minority, obviously, right? 25% or something like this? 20-25%, right? Yani one out of four or less. Where do you expect them to go? In China, how many tens of millions? But they are also minority, right? If you just do the math, you will get literally over half a billion Muslims. That's basically half of the ummah, living in minority lands. Whoever says that it is wajib to emigrate, with all respect to these scholars, they're not really being realistic. In western lands alone, there are 40 million Muslims. In western lands alone, if you include America, Canada, Australia, France, all of these lands, European lands you have over 40-45 million Muslims this is in western lands who is going to accept these so the point being, most of us living here have moved beyond this theoretical fatwa the reality is we are now here to stay so we have to basically have some basic understanding of our religion and fiqh and what not, the point being and the reason I go back to this seerah issue here even in the time of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, hijrah was wajib because of the circumstances of Mecca and Medina therefore I have to say this if any land becomes difficult to live in and practice Islam in like in Mecca of that period then yes we will bring forth these rulings and we will say you don't have to live in that particular land go find somewhere else and every Muslim land or every sorry every land will be the responsibility of its scholars to judge when the situation gets difficult and when it is doable. This is for the local scholars of that land to judge. When is it that difficult? When is it not that difficult? This is something they have to judge. Clearly, alhamdulillah, there should be no two opinions that in America we have every freedom we need to practice Islam in our daily and personal life. There really can be no scholarly debate about the issue of living in America and practicing your religion. Alhamdulillah, it's very clear that we are not persecuted to that level. and it's not an issue for us to worry about. Nonetheless, the hadith of Fudayk is an important one and memorize this one. That the Prophet ﷺ said to him, Ya Fudayk, O Fudayk, as long as you're praying and you're avoiding the sins, you're living a good Muslim life, right? And you're establishing Islam, you may live wherever you want. And I say this many times, that those people who are the most worried about the hijrah, should they emigrate, should they not emigrate? They're the ones that need to remain because they're the most religious. And those who are the least concerned about hijrah and where to live, because they're totally involved in sins, they're really the ones they shouldn't be living in environments where they pollute their iman. It's actually the opposite way around. Those who are the most worried should actually remain, because they're the best ambassadors of the religion. And those who are involved in every major sin and they couldn't care less, they need a pure environment. They should be thinking about a pure environment for themselves and their children. In any case, getting back to the seerah here, and the issue of the Hijrah, we already mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Medina. Now we don't have an exact date. The date of the 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal, by the way, do understand as an academic, I have to point out, everybody loves to quote 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal for everything. For the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ, for the first time the Qur'an came down, or the Wahi, which cannot be true because the Qur'an came down in Ramadan anyway. But there are still some opinions that said 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal is when Iqraq came down. Which is absolutely cannot be true because Iqra came down in the month of Ramadan. Right? أَشَهُرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ فِيهَا القُرْآنَ And the twelfth of Rabi' al-awwal is when the Prophet ﷺ entered Medina. And this is a little bit of a superstition. We don't know the exact date because nobody was recording calendars. Remember, there was not even an Islamic calendar when all of this is happening. Remember, Umar ibn al-Khattab instituted a calendar you know, probably ten years after more than 10 years, sorry 14-15 years after the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ so this is now being backtracked we are reading in the dates in terms of years the years are not there, the months by the way are there remember how did they monitor time by the famous incident in that year the year of the elephant, let's say the year of the drought that's how they remembered years every year would have a particular title to it so the year of the hijrah became first hijrah, basically. Right? The year of the hijrah became our first year. The month of the hijrah, yes, it is Rabi'ul-awwal most likely. The first week of Rabi'ul-awwal most likely. The month of the hijrah is Rabi'ul-awwal. And this corresponds to September of the year 622 CE. So, 622 is when one hijrah begins. and we already went over the story of the process of entering Medina, he entered Medina, Medina at that time was composed of like most villages in places of the world today there is not one center of gathering, there are small pockets of people separated by small distances, right? and the whole conglomeration is basically called Medina Medina is not like a major metropolitan city Medina is not continuously populated of course now it is back then Medina had small pockets and every tribe it was in its own small area and some of these distances were 5 minutes walks others were like an hour walk for example so the very first settlement of these small settlements of the entire city was that of Quba this was the further most settlement outside of what we now call central Medina and in our days the city of Medina is so big that it goes even beyond Quba in our days the city of Medina has become so large that from the central Medina you work your way, keep on going of course in the time of the Prophet ﷺ as we said there were small settlements and these were separated by either desert or by large date plantations right? trees of dates hundreds and thousands of dates so the Prophet ﷺ when he arrived We know he arrived in Quba and he waited there for Ali ibn Abi Talib to come. And he waited probably around a week. Again, we don't have exact dates. Probably around a week. And they also waited for Aisha and Asma, the daughters of Abu Bakr. And Abu Bakr had arranged for them to come via another guide. And so the two of them also came. And so Ali and Aisha and Asma, when they came, that was when the Prophet ﷺ entered the city of Medina. And it is said that he entered the city of Medina on a Friday. And the Ansar heard that he was entering Medina. And so the Ansar all gathered together as a delegation. They dressed up in their armor. And in those days you would dress up in the armor just like the military parades when you want to basically honor somebody. Then you dress up in your armors, you put on your fighting swords and everything. So they dressed up and over 500 of them, they went as a delegation to Quba and they accompanied the Prophet ﷺ back into Medina. By the way, here is where, again, as you know me, I'm an academic, I don't give you just the fairy tales, I have to give you the bad news as well sometimes. The academic stuff is not as romanticized if you like. You know the famous story that we are all told, that the little girls were singing, طَلَعَ الْبَادِرُ عَلَيْنَا this story for sure it did not happen at the Hijrah. This is impossible. For many reasons. The most important is that ثنيات الوداع has nothing to do with the road to Mecca. ثنيات الوداع is the road that is the exact opposite side of Medina. And if this incident occurred, there's a little bit of a doubt about its authenticity, but even if it occurred, it occurred at the battle of Tabuk. It occurred at the battle of Tabuk. Because many reasons, but the most important one, there are internal evidences, but the most important one, ثنيات الوداع طالع البادر علينا من ثنيات الوداع Where is ثنيات الوداع? ثنيات الوداع is the exact opposite side of where Quba is. And it is the northern side, and Quba is the southern side. Because Medina is due north of Mecca. So when you're walking up south of Medina, you'll be Quba. Thaniyat al-Wada' is literally on the opposite side. The Prophet ﷺ never saw Thaniyat al-Wada' when he's walking into Medina from Makkah. So as I said, I have to be a little bit more academic here. If that story is true, then it took place at the Battle of Tabuk, so it didn't take place over here. Well, we do know what took place over here. The Sahaba, the Ansar, accompanied the Prophet ﷺ into Medina and here is also the famous story which is inshaAllah an authentic one that every one of the sahaba of Ansar was trying to ask the Prophet ﷺ to stay with them. And the Prophet ﷺ said, let the camel be because Allah has taken charge of it. Let the camel go where it is going because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has taken charge of it. And the camel sat down at a particular place and the Prophet ﷺ understood this was the place that Allah had decided will be his masjid. Where the camel sat down, it was a small plane, not a plane is not a right word, it was a small plantation if you like, that was used by the people to dry their dates. It wasn't a full date plantation. It wasn't densely populated by dates. There were a few trees but it was an open ground by and large that was used by the local villagers to dry their dates. So they would lay the dates on the floor and they would dry the dates in this area. And when the camel sat down, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, whose house of our family members is the closest to us from here? Now, subhanAllah, what does this mean? Remember the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had distant cousins in Medina, correct? Right? His great-grandmother is Medinese, right? His great-grandmother is from which tribe? Who can remember? MashaAllah, the Bani Najjar. Salma is her name. The tribe is the Bani Najjar. And so, when he's saying who amongst us from the Bani Najjar basically, is the closest to this camel, here is where Khalid ibn Zayd, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. He said, Ya Rasulullah, Bani Najjar. He's from the Bani Najjar. Khalid ibn Zayd, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, he's from the Bani Najjar. And he's basically I looked this up to try to find an exact number I couldn't figure out exactly but roughly he's like a sixth cousin to the Prophet ﷺ right? so like six generations up basically their lineage meets now remember the Arabs memorized their lineages and genealogy like we memorize all of our cell phones and house phones and all of these numbers together if you put all these numbers you get like 30 numbers mashallah we know them all of the Arabs they know their ancestry like we know our phone numbers and house addresses right? So Abu Ayyub says, Ya Rasulullah, I am the closest in lineage to you, basically from your camel. My house is the closest to this area. And so the Prophet ﷺ decided because of this ancestry basically, right? Because of this local genealogy and this shows us again the rights of relatives. That he felt the most comfortable with his closest relative, whoever that might have been. And it was like a sixth cousin. But that's what he felt the most comfortable with, right? that who amongst our family members is the closest here. So that was Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. Now, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, we only have a few narrations about him in his house. The Prophet ﷺ lived there, according to Ibn Sa'd, for half a year. He lived there for half a year. And he did this because he didn't have a house to live in, obviously. And he's waiting for the masjid and the house to be built. And Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, of course, everything is planned by Allah. Abu Ayyub was a relatively upper middle class man. He had a house that was of two stories, which was not common. It wasn't uncommon, but it wasn't common either. And so Allah Azza wa Jal had basically wielded that. Abu Ayyub's house also had two stories in it, which would make it possible for the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr and some of the Sahaba to live with Abu Ayyub. And so Abu Ayyub and his wife moved upstairs. And the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr, were living downstairs. Ibn Hisham mentions a story that occurred one night that in the middle of the night, Abu Ayyub turned over in his sleep and he knocked over the water bottle. And those days they had jars of water, right? He knocked over the water bottle. And he became worried that the water would seep from the second floor basically and drip onto the Prophet ﷺ as he was sleeping. And so he woke his wife up, and the two of them, they spent the entire night soaking their own blanket with the water, making sure, dreading basically that maybe one drop of water would possibly irritate the Prophet ﷺ. They spent the whole night awake using their beds and their blanket to basically soak up the entire water. It is also narrated in hadith in Musnad Ibn Ahmad that one day Abu Ayyub was with his wife upstairs and then, فَانْتَبَهَا He realized, basically. فَانْتَبَهَا He realized. And he said to his wife, We are walking above the head of the Prophet ﷺ. Right? He just realized that his feet are above the head of the Prophet ﷺ. And so, and he realized this in the evening. and so him and his wife spent the night cramped next to the sides now subhanallah like a few weeks go by and then they realize that our feet are above the head of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam so they sit with their feet withdrawn in for the entire night because they just realize that they're doing something that isn't appropriate right for respect and the next morning they go back down to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and they say ya Rasulullah you have to move up the Prophet ﷺ said the bottom floor is easier for me meaning you have more privacy I have guests coming in here I don't have to climb the stairs obviously the bottom floor is easier for me you understand that when the Prophet ﷺ is having guests or anything is happening you are separate, it's easier for us there is one entrance to the house, let us be here Abu Ayyub said we can never ever be on top of you on a roof that your head is over we cannot be on top of you on a roof that your head is over and they refused to obey what the Prophet ﷺ is begging them to do they said we cannot do this so they amazingly disobeyed him out of respect if that's possible so they insisted that he go to the roof and so the Prophet ﷺ then for the bulk of their time actually moved upstairs so only for a few weeks they were downstairs and then they moved upstairs it is also narrated that one time Abu Ayyub he would always cook the food him and his wife and they would send it up to the Prophet ﷺ. Then he would eat the leftovers. Like he would send them the full dish. It's not as if he took some for, he would send them everything he has and it's obviously too much for them. So the Prophet ﷺ would not eat much anyway as you know. So he would then send whatever is remaining down. Abu Ayyub would ask, where did the Prophet ﷺ eat from? Which place of the plate? And wherever he ate from, he would eat from that particular portion he would eat from it. One day the food came down untouched. Abu Ayyub panicked. What have I done? And he rushed upstairs and he said, Ya Rasulullah, what have I done? What is wrong? Is there anything that, you know, the food was not suiting you? What happened? The Prophet ﷺ said, No, but it has garlic in it. Abu Ayyub said, Is garlic haram? أَحَرَامٌ هُوَ And the Prophet ﷺ said, No, but I speak to those whom you don't speak to. I speak to those who we don't speak to which means the angels now a lot of people have misunderstandings here us desi people are going to be in big trouble if we make garlic makrooh, right? we cannot cook food without garlic so look, this is uncooked garlic, okay? calm down, breathe with relief, alhamdulillah alhamdulillah, your biryani, my biryani is still halal, don't worry this is uncooked garlic, if you put it in the food then it will have a very bad after smell if you cook the garlic and you grind it and what not as we do then that removes the odor anyway so this is not even if you ate raw garlic it is halal as the Prophet ﷺ said unless somebody thinks he's speaking to angels in which case you have another bigger problem than garlic but even if you eat raw garlic this is halal not a problem but the Prophet ﷺ said whoever eats garlic should not come to the masjid because the masjid is the place of angels so if your breath is smelling really bad with garlic then in this case you wait until the breath goes the bad smell goes away but the point being here garlic is no problem if you cook it I don't know of any culture in our times that eats raw garlic so we don't have to worry about this in any case so this is all that we have reported by the way from Abu Ayyub and his wife just two or three incidents in these six months all of the rest of the details we don't know about getting back to the story of the masjid itself as we said the camel sat down in a small area of land that was not used for date palms. It was used for drying the dates. So it was only a few trees were there. The Prophet ﷺ said, who does this land belong to? They said that it belongs to so and so and so and so. They are orphans. Their father owned the land. Now they have inherited this land. Because they're orphans, they hadn't done anything. That's probably why it was still relatively empty. That's probably why the local neighbors were using it to dry the dates, right? They're still young kids. So they haven't been able to plant dates themselves yet. So it's just a little bit of empty land. So the Prophet ﷺ said, call them here, we're gonna build a masjid here, so we need this land. So when the orphans came, according to one narration, their names were Sahal and Suhail. When the orphans came, and they figured out what the Prophet ﷺ was doing, they were already Muslims, they said, Ya Rasulullah, this is a gift to Allah from us. This is a gift to Allah from us. The Prophet ﷺ said, لا إلا بثمنها No, I will only take it with his due price. We don't operate, the Prophet ﷺ did not operate like this with charity. I will only take it with his due price. And he negotiated a price with them, and he paid them the money to purchase the land from them, and he ordered that the few date palms that were there, they were probably less than a dozen, we don't know exact number, but it wasn't cultivated is the point. He ordered that they all be cut down and there were one or two graves from very old, still over there, of the pagans, 50-100 years old. He ordered that those corpses be buried outside. And this shows us that it is permitted in Islam to dig up graves and move the bodies if there is a legitimate reason to do so. This also shows us a fiqh point that one may cut down the trees of the haram for legitimate needs. if you have to build a building for the Hijaj or something, generally speaking, Mecca and Medina are Harams. And we already mentioned this before, you're not allowed to hunt, you're not allowed to destroy cultivation, you're not allowed to pluck a leaf or a flower from Mecca and Medina. If you pass by, you see trees, you see leaves, you're not allowed to take a grass and pluck it out. That's how sacred the Haram is. There's a number of exceptions, one of them is this one. that if you're a construction worker, if you're a builder, what are you gonna do if you have to build property, right? So in this case, the Prophet ﷺ cut the trees down and he used those very trees to form the walls of the masjid. Talk about being green in conservation. The very trees that were cut down, he used them to make the walls of the masjid and the front and the back walls were made with those trees and the side walls were made with the clay bricks that they had in Medina at the time. So two of the sides of the masjid were built with date palm trunks, and two of the sides were built with bricks that the sahaba constructed themselves, and the Prophet ﷺ participated along with them in the construction of the masjid. He physically, there was a whole line going, the seerah book say, from the quarry to the masjid, and the Prophet ﷺ became a part of that line. And when one of the sahaba tried to make him sit down and work and do the work, the Prophet ﷺ refused to basically sit down on the side and cooperated with them. And it is said that the Prophet ﷺ began saying lines of poetry at the time, along with the ansar and the muhajirun. And those lines of poetry are recorded in Sahih Bukhari as they're building the masjid. اللهم إنه لا خير إلا خير الآخرة فرحم الأنصار والمهاجرة Now these are, you know when you're doing manual labor, and all of the men are working together, it's good to just, just like when soldiers hum along or drum along, and where other people do manual labor, they have this rhythm. So they're all saying this together, just to get the time go by, and they're passing the bricks to one another. So this is what they're saying. اللهم إنه لا خير إلا خير الآخرة Oh Allah, there is no good other than the good of the آخرة. فرحم الأنصار والمهاجرة So have mercy on the ansar and the muhajira. and it is narrated in Al-Bayhaqiz that it took almost two weeks to build the masjid almost two weeks to build the masjid and for its time it was extremely large, to this day if we go to Medina, when you go to the actual, we call the Rawdah the blessed sanctuary you get an idea, it's a pretty large place, even for our times it's pretty large, it's at least you know, two three times larger than this masjid. And that shows us that for that time it was a pretty large place. And Allah who I know, but some modern estimates have said around 100 by 130 feet. This is one opinion that I've tried to look up what were some of the scholars understanding how large this is. 100 feet by 130 feet a large masjid. So it's more of a square than a rectangle. It's not as much of a rectangle as the modern masjid is. Also we learned that there were at least three main doors, at least three main doors. One on the south side, that's the Baab Ar-Rahma. One on the west side, that's called Baab Jibreel. And one on the east side, and that is called Baab Un-Nisa. And the reason why it's called Baab Un-Nisa is that a few years later, Umar ibn Khattab suggested that men and women should not enter with the same door. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, okay, that east door is the door for women. So it was called Baab Un-Nisa. And to this day, if you go to the Haram in Medina, you look at the pillars you'll see, in one pillar it says باب النساء and that's where it used to be. Another pillar says باب جبريل that's where the باب جبريل used to be. These were the three main entrances of the masjid. In addition to these three main entrances, there were also a number of small entrances that were private entrances. These were the three public ones. They were at least half a dozen private. What are private entrances? Realize in those days, the walls were such a luxury item that people would use the same wall for both sides. Right? So if you build a wall here, the other side would automatically be taken by a house. And so whoever is living on the other side of the wall would have direct access to the masjid. And so there were at least half a dozen we know of, maybe even up to a dozen, who had entrances directly from their house, they would take a step out and they're in the masjid. So that door imagine, this door imagine, this door imagine. These are private entrances for whoever managed to build a house right at that time. Of course, as the population increases, khalas, those choice real estate properties are taken, right? So, we know for a fact that Abu Bakr was one of those whose house was attached to the masjid, right? How do we know this? Because on his deathbed, the Prophet ﷺ said, every single door of these private doors shall be locked and sealed from now on, except the door of Abu Bakr. why did he do this? to emphasize that this person will be the next Khalifa after me there shall be no door into the harem other than Abu Bakr Abu Bakr will be the leader that's an indirect analogy that no one has the prerogative other than Abu Bakr so this clearly shows that there were a number of doors that the Sahaba would use for their private houses that would come into the masjid and of course the main one that we know for sure is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Aisha, right? Aisha's house was literally attached to the masjid such that the only thing separating it was a curtain. It was actually a curtain not even a physical door. That it was just a curtain. And this was a private entrance. The house had a public entrance on the other side. Right? The Prophet ﷺ's house had a public entrance on the other side. We also know from one narration from Hasan al-Basri that the roof of the masjid was actually very low. that if he put his hand up, he could feel the roof of the masjid. So this shows us therefore that the masjid was not a massively tall structure, the roof was very low. And we also know that initially, the Prophet ﷺ only covered one area of the masjid with a roof. Only one area of the masjid. And this was the southern portion of the masjid, which at the time was the one facing the Qibla. Sorry, the northern side. Which at the time was the one facing the Qibla. Right? And that's towards Jerusalem. So, at one time, the front portion of the masjid was covered by thatched palm leaves. Okay? When the Qibla direction changed, exact opposite. Right? So that portion remained sheltered, And that was called, what was it called? Ahl al-Suffah. Right? Because anybody who wanted to spend the day there, would obviously have to spend it under the shelter. Right? Otherwise this gets too hot. So for the first few years, there was no roof in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. Towards the middle of the Madani period, we don't know exactly when, the Prophet ﷺ ordered that a roof be built over the whole masjid. Not just the Bab al-Suffah. Ahlus Sufah, we'll talk about Ahlus Sufah inshallah next Wednesday, stories of Ahlus Sufah and the concept of Ahlus Sufah, we'll talk about next Wednesday, and so the Prophet eventually built a roof but it was a roof that was only to protect him from the sun, not from the cold and not from the rain it wasn't even waterproof, it wasn't airproof and we know this for sure because in Sahih Bukhari it is narrated that on the 22nd of Ramadan probably in the 8th year of the Hijrah it rained and the entire masjid was flooded and the flood of course made it muddy because it's not carpeted, it's all mud and so basically they're wondering what are we going to do now on this sajda, how are we going to do sajda on this mud and Anas ibn Malik said, fa wallahi I saw the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam prostrate into the mud and he came up and there was the mud on his forehead and his nose, meaning that when you're doing sajda to Allah, there is nothing to be embarrassed about, however it is, you will do sajdah. Because that is your true worship and servitude of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you lower your face, which is your most noble portion of the body, you lower it in front of Allah regardless of what is there as long as it's not najis and sand is not najis. And so the Prophet ﷺ lowered it and he's saying, فَوَاللَّهِ I saw the أَثَرَ الطِّينِ the traces of mud on the Prophet ﷺ's forehead and nose when he put it into the sand. And this shows us that the roof was leaking. It's not a solid roof. And by the way, just FYI, Abu Bakr did not change the masjid at all. Umar, radiallahu anhu, was the first one to solidify it a little bit, put pillars of wood, and a real rain-protected roof, right? A waterproof rain. Umar ibn al-Khattab was the one who did it, and he expanded it by 10-15 rows, not that much. And then by the time of Uthman, he really had to expand it, And so he maybe by around 50% he expanded it. So Uthman did a major expansion. When Uthman's distant cousin, the next Umayyad Khalifa a few generations down, Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik ibn Marwan, Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik, the Umayyad Khalifa, in around 96, 97 Hijrah if I'm not mistaken. In 97 Hijrah, Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik was the one who destroyed the entire old mosque. And he built what we would call a proper structure, which was very decorated and very like fully expensive structure for the time. And he was the one, by the way, who incorporated the grave of the Prophet ﷺ in the house of Aisha into the masjid. Because the house of Aisha was outside the masjid. This is a common misconception or myth. The Prophet ﷺ was not buried in the masjid. He was buried in his house. And his house was outside the masjid. It was connected to it, but it was outside it. And for almost a hundred years, that was the way things were. It was only in the time of Al-Walid ibn Abdul-Malik that he literally more than doubled the space of the masjid in all four directions. And he is the only person in our entire history to do so. No one before or after him did this. and the expansion that we have currently in the direction of the Qibla and in the direction of the grave of the Prophet ﷺ that expansion is the expansion of Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik. Because all of you who have been to Medina know where does the Imam stand? Not where the Prophet ﷺ used to stand. Like 15 rows ahead. Right? Where does the Imam stand? He gives stand. Now the khutbah is given exactly where the Prophet ﷺ used to give it. So the Imam when he gives the khutbah he actually has to walk the distance of this masjid. Literally, he gives the khutbah there, and then he walks through the crowd to lead the salah. Right? Because they didn't want to move the mimbar, that's a blessed mimbar place. But al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik, for reasons that are beyond the scope of this class, he decided to expand in all four directions. So he expanded in the direction of the qibla, he added basically 10-15 rows. He also expanded in the direction of the houses of the Prophet ﷺ. And so he incorporated all of the houses, And sadly he demolished all of the houses of the Sahaba and even the Prophet ﷺ other than the house of Aisha. Right? Because that's where he's buried. And it did cause a little bit of a controversy at the time. A number of, there were no Sahaba alive. When this happened all the Sahaba are gone. Right? A number of Tabi'un objected. Some of them because of them is Sayyid ibn Jubair. He objected because he said, you are including the grave inside the masjid, and grave should not be inside masjids. This is Saeed ibn Jubair speaking, one of the great, it's called Fuqaha al-Sab'a, the seven scholars of the Tabi'un. Saeed ibn Jubair is number one of them. And he objected because, Islamically speaking, graves and masjid should be two separate things as we know. Right? And he felt very uncomfortable about doing this, and usually politics goes and wins over religious clergy, so this is what happened. And others objected as well because they said, you are destroying the heritage of the Prophet ﷺ and the mothers of the believers. Excuse me, let these buildings remain so that people see how simply the Prophet ﷺ lived. Now subhanAllah, even within a century, luxury began. Even within a century, the clothes and the money and the buildings and the structure, we know this by numerous narrations. even the later Sahaba their lifestyle was 10 times better than the earlier Sahaba, we know this by numerous narrations right, this is amongst the Sahaba, how about in the Umayyad times so the group of the scholars said you should leave those buildings so that the Muslims see how simply the Prophet ﷺ lived but Al-Walid ibn Balik had his reasons and so all of the other houses were destroyed other than the house of Aisha and it was included inside the masjid. And of course the blessings of the masjid are well known, we don't need to get into this. It is one of the three sacred masjids in Islam, Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. These are the only three sacred lands in our religion by the way. There is no other land that is considered holy in and of itself other than Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. There is no other land that is considered holy and sacred that one should travel to other than these three lands. We all know as well that a prayer in Masjid al-Nabawi is equal to a thousand prayers anywhere else. We also know that the Prophet ﷺ said, what is between my house and my mimbar? Notice he said house. A lot of people say, between my grave and my mimbar. This hadith doesn't make any sense. When the Prophet ﷺ is speaking, he doesn't have a grave there. Right? This is not a proper hadith. A proper hadith is what is between my house and my mimbar? Not my grave and my mimbar. This is how the masters say it. That's not the hadith. The hadith says, ما بين بيتي وممبري روضة من رياض الجنة What is between my house and my mimbar is one of the روضة. روضة means a lush garden. روضة من رياض الجنة. Scholars have differed what does this mean. One interpretation is that, that very land will be transferred to Jannah. And that's not something that is impossible for Allah to do. A more common interpretation is, worshipping Allah on that land will get you to Jannah. Right? So once you enter Jannah there basically if you are worshipping Allah Azza wa Jal there properly and you pray to Allah Azza wa Jal there then you have a better chance of getting to Jannah however please note that the blessings of the thousand prayers is to the entire masjid and not just the rawdah this is a common misconception as well the rawdah is blessed for other reasons dua dhikr but the thousand prayers the Prophet ﷺ didn't say the rawdah he said the masjid and so whatever constitutes the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ that will be the place where the thousand prayers will be blessed one final point about the masjid is that we know that in the beginning in the early portion of the Medinan period one of the stumps of the tree the Prophet ﷺ used it for his minbar and it was rather large and he would sometimes in one hadith in Bukhari it is said he even prayed his salah on the stump to show the Ansar how to pray. So he prayed basically you know, few feet above them until he had to do sajda then he cannot do sajda so then he stepped down he did sajda and then he went back up onto the stump. Right? So for a few years he would give the khutbah on this stump. Remember the trees were cut down? One of those trees was used as his minbar. Then in Sahih Muslim we learn that one time the Prophet ﷺ told one of the Ansari ladies there who had a slave who was a carpenter. So she had a slave that was a carpenter. The Prophet ﷺ said to her that tell your carpenter to make for me a minbar. Tell your carpenter to make for me a proper mimbar, a proper pedestal. And so the carpenter made a mimbar of three steps. Made a mimbar of three steps. And this hadith is in Sahih Muslim. In Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, both say this narration. The Prophet ﷺ, the first khutbah he gave on those three steps basically. The three steps were placed away from the trunk basically. So the trunk obviously is there and the three steps are over here. That during the first khutbah on those three steps, the sahaba said, we began to hear a wailing, a crying, like that of a baby camel. And we found that the source of this noise was the tree. This stump. And the Prophet ﷺ interrupted his khutbah and came down and hugged the tree. Subhanallah. He hugged the tree. And it sniffled and stopped crying. basically Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed us or the sahaba to hear the emotions of the tree this is what the miracle is right and the Anas ibn Malik reports that the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said if I didn't hug it if I hadn't hugged it it would have cried until the day of judgment and he ordered that the tree then be uplifted and uprooted and then dug underneath his actual mimbar. So that it's still over there. Obviously the tree is jealous that the Prophet ﷺ has left him for another mimbar. And it's jealous that the knowledge that it used to have, the blessings it used to have, now it has gone away. So the Prophet ﷺ gave the tree its wish by putting it under the mimbar. And at this, al-Hasan al-Basri said, after narrating this hadith, he said, O believers, look this was a tree that was crying because it wished to be with the Prophet ﷺ. Is it not more befitting that those of us who are men should cry even more to be with him? This is what Hasan al-Basri said. That here is a tree that is crying because it missed the Prophet ﷺ. Where are our hearts and why cannot we cry to be with the Prophet ﷺ? In any case, inshallah ta'ala, we will have to stop over here. And we will resume inshallah next week, still talking about the masjid and the concept of the masjid. And the important point that deserves a whole talk is the concept of the suffah, ahl al-suffah in the masjid. And what else occurred in these first few weeks of the Prophet ﷺ moving. And subhanallah, the beautiful thing here, which again we'll emphasize next week again. the Prophet ﷺ did not even build his own house until the house of Allah was built. This is just mind-boggling, Wallahi, to think about. He did not even build his own house. And because of this, he did not live with his family. He's living with Abu Bakr. Because he wants to first build the house of Allah. And then after the house of Allah is built, then attention is turned to his own house. And we'll elaborate, inshaAllah ta'ala, next week about the building of his own house and what happened in those first few weeks. We have a few minutes for question and answer and then we have a special guest who will address us and then we'll break for Salatul Masih. I'm going to get into this controversy next week. It's a controversy. Allah says in the Quran, لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَى مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَنْ تَقُومَ فِيهِ This is Surah At-Tawbah. And is this Masjid Quba or is this Masjid Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? It's a controversy. So we don't have time. That's why I intentionally left it till next week. Yes? You talked about the Muslims who converted but did not make the... Yes, we have a few references to them. Did any of them stay and survive up till the conquest of Mecca? Did any stay and survive till the conquest of Mecca? There is only one person that we know of who did this and that is the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, Al-Abbas. And the theory goes that the Prophet ﷺ had told his uncle to remain in Mecca to give him the news of the people of Mecca. This is a modern day theory. It's not the classical opinion. The classical opinion is that he converted late. But we know that he gave the process of information whether he was a secret Muslim or whether he was not yet a convert, his heart was with Islam. So from this, a modern theory is that Al-Abbas is actually intentionally left behind in Mecca because he's one of the seniors and the elders. He's not like some lowly figure here, right? He is of the upper echelons. He's of the elite, you know, of the Quraysh. So, you need somebody like him to inform you. He's the one telling them that Uhud, for example, right? He's the one who tells them other things. So, Allahu'alam, but this is a modern day theory, that Al-Abbas remained by the command of the Prophet ﷺ. Right? Any question from the sisters? Brothers, anything? Sheikh? Yes. You talked about garlic, this is interesting. It was an uncooked, that's the point. Arab cuisine has of course evolved in the last 14 centuries, as has their customs and manners and language. I understand that. The point I was thinking about is because this is this reference and this also represents everything else that smells. It is not just garlic but it will come to the masjid. So modern day qiyas would say that a smoker with bad breath, first he should give up smoking for his own sake but if he is smoking, he should not smoke before he comes to the masjid. After Ramadan meals is also problematic but if we were to prevent people from coming here then the masjid would be empty. So that's another problem that we have to deal with. Just add extra bukhur in Ramadan. We should add some system within the ventilation system to take care of it inshallah. Yes? You mentioned that Walid ibn Abdul Malik. Walid ibn Abdul Malik, yes. Some reason for him to... But he must have a reason for making him to destroy... Wallahi, this is a very controversial issue. what is the reason of why Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik would incorporate the houses of the Prophet ﷺ. And one reason is that he just did so ignorantly. Because Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik is not in Medina. Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik is in Damascus, right? In Medina, it's Umar ibn Abdul Aziz at the time who's the governor. at the time it's Umar ibn Abdulaziz so one interpretation is that he's just acting like a typical politician who has no clue about what to do and he wants to build a legacy look all politicians want to leave legacies and they leave legacies that the people like and in our days in Muslim lands it's always building masjids or printing masjids that's what politicians do so this is one thing but there is another interpretation which actually makes a lot of sense and it requires a little bit of detail. I don't know if I have time to get into it. Let me just say it was basically to oust out the opposition from the Ahlul Bayt. Because the Umayyads biggest threat was from the Ahlul Bayt. The proto-Shia. Not the Shia, these people, the proto-Shia, the original Shia. Which we have said the original Shia's Ahlul Bayt were not theologically different from us. They were politically different. We said this before, right? They were theologically the same. And the descendants of the Prophet ﷺ genuinely viewed themselves as being more rightly entitled to the Khilafah. And this is a legitimate opinion. I mean, it's not going to make anybody deviant or incorrect. This is a position. And they didn't consider Yazid and the others to be valid. So, he wanted to basically expel them from... They used to still live in the houses of the Prophet ﷺ, right? Where are they going to live? They've inherited the houses down. so they used to still live next to the masjid and they used to still have access to the grave of the Prophet ﷺ, one theory basically has it that by doing this he forced them to go far outside the city and he basically forced them to not have the weight of the grave of the Prophet ﷺ in the background basically, right? Which is a very interesting theory and actually makes a lot of sense actually makes a lot of sense and Allah knows best, inshallah. Final thing then we have a guest to the grave of the Prophet is well documented nobody has been inside the actual chambers of Aisha for at least 11 centuries and nobody should go inside there are still keys to get you to some inner chambers but not the innermost chamber. The actual house of the Prophet ﷺ was not bigger than 10 feet by 10 feet let's say. A very small room. This was not a large mansion. And yet the modern day grave is at least what 60 feet or so. Or something as massive. If not more than 60 feet actually. It's a massive place. What happened was over the centuries, people continued to build walls and barriers between the original house of Aisha and the external grave or the external people, excuse me. When Abdul Malik, Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik built the extension, the tabi'un who are alive did not want the grave to be in the direction of the qibla. because then you'd be facing the grave when you prostrate. So they built three walls around it and then facing the Qibla, they built two walls, i.e. a pentagon, a pentagon totally. And the two walls were not in the middle mixing. They went a little bit astray. So that anybody facing it was facing a slanted wall basically. So psychologically they're not facing the grave. This was built in the time of Umar ibn Abdulaziz. And this was the time as well that when they were building the wall, one of the walls of Aisha's house collapsed. Which shows you of course it's a human structure, it's not gonna last forever. And they saw two exposed feet. And everybody panicked. They were completely undecomposed, completely fresh. Everybody panicked because they felt this might be the feet of the Prophet ﷺ. And they called the elders of the community and they figured out, no this is not him, this is Umar ibn al-Khattab. So the wall that was Umar's side fell down. So they covered that up with sand, and then they built, as I said, the pentagonal structure. This is in Waleed ibn Abdul-Malik. Then over the course of the next centuries, the pentagonal structure was then another large room, and then another room, and then an octagonal structure roughly in this 5th century. And then the Ottomans built a grail, a large grail, a massive grail. and then the Saudis came and they put a curtain and then they built another grill around the curtain and therefore if you actually look in, you will firstly not see anything other than what your imagination tells you you are seeing, right? But secondly, if you could actually flash, and I have lived there for 10 years, so I know this, I have been there plenty of times, I have seen. If you actually could see inside, all you would see is a green covering, a cloth that is covering another grill. There are in fact two grails, both built by the Ottomans basically. One of them is an inner and older Ottomans and others an outer Ottoman. And the Saudis have basically let that stand. And the green dome on top was built by, subhanallah the name is in the tip of my tongue, Qalawun. Qalawun who was the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in 672 or so Hijrah around 672 or so Nasir ibn Qalawun he was the one who built the green dome ironically the dome was not green when it was built the dome has gone through at least half a dozen colors from white to yellow to black to green was actually pretty recent in the grand scale of things. I think only 200 years or so ago. And so the dome was not green. Originally it was white. But the dome was added on pretty recently in the grand scale of things, i.e. 600 years ago, not a thousand years ago. So the point being that in our times, there is even in our books of history, it says that one of the sultans, and that is Nur ad-Din al-Zangi. Nur ad-Din al-Zangi. He actually built a moat of iron, lead, around the grave by a distance. Because, and again these are stories, because it is said that two people, non-Muslims, tried to steal the body of the Prophet ﷺ by digging a grave there. So he built this moat around it and he then fortified it again. So Nur ad-Din was one of those who built yet another fortified wall. so in our times one of my teachers tells me that he has been inside not the grave but there is still a number of structures you can go inside you can go inside 2 or 3 structures basically and they go back maybe 600 years so he has been inside and he tells me that in fact you have to go down at least 20 feet which actually makes complete sense for those who know geography and geology lands go up and down and so the actual house of the Prophet is probably not even in the level that we think it is it's actually down and throughout all of these centuries we've just built on top, on top, on top and this is what he told me, that he had to go down staircases and go into and then they stop at a certain point they stop and they're not allowed to go beyond this point inshallah we have to conclude here Thank you.

Seerah 3 - Why study the Seerah & Pre-Islamic Arabia - Yasir Qadhi _ May 2011-4F5qzMI2IKs

Al-Fatiha. our introductory lectures before actually jumping into the life and times of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And all of these introductory lectures is background information and motivation for why we should be studying the seerah. So today inshallah ta'ala, we will begin about discussing what exactly is the seerah and why should we study the seerah. And we'll try to mention something about pre-Islamic Arabia. So we're gonna set the stage and we're gonna continue next week and the week after that setting the stage for the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. So before we begin with the birth of the Prophet ﷺ, we need to explain the world at his time. And so we're gonna begin by doing that today, and continue for the next week or two the story of Ibrahim, and the benefit we can derive, and so on and so forth. So we begin by talking about the word seerah. What does the word seerah mean? The word seerah comes from the Arabic verb, سار يسير سيراً which means to traverse or to journey. So the word seerah actually comes from the verb that means to travel. And the reason why seerah, meaning the biography of a person, is called seerah, it is because you are traveling his journey. You are walking in his path, you are following his footsteps. So when we study the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ, it is as if we are following in his footsteps, it is as if we are traveling in his journey. And that is why the seerah or the biography of a person is called the seerah because you are walking in his footsteps. Now, even though the Arabs would call seerah the biography of any person, as soon as the Prophet ﷺ came, Muslim scholars used it exclusively for the biography of the best human being. And so, no scholar says seerah except that he means the biography of the life and times of, the incidents that happened during the life of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Now in order to understand the seerah as I said, you don't begin with the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. You must begin with the world at his time. And that is why every single book of seerah, from the most classical books up until the modern ones, they have a number of introductory sections, and we're gonna begin with that today, after we summarize some of the benefits of studying the seerah. Why study the seerah? Why should you be interested in the seerah? Why spend our time coming here and understanding the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ? Well, the benefits are numerous. First and foremost, Allah has commanded us to know this man. This is an obligation that Allah has put upon us. We have to know this person. And there are over 50 verses in the Qur'an that command us to take the Prophet ﷺ as an example. Of them, لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ لِمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُو اللَّهَ وَالْيَوْمَ الْآقِرَةُ وَذَكَرَ اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ Indeed there is for you فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ In the messenger of Allah أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ An exemplary manner A perfect conduct أُسْوَة means something you follow حَسَنَة means a perfect So you have in the Prophet ﷺ The perfect example to follow And therefore, the study of the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ is the study of somebody we need to follow. And the amazing thing, no matter which angle you look at the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ, you will benefit from that. So no doubt, the number one angle we look at it, in terms of religion, in terms of how we worship Allah. Also we look at the seerah in terms of manners and morals, in terms of mercy and tenderness. Also we look at the seerah in terms of leadership. What did the Prophet ﷺ do as a leader? We look at the seerah in terms of how he was as a father and a husband. And we will find benefit in this. So no matter which angle you look at the life and times, the purpose of risalah, the purpose of Allah sending prophets, is that we have a living example to follow. Allah tells us in the Qur'an, that if we had wanted, we could have sent angels. There is a verse in the Qur'an, that if we had wanted, we could have sent angels. But what would you have done if we had sent angels? you would have rejected. لَكَذَبْتُمْ You would have rejected it. Why? Because you would have said, we can't be like that. These are not our species. How can we follow them? So of the perfection of Allah's wisdom is that He sends human beings, flesh and blood, people like ourselves, born of women, married and having children, just like us. But the difference is they are chosen by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they are made role models and examples. Another blessing of studying the seerah, is that the seerah is the number one way to increase our love for the Prophet ﷺ. The number one way, there is really no other way as effectively and as powerfully to increase our love for the Prophet ﷺ than by studying his life and his times. And this is a sad fact of our ummah, that unfortunately we have neglected this study, and we have sidelined it. And most of our children are ignorant completely of the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. They don't even know the names of his children. They don't even know the basic date, when did he immigrate, how old was he when wahi came down. And yet they know so much of this dunya that it is embarrassing. It is embarrassing for us as parents that our children know so much of movie stars and actors and sports personalities. And they have no clue as to the real person whom they should know about. And so by studying the seerah, our love for the Prophet ﷺ increases and conversely it demonstrates our love. It's a two-way street. When you study, your love goes up. In order for your love to go up, you need to study. And if you truly love this man, you will study him. And that is because a sign of loving someone is to want to know more about them. A sign of loving somebody is to want to know more about that person. This is human nature. So for example, when I'm traveling, I call up my children, I say, what did you do today? I mean, who cares what they've done? That doesn't affect me. What did you have for breakfast? I asked my children. Who cares? I mean, it's not gonna affect me. But this is a sign of love. Because when you love somebody, you want to know everything about them. So anybody who claims to love the Prophet ﷺ, but he doesn't study his life and times, wallahi, the fact that he doesn't study is a sign he doesn't love. If you claim you love this man, and yet you don't care to study him, you don't care to read his biography, you don't care to find out facts about him, what type of love is this? This is not a love that we understand as human beings. So, to study the seerah is a sign of love. And through studying the seerah, we increase our love. It's a circle. The more we love, the more we study. The more we study, the more we love. Understanding the seerah, also a third benefit, understanding the seerah also helps us to understand the Qur'an. Because the Qur'an is a very complex book. It's a very profound book. and it cannot be understood without context. You cannot understand without context. So when you hear, for example, I just recited right now, وَالضُّحَىٰ وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ مَا وَادَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ Your Lord has not abandoned you, nor has He shown you any harshness. You will not understand this verse until you understand the seerah, when it was revealed. Why was it revealed? The context of its revelation. That the Prophet ﷺ was facing persecution. and he was wondering, why isn't Allah helping me? Why isn't the nasr of Allah coming? Why isn't the wahi coming? Why isn't the Quran coming? For weeks no Quran came down and the Prophet ﷺ began thinking, maybe my Lord has abandoned me. And this is early on, the first year of revelation. The first year of revelation and shaitan is giving him bad thoughts. And so immediately Allah reveals, وَالضُّحَىٰ وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ مَا وَادَّعَكَ وَالضُّحَىٰ Sign of optimism. Dhuha is what? What is duha? the breaking of the light to this day amongst humanity what does وضح signify new day light is coming so this is an optimistic sign and Allah is telling him مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ مَا قَلَىٰ وَلَا الْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مِنَ الْأُولَىٰ be patient what's gonna happen is better than what you're having now it's the beginning of the day the dawn is coming, the sun is coming so until you understand the seerah the seerah doesn't make any sense to you So by studying the seerah, the Quran gains meaning, profundity. Without the seerah, the Quran is without context. Without context, you'll never appreciate the Quran. Another benefit of studying the seerah, the seerah raises our hopes, lifts our spirit, and blesses us with optimism. Especially in our times when we're facing Islamophobia, we're facing a little bit of persecution. Wallahi to call it persecution is even embarrassing when we look at what the Prophet ﷺ and the early Sahaba suffered, we in America are not being persecuted in that sense. Nonetheless, times have changed from the last 10 years. And things are happening now, we're facing a little bit of the heat. We need a source of direction, a source of optimism. And by studying the seerah, we can understand that the people before us suffered even more. And we compare our trials and tribulations to their trials and tribulations. And in fact, a beautiful point here, The Quran tells us that Allah is telling the Prophet ﷺ the stories of the earlier prophets, i.e. the earlier seerahs. Why? وَكُلَّنَّ قُصُّ عَلَيْكَ مِنْ أَنبَاءِ الرُّسُلِ مَا نُثَبِّتُ بِهِ فُؤَادَكَ We are going to recite to you the stories of the previous prophets in order that your hearts attain affirmation. نُثَبِّتْ بِهِ فُؤَادَكَ We're going to make you feel more firm, increase your optimism. So, think about this. Our Prophet ﷺ heard the stories of the earlier Prophets, what did that do to him? Gave him more optimism, increased his iman. How about us then? Don't we deserve even more so? That our iman goes up when we study the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ? So the studying of the life and times of the previous generations, of the Prophets of Allah, it brings about an immediate benefit. لِنُثَبِّتَ بِهِ فُؤَادَكَ To resolve, to affirm your chest, i.e. to increase your iman. Yet another benefit of studying the seerah, and this is something many of us don't really think about, the seerah itself is a miracle of the Prophet ﷺ. When somebody asks you, what are the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ, we start thinking the splitting of the moon, the talking of the tree, this, that, this, that. And we don't think that in fact, his whole life is a miracle, from beginning to end. His whole life is an indication that he was a prophet of Allah. Coming from where he came, with the education or lack of education that he had, and yet coming forth with the message, the profundity, the scripture, the eloquence of the Qur'an. Where did this come from? In addition to that, his patience, his perseverance, his success, coming in the middle of a pagan, ancient civilization that had no... There was no civilization. They didn't even have a script. They didn't have two-story buildings. They didn't have a library. They couldn't even read and write. And yet the Prophet ﷺ came from the midst of a backward, uneducated, uncivilized, barbaric nation. We're gonna talk about this next week. They were really a barbaric nation. And within 50 years, within 20 years, look what happened. Within 50 years, Islam began to spread. within a hundred years it ruled the world. This is a miracle from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the seerah is the beginning of that miracle. How he lived, the power that he wielded, and yet the simplicity with which he lived his life. The sacrifice that the sahaba would have done had he asked them to do, but he didn't. And it is impossible for a human not to be affected by that power, by that luxury, by that wealth, unless there is really a divine sincerity in him. A pure sincerity that this is being done for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the famous scholar Ibn Hazm from Andalus, the famous Andalusian scholar, Ibn Hazm says that, Wallahi, if the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam had not been given any miracle other than his life and his times, it would have been sufficient to prove that he is a Prophet from Allah. If he hadn't been given any other miracle other than his seerah, His seerah is the best indication that he is a prophet from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And of course there are multiple facets here, his own life and times. How he revolutionized Arabia. And how he changed the entire world from where he came from, a humble origin, a shepherd of Mecca. And what happened with the messengers that he came with, immediately becoming within 20 years. And we're gonna get to this point, I'm jumping the gun here. but nobody could have ever predicted that a group would come from Arabia and destroy the Persian empire and start knocking on the doors of the Roman empire and start diminishing it until finally it wiped out. Nobody could have ever predicted that a group would come from Arabia with a new religion, a new theology, a force that cannot be equaled with the mighty empires of Rome and Persia. And yet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala opened up the doors and Allah Azzawajal allowed these group of people who were less educated and less even, if you like, civilized, meaning the Sahaba did not have the type of civilization that the Romans and Persians did. They didn't have the weaponry. And yet Allah Azzawajal blessed them because they were Muslims, because they had this religion. So by studying the life and times of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, we see his miracle. We see the fact that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sent him. Another benefit of studying the seerah is that the seerah lays out a precise methodology for the revival of the ummah. You know there are so many groups out there, we call them these Islamist groups, trying to revive the ummah. Each one has his own ideology, his own methodology. Well, why don't we begin with the methodology of the Prophet ﷺ. Let us see how he began. If you want to bring about izzah and honor and glory, let us look at what the Prophet ﷺ did. Because he began in the middle of nothing. He began literally from scratch. Literally from zero. And within his lifetime, look what happened. So you wanna see a methodology of revival? We look at the ummah today, and our hearts bleed. We look at the ummah today, and we see what is happening, and we wonder, why oh Allah? Why is this happening? And we ask, how can we revive the state of the ummah? The response by studying the seerah, we see a methodology, a plan of revival. By studying the seerah, we also see the life and times of the best generation who ever lived. And that is a generation of the sahaba. The best generation who ever lived, as we firmly believe, رضي الله عنهم ورضوا عنه. Allah says this in over 8 or 9 verses in the Quran. رضي الله عنهم ورضوا عنه. Allah is pleased with them, they are pleased with Allah. And the Prophet ﷺ said, that the best of all generations has been my generation. خير أمة قرن. The best ummah is my ummah. Meaning that of the sahaba. And Ibn Mas'ud said, that Allah looked at the hearts of His servants, and he chose the purest and the brightest heart to be that of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And then he chose the purest and brightest hearts and he made them the sahaba of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So by studying the seerah, we study the stories of Abu Bakr and Umar, the stories of Anas and Jabir, the stories of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Talha and Zubair, and our iman goes up as well. These were legendary people. These were people, their life and times, they inspire us. Their sacrifices, their struggles, their perseverance, their patience, each and every one of them is a role model for us. And there is an athar that, it might be slightly weak, but the athar concept is authentic, that my sahaba are like the stars. My sahaba are like the stars, whichever one you follow, you're gonna be guided. And the point here is that the sahaba are role models for us, each and every one of us. Of the benefits of studying the seerah, is that the seerah brings about knowledge with which we can defend the honor of our Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ's honor has always been attacked from day one. The Quraysh fabricated things against him. ساحر كذاب They said this is ifkun muftara. They said he is a madman, he is a magician, he is a poet, he is this, he is that. Because nobody can explain how the Qur'an came. You have to invent some explanation, right? Where did this unlettered shepherd get the Qur'an from? Even the Arabs, the Quraysh had to explain. So they invent the most preposterous claims. They said he's a magician. They said he's a madman. They said he's this. They said he's that. Well, the propaganda began back then. It continues to this day. And each one of the charges that the Prophet ﷺ was accused of, the Qur'an defends against it. And each one of the charges later people invent, we need to turn to the seerah and defend against the Prophet ﷺ. In our times, how many people are saying that our Prophet ﷺ was a bloodthirsty terrorist. This is exactly what they're saying. They're saying he was a womanizer, he married this, he married that. My dear brothers and sisters, if you want to defend Rasulullah, how do you expect to do so when you don't know his life and times? If you want to defend your Prophet, how are you gonna do so when you don't know whether these things are true or not? And if certain elements are true, how do we understand them? And when we put them in context, then insha'Allah ta'ala, it is easier to explain. So by studying the seerah, we will be able to defend the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And there is no way to defend him other than by studying the seerah. And that is why the early scholars of Islam, the sahaba tabi'un tabi'un, they would teach the seerah just like they would teach all of the other sciences. Ali ibn al-Husayn, the great grandson of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, He said, we would teach our children maghazi. Meaning the maghazi is the early word for seerah, the expeditions of the Prophet ﷺ. Just like we would teach them the Qur'an. You see, this is how they would raise their children. Seerah and the Qur'an. You need to teach your children the Qur'an, and you need to teach them the seerah along with the Qur'an. And so, the curriculum in early Islam was really composed of Qur'an and seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. And I encourage all of you to start the same with your own children. That instead of reading bedtime stories of ancient Greek pagans, right? Why don't we talk about the life and times of our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Talk about the sahaba. And there are so many books of seerah for the children. That these are the stories that our children should be raised upon and listen to and hear. So, to summarize the benefits of studying the seerah. We can say that the study of the seerah is in fact the study of the best and the best and the best and the best. What do I mean by this? It is the study of the life and times of the single best human being who ever lived. Now we firmly believe as Muslims that the Prophet ﷺ, all the prophets are good and pious and holy, and the Prophet ﷺ is the best of them. As he said in a hadith, أَنَا سَيِّدُ وَلَدِ آدَمَ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلَا فَغْرٍ I am the Sayyid, I am the leader, the paragon of virtue of the children of Adam. And I'm not saying this out of arrogance. I'm not saying this to boast. This is a factual statement that Allah has told me. So by studying the seerah, we study the best person. And the best time, because the best time is the time of the sahaba. The best people are the people of the sahaba. The best place, and that is Mecca and Medina. These are the holiest cities on earth. And it is the seerah that brought prominence to these two cities. We firmly believe that Mecca was holy, but who believed it was holy? Who knew it was holy? Who cared it was holy until the seerah came? And as for Medina, it became holy in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ said, I am making Medina holy like Ibrahim made Mecca holy, by the permission of Allah. I am declaring Medina to be holy like Ibrahim declared Mecca to be holy. So the seerah is the life and times of the best human. in the best era, amongst the best people, and living in the best of all cities. In every angle, it is the best of the best of the best of the best. The best person, the best time, the best place, and the best generation. And therefore, studying the Prophet ﷺ's life and times, is studying our religion, it is studying the rise of the phenomenon of our religion, it is studying how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brought about the revolution of Islam. He brought about an entire change of mind, how Islam changed the world. And by studying these 23 years of the life of the Prophet ﷺ, it's only 23 years from his risalah. 23 years, the miracle of the seerah will benefit us in each and every aspect. The next question that arises is, where do we study the seerah from? What are the primary sources of seerah? Now here I am preaching to you in Memphis, Tennessee, 1429 years or 32 years after the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ. Where did I get this information from? How do I know what happened? So the question arises very briefly, I'm not gonna go into too much detail. What are the sources of the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ? Who can tell me the number one source of seerah of the Prophet ﷺ? The most, the Qur'an. The hadith is number two. The Quran. The number one source is Quran. And this is a source that is overlooked by many of the people. It is overlooked by many of the people. Immediately jump to, is it Ibn Ishaq? Is it Ibn Hisham? The number one source of seerah is the Quran. Because the Quran was revealed during the seerah, so it's catering to situations that arose during the seerah. And the Qur'an references almost every single major incident in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. In fact, even before his time. Such as for example, أَلَمْ نَشْرَحَ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ The reference here is to when he was five years old. When the Jibreel came and visited him. أَلَمْ نَشْرَحَ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ وَوَضَعْنَ عَنْكَ وِزْرَكَ الَّذِي أَنْقَضَ ضَهْرَكَ So, the seerah references every single major story in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. was salam. And even before, is there any story mentioned even before he was born? أَلَمْ تَرَ كَيْفَ فَعْلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ The Ashab al-Fil was before the process man was born. And Allah mentions it in the Quran, Ashab al-Fil. So the seerah tells us stories from the beginning all the way up until the end. الْيَوْمَ أَكْبَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا One of the last verses revealed the completion of the benefits of the Quran the Quran is the best source of seerah for many reasons. For many reasons. First and foremost is the speech of Allah. So Allah is telling this to us. So can we doubt the speech of Allah? And the eloquence of the Quran is something that is unparalleled. The eloquence is simply unparalleled. How beautifully Allah describes Badr and Uhud. How beautifully Allah describes the feelings of the Sahaba and the Munafiqun even. So another benefit of the Qur'an, any historian will record the outward, the Qur'an records the inward. The Qur'an tells us that, إِذْ تُسْعِدُونَ وَلَتَلْوُونَ عَلَىٰ أَحَدٍ وَالرَّسُولِ يَدْعُوكُمْ فِي أُخْرَاكُمْ The Qur'an tells us that you were terrified that day, that your hearts were in your throats. The Qur'an tells us you became cowards. The Qur'an tells the munafiqun, you are scared that Allah will expose you. Who can expose the hearts of the people other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the Qur'an is an amazing source of seerah. The eloquence, the power, the beauty, and ilm al-ghayb. The Qur'an explains to us phenomena we would not have understand. Right? Badr. Allah says in the Qur'an, we will reveal ثَلَاثَةِ آلَافٍ مِّنَ مَلَائِكَ مُنْزَلِينَ We sent down 3000 angels. Don't worry, we're gonna help you. Uhud. Allah explained the disaster and catastrophe. Hudaybiyyah. إِنَّا فَتَحَلَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا On and on, every single incident, the Qur'an tells us, عِلْمَ الْغَيْبُ And there is no source of finding this out other than the Qur'an. However, one of the issues, we never say problems, one of the issues of the Qur'an is that of course it's not chronological. Right? So, we don't know the reference of the Qur'an simply because بَقَرَ آلِ عِمْرَانِ نِسَىٰ مَائِدَ are not arranged chronologically. Right? They're arranged according to how the Prophet ﷺ want them to be arranged. So Baqarah is an early Madani surah, it comes first. And Iqra, which is the first surah, is the 96th in the Qur'an. So it's not arranged chronologically. And another problem is that a lot of times you don't see the reference mentioned. So Allah Azzawajal doesn't mention the word Uhud. We need to know that Ali Imran was revealed for Uhud. That Anfal was revealed for Badr. We need to know this. and it's without so the seerah and the Quran go hand in hand in that you need the seerah to understand the Quran you need the Quran to understand the seerah so the two go hand in hand so this is the first source and it is the most prized source it is the most eloquent source and so on and so forth the second source of seerah as our sister pointed out is hadith and in fact every hadith is one snapshot of the seerah is it not? what is a hadith? It's a saying of the Prophet ﷺ. And what is the saying of the Prophet ﷺ except one incident. And so in one sense, every single hadith is a snapshot of the seerah. But of course when we mean hadith, we primarily mean those that describe some incidents. Somebody came, somebody did, this happened. And so from the hadith, and there are lots of books of hadith, lots of books. And the most famous ones as you should know are six of them. They are called the six famous books, al-Qutub al-Sittah. some call them as-sihah as-sitta but that is not precise because they are not all sahih but the Qutub as-sitta these are the primary books but there are lots of other books of hadith there are dozens of other books of hadith the third source of seerah is books written specifically for seerah and the first people to begin writing books of seerah were the sons of the sahaba the sahaba's children Can you imagine if your father was a sahabi, and he's telling you all of these stories of the Prophet ﷺ, and there's so many, you begin to write them down. And of the greatest of those who wrote was Urwa, the son of Az-Zubayr. Urwa, the son of Az-Zubayr. Urwa is the son of the sahabi, the grandson of the sahabi. His mother is a sahabiya. His grandmother is a sahabiya. His brother is a sahabi. But he was born after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. So he's not a sahabi. His brother is even a Sahabi, but he's not a Sahabi. And his aunt is Aisha. His aunt is Aisha, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. So Urwa is one of the primary narrators of Hadith and Fiqh and Tafsir, and of Seerah. Because he has access to Aisha. Nobody had access to Aisha. He's a mahram. Aisha doesn't need to wear hijab in front of him. So Urwa is the primary narrator from Aisha. And lots of details of the Prophet ﷺ come from Urwa. because Aisha tells him those details. And it is said that Urah wrote a small pamphlet of the seerah. Also, the son of Uthman ibn Affan, his name was Abban. Abban ibn Uthman ibn Affan. The son of Uthman ibn Affan, he died 105 hijrah. He also wrote a little booklet of seerah. And some other booklets were written until finally a great scholar came by the name of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri who died 129 hijrah. And he wrote one of the first early treatises of Sira. Now none of these books is existent, none of them anymore. We simply have references in later books of these earlier books. Why aren't they existent? It's very simple reason. When later books came, they absorbed the earlier treatises. So Abban is saying, my father told me, my father told me, my father told me. Urwa is saying, Aisha narrated, my father narrated, my uncle narrated, three, four people. Imagine somebody comes and he takes Abban and Urwa and other books. And then he says, let me make a bigger book. Once the bigger book is written, who needs Urwa and who needs Abban anymore, right? You might as well copy that book. And realize in those days, there were no printing presses. In those days, if you wanted a book, what would you do? You would sit there and write it yourself, cover to cover. So if you had to choose one book, you would choose the bigger ones. You would choose the ones with more details. And so, it's a sad case for us now. We wish we had those early books, but unfortunately, we don't have them. But we do have books that were written in the very next generation. Very early. And this shows us that seerah was compiled by and large even before hadith. By and large. Because they wanted to emphasize seerah more than anything else. And the greatest, I'm being very simplistic here because obviously we can go, there's lots of PhDs written about sources of seerah. I'm summarizing in short sentences. The greatest scholar of seerah is a name most of you would have heard of. Ibn Ishaq. Sirat Ibn Ishaq Ibn Ishaq His name is Muhammad Ibn Ishaq And he was born around 85 Hijrah Now think about it 85 Hijrah Which means He's living in Medina He's born in Medina Right? This is where the Prophet ﷺ lived and died This is where the children of the Sahaba are He grew up around the children of the Sahaba And the grandchildren of the Sahaba 85 Hijrah is very early Right? and the Sahaba lived up until around 100-110 Hijrah you know Jabir and others they died 90 Hijrah so Muhammad Ibn Ishaq or Ibn Ishaq for short he met the sons of the Sahaba maybe even he saw some of the Sahaba, maybe but it's very early, 85 Hijrah when he's born is very early and he began writing everything that he heard and he just had a passion for the seerah so he began writing everything and began compiling it in chronological order. Unlike the earlier treatises, they weren't in chronological order. Ibn Ishaq began saying, well this happened in early Mecca, this in middle Mecca, this late Mecca, then the Hijrah, and then he go... So he compiled a very large book. And just to be on the safe side, he even traveled to other cities where some of the Sahaba had went. Basra, Kufa. He went and traveled there to discover the stories of Ibn Mas'ud who traveled to Kufa. to the stories of the sahaba who had traveled to other places in the world. So he traveled to other lands as well. But his primary source was always in Medina. And one of the best things about Muhammad ibn Ishaq is he compiled everything with the chain of narrators. What is the chain of narrators called in Islam? Isnad. Isnad is the chain of narrators. The chain of narrators is a uniquely Islamic phenomenon. It does not exist in any other religion or culture. So uniquely Islamic phenomenon. And the chain of narrators tells us where the story came from. Because in Islam we always wanted to verify authenticity. We didn't just paste our religion, our superstitions and fables. Who told you this? Who told you that? Who told him that? Who told him that? All the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. So we compile the narrators. Ibn Ishaq from so and so, from so and so, from so and so. Back to the son of Jabir from Jabir, from the Prophet ﷺ. So we have a whole isnat. And we know every person, when he was born, when he died, how good was he of a Muslim, was he a good memory, or was he a poor memory, and therefore we can judge the isnad. And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Ibn Ishaq began compiling the life of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and he wrote a massive book. It was so big, it was, they said it was in 10-15 volumes. And this is in, and he died, Ibn Ishaq died 150 Hijrah. so he lived from 85 to 150 very early on it was so big that it was difficult to copy and so one of his students if you like came along not a direct student a student of a student and his name was Ibn Hisham these are two names most Muslims are aware of Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham and Ibn Hisham his name was Abdul Malik Ibn Hisham and Ibn Hisham died 213 Hijrah now the reason why I'm going into detail here is that the average Muslim should be aware of these two source books of the seerah. Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham. Right? I know this is not directly the seerah, we'll get there. But you need to know some books. Where does the seerah come from? Primarily, the number one source is Ibn Ishaq and then Ibn Hisham. Now what's the difference between Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Ishaq? Very simple. Ibn Hisham realized that Ibn Ishaq is too big. 10-12 volumes. So, he decided to summarize it. Ibn Hisham did not add anything he subtracted he did not rearrange he deleted Ibn Hisham simply cut cut cut lots of cuts he made and he made it into now Ibn Hisham is available in four volumes I have an edition four volumes let's say so they say he made it maybe into a half or a third of the original size now somebody will say why did he do that why didn't he leave it a large book you need to realize in those days they didn't have printing press. If you wanted the book, you'd have to write it cover to cover. And he realized this was too much detail. And also one of the things of Ibn Ishaq, he was one of the first people to write a history of humanity. He began from Adam, he worked his way down, Ibrahim, Nuh Ibrahim, Musa'i, and then he made his way to the Prophet ﷺ. And Ibn Hisham said, you know what, we don't need all of this, let's begin with the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ. So he deleted the entire section about early history. And he deleted a lot of other information that he felt was not that useful. And so over time, people began copying Ibn Hisham. And if you want to buy a copy of the book, you have to buy Sirat Ibn Hisham. You're not gonna find Sirat which one? Ibn Ishaq. You're not gonna find that. Okay, you're not gonna find that because it is now gone missing. However, just a side point for the little bit more interested or enthused amongst you. There was a very very famous scholar, Indian, by the name of Dr. Hamidullah. Dr. Hamidullah. Very famous scholar. And he lived a very ripe old age, around 93. He just passed away 5 years ago, 6 years, no, actually 6-7 years ago. And he was from India, and then he went to France. And he became one of the greatest scholars in what we call Orientalism, or specializing, studying of Islam amongst non-Muslims. He wrote books in French and in English, and he became a great researcher. And Dr. Hamidullah discovered many manuscripts. A lot of these manuscripts ended up in Berlin, in Paris, in London. Now how could ancient manuscripts end up over there? Many reasons, of them is colonialism. When the West came, and they started purchasing art items, and they started purchasing ancient things, they have the money, they have the political power. And so the sad fact of the matter is some of the most earliest Qur'ans, we find them in Paris. the earliest mushaf that we have is in Paris and another early mushaf is in London and so on and so forth so this is just the reality of the state of our ummah that when they left they took all of these treasures with them some of them were purchased some of them were literally just taken by force so after world war one there's a lot of manuscripts and it's not just world war one to be fair a lot of them were purchased so people when you have pounds sterling or american dollars people are willing to sell items And so a lot of these items were purchased by rich businessmen who just valued it as art. So lots of manuscripts. And to this day by the way, the majority of early ancient manuscripts are found in let's say Germany. One of the most largest repositories of manuscripts are in Germany. Because Germans had an interest in Islam in the 18th century. So Hamidullah is obviously a Muslim, he reads full in Arabic and what not. So he's going through all of these treasures in Germany, in Paris, in London. And he discovered a lot of manuscripts. one of the manuscripts he discovered was a partial copy of Ibn Ishaq the ummah had thought Ibn Ishaq is missing and gone the ummah had thought, khalas, there is no more Ibn Ishaq he discovered around one fourth of Ibn Ishaq and so he edited it and published it and when now we compare this is why it's good to have the earlier sources because then we can show the people, look Ibn Hisham didn't just invent Sira, he's taking it from Ibn Ishaq So when he compared Ibn Ishaq with Ibn Hisham, he found that exactly as Ibn Hisham said, he simply cut off around half or around one third. He just cut off. What did he cut off? Long poetry, the lineage of the Arabs. So every time Ibn Ishaq would mention a name, he take him back to let's say Nuh a.s. Lineage of 50, 60 people. So Ibn Hisham goes, look you know what, let's just go back 4 or 5 people, cut the rest off. So when he compared the two, he found, yes, Ibn Hisham was accurate in what he did. And therefore, we can now say, Alhamdulillah, for sure when we read Ibn Hisham, we're reading something written around a hundred years after the Prophet ﷺ passed away. Amazing, wallahi, it's amazing. Far before any book of hadith. Because Bukhari died 256, Muslim died 261, and so on and so forth. So Ibn Ishaq died 150, he wrote the book around 130 or so. So literally around a hundred years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. A little bit more than a hundred, we have the majority or the bulk of Ibn Ishaq preserved through Ibn Hisham. So the third source of seerah is the books specifically written for the seerah. The fourth source of seerah are the books written about the characteristics of the Prophet ﷺ. In Arabic the word is شَمَائِل A number of early authors, they wanted to describe the Prophet ﷺ and they wrote books about his description. Of course the most famous, you all know this book. What is the most famous Shama'il? Shama'il? Tirmidhi. Shama'il at Tirmidhi. This is the most famous Shama'il. Shama'il of Tirmidhi. But there were many Shama'il written. And Shama'il is a genre of books that deals with the looks, the characteristics, the manners, the possessions, the houses of the Prophet ﷺ. It's called Shama'il, specialities. Another source of seerah are the books written about the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ. in Arabic called Dalail. It's another genre of books, Dalail. And there are many books of miracles written. So by looking at the miracles, you can extract seerah. Now, the most famous book of Dalail is called Dalail al-Nubuwa of al-Bayhaqi. And this is around in 12 volumes. It's a massive book encyclopedia. This is Dalail al-Nubuwa of al-Bayhaqi. And then there are other sources of seerah. There is histories of the sahaba. So people recorded the histories of the sahaba. By studying the histories of the sahaba, you extract seerah. and then finally we'll mention the histories of Mecca and Medina. People wrote Tariq Mecca and Tariq Medina. And so by reading the Tariqs of Mecca and Medina, we extract Sira. And so these are the primary sources of Sira. To this, modern people have added sources that were not found in Muslim lands. And this is very difficult and rare, but there's a new genre of research in academia and Islamic studies here in America and the Western world. what did the Romans say about the Arabs at the time? What did the Persians say? What did the other civilizations say? And what stories did those Arabs tell the Romans? And this is recorded bits and pieces. And this is another complicated topic, but this is not the time and place to get into that. But some of the sources that now we have access to, earlier scholars did not have access to. So these are the sources of the seerah. Now we begin talking about pre-Islamic Arabia. Pre-Islamic Arabia. And we began by mentioning who exactly the Arabs were. This is a topic now of genealogy, a topic of ethnicity. Who are the Arabs that the Prophet ﷺ appeared amongst? And this is a topic that Ibn Ishaq himself begins with. The beginning of Ibn Ishaq is the types of Arabs. Who are the Arabs? So, let us begin. The Arabs amongst you pay attention especially, this is your own lineage. Some of you it is your lineage, others Allah knows. I say this because most of the Arabs of our times, they might not trace their roots back to the classical Arabs. So for example, when the Arabs conquered Egypt, the Egyptians at the time were not the descendants of these classical Arabs. When the Arabs conquered Sham and Syria, they were Romans. But eventually the descendants of these Romans became Muslims and they started speaking Arabic. and so what happened was what we have now is that the Arab ethnicity is not what it used to be and I don't mean this as any type of it's awkward talking about Arabs when I'm not an Arab so I mean nothing against the Arabs believe me okay I love the Arabs I'm the disclaimer I love the Arabs nothing against the Arabs but the Arabs in our times they are not the Arabs that we're talking about the Arabs we're talking about trace their ancestry to specific people most Arabs in our times are not descendants of those people they have become Arab through culture, through assimilation through language but they're not, now some of them are so some of them they can trace their lineage back to these people, those are still this is the Arabs that we are talking about so, the scholars have divided Arabs into two broad categories eventually I'm gonna need a powerpoint but I was lazy today, I didn't do it, I didn't wanna hook it up two broad categories, you might have this I'm sure, right, you have this, right, okay The first of these categories are the extinct Arabs. Al-Arabal Ba'ida. Extinct means there are obviously no more. And these are the earliest civilizations that lived in Arabia. Pre-Islam by thousands of years. They're called the extinct Arabs. They're just a remnant of history. These are the earliest civilizations of humanity in the Arabian Peninsula. And the Quran mentions some of their stories. Such as, who can tell me? Ad and Thamud. These are two of the earliest civilizations. They have nothing to do with the later Arabs. They're simply called Arabs because they lived in the land that was later called Arabia. It wasn't called Arabia when they were living there. And as far as we know, Thamud is the earliest humanity that we find in the Arabian Peninsula. We don't find any remnants of humanity before Thamud. Modern archaeological evidence suggests that the people of Thamud flourished around 3000 BCE. In other words, 5000 years ago. Flourished, which means they existed maybe a thousand years before then. We have documented evidence of the Thamud flourishing 5000 years ago. And we have the Madain of Saleh. we have the civilization of people of Salih which was after Thamud we have them, we see, we can see we can walk into their territories and we can see their living houses and their palaces and the people of Ad all of these people they lived in ancient times before Arabia and Ibn Khaldun mentions that these people they fled from the ancient city of Babel Babel was the mother of all cities The Bible tells us the Babel was the mother of all cities. They fled from the ancient city of Babel when there was some civil war and strife, and they made their way to Arabia. So as far as we know, this is the earliest civilization that we have ever discovered in the Arabian Peninsula, and that is Thamud and Ad and others. What happened to them? Each one of them has its own story. Some Allah destroyed, some civil war, some floods and migration. So in any case, all of these Arabs, they completely are extinct and that's why they're called the extinct Arabs. Al-Arab al-Ba'idah. So that's just a remnant of history. The second group of Arabs are the Arabs we're interested in. They are called Al-Arab al-Baqiyah. The opposite of Ba'idah. They're still remaining. Al-Arab al-Baqiyah. Now the Arab al-Baqiyah are composed of two categories. So don't get confused. One, two, two A, two B. Okay? Simple. One, two. One is Al-Arab al-Ba'idah. Two, Al-Arab Al-Baqiyah. Al-Arab Al-Baqiyah, two. Two A, two B. Al-Arab Al-Baqiyah are composed of two tribes. Two people. Qahtan and Adnan. Qahtan and Adnan. These are the Arabs. Qahtan and Adnan. Who is Qahtan, who is Adnan? Qahtan is considered to be the father of the Arabs. His son was named Ya'arab or Ya'rib. And Ya'arab or Ya'rib, he is literally the Arab father. The word Arab comes from Ya'rab, the son's name. Qahtan, the father of Ya'rab. So Ya'rab is where the term Arab comes from. Now later Arabs tried to make a verb out of it that they were passing through and they were Arab and Ya'rib. Allah knows best, it seems a little bit stretched to me to take a verb. But anyway, the name Ya'rab became the basis of Arab. And it is said that Ya'rab was the first to speak Arabic. Now once again, this is what we find in the books, but a little common sense tells us languages don't just come from one person. Languages evolve. So perhaps Ya'rab was the one who, let's say, began speaking differently. I don't know how you would say this, but they trace language to him. they traced the Arabic language to him and they traced the Arab race to him Ya'rab the son of Qahtan so this is called the Qahtani Arabs Qahtan is his father now who is Ya'rab and who is Qahtan amazingly we don't know we don't know who is Qahtan there is two or three opinions where did he descend from we all know he descended from Adam okay Alhamdulillah but I mean which branch of Adam right where did he go back to the majority opinion says that Qahtan was one of the descendants going back a number of generations back to the son of Nuh called Sam now this is something agreed upon that he was one of the children of Sam who is Sam? Sam is the father of the Semites all the Semites what is Semites? Semite means descendants of Sam Semite means descendants of Sam who are the Semites? a group of people who speak who are ethnically similar and who speak a similar type of language. The Hebrews, the Aramites of the old, the Arabs, these are all Semites. The Nabataeans, the Nabataeans, these are all Semites. Now legend has it, this is not in our tradition. Even though there is a Hadith, which is slightly weak. Hadith is weak. It is not in our tradition. It is found in the Old Testament. Legend has it that Noah had three sons. Noah had three sons. First of these, we don't know the first of them, but the one that we're interested in is Sam. Sam is the father of the Semites, the Hebrew race, the Aramaic speaking peoples, Ibrahim a.s. is a descendant of Sam. His brother Yafith, Yafith is the father of, they say, the Roman race, the Caucasians or the white peoples, Yafith. And then his brother Ham, and Ham is the father of the Africans. Now this is legend, the Bible says it, our tradition says it, there's a da'if hadith in Tirmidhi that also says it, Allah knows best, there's nothing to contradict it, so we might as well put this. But Sam was one of the children of Nuh. And so, Qahtan they say, this is the majority opinion, Qahtan is one of those descendants, not immediate, not the son of Sam, but son of Sam. That brings back memories for Americans here. Not the son of Sam, but descendants. of Sam. One of the maybe 10th or 15th, we don't know how many generations. Many generations after Qahtan comes. If this is the case, this means that Qahtan and Ibrahim a.s. simply come from Sam, but there is no direct connection. Maybe 10 generations apart or something like this. So Qahtan is not directly linked to Ibrahim. Another opinion, and this is a minority opinion, is that Qahtan is in fact a descendant of Ibrahim. This is another opinion. Qahtan is the descendant of Ibrahim. And a third opinion is that, no, Qahtan is in fact the descendant of the Prophet Hud a.s. And that's a very weak opinion. And Allah knows best, but the majority position seems to be that Qahtan is not linked to Ibrahim. Qahtan is not linked to Ibrahim. Qahtan is a descendant of Sam. And Ibrahim was also a descendant of Sam. So there is some type of cousinry between them. Tenth generation cousins or something like this. There is no direct linkage. Now, when did Qahtan live? Once again, we have no idea, but he is way before Adnan. We have to make it a point. Adnan and Qahtan, we mentioned them together, but they are not the same time. Qahtan is way before Adnan. So we said that his son was Ya'rab. From Ya'rab we get the term Arab, we get the language Arab. Where did they live? The Qahtanis lived in the southern portion of Arabia. The Qahtanis lived in southern Arabia. And they had a number of dynasties and kingdoms and ethnicities. So, لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي سَبَأٍ That Saba, the kingdom of Saba, Allah mentions, they were Qahtanis. Himyarites were Qahtanis. Ghassanids were Qahtanis. These were all from the Trump, the descendants of Qahtan. The Aus and the Khazraj in Medina were Qahtani. These are called the original Arabs. If you want to know the Arabic, al-Arab, al-Aribah. The original Arabs. Why are they called original Arabs? Because they invented Arabic. Or let's say they spoke Arabic. al-Arab, al-Aribah. These are the ones who spoke Arabic. This is Qahdan. Adnan, we know much more about Adnan, where there's little difference here. Adnan is a well-known guy. Why? Because he's the ancestor of our Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ is not Qahdani, he is Adnani. The Prophet ﷺ is Adnani. he is of the descendants of Adnan who is Adnan? Adnan is one of the descendants of the prophet Ismail alayhi salam and Ismail is not a Qahtani he is from Ibrahim alayhi salam he is not from that but obviously they go back to the Semite race so both Qahtan and Ibrahim are Semites but Ibrahim alayhi salam is not related to Qahtan as we said they are simply distant cousins they go back to the same son of Nuh alayhi salam so we all know the story of Ismail we're gonna talk about it next week in a little bit of detail because there's benefits and points we need to understand from the seerah, Ismail is not from Arabia, where is he from? Egypt Ismail is Egyptian Wallahi ya ahl misr yaani faqr hadha north of Iraq so the Iraqi says he's Iraqi, the Egyptian says he's Egyptian where are the Yemenis, where do you wanna say? Pakistan Yes, we get it now. قَوْلَ الْحَقِّ الَّذِي فِيهِ يَمْتَرُونَ Ibrahim. Where is Ibrahim from? He is from Iraq. Ibrahim is from Ur. And Ur is Iraq. Ur is Iraq. Ur is Iraq. Ibrahim is from Ur. And of course Iraq is like the cradle of civilization. Ibrahim is from Iraq. Ibrahim fled Iraq. he made his way with his cousin, they say Sarah. He made his way through Egypt. The king tried to rape Sarah and kill him. Allah prevented that. So the king gifted him Hajar. So Hajar is Egyptian, but lineage in Islam is through the father, with all respect to the mother, but the lineage is through the father. And so Hajar is Egyptian, and that is why the Prophet ﷺ said to the Muslims, you shall conquer Egypt. And when you do so, فَاسْتَوْصُ بِأَهْلِيَا خَيْرًا فَإِنَّ لَكُمْ صِلَةً وَرَحِمًا When you do conquer Egypt, He predicted the conquest of Egypt. So when you do conquer Egypt, be good to them, because you have silah, and you have rahim, with the people of Egypt. And that's from Hajar. So, Ibrahim a.s. is Iraq. He's from Ur. And so Ismail, ethnically, is not from Arabia. He is from Iraq. So Ismail a.s., as you know the story, we're gonna talk about that next week, he is left as a baby, with his mother Hajar, in Mecca. In an area that the Qahtanis do not inhabit. The Qahtanis are down south. Mecca is in the middle, central, Hijaz. The Qahtanis don't live there. It's a barren civilization. Sorry, it's a barren land. There is no civilization. It's a barren land. And one of the tribes of Qahtan, Jurhum, passes by. And Ismail marries into the Jurhum. So Ismail is not Qahtani. Obviously, he cannot be Qahtani. But he marries into the Qahtanis. And so he began speaking their language, Arabic, and his children, obviously, are now the merging between the Ibrahim a.s. blood and the Qahtanis, and a few generations down, a luminary appears by the name of Adnan. Adnan is a direct descendant. How many? We'll talk about maybe two lessons from now. How many people? We don't know, but we'll talk about. Maybe seven, maybe ten. Between Ismail and Adnan, there's like 7 or 10 generations. So we can say around 500 years, 400 years, something like this. Between Adnan and Ismail, we have a hundred years. So Adnan comes and from Adnan, the Arab tribes spring forth. All of the Adnani tribes, and the most famous is Quraish. All of them go back to this person Adnan, and Adnan goes back to Ismail. Now Ismail had many other children, and those children had other civilizations which are not Arab civilizations. So there is an opinion that the Nabateans, Nabatiyun, there is an opinion that the Nabatiyun were in fact descendants of Ismail from another, not Adnan. And the Nabatiyun are then considered to be another civilization and another language. Now, the Adnani Arabs, they are called, again this is for the advanced students who are interested, Al-Arab al-Musta'ribah. The Arabs who learned Arabic. The Arabs who were Arabicized. Why? Because Arabic was not their language. They learned it from the Arab al-Aribah. They learned it from the Arab al-Aribah. The Arab al-Musta'ribah learned it from the Arab al-Aribah. And as we said, Adnan was the descendant of Ismail a.s. And he was the 20th grandfather. We have an exact, precise lineage. There is no difference of opinion amongst all the scholars of genealogy, amongst the Arabs, that the Prophet ﷺ is the 20th offspring. 20 generations, exactly, between Adnan and the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So the Prophet ﷺ is Adnani. He takes his lineage from the Adnan. Now, the Al-Arab Al-Musta'ribah actually became better in Arabic than the Arab Al-Aribah. Why so and how so? Because, we're jumping in here again but just a tidbit, they settled in Central Arabia. And what this meant therefore is that all of the other tribes of Arabia would go through them and to them and by them, and because they interacted with all the Arab Al-Aribah, and because they're central, they began to take the best of all the Arab cultures. And so after a while, Al-Arab al-Musta'riba became more powerful and more eloquent and became more prestigious than Al-Arab al-Ariba. And that is obviously why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala therefore chose the Prophet ﷺ to be from the Arab al-Musta'riba. So don't think there's a type of deficiency that the Prophet ﷺ comes from Musta'riba and not Ariba. No. In fact, the musta'ribah became better and more prestigious than the aribah. Now, I went into a lot of genealogy. I know some of you are not that interested in this stuff. But we need to understand something about the history of the Arabs, about the various dynamics between the tribes, about the tensions between the tribes, if we're gonna fully understand the seerah. And I wanna just conclude and open the floor for question that my methodology for the seerah class will inshallah be something very unique and different. It will be more academic than maybe other seerahs that you have heard. And the purpose is not just to narrate stories, but the purpose is to tell you a little bit of where they came from. A little bit of is it authentic or not. Because I think it's very important we know truth from falsehood. My point is not just to tell you stories that will make you feel good, but to give you morals and benefits and wisdoms. So after every incident, we want to pause and ask ourselves, what can we derive from this story? How can we benefit from this story? Especially in light of modern times. And I will try to be very exhaustive. As you know, this is one of my specialities, seerah. And I have taught seerah four or five times. And this is now, alhamdulillah, yet another time I'm teaching it. And every time I teach it, I add a little bit and I go more and more because I love the seerah. it makes me very proud to be Muslim, to be honest. It really empowers me in my Islam. It makes me feel that Allah has blessed us with this beautiful religion of Islam. And so I love to read the seerah, I love to go into detail with this. So it will be a little bit frustrating if you want to cover the seerah in three weeks, you're not going to cover this in this class. I have in fact never finished the seerah in English. Because wherever I've moved, years have gone by and I never finished the seerah. I was in Connecticut for five years. I got to the battle of Uhud, I think. I didn't finish. In five years, I wasn't able to finish. The same because I love going into detail. And so this is my methodology. I mean, that's who I am. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna water this down. This is what I love doing and I'm gonna take my time doing it and we're gonna analyze and dissect the seerah. And inshallah, my goal is that the seerah is presented in English in a manner that really has not been presented before. Because I go back to the source. A lot of you ask, what book do you base it on? I don't base it on any modern book I go back to Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham to Dalal al-Nubu' al-Bayhaqi to Sa'ad Tabakat Ibn Sa'ad, I go back to the original sources I don't base it on the books that are written in our times because these all books are written based on those classical ones so you know this is, I go directly to the sources but if, and with this we conclude, I open the floor for questions, if you ask me one of the better books of Sira I will say that the book of somebody who I had the great honor to study with and my sheikh and my teacher Sheikh Safi Rahman Barakfuri has written Ar-Raheek Al-Makhdoom and this book has a story and I just want to mention the story and I encourage you to buy it in 1979 WAMI, the world assembly of Muslim youth, Rabit Al-Alam Islamia one of the largest bodies of Islamic scholarship and academics made an announcement that they want a worldwide competition in books of seerah they wanted to have a competition to see which book of Sira could be written that was suitable for the modern place and times and so they made a competition that the entire world can contribute anybody can contribute a new book in Sira and they would choose the best one and so over 400 books were written in that one year because the grand prize was $100,000 I think which for the time was quite a lot of money and so a lot of researchers said oh this is a good thing for us good incentive let's try to do this. And so out of these 400 books or so, which were written in multiple languages, the book that won first prize was the book of, Alhamdulillah, the Sheikh Safi Arman, my Sheikh, and it was called Ar-Rahik Al-Maktum, which is the sealed nectar. Ar-Rahik Al-Maktum. And it is a book that is a very simple, very easy to follow, very beautiful book. It's a very good book. It does the job of the seerah in a very professional and academic manner. Unfortunately, the English translation is just terrible. It's just completely terrible. I mean, I'm sorry, I can't, you know, it's really bad. The Urdu I've heard is very good. Now the Shaykh was Indian, Alhamdulillah. I have some bias here, Alhamdulillah. The Shaykh was Indian, so he could read Urdu. So he approved the Urdu. He wrote it in Arabic. He's an Indian, he wrote it, he never stepped foot in Arabia. And he wrote it in Azamgarh, a small village. A small village, right? He told me the story that he said he literally locked himself up in his library for four months. Just going out to eat and to go to the bathroom. That's all he went. For four months he locked himself up and he wrote this book, Ar-Rahiq Al-Maktum, in very beautiful Arabic. I was really shocked that his Arabic was so strong, even though he had never lived there. And it won first prize. And it's a very good book in Arabic. It's also a very good book in English and Urdu from what I've been told. The English translation is really quite weak. Whoever translated it was not fluent in English. So anybody who reads it in English, understand that the style is much better. But you get the facts. You get the facts in English. So my encouragement to you, if you want something, that you buy Ar-Rahaykh al-Maktum. And there's another good book that has some major issues. We're going to talk about this, but Martin Ling's book. Martin Ling's book, which is basically called the life of the Prophet ﷺ, right? The life of Muhammad ﷺ. Martin Ling's book is the most eloquent book of Sira in English and that's not surprisingly because Martin Ling's was a professor at Oxford on Shakespeare and he's a convert to Islam he converted to Islam so he was a Shakespearean alim at Oxford it's an alim, what's so funny? he's an alim an alim means he's a scholar right? he's an alim of Shakespeare yes so he's a Shakespearean alim and he converted to Islam back in the 60's and he lived a very quiet life he wasn't a very public person he was a very intellectual just kept to himself and he wrote a book of seerah the English of which cannot be compared to any other book because this is he is a master of English there's only one problem with the book and that is there's two or three stories in there that really should not be in there it's not his fault he didn't invent those stories, but he's not a researcher, he's not a scholar, and so he just took some stories that he didn't really think about, are they critical or not, and he put them in there and so this is the problem of that book, that there's just really two, three stories that are just downright wrong, and they can use some fuel and fodder for non-Muslims to say things about our religion, he wrote it at a time and place where Islam was not under attack, he didn't really think through he just is an innocent man, and he wasn't a scholar in that sense, he was a Shakespeare alim, not a hadith alim. So this is the problem. But I do encourage you to own the book and to read it. And if you do, then you can download as well, just do a Google of the problems of Martin Lings and you'll find a PDF or a file which mentions number of stories that are dangerous let's say, or incorrect. So the love story, let's say the process I fell into love with Zainab. We're gonna get to that someday, inshallah. This is just not true. It's a complete fabrication. And I gave in a talk at Yale about this issue. It's a complete fabrication. There was no love story. There was no romance going on. Unfortunately, he put it in there. And he thought it was because he's a western audience. So for him, romance is a good thing, isn't it? You know? For him, love stories are good stories. So he thought this is a good story. Let me put it in. But that's not our Prophet ﷺ, is it? You know? And so there are other issues like this that academically they're not good to have. Otherwise, the book is superb. So these two books I think are books that you should own and purchase and read. And inshallah, as time goes on, we can mention other books as well. We just have a few minutes. Are there any questions about today's topic? And the next week, inshallah, we'll begin with other stories. Yes. So I was just wondering when you said that basically the first time, they kind of became... So Qahtan and Adnan. Adnanis married into Qahtanis. But the males are from Adnan. Adnan is from the children of Ismail. Ismail is not from Qahtan. Ismail is not Qahtani. Right? No, Adnan is of the descendants of Ismail. Adnan's 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th grandfather is Ismail. Okay? But between Ismail and Adnan, there were other civilizations as well. As we said, the Nabataeans whose remnants are still there. From Adnan onwards, This is when they say that the Arab tribes from Ismail began to flourish. So we have the tribe of Mudar, the tribe of Rabi'ah, the tribe of Nizar, the tribe of Quraish. All of these tribes come from Adnan, from the descendants of Adnan. So all of the Arab tribes of Ismail, not the Arab tribes of Qartan, because we said two Arab tribes, two groups of tribes. All of the Arab tribes of Ismail, they go back to this one person Adnan. So Adnan is the father of one branch of Arabs They're called Al-Arab Al-Musta'ribah And the father of the other branch of Arabs is called Qahtan And Qahtan is Al-Arab Al-Aribah And we said Qahtan and Adnan were not contemporaries Qahtan was way before Adnan Qahtan was way before Adnan And therefore when Ismail comes to Arabia There are civilizations already there, correct? Where are those civilizations from? From Qahhtan. Right? From Qahhtan. And to this day, the tribe Qahhtani tribe is basically the largest tribe. I mean, they consider themselves to be, as we said, Al-Arab, Al-Ariba, the ones where Arabs came from. So once Ismail married, and then Adnan? Adnan came there. Yes. After Adnan, then a number of tribes formed after him. Yes. Questions? Yes. Is Adnan a like, he has a homophobic. From Adam alayhi salam.

Seerah 30 - Building of the first Mosques in Islam - Yasir Qadhi _ April 2012-KoKc9ZuATao

Al-Fatiha. from them and the very first Salatul Jum'ah and other things that happened in the very first few days. We already mentioned that there's a controversy over when exactly the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Medina. And the fact of the matter is we do not know the date with precision for one simple reason. People did not concern themselves with dates that much. It was a very different time and place and the importance of what exact date it happened on was not that important. So we have a spectrum of opinions. 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal is commonly put but the fact of the matter is that it seems too many things happen on the 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal and academically it doesn't make sense. Because one early book of history mentions that the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca on the 1st of Rabi'ul-Awwal. And for him to have left Mecca on the 1st of Rabi'ul-Awwal, the average time it took to get from Mecca to Medina or from Medina to Mecca was in those days, a rider could do it, a very quick rider could do it in three and a half days. If they were going at very fast pace. And if they're doing it very slow caravan, they might take up to nine days. Right? So between three and a half to nine days it doesn't make sense then that the Prophet ﷺ is coming on the twelfth of Rabi' al-Awwal. Even if we put in maybe two nights in Gharithor. Again, we don't know exactly how many nights he was in Gharithor. Some say two, some say three. So a date of eighth or ninth of Rabi' al-Awwal actually makes more sense. A date of 8th or 9th of Rabi'ul makes more sense. And Ibn Ishaq mentions that he arrived on a Monday. And we know from the reports that he arrived basically before high noon. Because remember the report said, we have derived it. The report said that when the news reached Medina, now pause here. The fact that the news reaches Medina that the Prophet ﷺ has left, means at least 3.5-4 days have already happened. Because the fastest rider from Mecca to Medina will take 3 to 4 days, right? So the news has arrived before the Prophet ﷺ arrived because he's taking slower and he's also staying some nights in Ghar-e-Thawr. Correct? So the news has arrived. They are then coming every morning to meet the Prophet ﷺ, waiting for him to come. And eventually when the sun gets too hot, what time does the sun get too hot? Around 10.30, 11 o'clock. This is when the sun gets too hot in Medina, in any desert climate. basically around 10, 11 o'clock. Because the people, they would wake up at the crack of dawn. You understand, this was the good old days. Literally, 5 a.m. they're awake, 6 a.m. they're awake, and they're doing their stuff. So they have delegations waiting, groups of people waiting. When will the Prophet ﷺ arrive? And by 11, maybe around 11 or so, they would have to come back. So the Prophet ﷺ arrived probably a little bit before noon, or maybe a little bit after noon. Again, we don't know exactly when, but a time when the people had already gone back home. So he comes in on a Monday. And this was when the Sahaba went out to greet him. We already said the farthest settlement of Medina was Quba. This was the first settlement of the large city of Medina. Medina is composed of small little encampments, if you like, right? Small little mini villages. The smallest one of them and the farthest, sorry, the farthest one of them in the direction of Mecca is Quba. So the Prophet ﷺ arrives in what is now called Quba. and he stays at the house of Kulthum ibn Hidim Kulthum ibn Hidim somebody asked me last week who did the Prophet ﷺ stay at so I looked up a number of books it's Kulthum ibn Hidim and we don't have any information about him other than the fact that he was an elderly man from the tribe of Banu Amr ibn Auf which is one of the tribes of the Ansar and he died he was in fact the first Sahabi to die in Medina so subhanallah Allah blessed him to host the Prophet ﷺ and then he became the first Muslim to die in Medina after the Prophet ﷺ arrived because of his age. So Allah is basically saving him to that time to host the Prophet ﷺ. We wish we had more details. We can only imagine what his life would have been like. But clearly Allah had something great stored for him that he allowed him to live right up till the time the Prophet ﷺ came. He hosted him. And then the next thing we know is that the first Muslim to die in Medina was Qulthum ibn Hidm. That's the only thing we know about this Sahabi, Kulthum. By the way, Kulthum is sometimes the name of a woman, and sometimes the name of a man. This Kulthum here is the name of a man. It is also said that the Prophet ﷺ stayed in the house of Sa'd ibn Khaythamah. But some reports say that, no, he would spend the night at the house of Kulthum, and because Kulthum was a married man with children, he would go to the house of Sa'd who was a bachelor. And so in this house, guests could come without any problem. So he would spend the day in the house of Sa'd ibn Khaythamah, and people would come visit him, and then he would spend the night in the house of Kulthum ibn Hidim. Abu Bakr radiyallahu ta'ala stayed in the house of another of the Ansar. And the next day the Prophet ﷺ began building the first masjid in Medina, which is of course the first masjid that he built. There was an area that the Muslims would pray in, not a physical structure of a masjid, but the sahaba in Medina were already praying regularly before the Prophet ﷺ arrived, right? So there was already a makeshift masjid, but not a purpose-built masjid, okay? There was already a place there. Jumu'ah had already begun. The first Jumu'ah had already taken place in Medina. Mus'ab ibn Umair is there, right? The Prophet ﷺ has not yet prayed Jumu'ah even once in his life. and this shows us the commandment for Jumu'ah is one of those few incidents the Sahaba did it before the Prophet ﷺ the commandment for Jumu'ah the Sahaba did it before the Prophet ﷺ because the Prophet ﷺ sent a message to them from Mecca that established the Jumu'ah but he could not do it because he's being persecuted because there is no freedom in Mecca so he sends a message to the people of Medina they start Jumu'ah for probably a year or less than a year until the Prophet ﷺ comes And then he arrives on a Monday, he begins building the masjid which is now called Masjid Quba. And it is said that by the time he began building, Ali radiallahu anhu had already arrived as well. Which means that he did not begin building the masjid for at least 2 to 3 days. Because reports say that Ali arrived around 2 to 3 days after the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. and this is because Ali رضي الله عنه remained in Mecca according to Ibn Ishaq for three more nights after the Prophet ﷺ left he remained for three more nights basically concluding the affairs of the Prophet ﷺ getting rid of the amanat as we said handing them back to their people and so Ali and the Prophet ﷺ therefore were both on route to Medina but the Prophet ﷺ was ahead of him but he started before him and he took a longer path. Right? Two things to keep in mind. The Prophet ﷺ started before Ali by three days. He stayed some nights in Ghar-e-Thawr and then he took a longer path. So all of this basically meant that Ali caught up with the Prophet ﷺ basically as if they left three days at the same time. Right? So this means that Ali took the quicker route, the faster route, i.e. the main route. Whereas the Prophet ﷺ went to Ghar-e-Thawr and then he took the longer route and then he waited for Ali ibn Abi Talib to come to Medina. And Ali most likely arrived on the Wednesday or Thursday. And then on Friday morning, according to Ibn Ishaq, they set out for the city of Medina. So this means that Masjid al-Quba was begun to be built on the Wednesday or Thursday. And it is said that the first stone was put by the Prophet ﷺ and Ali and Abu Bakr continued and then the Ansar took over from there. So the first pillar or the first stone that was put for Masjid al-Quba was put by the Prophet ﷺ. Now, there's a little bit of a controversy in the books of Tafsir about a reference in the Qur'an. Surah Tawbah, verses 108 to 110. Surah Tawbah, verses 108 to 110. These selection of verses, the Prophet ﷺ is being told, you're not allowed to pray in the masjid dhirar, the masjid of the munafiqeen, the masjid of the hypocrites. لا تقم فيه أبدا. Never pray there. We're gonna come to this story later on. what happened and why was the Prophet ﷺ told never to pray there. This is the masjid of Abdullah ibn Salul and the other of the munafiqeen. The Prophet ﷺ is told by Allah, do not pray there. لَا تَقُمْ فِيهِ أَبَدًا Then Allah tells him, rather than praying here, لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَى مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَن تَقُومَ فِيهِ verily the masjid that was built upon taqwa from the very first day this has more right that you pray in it rather than the masjid of the munafiqun fihi rijalun yuhibbuna an yatataharu in this masjid are those men who love to purify themselves wallahu yuhibbul muttahireen that Allah loves those who purify themselves now, which masjid is being referred to? that the masjid whose foundation was built upon taqwa, it is more appropriate that you pray there. One opinion, and this is the majority opinion, says that this is masjid al-quba. Because the masjid of munafiqun was in the same vicinity as the masjid al-quba. And so the Prophet ﷺ was being told, don't go to that, go to this masjid. And if this is the case, and it is the correct opinion inshaAllah, then this is a direct reference I should say indirect because it's not mentioned an indirect reference to Masjid of Quba and the Prophet ﷺ would pray in Quba every week every week he would pray there Ali ibn Abi Talib says every single week the Prophet ﷺ would either walk or ride his camel to Quba he would go there as a weekly ritual usually on Mondays it is said he would go there and he would pray two raka'at and he said whoever does wudu from his house and prays in Masjid of Quba he will get the reward of a full umrah So Masjid Quba has a blessing, and once we get to Medina, we also pray in Masjid Quba. Now, Allah says, that Masjid that was built upon Taqwa has more right that you stand in it. In one hadith in Abu Dawud, we are told that this is Masjid Quba. And when this verse was revealed, they asked the people of Quba, why did Allah praise you in a manner that He doesn't praise us? فيه رجال يحبون أن يتطهروا In it are men who wish to purify themselves. So this is mentioned in the Kitab al-Tahara, the book of Tahara, and the adab of Tahara. So the men said, that with regards to purifying themselves after using the restroom, they have a practice that they had, that they would wipe themselves and then wash it with water. Whereas most of the people at the time would only wipe themselves, and they would not use water. So they said, we always cleanse ourselves with water as well. And they were told, this is why Allah has said that you are those who love to purify yourself, that this is the better thing to do. To use water every time you go to the restroom. By the way, it is not wajib. In the fiqh of Tahar, we've talked about this when we've done this. A lot of people have a misconception that you must use water. No, none of the scholars of Islam ever said this. You do not have to use water when you go to the restroom. either for urine or for defecation. You don't need to use it for either. It's better to do so. But you may use dry material. And in fact, most of the people of the past didn't have the luxury of using so much water. Not that they couldn't, meaning they would die, but it is something that was difficult for them. So they didn't do so. So the people of Quba did. And so Allah Azza wa Jal praises them in this manner. And this shows us that it is better. Alhamdulillah, our culture and custom has basically encouraged us to do this. and this is very Islamic that we do use water. The point being, لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَى from this hadith is, is which masjid? Quba. Now, where's the problem? A sahabi came to the Prophet ﷺ, reported in Tirmidhi Musnadim al-Amhaz, and he said, Ya Rasulallah, which is the masjid that is أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَى مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَنْ تَقُومَ فِيهِ Direct question. So the Prophet ﷺ said, that indeed, wallahi, it is this masjid of mine. this hadith is also authentic so this is where the ikhtilaf comes amongst the scholars then which masjid is being referred to in the Quran that Allah says another group said it's not Quba it is the Prophet ﷺ's masjid the reconciliation is in fact the ayah applies to both masjids in that both of them were made upon taqwa from their first day. And the Prophet ﷺ said that this is my masjid so that nobody thinks that the masjid of Quba has a higher blessing than his masjid because it doesn't. So he's saying this also applies to my masjid and not just to masjid Quba. Because both masjids were built upon taqwa from the first day. So the reconciliation is that the verse applies to both but it is also a reference to Quba. لَمَسْجُدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَى مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَنْ تَقُومَ فِيهِ So on Friday morning, we said that the Prophet ﷺ stayed in Quba the rest of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And he announced on Thursday night that he will enter Medina the next morning. So the preparations are made and the Ansar, over 500 of them, dressed up as we already said, and they wore their ceremonial costumes, their armor and their knives because this is how they would dress up in the time to welcome and greet the Prophet ﷺ and to come with him back into the city. So there is a proper welcoming committee to bring him to the center of the city of Medina. And on Friday morning, he ﷺ leaves Quba and Salatul Jumu'ah occurs in the middle. So the first Jumu'ah that the Prophet ﷺ prayed was neither in Quba, nor he doesn't yet have a masjid, right? He doesn't yet have a masjid, he's on his way, he actually prays it in the tribe of Banu Salama region. He just stops over there, and he gives the first khutbah. And this khutbah has been recorded by Ibn Ishaq and Al-Bayhaqi with a slightly weak chain, and there's no haraj, or there's no problem in narrating it. The first khutbah that the Prophet ﷺ ever gave, it has been recorded in Ibn Ishaq. And as we are familiar with, there are two sections of it. And what is really amazing, and in fact all of the khutbas of the Prophet ﷺ that we have recorded, and we have only a few of them, wallahi they do not last more than three to five minutes. And it's very interesting. The khutbas of the Prophet ﷺ were extremely short. Three to five minutes, right? This is how it was. And the Prophet ﷺ said, it is from the fiqh, which means understanding or completion or perfection of a man, that he shortens the khutbah and lengthens the salah. So in fact his salah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, was longer than his khutbah. His salah was longer than his khutbah. Subhanallah. In our times, of course, we have done the opposite. And the fact of the matter is that there is a reason that we do this. And the reason is that this is the only time 90% of the ummah ever sees the inside of the masjid. In fact, to be brutally honest, it is the only time 70% of the ummah even prays in the week. So because of this, we kind of sort of, and this is the sunnah around the world. I mean, I don't know of any major masjid that has a khutbah for three minutes anymore. Right? It's something that, you know, the Prophet ﷺ was speaking to people, their iman was at a different level. And they did not need the reminders that we need. Right? So this is one of those things that the ummah has kind of sort of had to change, but still we try to keep it reasonable. 25 minutes I think is a very reasonable time for a khutbah. And this is what most of the messages in this land do. Sometimes in many lands it goes 45, and I know of some messages that used to have an hour long khutbah in the eastern part of the world. An hour long khutbah, and that's clearly going too far. Nonetheless, the Prophet ﷺ's khutbah, what is the first khutbah? The first khutbah that he gave, two parts. the first part of it he encouraged them to be generous and he reminded them of the certainty of death and of meeting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that Allah azawajal would ask each and every one of them about what he had been given and what he spent with what he had been given and in this khutbah there is a phrase that is a part of an authentic hadith that we all know and that is this hadith is in Bukhari not the khutbah the phrase that he said in the khutbah and that is that whoever is able to save himself from the fire, even if with half a date, وَلَوْ بِشِقِّ تَمْرَةً Right? And شِق doesn't actually even mean half, it means with the seed or the pith of the date. وَلَوْ بِشِقِّ تَمْرَةً Even with a portion of the تَمْرَة, let him do so. And if he doesn't even have this, then with كَلِمَ طَيِّبَةً With a good word, because every deed is multiplied ten times. Then he sat down. That's the first خُضْبَة. charity, death, meeting Allah, hisab, and give sadaqah. And if you can't give sadaqah, speak something good. First khutbah. Second khutbah, he stood up. And, now this is what Ibn Ishaq reports, and it's contrary to what we are used to, and Allah knows best. In the second khutbah, he began with what is called the khutbah al-haja. And that is what all of us, including myself, began the first khutbah with. إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِّلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْهُ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَمْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمَّا بَعْدٍ And then he started the second khutbah. So he started with khutbah al-hajah in the second khutbah. But from other riwayat we learned that he would usually start the khutbah al-hajah in the first khutbah. So perhaps this changed later on. But this is what Ibn Ishaq reports. Or perhaps the two have been mixed around, but that's not something anybody has said before, so Allah Azzawajal knows best. And then he said, after he said, أَمَّا بَعْدُ And then he said, the successful one is the one whom Allah has beautified his heart. زَيَّنَ لَهُ قَلْبُهُ His heart has become beautiful. This is the successful one. And has caused him to enter Islam after leaving kufr. This is the successful person. And has chosen him above the rest of the people for the best of all matters. I.e. you who have accepted Islam have been blessed like no one else on earth. You have succeeded because you left kufr and entered Islam. Love what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves. And love Allah with your entire heart. وَأَحِبُّ اللَّهَ بِكُلِّ قَلْبِكُمْ بِكُلِّ قَلْبِ The entire heart, love Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with it. And never tire of the speech of Allah and of the dhikr of Allah. Never get tired of the speech of Allah. كَلَامُ اللَّهِ وَذِكْرُهُ Kalamullah is the Qur'an. The dhikr is His remembrance. And never let your heart become hard. Allah chooses what He wishes and what He blesses. and he has blessed this, meaning the Qur'an and the dhikr, to be the best deed. Allah chooses whatever he pleases, and he has chosen this, meaning al-Qur'an wa dhikr, kalamullahi wa dhikruhu, to be the best deed. So worship Allah and do not associate partners with him, and have taqwa of him as he said that you should, and be sincere to Allah in all that you say. Love one another with the spirit of Allah between you. This is a phrase that I have not found in any other hadith. بِرُوحِ اللَّهِ بَيْنَكُمْ أَحِبُّ اللَّهَ بِرُوحِ اللَّهِ بَيْنَكُمْ It's a very interesting phrase. And it's a phrase that the Prophet ﷺ said in the first khutbah. Love Allah with the رُوحِ الله, with the spirit of Allah عز و جل between you. And remember that Allah hates that His promise be broken. وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ This is the entire khutbah, which I gave in less than three minutes translation with explanation. If I didn't have the explanation, probably be two minutes or so. This is the entire khutbah that we have. And subhanallah, look at how comprehensive this khutbah and how pertinent it is. The first khutbah is all about charity. And what a great time to remind people of charity because now the ummah needs charity. If there was any time that we needed to fundraise, it was at the beginning of Islam, right? If there was any time people need to donate for the cause of Allah, it was right at the beginning of Islam. And so the first khutbah is about, you guys need to give your money now. We're gonna have to start an entire new republic, a new system. We will need your sacrifices. So he encourages them. He reminds them of the reality of life and the certainty of death. This short khutbah has both threats and rewards. It has hopes and promises. And this is the way of Islam. That we tell people the rewards of Allah to make them feel happy and joyful. but we also make them scared of the fearful punishment of Allah. Tarheeb and tarheeb is the Arabic phrase. We give them hope and we also make them scared of Allah's punishment. This is the methodology of Islam. Some other major religions of our times find this to be backward. And for them it's all about the good side, the lovey side. But the fact of the matter is that human nature needs the carrot and the stick. The carrot is good. But unless you have a stick, it'll not always move along. You need both. The reward and the punishment. and our religion of Islam, the Quran is full of promises of Jannah and threats of punishment. Because human nature is like this, you need both. And even in this khutbah, you will be meeting Allah, so fear Him. Death is gonna come to you. Allah will ask you about your money, about what you have been given, the surplus. So if you can save yourself from the fire of hell, this is the first khutbah he's saying. Makes you feel very scared. And then there's also love Allah with your full heart, right? Allah will give you what He promised, etc. So there's both threats and promises. Also notice that the Muslims are being told, oh by the way the khutbatul haja, by the way it's own topic. Wallah we can talk 30 minutes just about the khutbatul haja. إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ This is so eloquent, it's such a beautiful and concise speech. Verily all praise is due to Allah. And only Allah is worthy of being praised. Therefore we praise Him. إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ Following the commandment. We will praise Him. And, نَسْتَعِينُهُ We will ask for His help. إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ We're praising Allah and worshipping Him. نَسْتَعِينُهُ And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our deeds and the consequences of our souls. Verily, whomever Allah guides, no one can misguide. Whomever Allah misguides, no one can guide him back to the straight path. I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad ﷺ is His messenger. This is khutbah al-Hajjah. This khutbah is so powerful that people accepted Islam just because of this khutbah. Just because of this khutbah they accepted Islam. And the most famous example is that of Dhimad al-Azdi. Dhimad al-Azdi came to Mecca and he was from the leaders of the tribes of Yemen and he was a medicine man. And when he entered Mecca, the people told him, beware of this man, Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he is a saher or a majnoor or one of these things, right? Be careful of him. So, the mad said, I put cotton in my ears to make sure that I don't hear what he says. Because they warned me so much, I became terrified. So I put cotton in my ears every time I see him, so that I don't hear him. Then I said to myself, that I am rajul aqid, I'm an intelligent man. I mean, how powerful can his speech be? if he is wrong, I'll guide him if he is sick, I'm a medicine man I'll cure him, right? what's the problem? so he took the cotton out and he walked up to the Prophet and he said your people have warned me about you but I want to listen to what you have to say so the Prophet said innal hamdallillah nahmaduhu wa nasta'inuhu wa nasta'khfiruhu wa na'udhu billahi min shururin fissina wa nasee'atain man yahdillahu filan wameed wa shahadu wa la ilaha shahadu wa rasulullah then he said amma ba'd, he was going to begin the speech Dimaad said, قِفْ أَعِدْ عَلَيِّ كَرِمَاتَكَ هَدْ Repeat these words that you just said. So the Prophet ﷺ repeated the entire speech. He hasn't even begun the lecture. This is khutbatul haja. And Dimaad said, that I have memorized the shi'r of the insan, the jinn. I've memorized the poetry of everyone out there. And I consider myself an intelligent and educated man. But wallahi, I have never heard anything as eloquent as this. by Allah you must be a man whom Allah inspires. And khalas, he accepted Islam right then and there. Khutbatul haja caused Dimaad al-Azdi to accept Islam. This is how eloquent the khutbatul haja is, and it is worthy of its own lecture. And people have written books about it. Ibn Taymiyyah has a treatise on explaining khutbatul haja. Ibn Qayyim has many pages in his explanation of Sunan Abi Dawud about khutbatul haja. In our times, Shaykh al-Albani has written an entire booklet about khutbatul haja and its reports. So it's a topic worthy in itself. then after the khutbatul haja, he reminds them, it's purely spiritual. The second, the first is action-based. We need you to be charitable. The second is purely spiritual. And this is subhanallah the perfection of Islam. That it's both iman and amal if you like, right? It's both spirituality and action-based. And again, the perfection of the two khutbas. So the Prophet ﷺ tells them, what is the real success? What is the beauty of Islam? He tells them to purify their hearts. that love Allah عز و جل with your entire heart. Have nothing but love for Allah عز و جل. He tells them of two basic acts of worship that he says never get tired of doing them. Subhanallah, the first khutbah in Medina, what is he telling the Muslims to do? Number one, never get tired of reading the Qur'an. Number two, never get tired of doing dhikr of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. Every one of us should have, to this day, subhanallah, this is what he said to the first, we should have a healthy dose every day of Qur'an and dhikr. This is hand in hand. He said, he's commanding us, don't get tired. Then he's encouraging us that Allah chooses whatever he wants and Allah has chosen these to be the best worship. Right? Allah has chosen these. So, do not get tired of them and do not make your heart hard. Which means, reading the Qur'an and doing dhikr will make the heart soft. Because he's saying, do not make the heart hard. After he's saying, recite the Qur'an and do. dhikr. And he concludes them and he concludes the khutbah by reminding them to love one another. Again a very necessary reminder at the beginnings of Islam especially that love one another with the ruh of Allah Azzawajal and this means with the help of Allah this means in the spirit of Islam this means for the sake of Allah Azzawajal and he then finishes by saying that Allah Azzawajal does not love that his promises are broken which is a indirect threat that you have a promise to Allah as Muslims now, to fulfill his religion, make sure you don't break that promise. You have a promise to fulfill his religion, make sure that you do not break that promise. And then after this khutbah, he then entered Medina, and from there we already mentioned what happened where the camel sat down at the place of the masjid, and he asked whose house was the closest, he stayed at Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, all of this has been mentioned. And the first thing therefore he did was once again turn his attention to building the masjid. So notice, in the span of literally five days, the Prophet ﷺ has built two masjids. And he doesn't even have a roof over his head yet. Literally two masjids have been built. And the third one, which is basically where he stopped over, they built a masjid there after him. Right? So there's a third indirect masjid. He didn't build it there, but where he stopped to pray Jumu'ah, that also then became the masjid for that locality. By the way, there were many masajid in Medina at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. because people could not walk to central Medina, you know, an hour and a half or something away for some of them. They couldn't walk to every salah to the central Medina. So they would have, you know, small masajid in their own little places. And therefore, do realize, many people imagine there was one masjid. No, there were at least a dozen masjids in the settlement eventually, at least a dozen if not more. But the Prophet ﷺ masjid, of course, was the central. And it was the largest one. and it appears to have been the only one in which Jumu'ah was done and Allah knows best. It appears that Jumu'ah was only done there. There are no reports as far as I remember of any other Jumu'ahs taking place. So, we see therefore the importance of the masjid. The masjid even before his house, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And this shows us the status of this house of Allah azawajal. It shows us that this house of Allah, these houses of Allah, And in fact Allah calls them His houses. في بيوت أذن الله Allah calls the masjids His houses. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala praises the masjid in the Quran. في بيوت أذن الله أن ترفع ويذكر فيها اسمه يسبح له فيها بالغدو والأصال رجال That in houses of worship, Allah has encouraged and allowed that people raise their voices in praising Him. And in glorifying Him. And people, رجال, it's a praise. men are glorifying Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in morning and in evening they are not dissuaded away from this they are not tempted away from this with their wealth and their other distractions from the worship of Allah throughout the morning and the evening the masjid was the place of ilm this is where halaqat would be given the masjid was the place of shura this is where the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam called the sahaba in the battle of badr in the battle of uhud he is calling them what do you think we should do It's basically the constitutional place as well. It's the place where people come together and decide affairs. The masjid is socialization. The people would socialize over there. The Prophet ﷺ would ask them about their days of jahiliyyah and they would laugh and joke inside the masjid. The masjid was a place of celebration. Their nikahs would take place in the masjid. Subhanallah, the Prophet ﷺ was in his masjid more than he was in his own house. He was in the masjid more than he was in his own house. And this shows us the status of the masjid. From it, ilm spread. From it, the Qur'an spread. From it, even the armies of Islam spread. Because they would be arranged inside the masjid. And then they would go out from there. And in it, those who had no house would sleep. As soon as Muslims came, they would be housed in the masjid. As soon as they came, if they had no house, the masjid became their house. And the Prophet ﷺ said this authentic hadith, that, المسجد بيت كل تقي That the masjid is the house of every متقي. the masjid is the house of every anyone who is a muslim the masjid should be open for them to come and worship and if they need to sleep then the scholars of course technically have talked about this is it wajib to give them space or what not but basically the general rule of islam is that a muslim who needs a place to sleep the masjid will become his place to sleep because that's what the prophet said that has a double meaning by the way the masjid will be the house of every muttaqi, which means the muttaqi will want to be in the masjid. This is the other meaning, right? Where do you feel most comfortable? Your house. So where is the muttaqi most comfortable? His house. But the other meaning, which is the physical meaning, there is a spiritual meaning, the other meaning is, every Muslim who doesn't have a house, the masjid becomes his house, because it is the house of Allah Azza wa Jal. And of course, the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ literally became a university, and a house, and a masjid all in one for the people of the suffah. Ahl al-suffah and we'll talk about the Ahlul Suffah and who they are and what their blessings were in inshallah next week. Now the five daily salawat had already been... Oh, I forgot to mention one story by the way. I didn't forget but time ran out when the Prophet ﷺ was building the masjid. We mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ himself participated in building the masjid and when the sahaba saw him, they said that wallahi... and this is a verse, this is a poem. They said, wallahi, if we sit down and the Prophet ﷺ is working, then this from us is a very astray matter. They versified a poem that if we sit down, لَإِن قَعَدْنَا وَالنَّبِيُّ يَعْمَلُ That if we sit down and the Prophet ﷺ is working, this is a very shameful and misguided thing from us. And this encourages them to worship. One incident is narrated here that has deep theological and historical importance that we don't have time to go into in detail. now or even for the seerah, because this is after the seerah, after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. And that relates to Ammar ibn Yasir. Ammar ibn Yasir, remember from the days of Mecca, Ammar ibn Yasir, both his mother and father had become shaheed. The first two shaheeds in Islam are Yasir and Sumayya. And so Ammar, you know, grows up basically an orphan. And he immigrates to Medina. And he is carrying two large bricks, two large bricks and his entire body has been dusted cover to cover and he says to the Prophet everybody else was carrying one when I say brick it's not like our little bricks here these are the old bricks you can call them quarry stones maybe is a better word not a brick these are big stones so he's carrying two stones and he's struggling with it and he says and in my opinion this is like a joking thing to say in that he didn't mean it seriously he said Ya Rasulullah they're killing me by giving me two stones and they're taking only one. Right? Now he's not serious that they're actually killing him. But it's like a thing that you say in a joking manner. And this shows us that the Sahaba had a sense of humor with the Prophet ﷺ as well. Right? That he said, Ya Rasulullah, yaqtuloonani. They're killing me by giving me two stones and they're only carrying one stone. Right? And this shows us that they would joke with him. It also shows us, by the way, fiqh here, that when it comes to these types of jokes, somebody would say, لَحَوْلَ أَخُوْتِ اللَّهِ You're lying. No, look, a joke is understood to be a joke. Right? It's not a lie if the person knows that you're not, it's a joke. Right? And there are instances of the Prophet ﷺ also cracking jokes, and we'll talk about that some, you know, we talked about it before a little bit, we can talk more about that maybe towards the end of the seerah. Of course, the Prophet ﷺ's jokes even literally were true by the way. Right? whereas Ammar is using a figure of speech here they're killing me يَقْتُلُونَنِي and it shows a little bit of exaggeration shows his sense of humor also shows his young age for him to say this right so what did the Prophet ﷺ do? he smiled and he brushed the dust off of him and he said لا يَبْنَ السُّمَيَّةِ no O son of Sumayya they are not killing you rather the people who shall kill you will be الفِئَةُ الْبَاغِيَةُ will be the, it's a very sensitive thing to translate here, because of course it refers specifically to a group of Muslims that we also respect. And that's why we need to not go too deep because we don't have time. الفئة الباغية means the group that has gone beyond the bounds. And he called him يبن السمية even though his name is Ammar. To give honor to his mother Sumayya. Subhanallah. His name is Ammar. but he gives honor to the first shaheed in Islam was Sumayya before Ibn Yasir was Sumayya the first shaheed was Sumayya so he gave honor to Ammar by calling him La Yabna Sumayya and forever afterwards the Sahaba would call him Yabna Sumayya because the Prophet ﷺ called him he was not even called Ammar after this he was called Yabna Sumayya because the Prophet ﷺ called him Yabna Sumayya La Yabna Sumayya they're not gonna kill you but rather the people who will kill you will be the group that has gone to over the bounds. That has gone, الباغية, بغى, means they've gone beyond what they should. Right? And he also said to him, لِلنَّاسِ أَجْرٌ وَلَكَ أَجْرًا Everybody is getting one reward when they carry their stones. You're getting two rewards with your two stones. And he said to him, وَآخِرُ زَادِكَ شُرْبَةً مِنْ لَبَنٍ The last thing you shall drink in this world will be a glass of milk. Right? Subhanallah he predicted the death of Ammar ibn Yasir he said you're gonna drink some milk and then the group that is Baghya will kill you and Ammar ibn Yasir's death became a very important event in Islam because Ammar chose to fight on the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib against the forces of Muawiyah and Muawiyah's forces obviously as we know there was a war and so Ali was killed on the side of Ali against Muawiyah. Ammar was killed on the side of Ali, excuse me, Ammar was killed on the side of Ali against Muawiyah. And this hadith then was used by the group of Ali to say, the group of Muawiyah has gone beyond the bounds. This is the sign that Ali radiallahu anhu was closer to the truth. And this is the Sunni position in this regard. In contrast to what the other group says about us, that we're the followers of Muawiyah, we follow them all. But we think that Ali was closer to the truth than Muawiyah. And Muawiyah was sincere. And radiallahu anhum, we don't say anything bad about any of them. And of course, by the way, just as a footnote, now that I brought this up, there were three groups of the Sahaba. One group who did not fight. They sat down and they did not fight and they refused to take sides. And these were the Abadillah. Abdullah ibn Zubayr and Abdullah ibn Abbas and Abdullah ibn Umar. These were the Abadillah. they refused to fight. And they did not get involved with either Ali or Muawiyah. And they were asked multiple times to take part, and they said, no, we are not going to take part. And Ibn Abbas was asked, are you on the side of this or the side of that? And at that time, Ali and Aisha were having a little bit of a dispute. Are you on the side of Ali? Are you on the team of Ali or the team of Aisha? So he said, I am neither on the team of Ali or the team of Aisha? I am on the team of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Don't get me involved in bigotry now. Right? This is hizbiyah, this is ikhtilafah, this is breaking the ummah. I'm not gonna take sides with these people. I'm on the side of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so these sahaba refused to participate. Ibn Taymiyyah says, this group of sahaba was on the truth. That was the ideal. Ali was closer to the truth, and Muawiyah was not as close as Ali. This is how we say it. The three groups were the Abadillah, and Ali, and Muawiyah, and Ammar was in the group of Ali. And of course, obviously the Prophet ﷺ said so, it is well known that Ammar was drinking some milk, and then he went to fight in the battle, and he died. and so exactly as the Prophet ﷺ said that آخر زادك the last thing that you will do in this world is to drink some milk. And he was sitting in his camp drinking milk and then he went to fight the forces of Muawiyah and an arrow came and killed him and so he died on the side of Ali. So this hadith was said at the building of the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and this shows us that and nobody denies this within Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah the Prophet ﷺ had knowledge that the other Sahaba did not have of course he did. and he predicted certain things that would happen and this is one of the things that he predicted. So, I didn't mention that story because we didn't have time to mention it. Now moving on to the issue of the masjid and the prayers in the masjid. One thing that we don't know exactly when is the changing of the raka'at of the five salawat. Now, when were the five salawat decreed? We all know. When were they decreed? Isra wal mi'raj, right? And most likely this occurred maybe the 10th year, 11th year of the da'wah. So people are praying five times a day. However, at that time, they were praying two raka'at. Every single one of those five was two raka'at. Aisha tells us, when they came to Medina, the salawat were placed as you know them, and the two raka'at was kept for the musafir. Except for Maghrib of course, but otherwise we pray two raka'at. This is Aisha's hadith in Bukhari. When they came to Medina, the salawat were put as you know them. And the two were kept for the musafir. This shows us therefore, that sometime early on, again we don't have a date, we don't know when. Sometime early on, the sahaba, the Prophet ﷺ started praying as we now know it, right? 2, 4, 4, 3, 4. So all of the Salah were increased except for even Maghrib by the way apparently was 2 in Mecca. So everything was increased except for Fajr that remained 2. And then the Sunnah and the Nawafil were added. We also know that within the first month or two, the question arose, how was the time for prayer to be given? And this is a famous Hadith in portions of Rabbu Khari and more details in other books of Hadith. and everyone knows the story, but in summary, just to put it in its context, the Prophet ﷺ called the Sahaba and they said, and he asked them, how should we call the people at the time of the Salah? What is your idea? And so, they started discussing what should be done. One of them said, let us use a bell like the Christians. But this was discarded. And there are authentic hadith that the Prophet ﷺ did not like bells, and that he also said the angels do not accompany any caravan that has a bell. So he didn't like bells. Others said, let us use a chauffeur. Not a chauffeur, a car chauffeur. A chauffeur is what the Yahud use. Right? Let's say horn. They call it a chauffeur. The what? Not a bugle. But it's a horn. They call it a chauffeur. It's spelled different by the way. Not car chauffeur. they blow into it and that is how they call it to this day of course that's what they do one of them said this but also this was discarded and others gave other ideas but no idea basically made sense so the meeting finished without any idea being chosen that night two people saw a dream one of them was Umar ibn al-Khattab the other was Abdullah ibn Zayd and their dreams were the same that Abdullah ibn Zayd saw in his dream a man selling some items, either the horn or the bell or something. So he went up to him and said, can I buy these items? So the man said, why? So he said, because the Prophet ﷺ wants to tell us how to call the people to prayer, so I'm thinking one of these will do the job. So the man said, should I not tell you something better than that? So the Sahabi said, of course. Abdullah ibn Zayn said, of course. So he said, when you want to give the time for prayer, say, Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu And then all the way to the end of the adhan. Right? And then he woke up. And the dream was so vivid in his head, he just put on his garments and rushed outside to the Prophet ﷺ. And he said, Ya Rasulullah, this is the dream that I saw. And he told him the entire dream. And the Prophet ﷺ said, إنها لرؤيا حق. Inshallah, this is a true dream. This is a true dream. And it is clear from the reports that he was hoping to be the Mu'adhin, you get that from the sense of the riwayah, because he saw the dream. But subhanallah, the Prophet ﷺ gave people different blessings according to what they had. So he has the fadila of seeing the dream. That's Abdullah bin Zaid was the one. Remember the name Abdullah bin Zaid. Somebody asks you where was the adhan legislated? This is the only aspect of our sharia that was legislated by the dream of a sahabi. But its legislation was not the dream, its legislation was the Prophet ﷺ saying it is true. Right? We do not base our sharia on dreams. And if the Prophet ﷺ had not said it's true, we wouldn't have based it on it. Right? But because the Prophet ﷺ approved, his approval makes it the sharia. So, when Abdullah ibn Zayd said this, the Prophet ﷺ said, قم يا بلال, stand up O Bilal, because you have the loudest voice. And Abdullah ibn Zayd go up with him to the roof of the masjid, and tell him every phrase and he'll repeat after you. And so, Abdullah bin Zaid said, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar and Bilal repeated in a loud voice Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. And so, technically Abdullah bin Zaid did give the first adhan but except it was to Bilal, right? Subhanallah, look at this, right? Technically he did give the first adhan because he's saying it before Bilal but then Bilal is the one who proclaims it to the entire world and as he's giving the adhan Umar comes rushing into the masjid without having fully tied his lower garment. Right? And he says, Ya Rasulallah, I saw these phrases in the dream. And so it turns out that he also, I mean I heard these phrases in a dream, that it turns out that he as well had seen the exact same dream. So Allah Azza wa Jal had shown it to multiple of the sahaba, and Allah had willed that Abdullah ibn Zaid was the one who be the one who get the honor of telling it to the Prophet ﷺ. And subhanallah, I have tried to think about and research and ponder over why was the adhan legislated in this manner. What is the wisdom of the adhan being legislated in this manner and none of the other aspects of the sharia. And to be honest, I haven't found anybody commenting on this and I don't have any wisdom that I can derive myself. Allah has some wisdom known to him. Why was the adhan legislated in this manner? In the dreams of some of the sahaba. And I also tried to look up about Abdullah ibn Zayd. And in fact, Ibn Hajar says that this is the sahabi who is famous for the story of the dream. That's it. Circular, right? Why did Allah choose Abdullah ibn Zayd? So this is one of the sad parts of the seerah that there are so many mysteries that perhaps we will never know. There must be reasons why this man was chosen. Right, what is his story? What did he do for Islam? What is his blessing that Allah made him the one to the yawm al-qiyamah, all that we know about him. As Ibn Hajar says, صاحب القصة He's the one of the story of the dream of Adhan. That's how he's known as. What else do we know about him? Nothing. Very little. We don't have any real, because again, most of the sahaba, the bulk of the sahaba, we just have tidbits, and for someone like this, we have absolutely nothing. We already said that the Prophet ﷺ built the masjid in around two to three weeks and then after this he ﷺ built his houses and at the time how many wives did he have? one which one is that? three three, which ones are these? the one You're counting Khadija, we're not going to count Khadija. Exactly, two. He had two wives at this time. Sauda and Aisha. And so, Sauda and Aisha's houses were built next to the masjid. These were the only two houses that were connected to the masjid. and he married other women later on by a number of years. By a number of years. And by that time, people had already moved in and connected other houses to the masjid. So the Prophet ﷺ's other wives' houses were in a separate block. They were not in the block next to the masjid. They didn't have direct entrances. right? And subhanallah later on, we don't know exactly when, but Saudah was an elderly lady when the Prophet ﷺ married her in Mecca. She was already an elderly lady and she was senior to the Prophet ﷺ in age. And Saudah wanted to please the Prophet ﷺ so much that she told him one year, again we don't know exactly, we don't know these things, how are we going to find out what year it happened. One year she told him, ya Rasulullah I am an elderly lady and I know that you prefer the company of Aisha so I will gift you my night for Aisha. So he actually had double the time of Aisha than he had with any other wife because Sauda gifted her night to him. So what this means is that Aisha was the only house that he lived in that was connected to the masjid. The other wives' houses were on a separate block, there was a strip. this is what we can understand there was a strip of houses one after the other on another block that is not connected to the masjid so this is a blessing of Aisha that she was the only house that was connected to the Prophet ﷺ Saudahs as well but he didn't spend the night there he would visit Saudah and he would spend time with her in the day but he would not spend the night with Saudah because she gifted this was a gift from her why did she do this? because she wants to please the Prophet ﷺ she wants to get his pleasure basically and she knows what's going to please him so she gifted her night to Aisha. What time is the adhan today? Nine o'clock. So inshallah, let us then open the floor for question and answer, inshallah, and then move on next week, inshallah. Next week we'll talk about the concept of a number of things that happened in early Medina, and each one is very interesting, is very profound, and we have so much to learn from it, even in modern times. of them is the pairing up of the Ansar and Muhajirun and how we can benefit from this in modern times as well of them is one of the most interesting topics in terms of Islamic political science the treaty that the Prophet ﷺ drew up between the Ansar and the Muhajirun and the Jews and the Pagans because there were still Pagans the Prophet ﷺ still is in a city where there are Jews and Muslims and Pagans so he has a treaty that gives us an insight into the mechanisms of early Medina, of the political structure of Medina. Very profound and it's very groundbreaking for the time. It's very groundbreaking. It's a treaty that, to be honest, it is unprecedented in its scope, in its understanding, and it is one that many later people have kind of adopted and taken from. So we're going to talk about the treaty, we're going to talk about the pairing up of the Ansar al-Muhajirun, and we'll also talk about the concept of the Sufah. All of this will be the next Wednesdays and the Wednesdays after that. Inshallah ta'ala. We have a few minutes for questions inshallah before the Salah. You mentioned about the Farkh prayer being increased in Medina. You just talked about Sunnah prayers because it's all the part of the world, especially the Nafia and the different parties and numbers of the Sunnah prayers. what's the most common opinion of that? So the question is about the sunnah prayers. So the sunnah prayers can be divided into two categories. The first are the sunnahs that the Prophet ﷺ would regularly do. These are called sunnah ar-rawatib or sunnah ar-ratibah. And these are the ones that he would do as a habit. And these are of two types. The first of them is the witar prayer. and the correct position is that witar is not wajib. The Hanafis of course consider it to be wajib and that is because the Hanafis have two distinct categories of fard and wajib. Whereas for the rest of the madhabs, fard is wajib and wajib is fard. But the Hanafis have seven categories of taklif, right? Seven categories of taklif. Whereas the other madhabs have five categories. So they divide obligatory into very obligatory and obligatory, right? Fard and wajib. And they divide haram into makrooh tahreemi and then haram. So they have two types of makrooh and then they have haram. So they have makrooh tanzeehi, makrooh tahreemi and haram. So because of this the Hanafis have a different distinction. I'm wondering here, let me get back here. The correct position, witar is not wajib. But it is something that the Prophet ﷺ never left in his life, even when he was traveling. Whereas the sunan al-ratiba, which are the sunnah that are linked to the five daily salawat, the Prophet ﷺ typically left to them when he was traveling. Except for the sunnah of fajr. So I reiterate. The regular sunnah can be divided into two categories. The first is witr, which is a separate prayer. And the second are the sunnah linked to the five daily salawat. These that are linked to the five daily salawat, when the Prophet ﷺ would travel, he would not pray them. Except for the sunnah of fajr. Now, how many are the sunnah ar-rawatib? The Prophet ﷺ said, whoever prays for the sake of Allah, 10 rak'ahs a day, Allah will build for him a palace in Jannah. And in another version he said, whoever prays for the sake of Allah, 12 rak'ahs a day, then he will build for him a palace in Jannah. So the sunnah ar-rawatib are either 10 or 12, and there are both reports of these. So the first two of these are the sunan of fajr. The sunan of fajr, right? Then dhuhr comes, and here is where the difference of 10 or 12 comes. Some say 2 before dhuhr and 2 after, and some say 4 before dhuhr and 2 after, right? So this is where the difference comes between 10 and 12. So let us go with 4 before dhuhr and 2 after, right? So this gives us total of how many? 8. and then we have two after Maghrib then we have two after Isha this would give us a total of twelve two after Maghrib, two after Isha now these are the Sunan Ar-Ratiba that the Prophet ﷺ would pray when he was Hadar, when he was not Safar Hadar is the opposite of Safar, when he was not travelling this is what he would pray and he would always pray them the Witter prayer I have said many times before in the terminology of the Hadith witar is tahajjud is basically taraweeh it's basically the same concept and that is the night prayer right, the night prayer and the night prayer can be said anytime after isha up until fajr you may pray witar right after isha before going to sleep and this is the least rewarding that if you pray it, you may pray tahajjud basically. Tahajjud does not have to be at 3am. It is of course million times better to pray it at 3-4am, yes. But if you cannot get to that level of excellence, the next level is to pray it before going to sleep. Right? And that is witar as well. Because witar means an odd number of rakaat. And so the Prophet ﷺ would pray an odd number of rakaat. And that's usually 11 or 13 basically. He would pray this quantity. And this is called witar. It is called tahajjud. it is called Qiyamul Layl, all of this is the same name. This he would never leave, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, even in traveling. And Ibn Taymiyyah and others say, that Qiyamul Layl was wajib upon the Prophet ﷺ, but not upon his ummah. Right? Because Allah says in the Quran, وَمِنَ اللَّيْلِ فَتَهَجَّدْ بِهِ Even though Allah says, نَافِلَةَ لَكَ But when Allah commanded him, فَتَهَجَّدْ بِهِ Allah Azzawajal says also in Surah Al-Muddathir, that, إِنَّ رَبَّكِ يَعْلَمُ أَنَا كَتُمْ وَأَدْنَى مِنْ ثُلُثَةِ اللَّيْلِ وَنِصْفَهُ وَثُلُثَهُ wa ta'ifatu min alladhina ma'ak that Allah knows that you're praying two thirds of the night thuluthay illayh wa nisfahu and half of it wa thuluthahu and a third of it so sometimes he would pray two thirds of the night sometimes half of it and sometimes one third of it so the Prophet ﷺ would differ in his quantity of tahajjud depending on how long he slept and what his mood was basically for the time but he would pray tahajjud every single night even in traveling. These are the two types of sunnah that he would pray. Now apart from this, there's nafl. And nafl is unlimited in its scope. You may pray nafl at any time of the day and night, as long as it's not in the times of prohibition. That summarizes your question inshaAllah. Okay, any questions about tasirah? Yes, in the back. Technically Quba is the first masjid that Prophet ﷺ built, but it can be said he did not witness its completion. Right? So the first masjid that he witnessed the completion and prayed in is his masjid. And that is why it is correct that the Prophet ﷺ, of course whatever he says is correct, he said, لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَىٰ تَخْهُمْ مِنْ أَوَّرِ يَوْمٍ This is my masjid. because there is a first element to both of them. Quba was initiated, but the Madinah Masjid was completed. And he prayed there completed before he prayed and Quba completed. So both of them, that verse applies to. Allahu'alam. Other questions? Yes. Allah has prophesied how He is going to die. Yes. There's a fitna between them and he's fighting it on one side and the other side is divided. So he drinks milk and goes into war although he knows the prophecy. Did he know he would die in this battle? No, he didn't. The prophecy says that it was in a fair battle he would kill him after he drinks some milk. So he's going to stop drinking milk for the rest of his life? I mean, realistically speaking, firstly, these types of cryptic ahadith, they're typically only understood after the thing happens. You see what I'm saying here, right? These types of cryptic ahadith, one, it snaps into place after the thing happens, right? When the Prophet ﷺ said it, what is being referred to? It's not something that people are understanding, right? So, the fact that Ammar r.a eventually is killed on one side, then people are now reading back and saying, oh, the Prophet ﷺ actually said this. Ammar participated in many ghazawat, in many wars. Between the... Ammar died a very old man. When this hadith was said, he was in his 20s. Right? 20s. And he died in his late 60s. You know, so... So, he was a woman with... No, Fi'abaghia could have been... I'm saying, could have been a kafir army. how do you know it's a fi'ah baghiyat of a Muslim army now we know now it's a Muslim army when you say the word fi'ah it means fi'ah means a group fi'ah means group doesn't necessarily mean a Muslim group or a Kafir group now it's easy in 2020 hindsight is 2020 always now you look back and you say it's crystal clear see that's the thing that's been people talk about he went around saying the fi'ah baghiyat can kill me No, he didn't narrate the hadith by the way. He did not narrate the hadith. The Sahaba. So as soon as he was killed, the Sahaba remembered this hadith and they interpreted it in this manner. It was a sign at the time of his death. But before his death, it was not understood what it was the reference. And by the way, this is as I said for all of the predictions in this manner. In fact, even the predictions of the Quran. Right? أَلِفْ لَمِمْ غُلِبَتِ الرُّونَ فِي أَدْنَا الْأَرْضِ وَمَعْلِ غَلِمَ سَيَغْلِمُونَ فِي بِضْعِ سَنِينَ it was not understood how is this going to happen what is this going to happen but later on it happened when this ayah came down the Prophet ﷺ was not free in this belad but it's the prediction of the conquest of Mecca sayuhzamul ja'wayu walluna dubur Umar ibn al-Khattab said wallahi I had no idea what this ayah meant until I saw on the day of Badr sayuhzamul ja'wayu walluna dubur and I knew that this was for the battle of Badr Right? It's cryptic, the Quran. Sayyid Huzaam al-Jama'ah means, the confederates will be destroyed, and they're gonna turn their backs and run away. Right? Umar ibn Khattab said, I had no idea what is this ayah talking about, until I saw with my eyes what's happening on Badr, and then I understood what is going on. So all of the, this is the beauty of Allah and His Messenger, that the predictions are given in such a manner, that it's not as explicit as to make it nonsensical. Right? There's a little bit of an element of surprise involved, such that when it does happen, then everybody understands. But before it happens, it's best to be remained this way. Wallahu'alam. Inshallah. Final question before we break for salatul... Oh, we have some announcements? Okay. Bismillah. We will see you inshallah the next Wednesday.

Seerah 31 - The People of As-Suffa - Yasir Qadhi _ April 2012-4XwMBCgDiMk

Al-Fatiha. important milestone in our history that is not related directly to the incidence of the hijrah, but it is very important for our history, and that is the establishment of the calendar based upon the hijrah. This establishment of the calendar, of course, didn't take place right now. It took place a decade and a half later. But because it deals with the hijrah, I thought I'd just mention it two, three minutes, and then move on because we're talking about the hijrah, we're talking about the importance of the hijrah. Now realize that the Arabs did not have a calendar that they would rely upon. The Romans had a calendar, the Persians had a calendar, the Arabs had no such calendar. A sign of civilization is to have a calendar, and the Arabs did not reach those limits of civilization. As we had said many times before, they didn't have a script, they didn't have a civilization, they didn't have architecture, all of this. That's the whole miracle of the religion of Islam. that it came and it transformed this Bedouin, backward, uncultivated society to become the rulers of the entire world. And I have mentioned many times, and Allah mentions this in the Qur'an, لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ كِتَابًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ We have revealed a book, in it will be your remembrance, your legacy. Your legacy will be established via the book. So, of the legacies that Islam came with was the establishment of a calendar. So the Arabs, as we said, they had multiple problems. Number one, they didn't have a calendar. So every tribe would have their own calendar system, believe it or not. Every tribe would have their own calendar system. How so? So the Quraysh would have their own calendar based upon important events. Somebody dies, they will say the death of so and so. This is the year now, right? And every few years something significant would happen. So they would say two years after the death of the chieftain. Three years before the incident of the elephant. This is how they would have calendar years. Any important incident becomes a milestone and every few years some milestone happens. So then they calculate basically based upon this milestone, major incidents and events. Now this is of course local, it's decentralized, which means every qabilah or every tribe has its own significant incident. Because they're not all unified under all of Arabia. To compound matters, there was also a very confusing practice that they had, which Allah mentions in the Quran. This is the concept of nasi. And nasi, Allah mentions it in the Quran. In the time of Ibrahim a.s., Allah revealed down the shari'ah that four months of the year will be sacred. This is what the Arabs took from Ibrahim a.s. Four months of the year will be sacred. Allah says in the Quran, There is a verse in the Quran that tells us this. Surah Tawbah. That the number of months in a year in the eyes of Allah is 12. إِنَّ عِدَّةَ شُهُورِ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ اثْنَى عَشَرَ شَهْرًا فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ This is in the decree of Allah, the day He created the heavens and the earth. Of them, four are sacred. So Allah decreed this, the day He created the heavens and the earth. That the calendar shall have 12 months. And that is why, by the way, every significant calendar on the face of this world has had 12, because it's in their fitrah. Well, fitrah isn't proper here. It's in the sharia of the earliest prophets, let's say. Every calendar, where did the Romans get 12? Where did the Chinese get 12? Where did the Fares or the Persians get 12? All of this, it goes back to the original sharia that Allah revealed down. 12 was there from the beginning. And also, by the way, 7 days of the week is also in that sharia. And therefore, every calendar system, basically that is an acceptance, has 7 days of a week. This is something that again, Allah Azza wa Jal decreed. So, the Arabs also had 12 months, and 4 of them were Hurm, were sacred. But, the powerful tribes, and especially the Quraysh was the most powerful, they would flaunt these 4 months. Suppose they wanted to declare war, and it just so happened that it's the wrong month, right? Because the 4 sacred months you cannot declare war, you cannot engage in fighting. Suppose they wanted to do that, what would they do? They would say, you know, instead of Muharram right now, it's Safar. They just swap it around. Right? It's actually not Dhul Qa'dah, now it's Dhul Hijjah. They'll just swap it around. And because they had this clout, the powerful tribes could basically tell the people, look, this is not the month we're gonna follow the sacred month. We'll just swap it around, and if we want to attack, we can attack you. And they would then announce this, and the other tribes would pay heed to this. So, the other tribes would therefore realize that, okay, this is not a sacred month, maybe we shouldn't go do Hajj this year. So literally, they would swap months around at whim and at desire. And Allah says in the Quran, إِنَّمَا النَّسِيءُ زِيَادَةٌ فِي الْكُفْرِ Allah calls it a type of kufr, which is ungratefulness and a rejection of Allah's shari'ah. إِنَّمَا النَّسِيءُ زِيَادَةٌ فِي الْكُفْرِ That this concept of nasi, which is to swap the months around, this is a type of rejection of Allah عز و جل. Now, imagine what's gonna happen after decades and centuries of swapping months around, that the entire months are going to be jumbled up like a jigsaw puzzle. And nobody has any idea what month should it actually be. It would literally be swapping at will and desire. And so the months lost the significance of their tertib, of their order that they used to have. Because this was gonna happen if you keep on changing at will. So, the year that the Prophet ﷺ performed hajj, the hajjat al-wada'a, He announced to the people that the months of this year, meaning Hajjatul Wada'ah's year, right? Which year is Hajjatul Wada'ah? Which year of the Hijrah? The 10th of the Hijrah. The 10th year of the Hijrah. Of course it's not 10 Hijrah yet, meaning the concept of 10 years after Hijrah doesn't exist. But the months exist. So the Prophet ﷺ said, this year the months have fallen in order. the way that they were when Allah created the heavens and the earth. رَجَعَتْ كَيَوْمِ خَلَقَ اللَّهُ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ This is a hadith in Bukhari. That this year's 12 months are perfectly aligned. So the Prophet ﷺ said this. Right? And he then said, from now on, no swapping. Khalas, end. No more swapping. So from that time up until our times, the months have been in their proper order. because Allah willed that in that year the months go in their proper order and then the Prophet ﷺ said this was the correct order no more switching around so therefore from that year those months have basically been repeating one after the other so that's one problem taken care of and that's the order of the months the other problem is the year that the Prophet ﷺ himself did not directly allude to he didn't directly institute a calendar what happened was one year most likely this is the 17th year of the Hijrah that we now call 17th year what happened was in the 17th year of the Hijrah one or two things happened one thing that happened was that Umar ibn Khattab was presented with a case of two people fighting each other in a court of law and the one of them said that he was supposed to pay me back money by Sha'ban and it's already Ramadan he didn't give me my money back and the other said no I meant Sha'ban of next year, not this year. So Umar says, how are we going to decide this dispute? Because the contract says Sha'ban. And each one has a valid point. Right? So Allah knows, maybe both of them were honest in this. Allah knows best. One of them, when he said, pay me back by Sha'ban, he meant maybe in two, three months. And the other guy is thinking two, three months, no, the next Sha'ban. Next year Sha'ban. So Umar was presented with this. And this caused some problems. Like this is a valid problem. And then he got a letter it is said from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari or one of his governors, who says basically a similar thing that, O Umar, Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen sometimes you tell us to do something by a particular month a major project, let's say, build this dam or do this or that. And you tell us to do it by a particular month but we don't know, do you mean the same year or the next year's month? Right? The same issue basically. We don't know. So find a way to tell us basically. and so Umar radiallahu anhu called a gathering of the sahaba that we need to have a calendar and this happened in the 17th year of the hijrah so one or two suggested we'll follow the calendar of the Romans or the Persians and of course this was immediately rejected because the Muslims realized they have their own civilization now you don't need to be following others when you are at your pinnacle it is only at times of weakness where we follow everybody else and this is the reality of life once upon a time they felt they have no need so Umar said no we will have our own calendar so which year should we begin with so the Sahaba differed one of them said with the death of the Prophet but this was then said no this is not appropriate and it's that time you want to mark the calendar day another said with the one person did instead said with the birth of the Prophet another said with the conquest of Badr because that was the day that Allah gave victory over the pagans the decisive victory and then Ali ibn Abi Talib said the year of the Hijrah shall be the first year of the calendar. Because this was when the situation of the Muslims changed from ذُلْتُ عِزَّة from being humiliated to being honored. This was the one decisive thing in the whole seerah that was the turning point, basically the new leaf. The optimism begins with the hijrah. And so when he said this, the sahaba all agreed to this. And Umar said, this is the correct opinion. I mean this is the ra'yas sadid, It is the wise opinion. This is the good opinion. And so they decided the first year of the Islamic calendar will be the year of the Hijrah. Once again realize there is no zero year. There is no zero time. Hijrah, first year Hijrah. Before this, we call it before Hijrah basically, right? So we call it let's say 12 before Hijrah. Then this year becomes the first year of the Hijrah, 1 AH. Now the second issue, which month should be taken as the first month? Because when you have a calendar, now for the first time you need to figure out which month should begin your first month so once again people differ some said Ramadan because Ramadan is the most holy month others said Dhul Hijjah because Dhul Hijjah is the month of Hajj others said Rajab because Rajab also has its blessings there's two or three opinions until Uthman ibn Affan said it shall be Muharram why? why Muharram? scholars have differed because this is a bit difficult to try to read, and why Muharram, two reasons have been given by our classical scholars. The first of them is that it's linked to Ali's announcement of the Hijrah, being the first year. And that is that the actual Hijrah, which month did it occur? Who can remind me? Which month did the Prophet ﷺ emigrate? Incorrect. Shawwal. Where did you get Shawwal from? Shawwal is Shawwal is after Ramadan, right? Dhul Hajj He always said Rabi'ul Awal Safar Safar, why do you say Safar? Because it took them about 10 to 12 weeks Weeks? Days And when did they arrive in Medina? Around 8th or 9th of Rabi'ul Awal exactly, you see? so, the not shawwal, safar right? the S, oh mashallah okay, let's see he had the S right, mashallah the only problem is in Arabic it's a sheen, not an S this is the American and you're speaking, mashallah the S is the first letter of the month I had one letter right, mashallah, alhamdulillah so the month was safar the actual month of hijrah was safar that's when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated so why not choose safar? well, one opinion says the announcement for the hijrah came in Muharram. i.e. the bay'atul aqaba, when did it take place? After hajj. And hajj is dhu'l hijjah. So when did the announcement come for the people to start doing hijrah? Basically in Muharram. So this is one opinion that that's why Muharram was chosen. Because the announcement for hijrah was done and so people began emigrating in Muharram. The bulk of the sahaba emigrated in Muharram. and then the Prophet ﷺ emigrated right at the end of Safar, right? So those 7-8 weeks the Sahaba are migrating and all of them basically leave. Only the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr and Ali and a few people remain. That's at the end of Safar, then he migrates. So this is one opinion. And there is another opinion which actually, now this makes a lot of sense logically, we'd love to pounce on it. However, there are some reports that, in which Uthman expresses a reason. And Allah knows best, it could have been both. And his reason was that, now in those days, MashaAllah the Sahaba they did Hajj pretty much every year Pretty much every year they did Hajj Most of them Either in Mecca or Medina So Hajj is like an annual event And so for them Returning back from Hajj represents A new life That represents a new turning over A better life You leave a life of sins You now move on to a better life So the coming back from Hajj represents A fresh beginning And when do you come back from Hajj well at the end of Dhul Hijjah, so what month begins that new life? Muharram right, and so this seems to be also a very relevant reason why they began the months with Muharram and later scholars I didn't find this amongst the Sahaba, I didn't find this amongst the people who did this, Umar and Ali and others did not from my understanding say this however later scholars tried to read in a Quranic evidence for this being the first of the Hijrah. Right? And this is a bit of an imaginative stretch. Nonetheless, we don't lose anything by saying perhaps this is also the case. And that is Surah Tawbah, verse 108. Surah Tawbah, verse 108. We already quoted the verse before. Lamasjidun ussisa ala taqwa min awwali yawmin ahakku an taqooma fee. Right? The masjid that was built in the first day, that is the masjid that you should be praying in. And so masjid quba was built basically in the first year of the hijrah, so it's a little bit of a stretch, right? But nonetheless, so they're saying Allah says the first day, min awwal yawm. And therefore they're kind of reading this in and they say, so Allah is intending that that should be the first day of the Islamic calendar. Or the first year of the Islamic calendar. And this is something some of our classical scholars said, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best about this. Anyway, so the issue of the hijrah, the point why I'm mentioning this now is to show you the sahaba understood the significance of the hijrah. That all of the other opinions are being basically, you know, so-so, not really being taken seriously. When the hijrah is suggested, everybody agrees. And they said, this is the most logical place to where we should begin our Islamic calendar. now again before we move on a little bit of a summary now the madani period of course we know that the madani period is shorter than the makkan era the makkan era lasted 13 years the madani lasted 10 years the madani period can be divided into 3 very clear eras or categories the madani era can be split up into 3 the first is the era of consolidation the era of strengthening the era of internal descent being eliminated. And there were internal dissents from both the hypocrites and the Yahud. These were the two major points of weakness. And also by the way, they're also pagans in the beginning. Slowly but surely the pagans are eliminated. The hypocrites are basically minimized. They are not eliminated. And then the Yahud as well are expelled or they're also eliminated in the end. And so the Muslims were facing internal threats and they were also facing external threats. And the external threats primarily were from the Quraysh. So the first era was the elimination of any serious threat. The elimination of any serious threat, and the Muslim Ummah, or the Republic if you like, can stand confidently independent of any serious problems. And this era is from the beginning of the Hijrah up until, basically the battle of Ahzab is when the tables really began to turn. The battle of Ahzab marks the beginning of complete change. That's the fifth year of the Hijrah, right? So from the first to the fifth, internal and external opposition is either eliminated or minimized to the extent that the existence of the Islamic state is no longer in threat. You see in the battle of Badr, what did the Prophet ﷺ say? He said to Allah Azzawajal, he's speaking to Allah, Oh Allah, Ya Allah, If this group is destroyed, You will not be worshipped on earth ever again. The existence of the ummah is under threat right now. If this group is destroyed now, if you allow these people to win, then you will not be worshipped on earth. That is how serious of a threat the Muslims were in. The battle of Uhud was another serious threat. the battle of Khandaq they were almost about to be eliminated but of course Allah protected them and when he protected them the destruction of the opponents was so total that the tide begins to change right, literally the battle of Ahzab is going to come to it, that is the beginning of the tide changing and their confidence begins and therefore the next year what did the Prophet ﷺ say we are going to march to Mecca for Umrah this is confidence coming now right, that's the treaty of Hudaybiyah So this is the first era. And this is a lot of internal and external threats are eliminated or minimized. The second era is the era of truce. And this lasted two and a half years. From the treaty of Hudaybiyah, basically, up until the conquest of Mecca. The era of truce. And in this era, the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims witnessed a peace. Along with the coexistence of non-Muslims. unlike the third era in which there is no non-Muslim in Mecca or in Arabia, right? In this time frame, both Islam and the enemies of Islam are on the Arabian Peninsula but at peace with one another. And the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ is sending out letters, emissaries, envoys. The Muslim ummah expands five-fold in the era of peace. Much more than it expanded in the era of war. And we'll talk about that when we get there, right? And that is the 6th, 7th and 8th years of the Hijrah basically. And then the final era is the era of the complete establishment of the Republic of Islam or the early Islamic Republic. And that is basically the post-conquest of Mecca up until the death of the Prophet ﷺ in Rabi'ul-Awwal of the 11th year of the Hijrah. And that was when Allah revealed, وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي ذِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا That is the ultimate victory that the entire peninsula embraced Islam en masse. These are the three primary frames that we will divide the rest of our entire lectures in. I've already mentioned many times before, the Madani era, even though it is shorter than the Makki era. The Makki era, we've already discussed 43 years of the Hijrah. Sorry, 53 years of the Hijrah. We have discussed 53 years of the Prophet's life, not Hijrah. 53 years of the Prophet's life, we are now done with that. the amount of information we have for these last 10 years is three times the amount that we have for the first 53 years. So we're gonna spend quite a lot of time. Just FYI, I have taught the seerah three different times, actually four different times, in four different places. I have never actually finished because every time I started, I never lived in that city long enough. The brother here used to attend mine in Connecticut for a number of years. And Allah will that I move here. So let's make dua that I'm able to finish this for the first time. I've never actually finished the seerah in these types of lectures because it's so long we move on. So inshallah let's see how many lessons we're gonna do and Allah Azza wa Jal knows the end of affairs inshallah. Inshallah. It will be a first. I have not done this before. Inshallah. So let's move back now to the sahaba in Medina. The sahaba in Medina. How did the early emigrants, how did the muhajirun find the environment? How did they like Medina? Well, the fact of the matter is, despite all of the praise that we've given, the early muhajirun did not like Medina. Not because of anything problematic with Medina, but because they missed home. Because there is truly no place like home. Wallahi, this is so true. There is no place like home. It doesn't matter how fancy of a place you go to, it doesn't matter how royally you're treated at somebody else's abode. Your house, the comfort you feel in your house, I mean, all of you know, you go to the fanciest hotel. It's nice to look around, it's nice to see the room. But your lumpy bed with the pillow that's already mashed up and this, that comfort that you get there, you're not gonna get it even in the fanciest hotel. This is the reality that we all know, right? And this is also the environment as well, the city, the people. And so the muhajirun felt so homesick, they fell sick, literally they fell sick. Literally they fell sick. And Aisha narrates, she's a young girl now, Aisha narrates, and she has been married to the Prophet ﷺ, that when Abu Bakr, my father, and Bilal emigrated to Medina, when they emigrated to Medina, I went and visited them. Because she's now with the Prophet ﷺ. I went and visited them, and I said, Ya Abati, kayfa tajiduk? How are you, O my father? And Bilal was with him as well. And Bilal, how are you? And she said that both of them were basically moaning, and Abu Bakr was in a severe fever. And Abu Bakr was sweating and in a fever and he said, كُلُّ مُرِئٍ مُصَبِّحٌ فِي أَهْلِهِ وَالْمَوْتُ أَذْنَى مِنْ شِرَاكِ نَعْلِهِ He's thinking of death basically, right? That we wake up amongst our family, but the fact of the matter is death is closer to us than our shoes, our shoelaces. Not even our shoelace, but the strap that the sandal has over your toe, right? This is the shirak. And so he's saying, my point is he's so sick he's thinking of death basically right and he's just emigrated to Medina and he's thinking of death and so Aisha says Bilal how are you and so Bilal also said some poetry how I wish how I wish that I would spend the night in a valley full of which are the thorny plants outside of Mecca he is in a plant of a land of dates, a land of water, a land that generally speaking is considered more luscious than Mecca. But he's missing the thorns of Mecca. He's missing the dryness of Mecca. Because he's used to it. He's used to that land of Mecca. And Bilal said to Aisha, Allahumma al-an, Shaybat ibn Rabi'ah, Allahumma al-an, Umayya ibn Khalaf, Allahumma al-an, and he goes starting la'na, Allah's la'na on all of these people. Why? Because, أَخْرَجُونَ مِنْ دِيَارِنَا They kicked us out of our houses. He's fuming with anger. And this is Bilal who didn't own much at all. But it's the place. It's natural to love the place you grow up in. It's natural to feel a sense of solidarity, a sense of homesickness basically. And this is Abu Bakr and Bilal, they are both homesick. One of them is severely sick. So Aisha says, I went back to the process of that depressing scene basically. She goes back and she informs him about what's going on. And so the Prophet ﷺ made a special dua for all of the muhajirun. What is the dua? اللهم حبب إلينا المدينة كحبنا مكة أو أشد You have to make a special dua to Allah. What was the dua? اللهم حبب إلينا المدينة O Allah, make Medina beloved to us. like we used to love Mecca or even more than we used to love Mecca. Or even more than we used to love Mecca. O Allah bless us in our food measurements. Sa'ina wa muddina. Meaning, what does this mean? Of course in those days you would buy everything with a sa'ina mudd which means the scoop let's say, right? So everything that that scoop will scoop up. O Allah bless us. Meaning all of the food supplies of Medina, right? Oh Allah, take the bad weather and the bad diseases and plagues. Now Medina had more water and more lusciousness, so there's more plagues, microbes, whatever you wanna call it. The doctors will tell me more about how this happens. But Medina has more plagues than Mecca, right? Mecca for them was healthier because it was drier, because it was less water there. And so they're falling sick, they're not used to the fevers of Medina. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Oh Allah, remove all of the plagues and the fevers of Medina. and throw it outside of Medina in the barren land of Juhfa, which is a barren land outside. Just let it go over there. Let us not suffer from it. And so slowly but surely, the love of Medina entered their hearts because the Prophet ﷺ made this dua. The love of Medina entered their hearts so much so that when the Prophet ﷺ would go away from Medina, the Sahaba would count the days they're gonna come back to Medina. And when, it is said, And as Ibn Malik tells us in the Hadith of Bukhari, when the Prophet ﷺ would see Medina in the distance, he would cheer up and he would make his camel go faster. That yes, it's in the distance, let's get there faster. Subhanallah, he made this dua to Allah. And one can say to this day, I mean, I have lived in Medina. The love that we have for Medina is a very different love than Mecca. We love Mecca, alhamdulillah, Mecca is Mecca. But the love of Medina, the peace of Medina, the sukoon of Medina, wallahi, it is something very different. I firmly believe it is this dua of the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ is telling all the Muslims, Oh Allah, make them love Medina. Make them love Medina, especially the Sahaba, but all of the Muslims, make them love Medina. And it is so true, brothers and sisters, that even those who have never visited Medina, they have an emptiness, they want to visit. Those who have visited it, their memories of Medina are very sweet and different. Not that Astaghfirullah, Makkah doesn't have its memories. Makkah has its memories, and Makkah has its izzah. But the sweetness of Medina is different. And this is what the Prophet ﷺ is saying, حَبِّبْ إِلَيْنَا الْمَدِينَ كَحُبِّنَا مَكَّةً And so he made this special dua for Medina. And of course Allah answered that dua. And therefore the Sahaba began loving Medina even more than they used to love Mecca. Of the early things that the Prophet ﷺ did, so much so that according to one of the early scholars of Sira, he did this even before the masjid was built. Was he did the famous, it's called Mu'akha. And Mu'akha means making people akhi. Mu'akha means making people brothers. Right? Al-Mu'akha. He made a brotherly bond between the muhajirun and the ansar. Despite the fact that he had already encouraged the ansar to be generous and the ansar were generous. And Allah Azzawajal mentions the generosity of the ansar. I already mentioned this verse in the Quran. Surah Al-Hashr verse 8 and 9. Surah Al-Hashr verse 8 and 9. It describes the generosity of the Ansar. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this emigration. And Allah says, لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ الَّذِينَ أُخْرِجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ وَأَمْوَالِهِمْ يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانًا That for those poor people of the muhajirin. Because all of the muhajirin were poor. None of them had the money that they had in Mecca. So Allah calls all of the muhajirin fuqara. Look at this. لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ every muhajir by virtue of his hijrah became faqir so Allah calls all of them fuqara Allah is saying they will have their reward and they will have Allah's pleasure then Allah says والذين تبوأوا الدار now we get to the ansar the muhajir will have their reward والذين تبوأوا الدار والإيمان من قبلهم and those who prepared the abode الدار notice Allah what does الدار mean? it means home داري is my home Allah called Medina their home this is an interesting noun to use that he didn't say Medina he didn't say the city's name even though the Quran mentions Medina right and the Quran mentions the munafiqun calling it Yathrib as well right by the way every time the word Yathrib occurs in the Quran it is at the tongues of the munafiq Allah never calls Medina Yathrib right Allah never calls Medina Yathrib. Yathrib occurs I think twice in the Quran. Both of the times it's on the tongue of the hypocrites. They're the ones who are calling Medina Yathrib, which means we should not call it Yathrib. Now in this verse, Allah uses a noun for Medina that He doesn't use anywhere else, and that is the house, or the abode. So He is calling Medina your house. وَالَّذِينَ تَبَوَّؤُوا أَدَّارٌ Meaning this is where you're gonna feel at home. This is where you're gonna feel the most comfort. And Allah calls the Ansar, those who prepared the house. Not their house, the house. What's the difference here? It is technically the house of the Ansar. And so if Allah had said those who had prepared their house, this would have been accurate. But Allah didn't. Because what did the Ansar do? They gave up half of their house to the Muhajirun. So Allah called the Medina the house of the Ansar and the Muhajirun. Are you following this? or am I going a little bit too fast I think, right? Ad-dar is a reference to both the muhajirun and the ansar. That Allah is calling it both of your houses, even though technically it's the house of the ansar. Allah is saying the ansar prepared the house for them. And they found no hesitancy to give everything. And they preferred others over themselves. وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ بِهِمْ خَصَاصًا even if they themselves were in poverty, they preferred others over themselves. And so they gave the muhajirun everything they needed, from home to food to animals. It is even reported in Sahih Bukhari that when the muhajirun came, they came to the Prophet ﷺ, the Ansar came to the Prophet ﷺ, and they said, O Messenger of Allah, we shall give half of our land over to the muhajirun. Half of the land of the Medina, give it over to the muhajirun. can you imagine all of the date palms all of just half, take it for free not one thing in return and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made dua for them but he refused to he refused to accept such a generous gift, he refused to accept such a generous gift and he said they will take care of the manual labor and you will share in the produce, i.e. let them do work for the dates and for the privilege and subhanallah this shows us the spirit of Islam that the Prophet ﷺ did not want these free handouts. He wanted the muhajirun to work and he also didn't want shaitan to maybe bring something five generations or five decades later, oh we gave you all of this for free. You never know. If these people of course they had pure hearts, how about their descendants, right? Or how about the munafiqun who were forced to give, maybe. So this is the long term thinking of the Prophet ﷺ to cut off these free handouts. even though it's such a generous gift take half the land the Prophet ﷺ said no they shall do work they're gonna do their manual labor you get some time off now if you're gonna let them do the work then they can take a percentage for their manual labor they'll take their wages in dates and in food and you can take your wages or your percentage as well and so the Prophet ﷺ did not allow this to be done and instead he insisted that the muhajirun work for the ansar to get their money And also the Prophet ﷺ insisted and encouraged them to be generous to one another. You all know the famous first hadith of Medina. It is the first hadith that is narrated from Medina. And it is the hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Salam. And he is the Jewish rabbi who converted to Islam. And he was the greatest of the Jewish rabbis. And one of the only ones to convert to Islam. and Abdullah ibn Salam narrates that when the Prophet ﷺ entered Medina the people rushed to take a look at him the people rushed to take a look at him and I was of the first who arrived so this is like the first time that the Prophet ﷺ, this is in Quba of course the first time that the Prophet ﷺ is coming to Medina and he said فَلَمَّا تَبَيَّنَتْ وَجْفُهُ when his face became clear to us. Meaning when he was close up, عرفت أن وجهه ليس بوجه كذاب This hadith is in Muslim Imam Ahmed. He said, as soon as I saw his face clearly, I knew that this face was not the face of a liar. Just by looking at his face, he said, I know that this face is not the face of a liar. Why? Because Allah Azza wa Jal allows righteousness and piety to show in a way that will never understand. And Allah also allows insincerity and evil to show in a way that we will never understand. So pure people can sense pure people. And this in Arabic is called firasa. And the Prophet ﷺ said, firasa is true. اتقوا فراسة المؤمن فأن فراسته حق That the firasa is true. So Abdullah ibn Salam, because he is a pure Yahudi, that he was a genuine believer, and he accepted Islam, he sensed this purity. So he said, I saw that his face was not that of a liar. and he said the first thing that I heard him say was afshu salam wa at'imu ta'am wa silu al-arham wa sallu bil layli wa al-nasu niyam tadkhulu al-jannata bi salam and the hadith is narrated by Abdullah ibn Salam and it's called hadithu salam it is called hadithu salam Abdullah ibn Salam narrates the hadith of peace in which the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says the first hadith of Medina afshu salam spread the greetings of salam everywhere afshu salam وَأَطْعِمُوا الطَّعَامُ Feed the people. Anybody who needs food, give it to them. وَأَطْعِمُوا الطَّعَامُ وَصِلُوا الْأَرْحَامُ Be good to your relatives. وَصَلُّوا بِالْلَيْلِ وَالنَّاسُ نِيَامًا And pray at night when everybody is asleep. تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ بِالسَّلَامِ You will enter Jannah with peace. And so the Prophet ﷺ is encouraging being brotherly, being kind, being generous. He's encouraging these things from day one. But he went a step further than this, and that is he instituted the concept of مُؤَاخَا which means every muhajir was paired with an ansari. And in this stage, the pairing was so complete that they would be considered like brothers, even in inheritance. This is an early stage, that if one of them died, the other would inherit his money. This was of course later abrogated. But this was the extent of the brotherliness that they had. That they would even become brothers in inheritance. and it is mentioned that over 100 such pairs were done which basically means for every single male muhajir there was a pair done, right? for every single male muhajir there was a pair done at least we know for a fact 100 names we have and for sure we have some names that have been lost in history more than 100 such pairs were done and we have some pairs that we know of Abu Bakr was with Khalid ibn Zayd Abdurrahman ibn Auf was with Sa'ad ibn Rabi'ah and whoever you find by the way, so for example Salman al-Farsi was with Abu Darda, every time you find a pairing, if you look at their biographies, you actually find a lot in common you actually find a lot in common so Khalid ibn Zayd was one of the noblemen of the Ansar, and Abu Bakr you know who he is, so the Prophet ﷺ paired them together, Sa'ad ibn Rabi'ah was a rich businessman, and Abdurrahman ibn Auf used to be rich in Mecca when he migrated he has nothing now but businessmen they know business together so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam knows exactly who he is pairing with who and he chooses the right person to pair every single one that we find we find a good pair done and every one of these names every one of these names that have been paired together we actually find them mentioned in the seerah many times together which means that they took this pairing together very seriously that they literally became like brothers to one another. For example, the famous incident that all of you know, Abu Darda visited, Salman Al-Farsi, sorry, visited Abu Darda's house. And this was before the hijab came down. And he saw his wife disheveled and not combing her hair. And this is before hijab. And also, by the way, Salman is at this stage 90 years old anyway. So it's not any problem that he saw her with her hair uncovered, unkempt. And she's not dressed properly. Meaning, any old tattered clothes. and he reproached her like how can you dress like this my brother should not see you like this meaning you should dress up a little bit for your husband so Umm Darda says your brother has no need of women there is no need for me to dress up as I said first this is before hijab secondly Salman himself it is said he died at the age of 120 Allah knows best but basically he is a very very old man and so there is no problem in him reproaching in this manner for both of these reasons and then the hadith goes on when he comes home Abu Darda is fasting Salman says you're gonna break your fast eat with me when he tries to go to sleep Abu Darda stands and Tahajjud Salman says no you're gonna go and lie down next to me you're not gonna pray Tahajjud now you all know the story this is the famous story these are the two who have been paired together Salman and Abu Darda this is the process and paired them together same with Abu Bakr and Khalid ibn Zaid we have incidents together same with Abdur Rahman ibn Auf and Saad ibn Rabi'ah point is the brotherliness wasn't just it wasn't just superficial we actually genuinely find stories between these two and that shows us that they hung around each other that they had genuine feelings and concerns for one another of course the most famous story that everybody is familiar with is the story of Abdur Rahman Ibn Auf and Saad Ibn Rabi'ah and Saad Ibn Rabi'ah as we said was a rich businessman and Abdur Rahman Ibn Auf when he came and the process impaired them together he brought Abdur Rahman back to his house and he said, I am the richest of the Ansar in money. And I shall give you half of all of my money. Take half of all of my money. And in some versions he said, I have a two story house, one of the levels is yours. And I have two gardens, one of them is yours. He even said, I have two wives. And choose one of them, after her iddah is done, you can marry her. He wanted to split everything down. to give everything or half of everything to his new brother in Islam. And Abdurrahman ibn Auf said the famous phrase that he said, بارك الله لك في مالك وأهلك May Allah bless you even more in your money, in your family. I don't want any of this. Just tell me where is the supermarket? Where is the suq? Where is the buying and selling place? So he was told to go to the place of, the Yahud had a suq outside of Medina. And so he took whatever he could carry on his back from the hijrah, he bought and sold a little bit of that and he came back with some butter and some wheat, he came back for the day and he kept on when the next day he took that and he bought other things and so he bartered until finally the hadith says one day the Prophet ﷺ saw him and he was dressed up mashallah and he had some perfume on, so the Prophet ﷺ said what's the matter or have you gotten married he's joking with him, have you gotten married and he says yes Rasulullah I got married so like he's moving up in life so the Prophet ﷺ said to whom and he said to a lady of the Ansar. So he said, what did you give her? He said, I gave her a date's weight, a seed of the date's weight in gold. i.e. the seed of a date weighs how much? Less than an ounce or something. Even these days an ounce of gold costs an arm and a leg these days, right? But it's a small bit that he gave, just less than a gram. Sorry, less than a gram. Even these days, by the way, you cannot even judge according to these days. Back then it was much less than this. So he said, the point being a very trivial amount, not a few hundred dollars, just maybe twenty dollars, something like this. It's an insignificant amount I gave as mahr. So the Prophet ﷺ said, أَوْلِمْ وَلَوْ بِشَاتٍ دُوَ وَلِيمَ Even if it's with one sheep, دُوَ وَلِيمَ Invite the people to a wedding feast. So this shows us that the Ansar and the Muhajirun, their level of ukhwa, their brotherhood was really unmatched. Notice here the generosity of the Ansari, and the self-honor of the muhajir. This is real iman. That the one is offering and his iman tells him to offer. And the other's iman is saying, Jazakallah, thanks but no thanks, I'm gonna do what I need to. Right? This is the essence of iman. Neither one is freeloading off of the other. Neither one is, the one is offering genuinely and the other's izzah, his honor, his karama, says, Jazakallah, thanks but no thanks, I'm gonna try my best to do my own. And so every single muhajir found a person to take care of him. And the Ansar in fact helped the muhajirun so much that the muhajirun came to the Prophet ﷺ worried about something. The muhajirun came to the Prophet ﷺ worried about something. They said that, O Messenger of Allah, we have never seen any group of people like these that we have come to. they share equally with us at times of difficulty and are generous with us at times of ease they have taken care of our needs and allowed us to share with them in good so much so that we are worried ya Rasulullah notice this is a complaint in the guise of a praise outwardly it's praising but inwardly they're scared what are they scared of? we are worried ya Rasulullah that they will take all of our ajr away from us. Subhanallah. Notice the beauty of the complaint. Right? That they've done so much that all of those years in Mecca that we were persecuted, all of those years that we were tortured, all of the wealth and money we had to leave behind, the hijrah and the problems of the hijrah, all of this, ya Rasulullah, we're worried that it's all gonna be handed to them. Because they're so nice to us. notice wallahi this is just an amazing complaint it's not a complaint against the ansar obviously it's a troubled worriness that they have about their own good deed are we still gonna get the reward or not and so the prophet s.a.w. said that no they will not get all of your reward as long as you praise them and make dua for them respond to their good with your own good they will not going to get your reward. You have your reward, they have their reward. And that is of course our religion. Every person gets rewarded according to what he has done. So what the muhajirun did, cannot be just taken by the ansar. And that is why the muhajirun are at a higher level than the ansar even after all that the ansar did. And we said already that the two would even inherit from one another until finally Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed surah al-anfal after the battle of Badr. And so after the battle of Badr, which is basically a year and a half a year and a half to two years after this incident took place Allah azza wa jal revealed surah al-anfal and in it Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that that Allah praises those who have emigrated and those who have abandoned everything for the sake of Allah then Allah says But ulul arham, families, are closer in the eyes of Allah than them. So in this verse, the sahaba understood that inheritance between this type of mu'akha, this type of brotherliness had been abrogated, and inheritance was then instituted only for the family. Now an interesting point here is that this mu'akha or this brotherliness, it didn't just take place in early Medina. It continued to take place throughout the years in Medina, up until even after the conquest of Mecca. And this shows us an important point that many Muslims don't realize. Many Muslims, when they read the books of the seerah, it says this is when the Mu'akha took place. No, this is not true. The Mu'akha was begun in this era. And it continued up until the very end. Even after the conquest of Mecca. How do we know? By the names of the people mentioned who were paired together. So for example, Salman al-Farsi and Abu Darda, Salman al-Farsi did not accept Islam for a few years. He didn't accept Islam right at the Hijrah. It took him a few years to accept Islam. And then the Mu'akha took place. We also have for example, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib was made a brother of Mu'ath ibn Jabal. When did Ja'far come to Medina? I already mentioned this, who can tell me? Obviously after Habsha, but when? Seventh year of the Hijrah. Right? So in the seventh year of the Hijrah, Ja'far comes back, and still the Prophet ﷺ makes Mu'akha. It is also mentioned, for example, that Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan was made a brother with Hattat al-Taymi, and Mu'awiyah accepted Islam after Fath-e-Makkah. So this shows us that the concept of pairing people together was not something that was unique only to the beginning of Islam. It lasted throughout the entire course of the madani phase. And therefore from this we extract. That this is a neglected sunnah. Up until our times we should be doing this. Especially when people convert to Islam. Especially when people convert to Islam. This is a necessary sunnah we need to resurrect. Because that's the whole point. I mean what is the purpose of having mu'akha? a stranger comes to town he doesn't know even how to get around he doesn't know the ins and outs of the city a convert comes, he doesn't even know the social life of a Muslim, he doesn't even know how to pray and fast he needs not just social company, he needs support he needs emotional and physical support he needs somebody to just sit down and tell him what to do and wallahi this is something that we need to resurrect in our times that we need to pair together we should have families adopt, let's say you know, meaning this type of adoption we should have families or people just volunteer here and say, okay, this is gonna be my if you're like, I'm gonna take this as my akhi or my uhti, right? The sister should adopt, the sister converse and vice versa should be done because it's something that the Prophet ﷺ continued to do throughout his life. Up until the very end, even after Fath-e-Makkah, which shows it wasn't something that was temporary and it is something that we should also think about as a community. It also shows that some of the benefits we get from this issue of mu'akha, it really shows that for any society to grow, to develop. There needs to be strong bonds cemented between them. And we believe that there are no bonds that are stronger than the bonds of religion. These are the strongest bonds because the people of a religion, they share many things in common that really define a lot of things. Most importantly, your ethics and your values. Most importantly, your outlook on life. That is shared by the people of one religion. The way you view the world is shaped by your religion. So, we believe therefore that these bonds are something that should be strengthened and should be, in fact the Qur'an tells us that this is the strongest bond. إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةً إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةً This is the strongest of all bonds. And when you look at this early society of Muslims, no society in the history of mankind has been as selfless, as generous to strangers as this group of people. think about it, right? even blood brothers would not do for their blood brothers what the Ansar did for the Muhajirun isn't this true? I mean think about the stories that we just heard now even blood brothers would not do this but the Ansar did it and Allah praised them from above the seven heavens by saying they did it genuinely from the heart it's one thing to do it and Allah says their hearts were pure when they did it never in the history of humanity have we found this type of example of selflessness, of genuinely giving for the sake of the other and not for the sake of yourself. And it is impossible for any society to achieve such standards without having these bonds. And that's what the Prophet ﷺ established as soon as he moved to Medina. Also realize that one of the things we learn is that the true leader, the Prophet ﷺ in this case, cannot just give general advice and leave it at that. Rather, the Prophet ﷺ implemented this decision. How so? by choosing the two people one after the other. Because he knew each one of the muhajirun better than anybody else. And so he knows who is the most qualified to be the brother of this particular muhajir. And therefore the real leader is not just theory, he's also practice. The real leader isn't just talk, he's also action. And the Prophet ﷺ literally sat down, and Sayyidina Malik says, I forgot to mention this, that he did this pact or this mu'akha in our house. What does he mean our house? scholars say probably Anas meant in his area of Medina. فِدَارِنَا Meaning in our area of Medina. Because he didn't have the masjid. And so Anas ibn Malik is saying he did this mu'akha in our area of Medina. Which means he literally sat down and one after the other people are coming and he's pairing people together. And this shows us that the Prophet ﷺ was a very practical, a pragmatic visionary. Not just somebody talking theoretically. it also shows us the wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in gradually formulating the laws of the sharia the sharia as we all know came down bit by bit didn't just come down all together and this is one more example that in the beginning when the muhajirun don't have any family at all the ansar becomes literally family and there's only even gonna be inheritance between the two then what happens Allah Azza wa Jal makes it easier. And once more and more people convert and they have genuine family, the muhajirun get married and they have their own kids now, right? Slowly but surely they have family. Now Allah Azza wa Jal changes the laws of inheritance and it is now what we know as the laws of inheritance. Therefore, for that generation, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed that generation to experience the sharia in a gradual, in a piecemeal manner. We all know the prohibition of wine didn't come down overnight. It came down in four different segments, four different bit by bit. It took a while to get them to the prohibition. Question, if a convert comes and says, why can't I use this four-step program to give up alcohol? Why don't you allow me a little bit at a time? Give me one year for each of these, like in those days. Right? If somebody were to say this, why can't we do it? Or is it even allowed to do this? the response is by unanimous consensus of all the scholars of Islam there is no difference of opinion that a new convert is not allowed the privileges that those sahaba had why? one simple reason the sahaba were the first society of Muslims they have no role model they have no support it's gonna take a while for them to get to the level of perfection when a convert converts to Islam he has a society already up and running he has a community already exemplifying the sharia and therefore you cannot give him the laxities that the first generation had right and therefore we will say to this person thanks but no thanks it's a nice question you have and mashallah you're gonna become a faqih it looks like for that question you're really going deep into the sharia you know usul of fiqh you're gonna start maneuvering your way, but you're not gonna be given this concession. You are required, so much so that we know that the convert technically should start praying immediately, even if he doesn't know Fatiha. He will just say it in English, or he will hold it in his hand. Whatever he needs to do to get by, but he needs to start praying immediately, right? Even if he's forgiven for the details, that he doesn't actually know, SubhanAllah, he can hold it, or he can say it in English, you know, all praise be to God. Whatever he needs to get by, until he memorizes. but technically all of the laws of Islam come now of course this is a different story that we as a community are wise in gradually telling him what to do but technically the sharia is applicable upon him instantaneously at his conversion other wisdoms that other wisdoms that we benefit from over here of course needless to say we already said this last week the status of the ansar the status of this group of people whom Allah Azza wa Jal praises in the Quran in multiple verses. And that is why loving the Ansar is a sign of faith and Iman. Hadith in Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, that Ayatul Imani Hubbul Ansar. The sign of Iman is to love the Ansar. Waayatul Nifaq Bughdul Ansar. And a sign of hypocrisy is to hate the Ansar. It's a Hadith in Bukhari and Muslim. And therefore anybody who loves the Ansar, this is a sign of Iman. And anybody who hates the Ansar, our Prophet ﷺ has said something else about them. And in fact so much is the blessings of the Ansar, the Prophet ﷺ even said to them, that if I could I would give up my lineage and be a part of you. When did he say this? After the Fath-e-Makkah. And he said, لَوْلَ الْهِجْرَةُ لَكُنتُمْ رَأًا مِنَ الْأَنصَارِ were it not for the hijrah I would have considered myself one of the ansar I can't change biologically that I'm Qurashi I cannot change that I'm from Mecca were it not for the fact that I come from Mecca I would have considered myself one of the ansar walaw salakan nasu wadian wasalakan ansaru wadian lasalaktu wadi ansar if all of mankind went in one direction and the ansar went in another direction I would choose the direction of the ansar this is what the Prophet ﷺ is saying the amount of praise he gave to the Ansar and these are in our Bukhari Muslim textbooks not in some obscure these are like the standard books of our faith the amount of praise he gave to the Ansar is indeed unprecedented even though the Muhajirun have a degree above them subhanallah even though the Muhajirun have a degree above them and that is why whenever Allah praises the Ansar subhanallah every time he praises the Muhajirun before them every time Allah says in the Quran that was sabiqoon al awwaluna minal muhajireena wal ansar the first peoples to embrace Islam from the muhajireen and the ansar he begins with the muhajireen then the ansar laqattaballahu ala nabiyyi wal muhajireena wal ansar Allah has repented upon the prophet and the muhajireen and the ansar again the muhajireen before the ansar subhanallah even in the ayah that Allah praises the Ansar. And that is the saying of Allah, وَالَّذِينَ تَبَوَّوا الدَّارَ وَالْإِيمَانِ This is the highest praise of the Ansar in the Quran. Surah Al-Hashr verse 9, right? Those who prepared the house, that's the praise of the Ansar. The verse right before it mentions, لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ The verse right before it. And so Allah Azza wa Jal always gave precedence to the Muhajirun over the Ansar. And if the Ansar have been praised in such a high manner, where does that leave thee? muhajirun. And that is why when the Ansar were praised so highly, that is why the Sahaba, the muhajirun, became so scared that they might take our rewards. Ya Rasulullah, are they going to take our rewards? And the Prophet ﷺ said, no, they will not take your rewards as long as you continue to praise them and make dua for them. So this is the issue of the mu'akha. InshaAllah we'll stop here, open the floor for Q&A. And next Wednesday inshaAllah, we will begin talking about a very significant portion of the seerah, a very important portion of the seerah, and that is the constitution of Medina. Which is a novel idea which was unprecedented in Arabia. Some even say unprecedented in the world, in its scope, in its guarantee for freedom of religion and this is really absolutely true. The way that the Prophet ﷺ formulated the state, the Madani state that he allowed the Yahud he allowed the Muslims to do this he mentions the mushrikeen as well in this contract the amount of freedom that was given and the type of republic that the Prophet ﷺ brought forth in Medina some have even said it is completely unprecedented in human history and we'll talk about the concept of this constitution and the importance of the constitution and also some of the controversies over this constitution or treaty of Medina, inshallah that will be next Wednesday also before I forget also the announcement I was told to make two announcements before I open the floor for Q&A the first announcement on Saturday evening at 7pm 7pm right over here at 7pm we will be doing a what is the title of it a bonfire event and it will be done here on our grounds at MIC halal marshmallows inshallah will be arranged don't worry and I have been asked to give a talk So I will be talking about signs of the Day of Judgment. Signs of the Day of Judgment we'll be talking about. InshaAllah, 7pm on Saturday. Also, Saturday. Danish, this Saturday? Saturday or Sunday? I thought you emailed Saturday. No, the Hasyanda. No, Sunday. Sunday? Okay. So on Sunday, all day long from 11am up until 10pm. All day long Sunday. we are having our second Zabiha day because we made the mistake of having Zabiha night and mashallah we had like 200 people in the restaurant. So 300 people. By the way, we forgot to announce but the manager of the Chinese restaurant profusely apologized. He said he was expecting 30, not 300. And so next time he will be prepared. He said next time you do it, I will have triple the amount. He told me this myself. He tripled the amount of staff and cooks. He apologized profusely. I guess it was our problem as well that we didn't know what to expect. And so he thought 30 people would be coming. So he didn't have the quantity of chefs and people. So those of you who went, you know, it was a long line. But mashallah, the food was worth it, I would say. Alhamdulillah. So this time, the restaurant manager has basically given us the entire day. So we can take our time. Whoever wants to go for lunch, whoever wants to go for late lunch, early dinner, late dinner, the entire day the restaurant will be serving Zabiha and this is La Hacienda but not the La Hacienda that I thought it was which is in downtown this is La Hacienda on Forest Hill Irene and Germantown sorry La Hacienda Forest Hill Irene and Poplar yeah Forest Hill Irene and Poplar the Mexican La Hacienda restaurant will be serving Zabiha all day so you don't even have to ask for Zabiha right oh you have to ask for it ok so you have to tell your waiter or you want the zabiha. So they'll be cooking zabiha separate than I thought it was all of it. Okay. So that's the second announcement. With that, we open the floor for questions. Oh, third announcement. Yalla bismillah. I'm flooded here, so we need to give them two minutes or just about that. Okay. So we take two, three questions and inshallah, we'll do that. Go ahead. Two questions. You said that the mu'akha should be re-instantiated. I was wondering, did any of the sahaba after Rasulullah ﷺ passed away, did any of them the scholars say there was no need for them to do so but we in our times are at a time of there is no up and running society we are more in this need of mu'akha because the society around us is not the up and running society of Medina so in that I don't know of any type of mu'akha that was done at the time of the sahaba Allahu a'lam the second question is regarding the suggestion to converts that they begin to pray in their native tongue. And I was wondering if you would make that a general rule for people who don't speak Arabic, even maybe children when they begin to pray. No, no, we don't make this a general rule at all. None of the scholars ever made this a general rule. As for converts praying in their tongue, this is something that classical books of fiqh have mentioned. That what do you expect if somebody takes the shahada right now, how do you expect him to pray isha with us? And it's not even possible for him to read Fatiha. So what's he gonna do? Well, either he doesn't pray, which doesn't make sense, or he prays and we just tell him, say whatever you can. So much so that if he doesn't even know Fatiha, he just says, praise be to God. Praise be to God, that's fine. He'll be forgiven until he can learn Arabic. The same cannot be said of us who are Muslims, or our children who are born into our households. We teach them the Fatiha in Arabic. we teach them the rituals in Arabic our salah must be performed in Arabic the Quran and the adhkar of salah none of the scholars of Islam ever allowed them to be performed in any other language the dua may be done in any language the dua may be done in any language questions from the sisters even in fard we went over this long time with the sisters in their fiqh class yes even in fard yes go ahead So the sacred months are Shawwal, Dhul Qa'dah and Dhul Hijjah and Rajab Sorry Dhul Qa'dah, Dhul Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab Dhul Qa'dah, Dhul Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab These are the sacred months Rajab is the only one that's separate Rajab is the only one that is separate the other three are connected together the Zawaj of Aisha took place it is said the actual Aqt took place before the Hijrah and then the Bina or the conservation took place after the Hijrah ok brothers yes the first one is calling the state the public is the way of a government that is Wallahi fil haqiqah to be honest the word republic is vague and it is it is okay to call it a type of federation or republic when we talk about the constitution next week when we talk about the when we talk about the constitution of Medina next week it is actually not incorrect to call it a type of republic these terms of course can be defined differently and a republic is a type of state that it could apply if you want to call it state, even the word state is not mentioned, these are all English terms so there is an expression in Arabic there is an expression in Arabic which you should be familiar with la musha'ahata fil istalah you know this phrase? la musha'ahata fil istalah but there is no istalah for republic that's the point, it's as we define it I don't know. The devil is fake, isn't it? حتى الدولة. حتى اصطلاح الدولة. هذا لم تذكر في الكتب القديمة. حتى اصطلاح الدولة. Of course, this is something even which is modern, which... So actually, this is evidence against you. Second point. Second point. You mentioned that some man in Pharisee was of old age, and that's an excuse for hijab, which is... No, no. I said two reasons, brother. Be careful with me. One of them, I said, مشي الحال كان رجل عجوز في السن right والله عند الشافعية عند الشافعية there is a qawl عند الشافعية that there is a farq between the one who has shahwa and the one who has no shahwa and this is a qawl but the more important one is that this was before the hijab third point bismillah the third point is about the graduality of alcohol allowing or not allowing. Sharia, in general, did not come down in our face. It came down gradually. That does not mean it's gradual in application. It's gradual in legislation. God can do that. He can allow it for a period of time and then stop allowing it. However, for the Muslims themselves, whether they're new converts or the Muslims of the life, the application has no gradual not even in that time when those ayat come down the Muslims have just converted and not go back to the first idea of halal or not being good or not so the application is absolutely like a sword, when it comes down that's it, the streets flooded with wine, but the legislation which is not in our hands, in God's hands yes, it came down on the whole sharia, that is what I said that it came down over piecemeal. That's what I said. It didn't come down in bulk, it came down gradually, bit by bit. So alcohol was not prohibited overnight, it was gradually prohibited. It was prohibited. In the last ayah, when it came down, it was prohibited. I mean, I think you're being a bit technical here. It wasn't prohibited overnight. In the beginning, Allah Azza wa Jal warned them against drinking. Then Allah warned them against certain timings of drinking. And then Allah Azza wa Jal warned them against drinking, period. So I'm calling it gradually. And, I mean, again, I think you're being a little bit technical here. The importance of this issue is not for that particular issue. Now we find Muslims that won elections and they're getting into government in some countries. They are asking for some relief of some ayat and hadith. Some Muslims are now ruling in Egypt. they're saying alcohol should be allowed to come in. Wallahi, this is a deep issue. We're raising kind of sort of, I think you're kind of sort of taking us all the way back there. We're over here in Memphis, Tennessee. Let's deal with our local issues, inshallah. Jazakallah khair, Shaykh. There is no relief of any sharia Allah for anyone. I didn't say this, but I think your audience is in Egypt, so you should tell them that, inshallah. Final question before we give it over to our guests that are here. Any other questions? Yes, go ahead. Either we can say that this was from Allah Azza wa Jal or we can say that he got the mishwara or the feedback from the people again as with most instances of the seerah for every one thing reported there are 20 things that are unreported you know and this is the reality of any life. How much do you know? As I mentioned back in the first day of the seerah, I said, how much do you even know of your father's life, of your grandfather's life, right? For one incident, even that incident, how much details do you know? So if this is the case of people we have lived with, how about 14 centuries ago? These details are, history books are silent about. So we have some... Sadh become Muslim, right? We had the time of some... He was the leader of the tribe. Yeah, but all 50 of them? I mean, this is a good question that even I ask myself, by the way, like... some of them of course he would know but all of the 50 it's Allah knows best so Iqbal if you can announce

Seerah 32 - The Treaty & Constitution of Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ May 2012-VB7cY3ZGiqA

Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. Amma ba'd, we had discussed the Prophet ﷺ's building of the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and the masjid of Quba, and we had discussed other incidents that occurred in the early months of his immigration. the next major story which is going to be the topic of today's halaqah the next major incident of the early madani period is the treaty of medina the treaty of medina and the treaty of medina is a very significant and it's also a little bit controversial people have interpreted in many different ways so what exactly is this treaty and who mentions it one of the problems that we have about this treaty is that it doesn't seem to be mentioned in every single reference book. And those that mention it, sometimes they mention it without a chain of narrators or isnad. So we all know what is the most famous book of seerah, but I know every one of you should know. What is the most authoritative classical book? Seerah of? Ibn Hisham. But Ibn Hisham is the summary of? Ibn Ishaq. Every one of you should know this, right? So when you go back to the seerah of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Ishaq mentions the entire treaty, but he says, it has been narrated to me. And between him and the Prophet ﷺ is 150 years. So we don't have any direct isnad. Other early books sometimes mention this treaty as well, but again without a full chain of narrators. Some of the books of hadith, for example, Musnad Imam Ahmad, it has a phrase of this treaty that Imam Ahmad mentions that the Prophet ﷺ كَتَبَ كِتَابًا بَيْنَ الْمُهَاجِنِينَ وَالْأَنصَارِ He wrote a book between the muhajirin and the ansar. and this book mentioned in it that every one of them would take care of their own debts and their own issues and problems and there will be Islah and Ma'ruf between them. So Imam Ahmed mentions one phrase of the treaty. The problem comes as we said, there is no early book that mentions the whole treaty with an Isnad. And this has led some people to doubt there ever was a treaty. So they say there's no evidence for this treaty to have taken place. however many modern researchers say even if there's no chain of narrators when you look at this treaty and the language of the treaty it's a very archaic language a language that is not common in the time of even Ibn Ishaq so if somebody were to fabricate it he wouldn't have fabricated it with such a difficult language and therefore the majority of scholars of our times consider this treaty to be an authentic treaty and we're not going to discuss every single clause because it takes up five pages. Nobody is going to go over every single clause. What we're going to do is we're going to break up the treaty into four areas or four different issues that the Prophet ﷺ tackled. Number one, the first issue is everything related to the Muslims. Number two, everything related to the Jews. Number three, everything related to the mushrikun, the pagans. And number four, general treaties for all of these. So we're going to divide this whole treaty into four. and the problem comes that the treaty as I said is written in a very difficult language and it is composed of sentences that's it that the Prophet ﷺ said this and he said this and he said this and he said this and a lot of what is mentioned are the names of tribes that we don't even know anymore because you realize that when we say the Ansar the Ansar are in fact multiple tribes primarily the Aus and the Khazraj but there were more than the Aus and the Khazraj and within the Aus and the Khazraj there are at least 40-50 sub-tribes. And most of these sub-tribes, we don't have much details of their names. So this treaty mentions every one of these names, every single name, which is in fact a sign of its authenticity actually. And it mentions every one of these names and what is required of this sub-tribe, what is to be done. The same applies for the Yahud. We think that there were only three Jewish groups. No, this is being generic. In fact, there were within these three sub-groups as well. Because we have mentioned many times that a large tribe is divided into a sub-tribe. And all of this is jumbled up. It's not as if in our time we're used to logical treaties like meaning. One phrase for this, one phrase for that. In those days, this type of writing has not yet come. In fact, even if you read a book in English, let's say 200 years ago, the way that they write English is very different than what we're used to. We cannot follow the train of thought. There are long sentences, convoluted ideas moving here and there. Of course, Arabic is even more of an example, right? Modern eras when they read classical Arabic. So the point being, this is a difficult treaty that's probably a sign of his authenticity. What we're gonna do, simplify it. How we're gonna simplify? Discuss it from a different angles, four different angles. Number one, clauses related to the Muslims amongst themselves. Of the clauses, the Prophet ﷺ is saying in this treaty, that the مؤمنون from the Quraysh and يثرب, notice here the term يثرب is used. and this in fact is a sign of its authenticity because right early on when the Prophet ﷺ immigrated, we would have assumed that the term Yathrib was still in vogue. Right? Right when the Prophet ﷺ immigrated. We said many times that the Prophet ﷺ eventually commanded the name Yathrib to be removed. And he said, do not call it Yathrib. It is in fact Medina. But it takes a while obviously, right? It's not gonna happen instantaneously. You cannot change the name of a city. The very fact that the term Yathrib occurs in this treaty shows that he's talking to people who are not used to a new name. So he has to use the old name. And therefore he mentions the believers from the Quraysh and from Yathrib, i.e. the Ansar. The term Muhajir and Ansar hasn't yet crystallized. The believers from the Quraysh and from Yathrib and those who join them are one Ummah. So now he is saying the Muslims are one Ummah. And Ummah of course, we'll talk about it, it means group or nation or party. And this ummah, he said, is in and unto itself, i.e. it is unique to itself to the exclusion of the rest of mankind. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying, this is a unique ummah. You have bonds that nobody else can share. And he then mentions 40 sub-tribes as we said. He mentions every one of them. The muhajirun by name, the Banu Auf, the Banu Harith, the Banu Sa'idah, on and on again. And he says, Every one of these sub-tribes will be left with their own responsibilities that they had before Islam. They shall take care of their own blood money disputes, their own prisoners of war, and their own poor. Now this is an interesting clause. And in the Islamic state of the time of the Prophet ﷺ, in this early state, the welfare system as we're used to was not national. It was local. if somebody needed help they wouldn't go to the national level they would keep to their tribal level right, they keep it to tribal level so the Prophet ﷺ is saying if there is somebody who's in need somebody who's poor, who's gonna take care of that person that person's tribe if there's somebody who needs to be ransomed from a prisoner of war ransomed who's gonna pay the ransom, that tribe if there's somebody who has blood money now blood money is an exorbitant amount In our times, I think it's 150,000 riyals, maybe like 40,000 dollars, 50,000 dollars, right? Blood money, of course, there's accidental and there's intentional, and each one is its own. Suppose in the sharia court, in the sharia system, if you accidentally kill somebody, manslaughter, car accident, you drive into him, accidentally. The sharia requires you to fast two months, and to give a blood money to the person whom you killed. this is the blood money the blood money is 100 camels or 120 camels depending on the exact type of what you've done and this is a huge amount and one person cannot afford 100 camels so what is to be done the Prophet ﷺ is saying every tribe takes care of its own you are responsible for your own another clause all of the Muslims shall unite against those who do injustice even if it be one of their own so this means if somebody does dhulm even if he is a muslim we will be united against the dhalim and this actually goes back to the treaty which treaty who can remind me the maybe his way afterwards the hilfal fudul hilfal fudul goes back to hilfal fudul that everybody will be united against the dhalim even if they are one of our own right so the process I am saying whoever does dhulm In justice, we will be united against him. And the final clause we'll mention for this, and again this is very long, but the final clause for the Muslims, that the Prophet ﷺ said, the protection granted by the Muslims is the same. The word for protection in Arabic is dhimma. And even the lowliest of them can give protection. What is the concept of dhimma? So again in that Islamic state, how did somebody get a visa to enter Dar al-Islam? how did somebody get a visa to come inside right the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying every muslim has the right to give anybody whom they know this visa even if they are the lowliest of them meaning even if they are not even free even if they are a slave, even if it's a child who is aqil, a child who understands, like not a 3 year old but a 8, 9 year old, right this is the majority opinion, even a child who is tamyeez, who is mumayyiz, he has the permissibility to allow somebody to come in. And if somebody comes in with that visa, what does this mean? Means nobody can harm him. Nobody can harm him. And if there are disputes, it goes to the court of law. But basically anybody can tell anybody else to come in. And this is how the process has made it. That the dhimma of the Muslims is all the same. Anybody can give dhimma to others. Anybody can give protection to others. And this shows us that when it comes to this issue, all Muslims are exactly the same and of course the main issue here is that the Prophet ﷺ is making the Muslims one ummah to the exclusion of all mankind, he said ummatan min doon in nas so he's establishing the bonds of the ummah, the second set of clauses are clauses related to the Yahud, and he mentions the Yahud of the Bani Auf and the Yahud of the Bani Ame and the Yahud of the Bani this and the Yahud of the Bani that so all of the Yahud are mentioned by name specifically And there are again around 12 different clauses. Everyone is mentioning a tribe name. The Prophet ﷺ said, All of these Yahud are one ummah, along with the believers. Ummatan ma'al mu'mineen. Meaning, that is one ummah, we are one ummah. So the Yahud, ummatan ma'al mu'mineen. So they have a type of status, a type, don't misquote me, that in some ways is equivalent. Because it's ummatan ma'al mu'mineen. And he then went on, and they shall take care of their own affairs, their own internal disputes. They will take care of their own fukara. They will take care of their own blood money. Anything that is happening between them, they are in charge of it. Internal crime, internal murder, internal, they are in charge. Unless they wish to come to us, otherwise we have no business with them. unless it involves the two together. If there's zulmah, if there's murder between the two ummahs, now it will go to the higher authority. Right? So notice here, courts of law are semi-independent. The Yahud, you deal with yourselves. We're not gonna get involved about your own affairs. Two people fighting, two people slandering, two people stealing, murder happens, that's your business. You deal with it yourself, internal division. don't come to us. Unless it's between the two of us. Something happens between the two, then obviously we need to come to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that between the two, i.e. the Muslims and the Jews, shall be mutual support against those who fight the people of this treaty. And the Yahud will spend along with the Muslims as long as they're being fought. financial obligations when it comes to external enemies are the same notice financial obligation when it comes to domestic affairs are not the same your poor you take care of them not us our poor we take care of them not you correct so far so clear now suppose somebody attacks we will spend on defense and you will spend along with us both of us will spend for the sake of the protection of Medina and at times of crisis therefore the two shall unite and help one another and the Yahud are responsible for the costs and the Muslims are responsible for the costs. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam also added here with regards to the Yahud, no Yahudi can leave Medina without the permission of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam you cannot, now leaving Medina, what does it mean to leave Medina? Remember this is not a time where we just move for any reason for our job, no, leaving means changing your citizenship, that's what it means in that language, right? because again this is a very different time and place where you live is where your tribe is where your loyalties is where your passport it's all the same right for us we have a whole different concept now you have to realize for them to leave Medina basically means renouncing citizenship joining another camp so the Prophet ﷺ you cannot just do that you have to inform us you have to tell us you can't just go and become a traitor you cannot just or even leave and become neutral this must be informed so that we know that you're no longer a part of this treaty and by the way to this day, if you want to give up your US citizenship or any citizenship, you must renounce it. If you take up another citizenship and you want to give it up, you need to go to the consul director of whatever country you're in and publicly basically disavow and give back your citizenship. Similarly, the Prophet is saying, if you want to give up this, you need to tell us. Or else you cannot pretend to be a part of ours and another as well. So any Yahudi who wants to leave, he must inform before he does so. Another clause, If any Jew wishes to follow the believers, i.e. to convert. If any Jew wishes to convert, then he shall be helped and protected, and no injustice shall be done to him. i.e. nobody can harm him. He has the right to embrace our faith. Nobody can harm him if he wishes to embrace our faith. So these are some of the clauses related to the Yahud. Some of the clauses related to the pagans, the Mushrikun. and this shows us that as soon as the Prophet ﷺ immigrated there were still mushrikun in Medina, we said this many times there were still mushrikun in Medina and they lasted up until the battle of Badr when the Prophet ﷺ returned back to Medina when the Prophet ﷺ returned back victorious from the battle of Badr, that was when every single mushrik realized that we are such a small minority and now the Prophet ﷺ has won we need to convert, so that was when the munafiqun became مُنَافِقُون because before this they were مشركون this is when he converted after Badr all of these people converted after Badr when this treaty is taking place it's not Badr yet so there are still pagans so what does the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam say no mushrik shall offer protection to the Quraysh even if it is in return for life or money nor shall he in any way come between the Quraysh and the believers i.e. to defend i.e. the mushrikun are being told and this is how fair is this wallahi how fair is this the Prophet ﷺ is not saying you have to convert look at this they are pagans, they are idol worshippers he's not saying you have to convert what he is saying is your ties of loyalty might feel towards the pagans realize if you're in Medina you cannot support them physically what's in your heart is in your heart but you cannot support them nor can you defend them nor can you come between us and them. Stay out of this business. Stay out of international affairs basically. Or you can call it affairs between Mecca and Medina. And this shows us that the Prophet ﷺ in that stage allowed the mushrikun to be in Medina. Later on the madhahib differed. Is it allowed for idol worshippers to be living in Darul Islam? This theoretical issue doesn't apply anymore. But once upon a time there was a controversy. Everybody agrees that Ahl al-Kitab can live in Dar al-Islam. Everybody agrees that the Majus, the Zoroastrians, the Parasites can live in Dar al-Islam. That's what our Sharia clearly allowed. Nobody disagrees about this. There was a controversy, should we extend the same privileges and rights to idol worshippers? And some of the Madahib said, yes we should. And this is also the Hanafi Madhab. And as you know the Mughal Emperor was a Hanafi Madhab predominantly. And that's why it's possible to be a Hanafi and a Mughal Emperor. Otherwise it would not be possible to do that. Whereas some of the other madahib were stricter in this regard, and they said, no, this extension is only given to the Ahl al-Kitab and the Majus. That's the theoretical issue. But of the evidences of the Hanafis is here. But the Prophet ﷺ allowed the Mushrikun. And in fact, it seems to be the stronger case that in Dar al-Islam, the freedom to basically be upon your faith is open to anybody. And this is what some of those classical scholars said, and this is the evidence here. That there were pagans and they were allowed to remain pagan but with an extra condition. Why? Because of course at the time to be pagan meant your alliances are with the Quraysh or with the people of Mecca. So the Prophet ﷺ said you must remain neutral, you're never allowed to take any sides over here. The final set of clauses were general clauses pertaining to all of the people of the treaty. All of the people of the treaty and these general clauses are number one, the Prophet ﷺ said, the interior of Yathrib, once again using the term Yathrib, is a haram for the people of this treaty. We talked about this 2-3 weeks ago. What does a haram mean? Haram means sacred land. Haram means that which is halal outside becomes haram inside. That's what haram means, right? That which is halal outside becomes haram inside. So haram means sacred because of this. And of the things that are sacred or of the things that are not allowed, who can remind me? we went over a long list three weeks ago what is no weapons that are unsheathed of course you're going to have weapons in your house you cannot brandish you cannot take it out what else plucking plucking trees hunting can't what you can't build you cannot destroy trees to build not killing animals of course you must do But hunting and... So these are some of the things that are haram. These are some of the things that are haram. The Prophet ﷺ is saying, the interior of Yathrib is a haram for the people of this treaty. And he mentions that no wild trees can be plucked and no game can be hunted, and so on and so forth. And he also delineated or demarcated what is Medina. And I mentioned before, the Prophet ﷺ said, المدينة حرم ما بين عير وثور And in another hadith, ما بين لابتيها So he mentioned four points. Labbateha and Ayr and Thur Ayr and Thur are two small mountains two small mountains south and north of Medina Ayr and Thur are two small mountains south and north and Labbateha are the two Harratain are the two volcanic plains which to this day in Medina is called Harra Sharqiyah Harra Gharbiya to this day there are areas that are called Sharqiyah and Gharbiya that's the Harra so the Prophet ﷺ demarcated four points and he specified these four points are what make Medina Haram outside of this is not a haram. These are the four points. He also said, part of these clauses, whatever disagreement occurs between the peoples of this treaty, which shall lead to internal fasad, shall be decided by Allah and His Messenger. Muslims and Jews, Jews and pagans, pagans and Muslims, anybody's having a conflict, then it shall be decided by the Prophet ﷺ. He said, Allah and His Messenger. Shall be decided by Allah and His Messenger. And this shows us the ultimate basis of Islamic law, which is submission to the Qur'an and to the Sunnah. Also the Prophet ﷺ said, it will not be allowed for any believer who agrees to this treaty and believes in Allah and the last day to help any rebel, anybody who opposes this treaty, to support him. Whoever does so, will have the la'na of Allah and the mala'ika and all of mankind. Whoever does so, Allah will curse him and the angels will curse him until the day of judgment and no good deed will be accepted from him. In other words, to be a traitor, to Medina or to Yathrib, to be a traitor to this clause will entail permanent, and this of course meant also execution, that you cannot disagree with or you cannot strive to harm the people of this treaty. And the final point that he mentioned in this long treaty that whoever leaves Medina shall be safe whoever stays in Medina shall be safe except for anyone who does an injustice or sin. And Allah will protect to those who are pious and righteous, and Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his messenger. That's how the treaty concludes. Whoever leaves Madinah shall be safe, and whoever enters shall be safe, as long as they haven't done a crime. In other words, you leave peacefully, you come peacefully, we're not gonna harm you. You may leave and come and go as you please, as long as you haven't done a crime. If you've done a crime, then that's obviously we're going to take care of that, and Allah will protect those who are pious and righteous, and Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his messenger. What are some of the overall benefits or points? What is the status of this treaty? Well, let's talk about some of the misinterpretations if you like, and then we can figure out what is the proper status. Some people, they exaggerate the importance of this treaty, and others diminish the importance, which is the standard case of everything. Ifrat and Tafrit. Some people go to one extreme, others go to the other extreme. There is a paper that was written back in the 80s by one of our leading Muslims here in America. where he basically said, it became famous at the time, I'm sure many of you here are not aware of this now, but back then it became very famous in Muslim circles, where he basically said that this treaty was the basis of the American constitution. Thomas Jefferson got the idea of America from this treaty. Right. And I'm not joking, this is a paper that is written by one of our academic leaders of North America. and this is of course I mean this type of mentality I mean it's to me a sign of an inferiority complex to be honest that everything that is good you somehow have to link it directly to we did it we invented it and this is simply not just unacademic you become laughing stocks of the people people start making fun of you it's something that is ludicrous now there's no question that the treaty for its time was very novel, very unique, that certain concepts of it were then exported to the West, and the West then took these concepts and eventually evolved, and yes, but this is like, you know, 20 degrees of separation or something. You cannot just say that Thomas Jefferson read this treaty and he wrote the constitution based upon it. I mean, really it makes us laughing stocks, right? Because they're so different. There's the content, the whole is very different. So this is one, if you like, extreme. Another extreme are those who try to the non-Muslims who try to read in evil intentions astaghfirullah of the Prophet ﷺ. That he wants to make the Yahud a separate nation and he wants to, because we're gonna come to now in a few weeks the concept, it's a very delicate, we need to talk about it very frankly. The accusation that the Prophet ﷺ treated the Jews unfairly is a common accusation. Right? In fact it is understood by non-Muslims. It's not even an accusation anymore. For them it's a fact. For them it is a fact that Astaghfirullah, he had it in his mind. He just had something. Of course, anti-Semitism is used here, right? And so they say this treaty is anti-Semitic. Because the Prophet ﷺ is dividing the Yahud, separating them, putting obligations upon them, etc. And obviously that's not the case because the same obligations on them are on the Muslims. Exact same. Literally exact same. You must take care of your own poor. You must take care of your own blood money, your own ransom, etc., etc. So this is one extreme. And of course, as usual, the truth is in between the two extremes. And the truth is that this treaty was very significant. It had a lot of long-range implications. And that it established the basis of how an Islamic state is run. It established the overall philosophy of how an Islamic state is run. Of the most important concepts that this treaty puts into writing, literally, it puts into writing. And of course we've been talking about this a lot, but now for the first time it's being written down as a constitution. Of the first, if you like, important things about this is that the Prophet ﷺ is defining relationships based upon theology. and this is completely unique in the history of Arabia because he said the Banu Auf, the Banu Amir basically the Ansar and the Muhajirun are one Ummah we don't have differences amongst ourselves in terms of being treated equally we are one Ummah and anybody who converts to the faith will become a part of this Ummah so what is happening the old system of lineage of tribalism, of you are who your father was, is being broken. And now you will be who you are, depending on your theology and your religion. Nobody has any right to come in between you and being a full-fledged member of the ummah if you wish to convert to the faith. And this, of course, is something we take completely for granted now, and that's how we view the world. But at that time, it was, of course, very unprecedented. And the concept of Ummah being one block or one group of believers regardless of who your father is. Bilal and Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr is a very noble lineage. Bilal and Abu Bakr are the same. This is unprecedented. Of course we know this. But the process was put in writing now. It doesn't matter where you come from. We are one Ummah. And by the way the word Ummah, of course Allah says in the Quran, وَإِنَّ هَذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاعِدًا Allah says this is the word Ummah. The word Ummah, what does it mean? What does it come from? The word Ummah comes from Umm. And what does Umm mean? Everybody knows, even the non-Arab knows. Umm means mother. And why is Ummah from Umm? What has mother got to do with Ummah? Well, the word Umm actually, even more deeper than this, the word Umm actually comes from Amma. And Amma means to La'a. La'a. This is the derived meaning. This is a derived meaning. Secondary meaning. It's not the asal. Like when to or goal or destination? أَمَّا means to strive for. Yes, to strive for. أَمِّنَ الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَمُ Allah says in the Quran. Right? أَمِّنَ الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَمُ That you are intending to get there. So أَمَّا means قَصَزَةً أَمَّ means to aim for. أَمَّ is basically the object of your attention. Therefore when the child is born, what is the one object of attention? أُمْ When the child is born, there's one object of love and what not. It's أُمْ. All of the attention is to the أُمْ. So أُمْ is mother. Therefore the أُمَّ are those people who they might as well have one mother. The bonds between them, they might as well just have one mother. because that's where they're all coming together from. Right? Of course the word أم is so deep so the imam is also the one who is the one leading you in prayer because again he is the one who has that leadership role. Ibrahim is called أم even though he's one person because of the quality of his iman he might as well be a whole ummah by himself. Right? The word ummah has now over 15 derived meanings. But the original meaning of أم is قصد And then from that we get um From um we get all of these other meanings as well Even the word tayammum From the same amma Tayammum A'i qasada rafa'al hadath A'i he intended to raise his wudu Not wudu To raise the status of not having wudu Right? Tayammum is intention Tayammum means to intention The same amma Amma ya ummu So the point being that The word umma Comes from um Because the people of the umma It's as if they have one um is as if they're so bonded together they are one group or one nation or one family literally one family to the exclusion of all the others this treaty also demonstrates the justice of the Prophet ﷺ that the Prophet ﷺ contrary to what the non-Muslims say in fact he treated the Jews with the utmost respect and he gave them their full rights and from our perspective they were the ones at least in the period of Medina, who refused to take these privileges, who kept on making things difficult for themselves. And we're gonna come to this throughout the course of the next few months and even the few years, inshallah, when we talk about this, what the Yahud did and how the Prophet ﷺ reacted to that. From our perspective, there is no anti-Semitism. From our perspective, they were treated the way they were treated because of things that they had done, not because of who they were. And this is not anti-Semitism, right? They were treated because of crimes that they had done. Either they were expelled or what not, because of issues they had done, not because of who they were. And this shows us, the Prophet ﷺ is saying, you are one ummah. Notice the treaty says, and this is exactly I'm quoting from Ibn Ishaq, that, الْيَهُودُ أُمَّةً مَعَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ Now if that is not the height of equality, you are an ummah, we are an ummah. Along with each other, we are two ummahs. This is an amazing respect given to them. وَالْيَهُودُ أُمَّةً مَعَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ You have your issue, you have your religion, we have our religion. And if the Yahud had fulfilled this treaty, and they had outwardly lived up to it, the fact of the matter is, they would have been shown the utmost honor, and they would have benefited the most. Why? Because the Yahud had a lot of things they were doing in Medina. They were tradesmen, they were jewelers, they were craftsmen, they were businessmen they did a lot of traveling and finances and what not and the success of the Muslims would have meant their success as well because they are a part of the community the raising of the Muslims would have meant their raising as well the financial input of the Muslims would have meant their financial success as well and if they had lived up to this treaty they would have risen along with the Muslims but from our perspective and this we are going to prove they didn't live up to it and they reneged on the promises they broke these promises and because of this, the promise was very clear. Do not side with the pagans against us. And that's exactly what the Banu Qurayza did. That's exactly what they did. This is a promise that is being given the first month they moved to Medina. Don't side with the pagans. And yet the Banu Qurayza did that. So what was coming to them was coming to them. Similarly, any issue between Muslims and Yahud will be dealt with by the Prophet ﷺ. And both of the other tribes, they transgressed upon the Muslims. murdering or what not or dishonoring a lady of the Muslims as we're gonna come to this was an intra-umma the Yahud and the Muslims are getting involved with each other so they have to go to the Prophet ﷺ for the final reference and that's exactly what happened another benefit of this treaty is that we are seeing that the Prophet ﷺ's political status has now become a de facto leader and this is a key point here he was invited by a group of Muslims. Now these Muslims are so numerous that he can negotiate treaties on their behalf and become the de facto ruler. Even the Mushrikoon and the Yahud, they are told that you have semi-independence basically. You have semi-independence. But if something happens that deals with us, you must come to the Prophet ﷺ. And this clearly shows who's in charge. and therefore what the treaty did was to make official what was understood before this and that is that the Prophet ﷺ is the de facto or the accepted ruler of the city of Medina now somebody will say there is no jizya mentioned and there is no jizya mentioned there is no jizya mentioned here and the response to this is the laws of jizya had not yet been revealed jizya was revealed in Surah Tawbah حَتَّى يُعْتُوا جِزْيَةِ عَنْ يَدٍ this is Surah Tawbah So that is much later on. And therefore, this treaty does not contradict jizya, but it doesn't enforce it either. In that, there's no clause there, because the concept of jizya has not yet come. Also, one of the main benefits of this treaty that we derive, especially living in the century that we're living in, and this is the reality of Islam without any political correctness, without any appeasement. As you know me, I'm not one of those who wants to appease anybody. the fact of the matter which is absolutely true from our sharia is that freedom of religion is guaranteed by the sharia to a great extent, not to an unlimited extent. That is we have to be fair here. Classical sharia or classical Islamic fiqh I should say did not give the types of freedom that the modern secular world gives. The non-Muslims did not have the right to preach and convert others. You have the right to do as you're doing, but you cannot convert others to your faith. But apart from that, pretty much everything else is allowed for you. The non-Muslims are even allowed, this shocks many Muslims to hear this, are even allowed to manufacture and sell alcohol amongst themselves. This is well known. The books of fiqh explicitly mention this. So much so that many books of fiqh discuss the issue, if a Muslim is married to a Christian lady, is he allowed to stop her from drinking khamr and the majority say no he's not because that's halal for her that's halal for her to drink it's haram for him, he can say you cannot have it in my house, that's his right right, but he cannot prevent her from, because the point is like in those days the catholics, they all drank khamr in their churches to this day, they drink wine it's a part of their rituals, right, as you know you should all know, drinking the wine is a part of their rituals, so the muslim the majority of fiqh, in fact dare I say all four madhhabs, but I'm not 100% sure, but I know for a fact the majority of them, and I'm pretty sure it's the four, but I don't want to say this uncategorically, say that it is not allowed for the Muslim husband to stop his Christian wife from drinking outside of the house, because that's her sharia. And he has no right to enforce on her. This is the type of freedom that Islam allowed. That you have the right to be even pagan in this early stage, and no one is going to force Islam down your throat. And the irony of ironies is that we are accused of being intolerant and we are accused of not allowing other faiths the freedom and yet wallahi without any mujamala, without any political correctness or what not if you compare our track record with theirs it's unbelievable how they could have the audacity to say that we are religiously intolerant it's unbelievable and we need to be very we need to be very familiar with this that we cannot allow people to make fun of our faith in this manner when they don't even know their own faith they have no right to tell us that our faith was intolerant when western powers and western nations frankly were the most religiously intolerant in the history of humanity and I'm not being, this is a fact even the Chinese, even the Mongolians were more tolerant than western countries were. When it comes to religious differences. And this is something any neutral observer can mention. I mean this goes back even to, forget the Roman emperors persecuting the Christians. Even when Constantine converted to Christianity. Right? Constantine is the first Christian emperor. When he converted to Christianity, what's basically the first thing he did? He adopted a version of Christianity. Which is now the official version. all types of Christianity is go back to Constantine he outlawed all other Christianities Christianities that actually had truth in them those that believe Jesus Christ was the Messiah not the son of God those that believe that Christianity is not a new religion because most of the Christian converts were Jews and for them Christianity was Judaism with believing in Messiah which is what we believe right Constantine came along you should know all this by the way because we live in this environment Constantine came along, and he adopted a narrow interpretation of Christianity. He made it the state religion, then what? He outlawed and banned anybody who disagreed with him. And that is why people had to flee. This is the beginning of Christian persecution by other Christians. Constantine forced everybody who disagreed to either be killed by the sword or get out of here. So Arius, who was the main opponent of Constantine, and Arius did not believe in the Trinity. Arius did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Arius' version of Christianity is very similar to Islam. Very similar. And Arius was the main opponent of Constantine. Arius had to run away and go down south. And it is said that he went down to what is now Abyssinia. And it is said therefore that the ruler of Abyssinia was aware of, it is called the Arian Creed. Because Arius is the name of the person. So this is beginning. Throughout medieval times, the church, Killed, and I'm not exaggerating, millions of people. The Catholic Church. We're not talking about Jews, we're talking about fellow Christians. The Roman Catholic Church could not tolerate dissent. Before Martin Luther, they already had started killing. There were so many different groups that came about at that time. There was a group called the Huguenots. The Huguenots in the 13th century. Tens of thousands of people killed. This is before Martin Luther. The Anabaptists as well in Denmark and what not. Again, 20-30 thousand people killed. The wars that took place between the Catholics and the Protestants. Even Martin Luther had to run away. Why did Martin Luther run away and go to Switzerland? Because the Roman Catholics wanted to kill him. This is not intolerance of another religion. This is intolerance of their own religion. And it is ironic that somebody like even John Locke. John Locke is 1689, 1690 or so. John Locke is the main intellectual whom the founding fathers of this country read. And American political science is basically Lockean in nature. How we view or how America views political science is from John Locke. John Locke's writings were read by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Adams. All of them they read John Locke and they consider him to be the greatest philosopher of the time. John Locke is actually criticizing his fellow Christians for their intolerance, right? And he is saying that why don't you look at the Ottomans or the Turks he called them. The Turks allow people of different sects and different faiths to come and live. Why do you have to be intolerant amongst yourselves? Look, he is putting the Ottomans as the role model. Can you believe this? Right? This is John Locke writing that why don't you look at the Turks? And he is writing at a time when of course, people are not being tolerant of other types. As you know, our founding fathers, why did they come to America? Why did they flee? Because of religious persecution. Who was persecuting them? People of their own background, right? And therefore, John Locke is writing that why don't you look at the Turks? They allow people of all different Christianities, all different creeds, Jews to come and live amongst them. And this is an amazing testimony وَشَهِدَ شَاهِدُ مِنْ أَهْلِهَا we can say, right? This is an amazing testimony about the reality of how the Sharia views the freedom of other faiths. Also in this treaty, getting back to the treaty now, we notice an interesting point, and that is the semi-independence of every single group of people. The Prophet ﷺ said, the Yahud are their own ummah, they take care of themselves. We're not gonna interfere. The Muslims are their own ummah, and of course the Prophet ﷺ is gonna solve their issues, and the Mushrikun are their own. And this is amazing, because what the Prophet ﷺ is giving them is he's giving them almost independence within the state of Islam. Almost independence. You are responsible for yourself. You're responsible for your own affairs. Your positives and your negatives, right? Your crimes and your issues, all of it will be dealt with internally. However, the Prophet ﷺ said, when it comes to the issues of the state, when it comes to the issues of the entire community, now we are one group. And therefore, some have said, and these are all modern terms, so to try to read them back, it has its positives and negatives. Some have said that the system of the Prophet ﷺ is a federalist system. By this, what is a federalist system? That basically, they're semi-independents. The Prophet ﷺ was not gonna get involved in the affairs of the Jews. He wasn't gonna get involved in the affairs of the idol worshippers. They are semi-independent, unless they have an affair that is domestic in nature. If an external threat comes, then we will be united. that's what the Prophet ﷺ said if the pagans attack we will be united and everyone will send forth its army or its troops or its financing we will all come together and it is true to say that this type of government was unique in the world at the time it is true to say this and there is an element of truth therefore that this type of concept was later exported to other places and areas and then things developed from there as already said So, the type of government that the Prophet ﷺ instituted was one that was pretty minimal when it came to the state getting involved in the direct affairs of the quote-unquote citizens, right? Because that will be independent upon every single tribe. And that's a very interesting notion, which is, as I said, similar even a little bit to how America has the various states, if you like, even, right? The main ushe will be dealt with the states. Of course, in those days, there weren't states, there were tribes. And so the chieftain of the tribe will take care of his own internal affairs, and the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam will take care of the entire area of Medina. Another, of course, benefit, we already know this for now, it doesn't matter if you're a Muslim or a non-Muslim. If you do an injustice, a wrong, a dhulm, you're not going to be protected. If you steal, if you cheat, if you lie, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam said, even if they are a Muslim, anybody who does a crime or a sin, then he shall be dealt with. simply being a Muslim will not get you off the hook. And he actually, the part of the treaty says, all of the Muslims will be united against him. No one can shelter a murderer. No one can shelter a criminal. Somebody who has committed a crime, everybody has to unite against the crime, regardless of whether they're a pagan or a Muslim or a Jew, it doesn't matter. Crime is crime regardless of the religion of the one who committed it. Again, these are novel ideas for the time. It was unheard of for the time. The Prophet ﷺ is being very forward thinking in this regard, of course. Another thing that some people have derived here from this treaty is the fact that the Prophet ﷺ accepted the legal norms and the customs of every tribe. In Arabic, this is called Urf. He accepted the Urf or the legal customs of every tribe as long as it did not conflict with the Sharia. And he allowed the tribes to deal with their own internal laws as long as it didn't conflict with the laws of the sharia. And of course one of the primary principles of our religion, I've said this before, every one of you should be aware, there are five major qawa'id fiqhiyya or rules of fiqh that govern fiqh. There are five major rules that govern all of fiqh. One of them is al-urfu muhakkam. and that is in the absence of a shari'i ruling, the culture of a people will be given precedence. In the absence of a shari'i ruling, the culture, how they typically interact with one another, this will be given precedence and taken into account. Al-urfu muhakkam. How people interact with one another, the shari'ah in fact does take this into account and I've given some examples of this in previous talks that we've given about the seerah. Now, from this treaty, let us now take a look back and see what exactly has occurred since the arrival of the Prophet ﷺ. When the Prophet ﷺ comes, the first thing that he does is he builds a masjid. And the masjid is of course the basis of ta'id, the fundamental of religion, reminds them of the purpose of life. He then establishes the bonds between the muhajirun and the ansar. Firstly, even before the treaty, by physically pairing them together, right? The mu'akha, we talked about that. the mu'akha, literally pairing them together and then the third point he then makes this entire treaty where he ratifies the status of the mu'minoon the status of the yahood the status of every single group and he then forms the first islamic state or the first if you like federation and how it will interact with one another there's more to be said inshallah we'll continue but we have a respected guest over here so we want to hand the floor over to him and to Dr. Bashar to be able to tell us about a project that they're doing that every one of us should be involved in so inshallah we will resume next Wednesday bi-idhnillahi ta'ala inshallah As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. As Dr. Stone is setting up our display, I'd like first to welcome him, and all of you probably know, I'm sure all of you know who Dr. Stone is. Pastor Steve Stone is the pastor of our neighbor church at the Heart Song. And from day one, from before this building was erected, and when we had just purchased a piece of land, and we were just nervous coming into the neighborhood, we all know how Pastor Stone put a banner out there just before Heart Song that we just drive by every morning and every night. and it says, Heart Song Church welcomes the Memphis Islamic Center to the neighborhood. And that just started a friendship that day by day is just getting into a new level and a new horizon. Ramadan before last, this building was not completed and we wanted a place to pray in. And graciously, Dr. Stone opened the doors of the church and many of you, actually, most of the people that I, the faces that I see here, we were praying at Heart Song, and you all know how that friendship not only resonated in our congregation and in their congregation, but it also went national, sort of in today's term went viral. And a lot of people started talking about it and then went international, and then before we know it, we had messages from all over the world, We had TV crews from Bahrain and Uganda, and people are interested in this friendship. Now this friendship is, alhamdulillah, all praise be to Allah, is getting actually stronger and stronger, and we have started a project together. And I would like to present Steve to let you know about where we are. Many of you probably know about some of the general outlines of the project, but I want him to talk about this because, to be honest, this was his dream and his thought, and we were just very happy to go along with this beautiful ride. So, Steve, welcome in your own place. Thank you, thank you. It makes me laugh to say it was my dream. My dream was a couple of swing sets and a grill. But this thing has really taken off now that the foundation has been formed. People from HeartSong and MIC have come together. And we're now recognized 501C3 by the state of Tennessee and the IRS and all this. And it's an amazing project that continues to develop and unfold this drawing here. and we've got brochures if any of you haven't had a chance to get one. I want you to have one because it's got a picture of this in there and talks some about the philosophy of the park and why we're doing this together. We're trying to create opportunities for people of all races, cultures, and faiths to make friends, just to be good neighbors to each other. The project's going to be about eight acres. There's approximately four acres on the south side of the road that the foundation has bought. there's about four acres on the north side of the road and one of the key parts of this project to us is that circle in the middle I don't know if you can see the purple circle right there in the middle that's a tunnel which we hope to build under Humphrey Road so that all of this is one park the perimeter will be fenced so that no child or family can cross the road you won't be able to you'll have to go through the tunnel and the other thing is to make sure everybody knows this is not two parks. This is not a Heart Song Park and an MIC Park. This is one park, and we want it to be one experience. We're in the process now of trying to get our act together so we can begin to approach some of the foundations and corporations that we hope will help us fund this. This is about a $5 million project, and we want it to be a world-class monument to friendship that even if people never get to come here across the world, they know there is such a thing as a park dedicated to friendship. And the whole idea for it came from not just our friendship, but how our friendship caught the imagination of the whole world. We continue to hear from people across the globe about this that want to know about it and talk with us about it. So that's where this whole thing came from and we've got this big event coming up Saturday. You want to? Yeah, so Saturday, and number one, don't panic. The $5 million is not coming from... Nor Hearthstone. Nor Hearthstone. Relax. So what we're doing is we're applying for different grants, different foundations that actually want to support projects like that. And they actually give in the millions. Many of you probably are familiar with Shelby Farms and the playground there. It costs about $4.5 million, and it's all donated by different foundations. And there's a lot of support nationally and internationally for projects like this. Of course, we have to do the initial work. Purchasing that land and showing that the community is interested and vested in a project is really a condition for those foundations to buy into it. If we don't believe in it, they're not going to believe in it. If we don't support a project like that, they're not going to support that with millions. Usually they would want us to kind of do the initial work, do some of that, and then show how vested and how interested we are in it. I'm not going to speak too much about this because this Saturday we have a beautiful event that's happening. We're going to have a picnic, a combined picnic, Heart Song, MIC, and actually we're inviting guests from other congregations all over town to come and showcase this and show our friendship physically and literally in front of everyone and then show our support to the project. And I'm very positive that all of us support it because this is not just going to be next door to us where we're going to enjoy it and HeartSong is going to enjoy this beautiful monumental park and it will be really available literally to our children and our families. But this means a lot more, and it can bring a lot more to our community. It's both congregations putting back to the community and showing our friendship. Today's Saturday picnic, it's going to be on May 5th on Saturday. We start it at noon, and it's going to go for two to three hours. There will be food, high quality, and you know some of the vendors that are providing that, a very dear brother to us, among others. There will be games for the children. There will be a lot of activities. And we would like to invite all of you to really show the support. So I don't know if any... I don't know if Sheikh Yasser wants to comment on this a little bit. Actually, yesterday I was invited to the Memphis Rotary Club to give a talk there. The Rotary Club is a club of very influential leaders of the Memphis community. I was pointed out a number of people who were CEOs of companies and PBS and the owner of Commercial Appeal. Everybody was just pointing me out. So this is like a room of who's who of Memphis. And I was invited to speak, basically. And somebody asked at the end a very difficult question, which basically was about how tense the relations are between Muslims and between Americans. And to respond to that question, I simply pointed out, yes, people can make it difficult, but they can also make it easy. And I gave the example of HeartSong and MIC. And I gave a very passionate defense and plea of the fact that this is the way forward for America. And the fact that this genuine hospitality sparked a worldwide positive attention. And frankly, we firmly, both of us firmly believe that when there is that sincerity, then Allah and God is going to bless that. That's the whole point. That when you do something genuinely and sincerely, that Allah will accept that and give reward for it. And this is the reward that we saw. That the entire community of this country, of this land, of even international news agencies came in and they showed a positive sign. And when I gave that defense basically, the entire audience erupted in applause. later on somebody commented that they've never seen, the regular guy they've never seen the entire Rotary Club, these are big shots here you know, break up in applause at the response to a question like the first time it happened, like you know and the point was that once again it was about this cooperation that we have I firmly believe that this type of project is going to place Memphis squarely on the map of North America that there's no project quite like this anywhere else in North America and it's something that we should be very humble and proud of that something so small that nobody ever thought that something like this would become a national attention or bring about so much positive, nobody ever thought this, now here we have a 5 million dollar park that we're all going to benefit from and it's going to be right here in fact it's probably going to help us not having to do any of the things in our land so we're going to save some of that money guys, think about it that way too we won't have to do things over here because they're right here, they're literally across the door from us. I think honestly it doesn't require anything. It's common sense here. This is a cause that there's nothing but good in it for us, for our community and neighbors, for the people around us, for the image of Christian-Muslim relations. This is something that's khair ala khair. I mean, this is positive inshallah. So, I hope that whatever we can do to help out and like we all said, we're not going to raise the money but we do have to show the support. I mean, these big corporations, they don't just throw their money out. They want to see that you're sincere and dedicated. In order to show us that, in order to show them what we're doing, you know, we need to basically have our act together. We need to show there's community support. I'm sure that we're going to have to raise a little bit of a kernel to get it all started and rolling. We've already done a little bit of that. But inshallah, the bulk of the money is going to be coming from many corporations in this regard. So inshallah, do what we can to help out. And I'm very positive that this will become a beacon of light for the entire community. Thank you very much. Jazakallah khair. I mean, all of that well said. And, you know, the park, we're going to have this, the brochures have some of the details. This is just sort of the beginning of the dream. There's water park, there's different features for the children, for the family, for the adults, to have fun, to play, to interact. There's a cultural center. All of these great ideas, inshallah, God willing, will happen and happen very soon. Again, we have to stick together. We have to show the support. So I invite you not just to come there, but just to get on the phone and invite your friends. Invite your Muslim, Jewish, Christian, all your friends to bring them with you to show them what this is all about and to get their support for this. We have to raise some money for that. But really a dollar raised for this project is going to bring probably $100 from sponsorship for corporations. corporations, but we just have to do our role. Just come and have fun, look at it, and it doesn't hurt if you bring your checkbook with you. But come anyway. Without it, you're welcome. Bring your friends, bring your children, and inshallah, let's continue our friendship. I don't know, Steve, if you had any other words to say. No, just that we continue to be honored and humbled to be your friends and for that to be such great, well-received news in the community, which is most important because that's where we live, but then nationally and internationally. The response we have gotten from day one, we had hoped maybe 51% we prayed, let 51% like what we're doing. It was over 90% that like what we do. So it shows the hunger in the world for friendship. And so to be a part of that, to have it right here, as Yasser said, it's a tremendous blessing to all of us. Jazakum Allah khair. Thank you very much. We're going to post this back there, but please feel free to get a brochure. We have plenty of them, so take all you need. Give to your friends. Really let the word come out in your workplace and your family, whoever you think of, this is a very positive thing. We're 100% behind it, and I hope you will also be 1,000% behind it. Thank you very much. I know it's time for prayer, so I don't want to hold things up too much. We have time for Q&A. Do you have Q&A about this at all? Round of applause for Steve Soneva. so we have around 10 minutes left for Isha inshallah so if there are any no point starting the next phase so any questions and others they were forced to there was no question of it and then they signed the treaty. They agreed to the treaty. So there was a sense of the majority of the people of Medina wanted the Prophet ﷺ to be in charge. The majority of the people. They were now at this time, the majority were already Muslim by this time. So the Yahud cannot stop that from happening now. And so he is negotiating on their behalf. And he is also, remember, there was also a sense of optimism even from them because they were tired of the civil war. And that's again as Aisha said, that Allah gifted the Prophet ﷺ with that civil war. That even the Yahud had been fighting amongst themselves, remember. There was civil war even amongst them. That two of them were on one side and one of them was on the other side. And therefore because of this, at that point in time there was no outright opposition, no sign of hostility. in fact if you look at the earliest revelations at that period of time they seem to be very upbeat and positive about the Yahud and the Nasara right the first half of Surah Baqarah for example right you know so Allah Azza wa Jal is telling the Yahud that there's many favors, you were the best people once upon a time we chose you you know Allah Azza wa Jal says فَضَّلَكُمْ عَلَىٰ الْعَالَمِينَ multiple times he says in Surah Al-Baqarah. So clearly there is this sense of here is your Prophet you've been waiting for, this is the time to accept him. Of course Allah knew that wouldn't happen, but the Prophet ﷺ was hopeful that it would happen. That is very clear from the seerah. That the Prophet ﷺ himself was optimistic and he expected them to convert, like Abdullah ibn Salam, and there were a few others as well. And then slowly but surely things began to sour, and things became more and more difficult until finally what happened, happened. So that's a separate case. Yes, Bismillah. Based on this treaty, in terms of this, like, in non-Muslim communities, like in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Saudi Arabia, outside Mecca and Medina, your Fouqhi opinion, not political opinion, about, like, establishing, like, like, during a battle, like, churches or... From Fouqhi's standpoint... So, from a... We need to discuss this in two different ways. Number one, what does classical fiqh say? Number two, is this one of those areas where there's room for change or not? As for the first issue, what does classical fiqh say? By unanimous consensus, the Ahl al-Kitab are allowed to worship in Dar al-Islam. And the Yahud can have their synagogues, the Christians can have their churches, and we do not interfere. Even if they practice what we would consider shirk inside those churches. who are not going to interfere. After all, they will worship Isa ibn Maryam, they will make dua to him, they will call out to him, this is their haqq, this is their right to do it, as long as it's within their churches. Also, they're allowed to, according to this, what the Prophet ﷺ said, and in fact this is what the Ottomans continued to have it up until the 1860s or so, the millat system. I forgot to mention, or we didn't have time. The Ottomans literally had something just like this, called the Millet system. And the Millet system basically said that the Sharia of the Yehud will be their own Sharia, the Halakha. And the Christians will have their own. So family law, by the way, India and Israel still have these two. Sorry. India and Israel are the only two countries in the world where these policies are still there somewhat. And that is depending on your religion, you must declare your religion. Depending on your religion, you will have different family laws. Different civil laws, different divorce laws. Not different criminal laws, by the way. In Israel and in India, if you're Muslim, your family laws will be taken to an Islamic qadi. And if you're Parsi, if you're Christian, it will be different ones. And in Israel as well, if you're Orthodox versus conservative, you will be going to different court systems. And this type of philosophy, and a little bit of it, of course I'm not comparing apples and oranges, but the Prophet's system had it. In that they have a separate system. So classical fiqh definitely they had that freedom. Now the issue right now, there were also some restrictions. Of the restrictions is you cannot proselytize, you cannot convert others to the faith, right? Of those restrictions you cannot blaspheme in public, right? What you say in your churches that Uzair ibn Allah and Masih ibn Allah, that's in your church. You cannot go to the public marketplace and then say the same thing over there. nor can you make istiza of Allah and His Messenger or what not, this is not allowed, right? So there's not ultimate freedom of expression. And freedom of expression was curtailed, and as you know, classical fiqh has the penalty for sabbullah and sabbur rasul to be qatil. There is no question about this, that the books of fiqh have this, and there are very strong reasons for them to do so. Now the question arises, do we have room for fine-tuning these types of laws or not? Here we have a spectrum. Here we have a spectrum of opinion. And this is beyond the scope of myself or any one alim. But any major ulama of our times are having their positions about this. And I mean I don't mind saying this. I know some of you will not like this. But this is my position, take it or leave it. That when it comes to these types of laws, it doesn't make sense to apply them in a nation state. Because سَبُّ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ is something that deals with multiple factors. Right? And proselytization, and speaking out publicly about your faith. It deals with multiple factors, one of them being the supremacy of Islam. Now if you have a country that is not judging by the laws of Islam, but rather by a secular democracy, let's say. whether that's kufr or not is a whole different issue but I'm saying this is the status quo I'm Pakistani by ethnicity, my parents are from Pakistan Pakistan we can call it Islamic Republic we all know that the laws of the country are a mixture of British laws and French laws and a little bit of Sharia here and there this is the reality for this country to have a system of blasphemy laws it's a little bit circular in logic it doesn't make sense because it's not based on fully the Sharia. It is a somewhat secular nation in that the rights of a Christian and a Jew and a Muslim and a Hindu in Pakistan will be the same. Whereas in classical Islamic law, that's not the case. The rights of the Muslim are different and the rights of the others are different. So you see my point here is that very frankly, this is such an emotional question, people don't want to even listen. The minute you mention something like this, they become a little bit riled up and angry. But I'm being very frank here that if we had a perfect Islamic system, that is one thing. But we don't. We don't have anywhere in the world up and running. We have attempts to do so. If this is the case, then people like Tariq Ramadan, like others, are asking for re-looking into these things and re-thinking them through. Even Qardawi has many fatwas about this regard, about the minority writes that frankly a lot of his fatawa are modern ijtihad's right they don't come from classical fiqh but he's giving them much more freedom and laxity than are found in classic books why because modernity calls for it right so this is one of those areas that I believe we do need ulama to come together and pronounce what is allowed and what is not allowed in the meantime it's a theoretical issue because we here in America are not calling for such a radical change right but classical fiqh, without any doubt, it allows Christians and Jews the right to be Christian and Jews, and the right to not be interfered with in their rituals and their worship, and even their sharia which is in fact much more than what like here in the west we cannot have Islamic courts, right? If you think about it, that guarantee and right is more important than the right to blaspheme in public right? Think about it and so the sharia is giving them more rights than what modern western nations give to their minorities. Do you understand what I'm saying here? Back and forth, right? Any question from the sisters? Okay, for the go ahead. Bismillah. I wanted to ask about the treaty. What's more of the treaty? Was there any force of intention in the government towards the Jews and the sessions that was given by the government? Ibn Ishaq and others do not mention any sabab, any context for this treaty. Ibn Ishaq says that the question was, was there anything that sparked this treaty? And one of the problems as I said is that this treaty is in fact not even mentioned by many of the early books. So much so that even great medieval scholars like Imam Al-Zahabi and Ibn Al-Qayyim and others, they barely just gloss over it. And it seems as if many people did not appreciate or understand the importance of this treaty. Therefore even the classical books, Ibn Sa'd and others hardly mention it. And Al-Waqidi hardly mentions it. So it's only mentioned in its entirety by Ibn Ishaq. And it is mentioned in bits and pieces by others. And therefore it seems, and Allah knows best, that the significance of the treaty was not fully appreciated. I think we because we're living at a time when this is such a sensitive issue and we're wondering about how should we run countries and what is the rights of minorities and what not for us to find this treaty is very heartening, it's very optimistic it's very good, so we find so much to benefit from but for the people in early Islam, I guess for them it just seemed like a long list, which as I said it is a very complicated list and they couldn't find much benefit your question is one that I have not found any reason or answer to in the books. What was the reason why the Prophet ﷺ did it? It's just foresight. It just seems to be wisdom. From listening to you, it doesn't sound like a treaty. It sounds more like a constitution for the new established state. And if was there any geographical difference between where the Jews resided and the rest of Medina? The Yehud lived inside the Haram, most of them. There were a few settlements outside. But the bulk of the Yahud were inside the Haram. A'ir and Thawr are huge distance. Even if you go by car, it will take you at least 20-25 minutes by car. It's not a small distance. Al-Madinatu Haramun Ma Baina A'idin Wa Thawr. And A'ir and Thawr are literally opposites apart. A'ir is behind Mount Uhud. and Thawr is beyond Quba almost. So from the mountain of Uhud to basically Quba, this is a huge distance. The bulk of the people lived within this and there were small pockets outside of it. So there was no geographical... No, no, no. They sign on it and say, and we accept it or just... It sounds there was no... No, there was no such thing as signing. is a modern thing. People didn't sign their names on anything back then. Signing is a modern thing. There doesn't seem to be any negotiations. Seems to be an agreement. An agreement between all of the parties. Here's Goya. Would you please elaborate on the non-Muslim who cannot enter the Muslim market? Is it Islamic law or is it Saudi law? You guys really want controversial questions today, huh? I mean, don't shy away from controversy. I believe that if we phrase questions intelligently and responses intelligently, we have nothing to be worried about. The Prophet ﷺ, there's a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, that the Prophet ﷺ on his deathbed said, أخرج اليهود والنصارى من جزيرة العرب On his deathbed, he said this, that I wish to get the Ahli Kitab out of Jaziratul Arab. But he didn't actually do it, because he's on his deathbed. And so basically Abu Bakr was too busy doing the wars of Ziridda, so Umar ibn al-Khattab was the first person to actually put this into the law. I.e. to execute it. Right? To execute it. And he put a number of conditions that the Ahli Kitab can only come, number one, if somebody invites them in. They need the permission to come. Right? number two, they must come temporarily they must come temporarily for business or what not, they cannot be permanent over there and he also allowed by the way for them to be non-free slaves he can also come in, remember who was the one who killed Umar ibn al-Khattab Abu Lu'lu'al al-Majusi how was he a Majusi in Medina because he was a slave, and so they weren't that strict with the slaves in this regard, so classical fiqh therefore took this hadith أَخْلُ جَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَ مِنْ جَزِيلَةَ الْعَرَبِ and the Shafi'is and the Malikis and the Hanbalis all agreed that the Ahli Kitab cannot permanently reside in Jazeelat al-Arab they may temporarily go and then there is ikhtilaf between the three, to what extent how long can they actually enter Mecca and Medina because Allah Azzawajal says in the Quran إِنَّمَا الْمُشْرِكُونَ نَجَسٌ فَلَا يَقَرَبُ الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ بَعْدَ عَامِهِمْ هَذَا This is in Surah At-Tawbah. And that's the last big Surah to be revealed. Basically one of the last Surahs, not the last, one of the last Surahs. That the Mushrikun are Najas, so فَلَا يَقَرَبُ الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَ Let them not come close to Masjid Al-Haram after this year goes by. so we have this ayah which says masjid al haram and then we have the hadith which says in jazeelat al arab and so the Hanbalis for example they made a terqeeb between the two and they said masjid al haram they can never enter and the jazeelat al arab they can enter with conditions and this is the predominant opinion and so by the way to this day you can be a Christian and Jew in Jeddah, in Ta'if, in Khubar in Dammam right? Riyadh but when you're driving to Mecca there's a big sign huh? there's a big sign and they check the shurta, the taftish what do they check? they check iqama which basically says what? what is your? religion, right? so this is the position of the Hanbali madhab and the Shafi'is I'm also sure have a similar thing I think Allah Allah they allowed even the mushrik to enter, the kitabi to enter for a reason for a reason to Mecca and Medina and the only madhhab that disagreed completely with the entire premise is the Hanafi madhhab and they have their reasons and they said that they may enter Mecca and Medina unconditionally so then the ikhtilaf comes what is Jazirat al-Arab this is the whole ikhtilaf every book of fiqh discusses what is Jazirat al-Arab and in fact believe it or not no, this is not the majority opinion that Yemen is not. Exactly, yes. And so the majority opinion is that ما بعد جبال تهامة is not جزيرة العرب. Right? And that is beyond تهامة. Okay? So جزيرة العرب itself is an اختلاف. What is جزيرة العرب? A very important personality in the modern country of Saudi Arabia has the position that the entire Arabian Peninsula is جزيرة العرب. So he was asked a question about Kuwait. And he gave a response about Kuwait. Because from his perspective, this entire peninsula is Jazirat al-Arab. But this is not the majority opinion. And the majority opinion basically would say, Jazirat al-Arab is more like Central Arabia. He just called, خرج مخرج الغالب. Jazirat al-Arab خرج مخرج الغالب. Because even when he said this, there were Yahud in Yemen. صح? Even when he said this, صلى الله عليه وسلم, there were Yahud in Yemen. In fact, they were not even, Yemen was just under the Islamic state. And they continue to live there up until recently. Correct? So, Allahu'alam, with great respect to this person, but I don't agree with that position, in its ta'mim, in its complete extrapolation. And Allah knows best. But again, I have to also say, this is legitimate fiqh ikhtilaf. We have these opinions. there were scholars who said the entire peninsula from Bahrain and Oman and Najran and everything is Jaziratul Arab there were scholars it's not a modern opinion and this is an ikhtilaf that we're never going to solve how are you going to solve this you're always going to have this spectrum of opinion about what is Jaziratul Arab so the issue comes now are the Ahli Kitab Kufar and Mushrikeen this is a whole different issue you're bringing up a whole other controversy and as for them being Kufar there is no question that they are in our terminology of Fiqh the Ahli Kitab are a subset calling them Ahli Kitab doesn't mean that they are not they are Allah Azza wa Jal says not just but this is the I was thinking of from two categories so put together are also the issue of shirk there is no question that trinity is not Tawheed. And anything that's not Tawheed is? And therefore, so this ayah has not been understood to apply only to pagans. Because these groups also have committed kufr and shirk. But in any case, this is theoretical for us to be discussing in Memphis. We are splitting hairs here. What they decide is their decision. And honestly, I have been asked this as well. And I am not somebody to shy away from controversy. I'm very frank as you know. And I say, look, what their position is, whether it's valid or invalid, we are not calling for it in America. We're not asking for it to be implemented anywhere. And it's not relevant to us as a minority. It's not relevant to us. And I think we do ourselves a disservice when we try to take on every single cause around the world. You know, Allah didn't ask you to defend everything around the world. We have our own problems to deal with, right? And if some... Honestly, I've been asked this question, I say, well, go ask the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. I mean if that is his interpretation and his fiqh I'm not saying it's right or wrong but I'm not the one propagating it and I'm not I'm not I don't have to support it because it's not relevant to me I'm not criticizing but I'm not supporting that position they have to do they have to justify and they have to answer but I will tell you from Islamic fiqh that and by the way this is something even I disagree with this is that depending on how you understand Jazilatul Arab that's the whole issue here right if you understand Jazirat al-Arab to mean Central Arabia what this means therefore is that outside of Jazirat al-Arab i.e. peripheral Arabia you may build churches and synagogues correct? because the rules of Islam clearly say that they may have their places of worship correct? there is only one exception that's Jazirat al-Arab there is only one exception from the three madhabs the Hanafis don't even have this so if you are Hanafi which if you are then khalas you say look that's not my fiqh position end of story that's his school of law not my school of law I don't believe this position but even if you're not within the Shafi'i, Hanbali and Maliki schools if you follow the position that Jazirat al-Arab is a particular region within the peninsula then what is outside of this region i.e. Najran or Qatif or Dammam or something then you will say those rulings don't apply over there. Right? And that's a whole other issue. But again, this is theoretical, not relevant to us here in Memphis, inshallah. With those very controversial questions, today for some reason you guys wanted modern political science, so inshallah. Sad announcement from my part actually. Maybe it's not so sad, I don't know. We only have two weeks left of the seerah. We're going to be having our summer break. And I'll be going to Houston for June. And then when I come back in July, there's only two months for Ramadan, so we'll do something for Ramadan. So we'll have two more weeks of seerah, and then the school is finishing. So many of you are also going as well. So in June, we won't be having the seerah. And then in July, we'll announce some programs for Ramadan. So we'll be resuming seerah, inshallah, after Ramadan. But we have still two weeks. Don't just... Still two weeks left, inshallah.

Seerah 33 - Change of the Qiblah & Abrogation in Qur'an - Yasir Qadhi _ May 2012-6Km5XNLLMdw

Al-Fatiha. there was nothing similar to it in the entire world at the time, where the Prophet ﷺ gave each of the religious groups semi-independence, and he then put some bonds between them that were more political in nature. And this shows us that from the Islamic perspective, the bonds of the ummah and the bonds of a religion are stronger than the bonds of the nation state or the bonds of ethnicity. And this is a philosophical tangent which we don't have time to get into now. I've spoken about this at length in other places. The modern world is divided into nation states. And the modern world we are told to view each other based upon our nationality. Americans, Canadians, Britishers, Mexicans, Australians, Nicaraguans, all of these different countries. And we are told that this is the strongest bond. But if you really think about it, the bonds of the nation state are actually pretty imaginary because there's nothing that combines people of one nationality other than that nationality. And this is a very philosophical point, but it's very true. What makes a person of a particular nationality the same as anybody else? Let's look at America, or let's look at Canada. What is the one thing common in all Americans? Is it language? Is it religion? Is it skin color? Is it ethnicity? Is it food? It's hardly anything, right? In fact, the only thing that is common is the fact that we're American, which is a circular loop. And so, the whole way that the modern world is structured, they make fun of us for saying that you guys still view the religion as being the primary factor but wallahi think about it logically the religion gives us so many things in common, it gives us the same ethics the same values, the same philosophy of living, the same morality the same language, we have a divine language, we have one qibla which we're gonna talk about today, right, we have similar signs we have a calendar, we have that which is genuinely important not superficial, skin color, ethnicity spiciness in food this is nothing that's important but how you live your life your morals, your qiyam, your values isn't this the most important thing and therefore if you really think about it and wallahi I have tried my best to think about every attack they give of Islam and the more that I think about it the more logical the Islamic position always seems to be and this is something again beyond the scope here but when the Prophet ﷺ came to Medina he got rid of the Aws and the Khazraj mentality. He got rid of the mentalities of Jahiliyyah. But he retained يَهُود مُسْلِم مُشْرِك And he put the يَهُود, you are one ummah, he said, along with the believers. Right? وَالْيَهُودُ أُمَّةً مَعَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ You're one ummah, we're one ummah. And so he divided people based upon not their skin color, not their ethnicity, not their race, but their religious values. And wallahi, that is the most logical way to divide any person or any community up, because your values, because your religion, which is what gives you values, is the most important framework from which you live your life. Right? If you think about this. And so the Prophet ﷺ, the first thing he did, he said, look, you are one ummah, we are one ummah. And then he allowed them to judge according to their own laws. And this is amazing, what country in the world, other than one or two, and even that in some areas. Right? I mentioned two of them last week, India and Israel. are the only two countries that I'm aware of, that still have somewhat this type of philosophy that the Prophet ﷺ put in, right? In that depending on what your religion is, you will get a different civil law. But the Prophet ﷺ went more than civil law. He in fact gave them semi-independence. And he said, even if anything occurs amongst you, to the level of murder, what not, you guys deal with it internally. Unless it's the two groups that are fighting one another, now we have to go external. But otherwise, there was for all practical purposes, complete independence within their own ummah. And this is something that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any constitution. What would this do? If the Yahud, of course the Mushrikun were given this, but then they fizzled off, right? The Mushrikun, they dissolved away. There were no pagans after a year. So this contract has one or two clauses about the Mushrikun, but then they're gone, so khalas, there goes. So there's only two ummahs left, the Muslims and the Yahud. and if the yahood had fulfilled their part of the bargain they would have become the most industrious the most successful yahood community in the whole world because the yahood were always in diaspora they were always in small groups here and there and if they had stuck to the treaty the muslims would have become more powerful and along with them the yahood would also become more powerful the muslims would have gained wealth they would have gained wealth instead they did not appreciate that freedom never had they been given that much freedom that the Prophet ﷺ told them, do as you please amongst yourselves. It is as if you're completely independent. You basically have your semi-independent state. That's how much he gave them, right? And yet, as we know, and this is a very sensitive issue, but we need to tackle it head on. As we said before, the accusations of anti-Semitism are given. But we do not believe this is anti-Semitism. We believe that this is because they did what they did, not because of who they are. And there's a big difference, right? And we're gonna talk about this inshallah today a little bit and for the next few months we're gonna have to always bring this up. So, we talked about the issue of this division and we mentioned the Prophet ﷺ dividing them based upon their religion. The next major incident that the books of seerah mention takes place a few months after this and we don't have any major incident that occurs. As I said, the seerah is like a series of snapshots. What happens in between is usually blank. Not every day is recorded. At least 7-8 months go by, we don't really hear anything significant happening. Then what happens? The change of qibla occurs. The change of qibla. So this is the next major incident that the books of seerah mention. And the change of qibla probably occurred around 15-16 months after the immigration. Probably 15-16 months, so around a year and a half or a bit less, around this time. After the hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ. And this caused a mini crisis. Why? For many reasons. Firstly, because this was the first time that Allah had abrogated a ruling. The concept of abrogation, the concept of naskh in Arabic, is a concept that was new to the Muslims and to the non-Muslims. What is naskh? Naskh means abrogation. Abrogation means Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reveals a law, and then He reveals another law that abrogates the first law. and this is a detailed topic of usool al-fiqh or the realities of deriving fiqh, a classic example Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed in the Quran we still recite it to this day, surah al-Baqarah that those women whose husbands die, they shall wait one month sorry, one year, they shall wait one year, right, before they get remarried, right, so the sharia came down or the Quran came down that one entire year the woman shall not get remarried few months or years later, the exact timing is not known between these two revelations. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala abrogated the year. And He then put in place the ruling that we're all familiar with and that is, four months and ten days. Right? So there is to this day, two verses in the Quran. You cannot apply both of them. There is a direct clash. We don't call it a contradiction because there's no contradiction in Nasr and there's no contradiction in the Quran. There is abrogation. Abrogation because one of these laws we just recite, we don't actually implement. So there's no contradiction. This is a clear case of abrogation. And the concept of abrogation is something that we as Ahl al-Sunnah affirm, some of the other groups deny. The Shia, for example, deny abrogation. The Mu'tazila deny abrogation. They say there's no such thing. And they try to reinterpret all of these verses. But as for Ahl al-Sunnah, we affirm abrogation. And there are more than a dozen examples authentically mentioned in our books of Fiqh and Sira. The first time abrogation occurred, we'll talk about it today, that is the Qibla. Why? Because initially the Prophet ﷺ was told to pray facing Jerusalem, Bayt al-Maqdis. And throughout his entire period in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ continued to pray towards Bayt al-Maqdis. It is reported in some of the books, for example Ibn Sa'd's Tabakat and Al-Hakim's Mustadrak, that whenever the Prophet ﷺ prayed in Mecca, facing Jerusalem, he would in fact put the Ka'bah in front of him. So he has a double Qibla basically. That he would always pray on that one side of the Ka'bah that faces Jerusalem. So whenever he would pray, because you can pray anywhere in Mecca, if you're facing Jerusalem, you don't have to face the Qibla. You don't have to face our Qibla, their Qibla, or the previous Qibla was Jerusalem. Yet every time the Prophet ﷺ prayed, he would situate himself such that the Ka'bah was in front of him and Baytul Maqdis was in that direction. And therefore, it was as if he wanted to pray facing the Ka'bah and he continued to pray in this direction. Now, Baytul Maqdis, we already talked about the blessings of Baytul Maqdis a few weeks ago, we talked about Isra and Mi'raj. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, أَرْضِ الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ This is a blessed land. And the Prophet ﷺ praised بِلَادَ الشَّامِ in so many hadith. And it was the holiest land before the Prophet ﷺ came. Ibrahim ﷺ had made Mecca the holiest land, but this ruling had not been for the Yahud. This ruling had been for Ismail and the children of Ismail. So for the Yahud, they thought the holiest land, and the Yahud were basically the largest group of worshippers of Allah on earth, at that time. The Yahud and then after them, the Christians always thought that Baytul Maqdis was the holiest land. And they were not familiar with Makkah. To this day, they don't consider Makkah to be sacred because that was something that Allah blessed Ibrahim and Ismail with. By the way, I mentioned this way back before. Many of the prophets, including Musa, made hajj to Makkah. We know this because our Prophet ﷺ told us. But these are the prophets, not their followers. Their followers did not come to Makkah as far as we know. There is no indication that any of the followers of the Prophets came. But the Prophets themselves came because Allah told them about Mecca. And Allah Azzawajal told them to do Hajj, so they came and did Hajj. Over 70 Prophets came and did Hajj. But not the followers of the Prophets. So, for the followers of the Prophets, they considered Baytul Maqdis to be the holiest. When the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came, Allah Azzawajal wanted to show that he is following the real religion of Ibrahim A.S. So he wanted to resurrect the original qibla. Because that is the first qibla. Remember, أَوَّلُ بَيْتٍ وُضِعَ لِلنَّاسِ لَلَّذِي بِبَكَّةٍ The first house that was ever built of worship was Bakka. And our Prophet ﷺ was asked, what is the first masjid ever built on earth? He said, the Ka'bah, Baytullah. And then he said, what was the next? He said, Baytul Maqdis. He was asked, كَمْ كَانَ بَيْنُهُمَا What was the time between them? And he said, 40 years between them. There was 40 years between Ibrahim a.s. building the Ka'bah, and then either Ishaq or Ya'qub, it is a difference of opinion who, but somebody built something in Bayt al-Maqdis. Not the Haykal Sulaiman, that was of course many centuries later, but someone, either Ishaq or Ya'qub built something. Allahu'alam what it was, and that is the place of Bayt al-Maqdis. 40 years difference. So Allah a.s. wanted to show the status of the Ka'bah, the status of the first house. However, when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Medina, now the Qibla is still Baytul Maqdis. And Medina is due north of Mecca. Medina is due north of Mecca. And Baytul Maqdis is due north of Medina. It's a straight line. And so, if you wanna pray facing Baytul Maqdis, you have to turn your back to the Ka'bah. it's literally, literally 180 degrees and so the Prophet ﷺ has to follow the Sharia at that time the ruling came down that it must be facing Baitul Maqdis now by the way Naskh or abrogation doesn't have to be Qur'an with Qur'an the Qur'an can abrogate the Sunnah the Sunnah can abrogate the Qur'an the Sunnah can abrogate the Sunnah and the Qur'an can abrogate the Qur'an four logical possibilities cross abrogation can occur the ruling to pray towards Baytul Maqdis, Allah had revealed it in the Sunnah, it's not in the Quran but it is still a part of the Sharia so the Muslims were praying facing Baytul Maqdis and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he moved to Medina, he had to face north turn his back towards the Kaaba now what happened was and we're gonna talk about this next few lessons, not today, what happened was the tensions began between the Prophet ﷺ and the Yahud. For the next year from the Hijrah, tensions began. And we'll talk about this towards, after Ramadan basically, but just a little bit of introduction to this concept. When the Prophet ﷺ first emigrated to Medina, he's finally amongst a group of people who believe in the Abrahamic faith. In Mecca, there's nobody who's a Jew or a Christian. In Mecca, they're all idol worshippers, pagans, idolaters. in Medina he is finally amongst a large group there were a few thousand we said of the Yahud a large group who believe in the same God who believe in the same line of prophets the Quraysh didn't even know what is a prophet right? they said what is a prophet? we never saw what is this thing called a prophet? we never heard of one the Quraysh didn't believe in a book they didn't say what is they have no concept of what is a book right? and by the way anybody who has tried to give da'wah I speak with a little bit of experience to Hindus versus to Christians and Jews, you see the difference. People who don't have a concept of رسالة, نبوة, آخرة, جنة والنار, they have no concept. Wallahi, it's so different, so difficult to give da'wah to them. That God sends prophets? They don't even understand the concept. Why would God send a person? And the Quraysh ask the same thing. And to this day, pagans ask the same thing. Whereas the Ahli Kitab, they are so close to us in so many things. The concepts, the arkan is sitta, they're there but except a little bit of fine tuning is needed, right? They believe in God, they believe in the angels, they believe in the hereafter, they believe in heaven and hell, they believe in the books coming down, they believe in the concept of prophets. So, for the first time the prophet s.a.w. is intermixing with a group that believes in all of this. And his heart was very optimistic that finally a large group will convert because why not? They have been waiting for a prophet. They know that they're waiting for a prophet. We know this. They know that I'm the prophet. Right? يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ Allah says in the Quran, they recognized him as they recognized their own children. They recognized the Prophet ﷺ as they recognized their own children. Right? And subhanAllah, what a beautiful verse. Only parents will understand this. Right? You recognize your child, wallahi, if he's just crying in the back. You know immediately, this is my kid. Right? You know immediately, if you see your child far away, you recognize him, no matter how far away, what clothes he's wearing, you immediately recognize your child. And Allah is saying, يَعْرِفُونَهُ They recognize the Prophet ﷺ as well as they recognize their own children. Now the Prophet ﷺ knew that they recognized him. So why shouldn't he be optimistic? Right? Why shouldn't he be hopeful? And also remember, Abdullah ibn Salam, their main rabbi, converted. And so this is even more reason to make him optimistic. So, Aisha also narrates that when the Prophet ﷺ first came to Medina, this is an interesting hadith which shows us a little bit about the psychology at this time. The Prophet ﷺ wanted to resemble them as much as possible. To make them feel comfortable. Right? He wanted to resemble them as much as possible. Outwardly, do whatever needed to be done to show them that we're the same, basically. But as the tensions increased, eventually he began commanding the Muslims to dissociate from them. To be different from them. And so there are so many ahadith, khalif al-Yahud, khalif al-Nasara, khalif al-Ahl al-Kitab. There are so many ahadith, be different from the Yahud. Don't do like the Yahud in this. Don't be like them. In the beginning it was the opposite. There was rulings to be like them. To make them feel comfortable, to make them feel similar. but when it was clear that they had made up their minds that no, we know he's the prophet but we're not gonna follow what happened? they became arrogant when they became arrogant then the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam started giving different rulings and there are so many hadith you know, so much so so much so even where you part the hair even where you part the hair that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said they parted on this side you parted on that side now this is of course specific to those people that they had a style said don't even be like that He said, hadith is in Bukhari, the Yahud don't pray with their shoes on, so pray with your shoes on. Now don't follow this hadith in the masjid. We are walking, somebody comes in stamping the feet. When you're outside on the grass, when you're outside somewhere in the field, yes. In fact, it is not proper to take your shoes off at that point in time. Because you're supposed to, the Prophet ﷺ said, خالف اليهود. They don't pray in their ni'alim, so صلوا في نعالكم. You pray in your shoes and with your shoes. this is a hadith in Bukhari and why does that? because the Yahud have a hadith that they always have to take their shoes off and so even in this he wants to be different the Prophet ﷺ said the Yahud don't touch their women in the menses and don't do anything you eat with them, you sit with them do everything other than the actual active intimacy, be different from them so our sharia came to be totally different from that of the Yahud wherever Allah عز و جل wanted it to be different why? because of this because of this arrogance. So, one of those things to be different came down as the Qibla. And the Prophet ﷺ, after a year of this hostility, we'll talk about that hostility later on. We'll talk about the Yehuda much more detail because we really do have to go bit by bit to answer the charges that the non-Muslims give to the Prophet ﷺ. As I said, many times, there's two or three very sensitive areas and because we live in America, we must give justice to these topics. Number one is the treatment of the Jews. number two is the accusation that the Prophet ﷺ was a military always military commander and leader and he's always waging war, we need to talk about this number three is like women's issues like marriage and what not marriage to Aisha, all of this we need to talk about and explain in a way that will defend our Prophet ﷺ and being fair to our tradition so now is not the time to get into the Yahud, we'll talk about them later, but when all of this animosity is beginning, the Prophet ﷺ began wanting to change the Qibla. Now the Qibla, Allah Azzawajal had told him to face Baitul Maqdis. So he cannot change it of his own will. And it is narrated that once when Jibreel came down with some Quran, the Prophet ﷺ expressed his hope to Jibreel. That O Jibreel, I wish to pray facing Mecca. He even told this to Jibreel. I wish to pray facing Mecca. And Jibreel said that, إِنَّمَا أَنَا عَبْدٌ مِثْلُكُ I am an abd just like you. And I only come with the amr of Allah Azza wa Jalla. I can't help you out here. If you want this, make dua to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Subhanallah, look at the most powerful human is asking the most powerful angel. Right? The most blessed human being who ever walked. The face of the earth is asking the most blessed inhabitant of the sky. And both of them say, I can't do anything. I'm not responsible, you need to go ask Allah Azza wa Jal, right? And subhanAllah, how misguided are those then, who turn to these two for dua and for worship. How misguided are they? When both the Prophet ﷺ and Jibreel, they cannot even change the qibla. Jibreel is saying, إِنَّمَا أَنَا عَبْدٌ مِثْلُكَ I'm an abd like you, I don't have any control. If you really wanted, make dua to Allah, and if He tells me, I'll come down. Otherwise, it's not in my hands. So, the Prophet ﷺ began making du'a earnestly, in tahajjud, at night, in the day, so much so that he was looking up to the sky. And looking up to the sky is only done in du'as at times of extreme distress. Usually the Prophet ﷺ would in fact lower his head, right? But on specific occasions when the situation called for it, he would raise his head up to the sky. for example before the battle of Badr he looked up to the sky and he implored and begged Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for help and this is the most famous time he ever did this in public very rarely did he look up to the sky and doing so is a sign of extreme desperation and therefore the Prophet s.a.w. did this but he did it at night when nobody was looking how do we know he did it? because Allah revealed it in the Quran قَدَ نَرَى تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ Allah reveals in the Quran in verse that we recite to this day. We have seen, تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ Your face turning up in the sky. Always looking up to the skies. You're always looking up, making dua to Allah. فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَاهَا So let it be decreed, we will face you in a direction that you want. Notice, Allah had already decreed He's gonna go to Mecca. but Allah is saying, I know you wanted it this is my gift to you. He didn't have to phrase the Quran this way, right? That because you want it, it will please you I'm giving it to you. This is what the Prophet ﷺ is being told. Not that I have decreed it's Mecca, but rather to show that the desire of the Prophet ﷺ is indeed one that Allah Azzawajal wants to give this to. Allah Azzawajal says, فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَاهَا We're gonna change your face. We're gonna cause you to turn to a direction that you want, that you like, that shall please you. فَوَلِّ وَجْهَكَ شَطَرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ So from now on, turn your face in the direction of Masjid al-Haram. وَحَيْثُ مَا كُنْتُمْ فَوَلِّ وَجُوهَكُمْ شَطَرًا And wherever you are, then turn your face in that direction. And Allah Azza wa Jal then revealed multiple verses. This is of course in the second juz of the Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah. the first two pages of the second are all dealing with the change of the qibla now when all of these verses came down and as I said this came down in this 16, 17, 15 months roughly some say Rajab of the second year some say Sha'ban of the second year Rajab and Sha'ban right and remember Badr was in Ramadan so Badr is still one month away the battle of Badr is one month away so this happened like a month or two before the battle of Badr And when this command came down, this command proved to be a great source of confusion for everyone. The Muslims, the Yahud, and the Mushrikun. It was confusing. Why was it confusing? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran why it was confusing. Allah says, سَيَقُولُ السُّفَهَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ مَا وَلَّاهُمْ عَنْ قِبْلَتِهِمُ الَّتِي كَانُوا عَلَيْهَا The Sufaha, the foolish people, will begin questioning, why have they turned away from the qibla that they were upon how come they're changing directions one of them said one of the yahood said if this man is a prophet how come he's praying one day facing south one day facing north and the other day facing south why is he changing his mind all the time another said another of them said that isn't our qibla good enough for him isn't our qibla good enough for him we have the best qibla why is he changing it to another qibla And so people began talking. Of course the issue of abrogation itself was new. And Allah Azzawajal therefore revealed in Surah Al-Baqarah the concept of abrogation. Remember Surah Al-Baqarah is the first of the major surahs to be revealed in Medina. So Surah Al-Baqarah provides us the first year and a half. It mentions Badr, it mentions the change of Qibla, it mentions a lot about the Yahud. Think about that, why does it talk so much about the Yahud? because this is when they needed to know all of this information, right? Surah Al-Baqarah is full of Bani Israel and Musa and what happened. Why is this? Because this is the context that it is needed for. In Surah Al-Baqarah, Allah mentions the concept of naskh, abrogation. مَا نَنْسَخْ مِنْ آيَةٍ أَوْ نُنْسِهَا نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ مِنْهَا أَوْ مِثْلِهَا Whenever we abrogate a ruling, or we cause it to be lost or forgotten, we then bring forth something better than it, or at least something equivalent to it. So there is a wisdom behind our abrogation. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, وَمَا جَعَلْنَا الْقِبْلَةَ الَّتِي كُنْتَ عَلَيْهَا إِلَّا لِنَعْلَمَ مَنْ يَتَّبِعُ الرَّسُولَ مِمَّنْ يَنْقَلِبُ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَي The only reason, that or one of the main reasons, وَمَا جَعَلْنَا الْقِبْلَةَ الْكُنْتَ عَلَيْهَا We wanted to test those who followed the Prophet versus those who rejected the Prophet. So every commandment is a test. Every commandment is a test. Whether you follow it or not, whether you obey it or not. For the Muslims, it was a test to see whether they implemented this new ruling from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Of course they did. For the Yahud, it was a clear sign. There was a hidden message for the Yahud. There was a hidden message for the Yahud. And that was as follows. This Prophet came in the line of your Prophets. So he's facing your Qibla. but he shall now supersede your prophethood line and he shall take it back to the original so he's not coming from a different tradition he too is from the same tradition because if Allah had willed the change of Qibla would have been in Mecca but Allah Azza wa Jal wanted to demonstrate for a year and a half the Muslims are praying in the same direction as the Yahud and then Allah Azza wa Jal changes it to Mecca. What is the purpose? The purpose, multiple fold, but primarily to demonstrate to the Jews that this prophet is from the same tradition as your religion. And he venerates the same icons that we have told you to venerate. You were supposed to pray towards Baitul Maqdis, he will also pray towards Baitul Maqdis. But he is not just a Jewish prophet. He is more than this. Why? Because remember the Yahud, they thought they were exclusive. Correct? They still think there's an exclusive. They're the chosen people. We believe they were chosen, by the way. We should not deny this. But the key is that they were chosen. Right? That's the emphasis. The key is on they were a chosen people. Well, like some Muslims in their blindness or anger, they even go against the Quran or Sunnah here. The Yahud, Allah Azza wa Jalla says in multiple verses, right? اصطفاكم على العالمين Is that, we have preferred you over all of the people of their time. So the Yahud were the chosen race, yes. But they were in the past. And Allah Azza wa Jal wanted to demonstrate that this is going to cease now. It's going to finish now. And how was that demonstration? Through multiple ways, but primarily through the change of the Qibla. And the Jews then began saying that anybody who faces any direction other than Baytul Maqdis, Allah will never be pleased with him. And Allah will not accept from him. and they said it is a part of piety to face Jerusalem and to this day they all face in that direction when they pray even many of the Christian groups not all of them but many of them in fact in our days Protestant Christianities have completely lost this but Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox and other ancient Christianities they generally face East and some of them still have that they're gonna face Jerusalem so they said you have to face in that direction at this Allah revealed لَيْسَ الْبِرَّ عَنْ تُوَلُّوا وُجُوهَكُمْ قِبْلَ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِمِ Piety is not in which direction you face. It's not which direction. And this also shows by the way, as we know, some groups of Jews, their main emphasis is the law. There's very little theology and spirituality. It's all about observance of the law. And Allah says, it's not piety to face east or west. وَلَكِنَّ الْبِرَّ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ real piety is what's inside the spirituality to believe in Allah and the final day and to give to the poor and to Allah Azzawajal mentions a whole list of good deeds, right? the point is Allah Azzawajal criticized the Yahud for saying you must be following this law in order to be pious and Allah says no, east or west aynama tuwallu fathamma wajhullah whichever direction you turn Allah Azzawajal is there Meaning Allah Azza wa Jalla will accept all of the directions you pray Whichever direction the Qibla is As long as of course you are following the commandments of Allah And in fact Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says And again all of this by the way is in the same page Which is the second juz of the Quran That first page of the second juz That وَلَا إِنْ أَتَيْتَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ بِكُلِّ آيَةٍ مَا تَبِعُوا قِبْلَتَكَ That if you were to bring every sign to the people of the book They would never follow your Qibla the process of being consoled don't worry, they don't want to follow your qibla وَمَا أَنْتَ بِتَابِعٍ قِبْلَتَهُمْ and you are not going to follow their qibla وَمَا بَعْضُهُمْ بِتَابِعٍ قِبْلَتَ بَعْضُ and they themselves don't follow each other's qibla the jews have a qibla, the christians have a different qibla so Allah azawajal is consoling the process and don't worry if they don't follow your qibla you have your qibla and they have their qibla and Allah azawajal has chosen the best for you And even for the mushrikun, it was a confusion and a slander. What type of prophet is this? He keeps on changing his mind. But for them as well, there was a hidden message. That the Prophet ﷺ was expelled from Mecca, and he then respected the Ka'bah more than the Quraysh did. By making it the center of his direction of ibadah and focus. And by purifying his worship for Allah, So the Quraysh are being told that you are not worthy to be custodians of the Ka'bah. That our Prophet Muhammad shallallahu alaihi wasallam will be the one who inherits the Ka'bah and resurrects the prestige that it had in the time of Ibrahim a.s. Because you have failed in this message. So in the change of the Qibla, there were multiple messages being given to the Yahud and to the Quraysh. There's also an interesting theological point that occurred. and that is when the qibla change occurred the Muslims asked a question to the Prophet ﷺ and they said, O Messenger of Allah what will happen to those who prayed facing Baytul Maqdis and then they died before this verse came down because obviously there's been 15 years since the beginning of the message and it's been probably at least 4 to 5 years since salah has been made obligatory or maybe three, we don't know exactly when as we know, Israel and Mi'raj, there's a big difference when exactly it occurred between five to three years, people have been praying, there have been a number of people that have died, at least we know of at least ten people that have died, natural deaths in this time, because there is no battle so the sahaba said, oh messenger of Allah how about those people who died and they never faced in the right direction they're always facing Baytul Maqdis will Allah accept their salah? Will Allah accept their salah? At this Allah revealed in the Quran, again this is in the same series of verses, وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ Allah will never cause your faith to be wasted away. Allah will never cause your faith to be wasted away. Now this verse was a primary evidence of many of our classical scholars when they talked about a theological issue and that is the status of salah. The status of salah. And Imam Ahmad and many of the classical scholars were of the opinion that salah, praying, is a necessary part of being a Muslim. It's not a luxury. It's a requirement of being a Muslim. And this was their main evidence always. وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ Why? Because they said, the question was about, will Allah accept their salah? And Allah revealed, Allah will never cause your iman to go to waste. Even Imam al-Bukhari by the way, in his sahih, Imam al-Bukhari has a chapter heading about this, and he says, so Allah called their salah their iman. Which means that if they didn't have salah, they wouldn't have? Iman. Right? And this is a standard position and Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Al-Qayyim, many of the classical scholars mentioned this, that salah is a necessary requirement of being a Muslim. Not a luxury. Not something if you do it, you're good. If you don't do it, you're bad. No. It is a necessary requirement and this is a detailed theological discussion which we don't have time for now. But you should be aware of it and this is the verse that is used primarily. Of course, by the way, there's at least Ibn al-Qayyim wrote a whole book about this, حُكْمُ تَارِكَ الصَّلَاةِ And he mentioned 22 verses that he mentioned, and then dozens of hadith. The verse that is used is, فَإِنْ تَابُوا وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوْا الزَّكَاةِ If the pagans repent and pray and give zakah, then they are Muslims. And of the Masud al-Muddathir, when the angels asked, قَالُوا مَا سَلَكَكُمْ فِي سَقَرٍ How did you end up in Jahannam? The number one thing they say, قَالُوا لَمْنَكُمْ مِنَ الْمُصَلِّينَ We weren't of those who used to pray. And Allah mentions those who are going to hell, فَلَا صَدَّقَ وَلَا صَلَّى He never gave charity, nor did He ever pray. And Allah mentions, وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ رَكَعُوا لَا يَرْكَعُونَ When they are told to prostrate, to do ruku'ah, they don't do ruku'ah. And Allah Azzawajal says, وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ وَلَا تَكُونُوا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ Establish the salah and don't be amongst the pagans. What an interesting combination here, right? establish the salah and don't be amongst the pagans or be like the pagans which means salah is opposite to being a mushrik and we go on and on that's a whole different tangent but you should be aware that there is a controversy in medieval Islam what is the status of salah and many of the scholars and this is a position that I also very strongly hold say that salah is a necessary part of being a Muslim a Muslim has to have some relationship with salah he must be or she must be praying some time or some relationship must be prostrating to Allah Azza wa Jal or else if there is abandonment of salah the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said hadith of Sahih Muslim من ترك الصلاة فقد كفر hadith of Sahih Muslim من ترك الصلاة whoever abandons the salah whoever has nothing to do with the salah this person is simply not a Muslim he is a Kafir these are the words of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam And this has been a position throughout our ummah, and it seems to have a lot of support to this. Even the fact the sahaba were so worried, how are they gonna enter Jannah, if they're not praying in the right direction? But Allah said, look, I told them to pray in that direction, I will accept their faith. And Allah therefore testified to the salah as being their faith. Anyway, back to the story here. That's the tangent, theological tangent, which maybe one day we'll talk about in more detail. The story. The Prophet ﷺ, there's a common myth that he was praying one day and Jibreel came down and told him to pray the other way so he turned around and the whole masjid turned around. This is a myth. This is not true. In fact, this is a confusion later on that took place. The authentic reports are very clear. And that is that the Prophet ﷺ prayed Fajr facing Jerusalem and then he prayed Zuhur facing Mecca. So the commandments came down in the early morning. The commandment came down in the early morning. And when it came down, the Prophet ﷺ announced that the change of qibla has occurred in his masjid. And so, what used to be the front of the masjid became the back of the masjid. And the Prophet ﷺ then went to what was the back, and from henceforth it became the front until he passed away ﷺ. Now, those people who prayed dhuhr in the masjid, They went back to their homes. And one of them reached the famous masjid that we now call Masjid-ul-Qiblatayn. And this masjid was the masjid of the tribe of Banu Salama. Banu Salama. Masjid-ul-Qiblatayn, by the way, is right outside my own alma mater, the University of Medina. It's walking distance from Masjid-ul-Qiblatayn. If you're at Masjid-ul-Qiblatayn, there's a roundabout there. You turn left at the roundabout, that's where my university where I studied for 10 years is over there. It's literally right behind the Masjid Qibla 2. The Masjid Qibla 2 was the tribe of Banu Salama. Now, the Sahabi prayed Dhuhr in the process of his Masjid, and he strolled back, maybe he did some other errands. By the time he got back home, they were already praying Asr. So when he saw them praying Asr, he was shocked because he wanted to get there before, to tell them. But they're in the middle of the prayer. So he cried out from the back of the Masjid. that, O people of the masjid, I have just come from the Prophet ﷺ's masjid, and I prayed with him dhuhr, and he was praying facing Mecca. The command has come to pray facing Mecca. So this was the masjid, masjid qiblatayn, not the Prophet ﷺ. The imam of that masjid, and the sahaba in that masjid, and they're all sahaba. That was the masjid where they turned around, and the imam walked straight through the entire sufuf, And everybody basically turned around where they were. Right? And that's why it was called Masjid Qiblatayn. Okay? That's why it's called Masjid Qiblatayn. It was not something the Prophet ﷺ himself did. By the way, I wish I could go over this whole page of Surah Al-Baqarah. It's very important, but we don't have time for this. But one more ayah that is very relevant for this whole section. And you all know this ayah. It came down smack in the middle of the verses of Qibla. wa kadhalika ja'alnaakum ummatan wasatan ummatan wasatan this is how we have made you a wasat ummah this is a famous verse everybody knows it right? ummatan wasat the context of this verse is what? qibla the context of this verse Allah azawajal mentions ummatan wasatan in the context of the qibla wa kadhalika ja'alnaakum ummatan wasatan Wasatan. The meaning of Wasat, by the way, a lot of people misunderstand. The meaning of Wasat is commonly thought to be the middle, the moderate. In fact, this is the secondary meaning. It is valid, it's not invalid. It's a secondary meaning. There is a primary meaning of Wasat. The ultimate meaning of Wasat. And here the Wasat means, technically, classically, the term Wasat actually meant the highest. believe it or not wasat meant the highest so the mountain like you would say that the pinnacle because the mountain goes like this let's say right so you would say the wasat of the mountain meaning the highest but the highest also for the mountain is usually the middle right so the original meaning of wasat is actually the highest or the pinnacle and therefore wasat also means not just highest in stature highest in excellence, highest in character, highest in honesty. And Allah uses the term in the Quran primarily for this meaning. What is the verse? قَالَ أَوْسَطُهُمْ أَلَمْ أَقُلْ لَكُمْ لَوْ لَا تُسَبِّحُونَ Not the middle one amongst them. Not the middle one. قَالَ أَوْسَطُهُمْ This is the story of the garden in Surah Nun. وَالْقَلَمِ مَا يَسْطُرُونَ The story of the garden. and the ones who wanted to protect their garden from the beggars. I gave a khutbah about this a few months ago, right? The ones who wanted to protect the garden from the beggars. قَالَ أَوْسَطُهُمْ It's not the middle one said, why didn't you thank Allah? Not the middle one. No, the wisest one. The best one, right? The most knowledgeable one. قَالَ أَوْسَطُهُمْ Not the middle one here. So therefore, أُمَّةً وَسَطًا Primarily it means the best nation. It means the most excellent nation. Secondarily, it means wasat in the sense that it's not two extremes. Yes, this is also a valid meaning. But not the primary meaning. The primary meaning is, you are the pinnacle of all nations. And it's the perfect time to demonstrate this because you're not gonna face the qibla of the Yahud, you're not gonna face the qibla of the Nasara. We have given you the best qibla. Ummatan wasata here means the best direction, and that is the Qibla of Mecca, which is the original Qibla of mankind. Now, when the Prophet ﷺ turned the Qibla in his own masjid, and the back became, well that is the back, the back became the front, right? Whatever was the back became the front. The Prophet ﷺ then commanded that the back of the masjid, which used to be the front, be covered up by a shade. and this covering up the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ did not have a roof until probably the 4th, 5th year of the hijr remember this point I told you this when the Prophet ﷺ built the masjid it was no roof can you imagine if we had a masjid today with no roof, right? can you imagine the problems that would happen sun, the heat of Medina when it rained it would be no covering eventually they put a roof of date palms as we said but it was not waterproof and even in the 6th, 7th year of the hijrah it rained in Ramadan and the Prophet ﷺ was praying and the whole floor was mud and he lowered his head straight into the mud for sajda and Anas said, wallahi I saw the mud on his face and his nose when he went into the sand so up until much later on then the roof finally became water tight but in the time of the Prophet ﷺ it remained at the end they put the date palm leaves in the beginning there was nothing the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ordered that what used to be the front be covered up, why? because the number of people who were emigrating to Medina became too much to absorb by the people of Medina, so they needed a shelter, you see the first batch of emigrants every one of them was given a household and the household basically adopted him for a while took care of him until he got his own feet and then sent him his way, right? However, as the number of converts, and the number of muhajirun, and the number of people coming increased, the Prophet s.a.w. could not handle all of them. So what happened? A public shelter was built. And the shelter became known as the suffah. The shelter became known as the suffah. And the people who remained there and lived there became ahl al-suffah. The people of the suffah. And the people of the Sufah have a special status in our seerah books. They have entire chapters dedicated to them. And the reason for this is because their knowledge and their piety and their taqwa are exemplary. They are in many cases the elite of the Sahaba. And that is because the people of the Sufah had given up everything, and they're living basically in a public shelter. They're living in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ with nothing, because they gave it all up for the sake of Islam. By the way, as we said, the Sufah did not begin until probably after Badr. Right? So remember the Sufah is built probably around Ramadan. Badr takes place in Ramadan. So the concept of Ahlul Sufah begins after Ramadan. Right? Up until Ramadan, every convert that comes, he can be accommodated. Every muhajir that comes, he can be accommodated. But eventually the sahaba are saturated. Eventually the houses that can cater for multiple people, not every house can cater multiple people, right? Not everybody can take on a guest. Those who could are saturated. So what is to be done? That was when the suffah was built. And so the Prophet ﷺ spent a lot of energy and a lot of dedication on the people of the suffah. And there are many narrations about the problems and the difficulties that they faced. So much so that many of the people of the suffah did not even have proper clothes to wear. So much so that there's actually an embarrassing hadith about this but it shows you how poor they were. That the Prophet ﷺ, he had to make a general commandment to the women. That he said, O women, do not raise your heads up from sajda until some time has gone. Because the people of the suffah, when they went into sajda, their aura would be exposed. They didn't even have enough of what we would call basically even shorts. They didn't even have that. I mean that's how poor they were. such that when they went into sajda, obviously whatever they're wearing is gonna be exposed from the back. And so there is hadith in Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ is telling the women, do not raise your heads up until the men have stood up completely. That's how little clothes the people of the suffah had. And this is why the Prophet ﷺ gave many a hadith about taking care of the people of the suffah. When his own grandchild was born at Hassan, he told Fatima that, O Fatima, give some charity to the people of the Sufah. Some years later, when the Prophet ﷺ got a whole batch of prisoners of war who were going to become slaves, Fatima came complaining to her own father and said that, Ya Abati, I have so much housework to do. And Ali does typical, even though they were Ali, but still father-in-law, son-in-law, they're all the same. It's all subhanAllah. The fitrah of human beings is the same, right? So she's complaining that Ali has so much housework that I have to do. can't you give me a servant? you just had a whole batch of people come to you right? they are all gonna be slaves give me, gift me one subhanallah, what did the Prophet ﷺ do? he got irritated and he said how can I give you a servant when the people of the suffah their stomachs are what's a good word here? just collapsed they have nothing to eat and you want me to give you a servant? no, by Allah I will sell all of them and spend the money on them Subhanallah this is what he's telling his own daughter his daughter who's the most beloved flesh to him he loves no one more than he loves Fatima right? imagine the people of our times the rich, the dictators, these people how much they give to their own family they'll kill people to give to their family right? our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he got irritated he said you want me to give you when the people of the Sufah don't even have enough to eat and he refused and so Fatima never once asked him for any servant after that. Even though he is supposed to be the leader, but no, no privilege just because you're related to me, I have to take care of everybody. And so the people of the suffah is on his mind. Every time some type of event happened, he would invite the people of the suffah. And it is narrated, the famous and the semi-humorous tradition of Abu Hurairah. Of course Abu Hurairah is the most famous inhabitant of the suffah. Abu Hurairah is the most famous person of the Ahl al-Suffah and Abu Hurairah tells us how hungry he used to be and what not. In fact Abu Hurairah says that many times, Abu Hurairah is narrating this, that many times I would ask a companion a question when he went out of the masjid and wallahi I knew the answer better than him. But the only reason I'm asking is to drag out the conversation until I get to his doorstep. Perhaps he might invite me in for a meal. Subhanallah. This is what Abu Ulay is telling us, and Saeed Bukhari. Like I'm asking Sahaba a question, walking with them, to drag out a response, right? Just hoping to get to the doorstep, so that they say, يَلَّا بِسْمِ اللَّهِ تَفَضَّلْ You know, the generosity that we're supposed to have. Come on, بِسْمِ اللَّهِ He's too embarrassed to beg, obviously, right? He doesn't want to beg. So he's simply asking a question to walk with them. This is Abu Hurairah, right? Abu Hurairah is the one who narrates that once, the Prophet ﷺ saw me so hungry that I was weak with exhaustion, lying down in the suffah, weak with exhaustion. And so he invited me to his house with him. And he asked Aisha, is there anything to eat or drink? And so Aisha said, yes, one of the neighboring Ansar has given us a glass of milk. this is a big glass they had a little glass of milk Abu Hurairah became happy mashallah, glass of milk the Prophet said to Abu Hurairah go and call the people of the Sufah there's like 30-40 people there Abu Hurairah is narrating the hadith that that I had to obey the command he's not saying I wanted to I had to obey the command that I went and I gathered together all the people of the Sufah and they came to the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ handed me the cup and said go to every one of them and give them the cup, right? You will be their servant serving them. So I went to every one of them giving the cup and I thought to myself what will be left for me? What's the point? I mean he really felt like you know he's gonna be fainting from exhaustion and this is torture now until it finished every single one of them finished until finally there was only me and the Prophet ﷺ left who had not drank from that cup. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Ijlis, so I sat down. So he told me, Ishrab, drink. And the cup he said was brimming as if it was more than when he handed it to me. As if it was more than what he had to me. So I drank. And then he said, Ishrab, drink again. So I drank. He said, Ishrab. The Prophet ﷺ knows exactly. This is, if I could call this a practical joke, I would. But it is a type of joke. It is a type of playing with Abu Hurairah, that he's just taking it out on him, that you think I'm not gonna take care of you Abu Hurairah, you think I'm gonna let you starve when you're the one doing this. So he said, مَا زَالَ يُكَرِّرُ He kept on telling me, اشْرَبْ اشْرَبْ اشْرَبْ Until I said, وَاللَّهِ اَوْ مَسْنِجْرَبْ اللَّهِ There's not a single space left in my stomach that I have left for this milk, right? Then after all of these 30-40 people had drunk, the Prophet ﷺ took the cup, the last, and then he drank from it. This is Ahl al-Suffah, right? And of course we already said that the Ahl al-Suffah were people whom the Prophet ﷺ would always be concerned about. Like we just said, one cup of milk and he wants to give it to the people of the Suffah. And it is said that one of the Sahaba came up with an idea. And he said, why not anytime we get some food or we harvest some dates, we give a little bit of it to the people of the Suffah. And they said this is a great idea, the Prophet ﷺ approved. So a string was hung between the two pillars of the Sufah. And anytime the Ansar would harvest some dates, they would send the first batch, the first bit that the dates, they would send it and they would put it on this string. They would put it on the string, so that the people could eat without having to beg for it. And by the way, this string or this custom of having this, lasted up until this century. up until basically the 40s and 50s. Some of my elder teachers tell me that this was something, it was well known up until the 40s and 50s that there was a string that food would be put on it for those who couldn't afford. So the custom of basically being generous in the process of the masjid, it lasted for literally 12, 13 centuries up until modernity. And then now in modernity, they don't have that. Of course, this is not done anymore. But it was up until a recent time. I already said that the most famous inhabitant of the Sufah was Abu Hurairah. And Abu Hurairah deserves a few minutes of our attention, especially because of who he is. Abu Hurairah, of course his name is Abdurrahman ibn Sakhar. Abdurrahman ibn Sakhar al-Dawsi from Yemen. Abu Hurairah is not from Mecca, Medina, he's from Yemen. And Abu Hurairah came to Medina after the battle of Khaybar, i.e. after the seventh year of the Hijrah. and yet he is the number one narrator of hadith. He is the number one narrator of hadith. And he narrated so many hadith that even some of the next generation said how can Abu Hurairah know so much when some of the Sahaba are longer companions than him. Even the next generation began questioning how could Abu Hurairah narrate so many traditions when there is Abu Bakr and Umar, there is Uthman Ali, there is all of these people there. And Abu Hurairah explained himself how this is the case. That Abu Hurairah said, the hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim. The people are complaining that I narrate too many ahadith. But were it not for the fact that Allah has criticized those who withhold knowledge. إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَا أَنْزَلْنَا مِنَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ Allah criticizes those who withhold knowledge, right? Were it not for this fact, I would not have narrated one hadith to you. it's because I have to narrate and then he said and I will tell you why I know more than our brothers of the muhajirun and the ansar he said as for the muhajirun they were busy throughout the day buying and selling in the suks of Medina and as for the ansar they were busy in the cultivation and the field and harvesting and as for me then I would stick to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam with my hungry stomach. بشبع بطن They would be busy with the world, I would stick to him with my hungry stomach. And therefore I would memorize what they would not memorize. And by the way, Abu Hurairah was not poor. Abu Hurairah was from what we would call the middle class family. We know this because eventually his mother who was in Yemen, because that was her only son, she moved to Medina. Even though she was a pagan. She moved to Medina. and she purchased a house in Medina. Abu Hurairah still did not go into that house, and he remained in the suffah. Why? And this shows us what is the status of the suffah, and why the suffah is so important. The suffah not only was a shelter, it became the first university of Islam. Abu Hurairah was living in the dormitory of the university of the Prophet ﷺ. He preferred to stay there, over his own mother's house. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ is in the masjid more than he is in his own house, right? His masjid is attached to the house, his house is attached to the masjid. Everything takes place in the masjid. Anytime he comes out, it's in the masjid. So Abu Hurairah basically sticks to the masjid, and by sticking to the masjid, he is able to be with the Prophet ﷺ. And Abu Hurairah, now some of the mystical groups, they read in suffah as basically tasawwuf, by the way. They say that the term Sufi comes from suffah. This is not true. The term Sufi comes from wool. Suf, right? It's not from Sufah. Ahl al-Suffah means the people of the shelter. But they read this in, Subhanallah, even Abu Hurairah's life is against this. Why? Because Abu Hurairah eventually became the governor of Bahrain. And he lived a good life in the end. When he was like in his 50s. So Islam doesn't prohibit you from living a decent life. But at this time he gave it up for the sake of knowledge. At this time he wanted to live a difficult life in order to gain that knowledge. And even some of the Ansar moved into the Suffah. And this shows that the Suffah wasn't just a free shelter. Some of the Ansar, the most famous of them is Handhalah. Handhalah has the famous story of, what is Handhalah called? Nafakah Handhalah and what else? Washed by the angels. Handhalah is the one washed, Ghaseelul Malaika he's called, right? Ghaseelul Malaika. Hamzah is an Ansari he has a house he's still living in the Sufah also Ka'b ibn Malik an Ansari, what's the story of Ka'b? who can remind me? Ka'b ibn Malik he didn't go to that war Tabuk, the battle of Tabuk the battle of Tabuk that he was one of those this is Ka'b ibn Malik he's an Ansari, he's also a member of the Sufah so many of the other Ansar are members of the Sufah what does this show us? the suffah isn't a freeloading shelter, astaghfirullah. The suffah is not just, no, the suffah is primarily a place of learning. Yes, those who don't have anything, they will come to the suffah. But many of them when they came, they just decided to stick it out. Because it's just too good. The prophet system is always there. And you can benefit from him. So some of the ansar leave their houses, move into the suffah. Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Suhaib al-Rumi, Bilal ibn Rabah, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, all of these are of course muhajirun they moved into the suffah even though they could have had place to live but they decided to stick it out over there and therefore the people of the suffah became legendary amongst the Muslims amongst the sahaba for being the best of them, the most in memorization of the Quran, the most in tahajjud the most in knowledge in every single major battle amongst the top of the shuhada are the people of the suffah beginning with Badr there's one or two who are actually it seems like Sufah was instituted maybe a week or two before Badr it seems as if there was one or two because there are people that are mentioned as being both Sufah and Badri which means that there were then the rudiments of the Sufah began around Badr time Uhud, Ahzab the battle of Khandaq the battle of Khaibar conquest of Mecca the battle of Ridda, the wars of Ridda so many of the people of suffah died that Umar ibn al-Khattab wanted to compile the Quran because the people of suffah died think about the status of suffah then and how it's associated with the Quran the reason why the Quran is compiled Allah Azza wa Jal willed it of course but the reason why is what? so many of the people of suffah died do you all know the story about the compilation of Quran? in the wars of Riddah with Abu Bakr sending out to Musaylimah al-Kathab in particular, many of the memorizers of the Qur'an died. Many of them from the Suffah. And of course the Suffah wasn't a permanent university. With the death of the Prophet ﷺ, the Suffah, that's it, it finished. So the graduates of the Suffah are limited in number. In the battle against Musaylimah, the wars of Ridda, the Hurub al-Ridda, large numbers of them. In one report it says more than 70 of them were killed. And that's a huge number for them. And so Umar went to Abu Bakr and said, Ya Abu Bakr, we have lost many of our Qur'an, many of the people of the Sufah. And they were all memorizers of the Qur'an. The people of the Sufah are associated with the Qur'an. And I'm worried that unless you do something, if more of the Qur'an die, we won't have the Qur'an. Because remember, at that time, the Mus'haf had not been compiled completely. And so Abu Bakr basically agreed to compile the Qur'an, primarily because the people of Suffah died. A large group of them. That shows us the status of the people of the Suffah. And one final point that we'll mention, inshallah we have announcements to make, whereas brother Ali is here. He asked me for some time at the end. Not here? He's outside, okay. he wants some time for announcements one final point that we'll mention oh by the way, how many people were in the were in the suffah? of course the people of suffah were always moving up and down quantity wise at times there were 5 or 10, at times there were up to 70, so the people of suffah kept on varying and most of them would stay for a week or two, a few months anytime a delegation came and they didn't have a house to stay, they would stay in the suffah, it is reported that sometimes towards the end of the life of the Prophet ﷺ, people would come just to learn Islam. People were from the far villages, the far Bedouin places, they have to learn the Qur'an, and learn the fiqh, and learn how to pray, and go back to their people. Well, the Sufah became their university. The Sufah became the place to stay. Ibn Mas'ud says, anytime somebody came to us, the Prophet ﷺ would assign one of us to the newcomer, to teach him the Qur'an and Salah. Right? So, the university is foreign basically, to teach the people, and that is the Sufah. We would teach him and then he would go back to his people. All of this is taking place in the Sufah and the Sufah remained up until the time of the Prophet ﷺ's death. And then of course after this, the Sufah did not retain that status that it used to retain. So initially then therefore, before we move on, one final story and then we'll move on. The covering of the Prophet ﷺ was only at the back of the masjid for the people of the Sufah. And this shows us he prioritized them over even the regular musallin. Because the regular musallin did not have a roof for many years. But he was more concerned about them because they're living in the masjid. Whereas the rest of the people are just coming and going away. So the first roof to be built was actually the roof of the people of the suffah. By the way, as for the raised platform in our time, you all know that if you go to the Prophet's masjid, there's a raised platform in the back of it, right? And they say that is the place of the suffah. In fact, it appears that the suffah was ahead of this point, not at that particular point. And also the suffah was not a raised platform as well. This is another one of those myths. The suffah was at the same level as the ground. It wasn't raised up. There's no reason to raise it up. The suffah was at the same level as the ground. And so this is just a myth that when you go to the haram, people say, this is where the suffah was. No, that's not the case. That's just a modern construction. One final story and then inshallah, there's an announcement to be made. Interesting story, not related to the Sufah, but it just shows us the reality of the Fitrah or the human inclination, that we learned that around this time, one of the most elderly people of Medina converted to Islam, and his name was Sirma. Sirma, strange name. His name was Sirma. And Sirma was the only Hanif that we have authentically narrated from the time of Medina. Who can remind me what's a Hanif? We go back many months. Yes, in the back. So what has a Hanif done? They had abandoned idolatry, and they said they're gonna worship upon the religion of Ibrahim, even though they don't know what it is, but we're gonna be a Hanif. We mentioned some Hanifs in Mecca, five or ten. We didn't mention any in Medina. The only... Now we're not saying there weren't anymore, but the one that we have recorded was Sirma. So Sirma was of the Hanifs of Medina, of Yathrib. And it is narrated that when the Prophet ﷺ came, he was over a hundred years old. One of the oldest people of Medina. When he was a young man, so this is even before the birth of the Prophet ﷺ then. When he was a young man, he had, just like the Hunafa of Mecca, openly rejected the idolatry of the people of Medina and he had decided to accept Christianity but then right before he converted he said no Christianity doesn't make any sense either I'm just going to be upon the ways of Ibrahim a.s. and so he remained praying in his own way and Ibn Ishaq mentions that in fact he would also perform ghusl after janabah and he would even tell his women to take a bath after their menses, which means he had some idea of the sharia of Ibrahim. He still is following that sharia. And he used to say to the people, I will not worship your gods, I will worship the Lord of Ibrahim, which is exactly what the unafas said in Mecca. And Ibn Ishaq mentions a lot of poetry from him, which we don't have the time or even the skill to translate, where he's praising Hanifiyah, he's praising, worshipping Allah. He's criticizing the idols. And he stayed amongst the Quraysh in Mecca before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ for many years. But he didn't find what he wanted there. So he returned back and he became a Hanif. When the Prophet ﷺ emigrated, he was still alive the very last few weeks or months of his life. And Allah ﷻ blessed him to convert. And then he passed away shortly afterwards. And these are one of those beautiful stories. We don't have much more information. But it's one of those beautiful stories that for 120 years they said, he was waiting for the truth. And it is as if literally Allah SWT just gave him just that brief meeting with the Prophet SAW right towards the last year of his life basically. It's as if Allah stretched his life out waiting for the truth to come to him because he was that sincere. And he got the blessing of being a sahabi. So he's mentioned as a sahabi. He got the blessing of being of those who accepted Islam. And he died a natural death of old age before any battle, before anything. And really we have no other information about him. But it's one of those stories that is beautiful in its own way. And it shows us that those who are sincere, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will bless them in that sincerity. Next week we'll talk about the prelude to the battle of Badr. And what happened before the battle of Badr. Working up our way to the battle of Badr. Next Wednesday will be our final seerah class for the summer. I will be then traveling and then coming back end of June or first of July. and then we'll have some talks about the Ramadan because Ramadan is going to be second week of July basically. So next week is the final week of Sira for the summer. Then we will resume Sira after Ramadan. Before Ramadan we'll have a few classes about Fiqh of Ramadan and what not. InshaAllah ta'ala. Any questions before we hand it over to Brother Ali? Yes. The majority of Ahlul Suffah did not have their families. Those who were married voluntarily decided to live in the Sufah. People like Abu Hurairah decided not to get married while they were in the Sufah. So we have Ibn Mas'ud, we have others who had families, but they're voluntarily remaining in the Sufah because they want the Suhbah of the Prophet ﷺ. They want the companionship of the Prophet ﷺ. Of course the Sufah was for men only. You cannot have women sleeping in the masjid like this. it was for men only. And so the priority for those men was to learn Islam. Most of the people of the Sufah were there temporarily. Most of them. Some of them decided to become permanent. And the most famous amongst them was Abu Hurairah. Okay? I'm probably studying this issue so I'm not 100% sure of the obligation. Do you have an example? Because I don't think the Sunnah can abrogate the Quran. The issue of sunnah abrogating the Quran is one that goes back to ikhtilaf al-ulama fil-madahib. The four madhab have different opinions about this. The position that you are saying was held by one of the famous imams and it is a legitimate opinion. but the other Imam Ahmed and others allowed the sunnah even to abrogate the Quran so there is the example of la wasiyyata li warith la wasiyyata li warith this is yusikum allahu fi awladikum that Allah Azza wa Jal says no not yusikum allahu surat al-baqarah when death comes to you then write your wasiyya right and it was meant for the warith when the ayah came down it was meant for the wadith because this was before nisa was revealed then nisa was revealed and it didn't technically abrogate that ayah then the prophet because it's just a combination you can still have the wasiya and you can still have the shares nowhere does the quran say la wasiya tali wadith so you could put both of these together and say okay the quran has one eighth for my wife I want to be generous mashallah give her another 10% you see that is possible if you take only the Quran but the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said la wasiyyata li warith so this is the example that is given by Imam Ahmed wa ala kullin this is ikhtilaf al-madahib huwa qawlu ka hadha qawlu qawlu al-imam al-shafi rahimallahu ta'ala wa khalafuhu bi thalik ba'udhu al-aymah minhum Imam Ahmed in ayat al-nafsa khumar are you sure that the word ayah means The majority of Sunni scholars consider this ayah to be the primary ayah of Nasr. The Shia and the Mu'tazila have ta'wilat of this ayah. And of their ta'wilat is actually what you are saying. That ayah doesn't mean ayah over here. And so you have to realize this is a theological issue. أَهْلُ السُّنَّ أَجْمَعُوا عَلَى جَوَازِي النَّسْخِ بَلْ لَيْسَ فَقَدْ عَلَى جَوَازِي بَعَلَى وُقُوعِهِ This is إجماع في أهل السنة. خَالَفٌ فِي هَذَا الْمُعْتَزِرَ وَالْشُفِيعُ كُلُّهُمْ They said there is no naskh. And the main evidence that they used is this ayah, Surah Al-Baqarah. But there's the word, is there an ayah from the Quran that we forgot about? Wallahi, you always ask questions, I don't mind, but you give us into other topics. Yes, ayat of the Quran have been forgotten by Allah Azza wa Jal's command. Nunsiha. There are a number of ayat that, and again you're getting, this is perhaps not best to talk about now. Come to me after salah, but yes, there are authentic ahadith that a number of sahaba forgot ayat simultaneously in one night. And they all came to the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And they asked him, what happened? We couldn't recite it last night. and the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah Azza wa Jal took it up last night. This is authentically narrated. Okay, Musnad Imam Ahmed. Final question. Sisters, any questions? Yes, in the back. Go ahead. Did you ask that you said that there was a war of tenants in Mecca and in India. Ibrahimi, you know, religion was in Medina. Even though Ibrahim, no no no I think you misunderstood I said there were more Yahud in Medina so there were more Abrahamic people right in Medina because the people of Mecca did not how basically there were no Jews and Christians living in Mecca there were no Jews and Christians living in Mecca as for Medina we already mentioned three four weeks ago that in fact the Yahud were the ones who first settled there. Then the Aws and the Khazraj came. So the whole dynamics was different in Medina. So there were more, I didn't say more Hunafa, more Hunafa were in Mecca. More Hunafa were in Mecca. But more Ahli Kitab were in Medina. InshaAllah.

Seerah 34 - The Preparation for Badr - Yasir Qadhi _ May 2012-ANWdhr6LBbQ

Al-Fatiha. or the constitution. And we now move on to the incidents that occurred before the great battle of Badr. So this is a prelude basically to the battle of Badr. Now today we'll talk about a number of important changes in the Madani society. Of course the Prophet ﷺ had moved to a new place. It's a new era. Everything is different. And so a number of different policies were put into place that were new and impossible to implement in Mecca. Today we'll discuss three of them. Two of them briefly, one of them in detail. The first is the economic policies, the second is spiritual developments, and the third is political developments. These are the three primary things that we're going to discuss today. Number one, economic policies. In Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ was a minority. He could not have an independent economic policy. He could not have a separate economic system. However, in Medina, of course the Prophet ﷺ is now independent. And he now has his own, if you like, his own independence. He's not going to be dictated by other people what needs to be done. And therefore, one of the first things that the Prophet ﷺ did when he came to Medina, he visited the other suqs of Medina. In those times, the Arabs, the Ansar we call them, primarily were involved in cultivation. They were not generally people that much of business. And if they wanted to do business, they would go to the suqs of the Yahud. The Jewish tribes had the biggest suqs outside of Medina. And what we now call the Ansar, of course at the time they weren't Ansar, this is pre-Hijrah. The Arabs of Medina did not have a major suq inside the city. The major suqs were outside the city, basically in the encampments of the Yahudi tribes. And there were more than one major suq, but outside of the center of Medina. So the Prophet ﷺ visited those suqs, and this is reported in Sunan ibn Majah, and he disapproved of the practices, the cheating, or the deception. He disapproved of what's going on. And he said to the Muslims, this is not a suq for you. This is not a marketplace for you. And he went back to the masjid and with his own feet, he demarcated lines in the sand. He literally put a line and then another and another. And he said, this shall be your suq. And he instituted a suq towards the west of the masjid. Walking distance from the masjid towards the west of the masjid, he demarcated the lines of the suq, and he said, this shall be your suq, so let it not be diminished, and let no one tax the people in it. He gave two simple rules. Number one, this shall be the demarcated line. No one should encroach any houses, anything else. No, this is a suq now. Number two, no extra taxes. No one is going to be having to pay a penalty, or you have to pay a fee to be in the suq. You see, the Prophet ﷺ's policies for the economic system are very different. And it is not true by the way. Some people say that Islam promotes a capitalist system. This is not perfectly true. No doubt if you compare socialism, communism, capitalism. These are the three main isms of the 20th and 21st century. If you were forced to compare, the Islamic system comes the closest. But there are many differences. Many differences. And it's not fair to say that Islam is a ism. Islam is its own system. And so the Prophet ﷺ instituted a whole new philosophy of economics, if you like, that was unprecedented at the time. And of course this is a whole different tangent which we don't have time to talk about. What new policies did the Prophet ﷺ bring? This is many different books and many different topics can be written. As you all know, he banned the practice of interest. Well, one of the most important things he did, he linked buying and trading to religiosity, to spirituality. he praised honesty and he criticized dishonesty and he said that the righteous businessmen will be blessed on the day of judgment he said that those who cheat and lie is not of us so he linked religiosity and commerce together, right? and anybody who understands the modern economic system will realize that if you don't have ethics, if you don't have principle and morals, you can do whatever you want it is the only thing that's preventing you from abusing your power or your wealth over other people is an inner conscience. And the Prophet ﷺ linked commerce with trade, with a religiosity. And he encouraged practices first and foremost that are spiritual in nature and then of course he also demanded a certain code of conduct. For example, the Prophet ﷺ forbade cheating and lying, swearing false oaths. He forbade hiding defects. and he used to monitor himself he would walk in the suqs that he instituted and he once found the famous hadith in Bukhari he found a date seller who had good quality dates at the top of the bag but the Prophet ﷺ knew Jubile told him what's inside he put his hand inside and he pulled out rotting dates because he wanted to sell the bag and the bag, the top of the dates has the fresh dates, right? so he says buy the bag for 10 dinars whatever, so he's gonna close the bag and then sell it. But the bottom of the bag was rotting or not good quality. And the Prophet ﷺ said to him, whoever cheats us is not of us. You're gonna cheat us, you're not of us. Meaning you're not a Muslim who's doing the minimum that you're required to do. We explained what does it mean he's not of us in other lectures of theology. Also the Prophet ﷺ forbade many things. He forbade even something that sounds so innocent. But there's a wisdom behind this. He forbade anybody living in Medina to act as an agent for a Bedouin who comes. Let the Bedouin go to the market and buy and sell himself. Why? Because when you have an agent who lives in the city, he will know the ins and outs and he will inflate or deflate and he's gonna play the game. Whereas the Bedouin will go and he's gonna give fair price. What do I want for my product? I don't care if you guys are charging 20 times more, I'm satisfied with whatever is the amount. Right? So the Prophet ﷺ forbade a madani living in Medina to be the simsar or the agent or the middleman for the one coming from outside. Let the man come and sell on his own. Right? Because he knows this is one of the biggest tactics or tricks that you don't know anything. And so the middleman gets a big cut and the poor Bedouin will get nothing. And subhanAllah, look at how modern economics works. Is that most of the profit, so much profit goes to people who don't do much. But they simply have the cunningness. Right? and the Prophet ﷺ forbade this. He let the person sell and many other practices, we don't have time to get into that. But very early on, the Prophet ﷺ rejected the Aswak that were there and he established his own Suq with his own Islamic, of course, Islamic Sharia, of course, being fulfilled there. And of course, this Suq flourished and therefore, when the Jewish tribes were expelled one by one and their Suqs obviously collapsed, by the time they were expelled, they didn't care about them because they had their own independent Suq up and running. So, financial independence, the Prophet ﷺ stressed it from day one. Such that when other economies collapsed, it didn't affect the economy of Medina. Right? Big lesson for us to learn in the modern world. Also, spiritual practices, and we're gonna talk about this again later on, but just to summarize, as soon as the Prophet ﷺ immigrated, one by one, the major commandments came down. Within a year, pretty much the entire sharia of ibadat had been revealed. within a year, pretty much all of the arkan of Islam, except for hajj hajj could not be revealed because you can't do hajj, because hajj is enemy territory, right, so hajj is revealed 9th year of the hijrah, Abu Bakr goes and does it 10th year, the Prophet ﷺ does it hajj was delayed, but the other pillars within, so the Prophet ﷺ emigrated, we call this the first year of the hijrah, of course, and we said it was most likely early Rabi'ul Awal, he arrived in Medina, or late Safar, the date is obviously exactly unknown, but roughly we said. So Muharram of that year is gone. That Ramadan nothing happened. The Ramadan of the year of immigration nothing happened. There is no Sharia for fasting. Next Muharram, so 9-10 months after the Hijrah. Next Muharram on the 10th of Muharram the Prophet ﷺ made the fast of the 10th of Muharram wajib. So for the first year after the Hijrah, i.e. second Hijrah the 10th of Muharram was wajib to fast as the stepping stone. Of course we now know it's not wajib. The tenth of Muharram was wajib to fast. And the Prophet made a decree that whoever ate breakfast in the morning, let him not eat for the rest of the day. Today is going to be wajib to fast. So the first obligatory fast was the stepping stone. One day only. Let them get used to it. Then that Ramadan, Ramadan of the second year, that Ramadan, Allah Azzawajal revealed in the Quran, Surah Al-Baqarah, the verse that we recite, right? Shahrul Ramadan ladhi unzila fil Quran. فَمَنْ شَهِدَ مِنْكُمُ شَهْرًا فَلْيَصُمْهُ Whoever is present in the month, i.e. he's not traveling, then he should fast that month. Right? And some scholars say, even the first Ramadan was encouraged. Allah knows best. But it wasn't made wajib for sure. By unanimous consensus, it was made wajib the second year of the hijrah. Right? The second year of the hijrah. And at that point in time, the Tantam Muharram became sunnah. So Ramadan becomes wajib, Tantam Muharram then becomes sunnah for the next year. in Ramadan, zakatul fitr is revealed and zakatul fitr as you know is the easier of the zakat in our days it's $10 $10 is the average and even if somebody says $7 or $8 to be brutally honest this is not going to be wrong but everybody can afford $10 so we say $10 in North America but it's even less than this so this zakat is just a food one person's food which is a happy meal or something like this that you get. Whatever as an average meal you can get it, right? You give it to a person, this is what the zakatul fitr is. So, this was the first zakat. Again, to make them used to the concept of zakat. Within a few months, the same year, zakat came down. Zakatul maal. Right? So from zakatul fitr, then zakatul maal. Right? So they're getting used to it. One fast, and then the fast of Ramadan. One zakatul fitr, and then the zakat itself. And obviously, at this point in time, of course, the basic rulings of the salah are now perfected. The Prophet ﷺ said, pray as you have seen me pray. In Mecca, all of the salah were two raka'at. We said when he moved to Medina, then dhuhr and asr and maghrib and isha were all extended. And only fajr remained two raka'at. Otherwise in Mecca, all salawat were two raka'at. All of them. And then when he came to Medina, the salawat are perfected. How you do it, how you do tahara, all of these laws came down. How you do wudu, the laws of janaba and ghusr, all of this came down within these first two years, i.e. by the time the second Ramadan finishes, all of these laws have been ordained. And inshallah, we'll talk about this, the spiritual development as well later on. But again, realize a lot is happening in Medina. Economic development, spiritual development. The primary thrust of today's topic will be political and military developments. This is now a whole new different ballpark. We have not discussed this in Medina, because of course in Medina, there are no military developments. In Medina, the Muslims are told, turn the other cheek. In Medina, فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ Turn away from them. In Medina, فَصْبِرْ صَبَرًا جَمِيلًا Right? In Medina, whatever they do to you, تَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ You can't do anything. I'm sorry, I'm saying Medina all this time, nobody is correcting me. Six times I said it. In Mecca. In Mecca, nothing is... In fact, the Prophet ﷺ never once did anything military in Mecca. Not one incident, right? despite the fact that the Sahaba are literally being, some of them torn to shreds, like Yasir and like Sumayya, right? Like Bilal being dragged in the streets of Medina. There is nothing there. Again, Mecca. My mind is tuned to Medina, so I'm always saying Medina here. Bilal is being dragged in the streets of Mecca. And subhanallah, think about it, technically the Prophet ﷺ could have told one of the Sahaba, go and kill Umayya bin Khalaf. Quietly at night, go do it. It's not impossible to do. But the Prophet ﷺ understands the repercussions. He understands that this is not the right way to do things. That one needs to think ten steps ahead and not just one step ahead. Even if Bilal is suffering, to kill Umayya ibn Khalaf is gonna bring about so much persecution, the ummah cannot bear it now. So the suffering of one has to be allowed to prevent the suffering of the majority. And this is a lot of wisdom for us to think about in any situation. That one looks at the overall, in Arabic it's called, مصالح and مفاسد, the pros and the cons. One weighs the benefits and the negatives, right? And in fact, in this early stage, some people wanted to fight. Especially the young, it's always the young who have the zealousness to fight. And Allah عز و جل criticized them for wanting to fight in this stage. Allah says in the Quran, أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ قِيلَ لَهُمْ كُفُّوا أَيْدِيَكُمْ وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ Don't you see those people who were told in the days of Mecca, كُفُّوا أَيْدِيَكُمْ Which really means, lower your hands, stop your hands. Don't do anything physical. وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ Right now, just pray and give charity, whatever you can do. By the way, every reference to zakah in the Meccan era is nafil zakah, right? Every reference, because of course, we said before, the major rulings of ethics were revealed in Mecca, right? Allah Azzawajal said, be good to the orphan. Allah Azzawajal said that, give food to the masakeen, the yatama, to the prisoners of war. So these general rulings of ethics are coming, but no laws, specific laws are being revealed other than to pray the two rak'ahs as we said, five times a day. Now, therefore, in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ is told to tell the people, lower your hands, كُفُّوا أَيْدِيَكُمْ Don't fight. وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ Just concentrate on spirituality. Pray and give zakah. Then Allah says, فَلَمَّا كُتِبَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقِتَالِ these same people who were bursting to fight when Allah finally gave them permission all of a sudden they balked all of a sudden they got scared really? fight? blood? this is a group of the youngsters amongst them and this shows us that those who talk the loudest act the least those who have the most grandiose criticisms and what not in reality they do the least and Allah a.s.w. criticizes this group And the same of course happened previously in the Bani Israel. Allah Azzawajal mentions this. But this verse is about some of those who wanted to expedite the fighting. And then when it actually came, they were a bit hesitant. So Allah Azzawajal chastised them. Now you're hesitant? When I'm giving you permission and I'm telling you, now you become hesitant? Where was your enthusiasm? Where has it gone now? And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala criticized this. And of course Allah then revealed verses that allowed jihad and qital. Now, before we move on, we live in a time where every word of a person and a scholar is now reinterpreted, misinterpreted and cut and pasted. So we have to be very clear here. When we talk about jihad and qital, we're talking about the historical realities of what happened in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. We're obviously being very historic in nature. We're being descriptive and not prescriptive. We're talking about the past, we're not talking about the present. And of course, we're not intending that any type of terrorism, anything like this be done. This is a mere historical lesson that we're talking about in the context of the seerah. And this disclaimer has to be given because of the perilous times that we live in, where people are locked up merely for saying things that are taken out of context. So we're very clear about this, and alhamdulillah, my message has always been very clear. We criticize those worthy of criticism, and that criticism doesn't take us on the path of incorrect militancy. now the first ayah that was revealed about jihad the first ayah that was revealed about jihad really underscores the philosophy of why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow jihad why is Allah allowing military fighting and that is in surah al hajj verses 39 to 41 this is the first concession for jihad surah al hajj verses 39 to 41 Allah says أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ Permission is given. Permission. Which means that jihad is not the most important thing of Islam. Permission has been given. Permission. There's a big difference. There's a أُذِنَ You wanted to fight, now I'm giving you permission. Before I had withheld you. Right? Because that's the point. Before Allah had withheld them. أُذِنَ Now I'm giving you permission. Who? لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا Because they have been wronged, they are being given permission to fight. Notice, fighting is done for those or on behalf of those who have been wronged against the oppressors. And no nation or no tribunal or no law would not recognize this type of fighting. Oppressed people, people whose rights have been taken away, people whose rights are trampled over, what else are they going to do if the only medium to get those rights back is to fight then that is what they are permitted to do أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ and Allah is capable of protecting them أَلَّذِينَ أُخْرِجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ those who were kicked out of their houses the only reason being أَنْ قَالُوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ because they said our Lord is Allah notice the philosophy or the reasoning of jihad is very clear. They wanted to kill you. They kicked you out of your houses. They confiscated your property. Now I'm giving you permission to fight back. Notice this. Wallah, it's so clear. Anybody who accuses Islam of being a militant or terrorist religion, this is the first verse of jihad. Because they have kicked you out of your houses and stolen your property and persecuted you only for your belief. We're giving you permission to go back and fight them. Now any society on earth would justify and would accept this as being a just cause. Subhanallah, this country of ours that we live in, it went to war because they raised the taxes on tea. Okay? And that's why they killed the redcoats. Because they didn't want to pay taxes on tea. If that is a worthy cause, then wallahi this cause is a million times, a billion times more worthy. That we're not going to allow you to persecute us and kill us and take our property and lives away just because we say Rabbunallah. and Allah says again this is in the same verses وَلَوْ لَا دَفْعُ اللَّهِ النَّاسَ بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ were it not for the fact that Allah allows war where people fight other people لَفَسَدَتِ الْأَرْضِ the world would go to chaos you need to have people stand up and fight the truth and everybody even pacifists need to understand if people didn't oppose Hitler in World War II the world would be a fascist state now we needed to stand up and oppose Hitler after he's conquering all of these countries and spreading his fascism and Nazism. What are you gonna do? You have to stand up. That's what Allah is saying. وَلَوْ لَا دَفْعُوا اللَّهِ النَّاسَ بَعْضَهُمْ بِبَعْضٍ لَفَسَدَتِ الْأَرْضِ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ But Allah is of great blessing or has given great blessings to the people that He allows war to fight against fasad. What is the reason people go to war in Islamic sharia? To fight against zulm and fasad. notice, dhulimu and fasaad these are mentioned and this is exactly what in any society is called a just war theory you're allowed to go to war for certain causes and we should not shy away from saying this that yes, in our religion as well we have something called jihad and jihad is not what you think it to be jihad is a noble cause it is a cause that of people who are persecuted whose rights have been trampled who are denied their basic freedoms yes they have the right to fight back those who have oppressed them and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed these verses and more after that Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu said when Allah revealed surah al-hajj and some people said say that surah al-hajj was revealed right in the very ends of Mecca Mecca era and some say right in the beginning of Medina most say hajj is a Mecca surah so right at the very end within a month or two of the hijrah Allah reveals the surah with some vague reference here Abu Bakr said as soon as I heard surah al-hajj I knew there would be war Allah is referencing qital I knew there would be war and of course this would happen very soon after that so to summarize before we move on the stages of jihad in the Prophet's seerah are four four primary stages of jihad number one military jihad has been forbidden and the jihad is the jihad of the nafs and the soul be patient turn the other cheek forgive them or accept their fate with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah will take care of them right inna kafaynaka al-mustahzeen don't worry Allah will take care of those who mock you right innama alayka al-hisabu alayna innama alayka al-balagh wa alayna al-hisab you do your job we'll do ours you teach and preach we'll take care of punishing if they deserve it right So this is the first stage and it lasted all 13 years of Mecca. No military jihad. The second is that permission is given but it is not made obligatory. أُذِينَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَ Permission. And so in the beginning, jihad was volunteer basis. The Prophet ﷺ would ask for volunteers. And this was immediately after the hijrah. The third stage, jihad became wajib. and it became wajib against the Quraysh only not against the other tribes and this was the bulk of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's seerah and then in the final stage the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam engaged in jihad against all of the polytheists of Arabia and this is when he said أُمِرْتُ وَنُقَاتِلَ النَّاسَ حَتَّى يَشْهَدُ أَن لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ I have been commanded to fight the people meaning the Arabs of my time until they all testified, La ilaha illallah. So jihad became against the entire peninsula and of course the entire peninsula then accepted Islam. So these are the four stages of jihad. Number one, no jihad. Number two, permission given for military jihad. Number three, jihad is wajib against the Quraysh. Number four, and right at the end, jihad is wajib against all of the people of the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Now, after this the scholars differed, is this commandment still applicable? And this is a theoretical issue. In our times, no major scholar is discussing the issue. And for most of the Ummah's history, after the time of the Umayyads, basically since the time of the Abbasids, the Muslim Khulafa, by and large, have not been engaged in war with other nations. By and large, the Islamic conquest took place in the first 150 years. What Muslims conquered in the first 100 or 150 years, is where Islam stands to this day. By and large, with some exceptions, small exceptions, But overall, the geography of Islam is the geography of the first 100-150 years. And this shows us that for the bulk of the history of the ummah, people did not interpret jihad to be an all-out war against all of mankind. They understood that there is a time and a place, there is a need, and then we'll engage in jihad. When there is no need, there is no reason to engage in jihad. This therefore, as we said, let's move on back to the seerah, began the first of a series of expeditions that the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba engaged in. And there were many reasons for these expeditions. They had some specific goals. First and foremost, the main goal was to show to the Quraysh that the Muslims had not fled weakly and without any power. But rather, they had fled and they're now going to fight back and gain what the Quraysh had taken from them. To illustrate and establish that the Quraysh are, sorry, that the Muslims are an independent political and military force. And the first expeditions, all of them for the first few years, basically all the way up until Khandaq, up until Ahzab, it was only the Quraysh as we said. The Muslims only targeted the Quraysh. No other Arab tribes are targeted unless they attack. No other tribes, it's just the Quraysh. So the Quraysh are being told, The Muslims haven't run away like cowards. No, we're going to fight back for what you have done to us. The second main reason is to cut off the oxygen supply of the Quraysh. The Quraysh are living in the desert. Where do they get their oxygen from? Not the oxygen of the air, the oxygen of money. Where do they get it from? رحلة الشتاء والصيف Without this linkage, the Quraysh would have collapsed. Remember we talked about this, when they rediscovered Zamzam, and they reinstituted. This is what brought izzah to the Quraysh. This is what brought economic prosperity and made Mecca the center of the entire Arabian Peninsula. رحلة الشتاء والصيف So the Prophet ﷺ wanted to attack both the رحلة الشتاء and the رحلة الصيف. Both of them. Go up north and down south. Up north to the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire and down south to Syria. Now up north, south to Yemen. up north to go to Syria they had to pass right by Medina Medina is literally due north of Mecca literally, look at it on a map, it's literally due north, and to get to Rome, or they wouldn't actually go to Rome, they would go to a city called Basra, I mentioned this before not Basra, Basra is they made it in Iraq, the Muslims made it in Iraq this is, they took the name from this The original name is Basra. And Basra was a Roman city, which is outside of Damascus. And the Arabs would typically go right to the tip of the Byzantine Empire, which is Basra. And they would then buy and sell there. And Basra, I said before, to this day, the city of Basra is not that city anymore, but there is still the ruins of the trading places that made Basra famous. The same trading places that the Quraysh would have gone to, the same trading places are still there, the ruins are still there. It was an international route, if you like. So they wanted to cut off the lifeline, especially the lifeline going to Syria, but they also attempted Yemen as we're gonna come to. They also attempted Yemen, which is the exact opposite. But, this shows you the strategy of the Prophet ﷺ. Another reason of sending out these expeditions is to increase the size of the Islamic state, if you like. Right? To make treaties with neighboring tribes as they go out to convert or to make treaties with the tribes so to make the Islamic new state larger and larger and this is something that happened clearly and the battle of Badr and the battle of Uhud Medina expanded in its size because neighboring tribes form alliances so you become larger and larger and this is all the goal of the Prophet ﷺ now the scholars of Sira mentioned two types of military expeditions the first of them is called the Ghazwa and the second is called Sariyah and these are two terms we need to know Ghazwa and Sariyah Ghazwa is any military expedition that the Prophet ﷺ himself accompanied and of course it goes without saying anytime he accompanied he is the commander this is called the Ghazwa Asariyah Ghazwa is typically translated as war or battle Asariyah is typically translated as expedition As-Sariyyah is something that he commanded the Sahaba to go on, but he did not accompany. Now obviously the ones he accompanied are more important for us, obviously. Even though they're all important, but the ones that he accompanied are more talked about in history, and these are the ones we're familiar with, Badr and Uhud and Khandaq, these are the ones we hear about. But the Sarayya, the plural of Sarayya is Sarayya, the Sarayya are very very many. How many Ghazwat and how many Sarayya? Well, a number of opinions. in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. Zaid ibn Arqam, the famous Sahabi, narrated, غزى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم تسعة عشر غزوة. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم participated in 19 ghazwas. وأنه حج بعدما هاجر حجة واحدة. And he only did one hajj. So Zaid ibn Arqam said he performed 19 military expeditions and he performed one hajj. Buraidah, another Sahabi, also reported in Sahih Muslim says that the Prophet ﷺ participated in 19 ghazwa 19 ghazwas qatala fi thamanin minhun he fought in only 8 of them, so the rest didn't actually end up in a battle he participated but there was no blood, or there was no battle, for whatever reason either a truce or the two sides never met right, they ran away or something so there was no actual war He fought in eight of them. So this shows that there are eight that are of particular importance. What are these eight? There's a little bit of ikhtilaf, depends on how you want to count the ghazawat. There's a little bit of ikhtilaf. But, for example, Badr and Uhud and Ahzab are always included. Badr, Uhud and Ahzab are always included. Some have Ghazwat al-Muraisi' which is what happened with the story of the ifq of Aisha on the way back from Muraisi' this occurred. Some have this as number four. Ghazwat al-Qadid, and then Khaybar, and Mecca, and Hunayn. This is one list from one of the Sahaba. I'll repeat. Badr, Uhud, Ahzab, Al-Muraysi'ah, Qadid, Khaybar, Mecca, and Hunayn. Right, the Ghazwat of Mecca, the Ghazwat of Hunayn. This is one list. Another Sahabi gave another list, and it's almost similar, but substituting a few. Badr, Uhud, Ahzab is the same. Instead of Muraysi'ah, he has Ban al-Mustalaq, which occurred one month after that. Mustalaq, Khaibar, Mecca, Hunayn and Ta'if. So he split up Hunayn and Ta'if into two. Because Hunayn and Ta'if occurred literally two days after each other. And so one Sahabi basically assumed them to be one war. And others split them up into two. The point is every military participation the Prophet ﷺ engaged in and actually there was a battle, we have a lot of details about. But the ones where there wasn't an actual battle, sometimes we just have a reference. We don't have a lot of details, right? as for the saraya these are more than can be counted as for the saraya these are more than can be counted and there are so many that really the scholars don't really list all of them with many details sometimes they'll even just mention with one line sometimes they won't even mention it so for example one scholar mentions there were 24 saraya Ibn Ishaq lists 30 of them Al-Waqidi lists 48 of them Ibn Al-Jawzi lists 56 of them so it depends on how you want to constitute A Saraya could even be three people going out to check out something, to spy. This is a type of Saraya, right? This is a type of Saraya. So how many are there? Definitely around 30, 40 or so we can say, right? Military expeditions that the Prophet ﷺ commanded, but he himself did not participate in. It appears that the first military expedition was that of Al-Abwa. It is called the expedition of Al-Abwa. and this took place on the 12th of Safar in the second year of the Hijrah i.e. 9 or 10 months after the immigration of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in this battle of Abwa the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam heard of an expedition of the Quraysh not a military expedition but a caravan and they went out but they couldn't get to it in time so there was no actual battle however what happened was the first of many alliances were formed So the Prophet ﷺ made an alliance with the local tribes around Medina. They're called the Banu Damra. And so for the first time, the Muslim Ummah expanded. So then the Sariyah has the purpose of expanding the Islamic State. There was no military battle, but the military state reached a level that was another 100 miles outside of the city. So we're getting the independent state, the beginnings of an independent Islamic state. the second battle that took place was the first time an arrow was thrown in the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it is called the first arrow fee sabeelillah and because of this it is mentioned by great pride by the one who did it even though again not a lot of blood no actual fighting occurred but some arrows were passed back and forth and then a neutral party came in and basically caused a type of truce and the Quraysh went their way and the Muslims went that way and this sariyah is called the sariyah of Ubaidullah ibn al-Harith and the first person to throw that arrow was Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas and he was very proud of this and he kept on saying this and he deserves to be proud that I was the first person to throw or to shoot an arrow I should say in English, to shoot an arrow fi sabi'lillahi ta'ala, it took place in this expedition, again within the first year of the hijrah but no blood was shed, some arrows were thrown and then an intermediate tribe basically seized called for a ceasefire and then that tribe formed in alliance with the Muslims so once again the purpose then in the wisdom of Allah Azza wa Jal more tribes are embracing if not Islam at least the political state of Islam what does it mean embracing the political state they write an agreement and contract that they will not support the Quraysh that if the Quraysh come they will inform the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and this of course makes them a part of the Islamic if you like empire or the Islamic state. The first battle of significance, even though no blood was actually shed, but it has a lot of significance, as we'll talk about now, is called the Ghazwat al-Ushayrah. Ghazwat al-Ushayrah. The Ghazwat al-Ushayrah, the Prophet ﷺ took around 150, some say 200 companions to attack the mother of all caravans. This is the annual caravan that is going up to Syria. This is not a small caravan. This is the mother of all caravans which has at least 70 or 80 camels. It has on it perhaps 70 to 80% of the wealth of the people of Mecca. Because anybody who has any money in Mecca, what do they do? They invest in this caravan. Even if you're a woman, like Khadija used to do, you would invest in this caravan. That's your only way of making money. I mean, you have this or nothing. This is the main source of money, is to invest in this caravan, to purchase some goods, send it to Syria, and get the money back, send it to Yemen, get the money back, and this is how they get richer, as being the middlemen, between the trades and the goods up north, and the trades and the goods down south. So, of course, who was the leader of the caravan from Mecca? We should all know. Abu Sufyan, right? How do you know this actually? I forgot to tell you. So, Ghazwat al-Ushayra was stage one of Badr. Because the Prophet ﷺ wanted to catch the caravan as it's going up. However, قَدَّرَ اللَّهُ they weren't able to cross paths. They were not able to cross paths. Some say that it was a stroke of luck even though of course anything is luck, Allah's Qadr. Some say that one of the envoys, not the envoys, one of the people of the caravan accidentally strayed and he happened to see the Muslims from the distance coming, so he rushed back and so Abu Sufyan hastily went away that otherwise he would not have gone, right? everything, you know, everything is from Qadr of Allah, and so Allah Azza wa Jal will this to happen, that Abu Sufyan hears of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam coming and so he immediately diverts the caravan until when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gets where he's supposed to be, because of course they have just like a highway, right? If you're going from Memphis to Nashville, there is one way to go. Now we don't realize that just because there was no physical highway, there was still a highway of the earth. A highway that people understood. That there were small settlements to cater to the pilgrims, or to the travelers. There was even posts where you could buy yourself food and drink and water. Just like you have now gas stations and what not. Highways are always, human history have always had them. So there was a main road if you like. Not a physical road, but a road that was taken. So Abu Sufyan heard of this, he would have been on that road. But Allah Azza wa Jal willed, not now. There's a bigger plan, a better plan. We'll get all of your big shots out and then get rid of you. Allah had a different... وَمَكَّرُ وَمَكَّرَ اللَّهُ So Abu Sufyan managed to escape. So the Prophet ﷺ came back and he did not know that Abu Sufyan knew. The assumption was, maybe it were a day earlier or a day later. Remember this is, what do you have? GPS tracking, what do you have? nothing, right? He did not know that Abu Sufyan knew that he had come. And so, when Abu Sufyan heard, and he is a very intelligent person, he is a sahabi in the end of the day, we praise him, at this point he's not, but he accepts Islam. And there was leadership in his blood, after all he is really the blood of the Umayyad dynasty as Abu Sufyan, isn't it, right? The guy is a politician, and they say this in a positive way. He knows, I can't come back you know, unprepared. So Abu Sufyan sends an envoy, he sends a crier back to Mecca, right? Making sure that they are prepared for him on the return journey. And this was the setup for the battle of Badr. That the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba are completely surprised. An army? Where did this come from? Right? They're not expecting an army. How did the army get there? Abu Sufyan was thinking 10 steps ahead. And he sent a crier, we're gonna talk about that when we get there, with false stories, exaggerations. He told the choir to brush himself up. He caused himself to bleed. He tore his clothes up. And he's basically causing frantic chaos. You better do something right now. And so they went berserk, literally. They went, they gathered the largest army the Quraysh had ever seen. And we'll talk about Badr, we're jumping the gun. But Ghazwat al-Ushayra is stage one of Badr. On the way up, Ghazwat al-Ushayra. Nothing actually happens. on the way down, غزوة بدر الكبرى. There is another غزوة, it's actually called غزوة بدر الصغرى. Not to be confused with stage one of غزوة بدر, which is غزوة العشيرة. غزوة بدر الصغرى, or sometimes called بدر الأولى, it's called بدر because it took place on the plains of بدر. But it was not with the Quraysh themselves, it was with one of the allies of the Quraysh. and what happened was one of these allies of the Quraysh they struck Medina in the middle of the night like cowards and they killed one or two camel herders, Muslims and they stole some camels it was a, what are you going to call it it's not a military raid but it's a what's the good word here it's a raid it's an ambush it's not a military expedition it's an ambush that you just, it's not meant to kill people, it's meant to get the camels, right? And if one or two people die, that's, you know, that's what, it's not a military all out, it's simply to get an ambush to, very close to highway robbery, except that it's being taking place in your home, basically, right? It's a stealing expedition. This expedition, the Prophet ﷺ, as soon as he found out, he gathered 70 of the muhajirun, and he also accompanied them. And this was the first time that they reached the plain of Badr. That's why it's called the first Badr. but it has nothing to do with Badr because it's not with the Quraysh and no military encampment occurred. Because the people who ambushed were literally four or five in number and the Muslims were much larger, they were much faster. And they managed to flee the scene and so the Prophet ﷺ was not able to capture him at this point in time. And this shows us that subhanAllah, even being the Prophet of Allah, Allah didn't just gift him with miracles after miracles. Allah didn't just allow every expedition to be successful, no. Some of them he came back empty handed, because there's a lesson to be learnt even in this. Because there are other wisdoms that you might not understand, we might not understand. But Allah Azza wa Jal's plan is infinitely wise. The main incident we'll talk about today, is a really interesting incident. Because of which Allah revealed Quran that we recite to this day. by the way one of the consequences of the first battle of Badr was that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam decided that he needed to have monitors or spies monitoring the tracks of the Quraysh and the allies of the Quraysh right and so for the first time he began sending out we will call them reconnaissance missions figuring out what the Quraysh are doing and he sent out a group of people just to see what's happening with the trip to Yemen even though Yemen is on the other side of course it's on the southern point of Mecca Yemen is on the opposite side but just to get bearings is it possible? what can we do? because of course an attack on the Yemeni side would take them completely by surprise they would never expect the Muslims to double back and go around Mecca and then come and try to attack them from Yemen the direction of Yemen now interestingly enough no attack of the Muslims actually took place but the Prophet ﷺ is not ruling it out look at this right he's not ruling it out, he's keeping all options on the table, that he sends out a reconnaissance expedition to see what's happening with the Yemeni caravan, if he's missed the Syrian caravan, let's get the Yemeni caravan, and so this is now called Sariyatul Nakhla as a consequence of the first battle of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ is sending out reconnaissance, spy missions and so the Sariyatul Nakhla takes place, the Sariyatul Nakhla took place in the month of Rajab of the second year of the hijrah. The month of Rajab of the second year of the hijrah. And the Prophet ﷺ chose eight of the Ansar, handpicked them. Usually before this time he would ask for volunteers. For this one he handpicked eight of the Muhajirun, not Ansar, excuse me. Eight of the Muhajirun, no Ansar. He handpicked eight of the Muhajirun, none of the Ansar. And by the way, every single expedition as of yet, zero Ansar. I will talk about this in the end of today. Why? Every single expedition, Ghazwa and Sariyah, all of them are pure muhajirun. There's not a single Ansari taking place. And we'll talk about this in a while. And he put them under the leadership of his cousin, Abdullah ibn Jahsh. Abdullah ibn Jahsh is his cousin. And he gave him a letter. And he sent him, basically northeast. And he said, travel for two days, and then on the morning of the second day, open my letter and read it. so they left Medina traveling in the opposite direction of Mecca right? not exactly north but basically you're gonna have to curve back and that was the goal of the Prophet that they travel to a distance that it looks like they're going away from the direction of Medina after two days he obeyed the Prophet he opened up the letter the Prophet said to him in the letter when this letter of mine is read to you when you read this letter proceed to Nakhla is basically on the eastern side of Mecca towards Ta'if. Proceed to Nakhla, which is you're gonna have to double back and go down. And that was the point, the Prophet ﷺ sent him this way to go back down. So go all the way back to Nakhla, and watch the movements of the Quraysh, and inform us of their preparations and actions. And do not force any of your inhabit, or any of your companions to go, whoever wants to come back can come back to Medina. Now, why this strange letter? Many reasons. Firstly, so that it is utmost secrecy. Not even the people knew where they were going. Forget the people of Medina. Not even the eight people knew where they were going. Right? Secondly, and of course this is the illusion, he sent them up and the point is to go down. He sent them northeast and they have to go down south. Right? and that's what the Prophet said الحرب خدع right in a war you have to have these types of tactics treachery or not treachery sorry deceit not treachery astaghfirullah treachery is not as haram even in war treachery is haram but deceit deception this is doesn't Sun Tzu say the very first deception is what is it deception is the art of war what is it Sun Tzu says this in the famous book that he has 2000-3000 years ago the first maxim Deception is nine-tenths of war, something like this. The same thing, الحرب خدع, is that when you fight people, you need to have these types of tactics. You're not gonna wage a battle any other way. So, this is one of the points. Another point, why is he giving them permission to come back? Well, because they are literally walking into enemy territory. Unarmed and defenseless. They're literally walking straight back into Mecca basically. And they're being told to monitor the people of Mecca and tell the Prophet ﷺ what they're doing. So they're gonna have to live there for a few days outside. They're gonna have to see what's going on. And who knows who can see them, who can capture them. And they are defenseless, meaning eight people against a city, come on. Even if they have weapons, it's not gonna really benefit them that much. So, when Abdullah ibn Jahsh read the letter, he told his companions that whoever wants shahada and is eager to meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, let him come with me. Because he thought khalas, there's no way I'm coming back. And whoever doesn't may go back to Medina. But as for me, I am going to proceed onwards to Mecca. Literally look at his philosophy, like he's literally thinking there is no way this is gonna be successful. But if the Prophet ﷺ wants it, khalas, so be it. And of course the qadr of Allah, all of them came back, the qadr of Allah. But at that point in time he thinks khalas, there's no way I'm gonna come back alive. So he said, whoever wants Shahada, let them come with me. And whoever wants to go back to Medina, let them go back. What do you think the eight of them did? Obviously, that's why they're the Sahaba. Not a single one of them returned back. They all went back. And they had four camels. So every two people to a camel. By the way, in the early periods of Mecca, never was there one camel per person. Never. In most expeditions, there was three people to a camel. In most expeditions, three people in Medina. Three people had to share a camel. Never was there one person per camel. They didn't have that much. Not even one person per horse. They didn't have that luxury. The Quraysh tried to do it in Badr. But the Muslims couldn't do it. The Quraysh tried to do it. One man and one horse. But the Muslims could not do that. At least, because they had, of course, they had a fleet of horses. They had a steed of horses. And they had a group of archers. So they had an entire contingent, one person per horse. But the Muslims didn't have that. They never in fact throughout the life of the Prophet ﷺ, they never had one man, one animal. Subhanallah, never. This was only afterwards in the Umayyad time when money came in. Of course we take it for granted, but wallahi we don't think the Sahaba didn't even have an animal to ride on that is their own. So even in this Ghazwa, eight men and two people per camel, four camels are being shared by eight people. On the way there, camels are notorious creatures. camels are very independent, unlike horses are very docile. Camels are very stubborn and arrogant creatures. And they don't need men. Whereas horses and sheep, they need men to live. Horses cannot live in the desert by themselves. Camels don't need men. So, what happens? One morning they wake up, and a camel is missing. He's broken his tether, and he's run away. Right? The camel is missing. That's the famous hadith, should I tie my camel, or should I tawakkal ala Allah? You need to tie your camel. Right? They tied the camel, it's still broke away. and it happened to be the camel of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas and Utbah ibn Ghazwan Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas the same one who's the first arrow thrower, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas one of the ten people promised paradise, Sa'd is one of the big guys, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas so his camel and Utbah ibn Ghazwan their camel is missing, what to do? Sa'd and Utbah insisted you guys go ahead, leave us in the desert and we'll try to find our way or find our camel, the expedition must go on, right? and this is the process of ordering so that's what they did they left the two there and they didn't know what's going to happen to them they don't even have a camel in the middle of the desert but the expedition must go on and so Sa'ad and Utbah are left basically to find their camel or to figure out another means to meet them or to go back to Medina they don't know what's going to happen so six people then actually get to Nakhla and Nakhla is a small literally like a small group of desert palms if you look, date palms right there, outside of Makkah. That's why it's called Nakhla. Nakhla is just a small encampment over there. And when they got there, they arrived at Nakhla on the 30th of Rajab. The last day of Rajab. On the 30th of Rajab. And before even they set up camp, before they could put a tent somewhere in the desert and set up their reconnaissance efforts, they saw in the distance a caravan coming. And they hid themselves waiting to see what this caravan was. And it turned out to be one of the smaller business caravans of the Quraysh coming back early from the trade. And it is loaded with merchandise. Complete to the top. Spices and raisins and goods from all of these goods up to the top. and it does not have any military protection. Just a few, you know, camel herders bringing along. Because they were so sure that they're now coming at a time when nobody can attack them. The Prophet ﷺ is not going to attack them now. Right? And so, they began discussing amongst themselves, what should we do? Should we get all of this booty so easily? We're six of us, there's only a few of them, three or four, and there's a whole bunch of camels. The books don't mention how many camels. we can assume probably around 8 or 9 camels, probably around 3 men, right? Basically it's a fortune. Because a camel can carry how many hundreds of pounds. It's a fortune that they can literally just get because they're 6 armed men, and they have of course surprise. They have the advantage of surprise. What's the problem? Why can't they do this? Two things. Number one, the Prophet ﷺ told them to get information. He didn't prohibit them from fighting by the way. He didn't say don't fight. But the purpose was information. And obviously if they get this, they're gonna have to go back immediately. Right? But this is a lot of money. It's a fortune. And of course it's not gonna be for them, it's gonna be for the ummah, right? It's not that they're benefiting, it will go back to the state. And of course the division of the wars, booty wars of course have not been revealed till Badr. Right? And so there's no personal motivation of greed here. The sahaba don't even know that they're gonna get a share. That was revealed in Badr. Right now there is no concept of them getting rich, it's the state getting rich. So they were never accused of greed over here. This is for the state. So they're wondering. The Prophet ﷺ didn't tell us to attack. He told us to look. Number two, the bigger problem than this, was it's the 30th of Rajab. So what if it's 30th of Rajab? It's the sacred month. is the sacred month. And of course the sacred month, you're not supposed to fight. You're not supposed to fight. And what makes it so difficult is that there's literally an hour or two left for Maghrib. And after Maghrib is going to be what? Sha'ban. Right? Literally. But within those hour or two, they're gonna pass through Nakhla, and they're gonna be almost in distance of Makkah. And it's literally Allah is setting this up. There's a reason. You know, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, because had it been any other time, it would not have been problematic. The problem comes, you know how it goes when you just have this close, right? It kind of whets your appetite. It kind of makes it even more difficult. And so they began discussing one another what exactly is to be done. And they said, if we wait till the sun sets, They would have basically lost. We would have lost. They would have entered. And if we fight them now, well then we're going to be guilty of fighting them in the sacred months. We're between two situations. What exactly are we going to do? Eventually they decided they have the opportunity now. And by the way, up until this point, the Muslims have not been successful with any major capture. And so they really thought they're getting the prize. they really thought we have now a fortune 8-9 camels loaded with spices and good and what not, this is a lot of benefit and blessings for the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims so they decided, khalas yallah bismillah let's go and do it so they went and attacked, one of the herdsmen or one of the camel drivers was killed, two of them they actually managed to capture and take as prisoners of war and a lot of people think the first prisoners of war I'd better know. The first prisoners of war were in this battle. The first prisoners of war. They took them, and as they came, they just went all the way back to Mecca. Right? So literally, Medina, what's wrong with me today? Subhanallah. I'm getting confused between the two. They went back the same way, without even setting up tents. Subhanallah. Yani they didn't even set up the reconnaissance mission. They literally got there before they could open their tents. They see the camel, they get all of these merchandise, and they go back to Medina. And Allah Azza wa Jal had willed this. When the Prophet ﷺ saw them come back with all of this, and he heard what happened, that you kill somebody, he realized this would be a very negative PR disaster. And he told them, I didn't command you to fight. I didn't tell you to do this. And he refused to accept any of this merchandise, any of this booty. He refused to accept it. And the Quraysh had a field trip with this. they spread across the entire peninsula. Look at these Muslims, look at these people, they've contradicted the sharia of Ibrahim, they went against the Ash'hur al-Hurm, they shed the blood of an innocent person in the sacred months. And they made a very big brouhaha about this incident. And the Prophet ﷺ say, he felt great stress, because the criticism in its place was valid. In its place the criticism was valid. That the Muslims shed blood, in Ash-Hurul-Hurum. And so the Prophet ﷺ did not know what to do, until and even the Yahud became happy now. And we're beginning to see, that the Yahud are not going to be appreciative of the Muslims. They became happy that they saw this tension between the Quraysh and the Muslims. And from the beginning it's clear now, that they're not going to be on the side of the Muslims. And as the fitna gains momentum, Allah ﷻ reveals in the Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah verse 217. Surah Al-Baqarah verse 217. Which we recite to this day. يسألونك عن الشهر الحرام قتال فيه They ask you about the sacred months and fighting in it. قل, tell them the response. قتال فيه كبير Fighting in the sacred months is a major sin. The judgment comes down. fighting in the sacred months is a major sin but there is no full stop here وَصَدُّ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَكُفْرٌ بِهِ وَالْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ وَإِخْرَاجُ أَهْلِهِ مِنْهُ أَكْبَرُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ Wallahi this is the height of eloquence it's beautiful Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala criticized the shedding of the blood he did not sanction it he did not approve it and he gave a judgment that clearly shows that our Lord is a Lord who is Al-Haqq. And Allah Azawajal decrees with Haqq. The Muslims should not have shed that blood. And the Prophet ﷺ did not command them to shed that blood. But then Allah criticizes the Quraysh. And who exactly do you think you are to be criticizing these people? While you have not just killed one person, You have sardun, you have prevented people from coming to the bayt al-haram. Wa kufrun bi, and you have rejected Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Wa ikhraj ahlihi min, and you have expelled people from Mecca. And you come and you criticize now? All of this akbaru indallah. All of this is much worse in the eyes of Allah. Wal fitnatu akbaru min al-qatil. and the fitna that you are causing the trial, the tribulation is far bigger than the blood that this person has shed والفتنة أكبر من القتل right, and wallahi this is, Ibn Al-Qayyim says Ibn Al-Qayyim comments on this verse and he says, so Allah says in this verse that the matter that you have criticized the Muslims for is indeed a sin, it's a kabir, it's a big sin but if it is so then what you have done of rejecting Allah, and of preventing people from coming to his house, and of expelling the Muslims who truly belong there, physically and spiritually, is yet a greater crime. And the shirk that you are upon, وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ الْقَتْلِ Ibn Abbas said the fitna here is shirk. Ibn Abbas said the fitna, Allah says, وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَشَدُّ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ الْقَتْلِ Ibn Abbas said the fitna here is shirk. Now, it is true that the fitna, one of the references is shirk, but also we can be more broad and say, included in the fitna is the chaos, is the breaking up of the tribes, is the breaking up of the Muslims from their household. This is also a fitna. And Allah is saying, this fitna and the shirk is worse than the shedding of blood. So Ibn Qayyim says, the shirk that you are upon, and the fitna that you have caused because of it, is even greater in the sight of Allah than the crime of fighting in the sacred month. And this is, and wallahi this verse is so beautiful the I'raq or the grammatical analysis has confused scholars from the very beginning because it's a very there's many clauses here right that Allah Azawajal says يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الشَّهْرَ الْحَامِ قِتَالَ فِيهِ قُلْ قِتَالٌ فِيهِ كَبِيرٌ وَصَدٌّ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَكُفْرٌ بِهِ وَإِخْرَاجُ أَهْلِهِ مِنْهُ it's a bit complicated but the Arabs will understand what I'm talking about that the A'tif and Ma'tuf Ali is very eloquent and it's very atypical and Zamakhshari and many of the classical scholars Sahib al-Durr al-Masoon and Sahib al-I'raab al-Quran they all have long discussions about the eloquence of how Allah Azza wa Jal phrased this because anyway that's a bit too it's almost impossible to do it in English to explain the difficulty in fact there's even an academic paper in western journals about the grammatical analysis of this verse because it's so different than other types of verses. And that's a whole different discussion. In any case, once this verse was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ then accepted the booty, accepted the booty from the people who had returned, and he agreed to take the two prisoners of war, and he sent a message to them that send ransom for these two prisoners. But he said, we will not release these two prisoners until our two companions reach us safely. Which two companions? Sa'ad and Utbah because nobody knows where they are nobody knows where they are, no news from them and it's a desert out there it's a jungle out there, you never know what's gonna happen so he said if those people are harmed these people are gonna be harmed so these prisoners of war will also be hostages until our two come back safe and sound then you may ransom them and so in fact Sa'ad and Utbah were never seen by the Quraysh they in fact found their camel eventually and after a week or two they actually came back to Medina after having found their camel and so eventually these two were released and in fact amazingly one of them, Al-Hakam ibn Kaysan actually accepted Islam and after the ransom was paid for him he then returned back to Medina to make sure that the ransom was in the hands of the Prophet ﷺ and this is not the only time this has happened multiple times people have accepted Islam as prisoners of war but only after the ransom came because they wanted the money to be in the hands of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is the first example of many to come, including the brother of Khalid ibn al-Walid, right? The older brother of Khalid, the exact same thing happens. And including a number of prisoners of Badr, many of them the same thing. That only after the money came, then their bonds are freed. They walk out and they walk back in and they accept Islam. And this became the first of many. Al-Hakam ibn Kaysan, he also became a Muslim. And he died a shaheed in one of the battles at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. to conclude and summarize look at the infinite justice of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and who is better at judging than Allah who is better at judging than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wallahi what a difficult what a difficult judgment to do what are you gonna do? on the one hand the Quraysh criticism is valid but on the other hand at the same time look at the context I mean surely can be overlooked but Allah azawajal did not exonerate But he said, who are you to criticize? Who are you to say anything after you have done all that you have done? And this is the reality of the sharia of Allah. There is infinite justice. And Allah Azzawajal says, who is better than Allah as a judge? We also see, look at how many expeditions and how many ghazwas and saraya that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam engaged in. And this shows us that even the prophets of Allah, They will not be handed victory just like this. Even they need to go out and sacrifice their families, their loved ones, sacrifice themselves, the Prophet ﷺ himself was injured. No victory comes with ease. No victory is just granted like this. One needs to show dedication, determination, perseverance, sincerity. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blesses even the prophets of Allah. How about those lesser than them? also see that the Prophet ﷺ would choose always his own immediate family to be the most dangerous. He chose Ubaidah al-Abn al-Harithah for one of the expeditions. He chose Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib. We didn't talk about all of the early expeditions because time is limited here. He chose Hamza for another. Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas is the relative of his mother, Aminah. Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas comes from his mother's side. And that is his khal. and he chose him to be one of the leaders in yet another expedition. Abdullah ibn Jahsh, which is the expedition we just talked about, was his immediate cousin. The point being, nobody can accuse the Prophet ﷺ of putting his family out of harm's way. He puts them right center. He puts them right in front. Because the leader, the Prophet, any person has to sacrifice himself and his loved ones before he's gonna sacrifice others. And that's why in the Ghazawat, the Prophet ﷺ would be in the forefront. And in the Saraya, he sent his own relatives to show the people nobody can accuse him of trying to protect his own family from the hardships of war. Notice as well, as I said, that there were no Ansar in the early expeditions. It was all the Muhajirun. And there are reasons for this. First and foremost, the Muhajirun should not be made to forget about Mecca. The Muhajirun should not just settle down and live luxurious lives in Medina, get big houses and get married as Jabin and others are getting married now. no, no, no, no. You need to be remembered. You have a home that has been taken away. You have people that have done zulm to you. And so the muhajirin are always at the forefront. Also, of course, one of the main reasons why there are no ansar is because of the second oath of aqaba. The second oath of aqaba, what did it say? It said, you shall protect me like you protect your family. There was no offensive condition or clause. there was no offensive clause that you will fight midwi whenever I fight no and the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam therefore as a wise leader never pushed the Ansar in the battle of Badr they volunteered but when they volunteered and it turned out to be an army what happens now? we're gonna get there but that's when the Ansar added their own condition we'll talk about it when we get there but in the battle of Badr the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam kept on saying what do you think we should do? one Muhajir stood up another Muhajir a third muhajir but they're not getting the point what do you think we should do what do you think we should do until finally Sa'd ibn Mu'adh stood up and he said لَعَلَّكَ تَقْصِدُنَا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ I think you're intending us Ya Rasulullah and the Prophet ﷺ remained silent which is his approval and then he said his famous statement that فَوَاللَّهِ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ Go wherever Allah tells you to go go and walk into the river and we'll go behind you go to Barak al-Ghimad which is the Arabic expression go to Mars go to any place and we will go right behind you Wallahi we will not say to you As the people of Musa said to Musa Go you and your Lord and fight We're gonna sit here Rather we say Go you and your Lord and fight And we are fighting right behind you This is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh That Sahabi That the Prophet ﷺ said when he died That the throne of Allah ﷺ shook When they killed Sa'd ibn Mu'adh This is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh That great Sahabi of the Ansar But again that was when they put the condition on themselves. The Prophet ﷺ didn't impose it on them. And so right now, up until this point, it's only Ansar. Also, Muhajirun. What's going on with me today? I don't know. I'm taking certain medications, so that's why, maybe this is going on. As also the last day, huh? Also, one of the benefits. Vacation anxiety or vacation happiness? that's both one of the benefits was that in this early in this early stage as we said jihad was not obligatory jihad was voluntary and every single expedition volunteering even the eight that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam chose is the first time he chose them still what did he tell them if you want to go back go back again this is tadrib it's getting them conditioned it's raising the bar one of the important let's conclude with two points about non-Muslims and their critique non-Muslims criticize and distort this picture and accuse Astaghfirullah our Prophet ﷺ and the early Muslims of basically being Astaghfirullah highway robbers and they say that the Prophet ﷺ and the early Muslims financed themselves off of highway robbery and this is the case with all of the enemies of Allah Azawajal and the enemies of Islam that they take something and they then distort the truth in it. There's an element of truth and they distort it in a sinister manner. And they then read in what they want and then propagate it in extremely negative manner. So they say, the Prophet ﷺ and the early Muslims, what were they doing? They were ransacking the caravans of the Quraysh. And this is a highway robbery. This is exactly like Allah says that you're accusing them of this, but what are you doing? And you're ignoring the context. The Prophet ﷺ is not attacking any tribe other than the Quraysh. This is a very important point. All of the other transactions in Arabia are safe. He's not even saying anything about attack. There is no problem. It's only the Quraysh. And subhanallah, what is wrong with attacking people when they have done this to you? When they have killed you, confiscated your property and land, expelled you from your houses, tortured you for 13 years. Wallahi, this is the least that you can do back in return. Right? And as I said, if this nation attacked its government because of a raise of taxes on tea, and that's why they killed the British soldiers, and that's why they overturned ships of Her Majesty and His Majesty, Subhanallah, wallahi what, yani double standards is this, right? After all that the Quraysh had done, now the Prophet ﷺ is getting back a fraction. And you want to read in something sinister? This is the reality of those whose hearts are full of hatred, that they take these things and they distort them. And they ignore the entire context of what's happening. And this is exactly what's happening now. Where Malcolm X has the famous statement, Malcolm X said, if you listen to the media too much, you'll start believing that the oppressors are the terrorists and the terrorists are the oppressors. He said this back in the 60s. If you listen to the media too much, you're gonna start believing that the oppressors are the terrorists and the terrorists are the oppressors. And he said this 50 years ago. And this is subhanAllah so true even in our times. The little Palestinian kid throwing the stone, that's the oppressor. The military tank in front of him, that is the oppressed. Ya Latif subhanallah. I mean what mindset are you going to... But this is the reality of the world that we live in. We also see the hypocrisy of the Quraysh. And the hypocrisy of all those who wish to oppose Allah and His Messenger. That they accuse the Muslims of a sin which might be a sin. Might. It might even be a sin. but who are you to accuse anyone of anything when the crimes you're guilty of you cannot even compare them to what the Muslims have done and wallahi how true this is in the world that we live in now wallahi how true this is yes, things happen that we all disagree with yes, things happen of terrorism of one side versus the other we all disagree with but are you gonna ignore where that's coming from are you going to ignore the context are you going to ignore the anger are you going to ignore your own zulm and oppression that has caused people to do another minor type of dhulm and oppression? You're not going to fight terror with terror. And terrorism only leads to other terrorism. Just because a country does it, doesn't mean it's not terrorism anymore. Throwing a bomb or doing things, it's all types of terrorism on innocent people. And when you kill, it's gonna come back to you. كَمَا تَدِينُوا تُدَانَ As you do, it's gonna come back to you. And wallahi, the exact same thing we find now, right? The irony of irony is they accuse Muslims of being terrorists, and they ignore the policies that are taking place in the world that are the real policies of terrorism. And this is something subhanallah so many people are talking about. Forget Muslims, read Noam Chomsky, read Chris Hedges, read Robert Fisk, read any of these journalists. And the chronicle after chronicle, read Glenn Greenwald. These are the people, read them. Wallahi, you Muslims, you should be familiar with these people. Don't let the mainstream media teach you the news. Go to these people I have mentioned. They have websites, they have Twitter accounts, they have Facebooks. you should all be subscribed to these, listening and hearing what these people are saying. And again I'll repeat some of these names, you should know them. Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Glenn Greenwald, Robert Fisk, these are the four I'll mention now, these are the most easiest accessible as well. Log on to Amazon, see some of their books, they have websites, they have Facebook pages, read what the criticisms they give. None of them, none of them, accuse us of being the primary terrorists. None of them justifies these people's terrorism, the Muslim groups that are fanatical, nobody justifies. But they're putting them into context. All of these are putting, just like Allah says here, that who are you to criticize when what you have done is all of this much. That's exactly the same point that we see happening in our times. Yes, those Muslims who kill innocent people are worthy of criticism. But wallahi, I cannot criticize them and ignore what caused them to do these deeds. It's not possible to do that. And the same thing is what Allah Azawajal is teaching us. yes we criticize يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَشَهَا الْقِتَالُ قُلْ قِتَالٌ فِيهِ كَبِيرٌ what they're doing is wrong they shouldn't be doing this but Allah tells us are you gonna ignore what caused it are you gonna ignore the context this is a very important lesson for us to learn from in the modern world that we live in the hypocrisy of the powers the hypocrisy of the Quraysh of the past and the modern powers of our times we learn from this and inshallah we won't fall into the mistake of either of these extremists that we fall into. We speak the truth, whatever the truth is, even if it's against us, we will speak it. And if it is against others, we will also speak it. So all of these minor expeditions and the Ghazawat minor, Azawiyat, are gonna lead up to the big one. And the biggest, and the first encounter. And the encounter where the table was completely turned. One of the biggest miracles of history and of Islam, and that is the famous battle of Badr. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala called it يَوْمَ الْفُرْقَانِ The day of criterion. The day that the truth was clear from the error. The day that victory was granted to the Muslims. The type of victory that was unprecedented and it was to have repercussions all the way down throughout Islamic history. The stage is set for the battle of Badr. And inshallah ta'ala, the battle of Badr is something we will discuss when we resume the seerah. inshallah after the month of Ramadan

Seerah 35 - The Battle of Badr 1 - Yasir Qadhi _ 10th October 2012-q7P58swk9MM

Al-Fatiha. for the opportunity to gather once again after our break, after our hiatus for around two and a half months. We're now coming back and resuming the lectures of the seerah. And alhamdulillah, we have covered, I think, around 35 lectures we have done in which the Makki period has been completely covered. And we began talking about the Madani period, and we began talking about the major changes that occurred in the first few months of the Madani phase. and the most important of these was a new emphasis of the political freedom of the Muslims. For the first time, the Muslims have political freedom. For the first time, there is an independent state. For the first time, the Muslims can act as a political body. Whereas in Mecca, they were a persecuted minority. In Medina, now they have the beginnings, if you like, of a republic. I mean, these terms are of course not representative. Whether you call it republic, whether you call it a political entity, is really the best type of description. And as I had already mentioned in the last few lessons that we did, there were two threats facing them. One of them internal and the other external. And each one of these threats we will discuss in the next few weeks. As for the internal threats, Medina was not yet unified under the Prophet ﷺ. And in fact, there would always be a group of people who were not happy with the changes. And these are, of course, who are they? The munafiqun, the hypocrites, right? The hypocrites did not want status quo to change. They wanted the old ways. And the Prophet ﷺ had to deal with them until the very end of his life ﷺ. And of course internally as well, we said that there was the other tribes that were not Arab, nor were they Muslim. Primarily these were the Yahud tribes. And of course in the next 4-5 years, the Prophet ﷺ will have to deal with them as well. This will be another tangent or another important portion of the seerah. These are the internal difficulties. The external difficulties, of course, primarily right now it is only Mecca. Right now it is only Mecca. But slowly in the next few years, the entire Arabian Peninsula will become involved. So, we need to understand that the animosity at this stage is unique. Mecca and Medina. The Quraysh and the Muslims. Slowly but surely, for the first time in human history, never before has this ever happened, The entire Arabian peninsula will become polarized between two camps. And this polarization is the precursor to the unification. Okay, all of this is gonna be discussed inshallah in the next few, actually towards the very end when we get there. The unification of Arabia, which never happened in the history of humanity, it happened for the first time under our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So how did all that happen? Of course, primarily through these military expeditions. and that is why the history of the Madani Sira is almost 80-90% a history of military battles. And this is the reality that we have to deal with, that we would like to know so much more information, but again the chroniclers only recorded that which was the most important from their perspective, and from their perspective, the Madani phases, probably 80% of it is simply one battle after another, and we will try our best to try to extrapolate extrapolate the rest of the incidents as they occur. To summarize what we had discussed in the last lesson, because we need to understand that before we begin the battle of Badr. There were some minor skirmishes. Two or three are extremely important to understand before we get to Badr. The first of them is the Sariyat al-Nakhla. Who can remind me what was the Sariyat al-Nakhla? Who can remind me? Sariyat al-Nakhla. This was the very last episode that we did, the very last halaq about the seerah. was killed and was sent something happened something happened, I like this something happened sometime some sahaba were sent to find out information outside of Mecca what happened? they were lost they were you're getting confused, they were not lost two of them became lost but the rest of them got to Mecca. Yes. And then what happened outside of Mecca? So they found an unexpected caravan. Right? And they raided the caravan and they killed one person in the caravan. They killed one person and they raided the caravan. Small, mini caravan, probably eight, nine camels. And so, complete surprise expedition. The caravan was not armed. They gathered the expedition, the war booty and they brought it back to the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ said, I didn't tell you to fight. I didn't tell you to kill the people. And why was this problematic? Well, it was problematic because it occurred in the sacred months, right? It occurred on the very last day of the sacred months, the very last day. And then Allah revealed, يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ شَهْرَهِ رَامِ قِتَالٍ فِيهِ So this is the سَرِيَّةُ النَّخْلَةِ The other incident that we need to remind ourselves of is the غَزْوَةُ الْعُشَيْرَةِ The غَزْوَةُ الْعُشَيْرَةِ And again, we already discussed this before. The Ghazwat al-Ushayra is the part one of the battle of Badr. How so? The Prophet ﷺ knew that the caravan of Abu Sufyan is going northwards, towards Syria. So the Ghazwat al-Ushayra was the intended caravan on the way up. And the battle of Badr was the same caravan on the way down. Okay? So the Ghazwat al-Ushayrah set up Ghazwat al-Badr. Ghazwat al-Ushayrah is phase one, but it didn't happen. Because by the time the Prophet ﷺ got there, Abu Sufyan had heard the news, and he fled quickly, took another route. And so Ghazwat al-Ushayrah, the Prophet ﷺ never actually met the caravan. Other minor things happened, and he formed some alliances and tribal agreements. And so there was a success, but there was no military conflict in Ghazwat al-Ushayrah. and so what happened because of Ghazwat al-Ushayrah Abu Sufyan was on high alert these days you can say code red now high alert why is he on high alert? because he already knows that the Prophet ﷺ was interested in his caravan and the concept of targeting caravans this is something that goes back even before this and one of the interesting incidents that I didn't mention before because we don't have a particular time when it occurred We have a rough idea that occurred the first year after the Hijrah. When exactly, we don't know. Shows us that the targeting of the caravan was something that even the Ansar were thinking about, not just the Muhajirun. Even the Ansar were ready to start targeting the caravan. What is this incident? It is narrated in Sahih Bukhari that Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, and who is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh? He is the leader of the Ansar. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh is the most vibrant, dynamic leader, the up-and-coming leader of the Ansar, that Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was a close friend with Umayyah ibn Khalaf. Umayyah ibn Khalaf. Umayyah ibn Khalaf was the owner of Bilal, this famous Umayyah ibn Khalaf. He was a close friend of Umayyah ibn Khalaf in the days of Jahiliyyah. And the two were business partners. So whenever Umayyah would go north, he would stop over in Medina and stay at the house of Sa'd. And whenever Sa'd would go to Mecca, he would stay at the house of Umayyah ibn Khalaf. So they had a good friendship from the days of Jahiliyyah. one time in the first year after the hijrah we don't know exactly when Sa'ad went down to Mecca perhaps for business trips perhaps for some other reason and it was the custom of the time that they would always do tawaf they would always do tawaf so Sa'ad asks Umayyah come tell me when should I go do tawaf that is going to be a good time so Umayyah says go when nobody is going to be witnessing so clearly there might be some tension why? because Sa'ad is now helping the Muslims Sa'ad is now a Muslim, but from the incident it appears that his Islam was not known, either to Umayyah and to the people of Mecca. But even if his Islam is not known, what is known for sure? He is helping the Prophet ﷺ. He is a supporter, he is embracing, he has embraced the Muslims and he is now defending the Muslims. So, he asks Umayyah, when can I go to Tawaf so that there won't be any tension, any hostilities? So, Umayyah says, let's go right in the heat of the sun when everybody will be asleep. so they go at noon time al-dahira they call it which is when everybody takes a nap and lo and behold Allah Azza wa Jal wills that they meet the very worst enemy and that is Abu Jahl Abu Jahl is coming back home and he sees these two figures and he asks Umayyah who is your friend? who is your friend? he figures something is fishy because nobody does tawaf when everybody is going to sleep in this hot sun and so Sa'ad says this is Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh basically from Yathrib and so Abu Jahl gets angry and he says, how is it possible that you are performing tawaf around the house in safety after you have given protection to these renegades? He uses the Arabic word subat. And subat, يعني صباء was what they call the Muslims that they had become Sabians, they had left their religion. And it's a term of heretic or renegade. These zindiq, these people that have left the religion of their forefathers. How can you give protection to these subah and claim that you will help them and now you have the audacity to come to Mecca, show your face and do tawaf in such safety. Wallahi, were it not for the fact that you are a guest of Umayyah, Abu Safwan he called him Umayyah, you would not return to your house in one piece. This is an open threat and this is a threat that contradicts everything of their religion and of Islam. As you know, Mecca was haram from the time of Ibrahim a.s. من دخله كان آمنا No one has the right to stop anybody from coming to Mecca. And Ibn Abbas narrates that in the days of Jahiliyyah, one of us would see a person who had killed his own father doing tawaf, and we would not touch a hair on his head. They understood that Mecca is sacred land. But when it came to Islam, the double standards began for the first time. And we're getting this hint now. How dare you come to Mecca after what you have done? What has he done? it doesn't say he has embraced Islam. And therefore it appears Abu Jahl did not even know that Sa'ad is a Muslim. Rather he is saying, you're helping the Muslims. And that is enough of a crime that you shouldn't even come to Mecca. When Sa'ad heard this, he became very angry. He raised his voice so that the people of Mecca could hear. And he said, Wallahi, if you are going to threaten me and you're going to deprive me of Mecca, of tawaf, I will deprive you of something that is more painful to you than this. and that is your trade route to Syria. He said this in front of the Kaaba so that everybody in Mecca could hear. You're gonna threaten me, now you're gonna see what's gonna happen. And so the concept of targeting the caravans of the Quraysh wasn't just something that the Muhajirun, the procession told them to do. Of course up until this time no Ansari has participated. But Sa'ad is feeling the pressure. And Sa'ad says, Khalas tit for tat. You're gonna threaten me, now you will see as well what we are going to do. and that is exactly what he did. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, that's exactly what he did. That he then began to target in the battle of Badr as we're going to study the caravans of the Quraysh. The battle of Badr, the battle of Badr, by the way, firstly, what is Badr and why is it called Badr? Let's get to the introductory stuff before we jump in. Badr is an area or a location that is named after a well, so it's the well of Badr, that is named after the person who dug the well. So Badr is the name of a human. And many centuries ago, he dug up a well. And so it was called the well of Badr. And after he dug up the well of Badr, the whole plain became known called the plains of Badr. The whole area became known as the plains of Badr. And this person, his name was Badr ibn Yakhlud. And he was from the tribe of the Banu Damra. And the land of Badr, or the area of Badr, it is around 160 miles southwest of Medina. and 250 miles north of Makkah. So it is in between Makkah and Medina. InshaAllah next class, we'll be using some of the charts and diagrams that our very own Dr. Bashar has very meticulously done. InshaAllah next class we'll be showing some of those. For now, all you need to know is that Badr is in between Makkah and Medina and it is closer to Medina than it is to Makkah. In our times, if you go by car, you can easily get to Badr in an hour and 10-15 minutes. An hour and 15, an hour and 10, you will get to Badr by car. And those days, of course, it took around three days on regular journey. By the way, it's also interesting to know, this is a symbolic coincidence, and of course there is no such thing as a coincidence, Allah's qadr is all there, that literally a few weeks before, but less than a month before Badr, a very interesting thing happened that we talked about in our last lesson, and that is the change of the qibla. It's a very significant correlation. Badr and the change of the Qibla. The change of the Qibla literally occurs, literally, probably three weeks before Badr. And this is just too close to ignore. The time frame is too close to ignore. And there is no doubt that there is a huge symbolic change taking place. That the Qibla of the Muslims will now be facing Mecca, and then the greatest victory that early Islam ever saw shall be also given to them. In other words, it's as if it's being said, how can you face Mecca and yet not have Mecca in your possession? How can you face the Kaaba and yet the Kaaba be polluted by idolatry? And so Allah Azza wa Jal blessed them with that great victory right after the changing of the Qibla. It's as if there is a sign or an indication that now that the Qibla has changed and you've won over Badr, slowly but surely eventually Mecca as well will be yours. You're not only facing it spiritually, you will physically also obtain the city of Mecca. And that is of course exactly what happened. Now we get to the incident of basically building up the incidents leading up to the Ghazwat al-Badr, the battle of Badr. This is called the battle of Badr, the great battle of Badr. Ghazwat al-Badr in al-Kubra. Why? Because in our last lesson we mentioned another incident called Ghazwat al-Badr in al-Sughra. and this Ghazwa to Badr and the Sughra, the reason it's called Badr is because it took place very close to Badr, the Sughra one, not the Kubra but it had nothing to do with the Quraish the people who were attacked were local tribesmen, so this is called Badr Al-Sughra, has nothing to do with the tribe of Quraish, it has nothing to do with the caravan of Abu Sufyan what was the Ghazwa that was on the caravan of Abu Sufyan, who can remind me? what was the Ghazwa? Ushayra, Ghazwa to Ushayra And when did it take place? Who can remind me? This should be in your notes for those who are taking notes. Ghazwat al-Ushayra, when did it take place? You don't have your notes with you. You have to close and open another file. I like that honesty. Yes, it's somewhere else. It's somewhere in my iPad. It's Jumad al-Awwal of the second year of the Hijrah. Jumad al-Awwal of the second year of the Hijrah. The Prophet ﷺ went to... the land or the area of Ushira. He didn't go to Badr by the way. On the way up he didn't go, sorry, when the caravan was going up, he did not go to Badr, he went to another location. And he camped there for a few days, this is Jamadul Ula, and he stayed there until the very first few days of Jamadul Thani, Jamadul Akhira, and then he returned back to Medina. Now, when the time came, rough time came, that they expected the caravan back, and this is in now the month of Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ began sending multiple spies to see where has the caravan reached. And we have at least two or three hadith that mention different spies. So this means basically that over the course of every few days he's sending out another few people. For example, in Sahih Muslim, Anas al-Malik says that when the time came for the caravan's return, the Prophet ﷺ sent a spy to inform him about the advent of the caravan. And when the spy returned, when this Sahabi returned, the Prophet made sure that nobody was sitting in the room except for Anas and Anas was excused because at this time he's probably 7 years old except for Anas he was excused because he's a child and because he's the personal servant and the Sahabi informed him about the whereabouts of the caravan. In another hadith in Ibn Ishaq it is mentioned that the Prophet sent Talha Ibn Ubaidullah and Saeed Ibn Zaid. So he sent two of the famous Sahaba to monitor their activities and they waited for the caravan and followed it for a while until the caravan passed them by and then they galloped back quickly to Medina. And they reported to the Prophet ﷺ that it was under the command of Abu Sufyan that it had almost a thousand camels in its entourage. A thousand camels is unbelievable wealth. A thousand camels is something that it is said, early history books say, that the Quraysh had never had such a large caravan in recent history. This was the largest caravan in recent history. Why this is the case, we don't know. But perhaps this is due to economic factors prior to this, that they were basically, they acquired the Muslims' wealth. As you know, they confiscated Muslim property and land. Perhaps other things happened that the books of tariq and history don't mention. But this was the largest caravan in recent history, in recorded history for the Quraysh. and some modern historians and economists have calculated that the net worth of the caravan would be around 50,000 dinars 50,000 gold coins 50,000 gold coins is basically a few million in our times I calculated myself but then the problem comes how much is a dinar a dinar goes from anywhere from $150 to $600, $700 depends on the historic value of the dinar as well early Umayyad dinars they go for around $800, $900 some of them if you get a really rare one from Al-Walid ibn Abdul Malik, you actually go for $100,000. So if you do $1,000 per dinar, multiply that by 50,000, you're talking about 30, 40 million, 50 million here. But other dinars in our times go for like $200,000, $300,000. So even if you do $100, even if you do $100, that's basically, how much is that? 50,000 times 100 is? 5 million, right? 5 million, roughly, from our currency, right? 5 million dollars for the early nascent Muslim community that had nothing. You're talking about changing the entire treasury, really, of the early Muslims, right? So we can understand why the Prophet ﷺ was so eager. Now, in our last lesson, we had already talked about how non-Muslim orientalists have skewed and have attacked the Prophet ﷺ for saying he's a highway robber. And this is ridiculous because after what the Quraysh have done, this is the least that is to be expected. He's only targeting the Quraysh, he's not targeting anybody else. and frankly, most of that wealth was directly confiscated from the Muslims anyway. That's probably one of the main reasons why the caravan has so much money. Also Ibn Ishaq mentions that there was hardly any household in Mecca except that they had an investment in that caravan. And this makes it very personal. There's hardly any household in the Qabilah of Quraish except that they had a camel or at least something on a camel that they had sent. And again, I don't need to remind you, this was their main source of income. Back in those days, they didn't have salaries and paychecks. You literally got money in bulk, once a year, twice a year. This was their main money. Everybody who had any money would purchase goods and then invest in this caravan. Send it over to Syria, purchase other goods, send it back to Yemen. This is how the people of Mecca obtained their wealth. They are not farmers, they are not cultivationists, they are people who are trading رحلة الشتاء والصيف. This is their backbone and livelihood. And the Prophet ﷺ knows full well that if he were to acquire this caravan, what's gonna happen? Number one, he will bring the Meccan economy to a screeching halt, completely gone. Every single household and qabilah has invested. And number two, he will bring all of that fortune to the Muslim economy. And of course, that is exactly why he was so eager to obtain this wealth to help the Islamic cause. so Tarha bin Ubaidullah Sa'id bin Zaid they rushed back to the Prophet and they informed him that Abu Sufyan is now coming with a thousand camels and that he will be at such and such a place and so the Prophet immediately gathered together the Sahaba and said now here's a little bit of contradiction what exactly happened according to one report in Sahih Muslim the Prophet did not announce where he's going and he said we have a mission to undertake, so whoever has his animal ready, should come with me. And some of the Sahaba said, Ya Rasulullah, my animal isn't ready, it's in another place of Medina, let me go get it ready. And the Prophet ﷺ said, no, only those whose animals are right here and now, we're leaving right now. So that's the version of Sahih Muslim. In a version of Ibn Ishaq, the Prophet ﷺ said to the Sahaba that, هذا عير قريش, this is the caravan of the Quraish, قد أدبرت عليكم, it's coming back to you, and it has in it the money of the Quraysh, so let us go out to meet it, perhaps Allah will give it to you. How do we reconcile? Allahu'alam is very simple to do that. It seems, and Allah knows best, that when he stood in the masjid, he did not announce who or where or what. Because in the masjid there could be munafiqun. There could be hypocrites, there could be spies, there could be still, Medina still has idol worshippers. Medina at this stage still has idol worshippers. As we'll talk about, one of the main turning points of Badr is that after Badr, all of the idol worshippers basically converted to Islam. i.e. Munafiqun. That's exactly what happened, right? After Badr, shirk could not exist in Medina. So up until Badr, there are still idol worshippers. There are hypocrites. There are other groups there. So the Prophet ﷺ did not make any public announcement. Rather he said, we have a mission, whoever wants to go, let's go. But there's one condition, you need to be ready right here and now. Literally, let's leave right now. And that is the ultimate surprise tactic. Not even the Sahaba knew where they're going. Then when the army leaves Mecca, and the processor can see that it's now contained who he's with, then he announces to them, this is the caravan of the Quraysh, it's coming back, let us go and attack it. perhaps Allah Azza wa Jal will bless you. And so, Allah-u-Alam, and by the way, this is not what most of the books of seerah mention, most of the books of seerah ignore the report of Sahih Muslim, but the report of Sahih Muslim is very explicit, and that is the Prophet ﷺ did not mention where he's going. Whereas the one in Ibn Ishaq says he's mentioning where he's going. So Allah-u-Alam, the way you put this together, which actually makes a lot of sense, he didn't mention in the beginning until finally they left the city, and then he mentioned. And this shows us again and again and again it shows us the meticulous planning of the Prophet ﷺ. We have seen this in every major incident. We've seen this in the Hijrah. We're gonna continue to see this. We've seen this in the Bay'atul Aqaba. When he did the Bay'atul Aqaba, he stationed Ali in one place, he stationed Hamza in another. He has all of this meticulous care taken place. Even though he's Rasulullah ﷺ and he could put his trust in Allah without doing anything. But that's against the sunnah. You do everything you can and then you put your trust in Allah. You tie your camel and then يُتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ So the Prophet ﷺ didn't even tell the sahaba until they are outside of the city. He uses the utmost surprise and caution. As Anas said, he caused everybody to exit the room when the first spy came back. So that only he could hear the news. Nobody knew where they're going until finally when the caravan is right upon them, instantaneously he says, whoever is ready, let's go. He didn't even give them preparation. Why? well because this was easy prey there were only 40 armed guards to this thousand caravan envoy, that's nothing why would the Quraysh do this is a good question I don't have an answer to why would they do this, because the time is tense you would have thought that they would have been more thoughtful in this regard Allah knows what is the reason but the fact of the matter is there were only 40 armed guards if you like, there were 40 warriors guarding this caravan 40 for a thousand camels do the math yourself that's basically one person for 20 something camels do the math yourself that's nothing and so the Prophet ﷺ realized if we only have 2-300 people which is what happened at Badr that's all we need and they don't even have to be armed to the hilt and so whoever is ready just go home get your stuff and let's go that's exactly what happened and that is why we understand Badr was not meant to be a war. Badr was not meant to be a battle. Badr was meant to be confiscation of a thousand camels. Badr was meant to be a quick easy when they would have seen three four hundred men they would have gone helter skelter those who wanted to make a stand would have died there and then the entire thousand camels are taken by the Muslims. What is needed is speed and urgency what is needed is that the Quraysh not find out. Right? And Allah Azza wa Jal willed other than this for a wisdom that was known to him. And we see it clearly in the aftermath of the battle of Badr. So, this sudden instantaneous message explains why none of the Sahaba really was armed to the hilt. None of the Sahaba had their armor on. That the animals that were taken were animals that just happened to be there. That the entire army only had two riding horses. They only had two. and that camels were less than a hundred camels. For a caravan of 300 something people, there were less than a hundred camels. Why? Because it wasn't assumed that they would be needing fast horses. It wasn't assumed that they'd be needing a lot of camels. This was easy prey. This was you're targeting a sitting duck. They just have to go, show them 300 people and then take the prize. And Allah Azza wa Jal, as we will find out, will something else. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when he reaches his first encampment and they set up tents, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, first thing he does, he takes a detailed survey of everyone who is now participating. Notice, he couldn't do this in Medina because he just wants to leave, he just wants to get out. once they stop and they encamp now he goes over every single person he makes an assessment now what do I have, what do I need to do and he notices that there are two people who are too young to participate and these are Al-Bara' ibn Azib and Abdullah ibn Umar the both of them are younger than 14 generally the Prophet ﷺ would allow these young men who had passed the age of 14 he would allow the 14 was the cut off point and of course I mean for those times and ages 14 was basically what we would consider to be 18, of course 14 year olds in our times we don't even want to leave them alone in the house mashallah tabarakallah, they'd be too scared to stay alone in the house, in those days we had 13 years old and Abdullah bin Umar, they wanted to participate and they were eager to participate and subhanallah every single major battle we see the same tension, that 13 years old 11 years old sometimes they want to participate and the Prophet ﷺ tells them No, you cannot do that. We'll see the same thing in Uhud. We'll see the same thing later on as well. In their eagerness, they wanted to be men. And I always say that, Wallahi, we have dumbed down our own youth. That if we were to treat them like adults, that young men would become adults faster. But because we have this false age of adolescence, where biologically they are men or women, but intellectually we treat them like kids, then we're gonna get these problems. And I firmly believe this, that Allah Azza wa Jal has created, has made the age of puberty to be the age of intelligence. That's the sign of the sharia. And therefore, if society were to treat these youngsters the way they deserve with intellectual integrity, honesty, with respect, then these youngsters would grow up faster. And we find this again, this isn't just Islamic by the way. 100 years ago, 500 years ago, in every society, when you were 14, 15, you were an adult. It's not just in Islamic societies, right? And this is the reality, the sad reality we have to live with that there is this teenage years that we ask Allah to protect us against the problems of teenage years. Okay, let's get back to the issue of Badr. So Al-Bara' ibn Azib and Abdullah ibn Umar were sent back. Because the distance was short, they were sent back alone. Just the two of them, they can basically go home alone because it's just one journey, one day's journey. The two of them can go back alone. And the final count was basically around 315. Some books mentioned 313, some books mentioned 315, some mentioned 317. Basically 310 and an odd number. These were all the volunteers. Around 83 of the muhajirun, 62 of the aus, and 170 of the khazraj. 83 of the muhajirun, 62 of the aus, and 170 of the khazraj. The khazraj were double the aus, and that is because, for two reasons, firstly the Khazraj were more than the Aus, secondly the percentage of Muslims in the Khazraj was more than the percentage of Muslims in the Aus who can remind me why? the Khazraj were generally the poorer tribe and the Aus was generally the richer tribe and therefore generally speaking the poor convert before the rich and the Khazraj embraced Islam quicker than the Aus embraced Islam and also they were larger in number the two horses I said already said they were only two horses, they belonged to Zubayr ibn al-Awwam and al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad and they were less than a hundred camels some books mention seventy, some books mention more than this, but less than a hundred camels, so basically every person had to share a camel with three people right, so every camel there were three people taking turns riding the camel, you cannot have three people riding the camel at the same time and so what they decided to do was, two would walk and one would ride and then it would just take shifts and turns in this manner. Now we have to point out here, there seems to be some significance to this number, 310 and something. There seems to be some significance because it occurs in multiple places in our religion. Of them is, for example, the famous hadith of how many prophets and how many messengers. We talked about this way back last year or maybe two years ago. What is the difference between a prophet and a messenger? And the famous hadith of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Ya Rasulullah, kam Rasulin ursilan, kam Nabiyan. How many Rasul? The Prophet ﷺ said, 310 and something, jammun ghafeer, a large quantity. How many Anbiya? 124,000. So, 310 and something, that's here Badr. It is also said, that the number of people who were in the army of Jalut, Talut and Jalut, the number of people that were fighting on the side of Dawud, on the side of David, against Goliath were also around 310 and something. And so Allah knows best, but there seems to be some type of significance with this number. So we said that the sahaba had to share a camel, three people per camel. And so the Prophet ﷺ was assigned the camel of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and along with them was the famous sahabi Abu Lubaba. Abu Lubaba, you will come across his name from the very famous incident that we'll talk about in the incident of Banu Quraidah Abu Lubaba was that Sahabi who made a mistake he repented and he tied himself to the masjid as an act of repentance he did something that he regretted we'll talk about that when we get there and he felt so guilty that he went to the masjid and he tied himself up and he deprived himself of food and water and he said until Allah forgives me I will not leave this place. And he was almost about to die when Allah Azza wa Jal basically revealed his repentance in the Quran. And they said, Khalas, you are forgiven. So he said, no, until the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself comes and allows me to be free, I'm not going to be free. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself came and he untied Abu Lubaba from that pillar. This is Abu Lubaba. We'll talk about Abu Lubaba, that story later on. So Ali and Abu Lubaba and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, they were assigned one camel. Imam Ahmad ibn Musnad mentions a very beautiful incident now. Can you imagine if you had been assigned the camel with the Prophet ﷺ? What would you do? Not take what? Your turn on the camel, right? Can you imagine that if you had to share a camel with the Prophet ﷺ, what would you do? He will say, Ya Rasulullah, you take the camel, we will walk. and so both Ali and Abu Lubaba insisted that Ya Rasulullah we will walk and you take the camel full time basically right and subhanallah the response of the Prophet ﷺ is so sweet and gentle and profound it's so full of wisdom that you just like mind boggle how could this is of course coming from Mishkat al-Numu'ah from the well of prophecy he could have said yes he could have And wallahi if he had said yes, who would have objected? He is Rasulullah. Forget even the religious, he is the leader. When does the leader do exactly what the private does, right? Even forget the religious side, a general in the army, right? The five star general, never ever travels the same way as the private. This is understood like you work your way up to the top, and then after that you're given the red carpet treatment, and everybody accepts it. Added to this is the religious side, that he is Rasulullah s.a.w. Khatamun Nabi, Sayyidu Walid Adam, on and on and on. Right? And so, if anybody had done this, nobody would have objected that the Prophet ﷺ is writing and the other two are walking. Alternatively, he could have said, no, let's be fair, let's share. He could have done that way as well. Just be blunt and say, no, no, I disagree with this, let's be fair and let's share. And he could have been strict with that. But he allowed them to share in a manner that was very sweet and very beautiful. He smiled back at them and he said, that the two of you are not any younger than I am. You're not any stronger than me. And I am not, now this is a double negative, in any less in need of the ajr than the two of you. I'll repeat what he said. The two of you are not any younger or stronger than I am. We're all equal men here. pause here, by the way technically that's not true because how old is Ali? 20, 21 20s late 20s, yeah mid 20s, mid 20s by now, right and the process is now, how old is the process 55, 54 55, so even technically Ali, we don't know the age of Abu Lubaba Abu Lubaba we don't know his age at this time, but we can say he's a middle age man so technically the process is the senior of them, in age as well But he says, the two of you are not any stronger than I am. Now that might is possibly true in terms of physical strength, yes. And neither am I in any less need of the rewards from Allah that I will get if I walk. And so when he said this to them, they had no response to this. How are you going to respond when he says, I'm doing this for the arjar just like you. we're all three men here we're all three of roughly equal physical strength and so I need the ajr as well and so he insisted that they take turns on this one camel and that was his way of enforcing the fairness the equitable treatment and of course it goes without saying can you imagine here the psychological repercussions of the Prophet ﷺ walking imagine if you were in that army now in that caravan now the heat, the desert sand the thirst, the trouble now you see the Prophet ﷺ walking what are you gonna do? you cannot complain you cannot complain by the Prophet ﷺ walking with the army khalas, that's it there is nothing you can do now and again this is the wisdom and this is exactly no doubt he is Rasulullah ﷺ but why was he respected? Well, because he acted like Rasulullah ﷺ as well. Right? He could have, as they say, like, you know, pulled his rank. Right? He could have. And who would have complained? I mean, honestly, who would have complained? But no. And that's exactly what Allah says. You are the role model. You are the one who is gentle, merciful. So he walked along with all of the rest of the army and there was nothing different from him than from the rest of the Muslims. And subhanAllah, when you have a leader like this, what is going to happen? Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, they live the same lifestyles. When Umar goes and conquers Jerusalem, look who is he learning this from, right? Who is Umar learning this from? That when he gets to Jerusalem, and his slave is on the camel, what does he tell the slave? Hey, it's not fair, it's your turn. Correct? And he walks into Jerusalem, and the people of Jerusalem think that the slave is Umar, and Umar is the slave, because what leader in the world would walk leading in his slave while he is walking? Where did Umar learn this from? He has the best teacher, the best master, the best muallim. And that is the Prophet ﷺ. Another interesting point here as well, by the way, before we move on again. This is one of the problems of seerah is that the seerah is composed of many small incidents, right? So we need to draw a larger picture by mentioning disconnected incidents, right? And then we just try to put them together. Another disconnected incidence that is a precursor to the battle of Badr. and we have a lot of benefit from this, very deep benefit, especially for the times and the place and the political climate that we are living in. And that is the lack of participation of two people in the battle of Badr. And that is Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman and his father, al-Yaman ibn al-Hakam. These two people, Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman and his father, the two of them could have participated in Badr, and they wanted to participate. but they were held back because of a promise they had made to the Quraysh Hudhaifa and his father were once captured by the Quraysh and the Quraysh were almost going to kill them when finally one of them decided you know what let's just make them promise that they're not going to ever fight alongside Muhammad as long as they're not going to fight with us then send them back no big deal so they didn't really have Hudhaifa is not a muhajir by the way Hudhaifa is neither this is a longer story but Hudhaifa and his father, well his father not Hudhaifa, his father is not from Mecca nor is he from Medina he came to Medina in the days of Jahiliyyah because of a crime he had committed so he abandoned his tribe and he basically came to Medina he was adopted by the people of Medina and then he became a sahabi he accepted Islam and then his son Hudhaifa accepted Islam so the two of them are neither Makki nor Madani, quite in this sense. They're neither Quraishi or the Aus and Khazraj. So when the Quraysh capture them, they don't have any direct animosity. Like these are people who are caught up, basically. So one of them has sympathy and says, okay, you know what? We're not gonna kill you, even though you're Muslim. We're not gonna kill you. This is of course before the Battle of Badr, a few months before the Battle of Badr. We're not gonna kill you, but you have one condition. And that is, you will never fight us alongside the Prophet ﷺ. Right? You're not gonna join the Prophet ﷺ fighting us. And so when the Prophet ﷺ heard, when they returned back from the Quraysh and the Prophet ﷺ heard this, the Prophet ﷺ basically did not allow them to participate in any of these ghazawat. And this shows us that a Muslim is upon his word and promises. A Muslim is never a traitor. A Muslim is never a traitor. They gave their word. and once they gave their word even in times of great trial and difficulty they did not take up arms and fight against the Quraysh the battle of Uhud we'll talk about exactly what happened and we'll clarify some points there but any type of offensive battle that was taking place Hudhayf and his father did not participate and therefore they remained back in Medina and of course this shows us in our times especially treaties have to be respected and honored obligations and duties including duties that are understood such as duties of citizenship let's say these are obligations these are legally binding contracts and if you are a visa carrier or a citizen or what not there are certain obligations upon you regardless of what's happening in the world if you don't like it then you don't have to be a citizen holder or a visa holder but you cannot be a citizen and a visa holder and then go against what that entails right? you understand the Islamic rulings here That it is not allowed from the sharia perspective to break a promise or your word. It is not allowed to be a traitor. You cannot be two-faced. Swear that you're a citizen and then do something that will go against the oath that you have given. Nobody is forcing you to make that oath. And if you're not gonna uphold it, then do not say it. And that's what we learn from Hudhaifa and his father. That even though one can say, hold on a sec, they were almost gonna be killed. But they gave their word in solemn promise. Right? They could have been killed. they could have, but they didn't they said okay you know what, we agree to your condition we're gonna go back to Medina and we're not going to fight against you and when the Prophet ﷺ heard this then he did not accept them to fight and they could not volunteer to fight and this shows us that a Muslim is upon his conditions and promise, المسلمون على شروطهم this is a hadith, المسلمون على شروطهم and the ayah in the Quran O you who believe, fulfill your covenants يَا أَيُّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ and you understand the implications in modernity and I don't need to go into this tangent and I've spoken about this very explicitly in talks that are related to those issues. Another incident that occurred that the Prophet ﷺ is leaving Medina and they still think that they're going to get to the caravan of Abu Sufyan, that one of the pagans of Medina, his name is not mentioned in the early books of Sira, one of the pagans of Medina who was known for his bravery and fighting skills, he marched up to the Prophet ﷺ, he is not a Muslim and he says that I wish to join you in order to get this ghaniba I wish to join you the sahaba were happy to see him because they're getting a strong man the sahaba were happy to see him the Prophet ﷺ said do you testify that Allah is your Lord and I am the messenger ﷺ he said no I'm still a mushrik I'm still a pagan no so the Prophet ﷺ said إِنَّا لَا نَسْتَعِينُ بِمُشْرِكٍ we do not ask for help from pagans so the man stayed where he was and a few hours later he again caught up with the camp I guess the thought of all of this money 1000 camels and what not came to him and once again he said that allow me to come with you because he wants to share allow me to come with you again the Prophet ﷺ asked him do you testify لَا إِلَهَمْ عَسُرًا he said no so he said إِنَّا لَنَسْتَعِدُ مُشْرِكٌ and then a few hours later again he writes in And he's gotten the point now basically, right? So now the Prophet ﷺ asked him, and he says, Yes, I shahadu an la ilaha wa shahadu anna ma rasulullah. Now he accepts Islam. And so he was allowed to join the caravan at that point in time, or join the expedition at that point in time. And this hadith has been again used politically in our times, and it was used in Gulf War I, Gulf War II, it was used during all of these times that, is it allowed to ask for military help from a non-Muslim or not? Because the Prophet ﷺ said, We do not ask help from pagans. إِنَّا لَنَنْسَعِنُوا بِمُشْرِكٍ And this is a classical controversy amongst the four madhahib. Some scholars say that you can never ask for any such help. Other scholars say that it is allowed with conditions. And frankly, this is not the time or place to get into this tangent. But you understand, this also has political ramifications in the modern world. It has caused a lot of controversies in many lands. Can you get the help of a non-Muslim? Right, this happened as you know very recently many times. Can you get the help of a non-Muslim army to help you against an aggressing army? So these types of hadith were then brought up. And this is not the time or place to discuss both opinions. But there is a spectrum of opinion. There is a gray area. For example, Imam al-Nawawi, in his commentaries, Imam al-Nawawi says that this hadith shows that the general rule is that you do not ask help from the pagan army. But there are exceptions. And Imam al-Nawawi says, the Prophet ﷺ himself sought the help of Abdullah ibn Uraqiq. Who is Abdullah ibn Uraqiq? Who is Abdullah ibn Uraqiq? The guide of the Prophet ﷺ in the Hijrah. Imam An-Nawawi says, the Prophet ﷺ himself sought the help of Abdullah ibn Uraqiq at a time of great sensitivity. Subhanallah, think about it. There's a hundred camels on his head, as you know, dead or alive. And a hundred camels is a mini fortune. This man, whoever gave him in, he would have lived comfortably for the rest of his life. Yet he trusted after Allah Azza wa Jal, he trusted his life with Abdullah ibn Uriq. And so Imam An-Nawawi says, if a person has good opinions of Islam, i.e. they are sympathetic to Islam, and they can be trusted, and the situation calls for it, then one can ask the help of mushriks against an enemy. Point being again, this is one of those issues we see over here in this incident, the Prophet ﷺ said, we don't ask the help of a mushrik. And yet he himself and there are more than this time as well, where the Prophet ﷺ got the alliances of the pagans, he got the help of others. For example, when Abu Talib died and Abu Lahab was going to expel him, the Prophet ﷺ got the help of Mu'tahim ibn Adi. Remember this, right? He got the help of Mu'tahim ibn Adi and he took the, it is called a jiwar, and in our times it's basically the visa of Mu'tahim ibn Adi. That Mu'tahim ibn Adi has allowed me to stay in Mecca. If Abu Lab has kicked me out then Multibib Ibn Adi has allowed me. So the point being, you should know that there is a spectrum of opinion and frankly each opinion has some strength and evidence to it. And in my humble opinion it is a case by case situation and basis that when such a situation arises then the scholars of that region and land let them talk amongst themselves and come to a conclusion and this is an Ijtihadi issue anyway. Another interesting point here that Subhanallah our religion does not ask us to look into the chests of people. Here is a man, wallahi the average person would doubt his Islam. Correct? The time, the place, the circumstances. The whole story. Once he says no, twice he says no, finally he says, you know what, okay, khalas, I'm a Muslim. But what does our religion tell us? Judge people by outward and leave the inner to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And wallahi, we would be so much better if we simply followed this, right? Leave the inner, don't doubt people's intention the Prophet ﷺ asked him three times are you a Muslim? no are you a Muslim? no and there's a lot of money to be gained if he's a Muslim so on the third time he goes you know what? khalas I'm a Muslim and nobody questions his Islam let it be and in fact and I have said this previously before there is no denying that our religion the sharia gave incentives for people to convert monetary sometimes political at other times why? who remembers what I said? why is there like somebody says that you know your religion encourages people to convert even financially there are privileges right why why is this the case I said this very clearly I didn't say that but that's a valid point if what I said if they convert for any reason because Islam is true we are confident that they will eventually convert for the right reason that we're so confident of our faith that you know what, khalas, convert for the money, no big deal. But what's gonna happen? Slowly Islam and Iman will enter the heart. And this is the reality that we see from people to this day and age who convert for secondary reasons. Primarily in our times for marriage and love. Right? A person will convert because their spouse wants them to and that person is not a Muslim. So the boy is not a Muslim and then this girl says, you know what, if you're not a Muslim, I can't marry you. So he goes, khalas, khalas, okay, I'll be a Muslim. I mean, by Allah, I have had people come up to me Boy meets girl Boy falls in love with girl Girl falls in love with boy The boy is not a Muslim They come to the masjid She's not practicing Islam But she knows one thing She's not wearing a hat She knows one thing You know, I can't marry him if he's a non-Muslim So right then and there And he asks me There was an in case He literally asked me I mean, there's nothing I can do I have to convert to marry her? Like he does not want to convert And I said, no Unless you convert You cannot marry this person And so he decided to convert it's not my job to look into his heart is it it's not my job and eventually these people as for this couple I didn't keep in touch with them but I have met many couples that eventually the one who converts becomes even more practicing than than the Muslim right well like how many times and this happens to me so many times that you know let's say the sister converts and then she starts getting more and more religious until finally the husband comes and says Shaykh can you tell my wife to calm that religiosity down and she's kind of going a little bit too much now. You know what I'm saying? This is so common now. That the woman will convert or the man will convert and then one of them, mashallah, tabarakallah, they will go beyond the other. So what if you converted for another reason? We're so sure Islam is true. Yalla, bismillah. Whatever your reason is, eventually you'll be a true Muslim. So we don't question people's motives. Now, this is of course the general rule. There might be some exceptions here and there. But here is one of those times when it was not questioned. so getting back again to the issue of Badr the Prophet ﷺ looking at the various reports it seems that we can guesstimate that he left Medina on the 12th of Ramadan he left Medina on the 12th of Ramadan in the second year of the Hijrah and he put in charge of Medina Ibn Ummi Maktum who as you know was the blind Sahabi and this shows us that in our religion and wallahi it is a very big deal for the time. That when somebody was physically impaired, they were literally treated as outcasts, right? When somebody was blind or lame or something, they were literally treated as subhuman. And the very fact that the Prophet ﷺ chose a blind person and put him in charge of Medina. Wallahi we can clearly say that our religion was very forward thinking for the time, right? That it did not take these personal faults, well false is not a good word but these what's the technical term I'm forgetting handicaps that's the term it did not take these handicaps as being any problem in the job that you're doing so what if he's blind he can take charge of leading the player he can take charge of the civil affairs of Medina what has his blindness got to do with this whereas wallahi for other people at the time to be blind to be deaf you would be treated as a crazy person or you would be treated as subhuman as a child and the very fact that Ibn Ummi Maktum is being put in charge of the city shows us our religion did not discriminate against people who have physical handicaps. And this is not the only time by the way. Ibn Ummi Maktoum was put in charge of Medina at least a dozen times. Why? Because he was a sensible man. He was a wise man. And his blindness did not come into the way of him being basically in effect the temporary mayor of Medina. Being in charge of Medina. That's a very prestigious position. And the wisest person they could find was Ibn Ummi Maktoum. In the meantime, so the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca on the 12th of Ramadan. Abu Sufyan is coming back, and Abu Sufyan is taking extra precautions to find out what is happening. Is the Prophet ﷺ going to attack or not? Why? Because he already found out that the Ghazwat al-Ushayra just barely missed him by a day. The Ghazwat al-Ushayra, he literally saved it by the skin of his teeth as they say. One day, otherwise he would have been caught. And so, Qadar Allah, Ghazwatul Ushayra was the warning for Abu Sufyan. That was what sent him off his warning bells. That on the way back, Abu Sufyan took extra precautions. So much so, he would send spy parties out to spy on the spies. There's a spy game going on here. He would send delegations out to find out, is anybody spying on us? And it is said that, Ibn Ishaq mentions that, some Beruans mentioned that they saw two men spying on the camp. Of course these are Talha and Saeed bin Zaid. The Beruans mentioned that there were two men who were spying on you. And so Abu Sufyan said, show me where they camped. So the Beruans took Abu Sufyan to the camp of these two men. We are assuming they're Talha and Saeed, who else could they be? And Abu Sufyan examined their camp and examined their markings until finally he came across camel dung. and in his intelligence and desperation, he opened up the camel dung. And what do you think he found? Dates of Medina. He's exactly right. But not the dates, but the date seeds. Big difference. Right? He found the date seeds of Medina. Right? Now, I mean, obviously, it's a little bit disgusting even though technically camel dung is not Najis. I have to say that even though I wouldn't touch it, but still it's not Najis. But still, it shows you these are scouts. these are people who know how to analyze, right? To open up, to crack open a camel dung, and to examine what is in this camel dung, and then to pick out the seed and say, and he said, these are the dates of Yathrib, right? He recognizes the seed from where it is coming. Khalas, everything fits into place now. And so Abu Sufyan panics. Abu Sufyan panics because he realizes, we are being monitored. and therefore this panic causes him to go into overdrive mode and he does two things both of which Allah saved him but Allah's qadr was also there it brought about the biggest disaster to the Quraysh right in saving himself he brought about the biggest disaster to the Quraysh that Allah blessed the Muslims with so he did two things the first thing that he did is that he took an unknown route immediately as soon as he found out this is happening he hired a local guide and he says get us out of here take us from the shore and he went from a much farther route he basically bypassed and inshallah next week we'll show the maps that Dr. Bashar meticulously has drawn or powerpointed or whatever that he basically bypassed the entire city so that he wasn't even close to where the Prophet ﷺ would have been and the second thing he did is that he sent for reinforcements he sent for reinforcements And how did he send for reinforcements? He sent his fastest rider, who had the fastest camel, and that is Damdam ibn Amr al-Ghifari. He sent Damdam to go to Mecca and to announce to the Quraysh that unless they do something, their caravan will be confiscated. Unless they send reinforcements, your money has now been destroyed. And so Damdam immediately proceeded on the fastest camel possible, and really it was very fast because think about it that this is probably taking place probably taking place around the 10th I mean 2-3 days before the Prophet ﷺ leaves because again these are the two spies as soon as the two spies come back literally as soon as they come back what does he do? he goes to the masjid he says right now let's go somebody says I want to pack my bags no right now let us go right? look at the quickness he doesn't want the news to get to Abu Sufyan so within 2-3 days Damdam must have reached Mecca Mecca the same day they make the decision Within three days they come back And they are at Badr This is super fast speed And this we'll discuss inshallah In the next lesson we have one more thing for today inshallah And that is events happening in Mecca Before Damdam arrives One thing happens in Mecca Before Damdam arrives That sets the stage And that is the dream of Atika Binti Abdul Muttalib Atika the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ and the full sister of Abdullah and Abu Talib. She is the full sister of Abdullah and Abu Talib. And therefore she is the full aunt of the Prophet ﷺ. By the way, did Atika accept Islam or not? Wallahi it seems to be a difference of opinion. Ibn Ishaq mentions that the only aunt of the Prophet ﷺ whoever accepted Islam is, everybody should know, Safiyyah. That is by unanimous consensus. Ibn Ishaq says, the only aunt, Amma of the Prophet ﷺ, to accept Islam is Safiyyah. However, Ibn Sa'ad says that Atika also accepted Islam. This one Atika that we're going to talk about. And that Atika migrated to Medina after this, and she died in Medina. Truth be told, even Ibn Hajar finds this skeptical because we don't have a single report about anything from Atika after this dream. And had she converted to Islam, we would have heard of stories like we have heard from Safiyyah. So Allah knows best. Maybe she did. Ibn Sa'ad says that she did. That Safiyyah and Atiqah were the two. Whereas Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Ishaq is the earlier and the greater authority. Ibn Ishaq says none of the aunts of the Prophet ﷺ accepted Islam other than Safiyyah. So keep this in mind and Allah knows best whether she accepted Islam or not. One thing for sure, we never hear of her after this dream. This is the only incident that we hear of her and after this she is basically what happened and when she died and what not we don't have any indication and anyone who can say had she been a Muslim then this would have been preserved with more care but in the end indeed Allah knows best so what dream did Atika see Atika had a dream three days before Damdam's arrival three days before Damdam arrived in Medina so they have no clue what's going on she woke up flustered and agitated and she called her brother Abbas the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. She was close to Abbas. She was the closest to Abbas in age and in bond. So she called her Abbas. And she said that I saw a nightmare, I saw a dream that I'm very concerned. It's making me very scared. Abbas said, what happened? Tell me. So she said that in my dream, I saw that a crier had come to Mecca. That a crier is going to come to Mecca in three days. So she predicted in three days, a crier will come to Mecca racing on his camel. So she's seeing the crier, she's seeing the camel and she knows it's gonna be in three days. And he first goes to masjid and he cries out in the masjid, Ya Ghudar, O you traitors and betrayers, people who have betrayed, O traitors, meet your death in three days from now. So six days from when she's saying this. three days and then three days. Go out and meet your death in three days from when I'm announcing this. Go out and meet your death. And then she said, the crier was on top of the Kaaba. So first he's next to the Kaaba. Then he's on top of the Kaaba and he says the same thing. Then he's on top of the mountain of Abu Qubais. The mountain of Abu Qubais, you still see it in Mecca. When you go to Mecca, you will find that small mountain that you can see from the Haram. This is the mountain of Abu Qubais. He is on the mountain of Abu Qubais. And the mountain of Abu Qubais was the highest peak in the immediate vicinity. And many times when they wanted to make a very major announcement, they would go to the sometimes Abu Qubais mountain and sometimes to Safa and Marwa which is closer. Abu Qubais is a little bit farther outward. And so he was standing on the mountain of Abu Qubais and he said the same thing. So he is saying it three times again. What is he saying? Ya Ghudar. Ghudar is the plural of those who are betrayed. Ghudara is to the worst type of betrayal. The worst type of traitors. Why are they traitors? Because they have betrayed the foundation of what they considered jahiliyyah, of what was most important to them, and that is blood. Blood. Qabilah. Tribes. Right? The one thing they value is tribes. Tribalism. And what have they done? For the first time in Arab history, they have broken tribes. The Quraish. And they have not allowed their tribesmen to basically live with them. This is one reason they're called traitors. Some can also say, and there's nothing wrong with this, they are traitors to the religion of Ibrahim and this is also plausible they are traitors Ya Ghudar, O traitors meet your death in three days go out and meet your death then Atika is saying this crier picks up a large rock from the mountain of Abu Qubais and he topples it from the mountain and Atika is saying she sees the rock go down all the way from the mountain until when it gets to the base it splinters and cracks up and then it continues rolling until every house in Mecca gets hit by one of the rocks. So the boulder cracks and then every house is hit by one of these stones. Now what is the interpretation? It's pretty obvious. The interpretation is that whatever announcement this man will make will cause the deaths of these traders in three days. They don't realize it but that's what the announcement will cause. They're gonna die in three days. and the rock hitting every house is the sign that every house will be struck with the calamity what calamity? the death of multiple people in the household not a single household of the Quraysh was spared in the battle of Badr every household had deaths every household was affected and so the crier is predicting and that is the rock coming down the boulder coming down that every one of your houses will be affected by this incident that's going to happen. And so, Abbas became very worried as well. And he said to Atika, he said to Atika, that wallahi this dream is a very dangerous dream. And I am worried. If you tell it to people, you will get into trouble. So, keep it to yourself. Don't tell anybody about this dream. Seems like a very dangerous dream. And it is said that Atika used to see these regular dreams. and we know that seeing dreams is something that Allah blesses people with. Seeing dreams that can be interpreted. The king at the time of Yusuf saw these dreams, right? The king at the time of Yusuf was not a Muslim and yet he saw these dreams. سَبْعَ بَقَرَاتٍ سِمَانٍ يَكُونَ سَبْعُ عِذَا Being a Muslim, non-Muslim doesn't mean these dreams can come to non-Muslims as well. And so Atika sees this dream. So Abbas says, don't tell anybody because I'm worried what will happen if people hear about it. Yet, being the man that he was, he could not follow his own advice. He tells A'tika to be quiet, but he goes and tells his best friend. And that is Al-Walid ibn Utbah. And he says, Oh Al-Walid, please don't tell anybody else. You see where this is heading. Right? And so Al-Walid says, Yeah, I promise. I promise I'm not going to tell anybody. And Al-Walid goes and tells his father Utbah. And he tells his father, Look, Abbas made me promise. So basically you get the point here. Within a short period of time, the whole city of Mecca is now gossiping about this strange dream you want to keep a secret keep it a secret from yourself and to yourself that's the only way to keep it you tell two people and that's it the secret is out so Abbas was the one who opened up the doors to telling the secret even though he's the one telling Atika don't tell anybody so Abbas still thinks that nobody knows because he has only told Al-Walid yet within a few hours it spreads and gossip and the whole people of Mecca are now talking about the strange dream of Atika. However you want to interpret it, there is clearly doom and dread. Oh traitors, meet your death in three days. That's not a positive dream, right? And a rock comes and smashes into every house. That's not a good dream. So you don't need to be an expert in dream interpretation to know that this dream is against the Quraysh, right? So the Quraysh are not too happy at this dream. Abbas doesn't know that they're not too happy. In any case, he goes to sleep. by the time he wakes up, everybody in the city is gossiping. But he still doesn't know. He goes around his business, buying and selling. Then he decides to, as he usually does, as was the custom of most of the Arabs in Quraysh at the time, to do tawaf after Asr, just go and do tawaf. This was their custom. So he goes and he does, and he's going to do tawaf when he sees Abu Jahl surrounded by his entourage, his minions. And Abu Jahl says, Ya Abbas, when you're done, come here. Abbas figures what's going on. He still doesn't get the point that the dream might have reached Abu Jahl. He does tawaf and then he comes to where Abu Jahl had called him. And Abu Jahl says to him that, O children of Abdul Muttalib, again the Banu Hashim, since when did you get a female prophetess as well? You understand the sarcasm here. Okay, we get the point you think you have a male prophet. Since when did you get a nabiya as well? A female prophetess. Abbas says what do you mean he's caught now, what do you mean and of course Abu Jahl is going on and on, he's like he said are you not satisfied isn't it enough that you have men who claim to be prophets but you're not satisfied with that you now want women to be predicting the future as well if it is true that a crier will come after three days, then it will happen it is true. But if it does not happen, then by Allah we will write a basically we'll say a sign in those days and we will place it on the Kaaba. The door of the Kaaba. That the Banu Abdul Muttalib are the most lying of the Arabs known to man. He is angry, Abu Jahl. And he says if this does not happen, then we are going to publicly shame you. Enough is enough. You already claim to have one prophet. Now you're going to bring forth another prophetess a female prophet Al-Abbas narrating the hadith himself later on, he says I was caught off guard and so I denied everything, this is what happens when you're caught in a lie, you just deny no no you're mistaken, whoever told you we didn't see, she didn't see any dream he denies everything but the news of what Abu Jahl has done to Abbas and humiliated Abbas and humiliated the Banu Abdul Muttalib Because again, Abu Jahab belongs to which tribe? Everybody should know now. Banu Makhzum. Abu Jahab belongs to the Banu Makhzum. So the Banu Umayyad, Abu Sufyan and all of them. Abu Jahab belongs to the Banu Makhzum. So the Banu Makhzum and the Banu Hashim have their rivalries. And the Banu Umayyad, these three have their internal rivalries, right? So the Banu Makhzum has their rivalries. So now this Makhzumite has publicly dissed the Muttalibites, right? and so the Banu Abdul Muttalib are now fuming Abbas denied everything before he even gets back to his house the women have heard what just took place mashallah how news spreads and when Al-Abbas comes back the women began lashing out at him and they literally say are you not a man? where is your manhood? could you not defend your own women? now it's not a matter of dreams it's a matter of tribalism now right forget what Atika saw where is your man have you no shame they literally said don't you have murua have you no shame you were dissed and your sister was dissed and the whole Banu Abdul Muttalib were dissed and you just stand there and take it until finally Abbas says I decided that khalas the next day I have to go back and publicly rebuke Abu Jahl and defend the Abdul Muttalib the Banu Abdul Muttalib okay so now it's becoming into a tit for tat. And Al-Abbas says, for the rest of the day, all the women of the Banu Abdul Muttalib came and had it out with me. The whole clan came and basically said, you have to do something. Have you no shame, this and that. So now he is now thinking, what can I say tomorrow? And so the next day, he wakes up and the first thing he does, he walks straight to the Kaaba to find Abu Jahl. And he's narrating this, this is in the first person, it's narrated in the Mustadhaqa al-Hakim, it's in the first person. and Al-Abbas says that when I came to the masjid I saw Abu Jahl in the distance as soon as he saw me he turned pale turned his back to me and walked away Al-Abbas is saying what is the matter with him? doesn't he have the courage to face me now? now he thinks his bravery has got the better of him, right? and I went to go face him when I finally saw what had caused Abu Jahl to go pale what was that? it's now the third day it's now the third day the second day Abu Jahl rebukes him then he wakes up it is the third day and the crier has already arrived Abbas has not heard him yet because he's walking out Abu Jahl has already heard him and so Abu Jahl is so embarrassed he cannot even face Al-Abbas and the crier is none other than of course Damdam and to make the effect even more melodramatic, even more melodramatic, Damdam had actually mutilated his own camel. In one narration it is said, he chopped its nose off, like some mutilation, and he smeared the blood over the camel. This would also make the camel panic by the way, to make it faster even, right? And he pour his clothes up, he put all of this soot and this dust on himself, and he rode the camel backwards. All of this to have a melodramatic effect and to give the impression that he himself had also been attacked. And he begins to cry out when he gets to Mecca that, O Quraysh, your caravan, O Quraysh, your caravan, your property and money with Abu Sufyan. It is being attacked by Muhammad and his companions right now. And you will not be able to defend it unless you act immediately. Now everything is a lie by the way, as of yet, because he is saying it's being attacked. Whereas there was a threat of attack, right? And he is coming as if he has been attacked even though nobody has touched him. So there is a desperation, there is an exaggeration going on here that he's trying to make this melodramatic effect. That your caravan, your money will be lost unless you do it now. النجا النجا Help, help! Basically, SOS, SOS. and so he came to the masjid he came to the Kaaba and he made the announcement of course his announcement was come and fight and Atika is already telling them no, come and meet your debts you're going to meet your debts and this was of course the prediction of Atika and we have come to the end inshallah of today's next Wednesday inshallah ta'ala we'll start off from the preparations of the Quraysh and also show you some of the maps and diagrams also of the battle of Badr. If there are any questions, we have five minutes of questions inshallah. Abu Jahl Amr ibn Hisham. Yes. Abu Jahl was his kunya from the very beginning. Yes, Abu Sufyan sent Damdam. Abu Sufyan sent Damdam because he, it is said that he had the fastest horse. And he was the fastest rider. And it's clear he was because he got there so quickly. Sisters, any questions? So this is a question of usool al-fiqh And the question is Does the ruling upon the Prophet ﷺ Differ from the rulings upon the other Muslims The response is There are some elements of the sharia Some aspects of the sharia Where what is unique to him is different than what he legislated upon us. So, there are certain hadith that have been interpreted in this light. That that was unique for the Prophet ﷺ and it was not something that we need to follow. But these are exceptions and not the rules. And generally speaking, when these exceptions exist, he himself points it out. And the most famous example is that of wisal, which is fasting 2-3 days non-stop. Or it is explicit in the Quran where Allah says خَالِصَةً لَكَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ It's in the Quran. Special for you, only for you and not for the other believers. خَالِصَةً لَكَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ So it is true that this is something that exists in usool al-fiqh. But we don't invoke this principle unless there is an explicit evidence to show this. Otherwise the general rule is that everything the Prophet ﷺ did and said and approved, we are also told to follow it. Because he is, generally he is our uswa. He is the uswa. Now, this does play into fiqh, for example, drinking while standing. The Prophet ﷺ, apparently, there's a hadith, some ikhtilaf, whether it's authentic or not, said don't drink while standing. But he himself drank while standing. This is in Bukhari as well. How do we do this? Some people say khas for him. The majority say, well, this shows it is allowed. You can do it, but it's makruh to drink while standing. Urinating while standing as well. There seem to be things that one hadith says he did it, and others like he never. So how do you reconcile? Some said it's khas, others said no. When there's a need you do it, otherwise you don't. So this tension does exist in fiqh, but it should only be evoked when there is no other means of reconciliation. Also the fact that he's doing this publicly for the communal benefit, right? Allahu a'lam, this cannot be used in this case. Allah knows best. Yes. Yes, we did mention this in the last lesson Which was before Ramadan Which probably you weren't here when we did that The justification One needs to realize a number of things First and foremost That that world is very different Than our modern world And the rules and the laws that we are accustomed to Were not rules and laws They are accustomed to And it is Unfair to read in our ethical values into their time and place. It is unfair to assume we have a higher standard than they did, which is what many of our people of our contemporary times think. No, they had a different standard and different style of living. And attacking caravans was something that every group did with another group they didn't have a treaty with. There was no government in Arabia. there was no unified government in Arabia and this was the law of the jungle that's exactly what Ja'far said to the king right when he went to Abyssinia that the strong devours the weak and Islam came and brought about a system of government and Islam came and said it is haram to do this once the system of Islam is established okay but in that establishment Islam did have to go on the offensive and defensive and the attacking of the Quraysh is both a defense and an offense at the same time. The Quraysh are not a neutral tribe. The Quraysh have caused all of the sufferings and damage to the Muslims. The Quraysh have persecuted the Muslims for 13 years. The Quraysh have not allowed the Muslims to live. The Quraysh have expelled the Muslims. The Quraysh have confiscated the property of the Muslims without paying them a penny in return. And that is probably why this was the largest caravan. So this is a state of war going on. And the Quraysh knew it. That's why Abu Sufyan himself is taking precautions. So there is no treaty that is being broken. There is no understanding that is being contradicted. Rather, the understanding is if you can get it, you're going to get it. Both the Quraysh and the Muslims knew this. So really there is nothing problematic at all. And that is the least that we can expect after all that the Quraysh has done. Even according to modern standards. Even according to modern standards. If you look at what the Quraysh has done to the Muslims, this is a state of war. And in a state of war, this isn't collateral damage, no. We don't even need to get into what is happening in modern times and sanctions against countries where hundreds and thousands of children are being killed. Why? Because of the one dictator in person. This is what is happening now is much worse, much worse under the guise of democracy and whatnot. So frankly, there's nothing at all surprising at what is happening. and it is justified even in terms of modern laws. And Allah knows best. Okay, yes, go ahead. Yes, I had mentioned this before and there is a number of theories. The one theory is that Abbas was sympathetic to Islam but not a Muslim. The other theory is that Abbas was a Muslim and the Prophet ﷺ had instructed him to stay there to inform. And that's exactly what he did in the battle of Uhud. in the battle of Uhud, he was the one who informed the Prophet ﷺ about what was happening okay, go ahead the question is what is the wisdom in saying the Quran is Arabic? No, no. The wisdom of Allah saying in the Quran, like if a person says this is an Arabic Quran, so that you may think, what is the wisdom of Allah saying that this Quran is an Arabic Quran, given the studies of Arabic culture, pre-Islamic? Allahu'alam, I don't know it has anything to do with Arabic culture. It's rather Allah is speaking to those upon whom the Quran came down, and they are the Arabs. And Allah is saying that I have sent this Quran in Arabic so that you can understand it. So it's not being given to you in a foreign language, like we say it's not in Greek. So Allah is saying, إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِرُونَ That Allah is saying that, and again the مُخَاطَبُون, or the people that are being addressed, are the Arabs at this point in time. That the Quran is coming down to the Arabs. At this point in time, everybody who's listening to the Quran and hearing it, is an Arab and who understands Arabic. So Allah, and now the question is problematic for the non-Arabs. And I've been asked this when we did Surah Yusuf, like, what do the non-Arabs do? And that's a whole different tangent which you're asking. You're asking what is this question, what is the wisdom here? The wisdom here is Allah is saying, this is in your language, go study and understand it. And Allah challenges them that if you are in doubt as to what we have revealed, then bring something similar to it, right? So Allah is using their own eloquence and their own language and outbeating them, outwitting them in their own game. And Allah is saying, if you're in any doubt, you think you know the language, bring something similar to it. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. Final question from the sisters before we... Yes, go ahead. we don't have any details about what exactly is on the caravan, on the camels, we don't have any details. We can only assume from secondary sources. And the assumptions are that the buying and selling that takes place is the middleman type of buying and selling. For example, when a businessman goes to another country, he buys the goods of that country, he comes back to the country he's living in, then he'll sell them to his people then he'll purchase the goods that are not available elsewhere and go back there so we already mentioned the genius of the great great great grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ, the fourth generation, the fifth generation grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ was the رحلة الشتاء والصيف that he made Mecca an economic center he made Mecca an economic lifeline that he goes all the way down to Yemen and from Yemen you will get the imports of Africa Ethiopia, of Habesha of the Yemeni coast which is a lot of things in Yemen. And then he brings it up to Mecca. In Mecca, all of the tribes come for Hajj across Arabia. So you buy and sell from every single tribe. Different furs, different spices, different goods, everything. And then you go up to Rome. And then you're connected to the entire Roman peninsula. The whole Roman Empire from east to west. From North Africa all the way up to what is now basically the borders of Iraq. You're getting all of these goods in Rome. so Mecca becomes an economic capital. It is highly doubtful, this is my guesstimation, that the caravan would have physical goods of the muhajirun. No. They're coming back from Syria so they have the goods of the Byzantines. They have their utensils, they have their pots, they have their spices, they have the furs, they have the silks, they have the cloth that is famous in the Byzantine lands. They're gonna come back to Mecca and then in Mecca, that the Arabs are gonna come from across Arabia and purchase these goods because they're not gonna go all the way up to Syria. They're gonna come and hajj, they're gonna purchase all of these goods, get a lot of money and a lot of other goods and then go back to Syria. So, Allahu a'lam. And also what Ibn Ishaq says, everybody had invested in the caravan, right? So the investment is done basically with a monetary quantity that you have 5,000, 10,000 in the caravan. I don't think there's gonna be a physical good that the muhajirin are saying, I want to get my particular something back. This does not seem to be the case. And Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. Allah Azza wa Jal knows best.

Seerah 36 - The Battle of Badr 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ 17th October 2012-WtzQCwTfWac

Al-Fatiha. So we're now still on the Battle of Badr. Last week we had talked about the preparations for the Battle of Badr and why it is called the Battle of Badr. Who can remind me why is it called the Battle of Badr? It's a person's name, the person who dug a well at a particular place and that place was then called after the well. And this is which Battle of Badr? The first, the second, the third? No, this is not Sughra, this is Kubra. This is the big one. This is the second Battle of Badr. This is the big, this is the real battle of Badr. The other battle of Badr is not even quite a battle. It was just a minor skirmish as we had mentioned. Now, we had mentioned that Abu Sufyan detected the presence of the Prophet ﷺ and he took an alternate route going closer to the shore, closer to the Red Sea. And he sent an envoy, a crier to Mecca to hype up the people of the Quraysh to send an army. So what happened after the dream of Atiqah? We had mentioned the dream of Atika. We had mentioned the commotion that had been caused by Abu Jahl and by Al-Abbas and what happened over there. What happened after that? The Quraysh immediately convened a council and they're debating what exactly needs to be done. And almost unanimously, they agreed they need to send an army to protect the caravan. Because the exaggerated report of Damdam, the exaggerated report of the envoy of Abu Sufyan had made them very worried about their investments. This is their livelihood, this is their saving. There's simply no question that this in their eyes is a legitimate army. That they need to gather together an army immediately and send it out to confront the Muslims. And therefore the largest and the quickest gathering ever in the history of Mecca took place in that they gathered together the largest quantity of people in the smallest amount of time. that literally within a day, preparations were completed, and they left Mecca. And a number of incidents occurred, and again we're trying to piece this together to make a fluid narrative. A number of incidents occurred. It is said by Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Ishaq mentions, that not a single family in Mecca remained behind, except that somebody was sent on behalf of that family. Every single household sent somebody. And this is a prediction of the dream of Atika. Because what was the dream of Atika? That every household, a rock would hit it. Right? And in prediction of that dream, what happened? Every household was sending a person, an emissary. And if they could not send an emissary, if they couldn't send somebody from within the household, they hired another person to send. They hired another person to go in his place. and a number of specific incidents are mentioned by a number of people about what happened here. So, we know a number of things that occurred. Firstly, Abu Lahab himself, who is Abu Lahab, of course, he is the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. He is also the chieftain of the Banu Hashim. Abu Lahab decided not to go. And instead he found somebody to go in his place. And this person, his name is known, his name is known, Al-Asa bin Wael, that he didn't hire somebody. He actually had a loan, an outstanding loan of 4,000 dirhams that was owed to him. And so he told this debtor that if you go in my place, I'll forgive the loan for you. 4,000 dirhams is a large amount of money. If you go in my place, I will forgive this large amount for you. And so this person went in his stead and Abu Lahab did not go. Now it is not mentioned why Abu Lahab did not go. This is not mentioned in the classical books as far as I could find. But Allah knows best, perhaps along with the natural fear and cowardice of meeting an enemy and of being killed, Allah knows best, there was also probably a sense of conflict. There was a sense of personal conflict that in the end of the day, this is his sub-tribe that he will be fighting. And this goes against everything that the Arabs stood for. the jahili paganism, the jahili system of tribalism, that in the end, he could not meet his own tribe in battle. Because after all, most of the process of himself is Banu Hashim, that's his nephew, the majority of the Muslims of the Quraysh are from the tribe and related to him. And therefore, perhaps he did feel some conflict. And in fact, throughout the seerah, even though of course Abu Lahab is not worthy of any praise, and Allah curses him in the Qur'an. Nonetheless, we find that Abu Lahab on a few occasions did do certain things of nobility according to his custom, not according to Islam, according to his custom. And of them, as you remember, who can remind me one or two things that Abu Lahab did that were of nobility? When the Prophet ﷺ was born, that he was so happy that he freed the slave and he sacrificed an udhiyah. And because of this, the Prophet ﷺ said, he's given just a little bit of water every week. He's given a little bit of water because of this, right? And what else did he do? Who can remind me? He initially protected the Prophet ﷺ after the death of Abu Talib. After the death of Abu Talib, Abu Lahab became the de facto leader of the Quraysh, or of the Banu Hashim to be more precise. And despite all that happened, he said, you know what, since in the end of the day he is my tribe, he is my nephew, I guess I'll have to protect him. But then Abu Jahl got in the way and he had to withdraw. So there seems to be that deep down inside, it's not any good, rather we call it Jahiliyyah. That he had the sense of Jahiliyyah that this is my tribe. And how can I fight my own tribe? Allah knows best. This is my theory. The classical books don't mention anything. Why would Abu Lahab not go out and fight? Of those who initially, and by the way, there's no question that even though Abu Lahab was one of the worst, there are people much worse than him. Right? Abu Jahl is much worse than him. Umayyah is much worse than him. Right? So there are people that are much worse than Abu Lahab. Even though Abu Lahab is definitely of the lower category of the disbelievers. Of those who also hesitated and refused to go was Utbah ibn Rabi'ah. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah. Who is Utbah ibn Rabi'ah? Who can remind me? Guide? No, no, no. Utbah is not the guide. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah. What did he do that made him... you all know but you just don't know the name Utbah ibn Rabi'ah was the one who gifted the grapes to the Prophet ﷺ after the incident of Ta'if this is Utbah ibn Rabi'ah that he saw the Prophet ﷺ being tortured and he saw him sitting down in the shade and shelter bleeding and he felt some sympathy for him so he gifted him some grapes with the Christian slave if you remember right this is Utbah ibn Rabi'ah And again Utbah has some noble qualities throughout. We notice a number of noble qualities throughout the seerah. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah, and he was a distant uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah himself initially decided not to go and fight because again these are his own relatives. However his brother Shaybah, Utbah and Shaybah were blood brothers. His brother Shaybah said, if we abandon our people at a time such as this crucial time, then for the rest of our lives we will have to suffer mockery and humiliation that if we don't stand up to our principles and our cause now it will forever be a cause of a cause of embarrassment for as long as we live and so the both of them prepared to go out and they did not know and realize that the both of them were preparing for their own debts in fact their debts were the first debts of the battle of Badr as we'll study they died in the Mubaraza. The Mubaraza is the pre-battle, the battle before the battle. It's a duel to the death, right? This is the duel to the death that precedes the wars. This is how the Arabs would fight. And Utbah and his brother Shaybah, they were of those who died in this pre-battle. And Utbah, by the way, he clearly demonstrates some common sense and some values that he believed in. And Utbah is the one, again I'm jumping the gun, so that you understand. who is Utbah. Utbah is the one who tried to prevent the battle till the very last second. Till the very last second. I'm gonna repeat this story inshallah next week. But Utbah was the one who, when the two armies had lined up, Utbah was just so disgusted that cousins and uncles and brothers and sons are all gonna fight each other, that he devised a scheme and a tactic, and he, the story is long, I'll talk about it next week, but what happened was, he then jumped on his red camel, he had a red camel, and he was galloping throughout the ranks. And he was telling the Quraysh, do not fight. Even if you win, you will be the losers, because you will have killed your own brothers and sons. What type of victory is this when you go home, having been proud of killing your own cousin and brother? How is this a victory? And he said, blame it on me and my cowardice. Go ahead and tell the Arabs. Now that's what you call a noble man. That he's saying, go ahead and tell them that I became scared, and I was the one who stopped you. I don't mind. Let the blame come to me. Even though you all know I'm not a coward, but go and tell them that I became a coward today. Now that is really a sense of nobility. This is Utbah ibn Rabi'ah. Nonetheless, his brother told him that if you stop now, then for the rest of our lives, we're gonna have to hear the waswas. We're gonna have to hear the innuendos of the Quraysh that we didn't participate when we should have participated. And therefore, his what we now call blind nationalism. Really, this is what caused him to basically support his cause. And this is Islam is always against blindly supporting any cause. Only the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the human being that we support unconditionally. Right? As for other human beings, we look at their cause. We look at their methodology. We look at who they are. The only person who is unconditionally supported is the Prophet ﷺ. Everything else, every other person, we need to see what is right and what is wrong. This is this type of jahiliyyah, this type of asabiya, this type of supporting your party. Right or wrong, I don't care, I'm gonna support it. This is typical in humanity. You find it in nationalism, you find it even along the, let's say, political lines, democrat and republican. Sometimes people are so blinded, they really don't care. It's their party, they were born in it, khalas. They're gonna support it right and wrong. And we as Muslims are told, no, follow the truth even if it is against yourself, against your mother and father. Allah says, even if it's against your parents, speak the truth. Follow the truth, it is above any person or any blind cause. And this is what we find here. That Utbah was a wise man in the end of the day. In fact, again I'm jumping the gun. This is all next week's halaqah. The Prophet ﷺ said, if anybody in that gathering has wisdom, it is the man on the red camel. And another version, if anybody has any khair, any good in him, it is the man on the red camel. So the Prophet ﷺ said, The man on the red camel who was Utbah, he is the one who embodies all that is good in the Jahiliyyah Arabs, in the Quraysh. If they have any good, it is this man, Utbah ibn Rabi'ah. But still what happened? When he tried to, Abu Jahl won over. And Utbah then in his anger, again I'm jumping the gun, but Abu Jahl accused him of something. And in his anger, he became the first person to go out and fight in the Mubaraza. Look at blind rage, what happens? Look at the sense of, I don't care what, right or wrong, I will support my cause. Once he threw in the towel, as they say, once he agreed, khalas, he became the first victim to his own fanaticism. Because what was he fanatic about? The cause of jahiliyyah, the cause of tribalism. Why did he not want to fight the process of them? Not for any truth or falsehood. He believed the truth was on his side. But it was a sense of jahili tribalism. That's all it was, right? And so, that was what was motivating him, that's not a noble cause. and therefore it's not going to take him all the way as much as it needed to be. So Utbah ibn Rabi'ah eventually was also convinced and therefore he also agreed to go and participate. Yet another person who was hesitating to go but for totally different reasons. So Utbah and Abu Lahab, perhaps their reasons were somewhat noble from jahili standards. As for one who was not wanting to go out of pure cowardice, this is Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayyid. Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayyid. Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt was perhaps the lowest of the low of the entire enemies of the Prophet ﷺ. And I've mentioned many times before that those who opposed Islam in Mecca, we can say that there was a spectrum. That some of them, let's say the higher side of the spectrum, even though they're pagans and mushriks and kafirs, they nonetheless had some nobility. That they didn't stoop to cheap shots. They didn't do that which was undignified. And the best example of this is Abu Sufyan. That Abu Sufyan, despite his jahiliyyah, his paganism and what not, he had a sense of nobility in him. And that is why we don't have any narrations where he did something crude or vulgar or demeaning to his own dignity. He didn't do that. He was a noble enemy and therefore eventually Allah guided him. As I said many times, generally speaking, of course there are always exceptions. Generally speaking, those who are noble enemies, we find that Allah guides them. Means they had some good in them. And those who were the lowly, the vulgar, the crude, the disgusting enemies. Those who had no manners and akhlaq, generally speaking, we find that these were not guided. Again, there are exceptions, but this is the general rule. And Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayyad, perhaps we can say he was the filthiest of the filthy. The worst of the worst. And perhaps this is a wisdom why Allah did not even mention him in the Quran. That he's indirectly mentioned Abu Jahl, he's directly mentioned Abu Lahab, but Uqba is so filthy, he's not even worthy of being mentioned. Where do we begin about Uqba and what Uqba has done? Uqba is the one who, in the incident we mentioned in the persecution of the Muslims, Uqba was that one who snuck up behind the Prophet ﷺ, took off his garment, his shawl, and he tried to choke the Prophet ﷺ while he was praying in front of the Kaaba. And Abu Bakr came running up and he said, أَتَقْتُلُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهِ This is now a verse from the Quran, that will you kill a man just because he says Allah is his Lord, you're gonna murder him, and he's trying to choke the Prophet ﷺ. And Abu Bakr had to go and defend Uqbah, defend the Prophet ﷺ against Uqbah, and that was when Abu Bakr was beaten and bloodied and bruised until he was in his house for a week or two, we mentioned this story in detail. Uqbah is the one who was amongst those who suggested and approved assassinating the Prophet ﷺ in a secret meeting. Right? This is the Darun Najwa, the secret meeting that they had to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. Uqbah was in that crowd to suggest it and to approve it. And Uqbah was that filthy person who when Abu Jahl mocked the Prophet ﷺ in sajda that they were with a group of people, that Abu Jahl said, who amongst you will go and pick up the carcass of an animal that had just been slaughtered? An animal had just been slaughtered. And in those days, an animal was not slaughtered every day. This is a rare event. An animal is slaughtered once every few weeks. And then the carcass and the entrails and the intestine is thrown in the outside, in the junkyard. And so Abu Jahl said, who amongst you will throw this when the Prophet ﷺ is doing sajda on him? Because they would mock the Prophet ﷺ in sajda. You know, the sajda is not something the Quraysh did. The sajda is an Islamic routine. The Muslims bow down their heads to worship Allah ﷻ. And so this posture was being mocked by Abu Jahl. And they're laughing and they're hitting each other on the backs. And they're saying, who's gonna now to make fun of the Prophet ﷺ, throw this carcass on him. And so as Ibn Ishaq said, فَقَامَ فِي الْقَوْمِ أَشْقَاهُمْ The most worst of the people stood up and rushed to get it. And that was Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt. Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt was the one who rushed outside of the city. And this is a nobleman. He's not a poor person. He's a slave owner. He's a nobleman. He is a rich person. And yet, he picks up this filthy. Can you imagine like the flies and the filth and the blood and the gore? Can you imagine? He's going to pick this up, right? He would never do this for any cause. But the filthiness inside of him was worse than the filthiness of this carcass. For him to pick up this filth, and to rush back happy rejoicing that yes I'm gonna throw this on the Prophet ﷺ. Can you imagine what type of mentality is that right? This is Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayl and this is the one who when he threw it on they're all laughing and the Prophet ﷺ was stuck as you know. He was stuck there, it was so heavy on him. And Ibn Mas'ud is saying that I saw him and I could not do anything because Ibn Mas'ud is a slave, Ibn Mas'ud is a mawla. They would have cut his head off. But he or somebody runs to Fatima because she's a Qurashi. and Fatima then goes and she is the one as a young girl crying she is the one who helps the Prophet ﷺ out from under this and it is narrated that Uqba once he sarcastically invited the Prophet ﷺ to a meal, sarcastically like come, I'm having a dinner, come have a feast with me as well and the Prophet ﷺ said that I will never eat with you until you testify La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah I will never eat, you think I'm going to sit and eat with you and so in his anger astaghfirullah he spit upon the face of the Prophet ﷺ this is uqba ya bayyamin mu'ayt he spit upon the face of the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ calmly wiped that spit away and he predicted the prediction that would happen and he said oh uqba when I meet you outside of the valleys of Mecca I shall execute you or I shall kill you or I shall chop your head off is the Arabic word which means I shall kill you and it was literally chopping over the head off while you are tied up this was a prediction Uqba was the nobleman and the Prophet ﷺ is now being persecuted the Prophet ﷺ said just wait when I will meet you the next time outside of Mecca right now you are in Mecca the next time we meet outside of Mecca or we can say the first time I meet you outside of Mecca the situation will be turned around that your execution will be at my hand and your execution will be as a prisoner of war basically and so Uqba was frightened when he heard of the battle of Badr. He said, this man has promised to kill me. This man has promised to kill me and I cannot go out of Mecca now. Now look at the irony here, that deep down inside he knows this prediction is true. Right? Deep down inside he actually knows this is gonna happen. And so he does not want to leave Mecca. But one of his entourage, one of his family, we don't know, the name is not mentioned. He said, don't worry, I have the fastest camel, I will give it to you, even if the army flees don't worry your camel will take you far away from the camp you will come back to Mecca safe and so with this promise and the others were also castigating him making fun of him he decided he had to prove his manhood and so he decided to go ahead and accompany and this person gave him the fastest camel but you cannot outwit the Makar or the Qaid of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala subhanallah when the army fled in the Badr we're gonna come to this when the army fled, Uqba's camel was the first to flee. And so Uqba was left in the middle of an empty plain with no person and no camel and nothing. Absolutely nothing. And the Muslims captured him as a prisoner of war. And as we'll come to probably in two, three weeks, Allah knows when we'll get to that. But Uqba was one of only two people who were executed. The battle of Badr, there were no executions. All of the prisoners were released, except for two. And number one on the list is Uqba. Right? For all of these reasons. So Uqba was scared and he knew something was going to happen. And indeed it did happen because the Prophet ﷺ predicted that it would happen. And of those who tried desperately also to get out of the battle of Badr is Umayyah ibn Khalaf. Umayyah ibn Khalaf is the slave master of Bilal, right? He was the one who did what he did to Bilal. And his death is a gruesome death as well. Umayyah ibn Khalaf was the typical coward. He's the typical overly fed, huge man wearing fancy garments. The typical, the stereotypical, you know, richer, you know, nobleman of Mecca. He doesn't have any skills at war. He's got a lot of money. He's got a lot of slaves. He wears the fanciest garment. And Ibn Ishaq says he was a big man. And he was, mashaAllah, tabarakAllah, right? That type of man. And so, when Umayyad ibn Khalaf heard about the Battle of Badr, he found somebody to go with him. and he said, I'll pay you as much as you want. You are my representative. You will fight and you will basically, not pretend to be me, but you will say, this is the representative Umayyah ibn Khalaf. And so Umayyah ibn Khalaf was very happy, he managed to get out of it. But Umayyah is no doubt one of the seniors of the Quraysh. He is one of the top five leaders of the Quraysh. And his presence will bring great morale to the troops. So Abu Jahl heard of this. Abu Jahl is, there is no doubt, number one on the list of enemies. The worst person is Abu Jahl, right? As the Prophet ﷺ said, he is the Fir'aun of my ummah. Abu Jahl, he gets involved in every matter he can. Abu Jahl turns the tide many times for the worst. And this is one of them. That when he heard of Umayyah not going, he went to Umayyah ibn Khalaf. And he said, if you do not go, this will demoralize many people. You are the Sayyid of this whole valley. He's boosting him up, his ego, right? He's not the Sayyid, but he's one of the Sayyid, he's one of the leader. You are the Sayyid of this whole valley, and your presence is necessary. Still he was hesitant. Abu Jahl, despite his force, he still could not convince him. So what did he do? Abu Jahl then went to the same Uqbah. The same Uqbah, right? And they devised a tactic to humiliate him in public, to make sure that he goes out. What did they do? So when Umayyah is sitting in the Nadi, the Nadi is the public space, right? The Nadi is the Senate if you like, outside of the Kaaba there is this open area, this is called the Nadi. So in the daytime, all of the Quraysh would sit there. So when Umayyah was sitting on his fancy carpet, and he has his entourage, and he has his clothes on him, so Uqbah came to him with a perfume burner, and coal underneath it, of the type that women use. So they had feminine perfume, right? Of the type that women use. and he brought him and said this is your gift oh Umayyah perfume yourself as you are worthy of being perfumed you get the hint here that you are no man you are a woman you are deciding to not fight when you need to be and of course Umayyah understands exactly what's going on this is how the Arabs did their smearing to each other this is how the Quraysh did it he understands what is going on and so he stood up and he cursed Uqbah literally he cursed Uqbah and whoever sent Uqbah, because he knew Uqbah is not smart enough to do this himself, right? So, and by the way, Uqbah himself, you can tell, he is overcompensating for his own cowardice before, right? Uqbah himself is just barely convinced. Now he needs to show he is dedicated to the cause. So Uqbah is the one that is sent by Abu Jahl to push Umayyah to go fight. And so, even then, by the way, Umayyah's cowardice shows. When he goes back home, Ibn Is'haq tells us, he tells his wife that, go purchase for me the best camel that money can buy. Why? Run back if I need to, right? His wife begs him, don't go, you never know, you might die, this and that. And he tells her, don't worry, I don't really intend to fight. I'm just gonna make a show of it and then just quietly sneak back, don't worry. You know, even so to the last, that Umayyah did not intend to fight. He was not a fighter in any sense of the term. And he just wanted to spend a few days then hopefully he would just sneak away or he would make an excuse and come back. He never intended to fight. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, لِيَقْضِيَ اللَّهُ أَمْرًا كَانَ مَفْعُولًا لِيَهْلِكَ مَنْ هَنَكَ عَنْ بَيِّنَ That Allah will cause to pass what He has willed will pass. And so everybody who will die will be caused to die. And Umayyah's name was amongst those. And by the way, the incident of the camel or the goat being thrown onto the Prophet ﷺ, right? You all know that after this happened, we mentioned this many months ago and we talked about this, when the Prophet ﷺ stood up with the blood on him, he said, Oh Allah, I leave you to deal with. And he mentioned all of these seven or eight people by name. Umayyad ibn Khalaf, and Uqba ibn Mu'aytan, Abu Jahl, and everyone whom he mentioned, every one of them, this list, were the first people who died at Badr. Right? And so, he is one of them over here as well. And he knows that this is very risky for him. Nonetheless, so Umayyah as well Ibn Khalaf, Umayyah Ibn Khalaf then even though he purchases as led to, of course the detail is not mentioned, but he tells his wife go and purchase, and notice he even tells his wife like he's too embarrassed to go himself, like people wouldn't know, go and purchase the fanciest camel you can, and so he prepares himself and he doesn't realize he himself is also preparing his own death in the tafsir of a suddi it is mentioned that before they left Makkah, all of the Quraysh gathered around the Ka'bah. And they made a dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And they held on to the rings of the Ka'bah and the cloth of the Ka'bah. And they said, O Allah, whichever of these two armies is more noble in your eyes, help them. And O Allah, whichever of these two groups is more honorable, then give them victory. And O Allah, send your aid upon the better of the two tribes. and little did they realize they are making dua against themselves they are making dua against themselves and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala references this in the Quran, surah al-anfal and by the way surah al-anfal all of it deals with the incident of Badr and inshallah I am seriously thinking about when we finish the battle of Badr we actually pause for one halaqah and just do surah al-anfal as battle of Badr because honestly I think one of the biggest drawbacks of most seerah books is that they actually don't discuss the entire Quranic relevance verses, you know. And I think it's very important personally that we actually discuss the Quranic verses and surah Al-Anfal, all of it, and it's only 10 pages. It's not a very long surah, it's a middle-sized surah. The whole surah is about the battle of Badr beginning to end. I'm seriously figuring out if we can manage to do that in one halaqah inshallah ta'ala. So we said that they gathered outside of the Ka'bah and they made dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Allah references this in Surah Al-Anfal verse 19. Surah Al-Anfal verse 19. إِن تَسْتَفْتِحُوا فَقَدَ جَاءَكُمُ الْفَتْحَ If you are asking for victory, then the victory has already come. Meaning on the other side, not on your side. إِن تَسْتَفْتِحُوا فَقَدَ جَاءَكُمُ الْفَتْحَ وَإِن تَنْتَهُ فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ Now, the verse is a reference to the Quraysh, not to the Muslims. The reference to the Muslims has already come. We're gonna mention this when we get to Surah Al-Anfal. That Allah says, when you asked Allah for help, Allah said, I'm sending down all of these angels. This is in the beginning of the Surah, right? Now Allah mentions the other side. إِن تَسْتَفْتِحُ If you are asking Allah for Fatah, Fatah means victory, right? Then don't worry. فَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ فَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ إِنْ تَسْتَفْتِعُوا فَقَدْ جَاءَ الْفَتْحِ دَالَ The victory has already come, not to you. It has already been sent down. The victory has come, but not to you. وَإِنْ تَنْتَهُوا فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ But if you stop what you're doing, it is better for you. وَإِنْ تَعُودُوا نَعُودُ And if you return to war, we shall return to war. وَلَنْ تُغْنِيَ عَنْكُمْ فِئَتُكُمْ شَيْءًا وَلَوْ كَثُرَتْ And all of your numbers will not help you, even if you're a lot. وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُتَّقِينَ because Allah is with the muttaqeen and not with you. So Allah references that, you are asking for victory, don't worry, the victory has already come, too late. You are asking for it, it's not gonna change where the victory will be coming down. Now the Quraysh left Mecca, they began marching outside of Mecca, and the whole army came, and at that time, we'll mention why it came down, at that time their numbers were around 1300. Around 1300 people gathered together, and this was the largest army that the Quraysh had ever gathered in its history. And Islam brought many changes with it. Of it, it is literally exponential. The sizes of the army is increasing. The Quraysh, as we have said many times, it's a tribal society. You don't get 5, 10, 15 tribes joining together to fight another 5, 10, 15. No. Small tribes fighting other tribes. An average skirmish would be 200 people, 100 people versus another 100, 200 people. This is how you would do it. For the first time, numbers are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And in Badr it's 1,300. In Uhud it is 3,000. In Ahzab it is 5,000. It's getting bigger and bigger. And every army is breaking records before it. Because clearly Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is intending in a very expedited way. It's an exponential. Literally Allah azawajal is intending the entire conquest of Mecca, of the Arabian Peninsula. So they had 1,300 people as they're exiting. And from the beginning we noticed that the Quraysh are not united. There's always bickering. Allah says in the Quran, تَحْسَبُهُمْ جَمِيعًا وَقُلُوبُهُمْ شَتَّى You think they're one group, but in reality their hearts are disunited. You think they're one, but in reality their hearts are disunited. And this disunity began from the very exiting of Mecca. That one group began debating amongst themselves that, hold on a sec, we're leaving Mecca unprotected. All of the men of fighting age are marching outside of Mecca. and then they brought up an old rivalry that existed before the coming of Islam. This is paranoia. It's been now 10 years since this rivalry. It's still fresh, meaning the people who are involved are still alive. But nothing has happened because when Islam came, both tribes had to deal with this new message of Islam. What had happened, the Quraysh and the Banu Bakr, another tribe, the Quraysh and the Banu Bakr had started a small tension or war. to make a long story short one of the Quraishi youth wandered into the land of the Banu Bakr and he was a future leader of the Quraish and Ibn Ishaq mentions that he was a tall and handsome man and so when the leader of the Banu Bakr saw him he felt jealousy that this boy is going to become the leader this boy was a very handsome and strong man he felt a sense of jealousy and so he told one of the Banu Bakr to go and assassinate him, just kill him, just for no reason in the middle of the desert. And before this, by many years or decades, they had a blood feud that one member of the Quraysh had killed somebody from the Banu Bakr. So he said, I'm gonna make up for that one for one. I'm gonna make it up by killing this young man. So when the Quraysh sent a representative that what is this? Why did you do this? So the chieftain of Banu Bakr said, a man for a man. A man for a man. That, remember that guy you killed? And he mentioned some name, we don't know when, 10, 15, 20 years ago. Remember that guy? I killed this boy for that boy, for that young man that was killed. So let's just call it quits. A man for a man. So the Quraysh said, okay, fine, you know what? A man for a man. He's right actually that we did owe them blood money, we never paid up. So instead of paying 100 camels, we'll just not go to war. And so the brother of this killed man, the brother of this Qurayshi who was killed, he decided to go and assassinate the chieftain of the Banu Bakr. Not just any average guy. The very man who was jealous. The very man who ordered the assassination. And so he succeeded in this mission. And the chieftain of the Banu Bakr was assassinated. And this brother, this is in the days of Jahiliyyah. This is before Islam came. This is before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. This brother brought back the clothes and the sword of the chieftain of the Banu Bakr, bloodied. And he had a gruesome death as well. He cut him into pieces. He cut his stomach up. And then he brought this back and he put it on the door of the Ka'bah. That look, look at what I have done. He put it on the door of the Ka'bah. And so the news spread that the Quraysh has basically killed the chieftain of Banu Bakr. Now this is war. This is civil war between the Banu Bakr and the Quraysh. And before any war could take place, the message of Islam became stronger and stronger and the both tribes basically just paused for a while. So the situation was now in limbo. It's unresolved. and so for some reason they get paranoid that now the Banu Bakr are gonna come and they're going to attack Mecca when it's empty they'll take our women they'll kill our children they'll take our possessions they'll get their vengeance now okay so there was a huge commotion in the army rumors spread and as it is generally people don't want to go to war they want an excuse to get back right so this is an excuse now the army was about to return or at least a large segment of it then what happened? Shaytan became desperate Shaytan, Iblis himself became desperate that what am I gonna do now? and so Iblis appeared to them physically Iblis came and Allah mentions this in the Quran as well mentioned Iblis came to them in the form of Suraqah ibn Malik the same Suraqah ibn Malik who was attempting to catch the Prophet ﷺ in the Hijrah It's the same Suraqah. Why Suraqah? Because Suraqah was from the Banu Kinana. And the Banu Kinana is the larger tribe of the Banu Bakr. I.e. the Quraysh and the Banu Hashim, the same relationship. The Banu Hashim is one of the tribes of the Quraysh. So the Banu Kinana rivals the Quraysh. And the Banu Bakr is one of the tribes of the Banu Kinana. Clear? Tribalism has to be studied when you study the seerah. Clear? Right? and Suraqah was from another of the tribes of the Banu Kinana but nonetheless he is from the Banu Kinana he is from the equivalent of the Quraysh so and he is a chieftain of their tribe so Suraqah comes and says don't worry I have heard of your fear I will make sure that the Banu Bakr do not attack you clear? right? Shaytan basically comes in the form of a nobleman whom they all knew and trusted and respected, Suraqah. And of course at the time Suraqah was not a Muslim. Suraqah became a Muslim later on as you know. We mentioned the story of Suraqah in detail. That shaitan came to them in the form of Suraqah and said to them, that don't worry, I promise you that as long as you are gone, I shall protect Mecca. That I am وَإِنِّي جَارُ لَكُمْ That I will be your protector. I will be your, you can count on my word that the Banu Bakr are not going to attack Mecca and Suraqa even said you know what, I'll accompany you as well so that you know that I'm serious even though he's not from the Quraish even though it's not his fight even though the Banu Kinana are not involved in the caravan but Suraqa allegedly Suraqa said to show you how clearly we will not attack I will fight along with you and so they were so happy that one of the chieftains of the Banu Kinana is coming. This is a big morale boost. And then when Suraqah, it's a Quran quote Suraqah, it's not Suraqah, this is Shaytan. When Shaytan, we should say, sees the angels coming down on the morning of Badr, and we'll come back to this story when we get to the morning of Badr. When Shaytan sees the angels coming down, نَكَصَ عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ Allah mentions all of this in the Quran, right? He turned around and he started running away. And the Quraysh were like, Suraqah, why are you running away? because they cannot see the angels. They cannot see the angels, right? So the Quraysh are like, why are you running away? Didn't you say you're gonna fight with us? And one of them tried to stop him, because he's come all the way, can you imagine? From Mecca, he's come all the way to Badr. The morning of the battle of Badr, this is when Suraqah sees all of those angels come. That's when he turns around and he runs away. And when one of them tries to stop him, shaitan basically shows his true identity, pushes him so hard, the man just flies up in the air. And quote-unquote Suraqah, A.e. shaitan says that, إِنِّي أَرَى مَا لَا تَرَونَ This is in the Quran. إِنِّي أَرَى مَا لَا تَرَونَ This is Surah Al-Anfal, verse 47-48. Surah Al-Anfal, 47-48. That Allah says in the Quran, that وَإِذْ زَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ This is the verse. وَإِذْ زَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ When shaitan made their actions beautiful for them. This is the story of Surah Qana. When shaitan beautified their actions. Go ahead, fight, you're doing a good cause. وَقَالَ لَا عَاصِمَ لَكُمْ الْيَوْمَ لِلنَّاسِ وَقَالَ لَا غَالِبَ لَكُمْ الْيَوْمَ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِنِّي جَارُ لَكُمْ And he said, none amongst mankind can defeat you. لَا غَالِبَ لَكُمْ الْيَوْمَ لِلنَّاسِ None amongst mankind can defeat you. Why? Because you are so many. You have so many weapons. You have 1300 people. وَإِنِّي جَارُ لَكُمْ And I am your guarantor, your protector. وَإِنِّي جَعْلُ لَكُمْ It doesn't mean I'm your neighbor. It means I'm your protector here. I'll make sure nothing happens back there. فَلَمَّا تَرَأَتِ الْفِئَتَانَ When the two armies faced one another, نَكَصَ عَلَى عَقِبَهِ He turned his back around, right? And he said, وَقَالَ إِنِّي أَرَى مَا لَا تَرَونَ I can see what you guys cannot see. إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ I am scared of Allah. Shaytan is scared. I am scared of Allah, the lord of the world wallahu shaydu al-iqab Allah is severe in punishment so this is the first if you like notice of the differences in the army of the Quraysh we know from a number of Imam Ahmad Musnad and Ibn Ishaq and others, we know that when the army left there were 1300 people Abu Jahl is the undisputedly the main leader is Abu Jahl they had over 100 horses over 600 suits of armor we don't even know the number of camels probably around 4-500 camels we don't know the exact not only to ride on but also to use as food it is said, we're gonna come to this that every day they had to slaughter 10 camels and so they must have hundreds of camels because they're slaughtering 10 camels every day and they have to ride on the camels as well and they even brought along their singing girls their qayyinat and the singing girls you understand there's a connotation here as well And there's also the issue of having some morale as well. That the girls are going to be beating their drums, they're going to be dancing, they're going to be showing, displaying the pride of the Quraysh. And so they brought their cheap sloganeering, you can say, as well. This is cheap sloganeering. They brought their cheerleaders, you can say. Right? Really they are a type of cheerleaders, you can say. That they brought them along as well. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this in the Qur'an. Surah Al-Anfal verse 19 وَلَا تَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ خَرَجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ بَطَرًا وَرِيَاءَ النَّاسِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ Don't be like those who exited their houses. بَطَرًا وَرِيَاءً They are arrogant, they are boastful. And they want to show off to the people. And they want to block the path of Allah. وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطًا And Allah is surrounding all that they do. So Allah describes their psychological frame of mind. When they're walking out, they're feeling puffed up. بطرًا And رِيَاءً They want people to hear they're 1300 strong. We're the largest army the Arabs have ever seen. And so this is another point here. That up until this time, 1300 people have never gathered in this backward area. Because again, there's no government. Every tribe to himself. For the first time they have 1300. so they want the Arabs to hear the Quraysh have gathered the largest army ever so Allah mentions what is their niyyah and Allah says what was their main niyyah وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلَ لَهِ they're blocking the path of Allah and وَاللَّهُ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطًا rather Allah has surrounded all of them they think they're blocking Allah's path they do not realize Allah has blocked them وَاللَّهُ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطًا and another incident occurred soon after this that, well let's get back, so the army of Quraysh has left Mecca. Abu Sufyan, once he realizes that he's in the safety, we go back to now the caravan, right? So there's three things going on. The Prophet ﷺ, the Quraysh army, and Abu Sufyan. Abu Sufyan, once he realizes that he's beyond the reach of the Muslim army, once he's realized that he's in the green, he sends another emissary, another envoy, and he mentions to him that go tell the Quraysh that they can now return, that the caravan is safe. notice even Abu Sufyan did not want war he did not want the battle of Badr he didn't see what he wanted was protection for the caravan there's no need now for protection the caravan is now in the green it's in the safety zone and so Abu Sufyan sent an emissary go tell the army to return we don't need their help now I'll be back in Mecca in a few days so once the envoy reached the Meccan army they had to now they're already outside the city they've been camping for 2-3 days outside the city traveling for two, three days, not camping. And now they have to reconvene. What are we supposed to do now? Some of them, primary amongst them was Utbah ibn al-Rabi'ah. The same Utbah who didn't want to go, the same Utbah who to the very end does not want war. Utbah says, okay, now we clearly don't need to fight, let's go back to Mecca. The job has been done, the caravan is safe. Once again, Abu Jahl was adamant. And Abu Jahl said, no, we will go to Badr. We will go to Badr. Badr was known for being a nice plain area and there was lots of water because there was these wells there so we will go to Badr it also had some date palm plantations there so it was a type of oasis we will go to Badr and we will stay there for three days and we will drink our wine and have our women sing for us and let the Arabs hear that we are a strong and mighty nation so again he has the jahili mentality now notice here there's still not a talk of war perhaps Abu Jahl had it in his heart but there's still not a talk of war the whole purpose of the army was to protect the caravan there's still not a talk of fighting for no reason now the caravan is protected why do you need to fight Utbah is saying let's go back Abu Jahl insists and even now he says let the Arabs hear of our strength and let us slaughter our camels or cook our meat, drink our wine, and let the news spread in all of Arabia that we are a nation to be feared, we are a Quraysh, that people should be scared of us. Despite this, some tribes decided to come back because they had no interest in fighting the Muslims, they only wanted their money to be protected, their investments to be protected. The largest of these was the Banu Zuhra, and perhaps other smaller tribes also joined, so much so that around 300 or 350 people returned back to Mecca. And so the army went down from 1300 to around 1000 or in another report 950 men. So around one third of the army now goes back. And this is also obviously a big demoralizing factor. And Allah Azza wa Jal again mentions this in the Quran. That the ikhtilaf or the differences there's tensions going on amongst the Muslims as well. Because the Muslims did not want to meet the Quraysh army as we'll come to. And there's tensions in the Quraysh army for a whole different reason. That they just don't want to engage. And Allah says in the Quran, again Surah Al-Anfal, وَلَوْ تَوَاعَدْتُمْ لَخْتَلَفْتُمْ فِي الْمِعَادِ If the two of you had agreed to a fight, you still would not have been able to set a time and a place. Right? Even if you two wanted it, you wouldn't have done it. But I wanted it. وَلَوْ تَوَاعَدْتُمْ لَخْتَلَفْتُمْ فِي الْمِعَادِ walakin liyaqdi allahu amran kana mafa'ula But rather Allah wanted His commandment that had already been decreed, Allah wanted to fulfill it. It's a beautiful verse here, that Allah is saying, even if the both of you intended for a war, it wouldn't have taken place. You would have disagreed, you would have not been fully on the same page, but neither of you wanted it, Allah wanted it. Why? In order that His qadr be done. وَلَكَ لِيَخْلِ اللَّهُ أَمْرًا كَانَ مَفْعُولًا and لِيَهْلِكَ مَنْ هَلَكَ عَنْ بَيْنَةٍ وَيْحَى مَنْ حَيَّ عَنْ بَيِّنَةٍ so that whoever dies, dies after the proof has been established and whoever lives, lives after the proof has been established. And so Allah Azza wa Jal is saying that no one can ever escape from the Qadr of Allah Azza wa Jal. Another incident that is mentioned is that when the army reached Juhfa and Juhfa is where Masjid Aisha Tan'im is, that's the area of Juhfa. When the army reached this area, So most likely this took place before Abu Sufyan's envoy reached them. But again we're just trying to piece it together. Most likely this took place basically as soon as they left Mecca. One of the youngest men in the army from the tribe of Banu Hashim, i.e. a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, or to be technical, his cousin's son. So he's one generation below the Prophet ﷺ. He's a young man, the youngest of the Banu Hashim. He woke up startled because he had seen a dream. and he said and he announced to the Quraysh the dream that he had seen he said in my dream I saw a man riding towards us an announcer a crier to give us a news and message and he had a camel with him and the man announced Ujba ibn Rabi'ah has been killed and Shayba ibn Rabi'ah has been killed and Abu al-Hakam ibn Hisham i.e. Abu Jahl has been killed and Umayyad ibn Khalaf has been killed and he kept on mentioning so and so and so and so, every single famous name of Quraysh that eventually was killed. He mentioned all of these names and then he cuts the hump of the camel and sent the camel forward. And the camel went into our tent area, our encampment. So he's seeing his own encampment in the dream. And the blood splattered on every single tent of our encampment. And he woke up scared and flustered. Obviously the interpretation is very obvious that not only are these people going to be killed, but every tent will have casualties. Every single house of the Quraysh will have casualties. But they ignored his dream and they just considered it to be just a dream that he had seen, not realizing that it was a true dream. So let us pause on the Quraysh side. Let's now go to the Muslim side. Now what's happening on the Muslim side? We'll get back to the Quraysh side in a while. Maybe most likely next Wednesday inshallah. Now, the Muslims, when they left Medina, they had no clue that they're going to meet an army. It's not even an inclination. So, the totally different perspective now. The Muslims are leaving Medina, and they literally think this is gonna be an easy raid. A raid where we are, mashallah, 315, and there's only 40 of their armed guards. Like, we have a ratio of almost 1 to 10 basically, right? We're almost 1 to 10 of their guard, and will have a clear victory. However, rumors began to come. And this is the way of the Bedouins, that Bedouins are traveling back and forth and they'll carry the news that something's happening. And every time you meet a traveler in the desert, you would ask, where are you from? What are you doing? What is the news? And the rumors began to spread that rather there is an army that has left Mecca intending to fight with the Muslims. And the Prophet ﷺ now he was shown a dream we don't know when I'll get back to this next week inshallah we don't know when but he was shown a dream that he will be fighting an army and he was hoping that this dream would be later on maybe not in this particular expedition maybe not in this expedition then when the rumors began to reach so the Prophet ﷺ himself began to then question the Muslims what do you think because what had he told them we said that initially he kept it a secret, right? He said, we're going on an expedition. Then as soon as they exited the city, when he knows who's in the Muslim camp, then he said that, we are going out to meet the caravan of Abu Sufyan, and perhaps Allah will give us a huge ghanima, a huge booty with this, right? So the people became very happy. Then, after a day or two, when these rumors are now coming, now the tone begins to change. Because news is reaching to the contrary. And the Prophet ﷺ said, What do you think that instead if we met a group from Mecca that has been already informed of your departure, i.e. a group that is prepared to fight you. And some of the Sahaba began to question this. They said, Ya Rasulullah, we do not have any preparations to fight an army. We came to attack Al-Ayr, the caravan. We came to attack the caravan. We're not ready to engage in a fight. The next day he repeated the question again. and their response was even more firm. We cannot do this. We're not ready to engage in an army. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this in the Quran. That, وَإِذْ أَخْرَجَكَ رَبُّكَ مِنْ بَيْتِكَ بِالْحَقِّ وَإِنَّ فَرِيقًا مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ لَكَارِهُونَ That when your Lord calls you to go out of your houses, so notice Allah is causing the both armies to leave. Right? We already mentioned that one group has left Mecca. Now Allah is talking about the Muslims. That Allah is saying, وَإِذْ أَخْرَجَكَ رَبُّكَ مِنْ بَيْتِكَ بِالْحَقِّ That remember when your Lord caused you to exit your own houses, but the truth was with you. وَإِنَّ فَرِيقًا مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ لَكَارِهُونَ A group of the believers did not like it. وَإِنَّ فَرِيقًا مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ لَكَارِهُونَ يُجَادِلُونَكَ فِي الْحَقِّ بَعْدَ مَا تَبَيَّنَ They began arguing with you about this truth. even after it was made clear to them يُجَادِلُونَكَ فِي الحقِ بعد ما تَبَيَّن كَأَنَّمَا يُسَاقُونَ إِلَى الْمَوْتِ وَهُمْ يَنظُرُونَ it was as if you were dragging them to their deaths as they're looking at their deaths i.e. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is mildly rebuking some of the companions that they were so scared they thought they're gonna die and none of them died they thought you're dragging them to their death you're dragging them to the greatest victory right? so they began arguing with you يُجَادِرُونَكَ فِي الْحَقِّ they began arguing we can't do this no way there's no way we can fight the Quraysh and Allah says it's as if they're seeing themselves die they don't trust Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that they'll take care of them that Allah will take care of them right and when Allah says بَعْدَ مَا تَبِيَّن even after it was made clear what is this after it was made clear the next verse explains وَإِذْ يَعِدُكُمُ اللَّهُ إِحْدَى الطَّائِفَتَيْنِ أَنَّهَا لَكُمْ Allah had promised that, yes, you're gonna meet one of these two. إِحْدَىٰ الطَّائِفَتَيْنَ Whichever one you meet, you will be the victors. إِحْدَىٰ الطَّائِفَتَيْنَ أَنَّهَا لَكُمْ So the Prophet ﷺ told them, at this stage he himself is unsure. But he told them, even if we meet the other group, Allah has promised me victory. This is what he told them. Even if we meet the other group, Allah has promised us victory. And so he is telling them, look, don't worry. Allah has promised us victory but still the human soul is weak and they said we're not ready we cannot fight an army we don't have armor we don't have food we don't have supplies we don't have anything we literally were expecting expedition and come back within two days but it is two three days away from Medina we're gonna come and come back we don't even have anything and Allah says they continued arguing even after you had explained to them but Allah wanted his decree to go forth and Allah says وَتَوَدُّونَ أَنَّ غَيْرَ ذَاتِ الشَّوْكَةِ تَكُونُ لَكُمْ You wanted the one with no weapons, غَيْرَ ذَاتِ الشَّوْكَةِ, to be yours. You wanted the غَنِيمَة, you wanted the booty. But, وَيُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُحِقَّ الْحَقَّ بِكَلِمَاتِهِ وَيَقَطَعَ دَابِرَ الْكَافِرِينَ Allah had a far bigger thing in mind than some money. Allah wanted to show who was upon the truth. يُحِقَّ الْحَقَّ Allah wanted to show who was upon the truth. يوم البدر is called يوم الفرقان remember this, right? the day where truth is clear from falsehood the victory of Badr was unparalleled until the conquest of Mecca that Badr and the conquest of Mecca are the two biggest victories without a doubt that this is the first and this is the last victory that Allah عز و جل gave them and the both of them are miracles beyond miracles and Allah is saying today I wanted to show who was true and who was false Allah said ليحق الحق وَيُبَطِلَ الْبَاطِلُ To destroy the batil. وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ Even if the kafirun do not like it. So, this shows us, by the way, subhanAllah, so many benefits here from this ayah. It shows us that the sahaba, yes, they are perfect human beings, but they're humans, and humans cannot be perfect. They are as perfect a generation as possible. That Allah is saying, يُجَادِلُونَكَ فِي الْحَقِّ They were arguing, we can't do this, no way, we can't fight the Quraysh. Yet this arguing does not make them any less of a believer. Because Allah says in the Quran that, فَرِيقًا مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ Allah calls them mu'min. These are not munafiqs. The Badr, there are no munafiqs in Badr. Nifaq started after Badr as we mentioned. Before Badr, anybody who converted, there is no nifaq up until Badr. Every convert is a sincere convert. So only after Badr, the phenomenon of nifaq begins. So Allah عز و جل called the group that is يُجَادِلُون that is attempting to persuade the Prophet ﷺ not to go, Allah calls them مُؤْمِن. And what does this show? It's a big sigh of relief for us. That look, even the believer, يعني he has some hesitation, he has some fear, he has some, it's not as if they're all superhuman or superman. No, there is some genuine fear that, look, they didn't want to fight. And Allah عز و جل mildly reproaches them, but he says they are فَرِيقًا مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ They are a group of mu'mins. These are not munafiqun that didn't want to go and fight. So, to find a deed difficult, to be a bit hesitant to do a positive deed, this in and of itself is not nifaq. As long as your iman eventually wins over. Allah says in the Qur'an that, كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمْ الْقِتَالُ وَهُوَ كُرْهٌ لَكُمْ Qital has been written for you, but you hate it. Allah says you hate it. Their hatred of qital, did that make them munafiq? No. It did not. It is human nature to not want these types of things. So there is a difference between finding, so waking up for fajr, right? This is our jihad of our times. We thank Allah, this is the type of jihad we need to do. Subhanallah, you know? Waking up for fajr. Every one of us, we might feel on occasion, when the alarm bell goes off, you know, the alarm clock goes off. It's like, subhanallah, another day, can't we just leave? Do I have to do this? That in and of itself is not nifaq. As long as what? We get out of bed. If we don't get out of bed, that's a big problem. But to feel the hesitation, or to feel, let's say those who are going for hajj for the first time, they're really scared, they're really worried, because of all of the problems. Yes, that's iman, not a problem. It's okay to have a little bit of fear, and trepidation, and nervousness, as long as you overcome it. So Allah azzawajal tells us in the Quran, the sahaba felt this type of fear. The Muslims, they also made their way to Badr and they're still not sure. The Badr is of course on the route to the caravan. They had expected to meet the caravan the first time in the same place of Badr. And they're still proceeding there. And that is why the Quraysh as well, they know this is the most logical place for them to go to. So both of them are intending to go to Badr. As Allah says, even if you had agreed you wouldn't do this. but Allah had already planned. Even if you had agreed to set a time and a place, you would not have managed to meet each other. But Allah had set a plan that you will meet each other. That Allah Azza wa Jalla already decreed this to occur. So the Muslims got to Badr and they're still not sure which of the two groups they're going to meet. And the Prophet ﷺ took Abu Bakr himself as an emissary. Why? Because this is a very tense situation. He didn't even send any other emissary. He and Abu Bakr, they went out scouting for information. And as far as I know from my own readings of the seerah, this is the only time that the Prophet ﷺ himself acted as a scout, as an emissary. That he leaves the army, he himself is the fact collector. And this shows us the sensitivity. This shows us that even the Prophet ﷺ was worried, what if it is the army, what are we going to do now? And he doesn't want to tell the Muslims until he himself is sure. so he takes the only person that he trusts like beyond anything his most trustworthy and that is Abu Bakr and the two of them go collecting information they become scouts they become the people you know fact finding and he takes Abu Bakr and he's finding information until finally they come across an old Bedouin and this is the source of information the Bedouins are just wandering in the desert and these are people who are not going to be involved in the fight, they're neutral they're not, they're Bedouins, they're not in the Quraish they're not in the Yathrib, they're not in Medina they're simply carriers of information so the Bedouin obviously does not recognize who these two people are and the Prophet ﷺ asked him, do you have any information about the Quraish and about Muhammad and his army not even realizing the Bedouin is that he is Muhammad he's asking this so that suspicion doesn't fall on him if he said, do you have any information about the Quraish obviously, which side is he on? He's on the side of the Muslims. In fact, he is Rasulullah ﷺ. But in order to make the Bedouin feel that he himself is also neutral. That he's coming from a neutral tribe. So he asked the Bedouin, do you have any information? What's going on with the Quraysh? I heard some stuff. And what's going on with Muhammad ﷺ and his army? What is going on? So the Bedouin said, who are you? I can't tell you until I know which side you're on. he's also a wise man which side are you on? I will not inform you anything until you tell me who are you and so of course the Prophet ﷺ cannot say because he's gonna then give away the game plan and so the Prophet ﷺ said I promise to tell you where we are from notice very specific now the Prophet ﷺ knows what he is saying I promise to tell you where we are from as long as you tell us any information that you have. You have to tell us what you know and then we will tell you where we are from. So with this confirmation, this Bedouin felt, okay, you know, if they're gonna tell me, clearly they're not on one of the two sides. Or else they wouldn't wanna tell me. Right? And so the Bedouin feels like, okay, I can confide in them and they can confide in me. So he said, okay, if you wanna know, this is my information. What has reached us is that Muhammad ﷺ has left Yathrib on such and such a date and he was right. And if this is true, then they are camped right outside of Badr and he was also right. But of course the Prophet ﷺ and the Bedouin right now are not at Badr. They are at another location, right? So the man is thinking, if that information is true, they must almost be at Badr and he was dead on. Because he is a Bedouin, he knows exactly how much armies are taken. So this much the Prophet ﷺ knew because he is the Prophet ﷺ. And it has reached me that the army of the Quraysh has left Mecca on such and such a date, which was also true. And if that is accurate, then they must be at such and such a location which was also true. And that was on the other side of Badr, they're going to be there the next day as well. Right? So this is very, well, bad news at the time, but of course Allah Azza wa Jal had a good news plan. That the Bedouin is confirming that there's an army. That he's telling them and they can verify because he knows about them. So clearly he knows about the other side as well that the Bedouins have the this is their CNN this is their news network here the Bedouins have their information by the way the Bedouins needed this to live themselves they needed this to survive themselves they needed to have all of the information to avoid any conflicts or maybe to bribe one side against the other so this is their information this is their livelihood this is their safety so the Bedouin says okay I've told you my information now you need to tell me where are you from you promised and obviously the Prophet ﷺ promised. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, نحن من ماء We are from water. نحن من ماء We are from water. And he turned around and rode on of the camel with Abu Bakr at his side and the old bad one was left scratching his head. من ماء From ماء? Which ماء is this? Is this the ماء of Iraq? Like the city of Iraq is ماء. Is this the ماء of Iraq? or which ma? I don't know which ma you're talking about. But the Prophet ﷺ gave the answer. نحن من ما? We are from water. And this isn't the first time that I've demonstrated this phenomenon called, you should all know it by now, تورية. تورية. This isn't the first time. تورية. تورية, again I'll say it. تورية, we saw it in Tafsir Sur Yusuf many times. We saw it in the Seerah many times. In the Hijrah, where Abu Bakr said, this is my guide, he's guiding me to the path. Right? This is my had. يَهْدِينِيَ الطَيْرِ This is my guide. Right? Tawriyah means double meaning. You're hiding the truth with another truth. You're not with a lie. Islam does not allow lying, but at times tawriyah is permitted. Right? And our sharia tells us that whoever uses tawriyah excessively, it's only gonna be a matter of time before he gets accused of lying, and there's an element of truth in that. But tawriyah in and of itself has a legitimacy, because you're not lying. You're not lying. Where are you from? we are from water. Are you not from water? Yes, we are from water. Allah says in the Quran, وَخَلَقْنَا وَجَعْنَا مِنَ الْمَاءِ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ حَيٌّ Everything living comes from water. So this type of tauriyah, we have seen it many times in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. Notice as well, I mean, subhanAllah, the bravery of the Prophet ﷺ to act as a scout. Scouts are the most dangerous because there is no army to protect. Anybody can see, and he is the Prophet ﷺ, like literally the most important person. But it's also the sensitivity. the sensitivity of the situation so the Prophet ﷺ comes back and he does not tell the army anything yet and the first thing he does he goes and he stands in salah asking Allah for help because now he himself is getting tense what is to be done and this is again a natural tension nothing wrong with that he himself is tense now what is to be done and as he is praying as he is praying there is a commotion that begins what is this commotion? the Sahaba have captured two of the slaves from the Quraysh. And they are asking them, where are you from? And they said, we are from the army of the Quraysh. We are from the army that we just left a few days ago, we came to defend the caravan. And they began beating up the slaves, the Sahaba, saying, no you're lying, you're not from the army, you're from the caravan of Abu Sufyan. Notice, they themselves are so eager that what they're going to meet up is not the army but the caravan. They're throwing their own projections onto these slaves. And they began beating the slaves saying, no, tell us the truth. Tell us the truth. You're from the caravan, aren't you? And they continued beating until finally they said, yes, we're from the caravan. Then after a while they ask again and they said, no, we're from the army. So they beat them again until finally they said, no, no, we're from the caravan. When the process and finished his salah, notice how long is his salah as well. subhanallah, he's praying a long salah. When the processor finishes his salah, notice the simplicity and yet the profundity. That he says to the sahaba, when they tell you the truth, you beat them. And when they lie, you let them go. I mean, how foolish is that? That they're telling you the truth, you cannot swallow that information, and so you're beating them even though they're telling you the truth, which is we're from the army of the Quraysh, right? And when they're lying to you, and they finally say, we're from the caravan, from the caravan, that is when you let them go. And this shows us that, subhanallah, as if the Prophet ﷺ is saying, it's ridiculous to torture them. They'll tell you anything under torture. What's the point of beating them? What's the point of torturing them? Whatever you want them to say, they're gonna say it when you're gonna beat them. So this is the beauty, the profundity of the Prophet ﷺ that he's telling them, look, they're telling you the truth, they have nothing to gain. They're from the army of the Khurash, mean they're slaves, but they're not a part of the army. They're just workers in the army. They're just, you know, cooks and cleaners and what not. They're telling you the truth. And accept them at face value. And of course, this was the final if you like, verdict now. That khalas, we are not meeting the caravan, we are meeting the army. Okay, this was a very difficult and emotional time now for the sahaba now. That this was the test. That the caravan is now officially now the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has told them that no, they are true in what they say. They are saying they are with the army and they are not with the caravan. And then the Prophet ﷺ came up to them to ask them questions. And he says, tell me, how many people are in the army? So he wants to find out. How many people are in the army? And they said, we are slaves, we are just water carriers, we don't know these things. And they are illiterate, they are uneducated, we don't know anything. We don't know how many people are in the army. And again the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ. them, okay, so you are workers, you are slaves, tell me, how many camels do they kill every day? So now this is their job. Notice, subhanAllah, you know, the deepness, the profundity, like, the slaves are right, like, how do you expect this? We don't count to a thousand, we don't know. So the Prophet ﷺ asked them a question they would know. Okay, you're the cooks and cleaners, how many camels do you kill a day? So they said, nine or ten. So the Prophet ﷺ immediately said, they are between nine hundred to a thousand? Look at again, the Sahaba are not able to get this information. Two questions, and immediately the Prophet ﷺ has the information that he needs from these slaves there. So they're around between 900 to 1000 people, because one camel would on average be able to feed 100 people. And he said, who is present amongst them from their noblemen? And thus began a who's who of the Quraysh. This is the whole point of Badr that we don't really, many of us don't understand. Wallahi, every single major henchman of the Quraysh is eliminated at Badr. This is really the beauty of Badr. Everyone whose names we've mentioned and are worthy of being criticized and smeared, everyone to a last man. It was a victory upon a victory. Every one of these men. And so they began mentioning, Umayya ibn Khalaf, Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah, Uthman ibn Rabi'ah, Suhail ibn Amr, Abu Jahl. All of these people are mentioned and they're all the noblemen. They're all the noblemen. And this news caused the Muslims to be very disheartened. Why? Because the whole gathering has come. All of the noblemen. And if they are here, this means their wealth is here too. This means they must have paid a lot of people. This means they have the best armor. And they did have the best camels and the best armor. A lot of these cowards purchased the best camels. Right? So, this demoralized many of the Muslims. And again, this shows us the humanity of the Sahaba. I mean, wallahi, they were demoralized, we would have turned around and fled. This demoralized the Sahaba, but the Prophet ﷺ smiled in happiness. Why? Because he knew Allah's promise is true. And Allah had said, whichever of the two you meet, will be yours. That's what the Quran says, right? وَإِذْ يَعِدُكُمُ اللَّهُ إِحْدَى الطَّائِفَتَيْنِ أَنَّهَا لَكُمْ Allah had said, you're gonna meet one of the two, whichever one you meet, it will be yours. وَتَوَدُّونَ أَنَّ غَيْرَ ذَاتِ الشَّوْكَةِ You wanted the one that had no weapons. You wanted the caravan. But Allah wanted something bigger than this. So when it was now confirmed that they are facing the army, and the Prophet ﷺ hears that the army has all of these elite people, he is happy. Why? Because he trusts Allah's promise that Allah has said, this will be yours. And so he told the Muslims that, انظروا, look, Mecca has presented to you, the Arabic expression is فَلَقُ الْأَكْبَالِ which basically means the creme de la creme. Right? It has given you its, what are you going to say, the liver of its, what? The expression is, huh? You can't translate this, it doesn't tell you. But yeah, the cream of the crop. In English we have our own way, right? So, it's given to you the bounty, it's given to you the cream of the crop, right? It's given to you the apple of its eyes. has given to you the best that it has. Mecca has given to you, offered on a plate, basically. It has given to you the best that it has. And when he saw the look of like, dejection in their faces, he said that wallahi, by Allah, Umayyah will be killed over here. And Shaybah will be killed over here. And Uthbah will be killed over here. And Abu Jahl will be killed over here. And he pointed to them, every single location that literally the next day when it happened or two days from now as we'll get to when it happened every single person was found on the very spot that the Prophet ﷺ had pointed out that he's trying to make them feel a sense of ease and at peace and now that the Muslims realize that they're facing an army and not a caravan now the Prophet ﷺ needed to rile up the troops he needed to rile up the troops and this shows us yes there's a lot of fear but when push came to shove they passed the test there was a lot and Allah himself mentions it that you are arguing with the Prophet and this is the difference between Iman and Kufr Iman and Nifaq that yes Iman might feel hesitant but in the end it will win in the day and so the Prophet called the gathering of all of the Sahaba and he told them that you know the situation as it is, what do you think we should do now What do you think we should do now? Now obviously there is really no choice. I mean, there is no choice. The army has come. If they were to go back to Medina, this is like the worst humiliation. This is like not even meeting them in battle. And if they meet them in battle, then it's a very difficult victory. It's a very difficult situation. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, what do you think needs to be done? This is not the first time, nor will it be the last that we will see shura in action. Shura in action. يَدُوا اللَّهِ عَلَى الْجَمَاعَةِ that Allah's hand is upon the majority or the group. And there is no question that consultation, shura is a praiseworthy element of Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ had no need of shura, but he demonstrated shura for all of us. He doesn't need shura. He is Rasulullah ﷺ. But he's demonstrating what any leader should do. He's demonstrating that the leader needs to have the people behind him. Also, even if he is Rasulullah ﷺ, the best way to moralize the troops is to have them involved in the decision making as well. And so he says, what do you think we should do? Immediately Abu Bakr, of course Abu Bakr stands up, he praises Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, sends salat upon the Prophet ﷺ, and then says, Ya Rasulullah, do as you please, we are behind you. It's your decision. Sat sits down. The Prophet ﷺ thanked him and praised him. Then he asked again, what do you think we should do? Silence. Umar stands up. And Umar says, Ya Rasulullah, do as you please, for verily, we will do anything you want us to do. He sits down. The Prophet ﷺ praises him. Then he says, for the third time, what do you think we should do? Silence again, because what does he want? So, Al-Migdad ibn Umar and the Muhajirun stood up. And Al-Migdad probably thought that maybe Abu Bakr and Umar weren't forceful enough. Let me go and add some rhetoric. Let me add some fiery language here. So Al-Miqdad al-Mi'abir said, Ya Rasulullah, do as Allah has commanded you to do, and we are right behind you. Ya Rasulullah, we will not say to you as the Bani Israel said to their prophet Musa, اذهب أنت وربك فقاتل إنها هنا قاعدون You all know the story in the Quran, that when they're gonna meet the big giants, the Bani Israel said to Musa, look man, you and your God go and fight, we're not gonna go fight those people. We're not gonna say that Al-Miqdad said, Rather, we will say, you and your Lord, you go fight, and we are right behind you fighting. Right? And then he said, Ya Rasulullah, go and take us to Barak al-Ghimad. Barak al-Ghimad is again an expression. Take us to the corner of the world. This is an English word saying. Barak al-Ghimad is just an expression. Take us to the corner of the world, and we will follow you until we meet what Allah's decree has destined for us. Now it's basically the same thing is being said except that Al-Maghdad is a bit more eloquent. You can't get more eloquent than this. Now he sits down and thinks, khalas. This is what the Prophet ﷺ wanted to hear. The Prophet ﷺ thanked him. Then for the fourth time said, what do you think we should do? Why? Because the Ansar, this is now the crucial factor. Abu Bakr is Qureshi. Umar is Qureshi. Miqdad is Qureshi. And the Ansar, remember from the covenant of Bayat al-Aqaba. Go back there now. the Ansar had promised the Prophet that they would the phrase is protect him as they would protect their own families Badr is not protection Badr is offensive Badr is not protection they can go back to Medina now, khalas the Ansar had not signed up for this the condition for the Ansar was if we are attacked in Medina then you will protect me as you will, to the max, as you will protect your own family and children, you will protect us that's all we want from you, right? that was the condition and so now for the first time the Ansar are being asked in a very gentle manner, and notice the Prophet didn't even put them on the spot three times and three times Quraysh stand up and the Quraysh are indeed, السابقون الأولون we expect the Quraysh to stand up three times the Quraysh stand up and the Ansar are quiet now for the fourth time they realize there's something deeper than this and so that great leader of the Ansar the greatest leader of the Ansar that leader whom when he eventually died a shaheed the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said the throne of Allah shook at the death of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh now we know why the throne of Allah shook Sa'd ibn Mu'adh that young man that eloquent, that powerful man who was going to be their leader had he lived and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when Sa'd ibn Mu'adh came after the battle of Khandaq and he was wounded and he was dying but they didn't know he was dying, that was his death wound they thought he would live he was wounded, he came on his donkey and the Prophet ﷺ said to the Ansar stand up to meet your leader قوموا إلى سيدكم stand up, show some respect, this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh that the Prophet ﷺ is telling the Ansar stand up, show some respect to your leader, and by the way standing up for leaders is a whole fiqh issue, about should you, should you not and this hadith clearly shows is that it is allowed on occasion. It is allowed. And as for the fiqh imam, no way others talk about it. Anyway, this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. So then he stood up and he said, perhaps you're waiting for us, Ya Rasulullah. i.e. is that why you're asking four times? Perhaps you intend us, لَعَلَّكَ تَقْصِدُونَ Perhaps you're waiting for our response. And so the Prophet ﷺ finally admitted, he said, نَعَمْ Yes, I need to hear from you. What is your response as the Ansar? and so Sa'ad gave that eloquent speech which when you translate it destroys all of the eloquence but it is a powerful, a rousing speech and he says in it that Ya Rasulullah آمَنَّا بِكَ وَصَدَّخْنَاكَ after all we believed in you and we trusted you and we testified that what you have come with is the truth and we have given you our عُهُودَ وَمِثَاقَ our promises and our oaths that we will listen and obey you notice the beauty of Sa'ad here he doesn't go back to the bare minimum We gave you a promise to protect you. Rather he mentions the other phrase, We will obey you, Ya Rasulullah. Right? Look at this Iman now. He's going now to the spirit of the law, not to the letter. If he wanted to go down to the letter of the law, he could say, Look, you know, there's an exemption. We didn't sign up for this. You know, if he wanted to. But he's looking at the spirit of Islam. He's saying, Ya Rasulullah, after all, are we not Muslims? Didn't we believe in you? Didn't we trust you? Didn't we do everything you want us to do? So now, Ya Rasulullah, go forth and do as you see fit and we are with you for I swear by the one who has sent you with the truth were you to take us into the ocean and charge us galloping into the ocean these are people who cannot swim by the way these are Bedouins these are desert dwellers they don't know how to swim were you to charge us into the ocean then we will go right behind you we are not scared of meeting the enemy tomorrow and we will show you our patience during battle and inshallah or la'allallah which is basically inshaAllah, Allah will show you through us that which will comfort you. i.e. you will see our bravery, our sincerity, our truthfulness, so go forth ala barakatillah. Famdi ala barakatillah. Go forth upon the blessings of Allah, we are right behind you. And when Sa'd ibn Mu'ad said this, the Prophet ﷺ, his face became like the shining moon. Like he was so happy to hear the Ansar were behind him, and this reinvigorated him and he reiterated what he had said before that wallahi Allah has promised me one of the two and it is this one and every one of them that I have mentioned because he had mentioned them every one of them will die tomorrow every one of these that I have mentioned will die tomorrow and having said this he then began the actual preparations for war and we have come right to the end of our halaqah for today inshallah next Wednesday will continue about the preparation in the side of the Prophet ﷺ and also what happened in the side of the Quraysh. We have a few minutes for Q&A and then we have two, three announcements to make before Salatul Isha. So questions about today's... Yes. Yes. You mentioned... So the question is, when was the verse revealed that Allah has promised you one of the two caravans? The response is, we don't know exactly when, but we can assume from the context of the verse, that it was revealed when the first rumors had come that there is an army coming. So when the Prophet ﷺ left Medina, he had no clue, he had no idea, that he's actually gonna meet the army. And that's why he tells the Muslims that we're out to meet the caravan, and inshallah Allah will bless you with a great victory. Which was true, Allah did bless him with a great victory. But he thought it was the caravan. Then in between this caravan news and this incident now, when the rumors began to come, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala promised him, you will meet a group. One of the two, either the caravan or the army and you will be victorious in whichever one that you meet. Surah Al-Anfal came during Badr? No, Surah Al-Anfal was revealed after Badr. But it explains Badr. who became the leader of Mecca after Badr? Abu Sufyan who became the leader of Mecca after Badr? Abu Sufyan Abu Sufyan became Abu Sufyan was relatively younger he could not have been leader had it not been for the death of all of the seniors so he sucked up into the vacuum and so Abu Sufyan became the leader and that is why in the Fath-e-Makkah the Prophet ﷺ said من دخل بيت أبي سفيان فهو آمن he mentioned one person by name That Abu Sufyan is the only one of the old guard of that level, of that tabaqah. No, they had Suhaid ibn Amr and they had others, but not to the level of Abu Sufyan. Again, these are levels of people. And Abu Sufyan was, like you can see here right now. For example, Abu Sufyan is the leader of the caravan. Abu Jahl is the leader of the army. So already you find that they are at somewhat of a similar level. So the main person of Mecca became Abu Sufyan. And that is why in the battle of Uhud, Abu Sufyan was at the head of the army Surah Al-Anfal was revealed after Badr but it explains Badr, immediately after Badr immediately after Badr and it explains Badr and that is why inshallah, I hope inshallah, when we finish Badr we'll actually pause to do a quick tafsir of Surah Al-Anfal, just one halaqa inshallah maybe even just the verses related to Badr so that next time we read Surah Al-Anfal it will be very fresh in our memories because subhanallah, every one of these incidents is linked to an ayah of Anfal so it's very beneficial to know Surah Al-Anfal Yes. You commented on the that they fought by and they got tortured. I see the father did not comment on the torture itself. So something rather to the modern international politics. The torture from the end point in order to obtain information. What's your comment on that? It's a very difficult question. I understand. So the brother is asking about so the two slaves were beaten and in our terminology would call, now when we say torture, they were not like sliced they weren't like, you know, I mean they were just like slapped with shoes or whatever you know, I mean that type of stuff, you know, just a little bit of, we would say roughing up you know, they weren't like cooked over a fire like the Chinese torture or something, you know, it's like this is not so, firstly, I mean I'm not saying that even this is just saying, let us be careful, this term torture has a connotation that perhaps That's why I didn't use the term torture. I used the term beat. ضَرَبُوهُمْ يعني roughed them up, slapped them up. This is a very difficult question. And there is a very simple response to this. And that is that, in my humble opinion, the sharia has revealed a basic framework that allows for adaptations. And there is no doubt that at another time and place and world environment, certain things would have been allowed. that our political treaties and whatnot do not allow in our times. So, the sharia came and raised the bar immensely. For example, you had to feed prisoners of war, you couldn't starve them to death. You had to give them a minimal amount of housing and whatnot. This was not known before the coming of Islam. In the battle of Badr, the Prophet ﷺ said, and we'll come to this, he said, feed them with what you feed yourself. And so the prisoners were treated better than the people who are hosting them. Because when the Prophet ﷺ said, feed them what you feed yourself, so then the meat was given to the prisoner. Just in case somebody would be accused that you took the meat, you didn't give it. So the Sahabi literally picked his meat up and put it in front of the prisoner. The prisoner felt embarrassed that you're giving me the meat. He quietly put it back in front of the Sahabi. The Sahabi said, no, this is yours. So the Islam came and no doubt it changed a lot of things. And yet, it didn't do maybe what some other later treaties did. to show that there is a spectrum. So in our times, if certain elements of certain treaties go more than what Islam did, once the country signs agreement to these treaties, there's no problem in saying, okay, you know what? We will also raise it to this level. So what I'm saying is, there's nothing wrong at all in any Muslim nation or country signing on to these international treaties and then upholding their level and condition. And as for the incidents in the seerah that seem to go against modern conventions and what not. I think honestly it is very intellectually shallow for any serious academic to challenge them. Because you need to compare what the Prophet ﷺ did with what others did at his time and place. You need to be relative. That when Europe was doing this, when China was doing this. this is what the Muslims were doing. Right? Now, if, let's say, the treaties have, you know, done certain things in modern times, then, okay, not a problem for us to hold up to them. And also, we do need to be very clear here and point out that, look, even you guys have not upheld your own treaties in a million and one exceptions, all related to Islam and Muslims. So, don't come preaching to us about, you know, human rights and what not, when, you know, we still have Guantanamo, and we still have this, where do we even begin the list don't come preaching to us when you yourselves clearly don't have a stellar record so it's a difficult question but again I don't see any major problem in responding in this matter sisters any questions before we

Seerah 37 - The Battle of Badr 3 - Yasir Qadhi _ 24th October 2012-gBRavt3qxdM

Al-Fatiha. day we had talked about the beginnings of the Battle of Badr, and the fact that the Prophet ﷺ had to verify from the Ansar whether they were willing to fight with the Prophet ﷺ or not. And as we said that the Ansar, the leader of them, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, he stood up, he gave a beautiful speech, and he committed to whatever the Prophet ﷺ wanted them to do. Now, when the Prophet ﷺ saw these enthusiasms coming from the Sahaba, he began the preparations for the war. And now that the Ansar had committed, so he could use their manpower if you like. And so he divided up the group or the army into three flanks if you like. And he gave the primary flag, the flag bearer, and that flag was white in color. And by the way, the Prophet ﷺ had different flags in every battle. So he didn't have one standard flag. Rather it just so happened whatever was convenient at the time, it appears that he didn't have the standard flag. Sometimes he had white, sometimes he had black, and sometimes he had other colors as well. And so in this battle, the battle of Badr, he gave the primary flag to Mus'ab ibn Umair. And Mus'ab ibn Umair, as we all know, he became a shaheed in this battle. Sorry, not in the battle of Uhud, he will become shaheed in the battle of Uhud. And he gave the white flag to Mus'ab ibn Umair. And he then divided the rest of the Sahaba into two groups. On the right hand side he placed Ali ibn Abi Tadib and he gave him all of the muhajirun. And on the left side he placed Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and he gave him all of the ansar. According to one report he actually had a backup group as well. So therefore it's as if he's dividing his army into four groups. Again, we're all trying to piece together what happened. According to one report he had a backup group, maybe for reinforcements, maybe for another position in the battlefield and he placed them under the charge of Qais ibn Sa'a. But the two primary groups, one on the right and one on the left, and there was of course the battalion that was going to charge. The one on the right was Ali ibn Abi Talib and the one on the left was Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh. And the one on the right was the Muhajirun and the one on the left was the Ansar. Now here in this division between the Muhajirun and the Ansar, we actually learn that Islam takes into account cultural and ethnic divisions. In that, the Ansar were given one group, and the Muhajirun were given another group. Why is this? Because every person is more familiar with his own ethnicity, his own people. The Muhajirun knew each other better, and the Ansar knew each other better. And the Muhajirun felt more comfortable together, because after all, they had lived together, they had grown up together. and similarly the Ansar, they also felt more comfortable together. And therefore we learn from this that the attitude of some Muslims to ignore culture completely or to ignore any type of ethnic division, this is an extreme. Allah Azza wa Jal clearly says, we have made you shu'ub and qaba'il. And shu'ub means large qabilahs if you like, the mother qabilahs. It's translated as nations but the concept of nation is a modern concept as you know. So, shu'ub means basically maybe races or ethnicities. So, one shahab is the Arab shahab, another shahab is the Indian shahab. So, this is like shu'ub. And then qabail is the sub-tribes. Qabail is the actual tribe. This is Quraysh, this is Hudhal, this is the Banu Murrah. And so Allah is saying, I have made you all of these different ethnicities and different tribes, so that you may, لِتَعَارَفُ, we'll get to know one another. In other words, this is a tangent of the tafsir, if all of humanity had been the same, how would you stand out? if everybody was exactly the same how would you stand out? so the fact that we have different faces different looks, different tastes, different cultures each one of us has a personal identity each one of us has a specific background if you like so the point being here that the Prophet ﷺ took advantage of this ethnic division basically by putting each group to itself and there is no doubt that you just look around you that birds of a feather flock together that people of a particular area will congregate, will socialize more than people from another area. And there's nothing inherently un-Islamic about this as long as it's not taken to an extreme. And here we have this division of the Ansar and the Muhajirun. Also notice that the Prophet ﷺ put in charge of them, both of the leaders were young dynamic visionaries. Ali ibn Abi Talib on the one side and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh on the other. And both of them were of their noblemen. i.e. Ali is considered to be of the noble, and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, as we know, he was also considered to be of the future leader of the Ansar. And once again, there is this pragmatism, there is this reality that you cannot deny that there are certain people in every community that are more respected than others. Some people have this utopic notion, everybody is exactly the same. No, they are not. Some people have qualities that set them apart from others. Some people have leadership. Some people have charisma. Some people have those qualities that make them respected amongst their peers. And the Prophet ﷺ did not choose a nobody. He did not choose a person unknown. He chose those people who would have had the respect of their respective ethnicities, right? Ali is the great grandson of Abdul Muttalib. Ali is the cream of the crop of the Quraysh. He is the young man coming up. The Quraysh all admire and love him. His lineage, his father, everything is perfect. After all, his father is Abu Talib, and he was the chieftain of the Banu Hashim. And of course, on the side of the Ansar, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, he was going to become, as you know, the leader, if you like, of the Ansar, had he not died his shaheed death, as we'll come to inshallah, and his time in the seerah. So once again, an element of pragmatism, that we look to our community. Not everybody is respected the same. And when you give positions of leadership, you need to give it to those people who are respected in the community why? this is a time of war you cannot have a person whom others will say why are you put in charge of me? what makes you better than me? and again there is an element of taking into account the differences of people also notice that the person who was chosen to be the flag bearer and the flag bearer is the flag bearer of course he is not the leader the flag bearer is not the leader The flag bearer is the one who positions the army. He is the central point, he is the focus, right? So he has an honorary position. And he chose somebody whom both the Ansar and the Muhajirun could basically look up to. And that is Mus'ab ibn Umair. He is a Muhajir, so he is Qurashi. And yet he is the earliest of the people to immigrate to Medina. And therefore, the respect that he has amongst the Ansar is unparalleled. After all, most of the Ansar converted at his hands. And so Mus'ab ibn Umair is chosen, he was a Muhajir, he's a Qurashi, he's of the noblest and the richest families, and yet he's also converted most of the Ansar at his own hands, and therefore he was the most madani of the Muhajirun. He was the most madani of the Muhajirun, and hence the Prophet ﷺ chose him to basically symbolize the entire army, and nobody could have symbolized it better than this muhajir who is also a madani who is the one at whom hands the ansar have converted. And again this shows us the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ. And of course it's a very honorable position but it's also a dangerous position because the flag bearer is always the target of the enemy. The enemy wants the flag to fall. It's a symbol. If the flag ever falls, even if it's picked up again, it's a symbol that when the other army sees the flag fall, it encourages them. It gives them hope. It gives them more power to attack. So the flag should never fall. Never. And therefore the flag bearer is always the center of attack. And another problem is the flag bearer is always impaired because he has one hand holding the flag. And so he cannot fight to the same level as those who are not holding the flag. And so the flag bearer has a very important role. Of course one of the main purposes of the flag bearer during any particular battle. remember this is the good old days, you're fighting one man to one man. Not like the modern armies where you never see your enemy. The good old days, you literally are in the thick of things. So you will get disoriented. You will turn around, you will do this and that. And the purpose of the two flags is to always have a marker. That where are you, which side is the enemy, which side is your own army. So the purpose of the flag has all of these matters. The Prophet ﷺ arrived, he was the first of the two to arrive. He preceded the Quraysh by a day. So he came to the plains of Badr on the 16th of Ramadan. And this is of course in the second year of the Hijrah. On the 16th of Ramadan in the second year of the Hijrah. And the Prophet ﷺ immediately set up his camp and his tents basically on the outskirts of the entire plains of Badr. And inshallah I keep on saying next week we'll have the maps but I'm waiting to finish all of the documentary basically, the talk basically, and then inshallah we'll show you the maps on the powerpoint slide, Dr. Bashar has done a great job of compiling maps and drawing the whole diagram, so once we summarize it all, then inshallah one day when we finish all of that, we'll just summarize it again through those diagrams so the Prophet ﷺ camped on the 16th of Ramadan, on the outskirts of the plains of Badr, and before he had set up camp Al-Hubab ibn al-Munthir who was a scout, he was well known for being a person who went into the desert long periods of time. He was somebody known for traveling. Al-Hubab ibn al-Mundhir came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, Ya Rasulullah, this place that you have decided for us to camp, is this something Allah has told you to do, such that we are not allowed to move one inch forward or backward? Or is it your own opinion and it is based on tactics and strategies of war? Why are you camping here? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, no, this is my own opinion, it's basically my strategy. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, in that case Ya Rasulullah, I suggest we don't camp at the corner of the plain, rather we should proceed until we're beyond midpoint. And therefore the wells of Badr are behind us. And in this case, he said, we shall have plenty of water, and they will have to rely on their jugs and their canisters that they've come from Makkah. And of course that's a big demoralizing factor. We have the water for them, it's a big demoralizing factor. They have no access to water. And they will have to, they know that their water will run out, they're gonna have to go back after a period of time. And so in one version, Jibreel came to him and said, follow the advice of Hubab. And so the Prophet ﷺ then followed the advice of Hubab, and he said, you have directed us to the better opinion. And therefore he then did not camp there, he proceeded onwards, until they had, it appears to be there are multiple wells. There was one major well and there were small multiple wells. And to this day if you go to Badr, you will still find there's one major well and then there's smaller wells away. So he put all of the wells behind him. And just to be on the safe side, he blocked the smaller wells after taking the water out and pouring it into the big one. So just in case they go to a farther well on another side of the plain, all of those were blocked off. All of those were filled. and the big well that was the main one the other waters were taken out pulled out by canister and thrown into the large one so that it was in the center of the Muslim camp and the Quraysh had no access to any water now this incident is just one of dozens of examples in which the Prophet ﷺ would regularly take advice from the companions and sometimes even change his mind and act upon it and the concept of Shura is shown over and over and over again The Prophet ﷺ was never like the modern dictators. He was never like, my opinion must go. Rather he would always take the opinions of the Sahaba. And in this incident, Al-Hubab also demonstrates that the Prophet ﷺ sometimes, now this is a very deep Usul al-Fiqh issue, and it was worthy of a lot of discussion in Usul al-Fiqh, but not in the Seerah. The question is, did the Prophet ﷺ sometimes do things from his own opinion, not from Allah ﷻ. And this incident of course suggests that he did. That sometimes his opinions were from himself. And perhaps those opinions might have had other interpretations that some would say are better in some circumstances. Such as in this case of Al-Hubab. Now this is true, there's not a problem to say that. But the problem comes that some people take this exception and try to make a rule out of it. Some people say that look, this was the personal opinion of the Prophet ﷺ. Therefore, we can go through the whole sunnah and pick and choose basically, what was a personal opinion that he used to do and what was from Allah ﷻ. Now this is wrong for many reasons. Firstly, we need to understand, you cannot extrapolate the incident of Badr into shari'ah. the incident of Badr is a particular strategy of war you cannot say when the Prophet ﷺ told you pray that oh this is his opinion, give zakah oh this is his opinion, the sharia is what he's commanding you to do and where he's camping at Badr there is not necessarily anything to be derived from sharia, Badr is only going to take place once, we don't do Badr every year we go and do Badr and camp at the same place he is not, basically what I'm trying to say is, when he camps at Badr, he is not intending to legislate a position of where to camp at Badr. You see the point here, right? Whereas when he prays, when he fasts, when he orders commandments for the Muslims of Medina, do this, don't do that, inheritance, laws, hijab, divorce, marriage, all of these laws, this is sharia. Right? And he intends for the Muslims to follow him. And therefore we cannot equate one time incident of Badr with the rest of the sharia. Another point is that Hubab had to ask him point blank. Hubab didn't assume that he can understand which one is which. He asked him point blank, Ya Rasulullah is this from Allah's wahi or is it from your ijtihad? Who amongst us now can do this to the sunnah? Nobody can do this anymore. And the basic rule is that whatever the Prophet ﷺ said and did, it is his sharia. By the way, so there are a number occasions, very few, where sometimes once again the Sahaba ask the Prophet ﷺ specifically, is this something you're commanding? Or is this just a suggestion? By the way, this is very rare. Usually, and there are literally, literally, no exaggeration, dozens of examples, dozens of examples. Usually, when the Sahaba heard something, they would apply it so literally, they would apply it so literally, it sometimes borders on the unimaginable, like how is this possible even, right? So there's two incidents, both of which literally have the same almost story. And that once that the Prophet ﷺ was in his tent, and one of the Sahaba was outside. And there had been a command, this was in one of the expeditions, that nobody should enter the tent. And this Sahabi had a pressing need. And so he asked the Prophet ﷺ, Ya Rasulullah, may I enter the tent? I need to speak to you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, yes. So then he remembered the commandment, you're not supposed to enter. Then he said, Ya Rasulullah, can I enter with my whole body, or just part of my body? And he's so confused now like, are you telling me to just put my head in the tent? Or are you telling me to physically step in? So he has to verify. Another instance of this nature is once the Prophet ﷺ was giving the khutbah, and during the khutbah he mentioned to somebody to stop. And there was a sahabi coming into the door, and he didn't see the context of that word stop. So he literally stopped mid-door with a foot up, stop. and he just stopped right there. Like he heard stop, no questions asked, stop, right? And we can go on and on. Ali ibn Abi Talib in the battle of Khaybar, that the Prophet ﷺ told him that he gave him the standard and he said, go forth and do not come back, right? Imdi, go forth and do not come back and go and fight them in the name of Allah ﷻ and he gave them all of the command what to do. Ali walked 10 spaces. Then he had a question. He was about to turn around but then he realized the Prophet ﷺ said, basically don't come back until you're victorious, right? So he shouted out loud, Ya Rasulullah! Because he didn't want to turn around. Ya Rasulullah! What should I tell them when I am surrounding? Like what are the conditions you want me to get? The point being, he was being so literal here that he doesn't even turn around because the Prophet ﷺ said, don't come back till you're victorious. So he didn't want to turn his back until he was victorious, right? So the point being, we have hundreds of examples like this. But we have one or two where there is an overriding reason why one of the sahaba asks is this wahi from Allah or is this just a suggestion, right? So this is one of them. And then of course there is a famous incident which somewhat humorous as well. And that is the incident of Barira. The incident of Barira. That Barira is a long story but the short of it is that she was a slave and she was married to a slave. and she was freed. And in Islamic fiqh, when the slave is freed and he or she has a marriage, it is up to them whether they want to continue the marriage or not. It's up to them. They can then annul the marriage. So now that barira becomes free, she has the right. Does she want to remain married to a slave or not? She can without his permission because now she has the right to do this. She can annul the marriage. Fasq is called, right? She can annul the marriage. So she decides to annul the marriage. And so her husband begs and pleads her. And her husband literally is crying with her. That, oh Barira, please take me back. You know, we can make it work out. Come on, please, you know, let's do something. Let's think of all the good old times. He's basically begging her to take him back. And Barira would not even look back at him. لا يلتفت إليه She's literally not even giving him the pleasure of her look, right? And they're going around the city. and he is crying. Ibn Abbas says, I saw Mughith was his name, Mughith was the husband's name. I saw Mughith's beard was wet with his tears and he's crying out, O Barira, O Barira. And Barira would not even give him her look, right? She's not even looking at him. And so the Prophet ﷺ saw the two of them walking around Medina like this. And so he felt mercy for Mughith even though he's a slave. But the Prophet ﷺ is Rahmah lil Alameen. He felt mercy for Mughith. And he said to Barira, Ya Barira, why don't you take him back? I mean, come on, you know, this poor guy, and he's crying, he's begging, why don't you take him back? And obviously Barira has no desire to take him back, because all of this has taken place. So she said, Ya Rasulullah, ata'muruni? Are you commanding me? In which case, okay. Or are you just like, you know, suggesting, right? So the Prophet ﷺ said, La innama ana shafi' I'm just, you know, reconciling. Ana shafi' Right? So then she said, with only the scorn that a woman can possibly muster, لَا حَاجَتَ لِي فِيهِ that I have no need of him. I have no need of him. And so, the point being that Barira asked, Ya Rasulullah, are you commanding me or not? And he said, no, I'm not commanding you. And this shows us that once again, now, you know, the Prophet ﷺ is being merciful that there's no way that a marriage will last if one of them is so much antagonistic towards the other. so he said no I'm not commanding you so once again Barira is verifying is this Amr or is this just a suggestion my point being you can literally count these types of incidents on the fingers of one hand in fact some people say these are the only two incidents in the whole seerah of this manisha where somebody actually says is this Amr or not and there might be one or two more but they are literally within the fingers of one hand so for those and of course the people who do this are those who wish to basically change the sharia and say that the Prophet ﷺ did not command any laws that are of a legal nature. That's his opinion. We don't have to follow them. What we follow is theology. What we follow is ritual. Salah and zakah. Don't tell us hudud. Don't tell us marriage and divorce. Don't tell us interest and financial transaction. That's his personal opinion. And they base this from this one incident of al-Hubab. And this is wallahi extremism. You're gonna take this one incident and ignore the whole seerah. In any case, I needed to say that because this incident is misused. So, as we said, they went forward and they put the water in one well, and they set up a small type of camp, and this was when Sa'd ibn Mu'adh suggested, Ya Rasulullah, why don't we make for you a special khayma, a special headquarters where you can monitor the battle from, and so the Prophet ﷺ agreed to this, so they chose an area where he could see the battle, probably a little bit of a hill or something, where he could see the battle, and it was somewhat of a a muaskar or if you like the headquarters, they built a headquarters for him on the plains of Badr and the sahaba then set up not tents, they were not going to have tents they were living there for one night, but they made their camels sit down and they set up their sleeping bags and everything and night fell and the Quraysh were on the horizon so they could see that the Quraysh were coming in, there is not going to be a battle tonight the battle is going to be the next morning, so night fell and it is known that the battle is going to take place tomorrow morning. And it is narrated in the Musnad Ibn Ahmad that the Prophet ﷺ spent the whole night awake making dua to Allah ﷻ and making prolonged sajda. And he said in his dua that, O Allah, if you destroy this group in تَهْلِكَ هَذِهِ الْعُصَابَةِ If you destroy this group, فَلَنْ تُعْبَدَ فِي الْأَرْضِ You are not going to be worshipped on earth. in other words if we fail then I am the final prophet and if I fail now there's not going to be any more prophet after me, oh Allah if you don't help us now then you will not be worshipped on earth and in the middle of the night the rain began to fall not a downpour but just a dribble, just a drizzle light rain began to fall and the people had to take their belongings and run helter skelter to shelter themselves from the rain under the trees under the shrubs, maybe even in the shade of their camels. They just had to make some type of covering to shelter them from the rain. And the Prophet ﷺ continued to pray and make dua to Allah ﷻ until finally the dawn broke. And he was the one who said that, O people, as-salah, O people, as-salah. So he woke them up for salat al-fajr and thus began the 17th of Ramadan, the 17th of Ramadan in the second year of the hijrah. according to some modern historians this is March 17th 624 CE March 17th 624 CE and it appears that this occurred on a Friday it appears this occurred on a Friday now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran both the rain and the sleep Allah mentions the rain and the sleep as being miracles from him and this is in surah which surah is about Badr I said this many times surah al-anfal Basically all of Anfal is about Badr. From the beginning to the end is basically a reference to Badr. And Allah says in Surah Al-Anfal, إِذْ يُغَشِيكُمُ النُّعَاسِ When sleep overcame you, when you became drowsy, إِذْ يُغَشِيكُمُ النُّعَاسِ أَمَنَةً مِّنْهُ This was a blessing and a peace and a security from Him. وَيُنَزِّلُ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً And He sent down for you from the skies rain. لِيُطَاهِرَكُمْ بِهِ To purify you. So there was a physical benefit as well. That you are dirty, you are disheveled, you are tired, the rain will cleanse you. It's like a fresh bath. لِيُطَاهِرَكُمْ بِهِ وَيُذِهِبَ عَنْكُمْ رِجِزَ الشَّيْطَانِ And there was a spiritual bath, physical bath and a spiritual bath, that the rij or the filth of shaitan will be wiped away. And then there is another benefit, three benefits. وَلِيُثَبِّتَ بِهِ الْأَقْدَامِ And to make your footsteps firm. so when it rains just a little bit so when there's no rain the desert sand is very difficult to walk in it's literally as many of you know this like you put your sand in it you feed it and it goes down you put your feet in it and it goes down so no rain is difficult to walk a lot of rain is impossible to walk it will become muddy just the right amount of rain will make it firm like the cement if you like just the right amount of rain it will make it firm And Allah caused their side of the field to become firm. And Allah عز و جل made their side of the field firm to the footsteps. لِيُثَبِّتَ بِهِ الْأَقْدَامِ To make the footsteps very firm. And it is reported, Ali ibn Abi Talib said this, a Muslim, Imam Ahmad. Ali ibn Abi Talib said, If you could only have seen us on the night of Badr. If only you were there to see us on the night of Badr. Every one of us was dead asleep. except for the Prophet ﷺ he was praying behind a tree and he was making dua until morning and of course this is a miracle because the night before anything we're so nervous we cannot sleep the night before any major exam any major test how about a major battle how are you gonna go to sleep but Allah said I was the one who caused you to become drowsy why? because sleep makes you fresh sleep makes you firm sleep makes you powerful And so Allah bless them with sleep. Can you imagine in the Quraysh side? They didn't get the rain, they didn't get the sleep, so automatically Allah is blessing the Muslims in so many different ways. And again we know, إِن يَنصُرْكُمُ اللَّهُ فَلَا غَالِبَ لَكُمْ If Allah helps you, then there is none who can overcome you. And it is also said, even though I have not found an authentic isnad, but it is found in some books that, the Quraysh side, they received a downpour of rain. and of course this is the worst because it makes the ground muddy and when the ground is muddy then you cannot do anything so the Quraysh side they got the bulk of the rain and the Muslim side they got the perfect amount of rain this also shows us the concern of the Prophet ﷺ that even though he is the Prophet of Allah and even though he puts his trust in Allah still what can he do as a leader he is concerned for his people so the whole night he spends making dua to Allah, making sajda to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, begging and pleading Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And in fact Ibn Mas'ud says, reported in Tabarani, that I have never seen anyone pleading in my whole life. He said, I have never seen anyone pleading more than the Prophet ﷺ was pleading on the night of Badr. So Ibn Mas'ud is saying the amount of pleading and begging throughout the whole night. He said, I've never seen anybody pleading that type of pleading, other than the Prophet ﷺ on the night of Badr. And the question arises, did he go to sleep at all? And there's a little bit of a discussion amongst Ibn Kathir and others, did he go to sleep at all? Ibn Kathir says he did doze off. He did doze off, and it was in this dozing off, that Allah showed him the dream. What dream is this? It is referenced in the Qur'an. It is referenced in the Quran, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, اِذْ يُرِيكَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي مَنَامِكَ قَلِيلًا Again Surah Al-Anfa. That Allah showed them to you, them meaning the Quraysh, to you as being very small in number. You saw their army as being very small. وَلَوْ أَرَاكَهُمْ كَثِيرًا If He had showed them to you kathir, as much as they were, لَفَشِّلْتُمْ وَلَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ you would have despaired and you would have began differing with each other but Allah protected you Allah protected you by not showing you the real quantity by giving you a boost of confidence now not showing the real quantity this is not misinformation because if there are a hundred people and you see ten of them these are ten there is 10 out of the 100 if Allah were to have shown 150 this is incorrect information Allah showing some of the people and not all there is nothing incorrect over here because Allah never does anything incorrectly Allah says وَمَنْ أَصْدَخُونَ اللَّهِ حَدِيثًا who speaks the truer than Allah so Allah Azza wa Jal did not tell the Prophet ﷺ you're seeing the whole army rather he showed him a dream and the dreams of the prophets are true and so the Prophet ﷺ saw a section of the army and this section is correct and valid and true section. So when the Prophet ﷺ woke up, he felt a surge of confidence. And that was the goal of to give him that comfort, to give him that surge. Allah knows he's gonna be victorious. So before the victory, he's made feeling optimist. The optimism is there. And this is of the mercy of Allah ﷻ. That Allah ﷻ showed him their quantity to be fewer than they actually were. And as the sun rose up, and they have prayed Salatul Fajr. The Prophet ﷺ is now starting to align the Muslim army and he did a tactic that was never done before amongst the Arabs. This tactic that we all know of, but amongst the Arabs, they did not have this tactic. The Arabs of old, they had the tactic of Al-Farruh wa Al-Karr. Al-Farruh wa Al-Karr. And Al-Farruh wa Al-Karr, the best way to describe this is, you can just imagine, they do an attack, basically in circles if you like, right? They go out and they attack the army, and then they come back and they recuperate. And then they go out and they attack, and they come back and they recuperate. الفر والكر means they go in batches and they come back. And they go in batches and they come back. This is الفر والكر. The tactic of the Prophet ﷺ is the modern tactic that we are all used to, and that is military battalions marching in rows. All of them in rows. And Allah عز و جل references this in the Qur'an, إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُنَ فِي سَبِيلِهِ صَفًّا كَأَنَّهُمْ بُنْيَانُ مَرْسُوسٌ Of course, modern military maneuvers, we all know that that is the most effective way. That you have rows upon rows, literally, and all modern armies, what do they do? They learn to march in rows. This tactic was not known to the Arabs. This was not practiced by the Arabs. But Allah عز و جل taught our Prophet ﷺ this tactic, and this is now the standard tactic of all armies in the world, and that is to have ranks and rows and files. The entire army should be in rows. And of course, in the battle of Badr, they didn't have all of these weapons. They only had some of them. But of course, eventually what should be done is that the front row is gonna have the javelins and the spears. And the back row is gonna have the bow and arrow. And then the middles are gonna have the swords, right? Now, in the battle of Badr, they had some of these weapons, but not enough to really form a proper battalion. Nonetheless, they did what they could. And that is to have those who had spears were right in the front, and the people with the swords were the bulk and everybody had a sword. Swords were what you all had. And then they had a few bows and arrows and so the bows and arrows were put at the back and that is of course, all of this, the Prophet ﷺ did not go through any military school. But it's something that Allah عز و جل just blessed him with this intuition of how to arrange the army. And this of course worked out for the betterment of the Muslims. And the Prophet ﷺ was walking between the rows, straightening them like he straightens the rose for salah. Like literally having them in absolute straight lines. Again I pause here. This is exactly what modern armies do. Where they teach their soldiers, their infantry to march such that psychologically they're marching. Literally literally like Allah says and this is something amazingly the Prophet ﷺ had never seen this. He had never experienced this. But it is something that because he is Rasulullah ﷺ it is simply coming to him. So he's marching between the rose and the ranks and he had a stick that he was tapping people to make them completely straight. And there was a sahabi there who was standing in front of the line. He wasn't standing in the line. He was incorrect in his position. And his name was Suwad. And so the Prophet ﷺ poked him in the stomach and he said, O Suwad, go get your place in line. Go straighten your line. Straighten up O Suwad. So was Sufuf. Have the line straight. and he pokes him with the stick. Suwad says, Ya Rasulullah, you have poked me and caused pain without any cause. In other words, I didn't deserve this pain. And Allah has sent you with truth and justice. So I demand justice. Allah has sent you with truth and justice. So I demand justice. and I need to do this basically to you as well. Can you imagine they're about to have a battle, can you imagine? And the Prophet ﷺ did not, like he's literally just poking him. I mean, come on. It's just a poke. It's not like he's putting a sword or something. It's just, get your place in line. And Suwad says, I demand justice. Can you imagine any other general, right? Who would have spoken to him in this manner? Can you imagine any other person? What would they have done if a private, if an infantryman speaks in this fashion? immediately the Prophet ﷺ drops the stick raises his shirt so you can pick it up raises his shirt and says here's qisas your turn, here's qisas instantaneously he does this can you imagine like wallahi it's the battle of Badr you're gonna be fighting the Quraysh but the Prophet ﷺ basically said you have a point basically that okay I caused you some pain cause me the pain back you may do qisas and Suwad immediately bowed down and hugged and kissed the skin of the Prophet ﷺ that was exposed he kissed his stomach and he hugged it and the Prophet ﷺ said what is this O Suwad you're supposed to have poked me, what is this O Suwad so he said Ya Rasulullah you see the situation we're in you see the situation we're in and so if we die, if I die I wish that my last breath or my last time be that my skin touch your skin before my death. Of course he didn't die in that battle, but the point being, now this is also a genius here. Look at how he's thinking that when the Prophet ﷺ pokes him instantaneously, he thinks of a plot basically to kiss the Prophet ﷺ, to hug the Prophet ﷺ. How else is he going to do this? So the Prophet ﷺ made dua for him and asked Allah عز و جل to bless him. And again, this obvious here, the ideal role model that was set by the Prophet ﷺ in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when it comes to rights and privileges and wrongs and zulm, everybody is the same. Kings and the peasant, they are all under the sharia of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that is why the Prophet ﷺ was so literal. He said, you know, yes, you're right. I shouldn't have poked you without any reason. That you caused pain. And what is this pain? What is the poke? Wallahi you do this, we do much more to our kids and our loved ones every day, right? But the Prophet ﷺ said, you're right. and instantaneously he raised his shirt and this shows us his humility his humbleness it shows us that this is why our religion led the world for as long as it did that the leader and the lead the ruler and those who ruled they were all equivalent in the eyes of Allah and we all know of the famous stories where sometimes even the Khalifa when he went to the court he was judged as being wrong and the famous story of the Jew and Ali ibn Abi Talib where when Ali was taken to court, the judge ruled against him, right? And Ali accepted that judgment and the Jew immediately accepted Islam and he said, this religion that causes a judge to judge against the Khalifa has to be the religion of truth. And this is why Islam was what it was once upon a time. Nonetheless, so the Prophet ﷺ made dua for Suwad and continued to go around and making the rows straight. As the sun is rising and finally the two armies can see one another. So we can say this is probably around 7, 7.30 in the morning. The sun is just about rising here. The Prophet ﷺ saw a man hastily running back and forth, not running, galloping on his camel in the lines of the Quraysh. Galloping back and forth in the lines of the Quraysh. And the Prophet ﷺ said, if there is any good in the Quraysh, it is in that person. and if they have any good in them they shall listen to him in another version he said if they listen to him they shall be successful they shall be good if they listen to him and he said to Ali ibn Abi Talib that oh Ali call out to Hamza Hamza was standing right in the front call out to Hamza and tell me who is that man and what is he saying so Allah gave him wahi that that man is saying something good but he didn't tell him what so he told Ali to ask Hamza so Ali went and marched forward and asked Hamza to find out who is that man and what is he saying so we infer from this that Allah told him that the man has some wise words and so the Prophet ﷺ said if they listen to him they shall be good and who was this man and what was he saying we'll talk about inshallah in a while also when the Prophet ﷺ saw the Quraysh once again he began to raise his hands to Allah and making dua to Allah against the Quraysh. And he said, O Allah, this is the Quraysh. They have come against you with their pride and their arrogance, challenging you and rejecting your messenger. O Allah, your help that has been promised. O Allah, your help that has been promised. O Allah, your help that has been promised. i.e. I want your help that has been promised. O Allah, cause them to be destroyed today. So he continues to make dua even until the very last minute. let's pause here, go to the side of the Quraysh now. So there's two things happening at the same time. So let's pause here, go to the side of the Quraysh, then come back to the side of the Muslims. On the morning of the 17th, as the two armies are facing one another, the Quraysh has come late last night, so they don't really know who they're facing, meaning the size, the quantity. They're still uncertain. And so they send, right after Fajr most likely, when the sun is, or maybe even at dawn, we don't know an exact time, but before the armies begin to meet, they send their most experienced scout. His name is Umair ibn Wahab al-Jumahi. Umair ibn Wahab al-Jumahi. They send their most experienced scout to go find out how large is the army of the Muslims. And so Umair goes far and wide, maybe even circles around. But he goes around the plains of Badr alone to get an estimation of how large the Muslims are. and when he came back he told the Quraysh they are around 300 that's pretty precise they are around 300 plus or minus some but I feel that this is a huge catastrophe about to happen they didn't ask his opinion but he is offering his opinion I feel there is a huge catastrophe about to happen young men of Yathrib charged eager enthusiastic young men of Yathrib waiting to inflict death a group of people who have no help other than their swords. They don't have armor. They don't have battalions. They don't have too many spears. They don't have too many javelins. They don't have too many bows and arrows. They literally came as an expedition with their swords. They're not armed to the hilt. And so when you're not armed and you're facing an enemy, what does that cause you? Desperation. It causes you to fight much more than you would fight otherwise. So he's saying, I'm seeing these young men and they only have their swords. They're going to be very desperate. by Allah I don't think that you will be able to kill anyone amongst them until they kill at least one of you you're not gonna kill anyone unless they kill one first amongst you and if 300 of you die then what pleasure will you gain for winning if one third of you die what's the point of this battle now do as you please so Umair gave him his advice and it was an honest assessment that the Muslims did not have weaponry, they didn't have horses, they didn't have armor, they only had their fighting swords, but they had a determination that you guys don't have. I sense in them fear, not fear, sorry. I sense in them, what's a good word here? Bravery, not fear. I sense in them determination, there's a good word here. I sense in them determination that even if you kill them, they will kill an equivalent number of you. 300 of you will die before, you're able to get them. So what's the point of returning back to Mecca when your brother, your cousin, your father, when one of you is going to be dead, one out of every three of you will be dead. And Abu Jahl said, we didn't ask for your advice, we just wanted the quantity. We didn't ask for your advice, who are you to tell us what to do? Another person who's strongly opposed to the war, so now that they're actually facing the army, still there are people who don't want to fight. We've already mentioned in our last lesson that more than one third of the Quraysh has already returned. When they found out that the caravan of Abu Sufyan was safe, more than 300 people returned of different tribes. So there's already a dispute. We already mentioned that Umayyah, Utbah, they didn't want to go. That Abu Jahl had enticed them and said, look, let's just camp at Badr and sing for three days and get drunk for three days and let the people hear that we're not scared of anybody. so there's talk of war but there's still hope there's not going to be a battle that's the position right now another person therefore who's stopping the battle is Hakeem ibn Hizam Hakeem ibn Hizam his son was a sahabi and his son was on the other side, Hizam ibn Hakeem so don't get confused, Hakeem ibn Hizam so the sahabi is Hizam ibn Hakeem ibn Hizam so the father, grandfather, sorry the son and the grandson are the same name so don't get confused. The father is on this side, the son is on that side. Hakim ibn Hizam. Hakim ibn Hizam did not want war as well. And he went to Utbah ibn Rabi'ah. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah who has been not wanting war from day one. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah who has basically tried his best that the Quraysh never fight. And Utbah who has been grudgingly coming to the army. He did not want to be here. And so he goes to Utbah. Why does he go to Utbah? Because he knows Utbah is not eager for war. And so he goes to Utbah and he encourages him to mediate a truce. How can you make sure there's no battle today? And so Hakeem asks Utbah that why don't you take on the blood money of the Hadhrami. Amr al-Hadhrami, pause here. Amr al-Hadhrami, he was killed in the Sariyat al-Nakhla. If you remember, he was killed in the Shahr al-Haram. Right? Ash-Shahr al-Haram. يسألونك شهر العام قتال فيه. remember that sariyah where six of the sahaba they didn't know what to do and then they decided to launch an offensive one person was killed, this is al-hadrami and they were, his name is amr al-hadrami, and they were hyping this up a lot and they were saying these are the people who killed al-hadrami and we have to revenge the blood of hadrami and they attacked al-hadrami in the haram during the haram, in the area of the haram, right, so they're making a big deal wallahi we find the same types of sloganeering to this day, that these are the people who did this and who did that, and they don't see what they themselves have done. The same type of one-sidedness, right? Always we see this. So, the Quraysh are doing the same thing. These are the people who have killed Al-Hadrami, and they're making a very big deal of Al-Hadrami. So, there's blood now in the air. People want revenge for Hadrami. Like, we have to defend our wounded and our fallen. We hear the same cry to this day. No matter what it means, we have to defend Al-Hadrami's honor. Even though maybe before this, Hadrami might be unknown, right? But still, now he becomes a hero. So, Uthba said that, okay, Uthba is a rich man, he is a noble man. Uthba said, okay, fine. If this is what's gonna prevent bloodshed, I shall pay the blood money of the Hadhrami. I will give it from my own pocket. That's a lot of money. Right? I will give the blood money. You all know blood money. We don't have to go over blood money. When somebody is killed or dies, you pay blood money. And blood money is supposed to be given by those who killed. But then, if somebody else gives it for peace, this was accepted by Islam and by the Quraysh before, this was accepted. For peace, if you give the blood money, then you're not supposed to fight. So, Utbah says, I will give the blood money. And he made a speech to the relatives of Al-Hadhrami, the extended relatives of Al-Hadhrami, saying that look, I will give the blood money, stop chanting his name basically. Stop making him to be the cause. However, when the news of this reached Abu Jahl, he flipped out basically, he flipped out. before we talk about Jahad I forgot so Hizam sorry Hakeem Ibn Hizam Hakeem himself said take the advice of this man take the advice of this man and it was at this time when Utbah said if somebody accuses you of cowardice this is when he said this now if somebody accuses you of cowardice then mention my name and tell them that Utbah became a coward Utbah became a coward that you wanted to fight and I was the one, now Uthbah's leader he's the elder, he's the senior and he said I was the one who became scared go ahead and say that, as long as it's going to avoid bloodshed even though you know, he has to defend his honor, even though you know I'm not a coward he's not a coward, everybody knows he's not a coward but he says if somebody then blames you, you were cowards for not fighting, mention my name and say you weren't cowards I became cowardly and you didn't fight because of me, for by Allah what will you gain by fighting this man. If you're able to defeat him, you will be killing your own father, your own cousin, your own nephew, your own blood. And again, this was unprecedented in Arabia. Never did one tribe kill a member of their own tribe. This is the gang mentality. How would you like it, he said. How would you like it that you are amongst the murderers of your own nephews and uncles and sons. Meaning, even if you don't kill him, somebody in your side of the army will kill your father, will kill your son, will kill your brother. How will you like it to see somebody who killed your own brother? Now he's evoking Jahiliyyah here. He's evoking Jahiliyyah here. That nobody could stand his tribe being murdered. Now you're saying that you're gonna be murdering yourselves. And even if you physically don't kill your own relative, somebody will end up killing. And that somebody is on your side. How can you live in peace in Mecca with this man who killed your own brother? So let us return and let us leave Muhammad and his companions to the rest of the Arabs. And then he gave a very profound point. If they take care of him, if they overcome him, this is what you want. It won't be at our hands. And if it is the other case, meaning he overcomes them, then surely in his izzah is our izzah as well. Meaning, isn't he a Quraysh in the end of the day? And if he wins over, then this is for our good as well. And you will have an excuse that he will forgive you if he were to ever conquer Mecca. Now imagine, subhanAllah, he's thinking all of these steps ahead. That if Muhammad ﷺ is successful, then alhamdulillah, that's what you want for your own tribe, to be successful. And when he comes back to Mecca, you can remind him, look, we didn't fight you that day, so forgive us. Even though he was gonna forgive them anyway, as we know. And if he's not successful, let the other Arabs deal with him. so this was when he was on his camel and he was going back and forth and that is what the Prophet ﷺ is seeing on the other side and so he is saying if they have any good they will listen to the man on the red camel this is the parable of the man on the red camel this is the man who has some sense in him so when he is going back and forth Hakim is so happy that finally this blood money will be paid that Hakim himself rushes to Abu Jahl and he says O Abu Jahl Utbah has agreed to pay the blood money of the Hadrami and so let us avoid this bloodshed. And so Abu Jahl mocked Hakeem. And he said, Oh Hakeem, didn't Utbah find any messenger other than you? Meaning messenger means you're a slave now? That you're a servant of Utbah now? Didn't he find any slave, any messenger other than you? And so Hakeem said, I am not a messenger to him. But this is basically my message as well. Meaning I want this as well. so Abu Jahl is trying to put him down by saying are you now a carrier boy are you now a telegraph boy didn't he find anybody other than you and so Hakeem responds back well if you want to know I agree with this message that's why I am here I want no bloodshed as well and of course Hakeem is also a noble Qurashi as well and so when Abu Jahl sees that two or three people are changing their minds Abu Jahl goes to the blood brother of the Hadhrami who was killed the blood brother not the extended family so this is the immediate one and he says will you be happy to take some gold for your blood for your brother have you like no shame that you want to just incite them now before they change their mind and so this young man the hadhram his brother the young man stood up and he gave a passionate talk about his brother and the death of his brother and how could they basically listen to this and Abu Jahl at this point then said that, O Utbah, you have become a coward when you have seen the ranks of the Muslims. This is what has caused your mind to change. Now this is strange here. Utbah himself said, call me a coward. Right? When Abu Jahl called him a coward, he flipped. Even though he's saying, call me a coward. I'll take it. But I guess he didn't want Abu Jahl to call him a coward, right? Anybody but Abu Jahl. When Abu Jahl called him a coward, he said, and he sent a bit of a derogatory phrase which I'm not going to translate fully. But he said to him that, and he didn't speak to him directly, he spoke to him in the third person. He said, this person, meaning Abu Jahl, who perfumes his behind with perfume of women. So he's basically making very derogatory terms about him. He accuses me of being a coward? He shall see who the real coward is. and thus saying he called his own brother and his own son to march out with him right then and there for the Mubaraza. In other words, he acted emotionally and this led to his death. What is the Mubaraza? We're going to come to the one-on-one fighting. What is the Mubaraza? That is the one-on-one fighting. So when Abu Jahl taunted him and said that looking at the army of the Muslims has made you a coward, this made him so enraged, he immediately told his brother and his son, Al-Walid, to come march with him and fight the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims, the Mubaraza, three to three, as we're going to come to. Now, notice here as well that the Prophet ﷺ praised the wisdom of Utbah even though that wisdom was not coming from Islamic ideals. Where was it coming from? Jahiliyyah. Why didn't he want to fight the Muslims? tribalism it's not as if he's saying they are upon the truth and we are upon batil he doesn't want to fight because of tribalism but this ideal of his of not fighting is a good ideal and what he is saying makes a lot of sense how could you fight your own brother and your own cousin and then you go home and the murderers of your own brother will be your neighbor how could you do this isn't this common sense and so what we learn here and it's very relevant for us here in the world that we live in in the world that we live in there are people that are defending ideals that might not be coming from Islam but those ideals are good and virtuous in and of themselves even if they're not coming from Islam whether it is freedom of other people whether it is the right for the government not to kill its own citizens you get the point here there's a lot going on in America today and there are many who are supporting causes that are not coming from the sharia they're not coming from qalallahu qadur rasuluhu but those causes are causes that are just causes independent of it coming from the sharia they're just causes no government should kill its own people execute them without any trial no government should send you know drones and just fire upon civilians and there are many people in these lands that are opposed to these policies there's nothing wrong with us not just praising them but getting involved with them, helping them out. Here is the process I'm saying, if there is any wisdom in this whole qawm, it's in that person there. He said it's wisdom. He is saying, if they have any good in them, they'll listen to this man. So, they're idol worshippers, but they still have wisdom. They still have good. And listening to this good will bring about good in them. Right? And therefore, alhamdulillah, I don't need to preach to you over here, but sometimes there are still people who think that we should not get involved at all in the system. There are still people who say we should have nothing to do with this system because it's all corrupted and faulty. And the fact of the matter is this is really not a very intelligent attitude and it's gonna cause more long-term damage than good. And so even though his ideals were coming from Jahiliyyah, still because those ideals were good, the Prophet ﷺ called it wise ideals. And this shows us, and the whole seerah shows this to us, that a person can be good and bad at the same time. A person can be an idol worshipper and still have principles that are worthy of admiration and respect and yes, even support. Now, as the Quraysh themselves are lining up, Abu Jahl stands up and makes a dua to Allah loudly so that everybody hears him. And subhanallah, notice on the one side the process of making dua, on the other side Abu Jahl is making dua. Abu Jahl stands up and makes dua to Allah. And he says, and his dua was completely against him even though he did not realize it. He says, O Allah, whichever of the two of these armies has brought more evil, and whichever of these two has cut the ties of kinship, and whichever has brought the more unknown doctrines, the more strange ideas, let them meet their death today. and in all three of these counts Abu Jahl is more guilty than the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam so the one who is bringing more evil the one who is cutting the ties of kinship subhanallah, why are they fighting the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam cutting the ties of kinship the one who is bringing the new doctrine the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is bringing the doctrines of Ibrahim he is the original doctrines, the original doctrines of the Arabs was Tawheed and Abu Jahl is following the newer doctrine not the oldest doctrine And so Abu Jahl makes dua against himself. And that is exactly what Allah says in the Quran. إِن تَسْتَفْتِحُوا فَقَدَ جَاءَكُمُ الْفَتْحِ That if you are asking for victory, too late. The victory has already been given basically against you. Right? إِن تَسْتَفْتِحُوا Here's Abu Jahl, you're asking for fatah, too late now. The fatah has already been decided and it's not gonna go to your favor. And the two armies are now facing one another. and the Prophet ﷺ issues a command here that certain people should not be killed. He says, certain people should not be killed if you see them. And he mentions in particular Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib, his own uncle, Al-Abbas. And he also mentions Abu al-Bukhtari. Abu al-Bukhtari, many things are narrated about him. But one of the major things about Abu al-Bukhtari, he was one of the most important people to break the boycott. the boycott way long ago and he mentioned some others and he said all of these people they are fighting even though they don't want to they are karihun they have been forced to fight with the Quraysh and they are not wanting to fight and this shows us that not all enemies are the same even those in an army some of them are better than others even those who are facing the Muslims intending to kill them you never know, somebody might not have that intention somebody might not have that full so the prophet says, because he knows, because he is Rasulullah, he knows, there is Al-Abbas there is Abu al-Bukhtari, and there is others who don't need to be killed now, we had mentioned that we had mentioned that Utbah started the Mubaraza, what is a Mubaraza? Mubaraza means battle, or championship, if you like Mubaraza is an open bout between specific people and the way that the Arabs would have a war the way that they would have a battle is that before the two armies actually engaged one another a few people would fight one on one with others typically some of the senior figures not the actual leader because that would be too demoralizing for any group but the second tier if you like the second rank they would go out and they would fight one another in order to give some moral victory to one of the two sides to give them a boost so this was their style it was called a Mubaraza and of course you rouse up the army, you also have a whiff of blood here now that now you see somebody killed and you're supposed to either want to avenge or then if you're side one then you want to go and attack and it was Uthba who was the one who started the Mubaraza, however there was an incident that occurred before this we don't know exactly when whether it was the night before or whether it was early morning of the 17th the books of Sira don't mention but one person died the first in the whole two armies and this was Al-Aswat ibn Abdul Asad Al-Makhzumi from the Banu Abdul Asad from the Makhzum from the Abu Jahl tribe Al-Aswat ibn Abdul Asad Al-Makhzumi and when they came to the battlefield and that's why it seems that this happened on the night of the 16th Allah knows best maybe it happened on the Maghrib time or something of the 16th when they came and they saw that all the water had been cut off. Right? So they were expecting water. They were expecting to get some water. When they saw all the water cut off, Al-Aswad said that, I will be the one to get some water for you, or I will die trying. I'm gonna make sure I cross the enemy lines, get some water from one of the wells, and bring it back for you. And so, he attempted to sneak into the side where there were the wells, and Hamza saw him, and cut off his leg and then killed him before he reached the water. And therefore he was true in what he said, that I will either get water or I shall die trying. Well, he died trying. And so he became the first person to be killed on the Battle of Badr. And that is Al-Aswad ibn Abdul Asad Al-Makhzumi. Allahu'alam, whether this took place on the 16th night or on the 17th morning, we don't seem to be able to verify. However, the first actual precursor to the Battle of Badr was the actual Mubaraza. And this was Utbah ibn Rabi'ah, his younger brother Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah, and Utbah's son Al-Walid ibn Utbah. So we have two elderly people, maybe in their early 60s, late 50s type, and this is Utbah and his brother Shaybah. So Utbah and Shaybah are the brothers. And then Utbah's son, Walid. So Walid ibn Utbah, his father and his uncle. So this is all coming from the core of the Quraysh clan. This is the cream of the Quraysh clan, but this is second tier. Abu Jahl is first tier. Abu Sufyan is first tier. Abu Sufyan's course is not here. But this is the first tier. Udba and Shayba, this is basically one level below them. And this was Mubarizahs done between these types of people. So they marched forward with their swords to the middle of the ground. And they shouted out, who will come forth and battle us? Who will come forth and battle us? Immediately, three of the Ansar stood up. And they were, Auf ibn Afra, Muawwiz ibn Afra, and Abdullah ibn Rawaha. Abdullah ibn Rawaha is the one whom the angels did ghusl of. On that day, we're going to talk about it in Uhud. Auf and Muawwiz ibn Nayy Afra. They were the ones who eventually killed Abu Jahl. We'll talk about their story. And they were both very young, probably 17 or 16 years old. And in their eagerness, automatically, they're the ones jumping up. So as soon as Utbah says, who will battle with us? These three young men of the Ansar. And perhaps the Ansar felt the need to prove themselves over the Quraysh. so because they're all from the Ansar, the three of them they stood up and they said we will battle you, so Utbah said who are you so they said we are so and so and so so Utbah said we have no battle with you we have no problem with you we didn't come to fight you we don't know you people, why should we fight you we are fighting our own blood again they're thinking pure Jahiliyyah they really don't even see the point to fighting the Ansar. Think about that. We don't even need to fight you guys. Why are you even here? Go back home, basically. They don't understand the bonds of Iman. They don't understand that Iman is stronger than blood. So they're saying, we don't need to fight you. Go back, send us our own. And then they called out, Utbah called out, O Muhammad ﷺ, send us equals worthy of us. Our blood. Don't send us these Ansar or these Yathribites. Send us some Qurashi. Send us people worthy of us. And the Prophet ﷺ was the one who himself assigned the three of them. So he said, stand up O Ubaidullah ibn al-Harith, and you O Hamza, and you O Ali. So he sent three of the core of the Quraysh. And when the three of them stood up, Utbah said, who are you? So Ubaidullah said, this is Ubaidullah ibn al-Harith. This is far away, they cannot recognize by features, right? This is Ubaidah ibn al-Harith, and Hamza said Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib, Ali said Ali ibn Abi Talib. And so Utbah said, noble adversaries, come and let us fight. This is what we want to fight about. Noble adversaries come and let us fight. And Ubaidah was the oldest of them. By the way, who is this Ubaidah? This is Ubaidah ibn al-Harith ibn al-Muttalib ibn abd-i-Munaf. I.e. Ubaidah ibn al-Harith ibn al-Muttalib, not Abdul Muttalib. Muttalib is the brother of? Muttalib is the brother of? No No Abdul Muttalib is called Abdul Muttalib Because of this guy Have you forgotten the story? What is Abdul Muttalib's name? Shayba Shayba, white hair, Shayba Right? And Abdul Muttalib Who rescued him from his Akhwal in Medina, in Yathrib Muttalib rescued him Muttalib brought him back and when Muttalib entered the city you're forgetting the story when Muttalib entered the city he had a young boy and he didn't want to tell the people that this is the son of the son of his brother he didn't want to tell the people this why? because he was still scared of the akhwal the banu najjar he was scared of them so they said who is this? is this your new slave? and he said yes this is my new slave so Abdul Muttalib became Abdul Muttalib, otherwise his name is Shayba so Abdul Muttalib is called Abdul Muttalib because of this Muttalib so Ubaidah his grandfather is that Muttalib, what does that make him of the Prophet his father's second cousin his father's second cousin right, and he is the he is coming from the core he is coming from the core he is not Banu Hashim by the way because Muttalib's brother was Hashim Abdul Muttalib ibn Hashim he is not Banu Hashim he is Banu Abdi Manaf clear? so he is one of the seniors of the Banu Abdi Manaf not of the Banu Hashim but still they are all Quraish so he sends Ubaidah ibn Al-Halith and he was the eldest he was the oldest amongst them and Ubaidah is the oldest so he automatically goes towards Utbah and Utbah is the oldest amongst them. Right? And Hamza who is the middle, he goes to Utbah's younger brother and that is Shaybah. So Hamza is the middle age one and he goes to Shaybah, the middle age one. And then of course the two youngsters are Ali on the one hand and Al-Walid ibn Utbah on the other. Right? So automatically each one goes to somebody who is worthy of the opponent. And of course common sense. There is no need to... By the way some of the books of Hadith mention changes around here. but this is Ibn Ishaq's pairing and honestly is the only logical pairing. It's the only logical pairing. That each one is by age and this is what we expect. It's common sense that everyone will find somebody for his own age group. And it is said that both Hamza and Ali, the younger of the two, both Hamza and Ali instantaneously pounced on their opponents and they were able to kill them without a single injury to themselves. Details are not mentioned. All we know is that both Hamza and Ali they exchanged some blows but no blow was able to come on them and they managed to kill their opponents and as for Ubaidah Ubaidah, Utbah managed to slice his leg off in the battle he managed to slice his leg off Ubaidah fell down and Utbah was about to kill him but by that time both Hamza and Ali had finished off the other two and so they came to the rescue of Ubaidah and so they managed to kill Utbah. And so the father, the son, and the uncle, or the brother if you like, all three of them died. All because of what? All because of what? Because he was insulted that Abu Jahl called him a coward. Think about how foolish that is. He was insulted that Abu Jahl called him a coward. And subhanallah, look at Allah's qadr. These were not the worst of the Quraysh. Now were they the best? They were not the worst of the Quraysh. But their hamiyyah, their tribalism, their, what do you want to call it? It's basically the arrogance of just look, my tribe, right? My tribe, whatever is my tribe, that is what is going to be done. Just because of this. Even though Utbah was not one who wanted to fight. But when your morals are not based upon Quran and Sunnah, when your morals are stemming from anything else, even if they have some wisdom, they're also going to have some false in them. And so in the end, all three lost their lives because of because of overheated, if you like, paganism. And Allah references this in the Quran, according to many scholars of tafsir, in Surah Al-Hajj verse 19. In Surah Al-Hajj verse 19, Allah says, هَذَانِ خَصْمَانِ اخْتَصَمُوا فِي رَبِّهِمْ هَذَانِ خَصْمَانِ اخْتَصَمُوا فِي رَبِّهِمْ These are the two people who are arguing, they're arguing about their Lord. according to the majority of the scholars of Tafsir هَذَانِ خَصْمَانِ اخْتَصَمُوا فِي رَبِّهِمْ is a revelation regarding these two Mubarazas basically that one group has one position about their Lord another group has another position about their Lord and Ali ibn Abi Talib used to say that I will be the first person who will اخْتَصَمُوا means they're gonna argue in front of their Lord I will be the first person who will argue on Yawmul Qiyamah because I was the one who was the first to kill on Badr and this ayah came down about me. And so this is one interpretation of Surah Al-Hajj verse 19. Surah Al-Hajj verse 19. So the Mubaraza proved to be a big... By the way, Ubaidah was carried on the shoulders of Ali and Hamza and he died a few days later from the effects of the wounds because his whole leg was cut off and they were not able to stop and cure that or stop the bleeding. And he was an elderly man as it is. And so he became an after effect shaheed. not in the battle, not in the battle, but because of the wounds of the battle, he eventually died a few days after this. So this was a big moral boost to the Muslims that it appeared that all three of their people came back safe and all three of the Quraysh had died. And of course this was just the initial victory. This was the appetizer that Allah gave to the Muslims that eventually the whole victory would be theirs. And it is narrated in Sahih Muslim that when the Prophet ﷺ was lining up the army, he once again turned to face the qibla and he raised his hands up to the skies. And he started making dua to Allah عز و جل O Allah, fulfill your promise to me. O Allah, give me what you have promised. O Allah, if this group is destroyed, you shall not be worshipped on earth. The same dua he was making the last night. And he raised his hands completely to the skies. I.e. not just over here. He raised his hands completely to the skies. And this is one of the three postures that we learn from the sunnah about how to make dua. The most common posture is to put your hands out like this, straight out like this. This is the most common posture. And I have said many many times, the palms have to be outwards and not inwards. This is the biggest mistake people make is they make it inwards. And the Prophet ﷺ explicitly said, do not ask Allah from the backs of your palms. Ask Allah from the inside of your palms. We don't ask Allah like this. We ask Allah like this, the palms have to be open. This is the most common way. Sometimes a Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam would make dua by simply raising a finger. By simply raising a finger. And this is especially for dhikr or istighfar. Istaghfirullah, istaghfirullah, istaghfirullah. He would just raise a finger. So this too is allowed for dua and dhikr. And very rarely, very rarely, he would raise his hands all the way up to the heavens. All the way up. And when you raise your hands up, you don't have your palms facing down. You literally have them facing up like this. So the palms are now facing outwards and up. You cannot do this and go up, right? So he would have his hands upwards, and the palms are again out, because you always ask Allah with the outward of your palms. So your hands are facing up, and you're making dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And on this occasion, it is also allowed to raise your head up to the heavens as well. otherwise in salah you never raise your eyes up in salah you never raise your eyes but at times of extreme problem, extreme distress then the Prophet ﷺ would literally raise his head to the heavens and his hands up to the heavens like this making dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he kept on making dua until so much so that and he's oblivious to everything around him that his rida, his upper garment it falls out. And he is standing there, bare chested nothing on his chest, he just has his izar, his lower garment on and his whole chest is open. And he's making du'aan he's oblivious that his rida' has fallen down. And so at this Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu, he picked up, he stood down, he stooped down, picked up the izar and he wrapped it around the process and he hugged him from behind and he said, enough ya Rasulallah enough, your Lord will give you as you have promised. Your Lord will give you as you have promised. And it was at this time, subhanAllah, over here, we notice a very profound or very beautiful point here. And that is that the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr are perfecting two different emotions, both of which should be present in the believers. The Prophet ﷺ is perfecting the emotion of fear. And Abu Bakr is perfecting the emotion of hope. And we have said so many times, hope and fear are both essential. Hope and fear are both essential in the heart of the believer. And you have to have both. And each one has a time where it deserves to be more than the other. At this point in time, the Prophet ﷺ had more fear in his heart that my dua will not be accepted. And Abu Bakr had more hope. And at this point in time, even though both are necessary, of course fear is more appropriate because you're facing the army. Because this is the time where everything will be manifested. And so even in this, the Prophet ﷺ, of course, and he is Rasulullah, Abu Bakr is second always. Abu Bakr is manifesting hope, and the Prophet ﷺ is perfecting the emotion of fear. And so he hugged the Prophet ﷺ from the back, he put the izar on, he lowered the hands, and he said, enough ya Rasulullah, your Lord will give you as you have promised. And he had barely said this, when the Prophet ﷺ went into his trance, which means that wahi is coming, right? So literally as soon as he lowers his hands, Allah's response comes, right? And this goes back to the hadith in Abu Dawud that the Prophet ﷺ said that when Allah's servant raises his hands up, Allah is embarrassed that those hands come back without putting something in them, right? Allah is embarrassed. The word used is hayi, shy. Allah is shy. you know just like when a beggar comes to one of us he keeps on begging you just feel shy come on you know let me just give him something right and Allah وَلِلَّهِ الْمَثْرُ الْأَعْلَى to Allah belongs the more perfect example if any one of us with nobility feel shy when somebody comes and asks and asks and asks how about Allah Azza wa Jal how perfect is his nature and how about his messenger is doing the asking right how about Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is doing the asking how can those hands come back without giving him something so barely has those hands come down except that Jibreel comes with his wahi. And the wahi, basically he closes his eyes, he appears tense, you can see that wahi is coming. And then when the wahi is lifted, Ibn Mas'ud said, he turned around and it was as if his face was the moon. كأن وجه القمر الآن And when the wahi is now lifted, whatever news is happening, it has made him so happy that his face is now like the moon. And he tells Abu Bakr, أبشر يا أبا بكر You're telling me to calm down? I'm telling you be happy for indeed the help of Allah Azza wa Jal has come the help of Allah Azza wa Jal has come this is Jibreel he's pointing now, this is Jibreel he has worn his turban and he's holding on to the straps of his horse guiding it through the valley and Allah revealed in the Quran that that when you ask Allah Azza wa Jal I shall help you I shall send a thousand angels for your help and one for every one of them. They have a thousand, I'll send a thousand. And one angel could have taken care of all of them. But Allah Azawajal is saying, don't worry, when you are asking for help, I will send down one thousand angels to help you out. And the Prophet ﷺ began reciting, سَيُهْزَمُ الْجَمْعُ وَيُوَلُّونَ الدُّبُرُ سَيُهْزَمُ الْجَمْعُ وَيُوَلُّونَ الدُّبُرُ This is of course which surah? Surah Al-Qamar. Surah Al-Qamar. That's Sayyuh Zamul Jumu'i wa yuwalluna ad-Dubur. And Umar ibn Al-Khattab said, when he heard this verse, he said, I never understood this verse until the process and recited it on the morning of Badr. What does it mean? Sayyuh Zamul Jumu'i wa yuwalluna ad-Dubur. The groups shall be defeated and they will turn their backs and flee. Sayyuh Zamul Jumu'i. the jama' will be defeated they're gonna turn around and run away Umar said I used to ask myself which group is this? where will they turn their backs? and when the Prophet ﷺ recited it on the morning of Badr I knew this group will be defeated and they will turn their backs and they shall flee and inshallah the time is I think we cannot start the next, we'll just mention one thing one incident and then we have to start the details of the particular battles, that the Prophet ﷺ then stooped down, picked up some rocks and pebbles, and he threw it towards the direction of the Quraysh, and he said, شَاهَتِ الْوُجُوحِ شَاهَتِ الْوُجُوحِ شَاهَتِ الْوُجُوحِ May these faces be cursed. May these faces be cursed, and every single person in the army of the Quraysh felt blinded. They got something in their eye. They got something in their nostrils. even though it was one throw that the Prophet ﷺ did, and it was literally maybe half a mile or something away. Physically it's not going to go there. But Allah ﷻ caused it to go to every one of the Quraysh. They were blinded by this. And Allah references this in the Qur'an, وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ رَمَىٰ That when you threw, you did not throw, but Allah threw. It's a beautiful verse, right? When you threw, you did not throw, but Allah threw. In other words, you did throw, but it wasn't you that was throwing. It was Allah who was throwing. وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ رَمَىٰ And every single member of the Quraysh army, they felt themselves blinded. They had to cover up themselves. They had to basically clean their nose and their eyes again. And of course, after this, the actual battle began. And inshallah, we will do that, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala, next Wednesday. And before I open the floor for question, reminder to myself and all of you, as you all know that tomorrow is the day of Arafah and inshallah ta'ala we should all be fasting on the day of Arafah the Prophet s.a.w. gave those blessings of the day of Arafah that he gave to no other day of the year and subhanallah if Laylatul Qadr has been hidden in the wisdom of Allah the day of Arafah is very crystal clear which one it is and if we have to search for 10 nights for Laylatul Qadr alhamdulillah we know that the 10 days of Dhul Hijjah where they are and what is the king of these 10 days of Dhul Hijjah and that will be tomorrow. And it is authentically narrated that many of the sahaba and tabi'un and tabatabi'un, many many stories, that if they were not, of course if we were at hajj, then we have a whole different talk to give. And may Allah protect those who are at hajj and accept their du'as and accept their troubles and tribulations and cause them to come back safe and sound and have their sins forgiven. And may the people of hajj remember those who didn't go for hajj as well, inshallah. That's a sincere du'a we make as well. So, because we are of those who are not at hajj, some of those who would not go to hajj, it is authentically narrated that they would spend the day of the 9th as much as possible in dua and in dhikr. And one of them said that, if I am not there in body, inshallah I hope to be there in spirit and soul. That today is the day that Allah is giving all of these barakah. And so, he would spend the day in the masjid, this tabi'ah, he would spend the day in the masjid. And he would say, if I'm not there in my body, inshallah may my duas be accepted like their duas and we know that as Imam Malik mentions in Mwatta that never is shaytan more humiliated than he is on the day of Arafah because of what he sees of the mercy of Allah coming down and so if this is the case of course at Arafah we are not there still tomorrow should be a day that we should try our best to have extra dhikr, extra ibadah extra dua do what we can to come close to Allah and of course most importantly as well is to do the fasting on the day of Arafah. Also, by the way, on the day of Arafah, tomorrow, we begin the Takbirat for those who are not in Hajj. So we begin the Takbirat from the Fajr of Arafah. And so after these every Salah, we should be saying the Takbirat out loud. The Takbirat of Eid, the same Takbirat of Eid. For the Eid al-Adha, they go on the 9th and the 10th and the 11th, and then the 12th Asr time, that is when they stop. Right? You should all know this. Now, 12th Asr is when they stop and then at Maghrib we don't do the Takbirat. So we will start the Takbirat after every Salah. Even if you're alone when you're in the house, you just say the Takbirat after every Salah. From tomorrow we start on the day of Arafah. And then of course, announcement for the Eid as you all know is in the Cook Convention Center at 9am and it's Friday. It's going to be jam-packed. It's a regular work day. So please try to get there by 8.45 or 8.40 or something. It's going to be a long line for parking. You all know that. So we're also going to try to expedite the process. But you know how it goes. We're going to play it by ear. But we understand a lot of people have to go back to work. So we cannot delay it too late. That's what I'm trying to say. Right? No doubt we're not going to start exactly at 9. But I mean we're not going to go too late because we have to make sure that people get to work. Also you need volunteers. Baranko still? Yes. So after Maghrib tomorrow we're going to have iftar over here inshallah potluck dinner so don't show up except if you cannot bring food bring your duas just bring your duas inshallah but it's potluck dinner so try to think of varieties of dishes inshallah and bismillah let's have iftar here tomorrow and then from after Maghrib if you can spare an hour or two Brother Iqbal needs your help to set up and make the convention center prepared for the Eid Salah inshaAllah. We have a few questions inshaAllah. Bismillah. So the Prophet ﷺ once had only one time in his life he had Eid and Jum'ah on the same day. He had Eid on Jum'ah. And so he said in Khutbatul Eid that whoever has prayed Eid with us does not need to come for Jumu'ah but we are having Jumu'ah here meaning in the masjid so if a person prays Eid the fard of Jumu'ah is lifted if he comes it's good and the community must have Jumu'ah so every masjid will have Jumu'ah the fard of Jumu'ah is lifted but if he doesn't pray Jumu'ah he must pray Dhuhr in its place okay, so it is not farad to come for Jumu'ah on the day of Eid, if you have prayed Eid the Eid prayer, clear? okay, and if you pray Jumu'ah, then Alhamdulillah okay, yes in the preparations for the battle the decision of Mubarizah and the lining of your mouth and strategy how much of a role did Hamza play? he was experienced in warfare, did he not have a prominent role or was it all decided by someone deciding it? So the question is how much of a role did Hamza play in the assigning of tasks and roles? Again, our big problem is the bulk of these incidents are not mentioned. And believe me, I have scoured the books and tried my best to get as many incidents and there's also entire dissertations written about Badr and about Uhud and about... So I literally have PhDs and Master's dissertations just about every battle. Right? So people have spent five years, you know, literally just scouring everything. And I have, alhamdulillah, most of these dissertations at home. So I go through these and I go... And unfortunately, we don't have that many riwayat. I mean, as it is, can you imagine any incident, how much can you record of it? As I have said many times, you know, how much can you actually record of it? So also, when the Prophet ﷺ is there, you want to record what he's doing. So we don't really have... I mean, it's amazing we actually have the amount of details we do about what's happening in the side of the Quraysh. It's amazing we actually have this, because some of those converted to Islam later on, so they're telling us what happened. It's actually a blessing from Allah that we have what happened. Otherwise, who would know what's happening in the side of the Quraysh. So, sadly, no, we don't know what role Hamza played in the preparation. Allah knows best. Yes. The battle of Bid'ah was not allowed. Fasting was hard on that day? Fasting was not fasting? No, the fardiya had not yet been revealed. The fardiya had not yet been revealed. It was just about to be revealed. And this was the second year of the hijrah. And remember, the first year of the hijrah is when they actually did the hijrah. Remember, there's no zero. Remember, in calendars there's no zero, right? And so, this is like the first full year that is coming upon them. the actual timing of the revelation of Siyam seems to have been right after the battle of Badr. It seems to have been. And also remember that the first year of Ramadan, Allah Azza wa Jal allowed those who were able to to give a fidya every day. Remember this, Surah Al-Baqarah, right? Fidya tuta'amu miskeen. That if you had the money, it wasn't that fard. there was much more lax whereas the year after that فَمَنْ شَهِدَ مِنْكُمُ الشَّهْرَةَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ that's when it became so again all of the laws came down gradually so Allah knows best we don't have an exact date when the siyam was revealed we don't have but because of the fact that there's no mention whatsoever of the fasting at this time what people have inferred is that the revelation to fast came down Aqiba, means right after the battle of Badr. And this fits in perfectly to Surah Al-Baqarah overall. That most of Baqarah came down. In fact, all of Baqarah came down except for the last ayah the ayah to Dain and what not. Pretty much all of Baqarah came down the first year and a half after the Hijrah. So Baqarah is the earliest Madani revelation. So some of the revelations are right before Badr such as the change of Qibla and some of the revelations are during Badr. There's one or two ayahs reference Badr, and then some of them are right after Badr, so we can say that the fasting, Allahu'alam is right after the incident of Badr but there's no exact date, so Allah knows best any question from the sisters before we break? okay, final question from the brothers okay, bismillah we will then we want to no problem, you were hesitant to ask well, it's actually complicated usually about the ability of the Prophet to be a mujtahid or you know, an umur al-dunya that he's he can make calls in umur al-dunya and he could be wrong, like the hadith of the of the the balah when he suggested to do something to the balah and it failed and he said antum a'lamu bi umur al-dunya so that's an umur al-dunya now in umur al-shari'a can he be a mujtahid Is it possible for him who is at the Gizliya? So this is a deep question and it's not easy to answer and every madhhab has positions about this. And this is a topic of usool al-fiqh. The question the brother is asking is, can the Prophet ﷺ have a personal opinion in matters of the Sharia? He clearly can have a personal opinion in matters not related to Sharia. For example, where to put the army. This is a personal opinion in matters not related to the Sharia. Can he have personal opinions in matters related to the Sharia? the strongest opinion seems to be that Allah عز و جل gave him the authority to have such opinions and if Allah عز و جل did not want to agree with that position he then revealed Wahy to change it so Allah gave him the authority to legislate Sharia upon us and that authority is binding by Allah's command وَإِن تُطِيعُوهُ تَهْتَدُوهُ If you obey him, you will be guided. Right? Examples of this, he changed his mind. Apparently sometimes not because Allah told him to, but he felt it was okay. And the fact that Allah Azza wa Jal allowed him to do this, clearly says and tells us that Ar-Rasul Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Musharri' The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is somebody whom Allah has allowed to propagate Sharia. A classic example of this is the issue of men visiting graves. Issue of men visiting graves. The Prophet ﷺ prohibited men from visiting graves. And then, he wanted to visit his mother's grave. And so he asked Allah permission. So he initially thought that we should not go to graveyards. this is his own position and he knows it's his position and he makes it binding on the ummah and the ummah follows him so the only time you enter a graveyard is to bury somebody you go bury somebody you get out that's it so graveyards are abandoned then he wanted to visit Aminah and so he asked Allah permission to visit Aminah and Allah gave him permission to visit Aminah and that's the famous hadith he went and he cried and then he said that كُنْتُ مُهِيتُكُمْ عَنْ زِيَارَةِ الْكُبُورِ كُنْتُ نَهَيْتُكُمْ عَنْزِيَةً I used to forbid you from visiting graves. But I wanted to visit my mother Aminah's grave, and Allah had allowed me to visit graves. And then he himself was crying so much. So then he said, So go and visit graves, because it reminds you of death. So it's as if he himself saw a wisdom in visiting graves. Reminds you of death. And he said, go ahead and visit graves. The key point here is that nobody should say that, well then this means we don't know what is from Allah, what is from the Prophet ﷺ. Because in the end of the day we don't care. Allah has commanded us to follow the Prophet ﷺ. So if Allah عز و جل did not agree with the decision, He would reveal wahi for it. As we know in the case of the prisoners of Badr for example. If Allah عز و جل did not agree with something, He would then reveal something for it. So the fact that Allah does not reveal anything, means that whatever the Prophet ﷺ said, is binding. No, but the point is still there that if Allah عز و جل did not agree with any decision, He would reveal Wahy. I agree with you, there's no two situations that are exactly the same. But the point being, if the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم made ijtihad about anything, and Allah عز و جل did not agree with it for whatever reason, He would intervene and send Wahy down. That's what I'm saying. And so, when it comes to the Sharia, everything the Prophet ﷺ says and tells us to do is sharia. And we don't care whether Allah specifically told him this ruling or not, because Allah chose him to be our Rasul. And Allah chose him to be our role model. And so everything he does and says becomes binding upon us. That's what the purpose of Rasulullah is. That is what a messenger is. وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلَّا لِيُطَاعَ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ Every messenger has been sent so that he is obeyed by his people. Undisputed obedience, right? Yeah, that's the point. وَإِن تُطِيعُوهُ تَهْتَدُوهُ Only by giving ita'ah to him will you be rightly guided. Okay? That فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ Know by your Lord, Allah may qasam by the Rabb of Muhammad. Notice, he didn't have to say وَرَبِّكَ He could have said فَلَا وَاللَّهِ فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ gave qasam by the Rabb of Muhammad ﷺ to show that relationship. لا يؤمنون They don't have iman. حتى يحكموك فيما شجر بينهم Until they take you as their hakam. What does hakam mean? Ultimate judge. About any dispute that they have. حتى يحكموك فيما شجر بينهم ثم لا يجد في نفسهم حرجا مما قضيت And then they don't have something in their hearts against what you have said. ويسلموا تسليما And they submit wholeheartedly. You can't even in your heart feel, why did the Prophet ﷺ do that? Think about that. That goes against the ijtihad idea, because the ijtihad idea has the possibility that he might be wrong. You didn't hear me clearly. If his ijtihad was not agreed by Allah, what did Allah do? He revealed something. It's already been said. And so, yeah, but in his own lifetime it's gonna come down. That's why the sharia did go through some fine tuning. in his own lifetime is going to come down. And there are many instances of commands being back and forth. Again, I don't want to go into dispute here, but according to one opinion, mut'a was forbidden twice and allowed twice. Back and forth and back and forth. Right? Another opinion says that lahm al-donkeys, al-bighal, that it was also forbidden twice and allowed twice. That there is some fine-tuning going on. And there are other opinions as well. sometimes somebody suggested something to the Prophet ﷺ and Allah Azza wa Jal revealed something because of that suggestion. Now it's coming from Allah Azza wa Jal, but the suggestion came from another companion. I mean, classic example is hijab. Umar was the one who said, Ya Rasulullah, shouldn't your wives and women be wearing the hijab? And Allah Azza wa Jal then revealed. And so Umar used to be proud and say, وَافَقْتُ رَبِّي فِي ثَلَاثٍ That I agree with my Lord in three things. so you're opening up a door which could be very complicated but there's no need to I understand it, it's very easy the bottom line is whatever the Prophet ﷺ says is sharia as long as there's nothing that he himself does that goes against that and this is all of the fuqaha basically say this all of the fuqaha so the issue is more theoretical can the Prophet ﷺ have independent ijtihad it's theoretical even if he did, you have to follow it and he did the strongest position is he did he has ijtihad yes but you are obliged to follow it this is the strongest position and Allah Azza wa Jalla knows best inshallah we will continue next Wednesday bithnillahi ta'ala

Seerah 38 - The Battle of Badr 4 - Yasir Qadhi _ 31st October 2012-EOF_quR7hKc

Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. So we're today inshallah going to discuss the actual gist of the battle of Badr or the incidents that we have narrated about the battle of Badr. And in our last few lessons we had mentioned the precursors to the battle of Badr, the armies lining up, the prophets are making dua, the issue of khawf and raja' between Abu Bakr and the Prophet ﷺ, all of this has been mentioned. Now, the problem comes with the actual battle is that you cannot describe a battle between hundreds of people except with specific stories between individuals. It's not possible to describe an entire battle. These are the old style battle where you're one on one. So what we have is a series of small incidents. That's all that we know. Maybe 10-15 incidents of specific battles between two people. And this is our narration or this is our version of the battle of Badr. And this is of course we want to have much more details but unfortunately we don't have most of these details recorded. What we have is literally probably around 15 stories and that is about it. So, let us begin with this. And again, another problem comes chronologically. How do you put these stories together? Again, it's almost impossible. So, with all of these caveats and disclaimers, let us begin with the stories that we do have narrated about the Battle of Badr. So, of the stories that definitely must have occurred at the very beginning is the story of Umayyad ibn al-Humam. Umayyad ibn al-Humam. And Umayyad ibn al-Humam, he became a shaheed in this battle. One of the few, literally around 13 or 14 Muslims who died. He was one of them and one of the earliest. So when the Mushrikun started running towards the Muslims and the Muslims are also charging forward, the Prophet ﷺ said, قُومُوا إِلَى جَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا كَعَرْضِ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ Stand up and go and fight. قُومُوا, stand up and embrace a heaven that its width, its عرض is like the heavens and the earth. بين السماء والأرض As much as the heavens and the earth distance, this is the width of one Jannah that you will get. And so, Umair at that time was preparing for battle and he was just eating some dates to strengthen himself. And so when he heard this, he said, بَخِن بَخِن And بَخِن بَخِن means to trivialize something. بَخِن بَخِن it's not used anymore in common Arab vernacular, it's one of those classical phrases. But it basically means like this, like something to trivialize, you know, in our vernacular. So the Prophet ﷺ said, ما؟ What do you mean? And how are you trivializing this? And so Umair said that, what I mean, Ya Rasulullah, is a Jannah whose Ard, whose width is between heavens and earth. If this is the truth, then what use is it to remain living here? I want to be of those people. of Jannah. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, أنت من أهلها, you are of those people. You are of those who will get that Jannah. And so when he heard this, he threw away the dates and he said, if I live long enough to finish these dates, then it is too long of a life. If that's what I'm gonna get, then I really don't need to finish these dates, right? And so he threw the dates away, and he stood up and he charged into the army and he met his Shahada, and he's one of the handful of Muslims who died in the battle of Badr. And so he has a very great honor because the Badriyun as it is are the elite of the Sahaba, right? The people of Badr. And then to die a Shaheed in Badr, this is a handful of people and he is the first and the foremost amongst them. It is also narrated that when the army began to charge, the Prophet ﷺ said, do not throw your arrows on them until they come within distance. Keep your arrows, don't be impatient. then when they come shower them with arrows shower them with arrows but save some for later on so he's commanding the archers what to do that when they come close spend most of your arrows but not all of them leave some for later on and in one version of Abu Dawud he said do not unsheathe your swords until they are right upon you in the meantime concentrate on arrows and on looking at the enemy so be prepared until the very end then unsheathe your sword and at some point in time again we don't know exactly when perhaps now or perhaps before this he picked up that handful of dust as we had said and he threw it in the faces of the mushrikun and he said shahat al wujoo and shahat means not just to die but really to be cursed may these faces be cursed and it is narrated that every single one of the mushrikun without exception he was blinded for a while he had to rub the dust out of his eyes because of this one handful of dust that had come. And we can again, it is not explicit, but it would make sense that this occurred right when they're charging upon the Muslims. Right when they're very before the meeting of the Muslims, this would make the most logical sense, but the riwayah don't mention when this took place. And Allah mentions this in the Quran as we said, وَمَا رَمَيْتَ إِذْ رَمَيْتَ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ رَمَىٰ That you did not throw when you threw, but it was Allah عز و جل who threw. and of the specific incidents that we know of the Prophet ﷺ himself did he fight or not? this is a bit of a controversy did he fight himself or not? this is a bit of a controversy amongst the earlier scholars and the majority opinion is that the Prophet ﷺ generally speaking did not fight in most of the battles but in Badr he did fight that in most of the battles he was a military commander and military commanders by and large do not fight they maintain the order and they make sure which troop goes where. As for the battle of Badr, it appears to be by based on one or two narrations that he was physically fighting along with making dua in the tent. So what Ibn Hajar and others opine is that he would fight and then he would make dua. And then he would fight and then he would make dua. So he was alternating between his tent, which was the tent that was set up to be the base, if you remember, we talked about that last week. and then he was also in the front of the fields. And they base this on a narration of Ali ibn Abi Talib, which is narrated in Muslim Imam Ahmad, where Ali said that on the day of Badr, we saw that the Prophet ﷺ was the closest of us to the enemy. And when the fighting got tough, we would seek protection through him, i.e. by coming close to him. And this shows us that he was fighting bravely, and they wanted to be in that vicinity, where the Prophet ﷺ was. And Ali ibn Abi Talib said that he was the most aggressive of all of us on that day. He was the most brave, he was the most courageous. Now, Ali himself narrates, Ali himself narrates that he came to see what the Prophet ﷺ was doing in his tent. And he found him in sajda. Saying, يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّمُ يَا حَيُّ يَا قَيُّمُ And he's making dua. And so Ali left him and went back to the front. He came back again and he still found the Prophet ﷺ in sajda. And so Ali left him and he fought again. Then he came back for the third time and he found him for the third time. And then when he went out, Allah wrote victory for them. So he didn't come back for the fourth time. So Ali narrates both of these narrations that he was in the tent and he was in the front of the army. And therefore the only way to reconcile is that the battle of Badr would have lasted a few hours, at least four or five hours in the entire thing. And therefore the Prophet ﷺ was altering. The battle of Badr began as we said, everybody should know the date, what is the date of the battle of Badr? 17th of Ramadan which was a Friday which was a Friday, 17th of Ramadan which was a Friday, and so the battle began basically early morning, we can say roughly 7am after Fajr, it would have lasted up until midday, a few hours so the Prophet ﷺ is alternating between the front of the army and between beseeching Allah ﷻ and Abu Bakr would stay with him wherever he went, and that is what Ibn Kathir and that is what Ibn Hajar they both mentioned. That the process in Abu Bakr they kept on going to the front and then making dua and Abu Bakr was guarding him when he was making dua. Then they go to the front and back and forth. We also know from the Quran and from the Sunnah that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down exactly one thousand angels. Exactly one thousand angels. Allah says in the Quran إِذْ تَسْتَغِيثُونَ رَبَّكُمْ فَاسْتَجَابَ لَكُمْ أَنِّي مُمِدُّكُمْ بِأَلْفٍ مِنَ الْمَلَائِكَةِ مُرْدِفِينَ that when you were asking Allah for help, remember, when you were asking Allah for help, فَاسْتَجَابَ لَكُمْ And Allah responded, أَنِّي مُمِدُّكُمْ That I will help you. مُمِد, I will help you. And we're gonna get back to this verb, it's a very deep verb that Allah uses. I will help you. Not, you sit back and do nothing, I'll take care of it. No. You do the job, and I'll complete it for you. This is what أَمَدَّ means, right? أَمَدَّ literally means, you've done your job, and you've just been pushed to get to the end. That's a very deep point here that we're gonna come back to. So Allah says, أَنِّي مُمِدُّكُمْ I shall help you with one thousand angels. مُرْدَفِين It means that coming one after the other in hosts. They're gonna be coming cavalry after cavalry. They're all gonna come to help you. And Allah says in the Quran, إِذْ يُوحِي رَبُّكَ إِلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ That when Allah inspired the angels, أَنِّي مَعَكُمْ I am with you. So Allah is telling the angels, Go forth, I am with you. أَنِّي مَعَكُمْ فَثَبِّتُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا Make the people who believe firm. And so they were made firm. Their hearts were made firm. The soil was made firm. Their weapons were made firm. So the angels, notice here, they helped the believers. The believers are raising the sword. The angel is the one who lowers the sword. We'll see this now. The believers do something with their hands. The angels complete the action. not that the believers did nothing and the angels took the charge of them no Allah says in the Quran فَثَبِّتُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا سَأُلْقِي فِي قُلُوبِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا الرُّعْبُ I will throw fear terror into the hearts of those who have done kufr سَأُلْقِي فِي قُلُوبِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا الرُّعْبُ فَضْرِبُوا فَوْقَ الْأَعْنَاقِ وَضْرِبُوا مِنْهُمْ كُلَّ بَنَانٍ then go and strike this is a command to the angels go and strike at the neck and also at every single Anan means joint or fingertip or basically really every joint is really what is meant here. That every joint go and strike. Now imagine Allah is telling the angels Allah is telling the angels that go and strike them at their necks and at their every joint and I am with you how much more help do you need? This is the angels Allah Azza wa Jal is inspiring and a number of stories have been narrated that the sahaba saw physically the angels that the Sahaba saw the angels of course we already mentioned last lesson last Wednesday that when the Prophet ﷺ lowered his hands after Abu Bakr put them down and hugged him and said enough ya Rasulullah your Lord has answered you as soon as he lowers his hand he smiled as bright as the moon as the Sahaba said literally it's like the moon and then he said Allah has answered our prayer here is Jibreel turbaned and armed here is Jibreel turbaned and armed, he has come down with the angels to help us. So, Jibreel alayhi salam, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam informed them that he had seen them. Notice as well, subhanallah, turbaned and arms and riding a horse, all of this is mentioned. Notice, even the angels have weapons. Even though they don't need weapons. They're angels. Even the angels have horses, which leads to the interesting theological question. There are animals within the ilm al-ghayb that have nothing to do with us, right? We know for a fact that even the jinns have animals, right? Bahimatul jinn we have. Dabbatul jinn we have. That even the jinns in their world, they have creatures as well. So Allah has created creatures way beyond our imagination. وَيَخْلُقُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ So even the angels have a type of horses. And the angels are armed and they have their swords, even though they don't need them. But all of this, we're gonna come to the wisdom. And that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants to show us that we need to put in the effort, even the angels need to put in the effort they don't just say kun fayakun only Allah says kun fayakun even the angels they need to put in the effort and then they see the results of that effort of the stories that is mentioned Ibn Abbas narrates that and this hadith is in Sahih Muslim that one of the sahaba was in hot pursuit of one of the mushrikun and he heard the sound of a whip coming in front of him you know the sound of the whip that flash that comes He heard the sound of a whip, and he heard a rider cry out, but he couldn't see. He heard a rider cry out, أَقْبِلْ حَيْزُومُ Go forth, حَيْزُومُ حَيْزُوم is the name of an animal. You know the animals have names, as you know, people give names to their animals. حَيْزُوم is the name of a horse. And so he heard a rider calling out to his horse, which shows us even the angels name their animals. He calls out to their horse, go forth and attack حَيْزُومُ and he saw in front of him that the mushrik that he was about to attack when the sound of the whip came his nose was simply chopped off without the Muslim lowering the sword so the sword is up before he can lower it the angel has done his job for him and this is again the key point here that the angels helped the believers every action they began the angels completed it again this is a very deep point here that Allah azza wa jal showed that you need to get to that point, you need to raise your sword, then I'm gonna help you. You're not gonna sit in the tent and let it happen by itself. And when he came and he told the Prophet ﷺ, that this happened to me, and the man was killed by circumstances beyond my understanding, the Prophet ﷺ said, you have told the truth, قد صدقت. I'm not accusing you Allah, you have told the truth. that was a help that Allah had sent down from the Sama'at Thalith the third Sama'at you know there are seven heavens سَبْعَ سَمَوَاتٍ طِبَاقًا so the third of those heavens that angel is from that heaven and he came to help you at this occasion and once when Al-Abbas was brought as a prisoner of war we'll talk about the story of Al-Abbas a very interesting story that's next Sunday or next Wednesday inshallah when Al-Abbas was brought as a prisoner of war and Al-Abbas was a strong man and Abbas was a warrior and the Ansari who bought him was a stout, short and not a very strong person and so Abbas was like very angry and when he got to the Prophet this is of course the uncle of the Prophet when he got to the Prophet before even the Ansari can say anything he said, Ya Rasulullah this man did not capture me because he's embarrassed he's such a big man and then here's this little Ansari half his size or something and he's bringing this man did not capture me and the man was saying no I captured him look I have him in my hand right I'm the one who captured him and so Abbas is looking around trying to see where is this man he said no ya Rasulullah the man who captured me he had parted his hair and he was the most handsome man I have ever seen on a beautiful horse black and white mixture so Adlej the most beautiful horse of theirs black and white mixture and he's trying to look around and goes but I don't see where he is. And I'm trying to see, this is the man, the big man. Not this teeny guy, the big guy captured me. I want to make sure you guys understand. This guy did not capture me, right? So the Ansari said, No, Ya Rasulullah, I was the one. I was the one who got him. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, Be quiet. For Allah helped you with a Malakun Kareem, a noble angel, right? That you are not able to capture Al-Abbas by yourself. You were aided. You are right in your own perspective that you're running behind him and then you think you got him. But in reality, Allah a.s. aided you by a Malakun Kareem. Now, remember we had said before the battle that the Prophet ﷺ had specified two people and some versions say that he also specified the children of Hashim, Banu Hashim, which is basically his uncles and his immediate cousins, right? That he said, the Banu Hashim have been forced to come and fight. They did not want to fight. And by the way, this probably also explains Abu Lahab is still in Mecca. Right? Abu Lahab is his uncle and he did not come. And they excused him being the senior of the Banu Hashim. But the youngers of the Banu Hashim, the Prophet ﷺ said, أُكْرِهُ عَلَى الْقِتَالِ That they were forced to fight and they did not want to fight. So he knows this. And it's not just his family. He also mentioned, who can remember the other Sahabi? There's one more Sahabi he mentioned. Or at this point, not a Sahabi, excuse me. A Qurashi. Not a Sahabi. He mentioned one more Qurashi. No names. You guys are all taking notes. Abu al-Bukhtari. Abu al-Bukhtari, what was special about him? What did he do? Why did he get this honor? Why did he get this honor? He helped them in the Sha'b of Abi Talib. He helped them in there by sending food and water. And most importantly, he was one of the main people who caused this treaty to be finished. so notice here the Prophet the evil treaty, the boycott he broke the boycott, notice here the Prophet is repaying a favor, think about it that not all the Quraysh are the same and those who have done good for the Muslims they will be remembered and this is something multiple times throughout the seerah and this clearly shows us that we as Muslims living in a non-Muslim land, we look at the sympathetic non-Muslims. We see who's supporting the cause of freedom, the cause of, you know, letting every religion practice its faith. And we do not treat them the same way that we treat Islamophobes. This is a clear cut from the seerah. That those who treat us with justice and dignity and kindness, we have to return the favor. And there's nothing wrong with this. There are some isolationist narrow minds amongst us who say, all kuffar this and all kuffar that. Wallahi, this is so backward. I can't believe people are still saying this. Especially after all that has happened. No, not all kuffar. Some kuffar, yes they have kuffar, but they also stand for truth and justice. Right? Their kuffar does not prevent them. Kuffar means they are not Muslims, they believe in something else. But their kuffar does not prevent them from standing up for truth. And Abu al-Bukhtari was one such person. Right? And Mutlaba ibn Adi was another person. And we're gonna come to Mutlaba ibn Adi as well. In the battle of Badr he's mentioned. Even though he's dead. Mutlaba ibn Adi has been dead for a while, a few months, but he will be mentioned in the battle of Badr. We'll come to this again. And so Abu al-Bukhtari and Abbas and the Banu Hashim have been said that they will not be killed yet another there's many of these reports yet another unnamed Ansari we don't have his name he mentions to his son and so his son then says my father said and his father was a Sahabi and a Sahabi who is unknown does not affect the validity of the hadith chain it's a bit of an advance point here but if you don't know the name of the Sahabi the chain is still authentic whereas if you don't know the name of the second or third or fourth person, then for sure the hadith is weak. As for the sahaba, if somebody says, one of the sahaba said, or if somebody says, my father was a sahaba, we don't know his name, we don't care because, جَهَادَةُ الصَّحَابِ لَا تَضُرْ The fact that a companion is unknown does not affect the chain. So he says that his father told him that when he was pursuing the enemy or fighting with the enemy, before he could lift his sword, he saw the man fall dead in front of him with a sword wound. So before he could actually do the final blow, the man actually dies in front of him. So he said, my father knew that he was being helped, that there is some divine help coming. There's also a beautiful hadith in Musadrak of Al-Hakim that Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, and what did the Prophet ﷺ call Zubayr ibn al-Awwam? He is my Hawari. He is my helper. Every prophet has a Hawari and Zubayr is my Hawari. And Zubayr is the father of? The father of? Abdullah ibn Zubayr. And his wife is? Asma' ibn Tabibakir. These are things you should now begin to piece together. There's a lot of names, but you should learn to piece them together. Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam, the Prophet ﷺ said, he is my Hawari, my helper. So it is mentioned in the Musadraqa wal-Hakim that Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam was wearing a yellow turban on the battle of Badr. And therefore, to imitate him all of the angels came down in the same garment as Zubayr including the yellow turban and this is a great honor for Zubayr ibn Awam that all of the angels came in the mannerisms or in the clothes of Zubayr ibn Awam whatever he was wearing as an honor to him all of the angels came wearing the exact same garments as well and these angels that came down these thousand angels Allah chose them himself and Allah blessed them through the battle of Badr Jibreel once asked the Prophet ﷺ as the Prophet ﷺ told us later on Jibreel came to me and asked me what, and this hadith is in Bukhari what do you think the Muslims, what do you think of those who participated in Badr so the Prophet ﷺ said we think they are the best of all of us we think they are the best of all of us so Jibreel said and similarly those who participated in Badr from the Malaika, we too think the same so Allah blessed, so Badr is so important that Allah blessed those thousand angels and this shows us that even the angels have ranks not all of them are the same that the angels have their own internal ranks and the elite of them are those who participated in Badr now here we I want to comment here, I've referenced this a number of times. Why did Allah Azza wa Jal send a thousand angels when frankly one angel could have done the job? I mean the angels cannot be seen, they can quickly go instantaneously and do everything right then and there. And when Allah Azza wa Jal wanted to destroy the people of Lut, it is said that Jibreel simply took his wing, he came in his real form, as big as the sky can see. And he took his wing, one tip of it, and he just hit the ground next to the cities. And the cities as a reaction to that, they flipped all the way up and then they came crashing down. This is in our reports. This is exactly what the hadith say, that he just touched, he hit the ground. He hit the ground with his wing. With one portion, he has 700 wings. With one portion or one of those wings. And that was so powerful that the whole cities were basically destroyed. So then why does Allah Azza wa Jal send 1000 angels when one of them could have done the job and again here we get to the simple fact that throughout the Quran and Sunnah the entire message that is given is you don't get anything for free not even Jannah you're not going to get it for free you have to put in an effort and even if that effort is not worth the result, Jannah is not worth our actions, we don't earn Jannah, even if the result is much more priceless than your price that you pay, you need to pay some price. Allah Azza wa Jal will look at your effort and not at how much you've done, the quality. Allah will look at the quality and not the quantity. You need to do something. And therefore, when those sahaba, the 300 of them, are literally going and walking into death, they're literally taking their swords out, then Allah will send those angels, as we said, to complete each one of them what they're doing. the angels did not fight single handedly they didn't just go and get rid of the Quraysh while the Sahaba did nothing no, they were mukammal they were mumid they were amadda which is, we gave so many examples, right? every time we hear of an incident the Sahabi is doing something then the angel finishes it off think about that never do we hear of an incident where the angel does the whole chore for the Sahaba you see the point here, right? You have to, of course the Arabic is أَخْلَ الْأَسْبَابِ You have to follow the means to get to the end. You have to traverse the path to get to the destination. The destination is not going to be picked up and brought to you. You need to get there, and even if you're not able to, Allah will bless you. But you need to put in the dedication to do so. I mean subhanAllah, even Maryam alayhi salam, when she's all alone, and she's starving and she cannot do, she's in labor. Right? And everyone who has children knows what labor means. Right? especially her sister, she's in labor she's hungry, and Allah says don't worry, I'll bless you, but you need to shake the tree you need to shake the tree the dates did not just fall from the skies into her lap she cannot stand up so Allah says, okay, do what you can what can you do? وَهُزِّ إِلَيْكِ بِجِدْعِ النَّخْلَةِ تُسَاقَدْ عَلَيْكِ رُطَبًا جَنِيًّا فَكُلِ وَشَبِ وَقَرِّ عَيْنًا even Maryam in that state, and she is the single best, you know, اصطفاك على نساء العالمين. Still, she doesn't get it for free. She has to do something. And that is push the tree, shake the tree. And it will then fall onto you. Allah could have said, don't worry, I'm sending it to you. But again, here's the point here. And subhanAllah, if this is the case for people like Maryam, when she's giving birth to that miraculous child, Jesus Christ, how about me and you when we want something? Should we be sitting at home and saying, if it's decreed, Allah will give it to me. No, this is not the right attitude. Yes, If it's decreed, Allah will give it to you, if you strive to get it. Yes, Allah will give it to you, if you strive to get, if you take the asbab, if you follow the means to actually get there. And again, this is one of the most important lessons of Badr. One of the most important lessons, that the victory was ultimate. It was a miraculous victory. Yet still it was not given until the Muslims went the whole nine yards. They're in the thick of the battle. then Allah's help comes down and they see the help, right? that's tawakkul, isn't it? they have to get right to the battle they're literally amongst the swords they put their trust in Allah when they put their trust in Allah just like Ibrahim and Ismail right to the very end you raise that knife Ismail is on the ground right at the very end then Allah says okay, you passed the test so what Allah wants to see from us is giving it our utmost once we give it our utmost then insha'Allah ta'ala Allah azza wa jal will give us what he has willed and what we deserve to get. And again, clearly their numbers were less, their quality was less, but when they showed that determination, all of this was neglected and ignored and they got what they wanted. Now, Ibn Abbas also says something very interesting. He said, never did the angels actually fight with the believers except on the day of Badr. In every other occasion, they merely were backups. They merely were present, but they didn't physically fight. Now this is Ibn Abbas' opinion, and his opinion about these matters is very big. Fi ilm al-ghayb, we take it. As we said many times, when a sahabi says something about ilm al-ghayb, we take it to be a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. So, these are some stories about the angels. Many other stories are mentioned as well. Of those stories is, Ukkasha ibn, it's called Mihsan or Muhsan, both are allowed. Ukkasha ibn Mihsan, Ukkasha ibn Muhsin. Ukkasha, the story of Ukkasha. Ukkasha radiallahu anhu, Ukkasha was fighting with his sword and he hit the armor of somebody and it broke. And so he went back to the Prophet ﷺ complaining and he said, Ya Rasulullah, I only have one sword. What am I gonna do now? He had no other sword. And so the Prophet ﷺ picked up some twigs and said, here, go fight with this. And so Ukkasha took those twigs and he went into battle. and as soon as he lifted it, it became the best sword he had ever seen. And he kept this sword with him and he used it in every single future battle until he died a shaheed against Musaylimah al-Kathab. He was fighting in the wars of the Lidda and so Akasha died a shaheed. Once again, look at the tawakkul here. The Prophet gives him twigs. He says, go fight with this, right? He doesn't say, Ya Rasulullah, you told me to fight with this. What do you know? This is what you call Iman bil Ghayb. This is what you call Iman. the Prophet gives him some branches go fight with this the Prophet said go fight he takes it he walks into the battle can you imagine like twigs what am I gonna do but again the Prophet said go fight with this I'm gonna go fight with this and raises it and lo and behold it becomes one of the best swords that has ever seen it it retains its sharpness and its glamour everything till the very day that he dies it is said that they buried him with that sword It is one of those legends, Allah knows how true it is. But they didn't want to keep it and it makes complete sense that that is a blessed sword for him. So they buried it with that sword and Allah Azawajal knows best. But again, this shows his tawakkul and his iman in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Of the stories that is mentioned in somewhat detail, one of the highlights of Badr is the killing of Abu Jahl, Amr ibn Hisham, Abu Jahl. And of course we know that the Prophet ﷺ said he is the Fir'aun of this ummah. he is the Fir'aun of this ummah and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala willed that he be killed by two young teenagers two young teenagers most likely they were 16 and 17 years old right? most likely they were very young and in this there is a lot of hikmah as well that this great tyrant is going to be killed by people that are frankly you know it's a bit demeaning for him to be killed by kids right? think about that somebody like Abu Jahl for him to be killed by these teenagers. He wasn't killed by a mighty warrior. It's another humiliation for him. And of course it's an honor for them and it's an honor for the Ansar because they were both from the Ansar. And their story is mentioned in a lot of detail in Sahih al-Bukhari. And it is mentioned by eyewitnesses. Of those eyewitnesses is Abdur Rahman ibn Auf. Abdur Rahman ibn Auf. Abdur Rahman ibn Auf says that when we were approaching the army in the battle of Badr, I wanted to make sure that I was in good company. I was surrounded by strong men. because you know what happens is when you're fighting one on one, if your companion finishes off the other, he can then come to help you. And vice versa. So this is one on one battle. It's very different than the type of battle we have. It's a very different type of battle. We've all seen the types of movies where they show the chaos that takes place. So Abdurrahman says, I wanted to make sure I had strong men on my side. So I turned to my right and I was disappointed to find a young boy. He's not a man. And then I turned to my left and I found someone just like him. You know, small, thin, scrawny, these are not people that I want around me. So I was disappointed, I was looking for better support. Suddenly, one of them, he poked me. And he leaned, whispered in my ear, so that the other one could not hear. Turns out those two were friends, right? And they had a competition going between them. Who would kill Abu Jahl? So they didn't want the other one to know. Now they're both Ansari, and they're both young. They've never been to Mecca. They've never seen Abu Jahl. These are both teenagers. So one of them poked Abdul Rahman. And he said, Ya Am, Hal ra'ita Aba Jahl? Have you seen Aba Jahl before? Of course he's seen Abu Jahl. He goes, Naam, what do you want with him? So he said, that I have heard that he has disrespected the Prophet ﷺ, and I have given an oath to Allah, a qasam to Allah, that if I see him, my shadow, it's an Arabic expression, beautiful. My shadow will overlap with his shadow until one of the two of us is dead. Beautiful expression here, right? That close, yeah. That both shadows are not gonna remain standing. We will overlap with one another until one of the two of us is dead. And so, Abdulrahman said, if I see him, I'll tell you, don't worry. He goes, barely had I got back to my position when the other one poked me. And asked the exact same question. And I told him the exact same answer. So the both of them have a competition and they don't want their companion to know that they're going to be the first to get there. And so when we were fighting, Abdurrahman said, so when he heard this he said, I felt comforted that the two of them had spirit now. Even if they're young they have, mashallah, tabarakallah, spirit. And so when we were fighting, I saw in the distance, Ibn Hajar and others mentioned that Abu Jahl was standing in a grove of trees. So it was a type of protection. So this is the equivalent, the Prophet ﷺ was in his tent, Abu Jahl is surrounded by shrubs and trees, and he is basically monitoring the army. He is of course the main leader of the Quraysh, so he is monitoring the army from there. And he was surrounded by his men, and most importantly by Ikrimah, who was a strong young man, Ikrimah ibn Abu Jahl. And so, when I saw him in the distance, I said out loud to the both of them, that, هذا صاحبكما, this is your companion, the one that you asked me about, The one that you question me, that is them. That is the person there. So, he said, as soon as I said this, the both of them darted into the army to get to him. See, they're young, they're a little bit impetuously brave. This is what we expect from impetuous rash youth. They don't care about anybody else. They will dart through the entire army, and perhaps because they were young, they were also neglected and ignored by all the people in between. Had they been seniors, they would have been recognized. another wisdom in their being young that they're unknown, they're kids nobody even knows who they are how are they going to get to the leader of the Quraysh so they made their way to this grove to this secluded area and now we hear of their names, the first of them is Mu'adh ibn Amr al-Jumu'ah Mu'adh ibn Amr al-Jumu'ah and his father was of the leaders of the Banu Salama and Mu'adh himself he was one of the younger people who took the shahada of the second treaty of Aqaba the second Bayat al-Aqaba so we can say that he must have easily been because if he took the shahada then he must have been around 13 or 14 so he must be at this time around 15, 16 years old he's one of the youngsters who took the shahada or the Aqaba the Ahd of the second treaty of Aqaba so this is Mu'adh and he raced forward through the trees and scared that he's not going to get to Abu Jahl he jumped with his sword to try to get the remaining distance before somebody stops him. But he wasn't able to get to the upper portion of Abu Jahl because he's still too far away. So from this we can imagine there must have been some people, there must have been an entourage, we can imagine Abu Jahl is not going to be alone. So he comes dashing forth, he jumps as much as he can, but he's not able to get to the upper portion of Abu Jahl. Now you can imagine the whole body is now coming down. and his whole force is in his hand so the sword comes smashing down onto the left leg of Abu Jahl and it completely disconnects swipes its way off completely one of the narrator says that the only thing I can compare to Wallahi is how a date seed flies away from the grinder when the dates are being grinded so you know that grindstone that big heavy grindstone imagine you're grinding grinding one of those dates just sparks away like that. So he says the only thing, imagery that comes to mind, that leg just flew away like a date flows out of the grinder. So he manages to deal a blow, but this blow is not going to be mortal. Abu Jah is not going to die. He's going to be one-legged, but he's not going to die simply from one leg being amputated. And by the time he's cutting his leg off, Ikrimah is trying to defend his father and so Ikrimah is also lifting his sword to protect his father. And Ikrimah's sword chops off the entire hand of Mu'adh. The entire right arm. The entire like literally from the shoulder that Ikrimah is protecting his father. So one sword hits Abu Jahl, the other sword hits the hand of Mu'adh and it cuts it off completely. Mu'adh later narrates narrates that he lived one arm for the rest of his life. He didn't have that arm. Mu'adh narrates that my arm hung to my body by a thin you know tendon or something. We don't know what it is. It's just thin skin. It was clinging to my body and it finally got in my way in Badr. So I put it on my foot, bent down and then ripped it off. Allah if one of us gets a pinprick. We can't concentrate. One of us cuts our hand with a knife or something, subhanAllah, that's it. قَامَتَ الدُّنْيَا وَقَعَدَتَ We're not able to think. Can you imagine? This is a 17-year-old kid. And he's saying, the hand began to irritate me that it's getting in my way. Now he's using his left hand for the rest of the battle. So in order to basically get rid of it, he puts his foot on it, then yanks it off, stands up to yank it off. This is Mu'adh. SubhanAllah. This is not Mu'adh ibn Jabal, this is Mu'adh the young Ansari. And Mu'adh lived a long life and he died in the Khilafah of Uthman ibn Affan. He died a natural death in the Khilafah of Uthman ibn Affan. So this is Mu'adh. The second of the two, Mu'awwid his name is. So Mu'adh and Mu'awwid, don't get confused. Mu'awwid ibn Al-Afra. And Mu'awwid ibn Al-Afra, his mother is the famous, Al-Afra is his mother. she was so righteous and pious and famous that all of her children were named after her that she was such a luminary figure that the children were called basically the son or the daughter of Al-Afra, Afra is the name of their mother and Muawad was one of those who had volunteered to fight in the Mubaraza, remember we had said that three of the young Ansar stood up, this is one of them he had that bravery, that right at the beginning him and his brother not Muad, his brother Yeah, him and his brother. The two sons of Afra were of those three. So Muawwiz was one of those who had volunteered to fight in the Mubarizah. And the Prophet ﷺ said, he initially agreed but then they disagreed. They said, we want somebody from our blood. So he told them to sit down and he then chose the other three. And Al-Afra, his mother, she was a close friend of Umm Salama. Umm Salama, in fact, when the battle of Badr is taking place, Umm Salama had moved into Al-Afra's house just for safety, for security, for comfort. she didn't want to be alone. So Umm Salama was living with Afra in these days that Badr is taking place. And Al-Afra, she had three sons. Two of them became shaheed in the battle of Badr. Muawud is one of them. And he had a brother as well, the one that also stood up to fight. The both of them became shaheed in the battle of Badr. And Muawud, we don't know exactly where his blow struck, but it also struck somewhere in the body. We don't know exactly where. He also managed to strike a blow and make his way back and he then died a shaheed sometime later in the battle. So he also gets a blow to Abu Jahl and the both of them come rushing back to the Prophet ﷺ that, Ya Rasulullah, we killed Abu Jahl. Ya Rasulullah, we killed Abu Jahl. And they both get to the Prophet ﷺ roughly at the same time and they began fighting with one another. I killed him. The other one says, No, I killed him. And so the Prophet ﷺ says, Show me your swords. So they both showed him the swords and he said, The both of you have killed him. Meaning both of these wounds together will cause his death. The both of you have killed him. So the honor of killing Abu Jahl, it goes to the both of them. But Mu'adh was the one who got the armor of Abu Jahl because Mu'awwid died. Now in Islamic law, the one who actually kills the enemy will get his personal possessions. This is fiqh, Islamic fiqh. The actual personal belongings of the person, you will get it at the end of the battle. and so Mu'awwid and Mu'adh would have shared but Mu'awwid died a shaheed so then because he is not there anymore so then Mu'adh gets the entire the armor of Abu Jahl which was a fortune very expensive armor and his horse and his sword all of this the personal belongings of the one that you kill it is given to the one the warrior who does it this is the Islamic fiqh so the both of them get the honor of killing Abu Jahl now after the battle of Badr had finished to finish up the story of Abu Jahl before we get back to the incident. After the battle had finished, the Prophet ﷺ is telling the Sahaba, go and find the body of Abu Jahl. Where is Abu Jahl? Because remember he had been in the middle of a tree or area, so they weren't able to find him for a while. So go and find the body of Abu Jahl. So a number of Sahaba split out to see who would find the body of Abu Jahl. And it was Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud that Yemeni shepherd that sixth convert to Islam the one who was humiliated many times in Mecca by Abu Jahl and by others because he was a low caste you know how it goes in Jahiliyyah Abdullah ibn Mas'ud found him and he was breathing heavily at the very last breath of life you know like the very death you can see the death is on him he's just limpless and he's about to die he's still alive, he's conscious but you can tell that he is about to die. And so of course he recognizes him immediately and he places his foot on the chest of Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl is lying on his back, he's about to die. He places his foot on the chest of Abu Jahl and says that, do you finally admit that Allah has disgraced you? فَوْعَدُوا وَاللَّهِ Do you finally admit that it's over, that basically we've won, that Allah has disgraced you? and to the very end to the very end he remained obstinate and stubborn and he said how have I been disgraced and how have I been disgraced a person killed by his own people meaning he's actually trying to put the blame on them you killed me shame on you after he's trying to kill them think about it right how am I the one who's disgraced he's saying I'm a person who's been killed by his own people so he's trying to to the very end throw the blame back on them and this is the sign of what can we say just like to the very end he sees the gharakh right he sees it to the very end at least Firaun tried to embrace Islam we can say Abu Jahl to the very end threw it back at him I'm not the one who did anything you're the one who killed me and he asked he probably was, Allah knows, delirious or whatever, you know, the very last thing. So he said, tell me, what is the result of the battle? Who has won today? Probably still is not in his full senses. And so, Ibn Mas'ud says, Allah and his messenger have won. Allah and his messenger have won. And he then noticed the foot on his chest. So he said to Ibn Mas'ud, you have stepped on a high place, O son of a shepherd. And you're putting your foot on me. You have stepped on a high place. And that was the last thing that he said, because Ibn Mas'ud took his sword and attempted to kill him, but Ibn Mas'ud's sword had been made dull by the whole day of Badr. So his sword is too dull, and it's not managing to inflict that wound. And so, he hit the hand of Abu Jahl, and Abu Jahl's brand new gleaming sword, which had not been used on the battle of Badr, falls out, and he uses his own sword. he takes Abu Jahl's own sword and he kicks off the helmet the migfar and he then gives to him the final death blow but this was he would have died anyway so Ibn Mas'ud got an honor but not the full honor that he would have died anyway but the very end it was Ibn Mas'ud who basically gave him the final blow and then he came back to the Prophet ﷺ saying that Ya Rasulullah I found the corpse of Abu Jahl and the Prophet ﷺ said Allah you swear by Allah He said, yes, I swear by Allah. Three times, like this is a very big news. And the Prophet ﷺ said, show me his body to confirm. So they went and he saw the body. And this was when the Prophet ﷺ said, هذا فرعون هذه الأمة. That this man, this is the only time he said this. That's why we call him this. This was the Fir'aun of this Ummah. This was the Fir'aun of this Ummah. Of the people who met a very evil end was Umayyah ibn Khalaf. and again we notice especially in the story of Umayyah that Allah's justice is infinite, that as you do unto others it shall be done unto you that those whom you hurt those whom you cause problems to, they will be able to get their own revenge, we see this especially in the story of Umayyah ibn Khalaf and I already mentioned that Umayyah was a coward, and Umayyah had tried to bribe his way out, and Umayyah did not want to go, and Umayyah was shamed into going. Why? Because deep down inside he was scared. The Prophet ﷺ had told him, if I ever meet you outside of Mecca, you are not going to live. And he was terrified because he knew deep down inside that this was true. So he was scared of leaving Mecca. But his arrogance got the better of him and they shamed him into coming and he remained a begging coward to the very end. When he saw that the Quraysh had fled as we're going to come to this in a while, when he saw that his own people had fled, he began looking at somebody that he could get on his side. And one of his best friends in the days of Jahiliyyah was Abdur Rahman ibn Auf, that rich businessman, right? Abdur Rahman ibn Auf was a rich businessman in the days of Mecca. Then he gave up everything, as you know the story in Medina. Then he started all over again and he became rich again. So Abdur Rahman ibn Auf and Umayyah are both rich businessmen in Jahiliyyah. And they have a very strong bond from the days of Jahiliyyah. So much so that When Abdurrahman converted, he remained good friends with Umayyah. He didn't, like that friendship did not diminish. And he didn't persecute, Umayyah did not persecute Abdurrahman. The only thing by the way, Abdurrahman, his name was Abd Amr, Abd Amrin. And so when he changed, he converted, when he converted, he changed his name to Abdurrahman. And Umayyah said, I cannot call you this. Why? Because I don't know who is this Rahman. I don't know who is this Rahman. You know the Quraysh refused to believe in Ar-Rahman. وَهُمْ يَكْفُرُونَ بِالرَّحْمَنِ And so, Abdur-Rahman said that, I'm not going to respond to my old name of Abd-U-Amrin. I'm not going to respond to that. So they said, what can we do? So he said, okay, I will call you Abd-ul-Ilah. Are you fine with that? So, Abdur-Rahman said, yeah, okay, I'm fine with that. So, Abdur-Rahman would always be called Abd-ul-Ilah by Umayyah. So, one of those strange things. The only name that would call Abdullah, Umayyah would call him always Abdullah. So when he sees Abdullah, Abdullah passing by, he calls on to him with two hands. And he notices that Abdullah Ibn Auf has in his hands the armor of somebody who has been killed. And so he's taking this armor back to his place, to his tent, Abdullah. So he says, Oh Abdullah, what if, sorry Abdullah, you never call him Abdullah. Oh Abdullah, what if I were to give you much more than this armor? What if I were to give you many milking camels? Camels that are giving milk are the most expensive, right? I'll give you as much as you want. Get rid of this and protect me. Take me as a prisoner. And I'll give you as much as you want, right? Begging for his life to the very end. Thinking he'll be able to buy it out. And so, I mean, Abdul Rahman is a businessman, even on the battlefield. even on the battlefield. And it is a halal transaction, completely halal. So he throws away the armor and he holds on Abdurrahman and he had a son with him, a young man with him. So the two of them he held onto their hands and now instead of the armor, he's taking these two back to the tent or back to the muaskar or back to the camp of the Muslims to basically say, these are my prisoners of war, then we'll ransom them off and he's promised me a big ransom. Now, of course Allah wills, There's just no way that this is going to happen, right? Out of all the people in the world, of course, who do you think Allah chose to stop this entourage from getting to safety zone? Obviously, this clearly, wallahi there's just no question, if any of our minds, Allah says, this is not going to happen. Umayyah is not going to be saved, right? So, before they get to the camp, and this is the key point here, because they're still on the battlefield. The war is still going on, right? And a number of things can be said here. firstly the laws of war have not yet been revealed the laws of qital have not yet been revealed as we're going to see what happens to the prisoners they didn't know what to do, what happens to the ransom they don't know what to do, what happens to all of this is you know the war booty, the ghanima, they don't know what to do so all of this is going to come down later on, so firstly it was the laws of Islam about qital had not yet been revealed secondly, technically they're still on the battlefield, and this is a key point They're not actually in the army yet, in the safety zone. There's still war is happening. So it's a gray area. It's a gray area. Were the rules met or not? Completely gray. So Allah عز و جل intended this, that Bilal sees Abdurrahman carrying or holding Umayyah's hand as prisoners now. And just walking back. And Bilal says, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, ra's al-kufr. the leader of kufr you are giving him security wallahi la najawtu innaja which basically means over my dead body it's literally what it means over my dead body you're gonna get this man back there now Abdurrahman begins begging and pleading it's halal, nothing wrong with this he wants plenty of riches it's like these are my prisoners Bilal calm down Bilal, it's alright Bilal these are my prisoners but Bilal is getting more and more and he's raising his voice Umayya ibn Khalaf Ra's al-Kufr La Najawtu in Najah and he keeps on raising his voice until finally he calls a group of the Ansar for his help and he said this is that man that did what he did to me this is that man and the Ansar now they know exactly who this man is now because Bilal's story is if it's well known to us what do you think to them? imagine right out of all of the Sahaba our children, they know Bilal's story more than they know anybody else's. Isn't that true? Ahad and Ahad, that's the point. That Allah Azzawajal preserved his legacy really like he preserved almost no other legacy. The one story that every child knows is the story of Bilal. Allah has preserved his Izzah and honor. So the Ansar, Bilal comes to them, a group of Ansar, they're not really mentioned, and he brings them to Abdur Rahman. And Abdur Rahman now has to negotiate with all of them. And he says, these are my prisoners. Now he doesn't want to say they promised me money because that would really be bad. But he's saying, these are my prisoners, they have entrusted themselves to me. And Bilal keeps on saying that you are not going to save this man. نَا نَجُوتُ إِن نَجَعَ I will over my dead body. Until finally they surrounded Abdur Rahman ibn Auf, the whole group of Ansar. And over his negotiations, they began prodding and basically sticking their swords in. so much so it is said that Abdurrahman tried to stop them with his own body now he's not going to fight Muslims over this but he's trying to stop them and they would go underneath his hands like they don't want to hit him either right so they're trying to like you know get him and he was wounded Abdurrahman was wounded in the foot by one of the swords that when he's going underneath it it hit his foot as well and he would show that wound as long as he lived that this is the wound that I got on the day of Badr because of Umayyah and eventually they managed to kill the both of them Umayyah and his son they managed to kill the both of them and Abdurrahman would say till he died may Allah have mercy on Bilal not only did he stop me from getting my two ransoms I never got the armor back as well I lost everything he still remembered I lost everything on Bilal I got this and I was gonna get this and now may Allah have mercy on Bilal I neither got this nor did I get that and again subhanallah here we have the same voice that would cry out ahadun ahad that was the voice that caused Umayyah's death that same loud voice that would call out ahadun ahad the same voice right Allah azza wa jal will that it will come back now to haunt Umayyah and it was that voice that brought the help of the Ansar and managed to kill Umayyah ibn Khalaf before he reached the safety of the camp and Umayya ibn Khalaf as well subhanAllah I mean the only person who was not buried was Umayya ibn Khalaf all of the pagans Quraish all of them were buried Umayya ibn Khalaf when they found his body after the battle had finished they found his body and he died on a bed of pebbles subhanAllah look at this right he died on a bed of pebbles which was what he would put Bilal on right And whenever they tried to lift him up, the flesh would just decompose. They couldn't pick him up. That wherever they tried to, they just couldn't. So they had to leave him on those pebbles, and they put more pebbles on top of him to bury him. If that is not qadr of Allah. Think about that. Now, what is happening in Alim al-Barzakh, we can easily imagine. We can easily imagine, right? What is happening in the barzakh with those pebbles. Allah wants to demonstrate that as you punish Bilal, now you are going to be punished. That people will see. So Umayyah was the only person of the Quraysh that was not given a burial. Because they couldn't pick him up. And they just let him rot there. And because you have to cover a dead body, so they took those same hot burning pebbles of the desert, and they just threw it onto his body, so that his body was covered in the very sand, and the very pebbles that he would torture Bilal with, they left his body over there. And again, if this is not qadr of Allah, كَمَا تَدِينُوا تُدَانُ As you do unto others, so it shall be done unto you. We see this throughout, not just even the seerah, throughout the previous nations, throughout, this is the sunnah of Allah عز و جل. Allah has sunnah as well, routines as well. This is the sunnah of Allah, كَمَا تَدِينُوا تُدَانُ As you do unto others, it shall be done unto you. Another incident of Badr that is mentioned, another tragic incident of Badr is the incident of Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn al-Jarrah. Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn al-Jarrah. That Abu Ubaidah, of course, is an early convert. He's a muhajir. He is fighting alongside the Muslims. And his father, Jarrah, was on the side of the Quraysh. And Jarrah was one of those bitter enemies who could not stand his son having converted. and that anger was so jealous, was so evil, that he wanted to kill his own son. Jarrah wanted to kill his own son. And so whenever Jarrah would see Abu Ubaidah, again there's long lines of people fighting, whenever he would see Abu Ubaidah, he would make his way to Abu Ubaidah, his own son. He wants to kill his own son, that he cannot stand his own son having converted. And every time he sees his father coming, Abu Ubaidah simply goes somewhere else he doesn't want to fight his own father out of respect and out of love and out of human courtesy really that his father is coming, go fight somebody else I don't want to fight you, so he would go somewhere else, until finally his father surprised him his father surprised, attacked him and out of the blue he came jumping on him to kill him and he would have killed him and Abu Ubaidah, now he's young, he's the son he's the strong one, right? in self-defense, he took out his sword and his father died at his own son's hand. His father died at his own son's hand. And the people began speaking that he has killed his own father. He has killed his own father. And Abu Ubaidah felt a great amount of sadness that what have I done? And especially in the days of Jahiliyyah, now this is something, of course even humanity wise, but especially the Jahili tendency, right? Of respecting one's tribe and one's ancestry. he really felt very depressed and very sad and Allah revealed in the Quran the last verse of Surah Al-Mujadila that لا تجد قوم يؤمنون بالله واليوم الآخر يوادون من حاد الله ورسوله ولو كانوا آباءهم أو أبناءهم وإخوانهم وعشيراتهم هُلَٰئِكَ كَتَبَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْإِيمَانِ this is Abu Ubaidah Amin Al-Jurah هُلَٰئِكَ كَتَبَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْإِيمَانِ that Allah Azzawajal is saying you will never find a group of people who love, who believe in Allah Azzawajal who are believers, and who have yuwaadun, who have loyalty to those who have opposed Allah and His Messenger even if they be their own fathers, their own sons, their own brother, and their own family. Those are the ones, the people of Iman, whom Allah has written Iman in their hearts. أُولَٰئِكَ كَتَبَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمُ الْإِيمَانِ And so Allah Azza wa Jal praised Abu Ubaidah as a person of Iman that there is no question one's ultimate loyalty always is to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Every other loyalty is conditional to that loyalty. And this is simply a given in Islam. There is no room for negotiation in that regard. Now, we already mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ had forbidden the killing of Al-Abbas and the Banu Hashim and Abu al-Bukhtari. Unfortunately, Abu al-Bukhtari was killed. Abu al-Bukhtari was killed. How did this happen? Well, before we get there, Al-Abbas, the story of Al-Abbas, one other incident happened about the story of Al-Abbas as well. That when the Prophet ﷺ gave the command that Al-Abbas should not be killed and the Banu Hashim should not be killed and Abu al-Bukhduri should not be killed. Abu Hudhaifa is the son of Utbah ibn al-Rabi'ah. Utbah ibn al-Rabi'ah is one of those three who has, well the main one. Utbah and Shaybah and Al-Walid ibn Utbah. The senior, Utbah ibn al-Rabi'ah. He is the son of Abu Hudhaifa. Abu Hudhaifa by the way he is you must have heard of the Sahabi Salim Mawla Abu Hudhaifa this Salim Mawla Abu Hudhaifa this is Abu Hudhaifa Salim is one of the most famous Qurra of the Sahaba Salim had a beautiful voice of the Quran and there's a lot of hadith about Salim and Salim was the freed slave of Abu Hudhaifa and Abu Hudhaifa's sister was Hind and Hind is the wife of Abu Sufyan so this is Abu Hudhaifa His sister was Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan. So Abu Hudhayfa, when he heard the Prophet ﷺ say that the Banu Hashim is not going to be killed, he fell into an error. And the Sahaba were humans. And they sometimes fell into an error. And certain pre-Islamic tendencies came out. And he said, so our fathers and uncles and brothers, pause here, his own father has just died, his uncle has just died, his brother has just died. Right? In the Mubaraza, correct? Right? In the three Mubaraza, his father, his uncle, his brother, they've all just been killed. So he said, so our fathers and brothers and uncles will be killed. But the uncle of the Prophet, or the uncle of the Prophet and the family of the Prophet will not be killed. So that tendency came out in him. And the news spread that Abu Hudayfa said this. So the Prophet ﷺ said, he swore to kill Al-Abbas he said I will kill Al-Abbas he swore to kill Al-Abbas that if I see him I will kill him right, if I see him I will kill him so when this news came to the Prophet ﷺ he was in the presence of Umar ibn Khattab and he said Ya Aba Hafs and this was the first time that he called him with the kunya Abu Hafs and therefore Umar ibn Khattab is Abu Hafs Abu Hafs, he didn't have a Hafs he had a Hafsa but he changed it to Hafs Ya Aba Hafs Ya Aba Hafs will the face of the uncle of the prophet be struck with a sword will the face of the uncle of the prophet be struck with a sword how is this possible and Umar Ibn Al-Khattab he got the point that you need to stop this Umar Ibn Al-Khattab said Ya Rasulullah he has committed Nifaq meaning who is he talking about Abu Hudhaifah, he has come to Nifaq let me, Umar style this is Umar style let me do what I would do take care of it, right? and the Prophet ﷺ forbade him from doing that but Umar basically went to Abu Hudhaifah and made sure that Abu Hudhaifah was put into place and Abu Hudhaifah then said that he used to say that I shall never feel safe against the consequences of that one sentence I shall never feel safe unless Allah accepts me as a shaheed that I made a big mistake and I'm always going to be worried about it unless Allah accepts me as a shaheed and Abu Hudhaifa his dua was accepted and he died a shaheed in the battle of Yamama which is again against the Murtads against the battle of Ridda he died a shaheed over there now a number of points here firstly even the greatest of the sahaba they are human and they can fall into an error. Therefore, if one of us makes a mistake, have heart that people far better than you fell into far bigger mistakes than you. Imagine somebody saying this. Imagine somebody saying, I will kill the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. And he's on the side of the Prophet ﷺ. Can you imagine how guilty he felt? Imagine he fell into an error. And he realized his error and Allah forgave him. So those who make mistakes, we all make mistakes. And people better than us have made far bigger mistakes than us. But they turned around, they repented, and Allah repented on them. Secondly, notice the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ, that he handled it in a very wise manner. He expressed his frustration to Umar. He didn't directly go to him, because that would have been too humiliating, too, this is very now, imagine now Abu Hudhayfah would have just wished that the earth swallows him up, right? So he goes to Umar, he knows what Umar is gonna do, and that is to put him in his place, right? And he expresses his frustration, then behind the scenes Umar goes and puts Abu Hudayfa in place. Again look at the wisdom of the Prophet. He realizes this is an emotional thing. He shouldn't punish. He shouldn't do anything because this is an emotion. He excused him basically for what has happened to his own father and uncle and brother right now. Literally he's just lost all three an hour ago. Literally. So the Prophet is irritated that this is happening but he doesn't do any repercussions. There are no repercussions. There's no consequences. Because one's emotional state is overlooked here, and therefore he tells Umar to deal with it, and Umar indeed deals with it. And also by the way, so after the battle was finished, after the battle was finished, and all of the bodies are going to be basically thrown into the well, we'll talk about that next Wednesday. So when the body of Uthba, which is his father, is now being dragged to be thrown into the well, Abu Hudhaifa, his face became very pale, and you could see the effects of grief on him. Now notice here, subhanAllah, the Prophet ﷺ has just heard Abu Hudhaifa say this about his uncle, but now the matter is over. So the Prophet ﷺ goes up to him, and this is the way of reconciling now. This is the true leader now. That he's now showing him that, look, I understand, let's not keep this, you know, ignore this now, let's move on. And he goes to him and he consoles him, and he says, perhaps you feel hurt at what you see. Now they're seeing his father being dragged, literally. because I mean, there are too many bodies. You're not gonna show the honor you will to that enemy that you will to the Muslims, right? The Muslims got their own burial, they were dug graves. The Quraysh, the pagans, they just were thrown into a well and the well was covered up, right? We're gonna talk about that next one day. So, they're seeing the body being dragged. The Prophet ﷺ, and this man is just, Abu Hudhayfah, I mean, radiallahu anhu, I mean, has just threatened his uncle. But this is now forgotten. Khalas, bismillah, let's move on. So he tells him, لَعَلَّكَ تَجِدِ Perhaps you find this difficult to see this. And Abu Hudhayfa says, Ya Rasulullah, I have no doubt that my father died on kufr. I mean, I'm not feeling sympathy for his kufr. But I knew from my father wisdom and love and great care. After all, he's a father. And frankly, Utbah was one of the better of the Quraysh. He was of those who gifted the grapes. right? Hutbah was the one who gifted the grapes in Ta'if. So I knew from my father wisdom and siyada leadership and nobility he was a good person and because of this I had hoped that Allah Azza wa Jal will guide him to Islam but when I saw what has happened to him and realized that he died in kufr then this has grieved me that he died in the state of kufr and so the Prophet made dua for Abu Hudhaifa and asked Allah Azza wa Jal to bless Abu Hudhaifa and this shows us again that the true leader that the Prophet ﷺ was that this incident happened a few hours ago, now this is his way of showing Abu Hudhaifa that look, I don't hold any grudge against you. Okay, you made a mistake, it was emotional, I realize that. And he comes and he consoles him basically. And in his own way, he consoles him about the death of his father, Utbah. I guess we only have a few minutes left, so one of the stories we'll do is Abu al-Bukhtari, it also says Abu al-Bukhtari, both of these names are mentioned. Abu al-Bukhtari ibn Hashim, the one that was forbidden from being killed, he ended up being killed. And his story was that one of the Ansar al-Mujzir ibn Ziyad, when he saw Abu al-Bukhtari, he said to him, Ya Abu al-Bukhtari, we have been forbidden from harming you. We have been forbidden from harming you, so surrender yourself and I will take you back to the camp. Surrender yourself and I'll take you back. So Abu al-Bukhtari said, how about my friend? They were together fighting. How about my friend? So the man said, we don't have any laws about him. He's going to be fought. And that's not, you know, my business is I'm not allowed to harm you. And so Abu al-Bukhtari said, no. Let not the women of Quraysh say that I saved myself at the expense of my friend. Let me not die a debt that I will be, or let me not live a debt that I will be mocked because of my cowardice. Right? And so he then charged and when he charged the sahaba had to defend back and the same sahabi who killed him he came to the process when he said ya Rasulullah I tried my best to take him prisoner like you said but he refused except to fight and so I had to kill him so he was excused for this he was excused for this and inshallah we'll stop over here because the next bit is a bit long and so we'll leave that for next Wednesday bi zainal ta'ala before I open the floor for questions just point out that the ACO meeting is taking place next Sunday at what time? 6pm right? 6 or 7pm is the representative here? Sister Saharish is she here? not you? there's a poster out there I was told to remind all of you and it's a very necessary thing to know about what is going on and especially locally here in Tennessee the people that are running for office and what we have to do to help out. And it's a bit of a fundraiser for this organization that Alhamdulillah has proven to be very effective in the anti-sharia campaign in Tennessee. We have seen what they have done. So I will be there. We have a state senator coming as well. One of the senators, state senators of Tennessee is coming as well. We have Sister Ramziya, who's the lawyer and the activist from Nashville coming down. This is next Sunday. So inshallah ta'ala, I encourage all of you to purchase a ticket and to go there and to support them. and see what they're doing. The other announcement is that inshaAllah ta'ala from next Tuesday, you'll get an email about this, from next Tuesday we'll be starting our advanced class from 7.30 to 8.30. From 7.30 to 8.30 we'll be starting our advanced class. And the topic has been changed because of a number of issues. So we'll be talking about the creation of Adam a.s. and the benefits from the creation of Adam. and this is a multi-series, a number of different tangents about the benefits from the creation of Adam alayhi salam this will be starting inshallah ta'ala next Tuesday and we'll send an email out for everybody and unlike this class, that class will have some rules and there will also be some payment have you decided how much or are you going to decide it? okay, so 20 per person, 30 per family this is registration fee and it will last basically until the Christmas break inshallah it will last until the Christmas break around the 20th or something or 15th of December something like that, so it will last around 5-6 weeks with one week break I won't be here, but basically that will be lasting there, so that's next Tuesday the other announcement what else, there was something else we're also going to have the November is coming, the November means Thanksgiving so we're just having a Thanksgiving in the middle with Heart Song inshallah on November 15th the ticket sale will be on the ticket sale on Monday so November 15th at the Heart Song at the Heart Song we'll start selling the ticket on Friday it's a limited time ok November 15th and the tickets will be sold on Friday and one more very yes oh yes of course so we are also raising funds that we're going to give to Islamic Relief for Hurricane Sandy and the victims of Hurricane Sandy. As you know it's caused quite a lot of damage. 50 people have been killed and we are trying to show our help and support as well and there are boxes there outside and we've contacted Islamic Relief they have set up their booths and they're distributing food and clothes and they're distributing necessary items for the victims and so this is a great cause for us to help out Islamic relief and that is outside. Yes, that's the next announcement I was going to say. A lot of announcements today, mashallah. Very tasty and spicy announcement. The Mulan Bistro. Mulan Bistro, we have been so successful with them that they are now, alhamdulillah, fully halal. Alhamdulillah. Now what this means is that you guys are going to have to eat out quite a lot. Why? Because we need to support them. Right? you have to request, they have a halal menu they have a halal menu, so when you go there now you just say you want the halal food and apparently, according to our trusted authority, Asif if you request any item, they will make it for you halal, even if it's not on the halal menu, if you request it beforehand oh, but apparently, for some reason, I don't know why they can't do pork halal, so, I don't know I mean, it's just one of those, you know, you're just gonna have to accept it, you know, but every other item on the menu, they can make it halal for you if you request them. But anytime you walk in, they have a halal menu, right? There's a sign, there's a special halal menu. And if you want any of the other dishes, then you request it in advance. InshaAllah, I'm not supposed to tell you this, so I'm just going to be generic here. InshaAllah, make dua. The same good news will be said of another restaurant soon. InshaAllah. InshaAllah. We're working on this. But again, what this means is that we need to help and support these services. because again, the success of one has basically led to this. And this was wallahi the actual goal of Zabiha Naid. This was the goal of Zabiha Naid, that our Islamic presence, now we need to start making people aware, and businesses and others, and then inshaAllah slowly but surely we'll have halal meat available in many supermarkets and groceries. I mean that's the goal inshaAllah, is that make our presence known and facilitate our living in this land inshaAllah ta'ala. Yes, another announcement, go ahead. Yes, of course, it goes without saying that there are a handful of Muslim businesses. We wish there were much more. There's only a handful of halal businesses. We definitely need to support them as well in their efforts. And they've been doing this much longer than these other companies. So, alhamdulillah, one of the few halal entertainments we have over here is to take the family out for a meal. And so, inshallah, once every while, whoever can afford it should patronize all of these establishments and help them out inshallah ta'ala yes we only have one name mentioned yes the idea is still there the idea is still there the brother is asking about forming a halal monitoring committee to make sure that the stores are selling halal. The idea is still there, but there are some logistical issues that are not easy to solve. And there's also the potential backlash when we discover somebody is not selling halal, then we advertise he's not selling halal, then what if he goes to court? I mean, it's like slandering now. I mean, this is a very touchy thing. The idea is there, but we need to cross some hurdles before we get to it. Right, inshallah. This guy has the receipt from a local alam. Yes, from Baraka. Yeah, the Mulan Bistro guy is buying it from his neighbor, the Baraka store. And he has the receipt posted that he purchased it from them. Inshallah, okay. Any questions from the sisters? Yes. Very, very softly, can you raise your voice? I can hear you now yes the prophet s.a.w. told us very explicitly that the reason that they should not be killed is because they were forced to come to battle and they didn't want to come to battle. And that is why all of them surrendered without killing anybody. They didn't kill anybody. Abbas did not kill anybody. They simply, you know, their first opportunity they surrendered. They had especially close ties. This is their cousin. This is their nephew in the case of Abbas. That's the only uncle of the Prophet ﷺ that participated. So they did not want to fight and therefore they surrendered at the first opportunity. Okay. Defectors, yes, from the Quraish. Yes. We're going to talk about this next Wednesday. Wazir Muslim and I will talk about this next Wednesday. Insha'Allah ta'ala. Next Wednesday. Yes. You're trying to figure out the question. Good. Okay, yes. Can angels aid others after the Prophet ﷺ? Yes, of course. Yes, of course. لَهُمْ مُعَقِّبَاتٌ مِنْ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهُمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ يَحْفَظُونَهُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ This is in the Qur'an. لَهُمْ مُعَقِّبَاتٌ مِنْ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهُمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ يَحْفَظُونَهُمْ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ That he has guardians in front of him and behind him that are protecting him at the command of Allah Azzawajal. And this is for the believers, all of the believers. Not only can it happen, it happens all the time. Yes, it is very possible. Yes, exactly. Exactly. This is very possible. That when we see a miracle take place, sometimes it is a miracle. Yes, exactly. In a confrontation, in a battle situation? Yes, in a battle situation as well. And there are mutawatir reports from people that, in the days of Afghanistan now, you all are older than I am. I remember stories from those who had gone there. You also, eyewitnesses, people that have gone there and then told us things that are simply mind-boggling. That this is the realities. And I believe many of these stories. The people that told me them, witnessed them, and I know these people. So yes, this is still to this day. It can happen. It can happen. I'm sure in Syria, there is no question in my mind. I'm sure that there are things happening in Syria and there are again it's mutawatir there's no denying that people are experiencing these types of divine aids and interventions and Allah knows best final question you said that two people wanted to kill Abu Jahl and then later on he Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he sent out some people to go look for him for the corpse, yeah Yeah, but the person who found him actually killed him. So as we said, the person who found him was, who was he? Ibn Mas'ud. Ibn Mas'ud dealt the blow that killed him, but he was going to die. So there's something called a mortal wound. A mortal wound means the wound is so severe that he's going to die. Abu Jahl was found in a state where he was on the verge of death. If Ibn Mas'ud had not found him, he probably would have lived another half hour. So he is breathing heavily. And he is at a stage where it is beyond saving now. That there is no question he is going to die. Therefore, yes you are right, Ibn Mas'ud killed him. But it wasn't a mortal wound. He finished him off. He just finished the deed. He expedited the end of death. No, Ikrim is a Sahabi. Aslahak Allah, Ikrim is one of the elite of the Sahaba. Ikrim, Ikrim, Ikrim. he was one of those who when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca Iqrima was on the list of those six who will not be forgiven. Six people were said. Only six. Find them dead or alive and kill them. One of them they found him clinging to the Ka'bah for mercy. The Prophet ﷺ said kill him even at the Ka'bah. So his name was on that six. So Iqrima fled. Before the Muslims came he fled. Iqrima fled. But Ikrimah, he did so much in the battle of Uhud. He did so much. He was the son of his father before he converted. So Ikrimah fled. And then when he fled, he went to Jeddah. And from Jeddah, he said, let me just go to Abyssinia. Because he knew once Mecca is conquered, it's the final domino. The rest is just going to happen. So he goes, let me just live in Abyssinia, Habesha. So he rode a ship to go to Abyssinia. And on the ship, Allah Azza wa Jal basically sent a thunderstorm. not a thunderstorm but a typhoon whatever you call it in the ocean and the ship was about to crash and the captain of the ship said that I've done what I can nothing I can do so right now the only hope that we have is a miracle from Allah so make dua to Allah so wallahi you and I both know that allat and al-uzza will be of no benefit to us now right, this is the captain of the ship so he said that Iqrimah said that, when I heard this, I realized, why should I worship Allat? When I get back to the shore, when he's not going to help me, when I need him now. Subhanallah, what this shows us is that many of the pagans were sincere in their paganism. Of them was Iqrimah. That he genuinely, genuinely believed in shirk. And finally somewhere that light bulb clicked, that it makes sense. So he said, O Allah, I promise you that if you save me now, that I shall go to your messenger, and I shall put my hand in his hand, which is the oath of allegiance, and I shall find him forgiving and merciful. He even knew this. Even though his name was on the six. And I shall find him forgiving and merciful. So, Allah Azza wa Jal saved him, he got back to the shore, and he went to the Prophet ﷺ, at this time was in Tabuk. So after the conquest of Mecca, he moves on to Tabuk. We'll get to that. So he went to the camp and he knew there was a price on his head, dead or alive. That was basically the point. So he took his turban and he covered himself, muqanna. They say they covered himself completely. You know how they cover themselves completely. So nobody recognized him. And it's a risk because if somebody recognized him, his head is going to be off instantaneously. Right? And there's nobody that can help him. So he goes into the tent or the muaskar or the army of the Muslims and he makes his way to the Prophet ﷺ, when he is within distance of him, because that's the one person, basically I can forgive him, right? He then unfurls the turban, and he says, أَشْهَدُ أَن لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهِ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ لَرَسُولُ اللَّهِ What happened, Ya Ikrimah? Like, whoa, you know? From here to there. Then he explains his story. Right? And when he explains the story, then Hasuna Islamu, his Islam became very good, and he died, I want to say fighting against the Romans. He died in one of those big battles, fighting against the Romans. Iqrima, he lived a good life after that. This is Iqrima ibn Abu Jahl. The son of Abu Jahl. Our young brother has his hand raised for a long time. This is our last question that we need to... Why did Hamza die? He didn't die yet. Be patient. His death will come. Huh? His death will come, but not in the battle of Badr. Okay. Inshallah. So we... Thank you.

Seerah 39 - The Battle of Badr 5 - Yasir Qadhi _ 7th November 2012-RMsFEOzcNpk

Al-Fatiha. but I'm suffering from a little bit of a flu, and my voice has still not recovered, so I'm going to have to speak in a low voice for most of today, which as you know for me is very difficult to do when I speak, so it will have to be a more calmer lecture inshallah. Ameen, Ameen. So, we were still talking about the actual incidents during the battle of Badr, and the next incident that we're going to come to is a tafsir of something in the Quran, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surah Al-Anfal, وَإِذْ زَيِّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ وَقَالَ لَا غَالِبَ لَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَإِنِّي جَارٌ لَكُمْ That one shaitan made their deeds beautiful to them. وَإِذْ زَيِّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ وَقَالَ لَا غَالِبَ لَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ مِنَ النَّاسِ And shaitan said to them, Nobody can beat you today, you are too powerful. وَإِنِّي جَارٌ لَكُمْ And I am your protector. فَلَمَّا تَرَاءَ الْجَمْعَانِ When the two groups saw one another, He turned around and he fled. And he said, I have nothing to do with you. I can see what you cannot see. I am scared of Allah, the Lord of the worlds. This is in Surah Al-Anfal, and it is in the context of the battle of Badr. What is this a reference to? We already mentioned the first half of the story, and that is that when the Quraysh were leaving Mecca, they almost turned back, because they became scared of a surprise attack from another internal dispute. We mentioned this before. And shaitan came to them in the form of Suraqa ibn Malik from the Bani Kinana. And he said to them, and they were worried about an attack from one of the sub-tribes of the Bani Kinana. And he said to them, I as the chieftain, as the nobleman from the Bani Kinana am guaranteeing you, you're not gonna get attacked from the Bani Kinana. إِنِّي جَارُ لَكُمْ You have my protection. so much so, this is suraqah in the guise or shaitan in the guise of suraqah so much so he said I will even accompany you as a live hostage if you like I'll go with you and I'll accompany you so you can be sure that if I'm in the battle if anything happens you can kill me I am your literally hostage that if anything happens you hear of the Banu Kinana attacking then you have no worry because I am a live hostage with you وَإِنِّي جَارُ لَكُمْ So Suraqah, in the guide, obviously this is not Suraqah, this is Shaytan, is accompanying them all the way until they camp at Badr. فَلَمَّ تَرَأَتِ الْجَمْعَانِ Then when the two groups met one another, or they saw, the Tara'ah means they saw one another. What happened? It is narrated that when Suraqah saw the angels come down, and he saw Jibreel coming down on his horse, when Shaytan obviously in the guise of Suraqah saw this, he turned on his back and began running away. Now of course the Quraysh cannot see anything. To them it looks just like the army. So Al-Harith ibn Hisham said, Where are you running away, O Suraqah? Where are you running away? And he tried to stop him. Like what's going on here? But Shaytan in the guise of Suraqah pushed him so severely that Al-Harith basically flew upwards and fell on his back. Clearly this is an entity that's not a human. Flew upwards and fell on his back. And then he said to Al-Harith, as Allah says in the Quran, that I can see what you cannot see. إِنِّي أَرَىٰ مَا لَا تَرَىٰ I'm seeing what you cannot see. There's the angels on the other side. How do you expect me to fight against that? And I am scared of Allah, the Lord of the worlds. And our Prophet ﷺ said, in a hadith narrated in Muwatta Imam Malik وَفِي إِسْنَادِهِ مَقَالٍ That the Prophet ﷺ said, shaitan was never more humiliated and more despised. which is like you know shaitan was never more humiliated than he was on the day of badr so basically since Allah created him shaitan was never more humiliated than he was on the day of badr because of what he saw of the blessings of Allah and the mercy of Allah and he saw jibreel inciting the angels go forth so shaitan felt the lowest ever in his life on the day of badr And Allah mentions and references this in the Quran. And in this manifestation, in this clear example, even though we don't need it, we see here the trickery of shaitan, how he promised them. And then at the last minute how he turned his back and literally ran away. Literally, right? And this is a beautiful example that Allah showed with eyes basically. People saw this, that shaitan promises everything. He told them, I'll be your hostage, take me with you. he told them don't worry, I'll be your protector and then when he saw the angels come down, right before the battle, he turned on his back and he fled away it is as if Allah is telling us, how can you believe him, how can you believe this liar, how can you believe this fraudster, this trickster, how can you believe this person or this entity who does not even feel ashamed to lie till the very last second, and he shows his true colors his cowardice, look at how scared he is now And he actually admits, I am scared of Allah. إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ And also look at the significance as well of shaitan. Literally this is Iblis himself. And we know from our texts that Iblis does not get involved except in very evil matters. Iblis is the head person. He sends his henchmen. He sends the other jinns to do his beckoning. Iblis as the Prophet ﷺ said, he has a throne somewhere over the waters. He has a throne. and he sends the shayateen to do his bidding. For Iblis to physically come to Mecca and to physically be in the army of the Quraysh. It shows his desperation. And also look at the symbolism here and it's not just symbolism, it's real. On the one side you have that very same entity who refused to do sajda to Adam. That very same creature, you have him. And you have Abu Jahl. And you have Utbah and Waleed and Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah and you have Umayyah ibn Khalaf. And literally a hundred meters away on the other side, you have Jibreel come down from the heavens. And you have the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. And you have Abu Bakr and Umar and not Uthman, because Uthman was in Medina, and Ali. You have all of the Sahaba. Wallahi, if this is not, as Allah says in the Quran, the day of decisive Furqan. Yawm al-Furqan. Allah calls Badr, Yawm al-Furqan. Furqan means shifting or changing or clearing the truth from the falsehood. right, yawm al-furqan, the day of decision faraqa means to separate, faraqa furqan, separation what was separated, truth from falsehood correctness from evil, this is yawm al-furqan, and there is no question look at the people on both sides, jibreel versus iblis himself the prophet muhammad s.a.w. versus abu jahl, the faraun of this ummah, right and then all of the sahaba, there is no doubt that this type of of symbolic battle and a real battle. It's both symbolic and real. It has never taken place since Allah has created mankind up until the Day of Judgment. And that is why Yawm al-Badr is indeed one of the greatest victories. In fact, it is the greatest victory. Perhaps conquest of Mecca is at a similar level, but there's no doubt that the Battle of Badr is the greatest victory that was given to the Prophet ﷺ in terms of the actual military expeditions. And when the Sahaba began attacking, and we had mentioned this last week that the Prophet ﷺ had given them in rows. In the first row, who was in the first row? Who can remind me? The very front. Who was in the front? We said there were three groups. Who was in the front? No, no, no. In terms of characteristics. The people with spears. And then the middle, swordsmen. And then in the back, the archers. We had said this, that the Prophet ﷺ had divided this and I had mentioned that this was the first time in military warfare of Arabia that the Arabs had fought in ranks and rows. This is the first time. This was not of their tactics. And it is amazing that the Prophet ﷺ who was never schooled in an army school, in a military academy, he is doing what military academics have taught for hundreds and thousands of years. That army should be in rows. And this is what every military training school teaches, that there are rows. To this day, the military has its people in rows. They're marching in ranks. And Allah says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتُونَ فِي سَبِيلِهِ صَفًّا كَأَنَّهُمْ بُنْيَانٌ مَرْسُوسٌ As if they are solidified rows and ranks. This is something that the Prophet ﷺ was taught directly by Allah Azzawajal and military commanders later on have their own books for this. Now we had mentioned that the Sahaba launched the offensive. The details are not mentioned sadly. As I have said many many times, all that we have is specific incidents. What we do know is that eventually, we mentioned at least 10 stories in the last Wednesday eventually the Quraysh turned on their backs and they fled the Quraysh turned on their backs and they fled and they returned back to Mecca now some modern military commentators looking at the map of Badr and inshallah maybe next Wednesday or the one after that we'll do the map the powerpoint some modern military analysts when they look at the map of Badr they notice that there was one clear passageway back to Mecca that the Prophet ﷺ could have blocked if he wanted to. But he didn't do so. So it is as if the Prophet ﷺ allowed one escape passage back for them. Now this is a theory because we don't know what is in the mind of the Prophet ﷺ. This is a theory. Now why would he do this? Modern military analysts they say, this is because when a group knows that they're fighting to death, they will fight much more severe. And when there is a pressure valve outlet, what's gonna happen? Their resolve will go down very fast. Right? You see the point here. That when there is no outlet, what's gonna happen? There will be desperation. And when there is an outlet, then you know, well, you know what, I can always run away. So if you look at the layout, and I'll show you the diagram next week inshaAllah, next Wednesday. If you look at the layout, remember this, that there's gonna be one very clear area that the Quraysh could have used to retreat. And the Prophet ﷺ, because he was on the field before the Quraysh, he could have blocked them. But he didn't do so. And that is exactly where they retreated from. And this is a very realistic theory, and Allah Azza wa Jal knows the truth, it's very plausible. The net result at the end of the battle was that 70 of the Quraysh had been killed, and around 73-74 taken prisoners. So around 15% of the army of the Quraysh was either killed or taken prisoner of war, out of more than a thousand, 15%. And from the Muslim side, there were no prisoners of war, there were around 15 from the Muslim side killed in the battle. and this is less than 5% of the Muslims were killed. So 15% of the Quraysh and their army was three times larger are killed or taken prisoner of war. And less than 5% of the Muslims, around 15 of the Muslims, less than 5% they were shaheed or they were martyred in the battle of Badr. And when the army fled, the army of the Quraysh fled, the Prophet ﷺ regrouped the Sahaba and he said, we are going to remain here for three days. So he announced for them, we're going to remain here for three days. Why did he remain for three days? For many reasons. Firstly, to make sure that all of the Muslims, their bodies were gathered and they were given a proper janazah. They were given proper burial. Janazah here, I mean burial, not the salatul janazah. As you know, the shaheed is not prayed for. And by the way, this is the first time that the sharia of shaheed came down. What do you do for a shaheed? you don't wash his body, you don't pray salatul janazah. This was when it came down that this is what you do for the shaheed, that you don't do any of this for the shaheed. Also they were not taken back to Medina. Even though Medina is not that far away. I mean if you drive to Badr an hour times in a car, it takes around an hour and 10 minutes. And it's not that far. By car, hour 10, hour 20 minutes max, it will take you. So Medina is not that far away, it's literally half a day's journey away. A day at max if they were to be slow. and yet the bodies were buried right there to this day if you go and visit Badr I have visited Badr you go and visit Badr you find the graves of the Sahaba are still over there and this shows us that the Shaheed is buried where he dies that is the sunnah of the Shaheed wherever he dies you dig a grave for him as close as possible to that place if it's reasonable distance or what not that's fine but he is buried where he dies we know he is buried in his clothes he is not given another shroud and his wounds are not even washed because the Prophet ﷺ said that on the day of judgment, the shaheed will be resurrected. His blood will still be the color of blood, but its scent will be the scent of musk. لَوْنُهُ لَوْنَ الدَّمُ But the scent will be رِيحُهُ رِيحَ الْمِسْكِ That the scent will be the scent of musk. He also stayed there for three days to partially recover, to recuperate, to make sure that the Quraysh did not launch a counter-offensive, and most importantly, to clarify beyond the shadow of a doubt who is the winner and who is the loser. Who is the victor and who is the coward. This is very clear. You're camping at the battlefield for three days. And the Quraysh don't even have the audacity, the galls to return back and fight. Clearly the Prophet ﷺ was the victor of this expedition, of this battle of Badr. So the Sahaba were buried in individual graves. And there's only 15 Sahaba, so they were basically given individual graves. In the battle of Uhud, when the number was much more, two sahabi shared a grave, as we'll get to when we get to that, right? That it was too much of a burden for them to dig 75 plus graves for the Uhud we're talking about, right? So, two people shared a grave because it was too difficult. But for Badr, because there were so few, they were given individual burials. As for the Quraysh, the bodies of the Quraysh, there's over 70 plus who died of the Quraysh, they were covered up in a well. They were not given the same burial as the Muslims, but they were buried by throwing the bodies into one of the abandoned wells, right? And this shows us that in our sharia, we show even a minimal respect to the bodies of those whom the Muslim army has killed, that we don't just let them rot in the sun. That we do something to cover them up, right? We don't have to give them the same funeral procedure, or the same respect, or the same... And this is by the way, everywhere in the world. You're wounded and you're dead are treated a million times better than theirs. This is everywhere in the world. This is the law of the land. So even in our sharia, the Quraysh who died, they were given a different type of burial. Their bodies were simply thrown into one of the empty wells so that they are covered up and then sand is thrown onto that to cover up the bodies. There was only one body who could not be buried and that was, we mentioned this last Wednesday, Umayyad ibn Khalaf. We mentioned this last Wednesday, Umayyad ibn Khalaf, that when they found his body and he was a fat man, he was a big man. When they found him, رَجُل سَمِين, they say, it's typical, you can imagine, the rich, you know, he's coward that he was. So whatever they tried to pick him up, the flesh just literally melted. It didn't allow them to pick up the body. Literally the flesh just did not decompose right then and there. And so they had no other option other than to take the pebbles that he was found in. He was found in some pebbles, right? To just take some of those pebbles and then cover his body with a mound of pebbles. And as we said, there is just no question that Allah is demonstrating, كَمَا تَدِينُوا تُدَانُ As you do unto others, it will be done unto you. As he used to punish Bilal with pebbles and rocks and stones in that desert heat, his ending will be in a sand of pebbles, in a mound of pebbles. His ending will be that his body shall forever and ever and ever be rotting in this mound of pebbles. As he used to punish Bilal, so too will his fate be so that everybody knows and witnesses and there is no question this is a mu'jizah or an ayah that Allah Azza wa Jal wanted us to contemplate about so all of these bodies were thrown into the well and on the third day as the Prophet ﷺ was departing away from the well he passed by, he diverted the caravan so that it would actually pass by the well the well was not directly on the way back to Medina But as the caravan packed up the bags, everything is ready to go, he diverted the caravan, and the sahaba, obedient as they were, they never asked any questions about, why would you do this? They simply followed along. Diverting to the right, let it be. The whole caravan is following him. Then he stopped at the well where all of those bodies had been buried. All of those bodies had been buried. And he began calling them out by name, one by one. O Utbah ibn Rabi'ah, O Walid ibn Utbah O so and so O Abu Jahl by name and he mentioned every one of the Ruasa every one of the Sanadid every one of the leaders of the Quraysh O so and so هَلْ وَجَدْتُم مَا وَعَدَ رَبُّكُمْ حَقًّا Have you found what your Lord has promised you to be true? As for me I have found the promise of Allah to be true Have you found the promise of Allah to be true? Then he moves on to the next man and then the next man and so he mentioned all of the leaders of the Quraysh, one by one. And then he gave this rhetorical question, did you find the promise of Allah true? I have found the promise of Allah true. And Umar said to him, that Ya Rasulullah, how can you speak to bodies that have no soul? How can you, to khatibu jasadal la arwahala, you're talking to bodies that don't have any cognition, they cannot hear you. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul, you are not able to hear me now any better than they can. Your hearing is no better than their hearing right now. I.e. just like you can hear me, they can hear me. But they cannot respond to me. But they cannot respond to me. This hadith is in Sahih Muslim. One of the narrators, Qatada, Qatada is the student of Ibn Abbas. Qatada is one of the famous tabi'un. Qatada said, أَحْيَاهُمُ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى Allah brought them back to life in order that they could hear the Prophet ﷺ speak and in order that they could be insulted upon their injuries and humiliated and they could be a source of regret and guilt for them. So Qatada explained that Allah عز و جل brought them back to life. Now, we're gonna pause here and go into another issue. And it is an Aqadi issue, a theological issue. But it is an issue that is very relevant and people always ask about it. And this is one of the main stories that is used in a discussion of this theological issue. And that is the issue of can the dead in the grave hear or not? Can the dead in the grave hear or not? This is an issue that, as I said, always people ask about if you go visit your relative, your grandmother, your uncle, if you visit a person in the grave, does the person know you are outside the grave, you are listening, or you can hear, sorry not you are listening, but that person is listening to you. Can he know that a visitor is at his grave? This is a very big theological question that even the Sahaba differed over. Even the Sahaba differed over. And this incident of Badr is one of the most important evidences used by both sides. It's an authentic evidence, everybody knows it is there. The interpretation is the issue. Now, even the Sahaba, So it is said for example that Ibn Umar would say that the person in the grave can hear the one that visits him. And he even said that the person in the grave will be punished by hearing his relatives cry for him. By hearing his relatives cry, what is called niyaha al-mayyid. Niyaha al-mayyid means wailing over the dead. wailing over the dead for example to say how am I going to live who's going to support me how are we going to live after this this is wailing over the dead and there is a hadith which is not exactly directly relevant to this but the Prophet ﷺ said in one version of the hadith that the one in the grave will be punished when his relatives do this and Aisha denied this and said no the one in the grave will not even hear them how can he be punished rather the actual hadith is that so that's not exactly relevant to the point the point here is that Ibn Umar affirmed that the dead can hear the wailing. Ibn Umar affirmed the dead can hear the wailing. Aisha said no. The dead cannot hear the person outside. Did you not read in the Quran, Surah Fatir verse 22, وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَنْ فِي الْقُبُورِ So Aisha used something in the Quran. وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَنْ فِي الْقُبُورِ You will not be able to make the one in the grave hear you. So Aisha denied this interpretation. Forget the issue of niyah alal mayyat and ta'zeeb al mayyat. That's not relevant now. The issue is Ibn Umar affirmed hearing. Aisha said no this is incorrect. The dead cannot hear. Allah says in the Quran وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَنْ فِي الْقُبُورِ And there are other Quranic evidences as well. Surah Ar-Rum verse 52 Allah says in the Quran فَإِنَّكَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوْتَىٰ وَلَا تُسْمِعُ الصُمَّةِ الدُّعَاءِ إِذَا وَلَّوْ mudbirin. You cannot make the mawta here. فَإِنَّكَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوْتَ Nor can you make the deaf person here when you call out to them, especially when they turn their backs and they walk away. So in this ayah, it is as if Allah is saying, al-mawta is like al-sum. He is comparing the dead person to a deaf person. Also in surah An-Naml, verse 80. Allah says, وَمَا يَسْتَوَى الْأَحْيَاءُ وَلَا الْأَمْوَاتِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُسْمِعُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَنْ فِي الْقُبُورِ That Allah says in the Quran, the living and the dead are not the same. Allah can make anything He wants here, but you cannot make the dead here. وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُسْمِعُ مَنْ فِي الْقُبُورِ So all of these ayahs are used to talk about the fact that the dead cannot hear. And one can say it seems very explicit from the Quran. From the Quran there does not appear to be any evidence to suggest that the dead can hear. Clear? The Quran seems to say very clearly that the dead cannot hear. Clear? Right? Now, let's look at the Ahadith. A number of Ahadith seem to suggest that the dead can hear. Hence the controversy. This is why the controversy arises. So, of the Ahadith, is the Ahadith in Sahih Bukhari. that it's a very long hadith that the Prophet ﷺ mentions what happens to the soul when it dies. A very long hadith. One phrase in it is of relevance to us. That the Prophet ﷺ said, that the person in the grave, he hears the footsteps of those who have come to bury him as they return. The one in the grave when he is buried, this is at the burial. So the Prophet ﷺ is talking about what happens to the ruh, and it goes up and it goes down, the righteous goes up, the evil goes down. and then munkar and nakir, all of this. So in this there's a phrase, that the one in the grave will hear the people who have come to bury him, as they walk back, he will hear or she will hear, the soul will hear, the footsteps on the ground, as they go back to the houses basically. This hadith is in Bukhari. Pretty clear, pretty explicit, that they will hear the footsteps going back. Another evidence that is used, is the famous hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, that the Prophet ﷺ visited Baki' al-Gharqad, Jannat al-Baki' as we call it, Baki' al-Gharqad, and he said, As-salamu alaykum ahla qawmin minal muslimina wal mu'minin. So he's saying, As-salamu alaykum. Why would he say As-salamu alaykum unless the people can hear? Right? As-salamu alaykum to the people of the grave. As-salamu alaykum. So this is another evidence. Another evidence that is used is the Mutawatil Hadith, well known in every single book of Hadith, that the Prophet ﷺ said that whoever sends salam upon me, Allah will send an angel to tell me that they have given salam. Right? Whoever sends salam upon me, an angel will come and tell me that so and so is sending salam. There is also a hadith that says, now this hadith is very explicit, whoever passes by the grave of anybody whom he knew and says salam, the one in the grave shall recognize who said salam and he shall return his salam to him. Now, this hadith is very explicit. However, it is clearly a weak hadith. It is not mentioned in the six books. It's mentioned in some of the more obscure books, Ibn Hibban and Ibn Asakir and Tariq Damish. Some of the more obscure books and it is very clearly a weak hadith. It's not in the famous Qutub al-Sitta or Qutub al-Tisa. Had this hadith been authentic, then end of story. It's very clear, but it's not authentic. Of the evidences that is used is the hadith of Amr ibn al-Aas. it's not a hadith, it's his own statement, his own wasiyah, that he's telling his children, that he's telling him what to do after he dies, and one phrase in there says, so when you bury me, stay at my grave, for the length of time it takes to slaughter an animal and distribute the meat. Now this phrase, slaughter an animal and distribute the meat, is found in other hadith as well. It must have been a unit of time for them. Right? I mean they have something, they don't have 20 minutes on a watch. So this is like a phrase that they would use. For the amount of time it takes to slaughter an animal and give the meat out, I would say an expert slaughterer can do it all in half an hour. Is that reasonable? An expert slaughterer can take a goat in half an hour, just do it and cut it up. Half an hour, 25 minutes, maybe even less, I don't know. So the point being, we have a rough idea that stay at my grave for this amount of time. Half an hour, however it might be. Why? What is Amr ibn, you know Amr ibn al-As, who is he? The father of Abdullah. The famous sahabi. The very last sahabi who, who can remind me? Come on, I went over the story of conversion. I don't understand, you guys are taking notes, it should be like, somebody redeemed you. The last from Mecca? The last who made hijrah. Right? The last who made hijrah is Amr ibn al-As. You guys forgot. Of those three, the last three who made hijrah. Allah Azawajal blessed Amr to be of the last three who made hijrah. So Amr ibn al-As when he's about to die he says, wait at my grave for this amount of time. Why? استأنس بكم Your presence will calm me down. He's telling his children and his loved ones, stay at my grave, your presence will calm me down. Until once I am calm and recollected, I will be able to answer to Munkar and Nakir when they come. This is a very explicit hadith where he is basically saying, I'm gonna be terrified, I'm gonna be lonely and scared, stay with me as friends and comforters for a while. Let me calm down. Astatness means to basically, get comfort from you, right? Once I am comforted, then I'll know how will I respond to the messengers from my Lord. He didn't say Munkar and Nakir, he said the messengers of my Lord, meaning منكر النكير. Clear? So this is a very explicit hadith that Amr ibn al-'As thinks that the people at the grave will give him comfort. This is another evidence that is there. Now, this is the position by the way of many of the scholars. So much so it is said that this is the majority of the ummah. They said that the dead can hear those who visit. Now obviously the dead can hear those who visit, not anybody in the world. I mean, nobody said this, right? The dead, according to this group, if you go visit the grave, and you say salam, then the person in the grave will be aware that so and so is sending salam. Okay? Now, who said this position? This is jumhur, really, frankly. This is the majority position. We have, I mean, I have like 10 names here. Some of them, Ibn Hazm al-Nawwi, As-Suyuti ibn Kathir, Ibn Taymiyyah ibn al-Qayyim as well held this position. The both of them held this position as well. Allam al-Shanqiti in our times. this is a majority position Ibn Kathir, I mean a lot of scholars they held this position and it is clearly the majority position now of course their main evidence is the incident of Badr this is their main evidence that's why I went into this tangent here that the Prophet ﷺ explicitly said what did he say? they can hear me just as well as you can, you can right? so this is like the most explicit evidence and that's why I wanted to go into this because the incident of Badr is always used to be the most important and the most explicit evidence. Okay. What is the other opinion? In response to this, other people starting from Aisha radiallahu anha, right? So they have sahaba and they have sahaba. Both groups have sahaba. And both groups have tabi'un. And both groups have great imams. And by the way, this shows us that in some issues, even in aqeedah, there is difference of opinion in Sunni Islam. In some issues, there are minority of issues, handful of issues. Even in theology, Sunnis differed. And this is one of those issues that the Sunnis themselves differed in. This is not an issue where one aqidah says this, حَتَّى بِالتَّمِيَةِ No, nothing like this, right? Even some scholars of the Athari or the Ash'ari tradition on one side, and the other scholars as well on the other side. So this is not something that is a theological dispute. It is something within the Sunni madhab. So what did the other camp say? on the other side we have Aisha Umar ibn al-Khattab we have Qatada we just mentioned what did Qatada say what did Qatada say in this very narration that he's trying to explain how can the dead hear so he said Allah brought them back to life not that the dead can hear but he said Allah brought them back to life so that they could hear because he could not posit an opinion that says the dead can hear so what does he say Allah brought them back to life. This is Qatada's interpretation. This is not the Prophet ﷺ. This is not the Sahaba. This is Qatada. We have as well the famous Al-Bayhaqi ibn Atiyah, ibn Al-Jawzi, ibn Qudama, Al-Suhayli, Al-Qadi Abu Ya'la Al-Hambali, Al-Shawkani. In our times, Shaykh Al-Albani has written an entire booklet on this that the dead cannot hear. And he has a lot of evidences in there. Now, how do you reinterpret all of these hadiths? We just mentioned more than half a dozen hadiths. What do you do? So, and how do you respond to this? So, firstly they say that the verses of the Quran are very explicit. Oh, I forgot to mention, how did the other camp interpret those verses? Sorry, I forgot to mention this, right? How did the first camp interpret all of those verses that says the dead cannot hear? I forgot to mention that, right? The dead cannot hear. The Quran says at least in three or four verses, the Quran says the dead cannot hear, right? How did the majority interpret those verses? They have a number of interpretations. the first interpretation is the meaning of hear is not to hear just hearing but rather a hearing that will benefit a hearing that you will follow up to not just a physical hearing and they have an evidence for this that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in surah an-naml verse 81 surah an-naml verse 81 that you will only cause those to hear my mind is getting blank now number 81 there is no mota here number 81 you will only cause those to hear who believe in our signs we have four Hufa sitting in the audience they are all blanked out including myself I'm telling you the verse I want to know it because I'm myself in stomach right now he's looking up we have 7 iPads 4 iPhones 3 real mushafs and we're still waiting you'll get it No, wa ma anta bihadil umeel dhala. In tusmi'u illa man yu'minu bi-ayatina, fahum muslimoon. Right? In tusmi'u illa man yu'minu bi-ayatina. The only people that you can make to hear are those who will believe in our science. What is the hearing here? Those who follow Islam. Not the hearing just to physically hear. so they have a verse in the Quran where they say look the hearing is a reference to hearing and following not just hearing with the ears is that clear you understand this point right the second interpretation is the dead in the Quran is not a physical death but rather the spiritual death al mawta is not the one who is dead al mawta is the one who is a kafir and they have evidence for this as well because Allah says in the Quran Surah Al-An'am where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that awa man kana maytan fa ahyayna give the example of those who was dead and we gave him life and the meaning here of death and life is kufr and Islam so Allah calls the kafir mayyit so another interpretation is إِنَّكَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوْتَةِ You cannot make the kafir hear you. This is another interpretation. Not, has nothing to do with the mawta there. Now the problem comes with that interpretation is that Allah very explicitly says وَمَا أَنْتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَنْ فِي الْقُبُورِ In one ayah He says mawta, but in another ayah He says man fil quboor. And man fil quboor clearly means those who are in the grave. That's very explicit. So in any case, that's how they interpreted the ayat of the Quran. Okay, camp number two. Ash-Shawkani and others like him, Ibn Qudama, Al-Qatada, what did they say? They said that while it is true that Mawta can refer to the kafir, in these verses it refers to the dead because of the verse that says, من في القبور as I just said. That these verses they refer to the one in the grave. as for your point of saying the Quran talks about hearing of benefit this can be refuted through Surah Fatir verse 14 they bring another evidence from the Quran Surah Fatir verse 14 where Allah says in the Quran إِن تَدْعُوهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُوا دُعَاءَكُمْ وَلَوْ سَمِعُوا مَا اسْتَجَابُوا لَكُمْ وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكْفُرُونَ بِشِرِكِكُمْ وَلَا يُنَبِّئُكَ مِثْلُ خَبِيرٍ Allah is talking about all of the false entities that you call out all of the false gods Allah, Al-Uzza, Manat Jesus Christ, Jibreel, the angels they're calling them daughters of God and they call them out what does Allah say? when you call them la yasma'u du'a'akum they can't even hear you walaw sami'u even if they could hear mastajabu lakum they couldn't have the power to respond so the reference is very clearly they can't even hear when you call out Only Allah is As-Sami'a. When you say, Oh Jesus, He cannot hear you. When you say, Oh Al-Lat, and Al-Lat was a human being. We did this in Aqidah class. Al-Lat was a human being. Right? The five false gods of Nuh were human beings. Right? That, وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنْ آلِيَتِكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَا وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوْقَ وَنَصُرًا These five were human beings. Right? And the Arabs would worship them up until the time of the Prophet ﷺ. So Allah is saying, they were human beings. But they weren't gods when they were human beings. They were gods afterward. But they were humans. They're dead. And so Allah is saying, they cannot hear you when you call them out. They're in the grave, right? The idols were humans in the beginning. And the same goes for Jesus Christ. The same goes for Jesus Christ. The same goes for anything that is worship. It's an unconditional ayah. That when you make dua to them, إِن تَدْعُوهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُوا دُعَاكُمْ They cannot even hear you. وَلَوْ سَمِعُوا Even if they could hear you, مَسْتَجَابُوا لَكُمْ They couldn't even respond. وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَكْفُرُونَ بِشِرْكِكُمْ And on the day of judgment, they will do kufr of your shirk. يَكْفُرُونَ بِشِرْكِكُمْ You did shirk, they will say we have nothing to do with this shirk that you have done. They will do kufr of your shirk. And this shows us the reference is to entities like Jesus Christ. Because only Jesus and the righteous will يَكْفُرُونَ بِشِرْكِكُمْ So that's a very explicit verse from the other camp. Now another evidence that they have, how do you explain all of these hadith? As for the incident of Badr, they say this is the strongest evidence against you and not for you. They changed the incident 180 degrees. How so? They say, Umar questioned, how could these people hear when they're dead? The Prophet ﷺ did not correct him and say, Ya Umar, the dead can hear. What are you talking about? Rather, he made an exceptional case. O Umar, innahumul an, right now, this group can hear me just as well as you can. An exception in time, and in place, and in people. And he didn't say, O Umar, why are you asking such a question? Don't you know the dead can hear? You see the difference between the two responses, right? He made a very clear exception. That they are hearing me right now, just as well as you can. Right? And this clearly shows that Umar understood the Quran correctly. إِنَّكَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوْتَىٰ And now he's questioning, how can you speak? And the Prophet ﷺ is not correcting that misunderstanding because it is not a misunderstanding. It's a correct understanding. And the Prophet ﷺ is simply saying, this is a miracle, basically. Special time and place. How about the other evidences? The issue of the footsteps. The dead can hear the one in the burial going back. Once again, the Prophet ﷺ is making an exceptional time and place. That this is not any person who visits him. This is at the time of burial. And we know in authentic hadith, that the ruh will come back to the grave right now for munkar al-nakir. the ruh will come and be reunited with the body in the alam al-barzakh to respond to munkir al-nakir so the process is basically telling us at that point in time the footsteps of those who walk back those footsteps on the top of the ground they will be heard by the one in the grave not conversations not hello hi how are you doing rather just the reverberations from the top of the grave for that period of time when the soul is reunited with the body. Once again, there is a clear exceptional clause that makes logical sense. As for the issue of the Prophet ﷺ going to Baqee'ah and saying, As-salamu alaykum ahla qawmin min al-muslimin wa muminin. Yes, he did say, As-salamu alaykum. But this is the salam of dua and not the salam of tahiyyah. I.e., this is a dua he's making for the dead and not a greeting of salamu alaykum. Because salamu alaykum literally means may Allah's peace be upon you. So he is saying salamu alaykum and he means it. He's making dua for them. Where did you get that the dead can hear from this? There's no evidence at all. That he's saying may Allah's peace be on you O people of the grave. And there's no evidence here that the dead can hear. And that's actually very valid. That from this hadith you don't get anything about the dead hearing. as for the yeah but there's no there's no evidence of hearing is my point as for the hadith of the dead person recognizing the one who says salam to him, we said this is weak and pretty much every scholar of hadith who studies hadith says it is weak as for Amr ibn al-As and his wasiyah to his children we say this is his interpretation the Prophet ﷺ did not tell him to do it and some of the Sahaba Aisha and Umar are authentically reported to have denied the dead can hear so this seems to be from the Sahaba's time as for the hadith of the Prophet that the angels come and give him salams once again this is a very explicit evidence against and not for because if the Prophet could hear directly he wouldn't need the angels to go tell him the very fact that an angel has to convey the salam indicates what? He cannot hear. And Allah is telling an angel to go convey the salam. And by the way, this is a common misunderstanding. It doesn't matter whether you're in front of the grave or whether you are in America. The angel will go and give him the salam. Visiting to the grave of the Prophet ﷺ, of course it's an emotional experience, it's an iman builder, of course. But in terms of how your salam will get to him, it's all going to be from the angels, right? How your salam will get to him. So, you being in front of the grave versus you being in America, the angel will go and tell him. Therefore, if even the Prophet ﷺ requires an angel, what does this show about? The salam that can be heard, it cannot be heard. Therefore, in my humble opinion, one of the few things I would disagree with Ibn Taymiyyah about, in my humble opinion, it does seem to be that the dead cannot hear. And Allah knows best. We shouldn't be too strict about this issue because some of the sahaba had the other opinion. And it is true to say that many scholars held the position that the dead can hear the one who visits them. Many scholars held this position. So the main point that we need to emphasize before moving on, this is a theoretical issue. لا ينبني عليه عمل As they say, no action is derived from this. It's a theoretical issue. by unanimous consensus you don't go to the grave and start having a conversation or start asking the dead for your needs which is shirk or such jahala you see sometimes in the Muslim world when somebody is buried somebody is gonna stand there and say oh so and so munkar and nakir are gonna come make sure you say that Allah is your Lord now you pause for a melodramatic effect now say that the Prophet is your Prophet then you pause again now say that this is jahala Wallahi, it's complete stupidity. Who are you to answer on his behalf? I mean, do you really think he needs you to be telling him? And they call this talqeen, talqeen al-mayyat, right? In many cultures and societies, you will have this talqeen al-mayyat, right? And wallahi, I mean, you just wonder how foolish people are. You really think that at this point in time, he can cheat on his exam, right? Because that's what's happening, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're gonna cheat on your exam that somebody is shouting the answer for you and just because you're shouting, you're going to give the answer. You really wonder at the mentality of these people. So, what I'm trying to say is, even if you say that the dead can hear in the grave, there's no action that will come from that. There's no action that will come from that. That's just a theoretical issue. And the evidences are, frankly, strong on both sides. Nonetheless, from this incident of Badr, we'll get back to the incident of Badr, what did the Prophet ﷺ say? That, I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul, Oh Umar, they can hear me right now just as well as you can. Honestly, what do you learn from this or what do you glean from this except that this is an exception. This is what comes to my mind. This is an exception for these people that Umar himself was amazed and the Prophet ﷺ did not correct his amazement. Rather he simply said, they can hear me at this time just as well as you can. In any case, that's an issue of Aqidah wanted to go into that tangent. Now we get back to the issue of the incident of Badr. Now, another thing that took place in these three days before the Prophet ﷺ returned. So he still camped at the battle of Badr. The next incident that occurred was the issue of the spoils of war. What is to be done with all of this is called Ghanima. Because they've never actually been in a battle before where they captured Ghanima. They've never actually caught Ghanima before. And we know for a fact from the Quran and Sunnah that the previous Ummahs were not allowed to keep Ghanima. The previous Ummahs they had to give it up. The Bani Israel and the people before them, Allah has not made war Ghanima halal for any Ummah except for our Ummah. That before this as we know, and by the way this is mentioned in the Old Testament as well. that when they captured the items from war and what not, they would make a big pile. They would make a big pile. This is in the Old Testament. And the Quran, the hadith affirms this. And Allah Azza wa Jal would send a lightning, would send a thunderbolt, and burn this up in front of them, to show that it has been accepted. that in front of them, all of this money and wealth would be destroyed in front of them as a sign that Allah has accepted it from them. So when the Muslims finished the battle of Badr, they had a lot of ghanima, they had a lot of spoils of war. And they began to wonder what exactly to do with it. And some discussion broke up amongst the sahaba. Some discussion broke up. And that is because the sahaba in the course of the battle had split up into a number of groups. And each group was claiming some privilege over the other group. So one group said that we were the ones who collected the booty from the battlefield. We have the share of it. We should get it. We were the ones who went and collected it and so we should get it. Another group said, we were the ones who were pursuing the Quraysh as they ran away to make sure they wouldn't come back. And had we not been pursuing, you couldn't have collected. so we protected you a third group said we were surrounding the Prophet as precaution that they wouldn't attack and the only reason we stayed next to him was to protect him so how could you deprive us rather we deserve it as well and so this was not a fight this was not a debate but rather this was a discussion breaking out who is going to get the war booty and it is said that one of the sahaba Sa'd ibn Nabi Waqas he came with a beautiful sword that he had captured from the person that he had killed and he said O Messenger of Allah give this sword to me it wasn't his, it was the one that he killed give this sword to me for by Allah I used it in the battle so he got rid of his sword he used that, I used it in the battle so give it to me and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْأَنفَالِ قُلِ الْأَنفَالُ لِلَّهِ وَالرَّبِّ Rasul. This is the first ayah of Surah Al-Anfal. And so Surah Al-Anfal is revealed literally on the battlefield. Literally. And inshallah I'm still serious. Inshallah maybe not next week but the weekend after that or the next Wednesday we will go over inshallah maybe even the whole Surah Al-Anfal. I'm still serious about this, right? It's a bit of a tangent but we really want to connect the Quran with the seerah. We really want to make sure that we have a... Surah Al-Anfal is not a small surah but it's not a long surah. It's around 8-9 pages. And it's basically the every single ayah is directly linked to Badr. I mean literally every single ayah is linked to Badr. So I think it's a very good summary that we go over quickly all of Anfal. And I'm serious about that. Inshallah ta'ala. So this is the first verse of Anfal. يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْأَنْفَالِ Sa'd ibn Nabi wa Qas. Ya Rasulullah, I want this. Give it to me. قُلِ الْأَنْفَالُ لِلَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ Tell them, the general rule, this is not your property. this is the property of Allah Azza wa Jal and his messenger and we can do with it or Allah can do with it as he pleases and so Allah Azza wa Jal is reminding them that they should not allow greed to become their primary incentive that don't break up your brotherhood that Allah's pleasure is more important than this money then the Quran goes on and then explains that yes indeed the war booty can be distributed and the the details or the fiqh of distribution is beyond the scope of this but every book of fiqh has chapters about this issue but in a nutshell in a nutshell Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that one fifth وَاعْلَمُ أَنَّ مَا غَنِمْتُمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَأَنَّ لِلَّهِ خُمُسَهُ وَلِلرَّسُولِ one fifth of it is put aside this one fifth is itself divided into five this one fifth is itself divided into five shares right number share number one وَاعْلَمُ أَنَّمَا غَنِمْتُمْ مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَأَنَّ لِلَّهِ خُمُسُهُ وَلِلرَّسُولِ لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ is considered one so that is one fifth of one fifth that is 0.04 no one fifth of one fifth is not that's why you're a doctor and not an accountant okay It is 4%, right? 4%. So 4% goes to the Prophet ﷺ. And this was unique for him in his life. After his death then, obviously this is not there. So 4% goes to him. Number two, وَلِذِي الْقُرْبَةِ This is for آل الْبَيْتِ of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is خُمُسَ الْخُمُسَ Again, one-fifth of one-fifth. So another 4%, right? and this is in Sunni fiqh we respect the Al-Bayt and we even give them khumus al-khumus by the way the Shia the khumus, this is where they get it from, the khumus that the khumus, they say they have a different fiqh than us and their khumus is different than their zakah for us khumus is only in ghanima khumus al-khumus is only in ghanima, and it is for Al-Bayt and the Al-Bayt, who they are is again a question of Sunni and Shia difference as well, for us Al-Bayt is broader than those whom the Shia say is Al-Bayt. That's another difference. But we respect the Al-Bayt and we give them this Khumus Al-Khumus. To this day, if this occurred, and those who are in the area that we are in, we will give them Khumus Al-Khumus. So that is the second of the five Khumus Al-Khumus. What's the third one? Wal-Yatama. Orphans. 4% goes to the orphans. What's the next one? Masakin. Poor people. 4% goes to poor people of the community. Raban Al-Sabil. travelers and wayfarers who don't have any money. So 4% goes to them. These 4, 4, 4, 4, 4%, this gives you a total of 20%, correct? The rest of the 80% is given back to the army. And in the battle of Badr, every single person was given an equal share. This was early Islam. every single person was given an equal share later on in the battle of Khyber onwards the Prophet ﷺ changed this and he gave the one with an animal three times the amount that the one who didn't have an animal the infantry was not the same as the cavalry the one who had a horse or a camel got three times the amount of the one who didn't have a horse and a camel. This was later on changed in Khayban and onwards. But right now for Badr, everybody is given an equal amount. And there were nine people who were given an amount even though they were not on the battlefield. Every one of them had a legitimate excuse. The most important for us, the one that we'll discuss is Rithman ibn Affan. Rithman got a share, the same amount as all of the other Badriyun. And he's considered a Badri, even though he didn't participate in Badr. Why? Because Ruqayya, his wife, and the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ had fallen severely sick. In fact, they didn't know this, but she was going to die. And so Uthman wanted to go, but the Prophet ﷺ told him to take care of Ruqayya. So he remained behind, and we'll come to the story later on, she passed away the day that the Prophet ﷺ returned back from Badr. That she was buried on the same day. That he returned back later on, she was buried earlier on in the day. So Uthman stayed behind, and he was given a share of the booty as well. Another issue that took place in those three days, so we're still talking about again those three days, two major incidents happened. The first is the issue of the talking to the people, I said that already. The other issue is about the booty. The third issue, which is of significance, is about the prisoners of war, the POWs. This is another big issue. The POWs, the prisoners of war. What exactly is to be done with these prisoners of war? What exactly is to be done with the 73 or 74 of the usara that were captured in Badr? Once again, this is the first time they've taken prisoners. They've never done this before. And they don't know what is to be done. And in Sahih Bukhari we learn that the Prophet ﷺ surveyed all of these prisoners in front of him. 70 plus, all of them were in front of him. And he said, لو كان مطعم ابن عدي حيا ثم كلمني في هؤلاء النتنا لأطلقته لهم If مطعم ابن عدي were alive right now, مطعم ابن عدي had just died a few months before Badr. مطعم ابن عدي is a recent death, fresh death. If مطعم ابن عدي had been alive right now, and he spoke to me to free all of these نتنا means filthy. Filthy. Dirty because they just tried to kill us. I mean, he spoke to me about all of these people. I would have freed them all for him. Now they're about to collect a fortune from this 73 people. Literally in our times, it will be estimated in the millions of dollars. Millions of dollars. And he says, if مطعم just uttered one word, I would return all of these people to him for free now this is in my opinion a very significant phrase that has profound implications for us especially here in the western world question arises why why would he say this what has this phrase got to do in why would you utter a word when Mut'im has died Mut'im is not a Muslim Mut'im was not a Muslim why would he utter this phrase so Mut'im ibn Adi if you remember we mentioned his name many times in the seerah and Mut'im has done multiple tasks throughout the Meccan era to help Islam and the Muslims Mut'im was one of those who fed the people when they were boycotted, Mut'im was one of those who stood up and wanted to break the boycott and perhaps most importantly perhaps the number one thing that Mut'im did was that when Abu Lahab his own uncle said you are no longer Qurashi you can no longer stay in Mecca right when Abu Lahab himself said you can't be here and the Prophet ﷺ returned from Ta'if and he camped outside Mecca for three days and Bilal is negotiating because he can't return to Mecca Abu Lahab has revoked his citizenship basically right Abu Lahab has revoked his visa you cannot come in I'm not giving you permission to come in. And so he sends Bilal to Suhail ibn Amr. He sends Bilal to Waleed. He sends Bilal to four or five people. Every one of them gives an excuse. Sorry, you know what, now this and that, I'm not that powerful. Mut'im, when he hears this, what does he do? He sends his own sons. He arms his own sons. And he sends his own sons outside to escort the Prophet ﷺ back into Mecca. Right? and he commands the Prophet ﷺ to do tawaf, escorted with his own sons. And then he stands up in public and he says, I have protected Muhammad ﷺ. Anybody who harms him has harmed me. Even Abu Lahab had to bow his head down and say, we will protect those whom you have protected. His own uncle refused. Mu'taim stood up. And so, what is the Prophet ﷺ doing with this phrase right now? He is repaying the favor in kind. He is giving a kafir mushrik pagan what is due to him. And this shows us over and over again, and alhamdulillah, by now people, alhamdulillah, in America have lost this mentality. But wallahi, 10 years ago we had it, and many people still have it. Across the globe they have it, that they think, even now, wallahi, even now, they think you're not allowed to vote, you're not allowed to do this, you're not allowed to do that. The mentality is just so backwards, you want to scream with frustration. And how people, you know, that you cannot cooperate with the kufar, and the kufar this and the kufar that. I mean, they're living in some other, you know, utopia or some other, you know, mentality I think. In this incident, what do we learn? That the Prophet ﷺ respected the highest honor. That he is saying one word from Mut'im, and all of these will be handed back to him. This is like the medal of honor. This is like the 21 gun salute. this is like the purple star the heart this is like how else are you giving the honor to you the guy is dead he is not even going to hear this hadith but there is a legacy there is an honor he helped us out we have to repay that help and we learn here that there are those who are not Muslims but they have good hearts yes this is true to say they don't have good hearts in Tawheed they are Shirk but they have good hearts in mercy, in humanity, in tribalism, in standing for truth. This is what it is. That Mut'im did not approve of Islam as a religion, but he did not approve of the dhulm of the Quraysh against the Muslims. And so the Prophet s.a.w. took advantage of this. And he appreciated it, and he repaid him back in kind. In our times, there are those non-Muslims who don't agree with Islam theologically, okay, but they want to stand for truth, they want to stand for freedom, they don't want these Islamophobes, they don't want the hatred so it is our job to honor them, to respect them, to reach out to them, to work together for a better society, as the Prophet ﷺ did I mean it's so crystal clear, that it is amazing that people again, they have a selective reading of the seerah, there is no question that there are those who want to stand for truth and justice, even they don't have the same belief as you. And to honor them, to respect them, to cooperate with them, to be with them, our Prophet ﷺ did it even in death. Mut'im is dead. And he's still giving this praise to Mut'im ibn Hadi. So he says this about the prisoners of war, that لو كان Mut'im ibn Hadi حيًّ if Mut'im were alive and he spoke to me about these people, then I would have given all of them back to him. Now the issue came, what is to be done with the prisoners of war? and this was a very traumatic issue. Because on the one hand, these very people have just tried to kill them. Literally, it's been not only a few hours. In the morning they tried to kill them. Now their prisoners are in the afternoon. What is to be done? So the Prophet ﷺ asked the Sahaba, what do you think? And in particular he asked his two wazirs, wazirayy rasulullah ﷺ. Ali ibn Abi Talib called Abu Bakr al-Umar wazirayy rasulullah. Ali said this. that these two were the wazirs of the Prophet ﷺ. So he asked his two wazirs, Abu Bakr and Umar, what is to be done? And so Abu Bakr said, Ya Rasulallah, they are our relatives, they are our blood, they are our kith and kin. So show mercy to them for the sake of brotherhood, for the sake of our own tribe. Show mercy to them. After all, they're the same family as us, the Quraysh, right? And Umar ibn al-Khattab, you know him and who he is. He said, As for me, Ya Rasulallah, I think that you should give Aqil from the Banu Hashim Ta'ali and he'll cut his head off and give me somebody from the Banu Khattab and I will do the job here so we don't leave any of them they tried to kill us we should do the same to them why should we send them back so they're gonna come and attack us another day and so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that verily Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala makes some hearts so soft they are softer than milk and others he makes them so hard they are harder than stones. As for you Abu Bakr, you have a resemblance of Ibrahim and Isa. When Ibrahim said to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when Ibrahim said to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that, فَمَنْ تَبِعَنِي فَإِنَّهُ مِنِّي وَمَنْ عَصَانِي فَإِنَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ If they follow me, they are of me. And if they disobey me, then oh Allah you are forgiving and merciful. And Isa a.s. he says in the Quran إِن تُعَذِّبْهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ عِبَادُكُ وَإِن تَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ فَإِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ If you punish them then they are your servants but if you forgive then you are عَزِيز and حَكِيم. So Abu Bakr you are like Ibrahim and you are like Isa. And oh Umar you are like Nuh and you are like Musa. Nuh what does he say? رَبِّ لَا تَذَرْ عَلَى الْأَرْضِ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ دَيَّارًا Don't leave a single house of kafirs on earth. Not one. And Musa says that, O Allah, ushdud ala qalbihim. That make their hearts hard. And falayu'minu hatta yaraul azhab al-alim. Make sure they never have iman until they see the very punishment come down on them. Right? So, O Umar, you are like Musa in this regard. And the Prophet ﷺ agreed to the suggestion of Abu Bakr. He agreed to the suggestion of Abu Bakr. And the next day, Umar ibn al-Khattab is narrating the hadith, the next day he found, so this is the second of those three days, right? He found the Prophet ﷺ crying under a tree with Abu Bakr. The Prophet ﷺ crying under a tree. And so Umar said, what is causing you to cry, O Messenger of Allah? for by Allah if I understand then I will cry with you and if I don't understand I'll force myself to cry just to be with you just to be a part of this group whatever it is I'll cry so the Prophet ﷺ recited to him those verses of Surah Al-Anfal the Prophet ﷺ recited to him those verses of Surah Al-Anfal in which Allah ﷻ says in the Quran that it is not permitted or it is not permitted It is not good or it is not desirable for a messenger, for a prophet to have prisoners of war until he establishes power. حَتَّى يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ Right now you're still weak. You shouldn't have had prisoners and then release them or ransom them off until you have established yourself in the land. حَتَّى يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ تُرِيدُونَ عَرَضَ الدُّنْيَا Allah mentioned one of the reasons that some of the Sahaba wanted to ransom. Not Abu Bakr? some of the sahaba, that you wanted the money. You wanted the ransom. That was your main motivation. وَاللَّهُ يُرِيدُ الْآخِرَةِ But Allah wants something bigger than this, better than this, and that is the akhirah. And then Allah says, that were it not for the fact that Allah had already decreed this for you, or Allah عز و جل had already allowed this to happen, an azab would have come and taken you. A punishment would have come and seized you. And so this is what caused the Prophet ﷺ to cry and to feel so sad about this. Now of course, later on, later on, the sharia came down to give the khalifa the choices of what to do. And so this ruling is now no longer of course valid. Of course the khalifa, if there is ever a khalifa and this happens, there are a number of options that are allowed to be done. In this time for the battle of Badr, Allah Azzawajal said it wasn't the best decision, but now that you have done it, then let it go. And this leads us to a very deep theological and usool al-fiqh issue, which we don't really have the time to discuss in a lot of detail, but one of our brethren was insisting that we talk about this in some detail. So just a few minutes on this and not too much, because it is not the place for this topic. And that is the issue of, does the Prophet ﷺ have independent ijtihad? That is he able to exercise his own opinion? or does everything he say emanate directly from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is an issue that the scholars of usul al-fiqh especially have been discussing from the earliest of times and there are obviously as usual more than two opinions but there's two primary opinions the first of them and this is the minority opinion by the way is that everything the Prophet s.a.w. says is directly wahi and they mention in the Quran وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنَ الْهَوَى إِنْهُ وَإِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَى That everything he says is وَحِي that comes to him. This is a minority opinion. The vast majority of Sunni scholars, now of course the Mu'tazila have other positions, the vast majority of Sunni scholars, they said that it is very clear and explicit that the Prophet ﷺ, Allah gave him the right to do ijtihad. And he did ijtihad, and Allah Azzawajal would sometimes correct this ijtihad and sometimes let it pass. And in both cases, his ijtihad was binding for the sahaba to follow. So the key point which has to be very clearly mentioned, whatever the Prophet ﷺ commanded, the sahaba had to follow. Regardless of whether you say it came from Allah or it came from him, unanimous consensus, all the scholars agree, whatever he commands you to do, you must follow it. However, it is in my humble opinion very clear, and this is the majority opinion, that Allah gave our Prophet ﷺ the right to do ijtihad. And sometimes he was correct, and so Allah let it pass. And sometimes Allah ﷻ changed it, or even the Prophet ﷺ himself changed it. And there are many examples of this. Now, as for the verse in the Qur'an, وَمَا يَنْتِقُ عَنَهُ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَى Even by the context, it is very clear, this is a reference to the Quran. علَّمَهُ شَدِيدُ الْقُوَى ذُو مِرَّةٍ فَاسْتَوَى وَإِنَّهُ لَقُرْآنٌ كَرِيمٌ فِي لَوْحٍ مَحْفُوذٍ It's very clear that the context is about the Quran directly. It is very clear that the Prophet ﷺ was a human being, we all agree to this, that for 40 years before the Wahya he spoke as a human, that even after the Wahya began, he still remained a human being. He said in an authentic hadith, إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرُ أَنْسَاكَ مَا تَنْسَوْنَ I am a human being, I forget, as you forget. In one hadith he said that I get angry sometimes. I get angry sometimes. And we'll go on and mention some examples of this. So he mentioned certain things that he is showing his own humanity sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So it is very clear that at times he can make an ijtihad regarding an issue. And this issue later on is correct or he himself corrects it. Of them the example is given of the incident of Badr where he made ijtihad. And this is not a purely secular matter, this is a semi-religious, semi-secular matter. It's a little bit of a both issue, what is to be done. And he made ijtihad, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told him this wasn't the best ijtihad to do. Also the issue of the example of cross-pollination, the hadith is in Bukhari, where he passed by farmers doing a type of cross-pollination, and he said, why are you doing this? So they said, well, it works better. So he said, why don't you try not doing it? They didn't do it, and obviously it wasn't pollinated. So then he himself said that if I give you something of umur al-din then I am Rasulullah if I give you something of umur al-dunya you know your worldly affairs better than I do and this clearly shows he is speaking from his own ijtihad he is speaking from his own ijtihad even if it is in something secular he is speaking from his own ijtihad however even in matters of sharia sometimes it appears that he was making his own ijtihad and Allah gave him the right to do that. So for example, the issue of prohibiting going to the graves. He himself said later on, I used to forbid you from visiting graves, but now go ahead and visit them. And there does not seem to be any wahi from Allah to change this, rather it seems that he himself felt that this is now okay to go visit graves. Another example which is even more explicit. He said, I was about to forbid you al-ghila. And al-ghila means being intimate with your wife when she is feeding the child. Basically for that year or so after delivery, to be intimate with your spouse during this time of after delivery, when the child is being breastfed. So he said, I was about to forbid you to do this. But then I saw the Romans and Persians do this and it doesn't affect their child. So therefore, go ahead and do it. Now this clearly shows that this is his ijtihad. and had he forbidden this well Allah would be in trouble number one but number two had he forbidden this we would have been obliged to follow correct? we would have been obliged to follow so it's something that quite clearly our Prophet ﷺ had ijtihad and he was exercising it but he looked around and he said you know what? no, it's alright you can do it also he said for the issue of the hypocrites of Tabuk he forgave them and Allah revealed in Surah At-Tawbah Allah revealed in Surah At-Tawbah عَفَى اللَّهُ عَنكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ عَفَى اللَّهُ عَنكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ Why did you give them permission? Allah has forgiven you though, but you shouldn't have done that. So in Tabuk as well, he made an ijtihad, and Allah said, why did you do that? But it's alright, Allah has forgiven you for doing this. And he himself changed his mind for a number of rulings, which are again as I said, very clear that he had ijtihad, and he changed it for example, hadith of Fatima bin Tiqais. she was a young lady that many people were interested in marrying her her husband died a shaheed and she didn't have a house to live so the Prophet ﷺ said go to Umm Shuraik's house wait until your iddah finishes then I'll see who you should marry then he sent her a message that you know what Umm Shuraik a lot of men visit her because she was an elderly lady and she would have maybe every few days she would have a feast or something we don't know the whole stories but a lot of my sahaba a visitor of the young Ansar. Don't go, don't be in her house because maybe they'll see you when they shouldn't see you. Go to your cousin Ibni Ummi Maktum. He's your cousin. He's blind. You can live in one of his rooms. So go there. Clearly he's changing his mind. First go there, first go there. Nothing wrong with this. He's a human being. Also we have, for example, the issue of Hajj. When he went for Hajj. The only Hajj he did. The Prophet ﷺ, what type of Hajj did he do? Who can remind me? What type of Hajj did he do? Danish, I'll put you on the spot. What type of Hajj did he do? Quran. Very good. He did Quran. What did he say? In hajj Quran. لو استقبلت من أمر ما استدبرت. If I knew now what I knew when I began the hajj, I wouldn't have done Quran. And I would have done basically تمتع. He didn't use the words. But if I knew now what I knew back then, I wouldn't have done this. I would have done that. And this is clearly religion. And it's clearly he's talking about his own change of heart. Change of ijtihad. It's not sharia but it's clearly his own ijtihad. And I've given you other examples of sharia. Again, we don't want to go into this whole discussion. I've told you this is the vast majority opinion and the evidences are on and on and on. Also, the issue of matters even of aqidah, a little bit, where for example in the incident of Uhud. In the incident of Uhud, when the people hit him and the blood started coming down, he said, how can Allah ever forgive you? How can Allah ever forgive you? And what did Allah reveal in the Quran? What did Allah reveal in the Quran? Ya Hufad Ya Hufad, what did Allah reveal in the Quran? Laysa laka minal amri shay' This is a very strict verse Very strong verse You have no right to say this Laysa laka minal amri shay' Nothing Whether Allah forgives or punishes this is not yours to say ليس لك من الأمر شيء أو يتوب عنه فإنهم ظالمون they have done ظلم but you don't have the right to forgive or to punish this is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's right to do so also he made a dua about Muawiyah which I don't want to get into now it's going to be a bit too long but clearly even when he was told did you say this about Muawiyah he made an explanation for that not I didn't mean it at face value you don't take it in that manner. A very explicit shari'i ruling, Mutawatir, Bukhari and Muslim, that when he conquered Mecca, he said, every single tree in Mecca is haram. Nobody should pluck a leaf from Mecca. It's all haram. Right then and there, what did his uncle say? إِلَّا الْإِذْخِرِ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ Allow me to pluck the idkhir, because we use it for spice, for this or that. So what did the Prophet ﷺ say? Okay, إِلَّا الْإِذْخِرِ What is this show? May Allah, you are very clear. It is, to me this is an honor that Allah gave to the Prophet ﷺ. You have the right to do tashreer. Rather than flipping around, somebody say this is disrespectful, it's the exact opposite. For our Prophet ﷺ, سَمْعًا وَطَعًا He's human, but he's Rasulullah. So he's allowed to write that in there, say إِلَّا الْإِذْخِر Okay, إِذْخِر So to this day, every book of fiqh says, you cannot pluck any leaf in Mecca except for Idkhir. To this day. Why? Because Abbas begged him for an exception. He gave his uncle the exception and the whole Ummah has an exception. إِلَّا الْإِذْخِرِ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ Okay, fine. إِلَّا الْإِذْخِرِ And again, on and on. I mean, we can go on and on and on. The time is up here. My point being, the brother wanted to go into a little bit of a discussion in this. So, there are literally, no exaggeration, 50 or more examples of the Ijtihadat of the Prophet ﷺ. Some of them secular, some of them somewhat secular religious, some of them purely religious, some of them even theological, clearly shows us, he is bashar, he is human being, but Allah made obedience to him obligatory. So whatever he says, we must obey. سَمْعًا وَطَعًا Whatever he says about the sharia, about the matters of our religion, we are obliged to obey. And if he makes an exception, if he makes this, if he does that, this is completely permitted for him to do, and it is our obligation to hear and to obey. In our next Wednesday, we'll continue talking about the issue of the prisoners of war. We haven't quite finished, so let's leave the questions and answers about the prisoners to the next class. But if there are questions and answers about the issues before that, inshallah. Yes, bismillah. I have a question about the way you mentioned that nobody came here and you mentioned the story about the release of Islam. How will he have the knowledge of which incidents? But he's not dead though, he's alive. But you're saying that in this ayah, Allah is also saying that he cannot hear. You're implying that, you know, That's very clear that Isa cannot hear those who call him. That's very clear that Isa cannot hear those who call him. I don't understand the question then. Are you saying that Isa can hear? No, you can't. No, Isa cannot hear. Of all of what? The people who call out to him? Coming back? Allah told him he has to come back. No, but the life in between. What does he need to know about the life in between? Whatever he needs to know, Allah will tell him. It means, I think, all people worshiping him right now. Allah will ask him, did you tell people to worship me? This is in the Quran. No, the life on earth, when he comes to earth, how would he know what is happening? That he is Rasul. Allah will tell him what he needs to know. And, I mean, when he's going to come back, histories will still be here, people will still be here they will tell him whatever he needs to know I mean I don't see this as being ilm al-ghaib that I mean I don't see this as being problematic, what he needs to know either Allah will tell him or the people will tell him, the Mahdi will tell him the Muslims around him will tell him that this is happening I don't see this as being an issue of hearing of the dead, plus Isa is not technically dead right now questions before we conclude Is there any other incident when Prophet ﷺ talked to the people in the cover? No. Is there any other incident? No. The only time, that's why the incident of Badr is the most explicit evidence. The incident of Baqi' is not explicit. Because it's just Salam. The incident of Badr, that's why I went into the tangent that that is the main incident that is used. That he literally spoke to the dead. And the point is, the Sahaba did not understand this. Umar said publicly, how could you do that? even none of the other Sahaba said oh Umar don't you know the dead can hear so it's as if all of the Sahaba tacitly wanted this question Umar was the brave one to ask it that how could you be speaking to the dead there is no other instance in the entire Sira that the Prophet ﷺ speaks to a a dead person sisters any questions brothers yes go ahead how does that relate to reciting Quran and how does it break so there's two issues number one reciting Quran for the dead Number two, reciting Qur'an at the grave As for reciting Qur'an for the dead As I have said many many many times The vast majority of scholars have allowed this They have allowed it To recite Qur'an for the dead To gift To gift it to the dead Even Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Al-Qayyim, they all allow this Hatta Shaykh Ibn Baz, they all allow this And it is a minority opinion that has said it is not allowed as for going to the grave and reciting Quran there is nothing that has been narrated from the Prophet ﷺ in this regard and we have authentic hadith prohibiting salah in the grave so honestly the least that can be said it should be avoided the least that can be said should be avoided however in some books and I haven't looked at the asanid it is mentioned that Ibn Umar gave the wasiyah that the last verse of Baqarah should be recited when he's buried. Khawateen Baqarah. And based on this, some of the madhahib have said that you recite the Quran at the grave. So they extrapolated even from this incident of Ibn Umar. So no doubt, whoever does it, there is some basis for it from Ibn Umar. And whoever avoids it, I think they're being closer to the sunnah. Does that relate to Ibn Umar's position that... Obviously. Yes, this is the whole... It's connected, right? The theological position there. Yes. We believe that the Prophet ﷺ said about Ijtihad and we also believe that all these examples that show that and sometimes he erred in Ijtihad. Is there a difference in the way ulema today view that Ijtihad versus what's already commended to Allah. So, inshallah I'll make this point clear in the next Wednesday lesson as well. But I said this very explicitly in today's lecture. All Sunni scholars believe that the fact that the ijtihad was allowed to stand means Allah approved it. So, it is direct approval. the only time that wahy will come down is to correct it which means if it's not corrected it is correct so this is very explicit that every ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ is binding the Qur'an is very clear in the Qur'an only by obeying him shall you be guided every prophet we have sent we have sent so that he be obeyed by the permission and command of Allah. No, by your Lord, they will not believe until they take you as the final judge in all of their affairs. And they submit to everything you say. And they don't find anything in their hearts problematic to submitting to you. Right? So, any person who says, I don't follow the Prophet ﷺ, by unanimous consensus, he's not a Muslim. He's literally a kafir. So, your question of, are there people who are trying to distinguish? Yes, they are. These are the progressives. these are not traditional Sunni Muslims or Shia Muslims or any Muslims of the traditional mindset these are those who say you know what, let's have a secular Islam let's have Islam that tells me how to pray five times a day but not how to do business transactions, they are the ones extrapolating this point and it is because of this that somebody might feel we should cut the door at its roots but that's not the proper way to fight deviation with another deviation we believe that the Prophet ﷺ was a mujtahid that Allah allowed him to do ijtihad and that his ijtihad is binding. That's very clear. Now, these groups are basically saying, because he made ijtihad, why should we follow it? That's what they're trying to say. Right? And in response to them, we say we follow it because there are over 60 verses in the Quran that command us to follow the Prophet ﷺ. That's why. Is that clear? So, in that case, when the Prophet ﷺ said, not to even pluck a leaf from a tree, then how do we justify life when we see all this expansion? Well, that, I mean, realize, Yadanish, and all of you, please, this is a Sira class. Don't derive laws from anything I say. The issue of plucking is deeper than this. By unanimous consensus, you may pluck trees that are planted by humans, for example. How else are you going to harvest food? Right? Also, by unanimous consensus, the wali al-amr or the ruler or what not has the right to designate property for expansion, for houses, what not. The point here is that vegetation and free animals, wild animals should not be touched for no reason. Okay. So we might have other issues with the expansions taking place but plucking trees is not one of them. Okay. The plucking of the trees doesn't apply here because it would not apply when you're plucking it for a greater good. for example the Prophet ﷺ ordered that the trees of Medina be dug up because he wanted to expand the masjid right? when he came to Medina you are allowed to pluck those trees to expand the masjid or to build houses or what not, how do you think people in Mecca and Medina are going to build houses? they have to, so when there is an overwhelming reason to do so then you will do it, but otherwise there is a sanctity even on the wildlife of Mecca and Medina, that you don't touch even the wildlife for no reason okay? hunting hunting you're not allowed to hunt in Mecca in Medina you're not allowed to hunt so you see gazelles and deers once upon a time there were gazelles and deers outside Mecca and Medina right now of course once upon a time there were zebras in Arabia there were zebras there are still rabbits and hares in the desert outside Mecca you're not allowed to go and hunt over there so the wildlife is sacred If you're outside of Mecca, you're just walking and you see a tree there, you can't just pluck it out for no reason in the haram area, as long as in the haram area. But if you're building a house, that's a separate issue.

Seerah 4 - Religious status of the world before Islam - Yasir Qadhi _ June 2011-ey7UAi_Emgs

Al-Fatihah Arabia before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. And in today's lecture, inshallah ta'ala, we're gonna shed some light upon the religious status of the Arabs, the religious status of the Arabs before the advent of the Prophet ﷺ, and in fact the religious status of the world. And the reason why we need to illustrate this, the reason why we need to talk about what people believed before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ is to appreciate the blessings that the Prophet ﷺ came with. When we understand pre-Islam, we will appreciate Islam. Just like we understand opposites. When we understand black, we understand white. When we understand night, we understand day. We always look at opposites to appreciate each thing. We contrast. So when we understand jahiliyyah, when we understand the idolatry, paganism, that was prevalent in pre-Islam, we will appreciate the blessings that Allah ﷻ gave through our Prophet ﷺ by sending our Prophet ﷺ to the world. Now we know that every nation had prophets. Allah says in the Quran, وَإِمِّنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلَّا خَلَى فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ Every ummah had a prophet. So the Arabs as well had a prophet. And their prophet was of course the Prophet Ibrahim ﷺ and his son Ismail. And that is why numerous times in the Quran, Allah mentions, مِلَّةَ أَبِيكُمْ إِبَرَاهِيمٌ This is the religion of your forefather Ibrahim. And the Prophet Ibrahim a.s. had sanctioned many practices which remained for thousands of years until the coming of the Prophet s.a.w. So of the practices that Ibrahim a.s. began was to consider Mecca sacred. What does it mean sacred? We call Mecca haram. From the same word as haram. It's the same word haram. Haram and haram. haram. Haram is called haram because many things that are halal outside the haram are haram inside the haram. This is why we call it the haram. It's a sanctity. So for example, you're not allowed to hunt game in the haram. You see a wild deer, you cannot go hunt it. This is a haram. You're not allowed to pull a tree. You cannot pull a leaf from the haram. Everything that is natural, it's Allah's creation. You cannot touch it. Allah says in the Quran, وَمَنْ دَخَلَهُ كَانَ آمِنًا Whoever enters the haram is safe. And this is a ruling we still apply in our sharia. That if a criminal, if any evil person does a crime, and he runs to the haram seeking refuge, then Allah says he is safe, because this is a haram. And the jahili Arabs upheld this. Ibn Abbas said, we would see, in the days of jahiliyyah, we would see, a person would see the murder of his father doing tawaf. And he wouldn't touch a hair on his head. You can't do anything, this is the haram. So Ibrahim sanctioned the haram. Showing respect to the Ka'bah, Ibrahim a.s. sanctioned them. Instituting the sacred months. There are four sacred months in our sharia. In these sacred months, all hostility has to cease. You're not allowed to engage in any warfare. Everybody must be at peace. And of course, this is a boost to economy. When you have warring tribes, then Allah says, no, in these four months, there must be peace. Doesn't matter what the excuses. So this boosts the economy. It brings about peace in society. Of the things that Ibrahim a.s. instituted, of course was the hajj, with all of its rites and rituals, doing tawaf, doing sa'i, between Safa and Marwa, the aspect of sacrificing animals around the haram, the aspect of decorating animals. This is a thing that a lot of people don't know. But even in our sharia, when we assign an animal to sacrifice, people would take it from their villages, from their cities, and travel to Mecca with it, those animals are decorated. They're garlanded. The decorations are put on them so everybody knows that these animals have been dedicated to the poor of the haram. So where did this come from? From the Prophet Ibrahim a.s. Quick footnote here. Many non-Muslim researchers, they say, these aspects of Islam are taken from pagan culture. Because the pagans venerated the Kaaba as the holy sanctuary. And the pagans had tawaf. and the pagans did this and the pagans did that. Now this is all perspective. Is the glass half empty, half full? It's all a matter of perspective. For the non-Muslims, they're not looking at the fact that this is coming from Ibrahim. And they think that these are pagan rituals, so the Prophet ﷺ, according to their perspective, adopted certain things from paganism, and then he added his own two cents. For us, we say no. He resurrected the original teachings of the Prophet Ibrahim ﷺ, and he cleansed away the paganism. So, if the Arabs had a prophet, and if this prophet is Ibrahim, and Ibrahim is teaching Tawheed, where did paganism come from? Simple question. Ibrahim is upon Tawheed, one God. He doesn't have idols. Ismail, one God. Where does paganism come from? Our Prophet ﷺ told us, so then we have a historical fact because our Prophet ﷺ said it. Our Prophet ﷺ told us when and where paganism began. and how it began. Hadith is in Sahih Muslim. He said, I saw Amr ibn Luhay al-Khuzai, he mentions one person, Amr ibn Luhay al-Khuzai wandering around in the fire of hell with his entrails cut open behind him. You know, it's a very severe punishment. I saw Amr ibn Luhay al-Khuzai being punished in a humiliating manner. Why? The Prophet s.a.w. said, he was the first to بدَّلَ دِينَ إِسْمَعِيل Notice he said دِين إِسْمَعِيل إِسْمَعِيل's religion. إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَعِيلَ They had a deen, they had a religion, that is Islam. The first person to change it was عَمَّرْ إِبْنِ اللُّحَيْءَ الْخُزَاعِ And he was also the first person to introduce superstitions. Allah says in the Quran, مَا جَعَلَ اللَّهُ مِن بَحِيرَةٍ وَلَا سَائِبَلَةٍ وَلَا وَصِيلَةٍ وَلَا حَامٍ These are four types of animals, and I haven't even memorized them because they're so complicated. If the seventh female of a seventh female camel is born, these types of weird superstitions. In other words, if you have the second male from a third female, something like this weird permutation, that particular animal has to be killed for the gods. So you work out superstitions, you work out charms, you work out all of these paganistic stuff. He was the one who began this. And it is narrated that Amr ibn Luhayy traveled to Syria. and the Syria they had the Amalik the Amal Kites and the Amal Kites are mentioned in the Old Testament and they are an ancient civilization and they are a civilization the Old Testament calls them of giants meaning they were tall people and they had structures and they had a civilization and when he visited the Amalik the Arabic is called Amalik in English or in western language is called the Amal Kites when he visited the Amalik he found them worshipping idols and he found them to be this powerful civilization. So he said, what are these idols? So they said, these are our sources of power. When we're in drought, when we're in hunger, when the enemy attacks, we pray to these idols and miracles happen. So he said, can you gift me one of these idols? I'll bring it back home. I want to take it back. So they gave him an idol by the name of Hubal. and so Hubal became the first idol of the Arabian Peninsula and it also became the main idol of the Quraysh and that is why hundreds of years later in the battle of Uhud when Abu Sufyan thought that they had won he screamed out أُعْلُوا هُبَل Hubal has won because he is fighting against the Muslims he mentions the idol that عَمْرِ بْنِ الْعُحَيْرِ الْخُزَاعِ Hubal has won and so the Prophet ﷺ said respond back to him don't let this go by respond back to him so Umar ibn Khattab said how do I respond back? so the Prophet ﷺ said say that Allah is our protector and you have no protector Allahummaulana wala maula lakum now the point being that Amr ibn Luhayy brought back this hubal and he put it in front of the Kaaba and this was the first time that paganism started it is also said that Amr ibn Luhayy changed the talbiya for hajj. And some people say it was changed a few generations after him. So what was talbiya? What is talbiya? We all know talbiya, we should know talbiya. لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ This is what we say when we go for hajj. What does لَبَّيْكَ mean? لَبَّيْكَ means, I am responding, O Allah. I'm answering the call. Why? Because Allah, from the time of Ibrahim, Allah announced hajj. وَأَذِّنْ فِي النَّاسِ بِالْحَجِّ There's an adhan for hajj. Calling people for hajj. So there's an eternal call, come do hajj. When we go do hajj, we say labbayk, I'm responding to the call. I hear the call, labbayk. So Ibrahim a.s. was the one who began, labbayk Allahumma labbayk, labbayk la sharika laka labbayk. When this guy Amr ibn Nuhayy came along, he changed it. He has to change it, because part of the talbiyah says, labbayk la sharika laka. Well, he's changing the religion. there are shariq, shariq means partner there are shariq now, so he changed it he modified it, what did he say? and this hadith is in Sahih Muslim that the Quraysh had a different talbiyah what was their talbiyah? لبيك اللهم لبيك لبيك لا شريك لك so far so good, and then they say إلا there is an إلا, accept this doesn't make sense here, what do you mean accept? how can you have an accept? you have no partner except except what? إلا شريكا huwa lak tamlikuhu wa ma malak except for a partner who belongs to you. And you control the partner and you control all that he controls. You have partners, but you're the big boss. That's according to them. Just like ancient Greek, ancient Rome, there's the big boss, Jupiter is used, there's the big people. And then you have the minor gods. So the Quraysh invented this new fangled interpretation. Now, Amr ibn Luhay, when did he live? I tried a lot to do research about, can we find a date or not? And of course the reality is, we're not gonna find a date, because the Arabs did not record things in dates. The Arabs were like the ancient Chinese, they recorded things in occasions. The year when the elephant attacked, عام الفيل. This is how they record things. They didn't have a calendar. They didn't import the Roman calendar, they didn't import the Persian calendar, Of course they didn't believe in the Jewish calendar until Umar ibn al-Khattab began the Islamic calendar. The Arabs did not have a calendar. When you don't have a calendar, how are you gonna demarcate dates? By big events. This was the year when we had that battle. So we remember that year. And then a few years later something else happened. So they'll remember that year. In between they can say, two years after the big battle. Three years before the incident of the elephant. This is how they would have dates. So obviously, when it comes to translating when Amr ibn Nuhayy al-Khuzai lived, it is impossible for us to fully comprehend. However, what I did was I went back to figure out which generation did he belong to. And he belonged to a generation which is basically around the generation of Fihr, who is the original founder of Quraysh. So, assuming that every generation is around 40 years, 45 years, rough guess, Amr ibn Nuhayy al-Khuzai was in the first century of the Christian era. the first century of the Christian era and our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was born in the 6th century of the Christian era right? 570 or so this is roughly the date CE when he was born we'll talk about that next week inshallah the day and the year he was born and the Christian equivalent around 570-571 CE of the Christian era our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was born so around 500 years before the coming of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Amr ibn Luhayy introduces Hubal So it takes five centuries of pure paganism to spread to all of Arabia. Now, question arises, how could one man single-handedly change the religion of Ibrahim and Ismail? This is a question that we should ask ourselves and benefit from in order not to fall into this trap. One man can change the religion of their forefather Ibrahim and Ismail, how so? So, Allahu'alam, but I think that we can summarize it in two factors. First and foremost, the inferiority complex that Amr ibn Luhay had towards the advanced Amalekites, Amalekah. Because the Amalekites were a powerful civilization. They were a civilization that had history, writing, architecture, large buildings. They were known to be undefeated. and that's what the Old Testament also mentions that the Amalekites are the feared this is the nation that is indestructible everybody is scared of them and they are described to be giants meaning probably they are maybe 6.5-7 foot tall the average person amongst them they are a generation, there is a group of people whom the world looks up to so Amr ibn Luhay felt a complex that these are the mighty nation we should take from them in everything so because the Syrian society the Amalekites were so powerful Amr ibn Luhay assume they must be correct in everything and it is very important that we take from this lesson things that we benefit from in our times, simply because the nation is powerful, doesn't mean it has the correct morality, the correct ethics, the correct theology simply because the nation has technology or civilization or architecture doesn't mean it is better in everything. Yes, it's better in some things, but not in everything. So here we have Amr ibn Hayy was so astounded that these Amalekites can never be defeated. They have this and that. Surely they must be upon guidance. So he took from them their theology. Now suppose he did. Who is he to be accepted amongst his people? Here we get to the second factor. So the first factor was that the Amalekites were considered to be so powerful and mighty. There's an inferiority complex. The second factor, Ahmed ibn Luhay was not just a lay person. He was the chieftain of Khuza'a. Who is Khuza'a? You remember a few weeks ago, I mentioned very briefly the history of Mecca for 500 years. Very briefly, just a few paragraphs. And we mentioned that the descendants of Ismail were for a period of time kicked out of Mecca. Until Qusay came and reconquered Mecca. So for this period of time, who was in charge? Khuza'a. so in a way there is a matter of izzah here the Quraysh did not introduce idolatry Khuza'a did however we say Quraysh followed them so there is a negative there but Quraysh did not introduce idolatry Khuza'a did Khuza'a is another tribe not Quraysh so Khuza'a was in charge of Mecca not the Quraysh and Abr ibn al-Hayy was their chieftain and this chieftain was considered to be one of the most respected chieftains of Arabia and it is said that he had a lot of power that he won a number of victories that he defended Mecca against foreign invasions that he was a generous man so his people loved him so when his people loved him and he imported a theology then the people followed and we can add a third reason here and that is that there must have been at least 2000 years since the time of Ibrahim to Amr ibn Luhay we talked about this in the second or third lesson how many years between Ibrahim and our time at least 2000 years must have gone by between Ibrahim and Ismail and Amr ibn Luhayn. So we have now therefore a long time where there is no guidance, there is no prophets, where the message of the prophets has become diluted, where ignorance prevails. And these are the three factors then. Number one, inferiority complex. You think that a civilization is better, everything must be right about them. Number two, the person who says it has credentials. He is prestigious. and number three, ignorance now wallahi these three factors we need to understand them right now as we speak in 2011 because wallahi our religion is being bombarded by a lot of people and we have the exact same three factors people are saying very strange things people are wanting us to accept complete variations of our religion why? wallahi the exact same three things number one is inferiority complex towards another civilization which might indeed be the most powerful technologically, militarily might have the most civilization in some aspects, but that doesn't mean that morally, theologically, ethically, they are the leaders of the world. We have izzah through our Quran and sunnah, and we have the truth. And simply because a nation is more powerful than us militarily, it doesn't mean that they are more closer to the truth than us. Number two, we have people with lots of credentials, people who are being promoted by others as being the reformers and what not, that these are the people we need to listen to. These are the Martin Luthers of Islam that we're being told. And they have mashallah PhDs and what not from the fanciest universities. And they have the gift of the tongue and they have publications and they are famous and they're very intelligent. Just like Amr ibn Rahay was accepted. And number three, ignorance. The average Muslim does not know his religion inside out. And then when somebody comes and speaks in generic slogans, then it's very easy to be mesmerized. It's very easy to fall prey. And wallah, it might not be maybe as bad as shirk, but still we're facing an onslaught of changing of the faith. And alhamdulillah, there are people that are talking about this and against this and correcting these misconceptions. But I think it's very pertinent to discuss these three factors of Amr ibn Luhayy al-Khuzai. So, Amr ibn Luhayy, as we said, lived around four or five hundred years before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. There are even narrations, and Allah knows best, these are simply found in the books of history. We're never gonna know if they're sure or not. That shaitan inspired him through a dream, because shaitan also inspires by the way. Shaitan also sends wahi. Shaitan gives wahi. And Allah Azzawajal also gives wahi. But the wahi of shaitan comes from him, and it is evil. And Allah's wahi is pure and comes from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah says in the Quran, وَإِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ لَيُوحُونَ إِلَىٰ أَوْلِيَائِهِمْ لِيُجَادِلُوكُمْ That shaitan inspire their people, so that they can come and argue and debate with you. So shaitan himself gives wahi. So there are some books of history that mention that shaitan inspired, i.e. through a dream, through whispering, to Amr ibn Luhay, the names of the original idols that first began idolatry on this earth. And these are names mentioned in the Quran. How did idolatry begin? Allah mentions in the Quran. The people of Nuh were the first people to invent idolatry. وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُونَ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُونَ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوْقَ وَنَصْرًا Five names. And Ibn Abbas mentions the story. And this is, you can imagine, this is at a time when there's only one village on earth. There's only one civilization. And these five people, complicated names, but these were the original men. وَدْسُوَاعِ يَغُوثْ يَعُوْقَ نَصْرًا These five people were righteous men. Good people. And when they died, the people built images, statues, icons of them to remind them of their piety. And slowly but surely as generations kept on going, instead of just looking at the statue to be reminded of the piety, they began worshipping the statue. It's a stepping stone as shaitan used it. So it is said that shaitan inspired Ahmad ibn Luhayy to resurrect these five idols. And subhanallah, in ways we have to explain that these five idols were in fact worshipped in Arabia when the Prophet ﷺ came. Even though they had not been worshipped for millennia. And yet when the Prophet ﷺ came, there was one tribe that had Wad, one tribe that had Suwa, one tribe that had Yaghuth, that had Nasir. All of these were there. How were these names resurrected? Some books of history say, it was this man, Amr ibn al-Luhayn al-Khuzai. And he put one stone in front of the Ka'bah, and this is the Hubal. And then from this, people began proliferating idols. How so? Well, the first thing that they did is that they began worshipping, this is really interesting, they began worshipping the stones that the Ka'bah was built with. How so? We learn from the traditions that whenever a caravan left Mecca, they would chip away and take a rock from the Ka'bah. and they would take this rock as being equivalent to an idol. And whenever they went, they would then put the rock there and then worship this stone. What was the stone? The building blocks of the Kaaba. Now, we as Muslims, this is something a lot of people don't think about, we don't consider the bricks of the Kaaba to be sacred and holy. The bricks of the Kaaba are just clay and sand. It is the location that is holy. It's not the marble of the floor. It's not the silk covering of the Ka'bah. It's not the bricks that the Ka'bah is used to build with. It is the place that Allah created. And the Ka'bah, a lot of people don't know this, is rebuilt every few decades. It's just like any structure. How long does a building last? You know the last reconstruction of the Ka'bah, who can guess when it happened? The current Ka'bah that we see now, who knows when was this Ka'bah built? The people who live and visit frequently know around 10 years ago. the current Kaaba is literally only 10 years old that's it, there is nothing holy about the Kaaba it is the area it is the land of Mecca that is sacred the Kaaba comes and goes and after another 50 years, it's gonna grow weak the foundations are gonna be crumbling, they're gonna have to rebuild it but the people of the Mecca at the time, they didn't realize this they let paganism seep in so they would take bricks of the Kaaba and then they would worship those bricks, and of course this is the stepping stone to idolatry. Another Sahabi who accepted Islam, Abu Raja al-Utardi. Abu Raja al-Utardi mentions that before Islam came, we used to worship rocks and stones. Hadith in Sahih Muslim. We used to worship rocks and stones. And if we found a rock that looked more beautiful than the rock we were worshipping, we would throw that rock away and put the other rock in its place. And if we were traveling in the desert and we couldn't find a rock. Listen to this. We would gather some sand, put it into a pile, bring a goat, squeeze some milk out of it to make the sand firm, and then do tawaf around that sand. Now, wallahi, it is mind-boggling to think intelligent people will do this, but if you go to some countries on earth, I'm not going to mention anything here because people might get offended, but if you go to some places on earth, Wallahi every street corner you go to the middle of the jungles and you will find people have built a mausoleum or a structure or a pagan temple and you look and you see there is a rock with red painting or yellow painting on it, just a rock and you find people putting meat in front of the rock and putting butter and putting sweets in front of the rock and it's mind boggling that to this day people can act like this, that they are gonna give their acts of worship, they're gonna prostrate, they're gonna lower their heads to a wood or a rock or a stone. And when you read this, you wonder, subhanallah, but then you see it with your own two eyes and you say, no, this is still here. And then we talk about those who do this in our own religion, in our own culture. There are some Muslims who do the same with graves, with saints, with mausoleums. The same thing. You see it in many Muslim countries. You go and you find Muslims literally bowing their head down in front of the grave of a saint, of a wali, of a peer, doing tawaf around the grave. And you wonder, where is La ilaha illallah? This is exactly what the jahili Arabs did. One of the most disgusting stories, to be honest, is that of Naila and Asaf. Naila and Asaf. Naila and Asaf were two idols. Naila was put on Safa, and Asaf was put on Marwa. And so the Quraysh when they did tawaf, they would touch Nailah and Asaf when they're going back and forth. When Islam came, the Muslims felt hesitant. How can we do Sa'i when it's meant to commemorate Nailah and Asaf? So Allah revealed in the Quran, the verses that we all know, إِنَّ الصَّفَى وَالْمَرْوَةَ مِنْ شَعَائِرِ اللَّهِ Safa and Marwah are holy before Nailah and Asaf were put there. Safa and Marwa are from the signs of Allah before Nail and Asaf ever came Safa and Marwa are from the signs of Allah so whoever does Hajj then let him there is no sin on you if you do Tawaf between them there is no sin meaning don't feel guilty there is no evil in Safa and Marwa what is Nail and Asaf? Aisha says that since we were children we were hearing the story of Nail and Asaf the legends that they have Nail and Asaf may Allah forgive us for even narrating such disgusting things but this is what the books of history say they were two lovers, male and female Nail and Asaf, Asaf is the male and Nail is the female they were two lovers and they could not find a place to be intimate because they were not married except the interior of the Ka'bah so they consummated their romance inside the Ka'bah and as a punishment Allah destroyed them and solidified and petrified them right then and there. Now when the Quraysh came across them, they actually took them as a miracle. And they put these two on Safa and Marwa. And that is why the Muslims said, how can we do the Sa'i between Safa and Marwa? So Allah said, look, Safa and Marwa have nothing to do with Nailah and Asaf. So this is the story of Nailah and Asaf. Again it shows you the paganism that the Jahili Arabs were upon. And we also know that when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca, there were around 360 idols around the Ka'bah. 360 idols of various shapes and sizes. Some idols were in the shape of full humans. Some were in the shape of animals. Most of them were in the shape of half human, half animal. And you know to this day the children's fairy tales, half horse and half human and half lion, just like the sphinx of Egypt or the centaurs, this type of theology. We read in the books of history that most of these idols were humanoid. A little bit of human, a little bit of animal. And they would then put these statues around the Ka'bah. Also, we learn that the Quraysh had the theology that Allah has daughters, and that these daughters are His angels. and they would worship the angels. They would worship the angels thinking that these are the daughters of Allah. So they would consider the angels to be the daughters of Allah. Now the Arabs did not have a specified theology. They didn't have a creed. You know we as Muslims we have a creed. We believe in Allah and the angels, the day of judgment, Qadr. We have a creed. We need to understand that societies that are idolatrous, paganistic societies, is they don't have creeds. For example, Hindus are the most clear example of idolatrous religion. Hindus don't have creeds. If you ask 10 different Hindus what their religion is, you'll get 10 different answers. Right? Because there is no unified creed. There is no aqeedah as we call it. And one Hindu can worship one god, another can worship another god, and you can have 6 million Hindus worshipping 6 million gods. Different. And each one has a different perception of what his god can or cannot do. this is all legit in their religion because there is no unified creed the same goes for the Arabs that there was no unified creed many of them believed in a day of judgment many of them denied it many of them believed this, many of them didn't there is no unified creed but the one thing that they all agreed upon is that we need to worship these idols to come closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala they have some form of idolatry does this mean that the entire society was idolatrous? No. History records that there were some exceptions to this rule. And it is very interesting to look at these exceptions and to derive some benefit and wisdom from this. And the books of Sira mentioned that there were a handful of people called Hanif, Hunafa, plural Hunafa, singular Hanif. And Hanif means, Hanif means turning away from. So the Hanif or Hunafa are turning away from Shirk and turning to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is what Hanif means. That they're turning away from Shirk and they're turning to Allah. We mentioned some of the stories of the Hunafa. One of the most interesting Hunafa, which we only have literally 4-5 paragraphs of knowledge about, is Qus ibn Sa'idah. Qus ibn Sa'idah. Qus ibn Sa'idah was not from the Quraysh he was from the Banu Iyad a tribe that was far away in modern day around Oman and Bahrain that area and Qus ibn Sa'idah was probably around 80, 90 of course the books generally exaggerate they say 100, 150 some even say 300 but we can imagine he was an old man when the Prophet saw him as a young man so the Prophet met Qus ibn Sa'idah when he was in his twenties. And Qusri bin Sa'idah would come to Mecca for the Hajj. Remember the Hajj is a universal right. People from all over Arabia are coming. So Qusri bin Sa'idah came from the Banu Iyad and he was preaching against idolatry. And it is mentioned that he was one of the most eloquent of the poets. And his poetry or his rajas, which is not quite poetry, it's a manner of speaking. Some people have said it is the most resembling of the language of the Qur'an. And this shows us that he was upon the fitrah and the closest to the religion of Islam. So for example he has, and I quote some Arabic here, يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسِ إِسْمَعُوا وَعُوُّ عُ means to understand. إِسْمَعُوا وَعُوُ وَإِذَا سَمِعْتُمْ فَانْتَفِعُوا إِنَّ مَنْ عَاشَ مَاتَ وَمَنْ مَاتَ فَاتَ وَكُلُّ مَا هُوَ آتٍ آت And it goes on. O people, listen to me and understand. and when you hear then benefit because whoever lives of a surety will die and whoever dies has finished there's nothing more for him to do and everything that Allah has decreed will indeed come about and he has Ya Ma'shar Iyad Iyad is his tribe Ya Ma'shar Iyad Aina Thamudu Wa Aad Wa Aina Al-Aba'u Wa Al-Ajdad Wa Aina Al-Ma'rufu Al-Ladhi Lam Yushkar Wa Al-Dhulman Lidhi Lam Yunkar Aqsa Maqus Billahi إِنَّ لِلَّهِ لَدِينًا أَرْضَى مِنْ دِينِكُمْ هَذَا O people of Iyad, where is Thamud? Where is Ad? Where are your fathers and where are your grandfathers? And who will reward the one who does good, but he was never rewarded? And who will punish the one who does injustice, but he was never punished? In other words, do you think this is it? Do you think there's no hereafter? Who's gonna reward the one who does good, but he was never thanked? And who's gonna punish the one who does evil, but he was never punished? He's referencing the Day of Judgment. I swear by Allah that there must be a religion better than the religion you are upon. He doesn't know it because there is no prophecy. He doesn't know it because the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam has not yet been sent. And it is said many many years later in the 9th year of the Hijrah. This is 50 or 40 years after the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam first met Qus. That when the Banu Iyad came to accept Islam, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam said, Where is Qus ibn Iyad? Who amongst you knows him? So they said he died a long time ago, four decades or something ago. So the Prophet ﷺ said, I remember him on a camel, a red camel, and I remember that he had mesmerizing speech. Can anybody amongst you remind me of it? So they reminded him of that speech, and this is some of what I narrated to you right now. So they reminded him of what Qusr said, and the Prophet ﷺ liked what Qusr had said. And this shows that there was some remnants of Tawheed. the most important hunafa were four Qus is one of them but the most important were four and we have a number of details about them Ibn Hisham narrates a very beautiful story he says that before the coming of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam the Quraysh held a huge festival outside of Mecca and they invited the entire city to celebrate with their idols and they exalted their idols, they sacrificed they did tawaf around their idols when the entire village or the entire city of Mecca left four people found themselves remaining behind. And they realized when they found themselves remaining behind that they are all upon the same wavelength. They are too embarrassed to tell people about this. So they didn't want to go. When they let the whole society leave the city is empty for a few days lo and behold they thought they are going to be alone four people were there. So when the four people realized that we are all on the same wavelength fear, they said let us befriend one another. And let us not tell our people about our affair. That we disagree with this idolatry. These four people were number one. Waraqa ibn Nawfal ibn Asad. Who is Waraqa ibn Nawfal ibn Asad? Well if we mention one more person, Khadija binti Khuwailid ibn Asad. Khadija binti Khuwailid ibn Asad Waraqa ibn Nawfal ibn Asad. So Waraqa and Khadija are cousins. Waraqa and Khadija are cousins. But Waraqa was around 50 or 40 years older because his father was the eldest and Khadija's father was the youngest of the brothers. So he is around 40 years older than Khadija. So number one, Waraqa ibn Nawfal. Number two, Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh. Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh is the Prophet's ﷺ cousin through his mother. So the Prophet's ﷺ aunt is Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh's mother. Aunt meaning Abdul Muttalib's daughter. So Abdul Muttalib's daughter, the Prophet's ﷺ aunt, is Ubaidah al-Majahsh's mother. So he's the Prophet's ﷺ cousin. Number two, Uthman ibn al-Huwayrith. And number three, Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl. And he is the cousin of Umar ibn al-Khattab ibn Nufayl. Umar ibn al-Khattab and Zayd ibn Amr. Amr and Al-Khattab are brothers. So Umar is the first cousin of Zayd ibn Amr. But once again, Zayd is like 40-50 years older than Umar. So these are the four. Once again, Waraqa ibn Nawfal, Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh, Uthman ibn al-Huwaylith, and Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayn. So these four said, let us befriend one another and not tell anybody about our affair. We all know that our people are upon misguidance. That they have left the pure religion of Ibrahim. Are we going to do tawaf around a stone? Are we gonna sacrifice to a stone that can neither benefit us nor harm us? let us search for the original religion of Ibrahim a.s. let us search for the Hanifiyah and that's why Allah calls Ibrahim Hanif throughout the Quran Allah says that millat Ibrahima Hanifah in over 8 verses Allah calls Ibrahim Hanif and the Arabs knew that Ibrahim was Hanif and therefore these people are saying let's search for the Hanifiyah of Ibrahim So they all split up and they all left Mecca for a while, searching for the truth. As for Waraqa ibn Nawfal, he eventually chose Christianity, and he studied his books, and he learned Hebrew and Aramaic, and he rejected the religion of the people of the Quraysh, and he was a convert to Christianity. Waraqa, of course, we know his story, that he was an old blind man in his 80s, when the Prophet ﷺ at the age of 40 heard, اقرأ باسم ربك الذي خلق. And everybody knew that this was a learned scholar. He's an eccentric academic for the Meccan standards. He reads and writes, he's a genius. If you can read and write in Mecca, you're a tenured professor, you're a big shot there. He reads and writes, and he speaks Hebrew and Aramaic. So when اقرأ came down, Khadija held on to the hand of the Prophet ﷺ and said, let's go to Waraqah. Because he knows what's going on here. He knows this stuff. This is not a part of our civilization. We've never seen this before. Let's go to Waraqah. And so Waraqah was the one who recognized, yes, this is what we've been waiting for. And subhanallah, it's very interesting. If you ask the average Muslim, who's the first convert? They say Abu Bakr. People jump over, no, the first convert is Waraqah. After Khadija we can say, the first male convert is Waraqah. Before Abu Bakr. Because even before the da'wah began, even before the Prophet ﷺ realized he's a prophet, Waraqah understood what's going on. Because the Prophet ﷺ did not understand, what did I see? What was this entity that came to me? And so Waraqah said, this is the same entity who came to Musa, who came to Jesus. This is Jibreel, this is the Namoos he called him. So it's the secret companion. He's the one whom Allah sends to the prophets. And Waraqah was the one who said to him, how I wish I were a young man. I've been searching my whole life for the truth. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? He must have spent 60, 70 years waiting for the truth. And now when he's just about to die, he hears the Prophet ﷺ, so he regrets, he said, how I wish I were a young man now so that I could support you when your people persecute you and expel you. And this was the first shock to the Prophet ﷺ. My people will expel me? My people are gonna oppose me? And because Waraqah at this time knew the history of the previous nations, he said, yes, never has any prophet come with the truth except that his own people opposed him. So this is Waraqa ibn Nawfal, and Khadijah says, فَمَا لَبِثَ Just a little while after this conversation, he passed away. The first Muslim who died in Mecca was Waraqa ibn Nawfal. Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh has the saddest story. Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh converted to Christianity, and he was the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. So when the Prophet ﷺ began preaching, he accepted Islam. And he married Umm Salama. And they then migrated to Abyssinia. So he was a Muslim. But he became a Murtad when he reached Abyssinia. And he reverted back to Christianity. And that was when, of course, Umm Salama had to leave him. And he died shortly after that. And then the Prophet ﷺ proposed and Umm Salama became his wife. and there's a whole story there about Uwais al-Ibn Jahsh which we don't have time for but one simple benefit that we can derive from this and it's a very important benefit if you become murtad in a land that is not ruled by the sharia this is your freedom you cannot do anything so the whole question I'm saying this now because our religion is being attacked you guys have a blasphemy law if somebody leaves a religion you have to cut his head off that's what we're told the response is very simple no our sharia tells us that in lands that are not ruled by Islam Rubidullah ibn Jahsh converted back to Christianity nobody harmed a hair on his head this is the land of Negus the land of Najashi, do as you please it's not the land where the sharia is going to be implemented so in lands other than the land of Islam there's no question that sharia would say that we don't implement that and of course whether we implement or not even in Islamic lands there's a whole long conditions for that. This is the second person, Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh. The third, Uthman ibn Al-Huwaydith. Uthman ibn Al-Huwaydith, he too accepted Christianity. So out of these four, three accepted Christianity. Waraqa eventually accepted Islam. Ubaidullah accepted Islam, then went back to Christianity. Uthman remained a Christian till he died. And we don't know whether he ever heard the Prophet ﷺ's message. Because Uthman ibn Al-Huwaydith left Mecca never to return. he left Mecca now when did this incident take place probably before the birth of the Prophet or if it took place when he was alive he would have been a little child because you do the math Waraqah is in his 80's when the Prophet is 40 so when did this took place maybe when Waraqah was in his 20's so the Prophet most likely again this is all assumptions most likely this scattering took place before the Prophet was even born Now, Uthman ibn al-Huwaydith traveled to Rome, and he eventually made his way up into Caesar's palace, and it is said he became an interpreter, because they needed Arab interpreters, so he accepted Christianity, and so he was given a lot of money, a lot of prestige, and he became a Christian, and he died a Christian. So these are the three out of the four. The last one, Zayd ibn Amr ibn al-Ufail, has the most interesting story, and the Prophet ﷺ had a number of encounters with him. Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl did not accept Christianity or Judaism because he was not impressed with either of them and it is narrated that he told both the Jewish rabbis and the Christian priests that he met that this is not the religion of Ibrahim and you know it this is not the religion of Ibrahim and you know it so Zayd ibn Amr returned back to Mecca and he told the people once he had now become mature and respected O people of Quraysh there is no one left upon the religion of Ibrahim in this whole city other than me all of you have rejected the religion of Ibrahim and Asma binti Abi Bakr the older sister of Aisha Asma is around 20 years older than Aisha she is way older than Aisha Asma binti Abi Bakr Aisha remember she was a very young girl so Asma binti Abi Bakr says that she remembers as a young child seeing Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufail rebuking the Quraysh for worshipping idols, for giving meat to the idols, for trying to bury their daughters alive. And in fact, and subhanallah, how beautiful is this. When any Qurayshi wanted to kill his daughter, Zayd would say, give her over to me, I will take care of her, and I will bring her up. She will become my daughter. So he would adopt all of the daughters that the Quraysh wanted to kill. And this shows us his generosity and his kind heart. And he forbade any daughter to be killed and said, give them to me and I will raise them in my household. And he refused to participate in any of their idolatry. It is authentically mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ met Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl when he was a young man. When the Prophet ﷺ was a young man, before the prophecy began. And he asked him, what is the matter between you and your people? Why is there this animosity? So subhanAllah this shows us the Prophet ﷺ, even as a young man He wants to study, he wants to know. He's inquisitive mind. Probably as a teenager, we don't have an age here. We can imagine maybe 17, 18. The Prophet ﷺ is asking Zaid as his young child, what is the matter? What do you believe? What do they believe? And so Zaid ibn Amr would explain to him that I cannot worship idols. I cannot do what these people are doing. And the Prophet ﷺ found a kindred spirit because as we know, the Prophet ﷺ himself never worshipped an idol. He never bowed his head in front of an idol. He never sacrificed meat to an idol. All of these things he himself did not do. So, Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, as we said, he continued upon this religion. And he died five years before the Prophet ﷺ began preaching Tawheed. Five years. His son, Sa'id ibn Zayd, is one of the companions that unfortunately we don't, we as Muslims don't know much about even though we should. because Sa'id ibn Zayd is one of the ten who were promised Jannah. This is one of the big names, but unfortunately we don't know much about him, meaning we, meaning this society, not that we don't know from the books. Sa'id ibn Zayd was one of the ten who are Ashara Mubashara. This is his son. So one day he said, O Messenger of Allah, you know my father, you remember my father, and you remember what he was upon. What will be his fate in the Akhirah? You can tell me, he's loving, he wants to know. Ya Rasulullah, what's gonna be the fate of my father in the Akhirah? So the Prophet ﷺ said, he will be resurrected on the day of judgment, his own ummah. He's a one man ummah, without any prophet. Because he was such a pious person. And when he went back from Isra wal Mi'raj, you know the famous journey, we're gonna talk about that. He said to Sa'id ibn Zayd, I entered Jannah and I saw your father, Allah had blessed him with not one but two gardens. so this shows us that even before the coming of Islam people managed to enter Jannah because they rejected idolatry because their fitrah, their innate nature told them that something is wrong so Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl is a one man ummah this is a trivia question which ummah is there without any prophet? and we say the ummah of Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl this is an ummah which is a one man ummah without any prophet now this shows us the status of the Arabs how about the status outside of Arabia we already mentioned that the Roman Empire was upon Christianity and the Sassanid Empire or the Persian Empire was upon Zoroastrianism and Zoroastrians of course they have the concept of the god of fire and the god of darkness so they have a perpetual fire that is lit and they worship that So the Zoroastrians are, from the Islamic perspective, a type of idolatry, a type of paganism. How about the Christianity of Rome? Well, again to make a long story short, this is a whole interesting thing in and of itself. After Allah Azza wa Jal raised the Prophet Isa alayhi salam, we can say that there were, within 30-40 years, there were three major strands of Christianity. three major understandings of Christianity. The first type is called Gnosticism, which we're not going to talk about. It's a completely philosophized understanding. Gnosticism. It's a very mystical understanding. And they pretty much eliminated it. There's really no Gnostic Christians anymore. The two major groups of Christians, the first of them are called Jewish Christians. This is the name that academics give. Jewish Christians. And the second, some people call them Pauline Christians, following Paul. So there were Jewish Christians and there were Pauline Christians. Jewish Christians, they believed, amongst other things, that they are Jews. That they have to follow the law of Musa. That they have a sharia, kosher and kashrut and all of these laws. That they have to be circumcised and eat dhabiha or kosher meat. and basically be practicing Jews. And that Jesus Christ was sent to the Jews. And that He was the promised Messiah. I.e. this is exactly what we believe. It's exactly what we believe. Now, Paul who was never an actual disciple, he claimed to be a disciple, he claimed to see Jesus Christ in his vision. Paul was the one who began a whole new theology. What is this theology? Jesus Christ has elements of divinity. he's not just a man he's a super man some type of divinity Jesus Christ came to destroy the law or to obliterate the law or not destroy is not a good word they wouldn't agree with that Jesus Christ came to make the law unfunctional he came to replace the law if you believe in Jesus Christ there is no sharia and the whole question of circumcision is discussed in the new testament so he said you don't have to circumcise you don't have to do the sharia anymore and then he began some elements of the trinity he began this and that So this is called Pauline Christianity. For 300 years, Christians debated over what is the meaning of Christianity? What is Jesus Christ? Is He a prophet? Is He a God? Is He the Son of God? What are the Bible? What is this and that? Until finally, and the Romans, initially, you know, the Romans were a pagan religion, right? They had the god Jupiter, and they had this. The Romans were the worst enemies of the Christians. And there are these stories that they would find Christians and throw them to the lion pits, and they would, you know, the emperor Nero burnt Christians alive. He made the whole city of Rome burning a light by Christian bodies. He would light a Christian for the light bulb of the city. So these were evil people and Christians were martyrs and they were persecuted. So for two, three hundred years, Christians were martyrs until a miracle happened. There were probably around three, four percent Christians of the Roman Empire until a miracle happened from their perspective and that is the emperor converted to Christianity. Now the equivalent would be in our times if the president of the United States converted to Islam. Because we are around 5-6%. And Christians were around 5%. Well, some say he's already a Muslim. We're not getting into that theory, okay? Mr. Hussain Sahab, we're not gonna talk about him. But the equivalent would literally be you're a minority religion, you're a 5% religion, and then the emperor converts to your religion. This is what happened with Christianity, right? Constantine was the first convert of the Roman Empire to Christianity the first emperor, sorry to convert to Christianity now, Constantine isn't just some Joe on the street he's the emperor so he's not gonna have these bickerings going on so he convenes a whole council all you Christians who are fighting come, let's have a dialogue and let's figure out what Christianity is and then he wanted a certain version of Christianity we're just zooming this quickly through because he's a pagan from before so he wants a little bit of a paganistic element of Christianity. And so from that we get the 25th of December, we get the concept of halos, we get the concept of a trinity, we get this, we get the son of God, because they had a son of God in Mithra. All of this comes from Constantine's decision in 325, in the city of Nicaea, which is now in Turkey, he held a council called the Council of Nicaea. In 325 CE, Constantine decrees official Christianity is basically Pauline Christianity. All other Christians, we're gonna do to you what our ancestors did to the other Christians. We're gonna burn you, persecute you, kill you. So there was a massive outflux, an immigration, a hijrah, of original Christians to other lands. Right? And this is why it is said that some of them came to the Najashi's kingdom, and so the Najashi's kingdom had more Jewish Christians than others. Others went to Iran, and so Salman al-Farsi, so we're gonna come to is there. but the Roman Empire officially banished Jewish Christianity. And there was no such thing as Jewish Christianity officially in the Roman Empire. So, Pauline Christianity then became the standard from Pauline. We got the Orthodox, the Catholic, the Protestant, and that's basically 99.9% of Christians. The original others are all completely gone. Now, this is in 325. The Prophet ﷺ is born 570, 250 years before. So we have remnants, little bit of references that some of the original Christianity was saved. And the most interesting story we have is that of Salman al-Farisi. Salman al-Farisi, his story is a very long story. It's narrated in Muslim Imam Ahmad and it is authentic. We'll summarize it. And I want all of you to read his story in the books of Sira in more detail. Because it's simple. You don't need, you can understand it as it is. I'll summarize the main points. Salman al-Farsi was the son of the priest in Iran, in Persia. And his father was the one who kept the fire. Zoroastrians, they have to keep the fire lit 24-7. It's not allowed for the fire to be turned off. And even when they build a new temple, they have to import an ever lit fire. They cannot just light a match and put it there, no. They have to take the fire because they believe it's eternal. they believe it's an eternal fire. So any new temple that they build, they have to take a fire from another temple that's already been burning, and then they bring it to the new temple. So I asked one of them, what did you do in America when you built your first temple? I mean, where did you get the fire from? They said, we got a special plane. We commissioned a fire to be brought from one of our temples in the plane. Because we're not allowed to just light a match and go into my tangents. Let me stop here, get back to the story. Okay, Salman al-Farsi. Salman al-Farsi, what was his story? Salman al-Farsi was the son of the fire keeper. So his father taught him how to keep the fire going and what not. So he would go and take care of the fire and come back home. That's his job. They are priests of the fire. They are priests of the Zoroastrian or the Majus as we call them. And they are called in Urdu Parsis. Because when Islam came and conquered them, they ran away to India. And because they were from Persia, they were called Parsis. So Parsi means from Persia. But anyway, I again digress. Let me get back here. So Saman al-Farsi would go to the fire and keep on lighting it up. He said, and he's narrating the story himself, he said on the way there, on the road there, there was a monk who had his small monastery. You know the monks had a little cave, they have a monastery. And he would be worshipping, singing his hymns, praying all day and all night. And it intrigued me that this person has a different religion. and I passed by every day and I'd listen to his hymns I'd listen to his chantings and it was mesmerizing and it attracted me so one day I had the guts to basically go and ask him, can you tell me about your religion? and so the monk began to preach Christianity to Salman al-Farisi and slowly but surely Salman al-Farisi realized that what he's doing is idolatry and what the monk has is a version of Tawheed and worship Allah and what not, so he became attracted to Christianity and he secretly converted he secretly converted when his father found out his father locked him up with chains prevented him from leaving the house, tortured him because he's the priest, how can your own son convert to so it's a big matter of shame and attempted to exterminate him so Salman al-Farsi managed to escape from his own house and run away to Syria, which is the land of Christianity. And the monk had already told, the monk had been executed because he converted the son of the priest so they killed the monk. But the monk had told him that go to such and such a monastery and you will find people of my thought. My inclination. Don't go to any other monastery. So we know that this monk was not upon Pauline Christianity. Because he's telling him don't go to the capital, don't go to Rome. Go to this particular monastery. I'll tell you which one. This is where I come from, and you go there. So Salman al-Farsi went there, and then to make a long story short, every time he went, he became the disciple, the main disciple of the monk, and the monk taught him how to worship, he remained a Christian. When each one died, he would tell him to go to another one. And this happened four times. When each one died, he would say, okay, now you go to this guy. So he went to that guy. When he came to the fourth one, you can imagine he's probably around 70, 80 years old now. Salman al-Farsi has these legends that he lived for 300 years. Once again, we understand there's a little bit of legends. Maybe he lived up to 100, 115. He was the longest, the oldest of the Sahaba in Medina. And he was a very old man when he accepted Islam. So when the fourth one, when the fourth one is about to die, listen to what he says. He says, but my companions who sent you eventually all over to me, my group of people, I don't know anybody remaining upon that understanding of Christianity. We're all gone now. This was the group that we had, but I don't know anybody left upon our understanding of Christianity. But, you have come to a time when the promised one is about to come. We know this now. This is a version of Christianity which is not Pauline. So they have knowledge that is not found in the New Testament. Because one thing Constantine did, and this is really sad, but it destroyed Christian history. He chose the four books that are not a part of the New Testament. And he burnt all the other books that opposed his theology. All the Jewish Christian books, you know the books of the Bible that we have, right? There's the four famous books. Constantine chose them. Because they affirmed his belief. And all the other works and writings were burnt in front of his presence. So we don't have references in magic. And that's why, again, let me just tell you, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, some of these people were actually Jewish Christians. and that's why it was such a big find that some groups were they were hiding in the caves of Qumran in Jordan the Dead Sea Scrolls you've heard of them maybe when they were discovered these were some remnants of Messianic Jews which people thought were never there and they were living pre-Jesus Christ so they still have they're waiting for Jesus Christ to come so they have some knowledge and some of them it is said they accept it so again all of that is theory now where people are deciphering it through point being we don't have access as to what beliefs they had. But Salman al-Farsi tells us in an authentic hadith that they told him three things. What did they tell him? They said, you're just about to come to the time when the man that Jesus Christ predicted is about to come. We know it, the signs have been met. What are these signs? We don't know. But these people knew. So they're telling Salman, the signs have all come. And his time is just around the corner. So he told Salman, my advice to you is you go seek this man out. Go seek this prophet out. How? Where am I gonna go? I will tell you three signs. I will tell you three signs. Number one, he shall appear in a land that is full of dates. First sign. Go to the land that is known for dates. Number two, he will have a physical mark on his back. In Arabic we call khatim, the khatam or the seal of the prophecy. I'll talk about this inshallah later on. But it's a physical mound of hair they say. And some say it's even a little bit of a protrusion of the skin. The size of a pigeon's egg, this small, very small, even smaller than this, right? It's a physical protrusion with beautiful colored hair, multi-colored hair, it's been described. Not just black, multi-colored hair coming from between the shoulder blades of the Prophet ﷺ. it's a physical seal on his back this is the second sign number three he said that this man will accept gifts but he's never gonna accept charity he will accept gifts but he will never accept charity to this day in our fiqh you cannot give charity to Al-Muhammad you cannot give charity to the descendants of the Prophet ﷺ to this day it's not allowed so Salman asked his sheikh died his teacher died this is the fourth sheikh now from his side so we can imagine you know he's already probably around 50 years old at this time so he asks what is the land that is the most well known for producing dates he asks in Syria he is told the land of there is no Saudi Arabia at that time Saudi Arabia is 1931 Khyber Khyber Khyber which is close to Yathrib so he asks around who amongst you is going to Khyber how can I go to Khyber so he is told there are Arab caravans that trade in Damascus here get one of the caravans and go to Khaibar now Salman is a monk he is a priest he has no money he has no prestige he has no clan he has no society and so he says to a group of Arab traders are you going to Khaibar they said yes we are going to Khaibar come with us when they came when he joined their caravan they kidnapped him meaning they took him as a slave because he has again this is a lawless society there is no 911 you can call there is no government And Salman is not a member of Rome. He's not a member of Persia anymore. He's in exile. He doesn't have people who come and fight for him. This is a lawless society. So Salman is taken as a slave. And instead of ending up in Khyber, he is sold to a group of Yahud who happen to live in Yathrib. Which is later to be called Medina. Because he had that sincerity. And so for decades he toiled in Medina. as a slave, as a 70 year old man subhanallah, as a slave, he is toiling in Medina and rumors began to spread of a man claiming to be a prophet and rumors began to spread that he is immigrating to Medina and the Yahud began to be worried in trepidation because they thought this is the king of the Arabs who is coming and when the king of the Arabs come then we are in trouble and Salman he tells us his story that he was collecting dates from the top of the tree and he heard his master speak with his brother, the master and his brother, that the king of the Arabs has arrived. This is the first hijrah, the first day of the hijrah, the king of the Arabs has arrived. This he's been waiting for for the last 20 years. He literally jumps down and he runs to his master and says, what happened? Did he come? Did he come? And the master slaps him across the head and says, go back to your work, what are you worried about? You're a slave, get back to your work. So Salman goes back, finishes what he's doing, when he finishes the chores that are assigned to him he takes some of his dates which was his own food and he comes to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam this is on the second third day that he is in Medina and he says that I heard that you are a stranger in this town here is some charity for you puts it in front so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam tells the Sahaba, eat but he doesn't eat anything the second day after his chores are over he brings another plate and he says today I have come with you with some dates and this is a gift to you. So the Prophet ﷺ tells the Sahaba, but he eats as well. So Salman now his heart is racing, this is a land of dates. He's, you know, one sign has been met. Now what do I do to get to the third sign? So he stands up and he goes behind the Prophet ﷺ trying to take a peek, if he can look into his shirt to see what he can do. And when this old man goes behind the Prophet ﷺ and starts peering and peeking, the Prophet ﷺ understood. So he unbuttoned his shirt and he lowered it. He lowered it behind his back to literally show him the pigeon mark, the khatam. And when Salman saw this, he began crying and he began wailing and screaming. He came and he kissed the hands and the feet of the Prophet ﷺ and he told him his whole story. And the Prophet ﷺ said, we must help you for your freedom. And the people put a ridiculous price on him. When they knew the Prophet ﷺ wanted him, they said, you must give us, I forgot now, is it 150 dates? 150 date trees. Date trees. Salman says, where can I get 150 date trees from? So the Prophet ﷺ said, next time is the season to plant the seeds, call me. So the Prophet ﷺ came with his own hands. he planted 100, 150 of those trees. And within a year there was full trees. So he said, here's your ransom, Salman you're free. And Salman became a free Muslim because the Prophet s.a.w. paid for his ransom through that barakah. Now, the point being here, that Salman's story indicates what? How few real Christians were left. Very few real Christians were left. And we only have time for one more and then we'll have to conclude. One more story that shows that there were only a few Christians left. It's a story that is mentioned in Sahih al-Bukhari. And that is the story of the Emperor Heraclius. The Emperor Heraclius. The Emperor Heraclius was the emperor at the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And unlike most politicians in the world, he was an intelligent and educated man. And he was a scholar. and he was trained in Christianity. And when the Prophet ﷺ wrote a letter to the emperors in the 8th and 9th year of the Hijrah, he wrote letters to the emperors, he wrote one to Heraclius. Or to be more precise, he wrote one to the governor of Bahrain who was the governor of Heraclius. And so it reached Heraclius and Heraclius at that time was visiting Elia, which is Jerusalem. He was visiting Jerusalem. and so it was not supposed to get to him that fast it was supposed to go to the governor but he was in Jerusalem at the time so when he read the letter and the letter says that this is from Muhammad Rasulullah emperor of Rome Aslim Tuslim accept Islam you'll be safe Aslim Yu'tikallahu Ajraka Marratain accept Islam Allah will give you a double reward and if you reject Islam then you shall bear the penalty of your whole people because you are their leader so it was a give and take i.e. carrot and stick, I mean incentive and threat in the letter that you have to accept Islam and what is Islam so Heraclius said there's a long story in Sahih Bukhari again inshallah maybe one day we'll talk about it in more detail Heraclius quizzed his viziers are there any Arabs in town they said yes, it just so happens that the caravan from Mecca the caravan from Mecca is in Jerusalem now call them right now to the palace now this is a trading caravan You can imagine the suq and the emperor's palace. They're not thinking they're gonna come to the palace. Immediately the Roman guards come to the suq and they march with the Quraysh to the palace. They're trembling. What did we do? What happened? And lo and behold, it is none other than Abu Sufyan. So Abu Sufyan gets to meet the emperor of Rome. And Heraclius and Abu Sufyan have a long conversation which was recorded in Bukhari. Maybe inshallah we'll talk about it maybe next week or a week after that. And at the end, Heraclius after quizzing him tells him that if what you tell me is true then this is the prophet that our scriptures have predicted pause here there is no prediction in the current New Testament so there must have been scriptures that are hidden from the public and you know there's theories in the Vatican and the gospel of Barnabas Allah knows all of this stuff but clearly Heraclius has access to scriptures that the rest of the Christians don't have. And of course this makes complete sense because he's the emperor of Rome. And to this day by the way, the Vatican library has books that are unpublished and secret and what not. And so Heraclius says, this is the prophet that has been predicted and I knew he was coming but it never occurred that he would be from your race. I thought he would come from the Jews. It never occurred that he would be from your race. I didn't think he'd come from the Arabs. And Heraclius wrote to his confidant who was a bishop, one of the highest bishops but we don't know his name unfortunately we don't know his name, it just says he wrote to one of the bishops of Rome who was on the same wavelength as him and the bishop confirmed yes he meets all of the signs yet Heraclius did not accept Islam because he realized if he accepted Islam then he'd have to give up being the emperor and when you're the most powerful man on earth, then it's too tempting and Heraclius refused to accept Islam because he could not give up being the emperor of Rome in order to submit himself to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and therefore he died upon his faith. Now we conclude by mentioning that in this dismal darkness our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was sent and that is exactly what Allah says in the Quran that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says in the hadith that أَلَا إِنَّ رَبِّي أَمَرَنِي أَنْ أُعَلِّمَكُمْ مَا جَهِلْتُمْ مِمَّا عَلَّمَنِي يَوْمِي هَذَا My Lord has commanded me to teach you that which you are ignorant of. And then he says, and before his coming, وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى نَظَعَ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِ الْأَرْضِ فَمَقَتَهُمْ عَرَبَهُمْ وَعَجَمَهُمْ إِلَّا بَقَايَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ The hadith is in Muslim. Allah looked at the whole world and he despised everyone. مَقَتَهُمْ is more than كَرِهَهُمْ It's the Ashad al-Karah, it's the most harshest. He despised them because of idolatry, because of Jahiliyyah, because of paganism. فَمَّقَتَهُمْ إِلَّا Except for Baqaya, some remnants of the people of the book. The teachers of Salman, right? These are the only people. إِلَّا بَقَايَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ So the Prophet ﷺ is describing how the world was. And that is why we call it Jahiliyyah. utter jahiliyyah and with the coming of the Prophet there will never be another jahiliyyah and that is why Allah calls the Prophet and Allah calls him because after the coming of the Prophet there is never going to be that type of jahiliyyah and this shows us that a number of benefits, and shall we conclude number one the first really major benefit from all of this. And I want you to understand this point because wallahi it is so essential. Living in the current climate where our religion is being bombarded by foreign ideas, by alien concepts. We're being told we have to reform completely and change our tradition. Number one, guidance only comes from Allah. Not from our intellect. Not from our philosophy. Not from our rationalization. The world did not have a prophet or messenger for hundreds of years, from the time of Isa till the time of the Prophet ﷺ. What happened? No philosopher could conceive of the truth. No theologian, no intellectual could guide mankind. Allah revealed the Qur'an to the Prophet ﷺ and then hidayah came. The Qur'an is the hidayah. The Prophet ﷺ is the nur. The Qur'an is the shifa. Without Allah's guidance, there is no guidance. and why is this important? because modern mankind believes that guidance is the cumulative experience of what we've done we keep on modifying we keep on adopting we keep on changing what is haram today will become halal tomorrow what is halal today will become haram tomorrow our grandfathers thought this was not cool we think it is cool so be it, it is cool we're progressive we need to understand very firmly here our guidance is the Quran and Sunnah and that is the ultimate guidance We're not gonna change the Qur'an and Sunnah according to the whims of the society, according to the taste and the culture of a generation. No, eternal truth. If mankind could not achieve guidance until Allah revealed it, then how can we? And if our Prophet ﷺ, Allah says in the Qur'an, وَوَجَدَكَ ضَالًّا فَهَدًا He could not be guided until Allah gave him the hidayah. And Allah says in the Qur'an, وَمَا كُنْتَ تَدْرِي مَا الْكِتَابُ وَلَا الْإِيمَانِ You didn't know, this is addressed to the Prophet ﷺ what was the book, what was iman until we gave you the Quran our Rasul ﷺ sitting in Ghari Hira as we're gonna come to next week he did not know ultimate truth until Jibreel came down is anybody gonna claim that modern philosophers are better than our Prophet ﷺ that modern ethicists and moralists theologians and what not can just sit there in a room and contemplate and then come forth with how men should live no, Allah says يَحْسَبُ الْإِنسَانُ وَيُتْرَكَ السُّدَىٰ We're the ones who are going to tell you how to live your life. The second point of benefit, we'll just mention through, you have to finish up. The second point of benefit, we really understand, subhanallah, that most of mankind are like sheep, in that they follow whatever the leaders say. Look at the Quraysh. They knew that this is not the religion of Ibrahim. But because everybody is doing it, it's just too difficult to break away. Deep down inside, they know something is wrong. But when all of society is doing a sin and a vice, it's easy to follow. Allah says in the Quran, وَمَا أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ Most of mankind, even if you want them, they're not gonna be believers. And Allah says in the Quran, if you follow the majority of mankind, they will lead you astray. Majority wants to follow desires. We have to be very frank here. The majority of mankind wants to be animalistic, hedonistic. They don't want sharia, they don't want law. they just want to follow their desires and Allah says no, we have a law and that law will tell you how to be a better human, and the final point that will benefit and inshallah will conclude for this week the story of Salman tells us, and Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufail tells us a beautiful fact whoever is sincere will be guided if there's good and there's sincerity it doesn't matter if you're living in jahiliyyah it doesn't matter if you're in a pagan society in Iran it doesn't matter if you're surrounded by idols if your heart is pure and you have truth and you want to know the truth Allah will guide you to the truth Allah took Salman al-Farsi out of the depths of Jahiliyyah in a land which was not even a Christian land and one by one he came closer to the truth until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brought him right in front of the feet of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when we show sincerity to Allah Allah shows rahmah and guidance to us and with this inshallah we conclude for today unfortunately because I went so long we don't have time for Q&A inshallah we'll continue next Wednesday and by the way we're going to be stopping these halaqat for the month of July but Dr. Bashar will be doing something else for that month, a mini series and then Ramadan inshallah we have to stop for this so then we will be resuming after Ramadan so we have another three halaqas with me of of seerah, and then we'll pause for a while and then resume after Ramadan. Jazakumullahu khairan wa salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Seerah 40 - The Battle of Badr 6 - Yasir Qadhi _ 14th November 2012-fxhVPZYC20g

Al-Fatiha. now doing, I think, the sixth lesson of Badr, correct? This is the seventh? Sixth. It's the sixth of Badr. And we still have probably another two to go. So we're doing this in quite a lot of detail. I thought I would finish by today, but it looks like there's still quite a lot left and then we want to do Surah Anfal. So maybe even three from today we have left for Badr. So last lesson, we were still at the place of the prisoners of war. We had mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ his ijtihad Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed a verse that basically said that okay this time you can do it but it would have been better if you had done the other option and the other option was the stricter option now the question arises what is the wisdom in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala telling the Prophet that the harsher treatment which was the execution that was the harsher treatment was better than clemency and mercy in this time there are a number of wisdoms that we can derive, the first of them is mentioned explicitly in the Quran and that is Allah says that ma kana li nabiyyin an yakuna lahu asra hatta yuthkhina fil ard it is not appropriate that a prophet any prophet has prisoners of war until he establishes his authority in the land you see forgiveness when it's done out of weakness is not considered to be effective whereas forgiveness when it is done at power this is when it is the most effective that if you forgive and you're not capable of exacting your anger then what type of forgiveness is? it's not the perfect forgiveness whereas if you forgive at the height of power this is genuine forgiveness and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala hinted that at this stage of weakness at this stage when the table has not yet turned in your favor. When you are the ones who are still having the lower hand, it would have been better if you did this to get to the upper hand. So this is one wisdom that is done. And here we're gonna talk today and next lesson, we'll talk very explicitly about, in my opinion, the pragmatism of Islam compared to other types of systems that preach tolerance and love but can never practice it themselves. Right? That those ways and systems that say turn the other cheek and forgive and what not, because this is such an unrealistic mode of living one's life, I mean if you always turn the other cheek, everybody in the world would take advantage of you. Right? And no country or society or people can exist with this ideal. And that is why these teachings cannot be a socially viable alternative to society. You understand what I'm saying here, right? To always turn the other cheek and to always forgive. This means that everybody in the world will take advantage of you. And never has any country that has claimed to follow this doctrine ever adopted it. Think about it, right? Never has any society that claims to follow this ideal of turning the other cheek, never have they been able to implement it and this in my humble opinion clearly demonstrates that this is an unrealistic utopia this is a role model that it might work on an individual level once in a while but it will never be a realistic option our religion teaches that the general rule is forgiveness and mercy yes the general rule is if you forgive it is better but at times you need to demonstrate justice and sternness. You send the message. People understand. Don't mess with me. That needs to be demonstrated. And this is in my humble opinion, frankly, a sign that Islam is a much more realistic, pragmatic reality. That it deals with the status quo. Deals with how to deal with people. Allah is saying that you shouldn't have forgiven at this stage. Because you are still humiliated. you're still oppressed. حَتَّى يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ When you establish your authority, then you should have forgiven. So what is the ideal to forgive? But when is the forgiveness done? When you are powerful. Look at the practical element of our religion. حَتَّى يُثْخِنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ Another wisdom of not forgiving at this stage, was that, and this is exactly what happened, that for every person that you'll save, maybe for every two that you'll save one is gonna come back to fight you because you're still in the beginning of the battle and it's the same enemy these are not gonna be a different enemy it is the Quraysh right so you're gonna save them now and the exact same person whom you saved will come back to kill you that's not very wise at this stage and this is what happened that some of the people who participated in Badr of course some of them accepted Islam but some of them came back for Uhud some of them came back for Ahzab some of them fought in other expeditions so this is another wisdom that why would you free somebody that will come back and then try to harm you, the exact same person and a third wisdom, Umar himself alluded to Umar ibn Khattab when he basically said to the Prophet ﷺ that, Ya Rasulullah give me the Banu Adi, give me my relative give Ali his relative, give everybody their relative to demonstrate to the tribes that we are more loyal to Allah and to the faith than we are to the ancient system of jahiliyyah, of tribalism, right? This is a wisdom demonstrated by Umar, that give me my relative and my sub-tribe, so that nobody can accuse that Banu Hashim killed Banu Adi and Banu Kilab killed Banu Abdudar. No. We will demonstrate our loyalty. And by the way, this took years for the Quraysh to understand, why are these people fighting together? Remember in the treaty of Hudaybiyah, when Suhail ibn Amr came to negotiate with the Prophet ﷺ. And he's looking around. He's a Qurashi. He's a kafir at that time. He accepted Islam. He's looking around. And he says, O Muhammad ﷺ, do you really think this motley crew, this crew of weirdos basically, from all different tribes, what is uniting them against you? This is exactly what he said basically. Like this disparate group. Because he couldn't see anything in common. Right? Do you really think this motley crew is the English word? like literally a bunch of different people that have come together, will be able to unite and fight you against the Quraysh. Come on, get real, he's saying. Look at now, he cannot understand that Islam is more powerful a combining factor than tribalism. Why would they fight you? As soon as they see us, they will run away. He's telling them this. And that was when, we'll talk about that, but Abu Bakr, and he was not one to get angry. Abu Bakr stabbed him with the butt of his knife not the sharp part but the back of his knife hit him and he said a very vulgar phrase which we would never expect Abu Bakr to say but his anger got the better of him and he actually uttered a type of curse word literally a type of curse word which when we get to it we'll figure out how to teach in the masjid it's a difficult thing to teach but the point is Abu Bakr said it and Abu Bakr is the most modest and the most humble and the most quiet But this thing made him so angry that he actually hit him. And he cursed him in a vile, vulgar language. Because he couldn't understand what is Islam. That Islam unites us all together. My point being, Umar gave this wisdom. That if we do this, then we will demonstrate that. Nonetheless, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepted, as we said, the ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ. and therefore the decision was given that all 70 prisoners of war will be taken back to Medina all 70 prisoners of war will be taken back to Medina on the way there on the way back we said that the procession passed by the well I give you that story in a lot of detail the Qalib of Badr, the well of Badr and then he paused at an open area of land and in this open area of land two prisoners of war were executed out of the 70 two of them were not spared the general rule that they were spared but then there were two who were not spared and some scholars have said this is the only time that a prisoner of war was ever executed under the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that this is the only time this is one theory that shows that the general rule is that prisoners of war are not executed in Islam but on occasion they might be And those two that were executed were An-Nadhir ibn al-Harith and Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt An-Nadhir ibn al-Harith number one And number two Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt Why these two? As for An-Nadhir ibn al-Harith An-Nadhir ibn al-Harith Ibn Ishaq said about him That he was Shaytanun min shayateeni Quraish He was of the shayateen of Quraish and it is said that over 8 verses in the Quran were revealed about him and another Ibn al-Harith he was of those who he was one of the very few Qurashis who before the coming of Islam he had lived abroad so he had lived in the ancient city of Hira and Hira was the capital of the the Lakhamid dynasty in Iraq and this is an ancient Arab dynasty and Hira was a very magnificent city. So another had lived there for a few years then he had come back and then the wahi had started. So he was one of the few who had an outside education basically. When the Quran began to be revealed he became the most sarcastic commentator of the Quran. And he would say that what is these fables? I can give you better fables than this. And it is said that every single reference in the Quran to somebody saying these are fables, this is another. إِنْ هِيَ إِلَّا أَسَاطِيرُ الْأَوَّلِينَ أَسَاطِيرٌ اكْتَتَبَهَا فَهِيَ تُمْلَى عَلَيْهِ بُكْرَةً أَصِيلًا There are many such references that they say that these are ancient fables. Asatir is story. Literally, I've said this many times. The word story and the Arabic asatir, the same asatir, story, history, asatir. They're the same root which is a Latin root which has gotten into Arabic and went into English as well. Asatir and history are the same. So he would say, these are ancient fables. And he would say that I can give better than this. And Allah revealed in the Quran that who does more injustice than the one who says, سَأُنزِلُ مِثْلَ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ I can reveal as Allah reveals. This is An-Nadr ibn al-Harith. He is the one who said, سَأُنزِلُ مِثْلَ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ I can do better than Allah in this Quran. And it is said that when the people would come around the Prophet ﷺ to listen to him, another would come and say leave these stories come and listen to mine I have better stories and he would start talking about the stories of the ancient kings of Persia and the I apologize my cough has still not recovered the ancient kings of Persia and the legends and the heroes of the the Persian fables which by the way has been recorded who knows the book that has been recorded in which is a classic even before this Firdousi's Firdousi's Shah Nama Shah Nama, right? Shah Nama Firdousi This is the original, which is in Persian And then Al-Flayl Waleila is No, no, Al-Flayl Waleila, you're getting confused No, you're confusing me, no, no, there's nothing to do with this Nothing to do with this Al-Flayl Waleila is a Baghdadi and Arabic Tale, which has some Persian, no, we're talking about Firdousi Shah Nama, which us Indians, Pakistanis have heard more about because it is written in Persian, right? In Farsi, in ancient Farsi. And he is a Muslim, Firdousi. Why am I going to this tangent? Let's get back here. Subhanallah, sometimes I just go down these tangents. It's a very interesting book which has become legendary in Persian literature. The Mughals loved it. The Mughals mass produced it in beautiful calligraphy with paintings and what not. And this Shah Nama of Firdousi's, Firdousi Shah Nama, it is a history of all of the ancient Persian kings up until the coming of Islam. And that's why it's relevant for us as well. That he talks about the conquering of Islam and the Persian empire. In any case, so this guy, An-Nadir ibn al-Harith, had many of these stories. The same types of stories that are recorded in Firdousi's Shah Nama. So the ancient fables of the Persian. So he would say, come listen to me, I will give you better stories. Right? This is that person that Allah referenced in the Quran. Also, An-Nadr ibn al-Harith and Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ad. These two in particular. And so they were killed together. They had a lot of tactics together. The both of them decided to travel to Yathrib in the days of Islam, early Islam, and ask the Yahud trick questions to trick the Prophet ﷺ with. You know, remember the story? Remember we told, we mentioned the story, right? Because of which surah? Which surah was revealed? Surah Yusuf in one opinion and Surah Kahf in another. Surah Kahf, the three trick questions, right? Tell us about Dhul Qarnayn, tell us about the Ruh, tell us about, who are those people that travel from Mecca to Medina? Al-Nadhar ibn al-Harith, Uqba ibn Abi Mu'itt, these two. To travel all the way, for what reason? To try to trap the Prophet ﷺ. And they came back so happy and proud. that now we have him trapped. We have the questions from the Ahl al-Kitab, the Yahud, that for sure he cannot answer, and that shows he's a liar. And of course he answered it, and then what happened to the two of them? They just ignored their claim. This is An-Nadhar and Uqbah. And as for Uqbah, I mean what can we say about Uqbah? Uqbah was one of the most vile and evil. Who remembers what Uqbah did? He has so many stories. Uqbah was the one who physically carried the carcass physically carried the carcass in that infamous incident when the Prophet ﷺ was in sajda Uqbah was the one who went outside happily Abu Jahl taunted Abu Jahl said who can get the carcass who's gonna do it who's gonna do it come on so Ibn Ishaq says that قَامَ فِي الْقَوْمِ أَشْقَاهُمْ the most despicable of them stood up and that is Uqbah Ibn Abi Mu'ayt. And he rushed to get the carcass, and he then carried it from outside of Mecca. And as I said, can you imagine a nobleman who has slaves, who's a rich person, he's gonna spoil his blood with a dead animal. Stinking, rotting dead animal. And he's gonna take it all the way back to the Ka'bah to throw onto the process. And this is Uqbah. This is Uqbah Ibn Abi Mu'ayt. What else did Uqbah do who can remind me? He has a number of stories in the seerah. What else did Uqbah do? Any other? Uqbah was the one who physically tried to choke the Prophet ﷺ to death while he was praying. That he took out his cloak, Jazakallah khair, he took out his cloak, and he threw it around the neck of the Prophet ﷺ. And he tried to choke him. Then what did Abu Bakr say? excuse me أَتَقْتُولُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهِ will you kill a man just because he says Allah is my Lord this is that ayah in the Quran عُقْبَ is the one trying to do it عُقْبَ is the one trying to do it and then there are other stories as well about عُقْبَ what else did he do multiple stories this is عُقْبَ so when عُقْبَ was brought out to be executed in front of all of the prisoners he said, why me out of all of them? Like he's literally begging for his life now. Why me? And Ali said, because of your animosity or enmity, عَدَاوَتُكَ Because of your animosity to Allah and His Messenger. And it is said that Ali was the one who killed him. So, Uqba himself, and also there's a, in Sir Ibn Ishaq, it mentions that right when he's about to be killed, he's basically begging for his life. And subhanAllah, look at his character. some of the others, they died however ignoble, but they didn't beg for their lives. Abu Jahl and others, they remained kibbut to the very end. And here's an Umayyah, as you know he tried to barter his life for money. Umayyah tried to purchase himself. So Uqbah, when he sees now Ali with the sword, he falls on his knees, he's begging the Prophet ﷺ, he's saying that, O Muhammad, who will take care of my children? Manlis Sibya. Who will take care of my children? Who's gonna take care of my children? And the Prophet ﷺ gave a very enigmatic response, which we're gonna explain now. He simply said, النار, the fire. النار. And then he was executed by Ali. Now what does it mean, النار? One of two opinions is given. The first of them is that the Prophet ﷺ is saying, don't worry about your children, you have to face the fire now. You have something far more bigger than your children to worry about. and then the other interpretation is that if they follow your footsteps they don't have to be worried about taking care of you you have already led the way to the fire for them so these are two interpretations given about what an-na means over here also there's no question that has to be pointed out that here he is groveling for forgiveness and begging for his own children where his own sympathy when the Prophet ﷺ's daughter had to come and save the Prophet ﷺ from sajda when no other man could do it because of uqbah Fatima the little girl had to come running remember the story of the carcass and Fatima had to come because no man would dare do anything over there they were laughing Ibn Mas'ud himself says I couldn't do anything I was a slave Abu Bakr was far away Fatima comes running where was his sympathy for children then this is of course the standard cowardice that is used where is his bravery now that he could do this to the Prophet and now he is saying من لصبية يا رسول الله Also as I said, and I don't make any, I think this is a very realistic and pragmatic sign, that our religion shows harshness when it is due, and it shows mercy when mercy is due. That people like Uqba and people like An-Nadr, the message needed to be given, that not all kuffar are the same. That people like these, they went out of their way. They are, as Ibn Ishaq says, the shayateen of the Quraysh. So for them the message is given, that there is no clemency, there is no forgiveness. You will not be forgiven. And frankly, these people, they were to the level of all of the others who were killed. They were to the level of those who, Umayyad bin Khalaf and all of the rest who were killed, for some wisdom that Allah knows, maybe to demonstrate a special death for them. These two were spared. Maybe to demonstrate that, the special, if you like, ignoble fame that they got. That they will be the only prisoners of war executed at the command of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam left from the battle of Badr, from the plains of Badr, on Monday the 20th of Ramadan. Because he stayed there for three days. 17th is Badr, the battle. So 17th was Friday. So Saturday, Sunday, Monday. He left on Monday and the Muslims, he had already sent some criers back. And the Muslims were waiting patiently to find out what had happened at the battle of Badr. And the rumors had come, because three days had gone by. But they really could not firmly believe that this is happening. Until finally the first person to return was Zayd ibn Harithah. Zayd ibn Harithah, the adopted son of the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ sent him on his own camel, Al-Qaswa. As a sign that this is, he's telling the truth, Al-Qaswa. And Al-Qaswa, the camel, is everybody recognizes. They could recognize animals back then as well. Unlike us, to us all camels look the same and what not. They recognize Al-Khaswa, they recognize Zaid. Zaid comes so excited. He's saying, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. And then he starts mentioning the names of all of those who had been killed. Qutila Shayba ibn Rabi'ah, Qutila Umayya ibn Khalaf, Qutila Abu Jahl. And it's a who's who of every single famous person of the Quraysh. Right? It's unbelievable. Like this is just news that it really is if you think about how many people were killed. And who that list is, it's unbelievable. When the Muslims heard this, they became very happy. And when the neo, if you like, munafiqun, because at this point there are no munafiqun. The munafiqun will start right now, today, they will start. This is the beginning of nifaq, right? So the group that was to become the munafiqun, that's why we say the neo-munafiqun. The group that was to become the munafiqun, when they heard this, they started mumbling and whispering amongst themselves that clearly that Zayd has gone crazy. And that Muhammad has been killed, and Zayd has gone crazy and taken his camel, and now he's delirious and he's now babbling. Because they couldn't believe that the news is actually true. It's simply unbelievable. Ironically, as we'll come to, the exact same reaction happened in Mecca when the first crier came back. That's not true. That couldn't be true. Right? Both camps, basically, were in a type of disbelief. That how could this actually have happened? And so the hypocrites began, and the neo-hypocrites began saying that the Prophet ﷺ is dead, and subhanAllah, the nifaq is about to begin now, and such is the way with the munafiqun, that they will leave no opportunity except that they will attack Islam and the Prophet ﷺ. There's one footnote of a sad news here that as Zayd ibn Harithah was coming into the city and he's saying, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. One person also heard the takbir and that was Uthman ibn Affan. He heard it in Baqi' just as they finished burying Ruqayya. So the takbir came, he literally heard it the same day that Usama came back sorry, not Usama, Zayd Zayd came back the same day, the same minute, the same hour that it is said that he just finished burying the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ and that was when he heard Zayd saying Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar so he asked, what is going on? what is the takbir? and so he was told that the battle of Badr has been a success and wallahi, if you think about it the battle of Badr is one of the happiest occasions for Islam and the Muslims. Perhaps up until this point in time, nothing happier has happened, nothing more joyful than this. And yet still Allah will that on that day, a tragedy strike. The very household that deserves the most joy. And that is the Prophet ﷺ. That Ruqayya, his daughter, according to one, the order of his daughters we really don't know to be honest even though there's a common understanding but Ruqayya might have been the second she might have been the third some say she might have been the first as well so there's some ikhtilaf, which number of daughters which number of daughters she was but she was the first daughter to die that's for sure she was the first daughter to die after her, Uthman married Umm Kulthum after her, Uthman married Umm Kulthum so Ruqayya was the first of his daughters to die, it is as if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is showing that no matter how happy you are, this world is going to be a world of testing and a world of trial. That even on the day of Badr. Now if Allah had willed, it could have been delayed a week, could have been come back. But the very day of Badr, that the happiness should be the utmost, it is as if the message is also being given. That realize this world is a temporary abode. And life and death does not stop for anybody. anybody that it comes when you least expect it and this is the reality of hayat al dunya that as the Prophet ﷺ said every one of us has a long list what we want to do and before we get to the end of this list life makes that list cuts it in half right he gave this you know the example right that every one of us has a long amal and his amal goes everywhere all the way out but then he drew a line and he goes death comes and all of those desires go out and wallahi this is the way every one of us when our time comes we will wake up and we think we have this to do that to do, this to do, that to do. And where will that list go to? It will just go out the window. With our death, khalas, it will be gone. This is the reality of life. It is as if our processim himself is being shown. And through him, every one of us. Through him because obviously he is our role model. That even at this time of happiness and joy, still realize that the ultimate happiness is in the next, not in this life. And so Zayd ibn Halitha came back and the news spread amongst the people of Medina and they all gathered together to wait for the Prophet ﷺ to come and the Prophet ﷺ came back with all of the 70 prisoners and they marched to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ because they don't have any other place to put the prisoners. And the Prophet ﷺ dispersed the prisoners amongst those who had captured them. So he said, go take care of the prisoners of war yourselves. Each one who had captured would basically host the prisoner. And the chieftains or the leaders of the Quraysh were hosted by the Prophet ﷺ himself. And I have commented here before when I taught the seerah, that never in the history of humanity has a prisoner of war been taken care of by the ruler, the king, the prophet that was in charge of the other side of the army. Never has a prisoner of war been taken into the very house that the king, or in this case, the prophet lives in. This is never in the history of mankind. That the chieftains of Quraysh, and in particular, Suhail ibn Amr was the senior most living, and Suhail ibn Amr is the same one who's going to negotiate Hudaybiyah. You can understand who is Suhail ibn Amr. He's the same one who's going to negotiate Hudaybiyah. He's of the level of Abu Sufyan. He's now of the elite of the Quraysh. The rest have all gone. Those senior to him, they're all dead now. So the senior most members of the Quraysh, they are housed in the house of the Prophet ﷺ. Foremost amongst them, Suhail ibn Amr. And as I said, where in the history of mankind have prisoners been taken and put in the houses of the same roof that the leader, that the ruler is going to sleep in. And this is what our religion did. That they housed the prisoners along with their captors. And Saudah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, something happened here which caused her to regret what she had done. Saudah, she was with the mother of those that had killed Abu Jahl. remember the two kids that had killed Abu Jahl Saudah was in their house and when she heard so she was not at home when she heard that the Quraish have surrendered and that the process has come back she rushed back home and this was before hijab was revealed so there's no concept of separation at this time she rushed back home and she barged into her own house and there in the corner of the room she saw Suhail Ibn Amr with his hand tied up and sitting as a prisoner. That's what he is, he's a prisoner, right? And she didn't even notice the Prophet ﷺ is next to her. She didn't even know, she just comes in. And when she sees the leader of the Quraysh with his hands tied up, she said, and she herself narrates this, that, I forgot who I was. That I forgot the whole scenario. And I simply said, that, Ya Aba Yazid, that's his kunya. Ya Aba Yazid, you surrendered like this? why didn't you die an honorable death then live like prisoner so what happened instantaneously she just reverted into those old days like she feels a disgrace that the leader of the Quraysh is now sitting as a prisoner that she is saying did you have to surrender to save your life and live like this you should have died on the battlefield like an honorable man that's what she is saying right Saudah said, فَمَنْ تَبَهْتُ I didn't even realize what I said until I heard the Prophet ﷺ next to me. Like, completely lost track of what I'm saying. Until I heard the Prophet ﷺ next to me and saying, يَا سَوْدَ أَتُحَرِّضِينَهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ You are stoking him to fight against Allah and His Messenger? Like, do you realize what you're saying? And Saudah said, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ Wallahi allatheela ilaha illa hu I lost sense of what I was saying when I saw him sitting like this. I lost control and it basically, I went back to that stage. And falam atamalak ala nafsi I couldn't control myself. So she's making an excuse for herself and the Prophet ﷺ accepted that excuse. And this shows us over and over again, we see this in the seerah, the humanity of the companions. This is a very major blunder. And yet the Prophet ﷺ didn't criticize her. Like she gave a legitimate excuse. And we understand her excuse. That Suhail bin Amr, the senior... Now you can imagine Saudah has grown up and Suhail is like the leader. That Saudah has grown up and she has been taught to respect Suhail. And she has been taught to uphold the jahiliya ways. Now she accepts Islam. And then she sees Suhail tied up like this. So she said, basically, I mean I'm translating colloquially, she didn't say, I forgot who I was. She said, I couldn't control myself. And when I saw him like this, I couldn't control myself. So what is the psychological frame of mind? That I forgot where I am and who I am and all of Islam. What I couldn't stand is to see my chieftain and my leader tied up like a prisoner of war. So she's making an excuse and the Prophet ﷺ forgives her and accepts this excuse. and the point being that wallahi, every one of us sometimes we make mistakes of judgment, mistakes of emotion, mistakes of anger, mistakes of everything. We all make mistakes. If the Prophet ﷺ can forgive a mistake that outwardly it is a type of kufr. It is a type of kufr. Why? Because she is saying you should have fought against Allah and His Messenger. That's what she is saying. Right? And that's what the Prophet ﷺ said. You are encouraging him to fight against Allah and His Messenger. Right? But what happened, in her emotionalism, she lost control of rationality. And there are many examples in, for example, the famous hadith of the man who's gonna die in the desert, out of thirst. The man who's gonna die in the desert, out of thirst and hunger. And he's literally dying, and then he sees his camel, what has he blurred out? Oh Allah, You are my servant, I am Your Rabb. even the Prophet ﷺ smiled at his madness and he made an excuse for him. That he said, أَخْطَأَ مِنْ شِدَّةِ الْفَرَحِ Even the Prophet ﷺ made an excuse for this guy that he made a mistake because he was deliriously happy. Right? So, my point here, every one of us, brothers and sisters, one our loved one, one our brother, one our son, one our father, when anybody makes a mistake out of emotion, out of anger, out of anything, and then recognizes the mistake. Let us also act the way that the Prophet ﷺ acted here. Said, okay, okay, let's move on. That's it, he never brought it back up with Saudah again. It's human nature that people do make mistakes for whatever reason, whatever the reason might be. Don't keep on the same point of that mistake. Now, the Prophet ﷺ, as I said, gave every prisoner of war to the one who had captured him. And he said that, treat them with kindness. استوصوا بهم خيرا. I command you to treat them with kindness. And so Ibn Ishaq mentions a number of stories here about how kindly they were treated. That one of them, Abu Aziz, he is the brother of Mus'ab ibn Umayl, he said that I was assigned to a group of the Ansar, and every time they sat down to eat, they would give me the bread and the meat, and they would take the dates and the water. They would take the dates and the water, they give the luxurious meal to me, because the Prophet ﷺ had told them to treat the prisoners with kindness. And he said, out of embarrassment, I would put the bread back in front of them. Because I felt very embarrassed that I'm getting the luxury meal, right? And they would take it and put it back in front of me. And again I say, this is the beauty of our religion. Strictness, a time of strictness. Those two were executed, right? But what happened to the other 70? They were treated, before there were any Geneva Conventions, before there were any of these things. Our Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba, they treated them way better than even themselves were treated. And this is an unparalleled treatment of prisoners of war in human history. Never before this time. And that's why, by the way, why were the Geneva Conventions given? It's because mankind realized, you know, we need to treat prisoners decently. We cannot just do this to them, right? Our Sharia gave these rights when no other culture on earth was giving them. that they were given not the same food, better food than their captors. They were treated royally. Suhail is living in the house of the Prophet ﷺ. Can you imagine? I mean, as I said, imagine which ruler has ever taken a prisoner of war and caused him to live in the same house as himself. The same roof, the same food is there. No Guantanamo, yes. No Guantanamo over there. Yes. This is the reality of our religion. And we say this in light of what happened to another and an uqbah. And this is what makes our religion really a practical realistic religion. A religion that wallahi you can understand it is a true religion of Allah. Strictness when you need to, but the general rule is mercy and kindness. The general rule is mercy and kindness. So the Prophet ﷺ sent the message back to the Quraysh that these are the prisoners that we will ransom off. and there are different narrations given about the price on the prisoners of war and inshallah the correct opinion is that every single prisoner and because there seems to be contradictory narrations but what seems to be the case every prisoner was given a price that was suitable for him that this seems to be the strongest position that the rich prisoners had to pay a higher ransom and the poorer prisoners paid a lower ransom so much so that the poorest prisoners basically went away with nothing. They could go back without paying anything. And this again is an amazing reality that what other society will do. And also by the way, the fact that the processor knew every one of them personally, so he knows how much money they have as well. That's also something that who else can say? Every single family is known to them. They are after all relatives, they're all Qurashi. And so every one of them has a price. Al-Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ the Ansari who captured remember captured quote unquote remember the story of his capture, right? the small Ansari who thought he had captured him so he was living with this Ansari so the Prophet ﷺ the Ansari came to him and said O Messenger of Allah, I'll gift him to you he's your uncle meaning I'll gift him to you take him as a gift and the Prophet ﷺ said no, rather do not decrease his ransom by even one coin, one penny. Take it fully from his ransom. No, you're not going to gift him. He will pay for his ransom from every single, the price that he has. And he got a very high price. He got 4,000 dirhams. 4,000 dirhams was the highest price given. And subhanAllah, again, here we find the beauty of our religion. The Prophet ﷺ had said, don't kill him. Don't kill him. Remember that was the command given. Don't kill him. But now that he is captured as a prisoner of war, he shall get the exact price that is due, the 4000 that is due. Not just that, but the Prophet ﷺ told him that you must also pay the ransom of Aqeel and Naufal, both of these are his nephews. Aqeel is the older brother of Ali ibn Abi Talib, right? The older brother of Ja'far, Aqeel was the oldest, and then Ja'far and then Ali. Aqeel, Ja'far and then Ali. so Aqeel was also captured and then Naufal ibn Harith and Harith was the oldest son of Abdul Muttalib Harith was the oldest son of Abdul Muttalib so Naufal ibn Harith is a cousin of the Prophet and he's a nephew of Abbas so he said you will pay their ransom because they don't have any money, you have money so he had the highest ransom and he had to pay for all of them now there's an interesting hadith here in Muslim Imam Ahmed that he came to the Prophet and he said that Ya Rasulullah Ya Rasulullah, I'm a Muslim. So why are you putting a ransom on me? I was a Muslim. And they forced me to fight. So now he's arguing that he was a Muslim. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? Allahu a'lam. Allah knows your situation. Basically we have to judge you on the outer reality. Allahu a'lam. Allah knows. I'm not saying you weren't. I'm not saying you were. Allahu a'lam. Allah knows your niyat and your situation. And if what you say is true, Allah will give you something better. But we have to judge you by your actions and you were against us, so you must pay your ransom. It is said, and he himself said this, Abbas himself said this, that Allah revealed surah An-Fa'al verse 70 about me. Allah revealed surah An-Fa'al verse 70 about me. What is this verse? Allah says in the Quran that يَا أَيُّهُ وَنَبِيُّ قُلْ لِمَنْ فِي أَيْدِيكُمْ مَنَ الْأَسْرَىٰ إِنْ يَعْلَمِ اللَّهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ خَيْرًا يُؤْتِكُمْ خَيْرًا مِمَّا أُخِذَ مِنْكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ O Prophet, say to those whom you have as prisoners of war, if Allah knows that you have good in your hearts, Allah will give you something better than what He took away from you. And Allah will forgive you, and Allah is ghafoor and rahim. if you're good in your heart Allah will give you much more than he took away so Abbas said this verse came down for me so Abbas said to the Prophet that O Master of Allah you put 4000 dirhams I don't have any money how am I going to pay 4000 dirhams that's just for me by the way then he had to pay for Aqeel and he had to pay for Naufal he said I don't have any money what did the Prophet say so he said to him where is that money that you and Umm al-Fadl, your wife hid on such and such a day that you went out and you buried it and you said to Umm al-Fadl that if I ever die then this will go to Al-Fadl and this will go to Abdullah and this will go to Al-Qutham another of his sons, right? Where is that money that you hid? So immediately he said I swear by the one who has sent you with the truth that you are the messenger of Allah no one knew about this other than me and her. Like he, subhanallah, look, you know. And this also shows that perhaps even Al-Abbas was not that much yaqeen. Like he's saying he's a Muslim, Allah knows at this stage how much, right? And even the Prophet said, Allahu a'lam. I don't know, you know, Allahu a'lam. So this type of incident, so he's saying, where's my money? I don't have the money, right? So the Prophet said, well, you had that money. Remember you and Umm Al-Fadl, your wife, you went and you hid it on such and such a place and you told her on the way back that if I ever die this much goes to this son this much goes to that son this much where is that money that's the money I want right so that's when he said I swear that Allah is the one that has sent you with the truth and Al-Abbas used to say so the verse says that if Allah knows you have good in your hearts he'll give you more than what he took away Abbas said later on in life that wallahi I wish the Prophet ﷺ had taken more from me because what he gave me in return is much more than what he took. And he said that, I had to give 20 uqiyas, which is an amount of silver, and instead of these 20 uqiyas, now I have 20 slaves, each one of them is a businessman trading, and I get basically the profits of 20 businessmen underneath me. So Abbas was a businessman, he was a very shrewd businessman, he had a lot of businesses in the end, and that's why in the khutbah of wada'ah, hajjat al-wada'ah, what did the Prophet ﷺ say about Abbas? That the first business transactions that deal with interest that I will make null and void are those of Abbas. Because Abbas had a lot of interest. A lot of interest that was owed to him. And he said, the Prophet ﷺ said, that to show you, I don't want anybody to benefit, my own uncle, nobody has to pay him interest anymore. So he had a lot of money even by the time of the conquest of Mecca. So the point being that Al-Abbas therefore paid his full ransom along with the ransom of his two nephews. It is also authentically reported, we hear about this as children and we teach our children this, and it is authentically reported in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad that there were some captives who didn't have any money, but they knew how to read and write. And so the Prophet ﷺ told them that they may go free if they taught the children of the Ansar how to read and write, to be literate. And this is an authentic hadith in Musnad of Imam Ahmad. We hear about this all the time, and this is a very true incident. And we know the benefits from this, I don't need to derive them for you. The importance of education, that education was valued more than a few thousand dirhams were. That the Prophet ﷺ wanted to spread literacy in a society that at the time didn't care about literacy. At the time literacy was not encouraged, but the Prophet ﷺ did encourage it. And these types of hadith show it this. I've also said many times before that Islam was a civilizational force for the Arabs. that Islam came to a group that did not care about culture, about adab, about history, about reading and writing. And it brought them all of these things and more. That Islam came and it was a civilization. It raised the Arabs up to be the leaders of the world. This is something that I've mentioned many times before, and these types of incidents, they prove that. Another incident regarding the prisoners of war, deals with Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabi'ah. Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabi'ah who was the son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ. The husband of Zaynab. The husband of Zaynab. And Zaynab is most likely his eldest. Zaynab is most likely his eldest. Abu'l-Aas, by the way, his mother was Hind. Who is Hind? No. No. The other Hind. No. Oh Khadija. Khadija's sister. Khadija's sister. You're right. I knew I made a mistake. Exactly. I'm thinking I made a mistake. You're right. Hala. My mistake. Yes. One point. One point for him. Mitai. Mitai. I was wondering. It's not Hind. You're right. it's Hala Hala the older sister of Khadija so Abu'l-As Khadija is his khala so he's the cousin of Zaynab right, you understand and this marriage had taken place in the days of Jahiliyyah so this shows us how old is Zaynab as well by the way right, this marriage had taken place before all of this animosity and what not had began and Abu al-Aas was a loving husband. And there's an incident we're going to come to later on where Zaynab gave him protection when she was in Medina. We're going to come to that when we come to it. So Abu al-Aas at this point in time is fighting against the Muslims in the battle of Badr and the ransom was sent for him as well. And it is said that when the ransom came, Zaynab, the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ to make up the whole quantity, a part of what she gave was her jewelry. And one item of that jewelry was a necklace that Khadija used to wear that she had gifted to Zaynab at the time of their wedding. As it is a custom till to this day that mothers gift their jewelry to their daughters. And so when the Prophet ﷺ saw this very necklace, his heart melted. That this is the necklace that Khadija used to wear. And they could see the effects on the face of the Prophet ﷺ. This is that necklace that brought back the memories of Khadija. Subhanallah, so many as we know, I've given a whole lecture about Khadija, I remember. A detailed lecture about Khadija. The footsteps of Hala would almost bring the Prophet ﷺ to tears. Yes, that's how you remember it. the footsteps of Hala, that he would recognize from her footsteps, he would think it's Khadija, then he would say this is Hala. And Aisha would get jealous when Hala visited, because she could see the effects of Khadija's memory on the face of the Prophet ﷺ. So when he saw this necklace, they could see it physically affected him. And the Prophet ﷺ will find out why in a while. He requested to those who owned Abu al-Aas, or who had captured Abu al-Aas, that if you feel it is appropriate, can you set him free without this item? Can you set him free? So he made a shafa'ah and who's going to say no to the shafa'ah of the Prophet ﷺ? So he was sent back and we'll discover why this happened in a while. That Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabi'ah was sent back without this ransom. Another famous story that took place was that the ransom was the ransom of Amr ibn Abi Sufyan the older brother of Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan. The son of Abu Sufyan. Now Abu Sufyan is of course the leader of the caravan. Abu Sufyan is going to be the leader of Uhud. Abu Sufyan right now is the undisputed leader of the Quraysh. He is now the big guy. And so he has been traumatized the most in many ways. Because now all the pressure is on him to make a stand and a decision. He has been utterly humiliated. that in trying to save his camels and the caravan, what happened? Disaster in all of Mecca, right? You understand this point. Put yourself in his shoes. Like how must he be feeling? So, he was sent that, go ransom your son, Amr ibn Abi Sufyan. And when Abu Sufyan heard that his son was held for ransom, he said, do they expect me to give up my money along with my blood? they have killed Handhala one of his sons that died in Badr they have killed Handhala and now they want to make me penniless to pay for Amr let him remain in their hands he will stay there as long as they want I'm not going to pay money for my son basically right? and subhanallah it is amazing here to see the only reason he could have done this was that deep down inside he knew that they wouldn't kill and they wouldn't torture and they wouldn't persecute him. Think about this, right? That no matter how much he hated Islam and the Prophet ﷺ at this time, he knows that his son is in safe hands. And the irony is that that's why he can say, let him have him as long as they want him. Can you imagine if he had been tortured, would the father be saying this? No. So he knows that they're gonna take good care of him. And it is this irony that he simply says, let him remain there. But he did a very dastardly deed, a very evil deed to get his son back. And he did something that goes against the principles of Islam and even the principles of their jahili laws. And of course Allah has forgiven him because he accepted Islam later on. That is that he violated the sanctity of the haram. He had something in mind what he would do. Many months later, so he's sitting in Mecca for as long as this, we don't know an exact date, but weeks and months go by, that one of the elderly people of Medina, an Ansari by the name of Sa'd ibn Nu'man, who has nothing to do with Badr or anything, he's just a person living in Medina. And he's a Muslim. He's come to do business in Mecca and to do tawaf and umrah. And as we all know from the beginning of this series, we've been saying that Mecca is a haram. And anybody can go to Mecca. and even the Quraysh would see the murder of their father in Mecca and they would not hurt him. This is the law of Islam, it is the law of Jahiliyyah, it is the law that the Quraysh themselves upheld. And ironically they only went against it for Muslims. So now when Sa'd ibn al-Nu'man came, Abu Sufyan in broad daylight kidnapped him and held him hostage in his house. And he said, I will not release him until you release my son. This is now blatant extortion. There is just no way to say this nicely. Blatant extortion. And Allah has forgiven him because he accepted Islam. But at this point in time, this is blatant extortion. So he said, a life for a life. You release my son, I'll release An-Numan. And so the tribe of Sa'd ibn An-Numan, they came to the Prophet ﷺ and they said, O Messenger of Allah, this and this has happened. And so he released the son of Abu Sufyan without any ransom. Because of this extortion. Because of this... And this is... I mean again, we see this from the very beginning, the double standards of the Quraysh. That a few months ago, when the Muslims killed somebody in the Haram, remember the incident, right? Saliyat al-Nakhla. A few months ago in Rajab, when they killed one person. They went crazy. Look at these people, they're doing this, they're doing that. when one of their chieftains in broad daylight in front of the Ka'bah kidnaps an elderly person, not one word comes out of their mouths. Double standards? Obviously. And we see this all the time in every single nation that opposes Allah and His Messenger. They can talk about human rights as much as they want and freedom and what not. But we see double standards over and over and over again. This is again, this is when you don't have a hard and fast standard that comes from Allah, then you will make excuses for yourself and you will not make excuses for the others. And also see that the Prophet ﷺ, there's an area of pragmatism here. He deals with them despite the fact it is open zulm. He still deals with them because what is the fault of Asa'ad ibn Nu'man? He brings them back and he has him. He swaps the two prisoners of war. And of course we all know the famous story of Mus'ab ibn Umair that when he passed by his brother, Abu Aziz ibn Umair. Abu Aziz, when he saw his brother, he became very happy. He said, oh my brother, now help me out here now. Help me out, now you can help me. And instead of answering him, he says to the Ansari. He says to the Ansari that had captured him, that make sure he doesn't escape. Because his mother is a very wealthy woman, and she will pay top dollar for him. The highest ransom. Right? So his brother says, Ya Akhi, this is how you treat me? And so Mus'ab said, هذا أخي دونك This is my brother, not you. Islam separates. This is my brother, not you. هذا أخي دونك And many other stories are mentioned as well. There's also the story of those who could not afford any ransom. And of those was Al-Muttalib ibn Hantab, Saif ibn Abi Rifaa Abu Azza these are all names of people who could not afford any ransom and they were also illiterate so they couldn't teach so what to do with them? eventually all of them were sent back without any ransom and this shows us again the pragmatism of the prophet that he knows and it is said that Abu Azza for example he came to the prophet and he said O messenger of Allah you know that I don't have a powerful family you know that I have no sons I only have daughters, I have no money, and I have a large family, so be generous with me. So the Prophet ﷺ freed him with one condition, that you are never allowed to fight against us again. Go back and never fight against us. And so Abu Azza agreed to this, and he went back to Mecca, and he wrote a beautiful poem, which is recorded in Ibn Ishaq, praising the generosity of the Prophet ﷺ. and this is again it shows us the mercy of the Prophet and in fact it turned out that and this is the whole point, this act of mercy caused him to accept Islam that when the Prophet was so nice to him without taking any ransom let him go without any condition other than don't fight against us eventually he accepted Islam and in fact many of the prisoners of the battle of Badr eventually they accepted Islam either before the conquest of Mecca or immediately after it, starting with Al-Abbas Aqeel ibn Abi Talib the brother of Ali ibn Abi Talib, he accepted Islam. Naufal ibn Al-Hadith, the cousin of the Prophet accepted Islam. Suhail ibn Amr accepted Islam. All of these people, they eventually accepted Islam. And this shows us, not all of them but I mean many of them. And this shows us the wisdom that mercy is the general rule and sometimes strictness will be shown as well. Now, what was the effect of the battle of Badr in Mecca and in Medina after the battle of Badr. In the battle of, in Medina, two things are the most significant politically. Number one, all the pagans, the mushrikun that remained in Medina, realized that they will have to abandon their paganism. Even though there was no explicit command for the Prophet ﷺ to do so. and so the last remnants of idolatry disappeared after the battle of Badr that it became clear that it's simply not possible for an idol worshipper to remain in this society and so paganism simply disappeared there was never a command in Medina to stop worshipping idols that never happened but slowly more and more people converted and whoever was left as a mushrik dwindling, dwindling until finally they all had to convert but at the conversion of these pagans a new trend began and that is Nifaq, Munafiqun. That there was no Nifaq before the battle of Badr. There are no Munafiqun in the battle of Badr. Nifaq is a post-Badr phenomenon. Nifaq is a post-Badr phenomenon. And it is said that Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salun and of course he is the leader of the hypocrites and he was the eldest chieftain of the tribes of Yathrib as we have said many times and he was hoping that Yathrib would unite under him but with the coming of the Prophet ﷺ they didn't unite under him it is said that when he heard Zayd ibn Harithah saying all of these names he said it appears that the matter has now been settled meaning I'm never gonna be the chieftain it appears that this man is here to stay it appears that Islam is now supreme and therefore he outwardly accepted Islam so the embracing of Islam of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul it occurred after the battle of Badr and we know from the Quran that he never truly embraced Islam that he remained a hypocrite now let's get back to the story of Abu'l Aas why did the Prophet ﷺ free Abu'l Aas one month after the battle of Badr the Prophet ﷺ sent two companions to a certain place outside of Mecca and said, wait there for a few days and you will get a visitor. Bring that visitor back. And that visitor turned out to be Zaynab. So what was the deal then? We find out later on. Abu al-As was freed with the condition that he sends Zaynab back to the Prophet ﷺ. This was the condition of freeing him. So he didn't pay the ransom, his ransom was the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ. Send my daughter back. And Abu al-As at this time was still a pagan, he will eventually convert. Zaynab was a Muslim. Remember at this time you could still be married to a pagan, right? Those ayat came down in Mumtahina later on, fifth year and later on. At this point in time you could still be married to a mushrik, a pagan. And so Abu al-Aws is a pagan. Zaynab has always been a Muslim since her father began preaching. And so Zaynab is sent outside the city and there is a very interesting story that takes place over here. there's also by the way the Abu'l-Aas he always treated Zainab honorably and he never prevented her from practicing Islam and later on he was to embrace Islam many years later I will mention that story it's a very interesting story that happened when he embraced Islam as well so when Abu'l-Aas came back, rumors began to spread in Mecca that Zainab might be going back how did these rumors spread? Allahu Alam but everybody knew that Abu al-Az didn't pay his ransom so people put one plus one together the Prophet ﷺ did not say this and Hind the wife of Abu Sufyan visited Zainab and said I have heard that you're about to go back to your father to Medina there's no need for you to leave but if you're going to do that then tell me before so that I can prepare your baggage for you because women know what women need more than men know meaning come to me I will prepare your bags for you your luggage, your leads I will prepare for you now why do you think she is making such a generous offer she has a plan what's that plan that Zaynab should never go back because they still have a hostage if you like right, daughter they still have the daughter of the Prophet in their midst and they don't want Zaynab to go back. And so Hind tells her that if you ever plan to leave, come and tell me, I'll help you pack your stuff. Don't worry, we'll take care of everything. Right? Zaynab was very tempted to take her up on that offer. But she said, something didn't feel right. There's that sixth sense going off. Something did not feel right. And therefore, she did not mention to her when she's deciding to leave. She prepared and she packed the bags herself and when she finished preparing for the journey, her brother-in-law Abu al-As' brother, al-Kinana so Abu al-As did not want to take her himself because he felt too humiliated to take her himself, so he told his brother Kinana, that take her outside the city and you will find two of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ hand her over to them, so this is pre-agreed, they all know on this date, hand Zainab over so he tells his younger brother Kinana, go take my wife Zainab and take her outside the city. So Kinana, not very wisely, in broad daylight, takes Zainab's bags, puts them on his camel, takes Zainab, puts Zainab on his camel, and begins leading the camel outside of Mecca. This is not very wise from their part. They didn't think, you know, probably to give them some leeway, probably it's a very emotional time for Abu'l-Aziz. He does love his wife. It is his cousin, he loves his wife deeply. He did not want to send her back because of love. But it also shows his honesty, that he made a promise, and he fulfilled his side of the promise. So we give him some slack that he wasn't thinking straight. So in broad daylight, he takes Kinana, his younger brother, takes Zainab, and starts taking her outside the city. The news spreads across Mecca, that Zainab is leaving. The news spreads across Mecca. and immediately some of the Quraysh gathered together a posse if you like, an entourage to stop her from leaving that you're not going to go back to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and a group of the Quraysh surrounded Zainab and Al-Kinana is trying to protect Zainab and Zainab is on the camel and Kinana is holding the camel and Kinana does not know who to fight with because there's so many people and it is said at this time that Zaynab was pregnant with child. She had in her womb she had a child. And a certain Qurashi by the name of Habbar ibn al-Aswad al-Muttalib ibn al-Muttalib. So he's a distant cousin. The son of Muttalib, not Abdul Muttalib. Going back to Muttalib. Habbar ibn al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib. He was the one, so this is her second cousin once removed I think if I'm correct. He was the one he was the one who thrust a spear to the camel he thrust a spear to the camel to try to stop them from going and the camel became scared reared upwards and Zaynab fell like 15 feet from the camel and she started to bleed right then and there and she suffered a miscarriage because of this so the child that was the grandson of the Prophet basically this child, or whatever you want to call it the fetus or whatever, it was miscarried at this time. And some people also say that she was wounded so severely, this is one of the reasons that caused her early death a few years later as well. Because again, all of the daughters of the Prophet ﷺ other than Fatima died in his lifetime, right? Zaynab also died. And it is said that the wounds that she suffered from falling, you can imagine a camel going upwards and she's a pregnant lady and she's tossed off the camel's back, that those wounds, they lasted with her for years and then she passed away a few years later, three years after this, four years after this, she passed away and so Kinana her brother-in-law jumped in front of her and said I swear by Allah anyone who approaches me will taste my sword and my bow and arrow, so he's a brave brother-in-law, he wants to protect her anybody who comes to her, I'm going to kill him before you kill me, and every one of you knows he said that how good of a marksman I am and so the people are now they don't want to lose their life over this so they're all surrounding them they don't know what to do it's a type of impasse like what is to be done now until finally Abu Sufyan hears Abu Sufyan hears of what's going on and Abu Sufyan rushes on his horse now this is a very sensitive situation right? Zaynab is the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ she's also a lady so there should be some gentleman-ness involved here but there isn't she's lying there bleeding So Abu Sufyan rushes forth and he calms the situation down and he promises them, Zaynab is not going to leave. You guys get away from here. The crowd, you go away. I'm in charge now. So he tells them to leave. Then he tells Kinana, you acted foolishly. Did you expect us to allow you to take Zaynab in broad daylight? You acted foolishly. Do you expect us to let you just go do this? Go back to the people. we will not be humiliated this publicly go back to the people and wait some while when the people stop talking about this issue then quietly hand her over to her father we have no reason to keep this lady here Abu Sufyan is being pragmatic like we don't gain I don't gain anything by having this lady here she is the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ but you can't expect us to be humiliated so publicly you can't just expect to let you walk out like this do it behind our backs is what he's trying to say do it quietly in the middle of the night don't do it like this and so that's exactly what happened that they sent word to the people waiting outside that wait a few more days you know things are happening we'll send her to you and so in the middle of the night a few days later in the middle of the night once again Kinana took her out and gave her over to those companions and they took her back to Medina and it shows us again as we've said from the very beginning there's always good people in every society here is Kinana, he's not a Muslim but he's an honorable man that this is just not right we made a promise, my brother came back on the promise that we're gonna send Zainab back and I'm gonna fulfill that promise and he's willing to give up his life to defend that promise that really shows that these people they have a genuine honesty and good heart it also shows us the intelligence of Abu Sufyan that he really is a politician. He's a wise man and he's a politician. It also shows us, by the way, there's one of the very interesting things here, that a completely unrelated tangent. This man, حَبَّارِ ابْنَ الْأَسْوَدِ ابْنَ الْمُطَّلِبِ حَبَّارِ ابْنَ الْأَسْوَدِ ابْنَ الْمُطَّلِبِ His grandson was amongst those who participated with Muhammad ibn Qasim. With Muhammad ibn Qasim. In the conquest of? Sindh. All of us know. The Arabs like who? Muhammad who? We know this guy since we were kids. Muhammad ibn Qasim. 712. He even knows the date, mashallah. And where did he land? Karachi? Not Karachi. There was no Karachi back then. Huh? Debal. Yes, exactly. So this is a history we know. You guys don't know this history. So Muhammad ibn Qasim, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf sent him. Yes, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf sent him. So Muhammad ibn Qasim had with him the grandson of Habbar. The grandson of Habbar, right? And eventually, this grandson, his progeny, founded a dynasty. Listen to this. that was called the Habbarid dynasty. This is the same Habbar that we just mentioned caused the miscarriage, right? And at least seven generations afterwards, look at how Allah's qadr, just how it works, right? At least seven generations later, we're talking about 200 something hijrah, sorry, 200 something hijrah, right? Not under Muhammad ibn Qasim, no. Muhammad ibn Qasim and his people ruled India for a while, and his governorship. And then the governorship of the Umayyads became weaker over India, when it was Sindh at the time, until finally Sindh became independent from the Umayyad dynasty. And when did it become independent? Under this guy that called it the Habbarid dynasty. We are the Habbarids. and this dynasty, the Habbadids they ruled over Makran and Sindh for over 200 years and they minted coins in what is now Pakistan they minted coins and I don't know if Pakistanis are aware of this but there are cities in Sindh that were founded by the Habbadids, Mansura, have you heard of Mansura? You know Mansura? Mansura is one of these ancient cities that the Arabs founded you know this Mansura it's not an inhabited city it's not an inhabited city if you're thinking of an inhabited city this is incorrect these days it's just ruins ruins it's outside of Karachi by 2-3 hours it's not at Karachi just by the way I did a whole paper on the Habadid dynasty when I was at Yale I took a course called Islam in India and so I chose to do the topic on the Habbadids so I have a whole paper on the Habbadids so I can talk a lot about that you don't want to be bored to death about the Habbadids by the way so also the Habbadids when was the end of the Habbadid dynasty the Fatimid Ismailis they attacked and the Ismailis, the Fatimids they took over Multan and Mansura for a period of time and they spread their da'wah in Multan and Mansurah at that time. And so the Ismailis of Pakistan have been there for a long time. For a long time. And if you know history, when the first Aga Khan came back, I know this is a whole unrelated tangent, but all of you in Pakistan is interested in this. When the first Aga Khan came back, you should know this, there was, when did he come back? 1860s, 1870s. The first Aga Khan, right? He came back, he's an Iranian, he's a Persian, he's Persian. when he came to India, he found a large group of Ismailis. Where did they come from? The original Ismailis came at this time. They have been in Sindh since 300-400 Hijrah. And believe it or not, the first Aga Khan, he took the Ismailis to court because they would not acknowledge him as their Imam. I'm not making this up. This is well known. And he took them to the British court, sued his own followers for not recognizing him. And obviously he won. He won the case. There were two cases, two court cases, of Aga Khan against his own followers. Because the point in the British court was, that I am the Ismaili Imam, and these are Ismailis, and they are not recognizing me to be their legitimate Imam. And so he went to the British court in the 1871 and 1870, there are two courses, right? Two cases. And he won both cases, and a group of them broke away from him. And so they were called Khuja at the time. So a group of Khujas became Sunni. So many of you are Sunni Buhra and Sunni Khuja, right? This is at this time this happened, right? Another group became Itna Asheri. So there's Itna Asheri Khujas as well, right? before this time the Khojas were all Ismaili before this time why am I going to this time? anyway so sometimes my mind just wanders but all I wanted to point out what happened to Ismaili is one final point then Mahmud of Ghazna came and he destroyed the Ismaili dynasty so after Muhammad ibn Qasim Muhammad ibn Qasim was directly under the Umayyads the Umayyads controlled Sindh for at least probably around 80 or 90 years then sin kind of sort of became broke away from Umayyads how did it break away? the Habbarids the Habbarids I have a coin of the Habbarids at home I have one of their coins I'm a numismatist what's a numismatist? I'm a coin collector I have hundreds of coins of the Umayyads so I have a coin of the Habbarid dynasty I'm a rich man not as rich as you Dr. Sahab so I should have completely forgot if I remember I'll bring it a coin of the they have a coin I wanted to purchase it because I was writing a paper on Bahamut I have to purchase a coin of the so the ruled over what is now Pakistan not all of Pakistan Multan Multan and Makran and Mansura these were the three places Sindh one area until the Ismailis came the Ismailis ruled for like 30-40 years just one generation. Then Mahmud al-Ghazna came. And Mahmud al-Ghazna Sunni-ized it again. And then from there you all know the rest of the history, or at least the people from that part of the world know the rest of the history. Again, my point being, why did I go into this tangent? Subhanallah, look at how Allah's Qadr, where was Habbar? What did Habbar do? And yet in history, when you say Habbarid, automatically, if you know history, there's only one dynasty that was Habbarid, and it's named after the same person who did what he did, to Zaynab. This is called the Habbarid dynasty. Subhanallah, this is what Islam does. That Habbar was a mushrik, but his grandson accepted Islam, and a whole dynasty was founded that was one of the mightiest dynasties of early Sindh, and subhanallah, this is how Allah changes people through Islam. In any case, inshallah, we are come to the end of today's lesson. Insha'Allah, we will finish the battle of Badr not next Wednesday, I will not be here next Wednesday. There will be one week break. I will be in freezing Canada, freezing Edmonton. So I will not be here for one week. InshaAllah we will resume two Wednesdays from now and we will finish the Battle of Badr on that Wednesday. And then InshaAllah the Wednesday after that we will do Surah Al-Anfal. All of Surah Al-Anfal. InshaAllah we will do that. We have a few minutes left for Q&A if there are questions about. But no questions about Habbadahs and Agha Khanis. That was just a tangent. we don't know there is nothing mentioned about wahy coming down we don't know and in either case as I said last week the ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ is binding so Wallahi it is said that it is said that two different people killed each one but in some riwayat Ali is mentioned for another in some he is mentioned for Iqba so Allahu'alam Allahu'alam yes our young brother surrounding the Zaynab and Kinana wall, did anyone hear that place or did you hear it? No, there was a stalemate, i.e. people were just around Zaynab, they didn't know what to do. Kinana said, whoever attacks, I will kill him first before you kill me. So, they're just around, they don't know what to do. And they're waiting probably 15-20 minutes, they just don't know what to do. word has gone back to Mecca Abu Sufyan is now panicking and so he comes rushing on his horse so they waited they didn't know what to do, it was a chaotic time and Abu Sufyan got there before the situation got worse so he came in from Mecca from the sisters, any questions? yes, go ahead do you always have a long question? you don't need to ask your questions are always long and convoluted go ahead Only on Wednesdays. No, actually every single day. The second ayah after that, it says, Is this the adab of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or the adab of Allah? The adab of? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or the azab of war let me ask you if you say it is the azab of war who would have caused that azab all of it goes back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but this azab that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about is it the punishment that he always talks about like in the akhira or so the brother is asking about the verse that Allah says to the Prophet s.a.w that why did you forgive you should not have forgiven then the next verse is about were it not for the fact that Allah's decree has already occurred about this it is possible that Allah's azab would have come to you what does the hadith say that Abu Bakr and Umar were crying, why? because of this verse the process in Abu Bakr were crying because of this verse so they understood this to mean that this was a potential punishment but Allah forgave them well if the Prophet he is not liable for that if he is correct he is not he is one edged he does not deserve a punishment and that's why he was not punished but the threat is there the threat is there meaning it was not an ijtihad that Allah would have liked him to do but Allah let it go well I think is the goal of this surah is if the prophet he was easy on his enemies and he did not kill more of them that was the objection he should have killed more people before taking Asra that a lot more people are going to try him so if he shows harshness to the people that attacks him although tragic that a lot of people are going to die but it's going to save Muslim lives because a lot of people are going to go, we don't want to mess with these people because they kill 15, 20, 30% of the world. What you said, I said it as one of the benefits of being strict. But that is not the tafsir of this ayah. Think about it. It cannot be the tafsir of this ayah. Because Allah is saying that if Allah's decree had not come, then azab would have come. I see this as a stretched interpretation and had this been the case, why would Abu Bakr in the process be crying? Number two. Number three, who has preceded you in this tafsir? This is, that's what I mean, since I brought it up the first time, I have been doing research on it. So who has, I'm asking you. I think I read about 22 tafsir from Jesus. So who has read, so who has said this tafsir exactly? I didn't know that it's going to be brought up. Okay, so we look at who is it. If it is the person whose pamphlet you gave me, you know what I said about him. I'm asking you to look at the classical Sunni tafasir. See, the paper that I give you, that, you know, we're going to... But as usual, our conversation becomes private, and the whole people are like wondering what's going on. Right? When you see a tafseer, the brother makes the point that I've been saying, to you as well, you have to see who is the person writing it. You can't just... The objection that you have on the paper, the Bukhari says the exact same thing. The Bukhari says the Rasul does not yajna'ir. He does not work by ra'i or piyas. The Bukhari says that in Al-A'tasam Al-A'tasam Imam Al-Bukhari's point is whatever the Prophet ﷺ says has to be taken. That's what I said. No Sunni says otherwise. He is not making any ishtihad. In any case, we're going back to the same issue of last week. Like I said, this is not an issue where Sunnis have a position and Mu'tazilis have another. Even amongst Sunni scholars, some people held this view. But frankly, this view needs takalluf. Takalluf means you need to try to patch up every evidence that goes against it. Like I gave the example last week, إِلَّا الْإِذْخِرِ Except for idhkhir. this is a stretch this is your stretch what comes to mind is that the Prophet ﷺ just said okay fine yes you could say this but it makes a lot more sense that you just say so like I said this is takalluf this is takalluf there is a print anywhere we are going into this infinite loop and then again I tell you what is the thamaratul khilaf nothing I already explained this to you last week there is no such thing as Deen Muhammad, Deen Muhammad is Deen Allah ok, that's all I said if I say he can make decisions and Allah has told me to follow his decisions that's what I'm saying no, this is what the Quran in sunnah says. Right? Al-ti'u Allah wa al-ti'u al-rasul. Right? The Prophet ﷺ and his companions bi-adab because they... Ya akhi, this is very clear that the adab is threatened for other verses as well. That if he said anything against us, what will we do? Exactly. Okay, so this... In any case, akhi, look, we're going into this private conversation. We have, mashallah, 150 people here. So we can continue. If you gave them a chance to ask, maybe they would ask. Okay. final questions before we break for salah please yes in the back go ahead go ahead sister yes no they were not brothers they were not brothers they were two friends they were not brothers their names sound similar Muawwid and Mu'adh but they are not brothers okay final question, we have two minutes left before nine o'clock yes through all the seerahs, there's not a lot of mention of the prophet his mother his cousin from the mother's side or uncle, so do we know anything about that? You know that's a very good question. I will look this up. He's asking about, he's saying that there's a lot of cousins mentioned from the father's side, from the Banu Hashim. How about from Amina's side? How about Amina's siblings and cousins from the Amina's side? The Banu Zuhra. That's a very good question. I will look this up. Nothing right now, I cannot think of anything right now. But I'll look this up inshallah, good question. Inshallah, so as I said, reminder next week we are not... Thank you.

Seerah 42 - Events between Badr & Uhud - Yasir Qadhi _ 5th December 2012-IgY3lFhBj_g

Thank you. So Alhamdulillah we have spent six or seven lessons on the battle of Badr And we've discussed the battle of Badr thoroughly So now we're going to move on to what happens between Badr and Uhud And the first incident that occurs or that is mentioned Is a very interesting one and it's an aftermath of the battle of Badr It's something that's linked to the battle of Badr. And this is one of the most interesting assassination attempts upon the life of the Prophet ﷺ. Now what happened was, as Ibn Hisham gives the whole story in detail, that after the battle of Badr, Safwan ibn Umayyah, pause your pop quiz, who's Safwan ibn Umayyah? What happened to him? His father and brother. He was the one who, when the messenger came back, or the first person to came back from Badr, Safwan said this guy's gone crazy how can anybody be killed go ask him where's Safwan and then he said Safwan's sitting right there and by Allah I saw his father and his brother as they were dragged to his death this is Safwan ibn Umayyah the son of Umayyah ibn Khalaf the owner of Bilal so Safwan ibn Umayyah was sitting with his cousin Umayyah ibn Wahab and they were both reminiscing about the losses of the battle of Badr and Umayyah ibn Wahab his son had just been taken prisoner of war and his son was still in Medina as a POW. And he didn't have or he couldn't

Seerah 43 - Assassination of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf - Yasir Qadhi _ 12th Dec 2012-2P8EmMQ98qE

Al-Fatiha. Two weeks or maybe three weeks, we'll see. And we're going to finish off by talking about the major incidents that occurred before the Battle of Uhud. And today is a very controversial topic, so pay attention and take good notes. Before we get to the controversial topic, let's begin with some of the more smaller incidents. So between the Battle of Badr and Uhud, a number of small expeditions took place. and they are not very important in the large scale of things but each one of them had its own, if you like, reasons and issues and benefits for it. And the first of these issues, the first of these incidents, it is called, it's a very difficult title, قرقرة القذر قرقرة القذر After the place where it took place, it was called قرقرة القذر And what happened was that some of the neighboring Mushrikeen tribes of Medina, they wanted to take revenge on the Muslims because their business had been cut off. What business? What business would have been cut off? The caravans. You know, to this day, when an interstate goes through, small cities clamor to the senators and congressmen to have the interstate go through that city. Why? Because business, that's the main business, right? Cops, how do they get their money? You know, these small cities, how does the money come in? It's basically those tickets and then the convenience stores. So when the caravan of the Quraysh had to basically divert its route, so some of the smaller tribes that used to get their income from buying and selling with the caravan, so they wanted to basically poke the Muslims to make sure they don't do it again. And so they, only seven days after the Battle of Badr, the tribes of the Banu Salim and Ghatafan, now the Banu Salim and Ghatafan are very large tribes, So these are small subsections of those tribes that happen to be living around Medina. The Ghatafan is one of the largest tribes of Arabia. And the Ghatafan will play a role in the battle of the Khandaq in particular. But this is some of the sections of the Ghatafan. Some of the sections of the Banu Salim, they detached a small skirmish, a small entourage of 200 people to attack Medina. And so when the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he launched an offensive against them. and when they saw the 200 people, sorry, when the Muslims saw the army up front, they turned their backs and fled. The Quraysh, not the Quraysh. The pagans turned their backs and fled when they saw the Muslims coming. Even though quantity wise, they were more than the Muslims. But when they saw the Muslims coming, they fled and they left all of their tents and their booty and their belongings, they left it over there. And so the Muslims basically acquired most of their animals. And this was a huge surplus for them. So much so it is said that every Muslim who participated, he got two camels. And that's basically a nice amount of money. Every single Muslim, he got two camels. And it was also in this battle that the Prophet ﷺ... So what happened was, and again, as you realize in every single class that I do, we don't go into a lot of detail. Because otherwise we'd stay here forever. But what happened was, when the Prophet ﷺ reached their vicinity, the first person they found was a slave. An Abyssinian slave. and his name was Yasar his name was Yasar so they captured him and then the non-Muslims fled so Yasar was left with the Muslims and he saw the Muslims and he converted to Islam when he's with them for a while he sees how good they are, he converts to Islam and so the Sahabi who captured him he said, O Messenger of Allah, he is yours because he is a Muslim now, he is a good Muslim he is yours and the Prophet ﷺ, he never kept a slave as you know he never kept any male slave whenever slave that he got, he freed that slave. And so he freed Yasar, but Yasar remained with him as a servant. And so Yasar became one of the servants of the Prophet ﷺ. And as usual, it was a sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ that when he had any battle, he would camp there for how many days? Three days. This was his sunnah that he established from Badr. So he camped over there. And in explaining why they fled, he told the Sahaba, and this hadith is in Bukhari, نُصِرْتُ بِالرُّعْبِ مَصِيرَةَ شَهْرٍ That I have been helped by Allah, that my enemies are terrified of me, even if I'm a month's journey away. نُصِرْتُ بِالرُّعْبِ This is one of the ways that Allah helped the Prophet ﷺ, that just by seeing and hearing of the Muslims, they would flee and run away. And so he explained to them why this happened. So this is called the expedition of Qarqaratul Qadr. The second expedition, which is interesting in its own way. It is called the battle of Sawiq. The battle of Sawiq. And this occurred around two or three months after Badr. Probably in the early part of Dhul Hijjah, of the second year of the Hijrah. And the reason for this battle is a little bit disgusting to be honest. And that is that Abu Sufyan had made a promise, a vow, a nazr to Allah. that he would not take a bath until he avenged Badr. So how long is the guy gonna wait? He would not take a bath, even from Janabah. And this shows us by the way that taking a bath from Janabah was in their custom. And of course this must have come from Ibrahim a.s. So he remained in that state, unbelievably, without touching water for months. And I guess finally, he really had to do something, right? And so, he gathered together probably around 150-250, again we don't have an exact quantity, but probably around 200, similar as the previous battle. Gathered together 200 of the Quraysh, and he launched an offensive. And the Banu Nadir, which was the second Yahudi tribe, the Banu Nadir gave him protection. And they gave him food and supplies and water. so we're gonna come back to the Banu Nadir later on but this is now blatant treachery because one of the conditions of the treaty is you will not help the Quraysh against us and one of the conditions if we are externally attacked the two of us will act as one so the Banu Nadir actually gave supplies and food and water to the small entourage of Abu Sufyan and they hosted him to reinvigorate and reinforce him before he attacked Medina. And then Abu Sufyan with a smaller group, not 200, maybe 20 or so, he launched an offensive into one of the date gardens of Medina. And complete surprised upon the people there. He frightened the women and children. He killed two of the Ansar. He burnt down the garden. And when the commotion began to spread, so this is blatant, if you like plagiarism or terrorism or whatnot. And so when the commotion spreads, the Muslims say Abu Sufyan is here, the Quraysh are here. So a small force gathers, and they start attacking the caravan, not the caravan, the army that Abu Sufyan has come with. And in their rush to once again flee, once again, just like what happened in Qaraqat al-Qadr, the Quraysh turn their backs and leave their belongings. And what happened in this particular expedition, why is it called Sawiq? What is Sawiq? Sawiq is dried porridge. It is like their food that they would put on their camels, that they could eat it for a long period of time. you mix barley and milk and butter and honey and then you dry it. So it's packets of food that this is what they would eat on a long journey. This is sawiq, right? And so they would basically fill their camel sacks with sawiq. And that is their food if they don't find something else. And of course they have water as well. So when they saw the Muslims coming and they're galloping on their horses and on their camels to get away, in order to lighten the load, they cut off the bags of sawiq. They cut off the bags of sawiq, and that is why the battle is called the battle of sawiq. Literally means the battle of porridge. It doesn't sound very interesting, but this is why it's called the battle of porridge, the sawiq. That they cut off all of the sawiq, and that's what caused them to basically speed up and flee away. And so the Muslims were able to capture sawiq, a lot of porridge, but they weren't able to harm Abu Sufyan. And Abu Sufyan and his entourage returned, but at least he could now take a bath, because he killed two of the Ansar. So his goal of basically somehow avenging what happened at Badr, even if it's just a thorn prick, he has to do something. So that was what he did. And that is the battle of Sawiq. Yet another incident that took place, yet another incident that took place, is the Sariyah of Qarada. The Sariyah, and Sariyah means the Prophet ﷺ did not participate. If you remember, I think it's almost been a year now, we differentiate between Ghazawat and Sariyat. And Ghazwa is what the Prophet ﷺ participated in. So we give it a much higher status. Sariyat, there are hundreds of Saraya. There are hundreds of Saraya. And Sariyat is any expedition that the Prophet ﷺ commanded but he didn't participate in. And this... Sariyat. Because the Prophet ﷺ did not participate. He did not participate in Sawiq. The next one we said is Sariyat of Qarada which took place a few months before Uhud. Most likely in Rabi'ul-Awwal of the third year. And this was an important stepping stone to the actual battle of Uhud. So what happened was that the Quraysh, when the annual caravan was gonna take place for the third year, they had a meeting. What can we do about the caravan? Which route should it take? What are we gonna do? Last year obviously Badr had shown them they cannot take the standard route. They have to find something else. And so Safwan ibn Umayyah, who had been placed in charge of this year's caravan, unlike Abu Sufyan, so this is now Safwan ibn Umayyah, this is the same Safwan we talked about last Wednesday, the same Safwan, and he's the son of Umayyah ibn Khalaf. Safwan ibn Umayyah gathered together all of the Quraysh, and he said, Muhammad and his companions have blocked our passages. If we take the sea route, close to the ocean, most of them have already given their allegiance to Muhammad ﷺ, and they're upon his religion. So what do we do? Pause here. This shows us that Islam was spreading. This shows us that Islam was spreading. That these people have not been attacked, the ones on the coastal line. But Safwan ibn Umayyah is saying most of them are Muslims. And this, now one of the problems is, and I've said this many times, that the biographers of the Prophet ﷺ recorded mainly battles in the Medinan phase. And a wealth of information is simply you have to extract it. the Medina and Sira is 90% battles. And sadly we can't do much about it because these are what our source books say. So this type of sentence just comes in the middle and we actually extract from it much information. And that is that it wasn't just battles. That Islam is spreading. And so much so that Safwan ibn Umayyah is saying that most of the coastal regions are now على دينه. So people are converting through da'wah. People are converting through preaching. People are converting through interacting with the Muslims. And then he goes on and he says, so if we remain here, we will not go on any journey, we're not gonna interact with the Syrians, and we will not get any money, and our money will dwindle down to nothing. And our life depends on رحلة الشتاء والصيف. This is our lifeline. We need the two caravans. So one of the elders, and his name was Al-Aswad, Ibn Abdul Muttalib, that's not that Abdul Muttalib. one of the elders said, let us go through the Iraq passage. So, I mean, I don't have the map, but you all have a vague idea that Mecca is down here, Medina is up above. And generally they would go through Syria straight above. The other alternative route was to go eastwards and go towards what is Yambor, which is the coastal plain. Right? Westwards, westwards, sorry, westwards. To go westwards towards the Yambor plain. Right? So it is west. It is west. Iraq is east of... So the other option was west. And that's what Safwan said. That Safwan said, we can't go west either. What do we do? Then they said, let's go the really long way. Which is literally like semi-circle. So then Al-Aswad is saying, let's go the much longer way. Up basically, eastwards. And then up northeast, and then double back down basically, towards the route again to make their way up to Syria. And this shows us by the way how desperate they're getting. This shows us that Badr was a huge success in the long run even. Not just the people who were captured and killed, but also in terms of stopping the interference, making sure the Quraysh are feeling the pinch if you like. So they had to find somebody who knew the route. This is not a common road. They had to find somebody and they hunted down a person who were able to guide them from this very strange route, which is not a route that they had ever done before. And this was a route that would take them far east of Medina and then upwards northeast and then double back towards Syria. And so they decided that we're gonna take this route and they loaded up this caravan with their goods and with silver to go to Syria. And this time the leader was Umayyah ibn Safwan. Safwan ibn Umayyah. Safwan ibn Umayyah. Now, so this is basically Badr part two, right? The caravan. again, this is the second year now after Badr and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had willed that all of this money go directly into the hands of the Muslims how so? the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam heard of this even though it was supposed to be top secret and he sent an expedition against them how did he hear of it? it is mentioned that one of the people who was in on the secret so there was a very secret you know, elite group of Quraysh. One of them was drinking wine with Salih ibn Nu'man. And Salih ibn Nu'man was a Muslim who had remained in Mecca but not told anybody of his conversion. Right? And up until this point in time, wine had not been prohibited. So he's drinking with his drinking buddy. And the drinking buddy is in the elite circle. So he's drinking and he boasted when he was drunk he boasted that the Quraysh have a plan that no one will be able to outsmart and we will basically ridicule the Muslims we will have the upper hand over the Prophet ﷺ and he told them we're gonna take this and this route to get to Syria and as soon as Salih heard this he immediately sent the message informing the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ now this is basically a sitting duck you know you have a caravan you have a hundred camels full of booty and silver and what not. This is a sitting duck. Even if you have 50 people guarding it, it's a caravan. It's not an army. And that's what they had wanted at Badr, by the way. That's what they had wanted at Badr. And so the Prophet ﷺ, of course Allah had willed this is gonna happen. I mean this is just too good to be true. If 10-15 people knew about it, one of them falls drunk and boasts about it. This is Allah's plan. This is how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala plans it. And so the Prophet ﷺ heard about this. He sent Zayd ibn Harithah to intercede this caravan. And the entire caravan with all of the camels. And it has said over 50,000 dirhams, which is a fortune even in our times. If we were to have 50,000 dirhams, imagine back then. Plus the leather, plus all of the other goods. Basically the whole caravan, lock, stock and barrel, came into the hands of the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims. Now pause here. Allah Azzawajal had promised the Muslims at Badr, that I'll give you one of the two. In fact, Allah gave them both. Think about it. You guys following? وَإِذْ يَعْدُكُمُ اللَّهُ إِحْدَى الطَّائِفَةَنِي Back at Badr, Allah had said, don't worry, you will have one of the two. But Allah is Al-Kareem. And when the Muslims got what they didn't want, Allah gave them what they wanted. This was the Qadr of Allah. So when they didn't get the actual first caravan, And khalas, the second one, with zero casualties by the way. Zero casualties. They got lock, stock and barrel the entire caravan. And this made the Quraysh so desperate that it led up to Uhud. Because now khalas, they have no way. Right? Imagine now. Nothing is left. And so there's a level of desperation now. That they have to do something. And this is what led to the battle of Uhud. and the battle of Uhud we will discuss when we come back there is one major incident left which I was dreading to do but it needs to be done it is one of the most controversial it is one of the this is the sariyah of Qarada Qarada with a dal Qarada and there was no battle per se again zero casualties you have a hundred Muslims coming and the caravan is protected by just a light protection because they really did not think that the Prophet ﷺ would ever figure this out. It's such a desperate move to go from this unknown passage. You have to find a guide who's gonna figure this out. But Allah عز و جل wanted to expose them. Nonetheless, let us now get to this controversial issue. What is this controversial issue? It is the issue of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf. Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf. And the killing of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf. And this is no doubt one of the most sensitive issues of the seerah. and it deserves some special attention. So who is Ka'b and what's so sensitive about this issue? Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, he was the son of an Arab father and a Jewish mother. So he has a unique merging. His father was a pure Arab, a pagan. His father was an Arab. And his mother was of the Jews of the Banu Nadir. His father was from the tribe of the Banu Nabhan, which is far away from Medina. But he had committed murder, his father, not him. So he had to flee his own people, or else to get safe. He had to flee his own people. And so he fled and he was adopted by the Banu Nadir of Yathrib. We're talking about way before Islam. 50-40 years before Islam. He's adopted by the Banu Nadir. Right? And when they adopted him, then they allowed him to marry one of their women. Okay? So he marries one of them. And then from this marriage, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf is born. And so Ka'b is basically a full Arab and a full Jew. Because of course in Judaism the religion is from the mother. And so he has lineage, he has basically the nasab of the Arabs. And he also has the religion and the tarbiyah and the nobility that the Banu Nadir has. And he was of the Ashraf of the Banu Nadir, which means he was of the leaders of the Banu Nadir. And he was known for many things. Number one, his richness. He was a rich man. He had his own fortress. He lived in his own fortress. Number two, he was known for his handsomeness. He was one of the most handsome people of Yathrib. He was one of the most handsome people of Yathrib. And generally when you have two races mixing together, you get the best of both. This is the sunnah of Allah. So, he was known for his handsomeness. And number three, he was known for his shi'r, his poetry. He was a poet. he was a poet and his animosity to Islam was demonstrated from very early on of the earliest was right when the procession emigrated and the qibla was changed, this was way early on, like the second month, third month after the hijrah, right, when the qibla is changed that, when the qibla was changed, it was Ka'b who said, ma wallahum an qiblatihim, why would they change their qibla that they used to have and Allah says in the Quran سَيَقُولُ السُّفَهَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ and he quotes Ka'b this is Ka'b the second Jews look it up the first ayah of the second Jews this is Ka'b سَيَقُولُ السُّفَهَاءُ مِنَ النَّاسِ مَا وَلَّهَ مَنْ قِبْلَةٍ وَلِذْ كَانُوا عَلَيْهَا this is Ka'b so he's mocking now they were praying this way now they're gonna pray this way what type of religion is this? so very early on we see his mockingness when the commandment for Zakah was revealed also very early on in the Meccan stage when the commandment of zakah was revealed. Ka'b went to his friends who had converted from the Ansar now, so his friends from pre-Islam who had converted, and he said, do not give any of your money. Because I am worried that you will become poor if you keep on giving your money away like this. And don't be hasty in getting rid of this wealth because you don't know what's gonna happen to this man. Meaning, maybe the situation will change, will go back to the way it used to be. And at this, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed in Surah An-Nisa, it is mentioned, الذين يبخلون ويأمرون الناس بالبخل. Those people who are stingy and they command others to be stingy. ويقتمون ما آتاهم الله من فضله and they hide what Allah عز و جل has given of His blessings. So this is a description of Ka'b. That he was stingy in being charitable. He was very rich by the way, but he was not charitable. and he was commanding others to be stingy as well. And many other small things like this are mentioned. A number of verses in the Quran that talk about certain things that are said. It is Ka'b and we don't have time to go every one of them. At the battle of Badr, when the two criers came back, Zayd ibn Harithah and the other crier, when they came back from Badr announcing so and so has died, so and so has died. When Ka'b heard the news, he said mockingly, sarcastically, if Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has really killed all of these people then it is better to be inside the earth than outside of it it's better to be dead than alive if truly these men are dead and he added and these are from the noblest of the Arabs if he has really killed all of these people then we might as well be dead it is better to be dead than alive and dare I say he pronounced the verdict against himself okay if that's what you want you will get it right so he said it's better to be dead than alive and indeed that is what happened in a while when the victory of Badr was fully manifested in front of Ka'b he undertook a secret expedition to Abu Sufyan with a small group of the Banu Nadir now the Banu Nadir will be the second tribe that we're gonna deal with so keep these points in mind what is happening now firstly they already helped Abu Sufyan now another thing is gonna happen that the Ka'b al-Ashraf goes with a small entourage to Abu Sufyan in Mecca. And he forms an alliance with him against the Prophet ﷺ. Now what are the details of this alliance? We have no idea. None of the books of Sira mentioned. Because again, this was something between the two of them. And then he was killed shortly afterwards. What is known is he formed an alliance. What could this alliance be other than a surprise attack? Other than a tactic? What is to be done? Right? Other than details. You come, I'll help you here. This is common sense. But what are the details? We do not know. So he formed an alliance with Abu Sufyan. And he then... And Abu Sufyan, one of the last things that Abu Sufyan asked him, he said, أُنَاشِدُكَ اللَّهُ I ask you, swearing by Allah. Abu Sufyan is asking Ka'b, which of the two religions is closer and more beloved to Allah? Our religion or the religion of Muhammad ﷺ? Now he's asking a monotheist. Ka'b is a monotheist, he's a Yahudi. Which of the two religions is better? paganism or the monotheism of Islam. And so, Ka'ab is a Yahudi. So, he is asking Ka'ab, in your opinion, which of these two religions is more beloved to Allah? Remember, the pagans felt an inferiority complex towards the Yahud. Remember, they felt an inferiority complex towards the Yahud because the Yahud were Thaqafa, people of civilization. يقرؤون they would read and write they have tarikh they have the Torah so they felt inferior to them and this is what many incidents show this right so he is saying now that which of these two religions is more beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Ka'b said that أنتم أهدى منهم سبيلا أنتم أهدى منهم سبيلا you are more rightly guided than them you are more rightly guided than them and Allah references this conversation in the Quran in surah an-nisa verse 50 that أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يَزْعُمُونَ أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِنَ الْكِتَابِ don't you see those who have been given a share of the book وَيُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْجِبْطِ وَالطَّاغُوتِ and they believe in jibta and taghut jibta and taghut there is a lot of controversy what exactly it means but it basically means things that are evil and وَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا and they say to those who have done kufr, هَا أُولَي أَهْدَى مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا سَبِيلًا He's quoting Ka'b again. Allah is quoting this private conversation. That they are more rightly guided than the believers. هَا أُولَي أَهْدَى مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا سَبِيلًا And this is exactly what Ka'b said in that private conversation. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala quotes him again. This is Surah An-Nisa verse 50. So, he then returns to Medina after having formed this secret alliance with Abu Sufyan. but Allah has told the Prophet ﷺ of this secret alliance. Then he does the last straw. When he returns to Medina, he has the last straw. And that is, he is a poet. And I did not mention that he has already written a lot of poetry against the Prophet ﷺ, against the Muslims. Now he starts writing, how should we say this? Sensual poetry about Muslim ladies. i.e. basically erotic poetry to make fun of the Muslim ladies and to entice men to think about them basically so it's very vivid poetry you get the point here that as a satire as a mockery he starts describing and talking about specific by name by the way specific ladies, Muslim ladies and now this is obviously really like a little bit too crude it's a little bit too crude is really crossing the line in all, in all, in all, especially at that time, it's even now amongst me. But this is a little bit too much, right? And so, this is basically the final straw. Now I have to add one more point here. So, according to Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham Al-Waqidi, Ka'b was assassinated between Badr and Uhud, which is why we're doing it now. But there is another opinion. And that is the opinion of great scholars as well, Muqatil Ibn Sulaiman, and Al-Baghawi and others. Al-Salehi as well, who has one of the largest books of Sira ever written is Subul Al-Huda Wal Rashad by Al-Salehi, which is literally like 12 volumes. It's one of the largest books ever written. And he's a very famous scholar of Sira. Died around, I want to say 900 something. So medieval, not ancient and not medieval. So according to Salehi as well, Ka'ab was executed, Ka'ab was killed, basically after Uhud and not after Badr. After Uhud and before Khandaq, but right after Uhud. And all of them add one more reason, which Al-Waqidi and Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham cannot add because it didn't take place in their time. And that is the blatant assassination attempt against the Prophet ﷺ, which the Banu Nadir did. Now we're jumping the story here, but we have to just mention. you all are familiar with the vague story of the Prophet ﷺ having been invited to a poisoned meal right? now this occurred after Uhud so we're not talking about it now but according to As-Salehi and Muqatir ibn Sulaiman and Al-Baghawi and others the guy behind the plot was Ka'b that it was his idea to poison the food and he was killed the night of literally 12 hours before Banu Nadir battle the battle of Banu Nadir like they got rid of him and then the next morning literally maybe even 5-6 hours because he was killed in the middle of the night they killed Ka'b in the middle of the night and then the next morning according to those authorities they marched upon Banu Nadir so if we follow that version of events then it's even more clear what's going on however we'll stick with Ibn Ishaq because he is Ibn Ishaq so you know Allahu Alam and frankly this is one of those issues of seerah how are we going to resolve it now? When did he die? If it's before the battle of Uhud, then the issue of the poison doesn't take place. However, As-Salehi also says that, and this is perhaps joining between the two stories, that the idea of poisoning the food came from him. So it wasn't able to be executed at the time. They had to wait until after Uhud. But it was his idea that why don't you invite him to Ta'am Masmoom. You put poison in it. So we'll have a big feast and he will eat the food and then he will die. And eventually they did that after his death. If that is the case, then obviously we can add even one more reason. But even if we don't follow Baghawi's chronology, then still we have enough reasons as it is. In any case, when all of this took place, the Prophet ﷺ stood up and he said, Who will take care of Ka'b ibn Ashraf? مَلِّي بِكَعْبٍ Who will take care of Ka'b ibn Ashraf? and so because he has harmed or irritated Allah in his message the ada here means not to harm because Allah is never harmed but he has irritated he has you know basically gone beyond the bounds here and so Muhammad ibn Maslama stood up and he said I will do it O messenger of Allah Muhammad ibn Maslama was from the Aus and Ka'b had before in the days of Jahiliyyah, remember the Aus and the Banu Nadir were one. Right? And of course this is of his wisdom that he didn't want the Khazraj to do it or else this would bring up bad blood. You understand the point here that the Khazraj and the Banu Nadir already have problems from pre-Islam. Whereas the Aus and the Banu Nadir don't have any problems. So Muhammad ibn Maslam being one of the senior of the Aus, said I will do it and then if he does it, there can be no problems between the Aus and the Khazraj I mean, sorry, the Aws and the Banu Nadir because they were one in the days of Jahiliyyah. Remember, we talked about this, right? The Yahudi tribes had allied and so the alliances played a big role here. So somebody that had already allied with Ka'b in the days of Jahiliyyah, he's the one who volunteered in order to save the potential of the Jahiliy civil war being resurrected. You see the point, right? So Muhammad al-Maslamah volunteered to do it. According to Ibn Hisham, for three days after this Muhammad ibn Muslimah stopped eating and drinking until finally somebody came to the Prophet to tell him that Muhammad ibn Muslimah is not eating and drinking so he visited him he said what is the matter so he said O Messenger of Allah I promised you something and then I realized I might not be able to fulfill that promise and so in his anxiety basically he is so anxious can you imagine like he got so worried that I promised you I do it, and then I realize, what if I can't? How am I going to then basically make up for this, right? Remember, he's a rich man, he has his own fortress, he's well guarded, he has an entourage. How am I gonna do this? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, all you need to do is try. I'm not asking you to, you know, successes with Allah عز و جل, you have to try. That's all. And so this calmed him down obviously, because he was thinking, what if I'm not able to do, I'm in big trouble then. And so, he said in that case, O Master and Chaperone of Allah, allow me to say something. Meaning, you have to allow me to say things that I don't mean. Allow me to say something. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, say as you like. Say as you like. So Muhammad ibn Maslamah then called upon Ka'b in his, let's say in his office hours, i.e. at a time when clearly nothing can be done. He called upon Ka'b, there were other people sitting there. He said to Ka'b, look I have something very private I need to talk to you with. So they went to a corner, and he said, so now Muhammad al-Maslamah is saying to Ka'b, Muhammad is saying to Ka'b, that this man, meaning the Prophet ﷺ, has come and caused us irritation for the last years, few years. And the Arabs are now all against us. And on top of that, he's asking for our money, charity. Because the Arabs didn't have a concept of charity. So he's asking for our money and he has put us through so much trouble and hardship. With this war and the battle of Badr and this and that, put us through so much hardship. When Ka'b heard this, he felt so happy. Because here he was thinking Muhammad is a convert, right? He was thinking that Muhammad al-Maslamah is on their side and now he's coming to him and showing that no, in reality, he's just on the same wavelength as Ka'b. So he got really happy at this. And he goes, Wallahi, this is just the beginning, he is gonna put you through much more hardship. Just you wait and you see. He's gonna put you through much more hardship. And so they continued along this vein. So you understand why did Muhammad ibn Maslamah have to give a special dispensation that I'm not able to say things that, I need to say things that otherwise I would not be wanting to say. Until finally he said that, well, now we are his followers and we cannot forsake him until the situation turns a little bit. i.e. let something happen and then we can change and show our true colors. Until that time, I need you to loan me to pay him that money, i.e. zakat. Give me some loan and I will give it to the process and then pay you back. Now, Muhammad al-Maslama, one of the ways he got rich was by giving money. So he's a money lender if you like. And of course when you lend money, then you will get more back from it. So this is one of the ways that he got so rich. so he had a system or a routine. And everybody knows that that's why he's here now. That's why Muhammad ibn Maslamah is in Ka'b's office basically, asking for a loan. And so this procedure back then, still is to this day, what's your mortgage? Give me a mortgage. So he said, I don't have anything to give. I mean, that's why I'm here. I'm here for the money. I don't have anything to give. So he said, okay, leave your wife in my house. Leave your wife in my house. so he said by Allah you are the most handsome of men so he's praising, buttering him up and he was handsome you are the most handsome of men and you expect me to trust a woman in your presence so he puts it on him that you're so charming and alluring like Yusuf that the women are gonna rush to you you expect me to trust a woman in your presence I can't do that so he's flattered, he takes the bait and then he goes, okay then leave your sons with me Khalas, if you're worried about your wife, leave your sons with me. And you know, until you can pay it off in a few days, and you can take your sons back. So he said, my sons? So they will grow up for the rest of their lives, and their friends are teasing them, that you were the mortgage for some barley, some grain? So you know, you were the mortgage that your father had to give? Right? No, I can't have, this is a permanent dishonor. I can't give you my sons. So he said, what then? You need to give me some mortgage. so he said, what if I bring you weapons my weapons you see where he's heading with this what if I bring you my weapons swords and spears and what if I bring that to you and you know we need these weapons now because of all these wars going on so I'm desperate to get them back so this is a very urgent mortgage that you will possess so he said, great idea okay, bring your weapons and of course you understand the tactic here that he'll show up armed to the hilt and there's no suspicion right this is you have to say there's a little bit of genius here right now a little bit of grey area what exactly happened but it seems that two or three of the other sahaba along with Muhammad ibn Maslama had basically also gotten mortgages from from Ka'b along the similar lines right that once the idea of weapons came up so then two or three others Sulkani bin Salama, Abu Naila are mentioned here that they came and they basically said look you gave him money for weapons let's do the same we also need the money and we'll give you our weapons as well and so he agreed to all of this because obviously he's gonna get back much more as you understand how money exchanging works and therefore he, Abu Naila set a particular time he goes look we have to do this in secret because we don't want anybody to see us so let's come at such and such a time at night we will come and we will basically give all of this to you you can give us the money and we'll be on our way so according to Al-Waqidi this took place on the 14th of Rabi'ul-Awwal in the third year of the Hijrah and that's why because he has a date it seems he knows more than what Al-Baghawi knows so to be fair it seems the stronger position is that of Al-Waqidi and Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham and in any case they are the more authoritative in the seerah than the others whom we mentioned and so to be academically fair it seems closer to the truth that Ka'ab was killed between Badr and Uhud okay this seems to be more authentic because the bigger authorities are mentioning this nonetheless you should be aware that there is another interpretation and if that is true then it's even easier but even if it's not true we have enough you know to justify this for that time so they agreed to come on the 14th of Rabi'ul Awal and it was a full moon the books of Sira mentioned that there was no clouds in the sky it was a full moon and the Prophet ﷺ walked with them to Baqi' al-Gharqad. And at the very end he said, may Allah help you in your mission. So he blessed them basically. May Allah help you in your mission. And they then went to his castle which was a fortress which was on the outskirts of the city. And they called out to him from below to come on outside. And it is said that he had just married another wife. So he is now a newlywed with another lady. And he was lying with her when he heard the voice so he stood up to go and she held on to him and she said where are you going at this time so he said oh this is Abu Nailah and Muhammad Al-Maslamah they have come to give me some of their goods so she held on and she said this is not right why are they coming at this time and then she said and we're going to come back to this phrase you are a man at war and I'm worried for you we're going to come back to this phrase you are a man at war and I'm worried for you what you are doing at this time. So he said, no, Abu Nailah is my foster brother. So this shows us that one of the people that had basically joined Muhammad ibn Maslama was the foster brother, which means the same lady suckled him and Abu Nailah. Abu Nailah is my foster brother, and Muhammad ibn Maslama, I know him from pre-Islam basically. That's why Muhammad ibn Maslama volunteered. I know him from pre-Islam, I trust him basically. So he basically dragged himself off of her, and he went down and Muhammad al-Maslam had already told them what he was going to do. And that is that he will through some ruse or tactic hold on to his head and have him in an arm grip and then the others will do the deed. Now they knew that he was going to be armed because he was always heavily armed. He was a strong man. He had one of the most expensive armors because that's what they were known for to build armors, to buy armors. So he has wearing his personal armory as well. So they come down and it is a beautiful night, the moon is shining, full moon. And they began talking and just gossiping and whatnot, as was the way in the days of Jahiliyyah. And then Abu Na'ila said, I smell the nicest perfume coming from you. I smell the sweetest scent, where is this from? So he answered, Yes, I have with me a young lady who is the most scented of all of the women of Arabia. Now the Arabs prize their scents, they love their musk. and she's with me in bed basically. This is where that smell is coming from. So he said, allow me to smell it. It smells so good, allow me to smell it. So he came closer, said, smell it, right? So then he said, oh, it's coming from your hair. Please let me smell it. So he lowered his hair so he can smell it. And so he held on to him and then the others basically did the deed. But it wasn't easy. Because of his armor that he was wearing, it wasn't easy. And it is said that one of them, Al-Harith ibn Aus, he was severely wounded by the others who were attacking he was severely wounded and he was bleeding badly he had to limp back to Medina and so they returned back to Medina and the Prophet ﷺ met them and he put some of his saliva on Al-Harith his wounds and it healed instantaneously and this was basically the end of Ka'b ibn Al-Ashraf now it is very obvious why this incident is problematic in light of modern times It's very obvious why this is a very sensitive issue. And that is because the charge is given that this is a blatant assassination attempt that is justified by the Prophet ﷺ. And it is an authentic incident. It is mentioned in Sahih Bukhari, it is mentioned in Ibn Hussain. I mean, there is no way to deny this even though some Muslims, you know, they have this methodology. Anything that's embarrassing, try to get rid of it. And you know, this is not my philosophy. so some of them they try to get rid of it but it is obviously an authentic incident. Sahih al-Bukhari has a whole chapter, the chapter of the killing of Ka'b al-Bun Ashraf. And you have a number of narrations which are very explicit. Sahih Muslim, it is in Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham. I mean, there is no book of seerah except that it mentions it, right? If you're gonna deny this, then wallahi you've denied everything that we have of the seerah. Clearly it took place. Now, a number of reasons are given why this assassination took place. The most obvious reason is this treaty with Abu Sufyan. This is the most obvious, number one on the list. That he goes all the way to Mecca, and he enacts some top secret treaty that we don't know the details about. But it is very clear, I mean what else can it be other than a type of battle that will take place with the Banu Nadir and the Quraysh helping one another against the Muslims. This is understood, right? So a time, a place, weapons, whatnot, not all of this has been agreed and discussed. So it's very clear that this is a threat to the community. Another issue that is mentioned is the verses, or there's the poetry against the women, the Muslim ladies. Another reason that is mentioned is, if you want to follow al-Baghawi's chronology, then of course we have the number one reason would be, the direct attempt at assassinating the Prophet ﷺ. And frankly, I mean, here is one of those issues that, of course the reasons are very solid by the way so these reasons are very solid apart from Baghawi's one which is an issue of chronology the Abu Sufyan treaty is very clear that this is a man who needs to be taken care of for his political danger to Islam and to the Muslims the problem comes not that he wasn't a criminal but in the manner of getting rid of him right and that is basically an execution or an assassination not that he wasn't guilty but that in our time in our place technically we would put him on trial and then pronounce the verdict and then maybe execute if that's the thing so this is really the main if you like charge that is laid and that is the charge of assassination now frankly here is one of those points where I think one of our problems is we are judging the political situation in the time of the Prophet ﷺ as if it is in our time And we're judging him with our own laws and customs, and trying to retroactively look at the seerah in light of modern laws. Frankly, those were different societies, those were different times, and the people who lived in those societies, they understood the dynamics of that society. And that is why we go back to that interesting phrase of his wife. When she told him that you are a man at war, even though he himself did not participate in a battle up until that point against the Muslims. Right? But she, and she's a woman, understood that what my husband is doing, you're declaring war and you are not safe. And she understood this because the customs of the time, the political landscape at that time was very different than our landscape. And the laws at that time were very different. And therefore, in my humble opinion, I don't feel the need to try to justify in light of our laws that's something that they did and they understood it and it was understood for that point in time the fact that in our time it might not be done okay, so be it if we had a theoretical modern Islamic state and the laws were different it is not wajib to follow those types of laws in our times it's not at all wajib we can have our own system of laws and if we have a different system than those systems there's no problem in that at all but the main point here at that time, the Prophet ﷺ is basically the government of Islam. And his decree is political and religious and legal all in one. And therefore he is the judge and he is the ruler. And therefore it is legal for him to do this in this manner. He didn't do this in Mecca when he doesn't have any authority, political authority. He didn't do it in Mecca. Hold on, we're getting there. he didn't do it in Mecca when he didn't have any political authority he didn't do it when he didn't have sulta we call it, which is executive power rather he did it when he himself now has actual political power and therefore frankly I don't see the need to quote unquote defend this action this is what it is and we don't need to try to sugar coat it it is what it is He did it and in that time and place completely justified. Do we have to recreate that type of, if you like, tactic in our time? It is up to the Islamic government. Theoretically if they want to decide this, there is no Islamic government. If there is one, it is up to them to decide what laws to run. And what is clear, and this is the main point here, is that the reason he has been killed is not because he rejected Islam. You can be a kafir. it's not even because he ridiculed the Prophet ﷺ personally it is because of his political actions and then frankly there is that line of we do have and it is very true and it is a part of our Islamic culture to have an extra respect and in Arabic is ghiara which is there is no English term I've thought about this there is no English term for ghiara no no ghiara is a very specific term it's a positive jealousy or what not or an honor that you have for those who are defenseless and you so basically the issue of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf in my humble opinion there is no need to become apologetic it's very clear that what the Prophet ﷺ did was completely understood expected and legal for his time and place and as for our time and place it's something that we can the Islamic state can decide what to do And then we also have to add here, very frankly, in light of recent developments where our own country and government has now opened this door of targeted assassinations. And of killing its own citizens, knowing it's killing them, right? And of sending drones against even 16 year old kids now. We have to be very frank here. Nobody who agrees with this tactic can find any problem with the story of Ka'b. Let's just silence that immediately. you cannot have your cake and eat it as well you cannot be a kettle calling the potter it's just not going to happen you cannot agree to this tactic which is by the way much worse for many reasons which we won't get into now but it is much worse to send a drone bomb onto a 16 year old kid and then not one squeak is raised and not just this but everybody that they have killed more than their own citizens this is now open policy right and it is now constitutional and legal as of yet it has not been challenged in any court and no court has been able to take it so this is now what is happening is 10 or 100 times worse than what happened back then and anybody who then agrees with this cannot have any problem with that nonetheless I don't feel the need to try to justify or defend I think it is what it is that the Prophet ﷺ saw the threat that Ka'b was and in fact it showed us as well, and Ibn Ishaq mentions this, that with the killing of Ka'b, the other Yahud, they were inflicted with a fear, they understood what's going on, the dynamics, and many of them did not leave their fortresses for days after that. And there is a message being sent. And frankly, if you look at the process of relationship with the Yahud, it does get stricter over time, and this is what you expect. That if this is not gonna work, then how about this? If this is not gonna work, then how about that? right? It's getting stricter because they themselves are getting more blatant right? You have the Banu Qaynuqa threatening him directly to his face you didn't fight men, remember this last week, you didn't fight men you fought a bunch of cowards if you had fought real men you would have seen what would have happened. Can you believe you're telling this to your leader, right? And then you have over here the Banu Nadhir already now helping Abu Sufyan out by the way, right? Now I tried my best to find out did they help Abu Sufyan in this expedition of Qarqaratul Qadr or not, did Ka'b in particular help? Because it says the Banu Nadhir helped Abu Sufyan. Right? I tried my best to look every single book up today, and nothing is mentioned who from the Banu Nadhir helped. But if we were to add the possibility that Ka'b was one of the main people who helped Abu Sufyan, and it would make sense that a few weeks later he then travels to Abu Sufyan, right? Now this is my theory. Take it or leave it, and we'll never know fully. but it makes sense to me to add one and one to get two. Which is, a few weeks after Abu Sufyan attacks Medina, Ka'ab goes all the way to Abu Sufyan. So I have a theory, and it's just a theory, we're never gonna know. Maybe it was Ka'ab himself who helped Abu Sufyan in that attack on Medina. And if this is the case, then even more, because what does the book of Sira say? The Banu Nadir helped him. And Ka'ab is of the Ashraf of Banu Nadir. so frankly there's just too much of a grey area if you like to put all of this together Allah knows best but I think it is a good if you like guess to make that it was Ka'b and a group of Ka'b that helped Abu Sufyan in any case to summarize and then inshallah we open the fourth quran because I don't want to start ohud or else it's not going to be appropriate to start ohud right now to summarize I think that the incident of Ka'b ibn Ashraf needs to be told like it is, and that is that it is a political incident that the Prophet ﷺ approved. It was in accordance with the norms, with the understandings, with the political society and laws of his time. And it was done not because Ka'b was a poet, even though yes that added to it, but it was because Ka'b was a genuine political threat. And that he had gone above and beyond merely rejecting Islam. and we notice here in the seerah that a kafir is never harmed or killed just because he's a kafir rather there is a line and that line is obvious you start describing women in muslim women you start telling men to visit them that's where the poetry is there you can read it like literally I don't want to mention this but you get the point here like he's literally saying things there's a line you just don't cross it And for him to go to this level, he knows what he's getting involved with. To have an alliance with Abu Sufyan, he knows what he's getting involved with. Therefore, honestly, he knows the risks. His wife understood the risks. And she's a woman. She understands the risks. That my husband is doing these things. So, here it is. That is the story of Ka'bah bin Ashraf. And we have no qualms in saying, this is exactly what happened. I don't see the point sugarcoating it. It is what it is. and it is something that frankly I don't see any problem with as the Prophet ﷺ having done. And with this insha'Allah ta'ala we will take a few questions and then break for Salat al-Isha. Now you're raising this issue between me and him. Of the ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ. Whatever the Prophet ﷺ did, whether it was directly commanded or not, Allah Azza wa Jal indirectly approved so in the end it is all from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala whether it is direct or indirect it's semantics in the end it is from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala okay yes go ahead go ahead Ka'ab was from Banu Nazir so that's the point he violated the treaty, the constitution so again the problem comes not that he should be punished but how he was punished there is no judge trial jury, this is the point there is no jail, he didn't by the way there was no jail in Medina, the concept of jails was much later on in Islam so the point that non-Muslims there is a whole article, you can understand this is story I mean it's not for a lot but the anti-Islamic websites this is probably the top two, three stories, this is one of those that they love to harp on. Right? And that is the assassination of the Prophet ﷺ. To kill a person like Saddam Hussein, to destroy the whole country, to kill a person? This is our job to show the double standards. To kill a person to kill the whole society? This is our job to show the double standards. Right? This is our job. That's the part of what we do. That they have no right to criticize in light of their own history. And that's what I said as well. especially in light of recent history, which is what is happening is even more blatant targeted assassinations. Okay, yes. The story with Banu Qaymukhaw where the prophets of those times stated very clearly that the Sahifa has been broken. Why didn't that happen this time? Is there any wisdom in not... It's going to happen right after. So just give it a few months. It's building up. It's going to happen with the Banu Nadir. Right? So things are happening that shows the character of Banu Nadir. And then the time will come when it is right to basically take action against them. But right now, action is taken against the main instigator within the Banu Nadir. But taking action against him is an indirect message to the whole tribe. Sisters, any questions? Yes. So what was the reaction of the Banu Nadir? So the books of Sira mentioned that not just the Banu Nadir, the other tribes, they all basically complained about this. And the Prophet ﷺ did not basically take their complaints, do anything about them, those complaints, because he had in fact ordered it himself. And the message was given, Ibn Ishaq says that not a single tribe of them basically felt safe afterwards. That they felt that the threat is coming around them. And this is one of the direct, basically reasons for doing this. And that is to send the message, you can't get away with this. You cannot get away with blatant treason. I mean, no country allows this. So yes, they did complain. And their complaints were not basically responded to because that's justified. Okay, yes. This is a video, just before they captured all these police and all these, was there hostages? How would they do with the man? Which one are you talking about? the caravan no they fled, the Quraysh fled there were no prisoners of war and there were no casualties no blood was shed and this is the whole beauty that Allah gifted them this entire ghanima without a drop of blood and this is as I said just think about it this is the generosity of Allah just you know amazing right they get all of this and then on top of that they get that as well without even, you know, they didn't realize it, even at the time. And Allah Azawajal gave it to them, without a drop of blood being shed. So literally, just this wealth of the Quraysh just comes in. And remember this point, because put yourself, you know, basically from their perspective. How desperate are you gonna be now? You can't go the main route. You can't go the alternative route. The only other route, khalas, that's also taken out, right? You are cutting off the oxygen. and they are desperate now and this is what was exactly the intent of the Prophet ﷺ right, yes one more question when when the Prophet ﷺ was killed he had bodyguards he didn't take, that's why they came at night no, there was nobody nobody came because that's the point, they came late at night because they themselves don't want the people to know that they're getting money and putting the stuff there. And so they set the time with him, the appointment time. They said we'll come at night, you know, on the 14th basically. And so it was completely empty. It was desolate. He came alone. His wife was begging him to come. He came alone. So this was the whole point of having convinced him that they genuinely want to give him this to get more money and what not. So he fell for it basically. Yes. Go ahead. Question of a trial before This is the third year of Indra. And it means that eight, nine, ten, the political, historical, social, we do establish this. I believe that any other historical individual, general, you know, in Washington fighting, independent people, because you can't do that. You need a world system. So authority is not settled, so could we not use that? And then we not… The reason we don't have everything established This is a good point. And that is what Dr. Zuma is saying. Is that at this point in time, there is no established law and order. Still there's a lot of threats internally and externally. And if you look at any revolution, even the American revolution, George Washington, when he was fighting the British and others. Every revolution that takes place, it's not a clean thing. any type of look around what's happening these days in our own Arab springs what's happening, it's a chaos and confusion yes, this can also be said this can also be said that this is a good point that there is no system up and running yet and that the system is still being established yes, this is a good point Allah knows best Thank you.

Seerah 44 - Summary of Meccan period - Yasir Qadhi _ 9th January 2013-BoIr6tVXw00

So as we had discussed before, today inshallah will be a summary of the entire Meccan Sira. so we're going to begin from the beginning and then work our way to the Hijrah so that we're catching up inshallah ta'ala after this break it's also a new year for our academic studies as you know it's 2013 so we need to catch up to summarize all that we have done before we move on so let us begin from the very beginning and the very beginning we go back to the days of Jahiliyyah we go back to the days of pre-Islam the Arabian Peninsula was occupied by a number of people and we can divide them into three simple categories. Three simple categories of those who lived in Arabia. The first are those who are the ancient Arabs. Examples of them are Ad and Thamud, the ancient Arabs. We really don't have much history about them and they don't have any descendants. So these are the, they're called Al-Arab Al-Ba'idah, which is the extinct Arabs. At the time of the Prophet ﷺ, there were two other groups of Arabs. and these groups, both of them were called Al-Arab Al-Baqiyah, the remaining Arabs so we have Al-Ba'idah which are the extinct Arabs and then Al-Baqiyah, the remaining Arabs, the remaining Arabs at the time of the Prophet ﷺ were of two camps, who can remind me quickly Adnan and Qahitan Adnan and Qahitan now both of these Adnan and Qahitan they go back to no, they go back to Adnan and Qahitan go back to Adnan, no no No. No. Qahdan has nothing to do with Ismail. No. Adnan and Qahdan, who did they go back to? Both of them. We went over this. This is a quiz question for a year and a half ago. Long time. Some of you don't have your notes from back then. They go back to Sam. They go back to Sam, the son of Nuh. And so they're both Semites. They're both Semites. Okay? And Qahdan, are called Al-Arab Al-Aribah. And these are, let's say, the original Arabs at the time pre-Islam. And Adnan are called Al-Arab Al-Musta'ribah. The Arabs who came into Arabia. Okay? So, Qahtan are the Arab Al-Aribah, which means the Arabs who were living for hundreds of years before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ, before the coming of Ibrahim, before the coming of Ismail. The Arab lands were occupied by groups of Arabs, we call them basically descendants of Qahtan. And Adnan, who is Adnan? Adnan is a descendant of Ismail. Adnan is a descendant of Ismail. So, the story goes, when Hajar was left in Mecca with Ismail, a group of the Arab Al-Ariba, i.e. the Qahtanis passed by. And these were the tribe of quickly, which tribe? that Ismail lived with, married into. The tribe of Jorhum. The tribe of Jorhum. Okay? So Ismail was raised in Mecca. He intermarries into the tribes of Jorhum. And the Adnan and the Qahhtani tribes since that time have been intermixing. Even though of course we can still distinguish in terms of male lineage, which is Adnani and which is Qahhtani. And the time of the Prophet ﷺ was preceded by a number of very interesting occurrences that took place. Of the most important of these occurrences, the tribe of Juhm and Ismail a.s. married into them. The tribe of Juhm became the controllers of the Kaaba. And they are basically descendants of Adnan, even though they're also descendants of Qahtan, right? Excuse me, descendants of Ismail and descendants of Qahtan. So for a while the tribe of Juhm rules over Mecca. then a number of internal revolts take place. This is what we're talking about over 3,000 years of history. A number of internal revolts take place and the Jorhumites basically become more and more rebellious and evil. And therefore, one of the other tribes, the tribe of Khuza'ah and the founder of this tribe is Amr ibn Luhayy. And he is mentioned in hadith, Amr ibn Luhayy al-Khuzai. The tribe of Khuza'ah then ejects Jorhum, gets rid of Jorhum. And this is when Jorhum buried all the treasure. They buried all the treasure around the Kaaba, right? So they get rid of the tribe of Jorhum. And Amr ibn Luhay, the tribe of Khuza'at, then takes over the Kaaba. So the Jorhumites are expelled. The Khuza'ites are now in charge. And Amr ibn Luhay was their first chieftain. He was the one, according to our Prophet ﷺ, who introduced idolatry. The Jorhumites, no matter how bad they were, they were evil, it is said that they would basically take advantage of the pilgrims and they were greedy, but they were not mushrikun they didn't do any shirk so the people wanted to get rid of them, the khuza'ah basically kicked them out they became charge of the Ka'bah, but the khuza'ah did something much worse and they introduced idolatry for the first time now we don't have exact dates but roughly it is said and rough calculations might show that around 200 of the Christian era, so basically around 400 years before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ, four centuries before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ, عَمْدِ بْنِ اللُحَيْءَ الْخُزَاعِ He was the chieftain of the tribe. When he kicked the Jorhumites out, he went to Syria for a business transaction and the people of Syria were the Amalika, they were giants in the land, it is said they had a flowering civilization. He was impressed with them and they were idol worshippers. and so he took the god of Hubal which is an ancient they say that is an ancient Greek or Roman god as well Allah knows but they have this theory that is one of those ancient gods he took the actual idol of Hubal they gifted him one of their real idols so he took the idol of Hubal and he brought it in front of the Kaaba and this was the beginning of idolatry now because it's a new season new era, new tribe has come in so the people are willing for change and so the Khuza'a tribe Amr ibn Luhay introduced many of the evil things and he also introduced some good things as well in terms of structure in terms of government and the tribe and he was also the one who changed by the way the Hajj he changed the Talbiyah he is the one who introduced many different pagan customs which the Quran references ma ja'alallahu min bahiratin wala sa'ibatin wala wasilatin wala ham all of these are pagan customs that Amr ibn Luhay introduced our Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith in Sahih Muslim, that I saw Amr ibn Luhay dragging his intestines in the fire of hell, dragging behind him. He was the first person to introduce idolatry into the haram. He was the first person to change the religion of Ibrahim a.s. Of the major occurrences, so the tribe of Khuza'a, the tribe of Khuza'a are not the Quraysh. They're still not the Quraysh. So the Quraysh are not yet in charge of Mecca, still. What happens, how did the Quraysh get in charge of Mecca again? So the Quraysh have not been in charge of Mecca since the time of the pre-Jeromites, right? Meaning the Bani Ismail. They have not been in charge of Mecca, but they have been living around Mecca. For all of this time, they have basically been in the vicinity. The Prophet ﷺ's great, great, great, great grandfather, Qusay ibn Kilab. He was the one who managed to basically re-enter Mecca, not re-conquer. Why? Because the story says that he married the daughter of the chieftain of Khuza'a. So the chieftain of Khuza'a, he had a daughter, and Qusay married that daughter. And when the chieftain died, Qusay is the powerful son-in-law. Perhaps he didn't have sons, we don't know. But basically he takes charge of the people of Mecca. There was a war as well between Khuza'a and Quraysh, or Qusay we can say, and Qusay won over them, that I am going to be your chieftain. And so, from Qusay ibn Kilab, and roughly Qusay ibn Kilab is around 450 CE. Around 450 CE, so before the Prophet ﷺ, around 150 years, Qusay ibn Kilab takes charge of the Ka'bah, and the Quraysh remain there in charge until the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. So this is the beginning, if you like, Allah ﷻ is setting the stage for the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. This is the Prophet ﷺ's great-great-great-great-grandfather, right? everybody should memorize the nasab of the prophet every one of you should know his genealogy at least until Qusay so let's do it all together Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abdul Muttalib Ibn Hashim Ibn Abd Manaf Ibn Qusay Ibn Kilab Ibn Murrah okay so once again you should all know this is basic genealogy right basic genealogy We're not even asking to go back to Adnan or something, but just basically. Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Muttalib, everybody should know this, right? Abdul Muttalib's father is the Hashim, Banu Hashim, Hashimites. The Hashimite kingdom of Jordan, Hashim. So Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Muttalib, ibn Hashim, right? And then Hashim is the son of Abdi Manaf. And Abdi Manaf is the son of this guy Qusay. Okay? So Qusay is the one who reintroduces Quraysh into the Haram. And his great grandson Hashim, so this is now the Banu Hashimites, Hashim. Hashim is the one who then made Mecca a political and an economic capital by doing what? Rihlat al-Shita'i wa al-Sayf. Rihlat al-Shita'i wa al-Sayf is Hashim. Right? So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's great grandfather. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's great grandfather. Ibn al-Muttalib ibn Hashim. So Hashim is the one who then makes Mecca the economic capital. It's a brilliant idea and scheme. We talked about this way back in the day. That by having these two one to Yemen and the other to Syria. He's basically linking Mecca to the international trade routes. From Yemen there's Abyssinian Africa. All of Africa and all of India are linked through Yemen. And then from Syria you have the entire Byzantine Empire. The Roman Empire. Right? And so this is a beautiful ingenious scheme that now makes Mecca a source of wealth. It makes Mecca a source of dominion. A source of political and economic strength. And all of this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is laying the foundation for the Prophet ﷺ to come. And before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ in terms of external politics, we already said that there were two major powers. The Byzantine Empire, or to be more precise, the Eastern Byzantine Empire. And this is basically the remnants of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire split into two. You have the Western and the Eastern. This is the Eastern Byzantine that we're interested in. The Western is of course Europe and Europe did not deal with the Prophet ﷺ. That's not relevant to our seerah. Europe only comes into the picture at the Crusades. That's the first encounter of Europe with Islam is the Crusades that's gonna happen another thousand years later. And the time of the Prophet ﷺ up until the Crusades it was only Eastern Europe which is the Eastern Byzantine Empire. And then of course on the other side you have the Persians, the Sassanid Kingdom. and the other principalities in India and China did not play any role in the seerah. Arabia, we said, was perfect politically and geographically for many reasons. Arabia was perfect for many reasons. First and foremost, it was smack in the middle between the two superpowers. So geographically, if you're gonna interact with both of them, you don't wanna be on one side. You don't wanna... it's smack in the middle. So it's perfect. in terms of history Arabia does not have any colonialist history it does not have any major negative wars with either of the two so it has been neutral there are some Arabs that have treaties with the Persians, there are some Arabs that have treaties with the Byzantines so the Arabs as a whole have been neutral also the Arabs have never been a unified force, so the first person to unify them will become a national force, an international force And our Prophet ﷺ was the first person to unify all of the Arabs. Before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ, the Arabs had never been united. So it is as if there is, what's a good word here? Hidden talent or latent, if you like, power. Latent power. That power is there but it hasn't been kindled yet. All of the Arabs are there but they haven't been united yet. If they are united, they can become a force. They have not been united because they're in paganism. They're in jahiliyyah, there is no unified government. And so Allah Azza wa Jal is willing for our Prophet ﷺ to bring a new religion, a new system, a new entire way of life, so that the Arabs will now become an international power. Also, religiously, the Arabs are neither Christians nor Zoroastrians. So the Arabs are now a third party as well. So economically and politically they're neutral, religiously they're also neutral. It's absolutely perfect now. Religiously they are pagans, they will become Muslims. so a new religion will come and this will be the uniting force for them all and the Arabs themselves had certain characteristics that made them better suited for this endeavor of them is the harshness of their livelihood both the Sassanids and the Byzantines are now spoiled, they're living in the height of luxury and the Arabs have a very difficult existence and they are used to the arts of war and our Prophet ﷺ needed such warriors such people that could live difficult lives and march hundreds and thousands of miles in the desert heat. The conquest of Persia, how did it occur? From Medina they went all the way to what is now outside of Tehran. How did they conquer all of this? They had the skills. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had chosen them to do this. We also mentioned that the Jahiliyyah Arabs had divided themselves even religiously once idolatry spread. Then as is the case with idolatry, people became partisan to their own gods. Hubal and Manat and Allat. And they say that the Quran mentions this, the five gods of the time of Nuh were resurrected. Literally the most ancient gods of Shirk were then resurrected by the Arabs. And they are Wad and Suwa and Yaghuth and Ya'uq and Nasr. These five gods were resurrected and they were given each one to one of the tribes. And they began fighting for wealth, for power, for religion, for every single reason. Before the birth of the Prophet ﷺ, by probably around 50 years or 60 years, the major occurrences that took place to lay the foundation for his coming took place in the reign of Abdul Muttalib. Abdul Muttalib, what was his real name, who can remind me? Shaybat al-Hamd. Abdul Muttalib was the one who was the final precursor to bring about the glory of the Quraysh. So we've already said the Quraysh are slowly getting back into the realm of things. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is willing that the Quraysh becomes that power that it's going to be. So three things happen in the reign of Abdul Muttalib that caused the majd or the glory of the Quraysh to return. The first, which is the most important for survival, the rediscovery of Zamzam. And it is unimaginable for us how the Quraysh would have lived for so many hundreds of years in that desert environment, struggling for water. Until finally, Abdullah al-Muttalib, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed him through the dreams to rediscover the well of Zamzam. And this brought about for the first time a continuous supply of water since the times of the tribe of Jurhum. So for over 200 years, 250 years, they had eked out in existence from the wells, from bringing in rainwater, until finally that well is rediscovered. The second incident is the incident of the sacrificing of, or the vow to sacrifice Abdullah. And this was the precursor to singling out Abdullah to be such a great, such a noble person that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose him, and before him Allah chose Ismail. The both of them are called those whom Allah azza wa jal saved from sacrifice. The both of them, Allah substituted animals and rams to save them from sacrifice. And our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the son of the both of them, Abdullah and Ismail. And the both of them were substituted and saved by Allah's direct intervention. And the final story of Abdul Muttalib is of course, لِإِلَىٰ فِي قُرَاٰ is of course, أَلَمْ تَرَىٰ كَيْفَ فَعَلْ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ The story of the attack of Abraha on the Ka'bah and how Abdul Muttalib managed to basically pray to Allah ﷻ. It was as his hands, not that he did anything but it was during his reign and the miracle was clear for everybody and all of this was to honor the coming of our Prophet ﷺ that each one of his ancestors before him was such an honorable person was such a great and majestic person that when the Prophet ﷺ came he has already established a stellar credential in a society where the pedigree or if you like the lineage is honored more than anything else and our Prophet ﷺ had such a lineage that it was impossible for any other person to rival that because as we know Abdullah only had the Prophet ﷺ Abdullah and Amina they were only married for literally it is said for a week or so literally that Abdullah and Amina were only together for some say even three days some say a week and then Abdullah went on a journey and he never came back and Amina became pregnant from that short brief marriage our Prophet ﷺ said hadith is in Sahih Muslim إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَى كِنَانَةً مِنْ وَلَدِ إِسْمَعِيلِ Allah chose Kinana from all of the children of Ismail so Kinana is maybe 6 or 7 generations down so the Prophet ﷺ is saying Kinana Allah chose him from the children of Ismail وَاسْطَفَ قُرَيْشًا مِنْ كِنَانَ and from Kinana he chose Quraysh so a few generations down there is Quraysh who is Quraysh? there is a lot of controversy some say he is Fihr ibn Ghalib and some say his other names but one most common opinion is that he is Fihr he is Fihr ibn Ghalib that is Quraysh and so he chose Quraysh from the children of Kinana and wastafa min Quraysh Hashim from the Quraysh he chose Hashim wastafani min bani Hashim and from the children of Hashim he chose me so the Prophet ﷺ is saying out of my forefathers each one of these forefathers is the most honorable is the most chosen by Allah ﷻ wa ta'ala. And the point being here as we said, that had the Prophet ﷺ not had this high level of lineage, he would not have managed to survive in the hostile climate of Mecca. It was his lineage that Allah used to protect him. It was the fact that he was the grandson of Abdul Muttalib, the great grandson of Hashim, that he was the descendant of all of these people, that he is the most noble man, and to harm him would have brought the greatest humiliation on themselves because he is their prize. He is their greatest person in the whole tribe. How could they possibly harm him? And this was the way their jahili mind worked. And Allah Azza wa Jal used it against them for the advantage of Islam. It is also narrated that when Amina gave birth, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, that my mother saw a light proceeding from her that basically shone upon the palaces in Asham, the palaces in Syria. And there's a number of connotations here. Of them, Syria was the bastion of civilization at that time, and it was the first of the greatest lands conquered by the Muslims. It is as if this child will now become the owner or the leader or conquer the greatest civilization to make his civilization the greatest civilization. And that is exactly what happened. And in one authentic hadith in Sahih Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said, أنا دعوة أبي إبراهيم وبشرى عيسى بن مريم I am the da'wah of my father Ibrahim. I am the dua of Ibrahim. And I am the glad tidings of عيسى بن مريم. By the way, the word Injil means glad tidings. The word Injil means glad tidings. From the Greek Evangelion, which is to give glad tidings. And therefore his book was called that which is giving glad tidings. And our Prophet ﷺ said, I am that glad tidings. I am the Bushra. I am the good news. Even in the New Testament, still Jesus Christ is quoted as saying that good news, I'm coming with the good news. This is the good news. We have it over here. That the Prophet ﷺ is saying, Anab Bushra Isa. I am the good news that Isa is promising. And our Prophet ﷺ was born, as we know, in the year of the elephant. as for the date of his birth I quoted 13 opinions if you remember and we said that indeed Allah knows best but if any date is the closest to the truth is probably the 8th of Rabi'ul Awal and I went over the various dates at that point in time the Prophet ﷺ was raised by the Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr and the Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr was one of the tribes that were Bedouin tribes that used to visit Mecca to take care of children to take care of babies. And the Arabs would do this, in particular the Quraysh would do this, so that the children could be raised in a healthier environment, away from the plagues and diseases of the city, to build their stamina, to fortify them, and to make them fluent in Arabic. Because they considered the Arabs of the Bedouins to be the Arabic of the Bedouins, to be the most fluent Arabic. And they wanted their children, this was their education if you like, to be raised over there. And every few months, the child would come back, visit the parents for a few months, and then go back. this is how they did it. And so it was at this point in time when the Prophet ﷺ was with Halima that his incident of Shakk al-Sadr took place. And that is of course the opening of the heart when he was four years old and the washing of the heart with zamzam. Jibreel coming and washing his heart and taking out any satanic influence. That black dot was the influence of shaitan. It was thrown away. When this happened, Halima became scared and worried and she returned the boy to Amina and Amina passes away and Abdul Muttalib passes away and our Prophet ﷺ is orphaned three times over. His father and then his mother and then his grandfather Abdul Muttalib. And all of this is done so that no one can claim any favor upon the Prophet ﷺ. So that Allah Azza wa Jal can directly take charge of this orphan. So that this orphan can learn the harshness of life because he's gonna face a lot more harshness now. orphans, they learn to be mature very fast the most mature child is an orphan child because you have to stand on your own feet the one who is an orphan he is not going to be spoiled he is not going to be pampered he is going to live a rough existence and he will be very mature very fast and our Prophet ﷺ needed to be the most mature of mankind so he is thrice orphaned once after another and the orphans as well along with being mature they also understand the difficulties of life They've gone through the most difficult life themselves. And this makes them soft-hearted, not hard-hearted. Because they know what it means to be an orphan, so they makes them the most gentle. And all of these qualities, our Prophet ﷺ had to have, so he was tested in this manner from the very beginning. In his early life, we don't know of much. As I have said many times, this era of the seerah is the least documented. Because who is there to tell us what happened? These years of him growing up to teenage years, the young manhood years, we literally have two or three small incidents that we can roughly piece together. Of the most interesting of them is Hilf al-Fudul. And that is of course the treaty that our Prophet ﷺ enacted along with the other senior members of the Quraysh to stand up for truth, to speak out against oppression, to help the weak against the strong, to help those who have been wronged against the wrongdoers, even if the wrongdoers are from Quraysh and the ones who have been wronged are from low tribes, that's not gonna happen anymore. So the Prophet ﷺ was proud to have participated in Hilf al-Fudul. And he was probably around 20-22 years old at the time. And he was the youngest participant and this shows us he has a bright future ahead. And he was proud to tell us that he worked as a shepherd, the most menial of jobs. And he told us many many years later that I used to work as a shepherd for qarariyat. Qarariyat is like rocks, coins. Like coins that are made out of rocks. Not even coins that are made out of silver or something. Qarariyat is what we will call pennies. Like the cheapest currency. I used to work for qarariyat for the people of Mecca as a shepherd. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted to cause him to go through this difficult time for many reasons as well. Of them is that the shepherd learns to be patient. because you have to shepherd a flock of sheep, you're gonna have to shepherd entire civilization. Of them is that the shepherd learns that every sheep has a certain quality and characteristic. You need to deal with that sheep in that manner in order to get it to do what you want. And similarly, the leader has to learn that every single person has qualities that you need to learn to deal with those qualities if you want to be a true leader. The mark of a true leader is that he or she can deal with every single member of society in a manner that is conducive to that person. Those who have a short fuse, those who don't know how to deal with every single segment, they can never be a leader. The leader understands this and that is the stepping stone. The shepherd also learns how to do this and so this is the stepping stone to becoming a leader for any group. And of course it is through his job as a shepherd that the wealthy lady Khadija, who was it is said the wealthiest and the most sought after lady but she had minari twice and apparently she was not interested in any other man for the time being until she saw our Prophet ﷺ. She saw his shyness, she saw his honesty, she saw his qualities and therefore she was the one who instigated an indirect proposal that eventually ended up in a marriage. And so Allah ﷻ blessed him with the greatest woman who supported him, who helped him, who financially from being a shepherd now he became instantaneously a businessman. The highest upgrade, possible at the time. The lowest job is a shepherd, and the most richest job to this day is always the most money is always in the business. And so our process is instantaneously upgraded from a shepherd all the way to being a businessman for Khadija. All of this because of his honesty, because of his sincerity, because of his good qualities and shyness. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala simply opened up the doors with this one marriage to change his entire livelihood now. There was no worry about it anymore. and he was living a very difficult life in the house of Abu Talib and the next day he wakes up in his own house the house of Khadija in a wealthy house and he is now the one who is in charge of this money and for the rest of his Meccan period there is no problem if you like for finances and it is at this time that Zayd is gifted to him the young boy Zayd and eventually Zayd ibn Hadith at the time eventually he adopts Zayd probably when he's in his early 30s, when the Prophet ﷺ is in his early 30s. And Zayd is probably around a teenager at the time where the story of his father, Zayd's father comes and Zayd chooses the Prophet ﷺ over his father. So to make his father happy and to show him how much he loves Zayd, the Prophet ﷺ says, this is now my son, Zayd ibn Muhammad. And of course Allah Azza wa Jal later abrogated that in the fifth year of the Hijrah. So for over 20 years, Zayd ibn Muhammad was known as Zayd ibn Muhammad. For over 20 years, So much so Ibn Abbas said, we never knew that Zayd Ibn Muhammad was Zayd Ibn Harithah until Allah revealed Surah Al-Ahzab. We never knew that the love, the relationship, it was unknown Ibn Abbas is a young kid. So I didn't know that Zayd Ibn Muhammad was Zayd Ibn Harithah until Allah revealed Surah Al-Ahzab. And that's in the fifth year of the Hijrah. And the final incident that takes place before the beginning of the Wahi is the rebuilding of the Ka'bah. The rebuilding of the Kaaba. And the rebuilding of the Kaaba took place when the Prophet ﷺ was around 35 years old. And we already mentioned a number of interesting details about the building of the Kaaba. Of them is that the emperor of Rome had sent a special ship full of very expensive timber and teak wood that was meant for a very fancy church in Abyssinia. that he wanted to build the greatest church in Abyssinia and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala willed otherwise that the ship went into a storm and it shipwrecked in Jeddah, the city of Jeddah and the merchants had no money to get back to Rome they were forced to sell all of this expensive timber and teak and all of this basically straight from the palace of the emperor and it was meant for the greatest church in the Arabian Peninsula but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is demonstrating that no longer are we gonna worship in these places there's gonna be a better house built and that is the house of Ibrahim a.s. and so this teak this expensive wood is built is sorry purchased right at the time the Kaaba had been demolished by a flood the Quraysh gather their money they go to Jeddah and they purchase this expensive wood and the wood is so beautiful quality that they have to build a Kaaba out of it but it's not enough wood for the Kaaba so what do they do? they shorten the Kaaba for the first time in its history but Allah has a wisdom here as well the Kaaba was a rectangle they make it into somewhat of a square somewhat of a square and to this day from that day up until this day the Kaaba has remained a square and a portion of it has remained open so that all of us can walk right there and pray as if we are praying inside the Kaaba without having to worry about getting in and out and so they rebuilt the Kaaba and our Prophet ﷺ symbolically he unifies all of them he stops that civil war between the two sub-tribes of the Quraysh when he is chosen to put with his own hands to put the black stone this is very symbolic because the black stone is from Jannah because the black stone is the only piece that is from the original piece of Ibrahim a.s so our Prophet s.a.w. he is taking that original piece and he is putting it where it belongs so it is as if there is a precursor that the religion of Ibrahim will now also be put back in its right place just like I am putting this in its right place. And also there is this precursor that just like he has unified all of the Quraysh and stopped the civil war, he will also unify all of the Arabs for greater goods as well. And in the 13th year before the Hijrah, roughly 600 CE, roughly around 600 CE, 598, 599, 600 CE, this is when the wahi comes down this is when iqra is revealed when our Prophet ﷺ having all of his needs met now he doesn't need to go on business he doesn't need anything now he is 40 years old and he is feeling somewhat restless he is feeling there is something missing in his life and he doesn't know what it is so he is contemplating and worshipping Allah ﷻ in Ghari Hira and that is when the incident of Jibreel happens Jubilee comes down and reveals Iqra to him as we know. And Khadija comforts him. And Khadija tells him that what he has seen has to be the truth. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would never humiliate him. It has been said that Khadija believed in him even before he believed in himself. And there is an element of truth in that. And that also shows us the Iman of this lady Khadija. And it also shows us the importance of a loving wife. the importance of an inspiring wife in the life of a man. Our Prophet ﷺ was calmed down by Khadija. زَمِّلُونِي دَثِّرُونِي And she believed in him and affirmed him even before he himself knew what was happening. And after this, the Wahi opens up and Allah ﷻ reveals, after Iqra, what's the next revelation? Who can remind me? يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ we went over the tafsir of all of these ayat in a khutbah and also very briefly in the seerah but in a khutbah I went over all of this and remember I said for those who remember iqra is all about iqra is all about one word what knowledge and muddathir is all about amal iqra is about ilm and muddathir is about amal and ilm and amal put together is what makes islam so in iqra basically he is told you have to learn, you have to research, you have to study and in muddathir he is told now act upon what you know and so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam begins announcing privately to those whom he thinks will accept this new message he begins preaching to various people and he does not now we mentioned before it is incorrect to say it was secret da'wah it's not secret rather the better term to use is it's private da'wah it's private da'wah private da'wah he goes to those whom he feels will accept the message and the first converts were Khadija and Waraqa ibn Nawfal these were the first two converts and after them Ali ibn Abi Talib and Zayd ibn Haditha these are members of the household. So they all convert within the household. And the first person outside the household to convert is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. The first basically person who is given da'wah. And our Prophet ﷺ said, there is none amongst you, meaning amongst the adult males. There is none amongst you. Except that when I first approached him, he was hesitant. Except for Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. The only one who without hesitation immediately accepted was Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. And that was the first adult convert based on da'wah. All of these conditions apply. Waraqah, technically da'wah was not given to him, rather it was asked of him. And he accepted once again without being invited. You understand the point here, right? That the Prophet ﷺ is going to him asking what is happening, and Waraqah accepts without having been invited formally. Khadija as well is the same. And Ali was not yet baliq, So he is also an early convert. He's the first young convert if you like. The first actual convert of the adult males really is Abu Bakr in that sense. Other early converts are Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas and Uthman ibn Affan and Zubayd ibn Al-Awwam and Abdur Rahman ibn Auf and Abdullah ibn Mas'ud. These are the early converts. Every one of us should know the names of some or all of these early converts. And then after them, a group of Mawali, a group of non-Arabs, typically slaves, were the next batch of converts. And these are of course the famous Bilal ibn Abi Rabah, Khabbab ibn Arat, Yasir and Sumayya and their son Ammar, and all of the other early Mawali. And the early da'wah has been divided into a number of stages. In fact, the entire da'wah we can say, we can divide the entire 23 years into five stages of how to give da'wah. The first of these stages is private da'wah. Where we don't publicly open up. We don't publicly go and preach. We simply go to those whom we think will be interested. And this lasted probably two to three years, private da'wah. The second stage is open da'wah with the tongue. And this lasted 10 years. This lasted 10 years. and the last three of those ten years it was open da'wah to the whole Arabian Peninsula. So we can say the first three years secret da'wah, not secret sorry, private. The next seven years da'wah to the people of Mecca only. Then the final three years da'wah to anybody who's willing to listen. So the Prophet ﷺ began smallest and then worked his way outward. so he began with his own friends and family whom he thought would be interested, then he moved on to his family which is Mecca then he moved on to all of Arabian Peninsula that was in the final three years of Mecca then when he immigrated to Medina, the third stage of da'wah can be that there's da'wah along with defensive war if you like physical confrontation but only against those who are harmful to you. And this is represented in the early years of Medina. Badr and Uhud, all of this, and even Ahzab. This is against the Quraysh and the Muslims. That's it. Ahzab, there are other people that the Quraysh bring in. And after Ahzab, then you have another stage. And that is the treaty, or sorry, the stage of open da'wah to all without any physical war. And this took place with the treaty of? Hudaybiyyah. The treaty of Hudaybiyyah, all works come to an end. There's just gonna be peace in the whole land. And this is another phase of da'wah that the Prophet ﷺ went through. And then the final phase, which is after the conquest of Mecca, and this lasted only a year and a half. And that is the open da'wah along with defensive and offensive jihad. And our Prophet ﷺ passed away in this phase. And this shows us that all five of these phases are possible. no one of them abrogates the previous one. Rather all five of these are possible and the Muslim ummah or the Muslim leadership will choose which one of these phases that is the most politically permissible or conducive to the lands and the times and the place that we live in. So we said after three years, the Prophet ﷺ opened up his da'wah and he began publicly preaching to everybody in Mecca. And this is the famous verse in Surah Ash-Shu'ara. وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed, warn your closest relatives. And this was when the Prophet ﷺ invited his closest relatives to his house, Abu Talib's house. And he then publicly announced that he is a prophet. And we have already said that the people of Mecca had already heard the whispers, but they've never been approached directly. So they cannot do anything. And when he tells them to their faces for the first time, this was when Abu Talib finally manages to express his irritation and he stands up and he throws his hands in the air and he says, you've basically wasted my time, that's why you invited me to tell us about this ludicrous thing. تَبَّن لَكَ So basically, may you be cursed. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed, أَدْدِسْ تَبَّتْ يَدَ أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ I'm Abu Lahab, sorry. not as Abu Talib, no, I'm Abu Lahab so Abu Lahab is the one who said at the house of Abu Talib so Abu Lahab of course says this at the house of Abu Talib and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reveals surah Tabatidha Bilahabin Watab and from that point onwards for the next 5 or 6 years a number of incidents happen or we can categorize all that happens into a number of categories in terms of tactics that the Quraysh used to oppose the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the first of these tactics is to try to use political means or emotional means to stop him and the political means you go to Abu Talib Abu Talib is the chieftain Abu Talib is his chieftain Abu Talib is his uncle and so they put pressure on Abu Talib first gentle pressure and then strict pressure so much so that they threatened to boycott him initially they didn't do this initially but they threatened to boycott him and this was when Abu Talib approached the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam once and the Prophet ﷺ refused. He approached him much more harshly and strictly that I need you to stop doing this. And that was when the Prophet ﷺ said that if they were to do this and that, if they were to give me the power over the sun and the moon, then I would still not give up this message until I die in its cause. And that was when Abu Talib said, when he saw that determination, he said that no matter what they say to me after this, I will never approach you. No matter what they say to me after this, I will never approach you to stop you. And so Abu Talib never interfered. He lived up to his word. He never once interfered with the da'wah of the Prophet ﷺ. When this didn't work, the next tactic they used was to ridicule the Prophet ﷺ and the believers. Open mockery, sarcasm. They accused him of being madman. They accused him of being a magician. They accused him of being possessed. Sahir, majnoon. All of this is accused. It is said that Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl in particular would follow the Prophet ﷺ wherever he went and make sure that anybody who he spoke to, they would go to him and then warn them, this is our nephew, this is our such and such and he is possessed, he is crazy, do not listen to him. And this obviously it hurt the Prophet ﷺ immensely and there are many references to this in the Qur'an. Another tactic that they used is to ask the Prophet ﷺ for miracles. And the Qur'an is full of at least a dozen such references, at least a dozen verses. They ask you for this, they ask you for that. They ask you to send a river through Makkah. They ask you for gold, they ask you for Allah to come down. They ask you to see a book coming down, just in front of their eyes. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not respond to these messages, to these threats, but He did give other miracles. He did give other miracles to them. And there were plenty of miracles even in the Makkan phase, and the most grand of them is the splitting of the moon. Shaq al-Qamar, which is referenced in the Quran, that he showed them the splitting of the moon, and they turned around and they said, he has bewitched our eyes. When this also didn't work, another tactic that they used was attempts of a middle ground, or even bribery. That, why don't you worship your God for one day, and then allow us to worship ours for another day. Right? We'll try to have some compromise, And Allah revealed Surah Al-Kafirun. Or bribery. And so they tried to bribe him. That we will make you our leader, we will make you our ruler, we will give you as much money as you want, we will cause you to marry whomever you want. Basically whatever a man can desire, you will get it. But just stop giving this message. And this as well did not work. Another thing that they did, was they attempted to trick him. By asking him questions that they thought he could not answer. and they primarily did this by getting questions from the Yahud because the concept of prophecy was not known to the Arabs they really did not have a concept of somebody communicating with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they knew the Jews believed in this so they went to them a number of times and Surah Al-Kahf was revealed because of this and Surah Isra was revealed because of this and so the questions were and Surah Yusuf was revealed because of this all of these surahs came down because of these questions. That the Jews said, go and ask him about the Prophet Joseph. What does he know about Joseph? And so Allah revealed in the Quran, all of Surah Yusuf. The Jews said to them, ask him about the Ruh. What is the Ruh? وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الرُّوحِ قُلُ الرُّوحِ مِنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّي The Yahud said, ask him about Dhul-Qarnayn. What does he know of Dhul-Qarnayn? And so again Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed about Dhul-Qarnayn. And they kept on asking. And whatever they asked, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed to them. And this again shows us the knowledge that he had. And the greatest miracle in this was that, the knowledge of these prophets was not known to the Arabs. Because the Arabs have no lineage with Joseph. The Arabs have no lineage with Moses. With Dhul Qarnayn. What has this got to do with them? The Arabs had no knowledge of any of these prophets and their stories. And there are no books as we know. There are no libraries. and Mecca is not a center of civilization yet when the Prophet ﷺ is asked about the story of Joseph and the Quranic story is so similar to the narrative to this day in the Old Testament that it is amazing it is amazing how this person in the middle of nowhere without any access to any book can basically dictate the entire story and Allah references in the Quran that you did not know these stories before the Quran came down and by the way let me just tell you within academia, this is one of the biggest challenges that to this day people try to decipher where did the Prophet ﷺ get this knowledge from. Of course, we know it came from Allah. But believe me, this is something they have so many attempts and so many theories and so many things to do. I don't want to go into my tangents right now. But one of the weirdest is that when they realize how much information the Qur'an has, one predominant theory is that the Qur'an does not date to the time of the Prophet ﷺ. it dates to the time of the Umayyads and the Abbasids. Because it's too much information for somebody in Mecca to know at the time of the process. You see this point, right? So they say it couldn't have been compiled in 600 CE in Mecca. It must have been compiled 700 CE in Baghdad, sorry, in Damascus. And this is a predominant theory, believe it or not. It's so ludicrous, but this is a theory. why? because the Quran is full of too much information it's not possible that an illiterate man from Mecca would have been able to come up with it so again my point being the Mu'jizah is still the Mu'jizah to this day they cannot explain that Mu'jizah so they tried to trick him and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala answered every single question with verses from the Quran another tactic they did is outright torture and because the Prophet was who he was the torture to him only came right at the very end. Right at the very end, the last year or two. That was when it became very difficult for him. Otherwise before this time, most of the torture was directed towards the non-Arabs. Towards the Mawali. Those who couldn't have tribes. And people became martyrs in early Islam. The first martyr was Sumayya. She was the first martyr. And then Yasir followed after that. and a number of early martyrs. Bilal was almost martyred. Many of the early Mawali Khabbab ibn al-Arat was tortured with many things. So all of these stories that we know, this took place again in the middle Meccan phase. Not the early Meccan, the middle Meccan phase. And one of the final things that they did is the boycott. And the boycott was enacted against the Banu Hashim, the Muslim of them and the Kafir of them. The entire tribe of Banu Hashim. Why? Because Abu Talib refused to cooperate. So they punished Abu Talib as well. And so the entire tribe of the Banu Hashim except for Abu Lahab because they knew Abu Lahab was on their side. He was allowed to stay in Mecca. The entire tribe of Banu Hashim and the Muslims were forced to basically leave Mecca and start living in the desert like their forefathers before had done. Without water, without zamzam, without any access to food and anything. And that was the most difficult time of the Meccan stage. That lasted most likely around two years it lasted. And it was a very difficult stage which sadly we don't have much information about as I said. But it was a very difficult time and in the lecture that I gave recently which is online about Mu'tamim ibn Adi. We mentioned about Mu'tamim ibn Adi being one of the main people that helped the Muslims in this regard. And he also managed to break the boycott as well. probably before or immediately after the boycott again one of the problems of the seerah is dates we don't have dates especially in the Meccan phase when did the boycott take place? again many theories but around this time most likely it was before the boycott the Prophet ﷺ had given permission for hijrah, immigration because the torture had become so much that he allows them to immigrate and around 15 people emigrated. Amongst them was Uthman ibn Affan and the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ, Ruqayya. Uthman ibn Mad'un, Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam, Mus'ab ibn Umair, Abu Salama and his wife Umm Salama. And Umm Salama was to later become the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. They all emigrate to Abyssinia, to Habasha. And within five months they return. And they returned because, as we said of the incident that is called in western sources the satanic verses. In western sources it's called the satanic verses. In eastern sources it's called قصة الغرانيق or the story of the pelicans. And I mentioned the three theories of the satanic verses if you remember. And the strongest theory or the strongest opinion is that there is no such thing as the satanic verses. That the prophet system recited Surah An-Najm and when he reached the end Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surah An-Najm that فَاسْجُدُوا اللَّهِ وَعْبُدُوا Do sajda and worship Allah and the surah was so powerful that everybody Muslim and kafir, jinn and ins, all did sajda around the Ka'bah. It was just so powerful. It was one of those occasions that the people of Mecca are enthralled listening to the Prophet ﷺ recite the Quran. They're mesmerized and they're moved. And when he finishes the surah and I recited the surah, and I ask you to listen to the recitation by famous Qur'an, Hussari or Mashawi or somebody. It's one of the most powerful Makki surahs, and it is one of my favorite surahs. It's such a powerful surah in the Qur'an, that you don't need any satanic verses to explain what happened. And there is no authentic narration of the satanic verses. Rather, the authentic narration simply says, Bukhari, simply says, when he finished surah An-Najm, everybody prostrated. And it makes complete sense. When everybody prostrated, this story when it reached Abyssinia was everybody accepted Islam right so small story when it gets to Abyssinia it's now become a big story and the people in Abyssinia were finding it difficult obviously in every sense monetarily language barrier, cultural barrier it's a very different time and place to move city and country is very difficult and honestly in our times I don't even think we can understand how difficult that must have been for them to do so they're homesick, they're any type of story, they jump on it, they come all the way back, only to discover lo and behold, no situation is still the same. But Allah had something planned. And that was these people tell the others that, okay look, it's difficult culturally, but politically it's free. And face between cultural difficulty and political difficulty, everybody will choose cultural. It's easier to live a free life with cultural difficulty than to live a culturally same life, but your life is under threat and pressure, right? So, with this news, almost a hundred people emigrated to Abyssinia. And this was a big blow. It's demoralizing for the Quraysh. Why? Because it's hurting their prestige. Their own people are leaving them. And by the way, a hundred is a big number. For Quraysh, it's a very big number. We're talking about small cities at the time, right? A hundred probably represents maybe less than 10% of their population. This is a big percentage. It's not something as if 100 is a trivial amount for them. So a good percentage of them simply leave and go to Abyssinia. This is hurting their prestige. What do they do? They send two emissaries to bribe, to negotiate. The two emissaries are rebuffed and returned with their gifts. And to make matters worse, two of their most elite members convert to the faith. Two of their most elite members convert to the faith. The first of them is Hamza. and the second of them is Umar ibn al-Khattab they both convert within a few weeks from each other and this is now the beginning of the tide shifting that things are about to change and it's very clear that the beginning of the tide is happening and the boycott is difficult to date but around this time somewhere the boycott occurs the boycott is one of those things Allah is very difficult it occurred in the fourth year of the da'wah or the seventh year of the da'wah or the ninth is very difficult to date when did the boycott occur. Somewhere around this time, the boycott occurs. And most likely in my humble opinion, the boycott is one of the last thing that occurs for one simple reason. It's such a drastic tactic that they couldn't have done this early on. To cut off one of your own is the worst thing that the Jahili Arabs can do. To boycott one of your own is one of the worst things the Jahili Arabs can do. So the very fact that they are now boycotting one of their own shows us that this is one of the last tactics that they did. So Allah knows best but the boycott probably took place 7th, 8th year of the da'wah. I.e. 4 or 5 years before the hijrah. So past the midpoint and then 7th, 8th year of the da'wah the boycott takes place. Then the Prophet ﷺ comes back and within a few months of him coming back, within a few months of him coming back two very severe tragedies take place the first of them is the death of Abu Talib according to Ibn Ishaq Abu Talib died the same month of the boycott when they returned and it is not too far fetched to assume that the rigorous hardship of the boycott made him suffer his health deteriorate his health so bad that it basically was an immediate cause of his death and that is not too far fetched to say so the very month that they return Abu Talib dies and this has been dated to be the Shawwal of the 10th year of the Hijrah the Shawwal 10th year of the Dawah i.e. 3BH 3 before Hijrah you all understand? 10th year of the Dawah and 3 years before the Hijrah because before the Hijrah is 13 years and quick quiz question how many uncles of the Prophet ﷺ lived to see Islam? And how many of them accepted? And how many of them rejected? How many uncles did he have? He had probably 12 uncles. Probably 12 uncles. Maybe 11. Probably 11. he definitely had more than 10. This is a common misconception. Abdullah was the 10th, but Abbas was younger than Abdullah. Abbas was the same age as the Prophet ﷺ. So a lot of people think that he only had 10. This is a mistake. Abdullah was the 10th, meaning when the 10th was born, then Abdul Muttalib did his vow. but he had more sons after so he had at least 12 uncles how many of them witnessed Islam witnessed Islam not converted all 12 of them so we have 4 we have 2 all 12? Who's saying all 12? 8? So we have only references to 4. If there are more than 4 we don't know. And it is not I mean most likely these were the only 4. Because otherwise we would have had references to them. So by the time the process is 40 years old all of his uncles have died except for four which is not too far fetched because again Abdul Muttalib lived a long life too he was an old man when he died so when the process of his forty his sons most of them already died this is not too far fetched and these four are of course who are they Abu Lahab and Abu Talib and Hamza and Abbas Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib and by the way Abu Lahab, his name was Abdul Uzza and Abu Talib, his name was Abdi Manaf. And it is perhaps just a coincidence but both of those were named after idols and they did not accept Islam. Perhaps just a coincidence. And Hamza and Abbas, they are both names of lions it is said. And they are both named positive name and they both accepted Islam. By the way, as for his aunts, he had six aunts six ammat and how many of them saw Islam one how many of them saw Islam at least two at least two but when it comes to the aunts there is a big controversy how many saw Islam but for sure at least two who's the second? the dream Atika the dream whether Atika embraced Islam or not there's a controversy maybe she didn't because there's no reference to her but of course Safiya is the one who embraced Islam Safiya is the one who embraced Islam so we said that in Shawwal of the 10th year, Abu Talib dies. And less than 6 weeks after the death of Abu Talib, this is followed by the death of Khadija. And it is said that Khadija died in Ramadan of the 10th year. So Shawwal and then Ramadan. And this is why this year is called Aam al-Huzn, the year of sorrow. Because both of these were the two most closest people to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. That the one of them was his public supporter and the other was his private supporter and especially the death of Khadija affected him personally, the death of Abu Talib affected him politically so in both cases the loss of close loved ones and one after the other they both died and so much so that it is said that the Prophet ﷺ was not seen smiling for more than a year after the death of Khadija, he was not seen smiling for the longest time and it was then that the Sahaba basically forced him that he has to get married and that is when he married Sauda. That is when he married Sauda after the death of Khadija by a year and a half almost he married Sauda. And it was after the death of Abu Talib that Abu Lahab was made the chieftain and ironically not a well-known incident or story initially Abu Lahab changed track. We mentioned this. that initially when he became responsible for the Banu Hashim, he actually softened up. And he realized that, you know what, for better or for worse, you know this is my responsibility now and I cannot cut off from my nephew. And so he, in memory, not that he loved him, but it was basically Abu Talib's memory. That in memory of Abu Talib, I'm going to continue Abu Talib's policies. but there was an instigator there was an instigator there and the instigator basically came to Abu Lahab and quizzed him that do you know what your nephew says about your own father how can you support him when he has a position about your own father that is not favorable so Abu Lahab went to the Prophet ﷺ and said what do you say about Abdul Muttalib? What do you say? And the Prophet ﷺ gave a generic response. He said, هو مع قومه He's with his people. He didn't say anything that is too crude. But the point is given. Because our Prophet ﷺ will not lie. He's not going to lie. And he simply said, he is with his people. And when Abu Lahab heard this, he basically snapped. And he said, you expect me to support you when this is what you say about my father, your own grandfather, that no, this is not going to happen, basically. And he then returned to the same stance that he had. So it's a gray area now. What exactly is the status of the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca, now that the chieftain has basically withdrawn the support, right? This is a gray area. And this is why the Prophet ﷺ went to Ta'if. This was the catalyst that caused him to go to Ta'if. That now that in Mecca he doesn't really have support, to live, where Abu Lahab has now basically withdrawn. And it's gray area. What does it mean withdrawn? What do you expect me to do now? Again, it's a gray area. So he didn't want to test him. He just, there is no more Khadija. There is no more, his uncle Abu Talib. So then he goes to Ta'if with Zaid. And what happens in Ta'if happens. And many, many years later, when Aisha asked him, what was the worst day of your life? Was it Uhud? He said, no. The worst day of my life was Ta'if. this was the most difficult day of my life and so what happens to him happens there and he then returns from Ta'if bloodied and bruised and he makes that beautiful dua in the middle of nowhere he makes that dua and right then and there the miracles begin to come upon him right then and there even though the people of Ta'if have rejected him that Iraqi Christian Adi accepts Islam right then and there right and when he stands in Tahajjud that night a group of jinn accept Islam. So it is as if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling him that don't worry, if your local people have rejected you, the people from every portion of the land will accept you, even the jinn will accept you. Right? And it is no doubt, it is meant for him to be consoled. That person from the farthest regions of the world, Iraq at that time was literally the farthest Arab land of the time, not even Arab at the time, one of the farthest lands. and Adi accepts Islam and then the jinn embrace Islam as well. And then outside of Mecca, Zaid says to the Prophet ﷺ, how are you going to re-enter Mecca now? Basically we don't have that visa to re-enter Mecca. What are we going to do? So the Prophet ﷺ says, Allah will help us and Allah will find a way out for his messenger. And he sends messages to Abu Sufyan. He sends messages to Suhail ibn Amr. He sends messages to various people. every one of them gives some excuse I can't help you, sorry not me, I'm not powerful this and that, everyone gives an excuse and then he sends it to who? Mut'im ibn Adi Mut'im ibn Adi I gave a whole lecture about Mut'im it's online, you should see it, recently I gave it, I didn't give it here I did not give it here, but it's online Mut'im ibn Adi, one of the most fascinating figures in the seerah and this is one of those things that he did probably the greatest act that Mut'im did. Is he single-handedly, and Mut'im is a senior, he is basically to the level of Abu Talib and Abu Lahab. He knows, he is the chieftain of the Banu Nawfal, which is one of the sub-tribes of Quraysh. And he sends his own sons outside of Mecca. And they escort the Prophet ﷺ into Mecca. And the next, it's middle of the night, he is literally outside. He sleeps in his own house. In the morning, he tells his sons to arm up wear your armor, he has seven sons all of them dress up armed, and they then walk in front of the Kaaba, they do tawaf, and everybody is astonished to see the Prophet ﷺ back in Mecca he left, how can he be back here and then when they finish the tawaf Muta'im says, that O people of Mecca I have adopted or I have given my aman to Muhammad ﷺ right, and this is blatant slap on the face of who? Abu Jahl? Abu Lahab. Abu Lahab. Blatant. This is like the English phrase, dropping the gauntlet. You are basically saying, and Mut'im hated all of this politics. Even though he's a pagan. Even though he's idol worshipper. He's not a Muslim. But he hated all that he had seen from the beginning. He always was truthful to his qualities. to his ideals of keeping one tribe together. You know, these are the ideals of Jahiliyyah, he lived up to them. And the Prophet ﷺ repaid him the honor after the Battle of Badr as we mentioned, by praising him in a way that his legacy will live on. To this day we praise him, and every one of us when we think of him, even how he died, how he died. But what he did, we have a fondness for that. And we consider him to have done a great benefit. And it is possible that Allah helps his religion through a person who's not a Muslim. There's a hadith like this, Allah helps this religion through a kafir. And Mut'im is one of those whom Allah azzawajal helped the religion through. So Mut'im then adopts, if you like, or gives aman to the Prophet ﷺ. But the Prophet ﷺ realized the situation is very precarious, very dangerous. That I'm amongst my own people, but I don't have their protection. And during this time, during this time he has already began reaching out to other tribes, He has approached the tribes that he thinks will convert to Islam and help him. The tribe of Kindah, the tribe of Banu Abdullah ibn Kalb, the tribe of Banu Hanifa, the tribe of Banu Ahmed ibn Sa'asa, the tribe of Shayban ibn Tha'alabah, all of these major tribes. And these were the tribes that if there was a rival to the Quraysh, it would be these tribes. And our Prophet ﷺ concentrated on the big names, because he wanted some big help. But he gave da'wah to everybody equally. And Allah willed that the help would not come from the big guys. it would come from a small town that he was very familiar with because his great grandfather was living there and he had relatives from his great grandfather's side because his great grandfather's mother was from that tribe and he had in fact visited it as a child and his mother had died on the way back so Allah had willed that there is a blood relationship with Yathrib as well all of this is willed from the history Allah Azza wa Jal had willed this that there is it's not as if this is a stranger when they come to him and they adopt him and they bring him, they are bringing a relative of theirs. Remember this point as well. When the Ansar when the people of Yathrib or Medina when they took him in, there is blood relationship as well from his great grandmother who was from them. And so the tribe of the Khazraj from the Yathrib they come to Mecca and this is probably the 10th year of the da'wah probably the 10th year of the da'wah they come to Mecca and the Prophet ﷺ gives them da'wah they think about it they say they'll think about it there were six of them and they go back and some of them they convert to Islam so the next year they come back 12 and the Prophet ﷺ officially accepts their Islam and this is called the first treaty of Aqaba the year before this is basically the precursor the da'wah is being given so the first year is basically da'wah this is the 10th year then in the 11th year they come and there are 12 people. And this is the first treaty of Aqaba. And then he sends with them Mus'ab ibn Umair. Mus'ab ibn Umair. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blesses Mus'ab's da'wah to such an extent that in every single tribe of the people of Yathrib, there are converts. There's not a single tribe except that people have converted. And especially some of the senior up and coming leaders. Of course we are the whole circumstance of Yathrib. Allah had prepared it through that civil war, through the wars of, who can remember? The wars of? What are they called? The wars of? Bu'ath. The wars of Bu'ath. That Aws and Khazraj had a civil war that lasted more than a hundred years, but especially the previous five years. Hundred years of tension, and literally it began because a camel grazed into somebody else's land. like how it goes, you know. And this led to one blood, then another blood, then this and that. So 100 years of tension. The last five of which was the most severe. And in this, all of the senior leadership had been killed off. Except for two or three, most prominent is Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul. Right, these are the only people in their 60s. All of those who are in the senior management positions basically kicked out, killed. So it's only the youngsters left. Fresh, young minds, sick of the old ways wanting something new again all of this is prepared as Aisha says that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gifted the words of Bu'ath to the Prophet ﷺ before and this is happening while the Prophet ﷺ is giving da'wah it's not relevant to him but Allah azza wa jal is relevant to his plan right and so the people of Medina now they are eager for something new and the da'wah of Mus'hab spreads amongst them like wildfire and probably more than 150 or 200 have converted. 70 of them come to the Prophet ﷺ in the final few months before the hijrah. And they then give him the second bay'ah which is not just a bay'ah of theology, it's not just a bay'ah of iman, it is a bay'ah of politics. That's the difference between the first and the second bay'ah. The first bay'ah, we're Muslims, we worship Allah, we're not gonna do any major sins. the second bay'ah all of that plus if you come to us we will defend you we will defend you like we defend our own family and by the way this is defensive not offensive and in the battle of Badr as we mentioned that was when it was extrapolated to be offensive as well otherwise the actual bay'ah was defensive that we will protect you as we protect one of our own nothing more we are not going to go fight on your behalf but if we are fought then we will protect you. And so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam accepted this bay'ah and he began sending the people to emigrate. Of course before he emigrated of course there's one final major incident that is very difficult to date. And that is the incident of Isra wal-Mi'raj. Probably the most difficult thing to date. Isra wal-Mi'raj some say it took place in the third year of the da'wah, some say the fifth year, some say the tenth year, some say the 13th year, everyone has a literally the last year they say of the da'wah, of the Makkan da'wah there's so many opinions and it's very difficult to date, but the fact that there's no mention of Khadijah in the incident of Isra helps us to maybe guess that Isra took place after the death of Khadijah and this would make complete sense as well because as we said, Isra Al-Miraj was the greatest personal miracle to the Prophet ﷺ. It's a personal miracle. It's not really a miracle for the rest of us. We just have to believe in it. It's a miracle to him and for him. Personal miracle. And perhaps it makes complete sense therefore, to say that he was gifted when he needed it the most. When did he need it the most? After Ta'if. After Abu Talib. After Khadija. When literally the year of sadness. And this is what Ibn Ishaq himself surmises, that in that year of sorrow, the lowest of the low, he was literally taken to the highest of the high. He needed to be fortified again. So he's lost Abu Talib, he's lost Khadijah, he's reminded he has Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so he's taken up to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he is shown all of the prophets, all of the prophets pray behind him, make dua for him, praise him, and all of the miracles happen, as Allah says, لَقَدْ رَأَ مِنْ آيَةِ رَبِّهِ الْكُبْرَةِ and Isra and Mi'raj are two separate things but they happen the same night as we said Isra is the journey to Jerusalem and Mi'raj is the journey up and Isra and Mi'raj because they took place on the same night so we consider it to be basically one thing even though they are two separate journeys and that is we went over this in two or three lessons in a lot of detail and Allah mentions Isra in Surah Al-Isra and Surah Al-Najm and Mi'raj is mentioned in Surah Al-Najm Mi'raj is mentioned in Surah An-Najm so Surah Al-Isra and Surah An-Najm mention these two incidents and then finally we'll get to the very last thing for tonight and that is of course where we conclude this summary and that is the issue of the Hijrah itself that after the Prophet ﷺ had given permission for everybody else to migrate and slowly but surely Muslims are migrating with difficulty with problems, some of them were stopped, some of them had to sell everything that they had. Suhaib al-Rumi for example, he had to literally give back everything. Some of them had to make promises, a lot of problems happened. But slowly but surely, most of the Muslims, if not all of them, they emigrated until finally the final straw, the Quraysh are terrified that the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam will leave. So what do they do? They finally decide to do the dastardly deed. That up until these 13 years, even if a few times they have gotten physical, but still as a tribe, they haven't joined against him. Finally, on the very last night of his time in Mecca, they decide this is too dangerous for him to flee. We have to get rid of him before he gets out of here. And so, they decide the dastardly deed to assassinate one of their own. And as you all know, they surrounded his house, and that was when Jibreel came down and said, now is the time. And Allah covered up their eyes, blinded them, and the Prophet ﷺ fled in the middle of the night with Abu Bakr who had already been planning for this stayed three days in Ghar-e-Thawr and then made their way to Medina and on the way a number of miracles happened the story of Suraqah and the story of Umm-e-Ma'bad and other stories until finally the Prophet ﷺ arrived safely in Medina in the masjid that was to become the masjid of Quba and 500 of the Ansar they came dressed up and armed and they surrounded the Prophet ﷺ and they welcomed him and the men and the women climbed onto the houses and the streets were basically flooded with joy and we already sense in the air a whole new time, a whole new era the beginning of a new dawn, the seed of a new millennia and the story of that is of course the story post Hijrah and that inshallah we will summarize when we finish the entire Madani Sira, then inshallah we will pause and then we will summarize all of the Madani Sira in one lesson as well. And with that insha'Allah ta'ala, really there should be many questions, right? This is summary. Should be no questions today, correct? Okay, we can take some questions insha'Allah. And then next week insha'Allah we will start the battle of Uhud, the precursor to the battle of Uhud, which is the most detailed battle we have. The battle of Uhud, we have a lot of details for the battle of Uhud. And a lot of lessons to be drawn from the battle of Uhud. Any questions about the Meccan or pre-Meccan? Yes. I have a question. What was the age of Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman compared to the Rasulullah? Abu Bakr was two years younger. Abu Bakr was two years younger. Umar, I will have to look up, eight or nine years younger. Umar was 26 when he converted. Umar was 26 when he converted. Uthman, when he passed away he was 83, so do the math. Uthman was killed when he was 83. Of course Ali was much younger because Ali converted at the age of 7 and the Prophet ﷺ was 40. And so Ali was 33 years younger than the Prophet ﷺ. As for Uthman, do the math, he was 83. and Uthman was killed 10 plus 12, so 24 CE. So Uthman and the Prophet were roughly similar age. A few years younger. 60 when the Prophet was killed. So the senior, one of the oldest was Abu Bakr and Uthman were of a similar age. Thank you.

Seerah 45 - The Battle of Uhud Part 1 - Yasir Qadhi _ 23rd January 2013-YtpKPVI3c4M

Al-Fatiha. So inshallah today we'll be starting the first of a series of lectures about the battle of Uhud. We have finished the battle of Badr and we've also done our summary of the entire Meccan Sira. And I apologize about my voice but I'm still suffering a little bit from the flu so apologies about that. So let us begin today by setting up the battle. We talked about the incidents that took place after the battle of Badr. What are some of the most important incidents? Who can remind me? Those who are taking notes. What are some of the most important incidents between Badr and Uhud? The what? Abu Sufyan's attack. Yes, he attacked Medina. There were minor skirmishes. Ka'ab ibn Ashraf as well, his assassination. All of these took place in between Badr and Uhud. Now, the battle of Uhud is of course the next major battle. And the Meccans, the Quraysh, began planning for this battle immediately after Badr. So the loss of Badr, the disaster of Badr, the calamity of Badr, it was the immediate cause for the battle of Uhud. And unlike Badr, Uhud was an all offensive. Badr was a reconnaissance mission. Badr was something that was meant to save the caravan and then protect the caravan from attack. Uhud was the first full out battle. Uhud was the first battle that they armed to the hilt that they are prepared for an offensive war. And why are they fighting? Four reasons. Number one, religious. That by now there is religious animosity that the Quraysh, the idol worshippers have now developed a religious animosity to Islam, to the Prophet ﷺ, to monotheism. number two social reasons social reasons, what are the social reasons well, revenge number one is revenge within the social reasons they have embarrassed themselves at Badr they have lost many relatives, they have lost their fathers, their brothers and especially the leaders of the Quraysh in particular Abu Sufyan who was in charge of the caravan is highly embarrassed and Ikrimah, his father Abu Jahl and Safwan, his father Umayyah have all lost their lives at Badr, so there is now blood on their minds. They want revenge. And so they want to now get revenge and retribution for what has happened to them in Badr. Number three is the exact same reason as Badr, and that is economic. The third reason is economic. And by economic, we obviously mean the exact same point that Medina geographically, it intersects the caravan that goes from Mecca to Sham. It's directly in that region, and if you remember what happened that, they were not able to really send a successful caravan, that the Muslims basically were waiting for them even the second time the caravan came around after the Battle of Badr. And therefore, they made up their minds that they really don't have any option other than to fight. And remember that their attempts at finding an alternative route had been spoiled. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala informed the Prophet ﷺ their alternative route had been spoiled. They were not able to find an alternative route. Therefore, effectively, they cannot trade with Syria anymore. And this is a big loss. In fact, it will destroy their economy. Because as we have said many times, the Meccan economy was based upon that pipeline between Syria and Yemen. Between Syria and Yemen, there was this pipeline, there was this trade route, and the Quraysh were in charge of it. And they were the ones who basically profited off of this. If you cut off one side of the pipeline, the other side is not going to function. You need that full back and forth. You need that trade to go all the way. If you cut off one side, the whole trade is gone. So they're definitely in a desperate situation economically. And then of course there are political reasons as well. And the political reason is that the Prophet ﷺ is now becoming a political threat to the Quraysh. That the Prophet ﷺ is increasing his alliances with the tribes of Medina. The size of the Islamic Republic is growing. And therefore, no doubt there is a political threat as well. Therefore, religious, social, economic, political, all of these reasons are reasons why the Quraysh felt the need, the necessity to launch a counter-offensive, to launch a... Actually, it's not a counter-offensive, it is really an offensive against the Muslims. Now, Ibn Ishaq tells us that as soon as Abu Sufyan returned with the caravan of Badr, and the news of Badr returned as well, what happened at Badr, that Abu Sufyan immediately made up his mind at that point in time that he has to go and fight. So this was something that was not on the spur of the moment. This is something that is being planned for more than a year is being planned basically. From Badr up until basically Shawwal. So an entire year, because Badr took place, when did it take place? 17th Ramadan in the second year. And Uhud takes place basically in Shawwal of the third year. Therefore an entire year of planning has gone. And Abu Sufyan took with him Iklimah ibn Abu Jahl and Safwan ibn Umayyah. Now why these two? Because Abu Jahl and Umayyah were their most prized leaders. They were the cream of the crop. Abu Jahl, we don't need to talk about him enough, we have spoken. And Umayyah as well, the famous Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the owner of Bilal, this is Umayyah, right? So he is that also prestigious leader. So he takes their two sons, and he goes knocking on the doors of the Quraysh, everyone who had contributed to the caravan of Badr, everyone who had given money to the caravan, he goes and he tells them, we need your money back now. Give us your investments back. What you have profited, because remember, the Badr's caravan had come back safe and sound. So they got their profit, remember, right? That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, you wanted the easy one, but I had a higher thing in mind for you. You wanted the more luscious, but I had a higher goal. So the luscious prize booty comes back to the Quraysh. and it is distributed to all of the shareholders. Each one gets their percentage. Then, of course, Abu Sufyan is in charge. He knows who got how much, right? So the same person who knows exactly, he's your accountant now, he comes knocking on your door because he knows exactly how much you got. And he says, hand it back now. He says, hand it back. Because we now have to go on an offensive against the Quraysh. We have to go on the offensive against the Muslims. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I reference this in the Quran by saying that those who have disbelieved they are willing to spend their money in order to stop people from the way of Allah they will spend it and they will regret spending it and they will lose all of this is in the future by the way so Allah is predicting what's going to happen this ayah by the way Surah Al-Anfal Surah Al-Anfal verse 36 and it is interesting Surah Al-Anfal was revealed right after Badr and yet Allah is predicting Uhud and He's talking about the preparation of Uhud right after Badr because as we said right after Badr the money is being raised so when Surah Al-Anfal comes down which is right after Badr within the Surah Allah is referencing Uhud, but of course when it comes down, Muslims don't realize what's going on. But the reference is here. إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ لِيَسُدُّوا عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَسَيُنفِقُونَهَا They're gonna spend their money. Then they're gonna regret spending that money. And then they shall in the end be destroyed. And then they will go to Jahannam humiliated. So, Allah references the spending and the collecting of money right after within the surah of Anfal. and from the Quraysh now, they decided that they needed help because they didn't have enough people to fight the Muslims and realized that the Quraysh being the business owners that they were, they had plenty of tribes that were interested in keeping this economic pipeline taking place. And the two largest tribes that they reached out to were Kinana and Tihama. so they reached out to these tribes of Kinana and Tihama basically saying and they also have a vested interest in having this pipeline running so they're saying help us out with your money, with your armor and even with your men artillery, everything, lend us your money give us your people, whatever you're able to help us out with, so the Kinana and the Tihama as well they added to whatever the number that the Quraish had and the entire group as we know came to around 3000. Allahu'alam what was the percentage of each, I was not able to find it in Ibn Ishaq or other early sources but nonetheless we can estimate we can guesstimate that the bulk of the army would have been Quraysh why? because Kinana and Tihama would have helped them more with armor, with weapons and also with slaves because when you sought help in this manner they got plenty of slaves to spare so in terms of actual military people most of them would have been Quraysh but the kinana and tihama they might have sent a few token people a small army, a small expedition but the main help would have been with logistics with armory, with saddles, these types of things they would have given to the Quraysh and therefore what we are seeing with the battle of Uhud is that for the first time the conflict is now getting between Islam and Kufr because before the conflict was between the Quraysh and the Prophet ﷺ. It was a very local, if you like, conflict. In every single conflict, the circle will widen until finally it is an all out Islam versus paganism. And what happened was that the animosity of the Prophet ﷺ united the Arabs for the first time. Just like the religion of Islam united the Arabs for the first time. Up until the coming of Islam, the Arabs were always disunited. No two would ever agree, you know, two different tribes. Islam came and it made the Arabs into two camps. Those who opposed and those who accepted. And then eventually, of course, those who accepted won over. And therefore, for the first time in human history, the Arabs were united under the leadership of the Prophet ﷺ. That will of course happen at the end of time. Let's get now at the end of his time. Let's get back to the battle of Uhud here. So the circle of conflict is being widened. We now have some of the largest tribes, Tihama, Kinana, these are some of the largest tribes of the region are now participating as well. And on the 7th of Shawwal, in the third year of the Hijrah, literally a year and a few weeks after the Battle of Badr, on the 7th of Shawwal, in the third year of the Hijrah, the Quraysh set out from Mecca. And perhaps it was as if they wanted to mark the anniversary event as well, that this is basically almost a year after the battle of Badr they set out. And what especially shows their eagerness is that typically this journey would have taken two weeks at a very leisurely pace. And if you wanted to speed up a little bit, moderate, you would take ten days. But in their eagerness, they actually traversed this entire distance in seven days. And that is showing us how eager they were to get to the battle, to get fighting with them. That they did this in seven days. Now, as we said, the Quraysh had managed to gather around 3,000 men. And they had 200 horses. And that is a large amount of horses. And they had obtained 700 armors for men. 700. And again, this is most likely coming from Tihama and Kinana. That put together now for the first time, they have 700 armors. Now, realize back then, the average person did not have weapons for fighting. Remember there is no army that's being paid. These are people that are living in Mecca. They are tradesmen, they are craftsmen, they are doing their job. To invest in armor is a lot of money. And if you use it once every 10-20 years, it's not worth it. Most people would not have had the weapons or the armor to fight. And this is where the Tihamah and Kinanah people are coming in. Help us out, so then they'll lend them the armor that they're not using. Here, take 200. This is a very big amount. also realize that again most of this armor is coming from elsewhere from Yemen or from Syria and because the Arabs were not experts at metallurgy they were not the experts at iron smiths this is being imported and this is very expensive and that's why when you read the books of history and the books of battles one of the most prized possessions for a warrior to obtain in a battle was to obtain the armor of his opponent he would love to obtain this this was more precious to him than many other things why? Because armor is a big investment, it's a very expensive item, and it is something that once you have it, you can use it basically for a lifetime, you can keep it for a long period of time. So they had 700 basically armed men wearing their body suits if you like. You know the males, the chains of armor that come. This is how they would have the protection. and this time they decided to take many of their wives with them it is said up to two dozen of the women of the Quraysh participated why was this? because when you have the women participating they can serve as a incentive that if we lose we're in big trouble right? cheerleaders you can say cheerleaders as well and frankly there were types of cheerleaders yes in their own way because the women would give their poetry. The women would sing out their poetry out loud. And this poetry was somewhat sensual in nature. Somewhat sensual in nature that they are encouraging the men to basically show their manhood and discouraging them from coming back empty handed. And you know so they're basically, they are in fact that type of cheerleaders. They are encouraging the men forward. But there's also more important than this is when you have women you really have to fight. Or else you know, this is going to be a big problem. So they're so confident that many of the leaders took their wives with them, including Abu Sufyan, who of course took Hind bint Utbah, that famous Hind that we will talk about for many times throughout the seerah. And Abu Sufyan was the main leader of the army, and he put on the right flank, he put in charge Khalid ibn al-Walid, and on the left flank he put in charge Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal. And therefore, these three people were the main leaders of Uhud. Abu Sufyan is at the head of the army, the right flank is Khalid ibn al-Walid, the left flank is Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal. Now, Al-Abbas, we mentioned that he most likely converted at the battle of Badr. After the battle of Badr. We mentioned that in the prisoner of war situation, when he tried to hide his money, if you remember, and the Prophet ﷺ said well you say you have no money, how about that money that you hid in such and such a place and you told Umm al-Fadl that in case I die, this much goes here, this much goes there that's when he said, Ya Rasulullah no one could have told you this other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I said back then that there is a very plausible theory and we're never gonna know facts because we can't know for sure, that he was a secret convert and he then returned to Mecca as a secret convert. Publicly he is not known to be a Muslim at this time. Publicly he converts later on. But there is a theory that he converted after the battle of Badr. He was not a convert in Badr, even though he didn't want to fight. And he said, and the Prophet ﷺ said, you are telling the truth. He said, they forced me. They forced me to fight. I didn't want to fight and I didn't really participate. Didn't do much in the battle. And the Prophet ﷺ said, he is telling the truth. He didn't want to fight. so most likely he converted secretly and the Prophet ﷺ sent him secretly to as a secret Muslim to Mecca and he remained there up until almost the conquest and then before the conquest he made the hijrah and the point being that this incident seems to suggest that that is the case what incident? Al-Abbas as soon as the Quraysh left and he felt the situation was clear for him immediately he sent a trusted servant to go to the Prophet ﷺ and inform him in explicit detail how many people, how much arms, how many horses, the entire layout of the army. Now why did he delay until this very day? Well, one of two reasons come to mind. Firstly, perhaps the Quraysh themselves were not trusting Abbas. After all, he is an uncle. And after all, he has not shown his animosity unlike Abu Lahab did, for example, in his lifetime, right? So he's not shown his animosity. So there's always this doubt, is he, is he not? So perhaps they didn't inform him until the very end. Or, and this is also a very plausible theory, he couldn't send anybody until the city is empty. Or else there would be this clear indication, if he sends his servant, it's pretty clear, I mean, you know, it's very dangerous for him to do that. So he waits for them to leave. As soon as they leave, he then sends a trusted servant, and this servant goes as fast as humanly possible. And that was three days. So the clock is ticking. Because the Quraysh did it in seven. So the clock is ticking. So as fast as, and this is, you cannot get faster than this. You cannot do the journey between Mecca and Medina in those days on a camel faster than three days. And so he gets to Medina in three days, and he finds the Prophet ﷺ in Quba. He was visiting Quba at the time, and he hands the letter to him, and Ubayy ibn Ka'b is there and he tells Ubay to read the letter because obviously the Prophet ﷺ cannot read and Nabi al-Ummi so he tells Ubay to read the letter and Ubay tells him all the details and he says to Ubay do not tell anybody until I tell you. Don't tell anybody about this news. And he immediately rushes back to Medina and he speaks to some of the leaders of the Ansar in particular Sa'd ibn al-Rabi'ah one of the leaders of the Ansar telling him what's going on Because this is the first time Medina is going to be attacked. And then after this, he sends out two or three spies to check on the Quraysh before he calls a general meeting. And this is very interesting. Did he doubt his uncle Abbas? Of course not. He trusts his uncle. Yet still, this is a very big news. And it will affect everything. And you cannot operate on the presumption of maybe even a genuine mistake. what if the Quraysh have duped Abbas even how does he know what's going on right so the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam first thing he does he sends out two or three spies to find out what's going on and they go and they actually see the 3000 army close by and they come back and they basically say the Quraysh are grazing at such and such a pasture which is basically a day or two away literally they're on our outskirts now so everything falls into place and again this shows us the meticulous care. The Prophet ﷺ was not an emotional reactionary. He did not just act on the whim or the spur. The Prophet ﷺ is acting very cautiously. He's thinking. He's making sure everything is appropriate, right? And he told us in many hadith, acting in haste comes from shaitan. And atta'anni, or acting in predetermined thought, this is from Allah ﷻ. Being cautious and thinking things through, this is from Allah. And acting in haste is from shaitan. And we should learn from this that the situation is critical. I mean they're about to face the largest army. But still he does not panic. First thing he does, he makes sure, is it really this case? Is it really that case? No doubt some time was lost. But it is better to be sure than to cause a panic and then find out that it was a false alarm. So he finds out that indeed the Quraysh are close by. And probably, we don't have exact dates, but we can estimate or guesstimate that probably this is now by the 11th of Shawwal basically. Our Prophet ﷺ has confirmed that the Quraysh are a day or two away. And the Quraysh basically got to the outskirts of Medina. It is said in Samariwaya 12th and Samariwaya 13th they got to the outskirts of Medina. So he literally has like a window of 48 hours give or take a little bit. He literally has a window of two days to do something. And therefore he calls a large meeting of the Muslims. now there is a dream that has been narrated that the Prophet ﷺ saw and he told the Muslims about this according to Ibn Ishaq before the battle and according to Bukhari after the battle which makes more sense and he saw this dream again according to Ibn Ishaq before the battle so according to Ibn Ishaq's version he saw the dream, he told it to them but it doesn't make sense, Bukhari's version makes more sense Bukhari's version is he saw the dream in Mecca and he did not understand its interpretation until after Uhud. Then he told the Sahaba of the dream after Uhud. And this makes sense now. Okay. So he saw some dream that he could not interpret until Uhud took place. When Uhud takes place, he then understands the dream. Then he tells the Sahaba after Uhud to calm them down, to console them. That look, this is what I saw. And this version makes more sense than Ibn Ishaq's version. Because Ibn Ishaq's version basically has him telling them of the defeat before the defeat. And that doesn't make sense. Right? So the Bukhari's version seems more authentic. What is the dream? The dream is cryptic. Dreams are typically cryptic. The dream is cryptic and we need a little bit of explanation. The Prophet ﷺ said, hadith is in Bukhari, I saw in a dream that I had struck with my sword. But my sword broke. But my sword broke. and this is what afflicted the Muslims at Uhud. This is the disaster of Uhud. Then I hit it again and it came back as good as it ever was. As strong as it ever was. And this was the victory that Allah gave to the Muslims and the coming together of the believers. Meaning after Uhud there shall be victory. This was the victory and the joining together because Uhud separated them as we'll discover. Uhud brought them into munafiqeen and mu'min. And then the Prophet ﷺ said, after Uhud, the Muslims now knew who's right and wrong, now we are now one group again. Uhud was a disaster in one sense, in many senses we'll talk about, was it a full disaster or partial? But one of the negatives of Uhud, was that the Muslims for the first time showed open disunity. This had never happened up until this time. The Muslims showed open disunity, meaning the munafiqeen broke away, that's what I mean by this, right? The munafiqeen broke away. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying, after Uhud, we will gain our unity again. And after Uhud, we'll have our victory again. And then he said, and I saw cows, I saw cows, and Allah is good, and this was the believers on the day of Uhud. This was the believers on the day of Uhud. In the version of Imam Ahmad's Musnad, it is added, the Prophet ﷺ said, I saw myself wearing a protective armor. I saw myself wearing a protective armor so I interpreted that to be Medina so the dream is telling him that stay with your armor which means stay in Medina I interpreted that to be Medina now Bukhari's version has all of this taking place after Uhud which makes sense that after Uhud he's now seeing what's happening meaning the dream of Mecca comes back to him and now he's interpreting okay now it makes sense if you look at the other version it doesn't make sense because it's as if he's predicting that you guys are gonna be killed and then we're gonna come back together that doesn't make sense you guys are gonna separate then we're gonna be united rather the dream was cryptic and the Prophet ﷺ did not tell the Muslims because he didn't know what it was about and then he only told them after Uhud so that he then interpreted himself now what is the meaning of cows because everything else is interpreted the sword is interpreted I struck with my sword it broke this is the calamity of Uhud then I struck again and it was as shining and perfect as it ever was this is the next battles and the Muslims were united so they were going to be united then he says and I saw cows and this has given a lot of interpretation what does the cow symbolize what is the meaning of a cow and Ibn Hajar says that the symbolism of a cow is that of the shuhada of Uhud the martyrs of Uhud Why? Because a cow is an animal that is useful, dead and alive. If it's alive, alhamdulillah. And if it dies, alhamdulillah. So it's as if the Muslims are being told, look, these believers, Allah Azza wa Jalla has chosen for them something better. This is the interpretation of Ibn Hajar. Is that, you guys get the point here? That it's the shuhada of Uhud. That they're being symbolized, whether they're living or dead, Allah has something good planned for them and Allah Azza wa Jal knows best but he did not explain what is the interpretation of the cow now as we said time was of the essence the Meccans were already outside probably a day or two away and so the Prophet after consulting with the leaders of the Ansar Sa'd ibn Rabi'ah and others he then called a general gathering also notice in this wisdom that subhanallah the difference between a true thoughtful leader or person of responsibility versus the tattletale, versus the sensationalist. The person who's thoughtful, if some big news comes, he will tell firstly a core group. Then he's gonna widen the circle. Whereas the sensationalist guy, he's just gonna spread everything, spill the beans all at once. Our Prophet ﷺ first told the core group around him to get their mashwara, to get some idea what to do. then when he had some notion and idea now he opens the floor for everyone and this is a part of hikmah and a part of leadership and even every one of us even if we're not community leaders every one of us there are things that you don't need to go and tell the whole world or even if you do not immediately find out be careful step by step so after he gets this inner circle he then calls a gathering and it so happened that it was Friday anyway so everybody was gathered together on the Friday anyway and so what this means is that on Thursday he is gathering information from the closest of his companions Sa'd ibn Rabi and others and he spends the day in the inner circle then on Friday he then tells them to stay after the khutbah also Ibn Ishaq mentions there was a janazah as well and janazahs were not that common you know there's a small community so everybody had come for the janazah as well so it is as if Allah SWT had willed that there's going to be a larger gathering than usual. And so there was a janazah of one of the sahaba, one of the ansari had passed away. So there's a janazah and so everybody has now been gathered there and now the Prophet ﷺ tells them everything. No holds barred. He tells them exactly as it is. That we have so many people outside and what do you think we should do? And then he said, without opening the floor, he first gives him his own opinion. Then he opens the floor. He says that and I see myself in a protected fortress. Basically the dream now. I see myself in a protected fortress we are in which is a protected fortress now Medina as we have said many times Medina was a very unique city in many ways it had natural impediments on many sides and inshallah if not next Wednesday then the Wednesday after we'll show you the Google Maps to see it from on top and you'll see a little bit of this Medina had some natural protections on two sides were by now we should all know volcanic lava rock al-Hara still is called to this day the two Haras and we have talked about these large volcanic plains that walking is very difficult on and people don't go past these plains especially horses and camels they're not going to go past or onto this area this is on two sides on one side which is somewhat of the northwest side you have the big stretch of Uhud you have this large mountain of Uhud and you have pockets towards Quba area of large date palms plantations basically right North is, Uhud is North yes it is, we'll show you the map Uhud is North of Medina and you also have towards the southern parts a little bit south west sorry, south east, you have the area of Quba which is full of luscious date plantations. And of course when you have large date plantations, you're not going to have an army marching through those either. So, this is why by the way in the battle of Khandaq, they could dig a trench because the trench was not around the whole city. If it was around the whole city they could never have done this. The battle of Khandaq, the only reason they could have dug a trench is because there really is only one stretch of land that is vast and open where the enemy can attack easily from. And that's why they could do it. And we'll talk about that, how was it, two, three miles or something. But it was a reasonable, I mean reasonable for the time. Obviously two, three miles, can you imagine that long in our times? But still, for them this is what they did in that short period of time. So in the battle of Uhud, so the Prophet ﷺ was saying, we have now a protected fortress here in Medina. And the suggestion was that they should avail themselves to the natural fortification of the city. and the army, if it would have attacked Medina, would never have been able to, you know, this would literally result in street to street fighting. And in street to street fighting, who's gonna win? The people who know the street. The people who know the layout of the ground. They could have set up barricades, they could have split themselves up into so many different pockets. It is even said that if this would have happened, the women and children would have been participating from the roof by throwing things down. You know, they would have had projectiles or hot, you know, oil or something like this. So, because this is their city, they know it. And they're gonna split up the entire army into these small little enclaves, and then fight them street to street. So, this would have been a protected fortress. So, the Prophet ﷺ suggested to remain in Medina. And amazingly, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul agreed. Not because he was somebody who appreciated the Prophet ﷺ, but because it was the correct opinion. and Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul was a seasoned warrior. He was the most seasoned warrior amongst them. And he understood as well the tactics of remaining in Medina. And so he said, yes, this is the correct position. And he said this, Medina has never been successfully attacked from within when we stayed as a city. So he's now going back into historical precedent. We have never been defeated from within the city. The city has always protected us. So, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul agrees with the Prophet ﷺ because it is the right opinion, not because he respects the Prophet ﷺ. Because it is the right opinion, the Prophet ﷺ was right, and Abdullah ibn Ubayy knew he was right. So he said, yes, we should remain in the city as well. However, there was a group of younger companions, many of whom Ibn Ishaq says became shaheed. So they were sincere in this. they were eager for battle they wanted to fight and they said why should we remain in our houses like cowards rather we should go out like brave men and fight them on the battlefield and these were people who had regretted not participating in Badr and they wanted to show their manliness their feats of bravery their war if you like and they continued pressuring the Prophet ﷺ to go out all the while the senior Sahaba were silent and they didn't say anything until finally when the Prophet ﷺ felt that the majority were saying he should go out he then agreed to this and he went inside to wear his armor and as soon as he went inside the older Sahaba opened up and they began reproaching the younger Sahaba and they said the Prophet ﷺ told us his opinion at the beginning and yet you persisted in suggesting the opposite until finally he agreed to your opinion how could you have done this? and the younger Sahaba felt very embarrassed at what had transpired so when this happened they sent in Hamza and of course Hamza is the uncle that is going to be a shaheed in Uhud as we know they sent in Hamza into the house because obviously it's his private house, his chambers they sent in Hamza into the house of the Prophet ﷺ to tell him that we changed our minds and when Hamza entered in the Prophet ﷺ had already put on his armor and he had fastened the straps and everything then he comes in and he tells him the Sahaba are now, they have now rethought this through and they've changed their minds and so the Prophet ﷺ said it is not possible once a Prophet has worn his armor that he takes it off until he fights the enemy. This is a hadith, which is narrated in Muslim, I'm not going to go into the other hadith. ما ينبغي It's not appropriate, it's not befitting that a prophet wears his armor and then takes it off without engaging in battle. Meaning it is too late. Now we're going to go to war. This was the decision and we're going to go to war. Now look over here, subhanAllah, so many benefits from this incident. Look at the status of Shura in the life of our Prophet ﷺ. He felt confident staying in Medina. But he knows, like any good leader knows, that you need the people behind you. And you cannot just impose your will on them. Even though if anybody could impose his will, it was the Prophet ﷺ. And as Allah says, and we've said this so many times, Allah tells us, وَأَمْرُهُمْ شُورًا بَيْنَهُمْ their way of dealing with matters is to have shura. To have consultive voices. What do you think? Let's all reach some type of consensus or majority. And therefore, when the majority of companions, according to the process of his interpretation, we don't even know who is the majority, we don't know. Maybe it was a vocal minority. But when the others are silent, the impression being given is what? That this is the majority. And so once this impression is given, he then gives in to the demand and then he puts on his armor notice as well the wisdom of the older companions firstly they wanted to accept the advice of the Prophet ﷺ and secondly they did not argue in his presence this is amazing the height of adab the height of etiquette because they could have told the younger companions right then and there can you be quiet please, we've already made up our minds he's already made up his mind They could have done this. But isn't this rude? To have this bickering dispute in front of the leader, in front of the Prophet ﷺ. They could have had this harshness, but out of respect to him, they kept their mouths quiet. And this really shows us the amount of respect they had. That they're not even going to rebuke the younger sahaba for something they know to be wrong. Just waiting for him to go out of earshot, then they're gonna rebuke. Right? And this really shows us the height of respect that wallahi it is unimaginable really. That that type of respect can now be replicated in front of any living person. This is an amazing amount that only our Prophet ﷺ is going to be able to get because of his maqam. Also notice that it is the sunnah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that young men in particular are always overzealous and rash. it is in their character and nature impetuousness, rashness quick acting a little bit of arrogance and cockiness generally speaking generally speaking it is in their nature and this is really what makes them young men that's what young men are that always we find those who are young are more overzealous than they are required to be and Allah Azawajal mentions and by the way this could work both ways that it could be overzealousness within the religion, it could be against the religion, it could be exaggeration, that is not in the spirit of the religion, but has a good niyyah. All of this is doable. So Allah Azzawajal mentions in the Quran, وَكَانَ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ تِسْعَةُ رَهْطٍ يُفْسِدُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ There were a group of nine lads that were causing a lot of chaos in the land. And they were the ones who, what did they do? Who are the nine lads? تِسْعَةُ رَهْطٍ What did they do? the camel, the she-camel they were the ones who then decided to do this prank on the camel of God, and Allah Azawajal showed them what's gonna happen, right? So again the point being this is Allah mentions them as and also the ashab al-kahf as well were young men innahu fitiyatun amanu bi rabbihim they were a group of young men, they had that strong iman in Allah, it is human nature that young men sometimes they go in the positive sometimes they go with good intentions, but not in the positive direction. The niyyah is good, but not in the positive direction, such as right now, right? And sometimes it is the exact opposite, which is they have bad intentions, and they're still overzealous in that. And subhanAllah, even to this day, if you look at these extremist militants and tactics that are taking place around the world, that we disapprove of in the name of Islam, the main people who support these tactics are always some of our overzealous youth. They're the ones who think that this is the way forward, and this is a legitimate jihad and this and that. And we know that this is not the way forward. And in their anger, in their overzealousness, anybody who dares to criticize them, خَلَصْ He is مُنَافِق, he is a sellout, he is this, he is that. This is typical. It is a part of being overzealous without having the knowledge. Right? It's human nature. And of course amongst the sahaba, we are not saying this of them. We are saying they had good intentions, but they didn't have as much wisdom as the older sahaba did. and it's always helpful for the youth to listen to what their elders have to say. This is the general rule. It's always helpful for our young men to be patient and realize that their elders have been there, done that. Their elders have lived through much more than they have lived through and they have much more experience than they have and the same applies throughout all of our centuries today and throughout all of our history. In any case, so the processor wore his armor and the fact that he said I cannot take it off now shows us something very interesting. And we know this from other ayat and hadith. There is a special sharia for the prophets that they have certain laws that nobody else has. There is a special sharia for the prophets that they have a code that they have to operate by. And this code is unique for them. And we know of many such aspects that the Prophet ﷺ was able to do, were not able to do, he would fast three days without ever eating or drinking. 72 hours, 76 hours without one morsel, one sip of water. And when the Sahaba tried to do it, they fainted, they couldn't do it. So he said, I am not like one of you. Allah gives me food and drink in a way He's not gonna give to you. Right? So he would fast two, three days non-stop and he forbade the Sahaba from doing this. And according to one opinion, it was wajib for him to pray tahajjud. every single night, it was wajib. Because Allah says in the Quran, ثُلُوثَ يَلَّيْنِ وَصْفَهُ ثُلُوَةَ وَطَوَفِهُ مِنَ ذِي مَعْقَةٍ قُمِ اللَّيْلَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا And according to Ibn Taymiyyah, it was wajib for the Prophet ﷺ to pray tahajjud. Whereas for the rest of us, it is not wajib. But it was for him, it was wajib. And of course, the issue of multiple wives, we know also this was a concession for him. And here is another code we have in the shari'ah. That if a prophet wears armor, he is not allowed to take it off. This is in their shari'ah. unique to the prophets. So once he has worn armor, why? Because taking it off could be interpreted to be defeat, hesitation, cowardice, right? So it's not befitting. ما ينبغي, even the phrase used, not befitting. It's not appropriate. For one of us to do it, okay, let people say what they want. How about a prophet of Allah? Somebody who puts on his armor, then he goes, okay, I'm gonna take it off. Wallahi anybody would say and they would say this non-Muslims how is this a prophet, you're gonna take it off, take it off so the Prophet ﷺ said we're not allowed to do that once we put on our armor, khalas we have to go all the way through now also notice here, we all know what's gonna happen and that is this advice was not the best advice that the advice of the younger companions was not the best what is really amazing perhaps one of the most amazing things about the whole incident is that once the decision has been made the Sahaba were not criticized after that for what happened nobody came back to them and said see, I told you so nobody came back and said look now, are you happy? you know this type of attitude we all have, right? nobody because فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ it's in the Quran once you do Shura and then you make up your mind, then khalas, don't look back. You thought this was best, you did it, now don't look back. And our Prophet ﷺ said, none of you should say, what if I did this? Then this would have happened. لو أني فعلت كذا لكان كذا. This is a hadith. None of you should say, if only I had done this, then that would have happened. But rather say, قدر الله وما شاء فعل. Say whatever Allah has willed has occurred. Because saying what if, opens up the door to shaitan. Saying what if, opens up the door to shaitan. You start doubting, you start getting waswas. You start doubting, astaghfirullah, even Allah's qadr. And therefore, once you make up your mind properly, and that's the key here, you're not hasty. And the Prophet ﷺ was not hasty. He spoke to the elite of the sahaba, he spent a few hours discussing, then he felt this is the majority, then khalas, now the decision has been made. Now that the decision has been made, no one should blame anybody else after this now. And that's what happened. None of these younger sahaba that made this decision were then criticized for the rest of their lives. Because that was their sincere desire, that was what they thought was best, and adarallah, their will was accepted. And that was the plan that was accepted by the Prophet ﷺ, end of story, life goes on. And this is a very big lesson for every one of us. that once we make up a decision that was done properly, then after this, we should not blame anyone or anything. Our mawj should be free of, see what happened, didn't I tell you this? This is not of the etiquette. Now again, if we have done it properly. What is properly? Istikhara and istishara, two things. Keep this in mind, right? Istikhara, you know, prayer. Istishara, asking people. These are the two things. Anytime you have a major decision, Islam tells us, istikhara, istishara. pray istikhara, get istishara istishara is advice from those who are people that are worthy to advise you close friends, family, relatives, experts, whatever you get the advice you make up your mind now suppose it turns out to be a disaster khalas, you did what you thought was best Allah has something better planned you don't see it yet and this is exactly what happens in the battle of Badr so the Prophet ﷺ he wears his armor in fact Ibn Ishaq tells us that he wore two suits of armor, double armor. And this despite the fact that of course Allah has promised to protect him, and he doesn't need armor at all. But to show his followers and to show the ummah, that if one wants to engage in any type of endeavor, you have to engage in it according to the means, according to the level, according to the rules of the game. You don't act foolishly and say, You don't act foolishly and say, Allah will do everything. No. You have to do everything possible. And if that means arming yourself to the hilt before you go to the battle as he did, then so be it. This was to demonstrate to the sahaba that it is foolish not to dress up for the battle. It is foolish not to have your preparations. And Allah Azza wa Jal says in the Quran, regarding battle, خُذُوا حِذْرَكُمْ Take your precautions. And Allah says, going for hajj, وَتَزَوَّدُوا make sure you have your food and water and drink with you فَإِنَّ خَيْرَ زَادِ تَقْوَى so whatever you're doing make sure you do it with Allah in mind of course, but you have the means the physical means necessary and so our Prophet ﷺ wore two layers of armor on him and again this was done so that the leader demonstrates the religious leader demonstrates to the followers that look, you need to be armed don't be foolish and say oh, I'm gonna go out like this and put my tawakkul in Allah tawakkul in Allah means tying your camel and then putting tawakkul in Allah. And this is his tying of the camel. And the Prophet ﷺ divided up the army into three main groups. The muhajirun, under the leadership of Mus'ab ibn Umair. The aws, under the leadership of Usaid ibn Hudayr. And the khazraj, under the leadership of Al-Hubab ibn Al-Munzir. And so these three were the leaders on the Muslim side. And because the situation was so dire, they only had a few horses, a handful of horses, and amongst all of them, they only had 100 suits of armor. So only 100 of them were wearing full body armor. And the Muslims, in the late afternoon of Friday, they made their way to the mountain of Uhud. In the late afternoon of Friday, after the Salatul Jum'ah had taken place, after the istishara had taken place, probably we can say an hour, an hour and a half would have taken place, then they made their way to the mountain of Uhud. And the mountain of Uhud is a actually a misconception that many people have. They think the mountain of Uhud is one mountain. And this is wrong. The mountain of Uhud is not a mountain, it is a range of mountains. It's a whole number of peaks. Not just one peak. It's a whole series of mountains and the mountains of Uhud are over one mile long. It's a very long mountain. And the mountains of Uhud are north of Medina, north-northwest. So north-northwest of Medina. Little bit to this side and there are a range of mountains. InshaAllah next class hopefully or the class after I'll show you the slide on the screen. And these days by car it takes less than 10 minutes from the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ to the mountains of Medina mountains of Uhud, less than 10 minutes by car and because of the increased inhabitants of Medina the city of Medina now goes all the way to the mountain of Uhud in terms of its city, in terms of the people living there and there are plenty of people living under the shade of the mountain now and this is considered to be a part of the city of course in the time of the Prophet ﷺ there were big gaps obviously. The city was very small. I've said this before that the entire core of the city fit inside what is now the masjid. The whole city the core of the city because Medina was actually a number of small cities. Quba had a small city. Then the Banu Salama had a small city. So they had little small encampments here and there. The core which is the downtown if you like or the actual Medina it fit into the entire masjid that is now constructed. And that is why the graveyard, Baqir, was outside the city. Baqir was outside the city. Of course now Medina has increased a thousand percent or something, you know. And so this is now Baqir and the process of masjid are basically right in the center and the whole city goes outward. And of course Uhud, there are many hadith about Uhud. The Prophet ﷺ said Uhud is a mountain of Jannah. Uhud is a Jabal of Jannah. What does this mean? Some scholars say that this means that Uhud is a beloved mountain. Others say that Uhud will be transported into Jannah. Whatever the case might be, Uhud is a mountain of Jannah. This is an authentic hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. And in one hadith, when the Prophet ﷺ came back from one of his expeditions, the first thing they saw was the mountain of Uhud before they got to the city so they're coming back from the north so they see the mountain of Uhud and so the Prophet ﷺ said hadith is in Bukhari Uhud is a mountain that loves us and we love it so it is a sign of Iman to love Uhud it is a sign of Iman to love Uhud Uhud is a mountain that loves us and we love it and it is narrated in Sahih Muslim that once the Prophet ﷺ was climbing Uhud with Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman the three of them they were climbing Uhud and the mountain began to shake and tremble and so the Prophet ﷺ tapped it with his feet and he said Uthbut Uhud calm down Uhud be firm Uhud فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ نَبِيٌّ وَصُدِّيقٌ وَشَهِدَيْنِ Because you have on you now, you only have a Nabi and a Siddique and two Shahids on you. أُثْبُتْ أُحُدْ فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ نَبِيٌّ وَصُدِّيقٌ وَشَهِدَيْنِ So he is saying to Uhud, he is speaking to Uhud, calm down, for really there is only a Nabi and a Siddique and two martyrs on you. and Uhud is one of the markers of the holy city of Medina Medina is a Haram Medina is a Haram who can remind me what is a Haram this goes back many months you're not supposed to kill anybody in it so we can kill everybody outside careful ya khi everybody who enters is protected So cutting the trees Hunting So basically certain things are Haram inside that are halal outside That's why it's called haram From the same verb as haram It's sacred Certain things that would otherwise be halal Are haram Of them for example you're not allowed to carry a weapon unsheathed. For example. Right? You can't carry a sword unsheathed. It has to be inside. In our times, Qiyas, Second Amendment guys, the bullets have to be somewhere else maybe. It's gonna be in the trunk, yeah. It's gonna be Qiyas, Second Amendment guys. It's like that. You can't have it inside, let's say. This type of haram is gonna be... Now of course, there's always exceptions when there's maslaha. so the guards for example, they're doing this for the protection of the haram. So they're doing it for the protection of the haram, they have an exception. But otherwise, generally speaking, haram has certain laws that make it sacred. And therefore, what is the boundaries of the haram? Mecca has its boundaries. As for Medina, the Prophet ﷺ himself told us exactly what are the boundaries. And this hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim and many hadith, that the Prophet ﷺ said, Al-Madinatu Haramun Min Ayrin Ila Thawr And in another hadith, Bayna Labbateyha So Ayr and Thawr are two mountains, and Labbateyha is Harrateyha, which is east and west. So the two mountains are north and south, and then the two plains are east and west. So the Prophet ﷺ, literally he specified the four points of the compass. And he said, Al-Madinatu Haram Madinah is a sacred land between Ayr and Thawr, and that's north and south. and between the two rocky volcanic plains that's east and west. So we can draw the map of Medina then, the Haram map of Medina, which is perfectly been allocated. So, Ayr, Al-Madinah is the Haram, we're from Ayr to Thawr. Thawr is on the south side, Ayr is on the north side. Ayr is a small mountain that is after Uhud. Right after Uhud, there's a small mountain of Ayr. So Uhud is included inside the Haram. A'ir, I'll repeat. Uhud is what of Medina, north-southwest? North-northwest. Okay, up that way. A'ir is north of Uhud. Small little mountain. I have a personal anecdote here. I was very honored to have a private tour of Medina with my Shaykh. Many of you know my Shaykh, Allah yirhamu, is Shaykh Safiur Rahman Barak Furi, the author of Rahiq al-Maktum, the one who wrote the seerah, that Allah Azza wa Jal blessed me to study with him one on one, Sahih Bukhari. And I have ijazah from Sahih Bukhari. And it was a very humble man, wallahi, and he's very, very sweet, very humble man. He died of cancer a number of years ago. But Allah blessed me to study with him. And I asked him, Sheikh, can you give me a tour of Medina, the sights of Medina, and especially the battle of Uhud I wanted from him, the battle of Uhud and so one morning so long ago subhanallah when was this, 1996 or 7 long time ago one morning I remember 7am we had to meet up somewhere and we went to a number of sites, we went to Uhud and he gave us his interpretation, there was one more companion with me a Kuwaiti student that was also his student, so the two of us went with him in his car, and we went to Uhud, and he gave us his interpretation of the battle, which I will present to you, because it's different than other people's interpretation of what happened, who went where. And then we drove all the way around Uhud, and he showed us Ayr. And he said, this is Ayr. We saw this small little mountain, he said, this is Ayr. That the Prophet ﷺ said, Al-Madinatu Haramun Min Ayrin Ila Thaur. And that was the only time I ever saw Ayr, because who's gonna go all the way around there's some winding roads, I don't know how he even knew about this, but, and subhanallah he wasn't even Saudi, he's Indian, he's from Mubarak Fur, you know, he's from Azamgarh, right but his interest, his eagerness in the seerah, he knew much more than any of the locals there, you know, so talking about this brings back those memories that I actually saw with him, and I pray that Allah Azawajal blesses him immensely for all that he has done for me and for the ummah that book is an amazing book Rahiq al-Wakhtum. In any case, so the Prophet ﷺ said, as we said, it's a small mountain on the other side of Medina. And the question arises, why did the Prophet ﷺ go to Medina? Why did the Prophet ﷺ go to Medina? The response very simple. Now that the younger Sahaba have basically said, we have to go out and fight, he needs to think about the best location to face the enemy. And there's only one of two options. Either you meet them in an open battlefield or you meet them in a constrained area that you know the territory better than them. That there is an advantage because of the layout of the land. Open battlefield would have been disaster because there's one to four ratio. Open battlefield would have been pure folly. There's no way you're gonna win. But by going to Uhud, as we'll see inshallah next Wednesday inshallah it has to be next Wednesday now by going to Uhud what he's effectively done is to maximize that small quantity of 700 or 1000 people they will be the most effective, why? because three areas are now blocked off three areas are blocked off and there's a narrow patch of land a focus patch where the enemy has to attack from and he is protected by three sides one side is open that's where he puts the archers we're gonna talk about that, right? So the Uhud is basically two sides are protecting him. They can't come from behind, there's a mountain. One side is open, but there's that small mountain, Jabal al-Rumah, which we're going to talk about, right? And that's the mountain he puts the 50 archers, so a third side is now blocked, right? Then he has one open side left. And that open side, now you can concentrate your battalion, your troops, and the Quraysh are going to have to come from this narrow place, and therefore you've maximized the effectiveness of a small army against a large army. That's the advantage of Uhud. And again, we don't even need to point out the military genius of the Prophet ﷺ to figure this out without having gone through any academic training, without going through any military academy or Sandhurst or West Point or something. Of course, Allah Azzawajal taught him. This is in his fitrah to figure this out. So he chooses to go to Uhud. and he's the one who gets there obviously so that the Quraysh now know they have to come here to battle if you're gonna fight outside the city it's gonna be on our terms on our ground on our soil in a land that we have chosen in a place that we have chosen and so the Prophet ﷺ marches out as we said on Friday and this is on the 14th of Shawwal in the third year of the Hijrah and on the way there we all know what happens and that is Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul they slowly began retreating and then going behind the army and then slinking away. He didn't even have the manhood to tell the Prophet ﷺ what he's doing. He didn't even have the courage to make an announcement. He literally amongst his own group they're talking and whispering and mumbling and then they just start withdrawing back and back until finally they literally turned their backs and start marching away, breaking away from the army. And when this happens, the Sahaba began rebuking them, saying, where are you going? What's going on? And they said, Abdullah ibn Ubay said, that he listened to some of our youth and left my advice. Why should we risk our lives fighting him when he hasn't listened to us? So Abdullah ibn Ubay, now this is the first time he's really showing his colors. Now, one of the main benefits of Uhud that Allah Himself mentions in the Quran, Allah wanted to demonstrate the reality of the hypocrites. The Muslims up until this point were innocently unaware of how evil the hypocrites were. And they needed to know how evil the hypocrites were in order to make sure that they're not stung from the same hole twice. That in Khandaq and other battles, this is not gonna happen. And so Allah says that he is doing this, لِيَمِيزَ اللَّهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ So that Allah Azzawajal can separate the filthy from the pure. So one of the main points of the battle of Uhud is to separate the evil from the good. And in this series of incidents, the true colors of the hypocrites are shown. Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Haram, he is the father of the famous Jabir ibn Abdullah, he is about to die in the battle of Uhud, Jabir ibn Abdullah is about to die. Sorry, Abdullah is about to die. Abdullah ibn Amr ibn Haram, he's one of the most famous companions. When he sees Ibn Abi Salul going away, he runs to him on his horse, and he says, I remind you, I remind you to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and to not leave your prophet, or the people at this time, when the enemy is about to attack. Fear Allah, you're gonna leave us at this critical point in time. And he says, did you not promise him, that you would protect him and defend him like you defend your own families. He's referencing the treaty. He's referencing Aqaba. He's referencing the constitution of Medina. We all agreed. Didn't you promise him? So notice, he reminds him of Allah and he reminds him of human morality. Like you made a promise. And that's really all that you have, right? Of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and of human dignity and decency. If you're not gonna fear Allah, at least remember your promise. That you made him a promise, right? and Abdullah ibn Ubay gave that response if we knew they would fight we would go with you لو نعلم قتالا لاتبعناكم if we knew there would actually be a fight we would not leave but we don't think they're going to attack and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala explicitly quotes ibn Abi Salul in the Quran and calls him a liar that he knew full well what's going to happen but he invented an excuse and thought he could get away with it and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيَذْرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَىٰ مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّىٰ يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ that Allah is not going to allow the Muslims to remain in status quo until he separates the khabith from the tayyib so one of the main purposes of Uhud was to separate the filthy from the pure so that Allah could demonstrate what happens and it is only during times of fitna, during times of trial, when one's iman is really shown. This is when you really see a person's faith. When you see a fitna happen, a musiba comes down, what is the response of the person? Now you find out how much iman he has. And Uhud did this. And Allah says also in Surah Al-Imran, and by the way, for Uhud a number of surahs came down, large sections of Al-Imran came down, also Surah An-Nisa, sections of Surah Al-Din Nasa came down as well. And so Surah Al-Imran verse 166 Allah mentions, and this is about Uhud. وَمَا أَصَابَكُمْ يُمَتَقَ الْجَمْعَانِ فَبِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَلْيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا Whatever happened to you on the day the two armies met, it was by the permission of Allah. And it was done so that you could know the hypocrites. وَلْيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا They were told, come, قَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَوْ ادْفَعُوا Go fight or at least defend. if you're not gonna be offensive at least be defensive قَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلٍ أَوْ ادْفَعُوا قَالُوا they said Ibn Abi Salul لَوْ نَعْلَمُ قِتَالًا لَتَّبَعْنَاكُمْ this is quoting Ibn Abi Salul if we really knew they would be fighting we would have not abandoned you we would have gone with you Allah says هُمْ لِلْكُفْرِ يَوْمَ يَذِنْ أَقْرَبُ مِنْهُمْ لِلْإِيمَانِ يَقُونُوا بِأَثِلِتِهِمْ مَا لِيسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ they're saying with their tongues what is not in their hearts Allah called him a liar that this is not what they are really intending and they are closer to kufr than they are to iman so when the muslims saw such a large group of people leaving two things happened the first was that the muslims themselves began talking amongst themselves what is to be done with this group of 300 one group said we should turn back and fight them as traitors before we get to Uhud. And another group said, well let's leave them, deal with them later, let's get on to Uhud. And this began raising of voices, and this is a positive argument, meaning it's an argument for the sake of Islam, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reprimanded even this type of argument. فَمَا لَكُمْ فِي الْمُنَافِقِينَ فِي أَتَيْنِ Allah says in the Quran, this is in Surah An-Nisa, verse 88. Surah An-Nisa, verse 88. فَمَا لَكُمْ فِي الْمُنَافِقِينَ فِي أَتَيْنِ why have you disagreed about the hypocrites and gone into two groups? وَاللَّهُ أَرْكَسَهُمْ بِمَا كَسَبُوا And Allah has thrown them back, meaning to their disbelief, because of what they have done. In other words, you don't worry about them, don't disunite in your attitude towards the hypocrites. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told the Sahaba very gently, because this was a positive argument, they're angry about what they have done. The second thing that happened, was that when these 300 people went away, some other tribes began wavering now. Should we join, should we not join? Should we go with the Muslims, should we go with Ibn Abi Salul? And one of the tribes of the Aus, the Banu Harithah, and one of the tribes of the Khazraj, the Banu Salamah, they were almost about to withdraw. They decided, you know, we should join Ibn Abi Salul. But eventually, the Muslims amongst them won over, and the tribes decided to stay with the Prophet ﷺ. So Allah mentions this in the Quran as well. In Surah Al-Imran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, that there was a group that they were about to tafshalu, that they were about to antafshala, wallahu wali yuhuma, that there were two groups they were about to, tafshala means to give up, Tafshala means just to throw in the towel. Right? They were just about to go with Ibn Abi Salul. But, وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّهُمَا Allah is their protector. So Allah protected them. وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُتَوَكِّلُونَ And in Allah, the people who put their trust should put their trust. So, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that these two groups were about to go astray, but Allah protected them. And these two groups, the Banu Harithah and the Banu Salamah, forever afterwards, they always would boast about this. Boast about it, even though they were about to go astray. Why should they boast? Because Allah says, وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّهُمَا Allah is their protector. And because of this, the tribes, and to this day, those who are descendants of these tribes, they boast that this is the tribe that Allah said, وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّهُمَا Allah is their protector. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brought them back to the the camp of Islam. And eventually as we all know 700 Muslims reached the camp and they set up their camps at Uhud and Ibn Ishaq mentions and we'll talk inshallah tomorrow or next Wednesday in the diagram where Ibn Ishaq mentions that their backs were facing the mountain and they were facing the city of Medina. So their backs were towards the mountain of Uhud and they were facing the city of Medina and therefore the Quraysh actually had to double across the entire city of Medina to reach them. The Quraysh had to go all the way across and basically go above where they had come from so that they could meet the Muslims. And there is of course an added point here and that is they're tiring them out even more. They have another half day's journey. So that to the very last they're going to be marching. And there's also this added tactic that I'm jumping the gun but you get the point here. Instead of going to the south of the city which is closer to the Quraysh, the Prophet ﷺ goes to the north of the city so the Quraysh actually have to double back to have the war, to have the battle and this is another half day's march and this half day's march is going to tire them out even more and that's one of the intended goals of going all the way to the north of the city and one final point inshallah ta'ala and then we don't want to start the actual battle obviously today because there's no time for that one final point and that is 700 Muslims participated in Uhud therefore in the whole world at this time, there were not more than a thousand Muslim men. That's all there was. From this small contingent, from this small group, look at how Allah changed the world. 700 people, that's all there were. This is the max, every fighting man, I mean you can't have the luxury of sitting at home now. Right? Every person above the age of 15, some even at the age of 14, as we'll mention. That's all they were, 700 you can add a few dozen here and there some secret Muslims in Mecca some maybe in Yemen one or two that we know a dose in all of them but otherwise in the whole world there are not more than a thousand even a thousand is really stretching it right but let's say even a thousand 700 of them are in Medina from this small quantity from this small quantity look at how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala changed the world you know we get you know 6-700 on the peak of Ramadan we get this much 500-600 how much do we get right In this masjid we get that much. Many of the masajid, our Eid gatherings are 3-4 times larger than this. Here in this city. And yet these 700 people, what did they do? How did they change the entire course of humanity? Look at now what's happening. Within 15-20 years, they will be knocking on the doors of Damascus. They will be literally wiping away the Persian Empire. they will be opening up Qahira I mean Fustad back then of course but Cairo and then North Africa within 50 years they're gonna be in Andalusia within 100 years from China all the way to basically France look at now Subhanallah where it is beginning how many people and yet they didn't have the weapons they didn't have the army they didn't have the horses but they had something that we don't have and that is that iman in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that trust in Allah that trust, that iman that was so strong that the mightiest superpowers in the world the Sassanid empire and the Byzantine empire they could not stand up to this small group of men they couldn't do it because when you have Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it doesn't matter who's on the other side if Allah is gonna help you who's gonna possibly conquer over you. This is what those sahaba had. And it is an amazing thing to think about. 700 people, that's all there is. And within a few years, what's going to happen? Within a decade, within two decades. But this is where we really see the difference between iman and kufr. And inshallah ta'ala we will continue next Wednesday. Have a few minutes for Q&A and also one or two announcements. So let's have some questions first inshallah. Questions, yes. the question is why didn't the Quraish attack Medina even the Quraish have a sense of manliness and warfare you have to attack the men you have to have a battle and if the battle is won then the women and children will be yours there is a what is the good word here there is a decorum even of war there is a there's an etiquette, there's no honor they would not have done this, there's no honor that we could have, now this is not explicitly mentioned but we will understand this obviously that when the Prophet ﷺ is going to Uhud, then clearly the message is being given to the Quraysh okay we know you're here, we're gonna fight this is where we are the message is clearly being sent to them right, that khalas, okay you want battle, you got battle this is where we are and you can meet us there so this is a sense of of reality that even the Quraysh, they would not have stooped to that level of just rampaging an entire city. And also, had they done this, and obviously the Muslims, they're only two, three hours away. It's not as if they're on the other side of the world. This is not, it would not have been in any sense expected. Neither the Quraysh would have done it, nor would the Muslims have entertained that. Allahu a'lam. Yes. You mentioned about the Prophet ﷺ when he went to to Ahud with Abu Bakr and the two yeah so he mentioned did he have so the brother is saying when the Prophet said how did he know this is in this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives of his knowledge to whomever he pleases. Ultimate ghaib means knowledge of everything. And that only Allah has. But there's another type of ghaib which is called ghaib nisbi. And ghaib nisbi means relative ghaib. And relative ghaib is something that is so trivial that even sometimes physically it depends. So what is happening in the next room? This is ghaib to me and you. But it's not ghaib to the person in the next room. Right? so there is غيب نسبي which is relative غيب and then there is غيب مطلق which is ultimate غيب and ultimate غيب only Allah knows قُلْ لَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ الْغَيْبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows the ultimate غيب but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says وَلَا يُحِطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ so Allah عز و جل gives علم to whomever He pleases and therefore our Prophet ﷺ definitely had much more knowledge than we have. Obviously, is anybody going to say that he had the same knowledge we do? And Allah عز و جل showed him things of Jannah and of Nar and of the angels and of those heavens in the Isra'ul Mi'raj and of the Aalim al-Ghaib that we don't know about. There's no denying this. And of the things that he knew, he knew Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali would basically be Nabi and Sidiq and Shahideen. And he knew many things as well. he knew that Ali and Aisha would have a civil war, and he encouraged the both of them to be calm about it. He knew this was going to happen, he knew Hussain would be killed, and he cried over this, and he said, people of my ummah will kill my grandson, and he cried over this. So he knew these things would happen, that Jibreel told him these things. And so, there's nothing difficult to understand about this. Yes, brother, go ahead. Why did Allah call Ibn Abi Salul a liar? Why did Allah call Ibn Abi Salul a liar? because he was a liar. Because he said something that he didn't mean. He knew he was lying. He gave a coward's excuse. He knew that there would be war. He knew there was going to be a battle, but he didn't want to fight. He was scared of his own life, losing his life. So he just made an excuse that he knew to be a lie. And this is what Allah is saying, يَقُولُوا نَبِيَ السِّنَةِهِمْ مَا لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ So he intentionally said something that he knew not to be true. Any question for the sisters before we break? Or brother, go ahead. You mentioned istikhara and istishara. Is there any particular order? So the brother's thing I had mentioned, before we undertake a major decision, we should always do istikhara and istishara. The Quran and Sunnah does not tell us a particular order, but rather this is what we learn from the Sunnah and the Seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, and the Quran, وَأَمْرُهُمْ شُورًا بَيْنَهُمْ And, إِذَا هَمَّ أَحِدُهُمْ بِأَمْرٍ فَلْيَرْكَى رَكَعْتَيْنَ وَلْيَسْتَخِرْ that one of you if he's facing a major decision, let him pray two raka'at and make istikhara. And our Prophet ﷺ, when he did face any major issue, he would speak to the sahaba, so much so that as we know in the incident of Hudaybiyah, he spoke to Umm Salama, and Umm Salama is the one who told him what to do. So the concept of getting advice from other people that you trust, that you love, that give you other perspectives, this is throughout the seerah. And also making istikhara to Allah. There's no need for an order, they can both be done in the span of a few hours and before you undertake a major decision both of these need to be done Allahu'alam yes in terms of Uhud itself it is not mentioned at all that anybody told him Uhud so once the decision was made that they should go out, this appears to have been his decision to go to Uhud. And Allah knows best. The books of Seerah do not mention at all the Sahaba telling them Uhud. Yes? I mean, in some battles, the Muslim women are copying their forces also, and they exhibit in the movies. At least in Badr and all, there were no Muslim, there were no women in the party of the war. In terms of women participating, it is narrated that on some rare occasions Muslim women acted as nurses if you like or delivering water or what not but by and large they were not allowed to go on the battlefield and in fact when a lady came to the Prophet ﷺ and said I want to do jihad the Prophet ﷺ said جِهَادُ كُنَّ الْحَجِّ Your jihad is the hajj and therefore by and large in the time of the Prophet ﷺ and women did not accompany the battle. In Uhud, because it was so close to the city, it is narrated that some of them came as, basically we would call them nurses, meaning taking care of here and there, but this is not participating in the actual battle. Thank you.

Seerah 46 - The Battle of Uhud Part 2 (with Maps) - Yasir Qadhi _ 30th Jan 2013-PlWMZHB7Xio

Al-Fatiha. the battle of Uhud. And we had talked about the preparations for war, the fact that the Quraysh were camping outside, were very close outside of Uhud. The shura that the Prophet ﷺ did, the fact that the Sahaba themselves differed and then they changed their minds. And the Prophet ﷺ refused to change his mind. He said once he has worn armor, he will not take it off. Now, one of the biggest problems of the battle of Uhud as we describe it, is that what we have is simply bits and pieces of the whole battle. We don't have somebody who's painted the whole picture for us. What we have is, one sahabi says this happened, and he talks about one incident. Another sahabi says that happened, he talks about another incident. And so we have small pieces of the puzzle, and the problem comes in filling in the gaps in between, and in figuring out which event is taking place before the other. So for example, let me say, suppose you were involved in a very difficult activity that lasted the entire day. You're not gonna sit there and tell your descendants or your children every single detail. You're gonna tell them what sticks in your mind. The one or two big events. Okay? Similarly, every one of the sahaba is telling their progeny or the next generation one or two incidents here and there. So the problem comes in reconstructing the events of the battle. And that is why, especially the battle of Uhud, because it was chaotic, and also because it was a loss. and losses generally you don't mention too much about them, right? Because it's human nature. And so, number one, because it was chaotic. Number two, because it was a loss, if you read five different seerah books, you will get five different chronological events of the battle, right? You're not gonna get a standard, if you like, series of events, and this is the reason why. So, in today's and in the following two, three lectures, this is one reconstruction, and I'm warning you from now that this is original in its own way. If you go back and read other books, you might get slight variations. The incidents are the same. It's a matter of connecting the dots. It's a matter of inferring what happened in between. And this is something that there are always going to be theories and what will be presented today in the next two, three lessons will basically be one theory of events. So, Allah عز و جل knows best. We will attempt to derive what we can. what appears to be the case is that around the 13th of Shawwal the Quraysh were approaching the city of Medina and the 13th of Shawwal is a Thursday, the 14th is the Friday, and the battle took place on the Saturday okay, so pretty much most of the early authorities agree, Ibn Ishaq is amongst them that the actual battle took place the morning of Saturday. So now we try to reconstruct the previous three days. This is all theory, there is nothing explicit. And the theory basically is that by the 13th, the Quraysh and the Muslims are within scouting distance. They can send the scouts and figure out who is where. Okay? So, by the 14th, the Prophet ﷺ decides we need to go to Uhud. Before the army settle down, before they attack Medina, we need to get to Uhud. And that is why as soon as he did the shura and as soon as the salatul jum'ah is prayed what did he do? he makes his way to uhud and according to a number of reports he makes his way to uhud surreptitiously, secretly because he doesn't want to give it away to the enemy until he has gotten to uhud before them and therefore he has chosen the place he wants to choose so the fact that he is going to uhud secretly and we know this because he asked for a guide to take him through the alleyways. Not the alleyways, but the date palm groves. Not to take the major, let's say highway. He's not gonna take the main highway to Uhud. Rather they went through the garden groves. Call it the back alleyways, call it the lay of the land. And so the entire army is basically making its way off of the highway. Why? So we have to infer here, that they didn't want to be marching on the highway because that would give their location away too early. They want to get to Uhud first so that they can choose where they want to camp. And that's exactly what happened. And so, it is narrated that as they were walking through the date palms, a hypocrite heard the rustling of all of these men and horses. And he was an old blind hypocrite, one of the friends of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. He's one of the friends of Abdullah ibn Ubayy. and he hears all of this rustling and he hears the whole commotion so they're clearly not on the highway they're walking through the date palms they go through his own garden so he says who is this? is this Muhammad s.a.w. and his companions? verily I don't allow you to step foot in my land and he began, he's blind, he's an old man he began throwing pebbles and rocks and whatever to try to stop the sahaba from coming in his animosity and hatred and one of the sahaba went to raise his sword to basically get rid of him and the Prophet ﷺ said, دَعُوهُ أَعْمَلْ قَلْبِ أَعْمَلْ بَصَرٍ Leave him alone, he is a blind man of the eyes and a blind man of the heart. You don't have to kill this guy, what are you going to do by killing him? Leave him. أَعْمَلْ قَلْبِ أَعْمَلْ بَصَرٍ Both his eyes and his heart are blind and so they let him be. But again from this what do we derive? We derive there is a reason he is not walking on the highway. What could be the only reason? that the Quraysh are within scouting distance and they have their spies, so he doesn't want to give away the location until he gets to Uhud first and then he chooses the location and that's exactly what he did. The Prophet ﷺ chose the location first. So he arrives on Uhud in the early afternoon of the 14th. And the 14th is what day again? Friday. Friday. 14th is Friday. He gets the early afternoon, meaning right after Salatul Jumu'ah. He gets to Uhud, because again he wore his armor right after Jumu'ah, and then he refused to take it off, and he said, no, we are going to march. And they marched, and by the way, generally they would pray Dhuhr, they would pray Jumu'ah, according to one riwayah, basically they would pray it early in the afternoon, even before Salatul Dhuhr. And the issue of the, is Jumu'ah a different Salat than Dhuhr, this is a classical controversy, and the Hanbali position, which is frankly the position many mosques in America follow because it makes life a lot easier. Dhuhr is a separate salah. Jumu'ah is a separate salah not related to Dhuhr. So Jumu'ah has a separate time zone. So Jumu'ah can be prayed before Salatul Dhuhr. And this is the Hanbali Madhab and it is a position that is common and we here at MIC also follow this position. And inshallah the evidences are clear. If this is the case, we can assume that Jumu'ah was prayed basically, you can say in our time like 11-ish like that, earlier than typical. And so the Prophet ﷺ could have been at Uhud, he could have arrived at Uhud easily by 2 o'clock. Easily. This is very easy. Because Uhud is half an hour walk from the Prophet ﷺ masjid. Literally half an hour walk. By car, it takes 3 minutes, 4 minutes. Direct, straight highway. By car, it's literally right there. It's not that far away. And maybe even less than half an hour. So the Prophet ﷺ arrives at Uhud on the 14th. And the Quraysh therefore, by their scouts, they now know the Muslims are at Uhud so they make their way also to Uhud after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and the night falls and the two armies are both at Uhud, therefore at sunrise they know there's gonna be battle and that sunrise is the 15th of Shawwal, which is the morning of the Saturday now, immediately as soon as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam arrived and we're assuming this took place on the 14th but it might have been the morning of the 15th, we don't know. He began organizing the army and looking over each and every fighter, each and every of the sahaba, putting them in an appropriate position. And what is narrated here is that he rejected around a dozen or so of the sahaba because they were too young. So they were less than the age of 15. In the battle of Uhud, you had to be 15 or older to participate. If you were less than 15, then you were rejected. And so of those who were sent back to Medina, sent back to their house is Abdullah ibn Umar. Abdullah ibn Umar ibn Khattab. Ibn Umar. Zayd ibn Thabit, the famous hafidh of the Quran, the one who composed the Quran. Zayd ibn Thabit. Usama ibn Zayd. Usama ibn Zayd ibn... Usama ibn Zayd ibn Harithah. Hibbun Nabi ﷺ. This is Usama ibn Zayd. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. Zayd ibn Arqam. And all of these are sent back because they are too young. And subhanallah, Usama ibn Zayd, if you do the math when he was 17 in the battle of Mu'tah, this means right now he's around 11 or 12 years old. 11 or 12. And he is trying to sneak into the army. He wasn't supposed to come. But he's trying to like, you know, sneak into the army and make sure that nobody sees him till he gets there. He's caught right before the battle and he's sent back home. where are our 11 years old compared to Usama ibn Zayd, 11 years old at that time. A number of these young men tried to argue their way to remain. And two of them succeeded. So of them was Rafi' ibn Khadij. Rafi' ibn Khadij was 14. So the Prophet ﷺ, he's asking the ages, 14, khalas, go back, you cannot participate. Then some of his relatives petitioned and begged because they knew how eager he was. He was completely down struck that he's being sent back home. And so they said, Ya Rasulullah, he's an expert archer. Even if he's 14, okay, but he's an archer. So we don't expect him to be in the front line. He can use his bow and arrow. And so because he was an archer, he was allowed to remain behind. When Rafi' was allowed to remain, Samura ibn Jundub stands up and he says, Ya Rasulullah, he's also 14. He says, Ya Rasulullah, if you're gonna allow Rafi' I am stronger than Rafi' and I've beaten him up in wrestling a number of times it's not fair if you're gonna let Rafi' stay then I should stay as well and so according to one book he even like jumped on him at the time to show him that I'm stronger than Rafi' and so the Prophet ﷺ allowed Samura and Rafi' to remain as well and of course again we don't need to comment here how amazing it is these young men young lads, they're full of iman and compare this to Abdullah ibn Ubay and the grey haired hypocrites compare this to the senior of the hypocrites that subhanallah they should have been at the forefront they have participated in battle they have experience, they have wisdom yet they're cowardice as Allah exposes in the Quran their cowardice is where? compare this to the bravery, the iman the courage of these young men and of course it is because of this that Islam spread where it spread because the people on this side had this type of iman. So as we said, on the 14th, the Prophet ﷺ stations the army, and Ibn Ishaq says that he placed the army, this is in Ibn Ishaq, and we're gonna now look at the map in like 20 minutes or so, to try to figure out what exactly is going on. He placed the army such that Ibn Ishaq says, the army was facing Medina, and their backs were towards Uhud. So they turned around 180. so they walk and then they turn around basically now they're facing where they came from and their backs were to Uhud and on their left we learn from the books was a small mountain that at the time was called Jabal al-Ainain and it is now called Jabal al-Rumah the mountain of the archers but at the time it was called Jabal al-Ainain and so the Prophet ﷺ camped in a nestled, if you like, cove, in a semi-circular area that we will see inshaAllah in a while. And he was surrounded by three sides protected by the mountain. And there was only one open side. And this side very conveniently had Jabal al-Ainain smack in the middle of it. So there's one side that's open. And smack in the middle is Jabal al-Ainain. And so the Prophet ﷺ, as we all know, He stations 50 of the best archers on this mountain. And with their bow and arrow, they have this entire flank covered. And so in essence, the Prophet ﷺ has now sealed himself completely from any possible enemy attack. And all that is left is a small area of roughly 300 meters or so. That will be the offensive that the Prophet ﷺ is now going to use as the offensive. and the whole beauty here they are outnumbered 4 to 1 more than 4 to 1 700 to more than 3000 plus more than 4 to 1 they are outnumbered 4 to 1 4.2 to 1 let's say here what the Prophet ﷺ did and honestly this is military genius that's coming from up what he does ﷺ he makes this small number and versus this large number he maximizes the space such that their extra surplus quantity becomes meaningless. Because if you only have 300 meters to attack, then who cares how long the line is? It's gonna be not that important. Now no doubt, it's still beneficial to have more people. But what he's done is, he's effectively made the odds much less than 1 to 4.2. Because all that they're gonna be able to attack the Muslims is literally around 300 meters. 300 meters is, a few times this long masjid side that we have here, double this by or triple it maybe, that's all they have. So what's the point of having 4,000 or 40,000 when you have to all squeeze in? So you have now face to face, men to men. You have now, you're not gonna be surrounded. And the Quraysh would have had to thin out and attack in a similar amount of space than the Muslims. And this is as we said, the military genius of the Prophet ﷺ. Of course, he understood, and this is an interesting point here, that out of the battle of Uhud, the most authentic reports, the ones that are reported in Bukhari and Muslim, the ones that every book of Seerah reports, is the advice that the Prophet ﷺ gave the archers. And this shows us, he understood that there's only one strategic weakness in this entire link. And that is, that stretch of land that the archers are protecting. The other three are protected by the mountains, the 300 meters we have taken care of as an army, there's only one large stretch, and that is the stretch the archers are in charge of. And he told the archers, protect us with your arrows, for their horses will never come forth in response to arrows. Horses, when they see the arrows coming, will never be able to charge. Horses are terrified of arrows, it doesn't matter even if you push them, they're not gonna go forth when they see the arrows coming. And so he said, protect us with your arrows. And in one version, and this is in Bukhari, he says, even if you see the birds eating our bodies, do not leave your places until I send for you. Even if you see the birds eating our bodies, don't leave your place until I send for you. In another version he says, make sure the enemy does not surprise us from behind, regardless of whether we are the victors or the losers. You stay there until I tell you. And again it is interesting that out of all of the incidents of Uhud, this one has been recorded with the most authentic chains, and in every single book. And again this shows us that the Prophet ﷺ fully understood the sensitivity of the situation, so much so that he's giving a very graphic image. Even if our corpses are lying there, until the commander, until I send for you, it's not your job to leave this position. And again here we have of course the Prophet ﷺ I'm preparing it down to the last detail. And we already mentioned the three people in charge of the Quraysh. Who were they? Who was the main person in charge of the Quraysh? Abu Sufyan. On the right hand side was? Khalid al-Murid. On the left hand side? Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahil. So these are the three major contingents of the Quraysh. On the morning of the 15th, as the sun is rising on Saturday morning, 15th of Shawwal, the Prophet ﷺ is wanting to encourage them for battle. And every single group or every single military army, it has its ways of motivating. Even by the way, the American army it has a special department, basically motivation. What are you supposed to do to motivate the troops? So, every single society or group has its motivation. What better motivation can there be than Allah and His Messenger? And so the Prophet ﷺ is motivating them, exhorting them, he is encouraging them and one of the things that he does is he takes out his own sword. And he says, who will take this sword from me and fight? So this is gonna be a blessed sword now. The sword of the Prophet ﷺ. Immediately everybody is saying, I will, I will take it. أنا يا رسول الله. And of those who was of the first to say it was the Prophet's ﷺ cousin, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, the father of Abdullah. Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. So the Prophet ﷺ then asked, who will take it from me with its right بحقه who will give the sword the right that it is owed everyone paused Abu Dujana said and what is its haq ya Rasulullah what is the haq of this sword ya Rasulullah so the Prophet ﷺ said that you fight the enemy with it until it breaks or is not serviceable anymore that you continue to fight with this sword until you can no longer use it. And so Abu Dujana said, I will take it with that haq, Ya Rasulullah. I will take it with this condition. And Abu Dujana was a fearsome warrior. And in the days of Jahiliyyah, he had established a reputation of being a fighting machine. And he had a special turban that was called the turban of death. And it was red in color to really show that notion. And he would only wear it basically at extreme times of battle. So he donned the turban, he put on the turban, and he started walking around in a somewhat of a swaggering, if you like, gate, a very proud gate, with the sword unsheathed, up and down, so that Quraysh could see him. He's wearing the turban, he has the sword up, and he's walking in a very proud manner. And our Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ هَذِهِ الْمِشْيَةُ This type of walking, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala despises it, except at such a time and such a place. This type of walking, the walking of arrogance with chest puffed outwards, and showing your everything that you have, and you have this word out. Subhanallah, may I say that this type of walking is very common in our times, in many places, right? and yet our Prophet ﷺ said that this is a misya, this is a walking that is يَبْغُضُهُ اللَّهُ despises it. Except at such a time and such a place. Only now, now it makes sense. You want to scare those people on the other side. You want to show them what you're made out of. And this shows us of course that, and this is common sense that, you know, the purpose of such a walk or the purpose of such a turban is to instill the right spirit, the fighting spirit into the sahaba And of course, as I said, modern methods of war, they have their own techniques, they have their own issues and what not. And as for us, we have Allah Azza wa Jal and the promises of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Now, of the first things that the Quraysh tried to do before the battle begins, the first thing they tried to do, they tried to separate the Ansar from the Muhajirun. They tried to cause a gap between them. How did they do this? Two tactics. first Abu Sufyan sent a messenger he sent a flag bearer, messenger and the messenger comes within shouting distance and the messenger says I have been sent by Abu Sufyan the leader, the chieftain Abu Sufyan and Abu Sufyan is saying O people of Medina leave us to our cousins for we have nothing against you. Go back safe and sound. We don't have a problem with you guys. Leave us to our cousins. Now, the Ansar were the bulk. The Muhajirun are less than a hundred something of men here, right? You have five, six hundred of the Ansar. And there is no way that if the Ansar leave, khalas, even the seven hundred now, you know, they'll go down to nothing. And so, Abu Sufyan says, leave us to our cousins and you are safe. Go back to your houses. We don't even want to fight you. We have no desire to engage with you, just leave the Quraysh and go back home. And the Ansar became furious at this insinuation, and they responded back with a series of curses and insults. And by the way, in such a situation in time, it is as well permitted to use language that is otherwise not befitting of a Muslim. We have a number of instances in the battlefield, where some of the Sahaba use some very harsh language, perhaps even foul language, in order to, and again, this is a time and a place exactly as the Prophet ﷺ said, that that's not something that is appropriate except at certain times and places, and no doubt on the battlefield, you're not gonna be, تفضل, you first, it's not gonna be like this, you know. You're not gonna have, you want some shaa, you want some shaa, no, doesn't work that way, right? You don't have these adab on the battlefield. On the battlefield, you show a harshness and a roughness that is meant for the battlefield. And so they responded back with a series of insults that showed their anger at how dare you accuse us of wanting to leave the Prophet ﷺ. So the messenger comes back basically humiliated. Then a man says, leave this to me, I know what to do. Who is this man? This man is Abd al-Amr ibn Sayfi. Abd al-Amr ibn Sayfi. and his name was Abu Amir Al-Rahib. Sorry, he is Qunya. Abu Amir Al-Rahib. Al-Rahib means the monk. Al-Rahib means the monk. And Abu Amir Al-Rahib was one of the leaders of the Aus before the immigration of the Prophet ﷺ. He was one of the few seniors who remained alive after the civil war. And in the days of Jahiliyyah, he was the equivalent of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. He was of that stature and level. And he was greatly beloved and respected. However, he did not want to accept Islam, and therefore before the battle of Badr, he simply abandoned Medina. Because he felt what Abdullah ibn Ubay felt, and he just did not want to remain in Medina. So he took a group of his fellow tribesmen of the Aus, small contingent, and he went to Mecca to settle in Mecca, and to wait for an opportunity such as this one, so that he could come back to his people, and try to regain his chieftainhood. And so he says to Abu Sufyan, leave this to me. For my people have always respected me, and they have always honored me, and you will see now the power that I have over them. He's been boasting to Abu Sufyan. And so Abu Amir Al-Rahib was his kunya, Abu Amir Al-Rahib, his name is Abd al-Amir ibn Sayfi. He went out directly in front of the Ansar. And he said that, Ya Aws, O my people of the Aws, this is me Abu Amir. Here I am back, Abu Amir. And before he could continue, whatever offer he had, immediately they said, May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala curse you and give you no pleasure. You are not Abu Amir al-Rahib, you are Abu Amir al-Fasiq. Swapped his name around. From Rahib, he's degraded to Fasiq. Why? Because he fled Islam. He was such a coward, he was such a full of anger and hatred towards the Prophet ﷺ, that he fled his people, his own people. And he went to, everybody knows why he fled, right? So they said, you are not Abu Amir al-Rahim, don't tell us you're the monk. You're not a monk, you're a fasiq, you're an evil person. And Abu Amir was so shocked to see his own people, the Aus, now basically gets so angry at him, that he couldn't even open his mouth to continue. And he returned days to Abu Sufyan and he said, my people have been afflicted with some disease, I don't know what has happened to them. He could not recognize his own people anymore because again, this is what Iman does, that Iman makes your wala to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and to his messenger. Doesn't matter if you are a leader in the days of Jahiliyyah, we no longer worship idols. And we're not gonna listen to what you have to offer us. And again, this is the reality of Iman, that Iman establishes bonds like nothing else. And once those bonds are established, then whoever has it, alhamdulillah, whoever doesn't, then they are not on the side of Iman. By the way, Abu Amir al-Rahib, we should not call him Rahib, we should call him Abu Amir al-Fasiq, like the Sahaba did. Abu Amir al-Fasiq had a very famous son. And his son was on the other side. His son is on the side of the Muslims. And all of you know his name. And his name is Hamdala. Hamdala. Ghaseel al-Malaika. Hamdala, that is his son. Hamdala is his son. So look now at the contrast between father and son. Hamdala will die very shortly in the battle of Uhud. And he is on the side of the Muslims. And his father Abu Amir al-Fasiq is on the other side, wanting to persuade them to join his own side. So the Quraysh then, both of these issues basically fail. So the Quraysh begin their preparations for war. and the women as well. We talked about them last Wednesday. Somebody said they were the cheerleaders. Well, that's exactly true. They were the cheerleaders in their own way. Not the types of cheerleaders of our times. But in terms of content, the same. And that is, they are literally enticing the men with bed and with firash. That's exactly what they're saying. That go forth and win and we will spread the firash for you. We'll spread the bed for you. Or if you become losers and come back, then you're not gonna get anything from us, right? So even on the battlefield, the women have the stick, okay? That they're going to make sure that the men are fighting it out all the way to the end. And so they began, and they have their series of songs, and Ibn Ishaq records some of them, and you get the point, this literally cheerleaders, like literally giving those songs to encourage the men to be brave. And as with all battles, the first issue is always a mubaraza, one on one. All battles begin like this, right? And so the mubaraza takes place in the battle of Uhud, and the Mubaraza, the one-on-one takes place between Talha ibn Abi Talha and Talha was from the tribe of the Banu Abd al-Dar so Talha comes out and he says who will fight me? who will do the Mubaraza? and so Ali ibn Abi Talib stands up and says I will do it, I will fight you out Ali and so Ali ibn Abi Talib comes forth and the two of them. Now Talha was wearing full body armor. And Ali had no armor. Talha was wearing full body armor. Complete. Even the hands and the limbs are covered. And Talha swung as soon as they were within fighting distance. But Ali was faster than him. And Ali immediately took the full blow of the sword. He took it onto his shield. And before he could take it off of the shield, meaning Talha, before he could take it off, Immediately he struck back. So with one hand he's blocking, literally like you see in the movies, that's all I can say. We've never experienced this type of stuff. Literally like you see in the movies, like you call lightning speed. With one hand he moves it up to block, and the other hand simultaneously is striking downwards. And that honestly requires skill that we can never imagine, any of us in this room. To be able to be that quick and see what's going on. He blocked the blow completely, didn't even touch him. complete on the shield. And now that he's defenseless because Tal Harib is putting all of his might in putting it down. Now that he's defenseless, he uses the other hand and his whole body, he's wearing a suit of armor all the way down to the thighs. So what does he do? He attacks below the thigh. And again, look at how fast his mind is processing this information, right? So he attacks below the thigh. And with such force, the leg is chopped off. that is force the leg is chopped off and Talha just collapses to the ground and as he collapses his garment that he was wearing it is put upwards and in fact his awrah is shown because when he falls backwards and everything comes up his awrah is shown Ali comes to strike him a blow and Talha starts begging and pleading he says I beg you by the rights of kinship they are third cousins I mean after all they're all Quraysh you know this is Banu Abd al-Dar Banu Abd al-Dar Abd al-Dar is the brother of Abd al-Manaf Abd al-Manaf and Abd al-Dar are brothers right so he is the what is it do the math great grandson or something so you get the point Abd al-Manaf and Abd al-Dar so Ali is the descendant of Abd al-Manaf and he is the descendant of Abd al-Dar right so I think that's the third cousin we call it second no third cousin third cousin no they're third cousins right so he says I beg you by the rights of kinship don't kill me subhanallah he's on his back his awrah is showing and Ali gets embarrassed Ali gets some khajar some haya and he now nobody is hearing this because this is in the middle and so he lowers the sword and walks back and the sahaba said oh Ali why didn't you kill him but you're just coming back like this and so he said I felt embarrassed and he begged me by the rahim by the ties of kinship, not to kill him. And so Ali actually spared him. He did not kill him. But of course in that state, he couldn't fight properly. He was killed in the battle. So he couldn't fight in the battle. I mean his leg is cut off. You're not gonna, the wound is festering. So he actually died later on in the same battle, one of the few of the Quraysh that died. But Ali did not kill him and finish him off. And again, this shows us subhanAllah the ties of kinship, even though it's a fourth cousin or something. But nonetheless, Ali felt, or third cousin, Ali felt that, and especially defenseless and literally like naked in this manner, he felt some iman and some, what do you call it, muru'ah, what's gonna be muru'ah, like dignity, like there's a way to fight, there's a way to even kill your opponent, you kill him on his legs, you kill him with the sword out. Now that he's in this pitiful state, this is not bravery, right? And so Ali felt, and this wallahi is, this is what you call a warrior, this is what you call a noble warrior. Your enemy, your cousin's on your back, he's in this state, now he's begging you and also look at his bravery what happened to Talha one minute he's saying who's gonna fight who's gonna fight two minutes later he's on his back naked crying and begging for my life right look at the difference between this and so Ali spares him and then he dies a death anyway now here we have a big gap we have hardly any details of the initial assault we have just one or two small tidbits and so we have to simply imagine or visualize or theorize. We don't have too many details of the initial assault. All that we know is that the Muslims charged. After Ali's victory, they charged. And the Mushrikun could not sustain this assault. Despite their four times advantage, despite their overwhelmingly powerful and well-armed army, they were not able to maintain the assault that the Muslims did on the Quraysh. And again, all that we know, we have hardly any major incidents right now. All that we know from a number of different people that the women of the Quraysh were forced to flee. And the fact that the women are fleeing shows that the initial attack has been devastating. Because the women, where are they stationed? At the very end of the encampment. Right? So the women are at the very last tents. and the very fact that the women are forced to flee shows that the Muslims and this is exactly what the Prophet ﷺ had intended that the concentration is now in their advantage that this small gap as we'll see in a while this small area of land 300 meters now the Muslims have the advantage and they're charging and they make their way all the way to the end because the Quraysh have and again we're assuming thinned out and that's what the Prophet ﷺ wants the Quraysh are now not too much thickened up, you see the point in terms of sufuf, and the Muslims have plenty of sufuf so they're concentrated it's like a powerful bullet if you like going through a weak layer of the Quraysh right, so they make their way through and they start spreading out and the women are forced to flee now we also know another thing that shows us how devastating the initial assault was one interesting thing that we know again the initial assault from the initial assault was that the flag of the Quraysh was given to the sub-tribe of the Banu Abd al-Dar which Talha was from, Talha was from the same of Banu Abd al-Dar and it was the custom of the Quraysh that the Banu Abd al-Dar is the one that holds the flag they would always give the flag to the Banu Abd al-Dar you know the Quraysh they have you have the water, you have this, you have that. So they have divided it up. So the Banu Abd al-Dar had the honor of always carrying the flag. Now, and this is from the days of pre-Islam, Jahiliyyah. Now, in the battle of Badr, they also had the flag. But when the army fled, the flag bearer was one of the first to run away. Their own Banu Abd al-Dar. So before the battle, Abu Sufyan went up to them. and he's taunting them because that's his psychology to taunt them to make them angry so that they fight more so he taunts them and he says Ya Bani Abd al-Dar we gave you the flag at Badr but you turned your backs and fled and you saw what happened as a result he blames the entire Badr on this one flag guy you saw what happened because you were cowards and the flag is the symbol of the army if it stands, the army stands. If it falls, the army falls. So now, either take the flag with the right that it deserves, or if you can't, then give it back to us. This is reverse psychology at the highest level. Right? Either be men and keep the flag, or just give up now and hand it up to us and we'll give it to somebody else. What do you think they're gonna say? Obviously, they made a pact and a promise and they were extremely insulted and they challenged Abu Sufyan that you will see what we will do with this flag and they said as long as one of us remains the flag will forever be high up. And that is exactly what happened. As long as one of them remained the flag was up. But one by one all ten of them were killed. The first of them being Talha because he was the flag bearer. Talha the one that Ali cut his foot off, right? The first of them was Talha, and one by one, and most of these were killed by Hamza, by the way. Because again, Hamza is targeting. See, one of the problems of carrying the flag is, you literally become the target. Right? When you're carrying the flag, you, everybody, the symbolic target. Another problem is when you carry the flag, you have one hand, you know, already taken. Right? So it's awkward to fight with one hand. So the flag bearer has a great honor, a great responsibility, but he also has a great weakness, right, handicap. He has a big handicap when he's holding one of that. So what happens is, there's ten of these, of the Banu Abd al-Dar, one by one, all of them are killed, and the flag falls. And this really shows us how effective the initial assault was. Unbelievably effective, right? For ten of the Banu Abd al-Dar. Now of course we have to say they are targeted more because they're flag bearers, but still, 10 is not a trivial number one by one they're all killed and most of them at the hands of Hamza some of them at the hands of Ali ibn Abi Talib some of them at the hands of Abu Dujana these three basically were the three main warriors that basically got rid of the entire Banu Abd al-Dar until finally the flag also falls to the ground and with the flag falling to the ground this is the symbolic end of the army that once the flag is not picked up, khalas, the army is deemed to have lost. And this is one of the chaoses that happened. That when the flag falls, the assumption is made by the Muslims that khalas, it's all over, right? And this was one of the things we'll talk about next week about this issue. Now, one other issue that we have, again, we're still talking about the initial impact. Abu Dujana, the same Abu Dujana who's wearing the turban of death. Abu Dujana, he fought a fierce fighting. and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam narrates the hadith about this Zubayr ibn al-Awwam many years later he says that when the Prophet ﷺ offered his sword and I said I want it and he didn't give it to me I felt something in my heart after all he is my cousin and who is this man the Prophet ﷺ is my cousin and who is this man Abu Dujana that Zubayr is the son of how is he the cousin everybody should know sister of Allah Khadija Zubair Ibn Al-Awam is the son of Safiya Binti Abdul Muttalib Abdullah Ibn Zubair is the son of Safiyah. He is married to Safiyah. Zubair ibn al-Awwam. You are right actually, yes. You are right, my mistake. You are right. Abdullah ibn Zubair is the son of Safiyah. You are right. And Zubair ibn al-Awwam is a cousin from the Khalid side. The cousin from the Khalid side. And Abdullah ibn Zubair is a double cousin. One generation removed. Abdullah ibn Zubayr is a double cousin because both the mother and the father are related to the Prophet ﷺ. So Aisha's sister is Asma' ibn Tabi Bakr. So Zubayr ibn al-Awwam is a cousin through the khala. Khala, right? Yes, you are correct in this one. So he says... There's always a first time. There's always a first time? No, no, astaghfirullah. No, the brother always helps out, mashaAllah, alhamdulillah. And he asks probing questions, so it's good. It's good to ask deep questions, alhamdulillah. So, he says, I felt something in my heart. Because, how could he give it to a stranger and not his own cousin? Then he said, I decided to follow him. Like, after all, there must be a wisdom. Why did Allah and why did the messenger choose him over me? And so, he says, and he's narrating, Abu Dujana did not meet a single person except that he managed to get rid of him with that sword. Every person he crossed except that, that sword was used. And he says there was one person of the Quraysh that was causing much havoc amongst the Muslims. So I made a dua to Allah. Oh Allah, let Abu Dujana meet him. Now all of a sudden he becomes a fan of Abu Dujana. When he sees what Abu Dujana is doing, instantaneously he is converted. So he is saying, Oh Allah, make Abu Dujana get rid of him. And Abu Dujana indeed got rid of him. They met, they stood face to face and the Quraishi gave the first blow. Abu Dujana simply brushed it off and with his sword immediately struck him and got rid of him. Ibn Ishaq also mentions another story about Abu Dujana and that is that Abu Dujana himself narrates that I saw somebody encouraging the Quraish with every single encouragement imaginable. and so I said I'm gonna get rid of this person so I walked up and I raised my sword all of a sudden she turns around and wal walat wal walat is the Arab lady cry you know just like the way that the Arab ladies cry right and it turns out it is Hind so Hind is now basically she has her you know scarf or whatever she has a cloak on so from the back he doesn't know if it's a man or woman he thinks it's a man. So he comes and he raises the sword, he's about to strike and she's hind and she turns around and she screams the wail, the walwala. Somebody wants to do that or you want to embarrass yourself doing that? So you all know, you know if you don't know then just google walwala so the way that the Arab ladies do it so she lets out that scream and so he says istahyaitu, I felt embarrassed to use the sword of the Prophet ﷺ upon a woman. Subhanallah. I felt embarrassed to dishonor the sword. Ikraman. To show honor to the sword that the sword should not be killing a woman. And so I withdrew and I let her be. And again this shows us again real fighting. This is what the real warriorship is about that even you spare people those who don't deserve to be killed in that manner. So he left killing Hind bin Abi Sufyan. And of course we also know that of those who participated with great valor is Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib Hamza the uncle of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he was of those who did not participate in Badr for a legitimate reason, he did not realize what's going to happen at Badr, he stayed behind and so in the battle of Uhud he was extremely eager to make sure that he shows who he is and if you look at Ibn Ishaq and you see at the end of the chapter of Uhud, he has a long list of who kills whom, and if you go through this list Hamza is one of the warriors who has killed the most number of the Quraysh Hamza was one of those, along with Ali and Abu Dujanid, these three were the big names of those who inflicted the most damage, Hamza was the one who has killed a great number of people, and sadly he also as you know is about to die, and he becomes the Sayyid of Shuhada and Uhud we'll talk about that next week inshallah ta'ala, but the point being and we'll conclude with this one narration and that is and so we'll conclude with the initial winning of the Muslims next week we'll talk about the change of tide and we'll introduce it now via the maps, we'll conclude with that narration of Bukhari Sahih Bukhari mentions that Al-Bara' ibn Azib says that when we fought them at Uhud they turned and fled until I saw with my own eyes the legs of the women as they lifted their skirts up running up the mountains and I could see their khilkhal their ankle bracelets so the fact that the Muslims got all the way to the end of the army and the women are so defenseless that they are running helter skelter they don't even have their own husbands and men to protect them and they are running up to flee the encampment and Ibn Hisham he adds I remember clearly seeing Hind I remember seeing Hind that lady Hind you know what she did we'll talk about her next week right that lady Hind I remember seeing Hind and her female companions all running away up the mountain and as I said that's all but this is all we have by the way of the initial assault literally what I said today these four or five narrations that's it all of the other narrations deal with the counter deal with what happened afterwards right and from this and especially from this one narration we can see how devastating was the initial impact that the Muslims broke through their ranks made their way all to the very end and now the women are forced to flee helter-skelter and that clearly shows that the Muslims had the upper hand but of course this was what led to the chaos and if we can now switch slides where is Hassanin if you can add your password and switch slides we can do a little bit of the maps inshallah ta'ala and then break for Salatul Isha. Are we on? Are we on? 30 seconds again. Uh-oh. Bismillah. Technical difficulties. We need to like experience an authentic, you know, it's like, keep it consistent, you know, always mashallah, tabarakallah. Is it? No, that's definitely not. That is definitely not. what's supposed to be there's something wrong with what ok so what you were right there try it again ok so this is google maps we see over here medina here is medina and of course I wanted to show very quickly Mecca and Medina due north due north and here is of course Jordan underneath is Yemen so takes place over here the battle of Badr is right close to Yambu you see the cursor there right Badr is right over there next to Yambu and that is it shows us the Quraish when they go to I'm just showing you the map even the battle of Badr because we haven't seen the map in this case yet When the Quraysh are going to Syria, they have to go right through this area to get to Syria. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ intercepted them or attempted to intercept them in this manner. And this was what led to the great battle of Badr. And the next year, they attempted to take the caravan from this way all the way through, basically almost to Buraidah, and then back to Tayma and Tabuk. But Jibreel had told him, and so they were intercepted once again, if you remember. And this is really what caused the battle of Uhud, that both of these passages are blocked. There's no way they can get to Syria. And therefore, the only alternative is to fight, and that is exactly what they did. And therefore, let us now zoom in to Medina. Here is of course the battle of Khyber, we'll talk about that in a few months, inshallah. Now we get to the beautiful city of Medina. Now, this is the city of Medina. This is the... Let's get a little bit closer. Yeah, we'll do that in a while. So this is the city of Medina. I just wanted to show you what is called the Harrah and what is called the two mountains. So all of this is Uhud. This white spot right there, this white spot is the Haram. this white spot is the haram this entire spot I wanted to show you the Prophet ﷺ said المدينة حرم من بين جبل عير وثور between the mountains of عير and ثور مدينة is haram and the Prophet ﷺ said مدينة حرم بين لابتها between the two mountainous rocks so عير and ثور one of these mountains I don't think it's marked here and I won't be able to tell you off the top of my head one of these mountains over here this is Ayr and Thawr is on this side over here behind Uhud all of this is Uhud, so this entire area this side around is Haram and then the Prophet ﷺ said between the two Labbateha in Google Earth you cannot see Labbateha you cannot see it anymore because people have built houses but the Labbateha are basically these two areas east and west so the Prophet ﷺ clearly demarcated the city of Medina now, we zoom in by the way you see this white area right in Muslim Imam Ahmad our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said 1430 years ago he said when Dajjal comes to Medina he will stand on the mountain top and he will look inside the city and he will tell his followers do you see that white house over there that house is the house of Ahmad that masjid is the masjid of Ahmad and he called it white. And wallahi when you are flying into the city, forget flying, this is Google Earth. What do you see? That massive white structure. That massive white structure. This hadith is Muslim Ahmad. That you see that Al-Bayt Al-Abyad over there, the white house over there, that is Masjid Ahmad. That is the masjid of the Prophet, Masjid Ahmad. And this is clearly the masjid here that is being described. So this is the entire masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is Baqi' al-Gharqad over here. This is Baqi' al-Gharqad. All of this is the Baqi' area. As we said, this entire structure basically represents the old city of the Prophet ﷺ. The downtown if you like, this entire structure is covered within it. And so Baqi' was outside the city. And of course in our days, this is in fact just the center of the city. Now move a little bit outwards. and here is Quba over here. This is Quba, right? This is Quba over here. And Quba obviously, when you're coming up from Mecca, you have to go through Quba to get to Medina. So when the Prophet ﷺ did the hijrah, he waits at this small place of Quba, waiting for Ali to come, then he wakes his way to Medina. So this is Masjid Quba over here. Okay, now where is Uhud? We said Uhud is the exact north. So over here is Uhud. And look, Uhud is a massive mountain. All of this is Uhud. This entire mountain is Uhud. Uhud, the mountain is pretty much the size of the entire city in our times, right? As we said, it is not just one mountain, it is a whole range of mountains. So this is, all of this is the mountain of Uhud. Now, we come closer here, and again look at where the Haram is. This is the Haram, right? Look at the size, one kilometer. So roughly, this is roughly one kilometer, two kilometers, roughly less than three kilometers away. How long does it take to walk three kilometers, right? Roughly less than three kilometers. As I said, by car, it's literally three minutes. You will get there, no traffic. Three minutes you will be in the mountain of Uhud. Of course, in our times, the city has grown so much that the entire city reaches the mountain of Uhud. Back in the day of the Prophet ﷺ, all of this was, usually it was plantations, it was. day palms. So here we have the mountain of Uhud. Now, where did the Prophet ﷺ camp? Look over here, the very strategic place that the Prophet ﷺ camped in. This area over here, where you see these houses, this area is where the Muslim army encamped. Notice how perfect it is. On each side, there are mountains. On each side, they are protected by the mountains. And this is where the battle actually took place. The camp is over here. And Jabal al-Ainain is right over here. This is where the Jabal al-Ainain is. Okay? So, let's see if I can zoom in one bit more. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Okay, this is Jabal al-Ainain. I'm gonna make it center now. This is, you see this little bit of mountain here? You see that mountain? You don't wanna turn the lights a little bit off by the way. Maybe that would be good. make it a little bit brighter last one there we go okay I think that's better right so let me see one more if we can go in oh very good okay this is Jabal al-Ainayn now when we go there in our days this is not that high it's probably 150 feet we need to understand that at the time of the process it was probably close to 600-700 feet why because every time one of you walks up the mountain you take a little bit of it back all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. Okay? So, from the time of the process up until our time, we can estimate the mountain has been diminished at least five-fold. At least five-fold. So, what we see now, we can extrapolate that to like five, six hundred feet. Now, this is the Jabal al-Ainayn. Okay. That's now called Jabal al-Rumah. Now, let us go back to Sea Uhud. This is the camp of the Prophet ﷺ. So as we said, it is protected by three ways, completely protected. And this small area, look at the size, this is 200 meters is this much. Okay, this much is 200 meters, so literally 300 meters as I said, yes, 300 meters. From this tip of the mountain to Jabal al-Ainain is around 350 maybe, max 350. Not more than 350, maybe even 300. So this area is where the assault took place. and as I said the genius of the Prophet was to concentrate those 700 people into that small area, now where is the vulnerability? this land right over here this is the weak spot this is that one area that is completely unprotected why? because you want to concentrate over here, the Quraysh by the way, they are camped over here this is where the Quraysh are camped so the Muslims are gonna launch an offensive and they work their way here and the Quraysh are fleeing helter and skelter on this side so what happens is and as I said this is the interpretation of my Shaykh Shaykh Safi Rahman Abu Akfuri other scholars have interpreted it differently hold on you wanna let's get to the other one where is the other one here we go okay oh mashallah this is google earth right so let's quickly go closer I think this has better images mashallah tabarakallah this is technology for you this is CNN technology for you, huh? No, this is M-I-N-N. Okay, here we get back to Medina. Okay, here we get back to Medina. Here, this seems to be a little bit better. Okay. Yeah, this is much more clear actually. Whoa, stop there. Okay. So, here we have Jabal al-Aynayn. This is Jabal al-Aynayn, right over here. This is Jabal al-Aynayn. Okay. We find over here, Mount Uhud. this is the Sayyid al-Shuhada this is where Hamza is buried this is where Hamza is buried, the actual battle took place a little bit away from here, he was moved away Hamza was probably buried in this area and then because of the rain water that exposed his grave he was moved a little bit back so the battle of Uhud is taking place in this area, between this tip of the mountain and Jabal al-Aynayn, now according to majority of medieval historians. Look at what happened. This is one opinion which my Shaykh strongly disagrees with. According to many medieval historians, they say, when the Quraysh fled, I have to zoom out to show you. When the Quraysh fled, Khalid ibn al-Walid saw what's happening, so he went, look where did he go? All the way behind the mountain and made his way back over here. What's the problem with that opinion? Way too long. And frankly, as my Shaykh said, Shaykh Safirullah said, whoever says this has never visited Uhud. Like whoever says this has not seen Uhud, they're simply reading about it, and then they say, they went from behind the mountain. If you were to go behind the mountain, we're talking about minimum, five, six hours. Minimum. To go all the way with horses and what not, and it's gonna be too late. That's not the point here. So, clearly, and I cannot help but say that opinion does not make any sense. To say that Khalid went behind the mountain all the way. Look, I want to give you a contrast. How big is the city and how big is Uhud? Right? Look, all of this is Uhud, all of this is a city. The modern city, by the way. Look at the difference, right? Of course, the classic city is literally just that one thing. Look at how massive Uhud is. To say this does not make much logistical sense. So, what is the other interpretation? so, and as I said I'm very honored and humbled, wallahi, I can't help but feel very honored and humbled, Sheikh Safi'ul-Rahman gave us a private tour of this, me and my colleague or my friend, Kuwaiti friend that I had, he showed us in his own opinion, he literally went into a trench over here I don't think we can see it on Google Earth, but he said in his opinion, this is the interpretation, so what is his interpretation? He said now, this is Jabal al-Aynayn, do you see Jabal al-Aynayn? I don't know if you can see it, can you see it? this is Jabal al-Aynayn, now, he said that when the Muslims went forward, and what happened was, the army thinned out. Because the Muslims had a long column. So the army is spread out. And each group of 5, 10, 20 is now busy either killing off whoever is remaining, or sadly, collecting the war booty. And so they're all busy doing that. So, as we all know the story, 40 of the archers basically left the field. Now, according to Shaykh Safiur Rahman, Khalid ibn al-Walid was on the right hand side. We know this from Qutb al-Sira, right? Now, let's do a, where is the right hand side? It's on this side, right? It's on the left side of the Prophet ﷺ, the Quraysh right hand side, right? So, Khalid ibn al-Walid is already on the side of Jabal al-Aynain. So he sees what's going on. That was his advantage. Ikrimah could not have seen what's going on. Abu Sufyan, Qudarasi was going on. Khalid, Allah had willed it, he was that genius that was at the right time and the right place. So when Khalid turns his back to flee, because he did flee, he is not fleeing like a coward, he's fleeing like a general. He's looking back, seeing what's happening. And you can see on the top of the mountain, the 50 people, and now he sees the 40 of them have fled. so what does he do? again I'm jumping the gun but you all know he raises another flag of his local group he calls as many people as they can now let's get back to the Jabal al-Ainain you cannot see this on Google Earth and frankly I don't even know if they still have this because they've done a lot of construction but there is a ditch that is rain water ditch not a ditch what do you call it? a cavern? I mean not a drain a bayou I mean in the desert a bayou doesn't make sense but you know you get the point when it rains there is this you know waterway that fills up and you cannot see this on google earth yeah a ravine is good yes ravine is a good word so there is this ravine over here according to Shaykh Safi Rahman Khalid ibn al-Walid ducked inside the ravine with his entourage with as many people as he had with him so that he could remain hidden from, let's see if you can know, you cannot see this I think, but it's basically in this area, it goes down, it's a ravine, and it's a waterway for the rain water, and he ducked until he was as close as possible and then he surprised even the ten archers, then ten archers were not able to spot Khalid so they came up and they got rid of the ten archers and then he sent an envoy or a messenger to gather as many troops as possible and then they launched a counter offensive from this area, meaning straight from the front, not all the way behind the mountain. They went in straight from the front and they attacked double sides. Firstly, the encampment that the Prophet ﷺ himself was in. And secondly, behind the Muslims who were collecting the war booty. Right? So if you look at it, when you come in from this area, where are the Muslims? they have been spread thin in this entire area all of this area the 700 of them would be in small pockets because they think the war is over and this would have taken around 45 minutes perfect amount of timing for the Muslims to feel confident that the war is over the Quraish have fled now some of them have even put their swords down they're collecting the booty and they have all of the armor and the tents and what not and they're all complete chaos. Because, and this is the whole point, when Allah says, you saw what you loved, you forgot about the Prophet ﷺ. بَعْدِ مَا رَاكُمْ مَا تُحِبُّونَ مِنْكُمْ مَنْ يُرِدُوا الدُّنْيَا وَمِنْكُمْ يُرِدُوا الْآخِرَةِ Now, so the Prophet ﷺ is camped right over here, in this enclave. And he only has a small group of sahaba, because the rest of them are fighting. And there is no danger at the time, of the Quraysh attacking here. so he literally had perhaps only two or three of the sahaba with him that's all that was there because they're all fighting the war is deemed to be over and all of a sudden Khalid launches a counter offensive how many people? we have no idea but we can estimate reading all of the sources at least 150 people were there out of 4000 Khalid manages to gather together at least 150 and he sends them in different directions as well Some of them right into the camp of the Muslims. Now realize, they don't know who's where. They see the camps, they see the Muslims, so they as well are trying to surprise attack them. And so even they split up into smaller groups, trying to maximize the damage. And this is where the Prophet ﷺ himself has to turn his back and flee with only one or two of the Sahaba with him. And there is a picture if I'm not mistaken. this is the area where he fled let me see if I can find it there is a picture somebody has posted here of the actual cave that the Prophet ﷺ fled to this is it right here this, so this little crevice we are going to talk about that next Thursday next Wednesday inshallah just remember this, we are not going to have the slide next Wednesday unless you want to, I don't know this little crevice over here this is where the Prophet ﷺ fled to and this is where and again he is literally at this stage he literally had in the beginning he only had one person with him in the beginning only one sahabi and then slowly but surely now imagine from far away from far away you don't know who's in here maybe nobody's in here and that's the point that Allah azawajal protected him in this small cave sitting in a crevice with one or two of the sahaba and this was one of the most critical times in the life of the Prophet ﷺ where he was unarmed he was almost defenseless with one or two of the sahaba had Khalid ibn al-Walid come with even three people, four people khalas, of course Allah would have protected him but I'm saying this was one of the most critical times of the seerah where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself when Aisha says what was the worst day that ever happened to you, was it the day of Uhud, because in her mind there could be no day worse than Uhud was it the day of Uhud, and he said no it was the day of Taif because for the Prophet ﷺ it's not a matter of danger but humiliation obviously hurts more for the true man than physical danger so the physical danger was not the issue here but in terms of physical danger there is no question this is the most critical time in the entire seerah where you can imagine, look where is this mountain situated it is situated up here let me come in a little bit closer so this is where the camp of the Muslims was right, you get the point? So let us come a little bit closer. And look, he is running upwards into a small crevice over there. This is where he is running. And the Quraysh are trying to find him. And in the meantime, the rumor spreads that we have killed him, as we're going to talk about, right? They kill Mus'ab ibn Umayr. Mus'ab ibn Umayr, outwardly he resembles the Prophet ﷺ. Physical features are roughly the same. And it is said that he was wearing the cloak of the Prophet ﷺ. And so when he's on his face, they see the cloak. So the rumor spreads. And this is where the chaos completely reached a maximum. Many of the Muslims thought that he had s.a.w. passed away. The Quraysh are exalting that they've killed him. So any group of the Quraysh, when they hear this, of course this was Allah's plan, because when they heard the Prophet s.a.w. is dead, they didn't feel the need to re-energize and regroup. Now that they've killed him, so they themselves are happy and going back, the victory has been done. This too was a plot used by Allah to send the Quraysh back. Nonetheless, we will talk about this inshallah, next Wednesday, but for now, I think it is very clear, the beauty, the strategic genius of the Prophet ﷺ, to choose, look at how perfect this area is, and he fully understood the one missing link, the one weakness, and that weakness was protected by Jabal al-Aynayn, the archers could easily have protected this area, but they disobeyed, and it was because of this, and look again here, it was because of this area over here, that the Quraysh managed to inflict the damage that they did. And inshallah, we will continue this next Wednesday. Are there any questions about today's lesson? Was it a Qadr? Was it what? Was it a Qadr? I mean, Allah may have willed it. Of course, everything happens with Qadr. Everything. And we'll talk about some of the wisdoms. Why? Next Wednesday, inshallah. we will talk about this Allah forgave them Allah forgave them Allah explicitly says in the Quran that He forgave them other questions yes I don't know where the Qabr of Hamza. Right? So you will find the Qabr of Hamza. And if you face the Qabr of Hamza, towards your back on your right hand side, you will find the Jabal al-Ainain. Okay? Yeah, it's right there. So if you climb that small little hill, if you climbed any hill, and everybody else was climbing it, that's Jabal al-Ainain. Okay? What I'm trying to impress upon you, all is that that little hill must have been much, much higher. Because it is visited by millions of people every year. And millions of people will erode it day by day, not even year by year. You know, day by day. Frankly, I mean, Allah has blessed me to be in Saudi Arabia many times. I remember as a child back in the early 80s, right? Compared to now, it's been, mashallah, 30 years. And maybe I'm imagining, but wallahi, I feel that I can tell the difference when, you know, from 30 years from where it was to what it is now. Because now, you don't even feel any effort. You literally is just, I mean, it's like you can take a toddler. You can take a toddler up. It's that easy. It's right there. I mean, so, Allah knows. But you can imagine with the increased quantity of hijjaj, you know, it's, in my humble opinion, I think it would make sense to block it and just see it. But, in any case, how much... Of course, yeah. That's... But in any case, I mean, what can we do? Inshallah, there's some benefit in even going up there and seeing. What else? Yes? No, there's no holy site in Islam other than the three. Other than the three. Right? لا تشد الرحال إلا إلى مساجد الثلاث There's only three holy sites. Any other site we go to, we go to for historic reasons. Right? We go to increase our Iman to see what happened. There is no holy site in Islam that we think there's blessings coming from that site other than Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, the actual masajid of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Otherwise, there is no site that is inherently holy in Islam. As-Salaam-Alaikum, Sir. In the matter of the angels were sent down to assist the Muslims, is there any account of that happening in the Quran? No, there isn't and we'll explain the wisdom. We'll explain the wisdom that will contrast. One of the lessons will be a contrast between Badr and Uhud. And what Allah said about Badr and what Allah said about Uhud. In Badr, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that, you were about to disagree, but Allah brought you together. And in Uhud said, تَنَازَعْتُمْ وَفَشَلْتُمْ You disagreed and you fought. And you disunited. The exact same words are used. But in Badr, you were united after that. Whereas in Uhud, there was always disagreement from the day one. About what to do with the hypocrites, about where to fight, about this and that. And subhanallah, disunity was one of the causes of the downfall as well. Final question before we break, Rasulullah, yes. You mentioned about Hamza that he was very inferior to his father because he didn't take part in his mother. What did he, in the one-to-one fight with his mother, the first one which happened? Was it? I'll have to check. then I made a mistake then I will check I will check yes yes you are right I will check because in one book I just read today it mentioned that's the reason he was enthusiastic but then you are right it does not make sense I will check this inshallah and get back to you next Wednesday inshallah any announcements? Thank you.

Seerah 47 - Martyrdom of Hamza _ Uhud Part 3 - Yasir Qadhi _ 6th February 2013-ahHVQuvhUtg

Al-Fatiha. the initial victory of the Muslims. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala references this in the Quran. And by the way, inshallah, maybe not next Wednesday, but two Wednesdays from now, we will go over the verses in Surah Ali Imran about Uhud. Just as we went over Surah Al-Anfal about Badr, we're going to go over all the verses about Uhud. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, in these verses, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَلَقَدْ وَعْدَكُمُ اللَّهُ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fulfilled his promise on you, subhanahu wa ta'ala, I can't remember the verse right now surah al-imran, hafizab wa laqad nasarakum allahu no, that's not it no, no, no we're talking about uhud now, we did badr many months ago in any case, it'll come to me so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala promised them that as I promised you, I helped you right, that as I promised you I helped you that Allah عز و جل had promised them. حَتَّى إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ وَتَنَازَعْتُ فَالْأَمْرِ وَعَصَيْتُمْ وَبَعْدِ مَا أَرَاكُمْ مَا تُحِبُّونَ This is the verse. حَتَّى إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ Then when you yourselves lost your himma, you kind of became lazy, and you began arguing amongst yourselves, and you saw that which you loved. So Allah says, when you were pure and sincere to me, I gave you what I had promised you. But when you yourselves faltered, and you yourselves fell back, and you yourselves became greedy for something, then Allah says, this is when the disaster basically struck. And in the books of Sira, we learn the details of what happened. And as I said, one of the problems of Uhud, and this is what we're gonna face all of today and a little bit of next Wednesday. One of the problems of piecing together Uhud is that we don't have a detailed picture. All we have is one story of Mus'ab, one story of Hamza, one story of this, one story of that. And then we don't have a generic picture of the battle. And therefore, reconstructing Uhud, in my humble experience with the seerah, is the most difficult task of the whole seerah, in my humble experience with the seerah, trying to understand exactly what happened in Uhud. Because Uhud is one of the most decisive battles, and it was somewhat of a disaster, and it was very chaotic. So to this day, in my humble opinion, there's a lot of questions about Uhud that maybe we'll never know. Because as I said, put yourselves in the shoes of the victors, put yourselves in the shoes of those who were alive at the end of Uhud, how much would they say, what would they say they would only say one or two incidents here and there, and then human beings they don't like to dwell on bad memories they want to mention good memories more and so we don't know too much about Uhud in any case, one of the things that we know and of course the primary cause of the change of tide was the fact that when the Mushrikoon fled, the Sahaba felt complacent enough to let go of their arms, to put them away, and start collecting all of the war booty. And we can imagine, we don't have the details, we can imagine what would be left behind. Most important and the most prized possessions are good weapons. Good weapons are hard to come by, and generally speaking, they are imported from other lands. And anything that is imported is very expensive. The Arabs were not the best of iron smiths. They were not the best of weapon makers. The Arabs exported back then, not oil, but they exported tanned leather, they exported other goods from the desert, they exported dates, but they would import weapons. So weapons are very expensive and they lasted a generation, they lasted a long time. Maybe even to the next generation it will be inherited. So weapons is the number one thing. Tents as well. Animals, if the mushrikun fled and left a camel, a camel is worth a lot of money. So when they saw this ghanima, when they saw this war booty and the mushrikun had fled, So they discarded their arms, and they began collecting to go back to camp and collect again. And we need to understand that the rules of Ghanima had not yet been fully finalized. No doubt, some of the rules had come at Badr. Some of them had come. But at Badr, there were only a few of the Sahaba compared to at Uhud. One half of them were less than one half. And even at Badr, only some of the rules are revealed. and so the Sahaba were not aware that technically speaking every single person is going to get the same share of the Ghanima the whole Ghanima is basically collected and then everybody gets a share of the Ghanima so and this is the Ghanima that you don't get from the if a warrior kills another warrior in Islamic Fiqh then he will get the possessions of that warrior immediately right but if the battle if the enemy flees and the thing is left behind. That which is left behind no one person will take. It doesn't matter if you snatch it. This is a major sin to snatch it and kite it. This is ghalul. This is basically stealing from the war booty. That type of ghanima is left. Or you collect it and you give it in one pile. And then that pile is distributed equally. Well, not quite equally. Those who have a horse or animal and they own it will get more. But the point is that's not relevant to how much you collected with your hands. So the sad part really is that those who were eager for this war booty, subhanAllah, they didn't get their share because they thought this would be our share, right? And they caused the disaster that they caused. So being greedy for elements of this dunya, they neither got this dunya because that share was not theirs. Even if you collected as much as you could, that's not your property. that's not yours to keep. It has to go back to the pile and it will be distributed evenly. They neither got this, nor of course did they get the better reward and that is the victory of the battle. And this is the reality. There is a symbolism here. This is the reality of those who prefer the dunya over anything else. They neither get this nor that. And this is a huge symbolic issue of the battle of Uhud. In any case, so when the archers saw the Muslims collecting the booty and coming back to camp, Now what this means by the way, this we have to draw from the inferences, the Quraysh are nowhere to be seen. Khalas, they've gone. So what this means is, we're not talking about 2-3 minutes, we're talking about at least a good 20 minutes have gone by, 30 minutes have gone by, there's a feeling of complacency now. There's a feeling that, Khalas, it's over, we've won. And the archers are waiting, waiting, waiting, and nobody sends them a message. And they're seeing all of the other Muslims collect the ghanima. and this is where shaitan got to them that they're waiting and waiting and waiting and no messenger comes because from the Prophet's perspective the battle is not over yet that's the whole point he understood it's too early to call it a victory we need to wait, we need to be patient so from his perspective they need to stay there and he has told them they need to remain until the command comes so from the perspective of the archers they feel now neglected that the other Muslims and they're at the top of this massive hill they can see all the way to the end. And they see all of these tents and all of these weapons and all of these animals. And they see all of this food, whatever else they had. And they are collecting all of this ghanima. And so they began disputing amongst themselves as you know. And this is what Allah refers to. That, وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ This is one of the tanaza that happened. A number of differences happened between the Muslims. حَتَى إِذَا فِي شِلَوْا وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ A number of debates happened between the Muslims and this is one of them. That the archers began debating amongst themselves. And we only have one or two phrases recorded, but again we can use our imagination and be a bit more realistic. That it wasn't just one conversation. That the archers are now having a constant back and forth. Come on, it's our turn, let's go. Another group says, no, no, we can't go now. And of course, Abdullah ibn Jubair says, that have you forgotten what the Prophet ﷺ told you? That, كُونُ مَكَّانَكُمْ Stay where you are, until my command comes to you. By Allah, I will not move my place until the command comes to me. I will not move my place until the command comes to me. And again, we can imagine, the books don't mention, but we can imagine this type of bickering must have gone on for quite a while. Because nobody just changes their mind in a millisecond, right? You go back and forth, you see how many people follow your position, it's human nature. If you're all alone, khalas, you stick with the jama'ah. But if you get more and more people, you feel confident. And so we can imagine that from the 50, perhaps in the beginning only one or two are basically raising the banner to go and participate. Slowly but surely, perhaps over 40 minutes, perhaps over an hour, we don't know how long. But it cannot be immediate. It's not something that happened in a millisecond. After a period of time, eventually 40 of the people are now saying, come on, let's go. Enough is enough. Now 40 is basically 80%, right? 40 out of 50 is 80%. That's a huge majority. And therefore, they descended on their horses, and some of them did it, they descended down, and they left only 10 people on the mountain. And of course, this is the fursa, this is the opportunity that Khalid ibn al-Walid saw. So what does this mean? This means that Khalid ibn al-Walid, even as he is fleeing, even as he is fleeing, he is not running for dear life. He is fleeing, but cautiously. And he is looking behind to see what he can do. and this shows us the military genius that he had that the only person who ever inflicted a genuine loss on the Muslims was Khalid ibn al-Walid and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose him to basically convert and join the ranks of Muslims otherwise in the Makkan and the Medina period the only person who inflicted a military loss and a military defeat upon the Muslims is Khalid ibn al-Walid and this shows us he really is a military genius. And we know Khalid has a stellar career ahead of him. We know this, that he is the one who carved out basically most of the Muslim empire. That one conquest after another, this was Khalid ibn al-Walid. And he is showing even as a young man, he's in his early 20s now. He's showing, and this is his first real battle, the battle of Uhud. He wasn't participating in battle of Badr, he was not there. This is his first real battle and we see now the military genius. some people they have it, Allah blesses certain people with talents, Khalid had that talent and so you can imagine he's looking back, he's seeing what can I do what can I do, and as soon as he sees the 40 people go down, immediately his brain goes into action, he knows exactly what needs to be done, and this means as well that he would have realized that the area we showed you in the map last Wednesday that area is now empty and as I said now, here is where we get two analyses the first of which we find in many books and that is that Khalid ibn al-Wahid went behind the mountain of Uhud but as I said this honestly does not make any academic sense it is an impossible position to hold if you actually see the mountain of Uhud and then to go all the way around it by car will take you 45 minutes, by car so can you imagine by horse and many of them didn't have horses they're walking, it's really impossible to imagine 6-7 hours are gonna go by that's a bit too much because by then even the Muslims would have packed up and gone if nothing happens for that long, right? So realistically then, it wasn't that Khalid went from all the way behind, we showed you the maps last Wednesday. Rather, when he saw from the distance what is happening, he launched a frontal assault, but obviously he didn't charge. He basically carved his way in from the right hand side. Basically we can imagine like a U-turn, right? Going a little bit out so nobody sees him. And this is what Sheikh Sufyan also he demonstrated for us that the most realistic course of events was that there is a valley as I showed you in the map last Wednesday that it kind of goes underneath the land obviously. So if you enter into this, this is not a valley, we tried last time to talk about, this waterway, empty waterway, the channel that fills up in the time of rain. If you're in this, then people cannot see you at ground level because you're obviously underneath. So this is Sheikh Sufi Rahman's interpretation which makes more sense. That this is how Khalid managed to get together a group and then he entered this ditch and he walked with his people. And how many did he have? We have no idea. But again, we estimate. We think, we try to analyze the situation. And a rough estimate that makes sense is probably around 100. Or maximum 150. It couldn't really be more than that or else the damage would have been much more. It couldn't have been less than that or else he wouldn't have been able to inflict that much damage. So, we have a good quantity of people that have come in. Now, again I hope you remember the map. So the problem here is that when Khalid bin Walid is coming back from behind the mountain in effect he is halving or if you like cutting the Muslim army into half. Because he is basically walking in and on his right side will be the camp of the Prophet ﷺ and on his left side will be the Muslims who are collecting ghanima. right? so in reality what he's done is he's effectively cut off the strength of the Muslims that they had utilized when they were fighting in one jabha in one vicinity I hope you remember the map because I didn't ask for it this time around but again just think of it when you think of the mountain you come back in we said that the Prophet ﷺ was camped right in the corner and three areas are protecting him right? now this protection turns against them because they're blocked off and that's why the Prophet ﷺ understood the danger of an attack from this side. This protection which was their protection turns against the Muslims because now Khalid al-Walid is coming with his sudden entourage, his sudden group and they have nowhere to flee because they're effectively cut off. Similarly, the Muslims in front are dispersed. They're not in one group. They're cut off from their main supplies. We also can infer that many of them had abandoned their armor. Many of them didn't even have their weapons because again, they're now collecting ghanima. They were piling up things. And when you're piling up ghanima, you're not gonna have a sword in one hand. Again, these are not mentioned, but we extrapolate. We use our common sense that they would have taken their armor off. They would have put their weapons back in their tents. Now they're going back and they're collecting ghanima. An hour has gone by. Hour and a half has gone by. And they're feeling very complacent. Khalas, it's all over. But an hour and a half is not enough time. An hour and a half is just enough time for Khalid to see what's happening and come back around. And he attacks them, as we said, from behind Jabal al-Rumah. And the first person to see Khalid ibn al-Walid, in fact, it was none other than the Prophet ﷺ. The first person to monitor what is going on is the Prophet ﷺ. and this shows us that in fact and again we're surmising this that in fact he felt uneasy at this situation that he is being extra cautious whereas the Sahaba are being complacent and it was in his nature to obviously take every precaution and while the Sahaba have basically thought khalas, it's over now the Prophet ﷺ is monitoring as carefully as possible and he was the first person to see the flank coming in surprise attack coming in And it is human instinct that when you see an enemy coming, you turn around and flee. It's also very dangerous for the Prophet ﷺ to give his own location away because he knows he is the center of target. He is the one that they're targeting. And therefore, we can imagine if any one of us had been in a similar situation, we would have immediately fled surreptitiously and quietly, not drawn attention to ourselves. But this is not any one of us, this is our Prophet ﷺ. and therefore he did what we would only expect him to do which is the bravest thing imaginable and that is he stood up and at the top of his lungs he started shouting for the Muslims that oh Muslims behind you who is he speaking to now? he's speaking to those who are in the battlefield and he's yelling as loud as he can that be careful they're attacking from behind you take your precautions they're coming from behind and so by yelling out he's effectively given his own coordinates away. Because everybody knows, you know, the voice of the Prophet ﷺ. And who else is going to be commanding them? All Muslims. Everybody recognizes his voice. So by shouting at the top of his lungs, he's done something that is really extremely brave, and that is to give away his own coordinates. But had he not given this warning, probably the massacre would have been double or triple than it was. Right? That at least by giving this warning, some people could take precautions and take up their arms and put on their armor. And this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran. And again we're gonna talk about all of these verses in detail in a future, maybe next Wednesday or the Wednesday after that. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, إِذْ تُصْعِدُونَ وَلَا تَلْوُونَ عَلَىٰ أَحَدٍ وَالرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ فِي أُخْرَاكُمْ Right? Recall, remember, when you were basically fleeing onto the mountains, إِذْ تُصْعِدُونَ وَلَا تَلْوُونَ عَلَىٰ أَحَدٍ and you were not caring about anybody. You weren't looking about anybody. وَالرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ فِي أُخْرَاكُمْ And your Prophet ﷺ was calling you from your back, from your behind. Right at the back he was calling you to come. Right? And so Allah ﷻ describes vividly the reality of the situation that when some of the Sahaba saw the surprise attack, they started fleeing, which is the human instinct to do, which is what I said, that any other leader would have done that. and so Allah describes the Sahaba as running away and the Prophet ﷺ calling to the Sahaba to take precautions to come back to fight and as can be expected such a surprise attack it led to total chaos in the ranks of the Muslims the Muslims were taken totally by surprise and some of them had not even regrouped some of them were basically in small pockets 4, 5, 10 maybe even 1 or 2 and as the Quran mentions, many of them, many of them, because they were unarmed, because they didn't have even groups, they simply turned their backs and fled. Just like the ladies of Quraysh had fled an hour or two hours ago, now, probably on the same mountaintops, now the Muslims are fleeing. And again, there's symbolism here. That this is what happens when you disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the Messenger. Now, other Muslims who are closer to the rank of Khalid ibn Walid, so they're basically closer to the camp of the base of the Prophet ﷺ. It appears that shaitan did a trick or a tactic on them. And shaitan wanted to cause chaos between the Muslims who are now going to face one another. So you have the Muslim base, the camp. And then you have the Muslims in the battlefield. Khalid and Waleed is in the middle. So what's gonna happen? the two Muslims armies or groups are gonna be facing one another and in the chaos some Muslims were killed at the swords of other Muslims and we have narrations that shaitan was the one who instigated this confusion that he would trick some of the groups by basically saying that careful the enemy is right there and the enemy right there was none other than another Muslim group coming in and in the chaos and the confusion perhaps we can also imagine and again we are assuming that many of them were wearing helmets let's say, right? and so they couldn't recognize who the person was and unfortunately we had some tragic deaths here and the most tragic of these deaths was, who can tell me? Walid Hudaifah, the father of Hudaifah and his name is anybody who knows this deserves a prize his name, this is a very obscure fact, not many people know, of course they call him Yaman but that's not his name, Hudhayfah ibn Yaman la la you're getting confused with the, that's Hamzala Ghazil al-Malaika, his father is the Rahib, his Hudhayfah, his father was Hussail ibn Jabir Hussail ibn Jabir Hussail and he was not from the Ansar he was from the tribe of, he was from the Abasi, he was from the tribe of Abasi and in the days of Jahiliyyah he had committed a murder and his own people basically disowned him. He had to flee from his own people. And he formed an alliance with one of the tribes of Medina who were to become the Ansar. So he formed an alliance with them. He became their Mawla or their Halif is a better word. And so when he formed an alliance with them, his people then started calling him Yamani. You are the one who's formed the alliance with the people of Yaman. They called the people of Medina Yamani. And so they called him Yaman. and so his nickname became Yaman then he married one of the ladies of Medina we don't call them Ansar at this time because there's no Islam and eventually when the Prophet ﷺ began preaching in Mecca he was of the earliest converts, Yaman he's of the earliest converts and he accepts Islam and then Hudayfa embraces Islam before the Prophet ﷺ emigrates so Hudayfa becomes a Muslim before the Prophet ﷺ emigrates and of course Hudayfa is famous because he is sahibus sirr he is the keeper of secrets the Prophet ﷺ chose him for a very noble task and that is to tell him all of the names of the hypocrites that Allah had told him so Hudayfa was known as Sahib al-Sirr the keeper of secrets the one whom the Prophet ﷺ told all of the names of the munafiqun to and you know the story of Umar that he came and he begged Hudayfa to tell him am I a munafiqun or not and Hudayfa said the Prophet ﷺ did not mention you but I'm not going to talk to anybody else after you And it is said that perhaps he did this because he knew that the Prophet ﷺ had made Umar of the ten Ashara Mubashara. So there's no secret he's divulging if he tells Umar you are going to Jannah. Because he's already been told he's going to Jannah. Because otherwise how can he tell a secret? So he didn't tell Umar a secret. He told Umar what Umar should have known already. Which is you are one of the Ashara Mubashara. In any case, so his father was Hussain ibn Jabir as we said. And what had happened in the battle of Badr. by the way, so when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Medina, it is said that Hussain asked him, O Messenger of Allah, am I an Ansari or a Muhajir? Because he's neither from Mecca nor from Medina. He's actually not from either of these two cities. So what am I? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, you are both an Ansari and a Muhajir. Because he had emigrated from another land to Medina, and he's also living in Medina. So the Prophet ﷺ gave him an honor. You are an Ansari and a Muhajir. So he get the honor of being both of them. This is Walidu Hudhaifa, this is Yemen we're talking about. And in the battle of Badr, famous story took place as well, I mentioned this in the battle of Badr, that Hudhaifa and his father Yemen, now it's unclear where were they, were they going away from Mecca, or were they exiting Medina, it's unclear, the reports don't mention, but the Quraysh caught them on their way to the battle of Badr. The Quraysh caught them on their way to the battle of Badr. And the Quraysh knew that Yemen is not Ansari, he's not from Medina and he's not obviously so they didn't have that animosity towards him but they said where are you going? are you going to fight with Muhammad s.a.w.? and so the both of them said no no we're not no they have a sword to their throat would you expect them to say they're allowed to? no no we're not so they said no you have to promise by Allah that you are not going to fight against us you're not going to fight against us and so there's a sword there I mean there's no alternative so they promised that they are not going to fight. So the Quraysh left them. They make their way to the Prophet ﷺ and they tell them the story. And the Prophet ﷺ says, go fulfill your promise, go back to Medina. That's a very important story here. Go fulfill your promise, you made a promise, you cannot fight with us, go back to Medina. And so Hudhayfa and Yaman, they got the reward of Badr without actually being at Badr. So again another blessing. Their niyyah was there, they got to Badr. but they weren't allowed to fight because of the promise and this also shows us by the way when you have a specific promise even with an enemy and you have made a specific promise to them then in this case it is not allowed to break your promise in this manner because we are not allowed to break our promises and this is very relevant to modern political issues but that's a tangent I've been into before so where was I? Hudayfa and his father what else we need to know about Hudayfa before we move on so yes so Hudayfa by this age he's now very elderly, he's losing his eyesight he's one of the two people there's only two people that at the battle of Uhud they were so old the Prophet ﷺ said go and stay in the city don't fight with us so Hudayfa is one of those we can imagine feeble and old, he's so old that they are exempt from fighting so Hudayfa and this other man from the Ansar, they were sitting basically with the women and children. And obviously what happens, their manhood gets the better of them, their iman gets the better of them. And they start rebuking each other and themselves. Like, how can we do this? What is the point? And Hudayfa says, how long do we have left to live? A day? An hour? I mean, we're so old now. How long do we have left to live? And his companion says, you are right, let us go. And perhaps Allah will end our lives with the shahada, which is what we want. Right? Yaman. Did I say Hudayfah? Sorry, Yaman. Yaman is the elderly person, right? Yaman is the old person. So, Yaman sorry, you're right, I'm saying Hudayfah. Yaman and another of the Ansar. They're both elderly and they both decide to make their way to Uhud after they have been basically exempt from coming to Uhud. There's one problem. By the time they come, this is when Khalid is now attacking. So they come at a chaotic time. And they join the battle at a time of chaos. And this was when shaitan cries out that, O Muslims behind you. And when they turned around there was Yaman standing right there. And so a group of them not recognizing Yaman because he was not in the battle in the morning he wasn't there. A group of them not recognizing Yaman, they surrounded him and they began using their swords. And Hudhaifa recognized his father because obviously a father recognizes his son, the son recognizes his father. As we know, you recognize your children and vice versa simply by the back of their heads or by one limb or something. This is the way that Allah created. You recognize, right? So he recognizes his father from the distance. And he began screaming, that, Abi, Abi, this is my father, this is my father, stop from doing this. But they're not gonna hear the dint of the battle, the emotions, the fear, everything is just the battle and they struck him and they basically killed him, it was a sad and tragic story and at the end of the battle when it was all over, they came and asked forgiveness and Hudayfah said يَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّحِيمِينَ Surah Yusuf, same thing يَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّحِيمِينَ and the Prophet ﷺ paid him the blood money for his father from the Baitul Mal, that this is our fault even though it's not his fault, the Prophet ﷺ but it's responsibility of the Muslim Ummah So he paid him the blood money which is a hundred camels, which is a lot of money. And Hudayfa took this money and he distributed it to the Fuqara. All of it. And this obviously made him, obviously the way who he was, and as one of the Sahaba said, that Hudayfa forever lived in good after that incident. That that incident was what boosted his ranks. وَمَا زَالَ فِي خَيْرٍ He always lived in good up until the end of his life. And the Prophet ﷺ then rewarded him by making him صاحب السر, the one who took the secrets of the Prophet ﷺ. Now, as we said, it's a very chaotic situation and all we can do is to mention specific incidents that happened. And of course, the saddest incident of, or one of the saddest incidents of Uhud is the death of Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib. The death of Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib, the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, and also a very close friend. and someone whom had defended the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca. If you remember his conversion story, do you remember his conversion story? That he actually converted حَمِيَّةً He converted out of family pride. He didn't convert out of actual iman in the beginning. He converted because Abu Jahl had insulted his nephew. Right? And he got so angry that somebody could insult his family that just on the spur he said, did you insult him and he didn't even realize as the riwayat go he didn't even realize what he's saying but once he blurts it out he's not gonna take it back and then after that his iman became stronger and stronger until he becomes Sayyid al-Shuhada he becomes Sayyid al-Shuhada and the story is of course known to all of us but there's no harm in repeating it again because after all really these are the stories that increase our iman they make us understand how the sacrifices that our ummah went through the sacrifices of our Prophet ﷺ himself. We know that of course Hamza was killed by Wahshi. And who was Wahshi? Wahshi was the slave of Jubayr ibn Mut'im. Jubayr ibn Mut'im. Now, Jubayr ibn Mut'im, Mut'im ibn Adi we talked a lot about. Mut'im ibn Adi we talked about what a noble person he was, right? But father and son can be different. Jubayr eventually accepts Islam, so we say radiallahu anhu, but at the time he's not a Muslim. So Jubair ibn Mut'im, now his father Mut'im, we mentioned he was the most noble of the whole Quraysh who opposed the Prophet ﷺ after Abu Talib. So Abu Talib and Mut'im ibn Adi are the two noble non-Muslims. There's only two that are genuinely good non-Muslims in a politically good sense. Not good in a theological sense, good in a political sense. So Mut'im and Abu Talib. And his son is Jubair. Now Mut'im dies before Badr, Mut'im doesn't see Badr. Mut'im is the one the Prophet ﷺ says, لَوْ كَانَ مُطْعِمْ حَيًّا ثُمَّ كَلَّمَنِي فِي هَذَا رَأَنَّتْنَا لَأَطْلَقْتُهُ لَهُمْ That's Mut'im. If Mut'im had been alive, one word and all of these are given to him. That's Mut'im. This is his son. So in the battle of Badr, Mut'im's brother, Jubair's uncle is killed. Mut'im's younger brother, Jubair's uncle, Jubair ibn Mut'im. Jubair's uncle is killed. and his name was Tu'ima Tu'ima ibn Adi he had been killed by Hamza so Hamza was the one who killed Tu'ima so Jubair in his Hamia in his basically family pride and that's what they are used to that family issue he killed my uncle, khalas he's gonna die for that so Jubair tells his slave Wahshi that look if you kill Hamza then you will get your freedom and so it's a double if you like revenge first revenge is you kill the uncle of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam just like my uncle was killed and the second the same person you kill the person who killed my uncle you see the point here there's two motivations here just like I lost my uncle the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is going to lose his uncle That's motivation. And then of course there's a direct motivation. He killed my uncle, he's gonna also die. So there's a double motivation for killing Hamza. And Wahshi himself narrates his story. And in fact we have his story preserved in the first person. Because it is narrated that two of the Tabi'un, they visited one of the cities of Iraq, where Wahshi had become an old man. And they visited the city and they said, let us go to Wahshi, the one who killed Hamza, and ask him how he killed Hamza. And so the two of them, their names are mentioned in the books, but we have not come across them, so there's no point confusing you. The two of them, they entered upon Wahshi, and Wahshi had grown almost blind. And it is said that he looked at the feet of one of them, and immediately said, are you so and so, the son of so and so? and he said yes I am so he said I played with your feet when you were a baby in Mecca I played with you as a baby in Mecca meaning I played with you as a baby in Mecca so subhanallah the Arabs had a science by the way of feet reading you know this or you know this they had a science of feet reading and this is they would tell they would tell genealogy by looking at the feet they would tell genealogy by looking at the feet and there are stories in the seerah about this as well Usama and Zayd were lying down under one blanket right, Usama ibn Zayd Usama and Zayd were lying down under one blanket and Usama was dark skinned and Zayd was light skinned why was Usama dark skinned? because his mother is his mother is who? Umm Baraka his mother is an Abyssinian slave and Zayd is an Arab and Usama came like his mother. And you know how people are, they started speaking. There was a rumor going on when Usama was born. And Usama and Zaid were lying under a blanket. This is in Sahih Bukhari. And one of these feet readers came. And they're covered up. So he said, these feet are from these feet. Usama is the son of this person. But he doesn't know who they are. And Aisha says, the Prophet ﷺ was so happy to hear this, that this type of rumor will be finished now. Even though he doesn't need to hear, but the people need to hear this. Again, I'm going to my tangents. Let's get back here. So he looks at the feet of this person. He goes, verily I played with your feet. Meaning, I played with you when you were a baby. So what do you want from me? And so he says, we have come to listen to you how you killed Hamza. So he said, I will tell you exactly word for word as I told the Prophet ﷺ. So he tells them the entire story. And he says that, I was a slave in Mecca, and I had no desire to fight or kill, I have no desire to get involved in the war. However, my master Jubay promised me my freedom if I killed Hamza. And so I took my best javelin, my best spear, and I went into the battle, and wallahi I had no desire to do anyone harm except for Hamza in order to get my freedom. I have no hatred against him. So he's making an excuse. I didn't want to participate. It's nothing, something that I have. I just wanted to be a free man. Right? And we understand that type of emotion that he simply wanted to be a free man. So he said, I began following Hamza. Wherever he's going, I'm following Hamza to see what he is doing. And I kept on hiding from him to go behind him. Until finally, he said, that when Hamza killed so and so, and he mentions one of the Quraysh, so Hamza by the way had killed a whole list, even in Uhud, Hamza had killed a long list. So when Hamza killed so and so, he chopped him off, as soon as he lowered the sword, Wahshi is saying, I stepped out from behind the bush. So he's literally hiding behind a bush. I stepped out from behind the bush, his back was to him. I mean this is really low, but he's not caring about chivalry right now. He doesn't care about fighting like a man. He just wants his freedom. So Hamza's back was towards him. And he said, I threw my javelin with the most force that I could. So this is point blank range. You're killing from the back. There is simply no way. So he says, it came. And now this is, can you imagine? Wallahi, can you imagine? The force that he must have thrown the javelin with. He said, it came out from behind. And it came into the front. and the javelin was literally half in the body now. That is force. And Wahshi says, Hamza turned around to try to fight me. Subhanallah, what a man. What a man. The javelin is sticking out. Turned around to try to fight me. But before he could raise his sword, you're not gonna live this thing. He simply collapsed right there and died before he could do anything. it is also said by the way that Wahshi aimed to an area that is between his armor like in the armor chinks, what are you going to call it like you know the place that is not fully covered you know the armors in those days they were coats they were rings, right? so Wahshi is an expert javelin thrower so he's aiming to see when the armor basically slides here or there or there's a little bit of a hole and this is not too far fetched either for someone as skilled as Wahshi that he actually is aiming for an area that Hamza would not even have had any armor. And this would make sense, the force that it is now coming out one. And subhanAllah, we can say, how else would Hamza have been killed? Nobody could kill him in one-on-one combat. Nobody could have killed him like a man. How else would he be killed except in this manner, which is not a noble manner. It's not the manner that you do one-on-one battle with. But again, Wahshi doesn't care and he makes an excuse for himself. I didn't care about Hamza at all. I simply wanted my freedom. And also it is amazing as well that Jubair, subhanallah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guided him to Islam eventually as well. That Jubair ibn Mut'im, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guided him to Islam, and he becomes a sahabi, and his sins are forgiven. And by the way, Jubair, he was one of the prisoners at Badr. And Jubair says, that's the first time a little bit of iman entered my heart, was when I heard the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam recite, Surah At-Tur. So remember, where were the prisoners housed? In the masjid. So all of the prisoners are in the masjid. So he's tied up to the pillar of the masjid, Jubair. And you can imagine, every day the Prophet ﷺ, the Sahaba are coming to pray salah. So he says, the first time Iman entered my heart, was when the Prophet ﷺ recited Surah At-Tur in Salatul Maghrib. And he got to the verse, أَمْ خُلِقُوا مِنْ غَيْرِ شَيْءٍ أَمْ هُمُ الْخَالِقُونَ Now again, Surah At-Tur, just like Surah Al-Najm. it's a powerful surah, it builds up to a crescendo, like an amazing ending, there's a series of like 15 rhetorical questions at the end, just like surah al-najm by the way as well, it's very powerful and one of the last, right at the end of it am khuliqu min ghayri shanafoon khaliqun which basically Allah is saying where did you come from? did you come out of nowhere or did you create yourselves? right, so jubayr ibn mut'im said that when I heard the process of doing that tilawa, kada qalbi an yutir, my heart was about to break out of my chest and just fly out. Can you imagine the tilah of the Prophet ﷺ, how it would have impacted. So Jubayr ibn Muhtim said, this was the first time that Iman entered my heart, but Allah had willed, he's not going to accept Islam now. Not at Uhud. Because he has things to do for the sake of history, for the sake of wisdom Allah knows. So he's not a Muslim yet, but eventually he will accept Islam. Wahshi by the way, there's stuff that is generally not mentioned too often in popular lectures, but I feel that there's always wisdom in mentioning what Allah Azawajal has allowed our tradition to preserve. Wahshi, there's also some dark side as well. And inshallah, Allah will forgive him and all of us. He is after all his sahabi, and he repented from that sin. Wahshi, when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca, so Wahshi fled to Ta'if. Because he knows, I mean, everybody knows how devastated the Prophet ﷺ was. and this is his uncle, this is his beloved. Wahshi knows, he's not gonna spare me. So Wahshi before the Prophet ﷺ comes, he fleets to Ta'if. Ta'if of course remains non-Muslim for another year, and he's in there. Then the next year, Ta'if also caves in, as we're gonna come to when we come to. And so Ta'if sends a delegation. Wahshi says, I had no idea what to do. I felt the whole world is gonna collapse on me. And I decided to go into exile in Syria. Until finally somebody said to me, وَيْحَكَ يَوَحْشِي Don't you know that if you accept this man's religion, he never kills anybody who accepts his own religion? So he said, I decided to accept Islam. So obviously he is accepting it for a reason that is understandable. But it's not the reason that let's say Abu Bakr accepted Islam. So he said, I decided to accept Islam. And so I hid myself, the covering that the Bedouins do, you know the covering of the face, right? So I hid myself in my turban, and I made my way to Mecca, and I came into the Prophet ﷺ, and I unfolded the turban, because he knows he's gonna be killed on sight. And before anybody could say anything, he says, أَشْهَدُ أَن لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّكَ رَسُولَ اللَّهُ So the Prophet ﷺ says, أَوَحْشِيُّنْ أَنْتُ يُوْرْ وَحْشِيُّ Because he recognizes who he is, and so he says, yes, I am wahshi. So he says, come and tell me, how you killed Hamza. Subhanallah. Come and tell me how you killed Hamza. And so, Wahshi told him how he killed Hamza. And Wahshi says, the Prophet ﷺ cried until his beard became wet. So he is crying now when he hears this detailed story. Here is the man who did this. And then he said to Wahshi, hide yourself from me, let me not see your face. Hide yourself from me, let me not see your face. Because obviously you can imagine the memories that you're gonna get, the pain you're gonna get, that you killed my, in this manner, you killed my uncle. This is even in a gentle way. He didn't say get lost or go. He simply said, hide yourself from me so I don't see you. So Wahshi would always, what a punishment, we seek Allah's refuge, but what a difficult punishment in this world, right? That anytime he sees the Prophet ﷺ, he has to go behind the pillar, he has to hide behind somebody. He is not allowed to come in front of the Prophet ﷺ. And there is another thing that I said, not many people like to mention, but it is reported in all of our classical books and there is wisdom in this. And as I said, Allah will forgive him and inshallah all of us as well. We are all sinful in our own ways. That Wahshi was known for being involved in drinking till the end of his days. And Umar had him punished multiple times. So much so that Umar said that, Wallahi I knew that Allah would not leave Qatil Hamza untouched. Wallahi I knew that Allah would not leave the one who killed Hamza without some issue some issue, some punishment, something like this I knew Allah was not going to leave him like this he's done something so big it's not going to be left untouched and so he was punished multiple times now of course, you know, drinking according to Islam you are basically lashed 40 times and there's no, like, every time you drink you just lash so Wahji was lashed a number of times until Hamza, I mean Umar got irritated at him and said wallahi I knew Allah was not going to leave Qatulu Hamza however at the end of his life he did repent and it is said that when well not it is said he said himself and so when he is describing to these two young men in front of him he said when he heard about Musaylimah Al-Kathab when he heard about Musaylimah Al-Kathab he said he made a dua to Allah that oh Allah allow me to take the life of Musaylimah in substitution for what I did to Hamza. Like this is my kafara. So he said, Subhanallah, I took the same spear that I killed Hamza with. The same spear. I took the same spear that I killed Hamza with. And I went with Khalid al-Walid. Now he is an old man now. This is many years later now that he is talking about this. Maybe not old, but he is not the young person that he was. A decade or more has gone in the battle of Musaylimah. So I went now with Khalid al-Walid and I targeted Musaylimah like I targeted Hamza. And he says that when I was in front of him, I threw my javelin and at the same time, one of the Ansar attacked him from the other side with his sword. So Allah knows which of the two actually killed. So both of them basically simultaneously came upon Musaylimah Al-Kathab. So he says Allah knows which of the two of us killed him. But he considered this to be his Kafar. that because of this I hope that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgives and of course technically he did this when he was a non-Muslim so it's not as if that sin will be on his you know mawazeen on the day of judgment but nonetheless can you imagine the guilt he would have felt right can you imagine the guilt he would have felt and this is what he wanted to do you know in return for what he had done and as I said may Allah forgive and inshallah Allah will forgive him he is a sahabi and by the way this leads us to a theological issue some people get confused when they hear a sahabi did this or that and they do not realize that the sahaba are human and they are the best generation no doubt but that doesn't make them super human so the sahaba also have some of the problems that everybody else does after all were there not people who committed zina in the lifetime of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and they were punished, correct? were there not people who physically fought in the masjid. We know they argued in the masjid. Things are happening over money, over this or that. They are after all humans, but as a generation they are the best. And we differentiate between pointing out one of these types of sins or issues in order to basically show their humanity versus pointing them out in order to denigrate them. Allah says in the Quran, رضي الله عنهم ورضو عنه as a generation. and so every sahabi we say and we say that no matter what sin the sahaba would do there is one sin that Allah has protected them from and that is the sin of lying about Allah and His messenger and that is very true by the way so the sin of basically being unfaithful to Allah and His messenger they cannot do that but other issues which are human issues zina, khamr this is getting angry fighting this is human issue, right? And the Sahaba, some of them, they fell into these issues. And the fact that they fell into it does not diminish from رضي الله عنهم ورضو عنهم, right? As a category, they are رضي الله عنهم ورضو عنهم, but this doesn't mean that they are superhuman. And so this issue of Wahshi should be put into this context. Now we also know by the way that when Wahshi had killed Hamza, we all know what Hind did on the battlefield. So by the way, what this shows, and a lot of people don't put this together, Hamza was killed in the victory half of Uhud, not in the losing half. Hamza was killed in the first 20-30 minutes basically, or hour, I'm not giving an exact time frame. but before Khalid comes in, Hamza was killed in the initial assault that Wahshi is monitoring from the very beginning. So this is an important point. Khalid and Walid is coming and Hamza has already been mutilated. Because before Hind runs away, what does Hind do? We all know what she does. And she also accepted Islam, so Allah has forgiven her as well. And this is Allah's wisdom. He chooses whom he wants. that as a sign of pure hatred, as a sign of inflicting pain upon the Prophet ﷺ, because there is no other reason to do this, right? As a sign of inflicting pain upon the Prophet ﷺ, she basically with her own dagger, she cuts open, slits open the stomach of Hamza, and takes out his liver, and bites it and spits it out, right? and it's a bit disgusting, she cuts off his fingers cuts off his fingers and according to some reports his toes and she built a necklace out of them she built a necklace out of them and again all of this is done in order to nothing except to inflict pain upon the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam there's no other reason to do this and this is the level of hatred the level of, at that time they had. And it is amazing that Allah decided to guide her. We say Allah knows best. We say we trust in Allah's judgment. Somebody that had so much hikd and so much anger, still for a wisdom known to him, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decides that after the conquest of Mecca, she will basically embrace Islam along with Abu Sufyan. Of course, Hind is the wife of Abu Sufyan. And so, she is like the queen. She is the prime lady of Quraish. So she is making that statement. That this is who we are. And this is what we're gonna do to you. And when our Prophet ﷺ saw the body of Hamza, he cried. And this of course after all of the battle is over. He cried and he said, were it not for the fact that Safiyyah would grieve. Now Safiyyah and Hamza are full brothers and sisters. Not half, full. The same parents. Safiyyah and Hamza are full brother and sister. And so they have an even closer bond. Were it not for the fact that Safiyyah's heart would grieve, and the people would then take this as sunnah, if I were to do this, I would have left his body untouched. I would have left his body untouched, until it dispersed in the beasts of bellies, in the bellies of the beasts and the birds. I.e., I want his body to be plucked even more, so that Allah honors him even more. and so that Allah will then collect his body from all of these different places as an honor for Hamza so what the Prophet ﷺ is saying is that were it not for Safiyyah's grief and for the fact that what I'm doing would then become sunnah and this is another issue that Ishtihad that he made right then and there and that if I had done this it would have become sunnah but I don't want to open that door I would have left his body untouched and I would have let it decompose and let the animals come to literally, she thinks she's cut off the fingers, let him be dispersed in a million places. Then let Allah gather him from all of those million as a karama, as a blessing, as a means of honoring Hamza. This is what I would have done. But I didn't want to do that because of these two reasons. And then he says, and he said that, and if Allah ever gives me victory over the Quraysh, I shall mutilate 30 of their bodies because of this one. So he said this. He said, I shall mutilate 30 for one. 30 juthath I will mutilate for this one. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed later on after Uhud, that, وَإِنْ عَاقَبْتُمْ فَعَاقِبُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا عُوقِبَتُمْ بِهِ وَلَئِنْ صَبَرْتُمْ لَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لِّلصَّبِّرِينَ If you're gonna take revenge, take revenge exactly equivalent as what happened to you. But if you are patient and forgive, it is better. If you are, turn the other cheek, it is better for you, forgive for those who are patient. And so when this ayah came down, the Prophet ﷺ, he gave a permanent commandment, that no dead body should ever be mutilated. So this shows us that, the Prophet ﷺ made ijtihad and Allah corrects him. This also shows us that, mutilation has been forbidden uncategorically. Uncategorically, it has been forbidden. So initially, the Prophet ﷺ said, I will take revenge. But he never actually did it, right? It's just a threat. That if I get victory, I shall mutilate 30 bodies. Then Allah revealed, turn the other cheek, forgive, it is better. So then the Prophet ﷺ took this from Allah, and he said, khalas, from now on, it is not allowed to mutilate any dead body. Muslim or Kafir, it doesn't matter. We don't mutilate bodies. This is not of our tradition. And so the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba never mutilated any body. Even if it's not a Muslim, even as the Badr shows, you give them some type of burial, but you do not mutilate dead bodies. And this is the story of Hamza. Other stories as well that we know is the story of Mus'ab ibn Umair and Mus'ab ibn Umayl when was he killed? Was he killed in the offensive or when Khalid ibn Walid came? Most likely, Mus'ab was killed by the forces of Khalid. And again, this is one of those issues that we're trying to piece together when things happen. Most likely, Mus'ab was killed by the forces of Khalid. And he was targeted because unlike those who were taking booty, he was still carrying the flag. So he was one of the first targets for the contingent of Khalid and Waleed. Now again, we're assuming it's Khalid. The books don't mention who did it. It just says this happened. But the point being, if the Muslims were so victorious in the beginning, it's difficult to imagine Mus'ab being killed so brutally. So, my ijtihad and Allah knows best. Mus'ab is killed in the second half. And that is Khalid. And this makes complete sense now. Because his story is also very gruesome. And that is that, now of course Mus'ab is that young man we know, that his father was one of the richest traders of Mecca and he was known for being the most spoiled prince of Mecca. That he would wear a new kameez every day or a new garment every few days. That he would buy the most expensive perfumes. His mother was well known to be spoiling him completely. His mother would give the best of garments and things to him. And he was tortured by his own mother and father. As you know, he was literally locked up by his own mother and father. His own mother deprived him of food and water when he converted to Islam. The same woman who gave him perfumes and the most expensive garments, now that he gave up idolatry and worshipped Allah, she locked him up and deprived him of food. He had to break his chains and run away to Medina. He was the first muhajir to Medina, remember, right? Because he had no house in Mecca. He had no place to live. So the Prophet ﷺ sent him to Medina two years before the hijrah. The first muhajir to Medina was Mus'ab. And his role was dual. Number one, to run away from Mecca. Number two, to preach to Medina. If you remember the story, we talked about it, right? And because he was intelligent, because he was of a noble class, he knew how to interact with people, he won the hearts and mind of the Ansar. And at his hands, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guided, every single tribe had Muslims because of him. This is what the books of Seerah say. Every tribe, there were members that converted at his hand. So this is Musab ibn Umair. and he was known for being gentle and loving and because he was young and now he was penniless he never got married as well because he does not have any money at all and in the battle of Uhud as we know he died a tragic death of course it is an honorable death as well and that is that he was holding the flag and one of the mushriks came and again we are assuming this is Khalid's force so he doesn't have Muslims around him to defend him So his right hand is cut off, and he then holds the flag with his left hand. And now he is completely defenseless, the left hand is cut off. And to remain that izzah, whatever he can, he takes the two stumps and then holds the flag with those stumps. And of course he is waiting for shahada, there is nothing left for him to live. There is no defense basically. And he is killed, multiple stabs and wounds simultaneously he is killed. And this is why, as I said, it makes complete sense that this is happening in the counter offensive. This is happening when Khalid is now coming in. Most likely, and this is my reconstruction, the first person they're targeting is the flag bearer. Because that's the whole point. They need to show the symbolism. We're back now. So the first person they target is a flag bearer. Mus'ab falls a tragic death. And Sahib Bukhari reports the long hadith of Khabbab ibn al-Arat. Khabbab ibn al-Arat was also one of those who was tortured in Mecca. Also an early convert like Mus'ab. And he lived a long life. and Allah blessed him to be a governor and he lived in a house and with servants. Now he dies. Now a very different death than what he was in Mecca, right? So Allah gave him a long life. When he was about to die, Khabbab gave a moving speech that caused his people and his family to cry that we all emigrated with the Prophet ﷺ seeking the rewards of Allah. And so our reward is with Allah. But some of us left this dunya without taking any of that reward in this world. Their full reward is in the hereafter. Of them is Mus'ab ibn Umair. Of them is Mus'ab ibn Umair. He was killed on the day of Uhud. And all that he had was the one garment that he was wearing. One, not even two. The one garment that he's wearing. So if we try to cover up his body, if we covered his bottom half, the top half was naked. and if we covered his top half then the bottom half is naked and so the Prophet ﷺ told us to cover up the top half and then basically maybe his thighs to downwards are left empty we don't know exactly where but again when you have one garment like the ihram let's say so it's gonna cover maybe to the thighs or something or maybe to the knees so we then covered the top half and then we covered the bottom half with basically hay or idkhir not hay but grass or dried up leaves or something we covered up desert grass we put it on his feet. And as for the rest of us, he is saying, we moved on in life, and Allah blessed us, and now we don't know what Allah is going to do with us. Meaning, I am dying with such luxury, and my friend Mus'ab died in such poverty, I don't know what my fate is going to be. As for Mus'ab, Allah gave him everything in the next, he didn't get one thing in this dunya. And this is of course the tragic Mus'ab ibn Umayyad, that no doubt, he is of those shuhada in Uhud that Allah Azzawajal tested him in Mecca and Allah blessed him in Medina in the way that he did to be that type of shaheed. The story of Hamdallah as well is known to you, we already mentioned it and it is well known Hamdallah is of course the son of Al-Rahib, now called Al-Fasiq, right? They changed his name from Rahib to Fasiq. Hamdallah is the one whom when he was, it is said that Hamdallah was just about to kill Abu Sufyan that Hamdallah was just striking distance of Abu Sufyan when a spear came out of nowhere and basically killed him on the spot right then and there and later on after the battle the Prophet ﷺ as you know is a well known story that he said I saw the angels washing the body of Hamdallah and the body of the shaheed is not washed so I saw the angels washing the body of Hamdallah as they took him up so go ask his wife because there is only one reason that they are washing that means he must have been junub but why is he junub? What's happening? And then we know the story of course all of you know that he was newly married and the wife did not want him to leave and she's begging and pleading and so basically on the morning of the battle she tempts him right then and there, she hugs and begs him and so he's a young man he's newly married so he basically is intimate with her and then he doesn't even have the time to do ghusl. And so right then and there he throws on his armor and khalas he goes on to the battle without even doing ghusl so he dies in that state so he gets a much better bath mashallah. He gets the bath from up there and the angels give him the ghusl on the way up to Jannah. And we already mentioned the story of the death of Yaman, the father of Hudayfa. We already mentioned the story of the death of Yaman. Subhanallah, I'm trying to finish up. Let's just go a little bit more because I want to start with the Prophet ﷺ next Wednesday. So there's two more stories inshallah today and then we're done. The other story we have is the story of Quzman. Very interesting story, Quzman. Quzman was of the hypocrites. and he had gone back with Abdullah ibn Ubayy he had not wanted to fight so he returns back he's not of the elite of the Sahaba, Quzban but he's also a warrior so when he goes back and he goes back home the Muslim ladies began rebuking him making fun of him they said what type of man are you? you leave the men in the battlefield and you come back home to us? have you no shame? and so he felt such an embarrassment that the ladies are mocking me if I come home. So then he decided to return back. But what's his niyyah now? His niyyah was not for the sake of Allah. And so his niyyah is basically to prove my manhood. So he returns back to the battle, completely armed, and Quzman was a warrior. And he fights a very tough and a very brave fighting. So much so, that one of the sahaba comes back to the Prophet ﷺ, so we understand this is happening, the offensive then, the first half. Comes back to the Prophet ﷺ and said, Ya Rasulullah, Quzman is fighting an amazing battle. It's like praising him. Wherever he goes, he's wreaking havoc. The Prophet ﷺ said, هو في النار. هو في النار. He's gonna be in the fire of hell. The Sahabi says, I got a shock like I had never gotten before. Like this man, who's fighting this battle, if he's going to hell, what's wrong? Something must be wrong here. So he said, I decided to follow him. I decided to follow him. Like there must be a reason. And so, I began following Quzman. And eventually Quzman was hit by an arrow. And he began wailing out of pain. Until not being able to bear the pain of one arrow. Which I'm sure is very painful. May Allah protect us all. But the Sahaba, we just saw Mus'ab and others, what they have done. We're not comparing his to us. We are much weaker than all of this. but we're comparing him to the people of his generation. We just seen all of these other sahaba what they're doing. So one arrow comes and hits him somewhere in the limb or something like this. He cannot bear the pain. So what does he do? He takes out his sword and he turns it upside down and he puts the handle on the ground. He puts the sharp side on his stomach and then he jumps on his own sword. Because he doesn't want to bear the pain. So he commits suicide because of the pain. and as we all know none of the sahaba as we know none of them ever did this it's ridiculous, unmanly it is un-Islamic, Quzban is committing suicide on the battlefield because of an arrow and so immediately the man came back and informed the Prophet ﷺ what happened and of course this affirmed their iman that he predicted Quzban is going to go to the fire of hell and the Prophet ﷺ said إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَيُؤَيِّذُ هَذَا الدِّينَ بِالرَّجُلِ الْفَاجِرِ sometimes Allah helps this religion through an evil man because man helped us but he's an evil man because man helped us he's fighting on our side but he is an evil man and two more very small stories the first story is the second to last story is the story of Al-Usayrim Amr Ibn Thabit Al-Usayrim was one of the very few remaining pagans now this is a bit problematic for me because Ibn Ishaq says that after the battle of Badr, anybody who was pagan converted to Islam. Yet here we find Usayrim is one of the last pagans. So Allahu'alam, the way we reconcile this is to say that after the battle of Badr, any who was pagan in Medina, by and large they converted, but maybe a handful, one or two or three, had remained behind. But there was no community of pagans, and there was no public idol being worshipped. Allah knows best. This is the only way to reconcile. That we now know that Usaidim is still not a Muslim, but he's not a munafiq. He's not a Yahudi. So this means that there were still a handful of pagans, but perhaps we can interpret Ibn Ishaq's statement as being, by the time Badr takes place, there are no idols being worshipped, that idolatry as a system is now gone. And this is the only way to reconcile. there's still a few people left, Usaidim is one of them so Usaidim is still a pagan and on the day of Uhud he goes and he sees the city completely dead, because he's not going to fight, he doesn't want to fight with the Muslims sees the whole city dead, so he says where is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, this was their up and coming leader and he is our basically big guy, where is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, the woman said he's at Uhud, so he said where is so and so at Uhud, where is so and so at Uhud every one of the people that he used to look up to they're all at Uhud so this was when he realized this is a powerful force if all of my friends or colleagues or peers or leaders, all of them are fighting at Uhud surely there must be a reason and so Usayrim accepted Islam on Saturday morning the 15th of Shawwal the morning of Uhud he accepts Islam right then and there and he takes his armor and sword and he tells his family who are still pagan apparently at the time, he tells them that if I die, my money will go to the Prophet ﷺ. My money will go to Rasulullah ﷺ. And he walks to Uhud and the Muslims when they see him they say, ilayka anna, get away from us, what are you doing here? So they recognize that he's still a pagan. Get away from here, we're not gonna let you fight with us. So Usaylim said, I have accepted Islam. And so they allowed him to fight and he died a shaheed in the battle of Uhud and obviously the battle of Uhud is taking place early morning so he accepts Islam after Fajr though her time has not yet come in and so he does not even pray one salah and the Prophet said عَمِلَ قَلِيلًا وَأَجْرُهُ كَثِيرًا he did very little but his ajr is a lot and Abu Hurairah would test his students by saying who is that Muslim who entered Jannah without doing one sajda? Of course we know the answer but Abu Hurairah would test his students. Who is that Muslim who entered Jannah without making one salah? Right? And of course the answer is Usaidim. And of course if somebody says that how can you say that the one who leaves a salah is not a Muslim whereas Usaidim did not pray. We say of course Usaidim was never required to pray. Because Dhuhr time never came in. Had the whole time come in, he would have prayed. So the issue of static salah doesn't apply to Usaylim. Usaylim is not leaving the salah. Usaylim never had the opportunity to pray. He never did one sajda in his life. And yet Allah gave him the shahada. And Allah guides whom he wills. Allah Azza wa Jal chooses to guide whom he wills. And subhanAllah, how many of us even have heard of non-Muslims who accepted the shahada on their deathbed? How many of us have heard of people that right at the very end, Allah Azza wa Jal knows that they are deserving and they accept Islam right before their death. And the final story, and inshallah we will conclude, and I apologize about the length, but I wanted to start with the Prophet ﷺ. That's a whole separate issue of Uhud, what happened with him. The final story that we know as a very small, very quick story, Mukhayriq. Mukhayriq is his name. We don't know much about him at all. All that we know, Mukhayriq, with a Qaf, Mukhayriq, was of the Jewish tribes of Medina. And Mukhayriq, on the day of Uhud, told his people. Now, the Prophet ﷺ had not approached the Yahud for help in his own wisdom because he knew they're not gonna help him. Technically, they're supposed to help because that was the treaty. The very beginning, the constitution. That if we are attacked externally, we will fight as one. Correct? In his wisdom, he didn't even bother asking because he knows the answer is gonna be a no. Right? And this also shows us tensions are developing. This also shows the situation is getting very sour. And as we know, this is a constant source between the Prophet ﷺ and the Yahud. And so he didn't even ask them. Mukhairiq was the one who kept on trying to incite them to go and help. He said, you know that it is our duty to help Muhammad. Not Rasulullah because he's not a Muslim. To help Muhammad ﷺ. It's our duty. He took an a'at from us. And they kept on belittling him until finally they said, finally when it's Saturday, what are they going to say? just a Saturday so at the very end he's like still trying goes today is the Sabbath we cannot do anything so basically he got irritated at his own people he said may you have no Sabbath after this and then he took his armor and his sword just to be faithful to the treaty not as a Muslim he felt that this is our obligation and duty we took a promise that we're gonna fight together and so he took his armor and sword, and he also said to his people that if I die, my property will go to the Prophet ﷺ, not to Muhammad, he said, not to any of you, because you're not fulfilling your promise. And he fought a brave battle, and he died in the battle of Uhud, defending the Muslims not out of deen, but out of loyalty to a common treaty. And that is why the Prophet ﷺ praised him, as he praised Mut'im ibn Adib, but a much less praise because he's not Mutayyim but he praised him as well and he said مُخَيْرِيقُ خَيْرُ يَهُود that مُخَيْرِيق is the best of all the Jews مُخَيْرِيق is the best of all the Jews he fulfilled his promise to us and this shows us as I talked about Mutayyim ibn Ali and others that it is a part of our Islamic etiquette and culture that we praise anybody who deserves praise Muslim or non-Muslim, we honor them we show them dignity, we give them prizes, we invite them to our lectures and conferences not a problem at all unlike some of the more extreme or fundamentalist people amongst us, nothing wrong with this the Prophet ﷺ is honoring Mughayriq, he's honoring Mut'im, and he says Mughayriq khayru yahud, he is the best of all the Jews because he fulfilled his promise, and inshallah with this we will stop here, and then continue inshallah next Wednesday Thank you.

Seerah 48 - Muhammad Injured _ Uhud Part 4 - Yasir Qadhi _ 13th February 2013-WGnJH5o2xj8

Al-Fatiha. not up to par today, so I will be speaking softly and also will have to probably finish earlier because I'm not going to be able to persist for a long period of time. And may Allah Azza wa Jal make it easy and barakah inshaAllah ta'ala. So in our last lesson we had talked about the issue of the Sahaba and what happened with particular incidents at the change of tide of Uhud. We talked about Khalid ibn Walid's attack, we talked about specific stories, and we said we're going to talk today about what happened with the Prophet ﷺ. And we have around 10 or 15 reports about the Prophet ﷺ. And again, the issue comes of piecing these reports to form some type of narrative. And what you will hear today is one version of events, and honestly every original book has its own version of events, every original source because again, you have bits of the puzzle, how do you form them, what's the chronology, how do you fill in the gaps, that's really the big question which frankly we're never gonna know 100% because we were not there. So, one of the incidents that we know of, and I'm putting this right at the beginning of the entire chronicle, is that the Prophet ﷺ was surrounded by nine people. so the assumption then which is not mentioned in the narration this is the very beginning that when the contingent of Khalid ibn Waleed is coming and the Sahaba are dispersed around the battlefield, they don't even know that Khalid ibn Waleed is coming, the group that was with the Prophet ﷺ was only 9 people amongst them was Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas and Talha ibn Ubaidullah and the rest were all Ansar whose names we do not know The rest of them were all Ansar. So, two Muhajirun and seven Ansar, Abu Bakr, Umar, all of the other Sahaba are dispersed in multiple places because again, the assumption is the war has finished, the assumption is the Muslims have won, that the Quraysh have gone. So when Khalid ibn Wurid returns, the Prophet ﷺ is only with a very small band. And we said that initially the Prophet ﷺ began shouting out to the Muslims that, be careful, they're coming from behind you. as Allah says, وَالرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ فِي أُخْرَاكُمْ That in the back, the Prophet ﷺ was calling you. And again, we're piecing this together. Probably this group of nine understood they need to flee. Because nine is not gonna withstand 200. They're not gonna be able to hold up the forces of Khalid al-Walid. And so, they need to reorganize and regroup. And they decided to take shelter in the mountains to go find a place. Because they have the advantage of distance. So they can see the forces of Khalid in the distance, and it will take quite a few minutes for Khalid to get to the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba, and they have the advantage of being able to run into the mountains and find shelter and hide before Khalid and his contingent come. We can also assume that amongst the Ansar would have been those who knew the mountain like the back of their hands. Whereas amongst the Quraysh, there was nobody. Meaning from the side of Khalid al-Walid, they would not know the mountain of Uhud at all. and therefore this definitely was a big advantage that, and this is an assumption it's not mentioned, but we can assume that some of these Ansar would know Uhud very well and they would know exactly where they wanted to go whereas the Quraysh would be completely lost and this is of course one of the advantages, one of the biggest advantages that the Muslims had, that the Prophet ﷺ had, was that they knew exactly where to hide, whereas the Quraysh saw a massive mountain and they had no idea where exactly the Muslims would be so as we all know from our general knowledge of the seerah the Prophet ﷺ sought refuge in a small cave this cave is still there to this day it is still there to this day and it is a small, it's not really even a cave as much as it is just a narrow opening into the mountain it's not even a cave like you go in it's simply like a slither it's like a crevice or a chasm or something like this just a small little crevice inside It's not actually a cave. And in fact, perhaps only one or two people can actually go in and the rest are going to be outside. And it appears that someone in this group knew exactly where to go. That that's exactly where they were heading. But as they were heading back, the contingent of the Quraysh came very close. And the Prophet ﷺ asked that, that who will take on these people and he shall be my companion in Jannah. So Talha immediately offered, I will do this. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, stay here O Talha. So one of the Ansar offered and the Prophet ﷺ told him to go. Why? Because Talha was the best of them and he wanted to save Talha for the very end. He wanted to keep Talha for as long as possible. So one of the Ansar went and he died a shaheed fending off the coming army. Now what's happening here? we're trying to piece this together. What is happening? So we have nine of the Sahaba. Most likely they are taking retreat in the mountain. And they're trying to throw off the scent of their retreat by making sure nobody follows them where they're going. So perhaps one by one, they are going to lure the Quraysh to another location so that they're not going to the Prophet ﷺ. Perhaps this seems to be the case. that each one of them is being sent, that you go there, go fight them, and in the meantime we will take refuge. And this is one of the interpretations that is basically like a decoy, that they're being sent in, and the Quraysh see somebody in the distance, they go in the wrong direction, and in the meantime, the Talha and the Prophet ﷺ, they go in a different location. And this continued to happen until finally all seven of the Ansar, and that's why we don't know their names, All seven of the Ansar, one by one, died a shaheed. And every single time Talha is saying, I will go next. And the Prophet ﷺ said, No, stay here. And then he sends one of the Ansar. Until finally, it was only the Prophet ﷺ and Talha and Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas. And in the entire seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, perhaps this is the most critical moment in the entire seerah. because no doubt the people of Ta'if were very nasty and mean, but they didn't intend to kill him. They intended to humiliate him. The people of Ta'if were nasty and mean. They were vicious, brutal and cruel, but they weren't planning to kill the Prophet ﷺ. Whereas here, this is war. This is an open battle. No holes barred. And there is no protection after Allah ﷻ then Sa'd and Talha, and perhaps in the entire seerah, there is nothing as dangerous, as critical, as this particular point in time. Not even in the Hijrah, where there was only Suraqah, one person Suraqah, and Abu Bakr and the Prophet ﷺ, two against one Suraqah. Suraqah would have had to gone for help or something. It's nothing as critical. Also Suraqah would never have killed them, because he wants the prize money. So the point being that in this particular instance, clearly Allah knows best, it is the most critical junction of the entire seerah. And both Talha and Sa'ad were expert archers. And Talha on top of this was a warrior as well. Talha was also a warrior as well. Sa'ad was more known for his archery. And the both of them began using their bows and arrows against the enemy coming up. So we can assume by now perhaps the Prophet ﷺ had reached the cave. Because again we don't know when exactly he reached the cave, how many people he had when he got to the cave. Allah knows best, perhaps he only had Talha and Sa'd. And the both of them began throwing volleys of arrows to anybody who would be seen in the distance. So they are high up, they're hiding in the cave, and the people are searching, they're scouring the land. they're trying to whiff up the scent trying to find out where the Prophet ﷺ is and there's a narration here that somewhat proves this that the narration says the Prophet ﷺ would be looking outside to see if he could find anybody who's coming and Talha would say to him may my mother and father be given in ransom for you O Messenger of Allah do not look outside perhaps a stray arrow will come and strike you نحر دون نحرك يا رسول الله my chest instead of your chest O Messenger of Allah, let me be guard in front of the crevice, so this shows us that Talha is there Sa'ad is also there, the Prophet is there, it also shows us the Prophet is trying to see what's going on Talha is insisting, he stays inside and he says O Messenger of Allah my chest instead of your chest, my chest to protect your chest, and Sa'ad as well began sending volleys of arrows upon the people. So much so that the Prophet ﷺ started finding arrows on the ground and handing it to Sa'd. So he's handing the arrows to Sa'd. And he said something to Sa'd that Sa'd always was proud of for the rest of his life. And no other Sahaba had ever had this phrase used by the Prophet ﷺ for him. And that was, فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي May my mother and father be given in ransom for you. Shoot, O Sa'ad, shoot. So, meaning fire away, fire the bows and arrows. The phrase, فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي The Sahaba used it for the Prophet ﷺ all the time. Abu Bakr, Umar, everybody used it. That's how they addressed him. And it's the highest expression of respect when you address somebody. And honestly, nobody deserves that it be used other than the Prophet ﷺ. No one is worthy that you will give your... What does it mean? فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي It means, I will sacrifice my mother and father for you. That's what it means. Now, who deserves that sacrifice? No one. Other than Rasulullah ﷺ. It's not allowed for us to use this phrase for anybody, right? And also, of course, the power here, giving yourself up is easy. giving your parents up for somebody else, who will you do that to? So they had a phrase they would use for the Prophet ﷺ, فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي I will ransom off my mother and father to protect you. I'll give up my own parents for your sake. And they would use this commonly for the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ never used it for anybody in his whole life, except for Sa'd in the battle of Uhud. See, only time. مَا جَمَعَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَىٰ بَيْنَ أَبُوَيْهِ إِلَّا لِسَعَدٍ That's what the Ashab al-Sira say. He never combined between his parents in this phrase, except for Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas. And by the way, both Sa'd and Talha are of the ten. Both Sa'd and Talha are of the ten elites, so all of this is expected. Now, also another incident is reported, and again most likely it occurs at this time. And that is that, when all nine of these men had, when all seven of the Ansar had died and Talha is now the only one that is left as armed as a warrior it appears that Sa'ad only had bows and arrows because he was a part of the archery team apparently. So this looks like the case that Sa'ad was more into the the archery section and so when this is happening he only has his bows and arrows as for Talha he is armed and he has his bows and arrows. So one more person is coming up the mountain so the Prophet ﷺ sends Talha to deal with him. So there's nobody now except Sa'd and him in the cave. And Talha single-handedly fights and kills this man. But before this happens, the man uses his sword and some of his fingers got cut off. So Talha lost some of his digits, some of his fingers. And when he lost them, he cried out, which means ouch. like his is like you know it's like irritation ouch and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said if you had only said bismillah instead of this phrase the angels would have lifted you up while the people are watching you and they would have taken you up to the skies meaning you had reached such a high level all you had to say was one bismillah mention Allah's name and the angels would have lifted you up to the heavens. Meaning, there's nothing wrong with saying ouch, but what did you gain? Right? There's nothing haram to say ouch or hiss. But you were so high. If you only said Bismillah, you would have literally been raised up by the angels. And during this time, again we're piecing it together, a number of sahaba began figuring out where the Prophet ﷺ was. And one of the first of them was one of the ansar, by the name of Qatada ibn al-Nu'man al-Awsi. Qatada ibn al-Nu'man al-Awsi. And he narrates another tidbit. So this is one of those 15 stories or so that we have. That he says that, on the day of Uhud, the Prophet ﷺ gave me a bow. And I continued to use it so much that it was no longer flexible. So this is now in the cave now. This also shows us that the Prophet ﷺ has collected instruments. So he has an extra bow to give. So this means, we're again piecing it together that as he's going up the mountain he's collecting bows and arrows because he's handing arrows to Sa'ad as well and he's the one giving the arrows to Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas and he's saying shoot may my mother and father be given as ransom for you Irmi fidaka abi wa ummi so he has an extra bow he gives it to Qatada and Qatada uses it so much that the bow basically loses its flexibility so this must be like dozens and dozens maybe a hundred I don't know when a bow loses its flexibility, but we can imagine that he used it so much that the bow is now useless. So Khatada is saying, when the arrows continue to come, I decided to use my body to shield the Prophet ﷺ. Now the arrows obviously, we can imagine and visualize, an arrow comes out of nowhere. You don't even know it's there until it's too late. because it's a small instrument, it's coming from the sky. And especially when you have groups of archers, volleys of arrows coming down, this is very deadly. And that's why our Prophet ﷺ said, أَلَا إِنَّ الْقُوَّةَ الرَّمِي أَلَا إِنَّ الْقُوَّةَ الرَّمِي That the real strength is in arrows. The real strength is in arrows. Because you cannot fight against arrows. And horses do not run into volleys of arrows. So when Qatada had nothing else to do, he said, I will use my body to shield you. He said, speaking to himself. And then he's telling us later on. And so I started monitoring the arrows. Every time an arrow comes, I try to block it. So that it doesn't hit the Prophet ﷺ. Until I saw an arrow coming, and I could only use my face to protect the Prophet ﷺ. And the arrow hit my eye. The arrow hit my eye. and when the Prophet ﷺ saw this he began to cry the Prophet ﷺ began to cry and he said O Allah, Qatada has protected your Prophet ﷺ with his face so let his eye become the best eye and let it be the most precise in eyesight and the Prophet ﷺ made dua and took the arrow out and Qatada says that eye healed instantaneously and it became the better of my two eyes and the more precise of my two eyes. It became the most accurate of my two eyes. So this miracle takes place in front of the Sahaba. During this chaos, and again here we get to one of the issues that we really don't know how and when, the Prophet ﷺ was wounded. How many times and by whom? There's no one opinion. Some say he was wounded once, some say twice. Allahu'alam, if you look at the reports, it appears he was wounded at least three separate times in three separate locations. And Allah knows best. Again, this is one of those gray areas. For sure he was wounded, that's muttafaq alayh. How many times and where, this is where the piecing of the story together gets a little bit blurry. So, one of the reports says that Uthbah ibn Abi Waqas, notice the irony, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas is defending the Prophet ﷺ. Uthbah, his blood brother is on the other side. and he happens to be in the contingent of Khalid ibn al-Walid. So two blood brothers, one of them defending, one of them attacking. Utbah ibn Abi Waqas, the brother of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas, threw stones at the Prophet ﷺ which hit him in the face and it injured his lips. This seems to be one injury. And this injury was by a rock. another injury was from Utbah ibn Abi Waqas and this appears to have been the most severe injury because this was an arrow where unlike a rock which is a rock is bad enough but an arrow is piercing and Utbah ibn Abi Waqas launched an arrow that entered into the armor of the Prophet ﷺ and it went straight through his cheek and it dislodged his incisor. It dislodged the tooth. And it was a premolar. Molar or premolar. Incisor is a fun word. You're right. So I need to know my biology. His premolars would be over here, right? This would be the premolars, right? Yes. You can tell my biology is very weak here. His ruba'iyatuhu, right? The dentist is right there. That's right, yes. So he'll give us a whole... He's so embarrassed that I don't know these basic things of dentistry. Allahumma sta'am. And so the problem here came that the arrow did not dislodge. The arrow was stuck. And the arrow went in between the chink of the armor, in between the hole of the armor, and it entered into his cheek, and it dislodged his tooth, and it remained stuck over there. This was the worst wound. and it was by Utbah ibn Abi Waqas. And there's one more wound that also took place either by Abdullah ibn Shihab or by Abdullah ibn Qami'ah, one of the two. Again, both reports seem to be there. Which was a short distance wound with a sword. So he has a rock, he has an arrow, and then he has a sword. And this one again, we don't know when it took place. when did this sword come? The arrow, it's pretty clear that Utbah was not close to the Prophet ﷺ. He's firing from far away. And as for Utbah ibn Abi Waqas with the stone, we can assume this is when they're running up to the cave. So they're running up to the cave, Utbah sees and he takes a stone and he manages to hit the side of the Prophet ﷺ's face. As for Ibn Qami'ah, we don't know exactly when this happened. But he came within striking distance on his horse. galloping on his horse, he came within striking distance, and he raised his sword to strike the Prophet ﷺ. But Talha ibn Ubaidullah, the same Talha, he managed to deflect the sword with his shield, but it didn't deflect it 100%. It minimized the blow, but it nonetheless hit the helmet of the Prophet ﷺ. And now this is another again interpretation. It's not clear exactly what. And it appears that there were two wounds to his face. The one of them was by an arrow that was lodged. The other was this sword blow that the sword didn't hit him. But what hit him was his own armor that went into his face. So it appears that on both sides of the Prophet ﷺ face, both cheeks were wounded. The one with an arrow and the other with his own armor, but the armor was hit by the sword of Ibn Qame'ah. And therefore it went inside the cheekbone of the Prophet ﷺ. And it was here when the Prophet ﷺ was bleeding from his face. now we have the report in Sahih Muslim which the Prophet ﷺ he began wiping the blood the blood is coming down from his face you can imagine how much blood would be there the blood is coming down from his face and onto his beard and he is continually wiping the blood from his face and he says that phrase that is recorded in Sahih Muslim كَيْفَ يُفْلِحُ قَوْمًا فَعْلُ هَذَا بِنَبِيِّهِمْ or in another version he said how can a nation be successful when they have injured their own Prophet how can Allah Azza wa Jal forgive them when they have done this to their prophet in another version he said that how can they expect Allah's mercy when they do this to their prophet who is calling them to Islam I'm calling them to Jannah and they are doing this to me in return so how can Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive them and at this Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed obviously not right now but when they went back to Medina Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed Surah Al-Imran. And in Surah Al-Imran there is a verse that applies to this particular phrase of the Prophet ﷺ. Which is a very important incident. And a very beautiful phrase. And it really demonstrates the meaning of La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah. It really demonstrates the reality of Tawheed. Allah says, لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٍ you have no matter or no share, let's say, in this issue. لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٍ This is not yours to decide. لَيْسَ لَكَ It's a very harsh, by the way, even way to phrase it. Like it's very blunt. None of your business, none of your affair. لَيْسَ لَكَ You have nothing. Shay is like nothing You have nothing to do with this What? Allah says in the Quran Whether Allah punishes Whether Allah punishes or forgives That's not yours But yes, they have done zulm to you You see, the Prophet says And what did he say? He said, there's no way they're gonna be forgiven That's what he said, basically How do they expect any mercy? Right? No way they can be forgiven now that phrase Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reprimanded and he said this is not yours to decide you have no share in figuring out or in dictating who will be forgiven and who will be punished and Allah says whether I punish or forgive yes they have done zulm to you yes you could have said they've done zulm that would have been accurate but to go beyond this and say they're not gonna be forgiven no you cannot say this and this of course it's very very you know powerful here because subhanallah what does this show us other than the reality of who is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and who is the abd even the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam despite being who he is he does not control the affairs of this heaven and earth. That it is not his right to judge as Allah says in the Quran إِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ الْبَلَاغُ وَعَلَيْنَا الْحِسَابُ Your job is to spread, my job is to give judgment. Your job is to preach, my job is to decide who goes to where. And if this is the status of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and he is the most noble and beloved creation of Allah ﷻ then what is the status of others besides him, right? If even our Prophet ﷺ is being told, you cannot decide who goes to heaven and hell. You cannot decide whom Allah forgives and doesn't forgive. لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٍ If this is his status, then how about the status of any other مَخْلُوقٍ Subhanallah, if people just understood this one incident, there would be no shirk in the Muslim ummah. All shirk would automatically disappear. Because why do people go to the graves of the righteous or what not? Why? because they think that they will use their shafa'ah to get to the Prophet ﷺ. There are groups in our times, many groups, they believe that the Prophet ﷺ will decide who will go to heaven and hell. It's his decision. And Allah ﷻ is simply just checking whoever he agrees to. They make the Prophet ﷺ the real being in charge and Allah ﷻ is executing his commandments. And this is not what the Qur'an clearly says or the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. And it also shows us the human nature of our Prophet ﷺ, and the fact that yes, he's a human being, he bleeds. He gets angry and irritated. This is a part and parcel of being a human. And he has every right to, by the way. He has every right to get angry. Wallahi, we wouldn't have just been angry, we would have been going much more than this, right? His concern was how will Allah forgive them? They don't deserve any forgiveness, right? And it is said, by the way, that when this ayah came down, then the Prophet ﷺ completely reversed because obviously Allah Azawajal has reprimanded him and he said O Allah forgive my people because they do not know that after this ayah came down and he was reprimanded so then he made dua for those people and he said O Allah forgive my people because they do not know and this shows us as well by the way that in fact many of them were forgiven Khalid ibn al-Walid is the best example he was the one who led the charge and in fact he became known as Sayfullah and that's exactly what the Prophet ﷺ is being told, you're not going to decide who's guided and who's not you're not going to decide who goes to heaven and who goes to hell, now the question arises, wasn't Allah ﷻ protecting the Prophet ﷺ, why could he get wounded and bleed clearly the Prophet ﷺ was being protected in Sahih Bukhari Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas narrates to us, Sahih Bukhari, that I saw the Prophet ﷺ on the day of Uhud and there were two people in front of him wearing the whitest of white and fighting a fight that I had never seen before. This is superhuman fight, right? And he said that I had never seen them before or after that incident. And of course these are the angels, the Malaika. I never saw them before Uhud and I never saw them after Uhud. So Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas is saying, I saw the Prophet ﷺ with two people in front of him or two angels in front of him protecting him. And yet can the angels fall short? Is it possible that an arrow is gonna miss the angels? Is it? Obviously not. So what does this mean? It means قَدَّرَ اللَّهُ وَمَا شَاءَ فَعَلٍ It means the injuries that our Prophet ﷺ sustained were done for a wisdom and Allah intended it. And there is great wisdom and benefit for us. and the Prophet ﷺ was being protected had it not been for that protection he would not have lived through that incident the angels protected his life by the permission of Allah ﷻ he managed to go on to the next day not unscathed but with scars and wounds that certain injuries happened but they didn't debilitate him they didn't incapacitate him It was a wound, eventually after some time it healed. And we'll talk about some of the wisdoms from this, but we need to emphasize obviously that this happened by the qadr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And inshallah, next Wednesday inshallah we'll talk about the lessons from all of this. Right now we need to finish the whole series of incidents. Another thing that happened around this time was the death of Mus'ab ibn Umair. and Mus'ab ibn Umair, he had the same complexion as the Prophet ﷺ, the same skin color. And it is also said that his eyes or his facial features somewhat resemble the Prophet ﷺ. And according to one report as well, he might have been wearing a borrowed cloak from the Prophet ﷺ. So putting all of these factors combined, we now understand that when Abdullah ibn Qami'ah, the same one who had attacked the Prophet ﷺ as well, when he eventually killed Mus'ab ibn Umair, sometime later on in this frantic situation, he assumed that he had killed the Prophet ﷺ. And he began screaming at the top of his lungs, قَتَلْتُ مُحَمَّدًا I have killed Muhammad, I have killed Muhammad ﷺ. And the news began to spread like wildfire amongst the Quraysh that were still there, and also amongst the small groups of Muslims. Now later on in fact we learn a huge wisdom and benefit that this news actually turned out to be advantageous for the Muslims in the long run. Why? Because when this news spread to the Quraysh, what happened? They felt, oh, we did it. We did it. Right? And nobody wants to fight in a battle. Nobody wants to go to war and risk death. when this news spread to the Quraysh it was the number one incentive to basically you know pack up their bags basically whoever is left now they think that it's done the deed is finished and so already as we said you know more than at least 80% of the army is gone only 20% is with Khalid al-Walid and so there's this notion of okay let's just move on so of course that's later on when this news is being spread and they don't know this is not true obviously this was a huge demoralizing factor for the Sahaba it is said that many of them wandered around aimlessly some of them just sat down, threw away their swords not knowing what to do and we know this because there's a hadith in Sahih Bukhari that narrates explicitly the most famous of these incidents and that is the incident of Anas ibn al-Nadhar who is the uncle of Anas ibn Malik, his uncle Anas ibn al-Nadhar he passed by a group of Sahaba and this is again during this confusion, time of confusion and he says, why aren't you fighting? The enemy is still here. So they said, haven't you heard? The Prophet ﷺ has been killed. And so Anas ibn Malik, I'm sorry, Anas ibn Nadhar said that even if the Prophet ﷺ has been killed, then the Lord of Muhammad ﷺ has not been killed. If Muhammad ﷺ has been killed, then the Lord of Muhammad ﷺ has not been killed. And besides, what will you do with life now that the Prophet ﷺ is dead? Do you really want to go on living? Now that the Prophet ﷺ has said, what's the point of living? So let us go and die as he died. And so Anas went on with his sword, and he met Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, that famous Ansari, we're going to talk about Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and what happened with him in two battles after this one. He met Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, and he said to Sa'd, O Sa'd, and of course Anas and Sa'd are close friends, Sa'd they go back in the days of Jahiliyyah, and he says, O Sa'd, verily I can smell the ra'iha of Jannah from behind that mountain it's coming to me now I smell Jannah and as he's walking and he's gonna meet his death and he knows this and everybody knows this he says O Allah I ask your forgiveness for what these have done meaning my fellow Muslims and I dissociate from what they have done meaning the Quraysh O Allah I ask your forgiveness for what the Muslims have done they disobeyed the Prophet ﷺ They didn't protect him the way he deserved to be protected. Some of them abandoned and fled. Some of them went after the war booty before it was too early. Oh Allah, forgive them. That's what he's saying. I seek your forgiveness for them. And as for those people, meaning the Quraysh, I have nothing to do with them. I dissociate myself from them. And he threw himself into the battle to try to basically kill as many of the Quraysh as he could. And he fought so ferociously that his entire body was disfigured. Not a single portion of his body was recognizable. And eventually they found a body of somebody. They didn't know who it was. There was over 80 wounds from top all the way down. And they didn't recognize who this body was until his sister came and recognized him by the tips of his fingers. That she examined the tips of his fingers. And then finally they were able to recognize this is the body of Anas ibn al-Nadr. And this shows us that he fought a very, very ferocious battle. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed for him in the Quran, Surah Al-Ahzab, verse 23. مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا آهَدُ اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ There are those amongst the believers, they have fulfilled what they promised to do in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Whatever they promised Allah, they fulfilled it. مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا مَا آهَدُ اللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ now by now the rumor began spreading that the Prophet ﷺ had passed away and yet still the Sahaba are frantically searching perhaps we'll find him and slowly but surely when they see a group up in the mountain we can assume one by one they begin gathering together and one of the first to recognize the Prophet ﷺ was Ka'b ibn Malik the same Ka'b ibn Malik who has the famous story in the battle of Tabuk that we talked about in our night classes and also I think he gave a khulb about this. But inshallah, we'll talk about Ka'b ibn Malik again when the time comes in the Battle of Tabuk. The same one who stayed behind. وَعَلَى الثَّلَاثَةَ ذِن خُلِّفُ This is Ka'b ibn Malik. And so the first to recognize the Prophet ﷺ from amongst the people who were still left on the battlefield was Ka'b ibn Malik. And he recognized him simply by his eyes. Because the Prophet ﷺ had been wearing a helmet and an armor. and he recognized him by the pierceness, the brightness of his eyes and he shouted as loud as he could, he's so happy. He said, O Muslims rejoice for the Prophet ﷺ is alive. But the Prophet ﷺ told him to remain quiet, that was not the smartest thing to do right now, right? But his emotions got the better of him and he basically, you know, so he just screamed out for joy that the Prophet ﷺ is alive. and Ka'b ibn Malik was one of the first to rush up to meet him up in the mountain or in that crevice and he handed him his own armor why did he do this? perhaps the armor of the Prophet ﷺ had basically now lost his functionality perhaps he wanted the people not to recognize the Prophet ﷺ because they recognize people by their armors in those days the armor was also a unique battle cry if you like or a battle garment that they would wear. And Ka'b ibn Malik therefore was left without any armor. And it is said that by the end of the battle, he had over 20 stabs or wounds. All of them caused by the fact that he had given his armor to the Prophet ﷺ. And so the news began to spread amongst the Muslims that the Prophet ﷺ is alive. And they all rushed up to the mountain to be with him. And now he was joined by Abu Bakr and Umar and Ali and the rest of the Sahaba and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam as well was of those who rushed up. And by the way, as I mentioned Zubayr, I need to make a correction that we made two lectures ago about Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. In fact, what the brother said to correct me was incorrect and what I said was correct. Zubayr ibn al-Awwam was the nephew of Khadija. Zubayr ibn al-Awwam ibn Khuwailid and Khadija binti Khuwailid. Okay? So Zubair ibn al-Awwam ibn Khuwailid and Khadija binti Khuwailid. So Zubair and Khadija Amma. Okay? Zubair and Khadija Amma. And Zubair married Asma binti Abi Bakr. Right? Zubair married Asma binti Abi Bakr. Not Awam. Zubair. and Awam you're all doing the same thing again, careful Awam married Safiyyah I'm saying Asma Zubay married Asma Zubay married Asma binti Abi Bakr Zubay's father Awam married Safiyyah the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ So now, everybody should memorize this, because Zubair is Hawari Rasulullah. Zubair is the Hawari. Hawari is the honorary title. He is the special companion. He is the disciple of the Prophet ﷺ. So Zubair is related to the Prophet ﷺ in multiple ways. The most obvious way, he is the direct cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. First cousin. How? His mother is the Prophet ﷺ's Amma. Clear? His mother is Safiyyah. Clear? Another relationship, he is Khadijah's nephew. Clear? Yet a third relationship, he is Asma's, binti Abu Bakr's husband. So he is also the brother-in-law. Because Aisha and Asma are sisters. Right? and Zubair and Asma gave birth to Abdullah ibn Zubair Abdullah ibn Zubair and Abdullah ibn Zubair was one of the tokens of joy for the Muslims why? because he was the first baby to be born in Medina after the Hijrah in fact he wasn't even born in Medina he was born in Quba on the way to Medina and they consider this to be a very positive omen and we can believe in positive omens. Al-Fa'al, Al-Hassanah, positive omen we can believe in. And Abdullah bin Zubayr has a lot of stories as well and the Prophet ﷺ loved him immensely. And of course, he's also related to the Prophet ﷺ in this manner. So, Zubayr ibn Awam is of the first to make their way to the Prophet ﷺ. And Abu Bakr narrates now a story that he told Aisha. That Abu Bakr said, when the people rushed up to the Prophet ﷺ to be with him. So now they're recognizing who he is. The news is spreading, he's over there. The Sahaba are all coming to basically surround and protect him. When the people rushed up, I saw one man protecting him, fighting anybody else who would come. Abu Bakr is saying, I said, O Allah, let it be Talha. If anybody has this honor, except for me, let it be Talha. And of course it was Talha. Right. Oh Allah, let it be Talha. And while I was rushing up, another man rushed behind me so fast that he overtook me and came forward out of eagerness and happiness. And it was Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn Jarrah. He's so happy that he's dancing like a gazelle up the mountain top. While Abu Bakr is still running, he's just zooming up. That he's so happy that the Prophet ﷺ is alive. that he's literally just coming up. And we both got to the Prophet ﷺ and we saw that. Now in this version it says, listen to this, two arrows had pierced his helmet. So you see in this version it says, two arrows. But if you look at other versions, Allah knows, maybe it's one arrow and one armor link. Right, so again there's a bit of a gray area. What's going on here? Is it two arrows? Is it one chink of the armor and one arrow? Allahu a'lam. But two wounds, that's what it clearly appears to be the case. Both of them in each cheek of the Prophet ﷺ. And when they saw this arrow, Abu Bakr rushed forward to try to dislodge this arrow from the Prophet ﷺ. But Abu Ubaidah begged him, that let me do this, let me do this. And he continued to beg, until Abu Bakr was a, as you know, gentle and soft man. And so Abu Ubaidah got the better of him. And Abu Ubaidah realized, so now there's two things stuck to the Prophet ﷺ. Both of them have been immersed into his cheek. The one of them has dislodged the one tooth, the other is stuck in his cheek. Now how are you gonna get it out? If you're gonna use your hand, imagine, it's going to... I mean, how are you gonna do this, right? It's stuck in his mouth. so what does Abu Ubaidah do he decides to bite onto the arrow with his teeth and gently nudge it out to pull it out and he bites so hard that he loses his own two teeth in the process because he wants to cause the pain on him and not on the Prophet so he bites so hard that he yanks it out and he loses either one or two, it doesn't say, but he loses his own. And then Abu Bakr insists, now it's my turn for the other side. So again, as we said, clearly there are two wounds. And Abu Bakr insists, now it's my turn. Abu Ubaidah says, no, I've done one, I'm gonna do the other. And he again insists. And so he again wins over and he does the same thing on the other side and he once again loses or breaks one of his premolars to get rid of the other wound as well. And Abu Ubaidah therefore remained without at least three, maybe four of his teeth for the rest of his life. And if this is how much pain he had to take it out, how much pain do you think the Prophet ﷺ had when it came in and then when it came out? Both sides of his cheek. And sometime around this time, most likely before the Sahaba rushed up, so actually this should have been spoken about before. Sometime during all of this that's going on, one more scene takes place. And this is very significant because in this scene, the Prophet ﷺ kills a pagan. And this is the only pagan that ever died at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ directly. And that is who has the ignoble dishonor. That is Ubay ibn Khalaf. that filthy, evil, mushrik, that one that had done so much vulgar taunting, that one that had been of those who carried that carcass and lamb, the intestines upon the Prophet ﷺ as doing sajda. The one that had a long list of really the most disgusting mannerisms and tactics, this is Ubay. and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave him a very special dishonor that he did not give to any of the other Quraysh and that is he became the only pagan to be killed directly with the hands of the Prophet ﷺ now to set this up we go back a bit it is narrated that Ubayy ibn Khalaf of the things he would do was that he would mock the Prophet ﷺ like nobody else mocked him that's pretty clear now and he would tell him that I'm going to kill you one day. He would tell him, they're both Quraishi by the way. You don't say this to a fellow Quraishi. As we kept on saying, this is something that goes against everything they believe. And one day he mocked the Prophet ﷺ and said, I have a special horse that I'm feeding it the choicest of barley and grain in order that it grows fat and basically healthy so that I can kill you while I ride that horse. So he's taunting the Prophet ﷺ. And so one day he tells him of this special horse that he's going to ride. And so the Prophet ﷺ responded back, the only time he ever responded. And he said, لا بل أنا أقتلك إن شاء الله تعالى No, actually I will be the one killing you إن شاء الله. And this is the only time he responded back in this manner to such a taunt. so on the day of Uhud Ubay saw the Prophet from afar and so we can imagine this must have been at this time basically when there was only a few of the Sahaba around him and he was on that same horse he had said that he would kill the Prophet and so when he saw him he aligned his horse to face him meaning I'm gonna charge like you know you turn the horse around you're gonna get it ready and of course we all understand we've seen enough of the movies to know this when you're on a horse, you have a huge advantage. You can strike down below and with extra force because you have the momentum of the horse as your sword is being used. Whereas the guy who's on the ground, he doesn't have that momentum, he doesn't have that speed and agility, and he cannot move as quickly or as agilely as the horse because you can change direction, you can do so many things. And also most importantly, you really cannot aim for the person's head. It's too high up to aim for the head. So Ubayy ibn Khalaf, he started charging upon his horse. And when the Sahaba saw this, they began to huddle around the Prophet ﷺ to protect him. There's nothing to do, there's nowhere to hide, you can't run away from a horse. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, No, he is mine. Meaning, no, don't protect me, he is mine. and he jumped up. He grabbed a spear from one of the Sahaba by the name of Harith ibn al-Samit. So he grabs a spear, not a sword, not a bow and arrow. He grabs a spear and as Ubayy comes rushing, he manages to avoid his blow and instead he uses the spear and directly pierces the armor straight into the neck of Ubayy ibn Khalaf. straight into the neck where there was a bit of an opening, and he thrust it in. But it did get stuck in the armor, and so it only went in a small amount into the neck. It didn't pierce the whole neck. It rather just lodged a little bit into the neck, and it wounded Ubay ibn Khalaf. And Ubay began screaming at the top of his lungs, that Muhammad has killed me, Muhammad has killed me. and he rushed back to the contingent of Khalid bin Walid and he's screaming, I'm dead, I've been killed. And so they took him off, they called for the medics in their time, whoever was there, they pulled off his armor and then they said, oh don't worry, this wound will heal, just calm down, we will fix it, it will heal. But he had begun to panic and he had said that, this is not a minor wound, this is a death wound, this wound will kill me. Wallahi, if he spat in my face, I would have fallen dead. that he had promised to kill me and this is that promise being met. This is what now Ubay realizes. That wallahi if he had just spat in my face, I would have fallen dead. And he realized that this was it for him and indeed it was it for him. That he died in the valley of Seraf, which is a valley outside of Mecca, so he didn't actually get home. And he was buried in some no man's land in the middle of nowhere. He was buried in this valley of Seraf. which is close to what is also now Raghib. There's a city, Raghib. If you're going to be to Mecca, Medina, you'll see a city called Raghib. And it is in that area. And it is mentioned in the books of Sira that once many, many, many years later, Ibn Umar was traveling on an expedition or journey, and he passed by the valley of Raghib at night. And he saw a fire that frightened him. What is this fire? So he went to find out what this fire is, and he found Ubay ibn Khalaf coming out of that fire. Obviously Ubay is dead now, but he sees the image of Ubay and he is crying out, thirst, thirst, like he can't even say, I'm thirsty, thirst, thirst, that he is in a state of thirst. And he's crying, he's croaking out thirst, thirst. But before he could do anything, he's motionless, immediately an angel behind him, a figure behind him says, do not give him anything. this is the one whom the Prophet ﷺ has killed. This is the one whom the Prophet ﷺ has killed. And in a hadith the Prophet ﷺ said Allah's anger is increased, which is, it becomes more severe on anyone whom the Prophets kill. Now obviously it's common sense, but there's a hadith about this as well. That anybody whom the Prophets kill, there is an extra punishment upon them, and this is Ubay ibn Khalaf. Bukhari mentions afterwards that when the Prophet ﷺ returned home, Fatima tried to wash the wounds off the Prophet ﷺ's face and Ali continued to pour water but no matter how much water he poured, it kept on bleeding. So imagine now how many hours have gone by. It must have been at least 2-3 hours since the morning when they get back home. So he has been bleeding continuously for half a day now. They get back home. And when Ali and Fatima try to wash his wounds, it's not stopping until finally Fatima, she burns some date palm leaves and crumbles it up with water. She makes a paste out of it. And this is probably what they used back then. And then she makes, she literally glues the wound shut. She literally uses this paste to glue the wound shut. And that was what caused the bleeding to stop. And this shows us again, how severe the wounds of the Prophet ﷺ were. It is also narrated somewhere along these incidents that the women of the Ansar played some role in helping the wounded, that they took an active role in being nurses and in giving water to the sick on the battlefield. And again, at times like this, it's understandable that yes, even women help out. Generally speaking, women did not participate in military expeditions. expeditions. Generally speaking, the women did not go to military expeditions. Uhud was different for two reasons. Number one, it's walking distance from their houses. So once the enemy goes away, the women come and they help around. And number two, it was a time of necessity and times of necessity then, you know, you don't really have the luxury of saying no. And so we learned that Aisha and Umm Sulaym were running around the battlefield and they had tied their skirts higher up to allow freedom of movement. Anas ibn Malik as a child narrates this. Now obviously a number of points. Firstly this was before hijab was revealed anyway. Hijab came around the battle of Ahzab time and this was the battle of Uhud and secondly at such a time and a place where people are dying and this needs to be done then rules become lax anyway but Anas ibn Malik says that they were running around the battlefield with water canisters and with food and what not and going between the ponds and the wells of Medina and the battlefield to give water to the wounded, to wash the wounded and to take care of the sick. So all of this has been narrated from this particular incident. And we have one more thing and then inshallah we will pause for this Wednesday. One final thing which is basically the end of the battle. How do we know the battle finally came to an end? That was the conversation that took place between Abu Sufyan and the Muslims. so Abu Sufyan comes back and again this is an assumption that after Khalid ibn al-Walid forces had scoured the area they couldn't find the Prophet ﷺ now they decide to go home Abu Sufyan is most likely called i.e. somebody goes back and hunts where did he run away to and then brings him back most likely he did not participate in the Khalid ibn al-Walid counter-expedition there's no narrations of him doing anything in the counter expedition. Rather, he's now coming to basically officially seal the fate because he's the, or basically close the deal because he's the leader. So Abu Sufyan comes and he stands at one of the mountains of Uhud and he cries out as loud as he can. Is Muhammad alive? Answer me. And the Prophet ﷺ told Umar and Abu Bakr, so this is right at the end now, they're all together with him. He says, لا تجيبوه, don't answer him. so he asks again and no answer asks again so he does not get an answer then he says is the son of Abu Qahafa alive? Abu Bakr the Prophet said don't answer then he says is the son of Khattab alive? the Prophet said don't answer notice here even Abu Sufyan who is a pagan at this time and even as the early as the battle of Uhud recognizes who's number one and two after the Prophet ﷺ. How unfortunate are those who... Anyway, let's just leave it at that. Even a mushrik, kafir at the time, understands who's number one and two. What can be said for those who can't even see this, and they claim to be Muslim. Abu Sufyan asks how is the process and how is Abu Bakr and how is Umar and no answer is given so then Abu Sufyan begins to exult he begins to feel proud and he said we have killed all of them and this Umar could not contain his anger that he's kept his tongue under control but now that he's saying we have killed all of them Umar shouts out as loud as he can that, كَذَبْتَ يَا عَدُوَ اللَّهِ You're a lying or enemy of Allah. For verily Allah has called all of them to live. And they will remain to hear, they will remain to harm you at another day. كَذَبْتَ يَا عَدُوَ اللَّهِ So, Umar could not control his anger and he said, الحمد لله all three of us are alive and you will see our response. Now that Abu Sufyan got the confirmation that they're still alive, so he said, today in retaliation for the day of Badr. Today in return for the day of Badr, wal harbu sijal, and war is in turns. War goes up and down. One day for you, one day for us. So he's basically saying, this is our victory and our exaltation, our revenge for Badr. Today for the day of Badr, and Al-Harbu Sijal, the war goes around. And then he says, you shall find amongst the dead mutilation. Their bodies have been mutilated. You shall find mutilation. I did not command them to do this. But I am not angry with it either. Honest man. He says, I didn't tell them to do this, but I'm not gonna apologize. I'm not angry they did this either so Umar responded back they're not the same they're not the same our dead are in Jannah and your dead are in Jahannam they're not the same we have dead, you have dead and you're saying is there going to be retaliation? No our dead will go up there your dead will go down there and the final parting shot that Abu Sufyan said was أُعْلُوهُبَل خُبَل be honored أُعْلُوهُبَل خُبَل be honored and خُبَل was the main idol of the Quraysh remember خُبَل was the main idol of the Quraysh and in fact this is where idolatry began is through خُبَل أُعْلُوهُبَل it was the big one in front of the Ka'bah أُعْلُوهُبَل and here the Prophet ﷺ said Ajeebuhu, answer him back they said how do we respond so the Prophet said say to him Allahu A'la Wa Ajal Allahu A'la Wa Ajal Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is mightier or higher and he has more honor Allahu A'la Wa Ajal Allahu A'la Wa Ajal then Abu Sufyan responded back لَنَا عُزَّا وَلَا عُزَّا لَكُمْ We have Uzza You have no Uzza and of course Uzza is another of their major idols لَنَا عُزَّا وَلَا عُزَّا لَكُمْ So the Prophet ﷺ said أَجِيبُوا They said with what? So he said Say to him اللَّهُ مَوْلَانَا وَلَا مَوْلَ لَكُمْ Allah will protect us and you have no protector. Allah will protect us and you have no protector. Now, notice here, Subhanallah, Ibn Al-Qayyim comments on this in Zad al-Ma'ad and he says that when Abu Sufyan called out, is Muhammad s.a.w. alive, is Abu Bakr alive, is Umar alive? No response was given. And the Prophet s.a.w. said, don't respond to him. Why? to not even give him the dignity of a response, to show him complete humiliation and contempt. And when he mocked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by praising the idols, then the Prophet ﷺ said, respond to defend Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When it was about himself, he said, don't worry, leave it. لا تجيبوه Don't answer him. But when he praised the idols, then the Prophet ﷺ did not allow this. And he said, go and respond to him. And so silence at the time of silence was better, and then vocalization at the time of vocalization was better. That the Prophet ﷺ swallowed his own pride, who cares whether he thinks I'm alive or dead. But when it came to praising the idols and Tawheed and Shirk, no, no silence here. And he said, go and respond to him. And the response was given. It is also reported that Abu Sufyan made a promise that they would meet one more time again, one year from this day at the same plains of Badr now. So remember this point, we'll come back to it. That one year from this day in the fourth year of the Hijrah, therefore they promised each other they would meet again. And with this they left the battlefield of Uhud. And we will inshallah pause. Thank you.

Seerah 49 - The Battle of Uhud Part 5 - Yasir Qadhi _ 20th February 2013-n6W-GPxCbqw

Al-Fatiha. finish up the battle of Uhud so that we can move on insha'Allah ta'ala next week last lesson we had just stopped at the incident of Safiyyah running on the battlefield and I don't think I actually finished what happened I think we just went into a tangent and stopped so when the Prophet saw Safiyyah running he didn't recognize her and he said the lady the lady meaning that whoever she is she should not be here because she is going to be you know, traumatized. And the one who recognized her was her son. Now who's her son now? We should all know. Who's Safiyyah's son? Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. We agreed now? Khalas? Okay. Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. Okay. And so obviously the son recognized his mother immediately from the distance. So Zubayr ran up to her and said, Ya Ummah, O mother. And she knew what Zubayr is going to do. Meaning Zubayr is going to stop her from proceeding. And so she is a mother in the end of the day. So she basically pushes him on the chest and says, I have no need of you now. This don't bother me now. She is the mother after all, right? This is her son. I have no need of you now. Basically, I have better things to do than... You should not be interfering in what I'm about to do. And so he said, but the Prophet ﷺ said, not me, the Prophet ﷺ said, you should not go. As soon as she heard this, she stopped. Subhanallah. She's emotional. she's heard her brother has died and she wants to see how the body is when she hears the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam has stopped her from going she stopped in her track, she did not proceed at all and she then handed two cloths she was carrying to her son Zubayr and said I bought these for my brother Hamza, I heard, I mean I know that he has been martyred, I bought these for him and so use this to bury him, to shroud him so notice here that Safiyyah is so obedient to her own nephew, the Prophet ﷺ, right? She's very agitated. She's so agitated, she actually pushes her son because she's very emotional. She's lost. Now we had already said, Safiyyah and Hamza were full brothers. Safiyyah and Hamza were full brothers. And we understand obviously they had a much closer bond than the half brothers and the half sisters that were there. And so she's very grieved. She has heard of Hamza. And she has heard as well that Hamza has been mutilated. So the news has spread back to Medina. So she says, I brought these two blankets in order that he be shrouded in them. And Zubayr then goes and finds Hamza in order to wrap him in these garments. And then Zubayr says that right next to Hamza there was an Ansari. There was an Ansari and he did not have a shroud. He did not have a kafan. so he said I was embarrassed to give Hamza two when the Ansari had none so we decided to draw lots which would get which of the kafans because they are not the exact same size and then we gave each one whatever his lot had been whatever was allocated to him and this shows us a number of things, firstly obviously the poverty of the Sahaba that the Ansari did not even have a kafan to bury himself and he was not the only one, there were plenty like this and secondly this also shows us that a little bit of an usul al-fiqh point here that when the maslaha aamma trumps the maslaha khasah then we're allowed to take the maslaha aamma over the maslaha khasah let me translate this so here we have specific property that is intended for Hamza, it's a gift for Hamza but the situation of the ummah dictates that this personal gift be utilized in a manner other than what the recipient, other than what the donor initially intended. Right? And it is not fair, and he is right, to say that Hamza should get two shrouds, whereas others go shroud less. Because it is wajib, if you have the means, to give at least one shroud. And it is mustahab to give more than one. So when it is wajib, it is fard, kifaya on the community, to make sure that everyone gets at least a shroud, right? You guys following me, right? So anything that was extra for any one of them, it would not be allowed for them to take even though the recipient, sorry, the donor did not intend for this to be mass sadaqah. But at times, this is what we call the maslaha amma, which is the public welfare. It trumps what we call maslaha khasa or private or personal welfare, right? But the only person who has allowed to do this is basically the people in charge, not me and you, the people in charge, and so when they saw that he didn't have it, so they all gathered together, and they pulled lots they drew lots, so as you know what lots are you just pull one and whichever one has been allocated, so they gave each one that particular kafan and the Prophet ﷺ surveyed all of the dead he walked around the field after the Quraysh had left, and this is when as we said, he saw Hamza and he cried some of the reports say he cried, he sobbed when he saw Hamza. Can you imagine how gruesome it was? There are even reports, by the way, that the privates had been cut off. So you can imagine how disgusting this was, to see a person in this manner. Everything, the nose we know for sure, the fingers as well, the digits as well. And then there's even reports that you understand worse than this. And also the stomach has been desecrated, as you know, opened up and the liver chewed and spit there. And they had mutilated Hamza like they had mutilated nobody else. We have said this as well. as a personal vengeance, as a personal means to hurt the Prophet ﷺ. And this is when, as we said, this is all two weeks ago we said, that he cried so much and he got so enraged he said that wallahi if I catch them that I will show them what is the meaning of basically vengeance or revenge. And in one report he said I'm going to do this to 30 of them because of what they did to Hamza. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed وَإِنْ عَاقَبْتُمْ فَعَاقِبُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا عُقِبْتُمْ بِهِ وَلَا إِنْ صَبَرْتُمْ لَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لُلصَّابِرِينَ That if you're going to take vengeance, then be the same. One does not equal 30. If you're gonna take vengeance, be the same. But if you forgive, then this is even better for those who have the patience. And so after this, as we said, the Prophet ﷺ forbade mutilation. That after this, he said, no more shall there be mutilation. And mutilation therefore is haram in our sharia, even to opposing enemies that we bury them and give them a minimal burial. And he commanded the Sahaba to dig graves, and of course they could not dig graves for every one of them, so multiple people were buried in the same grave, sometimes three, sometimes two, sometimes four, depending on how big of a hole they were able to dig. And he gave a commandment and he said, let the one who knows the most Qur'an be buried first. Let the one who knows the most Qur'an be buried first. Look at the blessings of the Qur'an, look at the blessings of memorizing the Quran حَيًّا وَمَيِّتَ living and dead the one who knows the Quran is going to be honored living and dead the one who knows more Quran will be honored as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as the Prophet ﷺ said about the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that verily this book Allah will raise people through it and Allah will debase others through it and the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we know that it is a part of our shari'ah إِنَّ مِنْ إِجْلَالِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى the hadith in Sunnah Nabi Dawud It is a part of showing glory to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we show ikram, honor to the elderly, to the one who has white hair, and to the sahib al-Quran. And sahib al-Quran is basically the one who has memorized the Quran. It is a part of showing respect to Allah that we show respect to the one who has the Quran. And so even look, what a traumatic time. People are dead, they're mutilated bodies. Still, there is an honor given to the people of the Quran that is not given to the others, that the one who knows more Quran, bury him first. and after all of them had been buried he gathered the sahaba this is on the battlefield and he gave an encouraging lecture an exhortation to them and he said many lines which are recorded in the books of seerah of them he said that ana shahidun ala ha'ula I guarantee I will testify for every one of them on the day of judgment and in Musnadimah Muhammad we learn he actually made a dua now this is a big misunderstanding that some of the medieval scholars of Islam said that the Prophet ﷺ prayed janazah over the dead of Uhud. This is a misunderstanding. He didn't pray janazah, he made dua. There's a difference between the two. We know that the shaheed, you don't pray janazah over. And the Prophet ﷺ did not pray janazah over them. Rather, da'a lahum. This is what the riwayah says. And therefore there was a bit of a controversy in medieval Islam. Did he pray janazah over all people of Uhud or not? And in fact, no he didn't. what he did was he made dua for the people of Uhud and this is something that is mentioned in the Muslim Imam Ahmed and the dua itself is preserved we really don't need to go over all but the summary of it is that he praised Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala no matter what happens that he mentioned that whatever happens happens by the will of Allah he made dua for the blessings of this world and the security of Yawm al Qiyamah and that he asked Allah azza wa jal that whoever dies amongst them should die in the state of Iman and then he asked Allah to extract vengeance on those who had done this. So those who had done what they had done, Allah Azza wa Jal will take care of them. And he also said so many ahadith about martyrdom, which are famous to all of you. He said them at this time. That the shaheed will be resurrected on the day of judgment. His wounds will still be as fresh as the day he was killed. And the sight will be the sight of blood, but the smell will be the smell of musk. So all of the, and there's so many other hadith that he said. And this was done obviously to raise their morale, to raise their spirit. It's a very traumatic time. And he tells them of the reality of what's going to happen. And the masir or the end result of those who died. Fee sabi'i Allahi ta'ala. How many people died? We don't have an exact number. Most of them were the Ansar. And it is said that in no battle did the Ansar die as much as they did in this battle. Ibn Ishaq mentioned 65 people died. Ibn Hisham added 5 more to make 70. And in fact some reports say 70 of the Ansar died. And only a few of the Muhajirun. 70 of the Ansar died. So the bulk of the deaths was amongst the Ansar. And one of the Quranic evidences that proves that 70 died. There is in fact a Quranic evidence. And that is Allah says in the Quran, أَوَلَمَّ أَصَابَتْكُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَدْ أَصَابَتُمْ مِثْلَيْهَا قُلْتُمْ أَنَّا هَذَا That when a calamity befalls you, even though you inflicted double that amount of calamity on the others, then you will call out, where is this coming from? The reference is to Uhud. How much did you inflict in Uhud? You kill 70 and you took 70 prisoners. Right? أَوَلَمَّ أَصَابَتْكُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَدْ أَصَابَتُمْ مِثْلَيْهَا Well, when the calamity comes to you, and you have caused the double amount to them basically, then you will say, why is this happening or how is this happening? Meaning Allah has blessed you more. And there is a wisdom and a reason in this calamity. So in the Badr there were 140, and therefore in Uhud there were around 70. And so the Quran even proves that there were around 70 people who had been killed. Now very interesting, very interesting that no prisoners of war were taken except for one. They found him on the battlefield, cowering on the battlefield. One person. And subhanallah his story is very remarkable. that out of all of the people, 3,000 people, they caught one only, prisoner of war. Why? Surely there must be a story. And indeed there is. And we don't know much about him. His name is Abu Uzza. His name is Abu Uzza. And he was executed on the battlefield because of what he had done. What had he done? When we learn what he had done, now we know why Allah had chose to humiliate him out of all of the other 3,000, why this one person was caught. Abu Uzza, he was one of those who had participated in Badr. And he had been captured a prisoner of war. And he was of the prisoners of war whose ransom was put on his head for 4,000 silver coins, 4,000 dirhams. And he begged the Prophet ﷺ to let him go. And he said, O Muhammad ﷺ, he wasn't a Muslim obviously. O Muhammad ﷺ, I don't have any sons and I have only daughters. I beg you be generous and let me go and so the Prophet ﷺ and you know our Prophet ﷺ he was a soft hearted person so he said I let you go but let me never see you fighting us very simple condition let me never see you on the other side again you go back to your family he is begging them for his daughters nobody is going to take care of them so the Prophet ﷺ had pity on him and he said ok go back for free no ransom nothing but the one condition don't join any other army and when the battle of Uhud was about to take place Abu Sufyan came to him and Abu Uzza was a poet and Abu Sufyan said write some poetry, war poetry Abu Uzza said I cannot because Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made a promise for me that I would not help you guys ever again Abu Sufyan said come on 3000 do you really think we're going to lose if we win you will join in the spoils And even if you happen to die in this particular skirmish or battle, then I promise I will take care of your daughters like I take care of my own daughters. The rich nobleman Abu Sufyan is now upgrading Abu Izzah's daughters. Like, don't worry, they will be adopted by me. I will give them the lavish money that I have. They will basically inherit my wealth. And so he was tempted by this money. Either the money of the booty if he wins, or the money for his daughters if he is killed in the battle. And so he simply reneged on his promise. He agreed to write poetry and to physically participate in the battle of Uhud. And so he was a traitor to the promise that he made. He was treacherous to the promise that he made. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْخَائِمِينَ Allah does not love those who break their promises. Khayana is never allowed in our religion. Betraying our promises is never ever allowed. This is khayana. we are not allowed to ever as Allah Azawajal says that وَإِمَّا تَخَافَنَّ مِنْ قَوْمٍ خِيَانَةً فَانْبِئْتْ إِلَيْهِمْ عَلَىٰ سَوَاءٍ that I mean again we're going to tangent here but you're not allowed to respond to khiyana with khiyana you're not allowed to respond to treachery with treachery you can respond to many things with the same thing you can get vengeance with similar things but not with treachery if somebody has been treacherous to you you cannot be treacherous back to them because it is something that is completely forbidden in our sharia. And that is why Abu Uzza when he fell into khayana, which is treachery, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala humiliated him that out of all of the 3,000, he was the one person that was captured and then executed on the battlefield. Now, so the Prophet ﷺ then returned to Medina, and the people had lined up, the women and children had lined up to see who amongst them is coming back and who is dead. To see who is coming back and who is dead. And the wailing began. And wailing had not yet been forbidden in the sharia. Wailing had not yet been haram. What is wailing? We have said many times what is wailing. Wailing is that the ladies in particular, because it is a feminine thing to do, ladies in particular, they cry out at the top of their lungs, they cry out particular phrases, and they wail, يعني والولاء is a type of wailing that they do, and they cry out, يعني وَأَسَفَان وَمَأْسَان How are we going to live? Who is going to take care of us? And I cannot live without you. So this is wailing. And then on top of this, there's very loud screaming and very loud crying. And also sometimes they will beat themselves or let their hair or tear their clothes. So this is like a sign of extreme loss. As if they're going mad when their loved ones have died. And so the riwayat go, wailing began from all over Medina. Because you have 70 people, and so all over Medina you're hearing women wailing. And when the Prophet ﷺ got home, he said, where are the women? So he said, alas, Hamza has no women to wail for him. And here all of the people wailing for others, where are the women of Hamza? Because Hamza never got married. So where are the women that are willing for Hamza? So when this news spread, the women of the Ansar gathered together and they came outside the house of the Prophet ﷺ and they began willing for Hamza. They began willing for Hamza outside of the house of the Prophet ﷺ. Subhanallah, all he has to do is utter and the Sahaba comply. It's just a word that he said and the women just came outside the house of the Prophet ﷺ and they began willing for Hamza. and when the Prophet ﷺ came out and saw them, he praised them, he said good things for them and then he issued a general decree. This is when it became haram that he said from now on there's not going to be any more wailing. That wailing is haram in the sharia and therefore wailing became haram in the aftermath of the battle of Uhud. It is also reported in the Mustadrak of Al-Hakim that shortly after, not on the same day, but shortly after, an Ansari lady gave birth So the husband came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, what should I name this child? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, name him the most beloved name to me, that is Hamza. And so you can see the pain that he was in. He's missing Hamza so much that a baby is born. And so they named a baby in Medina Hamza. Of course, this hadith again is early. Later on, the Prophet ﷺ said, the most beloved of names to Allah is Abdullah and Abdulrahman. But again, this is early, this is the third year. and also it shows us that there's nothing wrong in fact it is very good to name our young ones in the memory of those that have gone by this is something that is good that we preserve their legacy and memory that an elderly person or an old one an elderly person that has passed on to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we retain their memory and we pass it down to the next generation by naming our young newborns after them and it is also narrated that he personally visited some of the families to break the news of the dead to. And we can assume, this is not narrated, but we can assume that he chose those who probably didn't have extended family, those who needed the most consolation. He went and visited them to break the news to them directly. And of the stories that is mentioned is that of Hamana bint Jahsh. Hamana bint Jahsh. Hamana bint Jahsh is the sister of Fatima bint Jahsh. She is a famous sahabiya. And Hamana as well has many hadith and many small tidbits in Medina. Hamad ibn Tijash had married Mus'ab ibn Umair. So she is Mus'ab's wife. She is Mus'ab's wife. Mus'ab ibn Umair, you remember Mus'ab ibn Umair, the one from Mecca, the first one to make hijrah, the son of the rich young man. And then he comes with nothing and he dies and he doesn't have a single cloth on his back. This is Mus'ab ibn Umair. And Hamad as well was dearth poor. They were a very poor couple. and he visited Hamana to break the news to her that shows us the maqam the status that Mus'ab had and he was one of the few of the muhajirun who died in Uhud, right? The two main muhajirun who died were Mus'ab and Hamza the two main muhajirun, Mus'ab and Hamza and so he visited Mus'ab's household to break the news, she does not know her husband is dead, so he visits her and he says ihtasibi, which in in English it would basically translate as احتسبي literally means expect your reward from Allah. But it's a phrase that you say that I have bad news, and you know this is not going to be easy, but be patient and expect your reward from Allah. All of this is basically in the one word احتسبي. So she said, what, who? So he says, your brother. Because her brother had also died. Your brother. And he's trying to break the news to her slowly. So he said, your brother. so she said inna lillahi wa inna ilraji'un may Allah accept his shahadah may Allah forgive him and she's you know grieved she's making dua then he said ihtasibi number two she said whom so he said Mus'ab ibn Umair and she let out a scream and a cry and she began wailing because again it hasn't yet been made haram she began wailing and crying and later on the Prophet ﷺ commented that truly the husband has a maqam in the eyes of the wife that no one else has that. Look, basically we told her her brother died and she grew up with her brother. And she's grieved, she's sad. But when we told her her husband died, subhanAllah, she really could not bear that. And subhanAllah, again it is so true that the wife, she grows up in her family's household, no doubt she has very special attachment to her parents, her siblings. And yet the love that Allah places for the husband in the wife, it is something that is a mu'ijiz, it as a miracle from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that is a very and that is why the iddah for the husband is so much whereas the iddah for the mourning for the mother and father is three days but for the husband it will be four months and ten days, so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said and this is a famous hadith which is in Ibn Majah that verily the husband has a high maqam in the eyes of the wife and it is also mentioned somewhere around this time, we don't know exactly, you know, is it the same hour or the same day, but there is an anonymous lady, and this is the famous story of the anonymous lady who's lost her father and her husband and her brother. She's lost her immediate family in her entirety. But she's also heard that the Prophet ﷺ has died. So she's heard all of these news. And so she starts going, you know, a little bit worried or very worried and agitated. And every time she's told of the death of one of them, so the first is the father, then she says, how is the Prophet ﷺ? And so they say, he is fine. And then the same happens to her brother, the same happens to her husband. But she says, until I see him. And she was waiting for the process to return amongst the crowd until finally when she saw the process with her own eyes that he is indeed safe and sound, she uttered that famous phrase, كل مصيبة بعدك جلل. كل مصيبة بعدك جلل. That every مصيبة after you, جلل يعني بمعنى هين, means trivial. Every مصيبة after you, it is something that I can bear. As long as you are alive then the other مصيبة I can bear. So we learned that the Quraish we learned that the Quraish were confused at the onslaught of the battle, sorry at the return of the battle and slowly but surely they just decided to leave even though they at the end realized the Prophet ﷺ is alive. Remember with Abu Sufyan's conversation, right? That finally Umar blurted out that all three of them are alive or we're gonna come back and we're gonna get you. Still they decided to regroup and basically return to Mecca. However, On the way back, when they're still short distance from Medina, they began debating amongst themselves. They began debating amongst themselves, what should be done? Should we go back to Medina? Should we finish them off? Should we go back to Mecca? And during this time, the Prophet ﷺ is worried, this is exactly what they're gonna be doing. And so, as soon as they return to Medina, he makes an announcement that, we need another contingent to go and make sure they don't return. Who will volunteer? and then he said only those who participated are going to volunteer I don't want the people who went back I don't want the 300 munafiqun only those who participated and therefore 70 of them volunteered 70 of them volunteered at the head of them was Ali ibn Abi Talib and this was on the Sunday the 16th of Shawwal because when did Uhud take place? Saturday the 15th of Shawwal so this is on the Sunday the 16th of Shawwal and he put Ali in charge of them and he said to go and camp at a particular place, Hamra al-Asad, which is the name of this expedition. It's called the expedition of Hamra al-Asad. Go and camp there and wait for us. We'll come the next day. Let us recuperate. We will meet you. But you be our vanguard. You be our elite force to make sure that they don't actually come back. And he said to Ali ibn Abi Talib, see in the distance what are they riding. If they are riding horses and have left their camels, this means they're gonna come back to Medina but if they're riding their camels and have left their horses then they're going back to Mecca subhanallah this is amazing so it's common sense right yet the Prophet ﷺ understood this because Allah عز و جل taught him directly he doesn't need to go through any military training school that he says if they're riding their camels this means this is the long haul and that's back to Mecca and if they're riding their horses this means they're just making a diversion they're going to come running back to us. And indeed they were riding their camels back to Mecca. And as we said the next day the Prophet ﷺ joined them. And Allah ﷻ praises this 70 in the Qur'an when He says, الَّذِينَ اسْتَجَابُوا لِلَّهِ وَالرَّسُولِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا أَصَابَهُمْ وَالْقَرَحُ All of this is Ali Imran. Remember Ali Imran came down for Uhud. Remember and inshallah maybe next Wednesday I'll see if maybe we'll do some of those verses. the only issue with that is in Al-Imran the verses of Uhud are split over many different places, whereas Anfal we went over the entire Surah if you remember because it's all about Badr so it's easier, Al-Imran it's a bit separated here and there, 5-10 ayat here, 3 ayat here, 1 ayat somewhere, so because of this we'll see maybe, in any case, just remember Al-Imran, most of it came down for Uhud but not all of it, because again Al-Imran is the second largest Surah, so in Al-Imran Allah says الذين استجابوا لله والرسول من بعد ما صابهم القرح Those who responded to Allah and His Messenger after they were wounded, after they were basically tired and afflicted, they still responded. And Aisha recited this verse to Urwa ibn Zubair, and she said, My nephew, O my nephew, both of your parents responded. Both of your parents are in this verse. Who are both of the parents of Urwa ibn Zubair? Who is Aisha referring to? both of your fathers both of your fathers both of your fathers responded number one number two one degree left Abdullah Zubair is his brother Hamzah we just went over the nest of last week for three weeks in a row we've been who is Urwa Ibn Zubair's grandfather from the other side other side Abu Bakr Ali says Abu Bakr Abu Bakr we went over this three times now with you you've forgotten again who is Urwa's mother Asma Binti Abu Bakr and that's why Aisha is saying oh my nephew Urwa Aisha's main Rawi is Urwa all the time this is a hadithy point, the number one rawi from Aisha, the number one narrator from Aisha is Urwa, because Urwa did not have hijab in front of Urwa, Urwa is her blood nephew, right, Urwa is the only person who can enter in upon her and talk to her directly, and we have so many hadith, most of the hadith of Aisha are from Urwa, because Urwa is her nephew and Urwa was born way after Abdullah Urwa is not a sahabi, Abdullah is a sahabi Urwa was born, he never saw the Prophet so Urwa is way younger, so he lives a much longer life, in any case so Aisha says that oh my nephew both of your fathers Allah revealed this verse about them meaning Abu Bakr and Zubair ibn Alwan both of them responded and they went back to Hamra al-Assad now as we said they went to Hamra al-Assad and the Prophet ﷺ camped there for three days so he joined Ali and Abu Bakr the next day and he camped there for three days to make sure that the Quraysh did not return back to Medina now we learn from a number of reports most of them from Al-Waqidi in his book of Maghazi we learn that in fact the Quraysh were one hairs width away from coming back but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent a plot against them that the Quraysh were just about to come back and the story goes and this is straight from Al-Waqidi that the Quraysh began disputing amongst themselves after they had regrouped now everybody is now joined up together and they have now regrouped after the incident of Uhud. And many of them began lamenting the fact that we didn't do what we came to do. And the most adamant amongst them was Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl, the son of Abu Jahl. Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl. And he said that we need to go back and return. We need to go back and get rid of this menace forever. But, and as usual the elders are more calm headed, and the youngers are more hot headed, Safwan ibn Umayyah, and Safwan ibn Umayyah is one of the noblemen he comes up again and again in the seerah. Safwan ibn Umayyah was against the idea. And he said, Ya qawm, O my people, do not do this, for verily they are now going to be fuming in anger because of what we've done. And especially because of what? Mutilation, Hamza. They will be fuming in anger. And you don't want to meet angry men. They will be fuming in anger and you don't know, maybe their groups of the Khazraj and Aus who didn't participate, they will now participate because of the number of killings we have done to their people. Now the Quraysh don't know what happens with the Munafiqun. The Quraysh didn't know the inner politics. All that the Quraysh knew is that a lot of people in Medina did not participate. And so Safwan says, now that we've killed their tribes, for sure their tribes are going to respond back. And all of those hundreds of people that we didn't see, now we're going to see them if we come back. But Ikrimah continued to insist. And he was about to win over. And he said, neither did we kill Muhammad ﷺ nor have we pleased our young ladies meaning we haven't been valiant we don't deserve trophies right neither have we gotten rid of him nor have we done something that is worthy of genuine honor nor have we of course there is an expression here we haven't earned the admiration of the young ladies and they were about to be convinced by Ikrimah's rhetoric and his anger until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent basically a tactic against them Now what is this tactic? This tactic is in the form of a person by the name of Ma'bad al-Khuzai. And Ma'bad al-Khuzai was of the nobleman of the tribe of Khuzai. He was not yet a Muslim. And in fact there's a difference between did he ever convert to Islam or not. Most likely he did. But at this point in time he was a respected tribal elder not upon Islam. And even though he was not upon Islam, his heart was sympathetic to the plight of the Muslims and especially the treachery and the vulgarity that was shown by the Quraysh. That this goes against even their own values, as we know we've said this many times, right? And ma'bad happened to be in the area, so he visited the Prophet ﷺ to give his consolances to him. To say to him that, you know, I heard what happened. He has no reason to, you know, go. He went out of his way, he went to Medina, and he said, you know, we have heard what happened to you and your companions. Know that I am not pleased by this. I would rather that the other group was inflicted with the loss and defeat, right? So he is now very positive and sympathetic to the Prophet ﷺ. And then he leaves Medina on his way, on his business. And it just so happens that he crosses his path with Abu Sufyan and the contingent. And Abu Sufyan sees this nobleman, he recognizes him as being of the nobility of Khuza'ah. And he becomes happy that, okay, now we will find out what is the status of Medina because he's coming from Medina, right? He's coming from Medina. And he trusts him because he's a pagan, he's not a Muslim. so he says to Ma'abad, oh Ma'abad tell me how did you leave Muhammad and his companions so Ma'abad saw his opportunity and the Prophet did not tell him and he's not a Muslim, he's not under any obligation to anything right, plus in such a circumstance and situation, al-harbu khid'ah anyway as we know, right, so Ma'abad began painting a whole picture oh you don't want to see them now and he said without knowing what Sufwan had said he repeated exactly what Safwan had said. That they are fuming with anger. And the people that didn't fight, now they're all going to fight as well. And subhanallah, it's amazing. Allah subhanallah used this tactic, right? That what Safwan had made them scared about, and so now they're thinking this picture, now Ma'bad comes and he basically fills in all of the colors of the picture. Exactly as had been described. that they are now lighting the fire of war and they are now beating the drums of vengeance and they have promised themselves that they are not going to enjoy peace until they extract vengeance at what you have done to them. So Abu Sufyan said, what do you advise we do? So he said, I advise you flee as fast as your horses will take you. And when somebody as noble as Ma'bat was so terrified. So this sealed the fate of the Quraysh. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, as Allah says, that Allah comes from ways that you don't expect. من حيث لم يحتسبوا That Allah azza wa jal came to them from places they never expected. And one of their own was so angry and so enraged at their own vulgarity that he turned against his own co-religionists in this manner. And he basically painted this picture without any finger lifted from the Muslim side. The Prophet ﷺ did not even know he's gonna meet Abu Sufyan, but on his own accord, he basically frightened the Quraysh away, and that was the last of that. But the Prophet ﷺ did not know, so he remained in Hamra al-Asad for three days, and when they were certain, the scouts had informed them that the Quraysh had run away, that they're not going to come back, then he returned back to Medina. And that was the end of the battle of Uhud. But the question arises, two things we need to finish off on. Number one, is Uhud a genuine loss or not? It is common perception that Uhud is a loss, it's a defeat. And it is true, that if you look at Uhud in terms of how many people died, there's no question, there's no sugarcoating it, the Muslims lost. If you look at it from this one statistic, there's no sugarcoating it. The Quraysh lost 22 people. 22. And the Muslims lost at least 70, perhaps 75. So there's no question that three times the quantity of Muslims basically dies in this battle. However, there are many other ways to look at victory and loss beyond the number of people that are dead. Firstly, let's look at the goal of each of the two sides. The goal of the Muslims was simply to defend Medina. Were they victorious in this goal? Yes. What was the goal of the Quraysh? to obliterate the Muslims. Were they successful in that? No, not at all. They were failure in every single manner. They thought they would surprise. They thought they would surprise the Muslims. They were not surprised. And by the way, it is narrated that Abu Sufyan began suspecting that there might be a spy. Because he said they were prepared. And there is no way. Remember we talked about how quickly they got from Mecca to Medina. Right? It was an unbelievably quick journey. And Abu Sufyan began to suspect Like something is wrong. That there is somebody telling them. And of course there was because it was Al-Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. So in terms of the goals, the Muslims were victorious. In terms of the beginning portion of the battle, no doubt the Muslims were also victorious. When the mushriks fled, they were the ones who turned their backs and they fled. In terms of the end of the battle, another way to look at victory and loss is who remains on the battlefield and who leaves. and in fact it was the Muslims who remained on the battlefield and it was the Quraysh who had to go back and therefore from this perspective as well the Muslims are not the losers yet another way to look at the battle is prisoners of war and on this count the Muslims actually had won the Quraysh had zero so once again in terms of POWs the Muslims had won above even one is more than zero right? one is still more than zero and so they had one prisoner of war and the Quraysh had zero, yet another way to look at it is that the Mushrikoon did not pursue the Muslims, rather the Muslims pursued them the next day the Muslims pursued them and they were not pursued and this clearly shows us as well that the Muslims had the upper hand in this regard yet another way to look at it, the Muslims remain three days at Hamra al-Assad. Whereas the Quraysh are traveling back. And this clearly shows the one who remains is the one who is superior. And second to last, the issue of the trade route was still the same. The trade route, remember? The whole point of making sure we can go to Syria, right? That has not been resolved. Still status quo. Still the same problem for the Quraysh. Nothing has been resolved. And then the final point Ibn Al-Qayyim mentions. In Mukhtas Azad Al-Ma'ad, Ibn Al-Qayyim mentions, the final point he says, from the very testimony of the Quraysh, of Ikrimah. What does Ikrimah say? You haven't done anything worthy of honor yet. We haven't impressed the young ladies yet. He knows it's not a victory. And this clearly demonstrates therefore, that Uhud it's not a pure victory, but it's also not a loss. It was somewhat of a imbalanced, if you like, war, in that the Muslims did not gain what they wanted, but the Quraysh definitely did not even gain a fraction of what they wanted. No doubt, the number of killed is more amongst the Muslim side, but as Umar ibn al-Khattab said, the two are not the same. Our dead are up there in Jannah, and your dead are down there in Jahannam. Yet, from all other angles, Uhud is in fact a victory and not a loss. The only sense of loss is the number of dead. What are some of the wisdoms that we can derive, the primary benefits and wisdoms from the battle of Uhud? Well, let us begin by comparing Uhud with Badr. Comparing Uhud with Badr. Regarding Badr, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran, that one of the wisdoms of Badr, this is Surah Al-Anfal versus Surah Al-Imran, we're comparing the two. Surah Al-Imran, Surah Anfal, excuse me. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, one of the reasons of Badr is, لِيَمِيزَ اللَّهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ So that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can separate the filthy from the pure. وَيَجْعَلَ الْخَبِيثَ بَعْضَهُ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ And to put all of the khabith together. So, one of the wisdoms of Badr is to separate the filthy from the pure. Who's the filthy? The mushrikun. Who's the pure? The Muslims. Now, in Surah Al-Imran, Allah mentions something very similar. مَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيَذَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَىٰ مَا أَنْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّىٰ يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ Allah is not going to allow the believers to remain as they are, until He shows them and separates for them the khabith from the tayyib. Aha! So Uhud has the same wisdom as Badr But the people that are Khabith and Tayyib are different The Tayyib is always the same But the Khabith in Badr are Mushrikeen And the Khabith in Uhud are Munafiqeen So we learn immediately from the Quran That one of the biggest benefits of Uhud is what? So you understand the real nature of nifaq. Because you see, they hadn't seen the nature of nifaq. They hadn't seen it. And there's always still a husna zan. They can't be that bad. Come on, they're gonna help us out when push comes to shove, right? I mean, there is that notion. And when push came to shove, the munafiqun turned their backs and went back home. and Muslims needed to see that in order to get the point across how evil the munafiqun are and so Allah explicitly says I'm not going to leave the believers like this until I separate the khabith from the tayyib so there is tamyeez tamyeez means separation in Badr and in Uhud in Badr the tamyeez was for Iman and Kufr and in Uhud the tamyeez was for Iman and Nifaq With regards to Badr, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَيُحِقَّ الْحَقَّ بِكَلِمَاتِهِ وَيَقْطَعْ دَابِرَ الْكَافِرِينَ لِيُحِقَّ الْحَقَّ وَيُبِطِلَ الْبَاطِلَ وَلَوْ كَرِهَا الْمُجْرِمُونَ That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that Allah wants to affirm the truth with His word, and He wants to cut off any root of the unbelievers. in contrast to this as we said Allah Azawajal mentions in the Quran that the reason for Uhud was وَلِيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا this is Surah Al-Imran explicitly وَلِيَعْلَمَ الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا وَقِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا قَاتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَوْ يَدْفَعُوا قَالُوا لَوْ نَعْلَمُ قِتَالًا لَتَّبَعْنَاكُمْ هُمْ لِلْكُفْرِ يَوْمَئِذٍ أَقْرَبُ مِنْهُمْ لِلْإِيمَانِ so Allah says when it was said to them come and fight or at least defend help us defend they said if we only knew how to fight we would fight or if we knew there would be fighting we would fight if there was truly fighting this is exactly what Abdullah ibn Ubay said come on there is not going to be actual fighting if there is fighting then we will be there but we know there is not going to be fighting and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposes them in the Quran another comparison between Badr and Uhud is that in Badr Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala showed a dream to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in which the number of people that he saw was, who remembers? Much smaller. Much smaller. And Allah mentions the wisdom behind this. In surah anfal إِذْ يُرِيكَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَنَامِكَ قَلِيلًا وَلَوْ أَرَاكَهُمْ كَثِيرًا لَفَشِلْتُمْ وَلَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ سَلَّمْ Allah mentions, remember I showed you few of them in a dream if I had shown you the way that they were what would have happened? لَفَشِلْتُمْ وَلَتَنَازَعْتُمْ you would have lost your himmah, you would have become lazy well lazy isn't a good word you would become demoralized and you would have began fighting amongst yourselves but Allah protected you so notice, as a mercy Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala avoided them faltering and bickering and fighting. How about Uhud? حَتَّىٰ إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ Notice, the exact same two things. When you began faltering and you began fighting amongst yourselves, things that were avoided in Badr, you did them in Uhud. حَتَّى إِذَا فَشِلْتُمْ وَتَنَازَعْتُمْ And in Surah Anfal, that وَلَا أَرَاكَهُمْ كَثِيرًا لَفَشِلْتُمْ وَلَتَنَازَعْتُمْ Right? That you would have done this, وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ سَلَّمْ Allah protected you from doing that. Right? And yet in Uhud, you fell into bickering amongst yourselves, fighting amongst yourselves. And a multiple things happened, as we learned from the Shura, to the Munafiqun, to what to do with them, they began bickering and fighting, and then the worst of them, وَعَصَيْتُمْ and you disobeyed the Prophet ﷺ. This is in the Qur'an, right? Whereas in Badr you obeyed, and in Uhud you disobeyed. وَعَصَيْتُمْ مِن بَعْدِ مَا أَرَاكُمْ مَا تُحِبُّونَ When you saw what you loved, money, you disobeyed. And so because you obeyed Allah at Badr, Allah protected you from bickering and differing and demoralizing. Because you disobeyed Allah and His Messenger at Uhud, what happened? You bickered, you fell into dispute, and you lost him. Look at the contrast between Badr and Uhud. And so, Badr, Allah protected them because of their him, because of their sincerity. But Uhud, they didn't have the same type. And they became greedy for that which they saw. And even though of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala initially gave them victory, as Allah says, وَلَقَدُ صَدَاقَكُمُ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ إِتَّحُسُونُهُمْ بِإِذْنِهِ That Allah promised you, Allah fulfilled His promise to you. وَلَقَدُ صَدَاقَكُمُ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ Allah fulfilled His promise to you, meaning the initial part of the battle, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then tested them. ثُمَّ صَرَفَكُمْ عَنْهُمْ لِيَبِتَ لِيَكُمْ That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested you through your disobedience, and at the end Allah says, وَلَقَدْ عَفَى عَنْكُمْ and Allah has forgiven all of you. And this is a very important point that Allah explicitly says in the Qur'an, whatever happened at Uhud, I have forgiven you. وَلَقَدْ عَفَىٰ عَنْكُمْ And it is narrated that Uthman ibn Affan, many many years later, when the instigators who killed him, challenged him with certain points, one of the things they said is that, didn't you run away at Uhud? Meaning he was all alone, he was not with the group, he ran away. And so he said, indeed I did, but did you not read the Qur'an? And then he quoted this verse, وَلَخَدْ عَفَىٰ عَنْكُمْ That yes, I made a mistake. That I was of those who was unprotected all alone, and I fled. Remember, Uthman was not with those who were the Prophet ﷺ, because he never got there. Wherever he was, he was by himself. So he fled, he turned his back and he fled. Then he said, yes, I did, I was of those. But didn't you read what Allah Himself said? So if Allah has forgiven me, who are you to come and tell me, didn't you do this, right? وَلَخَدْ عَفَىٰ عَنْكُمْ And also, what we learn, one of the ayat that Allah ﷻ revealed, is in tansurullaha yansurkum wa yuthabbit akadamakum. If you are sincere to Allah and you help Allah, Allah will help you and make you firm. And therefore, through unity and through sincerity, Allah will help you. Through disunity, through arguing, through disobeying Allah and His Messenger, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will take that help away. Contrast what the sahaba said at Badr and what they did at Uhud. What did Sa'd ibn Mu'adh say at Badr? That by Allah, Ya Rasulullah, if you take us to Baraka al-Ghimad, if you take us to the end of the world, if you charge into the ocean, we're gonna go right behind you. Go wherever you want to go. Go wherever Allah takes you. We are right behind you. Contrast this to what happened at Uhud. When Abdullah ibn Ubayy said, why should we listen to him when he hasn't listened to us? Look at the contrast, right? Why should we listen to him when he didn't listen to me? This is Abdullah ibn Ubayy speaking. and 300 of them break away. And additionally, every one of the sahaba, they were unarmed, they were defenseless at Badr, they're willing to fight. And at Uhud, when they have all of the defenses and everything, they are swayed by the booty that they see. And therefore, we clearly see what happens when one obeys Allah and one is sincere to Allah versus when one disobeys Allah and his messenger and is not sincere to Allah and his messenger. Another lesson that we see the difference in between Badr and Uhud is that amazingly, all of the senior leaders at Badr were killed. Every one of them. And that's why Badr is such a miracle. Every single one of the big names never came back. Amazingly, pretty much every senior leader of Uhud is eventually guided to Islam. From Abu Sufyan, to Ikrimah, to Khalid ibn al-Walid, to Safwan, I mean, it's amazing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows who he will guide and who he will not. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will humiliate those who are not worthy of that izzah of Islam. And they were taken away at Badr. And this really shows us the lesson of Tawheed. That, and the point goes back here to what the Prophet ﷺ said when the people wounded him. How can Allah ever forgive them? How can Allah ever forgive them? And Allah revealed in the Qur'an, لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ شَيْءٍ And if you understand Arabic, it is a very blunt way of saying this. Very blunt way. You have nothing to do of this. It's a very harsh, you could, harsh isn't maybe the best word, but it's very frank is a good word. It's a very frank way to say this, right? Because no one has the right to interfere with Allah's qadr. No one. Not even Rasulullah ﷺ. He is the greatest human. He is Khatam al-Nabiyy, he is Rahmat al-Azhar. But he is not a god. And he will not interfere in Allah's rububiyah. And therefore this phrase that came in anger, and we excuse him, all of us we understand that anger. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said no. Whatever they've done, they have done zulm, yes. But because, very next phrase, they've done zulm to you. But you cannot have the right to forgive or to punish. And this is what we see as well. That subhanallah, most of them in fact will guide you to Islam. including the very one who launches the counter offensive and that is Khalid ibn Walid this very person will then eventually be called Sayfullah the very person who does this the Prophet ﷺ honors him by calling him Sayfun min Suyufillah this is Sayfullah and we also learn over here that victory is not granted nor is it guaranteed just because you're a Muslim even just because if you're a good Muslim even just because you're the best Muslim on earth which is the Prophet ﷺ. Victory doesn't just come because you're a good Muslim. Victory has to be struggled for. Victory has to be struggled for. Everyone has to go through a struggle. No exception, zero. Including the Prophet ﷺ. And that is why even he needs to be wounded. To demonstrate not just to him, but especially to us. He knows this, but especially to us. that no one's rank is raised in this world or the next except through ibtila, except through testing, except through patience, except through pain, except through suffering. It is done to show that every single human, no matter how perfect they might be, they still need to go through the trials and tribulations. And of course, even subhanAllah, there's a simple wisdom here that our Prophet ﷺ is human. He bleeds like we bleed. He's wounded like we are wounded. Right? To this day there are some people they say he's not human. He didn't cast a shadow. He didn't do this and that. And again a basic reading of the seerah that he is a human being. And he is bleeding and he's wounded and his daughter has to put the band-aid on him and he's still bleeding. All of this clearly shows us that even our Prophet ﷺ will not gain victory except through struggle, except through sacrifice. And of the primary benefits and inshallah with this we will open the floor for questions inshallah. of the primary benefit, in fact probably the number one benefit of the whole battle of Uhud, is that the cause of humiliation and defeat is to disobey Allah and His Messenger and to turn to this world above the Akhirah. This is the number one benefit. This is really the moral of Uhud that was demonstrated in a very clear manner. Izzah comes through the battle of Badr. sincerity to Allah, unity standing for the sake of Allah even if you're under armed even if you don't have armor, even if you even, even, and humiliation comes by turning away from the commands of Allah and his messenger and preferring this dunya over the next, and that's exactly what Allah says, wa asaytum right, you disobeyed, and minkum man yudud dunya, wa minkum man yudud akhir, again these are all, and Imran all of this is for the battle of U'ud, some of you want the dunya, and some of you want the akhirah. And this was the cause of defeat. Usiyan and hubb al-dunya. That is disobeying Allah and His messenger and loving this world. And Uqba ibn Amir, who is one of the ansar, Uqba ibn Amir, hadith is from Sahib Bukhari, and this is really interesting hadith which shows us how much the Prophet cared for the people of Uhud. Uqba ibn Amir, he said that 8 years after Uhud when will that be 8 years after Uhud? the very year that Prophet ﷺ passed away 8 years of 8 years after Uhud the Prophet ﷺ made a special dua for the dead of Uhud as if he was bidding them farewell meaning as if they're alive and they're going away meaning what does it mean? it's a very emotional dua it's as if they're in front of him and it's as if he's saying goodbye to them this is 8 years have gone and he makes a special dua for the people of Uhud and then he stood on the minbar this is when he was sick the last week of his life the last week of his life and he thinks of the people of Uhud and he stood on the minbar and he gave a khutbah which is recorded in Bukhari of the things that he said is anafaratukum alal hawd I will be the one who will be waiting for you at the fountain. وَأَنَا شَهِيدٌ عَلَيْكُمْ I will testify in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala regarding you. وَإِنَّ مَوْعِدَنَا عَلَى الْحَوْضِ The meeting place. Meet me at the fountain. So subhanAllah, he's telling the sahaba that meet me at the fountain. He knows what's about to happen. The sahaba don't know what's about to happen. So he's basically telling them that, and you know I'm gonna be there, don't worry. When you die, when you're resurrected, know where to go. I will meet you at the Hawd as if I am seeing the Hawd right now as if I am seeing it right now death is very close the Sahaba don't know that and then he said notice right after praying for Uhud right after remembering Uhud he is about to pass away and Uqba ibn Amir says at the end of this Hadith he said that was the last time that I saw the face of the Prophet this is the last Khutbah that he gave in a public place, amongst the public, on his minba. By khutbah we don't mean jum'ah, it's a khutbah, a sermon. It's the last maw'idah he gave. Ruqbah says, the last time I saw his face, what did he say? He prayed for the people of Uhud, subhanallah. And he said, I'm gonna meet you at the fountain, wait for me at the fountain. Our meeting place is at the fountain. And then he said, I am not worried that you will fall into shirk. I am worried that after I die, This dunya will open up for you. And you will compete with one another, one another, تَنَافَسُوهَا Right? To try to get the most of it. Subhanallah. Uhud, dunya, competition. Look, the very last khutbah he gives, the very last public lecture, and he's still thinking of Uhud, and the shuhada of Uhud, he prays for them, and then the lesson of Uhud is what? Loving this dunya too much. and he says that's what I'm worried about not shirk the ummah by and large is not gonna you know all of them fall into shirk alhamdulillah that's not going to happen yes minor shirk we're all worried about yes segments of the ummah but by and large the ummah alhamdulillah they're not worshipping idols but what is the problem of the ummah now that is hubb al dunya that is wanting this world and wanting more and more of the piece of the pie and this is what our Prophet ﷺ was worried about till the very end of his life directly linked to the loss at the battle of Uhud. And with this inshaAllah ta'ala, A30, we open the floor for questions. Just a man note, when you compare Badr and Uhud, one of the ironies and mutaraqat is in Badr, the initial intention was to really go for a little bit of dunya as the caravan. And then when they made the intention to throw the caravan away and to go really for the enemy, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave them the glory. And the Uhud was the exact opposite. that there was no bully as the initial intention. It was really that the enemy, and then the bully was on the ground, and then they went to the bully. This is a good point, and that is that in the battle of Badr, the initial intention was the dunya. But when they had to raise their himma and their intention for the sake of Allah, they all did it. They all did it, down to the last man, as we know. Yet in the battle of Uhud, the initial intention was jihad and qital but when they saw the dunya many of them were tempted and they went downgrading their intention and we know that that the deeds are based upon the end of the deed not the beginning and so in uhud it's halal to want money as long as it's halal money but when the niyyah had to go up to jihad every one of them upgraded but now in uhud what happened, they downgraded and they downgraded at the expense of disobedience to the Prophet ﷺ and that's another contrast to give between Badr and Uhud no I mentioned that last week, I didn't mention by name I mentioned that a number of ladies participated in the battle of Uhud however actual fighting is not mentioned what is mentioned is helping the wounded and yeah there is a narration at the same time it seems Allah I don't know the isnad I will have to look up I am aware of this tradition at the same time the hadith that I mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim about the women all of them so Umm Sulaim is mentioned Aisha is mentioned and one more is not coming to mind Umm Sulaim Aisha and one more is mentioned, three are mentioned by name that a number of Sahabi are saying I saw her darting here and there, I saw them with water on their head one of them I saw, this is before hijab is revealed so Anas is saying that she had raised her skirt and tied it so she could run quickly and she would run to the jurha and give them, so the authentic narrations mention taking care of the wounded. And also it is authentically narrated that when the women volunteered to participate in jihad, the Prophet ﷺ said, and in one version he said, we do not take women on an expedition. So the reason they were at Uhud is because Medina is walking distance. Whereas it is not the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ generally to take women on an expedition. So Allah knows about that. 15th we said 15th right can you look it up we said 15th 15th of Shawwal Saturday so yeah well you realize there is no unanimous consensus 6th has also been narrated and there is no clear comparison schedule you know between Gregorian and Islamic calendar of that era but one opinion is 15th this is your third question you want to hand it to others before we come back to you quick points third one then we move on third one go ahead when the Prophet was he married to his sister Zainab at that time or not Zainab has not been married by Uhud that's going to come later that's going to come later yes go ahead The outcome of the lessons, the exception of the injury, could have been derived like you mentioned. What is the additional wisdom that was lost? If it was not to be the injury, you would have gotten some of the lessons that you mentioned. Do you reflect on what lesson you learned from the fact that he was from the mind, he was in the world, he was in the world? So the question is about the lessons that we derive from the Prophet ﷺ being injured. As we already said, the number one lesson is that even our Prophet ﷺ is not going to be handed victory on a platter. That even he has to struggle like everybody struggled before him and after him. And this is why he is our perfect role model. That had these things not happened, then he would have been an angel role model. He would have been a superhuman role model, right? that subhanAllah the da'i the one who's calling to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he needs to know that the one in whose footsteps he's walking has suffered much more than he has and this will be a consolation for him this will be a sense of peace for him if anybody makes fun of you then wallahi the Prophet ﷺ was mocked much more than you and me if anybody physically beats you what happened at Ta'if is much worse than what's happening if anybody causes you to bleed then our Prophet ﷺ the injuries he suffered are so gruesome that to think about them you tremble. I mean, you don't want even to think about. So, this is something the process was being made into the perfect role model. And this is the reality of rahmatan lil halamin. That is why he is rahmatan lil halamin. And of course, as we said, there are other points to be derived as well. And that is to demonstrate truly who is the Rabb and who is the marboob. Who is the ilah and who is the one who is worshipping the ilah. Who is the abd of the ilah. And there is a wisdom here as well because frankly we do have an issue amongst many of these people who really they astaghfirullah are confusing between the Prophet ﷺ and really the attributes of Allah ﷻ. This is not possible that the Divine is going to suffer in this manner. So to demonstrate who is Allah ﷻ and that's why the verse says, لَيْسَ لَكَ مِنْ أَمْرِي شَيْءٍ These are the two main wisdoms and I'm sure we can think of more. But these are the two that come to mind. Inshallah. Last question. Yes, Bismillah. the Muslims who had disobeyed the Prophet obviously they were forgiven by Allah himself but till then what was their status? so the question is about those who survived and who had disobeyed the Prophet what happened so we said that it is amazing and it's a sign of genuine maturity that none of them were reprimanded That once Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has said, وَلَقَدْ عَفْهَا عَنْكُمْ That that is it, the end of the story. Nobody ever went and criticized them, nor even did they criticize the younger shura members who insisted to go fight at Uhud instead of remaining inside, nor even did they criticize those who killed Yaman, the father of Hudayfa, right? This is again one of the most amazing really stories of forgiveness is that Hudhaifa lived with the very people who killed his father. And it was just completely forgotten. And he returned the blood money to the Fuqara. That he got a lot of money and he gave it back. يعني في سبيل الله And this really shows us that the battle of Uhud had that impact of reunifying the Ummah. Right? Of distinguishing between the Khabith and the Tayyib which is one of the points of Uhud. That the Ummah regrouped in a much more pure fashion and got rid of the impure elements. So, Allah knows, but this is a great sign of wisdom and maturity. And we mentioned this three weeks ago when we said, once the decision is made, and by the way, anybody who's on any committee or whatnot should pay heed to this, right? Anybody who has any type of responsibilities. It is of the etiquettes of Islam that once the shura has been made, that you go forward from that. Khalas. Don't go back and say, I told you so. This is not of the etiquettes of Islam. Right? Ah, look what happened, you didn't listen to me. This is what Abdullah ibn Ubay said. This isn't what the Sahaba said. Right? Once the shura has been made, even the Prophet ﷺ followed it, and then khalas. Fa idha azamta, fatawakkal ala Allah. Once you make up your minds, khalas, put your trust in Allah and go forward. Right? And even if it ends up that way, realize this was what was the wisdom Allah had decreed. You don't understand it? But this is what the wisdom is, right? And this is a very important etiquette. I mentioned this three weeks ago, I'm mentioning it again now. That of the benefits of Uhud, once you make the proper decision, this is even at individual level. You pray Istikhara, you ask the people that should be asked, you made up your mind. Once you make up your mind after the proper necessary preconditions, khalas, you don't go back as the Prophet ﷺ said, hadith in Bukhari and others. Don't say what if. لا تقول لو فإن لو تفتح باب الشيطان don't say oh I only wish I had done this because saying if opens up the door of shaitan and this is demonstrated in Uhud you don't go back and rethink things through meaning what does this mean like you learn from your mistakes obviously but you don't blame yourself or anybody else once the decision has been made Thank you.

Seerah 5 - The Birth of Prophet Muhammad & Why Arabia - Yasir Qadhi _ June 2011-Aln07CIO_BM

And we had mentioned the idolatry that was rampant amongst them and how that idolatry began. And there was one final point that was left that time did not allow us to elaborate on. And I think it is very relevant and very important because this aspect demonstrates to us what our religion is. And it demonstrates to us the meaning of La ilaha illallah. Now, the interesting thing about the Jahili Arabs, the Arabs before Islam, was that they actually believed in the same God that we believe in. By the same name and the same attributes and that is Allah. You see they never depicted Allah as an idol. They made idols of Allat, of Al-Uzza, of Manat, of Hubal. They made idols of all of these beings. But they never made an idol of Allah. There was no idol called Allah. Because they knew that Allah could not be represented by an idol. and they knew that Allah was their creator and their originator and their sustainer. Allah says in the Quran, if you were to ask them, who created you? They would say, Allah created us. If you were to ask them, who sends the rain from the heavens? They would say, Allah. If you were to ask them, who supplies you your rizq, your food? They would say, Allah. The Quran says, if you were to ask them, who is the Lord of the heavens and earth? They would say, Allah. And this is interesting because their paganism is not like the paganism of modern religions. If you ask them who is their God, they will say Krishna or Buddha or something. These are groups who say, no, Allah is our God. And Allah is our creator. And Allah is our sustainer. And yet they are not Muslims. And we don't consider them to be Muslims. Even though they say there is no creator other than Allah. And there is no sustainer other than Allah. And there is no Lord other than Allah. so when the Prophet is coming to them, he's not coming with a new God, he's not coming with a new deity, they know it is Allah who created them, yet why are they not Muslim? well because they're worshipping idols well why are they worshipping idols when they know that Allah created them? the Quran tells us surah zumr verse 3 surah zumr verse 3, Allah says that if you were to ask them, why are you worshipping these beings? they say ma na'buduhum illa li yuqarribuna ila Allahi zulfa we're only worshipping these beings so that they can bring us closer to Allah notice the ultimate goal is Allah these beings are stepping stones they're intermediaries they're simply tools we use to get to the grand deity and that is Allah Surah Yunus verse 18 Allah says they worship besides Allah these beings that are useless and they say these beings are our intercessors between us and Allah. Our intermediaries. You see, we're too sinful. We're too unholy. And these beings are holy beings. So we go through them to get to the holiest of holy, and that is Allah. Now notice here, this is very important because their shirk was not in rejecting Allah. It was not in saying, Allah and Al-Uzza created me. it was not in saying that Allah will resurrect me no, they firmly believed Allah is the creator, sustainer, nourisher, everything by name Allah, not Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Allah yet they're worshipping other than Allah and they say, we're too sinful we need to use intermediaries to get to Allah now this is important because unfortunately we have Muslims in our times who fall prey to the exact same mentality word for word, letter for letter we're sinful people change Allah to Wali change Uzza to Sheikh change Manat to Pir and you get the exact same concept we're two sinful people we can't worship Allah directly he's too holy so we have to go through the saint or they also have to go through the Prophet we worship this being we make prayer to this being we sacrifice to this being we invoke the blessings of this being because this being has a high status with Allah. He will plead our case to Allah. And all of us who have family back home, we know that this is unfortunately common amongst the Muslims around the world. And this mentality is exactly the mentality of the Jahili Arabs. It is exactly the same. And this is compounded by the fact that if somebody says, how dare you compare a peer to a lat? How do you compare my sheikh to a lat? The response is, what is Allat except a Pir and a Sheikh? What is Allat? Do you know the origins of Allat? Allat was the main idol of Ta'if, right? We said last time, what is the main idol of Mecca? Who can remind me? Hubal. The main idol of Mecca is Hubal. And this was the original idol. Where did it come from? Who can remind me? Syria. From the Amalekites. The Amalekites. It came from the Amalekites. This is the original idol that was there until the Prophet ﷺ got rid of it in the conquest of Mecca. Then the second major idol was Allat. And that was in Ta'if. These were the two main idols. Allat and Hubal. And then Manat was the third and Uzza. So these are the main idols. Now, Allat, what is Allat? Allat was a man who used to feed to the pilgrims a type of soup. And the word for making soup in Arabic is لَتَّ يَلُتُّ And Allat is the one who grinds. Allat is the one who basically does the thing to make the soup the barley you grind it and then you make the soup out of it it's not his name, it's his title and this was a man who would stand on the road towards Mecca and everybody who went there he's a generous man he would feed them and so they called him Allat the one who gives the soup the one who feeds the one who makes the barley for the soup Allat when he died they said let's commemorate him he's a good man he's a righteous man so they build a monument a mausoleum and in our religion we're not supposed to build a monument on a grave because of this reason exactly because of this reason so they said let's commemorate him he was a good man so they built a big structure and what happens when you build a big structure on a grave people come, they rub their bodies on it they put their hands on it they want to get blessings and bit by bit slowly but surely it becomes an idol and a god that is worshipped besides Allah so what is Allah except a holy man a righteous person and we already mentioned before that the most common being who is invoked on earth besides Allah is Jesus Christ. The most common being that is worshipped besides the true God is Jesus Christ. What is Jesus Christ? An evil being or a good being? He's a good being. He is one of the greatest of all prophets and messengers. You see, the slippery slope doesn't occur with evil people. I mean, how few people worship shaitan, right? The satanists, how few are they? and yet look at how many people worship Jesus Christ in the billions because it's easy to slip with a good man you put him above his place you take him to a status above what he deserves and this is what our religion came to prohibit no, you don't worship anybody including the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W you don't go through him to get to Allah meaning you don't direct your prayers through him you take him as a role model and you don't take him as another god a demi-god, a semi-god so it is important that we understand that the shirk of the jahili Arabs was a very unique type of shirk. It is not the shirk of let's say the Hindus or the Buddhists or the Zoroastrians. Because these groups, they believe in another God besides Allah. They don't believe in Allah. The God of the Arabs was the God of Abraham and Ismail and Ishaq, and that is Allah. That is the God that we believe in. Their shirk was not in rejecting Him. It was in affirming Him as being too holy. We can't get to Him directly. We have to go indirectly. And it's very important that we as Muslims therefore understand what our religion is about. And that is there are no intermediaries between us and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that was the point related to the last lesson. Now we now move on to today's lesson. And we begin by pointing out, well, we just talked two lessons about how evil jahili Arabia was, how bad it was. And next week we're gonna continue this. Dr. Bashar is gonna be speaking next week, I won't be here. And we'll talk about the social circumstances of Arabia. And again, so many evils taking place in Arabia. Now if Arabia was so bad, was so evil, why did Allah choose Arabia and the Arabs for the Prophet ﷺ to come in? I mean, why didn't He choose the Romans who were the mightiest civilization? Or the Persians who had an ancient civilization? Why didn't He choose another nation? Why in the back, can't say backwaters, the back sands of Arabia, why in this desert, in this nomadic lifestyle that didn't have a civilization? It didn't have a script, it didn't have anything. it didn't even have a government. Why did Allah choose this society to send the last prophet? Well, there are many wisdoms that we can derive, that we can glean from choosing these groups of people. First and foremost, the Arabs and Arabia was in between the two major superpowers of the time. And those were the Sassanids and the Byzantine Empire. The Eastern Romans are the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanids are the Persians. The Romans and the Persians are simplified. The more correct is the Byzantine and the Sassanids. So Arabia is smack in the middle. Or you can say south most, but it is in between. Wars are taking place right above Arabia, in the Syrian hemisphere or land. Wars are taking place for 400 years, between the Byzantines and the Sassanids. Arabia is right there in the middle. Additionally, so it's geographically very uniquely situated. It's connected to the two greatest international superpowers. Yet it is distinct. Connected but distinct. and subhanallah what happened in 30-40 years Arabia conquered these two superpowers right? had Arabia been in China it would not have been able to conquer these two superpowers by being connected and yet separate just on the border the very first lands of conquest Allah will that these two mighty nations be conquered by the Muslims within 20 years within 30 years after the death of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab as you all know additionally the Arabs did not have a history of colonialism or aggressive behavior. Because the Arabs were busy fighting amongst themselves, they never challenged Rome, they never challenged Persia. So when the Arab armies first marched towards Rome and Persia, i.e. after Islam, the Romans and the Persians were laughing. Who are these? Bedouins wanting to attack us? And it is said that the Sassanid emperor treated Sa'd and the other Muslim leaders as children. Because have you gone crazy? Your armies are going to attack us, go back and we'll give you some gold coins if you want. I mean, don't bother. They treated them like kids because they couldn't believe that a group is coming from Arabia. The Arabs never had a colonialist influence. They never were aggressive to the superpowers. So it was a surprise completely coming out of this land. Another point is that the fact that the Arabs did not have their own unique civilization. Now what do I mean by civilization? Some people ask me, what do you mean they didn't When I say they didn't have civilization, I mentioned certain benchmarks of a civilization. The first benchmark is a unified government. If you don't have a unified government, you don't have law and order in society. I mean, that's the first benchmark of a civilization. You have a unified government. And then another benchmark is literature, arts, architecture. Now, the Arabs did not have literature, they had poetry, which is one step less. They did not have written literature per se, because they didn't have reading and writing. another benchmark is architecture buildings, the Arabs did not have buildings they didn't build anything of lasting significance, whereas the Romans I mean to this day the Haga Sophia it was built before the Prophet by a hundred years, and it is still a marvel that we go and we look at in Istanbul and Constantinople and other places, the palaces of Persia they're still around Peresopolis outside of Tehran, they're still around, you can go and see them, magnificent structures The Arabs at the time didn't have that. So again, I mean, I'm not trying to, I mean, some people, apparently there were one or two people that felt a bit offended when I said this. But it's the fact that Islam came and gave the Arabs izzah. Instead of being offended, they should take pride. That Islam came and made the Arabs the top nation. Before Islam came, the Arabs were considered to be a backward Bedouin nation. And they were like that. And Allah says in the Quran, لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكُمْ كِتَابًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ We have given you a book, in it is your legacy. Your dhikr, your legacy will be through this book. This is in the Quran. That you didn't have a legacy before this book came. Before this book came, you weren't anything. Now when this book comes, لَقَدْ أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْهُمْ كِتَابًا فِيهِ ذِكْرُكُمْ This will give you a legacy that people will look up to you by. So this book came and civilized the Arabs. So the fact that the Arabs didn't have this civilization, they didn't have a unified government, they didn't have all of these factors, when Islam came, it made it easier for the Arabs to develop a unique and their own culture and civilization. There was no competition. If Islam had come to the Romans, it would have been very problematic. Because they have their entire structure up and running. And for Islam to come there, you have to then fight the status quo. In Arabia you can say there's somewhat of a vacuum. There is no status quo to fight. So when the Prophet system unites the Arabs for the first time, the wars that he's undertaking are relatively small there's no mighty unified government that's attacking him and this is of the blessings of Allah that he chose Arabia for this the first time the Arabs were ever united is under the Prophet ﷺ they were never united before him he came and he united all the Arabs all the descendants of Ismail before this they were not united and so the fact that they didn't have a civilization is in fact a blessing in disguise because then Islam came and brought that civilization. And a unique Islamic civilization with its own language, its own literature, its own script, its own coinage even, its own everything came. Everything, even its own architectural style as you know. The Umayyads had their own, the Abbases had their own, the Andalusians, all of this came. It came because there was a vacuum. And so the Arabs came and they filled that vacuum with Islam and they then brought forth a new civilization. Another benefit and wisdom of sending the Prophet to Arabia was the fact that we referenced this slightly before because of the internal warfare amongst the Arabs and their relative backward state the rise of a political entity from Arabia was completely unexpected nobody could have predicted that there will be a political force coming from Arabia it is as if right now somebody pointed to one of the lowest GDP countries let's say on the index right one of the sub-Saharan countries, let's say, and said, in five years, this will be the superpower of the world. Right now, everybody's thinking it's China or this or that. We have two, three names. And then right at the bottom, there is one or two names. Imagine if somebody said, no, no, no, all of that is wrong. It's gonna be one of those countries at the bottom. It's not even a threat. Nobody's thinking about it. So the Arabs and the Romans and the Persians were completely unprepared for the Arabian conquest. Also, another point of benefit is that Mecca was the site of the first house built for the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it was the place of Ibrahim and Ismail. Therefore it was most appropriate that Mecca become the place of the first universal religion. Because Islam is the first universal religion. Every other religion that Allah revealed, which is now called Judaism or Christianity, these are revealed religions, they were local. They weren't meant to be universal. So we believe that Jesus Christ did not come for all of the world. He came for the children of Israel. We believe that Moses was not sent for all of mankind. He was sent for only the Jews. Yet the Prophet ﷺ was sent for the entire world. So it is befitting that his place be the place where the first house of worship was ever built on earth. We already said two weeks ago that Allah says in the Quran, the first house of worship was the one built in Bakka, which became Makkah. This is the first masjid ever built on earth by humanity, by Ibrahim. So it is befitting that the first universal call come from that very valley, from that very sanctuary, from that very house. Yet another benefit of why Allah Azza wa Jal chose the Arabs, is that even though the Arabs did not have certain qualities, they had other qualities that made them very good to be receptive to that message. of those qualities was the purity of spirit. Purity of spirit. They were not polluted by philosophical indoctrinations. They didn't have other... They were simple people. And being simple has its positives and its negatives, right? Being simple has its positives and negatives. And of the positives of being simple is that when truth comes, you accept it more easily. You're not clouded by philosophical baggage, if you like. You don't have lots of weird ideas. You're a simple person, and that's why generally speaking, Even in society, subhanAllah, the first converts are always the sincere innocent people. This is the first converts, they're always the sincere people. Not the ones who are convoluted, not the ones who have... No, it's just simple. Another benefit that the Arabs had was that they were a people who were so used to hardship, so used to lack of food and lack of water and everything, that this of course helped the armies in the early conquest of Islam. You see the Romans and the Persians were spoiled troops. These were troops that needed supply lines. These were troops that had lots of armor, lots of baggage with them. Now the Arabs, they didn't have all of this. And they're used to traveling in the desert for long distances with small amounts of water, small amounts of food. And early Islamic conquest needed that. It needed that stamina that neither the Arabs, that neither the Romans nor the Persians had. And so Allah chose a group that He knew would be able to benefit Islam in its early time. Also the Arabs had characteristics that were very positive. Bravery. They were not cowards. They were brave people. They were proud. And in a sense, pride can be negative and pride can be positive. If you're proud of something that is worthy to be proud of, if you're proud of being a Muslim, this is positive. And if you're proud of being of something that is racist or something, this is negative. So having an element of pride sometimes is good. There were also honest people. The Arabs hated lying. They hated lying. They were very honest people. And there's many evidences to show this. Of them is the famous story of Abu Sufyan with Heraclius, which we referenced last week, when we talked about the emperor of Rome met Abu Sufyan. And he asked him a series of questions. And we didn't mention in a lot of detail, but Abu Sufyan was brought in front of Heraclius, and the rest of the caravan remained behind him. Because Abu Sufyan, because the Heraclius knew that Abu Sufyan is an enemy to the Prophet. He's not a believer in the Prophet. So Heraclius wanted to make sure that Abu Sufyan is speaking the truth. So he put the back of Abu Sufyan, all of the people of Quraysh were at his back, the caravan. And he's facing Heraclius. And then he told the interpreter to the people behind Abu Sufyan, if Abu Sufyan lies, make a motion to me that he's lying. Tell me that he's lying. Now they're all pagans. They're all idol worshippers. None of them are Muslims. Abu Sufyan said, were it not for the fact that my people would have accused me of being a liar, I would have invented lies against the Prophet ﷺ at that point in time. I didn't want to tell the truth. I didn't want to say all of these things because they're all positive. Is he the most noble? Is he honest? Is he trustworthy? Is he this? He said, were it not for the fact that my people would call me a liar. In other words, despite being a pagan, he didn't want to be called a liar. Truthfulness, honesty was something that was prized amongst the Arabs. Also the Arabs were sincere in their oaths. If they gave a promise, they would uphold it. We quoted last week an incident that really shows this. A promise that was upheld. Abdul Muttalib and his promise to Allah. Abdul Muttalib and his promise to Allah. Nobody is even telling him that, oh this is a promise you made to me. He made a promise to Allah. And he wanted to fulfill it. The Arabs were people of their word. And they abided by their word. And that's why there were no written contracts in Arabia until Islam came. There was no need for it. If a man said it, that was his word. There was no need for witnesses. If a man said it, that's it. He said it. He's not gonna retract on his word. So treachery was considered to be very, very evil amongst them. And the final point that we'll mention is that the Arabs were of course the best horsemen. there was no denying this that the Romans and the Persians could not compete neither with the horses of Arabia nor the riders of Arabia so the horses of Arabia were the best horses to this day the Arabian horses and by the way there are a hadith about Arabian horses by the way and the Prophet ﷺ praised horses from Arabia and subhanallah these are hadith that are authentic and subhanallah to this day the world knows that the most prized horses are Arabian horses and our Prophet ﷺ said that the best horses are the Arabian horses, the horses of this peninsula. And subhanAllah, to this day as we said, the Arabian horses are the best because our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said so, so the barakah remained, or the blessings remained in them. So the horses were the best, and then the riders were the best. And they were the most accustomed to the most brutal war. They're not used to heavy armor, they're used to riding, as we said, long distances, they're used to a very difficult type of war, which the Romans and the Persians were not going to be accustomed to. So for all of these reasons, And then of course, there is the issue of the Arabic language itself. The Arabic language is a Semitic language. And the Semitic languages are far more eloquent and powerful than languages based in Latin. Anybody who has studied Hebrew, Aramaic, those of you who have studied Arabic, you understand the transmutation of the three-letter word. ذَهَبَ فَعَلَ فَاعِلُ يَفْعَلُ مَفْعُولُ all of these transmutations, this is a very Semitic issue. It's not found in the other languages. And it's a very powerful tool. If you learn one verb, ذَهَبَ, let's say, from it you can derive over 200 nouns and verbs and concepts. Because the same verb will give you roots, will give you structures that you will derive over 200 different nouns and adjectives and verbs and what not. This is an amazing language. And it's a powerful language. And generally speaking, it is said that the Semitic languages are the most eloquent languages. We of course believe this theologically. But even people who are not of any theology, they say that the Semitic languages have a power and beauty that is not found in the other languages. Of course Semitic languages in our days is only Hebrew and Arabic that are spoken. But of course in the days gone by it was Aramaic and Syriac and all of these other languages are all Semitic languages. And the final reason why Allah chose, or the final reason we will mention, of course there must be many more. The final reason that we will mention why Allah chose the Arabs is of course the most obvious one. And that is the Prophet Ibrahim a.s. made a dua. The dua of Ibrahim a.s. As he's building the Ka'bah, him and his son Ismail. And he says, رَبَّنَا وَبَعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ O our Lord, we pray to You that from our progeny You send forth one Prophet or Messenger, رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ who will come to them and recite to them your signs, your ayat, and will purify them, and will clean them, and will teach them the book and wisdom. So Ibrahim and Ismail made a dua that there should be a prophet from their progeny. Because he knew that there would be prophets from the other progeny of Ishaq. He knew this. Because Allah says in the Quran that when Sarah became pregnant, فَبَشَّرْنَاهُ بِإِسْحَاقَ وَمِنْ وَرَىٰ إِسْحَاقَ يَعْقُبُ Even before Ishaq was born. And of course the Old Testament expounds upon this much more. Allah knows if it's true or not. But the Old Testament says that the angels or the God said to Abraham that through this son of yours shall be my covenant. Now we believe there was a covenant through that son for thousands of years. But then it was transferred to the sons of Ismail. So Allah says that when Sarah was pregnant we will give you Ishaq and after Ishaq we'll give you another prophet, Yaqub. So he's being told that there's gonna be many prophets from Ishaq. And we believe that every single prophet that came after Ibrahim, up until the prophet Muhammad s.a.w. came from the children of Ishaq. We believe that every prophet after the generation of Ibrahim was from the descendants of Ishaq. We believe this. We give them that privilege because Allah gave them that privilege. But we say the final prophet, only one prophet came after Ismail from his progeny and that is the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam so Ibrahim makes a dua that oh Allah from this son as well I want a child I want a prophet who will come to his people and who will come and recite the signs and purify and teach them the book and so of course the children of Ismail are the Arabs and so the prophet Ibrahim's dua had to be fulfilled and that is why the main reason we can say that Allah chose the Arabs The main reason I left it for the last is that the Prophet Ibrahim said, I want a prophet from this progeny, from this son. And that is indeed what Allah Azza wa Jal gave. And that was exactly the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said. That he said in an authentic hadith, اَنَا دَعْوَةُ اَبِي اِبْرَاهِيمِ He said, I am the response of the dua that my father Ibrahim made. اَنَا دَعْوَةُ اَبِي اِبْرَاهِيمِ I am that response of the dua. وَأَنَا بُشْرَىٰ عِيسَىٰ بْنِ مَرْيَمِ And I am the glad tidings that Jesus predicted. And to this day in the New Testament, there are references that Jesus says, I must leave you for, of course the Hebrew or the Greek says, paraclete, to come, has been translated in different ways. Perhaps this is a reference, and this is what some Muslim theologians say, that Jesus is saying, I have to leave for the other one to come. And the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. is saying, and the Quran is saying as well, that Jesus predicted his coming. So he said, وَأَنَا بُشْرًا and I am the good news. The good news has generally been translated as the gospel by the Christians, but we believe that Jesus Christ predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. So he's saying, I am the good news that Jesus Christ told would come. So he is the da'wah of Ibrahim and the bushra of Isa ibn Maryam. This is what our Prophet s.a.w. said. We had already pointed out that the lineage of the Prophet s.a.w. was the most noble lineage. We mentioned to you the hadith in Sahih Muslim that the Prophet s.a.w. said that out of the children of Ismail, Allah chose Kinana. Out of the children of Kinana, Allah chose Quraysh. Out of the children of Quraysh, Allah chose Bani Hashim. And out of the children of Bani Hashim, Allah chose me. And so this means that the Prophet ﷺ was chosen from the most noble of all lineages. And we firmly believe that there is no lineage more noble than his lineage. Let us now move on to the issue of the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. We spoke about Abdul Muttalib and his ancestors. we now get to the Prophet ﷺ's direct and immediate parents, and these are of course Abdullah and Aminah. Abdullah and Aminah, both of them, both of them, we have but a few lines about their life and times. We have very little about them, for a number of reasons. Firstly, because the both of them, as we know, lived very short lives. They both died in their early twenties maybe, Maybe even before this, 1819. Secondly, and so obviously you have a short life, you don't have a lot of memories to leave. I mean you have only lived a few years. Secondly, the both of them died before it was known that the Prophet is a Prophet. So nobody is recording the life and times of even those 20 years. These are regular people of Quraysh, they might be noble, they might be good but there's no prediction that these are gonna become the parents thirdly when the Prophet ﷺ becomes a prophet it's already been 40-50 years 40 years right since his parents have died and by the time he gets to Medina 53 years by the time he himself passes away 63 years who's alive to remember what happened 63 years ago right so when Islam finally reached Izzah power when Islam finally became stable who is living to remember those early days of Islam. And that is why we're gonna come to this inshallah after Ramadan when we get there. We all know that the Meccan period lasted 53 years. 40 before prophecy and 13 after prophecy. Correct? 53 years. The Medinan period lasted how many years? 10 years. Now, if we were to put all of the chronicles of those 53 years in a volume, and all of the chronicles of the Medinan years in a volume, the Medinan volume would be three times the size of the Meccan volume. Even though the time frame for Medina is 10 years, and Mecca is 53. Why? Because when Islam is stable, that's when people can record and write and talk and remember. When Islam becomes powerful, that's when it is easier to record events and remember them. When the followers become peaceful and stable, not when they're persecuted, Not when Bilal is being dragged in the streets of Medina, and Ammar is being tortured. I mean, they're not gonna have time to remember it and narrate to their children, right? So, if this is the case of the life of the Prophet ﷺ, that we have one volume versus three volumes of his life, what do you think of his mother and father? So, sadly, we have very little information, much of which is legend, much of which is not quite... We don't know for sure if it's true or not, but what we do know, what we do know, inshallah, we're trying to narrate it that we have here. Abdullah, as we know, was the one whom Abdul Muttalib was about to sacrifice. I already told you the story that he was saved. Right after this, immediately after the saving of Abdullah, Abdul Muttalib decided that he needed to choose a bride for his son. According to one report, he was 18 years old at the time. And one version says he was 20, 25 years old. But he was a young man, so a young man at the time. and Abdul Muttalib chose for him the daughter of the chief of the Banu Zuhra the Banu Zuhra were one of the tribes of the Quraysh we said many times and the average Muslim is unaware of this Quraysh is a big tribe within it are many small sub-tribes we have to memorize this Quraysh is the large tribe within it are many sub-tribes the Banu Hashim is one the Banu Zuhra is another so the chief of the Banu Zuhra had a daughter by the name of Amina His name was of course Wahab. So the chieftain of the Banu Zuhra was Wahab, and he had a daughter Amina. And so Abdul Muttalib proposed on behalf of Abdullah. Abdul Muttalib proposed to Amina binti Wahab on behalf of Abdullah. And this proposal took place shortly before the caravan season, when the caravans were about to depart to Syria. Shortly before that. and so Wahab agreed to marry his daughter to the son so they were both chieftains and so when you're the son of a chieftain you want to marry the daughter of a chieftain Abdul Muttalib is the chief of the Banu Hashim and the chief of the Banu Zuhra is Wahab and so the daughter of Wahab Amina and the daughter of Abdul Muttalib Abdullah they agreed to get married so Abdullah got married to Amina just a few days before the caravan departed and it is said that he barely spent three or five days with her before he had to go with the caravan. He spent barely a week with this new bride of his and he then departed on the caravan as you know never to be seen again. So they had an extremely short marriage because as soon as they got married he had to leave for the caravan. Now there are some legends here there are some stories here that are not authentically narrated but there's no harm in mentioning them because there's nothing wrong with them. Now I have to point out here that I try my best to keep authentic stories only. We need to realize that just like with any story, and our Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is no exception, people wanted to add legends and make it bigger and bigger. And in fact it is very true to say that because he is the Prophet of Allah shallallahu alaihi wasallam, people wanted to add more details and make it more flowery than it is. Our job is to stick to the facts. Our job is to look at it academically through the science of hadith, the science of transmission we don't let our emotions sway us sometimes it's okay to narrate such stories if there's nothing wrong with them and this is one of them that their legends are mentioned that Abdullah had a type of brightness on his face he had a type of nadara it's called and that it is also mentioned that he was a very handsome young man and so the young damsels of the Quraish were all eager to marry him, the young ladies of the Quraish were all eager that he would propose to them. And it is said that a number of them hinted at this to him. That why don't you take me as a bride and why don't you propose to me, I'll be more than willing to become your bride. And he said, I have to follow my father, whatever my father wishes. After he married Amina, those same ladies that were suggesting themselves to him to marry, they stopped taking an interest in him completely. And so he said, what is the matter? Why are you not speaking with me or anything? so they said that you had a brightness in your face that no longer is there, this is what is said meaning that after he was with Amina for a while, this brightness left meaning that obviously it's now the progeny the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Allah knows best, this is not an authentic one but there's no harm in narrating something like this, nonetheless so within a week of marriage, less than a week after marriage he only spent a few days with Amina he then had to leave, catch the caravan go all the way to Syria on the way back from Syria he fell severely ill with the caravan and he was slowing the caravan down and by the time they got to Yathrib which was later to become Medina he said to the caravan I'm slowing you down I have relatives in Yathrib I will stay with them until I recover you go back to Mecca question, who were his relatives in Yathrib? how did he have relatives in Yathrib? go back two weeks Abdul Muttalib's what? Mother. So that's his grandmother. That's his paternal grandmother. Now subhanallah, notice Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala prepared some relationship with the Prophet ﷺ in the city he would go to. This is very rare. The Quraysh married amongst themselves. It's very rare for them to go to... Out of nowhere, Yathrib is not a city that is common for them, right? And yet Allah prepared this. There's a relationship with Yathrib. The Prophet says, we're going to come in two weeks. He visited Yathrib as a six-year-old boy. Because his mother wanted to take him there, right? So there's a relationship with the city. Allah has in His divine plan this prepared. And so Abdullah says, I have my cousins here in the tribe of Banu Najjar. I have my cousins here. I will stay with them until I recover. You go back to Mecca. By the time the caravan got back to Mecca, Amin is all excited. My husband's coming back. I want to tell him that I'm pregnant. And lo and behold, he's not with the caravan. so most likely Abdullah did not even know that Aminah was pregnant in fact if we believe this version of the events which is Ibn Sa'ad he could not have known because he was only with her for four days so by the time the caravan comes back she is told that he is sick and he should be coming in a few weeks after he recovers and then the next news comes that he has in fact passed away in Yathrib whatever the sickness was we don't know he had passed away at a very young age 20-22 years old he passes away and he is buried somewhere over there nobody knows where he is buried Nobody has ever discovered this, can anybody do it now? But he's buried somewhere in Yathrib. So Aminah becomes a widow at the age of 18, 19, young age, maybe even younger than this, carrying the offspring of Abdullah. And the Prophet ﷺ is born in the famous year of the elephant, and this leads us to the issue now of the date of his birth. when exactly was he born. Now, and this is the next discussion which will last us quite a while. Because I believe that this is interesting to discuss and also has relevance to modern times. Now we have been told that the Prophet ﷺ was born on the 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal. And this is the commonly known date. Yet the fact of the matter is that our early historical textbooks mention a number of dates. And there is no unanimous agreed upon decision regarding the date of the Prophet ﷺ's birth. The Prophet ﷺ told us certain things that we know for sure. Of them, in the famous hadith of Sahih Muslim, that a man asked the Prophet ﷺ, why do you fast on Mondays? Why do you fast every Monday? He said, this was the day I was born on. And this was the day that revelation began to me. Iqra came down on Monday. so we know for a fact he was born on a Monday okay, that narrows down a day of the week how about a year? well there are some narrations that mention the year as well there is a beautiful narration in which Uthman ibn Affan asks one of the oldest Qurashis and his name is Qubath ibn Ashyam after the death of the Prophet ﷺ he asks him are you Akbar? meaning, what does Akbar here mean? Older. Because he's an old, old man. But of course Akbar also means bigger or grander. Right? So, Qubayth smiles and he goes, the Prophet ﷺ is Akbar minni, but I am older than him. He changed the question because the question is alluding to the fact, are you bigger than the Prophet ﷺ? So he said, no, the Prophet ﷺ is bigger than me, but I am older than him. And then he says, the Prophet ﷺ was born, عام الفيل Aha, we have a year now. He was born in the year of the elephant. And as for me, I remember my mother taking me outside of Mecca as a child, and I saw the dried up green dung that the elephants had left. What is this show? What is this show? That he remembers the elephant's dung, which is basically the same year, the year of the elephants, right? And the Prophet ﷺ was born that year. So he's a little bit older than the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ is bigger than him. This hadith is narrated in Tirmidhi. So, Qubayth therefore puts a date. Also we have, somebody asked another Sahabi, Suwaid ibn Ghafla, about the Prophet ﷺ's birth, and he said, the Prophet ﷺ and I were both born the same year that we were born عام الفيل, the year of the elephant. So from both of these narrations, we can pretty much verify that the Prophet ﷺ was born in the year of the elephant. Even though there are some opinions he was born 10, 15, 20 years before, after, but these are very minuscule minority. The bulk or the vast majority of early historians said he was born in the year of the elephant. We already said the Arabs did not have a calendar. We already said that they would have a calendar based upon events. The year of the drought, the year of the invasion, the year of the elephant. And then for the next 5-10 years, they would say, 2 years after the year of the elephant, 3 years before the year of the elephant, until something else big happened. And then they began something else, right? So this was their calendar system until Umar ibn al-Khattab came and said, we need a calendar. This is a part of civilization to have your calendar, right? We need a calendar. And then he made the Islamic Hijri calendar which we follow to this day. So, pretty much we are confirmed now two things. the year of the elephant and a Monday okay, what is the year of the elephant? difficult to date because we don't have any type of chronicles of the Abyssinians and what they did but by and large piecing together various factors that are beyond the scope of this majority of historians say this corresponds to 570 of the Christian era 570 of the Christian era 570 CE the Prophet ﷺ was born now how about the day of the so it's the year of the elephant fine how about the month and the day of the month when we look at two of the earliest books ever written about the history of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam we find differing accounts the most famous book of history is of course Ibn Ishaq we talked about it, the seerah of Ibn Ishaq Ibn Ishaq died 150 Hijrah Ibn Ishaq says without any chain of narrators he is writing from himself that the Prophet ﷺ was born on a Monday the 12th of Rabi'ul Awwal in the year of the elephant so this explains why this opinion is present he says very clearly that the Prophet ﷺ was born on a Monday on the 12th of Rabi'ul Awwal in the year of the elephant however between him and the Prophet ﷺ are almost 200 years because remember going back to the birth of the Prophet ﷺ is 53 before Hijrah. So between him and the birth of the Prophet ﷺ is 200 years. And he doesn't tell us where he gets it from, who's narrating this to him, what is the chain of narrators. When we look at the second earliest book, and this is called the Tabakat of Ibn Sa'd, which was written around 220 or so Hijrah, the Tabakat of Ibn Sa'd, the Tabakat of Ibn Sa'd says that it is said that the Prophet ﷺ was born on a Monday. Some people say, I quote, he was born on the 10th of Rabi'ul-Awwal. Others say he was born on the 2nd of Rabi'ul-Awwal. End quote. Two opinions, neither of which conform to the 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal. Ibn Abbas, it is said, also said the 10th of Rabi'ul-Awwal. Ibn Kathir, the famous historian of Islam, Ibn Kathir in his Al-Bidayah wa Al-Nihaya says that the majority opinion is that the Prophet ﷺ was born in Rabi' al-Awwal, but others have other months as well. And then scholars differed with regards to the date of his birth. One group said he was born on the second of Rabi' al-Awwal. Number second of Rabi' al-Awwal. Ibn Kathir says this was the opinion of Abu Ma'shar al-Sindi, a famous scholar of history, died 171. It was also the opinion of Ibn Abdul Bar, a very famous scholar of Andalus, died 463. It was also the opinion of Al-Waqidi, who died 207. Al-Waqidi is one of the most famous historians of early Islam. So we have three very early authorities saying he was born on the second of Rabi'ul-Awwal. Ibn Kathir goes on. Another opinion is that he was born on the eighth of Rabi'ul-Awwal. He says, this is the opinion of Ibn Hazm, famous scholar of Andalus, Imam Malik Ibn Anas, you all know Imam Malik, the scholar of Medina. and the opinion of a Zuhri who is again, I mean I cannot explain how famous a Zuhri is, 128 Hijrah and opinion of Muhammad ibn Jubair ibn Mut'im a number of famous people of the past the 8th of Rabi'ul-Awwal Ibn Kathir moves on a third opinion is that he was born on the 10th of Rabi'ul-Awwal so we have now 2nd, 8th and 10th the 10th of Rabi'ul-Awwal he says this is the opinion of Ibn Asakir and the opinion of Ja'far as-Sadiq who is Ja'far as-Sadiq? cousin he's the descendant of the Prophet and the Shia consider him to be one of the Imams he's the sixth Imam for the Shia but he's the descendant of the Prophet so one of the descendants of the Prophet says that he was born on the 10th of Rabi'ul-Awwal Ibn Kathir says the fourth opinion is that he was born on the 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal and this is the opinion of Ibn Ishaq But there is no isnad on this matter. In other words, there is no chain of narrators that mentions anything about the 12th of Rabi' al-Awwal. Ibn Kathir does say that this is the most popular opinion in his time. Ibn Kathir died 770 something, way after. In medieval Islam, 12th of Rabi' al-Awwal is the most popular opinion. And from medieval Islam up until our times it was the most popular. But in early Islam it was not the most popular. The 5th opinion, the 17th of Rabi' al-Awwal, the sixth opinion, the 22nd of Rabi'ul-Awwal the seventh opinion, he was even born in Rabi'ul-Awwal he was born in Ramadan and this is the opinion of Zubayr ibn Bakar who was the first scholar to ever write a history on Mecca and he died 256 Hijrah and then there are other opinions as well so to summarize, there are over 10 opinions in the earliest books of Islam about the exact day that the Prophet ﷺ was born none of them are is let's say indisputable. None of them are clear cut. None of them have solid evidence. All of them are the opinions of early authors and narrators. And to be very academic, the opinion of the twelfth of Rabi'ul-Awwal seems to have much less weight than the second and the eighth and the tenth. Because these three have tabi'un taba tabi'un. They have descendants of the Prophet ﷺ. Whereas the opinion of the twelfth It is by Ibn Ishaq, who is 200 years after the birth of the Prophet ﷺ, and he doesn't have any chain. So if this is the case, why then is the opinion of the 12th Rabi' al-Awwad the most popular, so much so that, for many of you it's shocking that I'm daring to go against this fact of history. This might be blasphemy to tell you, that how dare you. Why is it so popular? Very easy to respond. Point number one, Ibn Ishaq. I already mentioned that 90% of authors who write about seerah, they only rely on Ibn Ishaq they just take Ibn Ishaq and summarize it, redo it, translate it do this and that, that's what they do and it's a good book, but it's not the only book so because Ibn Ishaq is Ibn Ishaq, and because he says 12th of Rabiul Awl, end of story no questions asked, it's gonna be the 12th of Rabiul Awl the second opinion, or the second reason why the 12th of Rabiul Awl became so popular is that, and this leads us to a controversial issue, but I don't shy away from controversy as you all know, is that the first time that the Prophet ﷺ's birthday was celebrated as a public event, i.e. the Mawlidun Nabi or the Miladun Nabi as we call it, the first time that it was celebrated, the authorities who celebrated it chose the 12th of Rabi'ul Awal. and because they chose the twelfth the Rabi'ul Awwal, now that's it it just spread like wildfire the day and the event and the custom now I have written a detailed article about the history of the Mawlad and who started it and how did it become popular and you can refer to it on Muslim Adul is called a history of the Mawlad by myself, you can just google it and you'll find it three parts and just to summarize, the Mawlad or the Miladun Nabi the first recorded instance that we have of anybody celebrating Milad al-Nabi is around 517 Hijrah. 517 Hijrah. I.e. the 6th century of Islam. So for 500 years, the concept of celebrating the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ is simply unknown to the Muslims. They cannot, because celebrating birthdays is not a custom that comes from Islam or from, I'm not saying it's haram by them, I'm saying it's not something that the Arabs would do. they wouldn't record birthdays to celebrate them in the first place, right? many of you, I know my own grandmother had no idea when she was born they didn't record these things it was not something of significance to them the day and the month and the year that you were born this is a western concept that is now modern, everybody records it but that was not something that if you even ask your own grandparents many of them would not know it's not something that was recorded and so the concept of celebrating it is a very late addition and the first group that celebrated it were the Fatimids of Egypt. And the Fatimids are a dynasty that are not of Sunni theology. They are an extreme Shi'i dynasty. The Fatimids are the ancestors of, in today's time, the Aga Khanis and the Buhra, the Ismailis. The Fatimids are the ancestors of these groups, the extreme Shi'a groups. And for a number of years they ruled over Egypt, the Fatimid dynasty ruled over Egypt. and they instituted over 30-40 festivals. And of course there's a reason why rulers have festivals. Why do people have festivals? What does it do? Distracting. And economy. People come and buy and sell. Popularity of whatever is called the nation state in our times or in their times the ruling family. So there's a reason why the ruling class want to have public festivals. There's a philosophy behind it. And the Fatimids had over 30 or 40 public festivals throughout there. Every few weeks there was a major event and festival. And they celebrated Ghadir Khum. They celebrated Tent of Muharram. These are all Shia festivals. They celebrated the birth of this Imam, the death of that Imam. And of those celebrations it is said, they celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. This is the first time in Islamic history that we come across the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ. As I said, 517 Hijrah, 517. And the people who are doing it are these Fathimids. And as we said, there is clearly a motive for them to do it. When it was done in Fathimid Egypt, then 150 years later, some Sunni governors thought this was a good idea, and they imported this particular festival. And because it was done in Egypt on the 12th of Rabi'ul Awal, Egypt at that time was a Fathimid state, they imported it to Mosul which is outside of Baghdad it's a place in Iraq the first Sunni governor he was not a Khalifa the first Sunni governor who celebrated the Mawlad celebrated it around 670 or so Hijrah so for 670 years this was unknown in the Muslim world to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ and this celebration was done once again on the 12th and it became a very luxurious festival and various governors and rulers would then compete with each other who could have the bigger festival and the grander festival. Free meat and free bread and free gifts were given out and people. So it became literally a national festival. And as I said, there are reasons why rulers want to do this. And so they began to compete with one another in order to attract the trade, the commerce. Just like now, why do governments want the Olympics to happen in their country? why do governments want the world cup to come to their country there's reasons, we need to be a little bit more reading in here and so the governors wanted these festivals to become the biggest, so each one wants theirs to be bigger and bigger, and of course it's the birthday of the procession, who's ever going to say anything about that and so slowly but surely from 660 AH it began to spread in Sunni lands, initially some scholars opposed it some scholars said well if you do it with these conditions it's okay after a while, under public pressure just the floodgates opened and it became a very very common festival and you all know my opinion on this is that the way to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet ﷺ if you really wanted to celebrate it is to fast on Mondays because that's what he would do if you really want to celebrate his birthday then you should fast every Monday because when he was asked why do you fast on Monday he said because I was born on a Monday so to take one day of the year and do events and what not I mean I'm not going to be harsh here but let me just say it's a really easy cop out to show that you're loving the Prophet ﷺ if you do something one day. Real love is to be dedicated throughout the year. Real love is to show that love every single day. And not just one day of the year by giving some money and going to a festival. Nonetheless, so because the first time that the Mawlad was celebrated was the 12th of Rabi'ul Awl, what happened? It became the date associated in the minds of the people. Even though, then we conclude here with this section, move on to the next one. Even though academically speaking, it is actually a very weak date. And the 8th and the 10th and even the 2nd are more authentic historically, and they have evidences from the Sahaba and Tabi'un more than the 12th of Rabi'ul-Awwal. Now, we also know that, and there are chains of narrators, back to Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib who died 95 Hijrah, so there's a gap, he didn't see the Prophet ﷺ. But he said that it has been narrated to me that the Prophet ﷺ was born at high noon. so there's a gap but it is a gap in early Islam so we can overlook it Saeed ibn Musayyib died 95 his father is of the age of the companions right so we can overlook this little gap and this is the only narration that we have about the timing of his birth and that is high noon when the sun was at its pinnacle and peak and of course there is a clear symbolism here that is not lost on anybody that when the sun is brightest this is when the prophet is coming out with his own truth that is when Allah is revealing or where Allah is sending down the Prophet ﷺ, because it is coinciding with the time of the bright sun, just like the bright sun illuminates everything, so too this Prophet ﷺ will illuminate everything, and nothing will remain dark around him. Now, when it comes to the actual birth of the Prophet ﷺ, there are so many legends and so many narrations, not one of which is academically sound, except for one. Except for one. All the rest of them are really legends. and these legends are mentioned and subhanallah what is really amazing and you know I have to say this frankly here that we don't need to invent lies to praise the Prophet ﷺ we don't need to invent fairy tales Allah has praised him enough and the facts are enough we don't need to fabricate things and what is really amazing is that the earliest books you go to has the least information but as you go on and on in history then the books get bigger and bigger and the details get more and more and you wonder where did this come from and I mean if you want to come to my house to even demonstrate to you Ibn Ishaq is this big and then I have another book written in the 9th century about the seerah wallahi it is this big now Ibn Ishaq is the first book of seerah and he is saying I want to write everything I come across and it's this big and then you have a book written 700 years later 5 times the size of Ibn Ishaq and this book is full of and it is said to me and my sheikh said and this and that. Where is it coming from? It's something that, as we said, little bit legends and what not. So, what some of you might have heard, the Prophet ﷺ was born, let's say already circumcised. One report says. Another says he was born and he fell into sajda. Another said he was born and he lifted his finger to the sky to say the shahada. I mean, we don't need to do this. And it makes a mockery of our religion. It makes a mockery of our religion. We don't need to invent these things about the Prophet ﷺ. he is the best human being. And the facts are enough to show us that. And when we resort to these tales, wallahi, it makes our religion not look as dignified as it needs to look. Ibn Ishaq mentions none of these things. None of these things. Because he doesn't have this information. But when you turn to books written in 700 Hijrah, 800 Hijrah, mashallah, the guy knows so many details, you wonder, where did he get it from? There's only one hadith that mentions the birth of the Prophet. He mentions his own birth. and it is a hadith narrated in Musnad Imam Ahmad Imam Ahmad's book of hadith and it is an authentic hadith that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said when my mother gave birth to me aha, so now he is telling us it's a hadith that goes back to him it's not some, because again imagine who witnessed Amina in the room come on, you know, use the brain that Allah has given us, would a man be there and witness Amina being given birth so that he then narrates that when he came out he fell into a sajda, when he came out he lifted his finger to the sky. I mean, you think about it. But now the Prophet ﷺ is saying, so Allah told him this happened. He is saying, when my mother gave birth to me, this happened. Right? So now this is something we don't have to doubt at all. The Prophet ﷺ is telling us. So he said, that when my mother was carrying me, this is the first thing, that when my mother was carrying me, and in one version, وَضَعَتْ مِي, gave birth to me. So both versions are mentioned, but the point is when he was either in the room, or when he came out, my mother saw a light emanate from her that cast its light or it reached all the way to the city of Busra in the land of Syria. The city of Busra in the land of Syria. Busra is on the south which is the border of what is... Near Dara'ah. Near Dara'ah. But these people don't know where Dara'ah is so that doesn't do us much good. I might, but these people don't know where Dara'ah is. is basically very close to the Arabian border. It's more on the southern side of the Arabian, what is now Saudi Arabia, closer to that side. So it's on the southern side of Syria. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying that, my mother saw a light, either in a dream or a physical light, she doesn't mention what, coming from her, that came all the way and illuminated the palaces or the city of Busra, the palaces of the cities of Busra in Sham, in Syria. Now, what is the significance of this? Scholars have tried to understand why Syria and why, you know, this light coming from Amir. Of course the light is him, the light is the Prophet ﷺ, that she's carrying something that will bring light to Busra of Sham. Allah knows best, but there's some things that have been derived here, that Sham or Syria is mentioned because, now the people of Syria can be happy, Alhamdulillah, there's a lot of Syrians here. Last time I taught this class, there was no Syrians there. So now we have a lot of Syrians here. Syria is a blessed land, according to our religion. Now before you get really happy, do realize that the Islamic Syria is not modern Syria. Islamic Syria includes modern day Jordan and modern day Palestine, a number of different. So Sham is broader than modern day Syria. But you guys are included, so you can breathe easily. Alhamdulillah. So you are the core, yes, you are the core, true so it is true that our religion considers Sham to be a holy land overall and of course the children of Ishaq Bani Israel, the Jews, they always considered that region to be holy and in particular, Palestine region to be holy to this day they do that, right? so we also believe that there is a type of holiness in these lands and that is why Allah says in the Quran سُبْحَانَ ذِي أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِّنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَىٰ الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَىٰ alladhi barakna hawlahu There is barakah around Masjid al-Aqsa. This is Sham. Sham, there is barakah over there. And the Prophet ﷺ predicted that Sham will remain a fortress of Islam. There's always gonna be people of Islam in Sham. And amazingly, Sham was the first major country that was conquered, province that was conquered after the Arabian Peninsula, right? Right after the death of the Prophet ﷺ in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab, Sham was conquered. And one of the first cities, maybe even the first city, that was outside the Arabian Peninsula is, Busra. So there is an indication, that the Prophet ﷺ is gonna challenge status quo. Sham was the right arm of the Byzantine Empire. I mean Damascus, do you understand? We think of Damascus as an Arab land, an Arab civilization. Before the coming of Islam, Damascus was the right hand of the Byzantine Empire. It was the jewel of the Romans. it was where everything happened commerce and trade and culture and civilization everything was there it was impossible for the Arabs to think that one day Damascus would be the core of Arab civilizations the Umayyad's capital was Damascus so by showing the light going to the borders of Syria there is an indication that Islam is going to conquer this land it will take over and that's exactly what happened that the very first land that was conquered was the land of Syria and we also believe as Muslims that Isa Ibn Maryam will come down in Sham he's not gonna come down in Mecca and Medina he will descend in Sham because it was Sham that was made holy by his ancestors, the children of Ishaq it was Sham that was made holy and he will come down in Damesh and that is where he will meet the Mahdi and that is of course towards the end of time so Sham has a symbolism and of course at this point I have to make dua that Allah Azza wa Jal frees Sham from the tyranny that it is currently undergoing and that Allah helps the people who are trying to oppose this tyranny and gives them sabr and patience. And may Allah Azza wa Jal bring the glory of Sham that used to be, bring it back to Sham. We finish up here, there's only a few minutes left. We finish up here by mentioning a few more things that are alleged to have occurred that are not found in the authentic books. But they're, Allah knows, but it says that the temples of the pagans fell down in other lands. I mean, these are things that there's no recorded history of. and I don't believe this to be true myself. Now one thing, a lot of scholars say, that when the Prophet ﷺ was born, this was when the jinn were stopped entry from the heavens. You guys are familiar with this concept? That the jinn were allowed entry into the heavens to listen to the angels. And Allah references this in the Quran, in Surah al-Jinn. That, وَأَنَّا كُنَّا نَقْعُدُ مِنْهَا مَقَاعِدَ لِلسَّمْعِ We used to listen, we had our resting places and we would listen to the angelic discussions فَمَنْ يَسْتَمِعِ الْآنَ يَجِدَّهُ شِهَابًا رَصَدًا whoever listens now will find shihab and rasada or basically comets or what not kicking him out so one group of scholars says when the prophet was born this was when the heavens were closed to these shayateen but the correct opinion is that this occurred not at the birth but when he became a prophet i.e. at the age of 40. And this is clearly referenced in other hadith as well. That when Iqra came down, when Jibreel came down, basically revelation, that was when the skies were closed. And that was when the jinns began wondering what is happening. And then Allah says in the Quran, that a group of jinns heard the Quran being recited. And they came back believing in the Quran. So this did not occur at the birth, I just wanted to point that out. And the final thing that we'll say, time is already up, subhanAllah I was wanting to go a few more pages, but time is already up. Ibn Ishaq mentions that the Prophet ﷺ was circumcised on the seventh day. Pause here for a while. Later books, seven centuries later mention he was born uncircumcised. The first book mentions factually, matter of fact, that his grandfather circumcised him on the seventh day. And this is, subhanallah, there is nothing wrong with this. He is a normal child, born of a normal marriage, a normal birth. And so his grandfather circumcised him on the seventh day. And his grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, held a feast for him. and his grandfather chose the name Muhammad, which was a unique and unusual name. Some scholars say that this was an unknown name to the Arabs. And one group of scholars says, well, it was known, but it was not common. And this seems to be the stronger opinion. Because there are people whose references we have, whose name was Muhammad. But it was a very uncommon name. And there was nobody in Mecca by that name. Nobody in Mecca. So when people asked Abdul Muttalib, why are you calling him by a name that nobody knows? Nobody's heard of. Why don't you call him one of your standard names of your fathers and forefathers? He said, I want him to be praised by the people of the earth as I want him to be praised by the people of the heavens. Muhammad means the one who is praised. I want him to be praised by the people of the earth as I want him to be praised by the people in the heavens. And when the Prophet ﷺ was born, the news spread amongst the Quraish and Abu Lahab who was later to become an enemy at this time of course he is an uncle and of course he is always going to remain an uncle but at this time he is not an enemy Abu Lahab who was one of the older uncles by the way, because remember there were ten brothers and Abu Lahab was born of another mother no other full brother, Abu Lahab did not have any full brother, Abu Talib and Abdullah were full brothers and others were full brothers, Hamza and Safiyah were full brother and sister. Abu Lahab was his own. He didn't have any full. He was much older. So perhaps he felt a type of, I have to care for this offspring, this orphan. You know, my younger brother died and whatnot. Perhaps he felt some sympathy. And so the girl that came running, the slave girl that came running to tell him that your son's brother has been born, your son's offspring has been born. This girl, as soon as Abu Lahab heard the news, he told her, I set you free. I'm so happy, you're free. It was a slave girl. So he became so happy that just because she came with this good news, he set her free. It shows that he was so happy. And her name was Thuweiba. Thuweiba. And in our Indian Pakistani culture, it was transformed to Sobia. But it is in fact Thuweiba. And those of you who are named Sobia, this goes back to this misreading of Thuweiba. Nothing wrong with it by the way, is just the name. And so, there is a hadith in Muslim Imam Ahmed, and with this hadith we conclude and then pray inshaAllah, that Hamza saw, sorry not Hamza, Abbas, Abbas saw Abu Lahab in a dream. After he died, Abu Lahab, after Abu Lahab died, he saw him in a dream. And he saw him being punished with the utmost severe punishment. Because this is Abu Lahab, So Abba said to him, did not your relationship with the Prophet ﷺ, your uncle who basically benefits you, he said, no, except for one thing that I did. That when the good news came that he was born, I freed Thuwaiba, and because of this I am allowed a few drops of water. a few drops of water because I did this good thing when the Prophet ﷺ was born because of this I'm allowed just a little bit that's my concession that's given to me that's all that is given to him but the point being that he released Thuwaiba and made her free so she was happy at the birth of the Prophet ﷺ we will continue inshallah next week and the week after that and then for the month of July a different series will start Dr. Bishra will take over completely in a different series two weeks we'll be doing the seerah inshallah and with this we don't have time for questions so we will call somebody to do the adhan and I will see you inshallah next time, assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

Seerah 50 - Massacres of Al Raji & Bir Ma'una - Yasir Qadhi _ 27th February 2013-xyFR8wI9MfA

Al-Fatiha. from the battle of Uhud. We have finished the battle of Uhud in our last few sessions. And move on to the next two major incidents, both of which were very sad. They caused the Prophet ﷺ a lot of grief and a lot of personal loss because they both involved massacres. They both involved large groups of the Sahaba being brutally killed and these are called the incident of Bi'r Ma'una and the incident of Ar-Rajee' Bi'r Ma'una and Ar-Rajee' so what exactly happened it appears that the apparent let's say loss of Uhud or at least the Muslims were not the clear victors it actually made some of the Bedouin tribes around Medina greedy that it appeared that now they'll be able to attack Medina and remember that Bedouins by and large they would earn their income by raids that's the primary source of income is by raiding and by simply stealing this was the way of the desert. And also there also appears to have been now the beginnings of religious animosity. We've seen this a little bit at Uhud and now it's gonna go more and more where it is becoming a war against Islam and Shirk. Whereas before it was a war basically between the Muslims and Quraysh. Now it is becoming into an all out war. And a number of small skirmishes took place. Some of which don't really have much significance. Of them is a very small skirmish. It didn't have any significance now. It will have later on that the Muslims attacked a small tribe of the Banu Asad. And their leader was Tuleyha al-Asadi. And Tuleyha al-Asadi was one of those who declared himself to be a false prophet. After the Prophet ﷺ passed away, he's one of those 30 Dajjals. So this loss basically was one of the main incentives that he's wanting to get his revenge. So after the Prophet ﷺ passed away, Tulaikha al-Asadi was one of those who later proclaimed prophethood. But this is a small incident. The Prophet ﷺ sent 150 people and he was the conqueror over them. But it basically caused Tulaikha to flip and become very angry. And he had this animosity until he announced his prophethood. The main two stories as we said are Ar-Rajee'ah and Ma'unah. And let us begin with Ar-Rajee'ah. And some say Ar-Rajee'ah and some say Ar-Rajee'ah. And it is called Ar-Rajee'ah because that is the name of the well around which the massacre took place. And Ma'una is the name of the other well. They're both wells. Ar-Rajee'ah and Ma'una, they're both wells. And what happened was, the beginnings of Ar-Rajee'ah actually go back a little bit. We need to go back a little bit. The tribe of Hudhail, which was one of the large Bedouin tribes in the north, had started planning an attack on Medina. And their chieftain Abdullah ibn Unays al-Juhani, the chieftain of the Hudhail, sorry, excuse me, Abdullah ibn Unays is a Sahabi, my mistake, Khalid ibn Sufyan al-Hudhali, the chieftain of the Hudhail, Abdullah ibn Unays is the Sahabi, scratch that. Khalid ibn Sufyan al-Hudhali, the chieftain of the Hudhail, he began gathering a small army to surprise attack Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ then decided to preemptively attack him and execute him, so that the whole plan basically is dismissed. So he chose Abdullah ibn Unays al-Juhani, he's the Sahabi. he chose Abdullah ibn Unaysa al-Juhani to basically hunt down Khadid ibn Sufyan and get rid of him so that no longer can he gather an army so this was going to be a one man show you just go and you cut off the head this is not a large expedition, this is a very dangerous expedition, it's a one man show you go, you get rid of this guy so that there is no army going to attack and so he said you will find him in the valley of Arana, Allah told him you will find him in the valley of Arana, right now go and you will meet him there. Few guards, you know, it's a good time. Now is the time to strike. Allah Azzawajal told him. And so he said, O Messenger of Allah, what does he look like? I've never seen him. Now the Prophet ﷺ had also never seen him. The Prophet ﷺ had never seen him. So he said, when you see him, you shall feel more terrified than you've ever been at anybody's appearance. So this is like, you can imagine the Bedouin, typical chieftain of a Bedouin, who has no sense of hygiene, no sense of anything. He's living a very rough, very crude life. And he looks the part of an evil, if you like, you know, Bedouin chieftain. Right? So he said, when you see him, you will feel terrified. That is his sign. Now the Prophet ﷺ had not seen him either. But obviously Jibreel had told him of this. And so he said, I only took my sword because this is a top secret mission, if you like. He's not going to take an army. I only took my sword and I headed towards the valley of Arana. And he said, when I saw him in the distance, and he's quoting first hand, I had never been as terrified of anybody's shakl as this man's. Like he looks like a devil. He looks evil. And you know there are people like this. He looks evil just looking at him. So he said, صدق الله ورسوله Allah in the messenger has spoken the truth that this is the real perception that happened. And then an interesting thing happened. he said that, now he's seeing him far away in the distance, and it's time it doesn't say for what salah, we're assuming it's Asr but it doesn't say what, so which book did you read Dhuhr in? Ibn Ishaq says Dhuhr, okay, jayyit I did not see Dhuhr in the book that I read okay, so Ibn Ishaq says Dhuhr, but then why didn't he do Jum'ah then if that is Dhuhr, in any case, okay so he says he saw him in the distance, and because he was worried that the time would basically go away he prayed as he was walking to the chieftain. And he just made gestures with his head. أَوْمَ أَبِي رَأْسِ He just made gestures with his head. And he therefore prayed the first time in Islamic history, the first time ever, a type of salah that was later called one version of Salatul Khawf. This is one version. Salatul Khawf has many versions. This is one version of Salatul Khawf where if you cannot even stop and face the qibla and say Allahu Akbar, you just pray as you are. As he's walking, he's praying. And this is the first time ever in Islamic history that this salah had ever been prayed. So he made an ijtihad as we're gonna come back to this, and he walked all the way there. And then he got close to Khalid ibn Sufyan, and he found out, is this the person? Are you actually gathering an army? Let me also join your army. So basically he's making sure this is the guy. He gives the impression that you don't have anything to be worried about. And then when the time was right, khalas, he got rid of him. So this was a time when his people were not around him. He was basically alone in the valley with a few people. And that's exactly what the Prophet ﷺ knew. That at this time is his vulnerability time. So Abdullah ibn Ulaith then immediately came back. And as soon as the Prophet ﷺ saw him, he said, may your faith be successful. meaning it's clear you have come back successful. And he made dua for him and he gifted him a staff. He gifted him a staff. And he said, this shall be the sign between me and you on Yawm al-Qiyamah. This shall be a sign between me and you on Yawm al-Qiyamah. Meaning you're gonna basically get some privilege or something. And so Abdullah ibn Unaysh, he forever always had this staff with him in peace and in war, in battle and in the house, he never ever let this staff out of his sight. And when he died, he commanded that he gave the wasiyah that the staff be buried with him in his qabr. Now obviously from this incident, it's gonna lead to a raji'ah. What's gonna happen is gonna lead to a raji'ah. This incident, we learn two things. Obviously, it goes without saying, the miracle of the Prophet ﷺ by describing him and by telling where he is. Although this is clear that Allah ﷻ informed the Prophet ﷺ of this. and also that he chose the right person for the job. That he chose the right person. Abdullah bin Unais was the right person to basically go in this way and he managed to ingratiate himself, he managed to make himself feel comfortable and then immediately got rid of him. Another interesting thing that we learn from this incident is that the Sahaba made ijtihad about fiqh even during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. So even during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, they made ijtihad. And this is a clear evidence that, and this is well known that there are a number of sahaba, they would make ijtihad, and this shows us the legal permissibility of making ijtihad. Even when the Prophet ﷺ is alive, ijtihad was done. And when he would hear of the ijtihad, sometimes he would affirm it, and sometimes he would fine tune it or change it. So for example, it is said that Ammar ibn Yasir, when he fell junub in the desert, and he did not have any water, what did he do? He made ijtihad and qiyas. And he said, well if we do tayammum for wudu, I guess we're gonna have to do tayammum for ghusl as well. So he took all of his clothes off, he's alone in the desert, and he rolled around in the sand. He rolled around in the sand. And then he came back and he told the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ laughed and said, all you needed to do was this. And he showed him how to do tayammum. But what does this show? Ijtihad was done. Ijtihad was done and this shows us the legal permissibility of extrapolating what we know of the Qur'an and Sunnah to cater to a situation that the Qur'an and Sunnah does not tell us about. This is called Ijtihad. And therefore this shows us the basis of our religion being applicable in all times and place through the medium of Ijtihad. Now, this occurred in Muharram of the fourth year of the Hijrah. okay, so Muharram of the fourth year of the Hijrah, basically a few months after Uhud, so what happened they've just killed their chieftain so what did they do, the tribe of Hudhail resorted to a very dirty tactic a very evil tactic in order to get revenge they contacted two other tribes, Udal and Qarra and they paid them some money to set up a trap this is now a blatant if you like tactic to get the Muslims to kill them to set up a trap and it involved a simple plot and that plot was you guys pretend to accept Islam go to Medina pretend to be Muslims and then beg the Prophet ﷺ to send you teachers the most qualified to come back and teach you the religion because they knew that the Sahaba loved to go and teach. And that the Prophet ﷺ would send teachers, Qur'an teachers, Salah teachers to the people. And so Udal and Qarradah, both of them sent their delegations. And they insisted to get as many of the teachers that the Prophet ﷺ could afford to send. And so between 7 and 10, most likely 10 people, they volunteered for this task under the leadership of Asim ibn Thabit. Asim ibn Thabit. and when they got to the well of Ar-Rajee' this is why it is called the incident of Ar-Rajee' when they got to the well of Ar-Rajee' a hundred warriors ambushed them. There are only seven or ten people. A hundred people now surround them and they realize this is a trap. They realize this was a setup, this was not an actual sincere conversion. And when they saw the hundred people coming in the distance, they managed to take shelter in a small hill they managed to take shelter in the top of a hill and they pulled out their bows and arrows because bows and arrows is what you can use for far distance and none of these guys wants to lose their lives right bows and arrows they don't want to lose their lives by coming up but in the end when you have a hundred people surrounded by ten eventually what is going to happen now the plot thickens in that their leader Asim their leader Asim he had killed in the battle of Uhud, he had killed the husband of a certain lady by the name of Sulafah. Okay? Sulafah bint Sa'd. So Sulafah, she's obviously a pagan, Sulafah had promised Halaf that she is going to drink wine from the skull of Asim. That I am not going to die until I drink wine from the skull of Asim. and in her vengeance she had said anybody who brings me the skull of Asim 100 camels 100 camels anybody who brings me the skull of Asim 100 camels and Asim knows that the tribe has some personal animosity as well because of this and so he made he cried out and he made a dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he said I'm not going to surrender to them because I know what they're going to do to my body I'm not going to surrender I'm going to fight to the death. And O Allah, inform our Prophet ﷺ about us that we were sincere. That we didn't die cowards. We were sincere. Inform our Prophet ﷺ about us. And he said, O Allah, as I protected your religion in the daytime, now protect my body at night. Meaning as I'm fighting now in the daytime, when night falls, protect my body. Right? So he's saying, O Allah, as I protected your religion by dying for your cause, by being sincere now O Allah it's your responsibility to protect my body, I don't want my skull to be used as a wine casket for this lady and he fought with his bows and arrows until he ran out of bows and then he fought with his spear until the spear broke and then he fought with his sword until the sword became dull, he fought a brave battle and eventually obviously what is going to happen when you're surrounded by ten to one, eventually he died. And when he died, after the battle was over, we're gonna come back to the battle, after the battle was over, everybody rushed to get his body. Number one body they want is his. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a swarm of wasps came. A swarm of wasps came, and they would sting everybody, just attack their face, anybody who came close. So they said, what do we do? So they said, okay, wait, wasps don't hang around at night. Just wait in night, and then we'll get the body at night. and so they waited until dusk until the sun fell until the sun set and then subhanallah out of nowhere a river just came out of nowhere and it had not rained and there was no river over there and his body was on top of a hill still out of nowhere a river just came gushing out and it went straight to his body picked his body up and carried it off into the distance and nobody knows to this day where he is buried. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala took care of his burial. Allah azza wa jal took care of his burial. So this is Asim, the leader, he died a shaheed. Back to the battle. So they killed, we don't know whether there were 7 or 10 people total, but they killed everybody down to the last 3. So if there were 10, they killed 7. So they killed everybody down to the last 3 and the last 3 are now surrounded by this 100. And they said, okay look, just surrender now. Okay, there's no point moving on, just surrender. Now why were they interested in surrendering? Because they're not gonna get any money for a dead body, other than Asim's body. They will get money for a living body. They will get ransom, they will get, they can sell it to the Quraysh, and that's exactly what they did. Right? So, they promised, they said, if you surrender, we'll protect you, we'll, you know, nothing's gonna happen to you, but this is lying. But of course, at the time, the three sahaba don't know this. So they promised them, don't worry, as long as you surrender, khalas, okay, we won. We promise you, aman, We give you safety if you surrender. And the three of them decided to surrender at that time. When seven had died, they decided to surrender. And they were Khubaib and Zayd and Abdullah ibn Tariq. Khubaib and Zayd and Abdullah ibn Tariq. So the three of them came down from the hill. And immediately they jumped on them and tied them up like animals. And Abdullah ibn Tariq said, This is the first sign of treachery. They didn't mean to give us security. They tied us up and they put us onto a stick just like an animal. They're gonna do like this is the first sign of treachery. And so he refused to become a prisoner of war. He refused to walk and march. He refused every commandment. And so they just killed him on the side of the road. He just would not budge. And so they just killed him right then and there. As for the... And so this is Abdullah ibn Tariq. He's gone. So Khubaib and Zayd are left. As for the other two, they found out who wanted to purchase them. and Khubaib was purchased by the tribe of Banu Harith because he had killed one of the Banu Harith in the battle of Badr. And Zayd had been one of those who had attacked Umayyah ibn Khalaf, the master of Bilal. Remember the story of Bilal, that when Bilal said, وَاللَّهِ مَا نَجَوْتُ إِن نَجَىٰ I am not gonna live if this guy lives. And he was surrounded by a group. So Zayd was one of those who surrounded Umayyah so he's one of those who then killed Umayyah, Umayyah did not die by one person it was a group that came so Zayd was one of them so Safwan ibn Umayyah in Mecca purchased him from this Bedouin tribe for a large sum of money in order to kill him for having killed or having been one of the people who killed his father and so the both of them became prisoners just to be executed in a short period of time the both of them, Khubaib and Zaid. And the both of them, many stories are mentioned about them. As for Khubaib, he remained a prisoner amongst them, amongst the Banu Harith, until they announced that they would kill him. And so he asked for a shower to take a clean, to take a ghusl, and he asked for a razor to get rid of his hair, the pubic hair and what not, to basically meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala clean. and so they allowed him this and they gave him a bath they allowed him to take a bath, they gave him a razor and as he was sitting there with the razor in his hand one of the babies crawled up to him and came right up to him and the mother when she saw from the distance that my baby is now with him she cried out in fear that oh my god now he's gonna die and he might kill my baby as retaliation before he leaves and so Khubaib said are you scared that I will kill this child? Wallahi I will never do something like this. Wallahi I will never do something like this. And the same mother later on said I have never seen any prisoner more noble than him in his akhlaq and his manners and I saw him tied up in his chains eating from a bunch of grapes and wallahi there was no bunch of grapes in Mecca at the time. I saw him eating from bunches of grapes out of nowhere because they were starving him. obviously they weren't treating him with the Geneva Conventions, right? So he was eating out of grapes, and there were no grapes in all of Mecca. And there he is eating out of grapes, and it was sustenance that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had given him. And when they brought him on to be killed, he said, allow me to pray two raka'at. And he prayed two raka'at, and then when he finished he said, were it not for the fact that you'd think that I'm being cowardly, I would have prayed a longer two raka'at, but I don't want you to think that I'm scared of death, So that's why it was so short. And Khubayb was the first one who started the sunnah of the one that is to be executed praying two raka'at. And this is also ishtihad from the sahaba that later on was accepted. He was the one who started the sunnah that any Muslim who is going to be executed by any, for whatever reason, it is sunnah for them to pray two raka'at. And so you can say there is tahiyyah of execution. Right? There is tahiyyah of execution. that may Allah Azza wa Jal save me and you from ever having to offer that. But it is sunnah in our religion. And this is a sunnah that obviously the Prophet ﷺ approved in his lifetime that Khubaib prayed in this manner. As for Zayd, of course he is back with Abu Sufyan and he is back with Safwan ibn Umayyah, right? And so he is with the leaders of the Quraish because Umayyah is one of their leaders. So as for Zayd, they really made a big festival out of killing him. The whole people of Mecca, they took a day off. to torture him and to kill him. This is the day of happiness now, that they're killing one of the Muslims, right? And Abu Sufyan, and this is the famous incident that all of you know, this is when it happens now. The famous story back and forth, and the famous response that everybody knows, every child knows. Abu Sufyan said, when he was tied up, and when he's about to be lanced to death, Abu Sufyan said in front of everybody, he asks him, that, I ask you by Allah, tell me the honest truth. don't you wish right now that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was in your place and you are with your family and children and he gave that honest response that he has nothing to lose or win by lying you know he has nothing he is gonna die right but he said with that iman that only a Muslim can have that he said wallahi I would rather die like this than that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam get a thorn prick right now where he's sitting. I would rather die like this to save him from a thorn prick, much less be he be in my place. And Abu Sufyan said that I have never seen any leader that is more beloved to his people than Muhammad ﷺ is with his companions. No leader is more beloved to his people than the Sahaba respect the Prophet ﷺ. And he's not the only one to say this, right? Every single non-Muslim who witnessed the respect that the Sahaba gave to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, they themselves narrated it. And this is not from the Sahaba. The Sahaba did not narrate themselves. Rather we learn this from the non-Muslim at the time obviously Abu Sufyan later became a Muslim about how much respect they gave to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. From this incident we learn many things. Of them is that in such situations between what's happening in Ar-Rajiyah right now should you surrender, should you fight on we see that permissibility has been given for both permissibility has been given for both and whichever one a person chooses inshallah there is precedent in that and it depends on the individual circumstance which one is more better and honorable and all of them are ma'jur all of them are rewarded for what they have done also we learn here from Abdullah ibn Tariq who refused to budge and he knew he was gonna die we learn here an interesting point it is not considered suicide to do something that you know will cause your death as long as it is at the hands of somebody else. Because he knows, I mean there is no question, you know you are being told to march and you are not going to march, what are they going to do? They are not going to let you ride the camel and they are going to walk, obviously, right? He knows what is going to happen. So this is not considered suicide because he didn't do it himself. They are doing it and he is not going to be tortured there, might as well be tortured here and get it over with, right? And so this also shows us that it is not considered suicide. If the enemy, if you do something knowing the enemy is going to kill you, and we have lots of incidents in the battles of the Sahaba that they acted, some can say bravely, and others that are non-Muslims will say foolishly, but we believe bravely that they wanted to do something that many people would not do if they didn't have Iman. Sometimes they lost in this world, they became shahid in the next, and sometimes they won in that particular tactic. Another thing that we see, and this is something we firmly believe in as well, the concept of karamat. The concept of karamat. And karamat means a mini miracle. Karamat is something that is given to the non-prophets. Prophets are given mu'jiza. Other than prophets are given karamat. And karamat are things that Allah blesses the believers of a prophet with. and we see many karamats in the seerah and here are two right now that the body of Asim how it was protected right? by the wasps and then by just out of nowhere a river comes literally out of nowhere and then it actually goes to the top of the hill can you imagine? right? it just goes to the top and it takes the body away this is a karamah and to this day nobody knows where he is buried and also of course khubaib and food appearing out of nowhere obviously this is another karama and I've given many many times in this masjid I've spoken about the difference between mu'jiza and karama and sihr I've spoken about this multiple times here and we did this as well when we did surah yusuf as well we did as well what is the difference between this and that and so no need to repeat over here also we see over here the love that the sahaba had for not just the process obviously, but even for following the sunnah up until the time of their death. Like he's about to die, what does he want to do? Take a ghusl and purify himself. Have a clean body. Subhanallah. Look at where his mind is now. Right? He's not worried about wasiyyah and my children. No, he knows he's gonna meet Allah. Let me meet Allah in a pure state. Let me do ghusl, let me clean my body. So, look at the concern they have for the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. And of course ask for the love for the process. And we already see Khubayb is saying, I'd rather die this death than even a thorn prick him. And we know he means it because he has nothing to gain right now. He's saying he will die rather than a thorn pricking him. This is the height of love. We also see over here, as I said, the sunnah of praying two raka'ah before execution. And then one last point before I move on. That treachery and killing innocents and killing children and women is never something that our religion allows. That this man is about to die, and he's gonna die anyway. Many people would say, you know what, let me just get rid of as much of them as I can. Right? And this was the innocent child, that he could have taken the razor and harmed the child, or worse than that. But he was shocked when the mother screamed. And he couldn't believe that the mother would think that I would do this. So he's asking a rhetorical question. Do you think that I'm gonna harm this child? It's as if he's insulted, even though he's the prisoner, and he's gonna be executed, he feels insulted. That do you really think I'm going to harm this innocent child? La wallahi, I would never do anything like that. Right? He's consoling the mother that calm down and he's the one gonna be killed. This is what Iman brings about. And this clearly shows us that the killing of innocents and especially women and children, as we know our Sharia is very explicit and clear about this point. Now, the second incident that occurred and what made this especially traumatic was the two incidents occurred at the same time. So much so that according to one report, our Prophet ﷺ got the news of both of them on the same night. And this is why this was doubly traumatic for him. So it's happening in the same time frame. And that is a tragedy that in terms of quantity is much worse than Ar-Rajee' and that is the well of Ma'una. the well of Ma'una and this was one of the worst massacres to occur in the seerah of the Prophet a cold blooded massacre that is almost actually it is unparalleled in the seerah a massacre like this it is unparalleled in the seerah and the story goes as follows with regards to the bi'r Ma'una around this time one of the famous chieftains of Najd came down to Medina. And Najd, as you know, is northern Arabia. And Najd has a whole bunch of tribes that we are not that familiar with hearing. Because again, Najd is different. We're used to hearing the tribes around Mecca and Medina. This is the Hijaz. Najd has a whole other group. And they also have very different... They were known for many things. And of the things they were known for, they are not as civilized as the Hijazis. This was the perception that was given. That there are people of the Bedouin. There are people that are not of the cities. This was the perception at the time of the people of Najd. And one of the chieftains of Najd, by the name of Abu al-Bara' Amir ibn Malik, we'll call him Abu al-Bara', Abu al-Bara' came to Medina. And he stayed for a while and he was very impressed with Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ tried his best to cause him to convert, but he was hesitant. So he was thinking about it, but he hadn't made up his mind. He was hesitant. so he said O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam if only you were to send a group of your companions to the people of Najd and call them to this matter I'm pretty sure that a lot of them would respond to your call so send us your people and we will go and spread your message so Abu Al-Bara guaranteed protection for du'at in the Najd region so it's as if he's saying I'll open up the doors for Muslims to give da'wah. Right? He didn't accept. But he is saying, you have my word. And he was an honest man. As we'll see, like later on we'll come back to this, that he was not lying. He gave a genuine word. That from my side, you have my word. As one of the main chieftains. And how does the system work back then? That everybody who's allied with a tribe, if one of the tribes gives protection, all of the allies automatically must give protection this is the way it works back then this is what we call hulafa or halif that you're halif, you have a treaty so X and Y have a treaty if X extends protection to Z Y also has to protect Z this is the way it worked back then and it is something that is still common in many places around the world this type of system so he is saying that I have an alliance with all of the people of Najd and my protection should be good enough because I am a senior chieftain. And he did not realize at the time that one of the other chieftains hated Islam so much that he was willing to invoke a civil war basically. And we're gonna get back to this later on the repercussions. But for now, we're interested in what exactly happened with Bair Ma'una. And so he is saying, send us your best preachers and I will guarantee them safety in Najd. Now this is a big news. Why is it big news? Because the province of Najd is actually bigger than the province of Hijaz. And the potential of converts, the number of converts that might come about, it will make the entire Islamic dynamics change. And so the Prophet ﷺ chooses 70 of the best of the Qurra, and the preachers, and the du'at. because the potential is too much. And the goal is that these 70 will disperse out. That they are going to go and basically give da'wah in Najd because now the green light has been given, the visa has been granted, go and preach. And he chooses the majority of them from Ahlul Suffah because these are the cream of the crop. And Anas ibn Malik, his uncle went. Anas ibn Malik, his uncle went and he became one of those shaheed. And Anas ibn Malik himself narrates that these people, they were known for their Quran, they were known for their tahajjud, they were known for filling up the buckets of the ansar at night. They would go and fill the buckets up and then go back and sleep in the masjid. You understand there's buckets that you're gonna go fill the next day. So they would do it for them. Even though they don't even have a house. They would do it for them. These are the people of the suffah, right? And no doubt Allah chooses them for shahada as well. It's a two way street, right? that it was a loss for the Muslims, it was a victory for them. Allah chooses the best of them for shahada. So, these were the people of the suffah that they're involved in charity in the day and ibadah at night and Quran and dhikr. So the Prophet ﷺ chose 70. And that is a huge number for the time. Even for our time, 70 is a lot. For the small city of Medina, we just said in Uhud, there were 700 people that fought. Imagine, if Uhud had 700, you're sending 10% of your men. and that's how much went because as I said this is the province of Najd is almost double the size of Hijaz and the potential is simply too much now it's a golden opportunity and the Prophet ﷺ sensed truth from Abu al-Bara' and Abu al-Bara' was telling the truth right? Abu al-Bara' was not lying that I give you my word and as we said he assumed that the other chieftains would respect his word but they didn't respect his word so what happened? When the 70 of them got to the well of Ma'una, this is the Bair Ma'una, when they got to the well of Ma'una, they sent a letter to Haram ibn Milhan, through Haram ibn Milhan to Amir ibn Tufayl. Haram ibn Milhan is the Sahabi. They sent a letter through Haram ibn Milhan to Amir ibn Tufayl. Now Amir ibn Tufayl is the chieftain of one of the local tribes of the region. And Amir ibn Tufayl was one of those arrogant Bedouin chieftains who only wanted to accept Islam if he saw some good in it. And it is said that he had attempted to negotiate with the Prophet ﷺ, either directly or indirectly, he had attempted to negotiate a condition for accepting Islam. he had told the Prophet I will accept Islam either if you take charge of the cities and you leave all of the Bedouin lands to me half half, actually it's not going to be half half because the cities are a small percentage the Bedouin lands are much more or if you're not willing to do that mashallah he's being reasonable if you're not willing to do that then you make me your chieftain after you after you die I'm gonna take over okay so this was his condition to accept Islam what do you think obviously we don't have any need for such people right and so obviously the Prophet ﷺ refused to accept these conditions so this only made him more arrogant now when Haram bin Milhan came to Amir bin Tufail and he had with him the letter and the letter was basically hospitality, we're here for a while, we're just going to go on, and inviting him to Islam is basically generic information that we are here. Now everybody knows that the Muslims have been given protection. When Ahmed ibn Tufayl heard that these Sahaba had come from Medina, he made an eye motion to one of his henchmen to kill this guy. Now this is like double or triple, if you like, sin upon sin. multiple sins firstly he is a messenger and messengers by unanimous conventions of the world are never harmed this is an envoy as we know to this day ambassadors are not harmed secondly even if he weren't a messenger he has protection from a more senior chieftain and it is not his duty, Amir's duty to interfere with that treaty. And in fact, in one book it even says that the one who gave the initial Abu al-Bara' was in fact one of the uncles of Amir. Which is not too distant to imagine because they're all senior chieftains. So he's a distant uncle or direct uncle which would make sense as well. So not only is none of his business to get involved in the aman or the safety of another person, he knows that this is breaking an agreement that he doesn't have the right to break. And then the third treachery was that he actually did it surreptitiously. He did it secretly. That he made that motion, they must have their codes or what not, right? They must have their red phones or whatever it is, you know. Or that secret button that they have in our times, whatever it might be. They have their ways. He gives the motion that this guy has to be killed, right? And Ahmed ibn Malhan had no clue because how is he gonna know the motion? And so as he's standing, basically waiting for the audience to be granted to him, from behind one of the Bedouins comes running with a spear and he thrusts it in between his shoulder blades and it comes right out in front of him. And as soon as he sees this, the first thing on his mind, it blurts out. And what does he say? فُزْتُ وَرَبَّ الْكَعْبَةِ Basically, I won. I'm a shaheed. Right? The first thing that comes to his mind, because that's what happens at that time, that he sees it, his ruh is still in his body so what comes to his mind that I won, Alhamdulillah I won, meaning I'm a shaheed right, so this means it was on his mind, he's making dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he wants to die a shaheed he's so excited that he sees his shahada, he actually cries out, that fuzdu I won, warabbal ka'ba by the lord of the ka'ba, and those were his last words because that's it, he died and it is said that one of the people who was there, when he heard this phrase, it caused him to go asking the other Muslims and asking other people, and eventually he accepted Islam because of this one phrase, فُزْتُ وَرَبَّ الْكَعْبَ Like, who's gonna win when you die? What type of religion is this that you're happy when the spear is being thrust in? And you're crying out for joy, فُزْتُ وَرَبَّ الْكَعْبَ Right? And so this actually led to the Islam of one of them. So, Amr ibn Tufayl, Amir ibn Tufayl, he knew he's in trouble now. He's killed the messenger and there are 70 people still there and he needs to do something. So what does he do? He sends out messages to any tribe that is willing to now join forces with him. And to kill all 70 of these. Because one messenger is not going to be enough now. You're actually gonna make things worse by now the 60 or 79 or 60 are still there. So let's get rid of all of them. Khalas, you're gonna do one let's do all of it. So he reached out to other tribes, quite a number of them refused because they knew that Abu al-Bara had given protection. And so eventually this is gonna lead to another clash which we'll come to later on. For now he's not even thinking two steps ahead. He just wants to kill all of these 70. So finally three of the sub-tribes they agreed, Asiyah, Ra'al and Thakwan. Asiyah, Ra'al and Thakwan. Three tribes they agreed to join forces with Amir ibn Tufayl and then attack the 70 at Birmahuna. Okay? The rest of them refused. All of the other tribes of the Najd, they refused because of the protection of Abu al-Bara. And they said, No, we're not going to get involved. So, they marched to Birmahuna and they surrounded all 70 of them. We don't know the exact quantity, but at least around 400 or 500. Because of all of the four tribes coming together. You have Amir ibn Tufayl's tribe and then you have the other three tribes as well. Around four or five hundred have surrounded these 70. And eventually the Muslims, they tried to defend themselves, but they hadn't come for a battle. They hadn't come with weapons and armor. They hadn't come armed to the hill. They were coming as preachers. They were coming as du'at. And eventually each and every one of them were killed except for three people. Out of the 70, except for three people. As for one of them, Ka'b ibn Zayd. Ka'b ibn Zayd, they wounded him and he fell down. and as the bodies continued to collapse on him, so he remained wounded, semi-unconscious, and the bodies piled up on him. So they didn't even know there was a person under all of this pile of bodies. And that was Ka'b ibn Zayd. And Ka'b ibn Zayd will come back to his story. He dies two years later in the battle of Khandaq. He will die a shaheed in the battle of Khandaq. That's Ka'b ibn Zayd. Remember his name, we're going to come back to his story. As for the other two, one of them is Amr ibn Umayyah and the other is Al-Munzir ibn Muhammad Amr and Munzir and the two of them had gone for an errand maybe to get some water maybe for some other issue they had gone for a few hours for something the camp had sent them and as they came back they saw the vultures in the air circling in front of where the Sahaba had camped and they said something is wrong obviously you're not gonna have all the vultures coming, you know, unless there's a feast to be had. They said all of these and they said, something is wrong, what should we do? So Al-Munzir, and he was an Ansari, and Amr was a Muhajir. Al-Munzir and Amr began discussing. Said, what do you think we should do? Clearly there's danger, we don't know what's happening. Should we walk in and then basically kill ourselves as well? Or should we, you know, go back to the Prophet ﷺ? so Amr says I think we should go back to the Prophet ﷺ in order to tell him that some disaster has happened some calamity has happened clearly the Sahaba have been killed the two of us are alive let's go back and get reinforcements and tell the Prophet ﷺ what happened so Amr says let's go back Al-Mundhir the Ansari says as for me I will not give up being in the place where my companions have been killed. They were lucky enough to get shahada, I'm not gonna give that up and just walk away from that position. And neither do I want other men telling about my story. Meaning, I'm not going to be a messenger that lives to tell their story while they died. I'm not just gonna be the one who talks about them I'm not just gonna be the قصاص the storyteller that I'm gonna go and tell their stories while they got the actual benefit of getting shahada or martyrdom so he in fact encouraged the muhajir to come back with him and so the both of them and munzir al-amr they both went and they walked in back into now the massacre is done now they must have gone for a few hours the massacre has been done And so the both of them were caught and they were both about to be killed. Eventually Mundir was in fact killed because that was his niyyah, he was in fact killed. And for some reason Amr was allowed to go back. It is said that Amr ibn Tufayl the chieftain, this evil chieftain, it is said that either he wanted a messenger to go back or he said that I have to free a slave anyway so I'll just choose you to free. the point being Allah willed that subhanallah the same one who said perhaps we should go back, Allah allowed him to go back and the one who said I want to become a shaheed Allah Azza wa Jal made him shaheed because you get your niyyah what you want you will get it neither was a coward because eventually they both walked in but the one of them wanted shahada and Allah gave it to him and the other one was eager to go back and Allah gave him that as well and so he went back and this is the one that on the way back, this is Amr now, on the way back, Amr, he encountered a small incident, which also has some morals and benefits, that on his way back to Medina, he met two people from the tribe of Amr ibn Tufayl, walking back towards Amr ibn Tufayl from Medina. So he's going to Medina, they're walking back to Amr ibn Tufayl. Now, these two have no idea what's going on over there, because they have just come from the Prophet ﷺ, and they're going back. and apparently the both of them had sought protection from the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ had given it to them but Amr did not know that and from his perspective these are two tribesmen from the tribe that has just killed all 70 of my companions and I don't know what they're gonna do so he tricked them for a while, calmed them down basically, didn't tell them his real identity when they went to sleep he got rid of the both he killed both of them and then he discovered in their possessions a letter of protection from the Prophet ﷺ because he didn't know any better he thought these are people from the tribe of Amir ibn Tufail, I mean put yourself in his shoes now, it's either him or them and so he felt extremely bad he went back and he was the one who brought the terrible news to the Prophet ﷺ And as we said, Al-Waqidi mentions that Ar-Rajee and Bir Ma'una, they both were received on the same Layla, on the same night the Prophet ﷺ received the news on the both of them. So can you imagine 80 Sahaba, both of them, both groups of them have suffered miserably. They have been literally tortured and massacred to death. And these are all people you know. They're all people that the Prophet ﷺ chose. They're all people that were living amongst them, living in Sufah. look at the personal ties, you know how the Prophet considered the people of the Sufah, and the Prophet was greatly grieved and he prayed every single salah, Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, five salawat he did a special Qunut for all of the shuhada for one month he made a special Qunut in every single salah for one month. And he prayed for the shuhada and he asked Allah Azza wa Jal to take care of meaning take care of meaning to punish Dhakwan and Ru'al and the Banu Lihyan which is the Amir with the Fails tribe and the Asiya he asked Allah Azza wa Jal to take care of all four of them means to get rid of them or to punish them and in fact this is one of those incidents as well that Allah Azza wa Jal revealed many verses in the Quran that for wisdom known to him, he then abrogated. Nasqat Tilawa was called. He abrogated those verses. And we still have remnants of those verses that who will go and tell man yablugh ikhwanana, who is going to go and tell our brothers that we are safe. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told the Prophet ﷺ about them and verses were revealed that were recited at this time. And this is in Bukhari and Muslim, that they were recited at this time, and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala abrogated those verses for a wisdom known to him. Now, a number of benefits to derive from the incident of B. Irma'una, and even from a Raja' put together, of them is that we can say that the religion of Islam is not going to be spread without loss. without sacrifice without even the loss of limb and body and persons and that loss is going to be bitter and difficult to bear if this was the case for the Prophet and the Sahaba then how about in our times also notice compare the two characters the two characters of Khubaib the prisoner of war in the last story and Tufail the chieftain in this story Khubaib has in his hands the baby and he can extract revenge and vengeance but no he is not going to do it Tufail has a messenger who already has protection and he assassinates him in the cruelest of manners and such is the way of the heart of Iman with the heart of Kufr the heart of Iman is the heart of morality and the heart of Kufr has no morality whatsoever Notice as well, that of the fiqh points that we derive over here, the concept of qunoot is something that the fuqaha after this greatly differed over. When does one make qunoot? And as you know, each madhab has its position, and now is not the time to get into this, but you know that the Shafi'i say in Salatul Fajr, and the Hanafi say in the Wittan, and the others have their positions as well. But, Allahu'alam, the strongest position is that Qunut is not linked to any prayer. Rather, Qunut is only done at times of general calamity. Qunut is done when something afflicts the ummah and everybody should make dua for those afflictions. And frankly, this is a sunnah that has been neglected by many, many people. It is a sunnah that has been neglected by much of the ummah. Anas ibn Malik narrated that the Prophet ﷺ, after B. Irma'una took place, that the Prophet ﷺ would stand up in the last raka'ah. After the ruku'ah, he would stand up in the last raka'ah. So you've gone to ruku'ah, then you stand up. And he would make dua, qunoot, for the shuhada and against the tribes that had killed them. So when is qunoot done? Qunut is done in the very last Raka'ah at what particular time? when you stand up from Ruku'ah right? so when you say Rabbana walakal hamd then after this you raise your hands and you make Dua Qunut and Qunut should be done for any distress or calamity that the Ummah is suffering from and this is something that we should teach our congregations the Muslim Ummah should know. For example, what's happening in Syria, what is happening in Palestine, anything that might happen in the world, we should make Qunut like our Prophet ﷺ made. Of the benefits, so therefore in my opinion, and this Fiqh is not related to this, in my opinion Qunut should not be done on a daily individual basis. It's not something that is linked to Fajr or to Witer, these are nothing to do with that. You just pray Qunut when the situation arises for the Ummah. This is what we see here from these a hadith. But this is fiqh, and there are different madhabs as you know. Also of the benefits that we derive is that clearly the Prophet ﷺ did not know ilm al-ghayb. He sends 70 here and 10 there, and he did not know that they would die. Even though he can describe the chieftain, and he can do this, and he can do that. What Allah wants to tell him, Allah will tell him. But our Prophet ﷺ does not know unconditional ilm al-ghayb. There is no question he knew more than any of us. And there is no question Allah taught him things about this dunya and the akhira that would be ghayb for us. How could he not have when he went and saw the heaven and he saw min ayati rabbihil kubra and he saw Jibreel. So he has seen portions of the ghayb that we have not seen. And of this world as well he knows aspects of the ghayb that Allah allows or wants to teach him. and Allah عز و جل says in the Quran وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ whatever Allah wants to teach He will teach to whomever He pleases but unconditional غيب no one knows other than Allah عز و جل قُلْ لَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ الْغَيْبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ no one knows the غيب other than Allah and this is clear evidence for this the Prophet ﷺ was distressed and he sent these people out and yet he did not know what would happen to them also the two people that the Sahabi Amr had killed the two people that the Sahabi had killed on the way back the Prophet ﷺ gave blood money to their relatives and he took responsibility for their death and this shows us a very very profound lesson what lesson is that? Bide by your treaty is true. Fidih is also true. Don't blame a person for the crimes and sins of his tribe or people. Which is something very relevant. Collective guilt. Very relevant to our political situation and those who are angry at particular back and forth that are going on. very relevant, the issue of collective guilt these were from the tribe of Ahmed bin Tufayl they were from the same tribe but they had not participated they had no knowledge, they are completely innocent, right? and so, the Prophet bears responsibility he pays the blood money and it's a mistake, the guy made a mistake so then he takes responsibility for that mistake and he pays the blood money to the relatives of the two people. And this clearly shows that وَلَا تَزِرُوا وَازِرَةٌ وَزِرَ أُخْرَى You're not going to be held accountable for what your tribe has done, what your nation has done, if you are not a part of that. If you don't participate, if you have nothing to do with that. And this is something we notice from this incident as well. And the final point, then inshallah we have some time for question and answer. The final point, as for Amir bin Tufayl, he died a very pathetic and miserable death, as is to be expected. as is to be expected from somebody of such a nature that he was inflicted with a type of leprosy that spread over his whole skin. It started from under the arm and then it spread and it caused him to become delusional and it caused him to become a pariah. His own people left him. When you have leprosy, what's going to happen as you know in those days, right? So he died of extremely painful and miserable death alone in the desert and Allah Azza wa Jalla punished him in this world before the next his own people, his own family abandoned him he was a crazed lunatic because of this filthy disease that overcame him and this is exactly what is to be expected for someone of this nature, someone whom even the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made dua against how will this person ever be saved and inshallah next week we will do some follow ups as well and especially the issue of the Banu Nadir which is one of those controversial issues again and the promise that was given for the battle of Uhud, remember at the battle of Uhud when finished Abu Sufyan said one year later we're going to do it again so inshallah that we're going to talk about next Wednesday inshallah any announcements to be made there are announcements from my side we're going to be starting Tafsir Surah Yasin inshallah two Tuesdays from now, can you make a note of that Danish not this coming Tuesday but the one after that Ka'b al-Mizaid Ka'b al-Mizaid he made his way back to Medina and he died a shaheed in the battle of Al-Khandaq so the brothers wanted to have Tafsir Surah Yasin so we're going to be having Tafsir Surah Yaseen inshallah on the 12th inshallah at 7.30 and Danish can make a flyer for that and what else, there was another announcement wasn't there yeah okay Q&A but brother Ali, where's Ali he's not here, the Fiqh Salah class that was the announcement I remember now, the Fiqh class Fiqh of Salah part 2 that's also going to be taking place I think in two weeks so the announcement for that as well inshallah anyway we have few minutes for questions inshallah yes so the prophet took responsibility for what his people have done this is something no no it was because of the aman, but this is something that even in our times, the company takes responsibility for the actions of its individuals, right? And we see this multiple times, that when this is a Muslim who has done a genuine mistake, who's gonna pay for this? It's going to be the Muslim community. So because the Prophet ﷺ gave them protection, and that protection was broken by one of his own, the man is not sinful because he had made a genuine mistake, but in the end, who's gonna pay responsibility? it will be the Muslim Ummah no if there was no Aman then there would not be that type of blood money but there might have been other types of there might have been other types of settlements that would have been done but these people were protected by the Aman so by breaking the Aman you have to pay the full blood money for these two ok yes you mentioned that the Sahaba during the time of the Prophet they just had the So the question is, there is a lot of talk about the door of Ishtihad having been closed and it was reopened in the 19th century. This is a bit of a myth. The door of Ishtihad was never closed. And ijtihad has always been operative in the ummah, and is one of the signs of a thriving Islamic intellectual heritage. However, what happened was that certain scholars, and what we now call medieval Islam, they felt that all of the scenarios and situations that could possibly take place have been discussed. So there's no need for ijtihad. And so there was this notion now of, khalas, everything has been there, done, that we've dealt with it. Now, when modernity was thrust upon the Muslim world, when Muslims met face to face with Europeans, when Napoleon invaded Egypt and then the French came to Algeria and then the British came to India and they saw for themselves the radical changes and the differences. so there were a number of trends or reactions one of these reactions was one can say somewhat for every reaction you have an equal and opposite counter reaction this is the human nature so when they saw this excess many Muslims went to the other excess which is shut yourself off from these people don't learn their language don't learn anything from them and just go back to your textbooks and just pass down the tradition as it came. So in order to stir the hornet's nest if you like, another group said, the door of Ishtihad should be reopened. And we should rethink through everything. And this is the other side of the coin. And this is the flip side, which is now in our times we call them progressives. There were no terms back then. That lets everything is up for grabs. so in India you had Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and in Egypt you had Muhammad Abdu is the classic example of this right Muhammad Abdu the one who said I visited England and I saw Islam but no Muslims and I came back to Egypt everywhere there is Muslims but no Islam right and frankly may Allah forgive him and all of us but clearly there is an inferiority complex there that you feel that Islam is over there and there is no Islam back in Egypt and you know his fatawa or rather, what can I say? You know, they're not quite what we would consider to be. You know, and Muhammad Abduh, I mean, he was that type of mind, that just to go ahead. So, you had that trend, which is the exact opposite, which is, let's open up the door and everything up for grabs, right? And the logical consequence of this is to say that everything is up for grabs. And this is exactly what one of Muhammad Abduh's main students and that is Abdul Razik Abdul Razik you should know this then he was the minister of Egypt in the 1950s minister of education one of Muhammad Abdul's main students basically came forth and said that all of the laws of Islam were meant only for that tribal society and we have ultimate now freedom and choice to do as we please the Prophet ﷺ was not sent as a law giver he was sent as a theologian to teach us how to pray and fast and wash ourselves in the bathroom not to tell us how to have finance and divorce and marriage and inheritance that's for the tribal system of that time modern people ya khuwa let's be very careful about modern people because modern people they go back and forth and they change as for people who have gone on it's easier to discuss their thought because we know what they are about but I don't mind mentioning the particular person you have mentioned because actually he is a good friend of mine and we get along very well together and I have nothing but respect for him and I don't see him as being any way, shape or form somebody who lacks respect for the tradition no, he respects the tradition but the problem comes and by now you should know this about me and about the type of vision of Islam that I have the problem comes is difficult navigating through both of these extremes it's not easy we have on both sides of this spectrum we have people we have the ultra conservative literalists right and frankly they are preaching to a small choir, a small group of people their message will never go beyond the people who already are card carrying members of their groups you see what I'm saying because they don't have a realistic vision for Islam and then you have the other side which are basically whatever the western culture says is good Islam should also say is good the west says democracy Islam is fully democratic the west says human rights the west says equality and sexual freedom equality and sexual freedom And this is exactly what we're seeing. That anything that's politically correct or vogue, Islam also has to have that same vogue characteristic. Islam as usual is in the middle. And it's not easy to navigate through. And I believe that this individual you mentioned is trying his best to navigate through. That doesn't mean I agree with every single position that he has. But overall, people like this are definitely within the mainstream. right and another person similar type of you know framework and background but obviously far more scholarly is Sheikh Qardawi Sheikh Qardawi has many issues that I disagree with personally but I don't ever disrespect him he's a great alim and he's trying his best to navigate through the issues here that when should we remain firm and when should we and when should we be you know more relaxed or lenient it's not easy it's not easy and this is the big question of Islam of our times so your yeah it is one of the critiques but again to answer your question simply so this is the issue of the door of Ijtihad being shut or open this is completely vain talk, it was never shut nobody has the right to shut it and nobody has the right to open, it's always been open. Rather, the reason why this talk came up as we said, a group of people needed to kind of sort of provoke the ultra-conservatives to start thinking realistically. And so they said, we need to open the door of ijtihad again. And therefore this rhetoric filtered down to us as well. But there are plenty of articles and research done. This is just kalam fadi. Frankly, it's kalam fadi. What is the door? Where is the key? It's all rhetoric. never was the door of istihad closed it's always been open and it's always going to remain open inshallah ta'ala that was a completely unrelated question but alhamdulillah inshallah last question inshallah go ahead is there a lesson to be learned from maybe not going back and from the Bible back on the two tribes that did this massacre oh they're gonna get a revival don't worry wait because you need the right manpower to do it I've said this many times our religion is obviously a perfect religion there are times to forgive and then there are times to kick some you know what and we need to know when to do what you need to know when to do what and anybody who always asks for vengeance is gonna execute himself in the process and anybody who teaches you always have to turn the other cheek will never be able to live up to that himself and this is what we've seen in the real world right and therefore our religion being that practical pragmatic realistic religion the asal is to forgive but there are times and there are situations where forgiveness is not good. And treachery is one such time. This is not a personal fault. This is not just one of... This is blatant treachery. And this cannot be allowed to pass. And we will see this inshaAllah later on what happens inshaAllah. What was the reaction of the chieftain who gave the amand to those 70? Abu al-Bara. So when did he find out that what happened? We don't know when he found out. but we will find out later on that it did cause a bit of a tussle but we don't know I haven't found any book that says when the messengers came how did his reaction we don't know exactly but he was sincere in the promise that's the main thing he did not expect to be you know broken inshallah you want to make the announcements Thank you.

Seerah 51 - Background of the wives of Muhammad - Yasir Qadhi _ 6th March 2013-NZD-MuFCoEQ

In our last week we had done the incidents of Ma'una and Ar-Rajee' and the next major incident that occurred, we're actually going to postpone it till next week and we need to catch up with other incidents that are not directly related to the Ghazawat. And next week, inshallah, we'll talk about the incident of the expulsion of the Banu Nadir, which is the second of the three Jewish tribes. As you know, there were three Yahudi tribes there, the Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Nadir, and the Banu Quraidha. And after Uhud, the second of the three tribes was removed. But there are things that are happening that are in the personal life of the Prophet ﷺ. So we need to get up to date with that. And in particular, the marriages of the Prophet ﷺ that took place around this time and before this time, which we have been obviously sidelining because of the major political events. Now, with regards to the marriages of the Prophet ﷺ, inshallah, maybe inshallah when we finish, we'll try to have more light on each of the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen. But we need to understand what's going on at this particular time, in the personal life of the Prophet ﷺ, after the death of Khadija. We talked about Khadija, by the way, in entire lectures online, an hour and a half lecture about all of the details of Khadija. And obviously the status of Khadija and the love that the Prophet ﷺ had for her. It is said that after Khadija died, for many months, the Prophet ﷺ was not seen smiling. He was so devastated by her death. Eventually, Khawala binti Hakim suggested to him, why don't you marry someone, Ya Rasulullah. So he said, who do you suggest? Who do you have in mind? So she said, if you want an elderly lady, then Saudah. And if you want a young lady, then Aisha. And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam married the both of them within a month of each other. But Aisha, he did not consummate the marriage for another three and a half years. Okay, so he just got the nikah done. And Aisha deserves multiple lectures. InshaAllah she will have a long series. InshaAllah maybe when we finish we'll look at Aisha. And as for Saudah, so the next wife of the Prophet ﷺ after Aisha was therefore Saudah. And Saudah, her name is Saudah binti Zam'ah ibn Qais ibn Abd al-Sham. And her previous husband was As-Sukran ibn Amr, who is the brother of Suhail ibn Amr. And As-Sukran had migrated to Abyssinia. And he either died in Abyssinia or right after his return. He died a very early death. He's one of the few sahaba whose name we know who died in the Makkan era. And her family, when she had converted to Islam, her family had disowned her, her family had cut her off, and she really had nobody else in Makkah to take care of her. And so the Prophet ﷺ felt compassion for her and married her, probably inshallah of the 10th year of the da'wah. Probably inshallah of the 10th year of the da'wah. and she was also the oldest or the eldest of all of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. We do not have any dates of her age, but we know that she was the eldest and we also know that she was a rather large lady and she would walk very slowly. And we know this because she herself tells us this and because she says that in Hajjatul Wada' in the farewell Hajj, I asked permission from the Prophet ﷺ to leave Muzdalifah early because she was a lady that walked very slowly and she was of a large build and she wanted permission to avoid the crowds. She wanted permission to avoid the crowds to get to Mecca before the rest of the crowd. And so Ibn Abbas was sent with her to basically take her in a small entourage or a small group to avoid the rush. And from this we get the fiqh position that on the night of Muzdalifah, anybody who has any need can leave early and go to Mecca early. So the elderly and the weak and those who need to take care of them, we get from this hadith. That Saudah was elderly in age, meaning she has problems walking and everything and so she was given permission to go early. In the Madinah era, probably around the 6th or 7th year, we don't know exactly when, she began to feel that perhaps the Prophet ﷺ might divorce her. And so she negotiated of her own will. She negotiated of her own will with the Prophet ﷺ. And she said, O Messenger of Allah, I have no jealousy of your other wives. Meaning my age is not like this. I have no jealousy of your other wives. And I want to be with you so that I can be resurrected amongst your wives in Yawm al-Qiyamah. In Akhirah I want to be with you. So take my night and give it to Hafsah. give it to Aisha. Take my night and give it to Aisha. And so she gave up her night, that was her obviously portion, and she voluntarily donated it to Aisha, knowing that the Prophet ﷺ obviously would welcome this. And it is said that when she did this, Allah ﷻ revealed in Surah An-Nisa verse 128, and Surah An-Nisa is around this time, 4th, 5th, 6th year Hijrah, Surah An-Nisa, so it fits in perfectly. In Surah An-Nisa, Allah ﷻ says, verse 128 surah an-nisa وَنِمْرَأْتٌ خَافَتْ مِنْ بَعْلِهَا نُشُوزًا أَوْ إِعْرَاضًا فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِمَا أَنْ نُصْلِحَ بَيْنَهُمَا صُلْحًا If a woman fears that her husband will abandon her or leave her or not treat her in a good manner. Now obviously the ayah is not just for them, it's for all of the wives. So if a woman feels that her husband will leave her or not treat her the way that she wants, then she can negotiate something with him. and the two of them can agree to any type of conditions between them and these conditions are good and these conditions are good and of course this too is a blessing from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there's no doubt about that that Aisha was as we know the Prophet's favorite wife after Khadija and he did want to spend more time with her but he could not do so because he was being fair to all of his wives so it is as if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala basically willed for him that he has a lady that has no need for his night and for her night with him. And she will just gift him of her own free will. So it is as if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gifted the Prophet ﷺ to have a double share with Aisha. And this clearly shows us the permissibility of negotiating even among spouses of that which is their right. And she died relatively early in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab. She died in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab and she is buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. This is the second wife. And we're just discussing her now because we need to catch up. We haven't discussed this tangent even though the marriage took place obviously in Mecca. And she was the first wife after Khadija. So right after Khadija, by probably six months or so, he married Sauda. As for Aisha, as we said, she deserves multiple lectures. You cannot talk about Aisha in a few minutes. She has so much to mention. And she was the one, the Prophet ﷺ said that in a dream he saw basically an angel carrying a lady that was covered up to him. And the angel said, this shall be your wife. And he uncovered the hijab or the veil and it was Aisha. And so, and this is in Sahih Bukhari. And so he said, if this dream is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it will come to pass. And it did come to pass that Aisha became his wife. And the nikah was done as we said in Mecca. But the marriage was consummated later in Medina in the second year of the hijrah. In the second year of the Hijrah, the marriage was consummated and Aisha as we said deserves an entire separate lecture. The third lady, or actually it's the fourth now because Khadija is the first. So we're not even going to consider that so let's start memorizing the names because wallahi hardly any of us has memorized these names, right? So number one Khadija number two, Sauda number three, Aisha number four, Hafsa Hafsa binti Umar. Hafsa the daughter of Umar ibn al-Khattab. And Hafsa was married right at this time. So now that's why we're talking about the other marriages. That basically Hafsa is now marriage taking place at this stage. So chronologically this is the marriage that we need to speak about. Now Hafsa, most likely she was born five years before the da'wah began. Most likely around five, maybe six, seven years. But around a few years before the Prophet ﷺ began preaching, before the wahy began. and she was married at a very young age very young age probably 12 or 11 of this to one of the early converts his name was Khunais ibn Hudhafa Khunais ibn Hudhafa and she migrated to Abyssinia with her husband Khunais and we hardly know anything about Khunais because obviously he died an early death because that is how she became a widow all that we know is that Khunais participated in both Badr and Uhud so no doubt this was a very blessed and fortunate sahabi to be participating in both Badr and Uhud and there were only a handful of the muhajirun at Badr and at Uhud as you know around 70 or so and this is obviously one of the elite then of the sahaba in Uhud he was severely wounded and he was carried back to Medina and he passes away right after Uhud so basically he dies at Uhud a shaheed but because of the wounds not on the battlefield. But it is still a shaheed because he died because of the wounds. And Hafsa was extremely traumatized. She's just lost her husband. She's very young. She's probably 19, 20 years old at this time. And she is very pained and lonely that she has just lost her husband. And she did not have any children. She's at the prime of her youth. And Umar feels for her and Umar wants to help her out. And after her iddah is over, so Umar goes to Uthman ibn Affan. and he speaks to Uthman ibn Affan and he says that Uthman what do you think of Hafsa now obviously when the father is asking about his daughter it's understood that there is a marriage proposal and this was how they would do marriage proposals that the wali would go find somebody suitable and then basically offer if you like this was typically the way that it was done that the wali would typically offer the one that he is in charge of and the other way is also permitted and that is that the man comes to the wali and says, I'm interested in your girl or the girl that you're the wali of. But generally speaking, it was the person who has the daughter or the sister, he would go looking for somebody. So he goes to Uthman ibn Affan. And Uthman, what had happened with Uthman's personal life? His first wife was? His first wife was? The daughter of the Prophet ﷺ who had passed away? at Badr at Badr, right? and Uthman being the shy person that he was, is still single Uthman is still single so he goes to Uthman and he offers Hafsa to Uthman and Uthman remained quiet, said let me think about this and then after a few days he came back and he said I think that I don't want to get married right now there is a secret that he cannot tell Umar. So he just says, I think that I should not get married at this stage. And Umar felt very much grief at this because this is like a rejection for him and his daughter. And this is Uthman who's a nobleman, he's a Qurashi, he's wealthy, he's every, all the good characteristics you want. From Umar's time, he wants somebody like Uthman, and he's single as well, right? And the fact that he's saying he doesn't want to get married really means, from Umar's perspective, I don't like your daughter, right? So it really hurt Umar. So he took his pride, swallowed it, went to Abu Bakr now. Now Abu Bakr is married. But he wants a noble son-in-law, even if it means his daughter is gonna be a second wife, right? So he goes to Abu Bakr. And he says the same thing, what do you think of Hafsa? Once again, when you say something like this, he understood what is going on. And Abu Bakr was completely silent as well. What can he say? Something is going on, he cannot tell Umar. So he says, let me think about it. and he doesn't return at all for days. He doesn't even know what to tell Umar, right? So Abu Bakr doesn't even give him a jawab. And Umar says, this was much more painful to me than Uthman's. That what's wrong now? What is going on? He doesn't see anything problem with his daughter. What is going on? And according to some books of Rijal, I didn't find this in Ibn Ishaq and others, but some books of, you know, narrators of the Sahaba, the biographies of the Sahaba. One of them, it mentions that Umar even went to complain to the Prophet ﷺ about Abu Bakr and Uthman. What's going on here? You know, they turned Hafsa down. Or not complain, but you know, just like talk. Like, you know, they turned Hafsa down. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Hafsa will marry someone better than Uthman. And Uthman will marry someone better than Hafsa. He has a plan. Umar still didn't get it. Umar still didn't get it until finally, the khitbah or the proposal came directly from the Prophet ﷺ that he wants to marry Hafsa. And of course, as for Uthman, she married the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ. And afterwards, Abu Bakr came and excused himself and said, perhaps you felt something against me when I didn't come back to you. So he said, yes, I did. So he said, the Prophet ﷺ had mentioned Hafsa to us. and I could not inform you of his secret. And I didn't know what to tell you. So that's why, that's exactly what happened. And this shows us that the Prophet ﷺ, despite being who he was, he's getting mashwara, he's getting istishara, he's getting advice from the other people. What do you think of Hafsa as a wife for me? Subhanallah, he's asking. And he's asked Abu Bakr, and he's asked Uthman, and so the both of them, they don't know what to tell Umar, right? So they're feeling very awkward now. And then Abu Bakr said to him, and had the Prophet ﷺ not proposed for her, then I would have accepted. This is the status of Hafsah, that calm down Umar, that had the Prophet ﷺ not proposed for her, then I would have accepted when you had come to me. And so, this shows that even the Prophet ﷺ is getting advice about the marriage proposal. And Aisha radiyallahu anha said, she was my main competition amongst the other wives of the Prophet ﷺ, the daughter of Abu Bakr, the daughter of Umar. they are like their father's daughters, right? They are like the daughters of their father. They are competing with one another. Because she was just as bold as Aisha. Her age was similar to Aisha. She's probably 1920. When the Prophet ﷺ, she's relatively very young. And she has the same tongue as her father. She has the wit. Everything is there, right? And in fact, it is even reported that some issues happened between Hafsa and the Prophet ﷺ. and the Prophet ﷺ either thought of divorcing her or according to one version, he gave her one طلق. And Jibreel came to him and said, Do not divorce her. For she is صوام قوام. She is one who fasts all the time and prays all the time. And she shall be your wife in Jannah. And so the Prophet ﷺ took her back. now that is wallahi just mind boggling Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala intervened in this dispute and said no you're not gonna get rid of Hafsa she will be with you Jibreel came down and said to the Prophet ﷺ Raji'ah take her back whatever the issues might be and of course it is a part of our etiquette not to you know the seerah doesn't tell us but you understand she is the daughter of her father whatever the issues might be we don't know the details but eventually some tension is happening, and either the divorce or a thought of divorce, whatever the case might be, Jibreel comes and says, no you're not going to, bear with her and this shows us that for the rest of us here, those of us who do have issues with our wives or vice versa there might be an issue that is problematic but we look at Iman and Taqwa and that is far more important than maybe a sharp tongue, maybe this, maybe that Iman and Taqwa, Sawwama Qawwama, look at what Jibreel described Hafsa as right, that she is Sawwama he is Sawwama Qawwama And her piety saved her, subhanallah. Her righteousness saved her marriage. That she was such a righteous woman, that even Allah, I should not say that, but rather Allah Azza wa Jal sent Jibreel down, and said that, Ya Rasulullah, you are not going to divorce her, she shall be your wife in Jannah. And this is honestly what a great honor for Hafsa to have this. And it is said once, there was another dispute that happened, and she was crying, and Umar ibn Khattab came, and she saw her crying. And he realized another dispute happens. He's not gonna side with her against. Now this is when you have your son-in-law as a process and you're not gonna side with your daughter against him. And she said, perhaps you had another argument with him. Wallahi, if he divorces you again, I will never speak to you for the rest of my life. Like it's gonna be, how am I gonna live if he divorces you again? You had better make up to him now. So even the father was like not sympathetic with her plight in this regard that you had better make up whatever you did, go back and make up and make sure that he is not angry with you صلى الله عليه وسلم Hafsa, she was one of the very few ladies who learned how to read and write one of the very few ladies who learned how to read and write in the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and when Umar ibn Khattab died, remember he was stabbed and he commissioned the six people to be the next Khalifa, so when he died there is no Khalifa, so the Mus'haf that was written in the time of Uthman, sorry in the time of Abu Bakr, the grand mushaf, the first mushaf, Umar had taken it because he's the khalifa when Umar died, the next khalifa is not yet ready, so Hafsa took this mushaf that is the original mushaf of Islam, the first mushaf ever written, which is Abu Bakr's time, and then Uthman recopied it if you remember, Hafsa was the one who took it because when her father died, there was no khalifa, there is nobody so she's inheriting, she takes it and she kept it with her until she died. And when Uthman wanted to copy the Mus'haf, he had to get it from Hafsa. So Hafsa sent the Mus'haf to Uthman and then it was recopied and then sent all over the Buldan, all over the cities of Islam. And she kept it until she died. She died either 41 or 45 Hijrah. And if she died 45, then it is said Marwan ibn al-Hakam who was the governor at that time, he prayed over her and she was buried in Baqir al-Gharqad. So this is Hafsa. The next wife that is also married around this time is Zainab binti Khuzayma al-Hilaliya. Now, she is one that we have very very very few details about. Why? Because she is the only wife who died in Medina. She died. so the only two wives that died in the life of the Prophet ﷺ Khadija and Zaynab and a lot of people get confused between there was two wives of the Prophet ﷺ called Zaynab Zaynab bint Jahsh that was his cousin and that's a whole long story we'll talk about whenever we get there and this is Zaynab bint Khuzaymah Zaynab bint Jahsh is his cousin Zaynab bint Jahsh is from the Quraish Zaynab bint Khuzaymah is not from the Quraish she's from the Banu Hilal and the Banu Hilal are a tribe in Najd the Banu Hilal are not Quraish they are a tribe in Najd and because she died so early and she was married to the Prophet ﷺ for less than a year some say 3 months, some say 5 months some say 8 months very short period of time so how are we going to know anything she's not from Quraish, she doesn't have ancestors basically in Mecca so we have hardly any details about her all that we know and even the reports that we know are kind of even conflicted. So whatever we do know, we find conflicting reports. One report says that how did she end up in Mecca? She was married to Tufail ibn al-Hadith ibn Abdul Muqtadib. And that is the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. So this is in the days of Jahiliyyah. That she is married to Tufail ibn al-Hadith. And then he divorced her. And so Ubaidah ibn al-Hadith married her. So she's now in Mecca, Ubaidah ibn al-Hadith. Ubaidah ibn al-Hadith, he is one of the three who fought at the battle of Badr, the Mubaraza. Along with Hamza and Ali. Along with Hamza and Ali and Ubaidah ibn al-Hadid. And Ubaidah was the one who was the oldest and he was the one who was killed. This is Ubaidah. Okay? So he was the oldest of the three, meaning Hamza and Ali. And he was the one who was killed. If you remember the story that he fell down wounded and then Ali came to his defense, Hamza came to his defense. And then on the way back, he basically passed away because his leg was completely cut off, and he had another wound in his... We talked about this in the Battle of the Barth. This is that Ubaidah, right? So, Ubaidah married this Zaynab binti Khuzaymah, and she had no family whatsoever, in Mecca or Medina, because she's from the Banu Hilal. She has no family whatsoever, and she was known as Ummul Masakin. This is Ummul Masakin. She was known as Ummul Masakin, because she used to take care of the orphans and the poor. she had a heart of gold, she would be very generous she was known even in the days of Jahiliyyah as Umm al-Masakin even before converting to Islam that was her kunya, Umm al-Masakin and that shows her pure heart that even before the coming of Islam, she was known for taking care of orphans and feeding the poor that was her laqab kunya, Umm al-Masakin and so when her husband died the process of marrying her we don't have an exact date but probably around the third year of the Hijrah as well because this took place after Hafsa. So again, we don't have any details, but we know she didn't have any immediate family. So clearly one of the main reasons then is that she does not have anyone to take care of her. And so the Prophet ﷺ marries her and she lives only for a few months and she passes away in Rabi'ul-Awwal of the fourth year of the Hijrah. And she was the only wife to die in Medina. and she was the second wife to die of the Prophet ﷺ after Khadija. So the only two wives Khadija and Zaynab binti Khuzaymah. And she was also the first to be buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad. If you go to Baqi' now, you have all nine graves of the Prophet ﷺ's wives, one after the other. And Zaynab was the first one to be buried over there. Because obviously she's the first one to die. And ask for Khadija, where is she buried? Mecca in Hujun. And so the graveyard of Hujun is called in Mecca. She is buried over there. By the way, Zaynab has a really interesting, fascinating tidbit or story that we know not of her mother. It is said in some books of history that Zaynab's mother is the most noble mother-in-law in the history of mankind. How so? So let's begin. She has five daughters. Five daughters. and she was not a Muslim and all five of them marry luminaries marry people of import two of them become Ummahat al-Mu'mineen this is another trivia that Zaynab had a half sister not a full sister Zaynab had a half sister who also later on not right now marries the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that is Maymoona bint al-Harith. Maymoona and Zaynab, they had different fathers, but the same mother. So Maymoona and Zaynab are sisters to each other. Zaynab is much older. And Maymoona. So the both of them married the Prophet ﷺ. The third daughter, so these are two daughters of this lady. The third daughter was Umm al-Fadl bint al-Harith. Ring a bell. Abbas's wife. Abbas's wife. And Umm al-Fadl gave birth to? Al-Fadl obviously. And Abdullah ibn Abbas. Right? So look at how, who this lady is that her grandsons now become. Abdullah ibn Abbas and also Al-Fadl ibn Abbas, two very famous of the Sahaba. And so the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ. This is Abbas's wife Umm al-Fadl. The aunt of the Prophet ﷺ. now she had a younger sister some say that she was called Lubabata al-Sughra Umm al-Fadl's name was Lubaba Umm al-Fadl is a kunya and she had a younger sister that was also called Lubabata al-Sughra and Lubabata al-Sughra she married Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira and Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira is the chieftain of the Banu Maghzum he is the leader of the Banu Maghzum and his son is Khalid ibn al-Walid right so she now has a grandson of Khalid ibn al-Walid. So by the way, Khalid and Abdullah ibn Abbas are cousins. And Maimuna is their aunt. And there are many ahadith that they're visiting Maimuna. Ibn Abbas' khala is Maimuna. And Khalid's khala is Maimuna. Because Khalid's mother and Ibn Abbas' mother are sisters of Maimuna. Is that clear? Very? We'll have a quiz next week. Huh? Yes. We'll have a quiz next week. So this is Lubabat al-Sughra, and we said that she was married to Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira. The other daughter that she had is another very famous Sahabiya, Asma binti Umais. Another very famous name in the books of the seerah, Asma binti Umais. And Asma binti Umais, she was married to Ja'far ibn Abi Talib and she became a widow at the death of Ja'far and she was the one whom the Prophet ﷺ visited and consoled her and took care of her children and Ja'far's children, the orphans of Ja'far she was the wife that the Prophet ﷺ consoled directly and said do not cry over my brother, he called Ja'far my brother And he said, I will take care of these children and my children, I will take care of them. So this is Asma binti Umayyad, she has many hadith in the seerah. And she remained single in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. And then after in the khilafah of Abu Bakr, Abu Bakr proposed to her and married her a few months before he passed away. And Asma became pregnant when Abu Bakr died. So she gave birth to the son of Abu Bakr right towards the end. Either, well maybe when he was young, again we don't know exactly, maybe he was a baby, or maybe when Abu Bakr died, this is Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr. This is Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr, his mother is Asma binti Umayyad. And after Abu Bakr's death, Asma married, she married Ali ibn Abi Talib, Ja'far's younger brother. And she gave sons to Ali ibn Abi Talib as well. She's one of those ladies, subhanAllah, she has so many noble husbands. Ja'far, Abu Bakr, Ali, she's been married to all of them, and she gave all of them sons. All of them she had children with. This is Asma binti Umayis. and the final one mashallah you thought that was enough she has another sister now right so the final of these daughters so they're all sisters her younger sister Salma binti Umais and Salma binti Umais I made a mistake two weeks ago which something was ringing in my head when I said it so I went back and looked up and that's why I went into all of this tangent today I told you that Hamza did not have children and was not married this is wrong I was wrong scrap that Hamza did have children and I was thinking something was going in my head he had a daughter and in the treaty of Hudaybiyah that daughter is then argued over among some of the Sahaba who's gonna take care of her the orphan of Hamza and that's why I was wondering something is not right when I said that to you so I went back and looked up and this is why the whole tangent led me to all of this research so Hamza was married to Salma binti Umayyad and the two of them they had Umara binti Hamza and Umara was a little girl when the Prophet ﷺ went to do the Umrah after Hudaybiyah, he did one Umrah. So Umara as a young girl ran back with the Muslims wanting to be with them. And Ali and Ja'far and Zaid, all of them began arguing who would take care of her. I'm gonna take care of her, I'm gonna take care of her, I'm gonna take care of her. And then they had to go to the Prophet ﷺ to negotiate who's gonna take care of Umara because she's the daughter of Hamza and every one of them felt the sympathy where they wanted to be the guardian. And so the Prophet ﷺ gave her to Ja'far because, to confuse you, why? Well, obvious now. It's obvious. His wife is the khala. Now you understand why. Right? So actually this makes sense now. Except for you, you're not taking notes, so you're completely lost. You need to take notes. Draw a chart for us next week, okay? Come and draw your chart next week, then we can tell you. so Salma binti Umayyad her oldest sister is Asma binti Umayyad Asma binti Umayyad is married to Ja'far so when Umara is taken, is basically and she's a young girl, she's not Balighiyat and she comes crying to the army to the army with the Muslims that she wants to go away, she doesn't want to stay with the people of Mecca, so that's when the Prophet ﷺ had to intervene and say, and he consoled all of them Zayd and Ali and what not but then he said, I will give her to you O Ja'far because الخالة بمنزلة الأم The خالة is like the mother. And you're married to her خالة and so you will have the most right to take care of عمارة. In any case, that is زينب بنت خزيمة and as we said, she passed away in the lifetime of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and we'll mention one more whose marriage took place a few months later but we're not going to pause there so we might as well just mention right now and that is أم سلمة Hind binti Abi Umayyah al-Makhzumiyah. Umm Salama is her kunya, Hind is her name. The daughter of Abu Umayyah al-Makhzumiyah, so she is also Qurashiyah. She is also Qurashiyah. So, Umm Salama, we have heard her name so many times. Umm Salama is one of the well-known of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. We just mentioned her in Uhud, that she was of those who had put water on her head and is running around the battlefield. This is Umm Salama, that's the Umm Salama. when Uhud takes place she's married to her husband Abu Salama so obviously the marriage is going to take place after Uhud so Umm Salama her husband was obviously Abu Salama Abdullah Ibn Abdul Asad and Abdullah who is Abu Salama was a cousin of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam from the mother's side not from the not from the Banu Hashim side he was a cousin from the mother's side and she had also emigrated both of the emigrations and if you notice by the way, all of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ their iman and their efforts for Islam it's like a record obviously that the Prophet ﷺ, whoever he has chosen to be his wife, her contribution to Islam emigrating the two hijras is very rare for women emigrating the two hijras is very rare for women, and yet we see so many of them in the list of the names of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ because again, Allah ﷺ will choose those who are worthy to be chosen. So she had emigrated both of the emigrations and she was the first lady to migrate to Medina as well. The very first lady to give up everything and to go to Medina was Umm Salama. And Abu Salama, her husband, was known for his gentle manners and his akhlaq and they had a very strong and good relationship. And in the battle of Uhud, Abu Salama was wounded very severely. He also was carried back. He recovered from Uhud, but never fully. And he passed away from his wounds not immediately after Uhud, but a few months after Uhud. So, the wounds kind of healed, but not fully. And he managed to live a few more months after Uhud, but then eventually he passed away. And on his deathbed, so he's sick on his deathbed, and on his deathbed she comes to him and shows you the love that the two of them had that she says that I have heard that if a man of Jannah dies and his wife never remarries that she will automatically go to Jannah with him clear? that if I don't marry after you then I will enter Jannah with you and then just to console him she said the opposite as well. That if a woman of Jannah dies, and her husband doesn't marry, they'll be reunited in Jannah. But that's not that he's the one dying, not her. And so she said, so let's make a promise to each other, that we're not gonna marry if the one of us dies. Subhanallah, look even at her manners. That her husband's the one dying, but she's the one like, let's both make a promise to each other. In fact, this is a promise she's gonna have to keep, not him, because he's dying. Right? So she's trying to inform him that, look, she's putting very nicely to him, right? that don't worry, I'm not going to marry after you. This is like her way of consoling him, that I'm not going to marry after you. So Abu Salama says, will you obey me? So she's happy that he's going to say this. He goes, yes, of course, I have never disobeyed you. I've always been obedient to you. So he tells her, then after I die, marry someone. I don't want you to remain single. After I die, marry someone. Then he made a dua on his deathbed. And he said, O Allah, bless her with a husband better than me. Who will take care of her and never harm or irritate her. Subhanallah. On his deathbed he makes this dua. What a husband, wallahi, what a husband. Who amongst us can even... But this is, wallahi, it's a type of love that is... He doesn't want his wife to be alone for the rest of her life. She has a long life ahead. Why should she be alone? So he tells her, when I die, marry somebody. don't be alone and then he makes a dua oh Allah bless her with someone better than me and Umm Salama is the famous story we all know the story of Umm Salama that she was the one who said one day my husband came home very happy and he said I heard a beautiful hadith from the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam she said what? so he said the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said never does anybody afflicted with a musibah with any calamity and this is a hadith of Bukhani Muslim we should all memorize it it's a well known hadith and it's amazing how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala basically taught it to her even through her husband. Wallahi, it's amazing. If Allah had wanted, she could have heard it directly. If Allah had wanted, she could have heard it from one of the sahabiya. But it is her husband telling her this, right? And all of this, فِي قَدَرِ اللَّهِ That her husband tells her. The Prophet ﷺ said, never does any musibah, calamity strike anyone. And he is patient at that. And he says, إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ اللَّهُمَ أَعْجُونِ فِي مُصِيبَةِ وَاخْلُفْنِ خَيْرًا مِّنْ And this is, we should memorize it. إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ اللهم أجورني في مصيبتي واخلفني خيرا من This is something we should all memorize. If you haven't memorized it, go to any book of dua and memorize it. Anytime a calamity befalls you, anytime somebody dies, anytime you lose money, anytime you hear you lost your job, any مصيبة, first thing you do, say this, and everything will be perfect. First thing, but that's the point. Make sure the first thing you say is إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّيْهِ لِيَرَجِعُونَ اللهم أجورني في مصيبتي وَخْلُفْنِي خَيْرًا مِنْ What's gonna happen? Abu Salama is telling Umm Salama that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and what does it mean? That, O Allah, إِنَّ اللَّهُ وَنَا رَاجِعُونَ O Allah, reward me for this musibah and give me something better than what I'm suffering. Give me something better than this pain. That, bring about something better than this calamity. So, Abu Salama said to his own wife, Umm Salama, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, whoever makes this dua, Allah will give him something better than what he's taken away. So, she is saying, as soon as Abu Salama died, I remembered this hadith. Wallahi, look at the, we can't call it irony, but the profundity. Allah's qadr, everything is so perfect. As soon as Abu Salama died, I remembered this hadith. So, I said, إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَلَنَّا يُرَاجِعُونَ اللَّهُمَّ أَجُونِي فِي مُصِيبَتِي وَاخْلُفْنِي خَيْرًا مِّنْ But I said to myself, who can possibly be better than Abu Salama? She's saying it, but deep down inside she's thinking there's nobody. Who can possibly be better than him? And to show you how great Abu Salama was, the first person who proposed for her was none other than Abu Bakr. After the iddah is over, everything is over, she's open to take proposals, Abu Bakr proposes. And by the way, the sahaba were not single. By and large, it's not conceivable for them that a man or a woman is just there without a husband or wife. It doesn't make sense for them. And that's why we have all of these proposals. And I have said this many times before that subhanallah, we have a stigma in our society and time in this regard. Divorcee, widowee, this and that. In those times there is no such thing. The concept of she's a woman, she needs a husband, right? This is a man without... It's gonna be something that is well known for them. And there was no stigma of a divorcee, there was no stigma of a widow, she has children. She has children, doesn't matter. Somebody has to be their father, somebody has to take care of them. So Abu Bakr proposed, can you believe turning down Abu Bakr what does that show you Abu Bakr she's not satisfied with subhanallah she has a high standard because Abu Salama now has her heart like nobody can be better than Abu Salama so after a while the Prophet ﷺ proposes and he comes to her directly to propose to her he comes to the house and he proposes directly to her and subhanallah look at her wisdom look at her wisdom And Umm Salama was known for her wisdom. She's one of the wisest of the Prophet ﷺ's wives. She was known for her high lineage as well. She's the مَغْزُومِيَّة. She is the daughter of one of the elders of the Quraysh. And as you know, the Arabs at that time, they did value lineage. And Islamically, there's nothing wrong with taking lineage as one of the factors. Obviously, this is people go to extremes here, that lineage means nothing. No, people like their ethnicity, people like their culture. if your father or your family is a prestigious family, it's something to add to the overall Iman and Taqwa, right? And that's not a problem with that. So, her father is a high lineage, she herself is known for her wisdom, she's known as well for her beauty, she was known for her beauty, and we'll come to this as well in a while. And so, the Prophet ﷺ proposed. Can you imagine, even the Prophet ﷺ, she doesn't say yes immediately to. And she says, Ya Rasulallah the Arabic is eloquent but it basically translates how can I not be pleased that you are interested in me I'm very honored that you're interested in me but there are three things you should know look at her intelligence like let me put the cards on the table for you rather than oh let's just go do this and then no, think about these three things number one I am a woman that has ghiara, jealousy and especially with the relationship she had with Abu Salama so she has this ghiara. And you are a man that has already wives. And notice her iman now. I am worried that that jealousy will act up and will displease you, which will then displease Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Subhanallah. Like I'm worried that I might end up displeasing Allah by showing jealousy in this situation. So the Prophet ﷺ said, that's one, what's the second? So she said, the second, I'm a woman that is coming on in age. And I'm not young anymore. So he had Aisha, he had Hafsa. These are the prime. She is probably in her mid-thirties, if not more than that. She is not, you know, 19 or 20 anymore. So she's saying, I'm a woman who's coming on in age. So this is the second, what's the third? She said, I'm a woman that has family. I have children. She had four children, by the way. She had four children from Abu Salama. So I have family. You sure you want someone? I have family. Nobody is going to take care of them other than the person I get married to. So the Prophet ﷺ said, As for your ghiara, I will make dua to Allah ﷻ and it will be removed from your heart. Don't worry about the ghiara. And then, notice this joke of the Prophet ﷺ, As for your age, I am afflicted with the same calamity as you. This is of his humor ﷺ. Right? I am afflicted with the same calamity. I have the same disease, don't worry. Meaning I'm also not 20 years old. And notice his adab and his mulatafa and his joking. That I also have the same calamity. And as for your family, they are my family. عيالك عيالي Subhanallah, what a beautiful proposal. What a beautiful proposal. And so once all of this has been clarified and done, obviously Umm Salama then marries the Prophet ﷺ. Probably sometime around the fourth year of the Hijrah. Maybe Shawwal, maybe Ramadan of the fourth year of the Hijrah. And Umm Salama, a lot can be said about her, but the most important, if you like, story that we hear is the story of Hudaybiyah. The story of Hudaybiyah, when the Prophet ﷺ is in a quandary, he doesn't know what to do. The Sahaba are irritated at what's happening with the Quraysh, right? Umm Salama was the one, Ya Rasulullah, don't negotiate with them. just stand up and do it stand up and shave your hair off let them see and they're gonna follow you this is Umm Salama and this shows us her wisdom shows us her intelligence now is not the time to negotiate they're all irritated but if you do it they're gonna follow you showing your actions that you're the one that's gonna be leading they'll all follow you so the Prophet ﷺ took Umm Salama's advice this is Umm Salama here he took Umm Salama's advice and without saying anything, he just called the barber and he shaved the hair off at Hudaybiyah. And when the Sahaba saw him shaving his hair off, then they began racing one another to see who would shave each other's hair off. So this is Umm Salama. And Umm Salama, she lived a relatively long life. One of the last of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to die. She died in the year 59 after the Hijrah. This is very late. One of the last. She lived a very old life. She's in her late 80s at this time. and Abu Hurairah radiyallahu anhu led her janazah Abu Hurairah led her janazah at this time and obviously she's one of the last to be buried as well in Baqir and these are the main wives that we will discuss now and so Umm Salama is the sixth wife of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam but the fourth one at the time because two have passed away, clear? total number six, but then Khadija and Zainab have passed away, and therefore in reality she is number four. The fifth wife, which is really a very long story, and Allah knows how we will tackle it in too much detail, but that is Zainab bint Jahsh, that's going to happen soon, another year or so, is going to be Zainab bint Jahsh. One or two other small things that happened that are of interest, Zainab bin Tijahsh we'll talk about the story in a while in a few weeks or maybe next month we'll see but Zainab bin Tijahsh this was when the laws of hijab were revealed at the marriage of Zainab bin Tijahsh the laws of hijab were revealed and before this by a few months or maybe a year khamr had become haram so Islam, the sharia is now being solidified salah has already been revealed zakah has already been revealed sawm has already been revealed hajj obviously is delayed till the very end because you can't do hajj right now Makkah is enemy territory right now hajj is delayed but it shows us how quickly all of the laws came that hijab was one of the latter of the laws to be revealed after salah, after zakah, after all of these and it's coming down already in the basically end of the fourth year, beginning of the fifth year of the hijrah the laws of hijab came down and they were revealed at the story of Zaynab binti Jahsh at the marriage of Zaynab binti Jahsh so this is the tangent that we took for the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and we'll mention two stories inshallah today back to the political if you like scenario back to the ghazawat of the Prophet ﷺ one of them is very quick and that is fulfilling the promise of part 2 of Uhud that at the very last conversation of Uhud, Abu Sufyan had said, we're gonna meet again a year from now. Remember that, the very last. Let's do this once and for all. Right? So, what year is this now then? When did Uhud take place? Third year. So now this is the fourth. Right? So in the month of Sha'ban, in the fourth year of the Hijrah, because now it's one year after Uhud, in the month of Sha'ban, in the fourth year of the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ left with around 1500 of the Sahaba and camped once again at Badr. Because at Uhud they had said, we'll meet again at Badr. Okay? Because Badr was the big plain. Badr is a convenient location to have a war. So we're gonna meet again at Badr. And the Prophet ﷺ camped there for more than a week, waiting for the army to show up, and no army showed up. no army showed up and he assigned Ali ibn Abi Talib to be the flag bearer and it shows us that the Quraysh were not able to live up to their side of the promise and what happened they in fact did gather an army around 2000 strong but they gathered the stuff but they were half-hearted they weren't into it because in the end of the day they don't have the Iman and the courage that the Muslims had and they actually even marched out of the city but a lot of talk a lot of back and forth until finally they decided to forget it, call it quits and march back in. And they gave an excuse and they said, this year has been difficult, it's been a year of drought, there has been little rain, so we need to take care of our families, we need to feed our families, we need to have plenty of food and milk, we need to be strong to fight and this has been a difficult year. The Muslims didn't complain, they were waiting for them. But again this shows us the reality of Iman versus Kufr, so they said, we'll come back another year. And so they simply abandoned the entire enterprise. And we see now that the tide is shifting. We see now that the Muslims are getting stronger and stronger. And the Quraysh are getting weaker and weaker. And the main other incident that took place is the Ghazwa of Thaat al-Riqa' The Ghazwa of Thaat al-Riqa' And the Ghazwa of Thaat al-Riqa' is not important for the actual incident. But for two or three things that happened around the incident. Ghazwa to that rika'a, it's not that important with regards to the details, because no fighting took place. Now firstly you should know that ghazwa to that rika'a, there's a big controversy when it took place. Ibn Ishaq says it took place right now, which is why we're doing it. We usually follow Ibn Ishaq, we consider him to be the most authoritative. Ibn Ishaq places it right now. However, people greater than Ibn Ishaq, such as Bukhari and others, they said it occurred after Khaybar. After Khaibar. And there's controversy that I don't see the need to go into right now about the evidences of both sides. But one of the main evidences that is used to say that it took place right now is the story of Jabir that we're going to discuss today, inshaAllah ta'ala. And the story of Jabir, in it he says, my father was martyred at Uhud and I got married and the Prophet ﷺ asked me, did I get married? He didn't know I was married. So I said, yes, I got married. He said to a virgin or a widow, I said to a virgin. This famous conversation, right? So the Prophet ﷺ did not know that Jabir is married. Right? Yeah, but he doesn't know that he's married. The Prophet ﷺ does not know that Jabir is married. And Jabir got married right after Uhud because his father died a shaheed at Uhud. And this is one of the evidences that that raka'ah took place right after Uhud. which is what we are doing over here. Now that rika'ah took place against the tribe of Ghatafan. And the tribe of Ghatafan, it will come up again and again in the seerah. And it appears that Ghatafan, they were a tribe up north. And they were a very large Bedouin tribe. And they were a tribe that was known for looting and plundering. They were the tribe that was known for just highway robbery type of things. They had no morals. This is Ghatafan. and they come up again and again they're hired as mercenaries by the Quraysh in the battle of Ahzab later on, this is Ghatafan so Ghatafan have no morals, they're a pain for everybody around and it is said that they wanted to just raid the Muslims and the Prophet ﷺ preemptively took an army out to stop them there was no actual fighting but just to demonstrate we can defend ourselves and the Prophet ﷺ led an army of 700 men and they camped in front of Ghatafan for a week or two. But no battle took place. The both of them just remained in eyesight of one another without a physical confrontation and Ghatafan decided to basically not actually engage in battle. Number of things happened here. This was in Ghazwatul Dathir Qa' This was when Allah revealed the procedure of Salatul Khawf. Salatul Khawf. And Salatul Khawf is a type of Salah that you pray in shifts. You pray in shifts. That what do you do when the army is basically under threat? You can't just all of you take a side and pray Salah and then they'll attack you at that point in time. Rather, the Imam, the Prophet ﷺ, he will pray the full Salah and the sahaba behind him will take shifts in praying. And Allah says in the Quran, that, فَلْتَقُمْ طَائِفَةٌ مَعَكَ Let one group pray with you. Right? Then, وَلْيَأْخُذُوا حِذْرًا They will take charge guarding, and then the other group is gonna come and pray. Right? ثُمَّ لْتَأْتِ طَائِفَةٌ أُخْرَى فَلْيُصَلُّوا مَعَكَ And then the next group will come, and then they will pray with you. So, the two groups will take shifts praying, and the Prophet ﷺ will pray the full prayer as the leader, or whoever is the leader will pray the full prayer. And so each group will guard half or even if it has to be less than a half, the leader or the imam will decide how severe is the situation. Should half-half do it or maybe one-third protect, two-third pray or whatever. At that time it was half-half they did it. So this was when Salatul Khawf was revealed for the very first time. The second incident that is of interest in Ghazwatul At-Tarqa is one of the miracles that took place in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. and that is that on the way back from that so now they're on the way back, it's over now the danger is over and it was a hot summer's day and it was the desert and so when it came time to stop and it was the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ to march after fajr all the way until it was too hot this was generally what he would do again we drive in the morning, we leave and then it gets well we have AC or what not but it gets hot you don't want to be driving in the summer time so they would walk right after fajr on the camel as long as they could then probably around 11, 11.30 when the sun got too hot for them, they would then pause you know, take their nap, their lunch and then when it got a little bit cooler, they would go again so when they got to the valley where they decided to stop everybody ran for shelter and everybody just got some tree, some shade, if the sun is right above you, you're not gonna have too much shelter whatever little narrow crevice you find whether it's from the mountain, whether it's from whether it's from a tree, so all of the Sahaba, they're tired, they're not worried about any enemy attacking, they all fell asleep. And the Prophet ﷺ also fell asleep under one of the trees. It was here that one of the Bedouins of Ghatafan, who was following the Prophet ﷺ, following the army, saw the opportunity. From the distance he's seeing they're all splitting up and what not. And so, one of the Bedouins of Ghatafan he had basically agreed to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ obviously for the money that the ghatafan would give him. And so when he, and his name was Ghawrath by the way, Ghawrath. When he saw that the Prophet ﷺ was all by himself, he knew this was his time. All the sahaba were asleep. And the very fact that they didn't even hear him, it shows us how tired they must have been. He walked all the way through the Muslim camp. And he came to the Prophet ﷺ and he took the Prophet ﷺ sword from the tree because it was hung over there and he unsheathed it. And at this point in time, the Prophet ﷺ wakes up because he hears the noise, he wakes up. And he shook it in front of the Prophet ﷺ. He's a Bedouin, he's not even a warrior. But still he has a weapon. He shook it in front of the Prophet ﷺ and he said, Are you scared of me? Are you scared of me? And the Prophet ﷺ said, No. And why should I be scared of you? So, the man said, are you not scared of me and I have a sword? Means he's trying to make the Prophet ﷺ scared. And the Prophet ﷺ said, no, I'm not scared of you. And in the process, the man begins to tremble out of fear. Allah Azza wa Jal threw fear into his heart. He begins to tremble out of his fear. And the sword dropped. The sword dropped from his hand. According to one report, the question he asked him was, who will protect you from me? this is another version of the hadith and so the Prophet ﷺ said Allah and when he said Allah the sword just dropped from his hand and when it dropped from his hand the Prophet ﷺ picked it up turned it around and said who's gonna save you from me who is going to save you from me and the man to which the man said be the better of the two who takes the sword. Meaning? كُنْ خَيْرَ الرَّجُّلَيْنَ Meaning be the better of the two. Meaning what? Mercy. Have mercy. I did not want to have mercy on you. Be the better of the two have mercy on me. Like he confesses that I didn't have mercy on you. You be better than me. Be the better of the two who took the sword. So the Prophet ﷺ said, أَتَشْهَدُ أَن لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَأَنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّهُ will you testify to the shahada so he said I will testify and promise that I will never fight you again and he was honest he didn't accept Islam he said the max I'm gonna go I promise I will never fight you again I'm never gonna help anybody who fights you and Jabir then narrates the story from Bukhari that he says that and so the story from Bukhari says that we scattered in the valley to find shade and we went to sleep and we were woken up by the Prophet ﷺ calling us, come here, come here. They were that asleep. This whole incident is taking place and nobody is the wiser. Until the Prophet ﷺ saying, come here. And they all came and they found the Prophet ﷺ with the sword at the neck of this ghawrath. And the Prophet ﷺ told them the entire story. And Jabir says that the Prophet ﷺ did not do anything. He forgave the man and the man promised never to attack again. And he returned to his people saying, جِئْتُ مِنْ خَيْرِ النَّاسِ I have come back from the best of all of mankind. I have come back from the best of all of mankind. And this shows us, subhanallah, how much forgiving. The man wanted to kill the Prophet ﷺ. And wallahi, who amongst any leader or any person would let this go? And even he didn't even necessitate Islam. Because what's the point of Islam at force anyway? The man said, I'm not gonna fight you. Okay, khalas, go back. That's all. Go back, I don't need to, you know. That's it, as long as you're not gonna fight, khalas, go back. and he lived up to his word. Another incident that we all hear about and it took place in ذات الرقاء another incident that we hear about is the famous incident of the two sahaba who were protecting the caravan at night or protecting the army at night being night watchers they were making sure nobody attacks this is عباد بن بشر and عمار بن ياسر عباد بن بشر and عمار بن ياسر that they were the ones who were assigned to basically guard over against غطفان attacking again at night. And once again, Ghatafan. So Ghatafan, by the way, they were sending their spies. They were sending people to make sure to irritate them. And so Ammar and Abad said to themselves, who's gonna go first, who's gonna go second? So Abad said, I'll go first and you can go second. So Ammar went to sleep. Ammar ibn Yasir went to sleep. Abad stood up in salah to pray. And this was at a time when one of the mushriks of Ghatafan fired a bow and arrow. and it went straight into his body. And he pulled it out and continued praying. Continued praying. And another arrow came in. Pulled that one out and continued praying. Until finally when he thought he is going to faint from the salah, he then woke up Ammar. And Ammar said, why didn't you break the salah before? So he said, And I was reciting a surah and I didn't want to break it. And the lazza of salah was so much, right? And it is said that it was surah Yusuf. The lazza of salah was so much that he didn't want to break it. It was just the pleasure of reciting the Quran. I didn't want to stop now. Until I thought I'm going to fail in my duty as a night guard. Then I woke you up. And then Ammar basically fought him back with the bow. And I was far away. It's not as if he's right there, he's going to do anything. So he thinks maybe another one will miss, what not. But it turns out he was a sharp shooter. good arrow, and so it hit him again until finally he thinks he's gonna faint, then he wakes up, Ammar ibn Yasir, and then he says to him, that I swear by Allah, were it not for the fact that I might have failed the duty that the Prophet ﷺ gave, I would rather have died than stop the salah, I would love to have died a shaheed in this manner but I have an amanah to protect the army I have an amanah, otherwise this is a beautiful death for me, I'm reading the Quran I'm in salah, I would have loved to do this rather than break my salah. And then the final story is a very, very beautiful story. And this is why it seems that Zatul Raka'ah took place right now. And it is the story of Jabir ibn Abdullah. It is called Hadith Jabir ibn Abdullah. And it is a very long story. Ibn Hajar says that this hadith, you can extract more than a hundred benefits from it. And we don't have time for a hundred benefits definitely. But it is a beautiful and a moving story. And it shows us really the mannerisms of the Prophet ﷺ. And Jabir narrated it in the first person. Jabir narrated it in the first person. And Jabir says that in the ghazwa of that rukaa, we're coming back from the ghazwa, and my camel was the oldest and the weakest camel. It was the oldest and the weakest camel, and I was struggling behind the entire army. and I was in a very sad mood because my father this is why we know it's here my father had just died at Uhud and he had left a big day loan and I had seven sisters no brothers he's the oldest he's got seven sisters he has no one to take care of him he has a loan and he's got an old camel. And so he said, all of my humum, all of my worry and grief are piling on me. And I was already straggling behind and lo and behold I heard a voice. And the voice was, who is that in the back? I looked up, it was the Prophet ﷺ. So I said, this is Jabir, O Messenger of Allah. So the Prophet ﷺ said, ma li araka mahmum, why do I see you so depressed? why do you seem so sad so I told him the situation that ya Rasulullah my father died at Uhud and this is why we know that it took place right after Uhud my father died at Uhud and he left a family and he left this and that and all I have is this camel the only possession that I have is this camel and the Prophet ﷺ then asked him are you married so he said yes I am married I got married so he said to whom Jabir was 17 years old 16, 17 years old so he said to whom Jariya or Thayyib did you marry or a Bikr or Thayyib did you marry a virgin or a widow or in one version a young girl or an older girl so he said I married an older girl I married a widowed lady now the Prophet ﷺ is having a conversation with him that every young man would understand and he's trying to cheer him up because Jabir is depressed and sad. So he said, why didn't you marry a young girl? فَهَلَّا جَارِيَةٌ تُلَاعِبُهَا وَتُلَاعِبُكَ وَتُضَاحِكُهَا وَتُضَاحِكُكَ Why didn't you marry a young girl? You will play with her, she will play with you. And you will make her laugh and she will make you laugh. And so he said, O Messenger of Allah, I wanted to marry someone who would take care of my sisters and not add one to their age. that I have to take care of her. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, أَصَبَتَا You have done right. And this clearly shows that marrying a young or old or a virgin or widow, كُلٌّ بِحَسَبِهِ It depends on the circumstance. For some people, it is better to marry young. And for others, it is better to marry old. For some, it is better to marry previously unmarried. For some, it is better to marry a widow. In this case, the fact that he married someone who has experience, someone who is older than his other sisters and whatnot, someone who is older in age, it was for his benefit that she can take care of his sisters. So the Prophet ﷺ said, أَصَبَتَ Then he said to Jabir, Stop your camel. So he stopped, he dismounted the camel. The Prophet ﷺ stopped his own camel. Notice here, all of the people are ahead now. The Prophet ﷺ is having a conversation with Jabir, who at the time is just a teenage kid. Like we shouldn't think Jabir is not well known. That's why even the Prophet ﷺ said, who are you? Like he knows him, but who are you? So he said, this is Jabir ibn Abdullah. Then he clicks, oh Jabir ibn Abdullah, okay. This is not Abu Bakr, this is not Umar, this is Jabir, just a little kid in Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ is now basically having a conversation with him, one on one. So he stops the camel. He rides the camel of Jabir. And he says, Bismillah. And he hits the camel, the way that you hit camels. And Jabir said, it became the fastest camel I had ever seen. It raced in front of me as the fastest camel ever. And I caught up with the Prophet ﷺ. Now he's getting happy now. Okay, now I got a young camel now. Right? And guess what? The Prophet ﷺ says, بِعْنِيهَا Sell it to me. now after all this tantalizing like you know, sell it to me the young man and wallahi he did this out of care for his own sisters, he said no I can't, I mean he didn't do it out of selfishness, obviously but he has sisters to take care of, he has a family he said no to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, can you imagine said la, said I'm not gonna sell it to you so he said bi'niha again he said sell it to me and so when Jabir said that saw that the Prophet ﷺ really wants it, he flipped and he said, هُوَ لَكَ It's a hadiyah for you. If you really want it, then okay, take it. What am I gonna do? So the Prophet ﷺ said, No, بِثَمَنِهَا I sell it to me. So he said, how much will you give me? So the Prophet ﷺ said, ادِرْهَم Now a dirham for a camel is like, is like you're getting a car. It's like, give me five bucks for it. So he said, no. Once again he goes back. Look, wallahi, I mean you can see even the young age of Jabir. Like back and forth, right? You see his young age, he's 17 or 18. Max 18, maybe even 16. 17 is a good age to estimate, right? So he says, no, I'm not gonna sell it to you for a dirham. So how much? Two dirhams. Still it's like a joke, right? Two dirhams. So fasawwamtu, I kept on increasing the price until finally we got it to a reasonable 40 dirhams. Subhanallah, from one, can you imagine? Right? From one to 40. and 40 is not a good, but it's like an okay price. It's something that is doable. So then I came back to Medina and I met my uncle and I told him the story and he was not happy. Why did you sell the camel? This is your only possession. He was not happy. And I began reproaching myself. Maybe I shouldn't have sold the camel. Now the camel is young. You need a camel. I mean you need. And the camel has now returned and its energy has become the most energetic. So then the next day, and there's also the points here to benefit from which I talk about in my other class that I do like a garment which is about intimacy so he tells Jabir that when you go home don't rush at night let the news spread to your wife don't just come knocking in the middle of the night I know you're eager so when the camel got fast he's young and newlywed he's now at the front of the army galloping so the Prophet said calm down don't just barge into your family Don't just go, let the crier come to the city, let the family be aware that you're coming, so that she can comb herself, clean herself, shave herself, and be ready for you. And this I talk about in the class that I do about intimacy and Islamic etiquette of sexuality, that the Prophet ﷺ is actually encouraging the two to play with each other. He's encouraging her and him to dress up, to even, he said, so that she can even shave herself. And the only reason for that is that she looks beautiful over there. And wallahi this shows us the frankness. Jabir, calm down. Let her look beautiful for you. Don't just rush home. Right? Look, he's advising her because he doesn't have a father. He doesn't have an older brother. He becomes like a father to Jabir. Right? Telling him these things that nobody else is going to tell him. Let the crier get to her before you. The crier means the one who's going to tell the caravan has arrived. And so Jabir then goes. And then the next morning he comes to the Prophet ﷺ's masjid. the Prophet ﷺ says, have you prayed, O Jabir, two raka'ah? He says, no. So he says, first pray, then come to business basically. SubhanAllah, look the priorities, right? You walk into the masjid for business, first pray. So he's teaching him salah, he's teaching him tawhid, he's teaching him the sunnah of the masjid. So he prayed two raka'ah, and then he said, O Bilal, weigh the 40, the uqiyah basically, the 40 dirhams, and give him some extra. Zin wa arjah. Weigh this amount and give him some more. And Jabir had brought the camel, and he took the money and he walked away. And so the Prophet ﷺ called Jabir, Jabir, come back. So he came back. He said, where are you going? Back home. You forgot. Your camel is here. He said, Ya Rasulullah, I sold it to you. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? Oh Jabir, did you think that I would cheat you out of your camel? Go take the money and go take your camel. Go take the money and go take your camel. in other words the whole ploy of the Prophet ﷺ was just to give the money to him without him feeling like it is sadaqah this whole and that's why he's actually joking, now the Jabir is gonna look back at it right, he's gonna feel what a fool I made out of myself right, and he's gonna feel good about the whole thing look at how, the humanity of our Prophet ﷺ is being shown here that he's in all, I mean maybe some of you will get offended if I say this, but he's playing like a practical joke almost on Jabir you know, I mean wallahi this really the best thing I can say is like, he's just doing something in a teasing fashion the whole thing is just like a practical joke, for what? so that Jabir is given some money, and he doesn't feel as if as if it's been charity, right? did you think we're gonna take your camel from you oh Jabir, go take your camel and take the money, right? and there are so many benefits obviously from this hadith as we said we can go on and on but wallahi it shows us the care that the Prophet ﷺ had that he's looking at every single person so much so a 17 year old kid at the back of the army he then takes his own camel all the way back what's going on why are you so sad having a conversation with him cheering him up right why didn't you marry a young girl like you play with her she can play with you this is a talk that you do to cheer somebody up right to make him feel better. And when he sees what's going on, devises the whole plot to basically get that money in his hand. And there are many other benefits here that frankly we don't have time to get into. And also there's quite a lot of benefits of marriage and intimacy and romance that I have spoken quite a lot about in the other class that I do. And there's an article that I have online that you can just google it. It is called Marital Benefits from the Hadith of Jabir. Because I didn't mention every single phrase, but the encouragement that the Prophet ﷺ gave to Jabir and his wife to have a healthy intimacy, to have healthy sexuality is something that is honestly mind-boggling. And many of us in our ultra-conservative society, we think it's not allowed for scholars or mashayikh to speak like this. Our Prophet ﷺ is encouraging Jabir. And he's telling him things that clearly indicate that he wants them to find happiness with one another. And there are other phrases in the hadith that we don't have time to get into. And there are many fiqhi benefits as well. This hadith is always mentioned in the fiqh of buyur, the fiqh of selling and buying, because there's so many benefits. Most importantly, and all this we'll conclude even though there's so much that can be said here, but that's the fiqh class. Most importantly, the fact that you can put, well, I mean, you can barter, you can bargain, you can bring the price up and down, all of this is happening, right? How much? One dirham, no, two, no, three, so you're bartering, right? You can say no to someone who is elder and senior to you if you don't want to sell something, right? You shouldn't sell something out of shyness because he said no. And you're allowed to put conditions in the contract. Why? Because Jabir is a young kid, he doesn't understand. So when he agreed to the price, he thought he had to hand over the camel right then and there. So he said, O Messenger of Allah, I'll sell it to you for 40, but allow me to ride it until we get back to Medina. Right? Now he's just a kid, he doesn't understand. But from this we derive, it's called in Arabic, جواز الشروط في العقدة You can put legitimate conditions in a contract. And this is one of the main reasons why this hadith is discussed. If I sell you my car, and I say, okay, I'm leaving town next week, I'll sell you my car, but for one week I'm gonna drive it. Then you can have it. This is completely halal. So you can sell and put a condition, any other condition that is reasonable, you can put these conditions in a contract and all of this is inshallah derived from the hadith of Jabir and time is very late so I apologize about the delay we're going to have to stop Q&A and pause it till next Wednesday when all of you will be quizzed about the genealogy of the wives of the Prophet and you guys will be sitting in Safa al-Awwal, make sure and we'll see who remembers that Thank you.

Seerah 52 - Expulsion of Banu Nadheer - Yasir Qadhi _ 13th March 2013-0wCxb_pJTBk

Alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulullah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa anwala hama ba'd. So I promised you a quick pop quiz, so Asif, quickly. Yes. Number one. Ummahat al-Mumineen. Let's now memorize them all together. Number one. Number one. Khadija. Khadija. Number two. Khadija. Oh, that you're going like this. Okay. Number two. Sauda. Number three. Aisha. But the consummation happened later on. So the nikah took place at this time. Number four. Zainab. Zainab. Number four. Hafsa. so actually Aisha and Hafsa are actually in the order that we know Aisha and Hafsa right number 5 Zayna binti Khuzayma right and Zayna binti Khuzayma what is the main thing about her that we need to know the most important thing she passed away she passed away within a few months of marriage so that's why we hardly have any details right this is Zayna binti Khuzayma and then we said one of the tidbits about Zayna binti Khuzayma is that her half sister eventually also became the wife of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that is Maymuna bint al-Hadith and we'll talk about that in a while and then number six is Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayyah al-Maghzumiyyah and so as of yet the only non-Qurashi wife is Zaynab bint Khuzaym as of yet, there will become more later on as of yet so the first six wives of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam only one of them was non-Qurashi the rest were all from the Quraysh Of course later on this is going to change. Now, we now move on today. And today we're going to do another of the controversial topics. And that is the expulsion of the Banu Nadir. The expulsion of the Banu Nadir. And this is a precursor to the Battle of Ahzab. So the expulsion of the Banu Nadir is a direct precursor to the Battle of Ahzab. Why? The Banu Nadir are the main guilty party or the culprits of the Battle of Ahzab. the main people who actually instigated and planned and prodded people to do it they're the Banu Nadir so that is why in fact this story links directly to the Ahzab story even though today we're not going to get to the Ahzab and in fact there's a very big issue that took place in between that we're also going to spend maybe two days on maybe even three we'll see inshallah ta'ala now when did this happen so the Banu Nadir bit of a controversy when it took place for now let us assume that it took place after the incidence of Ar-Rajee'ah and Ma'unah. Ar-Rajee'ah and Ma'unah, which took place and suffered in the fourth year of the Hijrah. And suffered in the fourth year of the Hijrah. And if you recall, one of the Sahaba who had been spared from the massacre, Amr ibn Umayyah, on the way back, he met two people from the very tribe that had done the massacre. You remember the story, right? You remember the story. It's a bit of a complicated story. And that's because obviously as usual, the details are sparse. you need to piece it together. But piecing it together, to refresh your memory, it was the tribe of Banu Amir. There was somewhat of a, not a civil war, that's a big issue, but somewhat of a big clash between the Banu Amir. You had the main elder who had promised the Prophet ﷺ, don't worry, all Muslims are safe. Right? And then you had his nephew who was struggling for power and who disobeyed his uncle and who then committed the massacres in particular of Bayr Ma'una. In particular the Bi'r Ma'una massacre, he completely ignored what his uncle had done and massacred all of the Muslims. So, therefore we can say the Banu Amir was kind of divided. Some of them were supporting the bulk and the elder and that is the main person who gave the aman, who gave the treaty to the Prophet ﷺ. And some of them were supporting the younger nephew and the one who had committed the massacre. so these two people that were killed they were not known the sahabi Amr ibn Umayyah he did not know the whole story he assumed the entire tribe had committed treason he assumed the whole tribe had committed treason so basically it's self defense and also frankly vengeance both it's self defense that look if they find out I'm a Muslim they'll kill me and then there's also vengeance they killed all of us we need to now go back and attack he didn't know the whole story he didn't know all of that So, this is an innocent life that has been taken. In fact, two innocent lives. So, we said the Prophet ﷺ promised to pay the blood money. The blood money is a massive amount. A hundred camels is no joke. Multiplied by two gives you two hundred camels. This is a fortune. And according to the constitution, the treaty of Medina, anytime there's an affair that afflicts the whole city, everybody must join together and help out. and this makes it easier because when you have 3,000, 4,000 people all paying for 200 camels this will work out too something that's very affordable for every person now footnote here, pause here Islamic law many of you don't know this, it's very interesting Islamic law stipulates that in cases of accidental manslaughter the blood money will be paid by the entire tribe not just by the one person now in case of murder then the punishment is on the murderer case of accidental manslaughter then in fact the entire tribe will chip in to help the tribesmen and this is one of those issues where in modern fiqh we have no idea what to do, we need to rethink modern ishtihad needs to be done because you cannot afford a hundred camels a hundred camels is simply too much for one person to afford so what would the tribe do the tribe would have a fund, this is pre-Islam and also post-Islam, the tribe would have a general fund that every member of the tribe would give to the general fund. This is now the treasury of the tribe. So if one of the members of the tribe, accidental manslaughter. Accidental manslaughter, in our times you drive a car accidentally, you kill somebody. This is accidental manslaughter. Manslaughter by definition generally is accidental. So Islamic fiqh stipulates, you have to pay blood money and fast two months. Correct? Now, fast two months is on yourself. Paying blood money, the books of fiqh, and also this is in the hadith, state that the tribe will help out the Muslim. Your tribe will help out. And what is the ratio of you and the tribe? This will be decided amongst yourselves. No doubt the one who does the crime has to pay the big percentage. But the tribe will see, okay, what is your status? If you're a multi-millionaire, then maybe you pay the whole. If you're not that rich, then you pay 10%. And 90% divided on all of us. So if there are 2,000 people, then everybody pays $10, $20, and mashallah to barakah Allah, all of it will be put together. So this is actually fiqh, Islamic fiqh has it to this day. Now, getting back to our story. So we have a lot of money, so we have to collect it from everybody in the city. And one of the largest tribes and one of the wealthiest tribes is the Yahudi tribe of the Banu Nadir. Hence we get to the story of the Banu Nadir. How did the Prophet ﷺ end up in Banu Nadir? Because he wants help in paying the blood money for something that is common for the entire city of Medina. now this is not the first time we're hearing of the Banu Nadir the Banu Nadir have played minor roles in the past and this is now they're coming up again and again there have been previous troubles with them the first of these troubles in fact we did not mention in this particular class and that's because it is an isolated incident that does not involve the whole tribe but it does involve a segment of them and we learn from one of the books of Hadith and that is the Musannifa Abdul Razak We learn that the Banu Nadir, some of them, they conspire to murder, literally in cold blood, some of the Muslim, of the Sufah, the people of the, you can call them the Ulama, basically. These are the ones who are in authority and respect, right? And they were only discovered, Allah willed it of course, that one of them, they shared the plot with somebody who then told the Muslims. So it's a long story, but basically, eventually Allah exposed their plot, no harm was done. No harm was done, but the plot of murder was concocted by a group of them, but not the whole tribe. So they were not punished as a group. Now we also learn from one of the early seerah authorities, Musa ibn Uqba. He says that the Banu Nadir helped the Quraysh in the battle of Uhud with logistics and with the lay of the land, geography. And this makes a lot of sense, because how would the Quraysh know where to camp and where to have the best place to meet the Muslims. So here we learn from Musa ibn Uqba is one of the early authorities in the second century along with Ibn Sa'd and others. He's of the classical authorities of the seerah. Musa ibn Uqba says, it was the Banu Nadir who was helping the Quraysh in the battle of Uhud. So this is very recent, it's fresh. How did they help them? By guide. By telling them where to camp and what to do. Right? So they know the lay of the land, the Quraysh don't know the lay of the land. So the Banu Nadir becomes the guide of the Quraysh. Now, yet another point that is adding to the whole tension with Banu Nadir, the entire incident of Ka'b ibn Ashraf. Remember Ka'b ibn Ashraf, right? Ka'b ibn Ashraf, remember, what was his lineage? Who can remind me? Half Arab, half Yahudi. Father's side, and see he has a very unique position. The Arabs considered him Arab, the Yahudi considered him Yahudi. why? because his mother was from the Banu Nadir and his father was from the pure Arabs, so he had basically the best of both worlds and he was, as we said, he was considered to be very handsome, flatteringly handsome and he had a big ego, because when he that's how they killed him, wasn't it, right? that they praised his good looks and his hair and what not, and he just, khalas, he fell for it because he had that exotic, if you like, mix he was also the poet, he was also one of the richest businessmen, he had his private fortress. He didn't live with the rest. He had his private fortress because the Yahud had their fortresses. They didn't live like the Arabs lived. They have even a different architecture. Somebody should research this up. This is not my speciality. Perhaps somebody who's listening or somebody who's expert in architecture. This is an interesting question which will shed light on what is the origin of the Yahud? Where did they come from? Where did they learn how to build fortresses? This is not something the Arabs would do. This is something coming from elsewhere. So this is a question beyond my expertise. people who are experts in history of architecture should discover because there's still a big question where did these people come from, we still don't know remember I gave a whole 3, 4, 5 theories if you remember so many months ago and this is one of those factors we can use to narrow it down was it Yemen, was it Syria, was it you know, wherever it was this is one of the questions that could be used in any case, Ka'b ibn Ashraf the whole situation of Ka'b is linked to the Banu Nadir because they consider him one of their chieftains, one of their elite. Even though he's not the big guy, he's not the chieftain per se, but he's one of the elite. And he's one of the most respected of the Banu Nadir. So by eliminating him, the Banu Nadir automatically are feeling tension and obviously anger and what not. So there's quite a lot of minor incidents that are working up to something big. So there was tension amongst the Muslims about walking to the Banu Nadir and asking for the blood money. Nonetheless, the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr, Umar, and some of the core Sahaba, one day they decided to basically walk to the Banu Nadir. And the Banu Nadir lived south of Medina. So they made a day trip down to their plantations. And the Banu Nadir, as was the case of the Yahud that were involved in agriculture, they had massive lands of date groves and date palm trees. and in the middle of these date palm trees they would build these special fortresses. And every mini tribe would have their fortress. Every mini tribe would have their fortress. And this was something unique for the Yahud. The Yahud of Khaybar had it as well. And the Yahud of Yathrib had it as well. And other Yahud has it as well. And as I said, that's a separate question which how are they all linked together. So, when they saw the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba, the leaders amongst them welcomed them. and they showed a lot of happiness. And one of them said, it is about time you came to us for our help, meaning we're doing a favor to you now. It's about time you came to us and asked us because we're the ones who should be helping you out basically. And so they put him outside of the fortress. He said, wait here, let us go and figure out what we're going to do. And it is said that the Prophet ﷺ sat down with the Sahaba and the fortress is above them. and when they entered back in they began disputing amongst themselves one of them said this is our opportunity let's take it he's sitting right under the wall of the fortress let us go to the top and we can and that's how they protect fortresses they have their big items they have their rocks all of this is prepared because that's what you do with the fortress and we can throw a rock on him and khalas our problems are eliminated with the elimination of the leadership what will the Muslims be able to do after that and another said no, this is gonna cause a lot of, obviously, backlash and whatnot. Eventually, the plan was enacted that, yes, let us simply go to the top of the turret, go to the top of the fortress, and khalas, we have it ready right there. We're gonna lower directly onto the Prophet ﷺ. We're talking about a matter of minutes now. Because this is all prepared. That's what a fortress is, right? So, immediately, and the Sahaba were not understanding why, the Prophet ﷺ stood up and just walked away. Immediately. and later on he informed them that Jibreel had come and told him but outwardly the Sahaba had no idea what is going on the Prophet ﷺ simply stood up and walked away and returned to Medina without even saying one word because Jibreel had said stand up right now and just leave so he's gonna obey Allah ﷻ to Jibreel he literally stood up and walked away without even uttering one word about where he went the Sahaba waited, waited, waited the Yahudah had no clue they're waiting for him to return as well and so eventually they didn't do anything because the Prophet ﷺ was not there, so the Sahaba returned back to Medina and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, I mean he informed the Sahaba that Allah azawajal had told him that they had a plan to kill him they had a plan to kill him, so this is a famous incident that we all hear about that the Yahud wanted to throw a rock on him this is the Banu Nadir, this is when it takes place the Banu Nadir, when he was sitting under their fortress, ostensibly according to one report, they said okay yeah great you're here you know we're gonna prepare massive feast just wait let us do the the work for you let us basically welcome you obviously you don't have secretaries coming and arranging this in those days you just walk and you do it right so the Prophet ﷺ comes unexpected so actually it's understood that it's gonna be a little bit of okay wait let us prepare the place for you right let us prepare the fortress let us throw a feast for you so there's nothing fishy per se for having him ﷺ wait outside while they prepare and they get a feast and they sacrifice an animal this is understood. So this is, as we said, how they took advantage of the protocol that it makes complete sense for them to do what they're doing. And they tried to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, later on, many years later, he revealed Surah Al-Ma'idah. And Surah Al-Ma'idah, of course, it was one of the last surahs revealed. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala referenced in one ayah, just in passing, this incident. And then he moved on to talk about more fresh incidents, right? So to begin the story of the treachery of that entire group, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala began, surah al-ma'idah verse 11, that, يَا أَيُّهُمْ وَالَّذِينَ آمَلُوا أُذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ هَمَّ قَوْمٌ أَنْ يَبْسُطُ إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ فَكَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنْكُمْ That, O you who believe, remember the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on you, when a group from amongst you desire to reach you to kill you. إِذْ هَمَّ قَوْمٌ أَنْ يَبْسُطُ إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ What did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do? فَكَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنْكُمْ Allah stopped their hands from reaching you. Allah stopped their hands from reaching you. So Allah, now the Surah Al-Ma'idah is all about the treachery of this group and what they have done. This is like the very first reference. This happened, and then this happened, then this happened, so the whole story goes on. So this is something, Surah Al-Ma'idah came down perhaps four years after this incident. So Allah mentions, remember when that happened. وَذْكُرُوا Remember when that happened. And that reference, according to Ibn Abbas, he said, this is when the Banu Nadir attempted to eliminate the Prophet ﷺ. So the Prophet ﷺ then returned back, and he told the Sahaba, Abu Bakr Umar waited, when he didn't return, they realized something is up, and they're seeing him walk away, so they went back to Medina, and he told them the whole story, and then he sent a messenger through Muhammad ibn Maslama, back to the Banu Nadir, to tell them in detail, this is what you said, this is what you did, and so he's exposing the plot, I know exactly what happened, This is what you said to him, he said this to that. And because of this, I have given you, the only option that you have is to leave in 10 days. To leave in 10 days. And if I see any of you, if we see any of the Banu Nadir after this, then this will be the death penalty for them. You have 10 days to leave. And initially when they heard this, obviously they were caught by surprise. They knew exactly they were at fault. so they tried to argue with Muhammad ibn Maslam and Muhammad ibn Maslam was a friend of theirs in the days of Jahiliyyah and he said how could you be doing this to us Muhammad ibn Maslam said Islam has come and changed everything my friendship is now with those who have Islam Islam has come and changed everything the wala and bara or the loyalties and friendships all of this is now in relation to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his messenger so they were literally caught red handed so they agreed and they said okay we'll leave when news of this spread in Medina Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul the head of the hypocrites could not believe that his friends and his allies and his entourage the Banu Nadir, he was friendly with all of the Yahudi tribes all of them and especially the Banu Nadir and Ka'b ibn Ashraf was a personal friend of his, so Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul could not believe that they would be expelled and so he sent them a message and that message was extremely frank and extremely harsh that he said that no matter what happens they're not going to leave Medina he will take care of them and he will guarantee their protection and he is not going to listen to anyone who tries to kick them out meaning the Prophet ﷺ and if need be he will fight with them against any who fights, meaning the Prophet ﷺ. And worst case scenario, he said, if you are expelled, I will be with you walking away from Medina as well. Self-exile, khalas. So look at this, he is one of the leaders of pre-Islamic Yathrib. In fact, as we said many times, he is the senior most leader from that generation. And he is telling the Banu Nadir so many oaths and qasams. He is swearing by Allah ﷻ. He is not going to obey anyone against them. he will fight for them, he will defend he will, he will, and so obviously and he also says, I forgot to mention he says, I have called my allies from the Ghatafan which is one of the larger tribes up north I have called my allies from the Ghatafan, they will come two thousand strong and together, the both of us, me and them we will defend you against any who seeks to harm you, now when you have Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul telling you all of these things, I mean if you don't have iman, you will be persuaded. You will be persuaded. This noble chieftain of Jahiliyyah, he is saying his own self-imposed exile. I mean, what more do you want? Like, if you are exiled, don't worry, I'm gonna be exiled with you, right? Now, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed this in the Quran, we will mention this later on, that Allah says, even if you, you know, Allah azza wa jal, وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ Allah testifies that He's a liar even as He says this. He has no intention of fighting with you. Right? That if you are fought, he is not going to defend you. And if you are exiled, he is not going to leave with you. This is in the Quran. We'll come to these ayahs in a while. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed the plot of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. But the Banu Nadir don't believe in the Quran in the first place. So it's a vicious loop here. Nonetheless, so Abdullah ibn Ubayy assured them that we will fight with you. we will as we said stay with you to the end and وَلَا نُطِيعُ فِيكُمْ أَحَدًا أَبَدًا this is in the Quran we will not obey anybody against you meaning the Prophet ﷺ وَلَا نُطِيعُ فِيكُمْ أَحَدًا أَبَدًا never ever are we gonna obey anybody against you and Allah says وَاللَّهُ يَشْهِدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ Allah is testifying this person is a liar so when this came back the Yahud began the Banu Nadir began amongst themselves what to be done what is to be done, and their chieftain amongst them, Huyay ibn Akhtab. And Huyay ibn Akhtab, his daughter is Safiyyah. And Safiyyah is to become one of the Ummahat al-Mumineen, one of the final Ummahat al-Mumineen. This is after the battle of Khaybar. Right now we're talking about Banu Nadir. The battle of Khaybar is still three years away. So this is still time left for that. But this is the father of Safiyyah binti Huyay. This is Huyay. Huyay ibn Akhtab was one of the main chieftains of the Banu Nadir. so Huyayya bin Akhtab and we know about him that Huyayya and his brother his name was Yasir as well so Yasir and Huyayya are two brothers and Safiyya herself tells us the story Safiyya she flipped around from her previous religion and she became one of the Ummahat al-Mumineen and she was a believer in Islam obviously and so she tells us the reality of her father and her uncle that she says that when the Prophet ﷺ first came to Medina that my father and uncle were somewhat excited that maybe this is the person. Maybe this is the one. And we learn from many other books and we know this for a fact that they were expecting someone to come and revive their religion. And we said this many times. It's mentioned in the Quran as well. And they would threaten the Arabs that when we get this person, we will overcome you. So they had some premonition. It might be the one. but at the same time they didn't expect this person to be from other than them so they went to find out is it him or not Safiya herself tells us the story that Safiya says I was a young girl 5-6 years at the time and I was the beloved of my father and my uncle they would always play with me and cherish me so when I saw them coming back from Medina I ran out to meet them happy jumping for joy and they didn't even pay any attention to me completely gloomy, sad they completely ignored me and so I listened to them, what are they saying and so my uncle Yasser said to Huyay her father, who is he the one what is your opinion now and he responded back glumly and sadly that by Allah he is the one so her uncle said what is your position what are you going to do so he responded to be his enemy as long as I live I can't expect anybody I can't accept anybody who's not from basically my ethnicity or tribe or what not I will not accept anybody from outside of my group so to be his enemy as long as I live and this is one of the reasons that Safiyyah herself was willing to embrace Islam because she realized that her people were in misguidance, in any case in the battle of the Banu Nadir or in the issue or the Banu Nazir, Suhiyy ibn Akhtab, he decided to take a stand. And he believed the promises of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. And so there was some tension between his own people. And Allah mentions this in the Quran. We're gonna talk about these ayahs. تَحْسَبُوهُمْ جَمِيعًا وَقُلُوبُهُمْ شَتَّى You think they're one group. O Muslims, you think they're one group. تَحْسَبُوهُمْ جَمِيعًا وَقُلُوبُهُمْ شَتَّى But amongst themselves, they have so many different groups. They have so many different... Their hearts are not reconciled. So, Huyay wanted to fight. Many of the other Yahud did not want to fight. And they had a mini, not a fight, but you know, verbal, if you like, altercation, if you like, inside of their fortress. Finally, Huyay wins over. So, they decide they're going to fight. So, they send a messenger back to Medina. Initially, they've agreed to leave. When Abdullah ibn Ubay convinces them, now they're gonna stay. So they send the messenger back to Medina, and the messenger goes to the Prophet ﷺ, and says, O Muhammad ﷺ, we have decided to stay, so do whatever you want. Blatant threat. Do whatever you want. افعل ما بدى لك. Which is a height of arrogance. خلاص, do whatever you can. It's like you're threatening somebody. Do whatever you want. And as soon as the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he exclaimed, exclaimed, Allahu Akbar! Meaning, Alhamdulillah, right? Allahu Akbar! And the Sahaba, when they heard this, they started making takbir as well, because they realized that this is going to turn out for their positive, not for their negative. It's going to turn out for the positive, and we will see what a big positive it was. So, they began to arm themselves, and immediately, the same day, the Prophet ﷺ took a large group, some say around 700 or so, and he, within the day he reached their fortresses and he began laying siege to them. And even they were shocked, the Yahud were shocked at how fast the Prophet ﷺ mobilized an army and was there basically instantaneously. Like they were expecting 2-3 days a week. The same day, like literally, within a few hours mobilization was done, the Sahaba there, and khalas, they're at the gates. So now, they're waiting for Abdullah ibn Ubayyus ibn Saluh's promise. Now they're waiting. you promised us and guess what absolutely nothing Abdullah ibn Ubayy did not lift a finger he didn't do anything after all of these promises that he told them no help came he himself did not go and fight against the Muslims nor did he do anything in the exile and so as the days clearly demonstrated that Abdullah ibn Ubayy was not going to do anything some say the Hisar or the siege lasted for a week, some say 10 days, but there was no fighting. Because they were waiting for external help to come. There's no way that this group can fight the entire people of Medina. And during this time, to demonstrate for you how confident the Muslims and the Prophet ﷺ in particular were. So, we've already said that after the Banu Qaynuqa was expelled, we talked about their story. So now we have the Banu Nadir, and then we have the Banu Quraidah. So these are the three main groups. the Banu Qaynuqa we've already done that the Banu Nadir we're doing it now the Banu Quraida and that's the really controversial because that ended in a execution for all of the males adult males amongst them now to show us the confidence of the Muslims the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam left the Banu Nadir still in siege with a group obviously still outside the fortress and he along with the majority of the Sahaba went to the Banu Quraida the third of them right and the reason he did this was to rejuvenate and renew the contract of Medina and the constitution of Medina and to make them give oaths again that they are with us or not and this is very important because a lot of people view Banu Quraidah in isolation Banu Quraidah, don't get confused now I know these names are Banu Quraidah is gonna happen in a year and a half the Banu Quraidah the Banu Quraidah is the execution that's perhaps the biggest smear that is done upon the honor of our Prophet ﷺ by those who are not sympathetic to Islam they say the issue of the Banu Quraidah is perhaps the biggest smear that is done because it resulted in the execution of hundreds of adult males people do not realize that there is a whole history going on here and just right now in this incident of Banu Nadir the Prophet ﷺ goes to them again and says look and this is already after the Banu Qaynuqa both of the tribes, the Banu Nadhir and the Banu Quraidha okay no no we're gonna uphold the treaty don't worry once again the Prophet ﷺ is going and saying are you gonna uphold or not if you wanna go then break it don't betray and the Banu Qaynuqa agree for the third time right, the Banu sorry Banu Quraidha for the third time with solemn oath to renew the promise so when khandaq happens and they betray the Muslims the worst betrayal imaginable then honestly we need to look at the whole context even the Banu Nadir right now did not betray even a fraction as much as the Banu Quraida did even a fraction because the Banu Quraida we are jumping the gun here but you all know the story the 10,000 people surrounded the entire city of Medina and now within, there's a fifth column. At the most difficult and the most awkward time, now within the Banu Qadidah flip around, right? And the Muslims are scared for their own women and children now because they cannot protect the city and their wives at the same time. You're either at the gates of the city or you're in your house. You can't be both. And this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, your hearts were in your... This is in the Quran. Your hearts were in your chests, right? Your hearts were in your chest. We even have an expression in English. And you began thinking thoughts of Allah. وَتَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ الظُّنُونَ Even the sahabah, their iman was tested. هُنَالِكَ بْتُولِيَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَزُلْزِلُوا زِلْزَالًا شَدِيْدًا We're jumping the gun here, but I'm putting this into perspective. What happened to them, happened not because of their religion, not because of their ethnicity, but because of their actions. And because they broke solemn oaths multiple times. And this is the last time they're gonna swear a new solemn oath. That we will uphold the constitution and we will not betray you. So the Prophet ﷺ then left the Banu Qurayza and then returned back to the Banu Nadir. So look at the confidence he ﷺ himself had. Now, because also realize there was a threat that the Banu Qurayza might help the Banu Nadir in this time. There was a threat that the two will join up. So he goes there as well to make sure you're not gonna join up. To show them the strength of arms as well. The bulk of the army actually left the Banu Nadir. Just a small contingent remained outside. And they marched to the other side to go to the Banu Quraidah. Right? And this also shows you how helpless the Banu Nadir were. When the bulk of the Muslims, they still can't do anything. Because they're just completely cut off. So when they realized this, one more thing happened which completely demoralized them. And this is a bit of a controversy, but frankly I don't see much of a controversy. As usual, as you know, my methodology is to be frank here and not to sugarcoat. And when you be frank, you see there's reasons for everything that happens in our seerah. So one more issue that really demoralized them. The Banu Nadir prided themselves in their orchards, in their date palms, in their groves. And they had massive lands, hectares, lots of lands, full of date palms. and as you realize it's not easy to maintain it's not easy to grow they have it all done nicely in the agriculture they have the rows of water they have all of the amenities that are needed to have a garden they have it all planted nicely and most importantly the trees are now ripe which takes on average a date palm would take between 5 to 8 years to get to that size that is needed this is just the beginning so for the first basically 8 to 9 years you're not gonna get anything. You're just putting in the effort. Then when the tree is up, now it will last, alhamdulillah, a decade or two. Right? So, the Prophet ﷺ burnt down groups of the date palms. And they are watching from the fortress. Now what's gonna happen? Right? This was too much for them. Like this isn't just money, this is effort, this is the prize this is everything and they began lamenting and they began wailing and crying and some of them even said that you are calling for peace what type of peace is this that you are destroying the agricultural products and this actually caused some of the people to question well should we destroy or not and Allah revealed in the Quran and we'll talk about this what Allah revealed in the Quran and when they saw this and they saw no help was coming and the days turned into probably a week maximum 10 days between 7 to 10 days and they realized there is no exit strategy what not so they agreed to basically unconditionally surrender and frankly the Protestant was very generous with them very generous with them after they have attempted to assassinate him and this is something the chieftains have done not some guy on the street This is like by shura between them. And they officially decide to basically assassinate him. He forgives them their lives, their properties, their women and children, and as much as their camels can carry. Just leave. And frankly many would say this is very generous. Just leave. Get out of here. Exile. and take whatever you can. That's pretty generous. Just one condition, don't take weapons. It's very fair. Don't take weapons. Right? So, frankly, nobody can really have anything to say about the Banu Nadir. The Banu Nadir demonstrates, if anything, the generosity of the Prophet ﷺ that he did not impose any type of major financial, if you like, taxation on them or anything, other than, obviously, what can you not take when you leave? the agricultures, right? That was the main issue, right? And they had to confiscate that. They had to basically not... The Muslims confiscated it because of their treachery. And therefore, the Banu Nadir packed their belongings as much as they could, and they realized that the Muslims would then take over their fortresses and their houses. and so out of sheer spite really, they took access to their own houses and they hacked down these beautiful treasures. Now, it is well known in the seerah that, and as I said this is a whole different tangent that I'm not qualified to even get into, their architecture was much more advanced than the Arab architecture. And they knew how to construct in a way that the Arabs did not know. Right? And they prided themselves, and this is why it was so difficult. The Banu Nadir, and then the Khaybar, is much more difficult as we're gonna come to. They had the most massive fortresses in the entire Arabian Peninsula, was in Khaybar, right? So, what's happening now, Banu Nadir? They destroyed their own fortresses and palaces. And they took an axe to their own, every person to his own house. And this was a punishment that Allah meted out at them. Imagine how painful it is for a person to imagine breaking down his own house, frankly that he himself built. We don't build our own houses, they build their own houses. They have lived in it, their children have been born, their grandchildren have been born. This is their prized possession. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, فَذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ They tasted the penalty of what they themselves have done. And what is happening in the next is even more as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions. And Ibn Ishaq mentions that as they went out and they went into exile, the people of Medina gathered to see the procession leave. And it was an amazing sight, he said. The amount of wealth that they had hidden in these fortresses, or not hidden, it's probably not protected or accumulated over the centuries. The treasures and the fabrics and the brocades and the jewels, that the sahaba were simply amazed how much wealth they had allocated. And the camels almost dying with stuff on their back because they're not gonna leave one thing. You know this, right? They're not gonna leave a single thing for anybody to take. They will take everything they possibly can. So everybody's walking, even the kids are walking because they want the camels to carry the goods, right? So every camel is creaking with stuff piled to the very top and they're making their way through and the Sahaba are simply just shocked to see how much wealth was actually stored. And many of them, it is said, they even took their doors because the door, in those days, the door was the most prized, if you like, you know, craftsmanship and architecture, you're gonna carve it out and whatnot. They're putting the door on top of the camel. Right? They don't even want to leave the door. Just take everything as you can. And so, they were allowed to leave. and it is said that two or three of them accepted Islam and so they were allowed to remain with their possessions and subhanallah look at the fairness of the religion that anybody who accepts Islam khalas instantaneously you protect yourself and your family and your possessions so the few who converted they were allowed to keep their goods and remain in whatever lands they had and the rest of it some of the sahaba began a discussion what is to be done with it and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed in the Quran this is not ghanima this is another term called fay. And fay is a whole different chapter in fiqh. And fay is that which is captured without any war and without any fighting and without any bloodshed. And the rules of fay are very different than the rules of ghanima. Now before I move on, let me just say, all of these rules frankly in modern times, they really hardly apply at all. For many reasons, not just because there's no, hardly any or no real jihad going on. But also because these rules were meant for an army of volunteers. A paid Muslim army. Suppose you're in an ideal Islamic land that has an army. This army is getting a salary. These rules don't apply. Instantaneously, khalas. These rules don't apply. The whole rules of ghanima and fain, all of these things, they apply to the situation of those times. When you had to basically volunteer, you have no idea what's gonna happen. You're using your own horse, you're using your own weapons, right? Whole different, there was no paid army in early Islam. So when I say these rules, one needs to understand, these rules are nice to know, you know, from the books of Fiqh and what not, but we have to be realistic here, that these rules are not applicable for multiple reasons in our times. Nonetheless, Fay is different than Ghanima. Why? Because there's no fighting done. Fay is something that is captured without any threat of fight, without any physical blood being shed. And this is what happened, that the Muslims clearly outnumbered the Banu Nadir. Not a single gun, not a single bow and arrow is fired, not a single sword is drawn, and therefore this is fayt. So Allah revealed rules about fayt. And basically, no reason to go into all of the minutiae when it's not relevant to us, but a portion of the fayt is given to the state, a portion is given to the Prophet ﷺ specifically, and then there's an ikhtilaf, does it go to the Al-Bayt or not and for example the Shia group they basically say this one-fifth they give to the Al-Bayt and then in our times anybody who takes their place and so therefore the Marji or whatever they have these people they take the one-fifth and that's how they understand this now from our fiqh perspective that one-fifth indeed it goes to the Prophet ﷺ and as for the Al-Bayt and who qualifies there's obviously a difference between the two of us but yes, it does go to the Al-Bayt a percentage, even in Sunni fiqh, yes it goes a percentage, but that's if you qualify as Al-Bayt, which means you have a lineage and a shajarah, then yes you will get a percentage of this so a portion goes to the Prophet ﷺ, a portion to the state, and the rest the Amir or the Khalifa, in this case the Prophet ﷺ can do as he pleases, so what did he do? all of these acres and acres of land, he distributed it amongst the muhajirun who didn't have any land. And this is a beautiful reward that will help the economy of the ansar and the muhajirun. Because up until this time, the ansar were supporting the muhajirun. And as you know, they would have their lands and done this and that. Now that we acquire, the Muslim state acquires acres and acres of land. All of the muhajirun who had no land, they don't own any land, they now take this land and they distributed amongst the muhajirun. So now the muhajirun and ansar are a little bit more equal. And it is also mentioned in Ibn Ishaq that three of the ansar who had no land and had participated in a number of battles, they also got part of this. So, the process is being fair here, that those who don't have any, they will now get this part of the land. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed surah al-Hashr. The entire surah al-Hashr was revealed because of Banu Nadir. Right? So this is a very important surah to understand. And because it is such a short surah, and one of the things I'm very eager to do is to link the Qur'an with the seerah, I will in fact go over Surah Al-Hashr very quickly so that we understand the entire incident of Banu Nadir in light of Surah Al-Hashr. Surah Al-Hashr, by the way, Ibn Abbas refused to call this Surah Al-Hashr. He said, no, it's not Surah Al-Hashr. It's Surah Banu Nadir. or surah Bani Nadir he refused to call surah al-Hashr why? because he didn't want now, Hashr, what does Hashr mean? you should all know the gathering now, when Allah uses Hashr usually what does it refer to? Qiyamah whereas in this surah it doesn't refer to Qiyamah okay? in this surah it doesn't refer to Qiyamah that's why Ibn Abbas felt strongly that it should not be called Hashir. He goes, no, don't call it Hashir. Call it Surah Al-Nadhir or Surah Al-Banin Nadhir. Because it's Surah Al-Banin Nadhir. And the entire Surah was revealed right after Banu Al-Nadhir. So reading the Surah in light of what happened in Banu Al-Nadhir, we understand every single ayah. And the whole Surah takes on a whole different meaning. So let us go over this very quickly. It's a small Surah, just three and a half pages. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ مَا فِي الْرَضِيِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ It is one of the surahs that begins with سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ That all praise be to Allah. All that is in the heavens and earth, it praises Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And He is Al-Aziz, Al-Hakim. هُوَ الَّذِي أَخْرَجَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ He is the one who has expelled the disbelievers from the Ahl-i Kitab. Banu Nadir. كَفَرُوا مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ From their houses and their fortresses. لِأَوَّلِ الْحَشْرِ for the very first Hashar. What does this mean for the very first Hashar? So, there's a number of interpretations here, all of them are valid. When I say the first Hashar, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? The first implication. There's gonna be other Hashars. Right? There's gonna be other Hashars. Right? And so, there were other Hashars. There was the Hashar, in one sense of the Banu Quraidah. There was also the Hashar of Khaybar, the same Banu Nadir were in Khaybar. Now, we're gonna get there, I kind of should have said this. Where did they go? Majority of them went to Khaybar. What's gonna happen at Khaybar? Another catastrophe for them. So this is Awwal al-Hashar. That Allah is hinting, don't worry, we're gonna deal with you again. There's an implied meaning here. And then of course, let us never forget the ultimate hashr is also implied the ultimate hashr you will also have the ultimate hashr that you're gonna have to deal with and that is yawm al qiyamah so beautiful verse here that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is threatening them just wait, your time has come li awwal al hashr this is just the first then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says ma zonantum an yakhruju some people said this is a addressed to the sahaba. You didn't think they would be expelled. But the stronger opinion is Allah is speaking directly to them. Allah is speaking to the Banu Nadir. ما ظننتم أن يخرجوا You never thought that you could be expelled. Some have interpreted this to mean Allah is speaking to the sahaba. You never thought that they would leave. But in fact the stronger position Allah is speaking to the Banu Nadir directly. Right? that you never assumed that this is gonna happen. So Allah is speaking to them. And then Allah removes to the third person, we talked about this many times, iltifat, which is the change of pronouns. وَظَنُّوا أَنَّهُمْ مَانِعَتُهُمْ حُصُونُهُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ And they assumed, the Yahud assumed, that their fortresses would protect them against Allah. A fortress is gonna protect you against Allah, how foolish can you be? وَظَنُّوا أَنَّهُمْ مَانِعَتُهُمْ حُصُونُهُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ فَأَتَاهُمُ اللَّهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَمْ يَحْتَسِبُوا But Allah came to them from a place they could never expect. Allah came to them from a place they could never have expected that the Muslims will gather so quickly that when they cease to them, every one of their allies will be cut off. Allah عز و جل arranged it. وَقَذَفَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مُرْعُبٌ And Allah threw terror into their hearts. They were scared of the Muslims and what's gonna happen. يُخْرِبُونَ بُيُوتَهُمْ They destroyed their own houses. بِأَيْدِيهِمْ With their own hands, they destroyed their houses. وَأَيْدِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ And the hands of the believers, فَاعْتَبِرُوا يَا أُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ So take a heed, learn some benefits, O people of vision and wisdom. Look at these arrogant people, they built their houses, they thought it would last forever. They ended up destroying their own houses with their own hands. Pay heed, O people of intelligence. فَاعْتَبِرُوا يَا أُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ وَلَوْ لَا أَنْ كَتَبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْجَلَىٰ Had it not been, that Allah had already decreed that they would be evacuated or exiled لَعَذَّبَهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا This would have been a worse punishment now. Actually you're getting off easy now and Allah had decreed you'll get off easy. That you're only gonna be exiled. As I said, frankly the Prophet ﷺ was generous in allowing them to take whatever they wanted to take as much as their camels could possess. Go ahead and do it. So Allah is saying, yes, I allowed it for you. I allowed it for you. وَلَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ نَارٌ but they have that punishment waiting for them in the hereafter. That is because they opposed Allah and His Messenger, and whoever opposes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then Allah is severe in penalty. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, مَا قَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ لِينَةٍ أَوْ تَرَكْتُمُوهَا قَائِمَةً عَلَىٰ أُصُولِهَا فَبِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَلِيُخْزِيَ الْفَاسِقِينَ This is a reference to the cutting off of the trees. So there was even a dispute amongst the Sahaba, dispute meaning should we have, should we not have? What was the right thing to do? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed, whatever you cut down of the palm trees or those that you left standing whichever of these two both of them were done by the permission of Allah and in order to disgrace the Fasiqeen so Allah is allowing this and this therefore shows us and there is an ikhtilaf amongst the four madahib but the bulk of them for the legitimate Islamic army they allow this type of destruction now realize this is problematic at the time because the Muslims felt why are we destroying that which we will benefit from? You see the problem here, right? Is that these trees are gonna come to us and yet we're destroying them. So there was some back and forth like it doesn't make sense for us to destroy it. They realize they're gonna inherit this, why should we destroy it? So Allah revealed in the Quran, this was a tactic and it made them basically resign and it made them humiliated. And then Allah reveals the issue of fate. Fate. وَمَا أَفَاءَ اللَّهُ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ مِنْهُمْ And whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala afaa, which means to give back or to restore, to his messenger from them, فَمَا أَوْجَفْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ خَيْلٍ وَلَا رِكَابٍ You did not spur your horses and your camels. Meaning, this is the point here, you didn't fight for it. You did not fight. This is not ghanima, this is fayn. And therefore, وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ يُسَلِّتُ رُسُولَهُ عَلَى مَنْ يَشَاءُ But Allah gives his messengers power over whomever he wills, and Allah is capable of all things. So Allah is mentioning here, you didn't fight for all of this land. It was simply Allah's gift that He gifted. You didn't have to, you know, فَمَا أَجُفْتَ عَنِي مِنْ خَيْدٍ وَلَا رَكَابٍ You didn't spur your horses on. It was a calm issue, you knew you're gonna win, there was never any fear from your side, and Allah gifted all of these lands. And therefore, مَا أَفَأَ اللَّهُ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْقُرَىٰ Whatever Allah restored to His Messenger from the people of the qura, meaning the Banu Nadir, then, فَلِلَّهِ وَلِلْرَسُولِ Now this is now the fayt, rulings. It belongs to Allah, and to the messenger. And, وَلِذِلْقُرْبَ Most say, لِذِلْقُرْبَ means Al-Bayt. And this is also the Sunni interpretation, as we said, right? وَالْيَتَامَ The orphans. وَالْمَسَاكِينَ Poor people. وَبْنِ السَّبِيلِ And the wayfarer, right? كَيْ لَا يَكُونَ دُولَةً بَيْنَ الْأَغْنِيَاءِ مِنْكُمْ In order that this money, now this is a very deep verse which has a lot to do with capitalism, has a lot to do with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. And this has a whole other tangent which we don't have time to get into now. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying, all of this wealth should be given to the orphans, the poor, the wayfarer, the ibn al-sabil. Why? So that it doesn't go round amongst the elite of you. Wallahi these four words are of the most powerful verses of Islamic economics. And it destroys many versions of modern capitalism. The 1% versus the 99% and what not, right? The 1% owns 40% of this land. Think about that. Wallahi, it is just a number. Think about that. The wealth of the 1% is almost half. And I have a very strong premonition it's only a matter of time it will be more than a half. It's only a matter of time it will be more than a half. Where that one elite 1% will own what all of the rest of the people own. Like literally half-half. And Allah says in the Quran, one of the primary wisdoms of the laws of the sharia, that money, لكي لا يكون دولة دولة is to go around. بين الأغنياء منكم Money should not just go around between the rich and elite amongst you. should filter down to the fuqara and yatama and masakin. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this is related directly to the Banu Nadir property, but obviously we base our Islamic economics on this ayah. One of the goals, maqasid al-shari'ah, is that wealth should not just make the wealthier wealthy. Wealth should trickle down to society. So the public policies need to be done that enact this type of vision. And then, وَمَا أَتَاكُمْ رَسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانْتَهُ this is one of the most explicit verses that you have to obey the Prophet ﷺ it was revealed for the fate of Banu Nadir it was revealed for the fate of the Banu Nadir whatever the Prophet ﷺ gives you take, whatever he stops from you then don't be greedy for it and we can extrapolate this for everything that he says sallallahu alayhi wa sallam everything that he tells you to do it everything he stops from you, don't do it وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ شِدُدُ عِقَابٍ have taqwa of Allah. Indeed Allah is severe in punishment. Then Allah mentions the blessings of the muhajirun and the ansar. للفقراء المهاجرين As for the poor immigrants who were expelled from their houses, and they were expelled from their monies, and they only wanted Allah's pleasure. يَفْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانًا وَيَنْصُرُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولًا And they're helping Allah and His Messenger. These are the truthful people, meaning they will get this fate that we just talked about. and that's what happened, right? They gave up everything in Makkah so they're gonna get this now. And we gave stories, remember? Literally they had to literally abandon their whole house, not get a penny for their house. And Allah rewarded them with much more in Banu Nadir, right? And when you give up anything for Allah, Allah will give you back more than that. And then Allah praised the Ansar. This is the wisdom of Allah. The Ansar might have felt something in their hearts that how come the muhajirun are getting it, right? So Allah gave them such a praise that this ayah became one of the most beloved if not the most beloved ayah to the ansar. That Allah praises them in a way that is simply unbelievable. وَالَّذِينَ تَبَوَّأُ الدَّارَ وَالْإِيمَانَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ And there is another group as well. And they prepared the the دار is Medina which is the city and the land. And they prepared before مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ before the muhajirun came. يُحِبُّونَ مَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِمْ They loved those who did the hijrah. The Ansar loved the muhajirun. وَلَا يَجِدُونَ فِي صُدُورِهِمْ حَاجَةً مِمَّا أُوتُوا And they didn't feel anything in their hearts when they gave to the muhajirun. Whatever they gave, you know, every one of us when we give, shaitan comes, why did you give so much? You should have cut back a little. And Allah praises them. When they gave, they gave selflessly. They didn't feel anything in their heart. وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ بِهِمْ خَصَاصًا They want to prefer the muhajirun over themselves even if they are poor. Even if they're hungry, even if they have less, they want to prefer somebody else. أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ These are the righteous and the successful. So Allah praised the Ansar through their Iman. So the verse before says, you're gonna get the land, but then the Ansar are praised, you are the Muflihun. You have won. You have falah because you have been so generous. And then there is even hope for all of us. We're next. We're next insha'Allah ta'ala. وَالَّذِينَ جَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ And ask for those who come after them. And we are after them. We are after them. Insha'Allah ta'ala. وَالَّذِينَ جَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ They say, رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَّ الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَ بِالْإِيمَانِ So they didn't get the blessings of those two. But insha'Allah they'll get some blessings. And Allah gave us hope here. This is for us here. those who came after them they make dua for those who have gone before they think good of them and they say oh Allah forgive our brethren who have come before us and do not put in our hearts any resentment towards those who have believed you are the most kind and the most merciful and so anybody who has any hatred for the sahaba this verse has been deprived of him أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا Now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the issue of Abdullah ibn Ubay and the Banu Nadir. أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ نَافَقُوا Look at those who have nifaq, Abdullah ibn Ubay. يَقُولُونَ لِإِخْوَانِهِمُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا They say to their brothers, إن كُفْر So they're also kafir. But this is munafiq, and this is yahudi. من أهل الكتاب and they come from the Ahlul Kitab so this is this, this is that but they're both the same in their rejection of Islam what does Allah say about Abdullah ibn Ubay now Abdullah ibn Ubay's message was secret obviously I didn't mention it but it's understood he didn't go tell the Muslims what he's saying obviously Allah exposed it Allah exposes it and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says what does he say لَإِنْ أُخْرِجْتُمْ لَنَخْرُجَنَّ مَعَكُمْ if you are expelled we will go with you. وَلَا نُطِيعُ فِيكُمْ أَحَدًا أَبَدًا We will never ever, there's an emphasis here, أَحَدًا أَبَدًا There's an emphasis in Arabic, right? In English we'd say, we'd never ever listen to anybody who tries to go against you. وَإِن قُوتِلْتُمْ لَنَنْصُرَنَّكُمْ And if you are fought, we will be the ones who will defend you. We will fight for you. وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ Allah is testifying these people are liars. لَا يَخْرُجُونَ مَعَهُمْ If they are expelled, they will not walk with you. He didn't go. وَلَا يَنْقُوتِلُوا And if they are fought, لَا يَنْصُرُنَهُمْ They're not gonna help. They didn't help, right? And then Allah says, وَلَا يَنْنَصَرُوا Suppose they even did help. Theoretically, right? لَيُوَلُّنَّ الْأَدْبَارُ They would be so cowards, they would turn back and run away. They did that at Uhud. Do you think they're gonna do anything different now? ثُمَّ لَا يُنصَرُونَ Then who's going to help them after them? لَأَنْتُمْ أَشَدُّ رَهْبَةً فِي صُدُورِهِمْ مِّنَ اللَّهِ You, meaning the believers, are more feared within their hearts than even Allah, meaning they are more scared of you than they are of Allah. And subhanallah, Allah subhanallah is telling us something that only He can know. That they have rejected me to such a level that they are more scared of you than they are of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. لَأَنْتُمَ شَدْ رَابَطًا فِي صُدْرٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمًا لَا يَفْقَهُونَ They don't think. They have no understanding. They're actually scared of humans more than they're scared of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then Allah describes their cowardice. لَا يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ جَمِيعًا They will never fight all of you. They're never gonna do this. إِلَّا فِي قُرَى مُحَصَّنَةٍ Except from behind those fortresses. They're not gonna come to you in battle. They could have come to battle. They're not gonna do that, right? أو من وراء جذر or from behind their walls then Allah says بأسهم بينهم شديد their violence between them is severe تحسبهم جميعا you might think they're one group وقلوبهم شتى but their hearts amongst themselves they are completely disunited ذلك بأنهم قوم لا يعقلون that's because they don't understand then Allah gives two examples and because the end of Surah Al-Hashr you all know it is the verses of Allah's sifat, Allah's names and attributes. Then Allah gives two examples. The first example is for the Banu Nadir, the second example is for the Munafiqun. So if you're making notes over this, verse 15 is for the Banu Nadir, verse 16 is for the Munafiqun. As for the Banu Nadir, كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا Didn't they see the example of the one right before them? قَيْنُقَع قَيْنُقَع Didn't they see? What happened? Don't they learn from a lesson? Right? كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا ذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِمْ They tasted the bad consequences of their actions. وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ And they're gonna have a severe punishment. In other words, if you're not gonna learn from Allah's revelation, learn from history. If you're not gonna learn from the Quran, learn from history. كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِيبًا ذَاقُوا وَبَالَهِمْ وَلَمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ Then Allah gives an example of the munafiqun. كَمَثَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ The example of the منافقون is like shaitan. When he tells insan, اكفر, reject Allah. Then when insan does reject Allah, shaitan says, I didn't tell you, I have nothing to do with you. Meaning, you understand the relevancy, Abdullah ibn Ubay promises a million promises, when it comes to fulfill those promises, he disappears. What do I have to do with it, right? So Allah Azza wa Jal is comparing Abdullah ibn Ubay to shaitan. Literally, literally. كَمَثَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ He is like shaitan. When he does all the damage, then he says, Whoa, I didn't do anything, where are you coming to me for? فَلَمَّا كَفْرَ قَالَ إِنِّي بَرِئٌ مِّنكَ I have nothing to do with you. إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ I'm scared of Allah عز و جل. So Allah is saying, فَكَانَ عَاقِبَتَهُمَا The both of their ends, who are the both, the munafiqun and the banu nadir. Right? Meaning, all types of kuffar. فَكَانَ عَاقِبَتَهُمَا the both of them are in the again duality the both of them will be in the fire of hell and that is and that will be the end of those who do and then Allah Azza wa Jal finishes Surah Al-Hashr you all know Surah Al-Hashr that beautiful ending of Allah's names and attributes so without understanding Banu Nabir's incident Surah Al-Hashr is you don't understand and this shows us one of the main purposes of seerah is to understand the Quran. Now that you have understood, banu nazir, wallahi surat al-hashir, it's as if everything is being painted in front of you. Every incident, right? And this is one of the main benefits of studying the seerah. And that's also one of the goals of my class, as you can see, that I always try to link the seerah and the Quran. One final point of controversy, and then insha'Allah ta'ala, we will come back next Wednesday. There will be a class next Wednesday, I made a mistake a few days ago. Next Wednesday we have the seerah. two Wednesdays from now I will have to pause I have been invited to Sweden so I will be going for a trip but only for one week and then we'll be back inshallah so next Wednesday we have seerah so one final point there is somewhat of a controversy in the classical books when did this incident take place the Banu Nadir and some of the biggest names of the seerah in the first few generations of Islam they said the Banu Nadir expulsion took place after Badr and this is the opinion of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri and Urwa ibn al-Zubair and the both of them are the most famous scholars of Sira of the Tabi'un they said it took place after Badr however later scholars corrected this and they said either this is a genuine mistake or they're confusing with the Banu Qaynuqa because and this is the position of Al-Waqidi and Ibn Sa'ad and Ibn Ishaq Ibn Ishaq is a later scholar of the next generation Ibn Shahbazuri is his teacher Ibn Shahbazuri is one generation before Ibn Ishaq so later on and this shows us how much has been left for later scholars to come and re-sift through and piece it together they said it can't be after Badr, how so? because the blood money only took place after Uhud remember how did we begin the story why was the process of Minna Banu Nadir in the first place right because of the blood money of B. Irma'una. So with this key fact instantaneously, you have to piece it together and say, no, it couldn't have been after Badr. Because there was no blood money until the B. Irma'una for the Banu Amir. And it says the Banu Amir, the blood money for the Banu Amir, this took place clearly after Uhud. And therefore, the strongest position, this entire incident, it takes place basically in the Shawwal really of the fourth year of the Hijrah. Right? This entire incident, the strongest opinion, Shawwal of the fourth year of the Hijrah. And with this, inshallah ta'ala, we have two, three minutes of questions. And then... No, I said Safar was the... Safar was... So it took a while to basically do all of this. Safar was bi'r ma'una and then Ramadan and then Shawwal of the 4th year of the Hijrah yes Allah, I myself will have to look up I myself will have to look up but at the same time generally speaking in terms of the what do you mean by who performed? no, no, no, hold on, hold on there is a cultural element that we need to understand ok, I didn't understand your question let me rephrase the question then I can explain it to you so, the question is who performed the nikah of the Prophet ﷺ we need to understand there is a common myth that we have, there's a cultural myth and that is somebody has to perform the nikah and that's why it caught me off guard nobody needs to perform the nikah we are not like the Christians who believe that marriage is one of the seven sacraments that a priest has to bless the union and until the priest blesses the union, there is no marriage, no, we have no such equivalent a marriage is a contract between the wali and the groom. And like any contract, like any contract, you don't need the presence of anybody other than basically the two people and the witnesses. The conditions need to be met. So culturally speaking, we usually get an imam or a sheikh to perform the nikah because we want to make sure everything is done properly and because we want to give a good khutbah and nikah. Right? But Islamically speaking, there is absolutely no shari'i requirement for there to be an imam or a sheikh or a hafiz or a mulana present. Okay? So, all you need is the wali of the girl, the girl's approval obviously, the groom, the two witnesses, and khalas. That's all you need. Ijab and kabul is done and the conditions of nikah are met. So, there is nobody that needs to do the nikah. So I did not understand your question now that you say it. There's nobody that needs to do the nikah of the Prophet ﷺ. But yes, for every single scenario, there was a wali for the girl. Aisha obviously, Hafsa obviously, the others had their walis. And the few that didn't, the Prophet ﷺ, he became their wali because, and it is allowed even in Islamic law, that sometimes it so happens that a person will become the wali. this is surah an-nisa, the first ayat of surah an-nisa right, that if she agrees, and this is for yatama going into a tangent here, but in any case it is allowed, now this is another quirk that people are going to raise their eyebrows at, like what but if the woman is halal for you to marry, and you are still her wali for example, your second cousin's daughter. She became an orphan and you basically become her wali. Right? Something like this. Right? So your second cousin's daughter, even your first cousin's daughter, even your first cousin is halal for you. And it could happen, it was common back then that a girl would not have anybody to take care of her except somebody who technically is not a mahram. And yet he becomes her wali. So to be a wali you don't have to be a mahram. Okay? So when the girl comes older she's comfortable marrying somebody that she knows will take care of her and her money remember we have to look at it from back then she might not want to marry a stranger she's more than comfortable you know this person has taken care of me and I'm a teenager and I want to get married I'm more than happy so the wali in this case can do the nikah as long as the two witnesses and the girl approves and this is something that in a few occasions the Prophet ﷺ So for example, Maymuna and others who were Malakat Yamin. So he has the authority over them. Because they are Malakat Yamin, they are right hand possessions, right? So he says, I will free you and your freedom will be your mahr for marriage. They agreed. Safiyyah and Maymuna, both of them. They agreed, right? Safiyyah bint Huyay and others. So she was freed and she doesn't need a wali because right now she is Malakat Yamin. She is Mulk Yamin. and mulka mean the wali is basically the owner or the Islamic khalifa in this case or the Prophet ﷺ in this case and therefore this issue of who performed the nikah of the Prophet ﷺ is a question rooted in cultural sensitivities and it does not have any shari'i need for that one final question Asif and then we need to is there any portion of the pay used to pay the bloodline we have no idea a lot of these details are simply lost in the seerah, we have no idea but we can obviously assume that would be the case. We can obviously assume that would be the case.

Seerah 53 - Expedition of al-Muraysi & Banu al-Mustaliq - Yasir Qadhi _ 20th March 2013-6zWX6aOKuPo

Al-Fatiha. the expulsion of the Banu Nadir. And we have just one or two incidents related to the Banu Nadir remaining. And then inshallah we move on to the next segment of the seerah. So, are we ready? Should we? Okay. So, of the things that occurred probably around this time, if not before the Banu Nadir, again for a lot of the incidents of the seerah, we don't have exact time frames. But of the issues that occurred around this time, was the command of the Prophet ﷺ to Zayd ibn Thabit to learn the Hebrew language. To learn the Hebrew language. And the Prophet ﷺ commanded Zayd to learn Hebrew because he said that he wanted someone trustworthy. He did not trust the correspondence. He wanted somebody to know the Hebrew language in order to communicate if they write anything or if anything goes on. And so Zayd said, I learned it in 15 days. Two weeks. Took him two weeks to learn. Hebrew. When the Prophet ﷺ commands you, you're going to put your heart and mind to it. So he learnt an entire language. We're talking about reading and writing obviously, not just conversational. He learnt it in two weeks. Now also by the way, the Prophet ﷺ made a very wise decision obviously in choosing the right person for multiple reasons. Zayd ibn Thabit, firstly he was very young and so he had a sharper mind obviously. It's easier to know a language as a young man. When the Prophet ﷺ first came to Medina, Zayd was probably 11 years old and the tribe of Zayd ibn Thabit introduced him to the Prophet ﷺ and said, this is our young boy Zayd, and he has memorized so many surahs of the Qur'an. And he recited some of the surahs. As a young boy, he had already started becoming a hafidh. And as we know, Zayd ibn Thabit was one of the main hufadh and the main person associated with the Qur'an. So much so that Zayd ibn Thabit was the primary compiler of the Qur'an. After the death of the Prophet ﷺ, Allah Azza wa Jal chose him. Yani Abu Bakr and Umar Allah Azza wa Jal chose him through Abu Bakr and Umar To be the main compiler of the Quran So really we owe a lot to Zayd ibn Thabit The structure of the Quran as we have it now Allah Azza wa Jal used Zayd ibn Thabit to basically preserve it This is the same Zayd ibn Thabit And also Zayd ibn Thabit as a young child, as a young boy He actually grew up with his Jewish neighbors And so he already had some background and it is even said that he as a child they go around playing he even attended their halakha school which is their madrasa that he would just go there as well so the Prophet ﷺ chose somebody who had the perfect combination that he's grown up in that environment, he's raised with a lot of the friends that he's speaking their language he's going to their madrasa and he's a young man so he's able to absorb it, so basically in 15 days he masters the language and this shows us as we said, the eagerness of the Sahaba and also how quickly Zayd ibn Thabit implemented the command of the Prophet ﷺ. Another issue that happened during this time not related to the Banu Nadir but it happened at the time of Banu Nadir. Some reports say when the Muslims were camped outside the fortress of Banu Nadir. Allah revealed the final verse regarding alcohol. i.e. khamr became prohibited in the incident of Banu Nadir. Now it's not related to Banu Nadir but it just so happened that that is the time that it came down. When the Sahaba were camped outside the fortress of Banu Nadir, that is when the ayat came down. And we all know the three primary ayat about alcohol. We all know them. Surah Al-Baqarah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Surah Al-Baqarah verse 219. يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ They ask you about gambling and drinking. Tell them that gambling and drinking has a lot of harm and some good. And the harm far outweighs the good. So this is the first verse that came down. and there is an indication being given that you know try to avoid it but no explicit command and this came down when was Baqarah revealed? Badr before and after Badr so it's the first Madani revelation really so we can say Badr is very early much of Baqarah was pre-Badr by the way because Baqarah is the longest surah so perhaps this came down maybe even the first year or the early second year of the Hijrah so from the very beginning of Madinah alcohol is kind of sort of being too limited. Then, right after the battle of Uhud, an incident occurred where a drunk sahabi led the prayer and he made some very ridiculous mistakes. Obviously he's drunk. So Allah revealed Surah An-Nisa. Surah An-Nisa is post Uhud. And in Surah An-Nisa verse 43, Allah says, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقْرَبُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَأَنْتُمْ سُكَارًا don't come close to the salah when you are drunk so now as we know the timing therefore of drinking is limited to post isha and pre fajr so this is the first prohibition actual don't come to the prayer when you are drunk which means don't drink throughout the day, only late night you can drink and then in the battle of Banu Nadir when the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims are camped outside, Allah revealed the verse that became eventually Surah Al-Ma'idah verse 91 يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْثِرُ وَالْأَنصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجِسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِعُونَ That's Khumar and divination by arrows. إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْثِرُ وَالْأَنصَابُ وَالْأَزْلَامُ And Ansab is idols and Azlam is the divination. so gambling and alcohol and idolatry and divination what is divination? divination is what Abdul Muttalib did when he wanted to see which of my sons should be spared or give the blood money you're pulling arrows in front of a idol, this is azlam so Allah said all four of these things are filthy, leave them فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ so this ayah was revealed at Banu Nadir also one final story related to Banu Nadir which is a very interest, peculiar interest. And it's something that most people do not know because the books of seerah gloss over it. It's found in some books of hadith. And really the researcher needs to compile together bits from the seerah, bits from the hadith, bits from the tafsir to form a more comprehensive narrative. We find a hadith in Abu Dawud, Sunan Abu Dawud, that Ibn Abbas said that there was a custom from the ladies of the Ansar pre-Islam, Yathrib pre-Islam, that if she had many miscarriages, she would make a promise to Allah that, O Allah, if you bless me with a son, I'll make him a Jew. Why? Because the people of Yathrib, they felt the Yahud were superior to them. And frankly they were. Because the Yathribites were idol worshippers. And the Yahud were Ahl al-Kitab. and the Yathribites did not have culture and civilization compared to the Yahud and the Yathribites could not read and write and the Yahud are a people of learning so in every single marker the tribes of the Yahud are at a higher level than the tribes of Yathrib and there was a complex that was both ways the one side felt superior and the active superior the other side felt inferior and they knew they were inferior so the people of Yathrib, the women of Yathrib as a superstitious custom they would say, oh Allah if you give me a child I will give him to the Yahud and he'll grow up a Yahudi but he'll still be obviously biologically my son so there were a group of such people who had been given over to the Banu Nadir and the main tribe that they did this for was Banu Nadir probably because of the strong ties that they had between the Banu Nadir and the Khazraj and these young men they're all men because that was the point of giving me a son these young men had grown up and been adopted by the Jewish tribes and they were for all practical purposes considered Jews. Now, when the expulsion happened, the parents are now converted to Islam and their young men who are now adults, we're not talking about two, three years anymore, right? Now these men are now Jews, they're married amongst them, they're now, and now the expulsion orders come, that they have to be expelled. So some of the Ansar whose children were there or whose sons were there, said, Wallahi, we will not allow our sons to go away. They will come back to us. We're not going to go away. We want them to be with us. And they wanted them to renounce Judaism and convert to Islam. Why? Because anybody who converts to Islam, obviously, the punishment is or the expulsion. And as we said, I think two weeks ago we mentioned this, or last week, I forgot now, that a number of people of Banu Nadir converted. A number of them converted, so they were allowed to take their property and everything was remaining for them. Anybody who converts, then the expulsion obviously is not going to take place for them. So a number of them converted, the bulk of them went into expulsion. So these parents wanted to force their adult children to renounce Judaism and accept Islam. Interesting scenario here, right? But these children are now fully Jewish. They feel Jewish. They've been raised Jewish. And they believe in this religion. So what happened? Allah revealed in the Quran the famous verse that we all know. And now we know sabab al-nuzul of this verse. لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ قَدْ تَبَيَّنَ الرُّشْطُ مِنَ آخَيْنِ It's a beautiful profound message here. Right? And the verse clearly shows. It came down in favor of the Jews basically. You see the point here? The Muslims are told you cannot force your adult children to convert. لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ you can't force them to become back into Muslim قَتَّبَيْنَ رُشْتُ مِنَ غَيْنِ truth and ghay' are clear it's up to them now if they wanna insist on being expelled and leaving Medina you can't force them to accept Islam that's their prerogative to remain Jews and they can practice as they see fit but they will have to obviously be with their people and this is exactly what Allah Azza wa Jal revealed and this demonstrates for us without any apologetics without watering the religion down wallahi this is the truth. You cannot force somebody to be a Muslim. لا اكراه في الدين. Even if it's your son. Even if it's your daughter. That's their decision when they are adults. Obviously when they're children then every society says the child is raised according to the morals of the parents. Once the child becomes an adult, once it is independent, he or she is independent, what can you do? لا اكراه في الدين. قد تبين الرشد من الغي. And this shows us that the religion of Islam does have freedom of religion, but I want to be very clear here, not the way we understand it in the West as well. Let's be very frank here. Because as you know very well by now, I am no apologist. I don't whitewash, I don't try to... No, there is major differences between our faith and Western humanism, secular and democracy. There are differences. Yes, we can find a compatible happy means to live, but ideal Islam is not ideal capitalism. Ideal Islam is not ideal Western civilization. There are many differences. and Islam allowed a type of religious freedom that was unparalleled in the world during its time. However, truth be told, modern society allows a type of freedom that was not allowed back then because it's equal for all. Right? And Islamic civilization did not allow that type of freedom. The type of freedom that modern secular western democracy gives. It's a modern phenomenon. This didn't exist 200 years ago, 500 years ago. It's a modern phenomenon. It's a different tangent to talk about. But, as I said, comparing it to the other civilizations of its time, Islam was unparalleled in allowing civilizations, in allowing sub-civilizations to flourish. Whereas, compared to Europe, compared to most other lands, you had to follow the dominant interpretation. Forget different religions, look at Catholics and Protestants. How many civil wars? The 100 year war, the 30 year war, the issues in France. You know, every single time a Protestant group is forming, the Catholics are basically persecuting them and vice versa, the Inquisition. They can't even bear other fates. And by the way, as a tangent here, this is why Western civilization had to come up with secularism to survive. The civil wars of Christianity gave birth to modern secular values. Right? Whereas we never had that problem. We never did. And our civilization was very different. And we didn't need the type of secularism that exists now. they needed it in order to live or else they were at each other's throats and that's why throughout the 16th, 17th century thinkers are now coming forth Thomas Paine and others and they're basically arguing for a type of neutrality for all faiths because they can't live with the notion that one faith is better than others whereas Muslims historically we see this from the very beginning Muslims believed our faith is true but hey if you want to follow your faith that's your business it's your business in this world and the next we're not going to say it's okay morally, but we'll say it's okay legally. And this is the difference that Muslims do, right? It's okay legally, that's your business. But morally, we say this is incorrect. And this ayah is explicit proof. لا اقراها في الدين It came down for Muslims that they're not allowed to force their own sons back into Islam. And that's a very profound interpretation of freedom that never existed before that point in time. Also of the things that are occurring at this point in time, and again I'm trying to link personal issues, fiqh issues that are happening, and other issues with the seerah, so that we're going bit by bit, so that it's not also just a bunch of battles, because most books of seerah, they just have battles, and then they ignore, or they overlook issues that are of a personal nature, the process of marriages, they put them in the last chapter altogether, I'm trying to put it chronologically. Of the things that occurred around this time, and there's some debate exactly when, but the birth of the first grandson of the Prophet ﷺ, alayhi wasalam the first grandson of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and that is of course Al-Hassan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib now most authority say that Al-Hassan was born in Sha'ban of the fifth year of the Hijrah this is majority opinion but some say no, it is Husayn who was born Sha'ban fifth year Hijrah, which means from those interpretations, they would say Hassan was born Ramadan fourth year of the Hijrah. These are the two opinions when Hassan was born. Between Hassan and Hussain was 11 months. They were literally literally just apart less than even 10 months some say. So you can see from Ramadan to Shaban. Right? So it was something that basically as soon as Fatima finished her postpartum bleeding, she basically became pregnant again with Hussain. Hassan and Hussain were less than a year apart. Okay? So, according to one opinion, Hassan, and this is the majority opinion, Hassan was born Sha'ban 5 AH. Some say, no, it's a mistake. Actually, Hussain was Sha'ban 5 AH, which would make Hassan then Ramadan 4 AH. Clear? Right? But inshallah, the stronger position is that he was born Sha'ban 5 AH. And when he was born, the Prophet ﷺ was very happy at the news obviously, and he said to Ali, show me my son, bring me my son. and he called him my son. Show me my son. And he brought him Al-Hasan ibn Ali and he said, what did you name him? And Ali said, I have named him Harb. Harb means war. It's a very common pre-Islamic name, right? I have named him Harb. And the Prophet ﷺ said, no. Rather, he is not war. He is beauty, Hasan. Right? Al-Hasan is good beauty, right? And we know, and this is reported by Imam Bukhari in his Adab al-Mufrad, we know that our Prophet ﷺ would change bad names to good names. This is his sunnah. Anytime a bad name came, he never liked these names. And he would change it to a positive name. Once an old lady came to him, and he asked her, what is your name? So she gave a name that basically means ugly or something like this. And so he said, no, you are not this name. You are Hassana. Basically, you are the beautiful one. Even though she is an elderly old lady, but why have a name that is derogatory? And so he flipped her name around and he made it the exact opposite. Also, any name that was vainful or glorious, something that will bring about pride, he would change it to something that is neutral. So this shows us, Islamic names are positive, but not arrogant. Positive but not conceited. Right? So we mentioned that he married Umm Salama. Remember Umm Salama had children. Remember? Right? One of those was a daughter called Barra. And Barra is like the righteous one. Barra is like you know, Bar is you know, Albir. The Bar is like the one who is very pious female. The female who is very pious. Right? And this is a self-testimony. Like you're saying, I am the mu'mina. And it is not good to have names that have this connotation of self-piety. Which is different than having names that are positive. You see that there's a clear line here. Praising yourself, boastful names are not good. So he changed her name to Zaynab. He said, no you are not Barra, you are Zaynab. Zaynab has a positive meaning. Zaynab means, there are many interpretations. One of them is the beautiful flower. It's one of the flowers of a desert. The smelling, the fragrant flower. This is one of the meanings of Zaynab. And there's other meanings that are mentioned as well. So he said, no, you're not Barra, you are Zaynab. So he would change bad names, and he would also change names that are self-promoting, egotistical. These are the two types of names he would change. So Harb was a very common pre-Islamic name. And so Ali wanted it to be like the warrior name. He said, no, you're not Harb, you're Hasan. so khalas his name was Hasan and by the way so when the next child was born he didn't have to ask he just changed Hasan to Hussain khalas you know no questions this time Hussain means the little Hasan tasghir right Hasan Hussain he's like khalas I know what you want so we'll give him Hussain so fu'ail yani jabal jubail you put the it's a little you know Hasan little Hasan is Hussain and in Abu Dawud we learned that the Prophet ﷺ gave adhan in Hasan's right ear he gave adhan in Hassan's right ear and most of the ahadith about Aqiqah involve Hassan most of the rulings that we hear about Aqiqah what to do when the child is born it's because the Prophet ﷺ is instructing Fatima and Ali about Hassan that's how we know most of the rulings of Aqiqah and so he told Fatima that shave off her hair and give the weight of his hair silver in charity and obviously this is an expression it's not meant to be actually done because you cannot weigh the hair of a baby. It's something, but basically give some trivial amount in charity. And so the rulings of, and then Fatima said, should we perform an aqiqah for him? And the Prophet said, no, I will do it. He's so happy. He's the grandfather now, right? So he performed the aqiqah on behalf of Hassan. And he was the one who sacrificed the two sheeps and he made the invitation. So this shows how proud and how happy he was of Hassan. and Hasan and Hussain of course the both of them they have very high status in Islam and our Prophet ﷺ love them immensely, there are so many ahadith about Hasan and Hussain our Prophet ﷺ Hasan of course is the one that when he went into sajda, Hasan's a toddler two years old, a year and a half and he's crawling onto the back and the Prophet ﷺ is not getting up to allow the kid to play on his back and once he's giving the khutbah and Hasan and Hussain they come in from the Fatima's house and they're wearing long red thawbs. And so they trip over the thawb and they trip over each other. So the both of them fall somewhere in the masjid. So the Prophet ﷺ stops the khutbah. And he comes rushing down to pick up his two grandchildren. And then he carries them onto the mimbar. So one hand each child, right? He's carrying Hasan and Hussain on the mimbar. And he said that verily what Allah says is true المال والبنون زينة الحياة إنما أموالكم أولادكم فتنة that verily what Allah says is true that these two sons of mine he called them sons, he would always call Hasan Hussein my sons, meaning he's so proud of them and they are his grandsons, these two sons of mine were tripping and I could not be patient enough to let them get to me and I stopped the khutbah and came and picked them up so he's making an excuse that look just forgive me, I can't let them stumble, I need to go and pick them up so he says, innama amwalikum wulaadukum fitna And of course the famous hadith of Bukhari about Al-Hasan especially is very well known. That in another occasion the Prophet ﷺ intentionally held Hasan giving the khutbah. So this is not his tripping, he actually wants to make a point. And he's holding Hasan throughout the khutbah. And he then says during the khutbah, and this is in Sahih Bukhari. So it is as authentic as possible, right? He says during the khutbah, إِنَّ بْنِي هَذَا سَيِّدُ وَلَعَلَّ اللَّهَ أَن يُصْلِحَ بِهِ بَيْنَ فِئَتَيْنِ عَظِيمَتَيْنِ مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ That this son of mine, إِنَّ بْنِي هَذَا Once again he calls him my son. إِنَّ بْنِي هَذَا سَيِّدُ And سَيِّد here means one of respect, an undisputed leader. This is what سَيِّد actually means. In our culture سَيِّد means something else, the descendant of the Prophet ﷺ. سَيِّد actually means the leader. إن ابني هذا سيد it means the one who will be obeyed it means the one in authority so he said this son of mine is a Sayyid and a day will come when he shall cause reconciliation between two large groups of Muslims two large groups of Muslims are fighting and Hassan will bring them back into unity and that is exactly what happened as we know that Ali and Muawiyah رضي الله عنهما أجمعين And by the way, notice, very explicitly, the Prophet ﷺ called both groups believers. And this is Sunni methodology. Both groups, he said, are believers. And this is Sunni aqidah. The group that says one was right, one was wrong, they have disobeyed. Sorry, not right and wrong. One was mu'min and one was not mu'min. As for right and wrong, then yes we can say which one is more correct the group that says that one was mu'min and one was fasiq or astaghfirullah one was kafir the mu'tazil they say fasiq and then these other groups some of the mimas say kafir anybody who says this, this goes against exactly what our Prophet ﷺ said fi'atayni azimatayni minal muslimin two large groups of the muslims and he called both of them muslim yes one of them made a mistake yes this is sunni methodology and Ali was closer to the truth than Muawiyah, we believe this firmly but we believe that Muawiyah radiallahu anhu was sincere even if he made a mistake and Allah will forgive him because he was sincere and he didn't want this bloodshed to happen as Sunni historians explain nonetheless so when Ali was assassinated by the Kharijites by the proto-Kharijites when Ali was assassinated by the Kharijites the people of Medina immediately gave Hassan Bay'ah and this is something many of us don't know and we should know this Hassan became the fifth Khalifa and Muawiyah was also given Bay'ah and this was the first time that there were two opposing Khalifas in Islamic history so for six months there was a type of stalemate until the both of them there was talk of war and Muawiyah said when he heard that there is going to be now a major war Muawiyah said that if we fight them and they fight us, and we kill them and they kill us, who will be left of the Muslims? Go send a messenger to him and see if he's willing for any sulh. Now Muawiyah was not willing to give up his position. He wants the burden on him. That's why his position was, right? رضي الله عنه That's his position. So he's putting the burden on Hassan through this message. Because he's saying, are you going to give me any sulah? He's not saying I'm willing to go down. The message is very implicit and it's understood. That look, let's not go to war again. Can you just figure out a way that I can remain and let's not go to war, right? And so Al-Hasan gave a very emotional lecture in Medina. This is recorded in the books of history. And he basically because there's anger here on both sides. People have been killed for the last three years. There's major war going on. His people are willing to die again. right? and so he gave a very emotional powerful lecture and he then gave them the course of option do you really want to go on and then to the death and khalas let Allah decide or for the sake of the ummah let's just forget about it and just leave it to them with some conditions so his followers agreed that okay give up the khilafah and we'll agree to the conditions and so he gave a long list of conditions that these are the books of history that mentioned and we're going jumping the gun here The point being, he gave up his own power, his own rights. And after six months, he basically abdicated and resigned. And this was in Rabi' al-Awwal of the 41 AH. Rabi' al-Awwal of 41 AH. And Muawiyah radiallahu anhu then became the undisputed khalifa. And therefore, a lot of Muslims don't know this. we believe the correct position is there were five khulafa al-rashidun and Hassan is the fifth of them even though he ruled only for six months but, and this will shock the other group that opposes us but wallahi for us truth is more beloved than just opposing them we will speak the truth whether it is for us or against us we love the family of the Prophet ﷺ the way they deserve to be loved without going to exaggerations and we consider the Khilafah of Hassan to be the rightly guided Khilafah and the Khilafah of Muawiyah to be the Khilafah of a dynasty and that is the best dynasty but it's not as good as the Khilafah of Hassan and so our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said by the way, very interesting hadith Sahih Muslim Imam Ahmed our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, another tangent but subhanAllah, these topics, people should know them our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said تَكُونُ الْخِلَافَةُ فِيكُمْ ثَلَاثُونَ سَنَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ That Khilafah will be amongst you for 30 years upon the methodology of the Prophet ﷺ. Then there shall be a righteous kingdom for as long as Allah wills. Then that will be taken away. Then there shall be an unrighteous kingdom. a Jabbar or a tyrannical kingdom or a rulership for as long as Allah wills. And then it will come back to Khilafah ala min hajj al-nubuwwah. And then he was quiet. This hadith is Muslim Imam Ahmad. So this shows us, as the Prophet ﷺ said, for 30 years there will be Khilafah ala min hajj al-nubuwwah. Subhanallah, down to the very month. Down to the very month. Exactly, 30 years. He passed away, ربيع الأول. And when did Hasan abdicate? ربيع الأول. Down to the very month. ثلاثون سنة. Right? And then there was a مُلْكًا that was considered to be a just kingdom. And then there is a unjust kingdom. When does this demarcation happen? Allah knows best. Some have said this is the Abbasid and the Mawiyy and then the others. Modern interpretations have said this is when there was a real khilafah up until the collapse of the khilafah then colonialism brought the other rule, right? Allah knows best, but it does make sense, and then there will come a khilafah ala min hajj al-nubuwwah, and then he was quiet, which means khalas, the end of times then he was quiet and khalas, that is the end of times, nonetheless back to where we are over here and that is Hassan and Hussain so many hadith about Hassan and Hussain, the Prophet ﷺ said, الحسن والحسين سيدا شباب أهل الجنة وأبوهما خير منهما. حسن and Hussain are the leaders of the young men of Jannah, and their father is better than them. حسن and Hussain سيدا شباب أهل الجنة. حسن and Hussain are the leaders of the young men of Jannah, and their father is better than them. And we can go on and on. Wallahi, حسن and Hussain, they deserve entire lectures. and inshallah maybe, maybe after we finish the seerah then we'll start another series of lectures. Allah knows best. In any case, moving on. So the next major incident that occurred is the expedition of, it is called Al-Muraisi' and it is also called Ban al-Mustaliq. Both names are given. And Muraisi' is the location, Ban al-Mustaliq is the tribe. So both names are either the people or the location. And the Ban al-Mustaliq lived obviously at a place called Muraiseer. Or to be more precise, it was a pond called Muraiseer. And so they lived next to this pond, next to this water pool. And that water pool is called Muraiseer. And they lived between Mecca and Medina, south of Medina. South of Medina. And the Muraiseer, they had an alliance with Abdul Muttalib in the days of Jahiliyyah. They had an alliance with Abdul Muttalib. So when the Quraysh attacked Medina, they recalled that alliance. So the Muraisee sided with the Quraysh, even though ironically the Prophet ﷺ is the grandson of the one who made the alliance with, which is Abdul Muttalib. But they sided with the Quraysh against the Muslims. And they helped them in the battle of Uhud against the Muslims. additionally their location was very strategically satisfactory or positive for the Quraysh because this is like a bastion they can go to in between Mecca and Medina this is a safety zone and it's not too far from Medina a day or two's journey from Medina so it's very dangerous for the Muslims and then the real straw that broke the camel's back the real issue was that news came through scouts and through spies, that the leader of the Ban al-Mustaliq, and his name was Al-Harith ibn Abi Dhirar, after the defeat of Uhud, he wanted to launch a surprise attack against the Prophet ﷺ, and therefore help the Quraysh, because he's suffering as well. You know the caravans, right? His income has been cut off, right? The money that he's getting, he's not getting it anymore. So he wanted to surprise attack the Muslims, and the Prophet ﷺ hears of this, so first thing he does, he confirms the rumor. How does he confirm the rumor? He sends one of the Sahaba by the name of Buraidah ibn al-Hasib and as an anonymous person, meaning he didn't recognize, Al-Harith did not recognize who Buraidah was. And he pretended to be a Bedouin. And he said to Al-Harith, the chieftain of the Ban al-Mustalaq, I have heard that you are launching an attack against Medina. and I would like to join in order to get some of the booty. So this is a ruse. It's basically a trick that I'm gonna join you guys and I just want to share. And Al-Hadith is looking for strong men and Buraidah was and the Prophet ﷺ chose obviously wisely so this is like a warrior now. So he's happy. He's like, okay, yes, we'll join and we will give you a share. So now the confirmation has come. And look here, the Prophet ﷺ did not attack based on rumors. He confirmed and verified. Made sure that Al-Harith actually wants to attack Medina. So when Buraidah finds out, he agrees and then in the night he sneaks away, he goes back and he tells the Prophet ﷺ it is true. It is true. And Al-Harith doesn't pay attention that where is this man, was he from the... He doesn't think. And so the attack was a complete surprise. He had no clue that the Prophet ﷺ had found out. So when the Prophet ﷺ found out, he immediately rallied together over 700 of the Sahaba and they launched a complete surprise attack 30 of them were fully armed they had horses, they had weapons and it was a clear easy victory like everybody knew it would be an easy victory and by the way because of this many of the Munafiqun participated in Muraisee that they had not participated in Badr or in Uhud or any other expedition why? Because this was a dead, a sitting duck. This was a sitting duck. This was something, there is no possibility that there is going to be any major battle. Complete surprise attack. One small tribe, the Muslims have the advantage in that they are going to be swooping in. So now, at this battle, the Munafiqun, mashallah, tabarakallah, volunteer now. So they came in large quantities, including Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. and he's absent from Badr, he's absent from Uhud now they are with the battlefield and this is why a number of incidents happen in Muraisea, that's what we're going to talk about Muraisea, and by the way when did this battle occur, there's a huge controversy some say 4th year of the Hijrah Ibn Sa'd al-Zuhri Ibn al-Qayyib ibn al-Kathir ibn Hajar they say Sha'ban of the 5th year of the Hijrah, which is the same year Hassan is born the same month, Ibn Ishaq says Sha'ban of the 6th year of the Hijrah and Ibn Ishaq was followed by Ibn Jaleel Al-Tabari and Ibn Al-Athir so you have 4th year, 5th year, 6th year 3 opinions and Muraiseer is important not because of the battle but because of what happened after which is the slander of Aisha that the slander of Aisha occurred on the return from Muraiseer so when did it happen 4th, 5th or 6th huge controversy and we have classical scholars on both sides and this is one of the major problems of the seerah to reconstruct events and dates and Ibn Ishaq who is the authority he says sixth year of the hijrah but this is problematic and it's problematic for multiple reasons most importantly because as we'll come to next time we give the class in the incident of the slander of Aisha Sa'd ibn Mu'adh has a very important statement that he says in it. Now, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh died. He was one of the leaders of the Ansar. And he died after the battle of Khandaq. After the battle of Khandaq, and to be more precise, right after Khandaq, there was Banu Quraidah, one month after Khandaq, right? And Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was the person they chose to be judge. And he died right after that. Right? Now, if Mureysi' took place, Sha'ban of the sixth year, this throws a big spanner into all of this narrative. Why? Because Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh is already dead in the sixth year. Why? Because when did Khandaq take place? The fifth year of the Hijrah, Shawwal dhu'l-Qa'dah is when Bani Qurayrah took place. Right? So, this brings a big problem because Ibn Ishaq is the sixth year Sha'ban. but then we find other scholars and Ibn Sa'ad is another early scholar in fact he is one of the teachers of Ibn Ishaq no sorry not teacher that's not right he is Ibn Hisham's teacher Ibn Sa'ad in his tabaqat and Ibn Sa'ad died 220 Hijrah so he is also an early authority Ibn Sa'ad says 5th year Sha'ban not 6th year Sha'ban so we find an opinion that says 5th year and this makes more sense as for the opinion that says 4th year perhaps we can explain this because some of these very early scholars counted the first year as being the year right before the hijrah so they counted that like zero type basically so they started the calendar a year earlier so for them badr takes place first uhud second like that so for that minority which only the first 300 years we saw 3-4 scholars then that opinion basically disappeared for them everything is one year behind because their system of calendaring is has a different measurement system. So based on this, insha'Allah ta'ala the strongest position is going against Ibn Ishaq and that is why 90% of the seerah books will have Mureysi' after Hudaybiyah and after Khandaq. Take a look at it. Whereas I am doing it before Khandaq, before Hudaybiyah. I am doing it now. Why? because Sa'd ibn Mu'adh could not have been a part of Muraisee if it took place in the 6th year of the Hijrah, it must have taken place in the Sha'ban of the 5th year of the Hijrah this makes sense, okay, as for the 4th year is impossible, also because Sha'ban of the 4th year, what happened in Sha'ban of the 4th year people are taking notes what happened in Sha'ban of the 4th year part 2 of Uhud when they went to Badr again right? Uhud number two that was Sha'ban fourth Hijrah and nothing happened, so Sha'ban fourth Hijrah, they're in another place they couldn't be in Muraiseer therefore, without a doubt, inshallah the strongest position, Muraiseer and the incident of Aisha and all of this, it took place fifth year of the Hijrah, make a note because as I said, most of the seerah books they follow Ibn Ishaq pretty much to the core max, and therefore their ordering will be Ibn Ishaq's ordering whereas it appears that this is a genuine mistake and Muraiseer took place fifth year of the Hijrah. Now, as we said Muraiseer was not that important in terms of what happened during the battle, it's what happened after the battle that's important. And the Ban al-Mustaliq oh by the way, I forgot to mention the Ban al-Mustaliq, they had one of the most prestigious idols of Arabia they had Manat wa Manat al-Thalitha al-Ukhra they had Manat, right? Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, Manat, these are the three main idols mentioned in the Quran. They had Manat. So Ban al-Mustariq, this is the, and this is a very main highway. And they are taking advantage of Manat and their geographic location. Now they're hurting because nobody's on the highway. So they want to attack the Muslims to get their highway back, right? They want to have the caravan back. So the Prophet ﷺ attacked them, as we said, fifth year of the Hijrah. and most likely we have a report that says it was a Monday the 2nd. So the 2nd of Sha'ban, the 5th year of the Hijrah. He left Medina with 700 men and over 30 horses, many of the men were armed and he surprised attack them right after Fajr. And they were so unprepared that the shepherds were leaving the town, the women were going to collect the water, the children were coming, going outside to play. They were completely unprepared. And when they saw the Muslims coming, they ran screaming back, and they had to surrender. There was hardly any fighting, because there was simply no preparation. And very few people were killed, perhaps a handful, less than only a few men stood up to fight, and less than 10 people were killed. And the bulk of the tribe, over 2,000 camels, over 5,000 sheep, around 1,000 people were taken prisoner of war. and most of them obviously were women and children. And these were not prisoners of war, they were basically captives. As for the Muslims, there was not a single casualty amongst them except for one accidental misfiring from what is it called? A friendly fire, right? The friendly fire is called, right? That's what happened back then, right? None of the Ban al-Mustariq could kill them. But one of the Ansar, one of the Ansar, he mistakenly thought a person was attacking whereas in fact he was one of the Muslims and his name was Hisham ibn Subaba and he accidentally killed him. And there is a footnote to this story as well that Hisham had a brother in Mecca who was not a Muslim and his name was Miqyas ibn Subaba. When he heard that his brother had been killed so he pretended to convert and he went to Medina pretending to be a Muslim and he demanded the blood money, 100 camels. You killed my brother, I want the money. So, the Prophet ﷺ gave him 100 camels because this is shari'i. It's an accidental manslaughter. It's our fault, we'll give you. So, he got 100 camels. The same night, he killed the Ansari. At night, in the middle of the night, he killed the Ansari who had killed his brother, murdered him in cold blood and then took the camels and fled back to Mecca. This man, Miqyas, was one of the four men whom the Prophet ﷺ said, catch them dead or alive, no mercy. Fath-i Mecca. This is one of them. You see, every one of them has a story. And this is one of them. This is that man, that this is the height of treachery and treason. And you're stealing money and you pretend to be a Muslim and then you murder the Ansari and then you come back. and he was killed and then there were six people two women and four men so four men as we said and ironically or not ironic but Allah's sunnah Allah's qadr I should say half of them were actually forgiven in the end two men and one woman were actually forgiven only two men and one woman was actually executed and this is one of those men who was executed at the Fatimah in any case getting back to the story so the entire tribe of the Ban al-Mustalq has been captured and some of the men fled. Very few fought and they were killed. As we said, less than 10 deaths reported. And therefore this is a massive victory with very minimal amount of fighting. And the story of Ban al-Mustalaq is not significant for the battle. It's for three things that happened after it. Three things that happened after it, right? And the largest and biggest of them is the slander of Aisha which we will delay till the next class. Because that's gonna take probably an entire lesson or a lesson and a half. So what are the other two? The first of them, which is the simplest to understand, is the addition of one more of the mothers of the believers, and that is Juwayriyah. Binta al-Harith, the chieftain. Al-Harith, the chieftain. Juwayriyah, Binta al-Harith. And the story of Juwayriyah is mentioned by none other than Aisha radiyallahu anha herself in Ibn Ishaq in the first person and she mentions that Juwaydiyah was captured along with all of the others and as is the case with the prisoners of war and with the captives, they are distributed to the army and Juwaydiyah was given to Thabit Ibn Qais Ibn Shammas one of the Ansar, Thabit Ibn Qais Ibn Shammas and she agreed with Thabit to purchase her own freedom. And this is something that is uniquely Islamic, that Allah Azza wa Jal says, وَكَاتِبُوهُمْ إِنْ عَلِمْتُمْ فِيهِمْ خَيْرًا This is in the Quran. That if your slaves want to purchase their freedom, then make a deal with them, and negotiate their freedom with them, if you see them to be good people. وَكَاتِبُوهُمْ إِنْ عَلِمْتُمْ فِيهِمْ خَيْرًا And according to one position in Islamic law, now we don't want to get into the fiqh of rikr, It's a big whole topic. But according to one position in Islamic law, the slave has the right to demand his freedom. And you have to give him a fair price. And you give him time to work, and he'll give you that price over the period of his working. He'll give you that, and then he will get his freedom. So, Jawadiya is the daughter of a chieftain. She doesn't want to be a slave. So, immediately she negotiates that this is the amount, and so, I'm not going to be a slave. I'm going to get my freedom. so Aisha says so that she arranged to free herself and then she is speaking in the first person and she is saying and she was a which means she was very sweet and very beautiful and no one saw her except that he was captivated by her beauty and she was probably around 17-18 years old at the time and she came knocking on the door of the Prophet ﷺ in the Aisha's house. Right? Asking for help monetarily to get her freedom. So now that she's arranged with Thabit a price, now she's going directly to the Prophet ﷺ and she said can you help me out with some bit and going to other people and what not. Negotiating where to get the money from, loans, what not. After all her father is the chieftain, Samah will manage to get. Her father by the way was not taken prisoner. Her father had fled. So her father is not a prisoner with the other people. Her father and the other noblemen have fled. and she is now a captive. And Aisha says, as soon as I saw her, I hated her. Because I knew that the Prophet ﷺ would see in her what I am seeing. It's human nature. I knew that the Prophet ﷺ would see in her what I am seeing. And as soon as she entered and she said that, Ya Rasulullah, I am Juwaydiyah, the daughter of Al-Harith, Sayyidu Qawmi, I am basically the princess or the chieftain of my tribe. And you have seen what has happened to me. I have arranged to free myself from Thabit. So help me in this matter. Meaning, give me a loan, we'll pay you back. We'll negotiate something, right? But help me out. So the Prophet ﷺ said, What if I give you something better? She said, What? He said, I will free you myself. Not a loan, forget that. I will free you myself and marry you. He's proposing to her. Right then and there he proposes to her. And she agreed to this, and he made her mahr, her freeing her. The mahr was the freeing. That he basically paid the money, and this is not a loan then obviously, and that became her mahr. Now, what happened? The news spread amongst the Ansar, that the Prophet ﷺ married Juwaydiyah. Then they said, how can we have the in-laws of the Prophet ﷺ as our slaves. So one by one they began freeing every single captive until all of them were freed down to the last person. Then Al-Harith came back to Medina. And he came back negotiating a ransom for his family and tribe. He didn't know all of what's going on. And he asked for his daughter back. And the Prophet ﷺ said to said to Juwaydiyah that it is her decision if she wants to she can go back I'm not stopping her and Juwaydiyah chose and he gave her the right to go back now this is a technical point and from this the Fuqaha derive that the husband has the right to give the wife the right of divorce for a time period that if the situation is very tense but the husband does not want a divorce he can tell the wife look, think about it and if you really want it then the decision is yours and he can say I give you an hour or a day or give a time period the decision is yours so he's handed over the right of talaq to his wife and this is in essence what the Prophet ﷺ is giving to Juwayriya that the decision is hers if she wants to she can go back that I'm not stopping her and the Prophet ﷺ was like that he never, astaghfirullah, he did with Zayd his own adopted son, look at what he did you know, remember the story, right? you know, Zayd ibn Harith, remember the story and he was a slave technically, he hadn't been freed yet I'm not stopping, he wants to go back, he can go back so Juwayriyah said of course I want to stay with you ya Rasulullah and so Juwayriyah remained with the Prophet when Al-Harith saw his own daughter willingly choose the Prophet ﷺ over him, this affected him so much, he embraced Islam. Like he couldn't believe his own daughter is choosing to remain with the Prophet ﷺ, and this affected him. Like there must be a reason here. And so Al-Harith embraced Islam. When Al-Harith embraced Islam, the whole tribe embraced Islam. Because he's the chieftain, and that's the way they were back then. The whole tribe embraced Islam. so the Prophet made him the leader again because after all you know he was their leader gave him back all of the wealth and the sheep and the goats and the camels right so they all returned back to status quo as it was except they're Muslims now can you believe the beauty of this story wallahi it's just one of those amazing stories right everything is exactly the same, except that Juwayriya is now wife of the Prophet ﷺ, Harith is the chieftain, their animals are their animals, their camels are their camels, their property is their property, now they're Muslim. And this shows us the real meaning of what is qital and jihad fi sabi'lillah. It's not for ghanima, it's not for wealth, it's not for power. They saw the beauty of Islam, nobody forced anybody, right? Nobody forced anybody, but they see the reality of this faith, they embrace it, and they go back exactly as they were with the added beauty of Islam. And Aisha comments, that I don't know of any lady who brought more blessings to her tribe than Juwadia. Like one lady's decision to marry the Prophet ﷺ, it was an entire catalyst. Look at what happened after that, right? And this shows us the wisdom really of, really the entire concept as we said of jihad, of even the multiple wives of the Prophet ﷺ. Jawahiriya by the way was known for her piety, for her righteousness. She was one of those who fasted and who did a lot of charity. And there's a hadith in Sahih Bukhari about her that once the Prophet ﷺ visited her on Friday. And she was fasting on Friday. And he asked her, did you fast the day before? Or are you intending to fast the day after? And she said, no, I'm just fasting today on Friday. so he told her in that case do not choose only Friday as a day of fasting we know in our sharia we don't specialize Friday for fasting he said if you want to fast, fast a day before or after join it with something so this is juwailiyah, she's just fasting on Friday also once the Prophet ﷺ prayed fajr from her house, so he spent the night at her house he went to pray fajr and he stayed a long while and she was in her musalla area doing dhikr he returned in the middle of the day when he finished his talking with the men and there she is sitting in the same place still doing adhkar. So he asked her, have you remained in the same place since fajr? She said yes. So he said, should I not tell you of a dhikr that if you do it, it will give you all of this reward that you have done? So she said, what? So he taught her, subhanallah adada khalqihi wazinata arshihi waridha nafsihi wamidadah kalimatihi. this is the juwailiyah he taught her this beautiful dhikr that all of us should memorize the dhikr of 4, 5, 6 hours will be done if you say it properly with iman and ikhlas this simple phrase subhanallah adada khalqihi the number of his creation wazinata arshihi and the weight of his throne waridha nafsihi and the pleasure of himself wamidadakalimatihi and the ink of his pen subhanallah to all of this to the extent of all of this And this is what he taught Juwailiyah. Juwailiyah lived a relatively long life. She died around 50 Hijrah, which is the same year, by the way, that Hassan died. I forgot to mention Hassan died 50 Hijrah as well. Juwailiyah died in the 50th year of the Hijrah at the age of around 65 years old. And the marriage of Juwailiyah really shows us some of the primary wisdoms of the multiple marriages of the Prophet ﷺ. In particular with Juwailiyah, it is very clear that there is a huge potential and wisdom to be gained. Now, what if somebody says, what do you say about her beauty and her youth, and was this not something that the Prophet ﷺ was interested in? Here we have some of those people who say that the Prophet ﷺ did not have any such desires. That he was above these desires. But frankly, you have to... Aisha knows her husband better than we do. And she is saying the fact. and I will be very honest here for me the perfection of our Prophet ﷺ is to make him a normal man who can control his desires not to make him into an angel for me this is the ultimate role model right some of us we have this connotation or notion that the Prophet ﷺ is somehow superhuman but this is not what the Qur'an says right إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ he gets hungry he gets tired in the battle of Uhud he is going to bleed the blood is gonna come out right and yes he is a man and he sees Juwaydiyah and he sees in Juwaydiyah exactly what Aisha thought he would see in Juwaydiyah there is nothing haram you see the notion of somehow being attracted and wanting to marry as if somehow it's something haram no, the haram is to do it outside of marriage correct? what is haram? being attracted and proposing and that's exactly what our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did he proposed and it's an offer, it's up to Juwaydiyah she could have said no and when he gave her the choice later on, she said, no, now that I'm your wife, I'm going to remain your wife, right? So, personally, and this is the interpretation of many scholars as well, by the way, I don't see any problem, I don't know why some of us as a culture, we feel like as if our procession should not be a man. What's wrong with this? Aisha is saying that I knew that, you know, he would see in her what I saw. She knows. And Juwadia, why not have this and that? Why not marry her and she is who she is and also free all of her people and cause them to accept Islam. Right? What's the haraj in that? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has allowed for our Prophet ﷺ what he has not allowed for others. And this is something that is well known in the Quran. And therefore, there is nothing wrong with saying exactly as Aisha said, and also adding to this that our Prophet ﷺ was also thinking long term. That what's gonna happen if I marry the daughter of Al-Harith? And that is all of the relatives of Al-Harith and all of the people of the tribe they will be given a special status of honor without having to pay a penny to anybody. Because if the people had demanded money from Baytul Mal, the Baytul Mal would go bankrupt. Right? But by marrying Juwaydiyah, the message is given, that just free these people. And there is no doubt that the Prophet ﷺ saw something in the Ban al-Mustariq and in al-Harith that showed him these people have some good in them. And inshallah they'll embrace Islam. And that's exactly what happened. That eventually all of them ended up embracing Islam. And as you said, one of the most bizarre and beautiful small stories of the seerah, right? Where did it begin and where did it end? And subhanallah, this is the beauty of this religion and explains to us as well one final point. It also explains to us that the Islamic concept of rik and ubudiyya, which we translate as slavery, wallahi we shouldn't even call it slavery. because the notions of Islam are so different than what existed here in this country 200 years ago, which they called slavery, that it is an insult to Islamic rikh to call that what was happening over here 200 years ago. Is that clear? Like we shouldn't even use the term because when you use the term, automatically you think of 17th, 18th century America. and there is no doubt that in the history of humanity one of the worst manifestations of slavery was what took place right here far worse than ancient Greece far worse than China far worse than Arabia Islam came and brought forth a system that was unparalleled now the beauty of that system was that Islam does not need it Islam made it secondary if it exists, these are the rules if you cut it off Islam is perfect without it. You see the point, right? And it's an amazing way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, basically obviously the perfection of the sharia, that all of the laws of ubudiyya, of rik, are not necessary for Islam. You can cut off the entire chapter of rik, and still have a perfect Islamic state. You see, and this is the reality now. That not, as far as I know, No scholar in the world is calling for a return to that. That was something in the past. We don't have to apologize for it. We don't have to sugar coat it. We should be proud of the fact that when the world practiced a very barbaric system, our sharia humanized it. And our sharia gave laws so much so that if the abd demanded freedom, like Juwadia, you have to give it to them. You negotiate what is a reasonable price and then say, which system allowed this, right? Additionally, so many other rules, not the time to get into, but the main point, who are the عبيد in Islam? Only one source. These are captives or prisoners of war that are not ransomed. There's only one source. And that is, you have a captive or you have a prisoner of war who's not ransomed off. That is the only source of رِق or عَبْد. otherwise what happened in Africa what happened in other places where free people are captured and purchased here our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that anybody who does this has the curse of Allah on him anybody who does it Allah will not look at him this is the worst of mankind is a person who caught a free man and sold him as a slave this is a hadith these are of the worst of the merchants or the worst of Allah's la'na Allah's curse, Allah is not going to look at them so what happened as the slave trade and sadly sometimes Muslims were also involved by the way in the 17th century let's be honest here as well we're not going to sugar coat that that many times it was Muslims not all the time sometimes Muslims are the ones who sold the slaves to others this is clearly haram there's no question about it in our sharia there's only one source of abid and that is prisoners of war and captives who are not ransom what are you going to do with them? are you going to kill them? because if you don't they're going to come back and kill you I mean they're gonna go back to the enemy, right? What are you gonna do? You wanna put them in prisons? For how long? Who's gonna feed them? The society absorbed them. And by absorbing them, each one is taken care of, is fed, is given shelter, and eventually the key point, they all embrace Islam and are eventually freed. This is the reality. Historically speaking, many of these slaves eventually became their own dynasties. The most famous example is the Mamluks, right? The Mamluks were called Mamluks because they were slaves. Mamluk means a slave. And eventually the Mamluks became the very last of the dynasties before colonialism. I'm going into my tangents here. But the very last of the Mamluks fought the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. It's surreal to imagine this, but this is what happened. When Napoleon landed in Musa in 1792, when Napoleon invaded Egypt, that was the last of the Mamluks and Napoleon is fighting them with guns and horses and the Mamluks still have their skim tars and swords and obviously they're going to lose but still Mamluks, who are the Mamluks? they were the slave dynasties so the final point inshallah and that is the whole concept of rik and ubudiyya we need to be very frank about this the Islamic system developed it to make it humane to make it something that was feasible for the time and it also made it something that is not needed as a part of the sharia. It encouraged good treatment of slaves, it encouraged the freedom of slaves. So many kafaras deal with freeing a slave. If you lie, if you cheat, if you break a promise, if you break your promise, free a slave, free a slave, free a slave, free a slave. Right? So many of the things freeing a slave. So, Islam came and took that system that existed in the world, modified it, gave it a humanity that never existed, and most importantly, made it something that you don't need to have. Therefore now in our times when the world has pretty much abolished legal slavery, then alhamdulillah, we don't need to go back. I don't know of any scholar who's calling for those times again or what not. This is now a done time and alhamdulillah, we don't need to worry about this. And with that, inshallah ta'ala, we have come to the end of this session. Announcement, next Wednesday there will not be a seerah. We will resume after two Wednesdays. I have to go on an international trip to the Norwegian lands or to Sweden. So I will not be here for next Wednesday. The Tuesday class will be here. So Tuesday, Surah Yasin, will be here at 7.30. The next seerah will be two weeks from today, insha'Allah ta'ala. Any other announcements or questions? Yes, quick question, yes. What about Aisha's reaction to the Prophet? Obviously she was jealous. Obviously, but Aisha radiallahu anha, being the Muslimah, the mu'minah that she was, she accepted whatever the Prophet did, but it is human nature this is again it is human nature that she will feel jealous, she will feel irritated but her Iman will eventually conquer and let it go right? and this is the perfection of Aisha's nature other questions? yes when there was no she's a slave she doesn't need a wali at this point she is a slave but she wants to purchase the freedom so the rules of fiqh are different for the slave they are different for the mukatab and she was a mukataba they are different so she doesn't need as a slave she does not need the permission of her biological wali she only needs the permission of the master and because the master is Thabit ibn Qais ibn Shammas who is a sahabi so that's not a problem ok, yes no, they left with them they left with them yes the second question is the hadith of Zainab bin Tujahsh that's from the time we just talked about Hamina bin Tujahsh was lashed because of the hadith and she did it when she was asked she did it because she wants to help her sister Zainab bin Tujahsh which means the hadith of complete Zainab bin Tujahsh so you're bringing up the whole controversy of the issue of Muraiseer and when it took place. Exactly. This is the one of the main positions that is trying to show that Muraiseer took place in the 6th year of the Hijrah. Right? And that is Hamana bin Tajash and her sister Zaynab bin Tajash. And no doubt this is a problem. So whichever position you hold, you have a piece of the puzzle that cannot be put in. Because Sa'd ibn Mu'adh is mentioned in Bukhari. And that's going to be a problem, right? So you bring up the issue which is the controversy for the last 1200 years. And we're not going to solve it now. And that is, when did Muraise' take place? Fifth or sixth? But at the same time, what's the big deal? I mean, look, let's flip this. I know it's very interesting, but okay, suppose it was fifth, suppose it was sixth. There's not much, يعني ايش ثمرت الخلاف? what's the thing that's the the natijah of it, right? so I mean yes, it's a controversy that exists, and by the way I have to say, mashallah this is a very advanced seerah class, if you compare this to anything else you will know, still I put the disclaimer, this is not a high level, because to go to that level, we really are gonna go into every single ikhtilaf and the riwayat and the asandid and what not and with modesty inshallah, I seek refuge with Allah for any arrogance I don't think anything in English is as advanced as what I'm teaching you. Because I know what I'm going back to and I know the level. Yet, I have to water it down. Because it's not appropriate to go to that level unless you are doing an advanced PhD or Masters in Sira or something like this, right? So these issues that you're bringing up, I intentionally do not bring them up, if you try to get my point, right? These issues that you're bringing up, I don't think it is wise that... Yeah, so... So, no, Zaynab bin Tajash took place in the fifth year most likely. In which case it is a problem. As I said, the issue that you bring up is the biggest evidence that is used by those who say it took place in the sixth year of the Hijrah. Right? Hamana bin Tajash and Zaynab bin Tajash. Whereas Sa'd ibn Mu'adh is the biggest evidence used by those who say it took place in the fifth year of the Hijrah. This is the problem. And wallahi, I don't have an answer to this. and this is just one of many chronological issues that we have actually overlooked and not gone into if you want to we could go into 10 other issues where there is an ikhtilaf over the year that it occurred but what's the big deal if it's 5th or 6th or 4th in the end of the day the incident has been preserved and we derive more from the incident and Allah knows best in any case it is we have two questions can you say one point about spying Al-Harabu Khid'ah, there's no question. This is the time of war. What's the problem here? The Ban al-Mustaliq at the time, the Quraysh, this is open war. Every country in the world spies on its enemies. There's no problem here. So we allow them to war? That's what I'm saying. We allow the state to war? Khid'ah, look, there's a difference between treachery and between deceit. Treachery is never allowed. Khayana is never allowed in Islam, even in war. But deceit means like this, any subterfuge, tactics, right? You know, Sun Tzu in The Art of War, which is the earliest book ever written about war, over 2000 something years old, right? What is his first rule? Deceit is nine-tenths of war, something like this, you know? like lying is nine tenths of winning the battle this is Sun Tzu the Chinese philosopher, the first book of war ever written and the number one rule in it you're not gonna be winning a war if you're 100% honest you know, you have to pretend there are weapons of mass destruction if you wanna go to war okay, otherwise it's not going to happen so this is the way the world works and I have said a million times our sharia is a practical pragmatic sharia it's not a hypothetical theoretical sharia always turn the other cheek and do whatever you want. It's a realistic living in this world, sharia. Right? And if you want to live in this world as a political entity and power, well then, during times of war with your enemy, yes, this is what is done. Even though, in the perfection of our Prophet ﷺ, he never did it. Look at this. He never did it. The max he did was tauriya. Where are you from? I am from water. right? Abu Bakr who is this? he is my guide, guiding me on the way right? so no doubt the better is this, but in this case, yes inshallah, yes, in the back and then we're done, we're late, yes the child from a slave in Islam in Islamic law, occupies the exact same status as a child from a full marriage. And the best example for this is Ismail and Ishaq. Ismail and Ishaq. Ismail's mother was Hajar. Ishaq's mother was Sarah. And amongst our own history, the majority of the Abbasid Khulafa were sons of slave women. the majority of our khulafa of early Islam were sons of slave women Islamic fiqh says that any child born to a ajariya and I don't even like using the term slave honestly but we have to because any child born to ajariya that child will take the name of the father inherit from the father has the full biological rights of the father and then the mother gets an automatic upgrade as soon as the slave the jariyah gives birth to a child she becomes Umm al-Walad and she can never be sold and she becomes free instantaneously after the man dies automatic upgrade when you have a child right so all of this Islamic law guarantees and many other rulings as well but yes so to answer your question then yes the child that is born to a jariyah will be a full child And in fact, our Prophet ﷺ had Ibrahim from Marya. And Marya was a Jariyah. Marya was not of the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen. Marya was of the Jawari, of the Prophet ﷺ. And he did not marry Marya. Thank you.

Seerah 54 - Return from Al-Muraysi' & Slander of Aisha P1 - Yasir Qadhi _ 3rd April 2013-UPsyujnA2KM

So we were still doing the Ghazwa of Mureysir, the expedition of Muraisee. And we said, the Ghazwa of Muraisee is important not so much for the battle itself, but for the three things that happen after the battle. And we talked about the first of those three things being what? What was the first of those three? So, the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ with Juwayriya, which led to the entire tribe being freed, and then converting to Islam, and then being returned to their property. And so everything remained the same except that they were now Muslim, right? And the marriage of Juwayriya truly illustrates the plurality of our Prophet ﷺ's marriages. We're going to do the second incident today and then start the third incident as well. And the third incident is the slander of Aisha, so we'll start that at the end. So the second incident which we weren't able to discuss. And by the way, as we mentioned last time and our brother also brought up the issue of the date of Muraiseer. And as I said, I mean, Alhamdulillah, this is a very advanced seerah, but still there's a time you just have to draw. But nonetheless, no problem in mentioning some of the controversies. So, Muraiseer, when did it occur? And therefore, when did the slander occur? And when did the marriage of Juwayri occur? All of it is depending on when does Muraiseer occur. So there's many positions about this, but there's two very strong positions. The first of these is that in the fifth year of the Hijra Sha'ban, in the sixth year of the Hijra Sha'ban. Difference of one year. Now, this is the theoretical difference. It doesn't really matter, frankly speaking. Doesn't change anything, right? It's just a historical question. When did Muraisee' take place? And when did therefore the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ and then the slander of Aisha, when did it take place? This is two major positions. And the problem is, and again this is a little bit advanced, but nonetheless, Labas to mention a little bit about it. The problem comes, people are remembering narratives many years after they happened. And piecing together all of the narratives, there's two individuals mentioned, both of which could not have been alive or present in the story in the same year. That's why this controversy occurs. Two names are mentioned, and both of these names are clashing with each other in terms of chronology. and both of these names are mentioned in Bukhari and both of these have authentic asanid right, this is the problem and just again a little bit of background so one of the individuals is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh now, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh Sa'd ibn Mu'adh he dies right after Khandaq he would not have been alive in the 6th year Sha'ban impossible because ghandaq takes place when? fifth year shawwal right? and he dies one month after that okay? so those who say this incident took place fifth year shaaban everything fits so far so clear correct? so far so clear because shaaban, ramadan, shawwal okay? now who's the other person mentioned? the other person mentioned is zainab bin tijash now Zainab bin Tajash is the wife of the Prophet she did not become his wife except in the end of the fifth year so if we say this incident took place in Sha'ban of the fifth year, Zainab is not yet his wife so they say then Sha'ban of the sixth year but then how does Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh come in, so one of the two figures historically is incorrect the memories of the people narrating got messed up and confused. Now, that's just one issue. Then there are many other issues as well that are much more trivial. And as I have mentioned many times, one of the biggest problems that seerah researchers have is to piece together the stories of the seerah to form a complete narrative and also to make a chronology. When did exactly these things happen? It's not that easy. And Ibn Ishaq has a position and At-Tabari has a position. So from the very beginning we've had this ikhtilaf about when did Muraisee'ah occur, when did all of this occur and so again, just so that you should be aware what we're following now is 5th year Sha'ban but frankly there is a strong case to be made which our brother brought some points up a strong case to be made, 6th year Sha'ban and honestly, nothing different is to be, so what, I mean whichever of the two positions takes place it's a historical curiosity right, when did it take place so do realize though that the majority of seerah books are following Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Ishaq says 60 or Sha'ban. So the majority of seerah books will not be discussing Muraiseer when I'm discussing it. But most modern researchers that are little bit more critical, because 90% of seerah researchers, they took Ibn Ishaq as the model. Khalas. Whatever he says goes. They just were easy with it. Ibn Ishaq was considered to be the main authority of seerah. Modern researchers, they make Ibn Ishaq one authority amongst many authorities. And they're a little bit more critical. The majority of modern muhaqqiqun, which means like the modern researchers, they have concluded with many other evidences that Muraiseer took place Sha'ban of the fifth year of the Hijrah. And the mention of Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh is correct and therefore either Zaynab bin Tajash was not a wife and only a cousin because she was a cousin, right? Or it's just a mistake in that it wasn't actually Zainab bin Tajahshi was somebody else. And if you want to hold this position, that's fine. If you want to hold the other position, that is fine as well. In any case, back to the story. So, what is the second of the three incidents? The second of the three incidents involved the return journey from the battle back to Medina. And as I had mentioned before, the battle of Muraisee, the majority of the hypocrites participated in it. Why? Because it was number one, very close. Number two, there was no harvest season, so there's no temptation to stay. Number three, there's a guaranteed win. There's no chance of failure. And there was no casualty at Muraisee except an accidental friendly fire casualty. There was zero casualties at Muraisee. It was guaranteed win. So seeing the guaranteed win, all of the hypocrites and at the head of them, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul participated. He had never participated in any expedition before or after. So So Muraisee had the largest concentration of hypocrites. Tensions are bound to happen. And that's why two of the three stories involve hypocrites. Number one, this one. Number two, slander of Aisha, which is all about the hypocrites as well. Right? So why are the hypocrites playing a central role in this Muraisee? Because they have the highest concentration ever in any expedition. Things are bound to happen. In Tabuk, another things happen. But Abdullah ibn Ubayy did not participate in Tabuk. He wasn't there in Tabuk. Right? this is the only major expedition Abdullah ibn Ubay is a part so what happened the story goes as follows and by the way I did not mention before that Abdullah ibn Ubay obviously actually I did mention this I think he had converted reluctantly when did he convert who can remind me when did he convert after Badr when it was clear that there is no point in remaining a pagan he was one of the last people to convert and before he converted he has some very very harsh statements this is before his conversion in the first year and a half before Badr that once the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam passed by riding his donkey and Abdullah Ibn Ubay snuck his nose up and put his hand on his nose and said don't bring this stench when you walk by me he is saying this to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam but at this point in time he's a pagan, he has not converted. And he would also tell the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims when they recited the Qur'an to lower their voices and not to disturb him. Don't disturb me when I'm sleeping with your recitation, with your salah, with your adhan. So clearly there was a kibbut or arrogance from the very beginning. And then after Badr he was forced to accept Islam, meaning he realized there's no hope in remaining a mushrik. And at Uhud we all know what he had done. now in Muraiseer he's burning inside and something took place where he made some very harsh comments what happened it is mentioned that one Ansari and one Muhajir amongst the young men of both sides they went to collect water for the caravan and on the way just like youth do they began disputing over something and so one of them kicked the other and the other responded back with a punch and the two began fist fighting. As the kids do all the time, they get into some dispute over something and so they started fighting each other. Immediately the Muhajir said, O Muhajirun, come and help me. And the Ansar said, O Ansars, come and help me. They're screaming out. So the Muhajirun came to see what's happening, the Ansar came to see what's happening. Each one of them sided with their own youth, their own member. And the both of them, whatever the dispute was, we actually don't even know subhanallah, this is of the wisdom of the sahaba as we said, many times they don't record these petty details we don't know, what was the issue going on it's not mentioned, and there's no need for us to know and so the two of them began disputing the muhajirun and the ansar and their voices began to shout and increase and they started lining up and yelling and screaming, and tempers flared, weapons were about to be drawn tempers flared and weapons were about to be drawn and the Prophet ﷺ heard all of this commotion what's going on, the noise is raising so he rushes outside of his tent and he sees the Ansar on one side the Muhajirun on the other side all lined up, yelling, shouting, screaming anger is there and so he asks, what is going on? what are you doing? and they tell him that these two youth, they had a fight they called out the Ansar they called out the Muhajirun now we are resolving the dispute. Again, we don't know what the dispute is. So the Prophet ﷺ said, أَبِي دَعْوَى الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ You're going back to the calls of Jahiliyyah. You're going back to this breaking up of the ummah based upon lines and divisions. That's what Jahiliyyah was about. This is Qurashi, this is Hudhali, this is Thaqafi. You're going back to the da'wah of Jahiliyyah. أُتْرُكُوهَا فَإِنَّهَا مُنْتِنَةً leave it because it is disgusting he used a very harsh word muntina, rotting, it's disgusting get rid of it it is something that is disgusting throw it away, it's something that's rotting now before we move on look over here subhanallah how weak human nature is this is the best generation of mankind ever kuntum khaira ummatin uhjratin nas and two youth get involved fighting whatever it is, it's got to be petty. These are two youths. Whether it's over who's going to get the water first, whether whatever is the story. It's got to be something, you know, teenagers fight over. But still, tempers are so easy to flare. And divisions and calls like this, Iblis is waiting to divide the Muslim ummah up in this manner. And even the best of ummahs and generations, the potential exists for this to flare up. And this is exactly what happened. And in this we see the humanity of the Sahaba. They're not angels. They can get angry. They almost break into a fight themselves. After the death of the Prophet ﷺ an actual fight will occur. Multiple fights will occur. Safin and Jamal, they will occur. They didn't want it to happen, but nonetheless it happened. We also see over here that the Prophet ﷺ called racism and ethnic division, he called it rotting, filthy, is something that's decaying. And this shows us dividing ourselves up when we are one ummah over any divisions is something that is completely filthy. The human nature should find it disgusting. Like imagine rotting flesh. This is how we should find racism. This is how we should find division within the ummah. And what is especially noteworthy in this division is that this division, Ansar and Muhajir, was unknown to the both of them four years ago, five years ago. This is a brand new division. And it is a division that the Quran itself sanctions. المُهَاجِرُونَ وَالْعَنصَارِ It is an Islamic division. Who is a Muhajir, who is an Ansar. Yet, it can be misused and abused as it was right now. And even this Islamic division can become un-Islamic. If this is the case with something that has Quranic origin, Muhajir and Ansar, how about something that has completely human origin? This is Arab, this is Pakistani, this is Bengali, this is Indian, this is Egyptian, this is Syrian. Or not even this, this is from this place in the Punjab, and this is from that village in the Punjab. Imagine. and this is how it becomes this is from north Egypt, this is from south Egypt this is from this place in Sudan that's from that place in Sudan subhanallah, if these divisions that are Quranic our Prophet ﷺ said it's filthy and disgusting if it is used in this manner for something that the Quran itself approves if used correctly if it's used incorrectly it becomes disgusting how about the divisions that are imaginary and man-made how do they fall into the scheme of things, right? And this shows us the filth and the inherent un-Islamic concept known as racism. Now, this also shows us as well by the way, how did the Prophet ﷺ solve this? He didn't get involved in the petty details, who said what and what happened. He just said, get over it, دعوها, leave it. Some disputes, you don't need to go to the nitty gritty. Who said this? Who started it? It's his wisdom. This is actually gonna cause worse problems. and this shows us when you're gonna arbitrary between two people who are having a dispute you need to use a lot of wisdom sometimes you need to go down to the mind you say who said what, when did they say it sometimes it's just best when this is happening they're about to draw their swords they're made to feel like foolish how could you have gotten to this come on forget about it come on you're all brothers bismillah let's move on and the matter is forgotten and this is of his wisdom salallahu alayhi wa sallam that he did not get involved in the mind you say who did what who started it who kicked whom all of this is not even asked. Because that's actually gonna do what? It's gonna make it much worse. And this is of his wisdom, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. When Abdullah ibn Ubayy heard this, he became inflamed, became angry. Why did he become angry? Because he was happy to see the division. Because this division is something he wants to spread. And he wanted something to take place. When the fitna was quelled, and the fire was basically quenched, he became irritated. And he said, is this what they have done? Meaning the sahaba, they stopped fighting. They, meaning the muhajirun, have competed with us in their numbers and their quantities. فَالْعَدَدِ وَالْعُدَّ In their number and in their quantity. Quality and quantity. And this is exactly like, and he mentioned a very vulgar expression of Arabic, which translates in English as, fatten your dog, only so that it will come back to eat you. That's an expression, means something. What does it mean? It means, it's very possible, that the very person or friend or whatever that you're helping, it's actually going to become an enemy to you. And so astaghfirullah, he called the Muslims and their leader even he's comparing them to this animal so this is exactly like the saying of Arabic and he mentioned this saying that this is just like we say that fat in your dog is going to come back and eat you or bite you by Allah والله لئرجعنا إلى المدينة when we come back to the city ليخرجن الأعز منها الأذن the ones who have more honor will expel the ones who have no honor. لَإِن رَجَعْنَا إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ لَيُخْرِجَنَّ الْأَعَزُّ مِنْهَا الْأَذَلُ When we get back to Medina, now we're gonna get rid of these people, the ones who have honor, we'll get rid of those who have no honor. And then he started blaming his own hypocrites. And he said, you have brought this on yourselves, you have allowed them to come into your land, you have given them your money, you have shared your wealth. If only you withheld all of this, they would have been forced to go back to their own homes. So he's irritated his own people that look at what's happened now. And this shows us that by this time, the muhajirun, their quantity, really was rivaling that of the ansar now. The people that were now emigrating has been now five years since the hijrah, right? So the number of muhajirun, and it's not just from Medina, from Mecca, sorry, all over people are coming, all over the place now their quantity has increased and no doubt there is this sense of jealousy, of protection of racism from this hypocrite Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul now he is saying this in his private tent, amongst his people who are majority of them they are munafiqun, but there was a young lad amongst them whose heart was full of iman and his name was Zayd ibn Arqam Zayd ibn Arqam And Zayd ibn Arqam when he heard this, he could not believe. I mean this is clear kufr, nobody can deny this, right? It is clear cut kufr, making fun of the Prophet ﷺ, saying kufr statements, لَيُخْرِجَنَّ الْأَعِزُ مِنْهَا الْأَذَلِ The statement that he said, comparing, عَوْذُ بِاللَّهِ He could not believe this. And so he rushed to his uncle. He's a teenager, he doesn't know what to do. He rushes to his uncle, he says, I heard such and such. His uncle says, let's go to the Prophet ﷺ. He takes him to the Prophet ﷺ. He says, Oh Rasulullah, listen to what my nephew has just heard. And so he narrates to him what he has heard directly from Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul's mouth. And Abdullah ibn Ubayy is called by the Prophet ﷺ. Did you just say this? And he begins giving qasam after qasam, swearing the, the riwayat say, the most strongest qasams imaginable. and this is a munafiq completely lying through his teeth mentioning Allah's names completely in vain he gives the strongest qasam, all the qasams he can think of that he could never have said this and this is a kid, how can you believe him etc, etc and so the Prophet ﷺ accepted the excuses of Ibn Ubay after all he's giving all of these qasams and after all it is a very harsh things that have been said it's just better to hope he didn't say it it's very harsh things have been said and this caused a huge issue between the Munafiqun and between the Ansar of Medina. Because obviously the Munafiqun supported Abdullah ibn Ubay and the Ansar were already fumed at him and they're even more irritated. Umar ibn Khattab, after Abdullah ibn Ubay left, he said, Ya Rasulullah, let me just get rid of this guy. Always he has this role in the seerah. Let me just get rid of this guy. دعني أضرب عنقه It is a Munafiq, we all know he is a Munafiq. And he insisted that there is no excuse for him now, Ya Rasulullah. And the Prophet ﷺ said, دعه, leave him, don't kill him. Why? Because I do not want the people to say that Muhammad ﷺ kills his own companions. We'll get back to this point. Leave him, I don't want the people to start spreading rumors about me that I execute my own companions. and he immediately ordered all of the sahaba of the army to pack their bags and rush back to Medina stop all of this chattering all of this chit chat all of this qila wa qal pack your bags let's go and he marched non-stop for over 20 hours completely non-stop for the rest of the whole day and the entire night non-stop marching such that pretty much the next morning they were outside of Medina why? because as soon as they basically stopped outside of Medina khalas they fell asleep for the rest of the day they said as soon as their heads hit the pillow after 20 hour walk what's gonna happen right? now what was the wisdom of this? to get the minds off of all of this that's happening stop all of this chit chat stop all of the rumor mongering just to get move on just come on let's go and they're so tired they just have no time to start gossiping because this is human nature small thing happens and then one person throws it to another it becomes bigger, throws it to another, becomes bigger small thing becomes bigger and bigger each person inflames the other how dare he, he couldn't have done this blah blah blah subhanallah the Prophet ﷺ in his wisdom once again shows us his wisdom he just completely extinguished this flame by just marching forward let's go, and by the time they walk 20 hours as soon as they unpack their bags they just fall right there asleep sleep the whole day, wake up Medina is right there so then they get back to the city of Medina now Zayd ibn Arqam became very depressed because after all his testimony has been rejected right, he became very depressed he said it was the worst day of my life after all he is also just a teenager as well, even if he had been an old man it would have been very painful the Prophet ﷺ has rejected his testimony basically I mean obviously he is not accusing him of lying but in essence what has he done in essence, he's accepted the testimony of Abdullah ibn Ubayy and rejected the testimony of Zayd ibn Arqam. And Zayd ibn Arqam was extremely depressed. He said, it was the worst day that my mother ever gave birth to me. Expression in Arabic, it's like the worst day of my life. And right that morning, outside of Medina, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed all of the entirety of Surah Al-Munafiqun. the whole surah al-Munafiqun comes down in this battle after this battle إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُنَافِقُونَ قَالُوا نَشْهَدُ إِنَّكَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ إِنَّكَ رَسُولُ وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ لَكَاذِبُونَ اِتَّخَذُوا أَيْمَانَهُمْ جُنَّةً all of their Qasams and it's just a shield فَصَدُّوا عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ they're just preventing people from the way of Allah and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala goes on Allah knows they're lying Allah knows this Allah knows that they will swear to you this and the whole ayah and then in the surah of course Abdullah ibn Ubayy is quoted by exact expression يَقُولُونَ لَإِن رَجَعْنَا إِلَى الْمَدِينَةَ لَيُخْرِجَنَّ الْأَعِزُ مِنْهَا الْأَذَلُ this is quoting Abdullah ibn Ubayy literally it's in the Quran to this day and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says قُلْ فَلِلَّهِ الْعِزَّةُ وَلِلرَّسُولِ وَلِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَلَكِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ لَا يَفْقَهُونَ to Allah belongs all izzah and to his Rasul, and to the believers, the Munafiqun have no knowledge, they have no understanding. And the whole surah is basically a criticism of the Munafiqun, and exposing of the faults of the Munafiqun. And when this surah was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ called Zayd ibn Arqam, held him by the ear, and he said, Allah has confirmed that this has spoke, has heard the truth. Allah has confirmed this, has heard the truth your ears have been confirmed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so to calm him down, that after all the kid was feeling so hurtful and painful, so the Prophet ﷺ cheered him up and said that Allah has affirmed that your ears have heard the truth and the news had spread in Medina what is happening this is again, I mean, when the army is about to come in, this was the sunnah of all armies of the past, there is a crier that comes basically, to tell the people that the army is coming, get ready. And the crier also brings information. And so all of this is spreading in the city of Medina. And Abdullah ibn Ubay's son hears of this. And his name by the way was also Abdullah. Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubay. And he was a believer. He was not a munafiq. And Abdullah ibn Abdullah, the son of the leader of the hypocrites, when he heard about all of this, he went outside to meet the Prophet before he comes in. And he says to him, Ya Rasulullah, it has reached me that you're considering executing my father. And if you command anybody to execute him, now remember he's grown up in jahiliyya times, he still has the ways of jahiliyya. He says, I don't think that I can see another man walk around in the streets of Medina knowing he's killed my father except that I'll have to kill him. And if I kill him, I've killed an innocent Muslim, I'm gonna go to Jahannam. So I think the only solution is you command me to do this execution. He's worried. This is what he's worried about now. Right? Like he has spent the last night sleepless. That what am I gonna do now? If somebody else executes him, I cannot remain. now again this was primarily in their jahili custom that was the way it was that it's your tribal loyalty no matter how much you hate or don't like that's why the Prophet himself was protected by his own tribe right? it's that loyalty that they have and he's raised in that environment so he said if you command anybody else to kill him I don't think I can withhold my sword from him he's gonna die and if he dies from my hand then khalas I'm done the only alternative You tell me, give me the commandment, so that I cannot blame anybody but myself. Subhanallah. This is a real sign of obedience to Allah and His Messenger. A real sign of, there is no alternative other than I'll have to do this deed. And our Prophet ﷺ said to him, لا بل أحسن صحبته No, rather your duty is to be good companion to him. You cannot do this to him. Your duty is to be a good son or a good, you know, be loyal to him basically. And he promised him, the Prophet ﷺ promised him, that we shall be good to him and gentle with him as long as he lives with us. So he promised Abdullah ibn Abdullah that look, as long as your father is alive, we're not gonna do anything to him. And that was his promise, that he lived up to him, and that's exactly what he did. So when he got this news, he felt a big sigh of relief but he was still very angry at his father and so he stood at the gate of Medina waiting for Abdullah ibn Ubayy his own father to come and when he came he said that you were the one who said لَيُخْرِجَنَّ الْأَعَزُّ مِنْهَا الْأَذَلُ and wallahi I will not allow you to come back to Medina until the Prophet ﷺ has given you permission his own son became basically the preventer how dare you say this and then you're gonna come back to the city I'm not gonna let you do this until the Prophet ﷺ himself gives you permission and therefore he had to wait until the Prophet ﷺ came and then gave him permission to enter the city and then Abdullah ibn Ubay entered the city now subhanallah this is just an amazing story wallah is one of the most interesting stories and by the way his son so Abdullah as you know Abdullah ibn Ubaid ibn Salul died in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ it was his son who when his father died he felt that softness he felt that rahmah for him he was the one who went to the Prophet ﷺ and said Ya Rasulullah give me one of your cloaks your ridah give me one of your garments that I will use as a kafan for my father perhaps Allah might forgive him again this is in the end there is rahmah it's your father in the end of the day so the Prophet ﷺ not only gave him the ridah he went to the cemetery, he prayed janazah for... This was before Allah revealed. Don't. وَلَا تُصَلِّ عَلَىٰ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُ مَاتَ أَبَدًا وَلَا تَقُمْ عَلَىٰ قَبْرِهِ This is in Surah Tawbah. And this was when Allah revealed. At the death of Abdullah ibn Ubay. Allah revealed, never ever go to one of their graves. And never stand at their graves and pray for them. And never ask forgiveness for them. If you were to ask 70 times, Allah will not forgive. this came down after Abdullah ibn Ubay died so before he actually went and he prayed for him and he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam went into the grave himself to lower the body and he gave his own shroud to use as a kafan because subhanallah in the end of the day he wanted rahmat, this is rahmat alil alameen he wanted even this person to get rahmat, that's his heart sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said we know better and don't ask forgiveness for this person, you know he has died in Nifak. And Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubay, the Muslim, he died a shaheed in the battles of Riddah in the time of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. So we really don't have much information about him. He lived a short life after this. He died within the next 5-6 years he passed away. Now the outcome of this incident was that the true nature of Abdullah ibn Ubay was fully exposed now by the text and testimony of the Qur'an. In a manner that even Uhud had not done that explicitly. This is the most explicit. And therefore, many of the Munafiqun abandoned Abdullah ibn Ubay and actually became true Muslims. When Allah Azza wa Jal revealed what He revealed, and it was very clear, many of them abandoned. And they became true Muslims. and the Prophet ﷺ later remarked to Umar ibn al-Khattab that what do you think O Umar meaning about all that has happened for indeed if I had commanded him to be killed the day that you told me to kill him I would have turned away many people, his followers those same people if I were to tell them to kill Abdullah ibn Ubaynaw they would be the ones doing it. Do you understand? It's a long quote. But he is telling Umar, you were the one who wanted to kill him, right? What do you think now? You see the effects when those munafiqun embraced Islam, right? The Prophet ﷺ said to Umar, you see, do you remember that day? You wanted me to kill him. If I had killed him, all of these people would have remained hypocrites. But now, those people, if I were to tell them to kill Abdullah ibn Ubayy they'd be the first ones to do it. Right? Their iman had now increased and they were now true believers. And Umar ibn Khattab responded Wallahi I know that the opinion of the Prophet ﷺ is always more blessed than my opinion. I know that of course this was the correct opinion and your opinion will bring more barakah than my opinion. And this incident of not killing Abdullah ibn Ubayy this is one of the main evidences and there are dozens of evidences and this is an issue of fiqh and usool al-fiqh one of the main evidences is of something known as maslaha and maslaha means public welfare the good of the people that the Muslim ruler or the Muslim jurist or the Muslim faqih he looks at the maslaha or what is good for the ummah and bases laws on maslaha and the issue of Maslaha is one of the sources of Islamic law and these days especially a lot is being written about it if you look at many organizations and many books and you just log on to any Islamic bookstore lots of books about Maslaha and there is no doubt that this is a whole long topic but there is no doubt that Maslaha is a source of law because our Prophet ﷺ took into account what would be the repercussions if he killed Abdullah ibn Ubay he weighed the pros and the cons and he said the cons outweigh the pros basically right if I were to kill him what are the people gonna think of this religion what will they think of me killing my own father they're not gonna know he's a hypocrite the perception will be what the prophet Muhammad s.a.w. is killing his own people and I don't want them to say this about Islam by the way this also shows that it's a part of our religion to have a good image in front of non-Muslims PR is a part of every firm, every company, every group, every ethnicity, every religion. Some overzealous Muslims, they say, who cares what other people think about this? Here our Prophet ﷺ is saying, I don't want people to think wrong about Islam. You have to think about the image you're giving to your religion. Not to your ego, not to yourself, to your faith, to your people. And that's why the Muslim always has to be extra scrupulous, extra careful, extra honest. There's an impression that has to be given, not for your sake. Your people need to know this is what your religion teaches and practices. He says, I don't want the others to say, let not the non-Muslim say that Muhammad ﷺ kills his own people. Even though Abdullah ibn Ubay deserves the punishment. But what is the negatives of this punishment? It outweighs the positives. And this is the issue of maslaha. Now just a footnote here. Maslaha is very popular in our times for one simple reason and that is that many of those whom I have called progressives and what not, they really like to harp on this point because they believe that maslaha can be used to basically trump Islamic law that if the Quran says X or if the Sunnah says Y then they say, oh maslaha doesn't make sense, X doesn't make sense maslaha says let's do something else and this is one of the reasons why there's so much talk about maslaha in our times yet in these very evidences and this is what the classical four sunni schools say مَصْلَحَ is an evidence in the absence of an Islamic text not when there is an Islamic text and even in this very incident what does Umar conclude with? والله I know that the position of the Prophet ﷺ is always gonna have more barakah than my position there is no مَصْلَحَ in opposition to a text Maslaha is used when the texts are silent Texts are silent Now go ahead What is public benefit? Let's discuss this Bring together lawyers Bring together experts Bring together economists Bring together civil servants Let's discuss how should the country be run In areas where the sharia is silent This is where maslaha comes into play As for something that is explicit in the Quran or sunnah That Allah has commanded The maslaha is in obeying the command whether we see it or not and that's really the whole point in our times why the issue of maslaha and there are certain organizations there is one organization that has released over 10 books in English in the last 3 years about maslaha over 10 books, all of its books about maslaha maslaha and Islamic law all of this issue what is the reason as I said the goal is to kind of chip away from the text of the Quran and Sunnah and we or at least I personally do not at all agree with this. Maslaha is only used in the absence of a text and not to discredit a text. And this is what the four madhhab all say. Okay, so this is the second of the third issue and that is the issue of Abdullah ibn Ubay and what he said. Now we get to the third and this will last us all of the remainder and also next week and also the week after that. This is a very long story about the slander of Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha. And the slander of Aisha is one of the most traumatic stories in the seerah. For one simple reason, because it deals with the Prophet Muhammad's personal and intimate affairs. It deals with the very personal bond of a husband and wife. It deals with the honor and the sanctity of marriage. and it shows us how low the munafiqun went. Like you cannot go lower than this. This is like you have no scruples to go that low. And it was a very traumatic time. And one of the interesting things about this story is that it has been preserved in vivid detail in the first person by Aisha herself in the most authentic books. There are a hadith that are two, three, four pages long in Bukhari that Aisha is describing in her own narration, in her own memory, from her own memory, the whole story of the slander. And therefore this is even more beneficial and interesting because we see it from the perspective of the main victim, of the main person of the story. and therefore all of the talks and the books written about the story of the slander, they revolve around Aisha herself because you cannot get more detailed information than Aisha herself and as we said, these stories are narrated in Bukhari and Muslim so they are the most authentic books and what I'm going to do is to basically quote you exactly what Aisha herself said, obviously the translation and then just give some benefits directly from what she has said. I've translated this very long hadith, bringing in other narrations as well. I've translated it into English and all of these narrations as we said, are found in Sahih al-Bukhari. And Aisha begins and she says that the Prophet ﷺ whenever he wanted to go on a journey, he would cast lots amongst his wives. So whoever's lot would be picked, that wife would accompany the Prophet ﷺ. Now, the meaning here of course is that the Prophet ﷺ was fair with all of his wives in matters that he could control. But if there's one journey, you cannot take all of them. And how are you gonna choose for every journey which one to take? It's not fair to alternate because every journey is different. So what would happen? He would draw lots. Lots meaning like, you know, take six, seven straws, one of them is long, all of the rest are short. And then, you know, you just pick. And then whoever picks the long straw, that's the one that is its turn. So this shows us that drawing lots in this manner, for halal reasons, this is something that all of the fuqaha allow. And there are many cases in fiqh. There are many cases in fiqh. Hypothetically, if there were slavery, so if a slave owner says, when I die, free one of my slaves. And he has, let's say, five slaves. How do you decide? So you have to draw lots. So there's many cases in the books of fiqh that drawing lots is actually a part of sharia. You actually have to draw lots to have a fair pick if you like. And this also shows us that the Prophet ﷺ would sometimes take his wives. Sometimes. And this is the exception and not the rule in war. And he would only take them when the victory was pretty much confirmed such as Muraisee. As again we said Muraisee was like a given. There is no question that they will complete surprise attack, they're outnumbering the enemy. It's very clear there's no problem gonna happen. So it's the exception to take women, but it has been narrated that sometimes the Prophet ﷺ did take women in some expeditions. So he cast lots on one of his expeditions. In this version, she doesn't mention Muraisee. We learned from other books, it is Muraisee. So my name came up. So I was the one who accompanied him in Muraisee. so I traveled with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and this was after the verses of Hijab had been revealed when were the verses of Hijab revealed maybe we can find out when did Muraiseer take place sadly it doesn't matter to us because the verses of Hijab were revealed at the end of the fourth year of the Hijrah so either fifth or sixth doesn't matter, that doesn't help us Okay, the verses of hijab were revealed dhul qa'dah of the fourth year of the hijrah. Right, and I mentioned when I teach the class about the fiqh of clothing and the fiqh of food, I mentioned that the verses of hijab were of the last commandments to be revealed after salah, after zakah, after inheritance, after fasting Ramadan, after zakatul fitr, right, after marriage and divorce which is in baqarah. the verses of hijab were of the very last commandments to be revealed in terms of the personal dietary laws and what not no doubt hijab is important but I point out that I think many of us have made hijab even more important than the salah it's like we immediately decide instantaneously based on the hijab no doubt hijab is important but put it in its place it was revealed at the end of the fourth year not at the beginning of the first year like the salah or something none that actually the salah was pre-hijab excuse me, the zakah was the beginning of the first year and all that. And nonetheless, so she said, so the verses of hijab had been revealed, and therefore I would travel in a hawdaj. A hawdaj. What is a hawdaj? It's a mini tent, if you like. We all are familiar with it. And it's basically something you put on the camel, and it is an envelope, it's like a small tent that a person can sit inside. Canopy. something you put on the camel, it's a canopy that a person can sit in. And to this day, some cultures they use it, you know, a person is carried in it or something. We see it on television in the old days, people would carry a nobleman, you know, four people would carry. This is the Hawdaj. And then you put it on the camel. Now, the hijab of the Prophet's wives was extra. The hijab of the Prophet's wives was extra. And the wives of the Prophet's, they had to be covered not just in their personal body but their space as well had to be covered and this was only for the wives of the Prophet and this is explicit in the Quran explicit in the Quran the Quran says وَإِذَا سَأَلْتُمُوهُنَّ مَتَاعًا فَاسْأَلُوهُنَّ مِنْ وَرَاءِ حِجَابٍ if you ask the wives of the Prophet for anything if you talk to them speak to them from behind a hijab. And this is what Aisha is saying, that this incident of Muraiseer took place after the verses of hijab. The term hijab in the Quran, I'm going into a tangent here, but it's something we should know, it's very important. The term hijab in the Quran does not mean headscarf. In our vernacular, it means a headscarf. We say, Does she wear hijab? I started wearing the hijab, means the headscarf. This is modern Arabic, which is fine, not a problem. Quranic Arabic, the hijab meant a physical curtain that separates the entire body, not just on your body, it's a curtain between you and the speaker. This is the Quranic usage of hijab. And this usage of hijab, according to the Quran only the wives of the Prophet ﷺ have to wear, not wear, excuse me have to enforce that type of hijab. As for the headscarf the Quran references this with the term khimar. With the term khimar. وَلْيَضْرِبْنَا بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَىٰ جُيُوبِهِنَّ Let them wear their khimar khumur, plural of khimar, over their juyub, which is their bosoms. Their scarves should cover their chests as well. Because the women of Jahiliyyah, by the way, they would wear headscarves, by the way. The women of Jahiliyyah would wear a headscarf. Every respectable, dignified lady would cover her hair. Just like in America 100 years ago. Impossible for a dignified lady. Only the peasants and the rural people without money, without education, they would be with her. And the same in Arabia. Every single lady of respect and of middle class would wear a headscarf. But, just like in America as well, the headscarf would be thrown back and the dresses get lower and lower. You get the point, right? So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, No, when you wear the headscarf, cover the bosom. وَلْيَضْرِبْنَا بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَى جُيُوبِهِنَّ So anyway, the point here, Aisha says the verses of Hijab had been revealed. And by this we mean, an extra layer above and beyond the Khimar, above and beyond the Jilbab, which is another Quranic term. يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ يَا أَقُلْ لِأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلَابِي بِهِنَّ That's another verse. So the Khimar and Jilbab is mentioned for all women. the mothers of the believers, the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, the daughters of the Prophet ﷺ, and all of the women. خِمَارًا جِلْبَابًا And this is what our sisters wear. For the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, there's only the hijab. Now, the reason I say this by the way, and it's very important, I know it's not directly related. These days you will hear some modernist or progressive say, the hijab was only for the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. and this is a technically true statement that is intended for something false. This is a technically true statement. كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ أُرِيذَ بِهَا بَاطِلٌ It's a true statement, but something evil is intended through it. It is true, the Qur'anic hijab is only for the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. But what is the Qur'anic hijab? it is this extra layer of curtain right whereas what these people try to say is that the hijab meaning how we understand it which is the khimar and shilbab is only for the wives of the Prophet and this is wallahi foolishness that shows a complete ignorance of the Quran it's so explicit ya ayyuha nabiyu qulli azwajika wa banatika wa nisa'il mu'mineena tell your wives and your daughters and the believing women يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلَابِهِ بِهِنَّ They should all cover themselves with a jilbab. This is in the Quran. The word jilbab and the word khimar as well. That, O believing women, وَلْيَضْرِبْنَا بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَجْ All believing women, including the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. And Aisha will wear a khimar, and she will wear a jilbab, but she will also have a hijab. Right? So in any case, getting back to the story now. So she's saying, this was after the verses of hijab, so she's explaining why am I in a hodaj, why am I in a canopy. Because she, unlike any other woman, she cannot ride a camel anymore. The figure of Aisha could not be seen in public. The figure, even completely covered. She has to be always in that canopy. And in her house as well, nobody can speak to her except from behind the curtain. Right? And that is why the only person, the main narrator from Aisha was her nephew, Urwa, because he's a mahram. So Urwa did not have to speak from behind the hijab. Urwa could enter and speak to her from behind the hijab. Whereas all of the other people spoke from on the other side of the hijab. So she said that after the expedition finished and we were on the way back, the Prophet ﷺ gave orders to encamp the night outside of Medina. Now, this is the night where the munafiqun have basically lost. Right? You need to understand why this is happening now. why are the hypocrites going to stoop to such a low level this is that night now the night when Abdullah ibn Ubayy has been exposed the night when the Quran has been revealed Surah Al-Nafiqun has come down when there is so much anger that he has and now Allah Azza wa Jal has exposed his plot so now he is exacting revenge in a manner that is so unmanly and so unbecoming it really shows the depths of the darkness of his heart. Right? We need to understand the context of why this is taking place at this point in time. After all that's happened, khalas, this is how he's gonna get revenge. لَحَوْلَ وَلَقُوتُ سَلَّبِ اللَّهِ This is that night now. The one night before Medina. The last step. So, Aisha says that, when the orders were given to encamp, I stood up and walked away from the army to relieve myself. So nobody saw her. that basically, as we said, everybody fell asleep, they were completely out. And she went far away distance, she wanted to relieve herself. On the way back, I felt my chest. And lo and behold, my onyx necklace. Onyx is a whitish translucent rock. It's just a stone. Necklace had been broken. I panicked and I went back to find it. And I spent a long time trying to find the necklace. She couldn't find it. Okay, now the necklace has sentimental value. And this shows her simplicity. Subhanallah, she is the most beloved wife of the most beloved Prophet of Allah ﷺ. And what is she wearing? Gold, diamonds, rubies. What are the wives of the pharaohs wearing? What are the wives of the kings wearing? What is the wife of our Prophet ﷺ wearing? Basically, quartz stone. Stone that you just pick up and it's shiny. This is what she's wearing. that's her, and it's sentimental this is the Prophet ﷺ's gift to her so she wants to keep it so she doesn't find it, she goes and she panics, she goes looking for it everywhere, where did it go? and because of this she was delayed the people assigned to my hodaj, in the meantime the orders were given to move now she's not telling us this part but we know from the other story everybody's dead tired everybody's crashed because of what's happened they wake up, they command to go you can imagine how tired they are you can imagine the city is one day away now that's it, this is the last step so you know, they didn't pay that much attention and then Aisha makes an excuse for them and she said that I myself was a young girl I had not put on much weight I was very light so when they picked up the hodaj they didn't realize I was not in it subhanallah she's narrating this incident 50 years later without mentioning any of their names, but she's still excusing them. It's not their fault. Cut them some slack. In case any of you felt anything, don't worry. Really, I was a young girl. I didn't weigh much. I hadn't grown old. I didn't put on any weight. It's like they didn't realize I was not there. Subhanallah, look at her innocence here. We even sense it from the beginning that she's making excuses for the people that they didn't notice her in the Hawdij. So the men did not question the likeness. They put it on the camel. and they sent the camel forward. And when I returned to the camp, there was not a single person in sight. Khalas, the whole camp has gone. Which shows us that she really panicked about the necklace. She spent some time looking everywhere. And we can imagine she's a young girl at this time and she's sentimentally attached to this necklace and she's panicking, where did I drop it? And lo and behold, the necklace was underneath the camel. It was right there. It wasn't anywhere over there. It was over there. When I came back, it's over there. And everybody had abandoned. There was not a soul in sight. And she said, I stayed in my place. By the way, the men in the Aisha's camp, in the Aisha's hodaj, would not speak to her, obviously, out of adab and out of respect. They would not converse with her. So, there's no question of them verifying, are you there? it's just there's a huge amount of protocol of respect this is the wife of the Prophet ﷺ no talking you just let her be so I stayed in my place and I presume that you know as soon as they discovered I was missing they would return for me and while I was waiting in my place sitting under a tree I fell asleep this is a brave young girl completely alone in the desert not a drop of food or water she's like falls asleep They'll find me, don't worry. She has confidence, Allah Azawajal is going to take care of her, don't worry. And she actually falls asleep. And I only woke up when I heard a man say, لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله And lo and behold, it was Safwan ibn Mu'attal al-Sulami. Safwan ibn Mu'attal al-Sulami, who was lagging behind the army. Now, Safwan ibn Mu'attal, it was his qadr, that he overslept the whole order to leave. He was so tired, he just completely was bonked out. Everybody left and he's still asleep. And he's way behind. So now he takes his camel and he starts slowly making his way back to Medina. And he sees this figure in the desert all alone. And lo and behold, it is Aisha. And Aisha says, and he had seen me before the verse of the hijab came down so he recognized me. Now this is one of the evidences that scholars use that in those days niqab was more common. Because she recognized her because she had seen her without the niqab. That's another issue of the niqab or not. And so he recognized me because he had seen me before the revelation of the hijab. So when I woke up and I saw him, she said, I covered my face with my jilbab. Because she was asleep. So I covered my face with my jilbab. It shows us here, the intelligence of Aisha. It shows us, the sahaba when something happened, they would make adhkar. Subhanallah, alhamdulillah, la hawla wa la khusila billah. Sadly when something happens to us, astaghfirullah, we use curse words. It's a very, very bad habit. And we really need to get rid of this. We need to substitute those words, we need to make it a part of our fitrah to say things from the sunnah alhamdulillah astaghfirullah subhanallah instead of cursing even if it's not a vulgar curse saying things like stupid or fool why? use phrases that are more Islamic if you don't like something subhanallah something great happens alhamdulillah this is the way of the sunnah and when you put it a part of your habit this is what's gonna happen that when something happens instantaneously a word of praise comes out and this should be ingrained in us and it's also a positive thing for da'wah as well that when something happens you say something like this guys are gonna ask what did you mean by this? what happens? and it's a very positive sign oh I thanked God Alhamdulillah that is insha'Allah this is a part of our culture and vernacular so Safan ibn Muattal or Safan ibn Muattal is the proper way Safan ibn Muattal and he was from the tribe of As-Sulami Sufyan ibn Muattal he said and Aisha says I swear by Allah he did not speak one word to me all he did was he lowered the camel walked away so that I could ride on it so that she doesn't even see her getting on the camel turned his back so that let her get on the camel and then he guided the camel with his hands all the way back to Medina he walked and she was on the camel. Subhanallah, this is a gentleman. And this is, any of us would do this, inshallah with our, the mother of the believers, Aisha, radiallahu ta'ala anha. He guided the camel until it reached basically the group before it entered Medina. Okay, so they caught up with the group. They caught up with the group and of course, who was at the back of the group? Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. That's the standard place of the hypocrites. right at the end of the army. Right? And so, Aisha says, that was when the rumors began to spread by Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul. And Safan ibn Mu'attal, by the way, he was a very noble companion. And in fact, he had never been married up to this point in time. He only got married after this. He was a single man. He was a very noble man. And he died actually a shaheed in the time of Umar ibn Khattab fighting in Armenia. his grave is in Armenia he died in the battle that conquered Armenia and he died a shaheed in the reign of Umar ibn al-Khattab and then Aisha says and I guess we should stop here because this is when the story takes the real things begin, Aisha says that when I came to Medina I fell sick with a fever for one whole month and so I was oblivious to the rumors as it was spreading around for one month I was sick with a fever and I did not hear anything in this one month what happened the rumors began to grow bigger and bigger and bigger and as they're growing bigger and bigger Aisha is completely oblivious because she has a severe burning fever and she's not in the circle of friends usually is in and she's cut off from all of the gossip and so this contributed as well that she's basically cut off nobody's seeing her and on top of this for one month the rumors spread one very very beautiful thing subhanallah about the books of the seerah and it really shows us their own adab the authors they never mention the actual rumor it's just understood and it shows subhanallah it's so disgusting you don't even wanna hint at it it's just called the slander khalas that's it no book of seerah no book ever verbalizes the slander. And it's such it really shows us the etiquettes of our early scholars. And you compare this to the attitude of modern society where every graphic detail and every minutiae and every sordid issue wants to be spread on the front page news. It's disgusting. Wallahi it's disgusting. Our religion says even if something happens just don't talk about it. Cover it up. This is what we learn from this story as well. Right? That even if something happens and you hear about it, don't spread it to others. Because, and this wallahi we see around us, the more you spread fahisha, forget even fahisha, the more you spread violence, the more you're going to desensitize people to violence. The more you spread vulgarity, the more vulgar people will become. The more you talk about murders, and mass killers and what not, what's gonna happen? Murder becomes common, no big deal. Mass killing is, astaghfirullah, even common now. Right? It's just so sad. Whereas, by and large, I mean, we don't hear really of people in quote-unquote third world countries walking into kindergarten school and killing 30, 40, 50 people. This is not something that is common in most parts of the world. But what happens when you raise an entire generation desensitized to all types of evil, what's gonna happen? They will accept this evil and they're gonna continue to raise the bar. They're gonna continue to raise the bar. And this is what we see even in the adab of our own scholars. You don't even mention, just reference it indirectly, the slander of Aisha. Right? And with this inshaAllah, we'll pause here because the real story will begin inshaAllah next Wednesday. And we have inshaAllah five minutes of questions. But before that, I was told to make an announcement. About the PBS fundraiser, who has the details? Yes, the PBS fundraiser is told to make an announcement, so I don't know the details, if you can make the encouragement, inshallah. And then I can add to that. Assalamu alaikum. This Sunday, the annual PBS fundraiser is going to take place, inshallah. so I think it starts at 6 o'clock 5 o'clock at this program will start so a lot of good things are happening actually as we speak tonight the BVS won science fair awards in the west regional they took place number one in middle school and I think we're going to take second place in high school So think about that. It's the West Tennessee regions. So we're going to go to states. And we did the history first, recently, like that. So we are blessed by Allah by competing with schools that charge $16,000 and we charge $4,000. And we are winning, and our children are winning. So we need, this is the grace of Allah and the support of the community. So we really need your support. and the children and the people who do it every day that they are in and they are out support they need your support, they need your presence, they need your dua so Jazakallah Khair Jazakallah Khair from my own side as well really, we are very blessed and fortunate to have an Islamic school in Memphis and we can do we really need to do whatever we can to help them out even if your kids don't go there this is a community school, we are very proud that Alhamdulillah Memphis has a purpose built school I'm always supportive of them all of my kids are there my wife is teacher there as much as I can support them we're supporting them so whatever you guys can do just to participate just to give whatever you can Alhamdulillah it's a great blessing for Memphis to have a PVS school Alhamdulillah we have a few minutes for questions any other announcements before I forget few minutes for questions Bismillah yes There's some opinions or maybe some common belief that the Rai or the reason in the time of the Prophet was not wrong but the example that you went through today where the Prophet himself admitted that the Prophet was superior and was he was right showed otherwise. Is this a belief about a maslaha where Umar ibn al-Khattab way in with the prisoners executing them? Or is this just like a wrong? So the question is about Umar's ra'iz or positions. Sometimes it appears that he was right but then today it appears he's wrong. Actually Umar ibn al-Khattab himself says that I agree with my Lord in three matters. In other words, three of my positions, Allah confirmed them. And then he mentions three cases that happened that whatever position he had, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then affirmed them. Right now only two come to mind, perhaps one of them you can remind me. One of them was the issue of the prisoners of war. And the other one was the issue of the hijab. He was the one who said that, Ya Rasulullah, you should enforce hijab on your wives because the munafiqun and others will speak bad of them. and that did happen with the munafiqun. But he was the one who suggested this. And there was a third one, I don't remember it now. No, that's not this. Are you sure that's the one? Maybe that's it. In any case, I don't want to say for sure. I forgot now what it was. But so he said, My Lord agreed with me in three things. And out of adab he said, sorry, he said, I agree with my Lord in three things. And he said this out of adab, because technically he said this, then Allah revealed, but he said I agreed with Allah not my Lord agreed with me because that's obviously not very polite to say but this doesn't mean that every single position of his was right and we have multiple times where Umar ibn al-Khattab had a position but later on it was proven to be wrong and this is one of them and the clearest example of this that we're going to come to later on is the treaty of Hudaybiyah and when he became khalifa Umar ibn al-Khattab said that oh people suspect your own opinions before you suspect the Quran اتهم الدين على الرأي suspect your own before you suspect the Quran because I remember that on a particular day meaning Hudaybiyah I almost became a kafir he said this of himself by rejecting what the Prophet ﷺ had wanted us to do. And because Umar, he himself admitted he lost it on the day of Hudaybiyyah. When the Prophet ﷺ said, Khalash, shave your hair, let's go back. We're not gonna go to Mecca. We'll allow them to stop us from entering Mecca. Umar could not handle this. You're going to listen to these people, and they're gonna stop us from entering the Ka'bah, and we have every right to enter and do tawaf and we're just gonna shave our hairs and go back Allah is like this and he came and he said are you not Rasulullah he said yes I am are you not upon the truth yes I am then how can we accept humiliation in our religion there was this sense of zealousy this zealousness you know it's still common in our times you know that type of how is this possible and it was Abu Bakr the Prophet did not responded, it was Abu Bakr who held on to him and said calm down oh man, literally the Arabic is like, calm down oh man are you gonna reject Islam because of this, what is your, basically Abu Bakr who is the gentle, the meek guy only Abu Bakr had the audacity and the courage to hold on to his beard and shake him like this right, so later on in his life, Umar said I saw myself almost become a kafir on that day, meaning what does he mean by this, he's being obviously modest he's exaggerating a little bit, he's not going to become a kafir but he's saying, by rejecting the Prophet ﷺ's command not by rejecting his risalah by rejecting his command I found myself, I couldn't admit that I'm just going to go back to Medina without performing Umrah and listening to these people when they stop us from going and then he said what did he say after this so he said وَفَعَلْتُ لِذَٰلِكَ أَفْعَالًا that I made up for that day by doing many good deeds. And Ibn Hajar comments when he has this. Ibn Hajar comments, he freed many dozens of slaves and he fasted many hundreds of years for the rest of his life. He felt so guilty for that one day, that the rest of his life was like an atonement for that one day. That he has to make up for all that he's done. So the point being, it is true that many of the positions of Umar were correct, but it is also true that some of them were incorrect. And this is human nature. this is human nature that when the process is alive he is the ultimate authority after he goes away then no doubt Abu Bakr and Umar are the greatest authorities but they are not infallible they are not infallible yes the issue of Ali and the killers of Uthman is really a very complicated one and no doubt it is مصلحة but why and what is the you know the detailed reasons and wallahi it's you know very difficult to say for certain but most likely it was simply the quantity of killers and the backlash that would have happened from the riffraff of that quantity that he would have had to kill it would have led to a bigger civil war and Allah knows best I mean this is what he felt that at this point in time let's just consolidate the ummah and move on. It was a time of fitna and chaos and generally we like to avoid. This is our Sunni methodology. It is actually a part of our theology to kind of gloss over that period and era. And Allah knows best. Final question, yes. I know that you said that the Prophet ﷺ was one of the wise and the most strange. And I know that Aisha ﷺ was one of the most strange. Were there any questions on this? on this trip as far as I know only Aisha was on this trip but on other trips we have stories of Maimuna going of other wives going but on this trip it was only Aisha the wife of the Prophet ﷺ inshallah with this we will break for salah and inshallah resume this topic next Wednesday and of course next Tuesday Thank you.

Seerah 55 - The Slander of Aisha (ra) Part 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ 10th April 2013-v_TOXkO0mYs

In our last class we had began our discussion of the famous story of the slander of Aisha, Qissatul Ifk. And the slander of Aisha occurred after which battle? Who can remind me quickly? After which battle? Ghazwatul Muraisee. Ghazwatul Muraisee, also known as Banil Mustaliq, is the same. Ghazwatul Banil Mustaliq. And just a quick reminder, what are the differences of opinion about the dates that this occurred? Quickly. One opinion says the fifth year. And another opinion says the sixth year of the Hijrah. And we said in fact, whichever opinion is right, it doesn't really matter in the sense the story is exactly the same. It's just a historical anomaly, whether it's the fifth year or the sixth year of the Hijrah, there's really no ikhtiraf really about the story itself. Now, what is important to understand is the incidents regarding the hypocrites that occurred right before the story. They're looking for revenge. Abdullah ibn Ubay wants to get even after what has happened to him after astaghfirullah Allah has exposed him and astaghfirullah he is so low really he is so evil that he wants to get even in any way possible right and this is why the story of the slander of Aisha occurred when it did because Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul he saw his opportunity to get revenge he saw his opportunity to get revenge and the story is of course a very traumatic one. Now one of the interesting things we mentioned about the story, the story of the slander of Aisha, actually two things. Number one, out of the adab for Aisha, the slander itself is never ever verbalized. And this is really amazing. That none of the books of seerah, up until our times actually, none of them, they actually explicitly mention what the slander is. and this is because of the utmost respect that Muslims have for the honor of the Prophet ﷺ you see insulting the wives of the Prophet ﷺ is insulting the Prophet ﷺ and that's something that we as especially Sunni Muslims in particular we value this very highly if anybody insults your wife wallahi you will get angrier than your wife and it is human nature that any man will get angrier than even his wife Because it's your manhood being insulted. This is your reputation, this is your izzah, this is your honor. Right? And that is why we and especially Ahlus Sunnah wa Jama'ah, we take extra concern with the family of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is of course a fundamental difference between us and the Shia groups in that, for the Shia groups, they define the Alul Bayt only as basically the blood relatives of the Prophet ﷺ, such as Fatima and Ali and their descendants. Whereas for us, the alulbayt is the wives and the blood relatives. That is the family, right? Your family is what? It's your brother, it's your sister, it's your uncle, it's your aunt, it's also your wife and your children. This is human nature, this is shari'i, this is linguistic, this is urfi, in every sense of the term, right? So for us, we love alulbayt. And we love alulbayt more than any other group because we love them properly. but Alulbayt includes Zawjat al-Nabi ﷺ and this is by explicit testimony of Surah Al-Ahzab Surah Al-Ahzab explicitly mentions the term Alulbayt Ahlulbayt explicitly links them to the mothers of the believers and we have no mincing our words here with this regard they have their beliefs that's between them and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but we have our beliefs and we will defend those beliefs and we view them to be definitely in accordance with the testimony of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And therefore, the story of Asha becomes extra sensitive for us. It becomes very sensitive for us because attacking the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, and especially the most favorite and beloved wife, and especially such a young wife. She's very innocent. She is in some sense of the term, innocently naive. I'm not saying this in a negative sense. She doesn't even understand how evil people can get, as we will see today. She's innocent in this regard. and so to attack her, the most beloved and the most innocent and the youngest, no doubt this is something that we take very seriously. And we're going to conclude as well talking about what is the verdict of those who still propagate such stories. Nonetheless, we talked about the fact that Aisha returned from the Ban al-Mustalq, that she was found by, who's the Sahabi's name? What's his name? Safwani bin Muattal. She was found by Safwani bin Muattal. did not even say one word to her other than, what is the one phrase he said? That's all, he just recognized her, he saw her and that's it. She said, Aisha wallahi, I never heard one word from him other than that. And he put his camel down, Aisha sat, he turned his back, Aisha sat and he led Aisha as fast as he could to catch up with the caravan and he caught up with the caravan before they entered Medina. right? so Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul is fresh burning with anger he's been humiliated by Allah and by the messenger and he deserves that humiliation he has been exposed by the Quran Allah has revealed verses in the Quran they swear to you and Allah knows they're lying this is in the Quran, surah al-munafiqoon they swear to you Allah is testifying that they're lying straight through their teeth, so he's been exposed his own people have abandoned him so before even the caravan returns Abdullah ibn Ubay gets the idea here is Aisha coming with a young man and he was unmarried he had never touched women and so he was a very upright and chaste and honest and virtuous man he had never been married up until this point some say he married later on in life and some say he actually died a shaheed without ever marrying, he died a shaheed whether he married or not is a difference of opinion but for sure up until this point in time he was unmarried, so he's a young man And so Abdullah ibn Ubay begins the rumors. Now, Aisha says, she returned home and thought nothing of it. No big deal. She was late for the cavern. They caught up. What's the big deal? And she fell sick with fever. She fell sick with fever and she spent an entire month bedridden with a fever, regular fever that takes place. And she said, no one informed me of anything wrong. No one told me that the rumors were spreading like wildfire and I was completely unaware. And the only thing that brought me some doubt was that the Prophet ﷺ would not be as open with me as he usually was. He was not as free with me as he usually was. And he would just visit and inquire as to my health and then leave. And so, this is the only thing that bothered me. What's going on? Why is the Prophet ﷺ not treating her the way that he usually does? the usual tenderness was not emanating from him. And this was the only thing that brought her some suspicion, but she didn't at all realize what evil was afoot. And this shows us the innocence of Aisha. It also shows us, and this we're gonna see throughout today's lecture, the humanity of our Prophet ﷺ, the confusion that he himself ﷺ had, the fact that he is a human being. He's not a god or a demigod that he knows, ilmal ghayb, that he's a human being, that when the munafiqun began spreading what they began spreading, that he was perturbed. He was disturbed. And he didn't want to confront Aisha because she's sick. She's in this feverish state. And of course, his instinct is telling him that Aisha is free of this. And he wants to defend her and he will defend her, as we will see. But still, human nature is human nature. So he's not showing her the usual type of relationship. So Aisha, only a wife would know something is wrong. Something is just amiss a little bit. Aisha says that, after I had been cured. So now one month has gone by, she is cured. So once I exited with Ummi Mishtah towards the area that we would use to relieve ourselves. And Aisha then explains and clarifies to her audience that we would only have to go to the restroom once every few nights. And this was before the time when people started building restrooms inside the houses we were of the Arabs. So what she's saying here, even in her own lifetime, the customs began to change. And the Arabs disdained building a restroom inside the house. This is of the customs of the non-Arabs at the time. Now remember, there is no irrigation, there is no sanitation. There is no running water. So obviously, it's not the most cleanest thing to have a restroom inside the house. So Aisha, by the time she passes away, these customs have changed. And she died in 56 Hijrah. So literally within 3-4 decades, the whole ummah is changing, including architecture. And this shows us the wealth that came into the ummah was an immense amount of wealth. Within the first 30-40 years, then the next 120 years, the whole world changed. The Arabs came from being literally a backward civilization to becoming the rulers of the world. That's gonna be an instantaneous change. So Aisha herself is giving an excuse. We didn't have to go to the bathroom every day. We'll go once every few days. Right? Subhanallah they're eating so little food there's no need for them to go relieve themselves except once every few days and so we would go, a group of women would go and we would go to their area that was known for the restroom area there was a joke when I was in Medina, not a joke but a true thing that that area which they use for the restroom when I was in Medina now they've even destroyed that, this is in the mid 90's it used to be the area of the gold shops of Medina, right so look how history has changed it around, right that our teachers told us that this area that they used to use, if you remember in the 90s, or even the 80s and the 90s, there was large areas of gold shops in Medina. Bab-ul-Nisa on the one side, and you had the gold areas in this area, where the post office was. If you remember where the post office was, and then all of the gold shops were right there. So our teachers used to tell us that was the area they would use as restrooms. Now it's the most prized area of Medina. So look at the flip that took place. In any case, so they went out to that area, and she was with Ummi Mistah. And Ummi Mistah, she is the daughter of Ruhm ibn al-Muttalib ibn Abd al-Manaf. She is also a Quraishi. And her mother, Ummi Mistah's mother, is the khala of Abu Bakr. So Abu Bakr's khala, that's her daughter. So Ummi Mistah is Abu Bakr's first cousin. First cousin. Right? Ummi Mistah is Abu Bakr's first cousin. and therefore it's like Aisha's aunt almost, right? it's like Aisha's aunt because Aisha binti Abi Bakr so she's a family friend she's family, she's visiting regularly so they would usually go out so Ummi Mislah went out with Aisha to relieve themselves on the way back Ummi Mislah tripped on her garment and she fell down and she just blurted out an expression that in English translates as may mislah my son be despaired or may he be cursed like a very harsh phrase against her own son now what does this show? it shows that on her mind is something else even though she's walking with Aisha she's very angry at her son and something happens and immediately the anger at her son is just Freudian slip yes it just comes out she's not thinking about Aisha she's concealing something from Aisha and when she trips automatically the anger that she has against her son it is simply released and she says may Mistah be cursed or may Mistah be failed may be exposed or something Aisha says way haki woe to you how can you curse your own son how can you say this about Mistah and he has witnessed the battle of Badr notice Aisha is defending Misrah because he's attended the battle of Badr. He has witnessed the battle of Badr. Even within three years after Badr, they knew the status of the people of Badr. It wasn't something that took decades or years to build. Within three years after Badr, they know any Badri has such a status. How can you talk about this to your own son and he is a Badri. He attended Badr. He witnessed Badr. And this shows us that again, Aisha Aisha, and you forget the entire story that's gonna happen, look at her fitrah, instantaneously to defend a Muslim this is the fitrah that the Prophet ﷺ has taught her the akhlaq that the Prophet ﷺ has taught her don't speak bad about other people, right instantaneously she comes to defense, she doesn't know why, she doesn't know anything but this is of the akhlaq of our religion, somebody has been defamed somebody has been, and this is the mother doing it to her own son, who is Aisha to get in the middle. But no, our religion says, don't speak bad of other people, behind their backs especially. So she says, how can you criticize somebody who has witnessed Badr? Umm Mishtah says, my dear child, don't you know? In other words, Umm Mishtah is thinking that Aisha knows everything, right? Don't you know what's going on? And Aisha said, what? She said, don't you know what he is saying? She said, what? And so Aisha said, that's when she told me. Even she did not verbalize. That's when she told me the news and the slander, the if that was being spread. And according to some books, she fainted on the spot. Like she could not believe somebody could possibly say this about her. And when she went home, she fell sick, a worse sickness than the whole month she had been cured from right now. Now this was a sickness of the grief. She had been biologically sick, fever. now this news made her physically emotionally sick, wretched to the stomach and she said I felt more sick than I had ever been for the last month and the processant entered upon me and he doesn't know, she knows and the processant entered upon me and asked how I was and he did not know that she had been cured, she had literally just been cured, now she falls exactly sick even more so, so she said I asked his permission to go to my parents house because I wanted to verify the information from them. I wanted to find out what's happening. And the only people she can trust in this sensitive matter is her parents. And this shows us how affected Aisha was. This shows us her emotion. It shows us the importance of verifying information. It shows us her wisdom. She didn't just go emotional instantaneously. And she is barely a teenage girl at this stage. Right? And yet her maturity is amazing. She calmly asked permission to go to her parents' house. Now she's gonna get emotional, and we expect her to. But right now she's composing herself. She doesn't ask the Prophet ﷺ directly, she doesn't confront him, let me find out what's happening. That requires maturity and wisdom, especially for a newlywed, especially for somebody so young as Aisha. And this also shows a simple thick point, that a woman does require permission to go to another house if she wants to spend the night, even if it's her parents' house. So she asked permission, can I go and spend the night at my parents' house? So obviously the Prophet ﷺ gave her that permission, and so she rushed back home to her parents. She rushed back home to her mother and father, and she said, my mother, my dear mother, what are the people talking about? What is this slander going on? And why didn't you tell me? Why are you keeping this from me? And her mother, and of course her mother is Ummi Roman, Umm Ruman calms her down and says my daughter be easy upon yourself calm down be easy on yourself for wallahi never does a good man love her husband as much as your husband loves you except that people talk about her now this is so true as well that successful marriages are always the object of jealousy especially amongst women this is the reality successful marriages are something that always gossip and slander and innuendo and what not and so Umm Rumahan is trying to calm her down and she also brought in the issue of co-wives you have co-wives as well and who knows what they're going to be doing gossiping and what not so never does a husband love his wife so much and with such a successful marriage and she also has co-wives except that there's going to be gossip, there's going to be slander In other words, she's not even saying yes or no, she's just saying don't worry about it, right? You're gonna have some gossip, you're gonna have some slander. Now, her response tells Aisha that everything she had heard is true. Without even mentioning the details, Umm Ruman is simply saying don't worry about it, right? She doesn't deny, she simply tries to dismiss. And Aisha's first response is, subhanallah, have the people actually said this? again she just cannot imagine she's an innocent young woman who has never had an evil thought cross her mind and now she cannot believe that people can be so cruel and this is the reality of slander and of societies and of smearing and of gossip this is the reality how cruel people can be subhanallah this is what the people have talked about and she said I cried that night and I cried and I cried and I cried until the morning came and my tears would not stop. And I did not taste the sweetness of sleep. So this is non-stop now. The emotions get the better of her. And she's crying and crying and crying. And the entire night goes by and she does not know what to do. And this shows us again, I mean, the sensitivity of Aisha, the innocence of Aisha. She really and truly could not fathom how evil the munafiqun can be that they can talk in such a personal, such a nefarious manner about her own honor and the honor of the Prophet ﷺ. And Aisha explains that the one who took charge, there is a phrase that occurs in the Qur'an, وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبَرَهُ This is in the Qur'an. This is in the Qur'an. And it translates as, metaphorically it translates as, the one who took charge of this. The one who was in charge of all of this slander. Right? The one who main person, who instigated it. And this is of course, the Qur'an does not mention by name obviously. Aisha says, وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ And she quotes this phrase of the Qur'an, and then she explains who it was. It was Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul. So she mentions him by name, and this is the seer of the Qur'an by the way. Because she's quoting the Qur'an, and then she says, this is Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul, and some of his followers of the Khazraj. Now, Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul was from the Khazraj. Right? And therefore, the bulk of the Munafiqun were his followers from his own tribe, which happened to be Khazraj. Not that the Khazraj were, astaghfirullah, any bad or worse than the others. It just so happened that because Abdullah ibn Ubayy was a Khazraji, so obviously, who's gonna follow him when he was the leader of the Khazraj? It will majority be the Khazraj. And then she says, and three others of the Sahaba followed along. And these three, we'll talk a little bit about them throughout today. And that is Mistah, Umm Mistah's son. Mistah, the one that she cursed. Mistah, and this is of course Aisha's second cousin. Right? Mistah with a ta and a ha. Mistah with a ta and a ha. Mim, Sin, Ta, Ha. Mistah. Mistah and Hamana bin Tijash and Hassani bin Thabit. These were the only three of the Sahaba, of the non-Munafiqun, who were guilty of gossip. They were not guilty of instigating the rumor. They were not, astaghfirullah, guilty of inventing the lie. But they fell prey to what many of us fall prey to, and that is tattletaling, gossiping, spreading the news. Have you heard what happened? Do you know what the nail is? This. This is what they were guilty of. And that is to simply spread that which they didn't invent. They didn't... Do you think Hassan ibn Thabit is going to invent this? But they succumbed, they fell weak, and they began gossiping. Do you know what the people are saying? And they didn't invent it, they're actually saying the truth, meaning that the people are saying this. Do you know what the munafiqun are saying? But we know, in our sharia, we know that these types of slanders and gossips are not tolerated and even gossip in general is not tolerated gossip in general is haram and especially when it involves such a sensitive issue as zina as something as irdh or as honor so these were the three that spread it and as for so we'll talk about the three of them later on inshallah ta'ala but she simply points out here that as for hamana as for hamana her sister was Zaynab bin Tajash. Her sister was Zaynab bin Tajash and she was the only one of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ who rivaled me. And therefore, she wanted to put something basically for her sister. She wanted to basically help her sister in this rivalry. And Allah protected Zaynab because of her religion. she didn't say anything but good but Hamana fell prey and she suffered because of it this is all Aisha speaking now Aisha and Zaynab did not get along and they were the two co-wives that had the most rivalry and that is because Zaynab was of the most noble lineage she was the cousin of the Prophet she had many other things in her favor and the Prophet Aisha knew that he had a love for her as well And so she says, the only wife that truly rivaled me, that I was genuinely like a rival to, all the rest I knew their position and status. As for Khadija, of course she never saw Khadija and the jealousy that she had for Khadija is a different type of jealousy. She's not competing directly with Khadija, right? The only wife of the Prophet ﷺ that she's genuinely competing with is Zainab. And then she herself says, but as for Zainab, her deen protected her, subhanallah. her deen protected her even if Aisha was jealous and envious and having some rivalry she knew that Zaynab was a righteous woman and that jealousy was personal she didn't make it religious so she herself said as for Zaynab her deen protected her tongue she didn't say anything except the truth but as for Hamana her sister, her blood sister Zaynab and Hamana were sisters as for Hamana she wanted to help her sister but she suffered because of this help. She wanted to help but she suffered because of it. Now this shows us a number of things. Firstly, well about Abdullah ibn Ubaym ibn Salul, Aisha's report is explicit in that he was the one who began it. And this is something that all of the scholars of Sira agree. He was the one who began it. Also we find here the problems of tribalism. that the only reason that the majority of the Munafiqun were from the Khazraj is not because the Khazraj were bad people, but it's because Abdullah ibn Ubay was bad. Look at how one person brought about so much damage to his own people and tribe, and this is because of tribalism. The only reason the Munafiqun followed him is because he was of their tribe. And he was their leader in the days of Jahiliyyah, and the Oaths did not have any equivalent. All of the leaders of the Oaths had been killed in the wars of Bu'ath before Jahiliyyah, before, in the days of Jahiliyyah, the wars of Buath, right? So they didn't have any equivalent. And this shows us the evils really of tribalism, that the Munafiqun were simply following the one of their own tribe. Aisha goes on, and Aisha says that the Prophet ﷺ had in these days, now she's finding this out later on, she doesn't know this at the time, he had already called testimony from people within the family. and he called Ali ibn Abi Talib and Husama ibn Zayd and both of these two are basically members of the Prophet's household right, Ali ibn Abi Talib this is his son-in-law this is his cousin this is somebody that has grown up in the house of Khadija, he comes every day every second day to the house of the Prophet and so he knows what nobody else knows and as for Usama, Usama was literally born in the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And his father was the quote-unquote adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah. Right? Quote-unquote adopted son. Right? And his mother Ummi Ayman was the woman who took care of the Prophet ﷺ as a baby. Right? Because Ummi Ayman was Aminah's slave. Ummi Ayman was Aminah's slave. And she was a young girl at the time. And so the Prophet ﷺ was born. Ummi Ayman took care of the Prophet ﷺ. And she was not a foster mother. She didn't suckle him. But she was a caretaker. we would call in our times a nanny somebody who took care of the Prophet ﷺ right? and nobody is closer to the Prophet ﷺ amongst the women than Umm Ayman amongst that older generation right? and Umm Ayman married Zayd ibn Harithah and the two of them they had Husamah ibn Zayd so both his mother and his father are beloved to the Prophet ﷺ and that's why Husamah's nickname was Hibbun Nabi ﷺ Hibbun Nabi ibn Hibbun Nabi the beloved, the son of the beloved he was beloved and his father was beloved, and he is literally somebody now, at the time Usama would have been around 13, 14 years old right, so he's just becoming a young man, boy, and so he's entering in and out all the time amongst the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, and therefore he's calling these two to find out, have you seen anything strange is there anything suspicious, and so he calls Ali and Usama and of course Aisha does not know at the time she finds out later on that all of this has happened. So as for Usama, he testified what he knew about the Prophet ﷺ's family, and that they were free of this charge. They were not guilty of this whatsoever. So Usama testified, it's not possible that I know all of them, and none of them have such a character. And as for Ali, he said, Ya Rasulallah, Allah has not restricted the matters upon you, and there are plenty of women to choose from. now Ali and Aisha we know from the seerah that they had some minor tensions between them and there's nothing wrong with expressing this in this manner, after all they are humans but Aisha and Ali they never went beyond the bounds, Ali is speaking the truth here, and all he is saying is, ya Rasulullah, if you really do have any doubts, Allah has allowed you to marry any woman you want right, but then he says if you want to know her character why don't you call her maid servant Barira, Barira will know more than us, now this is true now you can tell Aisha is not the happiest at Ali's testimony because Ali did not defend her as clearly as Usama did Usama said this is not possible to be true, and I've never seen anything of doubt, and Ali's response is a little bit vague, and Ali says, you know the world has plenty of women, if you don't want this one then you can have another one. But if there's any doubt, then call barira. Right? So again, Ali is speaking the truth. And there's no incorrect statement in what he is saying. But we know that Ali and Aisha, they had some minor issues, and this will later be manifest in the battle of the camel. But even then, both of them dealt with each other Islamically and honorably. And this is the position, as you know, of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah. So, Ali says, call barira. So the Prophet ﷺ called barira. and Barira was a freed servant Barira was a slave that used to belong to another family and Aisha had purchased her with her own money and set her free and Barira was so happy and overjoyed that she basically became a maid servant she's not a slave anymore Aisha has freed her but Barira liked Aisha so much and she wanted to repay her loyalty basically so she is like a servant to Aisha So she is living with Aisha and she is taking care of Aisha. And she is also not that old, she is also young. And so the Prophet ﷺ calls Barira. And Barira is trembling because the Prophet ﷺ is calling for eyewitness. Star testimony now. And Barira is terrified. She doesn't know what to say because she is stammering, she is stuttering. The Prophet ﷺ is now interrogating her directly. And the Prophet ﷺ says to Barira, Ya Barira, have you seen anything from Aisha that will cause you to have any doubts? Is there anything that will give you any shak in her character, in her manners? And so Barira, in her full honesty, and her full... Now she's being put on the witness stand here, right? So she has to mention the false. So she says, Wallahi ya Rasulallah, I have not seen anything from her except... Now she's gonna mention this heinous, heinous, grievous sin that Aisha has committed. What is this sin that she has committed? Except that sometimes, Ya Rasulullah, she is supposed to knead the dough, and she falls asleep. And the goat comes and eats the dough when she is supposed to be kneading it. La hawla lakhoot sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This is the sin that I am eyewitness to. That it has happened. Now wallahi, you don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Right? She is terrified. She wants to be honest here. You want me to know, you know, any type of sin, any type of doubt. Ya Rasulullah, the goat ate, the goat ate that ajina, it ate the dough. And she was sleeping and she fell asleep because she's a young girl. So this is the sin of Aisha, subhanallah. Right? And this really shows us, wallahi, and not only the honesty of Barira, you can even feel sorry for Barira here, but the innocence of Aisha is demonstrated even in this quote-unquote sin. That she has to make an exception for this and say that this is the crime that she is guilty of. We also learn from here that it is a part of human nature that one goes to his close friends and close relatives for advice. Even our Prophet ﷺ, he went to his closest relatives and friends. And that is Ali and that is Usama. Right? And the both of them are so much younger than him. Usama is barely just becoming a teenager. And yet the Prophet ﷺ is bringing him in and getting his advice and hearing from him. Subhanallah, this is something that especially men amongst us should learn from. We in particular, we have a problem getting advice from anybody. Right? We have a problem listening to anybody else for any issues we have. And here is our Prophet ﷺ getting the mashwara, getting the istishara. What do you have to say? Give me your advice. And this is something that does broaden a man's horizon. And he brought in the ones he could trust obviously. You only ask those whom you can trust. And he brought in Ali and Usama ibn Zaid. so when all the testimony appears to be that Aisha is innocent and Aisha is now at her mother's house so the Prophet ﷺ feels some comfort by the way Abu Bakr's house was somewhat outside the city it wasn't in the center of Medina it was somewhat outside the city in the area called Awali which is like a 40 minute walk in those days so he feels a little bit comfortable now going public for one month Aisha has been next to the masjid because remember his house is next to the masjid so he really also cannot do something public now that Aisha has gone now he can make matters public and so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam called a general assembly in the masjid and Aisha is not there obviously or else had Aisha been there she would have heard everything so Aisha is in her mother's house and he calls a general assembly and everybody knows the rumor but nobody has actually said it to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in this manner so he calls a general assembly and he says يا معشر المؤمنين oh gathering of believers who will excuse me from a person who has hurt me even with regards to my family now what does this mean meaning in simple English will you blame me if I get angry at Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul will you blame me if some punishment happens to him but he doesn't mention his name out of his adab he never would mention names but he just generically said is there any blame on a man who protects his own family. This man has harmed me even with regards to my own family. In other words, this is stooping too low. He is taking it so low, he is even harming the regards to my family. And wallahi, I know nothing but good from my wives. Now he is defending Aisha in public. I know nothing but good from my wives. And even this man that they mention, this is Safwan ibn Muattal, I know nothing but good about him. And this is a very high tazkiyah for Safwan. This is a very high tazkiyah for Safwan. That the Prophet ﷺ is saying, I know nothing but good. And he was a man who was modest and shy, and everybody testified that he was a gentleman. That he never had any interactions with women. He was never married, and he was not of that character. And so the Prophet ﷺ is saying, I know nothing but good of him. And we see here the tense situation. that the people of Medina are now being asked directly by the Prophet ﷺ. And therefore, when the Sahaba heard this immediately, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh stood up. Now we had already mentioned that this is problematic, either Sa'd or Zainab ibn Shash. One of these two people is problematic, right? Both of them could not have been in this story. Both of them are mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim. Therefore, Allah knows best which of the two. One of these is a mistake, right? Allah knows best. And in any case, somebody made a mistake somewhere, and one of these names is different. Somebody else might have stood up, or maybe, you know, Allahu'alam, that's the point. In any case, if it's not Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, somebody say this is a mistake, it's Usaid ibn Hudayr. Whoever it was, somebody from the Aus stood up. One of the young leaders of the Aus. The Aus does not have any old leaders. The Aus only has young leaders, right? One of the young leaders of the Aus. Now remember, Abdullah ibn Ubay is from Khazraj, right? So, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh stands up. And Bukhari mentions Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, who is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh? Ihtaz al-Arsh limawti Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, the throne shook when Sa'd died. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, the one who dealt with Khaybar. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, the Prophet ﷺ said, you have dealt with them, the ruling of Allah ﷻ, you have just done it. This is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. And Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, the one at Badr, when he stood up and said, Ya Rasulullah, are you hinting at us? you want to know our position. For wallahi, go forth in the ocean, and go into the, dive into the ocean, we will be right behind you. Go wherever Allah tells you to go, you will find us right behind you. This is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. So Sa'd ibn Mu'adh stands up. And it just so happened he's from the Aus, he's standing up because of his Iman. And he says, Ya Rasulallah, as for me, I excuse you, whatever you wanna do to this man. So if this man be from the Aus, then I will cut his head off but if he be from the Khazraj you have to command us then I will do it notice because he knows Jahiliyyah is still in memory Jahiliyyah is still around right? if he is from the Aus I am in charge, don't worry about it if he is from the Khazraj you command and then I will do Subhanallah of course he is not from the Aus he's from the Khazraj Abdullah ibn Ubayy is from the Khazraj as soon as Sa'd ibn Mu'adh says this Sa'd ibn Ubada, another Sa'd another famous Sa'd, Sa'd ibn Ubada was at the Banu Thaqifa, Sa'd ibn Ubada has history as well Sa'd ibn Ubada of the Khazraj he stood up angry and he said you're lying and here Kazabta means it's not lie, it just means you're not telling the truth, right This is a mistake. Wallahi, you cannot kill him and you would not dare to kill him. Everybody knows who's being talked about. Everybody knows it's our leader. The Khazraj's leader. Everybody knows this, right? Even though Sa'ad is not a munafiq. He's a Muslim, right? Wallahi, you will not kill him and you're not able to kill him. And had he been from your tribe, you would never have killed him. Meaning you know he's from our tribe, so you now have the luxury of boasting. Right? and Aisha, now this is amazing, Aisha is narrating the story. Aisha makes an excuse for Sa'd ibn Ubada. And she said, Sa'd had before this one statement been Rajul Saleh. He had been a righteous man, but Hamiyah al-Jahiliyyah took over him. It was just an urge of Jahiliyyah. Aisha is making an excuse for Sa'd. Don't think bad of Sa'd, he's basically saying. Right? Sa'd was a good man, but just he fell into a mistake. Allah, it's amazing that Aisha, when she's narrating the story, she makes excuse for Zainab, she makes excuse for... Don't think bad of them. You know, they're just a mistake he made. His jahiliyyah got the better of him. But he said, Rajul Saleh, he's a good man, Sa'd ibn Ubadah. And he is indeed a good man, he's a sahabi. But this is tribalism for you. This is my people versus your people for you. Right? And so, when this happened, immediately somebody else stood up from the Aus. Now this is getting tense between the Aus and the Khazraj. And he said to Sa'd ibn Ubadah, rather you are the Kazib. You are the liar and we will kill him. لَنَقْتُلَنَّهُ Meaning Abdullah ibn Ubayy. We will kill him. And you are just a munafiq fighting on behalf of the other munafiqin. Subhanallah. Now the sad point here, what's happening. The whole point of the gathering is being lost. And this is the problem of furqa and ikhtilaf. This is the problem of fighting for egos. This is the problem for not caring for the broader picture. Subhanallah, the Prophet ﷺ has got you together for a very big issue. It's a very painful issue. Is this the time to bring up party politics? Is this the time to bring up Aus and Khazraj, but humans are humans, the Sahaba are humans. Right? The Sahaba are humans. And it wasn't intended, but this is what happened. And shaitan got the better of this situation, and the passions of both the Aus and the Khazraj were raised, the anger and the temper is flaring, and the Prophet ﷺ had to calm the two sides down. Instead of the point of getting together, it was completely distracted, and he had to calm the Aus and the Khazraj down. And this shows us that not only are the Sahaba human, but wallahi tribalism is something that will remain in the Ummah ila yawm al-qiyamah. The Sahaba no doubt they are the best but that's got the better of them. Right? And our Prophet ﷺ said, four things of Jahiliyyah will remain in my Ummah. Four things of Jahiliyyah will remain in my Ummah. They're never gonna go away. And the number one he said, al-fakhru bil-ansab. Which is basically tribalism. Right? And in our days, tribalism is nationalism. In our days, the tribalism is gone, but this is Pakistani, and this is Indian, and this is Egyptian, and this is Syrian, and Sudanese. All of these different ethnicities have become now nation states. This is al-fakhru bil-ansab. That you're fighting blindly for your people. And our Prophet ﷺ said, four things from jahiliyyah will never leave my ummah. Number one on the list, this is exactly what we see. And this is even the sahaba, subhanallah. They slip into it and then the Prophet ﷺ has to bring them back out. And this is the best of the ummah. How about us after them? How about us after them? And this shows us the ease with which tensions can be raised. The ease with which shaitan can inflame tensions between people. And it also shows us the problem really of bigoted partisanship. Fighting for your party, fighting for your group. instead of looking at the broader picture. And this is true for every single scenario, whether it's even in this country, Republican or Democrat, whether it's on a masjid board between this and that group, whether it's... Wallahi, this is party politics. You're gonna go for your party, and then the broader picture, the greater unity is lost. And we see this now, we see it throughout history. In any case, getting back to Aisha. So, Aisha is saying, So I continued to cry that day. Now, she's been crying non-stop for 24 hours. She hasn't slept a whole night. Why? Because she's just confirmed the rumor is true. I continued to cry that day, and my tears would not stop flowing. She's just crying, crying, crying. Until she said, I thought that my liver would burst open. Now she's a young girl, she doesn't understand biology. She thinks her liver is gonna crack, because of the quantity of tears coming out. And of course when you cry that much, that much you get a pain over here. So that pain, she thought that my liver is going to burst. Because of the crying. And while we were in this state, my parents state, one of the ladies of the Ansar asked permission to enter. And she sat down with me and she just started crying with me. Subhanallah, this is what you call sisterhood. She just wants to give her sympathy. And sometimes all you need to do to express your sympathy is be physically present with somebody and show their grief just like them. This is sometimes the best way to show your sympathy. And that's why it's a part of our sunnah when somebody is in a traumatic situation, a relative has died, you go and you visit this person. Just to express that sympathy. It's human nature that when you're with other people, when the sympathy is being shared, it kind of makes things easier. So this Ansari lady, she hears what's happening, she knows Aisha is visiting now, so she just comes. Anonymous lady, we never know her name. But she just wants to ease the pain. And all she does, she begins crying with the tears of Aisha. Not that she has been afflicted, but this is Aisha. So she just begins crying with the pain of Aisha as well. And while we are in this state, and the Prophet ﷺ had not been with my family, from my mother and father for an entire month, now he came and he visited. Now this is basically the second day after Aisha has left, right? So things have gone very fast. After Aisha left, this is when the Prophet ﷺ called Ali, he called Usama, he called Barira, he did the meeting there. So, also notice he wants to protect Aisha as well. Aisha's presence has delayed all of this. But sadly because of her presence and the delay, the rumors have gotten flame. Right, it's the inverse issue here. In order to protect her, he's not confronting her. He's not confronting her, he's not doing anything in the masjid. In the meantime, in the background, the fuel is going. Right, and therefore, this long month, in order to protect Aisha in some ways, the rumors became inflamed. And now finally, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is going to come to the house of Aisha with Abu Bakr al-Umar and talk directly about this issue. And so the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam asked permission to enter and he was granted and he sat down and praised Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Subhanallah, even in this point in time, you begin by saying Alhamdulillah or some type of praise. the Prophet ﷺ would always begin any important speech, any important statement with praise of Allah ﷻ. And then he said, أَمَّا بَعْدَ as to what follows. Even in this time, little bit of a praise and أَمَّا بَعْدَ. And this is something that our religion began. Some scholars say this existed in pre-Islam, but frankly the phrase أَمَّا بَعْدَ seems to be from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, that he is the one who began by praising Allah and then saying as to what follows. أَمَّا بَعْدَ Everything should begin with Alhamdulillah, praise to Allah and then as to what follows. I have heard about you such and such, katha wa katha. Not explicitly, just I've heard things about you. These things are being spread. So now the Prophet ﷺ is confronting Aisha. And he's telling her, this is what the people are saying. I've heard about you such and such. So if you are innocent, and this is how he begins because he believes she's innocent. If you are innocent, then Allah will clear you of this charge. Don't worry, everything will be fine. And if you have slipped into a sin, notice, if you have fallen, just slipped into a sin, then seek Allah's forgiveness and repent to Him. For indeed when a servant commits a sin and repents, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgives the sin. Very simple, very straightforward. That if you're innocent, don't worry about it. And if it is the other, then repent to Allah, and Allah forgives all sins. now it shows here so many things first and foremost we feel even for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam over here that he is confused now what is to be done and he wants to ask Aisha directly and even in this direct conversation there is no accusation it's simply if you are innocent alhamdulillah great if not then tawbah will forgive everything and this shows us as well the status of tawbah that subhanallah Aisha is not an ordinary wife and this sin for her would not be like any ordinary sin and as it is that sin if it is committed is a sin that brings about worldly death in the sharia correct in the sharia it brings about death right if it is confirmed still our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says if you slipped into a sin repent and Allah will forgive you. And this shows us repentance is the key to salvation. Any sin can be forgiven by repentance. Now, another point that we learn here is this story shows us really beyond the shadow of a doubt that our Prophet ﷺ is a true Prophet. And the Qur'an is wahi from Allah ﷻ. Why? For one month, no Qur'an has come down over Aisha. He himself, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, is in pain, anguish. He doesn't know what to do. And he has no wahi from Allah. Had the Qur'an been as these people claim, his own imagination, his own wahi, his own recitation, why go through the torture for an entire month? Why drag the entire society and your wife and your mother and father, and your father and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, and your mother and father, nothing has been revealed. and he is waiting for wahi from Allah and Jibreel has not come for an entire month and as we know Jibreel would not come at the snap of a finger Allah sends him down when he wants to the Prophet cannot demand an audience from Jibreel as Allah says in the Quran we only come down when Allah tells us to come down and this shows us beyond the shadow of a doubt our Prophet ﷺ is a true Prophet, had he been a false Prophet, the second day wahi comes and says you are free, don't worry about it Nothing like this happens. So Aisha then resumes the story. When the Prophet ﷺ finished speaking, I stopped crying completely. Like her tears came to a complete stop until I could feel the dryness in my eyes. Non-stop crying for 24 hours. Now, she's feeling an anger. Why is she feeling anger? You actually believe these rumors? You entertain the possibility that they might be true? so her young heart is now feeling a sense of ghiara a sense of positive rage this is rage that is good this is rage that is very necessary right and she responds back and she says to her mother Umm Ruman Ya Ummah answer me on behalf of answer the process on behalf of myself speak back to him and Umm Ruman says by Allah I don't know what to say my daughter so she turns to Abu Bakr and she says Ya Abata oh my father respond back to him say something and subhanallah here is Abu Bakr on the one hand is the prophet Muhammad s.a.w. on the other hand is his daughter what's he gonna do he's gonna take sides here what's he gonna do in this regard he says Ya Binta my dear daughter I don't know what to say what do you want me to say subhanallah I mean wallahi you're crying for every person in this story every single person in this story you're crying for Abu Bakr, you're crying for the process you're crying for Aisha, you're crying for everyone in this story is a loser everyone has lost meaning because of the evil hypocrite, every one of them they have suffered because of Abdullah ibn Ubayy bin Suluh right, and Abu Bakr says I don't know what to say my daughter, I don't know what to say and so when she realized neither her father nor her mother are going to speak for her, subhanallah, I mean what can they say, this is Rasulullah in front of them What can they say? After all, this is a man whom Allah is communicating with. They're not going to take sides with their daughter just because she is their daughter. They're saying, I don't know what to say. And so, when she realizes she will have to speak up, she musters and gathers together whatever semblance of courage and wisdom that she has. And then she makes an excuse for herself, and she said, and I was still a young girl at the time, and I had not memorized much of the Quran. So I tried to think of the name of Ya'qub, but I couldn't think of his name. Can't think of who Ya'qub is right now. So she says, all I can say to you is what Abu Yusuf said. Abu Yusuf. Kunya of Ya'qub. Abu Yusuf, right? Yani subhanAllah, you really want to cry at this innocence here. That she can't even think of Ya'qub's name. She knows the phrase she wants, but she forgot who said it. So she said, Abu Yusuf said it. Right? I can only say to you what Abu Yusuf said. فَصَبْرٌ جَمِيلٌ وَاللَّهُ الْمُسْتَعَانُ عَلَى مَا تَصِفُونَ Now this is Surah Yusuf was revealed in Mecca. We went over here at MIC on this very desk. We went over this phrase that when did Ya'qub say it? When did Ya'qub say it? When the first time that Yusuf was kidnapped and captured by the brothers and sold into slavery. So he said, you are lying and I know it. I'll turn to Allah for sabr and jameel. And Allah Azza wa Jalla will help me against these things that you are saying. وَاللَّهُمُ اسْتَعَالُ عَلَى مَا تَصِّفُونَ So Aisha is saying, these rumors are not true. And I will turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in patience. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will help me. And then she said, and saying this, I turned around on the bed and faced the wall. Subhanallah she feels so alone now nobody is now helping her nobody seems to be defending her and her tears have just dried up and she feels completely desolate and alone and she says that I knew that Allah would eventually reveal my chastity my honesty but I never in my wildest imagination could imagine that Allah would reveal Quran about me. I thought that maybe the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam will see a dream. That maybe Safwan is leading her, the dream he'll see, all the dreams of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam are true. I thought that maybe he'll see a dream. But I never considered myself worthy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealing Quran about me. Now notice here, when every single source of help from mankind was cut off, her own mother, her own father, her own husband, she turns to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. What happens? Allah answers her. Allah answers her right then and there. Right then and there. And this shows us the reality of Tawheed. Not even the Prophet of Allah will help you against Allah. Not even. Only Allah azza wa jal, we seek His help. and we seek his shafa'ah and we seek his aid she turns from all of them literally and figuratively she turns away and she turns to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and she says I know Allah is going to save me I know Allah is going to protect me and reveal the truth and I was hoping that the Prophet ﷺ might see a dream, however right then and there his head lowered there was an expression, they saw it when wahi was coming down. They knew it. When wahi was being revealed, they could see it from his eyes. And sweat would come, form like pearls on his forehead. Even if it was cold, his forehead would furrow up and sweat would come. And he would close his eyes and they could see a physical weight on him. Because, we're gonna send you a very heavy revelation. It's a physical almost weight. They could sense it upon him. And they realized wahi was coming down. And when the wahi was lifted, the Prophet ﷺ broke out laughing. In his happiness, in his joy, he started laughing. And the first words that he said were, O Aisha, verily Allah has revealed your innocence. O Aisha, verily Allah has revealed your innocence. Now, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had revealed the entire first section of, which surah who knows? Surah Noor. The first two and a half pages really of Surah Noor came down at this particular time. And in this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala very explicitly mentions the punishments for slander, for qadhf, for accusing somebody of this crime. And criticizes those who spread the slander in particular for Aisha's case. and commanded the punishment of 80 lashes for those who are spreading it. And then said, وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ مِنْهُمْ لَهُ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ The one that who took charge of this, he shall get the worst of all punishments, basically in يوم القيامة. So when the Prophet ﷺ said this, Umm Ruman said, O Aisha, stand up to thank the Prophet ﷺ. stand up and thank him and Aisha is still hurting so she says no wallahi I will not stand up for him I will thank Allah SWT for revealing this Quran right she still we excuse her for this obviously I will thank Allah SWT for this and this shows us even the happiness that the Prophet felt subhanallah that he is happy he is laughing for joy that Allah SWT has revealed Quran about Aisha and Aisha says Allah revealed Surah Noor concerning my innocence, the first ten of which are specifically about Aisha. And then there's issues of calumny and gossip and slander is also mentioned. And Aisha says Abu Bakr used to give sadaqah to his cousin Mislah, his second cousin Mislah, due to the fact that he was a relative and a poor person and he was a Badri. after after after after Mista'ah began spreading these rumors Abu Bakr said Wallahi I will never give him a penny he's giving money to Mista'ah and Mista'ah does this in return so Abu Bakr said Wallahi I will never give him a penny anymore Allah revealed in Surah Noor verse 22 وَلَا يَأْتَلِ أُولُو الْفَضْلِ مِنْكُمْ وَالسَّعَةِ أَن يُؤْتُوا أُولُو الْقُرْبَةِ وَالْمُهَاجِرِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَالْيَعْفُوا وَالْيَصْفَحُوا أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أَن يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ Allah revealed, let not the people of grace and ulul fadl, the people of money and fadl, make promises that they are not going to support the fuqara and the muhajireen and the masakeen. Those who are relatives especially. Let them forgive and forget. Don't they want that Allah forgives them? Subhanallah, what a religion is this, tell me. What type of Quran is this? What type of revelation is this? That Abu Bakr is, not chastised, that's too harsh of a word. But Abu Bakr is told, don't make promises that you're not gonna do good. don't say wallahi I'm not going to give my relative and my muhajir musakeen for all of these people I mean all of these characteristics are in mishtah he's muhajir and he's miskeen and he's ulul qurba and you make a promise you're not going to support him don't make this promise rather wal ya'fu wal yasfahu turn the other cheek forgive and forget ala tuhibbuna an yaghfir allahu lakum don't you want that Allah also forgives you what if Allah were to keep hisaab like you're keeping hisaab where would we be? right? and so Abu Bakr said wallahi I will give him as long as I live and he made kafara for the previous oath because you make kafara, you know you give fast 3 days you make kafara, and so he got rid of the previous oath and as long as he lived he continued to support misbah with an extra charity just because of this verse with an extra charity just because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said So as long as he lived, he continued to give him a better stipend than what he got before. What a religion is this, tell me. His daughter is hurt in this manner. And yet still he continues to pay mislah for as long as he lives. And Aisha says that, and she mentions the story of Zaynab bin Tajahsh. That the Prophet ﷺ also asked Zaynab bin Tajahsh about me. and Zainab bin Tijash Aisha says that her religion protected her and she said oh messenger of Allah I will not cause my eyes and my ears to fall into sin wallahi I only know good of Aisha even though they were not friendly to one another there was a lot of rivalry which is expected and to be understood amongst two women in this situation and scenario so she still did not say anything she said I know nothing but good about her. And Urwa, who is one of the narrators from Aisha, Urwa says that Aisha would never accept anybody to speak ill of Hassan ibn Thabit. Hassan ibn Thabit was one of those who also spread it. And Allah revealed in the Quran that those who spread it, they should be lashed 80 times. And so Hassan ibn Thabit and Hamana ibn Tijash and the three of them were whipped for this punishment of Qadhf and the punishment was because they were spreading it, right? they simply spread it as for the munafiqun and the one who instigated it they were let off why? scholars say because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not want to diminish their punishment in the next life. So he let them off in this life. So that in the next life they will get the full share. Because in Allah's adil, in Allah's infinite justice, had they been punished for this calumny in this world, then he would not have punished them for it in the next world. But he wanted to make sure that they get the full share of the punishment. So only the righteous were punished in this world. And therefore Hassan and حَمَنَا and مِصْطَح we say nothing but good رضي الله عنهم they made a mistake and their mistake والله every one of us is guilty of that mistake oh brothers and sisters make sure we save ourselves from this what is that mistake? wanting to feel like the life of the party by spreading oh do you know the latest gossip? do you know the latest rumors? have you heard what happened? this is what they fell into they didn't astaghfirullah fabricate themselves they are above this but on some gatherings on some occasions they spread the news. And because they repeated it, they got into this punishment. And Aisha, towards the end of this, so now we're wrapping up here, Aisha says that, as for the man they accused of, meaning Safan ibn Muattal, he himself swore by Allah, when they began talking about him, he himself swore by Allah, that subhanallah, I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul, I have never raised the veil of a woman in my life. Much less more than this. He has a man who was a righteous man. And he was not married up until this point. Scholars differed, did he ever get married or not? The majority say he never got married. And he died a shaheed in the battle of Armenia. Armenia in the 18th century, 18AH. In 18AH he died in the battle of Armenia. And by the way, interesting story happens here as well. that Hassan, once Safwan heard that Hassan is saying this, Safwan took his sword, and hit Hassan with the blunt edge of it. He didn't, not with the sharp edge, right? One day his anger, this one is, the things are happening, this one month long. His anger got so much, that Safwan took his sword, and just pow, smacked him. And Hassan just fell down, right? And Hassan's relatives and family and tribe basically came and attacked Safwan and they did this and that. And they also basically tried to get revenge and vengeance because he had hit Safwan. And Safwan has a famous line of poetry here that Hassan is a poet. Safwan said in a line of poetry that's not very poetic. I haven't memorized the Arabic but it's not very poetic. He said, I am a man who, when my blood becomes raged, I don't know how to give poetry, I know how to give this. Right? I know this is how I respond back. Hassan, you are the guy, you have the gift of the gab. After me, I have this, basically, the quwwah. I have the power to do that, right? So this is, he basically said, you're not gonna get away with this. Now, amazingly, subhanallah, so Hassan was like hurt much more than Safran, because the sword hit him. He was felt unconscious. So the case was brought in front of the Prophet ﷺ. Now this is just amazing. Wallahi it's amazing because in the end of the day, Safwan is angry for a legitimate reason, but he's bloodied and wounded Hassan. And in the sharia, can you take the law into your own hands? No. And this is his own wife that the whole issue is happening over, right? but the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam basically rules for Hassan that he was harmed incorrectly but then he says oh Hassan forgive him forgive him forgive him and so Hassan said for you oh Messenger of Allah I will forgive him and so Hassan was gifted a garden as the recompense basically for the injury, right? Look at the fairness of our religion. I mean it's mind-boggling, wallahi, right? It's mind-boggling that Hassan was guilty, but he should not have been punished outside of the proper system, right? So when Safwan took the law into his own hands, the law did not side with him. Isn't this an amazing fact of Islamic justice, right? That in fact, Hassan was awarded a garden for damages. That the Prophet ﷺ did not want to beat Safwan. He said, forgive him, Ahazan, if you know. Because in the end of the day, he knows. Hassan knows he's guilty for doing this, right? Hassan knows this. So he forgave him. And in recompense, he got a garden instead. Subhanallah. Yeah. He got a garden from Safwan for this infraction. Right? Because Hassan technically could demand the same fighting back, the same hitting back. This is Islamic law, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. He could have demanded the same thing, so he was forgiven and instead he got this instead. We also learn over here from this, oh sorry, one more story as well by the way, one more story. It is mentioned that Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, Khalid ibn Zayd, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, when his wife came one day when she first heard of the slander she came home and she said have you heard have you heard, that's all she said have you heard what's going on basically she did not mention the slander have you heard and Abu Ayyub became angry at her and Abu Ayyub said subhanaka ma yakunu lana anatakallama bihada subhanaka hadha buhtanun azeem subhanaka, we should not be saying these types of things subhanaka, this is an evil calumny an evil lie and Allah revealed in surah nur quoting Abu Ayyub al-Ansari quoting him even though he said this in the privacy of his house between him and his wife Allah revealed in the Quran why didn't you do like this person why didn't you when you heard the news say subhanaka ma yakununa لَنَا أَنَا تَكَلَّمُ بِهَذَا سُبْحَانَكَ هَذَا بُهْتَانٌ عَظِيمٌ Why didn't you do like this? And who is this? Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. What a praise for this man. What a praise for this man. That Allah quotes him from above the seven heavens. This is your role model. He's not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran does not mention him by name. But the story is quoted directly. That Abu Ayyub al-Ansari chastised his own wife. And this shows us brothers and sisters. Let me be very blunt here. Just because you're married to somebody doesn't mean you'll get away with ghibah and namimah. Even husbands and wives, they're not allowed to do ghibah of other couples. And this is a common problem and mistake. That we think that, okay, well because we're married, now we can get away with it. No. Our sharia is the same for couples. You're not supposed to do ghibah of other couples. You're not supposed to talk about other people behind their back. And so, even though Umm Ayyub did not say anything other than, have you heard? No, she's not explicit. But Abu Ayyub's ghiara and anger got the better of him. And he said, why are you even saying this? How can you speak like this? Speak quiet about this. Don't say anything. And this is exactly what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying that, why didn't you follow this example? That when you heard you should have said, we're not allowed to speak like this. ما يكون لنا أن نتكلم بهذا We shouldn't be speaking like this. Rather what did you do? You did the opposite. And what was the opposite? The Arabic is so beautiful. إذ تلقونه بألسنتكم and talaqa it's like passing a ball between people, right? like literally you couldn't even digest it you just, soon as it comes to your tongue you flip it out and this is what the munafiqun were doing right? as soon as it comes, you just flip it out elsewhere, and this is exactly what namima is tattletaling is, going and spreading gossip and what not, and our prophet s.a.w. said one of the sins that a person will be punished for in the grave is annammam and a namam, one of the types of namam is this type, just gossiping and tattletaling going and spreading, namam is not a liar a namam is not a liar a namam is the gossiper like have you heard the latest, have you heard this this is one of the many types of namima this is one type of namima, you just go and spread namam, and this is something that our sharia has basically forbidden from beginning and to end and of the benefits therefore the story of course then finishes in this regard of the benefits we can derive of the entire story. Number one obviously, the evils of slander. The evils of ghibah. The evils of namimah. Each one of these is a separate evil. Right? Lying, backbiting, spreading tales, gossiping. Each one is a separate sin. And the bulk of these sins are major sins. And they become even more major when they involve the honor of a woman. They involve the ird of a woman. And this becomes a sin that is worthy of being punished by the sharia with had. And had is only five or six sins. One of them is speaking out against the honor of another woman. We also learn from this, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will test the believers by various means. Even Aisha, and she was young, and she was a young lady. Even Aisha is tested. If Aisha is going to be tested, how about the rest of us? Even Aisha has to go through her trials so that her rank is raised up. And the more Allah loves someone, the more He shall test them. We also learn here that every time of ease is always followed by a time of difficulty. Every time of difficulty is followed by a time of ease. We don't last in this life in either ease or in difficulty. Everyone goes through trials up and down. And Aisha has good times, Aisha has difficult times. فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا We also learn here that the munafiqun the level they will stoop to the level they will go down to is simply beyond that which is reasonable. For them to speak about the wife of the Prophet ﷺ in such a manner this really shows they have completely no morals they have no karam, no dignity whatsoever and there is wisdom in this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said don't think that this was bad for you this was good for you لا تحسبوه شر لكم بل هو خير لكم this is in the Quran don't think this incident was bad it was for your good and there are many wisdoms we can derive of why this was good and this shows us that if something so painful as the slander of Aisha was for the good of society that there was benefits that came out of it every single مصيبة that we undergo, there will be good in it. We just don't see it. We should remember that verse, لا تحسبوه شر لكم بل هو خير لكم Don't think it was bad for you. It was for your own good. So every مصيبة that happens to us, there is some good in it, whether we realize it, whether we don't realize it. We also learn from this, the final two points. The final two points, we also learn from this, that the fruits of patience will always be sweet. if you're patient and you turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala always you will be vindicated Allah will help you and even if no one else will help you your mother your father your husband all have turned away or they don't know what to do turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and if you are truthful to Allah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will be truthful to you and the final point that we mentioned of the wisdoms of the story is that this establishes beyond a shadow of a doubt, the high honor and the status of Aisha radiallahu ta'ala anha the one whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala freed from above the seven heavens, more than 25 verses of the Quran have come down specifically talking about Aisha radiallahu anha and therefore she is the pure and the daughter of the pure and she is the innocent and the daughter of the innocent and she is the sidiqah bintu sidiq and therefore anybody who accuses her of immorality such a person is beyond the pale of Islam, we do not mince our words about this, it doesn't matter who they are, what they call themselves, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has freed her from above the seven heavens and anybody who dares accuse her of any crime of chastity, of any crime of morality we do not consider this person or this group or this sect or this firqah to be Muslim if they make this accusation with that condition. Right? If they make this accusation. And I want to be very explicit here. The group that is typically accused of this, it is not true for us to say they all make this accusation. No, this is not true. Some amongst them do and some amongst them don't. So we need to be fair. And Allah says in the Qur'an, لَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا اِعْدِلُهُ أَغْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَى Let not the hatred of a group of people cause you not to be just. Be just. It is closer to taqwa. And we want to be very clear here that there is a controversy within that group. And these days, the mainstream amongst them do not have this belief. It is only a very fringe, very vocal, very khabith minority. and yes they are very vocal and wallahi they are khabis I don't make any apologies about that but it is a small splinter group the bulk of that group the bulk of that group they don't like our mother but they don't accuse her of this crime and we need to be fair here right? they don't like our mother and they have things to say that are not nice about the fact that she did this with Ali and what not but they do not accuse her of what Abdullah ibn Ubayy accused her of. And as long as they don't get to that level, then it does not reach kufr. It does not reach kufr. The minute they accuse her of what Allah has freed her, then we will say we don't accept this group or this people as being Muslim. So we do an individual case by case basis. We don't consider the entire group because they don't. Rather, a small minority. perhaps in the past there would have been more, I don't know but in our times the bulk of them do not claim this at all and I have enough spoken I mean, inshallah you can trust me on this I'm not an apologist for them you know that I have very strong disagreements with that group and I have no sympathy for much of their theology yet at the same time, truth is the truth and the bulk of this group does not say this at all so we be fair and we say anybody amongst us who accuses them that they say this about Aisha, we need to say, Akhi, please be academic. Please be precise. No. They, all of them, do not say this about Aisha. And when you make this accusation, you are the one who causes more fitna and more firqah. The bulk of them don't say this. You can say they don't like Aisha for these reasons, that's true. You can say she opposed Ali. You can say, you can say, this is all valid. But don't say they accuse Aisha of what Abdullah ibn Ubayy accused her of. That is simply not true. And with this, inshallah ta'ala, we have a few minutes for Q&A, and then we will pray salat al-ishayah. So Sheikh, when the awesome husband was having a conversation with the apostles and gathered, where were the muhajirun? I know Abu Bakr has a position by Umar and Ali. We don't have any narrations about where the muhajirun were, but we can understand that the muhajirun did not feel that it's their place right now to do anything. Meaning that this is something the Ansar have to deal with because Abdullah ibn Ubayy is one of them. And if Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh got into so much trouble and he's from them, but he's Khazraj and Aus, sorry. What do you think would have happened if a muhajir stood up? Out of their wisdom, they did not get involved with Abdullah ibn Ubayy in this point in time. And we don't have any narrations and Allah knows best. Okay? so we know that Rasulullah ﷺ went and made like an investigation before Rasulullah ﷺ revealed the ayat of you should not even talk about such things putting those two together why did Rasulullah ﷺ do that is it because before the ayat before he knew what was right or this is the right thing to do so rumors are spreading and the Prophet ﷺ wants to verify there is no truth to them. There is nothing wrong with this. And he did not believe these rumors and that's why he defended her in public. But in private one on one it's different now. In front of her the two options are there. But in public he defends her. And this was the most sensible thing to do. In the end of the day it is ilm al-ghayb what happened. It is ilm al-ghayb what's going on. And the rumors now we don't know the details of the rumors how long, was there some long time relationship. Nobody knows what the details were. But perhaps he's calling Ali and Usama that was there any previous friendship or something like this. Allah knows. We don't know the details of this. But the point is that the Prophet obviously he did the wisest thing for him. And that is that in public he is not believing the rumors. He's defending Aisha. But in private he needs to verify. Is it true or not? That's basically what he's asking. What's wrong with this? Is it true or not? I mean we cannot read into the mind of the Prophet ﷺ can we Wallahi I think it is safer for us not to go down this road I think it is safer for us to shut this door and leave the affair with Allah ﷻ responses to this? If you don't have the 100% forewitness evidence, then you say no, of course it's not. Is that right? No, because we're talking about a case in our times. Let's not talk about the process of an Aisha. Let's talk about a case in our times. Okay, let's talk about something else. This is much easier now to do. If you have doubts, if a couple has doubts, if anybody has doubts, there's nothing wrong with confronting without accusing of the crime. Because for that crime to be accused, you need the witnesses. But without accusing the crime, you just say, there's something suspicious. Nothing wrong with that. Okay, so we make a distinction between the crimes and between a question mark if you like, right? Sister, go ahead. Sabrina, yes, go ahead. What are the other things that's worth like you mentioned? I can't hear you. The four things that are three things. Oh, you're quizzing me. What are the other three things that split? Yes, yes, yes, I heard you. Now you're putting me on the spot. Leave it to you. Leave it to you to embarrass me in this regard. MashaAllah. Number one, al-fakhru bil-ansab. Number two, al-niyah al-mayyat. Which is to quail over the dead. Number three, believing in astrology. looking at the nijum. And number four, number four, number four, I'll have to think about it. Okay. Wallahi, as soon as I know it's going to strike me. Why didn't I remember it here? Can you say that louder please? How is that from the... It doesn't make any sense. Do we have any record of the prophets We don't have any information about the Prophet ﷺ speaking to Safwan directly. However, he did defend him, as we know. He did defend him. Yeah. That's why I said, I already said, Astrology. I already said, So al-fakhru fi al-ansab is nationalism. Al-ta'anu fi al-ansab. Al-ta'anu fi al-ansab, this is easier to explain. They had something in the past that they would do, which is people doubting other people's genealogy. Like, are you really legitimate? so they're casting doubts on the parents purity let's say and this is one of the ways they would make fun of or crack or not crack jokes but I mean criticize their opponents by talking about are you really the son of your father this is pure blood lineage and what not this is and then also which is basically astrology and looking at the what do you call it, the chart what is that, the zodiac signs and all of this okay, these things, okay there was a hand raised, you had a hand raised okay, inshallah, with that inshallah we will conclude for today Thank you.

Seerah 56 - The Battle of Khandaq_Ahzab - Dr

Al-Fatiha. And that is the very famous battle, the battle of Khandaq. The battle of Khandaq is also called the battle of Ahzab. And of course Khandaq, we all know this basic seerah stuff. Khandaq means the trench. And Ahzab means various groups gathered together. Typically it's translated in English as the confederates. But Hizb is a group. And Ahzab is the groups. So Ahzab is the various groups. and generally speaking, English Sira authors translate Ahzab as the confederate armies, meaning the armies of different tribes. This is the meaning of Ahzab, that it's not just one tribe, it is multiple tribes. Now, the battle of Khandaq, when did it occur? As with many incidents of the Sira, once again there are a number of opinions. And in fact, this time, the opinion is quite serious because we have people that are very famous on both sides of the equation. so just a little bit of a detail more than usual otherwise I try to gloss over stuff because again in the end of the day frankly there's very little practical importance suppose it happened this year or that year it's not much difference in terms of you know benefits we derive but nonetheless for the sake of historical accuracy which year did the battle of Ahzab occur there's two main opinions the first opinion 4th Shawwal 4th AH after Shawwal right the month of Shawwal in the fourth year of the hijrah. Now, this means how many years after Uhud? Uhud. When did Uhud take place? When did Uhud take place? Second year? When did Badr take place? We're all getting confused. We're all getting confused. When did Badr take place? Second year. You're all getting confused. This is basic seerah quiz. Badr takes place second. Uhud takes place third. How can you guys be... You said that. Okay. Badr takes place second. Now guys, remember, there's no zero in the seerah. I think this is where you got confused. There's no zero. When the month, the process of the migrated, that is the first. That is the first. There is no zero. Time doesn't have zero. The first year of the calendar is the first year. Badr takes place basically at the beginning of the next year which is the second year. Uhud takes place the third year. So if it is the fourth year, this means the next year khandaq took place. Now, what is the evidence that people say took place in the fourth year? The evidence is a very explicit hadith in Bukhari. This is why we have some big giants holding this opinion. Very explicit hadith in Bukhari. First person account. Ibn Umar, the famous son of Umar ibn Khattab, Abdullah. Ibn Umar said, on the day of Uhud I was 14 years old and I stood in ranks in Uhud wanting to be accepted and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam what did he do on Uhud to the 14 year olds? rejected me right? and on the day of Khandaq I was 15 فَتَجَاوَزَنِي he let me go by okay? so this hadith it's as authentic as the sun it's in Sahih Bukhari, it is basically first person narration, and he's saying I was 14 at Uhud that's why I was rejected, and then at 15, I was accepted so if Uhud was third year, which we all agree, that's basically one of the battles there's no ikhtilaf, Badr and Uhud, there's no ikhtilaf by the way, right, so if we say that Uhud took place third year, then obviously simple math, Ibn Umar is saying I was 14 when I turned 15, Khandaq took place So then automatically, by default, that becomes Shawwal of the fourth year. Okay. Who held this position? Major giants. Imam al-Bukhari is at the forefront here. Obviously, he's the one narrating the hadith. Right? And one of the most famous authors of the seerah, one of the most famous people of the seerah, his book no longer exists. This is Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, Imam al-Nawwi, Ibn Hazm, the famous scholar from Spain, Ibn Hazm. He says, there can be no doubt that Khandaq took place in the fourth year of Hijrah. Ya'ni Jazama, he goes, there cannot be any doubt. It's crystal clear. Ibn Umar is narrating the first person. How can you doubt that it took place in the fourth year of the Hijrah? However, we all know, many of you have never heard of this opinion that it's the fourth year. We all know that it took place in the fifth year. That's what we've been taught, right? We have been studied that it's taken place in the fifth year. Where did this opinion come from? this is the opinion of pretty much all of the famous authors of the seerah starting from Ibn Ishaq to Ibn Hisham to At-Tabari to As-Samhudi we haven't discussed him but he's a medieval scholar of Egypt who's a specialist in seerah Ibn Al-Qayyim who is one of the greatest specialists of seerah he's written many treatises I mean not independent but within his books about the seerah basically anybody who's basically famous amongst the scholars of seerah the specialists of seerah they pretty much all agree it took place in shawwal of fifth year one or two by the way al-waqidi and ibn saad they said dhu al-qa'dah of the fifth year but still they said fifth year that difference is a bit more trivial two months but fifth year now where is their evidence from they say piecing together the whole seerah you can see I haven't fully recovered bismillah piecing together the whole seerah, it doesn't make sense to place khandaq in the fourth year. It wouldn't fit. This is their point. So they're using a little bit of rationality against an explicit athar, an explicit statement of Ibn Umar. Right? So people like Imam al-Bukhari and Ibn Shabaz Zuhri, they really want to stick with the statement as close as possible. Ibn Umar said 14, 15 we add one year but others are more willing to try to see if we can find a meaning make sense of this, how can it be and they say that in the fourth year this was the second promise of Uhud, remember at the end of Uhud what happened, they said we're gonna meet again right, this is called Badr As-Sughra, the promise of Uhud right, how then could Khandaq have taken place and they also mentioned Sa'd ibn Mu'adh now one of the key factors, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh by unanimous consensus is Sa'ad dies right after Khandaq. By unanimous consensus, right? And the death of Sa'ad basically is marked to the fifth year. So, piecing together all these other things, they say it must have been the fifth year. Okay, what do we do to Ibn Umar's narration? 14 to 15. What do we do? Al-Bayhaqi says, maybe he had just turned 14, and then in Khandaq he was right at the end of 15. at the khandaq right at the end of 15 right now nice attempt but frankly that's two full years so it doesn't quite make perfect sense but to salvage this we say who kept track of birthdays back then anyway who kept track of birthdays because from shawal of 3 to shawal of 5 is two full years so technically your birthday cannot be you know on both of those days that you were 14 and 15 that's really not possible. You are either 14 than 16 or, you know, you get my point here. Still, ala kullin, I mean the point is roughly, who kept track of birthdays? They were not that precise. So this is a valid point that, okay, he was early 13 or sorry, early 14 and then basically late 15, maybe even turned 16. But the point is, he's just trying to say that it was so close apart and of the process and let me participate in the battle of in the battle of khandaq. And so inshallah, the correct opinion, the battle of the khandaq took place in the fifth year of the hijrah in the month of shawwal now, what was the battle? how did it start? what was the reason of this battle? the reason of this battle was an instigation by the tribe of the banu nadir the tribe of the banu nadir the tribe of the banu nadir had been expelled if you remember, right? they had been expelled after almost a showdown, remember? after what did they do, remember? What did they try to do? They tried to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. And in addition, we said they had done other things as well. But the real thing that was the final, you know, end of it was the blatant attempt by their leaders. They agreed the three, four of their leaders to throw that rock onto the Prophet ﷺ when he was sitting at their fortress. And you know the fortress, the point of a fortress, you have access on top. So they said, and they must have had, just like the, you know, we see in the movies and what not, they have those big boulders, they have all of this ready to be thrown onto the enemy. So they said, this is your opportunity, let's roll the boulder and throw it down on him, khalas, end of story. Right? So this is when they were expelled. Now, what was the condition of expulsion? Who remembers? Leave your weapons, leave all your property, but you may take what your camels can carry. Right? And that's why they took their doors even. Whatever your camels can carry, you can take. Where did they go? Khaibar. Where is Khaibar? if you drive it's less than 2 hours away Khaibar is in the vicinity right? Khaibar is not the other side of the world driving from Khaibar to Medina is around 2 hours it's not that far away so the Banu Nadir are still hoping to get their land back, in the end of the day land is worth a lot more than the doors that they carried on their camels, right? they had a lot of wealth, they had acres and acres of land, they had entire plains of date fields. This is worth literally multi-millions of dollars. And what they took was worth tens of thousands. They've impoverished now. So they're greedy to get their land back. So what did they do? They sent an official delegation to Mecca. The tribe of Banu Nadir sent an official delegation to Mecca with all of their seniors. This is a high level delegation. And the names are given in the book Sassira. We've only come across some of their names. Salam ibn Abul Huqayq Huyayya bin Akhtab who is the father of Safiyyah, she's the one who the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam eventually marries her father is one of the leaders of the tribe and all of the other names are mentioned and they send an official delegation composed of all of the noblemen to go to the Quraysh and they ask them that let's cooperate together the Quraysh and the Banu Nadir with the Yahud al-Khaybar as well, let's all cooperate together and simultaneously attack the Prophet ﷺ. And they said, we will give you as much money as you need. Now they had the wealth of the people of Khyber, right? The people of Khyber also want to help them out because they're obviously the same kith and kin or the same religion. They said, we want to help you out. And they also have the support of the Quraysh because the Quraysh is very severely impacted for the last four years because of the trade route to Syria having been almost destroyed. Basically, in essence, it has been destroyed. So, now the Quraysh, what was their relationship with the Yahud? The Quraysh were somewhat fearful of them, and they had a big inferiority complex. The Quraysh, they felt that this group were worthy to be feared of. Why? Well, number one, the Yahud always acted in a manner that they were superior. and this rubbed down on the Quraysh. The Quraysh felt that the Yehud are superior. They literally felt it. Why did they feel it? Because these people have a culture, have a civilization. They have a book, every one of them reads. Remember the Quraysh are illiterate, right? Every one of them reads, they have a book, they claim it's from God. And everybody knows that they have civilization, they had an ancient civilization, they have people all over the world. This is a very different culture than the Quraysh. So the Quraysh felt a type of complex And they never really fully trusted them, but they did have this secret admiration at the same time. And so Abu Sufyan says, and he's astonished that the Quraysh are reaching out, that the Yehudah are reaching out to them. Abu Sufyan says, tell me you are coming to us to fight against Muhammad ﷺ. And he says, no doubt, anyone who fights against him is a friend of ours. But, so Abu Sufyan is confused, how can you come to us? whose religion is closer to your religion? Our religion or his religion? See, because the Quraysh are confused. From their perspective, it seems that the Yahud and the Muslims are very similar. And really they are. We are. I mean, frankly, there is no religion in the world that is closer to Islam than Judaism. In theology and in laws, the halakha and the sharia are two sides of the same coin. halakha is literally their term for sharia and halakha literally means the way and sharia literally means the way they call their laws halakha and we call it sharia and halakha means the way and if you compare anything from tahara to atima to food and drink to libas everything is like 80% is almost the same it's amazing right and I mean I have a footnote here how did this similarity take place the Prophet ﷺ never studied the laws of the ancient Yahud right all of these detailed laws down to the main yushay it is almost exactly the same how? because of course it comes from the same source comes from the same source otherwise it's impossible to explain the tashabuh or the similarity so from the perspective of the Quraish why are you coming to us? aren't you guys basically so they said who is more rightly guided? who is closer to you? who is closer to the truth? and they said you are the ones who are more rightly guided than the Muslims and you are closer to the truth than the Muslims are. Than Muhammad. They didn't say Muslims. They said Muhammad wa ashabuhu. Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions, right? At this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed their plot in the Quran and He quoted them directly. And we recite these verses to this day. Surah An-Nisa verse 50. Surah An-Nisa verse 50. أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ يَزْعُمُونَ أَنَّهُمْ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِنَ الْكِتَابِ Don't you look at those people. they think they have been given a portion of the book. وَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا And yet they say to those who have disbelieved, هَا أُولَٰئِ أَهْدَى مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا سَبِيلًا They say to the Quraysh, these people, you are more rightly guided than the believers in your path. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala quoted them and exposed their plan that there's been a collaboration between the Banu Nadir and between the Quraysh. So, after they convinced the Quraysh, and the Quraysh willingly agreed, the Yahud then sent a delegation to the tribe of Ghatafan up north. So they go to the Quraysh down south, and then they send a delegation up north to Ghatafan. And Ghatafan was the largest tribe up north. And the Quraysh is the most prestigious and the most well-armed and the most connected tribe down south. the two immediate tribes that can come down and come up to Medina, right? And Allah says in the Quran, إِذْ جَاءُكُمْ مِنْ فَوْقِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنْكُمْ Some have said, this translates as, when they came to you from above and from below. Some have said, from north the Ghatafan and from south the Quraysh, right? إِذْ جَاءُكُمْ مِنْ فَوْقِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنْكُمْ We're gonna get to these verses, I'm jumping the gun. But the point being, they send the delegation to Ghatafan. and the ghatafan they don't really have that big of a vested interest, sure they've been irritated a bit, but it's not as if they're depending on the trade route, you see Quraish, the trade route was their lifeline, it was their blood if they don't have the trade route, they cannot exist right, as for the ghatafan no doubt they benefited but they don't have the lifeline of the caravans, that's the whole point of the Quraish, rihlat al shita'i wa al saif only that tribe needed it So the ghatafan needed convincing. They're ambivalent. They're not ruling it out, but they need to be convinced. So, they offered them the only thing they know how to offer. Wealth. And they said, we will pay you half of the produce of khaybar for one year. That's a fortune. Half of the produce of khaybar for one year for this one battle. Basically, they hired mercenaries. basically they bribe them to come and attack now the Ghatafan were a Bedouin tribe out of all of the tribes they were known to be the most wild really I mean the most uncouth and also the most barbaric right so this is actually a win-win for them they get the money and the Banu Nadir wants a wild tribe it wants a very uncouth tribe it wants somebody like this without any morals and what not right of course this would flip against them because the first tribe to flee was also the Ghatafan but again you get the point here when you have people like this you know they're not fighting for a cause they're hired mercenaries right these are people they just want your money and they have no genuine interest to be there other than the money so half of the wealth of Khaybar for one year has been promised to them and so the Ghatafan got on board as well when the Ghatafan and Quraish both agreed now the Quraysh sent out delegations to the smaller tribes that were affected by the trade route and these were, the names are mentioned here I mean the Banu Asad, the Banu Sulaym, the Banu Murrah the Ashja, the Banu Kinana each one, they're asking them for help for Medad, and each one of them is doing something, either they send them weapons or they send them, you know, 15, 20 or 100 people, or they send them, this was very common, they would send their slaves because again, this is the way the world works back then, we're not gonna go take our 50 slaves, let's go take them, right And so the point is every one of these tribes is helping in arms, in weapons, in armor, in horses, whatever is convenient, whatever is. And all of these tribes their main interest is the caravan. Other than the ghatafan, they're getting the mercenary hired by the Banu Nadir. Now this really was a win-win situation for all of these groups. At least so it appeared. For all of these groups it's a win-win situation. for the Quraysh it's literally an offer coming out of nowhere, falls down right into their lap, they're looking for a way to get back to the Prophet and Uhud was not a victory, the year after Uhud, the second Badr turned out to be, they gave an excuse, they weren't able to go, they themselves are worried about another confrontation, they have seen the bravery, they have seen the fearlessness of the Muslims and they don't want to meet them again they're not qualified just by themselves to meet them again so out of nowhere the Banu Nadir comes and they say khalas now when the Banu Nadir comes on board by the way not only will money come very important food the Quraysh are not farmers the Quraysh do not have access to much food the Banu Nadir are at Khaybar and dates are like a manna from heaven for the Arabs at that time you can just pack it and take it in the desert and it will last for the longest time that you can subsist for many days off of dates, right? So they will get lots of supplies for future events as well. That's the whole point here. It's a win-win situation. As for the Banu Nadir, they realized that they don't have the manpower to fight alone. And they are not as skilled in the arts of war. What were the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qaynuqa? What was their main tactic? Fortress. Fortress. the main tactic was defense you can't attack us because we're in a fortress end of story, what are you going to do? the fortress is thicker than your horses we have all the dates we need the Banu Nadir their main defense mechanism was impenetrable, right? and that was the concept of just having a fortress, as Allah says in the Quran, we quoted this last time وَظَنُّوا أَنَّهُمْ مَانِعَتُهُمْ حُصُونُهُمْ مِّنَ اللَّهِ they thought that their fortresses could protect them against Allah They thought their fortresses could protect them against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They don't have any fortresses. It's all been conquered. So they're not going to fight by themselves. And of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran about them and their ilk. ضُرِبَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ وِذِّلَّةُ أَيْنَمَا ثُقِفُوا Wherever they are, wherever they go, they are in humiliation. Wherever they go they are despised. Right? Why? How so? إِلَّا بِحَبْلٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَحَبْلٍ مِّنَ النَّاسِ Except if they get some, now حبل, literally it means a rope, right? But the meaning here is a type of protection or مَدَد, some type of protection. Unless Allah عز و جل gives them some help from His قَدْر or other people help them out. They cannot stand independently. They always have to get the help of others. And this is the reality as really history itself has demonstrated. So the Banu Nadir, the Banu Nadir, they reached out to the Quraysh and they got the help from the Quraysh. And this is what the reference is that they need this habl minal nas. They need this help from the people or else they cannot do anything. As for the other tribes, we explained that some of them, they were affected by the trade, but primarily the ghatafan, it was basically the money that was promised. And also, by the way, skirmishes have started. We already talked about what happened. The Bi'r Ma'una and all of these. skirmishes have started between northern tribes and the Quraysh and there's already tension is mounting so no doubt they're thinking long term and again it's a win-win situation might as well just get rid of this potential rising force once and for all and there's no doubt that one of the combining factors was hatred of this new religion right, just sheer hatred this is a new religion, it's something not our forefathers, we don't want anything to do with this, so these are all of the reasons for the battle of Khandaq. Now, Abu Sufyan of course took charge because again he is the senior most military commander and one of the senior noblemen. There were other nobles that were alive that were of a similar prestige as Abu Sufyan, but Abu Sufyan was the most potent warrior. He was the most, the fighter amongst them. So he is put in charge of the entire Khandaq just as he was put in charge of Uhud, two years before this. And Ibn Ishaq mentions an estimate that there were around 10,000 men. And this is the number that is put in the books of Sira. Obviously nobody took statistics. Obviously nobody is doing, there are no journals or what not. But you get the point that they were quadruple or triple or quadruple the quantity of Muslims, right? All of the people of Medina could not have been more than 2,500 men. There could not have been more than 2,500 fighting men. and you have, even if it's quadruple even if it was 7-8 thousand there's simply no way that you're getting Ghatafan, you're getting the Quraysh you're getting the Banu Sunim, you're getting all of these tribes all of them are marching to Medina, this is an unprecedented situation and in fact it is unprecedented in the history of the Arabs now, we also see another thing happening, and that is all of the Arabs are uniting under two banners the banner of Islam and the banner of Kufr never before has this happened before this time the Arabs have been a disparate people a tribal people maximum two tribes will form a temporary alliance to fight a third tribe maximum never before have 10-15 tribes all come together never and now we're having a showdown the likes of which Arabia has never seen and this is showing us that things are changing at such a radical pace that within 10 years of the Prophet's mission and message, within 10 years or a little bit more than 10, subhanAllah we have probably around 15,000 people now fighting on both sides at it together. And this is a showdown between Islam and Kufr. And within 5 years after this of course, the showdown will come to an end. Now Abu Sufyan basically told them to meet at a preconceived, basically agreed upon place. So the Qatafan came down, the Quraysh came up, the other tribes they all came and they met at a place which is mentioned in the books of Sira and of course by this time now you cannot hide this type of numbers, right? you cannot hide these types of numbers the news has reached the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and as usual, and this was his sunnah at Badr and at Uhud and now we see it at Khandakh this is always his sunnah, as usual he convenes a gathering of all of the Sahaba in the masjid and he tells them exactly the situation. And then he says, what do you think should be done? What do you think should be done? Now the books of Sira do not mention too many options given. And in my opinion, this is because, until Salman gave his option, this is because there wasn't much of an option to give. Right? Allahu a'lam, but what can you do when 10,000 people are attacking? You simply have to figure out where to fight and then fight. They really did not have much to say. Until finally, as we all know, Salman al-Farisi. Salman al-Farisi. And this was the first battle that he was able to participate in. It took a few years to free him. You remember the story of Salman al-Farisi? We went over it in a lot of detail. That at this time, he's already probably 70 years old at this time. He has lived a very long life. Probably even a hundred. I mean, at this time, we don't know. maybe some books say he died at the age of 120. And if that is true, then when this battle is taking place, then he's probably 100 years old. So Salman al-Farisi, we know, he went through a long life. He was first a Zoroastrian, and then he became a Christian, and then after one monk, and then a second, and then a third, and then a fourth monk, and then finally that. And each time he's living 5, 10, 15 years with these monks, right? Until finally the last of these monks says, go to the land of date palms. Because the Prophet is just about to come. and you will know him because what are his signs? Who remembers? Number one, the seal on his back. Number two, he won't eat charity but he'll accept gifts. And then number three was the land of the date palms, right? And Salman wanted to make his way to Khyber because that's where date palms were. By the way, Khyber was the number one producing dates of the entire region. More than Medina, much more than Medina. Right? Khyber was far larger than Medina. So even Salman thought Khaybar. But then Allah willed he got taken as a slave and sent to Medina, even though he didn't intend Medina. And so eventually he came to the Prophet ﷺ, we all know the story. And he told him the whole story. And the Prophet ﷺ showed him the seal and what not, when he told him. And Salman agreed with his master to be freed for a preposterous sum. A preposterous sum. If you can plant, I don't know, a hundred or something, I forgot. not how much it was, a lot of date palms, and they grow to their full, then I'll free you. Now it's gonna take 15 years to grow to their full. Right? How are you gonna do this? So, Salman came to the Prophet ﷺ, told him what happened. The Prophet ﷺ said, call me when the season comes. When it's time to plant, call me. And the Prophet ﷺ himself went, and he laid every single seedling himself. All of the numbers that needed to be laid, he did it himself. Right? And obviously when he does it, what do you think is gonna happen? And so, within a few years, basically a much expedited process. Salman al-Farsi is freed. So he was not able to participate in Badr and Uhud because he's a slave. Now in Khandaq he becomes free. And Khandaq was his first battle. He was able to participate. And he couldn't participate physically too much because he's this old. But we all know he gave them the plan. He said, back in our hometown in Iran, in Persia, back in our home, we have a tactic we used to do, and that is to dig a trench and basically use this as a means of protection against us and our enemy. And for the first time in Arabia, this idea was imported. Now by the way, this shows us a very important point. And that is, Islam, and this is historically always the case, is very open to new ideas. That when it comes to technology, innovation is positive. And when it comes to rituals, innovation is negative. when it comes to other ideas. This is not an Arab custom. They've never done it before. This is a custom of the Persians. But it's something that is useful and beneficial. And this really shows us the Prophet ﷺ and this is not the only example. There are so many examples that something that is taking place in another culture but it's nothing to do with rituals or theology. You see, when it comes to aqeedah, when it comes to rituals, when it comes to our worship of Allah ﷻ, we don't care about how other people do it. We have ours. لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينُ But when it comes to living in this world, when it comes to technology, when it comes to anything to do with this dunya, we benefit from all experiences. And we don't care about where it comes from. Actually, there's a difference. Is this authentic hadith or not? الحِكْمَةُ ضَالَّةُ الْمُؤْمِنِ Wisdom is the lost item of the believer. There's a controversy, is hadith authentic or not? So we'll just say it's a saying for sure of the Salaf. الحكمة ضالة المؤمن Wisdom is the last item of the believer. He picks it up wherever he finds it. Now by the way, this incident is something about technology. Even knowledge that is related to this dunya, and not about technology, our Prophet ﷺ took it. For example, he said, I was about to prohibit you from gheela. and gila means to have a child with your wife when she's feeding one child. So before the child is breastfed, finished, you have another child within the first two years. He said, I was gonna prevent you from doing this. But then, I saw the Romans and Persians have children one after the other and it doesn't harm them. So, go ahead and have children one after the other basically, right? Now this is basically a topic of humanities or sociology or whatever, you know, anthropology, whatever you call it, right? and our Prophet ﷺ is saying, I looked at the other cultures and they don't have a problem, so go ahead and do it as well. And this clearly shows us, psychology, history, whatever, all of these sciences, يَا اللَّهِ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ take them as long as it doesn't contradict our sharia. By the way, even more, the Prophet ﷺ even adopted cultural icons or cultural things, not necessary for him to adopt, simply because this was the norm of the known world. For example, the first time ever that he sent a letter to Heraclius. they said to him O Messenger of Allah those emperors do not accept any message from another ruler unless it has a sealed wax on it so that the ruler knows direct direct no messenger has read it this is the custom if you are a ruler, you are a leader you need to have this so our Prophet ﷺ asked around how is this done So they told him, you need a special signature that is unique to you. Nobody else can imitate it, right? So that was when he ordered a ring to be made. And on it, it was written, Muhammad on the bottom line, Rasul on the second line, and Allah on the top line. And this was done to give respect to Allah even in writing. That the name of Allah is the highest. وَكَلِمَةُ اللَّهِ هِيَ الْعُلْيَةِ To give respect to the name of Allah. So he took the ring, Muhammad Rasulullah, made out of silver. and he would use this ring every time he sent a letter put it in wax and then put it in there now this shows us a very important point and wallahi this is inshallah none of you in this room but wallahi we have this attitude very prevalent in the ummah oh this is the system of the kuffar we cannot do it this is the way of the disbeliever did our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam say I don't care what the kuffar do this is the way I'm gonna do things there's a system, the world is operating by this system is there anything haram to have wax and seal the letter? No. Did Allah prohibit it? No. If that's the way the world is working, so be it. We also work that way. Right? And this clearly shows us the open-mindedness. Anyway, that was a complete tangent. I don't know, completely unprepared. It wasn't planned. But the point being, no problem taking from the cultures, the customs, the knowledge of others, as long as it does not explicitly contradict something that we're not allowed to do. So, the Prophet ﷺ agreed to this, and he also said, right at the beginning he said and look how far ahead he's thinking he said we should also gather together all of the women and children and send them to the fortress of the Banu Harithah and this fortress the Banu Harithah had taken this tactic from the Yahud they had learned it from the Yahud they had imitated a fortress so the Banu Harithah of course are from the Ansar the Banu Harithah are from the Ansar and the Banu Harithah by virtue of the fact they were living with the Yahud for centuries so they had basically built their own fortress and this was the largest fortress that the Ansar owned now it was not built by the Yahud so it was obviously not to that standard they were the masters but they had taken whatever they could and they had an equivalent as much as they could and this was the most protected fortress of the Ansar and by the way most of the Ansar did not have fortresses Because only some of the tribes they had imitated from the Yahud. So to copy them they had done this. So the Banu Harithah had the largest fortress. Now the Prophet ﷺ was worried. He's already thinking so many steps ahead. And nobody told this to him. This was his own planning. The Prophet ﷺ was worried that all of the men are going to be busy manning and guarding the perimeters. and inside of Medina there is still the tribe of the Banu Quraidah and the Banu Quraidah we don't know where their loyalties will lie you see this is why Ahzab was so sensitive and this is why what happened to Banu Quraidah happened that remember Banu Qaynuqa has been expelled then the Banu Nadir has been expelled even more harshly and now there's only one tribe left and this tribe even though they have taken three separate promises now again this is the point here every time the Prophet ﷺ gave them an option out after the Banu Qaynuqa in the beginning the contract or the treaty of Medina the constitution, then after the Banu Qaynuqa he got the contract again from Banu Nadir and from the Banu Quraidah and they both agreed, then after the Banu Nadir he first, remember we talked about this when he was expelling the Banu Nadir on his way to the Banu Nadir he goes to the Banu Quraidah on his way to the Banu Nadir and he tells them basically are you still agreeing to the treaty that we have agreed to or do you want to change your minds do you want to still agree to this or leave peacefully and they promised by Allah the hadaf that they gave that they're still upon that constitution right so then he goes to the Banu Nadir and expels them so now the Banu Quraidah the last of the three tribes the Banu Quraidah, Allahu'alam what's gonna happen. Because if they flip, if they turn around and become a fifth column, this is almost certain disaster unless Allah helps them. Because they're on the inside of the perimeters. So the Prophet ﷺ is automatically thinking. One of the first things he does, as soon as he gives the commandment to build the trench, he also says, send the women and children to the Banu Harithah's fortress. and that fortress by the way has a name. They used to name their fortresses, their camels, you know this was the custom. They used to name these things and it was called Al-Fari' and so he said send them to Al-Fari' and of course the fortress the fortress of Al-Fari' we don't have much information about it. One of the stories that we know the famous story that when the women and children went there Abdullah ibn Zubayr went as well by the way. How old is Abdullah ibn Zubair? At this point in time. Quick quiz. Very simple quiz. Because? Exactly. He's five years old. Right? He's five years old. Well technically he's four. Technically he's four years old. Because he was born. He was born. Guys we went over this. Abdullah ibn Zubair. Yeah but when was he born? Even more precise we know. Right at the entry. Right at the entry. He's born at Quba. He's born at Quba. And Abdullah ibn Zubayr's birth was an optimistic birth because it gave them good news, the new life. They took it as a positive omen. And we can have positive omens in Islam. We've said this many times, right? You're allowed to have positive omens. You can't have negative omens. They took it as a positive omen. So Abdullah ibn Zubayr is around 4 or 5 years old. and he remembers, he has memories, he's a kid right, by the way also Umar ibn Abi Salama was with him Umar ibn Abi Salama is the son of Umm Salama and Abu Salama and so he is the quote on quote step son I mean that's the English term, by step son we mean the son of the Prophet's wife Umm Salama's son, Umar now, I have to pause here going to a tangent, it's very important it's a bit awkward tangent, about the story of Hassan ibn Thabit and the fortress. It's a bit of an awkward tangent, but it is very, in my opinion, very beneficial. It's a very beneficial tangent. And this is really the only story I have about the fortress. So we'll just put it right here, even though chronologically this happens another week or later. But because the fortress is mentioned, we're just going to mention it now and then move on and don't worry about the fortress after this, right? The issue is that the women and children were sent to the fortress, right? and it is said that one or two very elderly men who were 70, 80 years old or blind or what not basically the invalid were sent there was only one young man sent with them and that is Hassan ibn Thabit there was only one man who potentially when I say young relatively I mean he wasn't 20 at the time but you get the point he could have been on the front lines from his age He might have been 40-50 years old, Allah knows how old. But he would have been a man like all the rest of them, like Abu Bakr. They're not in their 20s or 30s either. Why? This is an area of tariqah and history that frankly most of us don't hear about. And it is better we don't hear about it. But at the same time, someone like me, I don't want you to hear about it from the wrong sources. Number one. Number two. I firmly believe that everything in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ has much wisdom and benefit for us. And therefore I mention these narrations because I feel there's a lot of benefit. Now, the version of Muslim Imam Ahmed goes and the narrator by the way is Abdullah ibn Zubair and he's a child but he's narrating when he's an adult, right? That he says in Muslim Imam Ahmed that he says that the women and children and myself and other kids because he's a kid now, I mean he's five years old, what do you expect him to do? They were put in to the fortress along with Hassan, and Hassan was Jabban. And that basically means he was not brave, let's just put it politely. Okay? He was not brave. And so he was not of those who could carry a weapon. He was not of those who could, it is said that when he carried a weapon he would tremble. Yani he was not of the type to fight in a battle. right, now by the way, not to be very stereotypical but subhanallah, Allah created people differently, generally speaking don't, generally speaking, those involved in the arts are not known for their valor and bravery right, and Hassan was known for what? Poetry right, generally speaking this is, these days they have this left brain, right brain, all of these types of things, they talk about it, right, generally speaking, those that are involved in you know, the fine arts and whatever, painting or poetry or what not. You know, they have a different mizaj. They have a different way of doing things. And this is the way Allah created us. So Hassan could not carry a sword. And another sahabi says the word Jivan, which is a very harsh word actually, but let him say it. We are not, we just quote what he says. And it basically means he was not brave. You understand the point here. So he is put with the women and the children. Now, he's the only man in the fortress. Now, a week later, we're not going to talk about it in that point, but when the Quraysh are outside the city, when the Qatafan have come, the Banu Qurayza decide to flip. Right? The Banu Qurayza, they decide to flip. And the first thing that they do, and you really need to understand this to understand what happens to them. The first thing that they do is not to attack the men. it is to figure out how to execute all of the women and children think about that then put into perspective their punishment right, so they send two people to Al-Fari'ah to see whether it's protected or not now the Yahud at the time they lived in Awali and Awali was a distance away from Al-Fari'ah so they send two scouts in the middle of the night to see is it protected or not If it's not protected, they're going to come back and then launch an offensive. And the purpose being that, basically you'll demoralize, and you'll have the advantage, and you'll allow a passage for them to come in. So, they decided that they're going to send these two. Now, in the middle of the night, Safiyyah bint Abdul Muttalib, the Amma of the Prophet ﷺ, Abdul Muttalib's daughter. Safiyyah hears a noise, somebody's climbing. somebody has a rope and he's whispering she hears a noise and she wakes up Hassan because he's the only man and she says to Hassan go out and defend us go out and do something and he says O Ammatu Rasulullah O aunt of the Prophet may Allah bless and reward you you don't humiliate me more you know this is not my field and don't make it worse You know I can't do this, right? That's why I'm here in the first place, right? And so, what does she do? She takes a male shawl, like the shawl that the men wore, throws it around her, so that the image, the silhouette given is, she's a man. And she takes a dagger, puts it in her mouth, and climbs out of the window. I mean, this is like, you know, literally Hollywood type of stuff, we think about a lot. But this is exactly what the books of Seerah say. You know? She takes that dagger, she climbs out of the window, and in pitch darkness, she tries to find this man. Where is he climbing? There's a man climbing up and he's speaking to his companion down below. So she completely surprise attacks him, jumps on him, slits his throat. Right? And that by the way requires force. Slits his throat, throws the head down to the companion. Right? And the companion shrieks and runs away thinking that the place is guarded. So khalas, they've been saved. Thinking that they've been guarded. Then she comes back in and says to Hassan, go get his armor and weapons, his sal basically, go get his armor and weapons so that we can benefit from this, you know. And he says to her, I have no need of them. I don't need them. Right? I have no need of them. Now, رضي الله عنه رضي الله عنه Now, what is the purpose of me narrating these? Now these stories are all mentioned in the books by the ustaghfirullah. I'm not bringing anything new. And these are stories, frankly, most of you have never heard. at least about Hassan and what not why? because it is our culture and custom to just cover up and a lot of it is good, we should cover up but this narration is found in authentic books of Hadith and the books of Sira and what not now by the way some modern authors have tried to reinterpret and say no this is not true and Hassan couldn't have been like this but honestly their arguments are emotional like how could he have been like this, I mean all the books mention it it's not even, as Haq mentions it Musnad Ibn Muhammad has the riwayah of Abdullah Ibn Zubair, he's the one you know, I mean let's just be let's have Q&A at the end one of the problems is if you interrupt then everything gets stopped let's have Q&A at the end, the fact that there's no shi'ar against him doesn't mean anything by the way it doesn't mean anything because his criticism of the other tribes is about their pedigree and their lineage, to respond they need to criticize the pedigree or lineage of the tribe, of the Muslims or what not, right? As for personal faults or flaws of Hassan, this is really irrelevant. He is smearing the entire qabilah, right? And the fact that there is no poetry, doesn't mean that it didn't exist. It simply means the books of Sira didn't need to mention it. As it is, the books of Sira mention Islamic poetry more than they mention the opponent's poetry. As it is. Obviously we have a bias to preserve our poetry. Why should we preserve what the Quraysh said about us? Frankly, what the Quraysh said about the Prophet ﷺ has not been preserved either. By and large. Exactly, it is. But the Quraysh's poetry against the Prophet ﷺ did not reach us by the way. Much of which Hassan responded to did not reach us. In other words, what Hassan is responding to did not reach us. My point being, this is an emotional argument. It's an emotional argument that cannot withstand the explicit texts that are pretty explicit in this point. Now, my point is as follows. And you hear for example, this is the exact argument that is used. One of the arguments used, but this is all modern, you don't find this in medieval textbooks. That Hasan couldn't have been like this because it's not appropriate, because there's no poetry against him. Okay, that's an argument. Let me just say, what is my purpose in quoting these things? Astaghfirullah is to make fun of a sahabi, I seek refuge with Allah. making fun of a sahabi is a sin I seek refuge with Allah my purpose is actually very very significant it is as follows Hassan ibn Thabit the fact of the matter is there are some you know negatives on his resume as well this is one of them we just discussed another one last week have we forgotten last week right what happened with him there frankly that is worse than this issue because this is a issue beyond his control, some people are created this way, right, some people are like this and as I said, generally speaking artists by and large, they have this type of mentality, it's not something you know, what happened last week which is in Bukhari and what not, that's much worse than this issue now why am I mentioning all of this? well, a number of reasons, firstly to demonstrate really the humanity of our tradition of the sahaba we have a tendency to make them superhuman, now the problem with that is, then we can no longer relate to them this is the problem it's healthy for us to know that some of the sahaba committed some sins that they repented from, that Allah forgave them for it actually makes us feel, you know what maybe if I also committed a sin in the past, maybe Allah will forgive me as well. You see my point here, right? There's a positive element that they become a role model. All of the sahaba, radiallahu anhum wa ratuan, all of them, Hassan is definitely amongst them, right? And Allah explicitly mentions that he will be forgiven after the punishment was done, khalas, he's forgiven, right? The second point, which is really to me the most important or the most profound point, really, that despite these scars on his resume, Despite these issues, look at the positives about Hassan. Hassan ibn Thabit was the official poet of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Hassan ibn Thabit was the one who, when the Quraysh wrote a poem, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to Hassan, Qum ya Hassan, stand up oh Hassan, and go and defend me. And the angel Jibreel will be with you. The angel Jibreel will be with you. so the angel Jibreel is basically whispering which is ilham which is the type of wahi that is allowed to non-prophets because there is something that is allowed to non-prophets that is called ilham and ilham is the whisperings of the angels basically this is ilham like the mother of Musa she is not a prophetess but she gets the ilham so the angel Jibreel is with you oh Hassan and Hassan ibn Thabit he had a special mimbar erected for him, the only Sahabi that we know of, that he had a mimbar on the side that was called the mimbar of Hassan that he would stand and recite his poetry on, while the Prophet ﷺ is alive, in the time of the Prophet ﷺ he has his own mimbar, he doesn't give khutbahs, he's not a khatib, he's a poet and it's also mentioned in the books of history and it's also in Abu Dawud and others that Umar ibn al-Khattab and you know Umar ibn al-Khattab, he was a very stern man. He enters the masjid and Hassan is giving his poetry in his khilafah. So Umar takes his stick, he would always carry a stick and pow! Hassan got very irritated. And he said, why are you hitting me? Obviously. He says, you are saying poetry in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, how dare you? And Hassan said, wallahi I have said poetry in it when there was someone in it far better than you. True? True. and then he turns to Abu Hurairah and he says oh Abu Hurairah I ask you by Allah didn't you hear the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam say that day and he mentions whatever that day was that day that stand up oh Hassan and write poetry and the angel Jibreel will help you and Abu Hurairah said yes he did right so Hassan Ibn Thabit has such an honorable role the official poet Angel Jibreel helping him Wallahi isn't it a bit comforting to know that he's also human and this leads me to my real main point and that's the reason Wallahi the only reason that I bring these things otherwise frankly there's no wisdom in mentioning some of these negatives khalas let it be forgotten but by the way this one is mentioned in the books most of these negatives have not been narrated down and they are negatives that Allah has forgiven but the main wisdom in my opinion is the following every single one of us we have a unique role to play and our sins or our weaknesses or our shortcomings should not hold us back in stepping up for that role you see Hassan ibn Thabit he knows his weaknesses the public knows his weaknesses at the time obviously at the time everybody knows that's why without even any saying he's automatically put with the women and children. Khalas, go with them. Right? And he tells Safiyyah, don't make it worse than it is. You know my problem. Everybody knows it. Right? And of course what happened, what we mentioned last week, it's a public event. This punishment was done in public. Right? Now, when the Prophet ﷺ told him, stand up and defend me. Did he say, Ya Rasulullah, I'm not qualified. You know this, you know that. Who am I? Or, did he realize, perhaps in this is his izna and forgiveness. And this is the point that I find, wallahi, very heartening. Very, you know, this is the role model. This is exactly the point. All of us, we can sympathize with Hassan's weaknesses because, wallahi, I and every one of you have much more weaknesses than he did. We have far more problems than he did. Yet, when his time came to shine, what did he do? He stood up and he did what Abu Bakr could not do, what Umar could not do, what Uthman could not do what Khalid ibn al-Walid could not do what Abu Hurairah could not do the role of Hassan was a role that none of the Sahaba could do they aren't poets like he is and so his role was a role that was unique to him despite his shortcomings and for me, wallahi this is the humanity of the Sahaba that makes them perfect stars that's what one hadith says that my Sahaba are like the stars, there is a khilaf about authenticity, but the concept is definitely true. That my sahaba are way up there. And for me, quoting you these negative things, in my humble opinion, it makes them more like stars we can actually look up to. Next time I find an opportunity to do good for the ummah, or you find an opportunity to do good for the ummah, don't let shaitan come to you and say, who are you to benefit the ummah? Have you forgotten this? Have you forgotten that? The true Muslim recognizes his sins. He's always guilty of his sins. He never dismisses. But he never uses a sin to stop from doing some good. This is the point, right? Never uses a sin to stop from doing some good. In any case, I really wanted to talk about that issue because I find it, as I said, very pertinent to the issue of having role models of the Sahaba. This is the issue of the fortress of Al-Fari' of the fortress of the Banu Haritha. Getting back to the issue of the Khandaq, getting back to the issue of the trench. So the Prophet ﷺ agreed to build this trench, to dig this trench, and he assigned 10 people for every portion of this trench. Now, the exact length of the trench and the exact location is really not known. After all, there were no detailed maps of Medina that the Sahaba are gonna sit down and say from here to here. and so any estimation that we have in our times is exactly that, an estimation. We really don't know for sure but some modern authors who have really gone into depth about researching the seerah and the most famous is my own sheikh, Sheikh Safiur Rahman, as you know he is also one of the famous authors of seerah and also my sheikh, and Sahih Bukhari and others. Sheikh Safiur Rahman and others, they, after living in Medina for 10 years, so he is doing research on site literally, he calculates that the trench was around 2 kilometers long. It was around 2 kilometers long and around 13 feet wide, usually 13 feet wide, at times 10, at times more than 10. And between 7 to 8 or 9 arms, basically depth, right? Now, the question arises, why only 2 kilometers? How about the rest of the city? and this has led to basically some research and some pondering and it seems that the only feasible response is the most obvious one and that is Medina was naturally protected by two things number one the Haraz and the Haraz Haraz Sharqiyah Haraz Gharbiya the Haraz are the volcanic rocks right and as I said if you go outside of Medina you can still see them if you go in the plane I have seen this all the time outside of Medina. These rocks are literally, I mean, it looks like to me once there was a volcano thousands of years ago, and the volcano just spread for miles and miles around, and layered this thick basically, right? And so wherever it spread, you have these weird shaped rocks everywhere, and it's almost impossible for an army to walk on them. You know? And there's no vegetation, there's no water. These are just rocks. So there was a large mound or area in the west and a large area in the east. This is Harra Sharqiyah, Harra Gharbiya. To this day by the way the two areas of Medina are called Sharqiyah and Gharbiya to this day because of those rocks. And then so these two basically protect a large portion. And then the rest of Medina that was in the direction of the army attacking were plantations, date palms. and when you have dense date palms you cannot have 10,000 men marching through it you cannot have an army that is potentially going to harm you this is the only logical response and frankly it's the most obvious one, so the most obvious answer is the most realistic one that the only stretch of land that could allow them to enter Medina 10,000 strong, so their numbers prove to be a negative against them, had they been 10 you cannot stop 10 people from coming but they're 10,000 10,000 you need a massive area to walk the horses, the camels, the supplies so they analyze the area of Medina and they realize that they need to dig basically 2 kilometers long, now 2 kilometers digging by the way, think about that 2 kilometers digging from here to the Houston would be how much? half, quarter I would say maybe be a little bit less than half I think, right? A little bit less than half I would say, right? From here to Houston Levy, that's half. Four times that amount. Now they don't have bulldozers. They don't have machines. They don't even have manpower from slaves. Medina did not have a lot of slaves, right? Unlike other cities. This is a human effort to dig a trench so wide and so deep in a matter of less than 10 days. That was the only option that they had. And the point was to simply stall the army because you cannot prevent them forever. To stall the army and wait for some type of other plan or what not, right? And this is, frankly it was an act of desperation because this is a temporary tactic. It's not a permanent tactic, right? And so immediately the Sahaba got to work non-stop. They began working day and night. And each and every member of the Sahaba from the poorest to the richest participated and even the Prophet ﷺ himself participated in the physical digging of the trenches. And the Sahaba mentioned that this was one of the greatest motivational factors for them. When they saw the Prophet ﷺ in the trenches with them, digging away, this was a motivational factor for them obviously and Anas Ibn Malik narrates, and he was of course a young child at the time, that the Prophet went out to the trenches and the Muhajirin and Anas were digging on a cold evening so this is in the winter and it's freezing cold and they're digging in the evening they don't have opportunity even to stop at night and Anas explains, we had no slaves to help us, meaning if he's talking when they're much older and wealth has come in so he's telling the younger people of the time if you wondered why we were doing it we didn't have the luxury you guys have we had to do it ourselves and when the Prophet saw how tired and hungry they were he made a dua for them and he said that Allahumma la khayra illa khayra al-akhirah oh Allah there is no good except the good of the akhirah farham al-ansara wal-muhajira so have mercy on the ansar and the muhajirun and they responded back to the Prophet ﷺ that we are the ones who gave you our oath to the Prophet ﷺ upon jihad. As long as we live, we will do this. So they're versifying poetry back to him. Al-Bara' ibn Azib, another famous sahabi of the Ansar, he said, I saw the Prophet ﷺ on Yawm al-Khandaq. And he was carrying the dust for so long that his entire chest hair was covered with dust. Now this means therefore he had taken his shirt off. and he's sweating with them literally just like all the other men he's sweating with them and Al-Bara says and he was a man who had a lot of chest hair our Prophet ﷺ had a lot of chest hairy on his chest and he had a lot of chest hair and all of it was covered with the dust of carrying the trenches and he was saying poetry along with us now when you're doing manual labor you have to versify something or just break the monotony or just work in sync and harmony. And so he was versifying along with us. اللهم لولا أنت مهتدينا ولا تصدقنا ولا صلينا فأنزلن سكينة علينا وثبت الأقدام إلا قينا إن الأعداء قد بغوا علينا إذا أرادوا فتنة أبينا أبينا And when he got to أبينا أبينا, they would all raise their voices. أبينا أبينا So they would all say it in unison in choir. And of course this means, اللهم لأنت, Oh Allah, were it not for you, we would not be guided, nor would we give charity. And we would not pray, so send your peace down upon us, and make our feats firm, when the enemies come to us. Verily the enemies have transgressed upon us, and when they want a fitna, and here fitna could mean shirk, fitna could mean death, abayna, we refuse to listen to them. and many other miracles are narrated but time is basically up so we need to leave some time for Q&A inshallah we'll continue next Wednesday talking about the miracles of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and what happened so many miracles about food a number of miracles about food a number of miracles about the famous rock that he sallallahu alayhi wasallam broke and the predictions that he gave inshallah all of this we will have it next Wednesday by the will of Allah and just a few minutes left so Q&A time and also before I forget announcement I mentioned yesterday as well so the Fiqh of Zakah class has been postponed by popular demand there was a clash with another event so we are doing it on what is the date can you remind me I will check right now so instead of the 28th of April the Fiqh of Zakah is now being held on the 5th of May yes the demands of a very important part of our community don't worry so on the 5th of May on Sunday we'll be having the fiqh of zakah and inshallah the flyer will be sent out by Danish soon, inshallah any questions about what we have covered so far you want to still continue Hassan or you want to you get that there's a lot of books that says that the sahaba to say what they said about Hassan. So this story doesn't... Jaiyat, this is an opinion that you have taken from some modern authors, and it exists. I'm not going to not exist. All the books, and even the official site of the Medina Munawarra, says that Khandaq is 12 kilometers by 5 meters by 5 meters down. So this is... Yes, yes, there are many opinions. he's saying that one of the books mentions 12 kilometers by 5 meters there are many opinions about this issue and frankly I read a paper long time ago where somebody actually took the time to calculate how long would it take to dig such a trench and 12 kilometers in 10 days by human beings who are around probably 10 even how long is it as an ikhtilaf by the way and even if you say 14 days, right? That's basically a kilometer, more than a kilometer a day. Or you know, honestly, saraha ghair ma'aqool, saraha. I mean being realistic here, ghair ma'aqool. The sahaba no doubt were blessed, but they were not supermen. So sahaba were blessed, but they were regular human beings, and they're digging more enthusiastically than workers our times would, but it's not as if with one scoop they will get what 20 people in our times will get. Right? So a little bit of mathematics. I actually read a paper that figured it out and what not. And 12 kilometers, even if you say 14 days, okay, you are quoting from a book. But again, in my opinion, what Sheikh Safi Rahman and others say makes more sense. Go ahead. Do you know the exact figure of how many men were begging? Was it all like 2,500 of them? How many men, we don't know. Again, there's no statistics. But around 2,000 to 2,500. yes this would have been no they were taking shifts obviously because people have to rest and what not but yeah all of them participated all of them participated yes Asif we talked about some weeks ago when the Muslims laid a siege on the fortress of the Yahud in building a trench does that tactic not force them to lay siege on themselves or is that something you'll cover next week they're isolating themselves from the others In building a trench, they did isolate themselves from the outside. And this was one of the problems. How long could the trench last? Because food supplies were diminished. Now, they did have some dates. But obviously you need other food supplies. How long will barley last you? Barley is not something grown right there. You know, other food supplies were running out. Meat was running out. You know, part of living in a city, you get things in and out. And so when the trench, the siege lasted for more than a month, it severely affected the food supplies upon the Muslims and in fact the food supplies were already being affected even when they were building the trench and this is why I said the building of a trench really was somewhat of a last move or a tactic or an act of desperation it's not a long term because they can't have a long term at this point in time they really have to put their trust in Allah and just delay and that's exactly what they did and of course Allah will never fail His servants and that's exactly what happened Allah saved them. It wasn't a long term tactic it was simply a stalling tactic and it worked and Allah Azza wa Jal extricated them from that situation. Final question before time for the Salah Anyone else want to be sure? Yes One other thing to come when we talk about Hassan what he was an artist I think we have in our society we label people like Hassan and that's maybe a lesson to learn that we should not do nothing about it it's the right way to turn yeah so the good point yes that's a good point brother Adel mentions that perhaps one of the other benefits we can derive is the fact that the way that I'll put it is there's a role for everybody in society there's no need to put people in pigeon holes and use derogatory adjectives You know, Hassan was not Khalid ibn al-Walid, neither was he Abu Hurairah, hadith narrator, neither was he Ibn Abbas, a faqih. I mean, we can even go a step further and say, there is a place for artistry in Islam. There is a place for the fine arts. And Hassan demonstrates that, right? We need people like that to do things that, you know, and this is frankly, a lot of our younger Muslims, they don't, you know, especially those who are extra practicing or hardcore or whatnot, they don't understand. that the ummah needs Khalid ibn al-Waliz, and Abu Hurairz, and Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Umar, and it also needs Hassan ibn Thabit. It needs a little bit of variety. That's a good point that we just label people and we put them in a pigeon-holer box and everyone has something to contribute to the ummah. Inshallah. Yes, Dr. Sulaiman. Has he given an excuse not to participate? Yes, that's the point. His excuse was accepted. Everybody knew him. Subhanallah, this is a very deep point here. That everybody knew his situation, and so he's excused because his situation is known. And in fact, what he even tells Safiyyah, don't make it worse. You know my issue, don't make it worse. So it's something that we as community leaders or others, we need to take human beings into account as individuals. That some people simply don't have it in them to do certain things. That's frankly, this shows us the humanity of the Sahaba that they were just like us. in that, in our society there are people that, you know, don't do this, don't that. I mean subhanAllah, from going through school, I mean come on. Some people can't stand mathematics, some people can't stand science, some people can't. But in the end of the day, don't we all find a little niche in society? We need people that can't do maths at all, because they'll do something else. We need people that love number crunching so much that all they do is add and subtract in their head all the time. Right? Similarly, Hassan again has a role. Everybody knows what he cannot do. And what he can do, he stands up and he shines. And really I think to me, frankly I find the story of Hassan very heartwarming, frankly. I find it very role model. Why? Because when I look at Abu Bakr, it's like, he is, when I look at Hassan, I kind of sort of feel, you know what, there is similarities, I have sins, he has sins, I have a role to play, he has a role to play, right? And personally I think it's beneficial for us that his story has been preserved, and these little issues have been mentioned. And I want to make sure we understand astaghfirullah, nobody is ridiculing. I seek refuge with Allah. Nobody is ridiculing. Nobody is astaghfirullah. And if anybody understood this from me, and even though I was very careful, but if anybody understood this, astaghfirullah, it is not a part of Ahlus Sunnah wa Jama'ah to make fun of or ridicule any Sahabi. But narrating their faults for a wisdom is not ridiculing them. We have Sahaba who drank and they repented. we have sahaba, all of this is in the seerah right, narrating their faults for a wisdom is not something that is considered cursing or ridiculing them and this is the purpose of mentioning Hassan ibn Thabit, in any case inshallah we'll continue next Wednesday and of course Tuesday is Thank you.

Seerah 57 - The Battle of Khandaq_Ahzab p2 - Dr

Al-Fatihah the battle of Ahzab and in our last week we had talked about the fact that the Prophet ﷺ it was suggested to him by Salman al-Farsi to dig the trench and the Prophet ﷺ immediately assigned people various portions to dig and according to one report in Ibn Sa'd he actually drew the line he actually went and he demarcated, he showed the people where the trench would be drawn and therefore the Prophet ﷺ basically took in charge of the logistics as we expect him to do. And for some reason, now I don't, I have looked up in the books of Sira and it is not mentioned why. For some reason there seem to have been a food shortage from the very beginning of the trench. From the very beginning. And Allah knows best but perhaps the reason is multiple. Number one, the battle of the trench took place in winter. Took place in winter. and therefore, obviously the fruits are not growing at the time, so they have to rely on their stores. Number two, they hadn't prepared for a siege. They had not prepared for the fact that they wouldn't be getting supplies. Number three, the people are no longer able to engage in commerce and trade. Everybody's busy digging the trench, so the supplies dwindled. Because we learned from the very first days that there's a food shortage. now why this is the case I haven't found any of the books of seerah mentioning why, why is it that the first 3-4 days of digging the trench the sahaba don't have food to eat but we kind of have to guess, we have to think about the reasons and Allah knows best but this took them by such surprise that all their caravans in and out are stopped that they have not prepared themselves to stock all of these food from beforehand we know for a fact that it was winter season Winter season is the most difficult season anyway, in terms of there's no fruit being harvested. Already things are difficult, especially the cold of Medina. And there are so many stories narrated about the miracles that took place with regards to food during the battle of the Khandaq. And a number of reports take place. Bukhari mentions, Sahih Bukhari, he mentions that the Sahaba would only have dried barley with oil that they would have to mix together. imagine dried barley and just a little bit of oil to make it just something to eat something edible to eat and they themselves said this report says that this had a bad odor we just had to ignore it as we ate it whatever it was we just had to eat it and Jabir narrates that sometimes they would only find the pits of dates to eat so they would just take the pits of dates and in another hadith we learn that once the Prophet ﷺ was digging in the trench and as he put his hand up, his shirt came up and Jabir said, I saw that there was a big rock tied to his stomach. There was a rock tied to the Prophet ﷺ stomach and as I have explained many times in those days when they were hungry they would tie a rock to their stomach and make it very tight and this would psychologically make them feel as if they have something. And because the stomach is also wound tight, so they don't feel the gnawing pangs of hunger and our Prophet ﷺ did this quietly, Nobody knew, only when he was digging. And he's doing manual labor with the rest of them. So he lifted his shirt and they saw this. Jabir said, I saw this rock that he had. And Jabir narrates. And Jabir was newly married. He was probably 17, 18 at the time. Remember he just got married a year and a half ago. We talked about the hadith of Jabir and the camel. Remember this is the same Jabir, Ibn Abdullah. And so this is the battle of the khandaq. And that's basically a year and a half after marriage. and so Jabir came back to his wife saying that I have seen something لا طاقة لي I don't have the strength to bear it that I saw the Prophet ﷺ in this state what do you have at home? so she said we only have a little bit of bread and we have a small goat that typically should not be sacrificed it's still small there that's all that we have so he said خلاص prepare the bread I will sacrifice the goat baby, it's like a year or something old it's not the goat that you would sacrifice, just a little bit of meat is gonna come out, so he said, okay we will just do this, so that we can feed the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and so, the wife basically needed the dough, she cooked a little bit of the barley, Jabir sacrificed this little goat and then cooked it and then he came to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and he said, sarartuhu I whispered to him, right, that Ya Rasulullah, my wife has just prepared some ta'am, so why don't you and one or two people, because it's a kid goat, right? You and one or two people come and we can eat on this food. And of course this is when that funny incident took place, that the Prophet ﷺ stood up, and he said, Ya Ahlul Khandaq, Jabir and his wife have prepared a meal for us, right? And, Fahayya Halla Bikum, all of you welcome. Fahayya Halla Bikum. Yalla bismillah tafadhal, all of you. And Jabir went running back to his wife that, what are we gonna do now? We have only this much food. And his wife said, did you tell them or did the Prophet ﷺ tell them? You know wives, did you say this? Or did the Prophet ﷺ make the announcement? And so Jabir said, I didn't make the announcement, the Prophet ﷺ made it. And so his wife, her iman was so strong, she said basically in that case, khalas, he did it, he's gonna take care of it. You told him one or two, He went and announced, so don't worry, that's not gonna be an issue. And the Prophet ﷺ was the one who first came to the food, and he told them, do not open the pot until I come. He told Jabir this. Do not lift the pot until I get there. And then when he went to the house of Jabir, the pot was still on the stove that the meat was cooking in, and the Prophet ﷺ made dua, and he spit into it, and he spit as you know, as his barakah, and he made dua over the bread and then he told 10 people to come into the room because the room could only house 10 people and every one of them came and they ate and then left and another 10 came and ate and left and they kept on doing this until every single one had eaten to his full. One of the narrators way later on he asked Jabir, roughly how much do you think we would have been? So he said around a thousand people. The whole people of the khandaq, they ate from this one pot and this one bread and of course this is numerous times in the seerah but perhaps in terms of sheer quantity this incident perhaps is the most in terms of sheer quantity that food for one and then he said bring one or two with you one or two with you so two or three people were supposed to come and eat and it ended up being the entire Ahlul Khandaq had come to eat to their full and there are many other miracles narrated This is not the only miracle of food. There are similar, at least three or four. We don't have to go into the details of each sahabi. But the same thing, that a small amount of food, and our Prophet ﷺ takes this food, and he asks Allah to bless it. And of course, this is the essence of what barakah means. Barakah means an increase in good. زِيَادَةُ الْخَيْرِ This is what barakah means. An increase in good. And this incident truly demonstrates, when we ask Allah, اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لَنَا فِي أَهْلِنَا بَارِكْ لَنَا فِي مَالِنَا بَارِكْ لَنَا فِي وَقْطِنَا اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لَنَا فِي كُلِّ مَا رَزَقْتَنَا What does it mean, بارِكْ لَنَا? It means whatever we have, if it's one dollar, let it stretch out so that it acts like a hundred dollars. Right? If we have one hour, let us do the work of ten hours in that one hour. This is what بَرَكَ means. زِيَادَةُ الْخَيْرِ Right? And we ask Allah to give us بَرَكَ in all that He has given us. Because when Allah gives us بَرَكَ, that dollar doesn't act like a dollar. It will act like an infinite amount, just like one plate fed a thousand people. This is the essence of barakah. And so the quantity appears to remain the same. But the quality of it, right? That's what is given. And this is why we make dua to Allah. And this is of the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. That give me barakah and all that you have given me, give it with barakah. And this is the meaning of, by the way, tabarak as well. Tabarak alladhi, tabarak Allah. This is of the meanings of tabarak. That barakah comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So there's at least three or four stories about food increasing, and the story of Jabir is really the most significant of them. Also, of the miracles reported in the hadith of the khandaq, in the hadith of digging the trench, was that once the sahaba came across a stone that was in the very line that the Prophet ﷺ had drawn, he had shown them this line, and so the sahaba one after the other, they entered into the trench, and they kept on hacking away, but the stone would not break. And some of them said, let us just go around the stone. But then one said, no, until we ask the Prophet ﷺ because he's the one who showed us this line. So subhanAllah, look at how meticulously they followed his sunnah. That look, it's just a stone, go around it. The trench is not gonna be harmed if you go around it and you leave the stone there. But they said, no, he's the one who told us this line, let us go tell him, then let him tell us to go around the stone. So when they told him this, the Prophet ﷺ said, give me the axe. Give me the axe. And so they gave him the axe. And he descended into the trench, and he was the one who said, بِسْمِ اللَّهِ اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ And then he hit it once. He hit it once, and with one hit, one third of the stone crumbled. One third of the stone crumbled. And when it crumbled, He said, Allahu Akbar, I have just seen that Allah has given me the keys to Syria. Allah has given me the keys to Syria. By Allah I can see the red castles in Syria. I can see them now. And of course the very first land that was captured after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, beginning in the reign of Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr was the first in his Khilafah. He was so eager to get to Sham. He was so eager to get to Sham in his own Khilafah. The very last days of his Khilafah was when the battle was taking place. And then the very first days of the Khilafah of Umar was when Sham and Jerusalem was conquered. And so the very first stone, he said, I have seen Syria, Allahu Akbar. Then he hit it again. Bismillah, he hit it again. And then he said, Allahu Akbar. I have been given the keys to Fares, Persia. And I can see the white pillars of Mada'in now. These white pillars are the pillars of, they are called Tesifon, C-T-E-S-I-P-H-I-O-N, Tesifon. This was the capital of Iran, the capital of the ancient Sassanid Empire. And to this day, those pillars are towering high to the skies. That was the capital of the Sassanid Empire. And the Prophet ﷺ was saying, and he's never seen it in his life, but he's saying, I can see the white pillars of Mada'in. Right now I can see them. And indeed the very second land after Fares, right? Sorry, after Sham. The very second land that was conquered was what? Was the land of Fares, right? There was Yarmouk and Qadisiyah. These were the two big battles in the reign of Umar ibn Khattab. And as we said so many times, this was and it still remains a miracle that is inexplicable. You cannot explain it from a human perspective. how could it be that a group of you know, militarily backward, right? uneducated to the level of those civilizations, Bedouins from the desert come and they carve out half of the Roman Empire and they destroy the Sassanid Empire overnight بين عشية وضحاة wallahi it's unbelievable, and to this day no historian can give a sound explanation, they have their million theories, but the end of the day this is clearly one of the greatest miracles for us of the truthfulness of Islam, that these sahaba they were less in number they didn't have the armor, they didn't have anything and our Prophet ﷺ is predicting it that you're gonna conquer Sham, then you're gonna conquer Mada' and you're gonna conquer Faris and then in the third strike and the third strike crumbled the entire stone, he said, Allahu Akbar I have been given the keys to Yemen I have been given the keys to Yemen and wallahi I can see the doors of Sana'a, Sana'a was a city that had a fortress around it or not a fortress but you know the walls around it and he said I can see the doors of Sana'a from this maqam of mine I can see it and of course Yemen as well was conquered during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ partially and then completely in the reign of the Khulafa and so all of these three lands are the lands surrounding Arabia and our Prophet ﷺ predicted every one of them would be conquered. Another prediction that the Prophet ﷺ gave while he was doing the trying to digging the trench, was that he saw Ammar ibn Yasir doing double the work of everybody else. Ammar ibn Yasir he was doing double the work of everybody else and Ammar was that type of enthusiastic and strong young man especially after what he had seen of his parents in Mecca and the shahada of his father and his mother. Ammar was a very determined young man. And so he saw Ammar covered in dust and covered and tired and hungry and what not and he said that may Allah have mercy on you Oh Ammar, taqtuluka al-fi'at al-baaghiya. The what? There's two narrations, this one and that one. Maratain hasal. That the Prophet ﷺ said to Ammar ibn Yasir, May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on you, the fi'at al-baaghiya will execute you or will kill you. The fi'at al-baaghiya means the group that has gone outside of the law. Right, the group that has gone outside of the law. and this hadith of course it came true in the reign of Ali ibn Abi Talib when the two armies fought and the closer to the truth was Ali ibn Abi Talib as we believe that Ali ibn Abi Talib was the one who was closer to the truth and Muawiyah made an ijtihad and Allah Azza wa Jal will forgive him radiallahu anhu we only say good of the sahaba but Ammar ibn Yasir was on the side of Ali he was on the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib and the forces of Muawiyah shot an arrow and it killed Ammar right in the neck it killed Ammar and they took this as a sign the people of Ali they took this as a sign that they are upon the truth because everybody remembered the hadith of Ammar ibn Yasir that the group that has gone outside of the law now notice he didn't say astaghfirullah the kafir group he didn't say the evil group this is a group that did something technically illegal. They disobeyed the khalifa. This is illegal, right? And it is incorrect. But he made an ijtihad, Muawiyah radiallahu anhu, and Allah azza wa jal will forgive him for that ijtihad. He was sincere, we believe, and the other group was closer to the truth. So the prediction of Ammar ibn Yasir being killed by the Fi'at al-Baqiyah. Now this hadith, scholars have differed. Some have said that it took place during the building of the first masjid and the fact of the matter is both narrations occur. And so some have said that it occurred twice. Because there are certain narrations that suggest that this occurred when they were building the masjid. Then there were other narrations that suggest it occurred in the building of the khandaq. And then other scholars say the prediction was given twice, both in the building of the Prophet ﷺ's masjid and in the building of the khandaq. Ibn Sa'ad mentions that there were around 4,000 people from the Quraysh that had taken place. taken part. And so therefore this is far larger than Uhud, it is far larger than Badr, everything has been now this is the largest force that Quraysh had ever assembled in their history. 4000 only from the Quraysh and the outlying tribes. Just the Quraysh and the outlying tribes. Then 300 horses and 150 camels and then he mentions the Banu Sulaym had 700, the Banu Fizara had 1000, the Banu Ashja 400, the Banu Murra 400 and the list goes on. The point being there were lots of other tribes and this is why it is called Ahzab. The reason why this is called Ahzab, Ahzab means the confederates. Ahzab means the alliance. كل حزب بما لديهم فرحون Every group is happy. Hizb. The plural of Hizb is Ahzab. And Ahzab means the groups. So the reason why this war is called the war of Ahzab was that it wasn't just Quraysh. It was lots of different groups. 400 here, 200 here, 1000 here. The max was Quraysh, 4000 Quraysh. And therefore the Quraysh had the biggest say. But there was no one unified leader. And this proved to be the disaster. This is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used to split them up. Because, وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُوا اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرٌ مَا كِرِينَ Allah's plan will be successful. And because there was no unity, they easily fragmented apart. They easily broke apart. There was no one leader that they all agreed to. Rather there was an alliance. There was a treaty. There was a confederate. And because the confederate collapses we're gonna come to, this is why they turned back. The overall plan was that the Muslims would camp such that their backs were to a mountain that is called the mountain of Sila, Jabal Sila. And they're facing the trench. And their backs are towards Jabal Sila. and Medina is in their direction of the back. And it was during this time, we don't know exactly when, when the Prophet ﷺ suggested that the women and children, all of them, they go to one of the areas as we said, where one of the Ansar had a somewhat large fortress. All of the women and children go inside that fortress which is called Al-Fari' as we said. And the reason for this was the Prophet ﷺ was worried about the treachery that might come from the Banu Qurayza. Now, we'll talk about the treachery today inshallah a bit. But I found it interesting to mention some of the leaders of the Ahzab, some of the leaders of the confederates, they have interesting histories. No doubt the primary leader of the Quraysh is who? We all know. Abu Sufyan, right? Abu Sufyan, what's his name? What's his name? Abu Sufyan is his kunya. what's his name we should know this name Abu Sufyan was the most noble and senior most of the people of Quraysh after Badr after Badr they're all dead Abu Sufyan becomes the de facto leader Sakhar ibn Harb Sakhar ibn Harb ibn Umayyah his name is Sakhar ibn Harb ibn Umayyah and who are the Banu Umayyah the Banu Umayyah are the cousins of the Banu Manaf and the Banu Manaf of course the Banu Hashim comes from Banu Manaf and so the Banu Hashim and the Banu Umayyah were rivals, cousin clans right? the Banu Hashim and the Banu Umayyah of course they're both Qurashi, they're rival clans and Abu Sufyan Sakhar ibn Harb he was born by the way 10 years before the Prophet ﷺ so he's not a generation older but he's somewhat older than the Prophet ﷺ in terms of age, 10 years older than him. And Abu Sufyan, of course, he remained a noble enemy. He was an enemy until the conquest, but he never stooped to the dirty tactics. He never went to the crude taunting that Abu Jahl did, that Umayyah did. And I have said many times before, those who resorted to vulgarities, generally speaking, there are exceptions to every rule, generally speaking, they showed a despicableness that Allah never guided them. Right? Whereas those who remained somewhat noble of the Quraysh and they retained their dignity, a lot of them, most of them were eventually guided. And the best example is Abu Sufyan. He fought against the... He caused Badr. Right? He was the one who caused Badr. His caravan. And then he sent the emissary to fear monger the Quraysh. Right? He led Uhud. Right? He led Khandaq. We'll see in Hudaybiyyah as well. He was one of the main people as well in Hudaybiyyah to stop them from coming in. We're not going to let you walk in like this, right? So he's an enemy. But he never went to a low level. He never went below the belt. And he retained dignity eventually. Allah guided him. When did he accept Islam? Fath-e-Makkah. Conquest Makkah. Right? And I mean just again, these are information you should all know. It's beneficial for us. Abu Sufyan is that one perhaps the most amount of booty was given to him at Hunayn. Hunayn when the Prophet ﷺ had the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars he had, the equivalent literally fortunes and he did not return with a penny to Medina with that certain people they got valleys, they got valleys of sheep, they got hundreds of camels, perhaps top on the list was Abu Sufyan because the fact of the matter and the books of seerah show this when he initially converted he didn't convert out of conviction. He converted just, okay, khalas, you won. You know, you won, khalas, right? But by giving him this money, Abu Sufyan saw something. And that is, this man is not interested in power. He's not interested in wealth. He's genuinely believing in what he's doing, and money wins people over. It's human nature. and it is narrated in the books of Sira that when the Prophet ﷺ gave Abu Sufyan all of this amount of money Abu Sufyan said that Wallahi Ya Muhammad, I swear by Allah Ya Muhammad that you are the most generous person I've ever seen, may my mother and father be given in ransom for you, that I fought you and you remained a noble enemy and now that I have come to peace with you, you remain the most noble friend. Like how can you do like this? That when I fought you, you remained the best akhlaq. Now that I have come to peace with you, you have become this generous. I've never seen anybody like you. And therefore Abu Sufyan obviously, Islam did enter his heart after that. And of course, Abu Sufyan always wanted chiefdom that's in his blood. And so his son is born with that blood. There are those who are born with that spoon in their mouths of not money but of power. of wanting to be in charge. It was in his blood. And Muawiyah r.a. eventually he became the first king of Islam and the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. This is Abu Sufyan Sakhar ibn Harb ibn Umayyad. That's Umayyad, the Umayyad dynasty. So the Umayyads continued until the Abbasids. This is Abu Sufyan. Another interesting character of the Ahzab, the confederates, another leader was Uyayna ibn Hisn. Uyayna ibn Hisn. And Uyayna ibn Hisan is one of those, he's called of the Ajlaf. The Ajlaf means of the crude Bedouins. He's a Bedouin, he's not a people of the city. And he was known for his uncouth manners. And it is narrated that once the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with Aisha, and this was before hijab was revealed, and Uyayna came to visit not as a Muslim. he came to visit not as a Muslim just to see if any trade, any treaty could be enacted and this was before hijab was revealed and so when he saw Aisha firstly he entered in without knocking on the Prophet's door he just barged in right, and the Prophet said, O Uyayna where is your manners you have to ask before you go you know what his response was he said, I have never once in my life ask permission from a mudhari to enter his house. Mudhar and Nizar, the two main tribes of the Arabs, and Uyayna was from the other. You know, the two main, remember back our first lecture of the seerah, should I quiz you on Adnan and all of that, or you don't want to be embarrassed there. So, mudhar is the other guy, basically, the two main, remember the two main Arab tribes, right? So, Uyayna is like pure badu, pure, you know, of that stock, right? So he said, I have never once in my life asked permission of a mudhari to enter his house. Look at his, you know, arrogance and also manners really. Like complete lack of manners. And then he says, who is this Humayra? He called Aisha Humayra, this young red one. She was young and she was in this complexion. Who is this Humayra with you? And the Prophet ﷺ said, this is Aisha, this is before hijab was revealed. And then his uncouth mannerisms, unbelievable. He said, why don't I give you someone more beautiful than her? لَحَوْرَهُ سِلَىٰ بِاللَّهِ Right? And Aisha, our Prophet ﷺ was the most beloved. And you get rid of this one, I'll get you one of my own. One of my own wives. And this is jahili practice. To cement the ties. Astaghfirullah, they would swap wives or something. Like divorce their wives, and then give them, so I'll give you one of my wives. And our Prophet ﷺ said, Allah has made this haram. Allah has made this haram, it is not allowed to do this. And then when he left, our Prophet ﷺ, Aisha said who is this man and our Prophet ﷺ said هذا الأحمق المطاع this is the what's a good word, the fool that is obeyed, right this is the fool that is obeyed amongst his people right, yeah basically this is the أحمق that's مطاع, at the time he was not a Muslim and it is also mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ was polite to him and then he was harsh when he left, then Aisha said, why are you harsh when he leaves? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, when have you known me to be fahish, mutafahish, when have you known me to have this? The worst people of mankind are those who people are nice to only in order to save themselves from their evil. You understand this point? There are some people, they're just so evil. But because they're evil, you have to smile and be nice to them to protect yourselves from their evil. and this is what our Prophet ﷺ was saying the worst of mankind are those who people force themselves to be nice just to save themselves from their evil this is Uyayna, he was the tribal leader by the way there was a story by me, subhanAllah I don't want to tell you this khalas, I'll tell you no problem inshallah it's not related to this but again Uyayna is just frankly weird honestly it's just a bizarre story narrated about Uyayna ibn Hislan and of course it's not relevant to the Ahzab but the books of Sira mention how did he while he was so uncouth and barbaric and uncivilized how did he become the tribal leader even though they're all uncivilized meaning the Badu but still there's got to be some dignity and he really was complete ajlaf complete you can imagine there are people like this still to this day thug type of mentality right the story goes as follows in the books of history not related to Ahzab but just a tangent here. It's not in my notes here. So I hope I don't make too big of a mistake. But the story goes as follows, that Hisan his father, Hisan his father, obviously they're all pagan, they're jahili, they're in this way before Islam. He had 10 sons. He had 10 sons. And at the end of his life, he suffered a disease, I forgot, was it leprosy? Some really bad disease. No, not leprosy. Something else. Something that made him very sick and very painful. And so he called his sons, one by one and he tested them. And he said, if I tell you to do something, you know, will you do it on my death bed? I want you to do something. Will you do it? And so everyone promised, of course we're gonna do it. This is one by one, not all together. Of course we will do it. Then he said, take this knife and stab me so that I get rid of this pain. I.e. kill me. Right? This is jahili, you know, they're all Bedouin and whatnot. This is jahili stuff. So when they're asked this, every one of the sons says, have you ever heard of a son killing his own father? And especially in those days, anytime this is disgusting, but especially in that tribal, have you ever heard, and each one of them refused to do it, until Uyayna comes along. Uyayna ibn Hisan, right? And Uyayna said, no he didn't say Bismillah. He's not a Muslim at the time. And so Uyayna comes along, and he says, is this what you want me to do? so his father says yes so he says what do I get basically so he says whoever listens to me he will be the chieftain after me if you listen to me then because he was in such pain such misery so he just wants to get out of it this is his way of committing suicide and so whoever does this you'll be the chieftain so Uyayna was the one who he got rid of his own father in this manner and then he became the chieftain that shows you the type of mentality we're talking about this is Uyayna ibn Hisan and he was of those who was of the leaders of some of the Banu Sulaim sorry the Banu Fazara the Banu Fazara not the Banu Sulaim the Banu Fazara he was the leader of the Banu Fazara and he was the one as we said the Prophet said this is the this is that one now towards the end of the seerah Uyayna had to accept Islam along with all of the other Badus all of Arabia accepted Islam but as soon as one of the false prophets and we'll mention him the third his name is Tuleyha he was also here as soon as Tuleyha declared himself a prophet Uyayna joined Tuleyha he became a member of the other religion right when Khalid bin al-Walid came destroyed the battles of Riddah he captures Uyayna brings him back to Medina and he's tied up he's the chieftain, he's the tribal leader, he's tied up his hands over here, they would tie the hands around the neck for the prisoners of war back then he's tied up around here, and the people are all rebuking him and prodding him and said how could you, you were a Muslim leader how could you have accepted Tuleyha and it is said that he said I never accepted Islam in the first place like what's the big deal, I wasn't really ever a Muslim that you're now getting angry at me that I left it, right, I never really accepted Islam, and so Abu Bakr was worried that if I kill him, his tribe this and that, so Abu Bakr basically promised him that he wouldn't do anything and he outwardly accepted Islam and he went back to his tribe, and Allah knows his affairs, but he was of those we don't say bad or good about his death, Allah knows what state he died in, but he was of those وَمِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ as Allah says, that's the epitome of the Arab mentality, he was one of the leaders of the Ahzab, another leader which will come up again, and we just mention him, Tuleyha. Tuleyha al-Asadi. Tuleyha from the leader of the Banu Asad. And the Banu Asad were another of the tribes of the Ahzab. They had around 700 people. So that's a large amount for the tribes at the time. 700 people of the Banu Asad. Their leader is Tuleyha. And Tuleyha, he has a very interesting history. And there's a lot of hope for us in his story as well. And a lot of morals and lessons. Just a summary of it. Maybe another day we'll talk long detail. That right now, he's not a Muslim. He's never accepted Islam. He's standing outside Medina, willing to fight and to get rid of the Muslims. Of course, Ahzab, the confederates disperse, they all go back. Tulayha goes back to his tribe. Eventually, in the ninth year, the Amal Wufud, all of the people of Arabia have to embrace Islam. Tulayha as well sends a delegation, and he embraces Islam outwardly. As soon as the Prophet ﷺ dies, Tulayha is one of those ten people who declare themselves to be a prophet. right, Musaylimah was the most famous Sajjah, another Tuleyha is like the third of the three Tuleyha was the third of the three the famous ones and Tanabba, he declared himself to be a Nabi, and he said he has a Quran and he started spewing forth some weird concoctions that he called the Quran, he has his Quran and Khalid ibn al-Walid was sent against him and he demolished his tribe and the tribe repented and came back to Islam. Talayha had a horse that he had prepared just for an escape passage, just to have an escape with the fastest horse. He jumped on the horse and fled. He escaped. He made his way to Syria. Amazingly, in Syria, he genuinely accepted Islam. And he then came back to Medina repentant and asking for forgiveness himself. And Abu Bakr granted him that forgiveness. he forgave him and Talayha was always guilty of what he had done and he kept on making dua to Allah to accept him as a shaheed to make up what he had done and he fought alongside Khalid ibn al-Walid and he actually died a shaheed in the battle of Qadisiyah and he actually had a very big role to play in the battle of Qadisiyah, he has a big role he had actually accomplished a lot in the battle of Qadisiyah against the Romans, right? The battle of Qadisiyah, sorry against the Persians the battle of Qadisiyah, he accomplished a lot and we'll talk about that when we get there inshallah but this is one of the most fascinating stories and the reason I say that inshallah there's actually a good hope and lesson for us that subhanallah if somebody who does the unbelievable of declaring himself to be a Nabi and declaring that Allah has given him a Quran but then he genuinely repents and inshallah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has accepted that repentance, now we don't really consider him a sahabi, because he didn't see the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam as a Muslim, nonetheless Tawlaiha was of those who his repentance inshallah was very public and open, and he died a very brave death, and his guilt was very open and sincere, and he used to make dua to Allah to accept him as a shaheed so inshallah, we hope that his dua was accepted, and this really is hope for all of us that inshallah none of us has gone to the level of declaring ourselves to be astaghfirullah prophets so these sins that are lesser than this inshallah turn to Allah sincerely and inshallah Allah will forgive in any case these were just some of the leaders just to give you an idea and there are others that are not as relevant for our seerah course now before the ahzab arrived the second largest group after the quraish was the tribe of ghatafan this was the second largest group after the Quraysh. And they had been promised a large amount by the Yahud. They had been promised half of Khaybar. If you remember, the mercenaries, right? They had been promised half of Khaybar. For some reason, they probably were not too eager to fight and kill and what not. They sent an emissary to Medina. And they said, these are the stakes. They've given us half of Khaybar to fight you guys. if you give us one third of Medina we won't fight you guys these are complete what do you want to call them? mercenaries or just money hungry Qatafan they are in Bedouin tribe as well so look they are giving us half of Khaybar we are willing to bargain with you go down because we are not going to do anything one third we just sit at home You give us one third of the produce of Medina, we'll sit at home and do nothing. We won't come. And they probably numbered, we don't know exactly, two, three, some even say four thousand, that's probably a lot. But still, the second largest group after the Quraysh were the Ghatafal. The second largest group. So they send an emissary. Now, our Prophet ﷺ always, he would make shura. And so, he called Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Sa'd ibn Ubada. And these were the young leaders of the Aus. and the Khazraj, right? Sa'd ibn Mu'adh of the Aus and Sa'd ibn Ibu'adah of the Khazraj. Remember their name has already come forth in the incident of Ifqah, the slander of Aisha. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Sa'd ibn Ubadah. And he asked them what their position was. He asked them what their position was. And some books of Sira mentioned he was willing to pay this amount. He wasn't against it. It's okay if you want to do this, then that's fine. And of course it shows us, of course it's halal, even though it's a type of ransoming or blackmail, but there's nothing haram being done per se. That you're just giving the money and then you will be protected from their evil. The process was open, what do you suggest? And so Sa'ad said to him, that both of them, they said both of the Sa'ad and the Sa'adan, they said that is this something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has commanded you to do? Or something that, ijtihad is there? If it's from wahi, sami'na wa ata'na. But if it is not from wahi, then we have never humiliated ourselves in Jahiliyyah so why should we humiliate ourselves in Islam? We have never bowed down to anybody else in Jahiliyyah and this was now we see one of the wisdoms of why Allah chose the Ansar why Allah chose the Aus and the Khazraj out of all of the people of Arabia they had never been conquered by another tribe and they were fiercely independent and you see this here that we've never been humiliated in jahiliyyah why should we do this in Islam and so the Prophet ﷺ was happy at that response and he sent the emissary back saying basically we have no need of your bargain how long did it take to build the khandaq again there's many different reports Ibn Sa'd says 6 days others mentioned 15 days one report even says 1 month but then Ibn Hajar or somebody he comments this is clearly a mistake The one month is the siege and not the building of the siege. It's clearly a mistake. The one month is not how long it took them to dig. The one month is how long the siege lasted. And as we said, most likely, really, and the most authentic book says six days by the way, but most likely it could not have been more than two weeks. It could not have been because the ahzab were coming. They're not giving that much time. So between six days to 14 days, 12 days, this is really how long it took to build the trench. And as we had said, people were assigned sections of the trench. Now, one of the problem comes as with all of the battles of the Prophet ﷺ, and especially with the khandaq. The actual incident must have lasted 30 days of the actual surrounding, the siege plus a week of the building. So we're talking about around 40 days. Now obviously when the sahaba are gonna narrate 40 days, they're not gonna say day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4. they're simply gonna highlight one or two things and mix them all together and this is of course the big problem that we have in any incident especially Uhud and Badr is two hours three hours, how much more so? Khandaq, which is forty days every Sahabi who narrates about the Khandaq, he mentions two things, three things, we have no idea what day these things happened on, right? and this is really the problem that we simply have a number of narrations, we just have to put them together and just you know inshallah hope for the best. Now, according to Ibn Sa'ad, Ibn Sa'ad mentions that the Prophet ﷺ left his house on the 8th of Dhul-Qa'dah. On the 8th of Dhul-Qa'dah. Which year? 5th. We talked about this last week. 5th year. 4th was not. That's what we talked about last week. The 5th year of the Hijrah. Now, Ibn Sa'ad was of the opinion it took place in Dhul-Qa'dah and others Shawwal. But Shawwal and Dhul-Qa'dah is 1-2 weeks apart basically. So, either Shawwal or Dhul Qa'dah of the 50 of the Hijrah. The Prophet ﷺ leaves his house. Ibn Sa'ad says, the 8th of Dhul Hijjah. He has the position, we don't know where it's from. The 8th of Dhul Hijjah. And that is when he began camping in his tent that was close to the actual trench. And this was when he divided the Muslims into various portions to guard the trench. From the beginning to the end, all the Muslims left their houses. They were not sleeping in their houses. And that is why the women were sent to Al-Fari'ah, to the protected fortress. And Ibn Ishaq mentions that a group of Sahaba in shifts, their job was to patrol the trench the entire night. And simply shout out, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. So that people would think if they got to the trench that there's a large group on the other side. And Umm Salama narrates that I witnessed many battles with the Prophet ﷺ in which there was fighting and fear. And she lists them, Al-Muraisi' and Khaybar and Hudaybiyyah and Fath-i-Makkah and Hunayn. But none of them was more tiring or more fearful for us than Khandaq. That was the most terrifying for us and the most fatiguing for us was Khandaq, for the Muslims were in a very precarious situation. And we were worried about our children from the Banu Qurayza and Medina, she said, was patrolled all night. 24 hour shifts now of patrol. And she said, we would hear the takbeers of the Muslims all the way until fajr. So the groups of patrols now are going around the entire trench. And they're simply shouting out, Allahu Akbar, so that if anybody's there, they feel this is not an empty place. Because you're not gonna put lights in that whole few miles long. You can't do that in that day and age. So there are people that are patrolling. And their whole job the entire night is to patrol the trench. Even our Prophet ﷺ took job of patrolling an area. And he would go out and he would stand at a particular area of the valley. And Aisha narrates that once, and Aisha says that I also was in the tent. She wanted to be with the Prophet ﷺ. So she left her own house. She was not with the other women. She was in the tent with the Prophet ﷺ. And Aisha narrates that one night, we heard the clinking of armor, that a man is walking in the middle of the night, and the Prophet ﷺ was outside. So he said, who is that? So the man says, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas. So Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas, and I have come to give you my services. Meaning, to alleviate your shift basically, right? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, okay, you stay here and I will rest. And Aisha says, he came and he fell asleep in the tent until I could hear his snores. Meaning he was so tired, so fatigued, that he literally just comes and he simply falls into his sleep sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Aisha says I never forgot that favor of Sa'd that he volunteered himself to give up his own sleep so that the Prophet ﷺ could sleep even he himself the Prophet ﷺ was in the one guarding the tent also we learn from the books of Sira that it was the middle of the winter and that the Sahaba would be so cold and they have to go back into the tent until they warm up and then they come out again and so fatigued, tired, hungry and cold on top of that. And it was at this point in time when the final blow came that really shifted the entire scenario and inflicted an amount of terror that the Sahaba had never had. And that is the shifting of the Banu Quraidah finally becoming public. First it was just fears. First it was just rumors. But then what happened was the Banu Nadir, they sent a secret emissary, Huyay ibn Akhtab, the father of Safiyyah. He was their chieftain and he was really the most evil of them. And this really shows us the difference between father and daughter. You can have the worst of all and then the best of all. This is something Allah Azzawajal does not carry good or bad from father and son every single time. Ibrahim's father was the idol builder. Ibrahim's father is the idol maker. And Ibrahim is Khalilullah. Ibrahim is Khalilullah. And Nuh is the prophet. And his son could not believe that Allah would do this. So it is not necessary. and here we have Safiyyah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, here we have Huyay, he's done what he's done, you know, at Badr he's made his comment, at Uhud he's done what he's done now the expulsion has taken place and he's the one gone to Mecca, now he sneaks his way back to Medina, why him? because he knows Medina and this also shows us we need to understand, the trench was not watertight right? the trench only protected large groups from entering Medina you can't stop one person from sneaking in, right? You can't stop one person and especially Huyay who's been born and raised in the city he knows the city inside out. So Huyay finds his way in makes his way to the Banu Qurayza and they needed Huyay because they needed the leader. They needed the leader of the Banu Nadir. They're not just any person. The very most respected person in the Banu Nadir, he made his way to the Banu Qurayza and their chieftain was Ka'b ibn Asad al-Qurayza and initially Ka'b said no way I can do this there is a promise, we made our promise he knows, three times he has made a promise three times but Huyay knows his own people and Huyay knows what can bribe them and he kept on and kept on and kept on promising him immunity, promising him protection promising him we'll tell you exactly when we attack, you will be protected by the fortress when they leave you shall get this you shall get that. He kept on at him until finally Ka'ab agreed to shift over. And this was of course the deadly blow. And it was none other than Zubayr ibn al-Awwam who came to the Prophet ﷺ to inform him of this treachery. That the Prophet ﷺ said, I fear something about the Banu Quraidah. Who will volunteer? So Zubayr stood up and said, I will go volunteer. It's a very brave time single-handedly to go and find out. And this is when our Prophet ﷺ said, the very famous phrase, لِكُلِّ نَبِيٍّ حَوَارِي وَحَوَارِيُّ زُبَيْرِ بْنَا الْعَوَّامِ That every single prophet has a disciple. Hawari, Jesus Christ has his disciples. Every prophet has his Hawari. And my Hawari is Zubair ibn al-Awwam. And so Zubair ibn al-Awwam went. We don't know the details. I looked up as many books as I could of the classical tradition. What did he see? We don't know. But he's spying on them. and most likely he must have seen preparations for war. And that's the only thing that comes to mind, right? He's seeing what's going on in the camp of the Banu Qurayza. And then he comes back and he says, نَقَضُ الْعَهْدِ They have destroyed the tree. Now, this is something he's observed. The Prophet ﷺ cannot act upon a presumption. So, he sent four of the leaders of the Ansar who were close to the Banu Qareelah in the days of Jahiliyyah. And their names are mentioned in the books of Sira. These are the people that are close to the Banu Qareelah in the days of Jahiliyyah. He sends them. Of course Zubayr is a Muhajir. Zubayr doesn't have those ties with the Banu Qareelah. He's seen with his eyes. Now he comes back and he reports he's done a very brave job. But before action is taken, you need to be 100% sure. So he literally sends a delegation straight to the Banu Qareelah. Knocking on the door and laying it out straight. and the four notice evasive answers. They're not committing themselves. They clearly see that the treaty that used to exist is no longer being mentioned or honored. And there's vague responses given. Clearly then, treachery is in the air and they come back and they confirm with the Prophet ﷺ that the Banu Qara'idah have flipped. And this was the time that so many reports say that this was the worst night of our lives. That we didn't know what to expect. 10,000 people outside the trench, now all of a sudden we have at least 2,000 inside. At least 1,500 to 2,000 inside. And it's not just affecting us, our women and children. Unprotected completely. And this was when Allah Azza wa Jalla Himself describes this in the Quran. In Surah Al-Ahzab verses 10 to 11. In Surah Al-Ahzab verses 10 to 11. إِذْ جَاءُكُمْ مِنْ فَوْقِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنْكُمْ Remember when they came to you from fawq. And the fawq here means the ahzab. Right? وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنْكُمْ And from within you, meaning the Banu Qurayza. Of course, أَسْفَلَ literally means below you. But over here it's a matter of outside of you and inside of you. إِذْ جَاءُكُمْ مِنْ فَوْقِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنْكُمْ وَإِذْ زَاغَتِ الْأَبُصَارِ And when the eyes themselves become glazed out of fear. وَبَلَغَتِ الْقُلُوبُ الْحَنَاجِرُ And the hearts were in your throats. Even this expression is in English, right? My heart was in my throat. This is an expression in Arabic as well. وَبَلَغَتِ الْقُلُوبُ الْحَنَاجِرُ And nobody has been in a very terrifying situation except that you know what this ayah means, right? If you have never been in a life-threatening situation, you don't understand this ayah. It is only when literally you are in a life-threatening situation, you literally feel your heart is trying to get out. You feel it in your throat. And Allah says, وَبَلَغَتِ الْقُلُوبِ الْحَنَاجِرِ وَتَظُنُّونَ بِاللَّهِ الظُّنُونَ And here is where you as well begin to think thoughts of Allah. Meaning, Allah is not gonna help us, Allah is not gonna... This is what it means, right? هُنَالِكَ بَتُلِيَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ This was where the believers were truly tested. وَزُلْزِلُوا زِلْزَالًا شَدِيدًا And they were shook to the core. they were shaken to the core so even the sahaba some amongst them and to be shaken is not a sign of hypocrisy no doubt it is not the sign of perfection the sign of Abu Bakr and Umar that's way up there but to be shaken and to begin to think thoughts, khalas Allah is not going to help us this is not kufr or nifaq it's simply it shows there is not complete 100% tawakkul and put yourselves in their shoes weeks have gone by, food is dwindling you have 10,000 outside an army inside, where is the help going to come from? think about it from their perspective what's going to happen here? and so they began thinking bad thoughts and of course this was when the tide began to change and we have to leave you right at this cliffhanger inshallah until next Wednesday inshallah ta'ala so if there are any questions about the treaty or the what we have covered before we move on inshallah ta'ala anything about yes was there any fighting that actually took place during the siege was there any fighting only small groups no actual war took place only extremely small groups contingents of five or one upon one it happened and the casualties were less than ten six or seven of the sahaba and what not and we'll talk about these small escapades if you like we'll talk about that next week inshallah was that a hand back there or yes there's a hadith about when Rasulullah ﷺ sent his adayn to to Winnie Parida and Ka'ab ibn Sa'ad denied the treaty and the Prophet s.a.w. told the Sa'dain to go and check on the treaty and come back and if there is good news to announce it to everybody and if it's bad news to give them a hint that they actually went back on their treaty so when they went the Sa'dain talked to Ka'ab ibn As'ad and he said, who's Muhammad, we don't have a treaty so Sa'ad ibn A'ad started cursing Ka'ab ibn A'ad Asad. Asad al-Muassid. What's between us is beyond and above cursing. Let's go back. And when he went back, they said to the Prophet ﷺ, عَضَ الْوَقَارَةِ Referring to Bama Rajeeb. That's Allah's waqar. So the Prophet ﷺ told him his story, and he really was expressing his love about that. Sahih, this is a story that is mentioned, and that is the people that were sent and the details that took place. I mean I did not mention it in today's lesson. MashaAllah if we want we can talk about this next time. But the point being it is mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ sent the two Sa'ads to Ka'b al-Quradi and he outright denied. He blatantly said there was never any treaty. And according to one report he had physically torn it up. That he didn't even want to show them there was anything. He had physically gotten rid of the treaty. And he denied anything of this nature. and when one of the Sa'ads got so angry, he began to curse him. So Ka'b said to him, the matter is more than just cursing now. Meaning this is a bigger threat. What's your curse going to do? We're going to kill you. The matter is more than just cursing now. And no doubt this was a sign of arrogance from Ka'b and he completely denied the existence of the treaty. This is a valid point that some of the books of Sira do mention of the past, inshallah ta'ala. Thank you.

Seerah 58 - The Battle of Khandaq_Ahzab p3 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. of the trench or the Ahzab. And we had just finished last week talking about the beginnings of the story of the treachery that the Muslims learned for the first time that the Yahud had switched gears. And the details of this conversation are recorded by Ibn Ishaq without any chain. And Ibn Ishaq says that Huyayy ibn Akhtab, who is of course the father of Safiyyah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. Huyay ibn Akhtab he made his way back into Medina and as we had said you cannot protect the entire city and Huyay knows the city because he has been there numerous times and news reached the Banu Quraidha that Huyay is coming so as soon as the Banu Quraidha heard they became worried because this smells like treachery why would Huyay be coming to the Banu Quraidha something is wrong so the chieftain of the Banu Quraidha his name is Ka'b His name is Ka'b ibn Malik, not to be confused with Ka'b ibn Ashraf, who has already been mentioned. And it was the one that was assassinated. This is Ka'b ibn Malik. The what? The one that was assassinated. Sorry, my bad. Yes. The one that was assassinated is Ka'b ibn Ashraf. Yes, my bad, my mistake. Ka'b ibn Ashraf. and the Banu Quraidah when they heard that Huyay is coming they shut the door and Huyay came and he stood outside the door and he's knocking on the door and he's saying, oh Ka'b let me in and Ka'b said, no you must be bringing us evil omens, bad omens i.e. your bad luck we don't want to have anything to do with you your presence here is bad luck if they hear that you're here it's automatically gonna cause problems and Ka'b said that I have a treaty with Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam and I cannot break my promise for I have only seen from him truthfulness and fulfillment I cannot break my promise with him he's been good to me, I don't want to break my promise he kept on knocking on the door he kept on begging him, let me in just listen to me until finally he used a different tactic and he said to him the only reason you're not opening the door is because you are greedy to even share your food with me. You don't even want to feed me. How selfish can you be that I'm outside I'm alone here and you don't even want to feed me. You must be so stingy that even your food you don't want to share it. So he used an emotional blackmail. Now obviously they were friends in the days of Jahiliyyah. He's the chieftain of one tribe, he's the chieftain of the other tribe. And now he's of course he knows that he's alone in Medina and so he says to him at least give me Basically he's saying, give me some food at least. How can you just let me be out here for so long? And so this softened the heart of Ka'b. He opened up the door. As soon as the door opened, khalas, begins the barrage of emotional blackmail again. And insistence. And Huyay says to him, I have brought you oceans of men. Bihar, I have brought you oceans of men. And I have brought you the chieftain, Saadat Quraysh. And the Saadat of Ghatafan. and the chieftains of this tribe and that tribe and they are here بِخَيْلِهِمْ وَرِجْلِهِمْ they are here with their armies and with their servants everybody is here and they have promised me that they're not going to leave until they have wiped out Muhammad ﷺ and his companions right and he begins using this tactic now can you imagine that he knows exactly what points to press he knows that deep down inside Ka'b wants to side with his own people but he's scared of treachery he's scared of defeat and so he assures him how can we possibly lose we have this tribe we have that tribe we have this many khayl we have that many ibl we have the entire army and he keeps on the ibn Ishaq says he kept on persuading him throughout the night he keeps on going and going he's relentless until finally he says and I shall be with you if they leave and I will face your own fate and that sealed his own fate as we shall study as we shall see he sealed his own fate for himself that he is basically so confident and this means that he really did believe that there is no way that this plan can possibly fail because he basically gave himself up to them and he goes that I can be a hostage for you guys he didn't use the word hostage but you get the point here that I will pledge my own safety with your safety so that if anything happens to you then I too will face the same consequence and that's exactly what happened he faced the exact same consequence this was his own verdict, Allah delivered it to him it was his own verdict, went back on him but we're getting, jumping the gun that will be next Wednesday inshallah ta'ala what happened to Banu Quraitha and Ka'ab was still hesitant and he said to him that you are not good news you are, and then he used a metaphorical or beautiful expression in Arabic which basically translates as you are a cloud that when you look at it it looks like good water, but when it comes, all it gives us is thunder and thunder and lightning, right? It gives us no rain. Like you're making these big fat promises, but the end result is not going to be good. So deep down inside his instinct is warning him, right? There's the sixth sense here. This is not right, this is not right. But he kept on pressing and pressing and pressing until finally he convinced him with whatever he did, the details we don't know, but he convinced him with whatever promises, whatever money, whatever extra fortresses, Whatever was given, we don't know the details. All that we know eventually by the morning time, khalas, Huyay has convinced Ka'b to flip sides. Right? And so Ka'b physically tears up the treaty. There was a physical covenant, right? And we have said that this covenant, at least three times our Prophet ﷺ had confirmed it. At least three times. The latest of them, barely a few months had gone by. The latest of them. And this is why we need to understand the punishment that's gonna come. people look at it divorced from what happened before they look at the punishment without looking at the context they look at the punishment without looking at how many times they had been given a chance right, and even Ka'b deep down inside knows this is trouble, even Ka'b he says the Prophet ﷺ, he didn't use the word the Prophet ﷺ he says Muhammad has promised us and he has always fulfilled his promise, and he has been Sadiq, he has been Wafi, he is fulfilling his side of the bargain, but he needs to be persuaded until finally when And Huyay basically said, I shall throw in my lot with you. That's how confident I am. So then this was really the thing that made him feel, you know what, if Huyay is that confident, that he's willing to basically come with us and be on our side, physically be on our side, so confident is he, then he must be in the right. And frankly, from his perspective, how could they possibly fail? 10,000 strong, they just have to wait it out. There's just no question eventually, from their perspective, is going to break. And so eventually, as we said, Ka'b did flip. And somehow, I looked up as many books as I could, I don't know how the story is, Zubayr ibn al-Awwam discovered this. When the Prophet ﷺ sent him, how did he discover this, we don't know. All that we know, when Zubayr came back, he was the first one that the Prophet ﷺ sent, because there was a premonition. Most likely, most likely, Zubayr was basically spying on the outside, and he saw Huyay come. This is the only thing I can think of, because obviously Zubayr is not inside the fortress, obviously. So what could he have seen other than Huyay? Maybe with a small entourage because he's definitely not going to come alone. Basically sneaking his way, making his way to the door. This is a theory. I don't know. There's not mentioned in the books. How did Zubayr find out? So Zubayr comes and he gives the first news that something is wrong, that the Banu Quraidah have flipped. But this is not sure because Zubayr is not an eyewitness. He's not hearing, right? He's looking from the distance. He's not hearing with the conversation. so this was when as we said the Prophet he praised Zubair and he said every Nabi has a Hawari and you are my Hawari, you are my disciple, you are my Hawari but then he had to confirm, so what did he do? he sent the delegation of the senior most Ansar, the people who in the days of Yathrib they had the best relationship with the Banu Qurayza, right? so he chooses the right ambassadors he chooses Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh is the leader of the Aws. He chooses Sa'd ibn Ubadah. Sa'd ibn Ubadah is leader of the Khazraj. Their two leaders were called Sa'd. They're called the Sa'dan. They're two Sa'ds. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh is the Aws. Sa'd ibn Ubadah is the Khazraj. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, he's gonna die in the Khandaq. We know. Sa'd ibn Ubadah, he was the one who had the garden that at the death of the Prophet ﷺ, the Sahaba had met over at that garden to discuss who would take over. And Sa'd ibn Ubadah, he felt that he also deserved to be the Khalifa because he was the senior most of the Ansar. But Sa'd ibn Wa'ad had died by that time or else he would have been the senior most. But Sa'd ibn Ubadah felt that perhaps I should be and therefore between him and Abu Bakr there was a little bit of a small bit of attention in the time of the Khilafah. But anyway, that's besides the point here. This is Sa'd ibn Ubadah. Sa'd ibn Ubadah, the leader of the Khazraj. And Abdullah ibn Rawaha and also Khawwati ibn Jubair. these four of the sahaba, senior of the sahaba, they went as a delegation to confirm, are the Banu Qurayza with us or not? And the Prophet ﷺ said to them, go and confirm this news that has reached us. And if it is true, then indicate it to me indirectly. Ilhanu li lahna. Indicate it to me, ishara. Don't say it explicitly. Why? because the Prophet ﷺ he's in the public he's not in his house, he's in the public he's on the front lines, he doesn't have a private audience, our Prophet ﷺ was not like the emperors or kings that he is all alone and you need an entourage and secretaries to get in, he's with the people and anything that is said to him can be heard by the other people, so he says to them, when you come back don't be explicit if they have become traitors, indicate to me why he explicitly says, do not spread fear amongst the people to weaken them. This will weaken them. Don't need to tell them this. But if they are still on their treaty, then shout it out loud. Make I'lan. Tell the people that they're still on the treaty so that they feel at ease and at content. So they went forth, they went to the Banu Quraidah and Ibn Ishaq says, they found them to be the most vulgar that they had ever seen. The most vile, the most foul mouth that they had ever seen. The worst attitude ever that they had with the people of Yathrib, the Sahaba, the Ansar, they had never had such an attitude with them. And they mocked the Prophet ﷺ and they said, who is this Rasulullah that you say, Astaghfirullah, right? And they say, we don't know any Muhammad and we don't have any treaty with him. Blatant you know, arrogance. And they know, I mean everybody knows they're lying obviously. This is the pinnacle of arrogance. And this too cannot be forgotten. When did they show this attitude? And at what time did they show this attitude? To say that, ما ندري محمد Who is this Muhammad you guys are talking about? What kibr? To flip over like this, right? And they're now denying, we have no treaty. And they had physically torn it up. So we have no treaty with this person that you call Muhammad. And Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh, he was known to have a temper. And so Ibn Ishaq says, he flared up and began shatim and sab like they had never heard before right cursing them in a very vile manner and they responded back in kind they did the exact same thing back to him and Sa'd ibn Ubadah who had more of a calm nature he held on to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and he said my dear brother the matter between us and them is more than just cursing it's not going to help us now to curse you can curse as much as you want the matter has reached something beyond cursing there is no point let's just calm down and leave them alone for what is now between us it is much more than mere la'an and shatim it's not going to help us now and so they returned back to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam they said salamu alaykum and then they said adal waqarra adal waqarra that was their indication these are the names of the two tribes that did بِإِرْمَعُونَ and رَجِيعَ the two tribes that had come to them, pretended to be Muslim got all of the people then they massacred them so they simply came back and they gave the names of the two tribes that's it, this was the indirect ishara, what? treachery, traitors this was the indirect ishara, that they used to convey to the Prophet ﷺ that these people are traitors, they're just like عضو الأند, قارة. And when the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he said, الله أكبر. Good news, glad tidings. Good news. This is good news that they have flipped around. Because he realized, his ثقة or his يقين in Allah سبحانه وتعالى was so firm, he realized them flipping over meant their land, their property, their غنيمة will eventually come to the Muslims. Right? he realized, and he was the only person whose thika was so strong in Allah he actually took this as good news that now that they're flipping over khalas now, and of course that was the last tribe that was not upon Islam as you know in all of Medina at the time, and so by them flipping over, khalas Medina will become a land completely of Muslims, and this is what the Prophet s.a.w. wanted, and of course eventually the news did spread that they had flipped over, eventually Muslims found out that the Banu Qurayza had broken the treaty and this was the worst time for the believers. This night when they found out was the worst night of the entire 25 days because the uncertainty, the fear and this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran in Surah Al-Ahzab verses 10 to 11 إِذْ جَاءُكُمْ مِنْ فَوْقِكُمْ وَمِنْ أَسْفَلَ مِنْكُمْ وَإِذْ زَاغَتِ الْأَبْصَارُ وَبَلَغَتِ الْقُلُوبُ الْحَنَاجِرَةِ وَتَظُنُّونَ You began thinking every thought about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Even the sahaba, their minds are going helter skelter. Right? This was where the believers were truly tested. And they were shaken, a firm shaking. They were really shaken to the core. And the munafiqun made it much worse. The munafiqun made it much worse. Surah Ahzab tells us this, and it is explained in Ibn Isham and others, that they wanted to ask permission from the Prophet ﷺ to go back home to protect their family with the excuse that our children are without any help, our women are without any help. But the real excuse was there were two cowards to meet the people in battle. They didn't want to meet them. And they were asking permission to leave. All of them, the munafiqun, wanted to leave. And one of them said out loud in the gathering, one of them said out loud, here was Muhammad ﷺ. the munafiqun never called him Rasulullah. That was one of the signs. Allah says in the Quran, لا تجعلوا دعاء الرسول كدعاء بعضكم بعضا Don't call the Prophet ﷺ like you call one another. This is not the way Muslims call, Ya Muhammad or something. We don't say like this. Ya Rasulullah. And the munafiqun would call him by his name. The munafiqun would not have that adab. So one of them said, here was Muhammad ﷺ promising us the treasures of Kisra and Qaisar. Caesar and the Persian emperor, Kisra. And now, one of us is too scared and used a vulgar word, which means to go and defecate. We can't even go to the bathroom and do that. Now we can't even do this. Now what again, to spread such fear and to be so crude to our Prophet ﷺ, clearly, once again, Ahzab exposed and separated between the believers and the munafiqun. Now, here before we move on, We find one of the biggest benefits here, and I have said this many many times, that Islam does not want to spread even the news of evil. Islam does not sensationalize even the truth. If something really happened that's bad, don't go and tell people about it. Forget, we're not even talking slander, we're not even talking exaggeration, we're talking about the truth. Here the Banu Quraidah have flipped. And the Prophet ﷺ says, keep it low. You don't have to go tell everybody, right? And this is in complete contrast to the hyper-inflated media that we live in, where every grisly detail, every gruesome matter, needs to be analyzed and exposed and shown, and every scandal and every juicy salacious rumor, this is not adab. And it harms society. Why do you need to know the details of this rape, or this murder, or this... Even if it's true. Even if it's true. Because what happens is, it desensitizes society's heart. Even society has a qalb. Even society has haya. Right? And okay, things happen sometimes. Even in an Islamic society, that's perfectly ideal. I don't want to be too much, but wallahi, you guys should understand, in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, we know there were prostitutes in Medina. Sahih Bukhari tells us this. In the time of the Prophet ﷺ, a rape happened to a woman. Sahih Muslim tells us this, right? this is the reality of the world we live in that's the reality, you're not gonna change this is an ideal utopic Medina but you don't go and tell people grisly things, you don't go and advertise you just keep it low now when you know of these things and society is aware of it, what happens? people get desensitized to nudity, they get desensitized to crime, to murder and therefore as we see ourselves, crime gets even more gruesome. It gets more grisly. A murder is not even newsworthy anymore. Right? It's not even something that the ideal situation is that you don't even hear of a crime until you capture the perpetrator and punish him. Then in Islamic societies it is announced that a rape occurred. This is the rapist. This is his death. Now you get the moral of the story. Right? This is the ideal. And this is something we learn over and over again. Even in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says why did you have to spread it about the ifq of Aisha and in the Quran also that why didn't you take it to ulil amri minhum, take it to the leaders and not just spread it and also in Sahih Bukhari we learned that when an issue happened in the time of Umar ibn Khattab, he wanted to speak publicly some of the senior sahaba said to him don't speak here in this gathering there's good and there's bad, let's wait till we go back to Medina, they were in a gathering they were on an expedition, let's get back and then when you're in safety then go and spread this news. The point being again this clearly demonstrates the difference of an ideal Islamic society versus the type of society we live in that we don't talk about scandals or affairs or anything just keep it hidden and the fitrah remains pure at that. We also learn over here that the amazing yaqeen of the Prophet to take the worst possible news and yet read into it something positive. And only he could do that, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Who else has that iman? That the worst news, that now we're gonna be, there's at least 2,000 people, at least 2,000 people of the tribe, I'm saying, amongst the men there were 8,900, as we'll study. So around 2,500 of the tribe, of the Banu Quraidah, and they have a fortress, which they can come in and out of. And they're inside the city. How can we protect against them? How can we protect? And our families are here, and our children are there. And yet our Prophet ﷺ had so much trust in Allah. He said, Allahu Akbar, Abshiru, good news, glad tidings. Meaning, Alhamdulillah, the final straw in the city of Medina is now been collapsed. Who could have had that Yaqeen? Anybody who doesn't have that connection with Allah, what's gonna happen? And this is a sign of his Nubuwwah ﷺ, that at this time he read in something positive and he's telling them good news. That just like what happened in Hudaybiyah as we'll see as well. that innā fidahna laka fatha mubīna that whenever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decrees put your trust in it, there must be some good in it, and of course we also see and we're continuing to see the reality of the munafiqoon that here is this munafiq mocking the Prophet ﷺ saying he promised us kisra and qaisar, now we can't even go do this, right, we can't even go to the bathroom right, and what what narrow mindedness and how impatient that barely 6-7 years after this munafiq uttered these words, the Muslims were eating from the plates of Kisra and Qaisr. Not even a lifetime, not even a generation. This is like, you know, not even a decade wallahi. Think about it, right? When was Qadisiyah, right? When was Yarmouk, when did this happen? In the end of Abu Bakr, the beginning of Umar, right? Less than 7 years, and they are eating from the plates of Kisra and Qaisar exactly as the Prophet ﷺ promised. وَلَكِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ As the Prophet ﷺ said, but you people are too hasty. You just don't trust that is going to happen. Now, in any case, so when the news spread, the army was already pretty thinly divided. And remember we had already mentioned that to demonstrate a show of force. They were marching throughout the trench all night long with torches and crying out at the top of their voices, Allahu Akbar! So that in case anybody comes, the impression is given that the army is larger than it is. And there's a constant patrol. But now they had to split the patrol into two. As it was, they've thinned out because it's a large trench. And you have to go back and forth, make sure. Now they have to thin themselves out and send a small contingent to monitor the fortress of the women and children. And this was the tension that the Banu Qurayza caused. And so they sent Zayd ibn Harithah and Salama ibn Aslam with a contingent of fighters to go and protect the fortress that the Muslim women and the Muslim children were. And to make sure that the Banu Qurayza know that they are being monitored. Now, when the Quraysh came, as we said, and again this is from last week, they did not know what to do when they saw the trench. They realized that they cannot charge en masse. And so they decided to set up camp and wait it out. How long is this going to wait? We have 10,000. We have supplies. We can get more supplies. You're trapped in here. So obviously it's a waiting game and we will win. Now a number of small incidents occurred. So we're going to talk about some of those incidents. The main incidents that occurred. Minor skirmishes occurred. And the battle of Khandaq is interesting in that, and there's much wisdom here, it was the largest gathering of non-Muslims against the Prophet ﷺ. And yet, it was the smallest number of casualties. It is an amazing, or one of the smallest number of casualties. One of the top smallest numbers. And perhaps you can say one or two other skirmishes were smaller than this. But amongst the major battles, it is really the smallest. Amongst the scale of the battle, the casualties are negligible. And this is an amazing, amazing miracle really. And of course, this is because Allah fought directly on their behalf. When they had such trust in Allah, their casualties went even below Badr and Uhud. It's amazing. Think about it, right? Even though the number of people, what is Badr? 1,000 compared to 10,000, right? What is Uhud? 3,000 compared to 10,000. And yet the casualties were, you can count them on the fingers of one hand, or perhaps six or something. I mean, there's a bit of ikhtilaf as usual, but literally just a handful. and some of them were most of them were by bows and arrows which is really not a direct battle you just come and it just kills you as we're gonna talk about with Sa'd ibn Mu'adh so the point being it is amazing that despite being the largest army yet in terms of casualties it is the smallest and this is wallahi wallahi this is an ayah from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it is a sign from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for us to reflect upon that وَإِن تَنْصُرُوا اللَّهَ يَنْصُرُكُمْ وَيُثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَكُمْ that if Allah helps you then khalas, you're not going to be defeated. In any case, some of the small things that happened. Of the minor skirmishes that happened, is that on one of the places of the trench, a small group managed to break across. When there was nobody on the other side, they managed to fling their horses across, and it was five of them, and the leader of them was Amr ibn Abdu Wood. Amr ibn Abdu Wood. Wood is one of the idols, so Abdu Wood. and Amr ibn Abdul Wood he was of the elders of Quraysh who was known for his ferocity and he had inflicted many wounds and even killed one or two in the battle of Badr and he was known for his ferocity and in the battle of Ahzab he had put on the red turban and that was the turban of death that was the sign it was like meant to inflict fear this was a sign for both sides by the way it's like something that was known It's called the sign of death basically. That you're boasting, that come and fight me and I will kill you. And he was a strong and muscular man. And when he came across, he managed to jump across, a contingent immediately came running up to him. So he said, who will fight me? This Mubaraza, one on one. Who will fight me? And Ali ibn Abi Talib said, I will. But the Prophet ﷺ said to him, Ya Ali, this is Amr ibn Abdul Wood. Ali was at this time, how old is Ali at this time? He's in his mid-twenties at this time. He's still young. And Amr ibn Abdul Wood is gonna be at the prime of his fighting. He has experience, decades of experience. And he said to Ali, not now, this is Amr ibn Abdul Wood. Let one of the seniors go and fight him. So when nobody stood up, he said again, who will fight me? Again Ali said, let me go do it. And the Prophet ﷺ said, he is Amr ibn Abdul Wood. For the third time, he said, who is going to fight me? And so when Ali once again asked permission, and the Prophet said, it is Amr ibn Abdul Wud. Ali said, even if it is Amr ibn Abdul Wud, somebody's got to do it. And so the Prophet says, and when he saw that zeal, he allowed Ali to stand up and fight. And so Amr said, who is this? Who is this young man coming? And so he said, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Now Ali was a kid to Amr. Like he knows, Amr knows him since he's a baby. And you know, I'm sure his father, we don't know, but I'm sure his father was a friend to Amr. So he said to, Ya Bunei, my little kid, you know, you go back and send one of your elders. I mean, who are you to fight me? Go and get some man. I have nothing against you, you're just a kid. Now obviously from his perspective, he's seen Ali grow up and he's not, you know, the attitude is there that, you go and get a man. I don't want to fight a little kid. And so, and he said to him, and I have no desire to kill or harm you. And Ali said, but I have a desire to kill you. So when he said this, khalas, Amr became enraged. And he charged forward. And he charged forward to kill Ali. And he is riding on his horse. And Ali is riding on his horse. And Ibn Ishaq says, the dust that the horses raised up completely covered what was going on. And the only news that came to them that Ali had won was the takbir from the middle of the dust. Right? That they heard Allahu Akbar from the middle of the dust. This was the news that Ali had actually won. And according to another report, what happened was that when they got close, Amr ibn Abdul Wood, he actually jumped off his horse to fight him one on one and when he jumped off his horse Ali also jumped off his horse and he raced towards him and he tried his hardest to give him a blow to the head and Ali raised his shield and the shield broke in half it was that and this is a metal shield, it broke in half but it managed to deflect the sword and the same instant he raised his shield, the same instance, he plunged it into the neck of Amr. And that requires a skill that I don't think any of us have ever experienced or practiced, and may Allah protect all of us, but simultaneous. Like, with one hand the blow, and then because Amr's entire force is in the blow, so he's not on the defensive now. His entire body weight is on the offensive, right? And Ali, split second timing, he uses that to block it and then with the other hand plunges direct into the neck and so one clean blow and khalas, Amr is gone. Not even a battle in that and this is a skill and Ali of course was the batal, the warrior that we all know about. Another person who crossed over was Nawfal ibn Abdullah, another of the people of the Quraysh and it was Zubayr ibn al-Awwam who charged up to him and Zubayr hit him with so much force that Naufal's body literally split in half. Zubayr hit him with so much force, literally the body split in half. And someone remarked to Zubayr, what an amazing sword that you have. And so Zubayr said, it's not the sword, it's the arm. It's not the sword, it's the arm. You know, it's like, this is allowed here, a little bit of, you know, sometimes it's allowed, you know, because it's not the sword, it's the arm that did this, right? And Naufal's body lay there for a while in the sun. And after a while the Quraysh cried out that, Oh Muslims let us basically purchase this body so that we can bury it. We will pay you some money. You can throw the body over to us and then we will bury it. And the Prophet ﷺ said, This corpse is najis and its thaman is najis. this corpse is filthy and the price is filthy we have no need of your money and we do not buy the price of corpses, come and get it and bury it right, and this I have said even from the battle of Badr onwards that the dignity of burial is given to everyone, right, even those who have tried to kill you in the battlefield, the Prophet ﷺ allowed the burial and he said come and get it but we don't need any of your money, of the people who crossed over, by the way, of the few people who crossed over was Khalid ibn al-Walid. Khalid ibn al-Walid managed to break over and cross over and we know the genius of Khalid and he was one of the few people who managed to cross over. He had a sword fight but nobody died and he basically jumped back over. Of those who crossed as well was Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal and he too eventually had to flee back without causing any death or any major damage. The total number of pagans or mushrikoon who were killed, probably around three or four. And the total number of Muslims most of whom with arrows because the Quraysh had plenty of arrows on the outside and they're showering it inside were around six or maybe seven. So again, in the handful both of the sides are in the handful and as I said, out of all of the major battles, it is really a sign from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala how few casualties of the Muslims even though 10,000 people have been gathered. Of course the most tragic death is really the death of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. This is the tragedy of the battle of Khandaq. We've just seen his status, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, right now when he's been sent as the delegation. He is the chieftain of the Aus. And as it was, we said, the Aus had more prestige anyway. In the days of Jahiliyyah obviously. In Islam they're all the same. In the days of Jahiliyyah, the Aus is considered slightly superior. In the days of Jahiliyyah, the Aus were also richer. The Aus had the marketplace. And the Aus were more landowners and businessmen. They had the more money and the Khazraj were more into the labor. And so as it is that in the days of Jahiliyyah, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh already had been their chieftain. And Aisha narrates that, when we were in the fortress, the Hisan, I was sitting with the mother of Sa'd, Umm Sa'd. And Sa'd came to bid her farewell, meaning he's gonna go to the front line now. So he's not gonna see her until the end. So he's gone to the very last time. He doesn't know it is literally the last time. but he's gone to bid her farewell for the battle time, duration of the battle. He's gone to bid her farewell, and he's dressed in his armor. And Aisha says that at the time, hijab had not been revealed. The verses of hijab had not come down. As I have said, the verses of hijab came down at the end of the fifth year of the hijrah. So they're gonna come down another two, three months from now. And as well I have said, the verses of hijab were of the last commandments revealed. After all the verses, or most of the verses of the ibadat, after the verses of inheritance, after the verses of marriage and divorce, of the very final commandments to come down is the verses of hijab. And that shows us again, we start with the bigger things, then we get to the issues of hijab. In our society, it's really the flip opposite, where you start with the hijab and then work your way to the salah. Whereas you're supposed to start with the salah and then concentrate on the spirituality, work your way up there. In any case, Aisha is saying, she's explaining how come she's sitting and Sa'ad can see her because there's no hijab at this time. so Sa'ad comes and he speaks to his mother bids her farewell his mother says oh my son hurry up don't waste your time with me go to the front again this is the Iman that they have that there's no dilly dallying here don't waste your time with me you're late everybody else is already on the front line go and as he departs Aisha says to Umm Sa'ad that how sparse is his armor I wish he had more armor and Aisha says that he was only wearing a male basically on the chest area, you know the armor coating that is there. And his arms were all open because he couldn't afford, he didn't have the armor for the hands. And Aisha says, he was injured from where I was worried he would be injured. Like when I saw him, that this isn't good enough. And she mentioned to Umm Sa'ad that I wish she had better armor. And he was injured exactly where I was worried about, where he was exposed. And an arrow struck him right in the upper part of his hand over here, right where the main artery goes through. Deep it went inside. And this was the wound that eventually after a few weeks, you could not cure this wound. It bled and it bled and it bled until he died after the battle. And we'll talk about this inshallah next Wednesday. But it was Hibab ibn al-Ariqah that shot him. Hibab ibn al-Ariqah that shot him, that he saw that spot opening. And so he shot him from across the trench and he shouted out to him, take this from me and I am Ibn al-Ariqah. Like this is my gift to you and I am Ibn al-Ariqah. And so he's boasting that I caused you this. And Sa'ad responded that and he changed his name and he said, عَرَّقَ اللَّهُ وَجْهَكَ فِي النَّارِ that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala means to cause to sweat and be in distress Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will cause your face to be sweating because of this in nar and eventually of course we'll talk about this he died because of this wound and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh so much is to be said about him he was that convert he was that convert who accepted Islam at the hands of Musab ibn Umair one of the earliest converts at the hands of Musab ibn Umair And it was because of Sa'ad's conversion that his entire tribe accepted Islam. That when Sa'ad converted, he told his tribe that I will not speak to anyone of you until you follow this religion. You leave idolatry and you accept Tawheed. And they loved him so much that out of a love for him they embraced Islam. And this shows the status that he had amongst his people. That out of a love for him, the entire tribe embraced Islam. The entire sub-tribe, meaning not all of the Aus, but even the Aus had many sub-tribes. His sub-tribe, the entire sub-tribe embraced Islam. And Sa'd ibn Mu'adh as well, what else is narrated about him? Of course, the incident of Badr, we all, we did the incident of Badr. That when the Prophet ﷺ realized that the Quraysh don't have a caravan, they have an army. And he had with him the Muhajirun and the Ansar. And the Ansar had not taken the oath to fight an offensive fight. They had only taken the oath to fight a defensive fight. Remember the treaty of Aqaba, right? And so he hasn't extracted this oath from them. And so he says to them, well, now that we know it's not the Eid of Quraish, but rather it's the army of Quraish, what do you say? And so Abu Bakr stood up and said, do as you please, we will follow you. And then he said, you have spoken well. What do you say? Then Umar stood up and then said it as well. And once again the Prophet said, you have spoken well. And then another person stood above the muhajirun. And he made even more compliments. And the Prophet ﷺ said, You have spoken well. Then there was silence because the sahaba didn't understand what's going on. It was Sa'd who understood what's going on. It was Sa'd who had the intelligence and who had the iman and the courage. And he immediately stood up and says, لَعَلَّكَ تَعْنِينَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ Perhaps you're referencing us. That's what you're waiting. And the silence of the Prophet ﷺ indicated, Yes, that was the case, right? So then he said, فَوَاللَّهِ O Messenger of Allah, go wherever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told you to go. Go forth and go into the water or go to Barak al-Ghimad, which is, Barak al-Ghimad means go to the moon. Like Barak al-Ghimad is a non-existent area. It's like go wherever you want. اِمْضِي حَيْثُ أَنْضَاكَ اللَّهِ Go wherever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told you to go. And you will find us right behind you. We will not tell you, like the Bani Israel said to Musa, اِذْهَبْ أَنْتَ وَرَبُّكَ فَقَاتِلَا إِنَّا هَاهُنَا قَاعِدُونَ you and your Lord go fight, we are here and we're gonna sit over here, we will say, you and your Lord go fight and we are with you wherever you go this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, right, that brave speech that he gave, one of the most eloquent speeches of the whole seerah, this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, another story about Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, that really shows his iman is that Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, by the way he was close friends with Umayyah ibn Khalaf, in the days of Jahiliyyah, Umayyah ibn Khalaf the infamous Umayyah ibn Khalaf and they considered themselves to be business brothers. They had something called business brothers. So whenever he would go to Mecca, he would stay in Umayyah's house. Whenever Umayyah would come to Medina or Yathrib, he would stay in Sa'ad's house. So one day, early after the Hijrah, probably in the first year of the Hijrah, he went to Mecca for his business routine and Umayyah said, don't go out in the daytime because there's tension, you know, between Yathrib or Medina and people of Mecca. Go out at night. So he went out at night and Abu Jahl heard the noise, went out to see what's going on and lo and behold it is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. So Abu Jahl said, how dare you come here when you have helped our renegade or the Prophet ﷺ. How can you be in our city when you have done this to us? You have adopted or you have taken him. How can you do this? And the two of them began verbally raising their voices. Umayyah sided with Abu Jahl and said to Sa'd, don't rebuke Abu Jahl or Abu Al-Hakam they called him, not Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl is what we call him. Don't rebuke Abu al-Hakam. He is our Sayyid and our leader. Right? And he sided with Abu Jahl basically against Sa'd. And he tried to calm Sa'd down and he was holding him back. Basically it's gonna get physical and Sa'd says to Umayyah, get your hands off of me. For wallahi I heard the Prophet ﷺ say that he will kill you. And this shocked Umayyah. Because he says, Muhammad says he will kill me. Wallahi has never spoken a lie in his life. Meaning this must be true. He has never spoken a lie in his life. And he went back shocked to his wife and said, Muhammad has predicted he will kill me. And his wife said, he has said this, then it will be true. And when the battle of Badr happened, that is why Umayyah, if you remember the story, Umayyah tried his best to get out of it. And Umayyah paid somebody 4000 dinars to go fight. And Umayyah did this, Umayyah did that. Abu Jahl mocked him, threatened him, until finally got the better of him and he marched to his death knowing that you know this would be his death but this was the reality Sa'd ibn Mu'adh of course Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was the one that when he died the Prophet ﷺ said the angels prayed his janazah and the angels took his body up and this is the famous hadith in Bukhari and Muslim and in other versions اِهْتَزَّ عَرْشُ الرَّحْمَانِ لِمَوْتِ سَعْدِ بْنِ مُعَاذِ that the throne of Allah shook at the death of Sa'ad. Scholars have said, this is one of two interpretations. The first, it shook out of happiness to greet him. The second, it shook out of anger that somebody killed him. Both interpretations are valid, right? It shook out of happiness to greet him, or it shook out of anger that how dare somebody killed him. In any case, when Sa'ad was wounded, Sa'ad made a dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that, O Allah, if you will allow the Quraysh to come back and fight, then allow me to live to fight them. Because there is no nation that is more despised to me than them for what they have done to your Rasul. But, if this will be the last time, then accept me as a shaheed. Accept me as a shaheed. that's it I have no reason to live now accept me as a shaheed but then he said but allow my eyes to be sweetened and comforted by seeing the Banu Quraithah and what happens to them he made this dua basically on his well he didn't realize it's his deathbed but wounded, bleeding and he made this dua that oh Allah if there's gonna be any more fight then please cure me and allow me to fight them But if that's it, there's not going to be any more battle, then let me be a shaheed, but at least let me see the Banu Quraidah. Because he feels anger, rage. How dare they do this? And of course he has a history with them. Going back to the days of Jahiliyyah. He has friendship with them. He has whole history with them. And so he says, let me see coolness. قُرَّةُ عَيْن Comfort my eyes. By seeing the retribution that will happen to the Banu Quraidah. and of course it was Sa'd who, Allah will that they put in charge, right? Because he was the closest person to them. We'll talk about that next Wednesday. But look, his dua was accepted. His dua was literally accepted. That as soon as the battle finished, then they went to the Banu Quraidah, Sa'd could not even walk. And he had to be carried, and he had to go on a donkey. He could not walk even to the Banu Quraidah, which is inside the city basically. And he's wounded, he's bleeding, and in that state, he gives the verdict that Allah Azza wa Jal was pleased with and he dies shortly after that so his dua was fulfilled and of course this is the reality of the dua of the shaheed and the dua of the one who is given his life for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala one other thing about Sa'd one of the small hadith about Sa'd that shows how much he was on the mind of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that two years later two years, the seventh year of the maybe even the eighth, we don't know exactly when two or three years after the death of Sa'ad an incident happened very trivial, very small but the first name that comes to the mind of the Prophet ﷺ is Sa'ad and this shows us the weight that the death of Sa'ad had on him in the year of the emissaries and the years of sending the letters to the kings and the rulers of the neighboring region and that began around the 7th year of the Hijrah. That's why we know this took place either the 7th or the 8th year. One of the letters came back from the province what is now called Bahrain basically, but back then it had other names. One of these provinces closer to the Persian Empire. And the emperor wrote back a somewhat sympathetic letter, not a harsh letter. And he gifted the Prophet ﷺ one of the finest gifts, one of the finest robes that he had ever worn, salallahu alayhi wasalam. And there's a lot of fiqh that is to be derived because the robe, it is said, it had gold decorations on it. And the sahaba, it is said, had seen nothing like this. Now, the Arabs did not produce fine cloths. The Arabs were known for leather and for trading goods. They were a trading depot. They would take from here, sell there, take from yourself there. They did not produce their own cloth. They would import the good cloth. And of course, the finest cloth came from Persia. The finest brocades came from Persia. So, you can imagine a ruler is gifting to what he thinks is another ruler. Right? And you can imagine how fine this will be. And the hadith in Tirmidhi says, the Sahaba began going around the Prophet ﷺ to look at his garment. Can you imagine how dazzling it would have been that they had never seen a garment so beautiful and they're walking around. Now footnote here, not related to the seerah. This shows us many things. Of them is that it shows us it is completely halal to wear fine clothes. And our Prophet ﷺ is wearing an extremely fine garment. Very plush, very luxurious garment. but the perfection is that our Prophet ﷺ never spent money on it by the way we have to point this out as well he would not spend money on it and that he was not his heart was not attached to it and this is proven by what he said to the Sahaba that he was shocked at their shocked at their shocked he was shocked at how shocked they were and he said أَتَعْجَبُونَ مِنْ هَذَا are you impressed with this so he is shocked that they are finding this impressive أَتَعْجَبُونَ مِنْ هَذَا so it shows where is his heart he's not it's not a big deal he got a gift, he's wearing it he himself is not as attached to it as the sahaba seem to be so he said أَتَعْجَبُونَ مِنْ هَذَا then what did he say فَوَاللَّهِ لَمَنْ دِيلُ سَعْدِ بِالْمُعَادِ فِي الْجَنَّةِ look where did it come out of out of nowhere Wallahi the handkerchief of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh in Jannah is better than all of this out of nowhere the name that comes to mind Sa'd ibn Mu'adh like he's trying to explain and what does that show this is the subconsciously who is the person the Prophet ﷺ is thinking about now the mandeel which is the stuff you use to wipe yourself literally handkerchief this is the cloth that up until recently you would have to wipe your dirty things your nose and what not his handkerchief is better than this entire brocade this entire garment that you are impressed with small hadith but what does it show? it shows psychologically how much love the Prophet ﷺ had for Sa'd ibn Mu'adh in any case getting back to the story so this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh that one of these days he was, we don't know which day it's not mentioned early, middle or what not but most likely sometime in the middle it came in and he was so wounded that they had to set up a special tent for him because he cannot go back home, there's nobody home homes are empty, all the women are there so they had to set up a special tent for Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh and the Prophet ﷺ would regularly visit Sa'ad in that tent to find out his condition and what not and as we know he never really recovered from that wound within a few weeks or maybe even a week, we don't know when the wound occurred, basically as soon as Khandaq finished, after a few days when the Banu Quraida incident happened, this was the end for Sa'ad as well. Of the incidents that is narrated as well during the siege which as we know lasted some say 20, some say 25 some say 30 days, the ikhtilaf is trivial, around a month around a month and Ibn Ishaq says 25 days and others say a bit more, a bit less but overall around a month was how long the siege lasted, of the things that we learn, which is Bukhari and Muslim and all of the books of hadith mention that on one particular day, the harasa or the the border patrol and the skirmishes and the arrows and what not became so severe that the Muslims were not able to pray Asr. They couldn't even pause to pray Asr. Now there is a big controversy amongst the Fuqaha. Was Salatul Khawf revealed by this time or not? And there is a big controversy because if Salatul Khawf were revealed, why didn't they pray Salatul Khawf? And the majority position is that Salatul Khawf had been revealed at this time. but they were so preoccupied that the notion of praying was not they didn't even have the time to remember that they forgot if that makes sense they're so busy doing what they had to do that it was a genuine like moment where they forgot and the evidence for this is that the hadith seem to suggest this that and there are so many hadith if you look up Bukhari and Muslim you find at least 10 hadith about this one incident and because it has some fiqh about delaying the salah and about making up delayed salah this is where we get the fiqh of fawat of the missed prayers this is where we get it from the Prophet ﷺ never of course intentionally missed a prayer we have two recorded instances of a missing salah only two this is the one of them and then the other one of them was the oversleeping at fajr that took place that the army was going the entire night they were marching non-stop the entire night and then they rested Qubayl al-Fajr like an hour before Fajr and the Prophet ﷺ said who will guard us and wake us for Fajr, Bilal said I will and so all of the army fell asleep immediately and then Bilal eventually as well fell asleep and the first person to wake up was the Prophet ﷺ with the heat of the sun and the first thing he said, Ya Bilal what happens, subhanallah, look you know, his own mind about salah Ya Bilal, what happened? and so Bilal said, Ya Rasulullah the same one who caused you to sleep, caused me to sleep it's not my fault right, the one who took your soul took my soul as well, don't blame me and so that was a genuine oversleeping of fajr that took place once and this was the only other time in the seerah that authentically it is reported that and both of them are unintentional So the entire life obviously never had happened. Now what happened here, that I'll just quote one or two hadith, that Umar came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, Ya Rasulullah, I was not able to pray Asr until the sun has already set. I haven't prayed Asr and the sun had set. And the Prophet ﷺ said, and I too was not able to pray Asr. And so they both did wudu and they prayed Asr after the sun had set. after the sun had set. Sahih Bukhari mentions that the Prophet ﷺ said, and this is a very famous hadith, شَغَلُونَ عَنِ الصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ حَتَّىٰ غَرَبَتِ الشَّمْسِ مَلَأَ اللَّهُ قُبُورَهُمْ وَبُيُوتَهُمْ نَارًا That they have شَغَلُونَ, they've made us busy so much so that we have not even managed to pray صَلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ Now, this also shows us حَافِدُ عَلَى الصَّلَوَاتِ وَصَلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ It means صلاة العصر. This is the correct position because of this hadith. That, شَغَلُونَ عَنِ الصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ They kept us busy from the middle salah. Until we weren't able to pray it, and the sun has set, may Allah fill their houses and their graves with the fire. مَلَا اللَّهُ قُبُورَهُمْ وَبُيْتَهُمْ نَارًا He is so angry, not because they're attempting to kill him, because they have managed to prevent Salatul Asr. Look at his anger, what is it for? Right? I wasn't able to pray Asr, and he's angry at that. May Allah fill their graves and their. So what will be the case of the one whose money prevents him from Salatul Asr? Whose business prevents him from Salatul Asr? Whose television and sports show prevents him from Salatul Asr? Think about this, right? What will be his case? And here is the Prophet ﷺ on the battlefield. And he's fuming angry at them. Why? شَغَلُونَ عَنِ الصَّلَاةِ الْوُسْطَىٰ This is why he's angry at them. So after the sun had set, he then prayed Salatul Asr. now from this the fuqaha have derived the fiqh point not related to the seerah and this is inshallah the correct opinion that when you need to make up salawat you make them up in the right order if it is reasonable and possible to do so so for example even though maghrib time had come in he didn't pray maghrib he prayed asr and then he prayed maghrib and this shows us that the general rule you make up salawat in the order that you miss them and the order that they should be prayed now again because we just mentioned it what if this is not possible it's not possible for multiple reasons number one reason you haven't prayed for 5, 10, 15 years then what are you going to do make up 15 years salah before you say the next prayer obviously not so then it doesn't apply number two the scholars say that if you praying one salah will make two salah missed whereas if you jump to the second salah then the first salah is the only one missed then you jump to the second salah what does this mean? you get the point here that it's between let's say asr and maghrib and you haven't prayed let's say dhuhr so if you move on to the second salah then you will miss the first and the second timing therefore you begin with the timing that you still have, and then you make up the other salah, okay? So in this case, maghrib, there was still time left for it. And therefore the process in prayer al-asr before he prayed maghrib, in any case that's all fiqh, but not related to the seerah, but again just for benefit. One final point and we're going to start the story, but then we're going to have to pause and then continue next week. And that is, where did the turn come about? What happened? It was the role of Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud al-Ghatafani, right? the Nu'aym ibn Masud al-Ghatafani we'll begin the story here we're not gonna finish it because it's a long part of the story and this was when the tide shifted the very end of the siege a few days are left in the siege now they don't know this but from our chronology probably around the 20th day probably around the 20th again there's no we don't have a detailed narration but around the 20th day out of the blue somebody just walks in to the camp of the Muslims and his name is Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud from the tribe of Ghatafan and they're outside the tribe of Ghatafan and he says to him Ya Rasulullah, inni qad aslamtu I have accepted Islam and tell me to do whatever you want me to do now, Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud was the one Allah Azawajal used to shift the entire tide around And the books of Sira hardly mention his story, because he's from Ghatafan. He's not Makki, he's not Madani. There's hardly any information about him. We just know tidbits. One of the things we know is that in the conquest of Makkah, he was the one that was carrying the banner for the tribe of Ghatafan. He became the liwa' holder for the Muslim side from the tribe of Ghatafan. That's a very big honor. We don't know much about him. I tried my best to really do as thorough of a research as I could. and I found a few tidbits and I'll develop a theory. This is completely from me. There's no, we don't know his story except one or two things. And Allah knows best. I'll tell you what we know and I'll tell you what my theory is. Leave it at that. What do we know about Nu'aym ibn Hamad? Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud, excuse me. Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud al-Ghatafani. Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud al-Ghatafani, his first mention comes in the fourth year of the Hijrah. That the tribe of Ghatafan he was of the elite but not the chief so he's of the second tier you know he's known he's got some strings and connections but he's not the big boss and to do this you needed to have second tier not the big boss Allah Azza wa Jal had this all obviously makar wa makar Allah right to do what he did you needed to be one rank below the big man you needed to be in the vizier ranks right not the prime minister They're one level below. And that was Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud. So Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud was in Mecca in the fourth year of the Hijrah. He's a pagan, he's a mushrik. And he's on his business trips with whatever they're doing in Mecca. Abu Sufyan goes to him. He has a good friendship with Abu Sufyan. So Abu Sufyan goes to him and says, I need to use you for something. And they negotiate a price. Big amount of price. What do they negotiate? Abu Sufyan says, we had made a promise with Muhammad ﷺ that we would meet at Badr. What promise is this? Fourth year of the Hijrah. Second Uhud at Badr. I know it's confusing, right? Uhud part two. Uhud, what was the last point of Uhud? We're gonna meet again at Badr. You see the point here, right? So Uhud, the end of Uhud, remember what did Abu Sufyan say? We're gonna have a meeting one year at Badr. Why Badr? Because it was convenient. Badr was the big plain, it's convenient for all of them to have a war there. So Abu Sufyan says to Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud that this year we cannot go, the crops have been bad, business has been... You know the typical excuses, they didn't want to fight, as we mentioned. We mentioned this before. You go to Muhammad ﷺ and convince him not to come so that it appears he didn't come instead of us. You see the point here. you tell him that we are massive army you've never seen this many people and this and that basically paint a false picture right so the people will hear that he never showed up so the blame will be on them and not us okay so Nu'aym agreed now he's not a Muslim he's never seen the Prophet ﷺ he's a Ghatafani nothing to do with this right he's being sucked in but Allah Azza wa Jal has his own so he agrees he takes this money I believe it was 20 camels or something whatever, there was a big amount of bribe and he goes and he informs the Prophet ﷺ of this lie that I have seen now he went to Medina outwardly on a business trip like not as a messenger, right? he's going, you know, a ploy that he was going to buy dates or whatever at this stage, ghatafan is neutral and that's why he's being used in the fourth year of the hijrah, early fourth year ghatafan is neutral so Abu Sufyan is using him to plant false information so he goes, he plants this false information and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says Wallahi we will go fight them, even if I am alone I will go and be with him with the Maw'id and you know, he wasn't alone, all the Muslims marched with him, and all the Muslims came there and it was clear that the Quraysh never showed up not the Muslims, we did this when we did it right, this is the first and the major exposure that Nu'aym has to the Prophet ﷺ. And the second minor thing that we have that one of the books of Sira mentions is that probably around the late fourth year or the early fifth year that the Prophet ﷺ made a treaty with the sub-tribe of Nu'aym. And Nu'aym was the one he negotiated with. And that was about the caravan of the Quraysh that what to do, what not to do. It was basically a simple treaty about demarcating boundaries or something like this, right? That's all we know. We don't know the details. One of those small one-liners in the Sira. now that's what we know what is my theory allahu a'lam but it appears that these interactions impress Nu'aym so much and he saw the bravery of the Prophet ﷺ and he saw the truthfulness and going to Medina he must have been there a few days because you don't just go for an hour when you're traveling in those days you rest and then you're fresh and you move on interacting with the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims that Islam became very dear to him. And he saw the reality of Islam. And so he met with the Prophet ﷺ twice. Allah Azawajal has chosen him. Out of all of the people of Ghatafan, he is the one who has interacted directly with the Prophet ﷺ. Right? And at the time, he's deemed neutral, both of these times. At the time, he's not a Muslim and he's not with the Quraysh. He's neutral. But, Allah knows best. My theory is that, and I think it's a pretty obvious theory, or it's an obvious thing to make a stretch, that these interactions impressed Nu'aym so much that he converted to Islam. And so the next time he's able to interact with the Prophet ﷺ, he's actually a secret Muslim. And he is the only Muslim in his whole tribe because Ghatafan has not gotten involved up until now. Right? And this shows us, وَمَنْ يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقُهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَعْزُقُهُ احتسب وميتوكل علي فهو حسبه Whoever has taqwa of Allah, Allah will make a way out for him. And Allah will provide for him from a source he never expected. How and where did a ghatafani convert? Allah عز و جل willed it. This is the point. You cannot fight against the power of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى If Allah is helping you, خَلَصْ That's it. And so, نُعَيْم walks in out of the blue, complete, he literally sneaks away from Ghatafan in the middle of the night he makes his way to the camp of the Prophet ﷺ and he embraces Islam in front of the Prophet ﷺ and says I am at your service O Messenger of Allah do what you tell me to do what do you want me to do, I will do it out of literally nowhere Allah's help came, through Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud and so the Prophet ﷺ said to him that you are but one person what will your help do on this side? What are you going to do to fight with us? You're just one person. You know, what are you going to do? But go back and do anything that you can think of to protect us. Go back and do anything that you do that can protect us. So Nu'aym said, O Messenger of Allah, do you allow me to say anything? Meaning, do you give me permission to use tactics that are not the most honest tactics? And the Prophet ﷺ said, Al-Harb Al-harbu khid'ah. War is deceit. War is tricks. Al-harbu khid'ah. When you're fighting an enemy, you have to, just like the Prophet ﷺ would pretend to go in one direction, then he turns himself and go the other way. This is khid'ah. Now by the way, this is a very important fifth point here. Khid'ah is not khiyanah. This is a very important point we need to make here. Khid'ah is a little bit of tricks. khayana is treason treachery Islam allows khid'ah during times of genuine war and frankly every nation does Sun Tzu who is the famous Chinese author of the art of war Sun Tzu wrote one of the first manuals of war and I think it's the first maxim he has a whole maxim full of war and it's necessary reading material you read it when you go to the halls of Seton or the halls of what's that place in England called the famous the famous no the military Sandhurst right and here in America the Virginia all of these institutes the first reading material is going to be Sun Tzu the art of war it is a classic Sun Tzu says I think it's the first maxim that lying is nine tenths of war this is like the way the world works World War II so many things happened between Germany and the allies and what not and one of the final things the invasion of Normandy and D-Day, the entire plan was complete surprise to the Germans because they had been spoon fed a bunch of lies the allies, I mean I'm not going to world war twist you but you get my point here it's reality, you have to pretend something and then you do something else, all nations do this and for anyone to come and say Oh, look at what your religion says. Subhanallah, war around the world involves this. It's not anything. This is genuine war. It involves khid'ah, but not khiyanah. What is khiyanah? Khiyanah means you make a promise, but you know you're gonna break it. Khiyanah means you sign a treaty, but as soon as the other guy turns his back, you tear it up. This is khiyanah. And Islam never ever allows khiyanah. But it allows khid'ah for the people who are genuinely engaged. Now who are those people is another question. For those who are genuinely engaged, every nation allows khid'ah, but not khayana. Khayana means to break a promise. You can never break a promise. Khayana means to break a treaty. You can never break a treaty. Khayana means to stab someone in the back after you swore to him you wouldn't stab him in the back. This is khayana. Khid'ah means you pretend you're walking this way, in reality you're gonna go that way. This is khid'ah. it's deceit you are not promising you are giving an illusion or even like Noaim did he used some tactics he used some tactics and this is something that is allowed but what is not allowed is to give an oath to swear, to give an allegiance or again being realistic in our case to hold a passport and that passport comes with implicit conditions and then to go against the conditions of those passport this is khiyana and it's not khid'ah to get a visa to enter a country. And that visa has implicit conditions. You're not gonna disobey the law, you will be a law-abiding citizen, da-da-da-da-da. This is khiyana. To get a visa, and then you come, and then you misuse and abuse, and you cause havoc and mayhem, this is khiyana, it is not khid'ah. We have to be very clear because of the tense situation that we are living in, that we cannot use this hadith to something that it does not apply to. In any case, this is my theory about Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud. And so Nu'aym basically, when the Prophet ﷺ said to him, الحرب خدع He took this as the green light, and it is the green light. So what did he do? He went first to the Banu Qurayza. Right from the Prophet's ﷺ camp, the closest group is the Banu Qurayza. And again, it had, Allah Azzawajal had so willed, and again this is amazing if you think about it. He had personal friendships with the people of the Banu Qurayza. And he had personal friendships with Abu Sufyan. And Abu Sufyan is the one that has paid him a massive amount of money to go do something which he has successfully done. Meaning he said what he was supposed to say. As for the response to the process, it's not his fault, right? He did what Abu Sufyan told him to do. Which makes him what? Check. Trustworthy. And also, he was friends with people of the Banu Quraidah, business partners with them in the days of Jahidiya. And even in the days of Islam when he's not a Muslim. and of course he is from the tribe of Ghatafan again Allah Azza wa Jal's plan is perfect who else is there that is friendly with the Quraysh that is friendly with the Banu Qurayza and that is a member of the tribe of Ghatafan now he is a Muslim so what did he do he went to the Banu Qurayza and in the middle of the night obviously this scared them, what is going on and he said you know who I am you trust me, we have had dealings what not what not in the past now inni lakum nasi'un ameen I am here for your own good we have a stronger relationship than the Quraysh we and you, Ghatafan and you you have a stronger relationship than the Quraysh and realize that this land is your land, this wealth is your wealth, this property is your property and as for the Quraysh they have nothing to lose if they just leave, they have nothing to lose if they turn their back, you have everything to lose. So if they find an opportunity to attack, they will attack. But if they get tired, they're gonna turn their backs and leave, and you will be the ones who will suffer. So, he said to the Banu Qurayza, my advice to you is, refuse to fight unless and until they guarantee you hostages from amongst them, that will live with you. رَهَن not hostage but mortgage really physical human mortgage take some of their ashraf and tell them to come be with you as collateral so that they don't just turn their backs and flee and if they do this then they will never abandon their own until they have fought Muhammad s.a.w now frankly on the surface of it that's a very smart idea on the surface of it it makes complete sense and Nu'aym again out of nowhere Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brings this genius plan and of course Allah ilham this is ilham from Allah from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through Nu'aym coming ilham is the type of wahi that non-prophets get ilham is the type of wahi that non-prophets get so Nu'aym gave this advice and they found this to be as we all do, very sensible very sensible advice then he went to the Quraysh made his way to Abu Sufyan the next morning and he says to him you know my status amongst my people, you know who I am and you have good relation with me a khabar has reached me and I feel our friendship owes that I tell you because of our past but please, me and you only secret what? what's going on? know that the Banu Quraizah have regretted what they're doing. And now they're getting double thoughts. And they have sent a message to Muhammad ﷺ saying that if we hand over some of the Ashraf of the Quraysh to execute, will you forgive us for our lapse of judgment? Will you forgive us if we hand over some of the Ashraf of the Quraysh? Right? this is our kafara basically that will give you some of the ashraf then you can fight them and forgive us and khalas end of story we'll start a new slate so then he tells Abu Sufyan that so if they come to you to ask for your ashraf red warning skull with bones on it right this is now the sign that this is treachery and treason okay and then he went to the ghatafan and he's ghatafani and he gave them a similar story that they want some hostages from you and they're not going to give you any hostages because again there's all going to be triple treachery here until you hand over theirs and this is a test for you to see if you can do it or not take my advice insist that they hand over first before you hand over anyone take my advice you know me, I'm one of yours etc etc and sure enough within a few hours an emissary from the Banu Quraidah comes and his name is Azal ibn Samuel Azal ibn Samuel saying that to Abu Sufyan that we have thought about our matter and we want you to send some of your Ashraf to us so that we can be assured that you will not depart and leave so hand over a few of your Ashraf and let them come back with me. And Abu Sufyan said, let me think about this, go back and send an emissary. And the same thing happened with the other tribes. All three tribes are sending emissaries. Everyone's saying, you hand first. Right? And none of them is handing. The seeds of doubt have begun to be sown. And Salatul Isha is right around the corner. Thank you.

Seerah 59 - The Battle of Khandaq_Ahzab p4 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. inshallah, the incident of the Ahzab, or the Khandaq, and inshallah, next Wednesday, inshallah, we'll continue on to talk about one of the most controversial issues of the seerah, and that is the massacre of the Banu Quraidah, that will be next Wednesday. So today we're going to wrap up the battle of Khandaq, and last Wednesday, we had just started talking about the role of Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud al-Ghatafani, Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud al-Ghatafani, and as I had said last week that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had chosen Nu'aym to have a very unique status and position that he had direct friendship with Abu Sufyan and he also had direct friendship with the Banu Qurayza and he was from the tribe of Ghatafan and so we learned that he had accepted Islam on the very evening of the nights of Khandaq in other words he was not a Muslim until the very nights of the battle of Khandaq. And he himself, he narrates this in the first person in the Sira of Al-Waqidi, the Kitab al-Maghazi of Al-Waqidi. There's a famous book of Maghazi by Imam Al-Waqidi. And we find the only book that has his own first person narrative. He actually says, this is my story. And he mentions that I had dealings with the Banu Qarayda and I would go and drink alcohol with them and have dinner with them and then purchase my stock of dates and go back to the Ghatafan. And then it so happened that in the battle of the Khandaq, in the battle of the trench, when we were camped outside, he said, Allah threw Islam into my heart. Alqa Allahul Islam fi qalbi. Like literally, it's as if he's saying, I have no idea where it came from. Like out of nowhere, Allah threw Islam into my heart. So I was camped outside the city and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala threw Islam into my heart. And so I went to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and I found him praying. so I waited till he no noise in the back where's should we wait until the audio is solved there's Rusli, ok testing 1, 2, 3 good, ok it's a bit too loud I think now Okay. So where was I? So Nu'aym said that he went to the Prophet ﷺ, he found him praying, so he waited until the Prophet ﷺ finished salah, and then the Prophet ﷺ said to him, O Nu'aym, why have you come? Now, this one phrase shows us another thing, and that is that the Prophet ﷺ recognized Nu'aym. And as I said, I found one book that mentions the possibility of the Prophet ﷺ having interacted with him, but this book of Waqiri, it actually says, Ya Nu'aym, Ma Ja'abik. The Prophet ﷺ recognized him. And so literally out of all of the 10,000 people that were gathered outside, here's one man who knows Abu Sufyan on a friendly basis. And he knows Ka'b ibn Asad, who is the leader of the Banu Quraidha. Ka'b ibn Asad, not Ka'b ibn Ashraf. Don't get confused. Ka'b ibn Ashraf was the one that was assassinated. Ka'b ibn Asad was the leader of the Banu Quraidha. He knows Ka'b ibn Asad. He said, I used to drink wine with him and have dinner with him and then buy my dates from him. and he had some basic relationship with the Prophet ﷺ literally Allah ﷻ threw Islam upon him out of nowhere so he comes and he says what he says and the Prophet ﷺ allows him to do what you can say what you need to and I made a very long disclaimer last Wednesday and I'll make it again that it is of the etiquettes of war around the globe that war does not have etiquettes of honesty this is of the etiquettes that you're not honest and you give false illusions, right? But this does not justify treachery. There's a difference between deceit and treachery. And Islam, like every single religion, allows deceit during war, but it does not allow treachery. When you make a promise, I swear by Allah I will protect you. And then you go against that promise. This is not deceit, this is treachery. And Islam never allows treachery. You cannot write a contract. You cannot have an agreement. and in your heart is to break that agreement. This is haram by unanimous consensus. Deceit and treachery, you indicate X and you mean Y. This is something else, right? This is not a promise. This is not a contract. This is not an ahd. This is something that every single religion and society and civilization allows. So the Prophet ﷺ said, say what you need to say. Al-harbu khid'ah. That war is indeed deceit. And so, as we know, he first went to the Banu Qurayza. He's already in Medina. He's already across the trench lines. So logistically it's easiest to go to the Banu Qurayza. So he goes to the Banu Qurayza and he tells them that your situation is precarious, that the Quraysh, they might start thinking of leaving. What you need to do is to ensure they don't leave by demanding 70 of their noble Ashraf. 70 of their Ashraf, their noblemen, that they need to stay with you so that they don't abandon you. And it is a very logical idea. It's a very, we explained last week, it's a good idea. He then went to the Quraysh, he went to Abu Sufyan. And he said to Abu Sufyan, I'm gonna tell you something because I feel our relationship demands this. But please keep it secret. And that is that the Banu Qurayza have now second doubts. And they want to go back to the treaty. And they have offered Muhammad ﷺ as a kafara, expiation, 70 of your heads. so I fear they're gonna come to you with a ruse, with a tactic to give 70 of your men to them and they intend by that to execute them and therefore they will be forgiven in the eyes of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam so be careful especially if they ask for your nobles so he knows very craftily how to spin the tail especially if they ask for the noblemen then be especially careful because that is what they promised the Prophet ﷺ. Then he went to his own people. And he said to them the same thing that the Quraysh can leave at any time. And we fear that the Banu Qurayza is going to flip around. And the Banu Qurayza has offered 70 of the Quraysh and 70 of us to the Prophet ﷺ as a kafara. So if they come asking 70, let us agree not to give them anything. And of course, because he was from the Ghatafan tribe, so they accepted him, they trusted him. So who was the first one to make a move? It was the Banu Qurayza, obviously. The Banu Qurayza sent one of their emissaries, and his name is mentioned as Azzal ibn Samuel. They sent Azzal to Abu Sufyan, and Azzal said to Abu Sufyan in a harsh manner, that the Quraysh have delayed too long. By now at least three weeks have gone. the Quraysh have delayed too long and they have done nothing but talk you promised us you haven't shown us anything so let us set a date let us agree on a date and you attack from your side and we attack from our side and the Ghatafan attacks from their side and we will finish up this matter of Muhammad but before we set the date we ask that you give us 70 of your noble men Ashraf. Because we want to secure the fact that you're not gonna turn around when the battle gets tough. So they even asked in a logistically sensible manner. There's no, I mean it's a very common sense thing. Look if you're really serious, hand over 70 they'll fight with us on our side so that we know you're not gonna turn around. Now why Ashraf? Because if they send the slaves, they're just gonna run away. So they want the Ashraf as token hostages. Now of course by hostages they're not going to be tied up. Hostages means you're going to be on the other side. We know you're not going to abandon your own noblemen. So Abu Sufyan said, let me think about this. Let me think and make mashwara about this. So they returned empty handed and Abu Sufyan announced to the Quraysh what Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud had said. That look, this is a tactic, this is a plot, and I fear that the Banu Qurayza are now double guessing themselves. And let us not hand anyone over. Nu'aym the next day went back to the Banu Qurayza and he said do you know what Abu Sufyan said as soon as your emissary left do you know what he said he said wallahi we will not hand them one baby camel much less 70 of our noblemen we're not going to hand them one baby camel of ours just a kid camel we're not going to hand do they expect us to trust them that they will not execute and kill all 70 and hand them back to Muhammad ﷺ. Now maybe Abu Sufyan actually had said this because Abu Sufyan is double guessing them. Maybe he actually had said this, right? So he went back and he basically said, Abu Sufyan thinks you're gonna go back to Muhammad ﷺ. Can you imagine how incensed the Banu Qurayl are going to be now? What you think after all that we've done, we're gonna betray you? After we put our lives on the line and we're literally perhaps going to be executed or killed, you think we're going to betray you? And so Ka'b began sensing, Ka'b ibn Asad, began sensing the shift of the tide. And he began saying, Woe to me, woe to me, I knew this would happen. Wallahi this man, which man? This man brings nothing but bad luck. Huyay ibn Akhtab. Ka'b, you can tell he's a very indecisive, feeble-hearted man. He didn't want to do it in the beginning, but his greed got the better of him, and he started cursing Huyay. why did I listen to Huyay that man is nothing but bad luck and Ibn Ishaq mentions another of them of the Banu Qurayza by the name of Zubayr Ibn Batta Zubayr said that if the Quraysh and Ghatafan leave this is also from Banu Qurayza if they leave there will be nothing left for us except the sword meaning execution there will be nothing left for us except the sword and why should they give us 70 of their Ashraf? He is thinking now, it's illogical for them to give us. For they have more number than us. And they have more arms than us. And they have the advantage of being able to flee whereas we will remain. Why should they give 70 of theirs to us? It doesn't make any sense. So Zubair ibn Batla, he's actually being a bit logical and he's saying, if I were in their position, I wouldn't give us 70. We have everything to lose. they have nothing to gain by giving us 70. And from here, we get a sense now that the Banu Qurayza fully understand that they deserve the punishment that's going to happen to them. They understand it. They know, they knew the stakes. And this is the key point here. That Ka'b ibn Asad said, if they all leave, khalas. There's nothing left except for the safe. They understand the punishment that's going to come and that's something we'll talk about next Wednesday. Now, Abu Sufyan is agitating. And Abu Sufyan is feeling more and more perturbed now. If the Banu Quraidah flips, this means that they and the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam will then surprise attack us while we're unaware. We're not gonna let that happen. So what are we gonna do? Abu Sufyan decided to make a spontaneous move. And Allah Azawajal will. This is Makar Allah. This is Allah's planning, right? This is even beyond Nu'aym al-Mas'ud now, that this is something is happening. Allah Azawajal is setting the entire pieces up in this manner. Abu Sufyan said, خلاص, let's make the ultimatum. What is the ultimatum? We're all going to attack tomorrow morning. We're all going to attack tomorrow morning. We've come all the way here, we're not going to go back empty handed, let's attack tomorrow morning. So he sent a delegation, high level delegation, composed of senior dignitaries, led by none other than Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl. This is now the statesman, the son of the statesman. This is the senior emissary. They send a delegation to the Banu Quraidah. And they demand that tomorrow morning, خلاص, now why tomorrow morning? Surprise. They don't want the news to come back to the Prophet ﷺ. So it's not gonna be like one week later. It's the element of surprise. Twelve hours. Get ready and simultaneously, all three sides, غطفان is gonna attack, we're gonna attack, you're going to attack. Allah had willed something else. What? They came to the Banu Quraidah after Asr on Friday. what is Friday? the next day is Sabbath, Saturday and the Quraysh have never lived with the Yahud and they have never heard of this weird custom of the Sabbath and they're clueless about this issue because if the Yahud had ever come they would never be in Mecca on Saturday, they must have arranged it such that they do their business and leave they're not allowed to do business on Saturday right? as we know they're not allowed to, they must have a day of rest and a day of ibadah, and especially war, this is, and for the for the yahood to this day, this is one of the biggest signs of iltizam or practicing, for us it is the salah, how do you tell a good muslim how much he prays, right, for them how much basically they conform to the sabbath, to this day, this is what separates orthodox from conservative from reform and that is how strict are they to the sabbath and so ikrimah comes and he says to them, khalas, tomorrow morning all of us are going to simultaneously launch the attack, end of story. Khalas, we've decided. There's no going back. So they began saying, tomorrow is Saturday and we cannot fight on Saturday and how do you expect us to do this on the sabbath? But amhilna, give us a delay. Allow us some time. And let's do it on Sunday. Alarm bells start going off. You want time for what? What do you need time for? If you want to attack and do this, why the delay of another 24 hours. Just enough time to go and tell Muhammad ﷺ and then come back with reinforcements against us. Just enough time. Right? And so, Iqrimah and then also Ka'b ibn Asad said, and even on Sunday, we will not attack until you hand over 70 of your men. Still we're not gonna budge on that condition. We need 70 of your men. So, Iqrimah goes back confused and he says to Abu Sufyan that I think they have betrayed us. Or he says, they have betrayed us because they could not understand the concept of the Sabbath. And he says to Abu Sufyan that they say tomorrow is a day that they don't work and they don't fight and they will not fight on this day. And Abu Sufyan flew into a rage. And it so happened that Huyay ibn Akhtab was actually with the Meccans at that time. He was on the side of the Quraysh at that time. So he called for Huyay. And he demanded an explanation. What is this thing called the Sabbath? And so Huyay said this is a custom of the Yahud We are the Yahud, we don't do anything on the Sabbath. And we're not allowed to do any amal or any work or any type of war on the Sabbath. And Abu Sufyan said, what is Sabbath except a day between Sunday and Friday? I mean, what's the difference? It doesn't make any sense to me. What is this Sabbath? It's just a day of those war, right? But Huyay was adamant that we cannot do anything on the Sabbath. And Abu Sufyan said, wallati wal uzza he's swearing by allat and al uzza this is your treachery this is your deceit you're trying to make a fool out of me you think I'm gonna believe you that Saturday you don't do anything right what a fool you think I am wallati wal uzza you're just making a fool this is treachery he can't believe that there's something called the sabbath and Huyay says that he felt so panicked that he felt that Abu Sufyan would actually harm him so he quietly snuck away and went back to the Banu Quraidah. He went back to the Banu Quraidah. And he began pleading with the Banu Quraidah to break the Sabbath and to fight on Saturday. And Ka'ab ibn Asad became even more enraged. Like, how dare you tell us to break the Sabbath? You're supposed to be basically on the same side as us, right? How can you tell us to break the Sabbath? And he said, go ahead and break it in order to fight your enemy. So this shows us what was his Iman. That technically, Ka'ab ibn Asad was correct. Technically, right? And here we have Huyay in his hatred, he's willing to disobey Allah's commandments from what he thought, right? And Allah had written for them the sabbath, right? Allah says in the Quran, وَكَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ We have written for them the sabbath. And it is something that was a part of their sharia. And we believe it was a part of their sharia. So, this man Huyay was willing to break the sabbath out of his hatred for the Prophet ﷺ. And this is the biggest commandment that Allah ﷻ had given. It's part of the Ten Commandments. The Saturday is part of the Ten Commandments for them. So, Ka'ba ibn Asad said, Wallahi, even if we are killed, we're not going to break the Sabbath. Like, deep down inside, he was a religious man. And he could not fathom breaking the Sabbath and then expecting that they would be victors. Even if we're killed and died, we're not going to break the Sabbath. And Huyay was so scared of the consequences of Abu Sufyan, he decided not to return to the Quraysh and that decision proved to be his death. Because he remained inside the lines whereas the Quraysh fled the same night as we'll discover. So Huyay in his cowardice decided to remain. And in his remaining on the side of, inside the trench basically, in the side of the fortress of the Banu Khurayza, this was his own death warrant because he was there when the Muslims surrounded. And so he never returned back to the Quraysh. This is now Friday night, Saturday morning. Friday night turned out to be the worst night of the year in terms of weather. Clouds began gathering, thunderstorms, freezing cold winds gusting through the city. It was like they say, a dark and cloudy night, a dark and stormy night. And it was the worst night of the year, according to some of the Sahaba, the worst night of their lives in terms of weather. Never had they seen. they don't know what thunderstorm is gonna, not even thunderstorm, this is now a mini tornado or something is gonna strike. They don't know. But before that strikes, we in Memphis know very well what happens, right? What happens? The clouds and the, you sense it in the air, and there's this electric feeling, and the wind is blowing, and you feel something is amiss. And this is now happening on Friday. And they don't know what's gonna happen. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has planned. And on that very night, on Friday night, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stood up, and ask for volunteers to go and find out what's happening with the Quraysh. Now he does not know all of these other plans. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has prepared a way out. وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ مَخْرَجًا Allah has prepared a way out. So the Prophet ﷺ wants a spy to find out what is going to happen in the enemy lines. And here we have another famous companion playing another very important role, another brave role, and that is the companion, actually this narration is beautiful. We actually have it in the first person. He tells us from his own eyes what happened. And the hadith is in Sahih Muslim and also in longer versions in Bayhaqi and others. And put together it goes as follows. This is Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman. And who is Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman? He is that sahabi who is the keeper of the secrets, sahibu sirr. He is the sahabi that his father al-Yaman was killed accidentally at Uhud, if you remember, right? accidentally his father was killed, and Hudhaifa in his generosity, he forgave not only the killers, he gave them back the money, which had been gifted to him, that's a large amount of money right, in our times it would be a few hundred thousand dollars, that's a decent amount of money and he said, yaghfirullahulakum and he returned it back, and Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman, this was that person, and this is very relevant for us, and I mentioned this story back in the day a few months ago, that his father and him, they were caught in the middle of the desert and because they were technically not Ansar, they were not Auser Khazraj, and they were not Quraish. They were actually from Yemen. Sorry, not from Yemen. They were, I said Anazi, I forgot now. Don't quote me. But they were not from the Ansar. And in the days of Jahiliyyah, his father had fled to Medina, and he had given alliance to the Aus. And so they had adopted him. So that's why he was called Yaman from Yemeni, because Aus is from Yemen originally. So he was called Yaman. from Yemen, even though he was not Yemeni. So he was not technically Ansari, meaning he was not from blood Aws and Khazraj, nor was he from blood Quraysh. So they were caught in the desert somewhere and by the Quraysh intercepted, and they begged for their lives. The Quraysh made them promise that they would not attack the Quraysh. And so they made the promise, we're not going to attack the Quraysh, we're not going to. Probably the Quraysh did not know they were Muslims. We don't know too many details, but most likely the Quraysh did not know that they were Muslims. So they returned back to Medina, and this was right before the battle of Badr. And they said exactly what happened, and so the Prophet ﷺ said, you will fulfill your promise to them, and we will seek Allah's help against them. Meaning, we don't need your help then. And this shows us something very, very, very important. I've said this many times before, that it is possible for one group of Muslims to be excused, and another group not to be excused. for one group of Muslims that has a contract or a treaty that has obligations such as Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman he was excused, you don't have to fight because he had made a promise even though this promise was extracted literally at the point of a sword meaning death or this you see the point here they were literally either you agree to the promise or we're gonna kill you still they made the promise what did the Prophet ﷺ say you fulfill your promise you made that promise, we have to fulfill your contracts with the Quraysh and this is something very relevant for us in our times as we all understand the point being this is Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman the one whom the Prophet ﷺ told all of the secrets of the munafiqun, the names of munafiqun to sahib al-sir on this night we learned that Hudhayfa ibn al-Yaman was in Iraq many years later as an old man and he was sitting in a gathering of young men and they wanted to hear stories about the days of the Prophet ﷺ. So one of these young men said, and pay heed, O Muslims of this masjid and all around, because this is the attitude many of us have. One of these young men said, had I been with the Prophet ﷺ, I would have shown what is real fighting behind him. If I had the opportunity, I would have shown. In one version, in Al-Bayhaq, or Tabarani, in one version the man says, listen to this when they described for him, when Hudhayfah described what they were doing, he said had I been alive I would not even have allowed the Prophet ﷺ to walk and I would have carried him on my back they think they're better than the Sahaba they said give us a chance we would have showed you what we would have done and when Hudhayfah heard this he became enraged and he gave a story that tells us now that night this young kid thinks that you can do better than the sahaba you're boasting had I been you would have seen what is fighting I would have shown you what is the real manhood and Hudhaifa said you're gonna show me I will tell you of that night then he told us of that night this is Abu Bakr is there Umar is there, Uthman is there, Ali is there Ubaid, every single sahaba is there Let me tell you about a night, young man, you think you're gonna do better than all of us? I will tell you of that night. That the night of Ahzab, Laylatul Ahzab, that I remember, all of us were with the Prophet ﷺ. And the severe wind was blowing all around. And on top of that it was freezing cold. And the Quraysh were above us, he's quoting the Qur'an, من فوقكم, right? And the Banu Qurayza were من أسفلكم, right? beneath us. And we were scared of our own families being attacked. And no night had ever come upon us darker and colder than that night. And no night had ever come upon us as windy as that night. And the wind itself sounded like the thunder. So he is saying the wind itself. You know we've heard these types of winds sometimes. It sounds scary. Right? The howling of the wind. it's going through the city and it's frightening us, just the sound of the wind and it was so dark we could not see our fingertips if we extended our hand, imagine that night the storm is coming, they don't know it obviously, right? they're tired, it's been one month no food, drinking dirty water, just a little bit of dates they're starved as it is, they're cold they're hungry I don't think any of us have experienced anything close to this, may Allah protect all of us, right? the despair and the tiredness they were in after one month. And he tells us what happened. The Prophet ﷺ stood up and he said, Who is there who shall bring me news of the enemy and I shall be his companion on yawm al-qiyamah? Who shall bring me news of the enemy and I shall be his sahib yawm al-qiyamah? Right? And subhanallah, what can our Prophet ﷺ bribe with? Money? Wealth? Fame? Fortune? What can he bribe with? what is he gonna dangle? those of Iman they want to hear these types of rewards right? no million dollars no camel I will be his sahib yawm al qiyamah in that auspicious gathering Hudhaifa said not a single soul gave one whisper one month of torture and it's cold and hungry and the noise and the wind everything not a single one amongst us said anything in that silence the Prophet ﷺ repeated for a second time. Who will go and bring me the news of the people? And I will be his companion on Yawm al-Qiyamah. And once again, nobody said anything. Three times in a row, and three times not a single companion stood up. Why? Because this is not far, this is a generic question. Who's gonna volunteer? Who's gonna volunteer? And nobody had that strength now. After this long time and looking at the situation and the danger and everything, not a single one. And this is Hudhaifa putting this young overzealous man in his place. You think you would have done better? Every one of us was quiet. And then the Prophet ﷺ said, Ya Hudhaifa, he called me by name. So I stood up. And he said, you go and get me the khabar of the qawm. And from this Hudhaifa said, لابد now that he has mentioned me by name I had to and this shows us by the way shows us many things I mean it shows us the desperateness the direness of the situation how difficult it is and it also shows us the Hudhaifa by the way he said that he had this fear in him and he was tired and he's explaining this shows us his own honesty and modesty that he didn't make the story bigger than it is He didn't put himself in a positive light. He actually said, I had no choice but to go. Look at his honesty. And in that honesty, we see his true maqam. We see his humanity, we see his true... This honesty is what makes him hudayfa. Had he been one of us, he would have spun that yarn. Right? He would have portrayed that little positive light. But even now, when there's not a single witness to correct or corroborate, when there's nobody to say, he tells the story exactly like it happened. Putting himself in that low situation. That none of us stood up when he mentioned be my name, I had to, لابد. He's like, I was forced to stand up. Knowing that my name had been called. Look at his honesty here, and in that honesty we see the iman of Hudhaifa, and that sincerity and that ikhlas. And it also shows us the difference between mustahab and wajib. When the Prophet ﷺ is saying, who's gonna do this? It's mustahab. The Sahaba understood. And therefore they realized it's not wajib to stand up. Now that he commands Hudhayfah, khalas, it becomes wajib. This also shows us the fadila of Hudhayfah. That out of all of the Sahaba, the Prophet ﷺ chose Hudhayfah, there was a wisdom. And we will see why in a while. We will see why. And this shows us the Prophet ﷺ knew his men. He knew the Sahaba. He knew which one would be best for which. Now, for sure he could not have chosen a Quraishi. Obviously. He couldn't have chosen a Quraishi. Why? They're being sent to the Quraysh. Right? He cannot send Abu Bakr and Umar. He cannot send Uthman and Ali. Right? They're walking into the lion's den. He's gotta send somebody they don't recognize. Right? And Hudhayfah did not participate in Badr. And in Uhud he got to the battle too late. Because if you remember the story, that they came right at the end. So they don't know Hudhayfah. So he knows exactly who to choose. And this shows us the intelligence, obviously the Prophet ﷺ his long wisdom and what not his foresight in choosing the right man and so Hudhayfah said I stood up shivering and trembling he's scared and he's cold and so the Prophet ﷺ made a dua for me اللهم احفظه من بين يديه ومن خلفه وعن يمينه وعن شماله ومن فوقه ومن تحت أرجله O Allah protect him from in front of him and from behind and from his right and from his left and from on top and from below protect him So he said, every fear that I felt, it disappeared from my heart. Every fear, I became calm after that. And he walked in that darkness, Allah knows how, Allah knows through that howling wind. He walked until he found the campsite, and he quietly made his way through the crowd, until he said, I saw the back of one that looked like a leader, meaning because of the people surrounding him and what not, and I figured out he was Abu Sufyan. Hudhayfah has never seen Abu Sufyan. That's the whole point. That's why he's being chosen, right? I figured out this must be Abu Sufyan. By, you know, you understand the structure must be in a round way, there must be a middle, there must be a fancier tent, whatever it might be, he figures out this must be Abu Sufyan. So he said, there was a clear shot and I was about to take my arrow. Oh, I forgot to tell you. The Prophet ﷺ said to Hudhayfah, go and find out the khabar of the qawm the news of this nation but hide yourself and us from them meaning don't give yourself and us away so be discreet about it this was the command don't let them catch you or anything like this because obviously this would then give away the fact that we have a spy over there so Hudayfah said I was about to take my arrow and shoot him right there because this is the leader this Abu Sufyan, end of story if he's dead, khalas, then I remembered what the Prophet ﷺ had told me that don't give yourself away, so I sat down finding out what's happening, and after a while Abu Sufyan spoke and Abu Sufyan said, I'm about to say something, so let everyone amongst you verify that the person next to him is trustworthy, right it's dark, nobody can see everybody else I'm about to make announcement now just make sure that this is our group this is the Quraysh, right so Hudhayfah said, look at his quick thinking, instantaneous he said, I jumped on the man next to me and I held his hand and I said, who are you? so he told me who he is, and then I jumped on the man next to me, I held his hand, who are you? and he told me who he is and in the process, Hudhayfah didn't tell them who he is this is simple psychology right, you gave the aura of authority it's a tactic of debate actually you intimidate the opponent and by showing them that he's so confident wallahi where did this confidence come from on such a night, from the dua of the Prophet how, this quick thinking think, wallahi who amongst us could have done this right, instantaneously make sure that the both of them are now feeling, okay alhamdulillah I'm safe at least He turned the tables and nobody is asking him who he is. So that being done, then Abu Sufyan stood up and he said, Ya Qawm, my people, we are not here in our houses, nor can we remain here forever. Our animals have perished, our horses are tired, and the Banu Quraidah have betrayed us. Because this is what Abu Sufyan believes now, right? It's Friday night, the news has just been confirmed from his eyes with this fancy tale of something being a Sabbath and we're not going to fight until Sunday. what ludicrousness is this. Clearly the Banu Quraitha have flipped on us. And now you see this wind, how it is harming us. Neither can we keep a pot on our fires, nor even can our fires remain lit. In other words, can you imagine how strong that wind would have been, right? That the pots themselves, and Ibn Ishaq mentions this, the pots, that metal pot, were being thrown away and all of the food being wasted. The pot itself is being turned upside down. much less the fire. So a terrible, terrible windstorm. And when you have such a windstorm, in the middle of the desert, it becomes a sandstorm, right? And this sandstorm, very few I think of you have experienced this. I lived in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade. I experienced this a number of times. And this was in the city. I can only imagine in the desert how it must be. Wallahi, I tell you, it is something you don't want to ever experience. When you go, I am not exaggerating with you, you think you are blind. The dust is, and this is in the middle of the daylight. I remember one time it happened. It was literally dhuhr time. And you think that it is like almost isha or something by the darkness. And you extend your hand. Now when I was there, I could just barely see my hand. I could see it, right? But this was, we were in the city. And it was an amazing experience. And the worst thing, the dust and sand, you feel it crawling over your entire body. inside your thawb, inside your garment. It's something everywhere and it is so sticky and just disgusting and you cannot even breathe. You really cannot breathe. And it's such an asphyxiating feeling. This was when I was in the city. As I said, I can only imagine. Firstly, this was an azab Allah sent already magnitude of 10. Then there's no protection in the middle of the desert. One can only imagine how bad that must have been. and so Abu Sufyan is saying you can see how this wind is harming us and we don't even have a house to protect us so I think we should all return and whatever you guys say I am returning anyway khalas he's given up now this is now Friday night now has happened and the final treachery that he thinks of Banu Qarela flipping over khalas now if they're not going to attack from inside and already this is happening so he told them I advise all of you to leave but whatever you guys do as for me إِنِّي مُرْتَحِلْ I am leaving. And so saying, he went to his camel, and he jumped on it, and untied it, and he told the camel to get up. He told the camel to get up, and Hudhaifa said, I had another clear shot of him. Because this is now completely defenseless. Because when the camel gets up, the rider is now, just like you can imagine the camel goes up, the rider is right there. Completely defenseless. But again, I remember, he got two shots, two chances. both times he let him go and of course he let him go because Abu Sufyan will eventually accept Islam Allah had willed this all, right? so he let him go for the second time and he spurred his way forward and the people followed behind him so with this news I returned back to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in one of the books Al-Bayhaqi Al-Bayhaqi says that when Hudhaifa was returning back he found in the middle of nowhere 20 horsemen coming and they were turbaned with their faces covered and they said to Hudhaifa go tell your sahib that we have done the job of fighting for him go back and tell your companion we're fighting on his behalf don't worry meaning the angels we've done the job, we're gonna fight he doesn't have to fight and so Hudhaifa returned back to the camp and he said, I found the Prophet ﷺ praying. Notice, Nu'aym says the same thing. Hudhayfah says the same thing. And Hudhayfah added what Nu'aym could not add. Hudhayfah added what Aisha says in Sahih Bukhari. Hudhayfah added, and whenever the Prophet ﷺ was disturbed by something, he would stand up to pray. This was his sign. Aisha says, كَانَ إِذَا فَزْعَهُ صَلَىٰ أَمْرًا كَانَ إِذَا فَزْعَ إِلَىٰ شَيْنَ قَامَ إِلَىٰ الصَّلَاةِ That anytime he was perturbed or disturbed, he would immediately stand up to pray. And Hudhaifah says the same thing in this hadith as well. That's why he was praying. At times of anxiety and nervousness, we as well should stand up and pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When all the doors are closed, the door of Allah is open. So we turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So our Prophet ﷺ is praying. He is praying in this time of cold and dread. And he said, I was shivering in the cold. And the Prophet ﷺ was wearing a blanket of one of his wives. He has so cold, he's wearing what we would call, what we would call this, like a, you know, the blankets you wear in the bed. You know, those thick blankets, right? He actually has it on top of him. Right? The comforters are trying to, the comforter. Like the equivalent of the comforter. It's that cold, that he's wearing the comforter of his wife. That instead of inside the tent, he's standing outside, and he's praying with this comforter. And when he saw me shivering, he motioned to me to come into the blanket so I came and I sat at his foot until he finished salah so he's inside the blanket and another blessing for Hudhayfah that he is sitting at the foot of the Prophet inside the blanket when the Prophet finishes and when he finished I gave him the good news and I told him the bushra and at this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed and then he mentioned surah Ahzab verse 9 which we will discuss inshallah next Wednesday This is Surah Al-Ahzab, about Ahzab. And Allah Azzawajal mentions that blessing. We'll talk about these verses next Wednesday, inshallah ta'ala. And what was the process of him doing standing here? We learn from other Ahadith. Sahih Bukhari, Musnadima Muhammad, other books, they tell us what was he doing. And we learn that he was standing up obviously to make dua against the people of Ahzab. against the Ahzab. And we have some of these ad'iyah narrated to us. Of them Bukhari and Muslim report that on the night of Ahzab the Prophet ﷺ made dua to Allah. اللهم منزل الكتاب سريع الحساب اهزم الأحزاب اللهم اهزهم وزلزلهم So he made this dua that Oh Allah, the one who has revealed the book and the one who is quick in retribution meaning we need your help now. we need your help now destroy the confederates destroy the confederates destroy them and shake the ground from under them in another hadith we learned that one of the sahaba abdullah ibn abiyawfa he wrote to the sahaba who were fighting the khawarij this is 30 years later he's writing a letter to them and he tells them in one of the battles that the prophet fought. He waited after the sun had set. Then he stood up and he said to the people. Now this battle is the battle of Ahzab. We'll learn this from later on. By the way, this also shows us, subhanAllah, look at Abdullah bin Abi Aufa. 30 years after this incident, he's memorized the dua. Now he's sending it to the sahaba who are gonna fight the khawarij. In the time of Ali ibn Abi Talib, they fought the khawarij, the first splinter group. And he sends them this dua that he's memorized. So look at again the tawassul or the communication, the care that the Sahaba had, he's sending them this dua and this dua has now been preserved for us, what did the Prophet ﷺ say? that Abdullah ibn Awya said, after the sun had set the Prophet ﷺ stood up to pray, meaning for tahajjud meaning at night time, he's praying tahajjud, and this is the exact what Hudhayfa is coming back and he's praying tahajjud, and what did he say? he told the people that, oh people la tatamannu liqa al-adu don't wish to meet the enemy don't hope to fight them don't wish to be put in that situation where you have to fight them فَإِذَا لَقِيتُمُهُمْ but if you are forced to fight them then be patient and know that Jannah is under ظِلَالِسُّيُوف meaning the shade of the swords that Jannah is under that shade meaning be patient and Allah will reward you and then he made the dua Allahumma munzil al-kitab mujri as-sahab hazim al-ahzab ilzihim wa ansurna alayhim that O Allah the one who has sent the book down and the one who sends the clouds and the wind destroy the ahzab and help us against them so he made a dua to Allah to send the wind and the clouds and this is exactly what Allah did this is exactly what Allah did that Allah sent the wind and the clouds that the Prophet ﷺ said send us the armies of the winds and the clouds and therefore Allah ﷻ sent upon them that sandstorm and that severe chill and this is exactly what Allah mentions in Surah Al-Ahzab يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْ يُهُ بِلِيذُ أُذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ Recall the blessings that Allah has given you إِذْ جَاءَتْكُمْ جُنُودٌ When an army came to you فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًا We sent against them a wind. وَجُنُودًا لَمْ تَرَوْهَا And an army that you could not see. That's the angels. And that's what Hudhaifa saw the angels coming. Right? We sent upon them a wind and an army that you could not see. And Ibn Ishaq in other books mentioned that not a single tent of the Ghatafan and the Quraysh was left standing. And not a single pot remained. And not a single fire could remain lit. in such circumstances, how can you battle against the forces of Allah? How? Every single man amongst them had to flee Helter Skelter. Not a single person was left. And a very interesting point here. In a hadith, our Prophet ﷺ said, نُصِرْتُ بِالصَّبَىٰ وَأُهْلِكَتْ عَادٌ بِالدَّبُورِ Allah has helped me with the wind of Sabah. and Ad was destroyed by the wind of Dabur so this shows us a very interesting point of the armies of Allah are different armies of the winds there's an army called Sabah and there's an army called Dabur and there might be even more armies of the winds and he mentioned the name of the army of the wind Musirtu Bissabah Allah has given me Sabah to give me victory and he sent the wind of Dabur upon Ad because Ad how was it destroyed? وَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًا صَرْصَرًا We sent upon them a severe wind that was Dabur. What is Sabah and what is Dabur? Ibn Hajar comments, this hadith is in Sahih Muslim and there's versions of it in Bukhari as well. Ibn Hajar comments that it is said that Sabah was the wind that carried the scent of Yusuf to Ya'qub a.s. This was that beautiful wind that carried the scent of Yusuf to Yaqub a.s. And it is the wind that gathers together the clouds to bring about rain. So this is a wind, generally a wind of mercy. And Ibn Hajar says that, that ad-Dabur is harsher than Sabah. And it is said that it comes from the east, whereas Dabur comes from the west. So the western wind is worse, they say. whereas the eastern wind is better it is all said Allah knows these are all ulama saying like this Allah knows the truth about this and he said the dhabur is harsher than the sabah so the sabah is the more merciful of the wind generally speaking and when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he knew the concern that the prophet s.a.w. had for his people and that he wanted them to embrace Islam he sent them the Sabah and not the Dabur. Because when the Dabur is sent, what happens? Complete destroyed. And that is why the Dabur was sent to Qawmi Ad. But the Prophet ﷺ, Allah sent the wind of Sabah against the Quraysh. And so Ibn Hajar comments, that was the reason that they evacuated and that they were caused to leave. But the wind did not destroy even one of them. Beautiful, look. In reality, Sabah did not kill anyone amongst them. Sabah was just enough to cause them to leave, but not to be perished and destroyed. Why? Because Allah Azza wa Jal knew our Prophet ﷺ's love for his people, and eventually they were guided to Islam. The same Ghatafan, and the same Quraysh, and the same all of these Ahzab, right? The bulk of them were guided to Islam. and if Allah had sent the dabbur they would not be around to be guided to Islam and this shows us again the mercy of Allah and the compassion as well of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and so the Quraysh returned having gained absolutely nothing having humiliated themselves and been humiliated and disgraced in a manner unparalleled in Arabian history 10,000 strong and yet they were not able to vanquish much less cause mayhem and bloodshed not even kill five people and even these were miscellaneous one here and there and in return they were routed their ranks were destroyed and never again as our Prophet ﷺ said after this in Musnadimah Muhammad we learn our Prophet ﷺ said al-aan naghzu wa la yughza alayna And now we are going to launch an attack. And they are not going to ever launch an attack against us. The tide has officially changed. The tide has now officially changed. That khalas, you sent us your best, you went back humiliated. Now, we will be the ones launching, and you will never launch an attack against us. Now, before we conclude and have some Q&A, some of the summary of what and how, What did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala use for the victory of Ahzab? What were the things that happened that facilitated the victory of Ahzab? Number one, no doubt. Number one amongst all of this was the iman of the sahaba and the dua of the Prophet ﷺ. That after the incident of Ahzab, the Prophet ﷺ would frequently say, and we hear this to this day in the khutab, and in the khutab especially of Eid, and this is narrated in Bukhari, la ilaha illallah wahda sadaqa wahda wa nasara abda wa a'azza junda wa hazama al ahzaba wahda la ilaha illallah wa na'abdu illa iyyah muhkhalisina lahuddina walau kariha al kafirun these phrases we hear them usually in the takbirat of Eid or saying them before Eid but in fact our Prophet ﷺ would say them after this incident and it became something that is now a part of our religion la ilaha illallah wahda sadaqa wahda He fulfilled his promise. What was his promise? That we will defend you. And Allah fulfilled that promise, right? صَدَقَ وَعْدَ وَنَصَرَ عَبْدَ And he helped his servants. He aided his servants. He gave victory to his servants. وَأَعَزَّ جُنْدَهُ He brought about izzah to his own army. وَهَزَمَ الْأَحْزَابَ وَحْدَهُ And he destroyed Ahzab. This massive army that had come, he destroyed it all by himself. وَكَفَ اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ الْقِتَالِ Allah is sufficient to fight on behalf of the believers. And that's exactly what happened. Without them having to lift a sword, literally, they didn't have to lift a sword. Without them having to do anything other than what? Prove their iman to Allah. That's what they needed to do. Prove their iman to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. When they proved their iman, Allah was sufficient for them and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave them all that they needed, so this is of the greatest reasons of nusr, of victory and then Allah used factors as well the number one factor after all of this was of course Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud and as we mentioned, wallahi an amazing persona there's nobody similar to him having business ties with the Banu Qura'ila having a friendship with Ka'b ibn Asad drinking wine with him having dinner with him and engaging with trade with him coincidentally he happens to be in Mecca when Abu Sufyan needs a neutral third party and so he pays him money to go to Medina to spread lies or to spread misinformation and he complies, right? At the time he's a pagan so he complies so what does that do? He gains the confidence of Abu Sufyan can you imagine, right? Allah is planning from years before Allah knows what's gonna happen so he now has a friendship with Abu Sufyan Abu Sufyan trusts this man that I told him to do something, he did it and this was for our good now he's coming to repay the favor I better trust him with the Banu Qaretha so the Banu Qaretha knows him and Abu Sufyan knows him additionally he himself has amazingly interacted with the Prophet ﷺ in a neutral manner, meaning he has not been an open enemy he has simply been interacting with him so the Prophet ﷺ recognizes him as well and then what happens, of course he's from the Banu Ghatafan and he's not senior leadership had he been senior leadership it would be a bit fishy because the senior politicians are the ones who they always have the double face, right? He's a nobleman, he's a business guy, second rank, right? So had they wanted to do a ruse, they would have chosen one of the big shots. He's not one of the big shots. He's just enough of a person, his own people trust him, and then the others trust him. Also notice, in his wisdom, and Allah obviously gave him ilham, he used the Banu Quraizah against the Quraysh, and the Quraysh against the Banu Quraizah. He did not get his own tribe involved in between those two. Because then for sure, it would have been fishy. because he cannot be neutral with his own tribe but he can be neutral between the Banu Qurayza and the Quraysh when he goes to the Banu Qurayza he talks about the Quraysh when he goes to the Quraysh he talks about the Banu Qurayza then from his own tribe he talks about the both of them and so in every scenario he's appearing to be the perfect man and again Allah Azza wa Jal is using I mean imagine how perfectly the peace has fallen into place and this really shows us Again, when you have Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fighting for you and defending you, how can you possibly lose? Also, of the most amazing things, as he himself said, on the night of Ahzab, Allah threw Islam into my heart. Like out of nowhere, not a single Ghaffafani is a Muslim. And on the night when his army, his tribe is sitting outside of Medina, he decides to embrace Islam. In the middle of the night. And he just goes and he goes, where is this coming from? Right? And again, إِنْ يَنْصُرْكُمُ اللَّهُ فَلَغَالِبَ لَكُمْ وَمَنْ يَتَّقِ اللَّهِ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ مَخْرَجًا وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِفْ From a place nobody expected. Here just comes Nu'aym walking out of the darkness. And here he offers his services, and lo and behold, this is now happening. Another, and by the way, I forgot to mention, so Nu'aym by the way, after this incident, he could not return to his tribe obviously, so he made Hijrah, and he settled in Medina. So he got the fadila of Hijrah as well, which is a great blessing. So he remained in Medina and he died in the time of Ali ibn Abi Talib. It is said in one of the civil wars, the war of the camel, he died in that battle. So inshallah he died also. We pray that he died a shaheed's death as well. So he has given us his legacy of bravery and courage and intelligence. This is one of the tactics. Another tactic, and again completely a gift from Allah, the ignorance of the Quraysh with regards to the rules of the Yahud. this rule seems so bizarre and it really does seem bizarre to many people who don't understand what are the rules today in some groups amongst them, they're not allowed to use electricity, some amongst them are not going to answer the phone, some amongst them they have to walk to the synagogue, even if they walk for miles, they're not going to take the car, because they think using cars is something that goes against, so they have the laws there, and for those who are outside of the faith, it sounds very harsh and bizarre, can you imagine for the Quraysh who have never heard of this. To think that an entire day you're gonna do nothing but sit around. Wallahi they thought you're making a fool out of us. You expect me to believe that one day of the week you do nothing. What is Saturday except the day before and after Sunday and Friday, right? So he literally thought that these people are just trying to trick me, inventing some custom. So his ignorance about the laws of the Torah and the laws of the Sabbath also helped in this regard. And of course another thing that helped was the long drawn out siege. That one month long, or maybe 25 days is more precise, but definitely a long time. 25 days. And their own animals are dwindling. Their own water supply is dwindling. And we all know it's a big hassle to be away from one's house. Very big hassle. And we stay in hotels when we go somewhere. Imagine they're living in the desert in tents. And they're away from family, and away from children. And the morale has now gone all the way to zero. From that high morale, they're marching kibaran and bataran as Allah describes after 25 days of this torture khalas is down to zero they were worn out and as for the Muslims they have iman, as for the kuffar they don't have any iman, so the Muslims obviously are also on the defensive and they're protecting whereas the Quraysh are on the offensive so their morale is anyway less so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used this as well and then of course finally Allah azawajal sent upon him his own armies, his own jund armies that you could not sea and this was the army of the wind and the army of the angels and that was the end of the Ahzab and then of course the next issue which inshallah we'll talk about next Wednesday bi zillahi ta'ala is immediately afterwards the Banu Quraidah had to be dealt with and we will mention next Wednesday the realities of Banu Quraidah, it is a very sensitive topic, it is one that Islamophobes always use to smear our Prophet ﷺ, in fact dare I say when it comes to politics this is the number one smear and when it comes to personal life then you have the multiple marriages and the issue of Zaynab and others which we'll talk about inshallah when we talk about but in terms of politics the number one smear that they say is the Banu Khurayza that astaghfirullah he massacred an entire tribe and then there are charges of anti-semitism there's charges of racism there's charges of genocide and what not and this is something we need to talk about very frankly you know me by now most Muslims when they talk about these things they try to gloss over them but we're living in a society, we're being bombarded and they bring us details and facts it is better that you hear it from me and we explain it, so that you can defend rather than I just cover it up there are some very troubling details but wallahi, if we understand the context we will see this occurred not because of who they are but because of what they did and this is something very simple and we don't need to be apologetic and we don't need to be wishy-washy about it Now, there are many Muslims who try to deny it ever happened. They're so embarrassed, right? Oh, Banu Quraithah has not been narrated with authentic, it's only in hadith, you know, it's nothing in the Quran. And you know these people, they reject hadith anyway. The Banu Quraithah incident is clear. It is mentioned in Sahihah Hadith, it is mentioned in every single book of seerah ever written. And to doubt it is to doubt the existence of the Prophet ﷺ, really. You know, you're gonna doubt something as steady as the Banu Quraithah. And it is true, the Quran does not mention it directly, but it mentions it indirectly. And we'll talk about this next week. Indirect, clear, not clear, implied verses, right? That Allah gave you their lands and their properties. Who is he talking about? Not the Ansar. Who is he talking about? Allah gave you what you didn't expect to get. These are the lands of the Banu Qurayza. These are the properties of the Banu Qurayza. And we will talk about this. And yes, it is true that the entire males of the tribe were killed. Probably 700, 800, 900, a number. it is true and then they love to bring the gruesome details oh they lined them up in trenches and they did this and they did that and of course the notion is you know because of what happened 80 years ago in Germany they try to link this with that right they try to link this with that they say oh this was a mini holocaust subhanallah the holocaust was something that came out of nowhere and targeted the Jews for being Jews it was done by an evil pharaoh an evil person who killed anybody who disagreed with him He didn't kill them because of their ethnicity. He targeted them because of who they were. The Banu Quraidah incident, they were targeted not because of who they were. They were targeted because of what they had done. They were targeted for a crime that they knew they were getting involved in. And therefore when you understand this issue, you realize that there's no need for us to be apologetic about this. There are no anti-Semitism involved. And there's nothing that is racism. it is a punishment that was done for the crime of treason and treachery and this is something that in our times we're having the same issue people are getting lifetime sentences and what not for lesser things in our times so inshallah that's his next one day I'm jumping the gun here but inshallah we'll talk about that next Wednesday we have some time to have Q&A oh before I forget so next Wednesday will be a seerah and then the Wednesday after that I will not be here I will be inshallah graduating inshallah walking the walk so I will not be over here inshallah so I will be gone that Wednesday and then there will be one seerah maybe not a seerah I'm wondering should I do a seerah because I only have one day 29th of May we might just do another class we'll see inshallah what to do if I can do one topic of the seerah one hour we'll do that otherwise we'll just do another class on the 29th of May and then in June it is my time to go to my parents in Houston so we're also going on the Umrah trip as well so then we'll start after Ramadan so we literally have next week of Seerah then something on the 29th either if I can do one topic of Seerah I'm thinking of trying if I can do the issue of Zainab which is one of the most controversial topics of the Seerah in the personal life it's occurring around this time if I can summarize it in one lesson will do it. But it is very, very difficult. And it's very complicated. And I don't know what I will do for that. The suggestion you had is, what about the top weapon? The fiqh of Umrah will be next Tuesday. The fiqh of Umrah will be next Tuesday on the 14th. Where is Danish? She's here. But inshallah that's going to be next Tuesday. I wanted to do on the 29th, but the issue was that it would be too close to the departure date. And people want to hear the fiqh of Umrah before Umrah by two, three weeks maybe. I want it to be on the 29th, but that will be next week, inshallah. Also, for those of you who have all heard that our dear brother Zaman, his mother has passed away, Dr. Zaman. His mother has passed away in New York. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant her Jannatul Firdaus and exalt her ranks and give her the best of the next world and also give sabr to Dr. Zaman and his family and give them thabat and reward their musibah with ajr and replace them with something better in this world and the next. And inshallah, he's gone to New York. Inshallah, when he returns, make sure that we make special dua and condolences to him. It is a part of the sunnah. And with that, we have a few minutes left. So, questions about what we have covered? Or about anything else? Or we can pray immediately, I don't mind. Yes. In the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala distinguishes between wind and winds. The word wind, whenever it comes in the Quran, it means there is punishment. The word winds in the Quran always means high. Yes, our brother mentioned something that I have come across, but I haven't read a wisdom for. What is the wisdom for this? But I have come across this. What is the wisdom? There is ikhtilaf, by the way, but go ahead. If you study physics, that the wind, if it comes from one direction, and what keeps all these high buildings and even the mountains standing up, is actually the winds from all sides. So if you have wind disappear from one side, even the mountains from one side. So it's winds coming from all sides. That's how high rise stays up, because the winds are pressured from all sides. now if the wind came from one side and disappeared from the other it's easy for any structure to come Allah could be so our brother mentions that anytime Allah mentions wind in the singular it is punishment and this is true and anytime it is plural it is generally mercy and this is true and then he mentions the wisdom that when it comes from multiple sides this is a sign of mercy because it is being fortified whereas when it comes from one side it is punishment and Allah knows best other questions We had a straight wind in Memphis about 6-7 years back. What happened in Memphis? Straight wind. Okay. Coming one rush. Okay. So this is the rih. Yes. When our Prophet ﷺ saw or witnessed heavy winds, he would seek refuge in Allah from the evils of the wind. So it is the sunnah, there is a dua that we memorize, that O Allah, I seek refuge in you from the sharr of this rih, from the evil of this rih. and surat al-dukhan Allah says in the beginning of surat al-dukhan what does Allah say about the reeh in surat al-dukhan I know it is the first page of dukhan I can't remember not sarsaran hafiz sahab yes dukhan Our Prophet ﷺ commented that a group of people saw the wind coming and they thought that it was rahmah and it turned out to be punishment right, so this is the ayah of Dukhan other questions, yes I'm sorry I didn't understand the question this is 1 to 10 then Allah reduced it to 1 to 2 when the Muslims had an option to say we're not going to fight they didn't have that option because the other alternative is death this is their survival this is not a military battle that they're going on the battlefield this is their survival so they did not have that option they were being attacked in their own city legally 1 to 2 is legally it is 1 to 2 on a battlefield it is allowed yes but 1 to 2 this is the majority position yes one to two you are not allowed to go beneath that but again these are rules that we need to think through them and apply them at the right situations and times but yes generally it is one to two Asif Jav Noaim Noaim our Prophet ﷺ simply said to him do what you think is better do what you think is best and you have the right to deceive. Right? Can you tell him what he did? No, not before, no. After that? It is understood, of course he would have told him, but we have not. I looked up every biography of Nu'aym, and subhanAllah, this is one of the sad things, is that, you know, just one or two things. I mean, frankly, astaghfirullah, I'm not, astaghfirullah, boasting or bragging, but the dots between Abu Sufyan and Nu'aym and what not, you don't find them in any of the seerah books. I have looked them up in various things, and I've made my own theory as I told you. otherwise you don't find them the seerah books don't mention it in one convenient place if you look at the sahaba of Ibn Hajar or any other book or Ibn Athir's book you find one paragraph of Ibn A'im what he did and when he died and that's it it's very difficult for all of the sahaba their biographical details most of it is just empty like we said in this masjid how many of us we know other biographies we just know basic things of each other and this is the reality of our seerah as well which frankly shows us the humanity and the truthfulness of the tradition. Had our seerah been concocted, we would have had colorful stories about every single sahabi filling pages and pages. We don't. Nu'aym, we literally know about him. The main thing is this issue. We don't know much about his background. We don't know about his youth and upbringing. We don't know even after what happened. Except that he died in the time of Ali. That's all we know. Right? Lived a simple, pious life and then khalas, that's it, he died. So, and that's enough. What he has done, khalas. he has been written. You know, inshallah, the illiyin, khalas, he's written. That's all he needs to be doing. The amazing thing that he did, what more does he need to do? So his name has now been etched in the annals of Islamic history because of this ingenious blessing that Allah gave him. Allah threw Islam into his heart and then this entire ruse was done by him. Inshallah, with this, let us break for Salatul Isha and inshallah, I will see you tomorrow. I'm going, so inshallah, I'll see you after the weekend, inshallah. Thank you.

Seerah 6 - The early childhood of Prophet Muhammad - Yasir Qadhi _ June 2011-R81PW40t-dk

The birth of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam And in our last halaqah, we had mentioned the birth of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and the details that we know regarding that period of his life. We now move on to the period of his life that is his early childhood, that is him growing up as a young child. And the fact of the matter is that we have very very little information With regards to these first 20, 30, even 40 years And as I said in the last halaqah That if we were to gather together the entire 53 years of Mecca Of the Prophet ﷺ It would be less than half of the next 10 years that we have information of in Medina And of these 53 years of course most of the information begins after the age of 40 so the first 40 years the fact of the matter is we have limited number of incidents very few and I explain the reasons for this and that is because who is going to record and who is going to pass that down and who lived long enough and how numerous were the sahaba and how much persecution occurred so a lot of these factors combine but one thing we believe as Muslims and this is what we take consolation in is that anything that we need to know Allah must have preserved This is of course a theological point, right? We cannot prove it scientifically. Anything that we needed to know about our Prophet ﷺ, we would believe that Allah Azza wa Jal had recorded that. So, the first thing that we know of his life after his birth is the fact that his mother gave him to be raised in the desert. Now, this is something that is strange for many of us. why would a mother give her newborn to be raised away from the house? In fact, this was a custom of the elite of the Quraysh. It was a custom of the nobility of the Quraysh. And they did this for a number of reasons. So this was a status symbol, if you like. It was something that they did as being a part of this tribe. Why did they do it? A number of reasons. First and foremost, they wanted the child to be raised in a pure and healthy environment. They wanted the child to be raised in a pure and healthy environment. And as you know, the infant mortality during this phase of humanity, in fact, even up until 100 years ago, the infant mortality was extremely high. And so one of the ways they would protect the child is to actually take it away from congregations, from what we call civilization. Such that there's only 2 or 3 people interacting with the child, i.e. one family, right? And as you know, disease is carried by people, by people congregating together. So when you remove the child from this environment, you in fact increase the chances of its survival. So for the mercy of the child, and to increase the chance of the child living, then they would send him away from the city. Also, of course, they wanted to remove the plagues and the disease of the desert, of the city. Also they wanted to build stamina in the child. Stamina in the child And make them adjusted to a rough life Now even though from our standards Life in Mecca was unbelievably tough Right? But for the people of Mecca they're used to it And so they want to raise their child In an even more austere environment So that they then become accustomed to The hardships of Mecca Because children adapt to their circumstances Much easier than adults And that is why a child who is born In a very impoverished scenario or situation or in a very congregated or congested area, the child is content and happy. Just as happy as the child born in a rich and luxurious family. Allah has made us in a beautiful way. The child knows how to have fun regardless of the circumstance. Unlike an adult, now we're used to a standard. And if we were to, la qadar Allah, be diminished in that standard, life would become almost impossible to bear. Even though many other people in the world would love the standard that we have been diminished to, let's say. So it is human nature that children adapt to their circumstance. And this shows us that the Quraysh had long-term planning, they had vision. That the child is raised in a difficult environment, such that the hardships of Mecca appear like luxury. The hardships of Mecca then appear like luxury. Another reason that some of the people have mentioned, is that growing up in the desert, away from the family, will avoid the pampering that other relatives do. We all know that grandparents spoil the child, let's say, right? It's a rule of thumb. Grandparents spoil the child. In fact, some people say that's why Allah created grandparents. Parents are strict, grandparents are lenient. That's supposed to be the case. So, not just grandparents, uncles, aunts, extended family, they all ruin. And of course, every parent knows that no matter how strict of the laws that you have for the children, when they go to their uncles, aunts, when they go to their grandparents, what happens? All those laws go out the window. So once again, to raise the child in a disciplined environment, right? They would be handed over to a particular family. And the final reason that the scholars of history mentioned for this rather strange custom from our perspective, but from them they were accustomed to it. The final reason that they mentioned is that the child being raised in the desert amongst certain tribes. Now realize, not every tribe would go into Mecca and ask for children. These are certain tribes that are known for this fact. These tribes were known for their fluency in Arabic. Now the Arabs viewed the language of the cities as being corrupted. The Arabs viewed the city language as being changed. Why? Because what happens to any language, it gets influenced by other cultures. Any language gets word loans from other cultures, right? So for example, if you read a modern Arabic newspaper in our times, 30 to 40% of the words are English. Just Arabicized. And as for Pakistan, I would say 70% is English of the modern newspapers, right? That's my problem, I can't understand because I don't know. I think it's an Urdu word, it's actually an English word. Limited company edition, the whole thing is English. I'm trying to read, what is this? In Urdu, I don't understand, it's not coming in my head. The point being, where does this occur? Not in the desert, not amongst the villagers, amongst the city dwellers, right? So the Arabs of the Quraysh, again they're thinking long term. They don't want the traders from Yemen, from all over the country to come and corrupt their Qurayshi dialect. So what do they do? they send them to the pure areas, the tribes that were known for their fluency of the Arabic, to be uncorrupted, to be speaking the original ancient Arabic. And the most famous tribe that was known for this, the saving of, let's say, the pure Arabic, is the Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr. And of course it was this tribe that adopted or that took care of the Prophet ﷺ. In one authentic hadith, the Prophet ﷺ was asked, tell us about yourself. Tell us something about your childhood, about yourself. So the Prophet ﷺ said, أنا دعوة أبي إبراهيم وبشرى أخي عيسى واسترضعت في بني سعد بن بكر I am the da'wah of my father Ibrahim. Ibrahim made a dua, I am that dua manifested. You all know the dua, رَبَّنَا وَبَعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمْ الْكِتَابُ الْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ So Ibrahim made a dua when he's building the first house of worship. And as he's putting the stones in place, and he's praying to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he makes a dua, O Allah, send a mighty prophet from amongst my progeny, who will recite to them your verse, purify them, and teach them the book and wisdom. So he said, أنا دعوة أبي إبراهيم I am that da'wah. I am that dua, responded. وَأَنَا بُشْرًا And I am the glad news. Now, some people have interpreted this to mean, the gospel. Because what does gospel mean? It's good news. And the Christians, they misunderstood the whole point. According to one theory of Islam, that when Jesus is saying that, you know, I'm coming to preach the gospel or the good news, well, the good news here is in fact Bushra Akhi Isa, right? Because good news and gospel is the same in Greek. That's what it means. That the gospel is the good news. That's how they translated it. So some Muslim theologians and seems to be a plausible theory, some Muslim theologians say that these references in the New Testament that I have to send the good news and I've come with the good news. This good news is not the gospel as they understood it. The good news is as Allah says in the Quran, and as the Prophet ﷺ says, that Rasul-i-min ba'di ismuhu Ahmad, there's gonna be a prophet after me, his name is Ahmad. So he's saying, ana bushra Isa, aqi Isa, I am the good news that my brother Isa predicted. And then he said, wasta rada'atu, and I was foster cared. Rada'a means, To be foster cared. Foster care means to be suckled by another woman than your mother. So I was foster cared by the Bani Sa'ad ibn Bakr. And the Bani Sa'ad ibn Bakr was the most famous tribe known for taking care of the children of the Quraysh, known for speaking the proper Arabic. Now you all know the story of Halima, we're just gonna summarize it briefly. Halima bint Sa'adiya, the famous foster mother of the Prophet ﷺ, she narrates the story in the first person. and it is recorded in a number of books of hadith and of seerah. And so inshallah it is an authentic hadith, no doubt about that. That she said that she and her husband were suffering greatly from poverty. And this was of course, now why would they take care of a child? They wanted money, obviously. They are villagers, not even villagers. They are people living in the Bedouin. They are desert dwellers, right? And of course as you know, desert dwellers, they don't get much income. Life is very tough. So one of the reasons why they would walk into Mecca and adopt children from the rich people of the Quraysh. This was a custom only for the rich and elite. It was not a custom for all of the people of Mecca. Only the noblemen, and as we know, Abdul Muttalib is the chieftain, so his children and grandchildren, they must have this custom. This is a custom for the noblemen and the elite. Of course, by the way, in our times, the rich, they have nannies. The rich, they have governesses, right? This is the custom of our times. In those days, this was the rich, they would send their children to the desert. So Halima narrates that we were suffering greatly from poverty. So she's explaining, why would she want to take another baby? Because that baby gets money. The parents give money. And so, I convinced my husband to go with the yearly, there was a yearly time that the women of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr would go to Mecca and would obtain any newly born child who would be willing to be adopted, not adopted but foster fed, for two, three years. So there was an annual event. Everybody knew this was the period. For one week they're gonna come, and they're gonna find out who has given birth, and they're gonna go knocking on their door, and the mother of the child will choose which of them seems to be the one that I like the most. Just like we do in our times, you choose the nanny, the governess. So the mothers would choose the best one. So Halima says that she had just had a newborn. Now of course you have to have a newborn to take care of another, because you're gonna breastfeed. So she just had a child, and they're suffering from poverty. And by the way, she had an older daughter as well. So when the Prophet ﷺ was taken in, there were two children of Halima. There was an older daughter, probably around 7-8 years old, we can estimate. Her name was Shayma. Her name was Shayma. And so she is the foster sister of the Prophet ﷺ. And she had a newborn son. I could not find the name of this son in the 5 or 6 books that I looked up of the early period of Islam. Allah knows, maybe we'll find him in other books. But I could not find him in those original books. so she had a newborn son and she had an older daughter, Shayma, this newborn son of course is what caused her milk to flow and so she is able to foster care another child, so she goes with her group of newly mothers because they're all new brothers, you have to be a new mother to take another child on, and so she goes with the group, probably 5-10 women from her clan and they enter into Mecca and they find out who has given birth, and they hear of the newest batch that has come forth in the last 5 or 6 or 7 months. One of them of course is the child that was called the orphan child. They were told immediately, there is an orphan child. His father is already dead. Some of the women didn't even go visit the house of Aminah because the only reason you'd adopt the child is because you want money. And when the child is an orphan, then it's known that you're not gonna get that much money. After all, I mean, where is he gonna get money from? Abdul Muttalib, no doubt he's the chieftain, but he has 10 sons and 5 daughters. and of those so many grandchildren, who's gonna give a large sum of money for an orphan? So some women didn't even go to the house of Amina. Others went and when they saw how poor and the poverty, they didn't like taking a child who was an orphan. Halima as well visited and she tried to move on to find another child because she wanted the money. When the week finished, every one of her friends had acquired one of these newborn children. except for Halima. And the only child remaining was the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So she told her husband that I feel embarrassed. It's like a bit shameful that all of my friends are going back now to the desert and they have a child. And I don't have any. It seems like I'm lost. I mean it's not fair. Meaning I want to be like them. So her husband said, why don't you take the orphan child? Perhaps Allah will bless us through him. notice there's good in his heart perhaps Allah will, maybe he's not gonna bring that much money but perhaps Allah will bless us and this shows the couple were a good hearted couple they had good manners, they were thinking religiously as well even though at this time they're pagan but they realized taking care of an orphan is a noble thing so her husband said why don't you adopt why don't you take care of the foster child that's an orphan perhaps Allah will bless us through him and so they agreed to take care of the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, all the narration say that as soon as they took the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam the miracles began right then and there, that she only had one old goat that had stopped giving milk for a long time as soon as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam entered into the tent, the goat's udders became full she had an old mount that they were riding, the both of them and when they put the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam along with the family on this ride, on this animal it became the fastest animal, all of these are mentioned, and of course this is no problem at all. Allah azza wa jal blesses whoever he chooses and it is expected that these things would have occurred to those who took care of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Generally speaking, this foster care usually lasted two years. The custom was to take care of the child for a year and a half to two years. So you don't come back the next season, you come back to visit. You come back to show the child the next season and the child stays with the mother a month or two and then given back to the foster care. So, after two years, when the time has come, and in the middle, Allah knows how many times she came back to show the child, no doubt they must have arranged something, we don't have any details. But it's not as if there's no touch at all, there's no contact at all. Every few months, every what not, there must have been some type of returning, and Aminah would have met her son, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. During these two years, the blessings that Halima witnessed in her household were so many, that she was scared of losing the Prophet ﷺ. And so she invented a million and one excuses in front of Aminah. That the child is still young, and I don't want to send him back to the city, and it's gonna be problematic, and there's diseases and plagues, and we'll take care of him. And she kept on persisting, persisting, persisting, until Aminah felt that there was so much care and love that the Prophet ﷺ is good hands. and so she agreed to extend this contract for a longer period, even though for sure she could not have given the amount of money that her Ahlul Halima's other friends would be getting, but it is not money, it was the blessings that came with the taking care of the Prophet ﷺ. Of course, it was during the second phase of this foster care that the famous incident of shak-qus-sadr, of opening up of the heart occurred, and this is an incident that we have no doubt about, because the Qur'an references, because there are authentic hadith about it, because the sahaba saw the line on the chest of the Prophet ﷺ that showed that it had been opened up. So this is clearly something that we believe in. When the Prophet ﷺ was four years old, Anas ibn Malik narrates, the hadith is in Sahih Muslim, so there's an authentic hadith, no question about it, that Jibreel came to the Prophet ﷺ when he was playing with the other children. When Jibreel came, the other children ran away, they're scared. The Prophet ﷺ stood his ground. As a four-year-old kid, he's displaying bravery. He stood his ground. What do you want from me? And Jibreel came and overpowered him. سَرَعَهُ This means that he was struggling. Four-year-old kid is fighting an angel. The strongest angel Allah has created. But he's not gonna go without a fight. Again, this shows the determination of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So Jibreel forced him on the ground. You can't fight Jibreel. You forced him on the ground. And he opened up his chest. شَقَّ صَدْرَهُ Just two words. Opened up his chest. How, what, all of this Allah knows. Jibreel does not need instruments to do what Allah wants him to do. He opened up his chest and he took his heart out. And he took out a black slither, a black portion from the heart. And he threw it away. And he said, هَذَا حَوْظُ الشَّيْطَانِ مِنْكَ this is shaitan's portion that he had in you, pause here for a sec before I continue the hadith, every child that is born, shaitan pricks him as soon as it is born according to our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and I believe him completely because I'm a muslim our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that is why babies cry when they come out of the womb because the child pricks him shaitan pricks him out of jealousy, out of hatred, out of anger shaitan wants to harm the child as soon as it comes out of the womb. Literally, as soon as it comes out, this is the hatred and animosity of shaitan. Because Allah preferred Adam and the children of Adam over him, so shaitan has become our enemy, even from the cradle up until the grave. So as soon as the child is born, shaitan pricks him, prods him, and some type of element, Allah knows how and what, but this hadith demonstrates, some type of element is put into the child. Allah creates the child pure. Shaytan attempts to corrupt it from, literally not day one, minute one. Shaytan begins the corruption process right from the beginning. And there's something then, Allah knows, we're never gonna do, this is ilm al-ghayb, that has some type of connection, some type of contact. This is perhaps how shaytan whispers into us. This is how, now remember, shaytan does not ever control us. Shaytan doesn't have a control panel like these games you guys and girls play, we and all that, just press buttons. No, no, shaytan cannot do that. No, nobody can blame shaitan. Allah, shaitan forced me. No, shaitan does not force. Allah says in the Quran on the day of judgment, when mankind will say to shaitan, why did you do this to us? Shaitan will respond, مَا كَانَ لِيَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ I didn't have powers over you. I didn't control you. إِلَّا Except one thing. أَنْدَعَوْتُكُمْ فَاسْتَجَبْتُمْ لِي I called you and you guys responded. that was the control I had I seduced and enticed you you guys responded فَلَا تَلُومُونِي وَلُومُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ don't come and blame me this conversation is in the Quran don't come and blame me go blame yourselves I didn't have any power over you so what this type of relationship is Allah knows best but it appears that this allows the shaitan access to whisper into our thoughts that's really all that it is that we get these bad thoughts not coming from us. And by the way, when you get a very evil thought, a blasphemous thought, no, this is from shaitan. It's not from you. It's not from your heart of iman. This is from shaitan. Something really vulgar, vile, bad comes in. You get a desire to do something and you're wondering, where did that come from? You know, the answer is from shaitan. And your job is to fight it. Because it's just a whisper. It's not a control. So, that relationship was cut off at the age of four. And this is proven by another hadith that the Prophet ﷺ said, that every child that is born, shaitan assigns, shaitan meaning Iblis, the big shaitan, assigns aqareen to that person. Every one of us has aqareen. Right now, right here. Maybe not in the masjid inshallah, they're outside. But all of us have aqareen. They are with us 24-7. They know us better than our mothers and our spouses and our children because they're with us. What is the job of the qareen? Just to whisper bad things, that's it. Now look at the hatred that shaitan and his cohorts have for us. Wallahi, they spend their whole lives just trying to misguide us. Why? Jealousy and hatred and anger. Why did Allah choose you over us? We should have been chosen. This jealousy and hatred, shaitan assigns a qareen to every one of us. We all have our qareens. and the purpose of the qareen is to whisper these evil thoughts so the sahaba said even you ya rasulallah you have a qareen he said even I have a qareen except that Allah helped me against him and now he's accepted Islam and he only whispers good things to me so the prophet s.a.w. whispers good things and this hadith again it relates to this point that whatever relationship shaitan might have had it's completely gone there is no other more relationship because Jibreel took it out he took it out and then he washed the heart in a golden cup of zamzam and then he put it back, so he washed the heart and he put it back and he sealed it up, he put his hand like this and the heart sealed up so we believe the first open heart surgery was performed by Jibreel upon the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because it is a physical taking out of the heart. It is not just a spiritual thing. It is a physical taking out of the heart. So when the children, the foster brother and Shayma, who he was playing with, when the children ran away, they ran back and they said, and they're looking in the distance that there's a man throwing him on the floor, putting blood in and this and that. So they come screaming and running that our brother has died, our brother has been killed, a man has abducted him, a man has killed him. And of course, Harima and others, they became so worried. They come running outside and they found the Prophet ﷺ sitting, his face is pale. Subhanallah, not wailing, not screaming, not crying. He's the bravest four-year-old the world has ever seen. He's pale, he's suffered something, but he's controlling the crying and the wailing. He's sitting there, you can sense the fear, the terror, but he's not wailing and screaming. And when they saw him, they saw those lines on his chest and Anas ibn Malik says, I could see the traces of that line on his chest. Anas is narrating this hadith when the Prophet ﷺ is around 60 years old. And he's saying, I could see the traces on that chest. Now if Allah had willed, it could have been a clean cut. Allah doesn't need to leave a line. You understand what I'm saying here? Allah doesn't need to leave a scar. Because Allah heals and completes. But Allah wants to demonstrate that something physical happened. And there is a physical line, like you have in a scar, that Anas ibn Malik saw. that I saw, I could see that line in the chest of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. This is the end of the hadith in Sahih Muslim. Now, this incident of taking the heart out and washing it occurred one more time. Almost 45 years later, when the Prophet ﷺ went up to the journey of Al-Isra and Al-Mi'raj, we're gonna come back to that, Allah knows when, but we're gonna come back to that, and we're gonna mention again that Jibreel did the exact same thing. That he opened up the chest of the Prophet ﷺ before taking him on the journey. And he washed it in zamzam water and he put it back. But there's one difference. There was no black cloth the second time. There was no black cloth the second time because the black cloth has already been gotten rid of when the Prophet ﷺ is four years old. This incident was what concerned Halima. And she decided before anything else happens, let me quietly return the Prophet ﷺ to Amina. Because she doesn't know what's happening. Strange things now. She knows there's something about this child Now this incident happens and she gets worried. And so she quietly returns the Prophet ﷺ to Aminah. And that was when he was returned to the care of his mother Aminah. Of course the spiritual benefits that we derive from this particular incident is that the Prophet ﷺ is being prepared for a pure and clean life. The Prophet ﷺ is being prepared to live the most respectable, the most dignified, the most pure life that man has ever known. And that is because it is the sunnah of Allah that all the prophets have the perfect characters. It is the sunnah of Allah that the characters of the prophets are impeccable. That they cannot commit major sins. In Arabic we call it ma'asum or isma. The prophets, all the prophets, not even just our prophets, all the prophets are ma'asum. Ma'asum from what? From major sins. They can commit minor infractions, they can get angry like Musa did. they can do hasty things like Yunus did. All of these things are human minor issues. But they cannot commit a major sin. They cannot commit any major sin. And by removing this, so the Prophet ﷺ was therefore raised in this pure environment. Even though it was a spiritual cleansing, it was physically done. It's a spiritual cleansing of the heart, but it was physically done, and it was revealed in the Qur'an. And Allah Azzawajal mentions, أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ And pretty much all the scholars of tafsir have said that this is a reference to opening up. أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ Haven't we opened up your chest, right? And we gave, explained a number of weeks ago in the khutbah I gave, that there's a number of interpretations. One of them is that, and this is the majority interpretation, is that this is a reference to the cleansing of the heart. The other interpretation does not contradict it, and that is Allah is saying, أَلَمْ نَشْرَحْ لَكَ صَدْرَكَ i.e. by guiding you to Islam. Because Islam is also Sharah as-Sadr. Islam is called the opening up of the heart. So being guided to Islam makes your heart open to Allah's wisdom. It is narrated many, many, many years later. 50 years, more than 50. 54 years later roughly. During the battle of Hunayn. Which is one of the last battles that the Prophet ﷺ ever fought. This is after the conquest of Mecca. When, وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا when all of the tribes are entering into Islam. That the tribe of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr was also fought and conquered. And the tribe of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr is the tribe of Halima. And so as the Prophet ﷺ is walking, one of the women who was conquered, who was all of the prisoners, she stands up and, or excuse me, no, she is brought to the Prophet ﷺ, yes. She stands up and makes a commotion, but the Prophet ﷺ doesn't see. And she claims to be the sister of the Prophet ﷺ. Now you have a prisoner who is claiming to be the sister of the Prophet ﷺ. The Sahaba didn't know what to do. So they brought her to the Prophet ﷺ and they said, Ya Rasulullah, this lady is claiming to be your sister. So the Prophet ﷺ said, how do I know? He knows who the sister is referenced. That's Shayma. How do I know that's you? Because everybody knows that Halima is from this tribe. Now a woman stands up and says, I am this daughter. Give me a sign. How do I know that this is you? So she said, I still have the marks of the bite that you bit me when I was carrying you as a baby on my back. I still have that. So the Prophet ﷺ realized that this is Shayma. She says a story that nobody would know. So he says this is Shayma and so he freed Shayma and he gave her many many presents. It appears that Halima and her husband were not in this present or not at this occasion when they were conquered. later on they came to visit. After this battle had occurred, they came to visit. And so Halima and her husband visited the Prophet ﷺ when he was in his late 50s. And when he saw Halima, he recognized her instantly, because this is of course, Halima would not have changed that much. Shayma of course is 6 years old. By the time he sees her again, this is you cannot recognize. But Halima was an adult. So when he saw Halima, he stood up to greet her. This is his mother, his foster, Mehram. He stood up to greet her. He took off his own shawl, his own ridah, and he placed it on the ground for her to sit on. And in some narrations, her husband was with her. In some narrations, it only mentions that Halima was there. And it is said in some of the books that she accepted Islam, and the Prophet ﷺ gifted her immensely. And they went their way. Nonetheless, getting back to the story where we are now. So shortly after the Prophet ﷺ was returned to Aminah, we only have one incident that is recorded during this time. There's only one incident. I have looked as much as I could in all of the ancient and the classical works, and there's only one authentic incident that we know. So subhanAllah, what else did Aminah do, and what were the moments, and what was her tarbiyah? We don't know anything. There's only one thing that has been narrated that you all know, and that is that Aminah decided to take her son to Yathrib. Now, let's pause here. Remember three, four halaqas ago, he mentioned that the Prophet's great-grandmother was from Yathrib, right? Now, surely you see the wisdom in Allah's divine plan. That out of all the cities, I mean all of his other grandmothers, grandmothers of Quraishi, they're all from Mecca. And it just so happens that Abdul Muttalib's mother, Abdul Muttalib's father falls in love with a little girl or a girl from Yathrib. Out of all the travels, surely you see Allah has a divine wisdom plan. That there should have been a connection and there was a connection between the Prophet ﷺ and Yathrib before the immigration. Out of all the cities, the only city he traveled to as a little child and the only city that he has other relatives in, in the entire surrounding areas, is but one small village of Yathrib which was to be called Medina. Coincidence? Of course not. Allah has a plan. Allah has a plan. And so, and it was of course the custom of the Arabs that they preserve their lineage completely. And they were proud of their lineage as you know. And they knew exactly who was who for not just 10 generations, all the way back to, they say Ibrahim or Adnan, they would preserve their generations. They would know who is who. And they would keep the ties of kinship. Why? Because this was Jahili society. You are protected by your relatives. your prestige is established by your relatives everything, there is no government there is no law, there is no order your relatives dictate your protection wherever you go and of course no doubt when you are friends when you have a relationship with people then this helps establish the ties and so Amina decided to take this little boy to Yathrib and she had with her the one servant that it is said that Abdul Muttalib gifted them when they got married and this is Umm Ayman Abdul Muttalib gifted his son when they got married, Umm Ayman. And Umm Ayman, unfortunately there's so little known about her. And it is sad because Umm Ayman did live a long time. And she became a Muslim. And she even lived until after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. And if only somebody had sat down with her and recorded stories, then we would have had a whole chronicle. But Allah has His wisdom that we don't understand and know. And Umm Ayman did indeed witness all of this. And she lived all the way till the Khilafah of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. She lived until that time. But unfortunately we don't have much stories. This is one of those stories that she's telling. So a lot of these stories they come from Umm Ayman. Because she's the only witness, right? So Umm Ayman is the one telling us this story of what happened. So Aminah traveled to Yathrib, which is now called Medina, along with Umm Ayman. and the little boy, the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, she was around six years old at the time. And as you all know, they stayed there probably a few months. Again, we don't have dates, but when you travel that distance, you don't just stay two, three days, you stay two, three months, you get to know the tribe and the family. And some books of seerah do mention that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam recognized some of the buildings of Medina when he returned 50 years later. That he recognized some of the places that he was as a child in the city. of Yathrib. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam stayed there for a few months on the way back in a small little settlement which is still present to this day and it is called Al-Abwa Al-Abwa. Amina herself fell ill and she passed away right then and there and Umm Ayman had her buried by the people of the village, Abwa and so to this day her grave is at a place called Abwa. And it is reported in Sahih Muslim that on one journey when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was returning home with the Sahaba, and the path to Medina is straight ahead, he simply diverted away from the path. He turned away from the path and started walking, basically into the wilderness, away from the road. They did have roads, not like our roads, but they had landmarks, they know this is the road. He turns away from the road and he walks away. All the Sahaba silently just walk with him. Not even asking a question. Whatever the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam does, سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا They're just walking with him. And the Sahaba who are narrating this, they say that the Prophet ﷺ found a grave over there, and he sat down and he cried like we had never seen him cry before. Until his lihya, his beard, which is mashaAllah it is narrated the Prophet ﷺ had a very big beard. His beard was wet with tears. And many of the Sahaba had never seen him cry before. This is the, for many of them is the only time that they have seen him cry. And it is narrated that he only cried publicly a number of times. When his son Ibrahim died, they saw him crying. And this was the time when they saw it so much so, that his beard sallallahu alayhi wa sallam became wet. And subhanallah, the sahaba did not ask one question, they didn't open their mouths, but when they saw the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam crying, the whole congregation is crying with him. This is the love that they have. They don't even know what's happening. But they're just crying with him. And they're waiting for him to explain what is happening. And then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, I had used to forbid you from visiting graves. Pause here. Initially in early Islam, the ruling had been it is not allowed to visit graves, except if you're burying the dead. You only enter the graveyard with a dead body. And then you leave and that's it. I used to forbid you from visiting graves. But I asked Allah to visit my mother's grave. Now he's explaining. I asked Allah permission to visit my mother's grave. Pause here again. The Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam does not take one step without Allah's permission. He even wants to get permission to go visit his mother. This is why he is Rasulullah. That's why, لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنًا That is why he is a role model. that he cannot lift a finger, except if Allah has allowed him to do so. So he's telling the sahaba, I used to forbid you from doing so. I asked Allah permission to visit my mother's grave, and He allowed me to visit her grave. So now I am allowing you, therefore, the permissibility to visit graves, is from amina. I.e. when the Prophet ﷺ visited amina. The permissibility that we still have in our sharia, to visit graves, It is from the Prophet ﷺ wanting to visit his mother's grave. Aamina. And so he told us to visit graves because it reminds you of death. And the fact that the Prophet ﷺ obviously is crying in this manner. I mean we don't need to mention this is his mother. He must have memories. Not maybe that many. He was six years old when she passed away. But nonetheless this was his mother. And he is crying in this fashion that the Sahaba have never seen him cry. And the sahaba themselves are following the sunnah and just crying with him, because he's crying, so they cry as well. Really it doesn't need to be mentioned, the love that he must have felt, and the pain that he must have endured at the death of Aminah. And as I have said, I have searched in all of the classical works that I have, about more stories from Aminah. But unfortunately I could not find anything that is really of even a semi-authentic nature. And as I said, the reason for this is obvious and understood. who is gonna record in the privacy of Amina's household what she did with the Prophet ﷺ, the playful times, the joy, the laughing, the tears. Who's gonna record all of this for us? And so this is something that we really don't have much information about. So the Prophet ﷺ's father passes away when his mother is pregnant with him. And his mother barely has two and a half years really to take care of him and nourish him because he was being taken care of by Halima as well. And then when the Prophet ﷺ is barely six years old, he loses his mother and his father so he is then entrusted to Abdul Muttalib, the chieftain of the Quraysh, and once again we really have hardly anything about Abdul Muttalib's relationship with the Prophet ﷺ other than one or two tidbits that we have in Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'ad and other classical books, and of what Ibn Ishaq mentions about this period, and he mentions it from some of the tabi'un, so we can say okay the tabi'un must have heard it from their fathers and grandfathers. So inshallah, it's permissible to narrate these types of stories. It is said that Abdul Muttalib would have a raised platform in front of and connected to the Ka'bah. Because he's the chieftain of the Quraysh. We already talked about what happened when Abdul Muttalib was a youngster, was a young man, and how he was raised to this level, and why the people respected him. We already mentioned this. We already said Abdul Muttalib lived a very long life, over 80. So now he's already over 80, he's already blind. Abdul Muttalib died a blind man. He lived a very long age. So he had a raised platform that was connected to the Ka'bah. And around Asr time when the shade would come, this platform was in that shade of the Ka'bah. And he would sit there and discuss the affairs of the Quraysh. And the Quraysh would come and he's the chieftain. So this is where there's the public platform. This is where he would sit every single afternoon. And of course this is the platform that is the equivalent of the king's throne. Nobody sits on it. None of his sons, none of his grandsons. This is for Abdul Muttalib. And the one thing that we have recorded, that once the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, as a young boy came running, and he jumped onto the platform to be next to Abdul Muttalib. His uncles, Azubayr and others pulled him back down. Because this is, you're not supposed to go there. And Abdul Muttalib stopped them, he said, leave him, this is my child, and he can remain on this platform. So out of all of the grandchildren, the only one that he allowed to be on that platform, was the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And there's one more incident that is narrated. This is the only two that we have from Abd al-Muttalib. And that is that in one occasion, the uncles of the Prophet ﷺ sent the Prophet ﷺ to find some lost camels. And the reason why they did this, according to Ibn Sa'd, he says, Ibn Sa'd by the way is, these are the two earliest references of the seerah, Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd. So I'm gonna say these names throughout, so you should be aware of them. Ibn Ishaq, you all know, Ibn Sa'd wrote a book called Tabaqat. Ibn Sa'd died around 230 Hijrah. So he's also very early. And one of the earliest books as well of seerah. So Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd, both of them are considered to be the most ancient sources of the seerah that we still have in our times. Ibn Sa'd mentions, the reason why his uncles chose a little kid who's probably 7-8 years old to go find the camels, was because, listen to this, he never did anything except that it was successful. He was never assigned a task except that it was a successful endeavor that he did. So now the uncles are getting desperate. Camels are expensive creatures. The uncles are getting desperate. And they can't find the camels. So they decide, well, this boy, whatever he does, it works. Let's go send him out alone in the desert to find the camels. And when they sent the Prophet ﷺ, he was delayed in coming back. And Abdul Muttalib, when he found out, he was furious at them. How could you have done this? Why did you send the boy? Now of course, they sent him because they want the camels back, right? Abdul Muttalib was furious, and he was pacing and walking around, waiting for the Prophet ﷺ to come. And as soon as he came, he hugged him and he said, from now on, I will never let you out of my sight. And this shows us that he had a special care and a concern for our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. As we all know, at the age of eight, once again, for the third time, our Prophet ﷺ became an orphan. first his father, then his mother and now his grandfather one after the other, he became an orphan Ibn Sa'ad mentions in narration slight weakness in the chain but no problem in narrating it, that one of the sahabi said do you remember Abdul Muttalib ya Rasulullah remember Abdul Muttalib was the legend remember this, Abdul Muttalib was the big guy, before the coming of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he is the legend of Arabia so they're curious, do you remember Abdul Muttalib ya Rasulullah, so he said yes I remember him and I was eight years old when he died. So this hadith clearly shows even though it's slightly weak, but it clearly shows the age of the Prophet ﷺ that he was eight years old when Abdul Muttalib passed away. And one of the things that Abdul Muttalib did on his deathbed is that he entrusted the Prophet ﷺ to his son Abu Talib. And the reason of course as we mentioned before, the only full brother that was still alive of Abdullah was Abu Talib. Abdul Muttalib had married five wives, one after the other. He had married five wives, and from one of them, he had a number of daughters and two sons that were still alive at this time, and that is, of course, Abdullah had passed away, and then Abu Talib. So the full brother of Abdullah was Abu Talib. Unlike Abu Lahab, unlike Hamza, all of these were not full brothers, they were half-uncles of the Prophet ﷺ. And so Abu Talib takes charge of the Prophet ﷺ, And Abu Talib lives a long life. And Abu Talib passes away when the Prophet ﷺ is over 50 years old. So he remains with the Prophet ﷺ. And we're gonna be talking quite a lot about him in the future halaqat, inshaAllah ta'ala. Question. Why did Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put so much trials and tribulations on the young child? Why did Allah Azza wa Jal put three orphan situations, three traumatic trials, one after the other, upon our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? I mean if Allah had willed, he would have been born in a lap of luxury. If Allah had willed, he could have had loving parents until he became a prophet, or at least until he became a young man, an adult. He can stand on his feet. Why did Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will such a difficult childhood? The response as our scholars mention is that there's many reasons for doing so. First and foremost, like Allah says about Musa a.s. in the Quran, وَاسْطَنَعْتُكَ لِنَفْسِي I was the one who took care of you. When everyone else was being killed in the Bani Israel, right? Even your mother was forced to abandon you. I was the one who took care of you. وَاسْطَنَعْتُكَ لِنَفْسِي لِتُسْنَعَ عَلَىٰ عَيْنِي so that you may be raised under my care. Ala ayni here means under the care of Allah Azza wa Jalla, under my protection. And if this is what Allah says of Musa, then even more so for our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. That no one can say that he has a favor over the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam for having done anything. Allah Azza wa Jalla took care of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and took this responsibility directly. Another wisdom is that no doubt it is tough and it is difficult and it is in some sense traumatic to be an orphan. Yet at the same time, being an orphan gives you many qualities that the Prophet ﷺ would need later on in his life. Being pampered and growing up in luxury is not gonna prepare you for a life of sacrifice, for a mission of calling to Allah ﷻ. No, not at all. But being born in a harsh environment, not having your mother and father to love you. As we all know as parents, no one on earth can love you like your mother and father. No one. And when our Prophet ﷺ is deprived of a mother and father, automatically this makes the child more independent. It makes the child more mature. Gives him wisdom. And these are qualities that the Prophet ﷺ would need. And this is something we notice in every orphan child. That this orphan child is much more mature than his or her peers. And subhanallah, even another thing notice. that a child born in poverty is more mature than a child born in luxury. Look around you. A child born in difficult circumstances, right? And subhanAllah, not to be stereotypical, but look at our own kids here in America versus kids in third world countries and the responsibilities placed on them. And the maturity that they have at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, right? This is something reality. My own kids are just as guilty as yours, so no need to point to anybody. We're all in the same boat here. Okay, we're all in the same boat here. Subhanallah, you go, quote-unquote, back home, and six-year-old children are taking care of babies. Completely. The mother has to work. The six-year-old is taking care. Here in this country, I wouldn't give a 16-year-old care of a baby. Isn't this true? Right? But this is what happens, and this is something we notice in our lives. Imagine, in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. There is a divine wisdom. Nothing happens except that Allah has a plan behind it. So by putting the Prophet ﷺ through such difficult circumstances, this made him who he was. And he needed to be that man, in order to be the Prophet of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Also, going through these difficult times, makes you understand and experience first hand, poverty, ruthlessness, living in a harsh environment. And generally speaking, this makes you more sensitive, rather than more selfish. It is the rich who are selfish, not the poor. Everyone knows this. It is the rich who are stingy, not the poor. Allah, look again, isn't this true? The more you have, the more stingy you become. And the less you have, the more open, the more generous you are. Once again, our Prophet ﷺ is going through tough times in order to be compassionate, in order to be merciful. And that is why there are so many ahadith about taking care of orphans. Surely, brothers and sisters, don't you think that in all of these ahadith, the Prophet ﷺ is also remembering himself. When he says, اَنَا وَكَافُرُ الْيَتِيمِكَ هَتَيْنِي فِي الْجَنَّةِ I and the one who takes care of orphans will be like this in Jannah. When he says that, when you see an orphan, say good words to him, and put your hand on his hair, there's a hadith like this. Put your hand through his hair, i.e. treat the orphan with love. Don't you think that our Prophet ﷺ is remembering his own childhood as well, as an orphan. Our religion has it as a central pillar to take care of the orphan. And our Prophet ﷺ was an orphan. And therefore, as a personal advice to all of you here, it's a little bit of a tangent, Wallahi, the least thing we can do is to find an orphan to help and to sponsor that orphan. Allah has blessed us with so much wealth in this land, with so much that we have here. And our Prophet ﷺ said, I and the one who takes care of an orphan are like this in Jannah. Subhanallah, don't you want to be like this with the Prophet ﷺ right next to him? And Allah has blessed us with so much. Find out there are so many programs that take care of orphans. And all you need is 30, 40, 50 dollars a month. Wallahi, we spend more on coffee and on our television sets than we do on this. And there are people around the world, there are legitimate organizations that I cooperate with and others are known to be legitimate. That you go and find an orphan in your home country and find out how many I can help and make it a part of your life that from now on, I'm gonna follow exactly what our Prophet ﷺ said. And of course our Qur'an as well mentions that taking care of the yateen and preferring the yateen over yourself. And therefore by going through this traumatic time, our Prophet ﷺ developed that fondness, that softness, that mercy, that tenderness for not just orphans but all those who are weak. And this is a necessary requirement for being a prophet. another benefit of this is that this facilitated the Prophet ﷺ being raised in the Banu Sa'ad so that he could become the most eloquent of the Arabs and it is well known that the Prophet ﷺ spoke the best Arabic and in fact there is a hadith to this regard as well that Allah has blessed me with the most succinct the most precise of all speech utitu jawami al-kalim I have been given the most profound speech. What is جوامع الكلم? جوامع الكلم means a small phrase can be explained and understood in hundreds of hours. Little bit of a phrase and there is much meaning, there is much profundity in it. And so Allah عز و جل chose this for our Prophet ﷺ for all of these reasons. The final story that we'll mention, we have only 10 minutes left. The final story that we'll mention is the story, the famous story that we have that our Prophet ﷺ took a journey to Syria. Now this is a story that we need to give a little bit of academic detail to. Firstly, what is the story in a nutshell? The story which is mentioned in one book of hadith, Sunan al-Tirmidhi. Realize brothers and sisters, most of the seerah is not mentioned in the books of hadith. It is mentioned in Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, these other books, a different genre. And the standards of those books, generally speaking, are lower. as we explained and we'll explain a little bit now as well. The standards of authenticity are one degree less. The books of hadith are the most strict. Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nisa'i ibn Majah, Mustadha Hadith ibn Hanbal, Sunan al-Darimi. These are the ummahat. These are the mother books we call them. Our religion is based upon them. Our theology, our fiqh, our legal, our ethics is based upon these 7, 8, 9 books. Muwata Imam Malik. Around these basically 8 or 9 books. the books of seerah are a level beneath this in terms of authenticity and that is why a lot of the incidents of the seerah are not as authentic if you like as our hadith and our theology but we have no problems narrating them because so what if it's slightly weak it tells us a historical detail no big deal, sometimes however we get into problems and this story is one of them so we have to go into a little bit of academic detail what is the story? it is mentioned that when the Prophet ﷺ was still young, it says he had not yet reached puberty. So we can say 11 or 12. Abu Talib took him on a journey to Syria. And the book, the hadith in Tirmidhi says, along with Abu Bakr and Bilal. And they passed by, on their way to Syria, a monastery, where a monk used to live, who would never give them the time of day. And his name was Buhairah. this time when they were with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam they said that for the first time Buhairah came out searching for them and greeting them and inviting them all back to his house for a feast and when they told, when they asked him why are you doing this, he said you have in your midst a boy, meaning the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who will become a prophet he said that I saw the clouds shelter him and I saw that the trees also sheltered him and that the stones prostrated to him. And so he told Abu Talib to take care of him. And while they were sitting there eating the feast, they saw seven Roman soldiers appear. And the soldiers allegedly are trying to find the Prophet who is going to come and capture him and kill him. Buhairah hid them and told the soldiers to basically make an excuse they went away and then Buhairah told Abu Talib to take back him immediately to Mecca so the Prophet ﷺ was sent back with Abu Bakr and Bilal immediately to Mecca now this is the story in a nutshell and it is narrated in some basic form in Tirmidhi and of course in Ibn Ishaq and others and most of the scholars of our tradition have basically accepted it at face value including Tirmidhi, Ibn Hajar, Al-Hakim and others. However, some of our more critically minded scholars, a little bit more verifying and ascertaining, such as Imam Al-Dhahabi, the famous Imam Al-Dhahabi, such as Ibn Kathir, the historian. There's also a famous scholar, Ibn Sayyid al-Nas and others. They said something is wrong about this story. Something is wrong about this story. And of those who critique that the most is Imam Al-Dhahabi. Imam al-Dahabi is one of the greatest chroniclers and historians of the 7th century. And he is a student of Shaykh al-Nusaym ibn Taymiyyah as well. Imam al-Dahabi, and this by the way shows that he has a critical mind. That he's not gonna just accept something at face value. And this is the hallmark of an intellectual, of an academic. That you don't just believe everything you hear. Think about it, see does it make sense or not. in our times, I'll tell you I'm from academia as you know so I study in academia as well this is a whole genre if you like or a whole methodology of modern study and it is called historical criticism, that you cannot just take the books of history and then take them at face value, read through dissect, compare, think is it possible or not don't just accept anything like this and this applies to our tradition and to every tradition and Imam al-Dahabi says how can this story be true Abu Bakr was not even, he was just a kid at the time. And why would he go on a caravan with Abu Talib? Abu Bakr is not directly related to the Prophet ﷺ. Why would Abu Talib take him? As for Bilal, he hasn't even been born yet. Bilal has not even been born yet. And he was not acquired by Abu Bakr until after Islam. How did Bilal come into the picture? And then he goes on. And he said, why would the trees shelter him when according to the report, the clouds are already sheltering him? Why would the trees also then shelter him? And then he said, why don't we find the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam reminding Abu Talib of this incident when he became a prophet? He said, don't you remember when I was a kid, didn't Buhairah tell us that I would become a prophet? Why are you rejecting me? Why did the Quraysh find it problematic that he became a prophet? When apparently Buhairah announces to the world that he's gonna become a prophet. In fact, why did he himself himself not understand what was going on when Jibreel came to him in Ghar-e-Hira and he went running to Khadija saying what happened I don't know. He should have been waiting for the time. And he told Jibreel how come you're so late? I've been waiting the last 35 years for you. Why is he himself not certain? Why is he confused? Why is he scared? Why is he terrified? He comes to Khadija saying what happened I don't understand. Khadija has to take him to Waraka as we're gonna talk about inshallah in a few weeks. And Waraka has to explain, this is the Jibreel, this is the Namus, this is the one who comes to Musa and to Isa. Why, why, why, why? All of these questions abound. Now, question arises, okay, well, maybe there's some, some scholars have said, okay, Bilal and Abu Bakr are incorrect details, but then let's accept the rest of the story. Two points here. Firstly, the same story that says Bilal and Abu Bakr also says the rest, so why are you picking and choosing what to take and leave? Secondly, this is the reason why someone like myself really I have to say this story should not be mentioned except to clarify that it's not authentic. The problem that comes with this story is that most of the non-Muslim historians and researchers have found this missing link that they were looking for in this story. And they said, Aha, look, this is where the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. acquired all of his information about Jews and Christians. Because you have to realize there was no information about Judaism and Christianity in Mecca. There were no Jews and Christians living in Mecca. There were no libraries in Mecca. There were no Old Testaments and New Testaments. The Arabs did not record the stories of Yusuf and Musa and Jesus. It's not relevant to the Arabian culture. The Quraysh have nothing to do with Moses and Jesus, and of course not Abraham, but Ishaq. And the Bani Ishaq, the Bani Israel. Correct? This is a lost history for them. and the Prophet ﷺ comes along and this is a question that to this day they don't have a good answer to. He comes along in the middle of a jahili environment, completely uneducated, and he begins reciting the histories of people that were not his own. And there is no university, there is no education, he himself is an illiterate man, there are no books in Makkah, where did he get it from? And Allah mentions this in the Qur'an. مَا كُنْتَ تَتْبُو مِنْ قَبْلِهِ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَلَا تَخُطُّهُ بِأَمِينِكَ You didn't choose to recite novels before. You didn't choose to write books before. Where did you get this from? Allah says in the Quran, تِلْكَ مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ غَيْبِ نُوحِيحَ إِلَيْكَ مَا كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُهَا أَنْتَ وَلَا قَوْمُكَ مِنْ قَبْلِهَا These are the stories you tell to your people. You didn't know this before. Neither you nor your people. مَا كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُهَا You didn't know these stories. لَا أَنْتَ وَلَا قُوْمُكَ Neither you nor your people knew these stories. So, when this Buhayrah story comes along, Orientalists, and this is what they do, almost all non-Muslim scholars who study Islam, they say, Aha! This is where he must have gotten his information. Now, even if the story is authentic, this is ludicrous. The Prophet ﷺ is 11 years old, he's barely sitting half an hour, one feast, one event, right? How could he got all... So even this we say is ludicrous. Even if the story is true, your theory doesn't make any sense. Will an 11 year old kid memorize all of this information, encyclopedic information in a 20 minute conversation 30 minute conversation and then regurgitate it 40 years later it doesn't make sense but we don't even have to go that far because we say look even our own scholars such as al-Dahabi such as Ibn Sayyidina Nas and others they have pointed out that this story doesn't make sense and Imam al-Dahabi himself said this story I feel is fabricated he said I feel this story is fabricated and this is something that we need to be very cautious and careful about that this is a whole other topic altogether and that is the fabrication of hadith. Unfortunately, throughout our history, people, many of them are sincere minded, love to just fabricate things about their religion. Why? They have their reasons. Some of them had evil reasons, but many of them had good reasons. So one person fabricated lots of hadith about fada'il al-Quran. There is a very famous fabricated hadith about every single surah has a blessing. The blessing of Baqarah is this, the blessing of Ali Imran is this, the blessing of Nisa is this. Every surah. And when Imam Ahmad and others finally captured this fabricator, said, how could you do this? How could you fabricate about the book of Allah? He said, oh, I found the people getting busy in fiqh and in books of history, I wanted them to go back to the Quran. So I fabricated something, maybe they read the Quran because of it. So he has some... Now by the way, in those days they were interested in the books of fiqh. He wants them to go to the Quran. Imagine if he knew the Muslims of our times, they only go to Bollywood and Hollywood, not even fiqh. Imagine what people would do in our times. The point being, throughout history, they have been people who, for whatever reasons, they have wanted to just fabricate. And this is why there's a whole science called the science of hadith. It's a very detailed, it's a very structured science. This was my speciality in my undergraduate in Medina. I studied from the college of hadith. And it is a four-year program that we had. We went over, how do you tell an authentic hadith from an inauthentic one. A sahih from a da'if from a fabricator. So whole specialization. So we have to understand that when it comes to the seerah, a lot of people they just because of emotionalism, because of this and that, they wish to just add things that are not found in the earliest books, right? And I already gave an example in the last halaqah that when the Prophet ﷺ was born, he had his finger raised to the sky, that he fell into sajdah in front of Allah, this and that. Wallahi, you listen to it and it doesn't make sense. And you don't find it in the earliest books. You find it in books written 900 hijrah. How did this guy find out what the Prophet ﷺ was born? This is fabrication. You have these stories that the Prophet ﷺ did not have a shadow. You don't find this in Ibn Ishaq. You don't find this in Ibn Sa'd. You find this once again, the people they want to exaggerate. We don't need to exaggerate. Our Prophet ﷺ is the best human being. And what we know about him is enough to tell us that. When we put these stories in, wallahi we give our religion a bad name. People look at it and say, what type of religion is this? We don't need to do this. Allah has told us what we need to know. And in the authentic blessings of our Prophet ﷺ, there is plenty that we can stick to. We don't need to resort to these pseudo-fables and these legends. And it's disservice to us. It will harm our religion, and our Prophet ﷺ is not in need of it. So in my opinion, and in the opinion of Ad-Dahabi and others, this story about the monk and Buhairah, it doesn't make sense. Logically it doesn't make sense. Even think about it. If Buhairah had truly said to Abu Talib that this is gonna be the prophet of the Arabs, surely Abu Talib would not have found it strange. Surely he wouldn't have told the Prophet ﷺ, why are you preaching this message? Surely the Quraysh when they would have found out about it. Again, it's common sense. It's not something that it makes sense that this occurred. And therefore Allah knows best, but this story does appear to be weak. In sha Allah with this it is time for the we have a few minutes for questions I'd like to point out this is the last Sira class before Ramadan I'll not be in Memphis for most of July, I'll be coming back end of July, we'll have some programs for Ramadan in sha Allah, fiqh of Ramadan preparing Ramadan before Ramadan in sha Allah and then we will resume after Ramadan, in Ramadan in sha Allah we have a lot of things planned in sha Allah we'll have everyday of course taraweeh and tafsir lecture every single day in sha Allah about the recitation that we've done. Between the four raka'at, we'll have a little bit of tafsir. Inshallah, lots of programs during Ramadan. Of course, there's a grand fundraiser, which we have very, very, hamdulillah, blessed speakers coming. We have Imam Siraj Wahaj confirmed, hamdulillah, coming to Memphis. And then we have Sheikh Abdul Kareem Idgush, who is the most famous reciter of the Quran in North America. And he won the world competition of Quran recitation in Mecca. He won that competition a few years ago. He became, he's basically one of the top Qaris of the world. And he's now living in America. Alhamdulillah, I have a good friendship with him. So I convinced him, Alhamdulillah, to come with us on that same night. We're having a major event on that night. Imam Siraj Wahaj and Sheikh Abdul Karim Idgouch are going to be coming for that evening. Unfortunately, Sheikh Abdul Karim is not going to be for the whole month. I wish, but just for that one night he'll be here. So that's going to be a big event. as for seerah we will resume as we said after Ramadan and we're going to talk about the remainder of the pre-prophethood of the Prophet his marriage to Khadija other incidents that occurred, the rebuilding of the Kaaba all of this will resume after the month of Ramadan, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala any questions that we have before the adhan yes go ahead So there's an ayah in the Quran that says, وَمَن يُعْرِضْ عَنْ ذِكْرِ رَبِّهِ نُقَيْلَهُ شَيْطَانًا فَهُوَ لَهُ قَرِينٌ There's an ayah that says that whoever turns away from the remembrance of Allah, Then Allah Azza wa Jal will then basically allow a shaitan to become a qareen. This qareen is not the qareen mentioned in the hadith. This qareen is not the qareen mentioned in the hadith. And Allah knows best, but this qareen seems to be more evil or more powerful than the other qareen. Because the other qareen, we are supposed to fight him and it is not that difficult to fight him. Seeking refuge in Allah and spitting on the left, saying, These types of things we can fight that qareen. As for this one, Allah says, those who turn away from my remembrance, then we will basically allow the shaitan to become his qareen. So this type of qareen, it means that when a person has left the remembrance of Allah and the worship of Allah, the angels no longer surround him, and his associates around him, his spiritual associates, only become the shayateen. So that is not the same as this hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said, when the child is born, shaitan assigns a qareen. Qareen literally means a companion. Qarin means a companion we know that we have angels who are also our companions they write we know that there are angels that are also recording and there are shayateen as well this is Allah Azza wa Jal has assigned and allowed for this to occur and Allah Ta'ala Alim brothers any questions sisters right here Can shaitan cause depression? Shaitan has many tactics that he uses, and one of them is to cause a type of what you would call depression. Because the purpose of shaitan is to get you away from the worship of Allah. And he uses any means necessary. And one of the things that takes a person away from the worship of Allah is basically to be so mentally engrossed in a problem, in a musibah, that they just sit there and they sulk and they don't do anything. And there's no question that a lot of these mental diseases, a lot of them, either they are caused by or they are exacerbated, made worse by shaitan. I have no question that this is the case. And I firmly believe that even many of the psychological and psychiatric diseases, because in my humble opinion, they are caused by shaitan. And that is why people of iman automatically can battle these emotions more than people without iman. In other words, when you have faith, and by the way, this isn't just even Islamic faith, even for example a Christian, right, who loves his God and what not, such a person overall is optimistic. They had a survey done, a study done. Generally speaking, religious people are more optimistic than people without religion. Because Allah created us to be religious, right? Generally speaking, religious people have a better outlook on life. And they get over calamities and problems better. Now we would say, when you're Muslim, even better than this, right? And when you have iman, even better than this. So all of this, yes indeed, shaitan does use any tactic, any means necessary. And one of them is to have these psychological problems. How can you overcome that? The same way you overcome religious laxity. the same way you overcome ghafla of the heart, the same way you overcome not having a relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. First and foremost, increase your ibadah. Doing ibadah automatically links you to Allah. Increase in Qur'an, increase in dhikr, increase in salah. These are the main actions of ibadah that bring about immediate spiritual satisfaction. Secondly as well, knowledge. Knowledge as well brings about an understanding of the deen. And that is why, even for example, this knowledge. I mean, this is not me saying this, this is the Quran saying. When you have ilm, your iman goes up, right? And I am sure that every one of you just by listening to these talks, not because I'm giving them, but because it's about our Prophet ﷺ, your iman goes up, right? So simply having a knowledge of the religion. As well, making sure that you say all of the necessary adhkar to protect yourself from shaitan. When you leave the house, when you enter the house, when you eat food, when you go to sleep, when you wake up, there is a whole routine. And the more you perfect your adhkar, the less, if you like, power that shaitan has over you. And our Prophet ﷺ said that, ذكر of Allah, remembering Allah, is a protected fortress, حسن حصين, that protects you from shaitan. Imagine having fortifications and walls and barriers, that's what ذكر of Allah does. When you have ذكر of Allah, you have حسن حصين, which is a double fortress, is a protected fortress. So all of these things they help us. Of course, obviously, دعاة الله عز و جل وَإِمَّا يَنزَغَنَّكَ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ نَزْغٌ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ That when shaitan throws something into your heart, nazgh, this is the nazgh. When shaitan throws something into your heart, فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ Seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And also by the way for depression and what not, one of the simplest cures as well is to hang around righteous Muslims. Not to be alone, not to be sulking, to be in social company of righteous people who will remind you of Allah and bring you closer to Him. And with this, inshallah, we will conclude and make the floor for adhan. Jazakumullahu khair wa salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. What is the announcement again? He's going to give a talk? So tomorrow we have Ustaz Numan Ali Khan coming. MashaAllah, alhamdulillah, you all know. They're from Bayna Institute. And he'll be giving a talk after Maghrib over here. So tomorrow, inshallah. So tomorrow after Maghrib, be here as well, inshallah. Jazakumullah Khairu Assalamu Alaikum Who wants to give the Adhan?

Seerah 60 - The Tribe of Banu Quraytha - Dr

Al-Fatiha. we had discussed the conclusion of the battle of the khandaq, the battle of Ahzab, and the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used a number of factors to make sure that the Ahzab departed without even a battle taking place. We talked about Nu'aym ibn Mas'ud, we talked about the army that Allah sent, we talked about the treachery, that's not the treachery, but the, if you like, what's the word I'm looking for, no, the mistrust, I'm not, I'm telling the mistrust that the three tribes had for each other. the Banu Qurayza with the Ghatafan with the Quraysh, the mistrusters they're looking for. That they didn't trust one another, they really didn't have the same reasons for fighting. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used all of that against them, and وَكَفَ اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِ الْقِتَالِ As Allah says, Allah was enough, Allah sufficed the believers for fighting. وَكَفَ اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِ الْقِتَالِ They didn't need to fight, Allah was sufficient for their fighting. So when they woke up the next morning after that terrible sandstorm, literally they saw the entire land deserted. Nobody had remained, all the tents had been overturned, and so it's clear that the Quraysh and the Ahzab have left. So, the Prophet ﷺ then departed back home. And some say he went to the house of Umm Salama, his wife Umm Salama, and he had hardly come home and put down his sword when Jibreel came to him. When Jibreel came to him, and this was around Dhuhr time. It was around Dhuhr time. And of course Dhuhr time is the time of the afternoon nap in that culture and that time. And to this day many cultures of that climate, they have an afternoon nap. It is the time of complete silence. It is the time of siesta, really. The concept of afternoon nap. And it's also the time of heat. Nobody does anything in the afternoon. So the Prophet ﷺ was about to take off his armor, take off his, you know, to relax. And lo and behold, Jibreel comes to him. Ibn Ishaq mentions that he was wearing a turban made out of istabrak, which is soft brocade, riding a mule with a saddle of dibaj, which is silk. So Jibreel is coming in the best fashion and form. His turban is there, he's riding his camel, his mule with a saddle of dibaj. And he said to the Prophet ﷺ, Ya Rasulullah, have you put down your silah, your weapon? So the Prophet ﷺ said, yes. He has put his weapon, he is about to take his armor off. He said, yes. So Jibreel said to the Prophet ﷺ, as for the angels, then they have not put it down yet. We are still ready from the battle, we have not put it down yet. And I have just arrived with a new contingent, a new battalion. Meaning, you are coming to rest, we are ready for another round. Ya Muhammad, Allah is commanding you to go to the Banu Qurayza. Now this is a command now. Allah is command now. After one month of tiredness, of mental fatigue, torture. Subhanallah, you're thinking finally, come home. He hasn't even put his foot in the house, literally. Take his sword and not his armor. You can imagine he's probably unbuckling the sword, putting it up. That's the armor. And then Jibreel comes. You want to rest, the angels are not going to rest. And Allah is commanding you to go to the Banu Quraidah, and I am heading out there right now, فَإِنِّي مُزَلْزُلُ الْأَرْضَ بِهِمْ I am going to shake the earth for them now. I am going to cause a zelzilzal underneath them now. So the Prophet ﷺ knew that the war was not yet over. That there would not be given even a single day. And this is literally the morning of Ahzab. Literally, you can imagine, you know, the relief and the gratitude and the concept of just relaxing. But no, there's a bigger thing to deal with. And so the Prophet ﷺ sent a crier throughout the entire city that whoever hears must obey and nobody is allowed to pray asr except at Banu Quraidah. لَا يُصَلِّيَنَّ أَحَدُكُمُ الْعَصْرَ إِلَّا فِي بَنِي قَرَيْضَ you all have to pray Asr in Banu Quraidah that's two hours away there's no time to even relax right? and this was a severe direct command and order you cannot pray Asr except at Banu Quraidah no rest at all, and this hadith by the way is muttafaq, every book of hadith mentions this is the famous hadith of Banu Quraidah that the cry went out around town no one was going to pray Asr except in Banu Quraidah now quick tangent here before we get back to the story this leads to one of the most interesting fiqh episodes in the life of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam let's just pause here, the story, let's pause it an incident happened that deals with fiqh and deriving law now the commandment went out obviously not everybody is going to be able to respond immediately maybe a few of them have already fallen asleep maybe a few of them got the message a bit late whatever the point might be obviously some of them are going to be delayed. Maybe a few of them took some time to put it back on and go and whatnot. So, they were arriving in Banu Quraidah in batches. They left in batches. The Banu Quraidah is probably an hour walk away. So, they're leaving Medina, they're arriving in batches. And some of them, quite a lot of them, trickled in until Maghrib is about to set. So, it took a while for them to get the message and to come and do it. And I realized Medina was much larger than it is now. And there are small settlements far outside the city. Not just one large locality. So whatever the case might be, quite a lot of them, mashallah tabarakallah, they got to Asr before, they got to Banu Quraida before Asr, before Maghrib time basically. So they prayed Asr at its proper time. But there were quite a lot that were on their way to Banu Quraida, and the sun is about to set. And if the sun sets, Asr time is over, obviously. Maghrib time is gonna come. So, what happened? the Sahaba that were in this stage of getting to Banu Quraithah, they began to have a bit of a back and forth. Should we pray Asr now, because if we don't we're gonna miss it, or should we follow what the Prophet ﷺ said, and not pray Asr until we get to Banu Quraithah, even if we miss it. Right? This is now an issue here, that should we pray Asr right here and now, because when the Prophet ﷺ is saying, don't pray Asr till you get to Banu Quraithah, it's basically an expression that says, hurry up. It doesn't need to be held at literal face value. And he didn't expect that some of us would be in this area, that area, it would take quite a while for us to get there. So, if Asr is gonna be finishing, surely we had better pray Asr quickly, it's gonna take five minutes, and then we'll get to Banu Quraithah, you know, right after Maghrib, fine. Or, if the Prophet ﷺ said, nobody should pray Asala to Banu Qurayza. This means even if the timing finishes, we shouldn't pray Asala until we get to Banu Qurayza. Right? The Sahaba differed back and forth, and they couldn't reach a consensus. So what happened? The some of them decided to pray right then and there, and the others said, no, we're not gonna pray till we get to Banu Qurayza. So they differed amongst each other. And this shows us that when equally qualified mujtahids make an ijtihad, then no ijtihad is binding on the other mujtahid. In other words, when equally qualified people, now that's the key. With all respect, somebody who hasn't studied sharia is not qualified to perform ijtihad. This is the problem of our times. But suppose somebody is qualified or that the knowledge of this ijtihad has nothing to do with the text of the Quran and Sunnah but it has to do with knowledge of the compass, geography, science. For example, which direction is the Qibla? Which direction is the Qibla? Wallahi the greatest alim in the world who has studied Quran, Sunnah, Sharia, Hadith, but he doesn't know the rising and setting of the sun in east and west. Most of us are more knowledgeable than this alim about the direction of the Qibla. Because most scholars have not spent their time studying some basic... You know, a boy scout would know more than I would know. Right? Boy scouts would know more than I would know about directions and what not. This is not an ijtihad that has to do with the text of the sharia. You get the point here. Right? So when it comes to such ijtihad, or even ijtihad that has to do with the text of the sharia, and the person is qualified. He makes an ijtihad. Then he is not obliged to follow somebody else's ijtihad. Because this is exactly what happened here. The sahaba are qualified to perform real ijtihad. They made ijtihad. Some of them did this, some of them did that. What happened? They each followed their ijtihad. And they didn't criticize each other. Khalas, you decided that. Right? now the Prophet ﷺ when he got to Banu Quraidah again this is the part of the fiqh issue we'll get to the story again they told him what happened and they said some of us prayed and some of us didn't pray some of us prayed Asr before it set some of us didn't pray until after Maghrib so we have Qadha basically we prayed Asr Qadha and what does the hadith say the Prophet ﷺ did not criticize either party he did not criticize either party and he let it be and this shows us a very very profound matter by the way some reports which are weak and they are not authentic he said both of you have done correct this is not authentic the correct version he didn't criticize either he let it be this shows us many things the first thing that it shows us apart from the fact that ishtihad is not followed by those who are qualified the second thing I guess is the second thing this shows us is that the truth, the ultimate truth, even in matters of fiqh, is one. How do we know this? Even though the hadith has been used to prove it is multiple. By the way, the same hadith has been used to prove it is multiple. How do we know this? The scholars say, when the Prophet ﷺ gave his commandment, لا يصلي أحدكم العصر إلا في بني قريضة there is no doubt that he would have intended one of the two meanings. He didn't intend both, clearly. It's logical, he would have intended one of the two. He either meant hurry up and if Asr is late then you pray there, or he literally meant pray Asr over there. Number two, the Sahaba, they differed in two camps, there was no third camp that maybe he intended both. Each camp thought they had understood the correct intent of the Sharia. Right? Neither of them said, oh he must have intended both. and it is illogical and frankly against the language against common sense to say he intended both because nobody intends both when you give a command you want either this or that and this is the predominant position in particular of the hanabilah of the usul al-fiqh scholars this is an usul al-fiqh issue is truth and it's also a theological issue by the way one of the things that the two overlap is truth one or multiple halal haq yata'addad aw la this is a theological and an usul al-fiqh issue is truth one or is it multiple in issues of fiqh and the position which makes the most sense is that truth is one but a person who mistakes who mistakenly misses the truth will not be sinful rather they will be rewarded so we differentiate between truth and between reward between truth and between reward and this is proven explicitly in the hadith of Bukhari that the Prophet ﷺ said إِذَا اجْتَهَدَ الْحَاكِمُ فَأَصَابَ فَلْهُ أَجْرًا وَإِنْ أَخْطَأَ فَلَهُ أَجْرٌ وَاحِدٌ and this hadith explicitly proves that truth is one what did the Prophet ﷺ say if the hakim, literally hakim means the ruler but it means over here mujtahid if the judge, if anyone judges, and they're qualified to justice understood, and they are correct, they will get two rewards and if they are incorrect they will get one reward notice he didn't say they're both correct you can't be both correct at any given instance and time for a single person to do a single action it is either wajib or mustahab or makroo or haram or mubah it can't be multiple at the same time you get the point here for the same person, the same deed, the same thing you can have two scholars give two different fatwas okay But in the eyes of Allah, one of them has got to be right. Now, if the mujtahid genuinely made a mistake, what did the Prophet ﷺ say? If he's mistaken, he'll still get one ajah. Right? And this hadith proves it. That the Prophet ﷺ did not criticize either of the two camps. Because it's a done deal. Khalas, what's gonna happen now to say you were right or you were wrong? Who would benefit? The ones who would be wrong would feel very... And for what? Because this is not gonna be repeated. And that's why he didn't clarify what he intended, because it's a one-off situation. Had this been a recurring thing, then of course he must have clarified. But this is literally a one-off. There's never gonna be a second repeat. لَا يُصَلِّيَنَا أَحْدُهُمُ وَنَعْصَفِهُمْ ذِي بَنِ قُرَيْضَهُمْ It's only gonna be one time. Because they misunderstood one of the two. And it's an honest misunderstanding. And there's no point poking or prodding the one that's misunderstood. So he didn't criticize either of the two. And here we find one of the most interesting and fascinating issues, which we still struggle with to this day. And that is, how literal should we be to the text of the Quran and Sunnah? How literal should we be and can we use a little bit of rationality or not? And this is in matters of fiqh and matters of aqidah. We believe ilm al-ghayb, and Allah speaks in ilm al-ghayb about ilm al-ghayb, so we accept it as it is. We don't use rationality to reinterpret ilm al-ghayb. If Allah describes the angels, or the Prophet ﷺ describes the adab al-qabr, this is ilm al-ghayb. Ilm al-ghayb, there is no rationality, you simply believe, سَمِعْنَا وَطَعْنَا We're talking about laws of Islam. This is fiqh issue here. Laws of Islam. When it comes to laws of Islam, there have been trends from the time of the sahaba, and this is the evidence. and these trends continue up until our times amongst the madhahib and amongst modern mujtahids if the hadith says x but we kinda sorta understand the reason why x was said and that reason doesn't seem to apply right now, can we kinda sorta relax x for example, there are so many controversy where does one begin, and let's stick with stuff that is classical as well, I don't wanna go into the modern stuff the classical stuff. For example, the issue of women traveling without a mahram. The hadith is very explicit. Whoever believes in Allah in the last day should not allow a woman to travel for three days without a mahram and one hadith for one day without a mahram. Right? But, can we say, look, that was a time and a place where, you know, there was so much harm, there was so much danger, a woman traveling alone, Allah knows what's gonna happen. These days, if you put your wife or your sister in the plane and you drop her off at the airport. Somebody is going to pick her up at the next airport. You know, that's as safe as it can be. It's not the same as walking in the desert, etc., etc. Can we kind of sort of use a little bit of rationality and not be so literalist in this regard? You have opinions on the whole side, right? You still have those that are very literalist. You say, no, the Prophet ﷺ said it and he said it. And others say, well, I mean, he said it and of course he said it, but there was a reason why he said it. And in our times, that reason, be a little bit more, you know, open in this regard. Now this is one of literally hundreds of examples that come up. And frankly this is one of the biggest issues that the fuqaha have to deal with all the time. And what we learn from this incident brothers and sisters, those who are more literal should not be so critical of those who are a little bit rational and vice versa. These trends go back to the sahaba. But I have a very big caveat, a very big point to put here. And that is, only those who are qualified to give fatwas should give fatwas. And if reputable scholars differ amongst themselves, then that's reputable scholars differing. The big problem comes especially in western lands. Why? Because in eastern lands it's impossible for a jahil to rise up. Because there are too many ulama. But in western lands when there really are so few ulama, Wallahi, mostly the people without ilm are the ones that are at the front of gatherings and khatawah. And we seek Allah's refuge from being amongst them. A'udhu Billah, A'udhu Billah. That we go beyond what Allah has given us of our knowledge. But in this environment that we're in, it's very common for people to just read a few things. And then, mashallah, tabarakallah, they become Shaykh Ghul and Mufti Wikipedia. But this is the issue that I want to point out. that if reputable scholars have a spectrum of opinion, and of course the biggest problem you have in America, you know, I do not like this group at all, the progressives and the modernists, that for them there is no halal and haram. The halal is whatever the flavor is, the month becomes halal. So whatever the culture says is halal becomes halal. They're not qualified to pronounce verdicts, these people. They haven't studied the Quran, they can't even recite Fatiha properly. So they're not qualified to pronounce verdicts about Islam. We're talking about reputable scholars. if ulema who are trained in the field and they have established credentials the way that I put this, I know this is a tangent but Allah is very relevant for North America, the way that I put this I always say I'm not a doctor at least of that kind right, so I'm not a doctor right, at least of your kind I'm not your type of doctor Alhamdulillah I'm a different type now, but not your type of doctor your type of doctor, yes I'm not your type of doctor, okay so, suppose what's your specialty again? ICU lungs lungs, make up your mind does he know it? okay, so ICU is lungs, I didn't know that okay, ICU so speciality is ICU okay, now who has the right to criticize positions you hold? me, who doesn't know anything about ICU or who? who is ICU? so you're also ICU so, you also have established credentials, you also have experience you also have a reputation now you come along and say come on you can't do this procedure on this patient because XYZ if I come along and say oh that looks so weird you're sticking a needle up here what is my you see this is how the progressives when they criticize fiqh this is how they sound to somebody who is a faqih it's like you're not a mathematician and then you start saying why is a circle that which has no sides who said this? why can't we say a circle has three sides you see this is how they sound when they come from out of the tradition. Now somebody from within the tradition comes, they know the system and how it works, now criticism is acceptable. Right? And this is what we find from this incident of the sahabah. I know this is a tangent, but it's very relevant. There's a spectrum of opinion. There are opinions that are literalist. Harfi. Khalas. This is what the Prophet ﷺ said, end of story. You know, that's good. It shows iman. It wants, you want to submit. Then there's a position that's little bit more rationalist. Well, okay, the hadith is there, we accept it, but can we fine tune it? Is there circumstances it doesn't apply in? And as long as the people who are making these claims are of the tradition, right? Of the people who are qualified, then alhamdulillah, let the scholars talk. The problem comes when outsiders come and they think they know. This is where the problem comes. But this problem of literalism and what not, we've had it. It's not even called a problem, it's a trend. Rationality and literalism. We've had it since the time of the Sahaba and this hadith shows this, right? One group said, well he didn't literally mean make asr qadha, he meant hurry up. And we're not able to hurry up, so khalas, let's just pray asr here, and then we'll pray maghrib on his proper time. And the other group said, no, he said asr, he meant asr, khalas, we're gonna pray asr even if it's qadha in Bani Qurayza. It's a classic example of literalism versus a bit of rationality. Ahl al-hadith, ahl al-athar, ahl al-qiyas, these go back to the madhahib, they go back to modern trends as well. and Allah knows best. If you listen to my fatawa, you find that I am kind of sort of both. And this is the way I think is healthy. You take from here, you take from there. Allah knows best. In any case, that's the issue of the Banu Qurayza which is the fiqh issue. Now let's get back to, and by the way, all the fuqaha when they study Banu Qurayza, this is what they care about it, right? This is the main issue of the Banu Qurayza. And that is, is there one truth or multiple truths and you know what not, this is when they talk about Banu Qurayza, this is that tangent they go into. In any case, back to our seerah lecture for Bani Qurayza. So, لَا يُصَلِّيَنَا أَحِدُكُمْ عَصْرَ فِي بَنِ قُرَيْضَ So the Sahaba eventually got there. Of the first to get there, because the Prophet ﷺ sent him there, was Ali ibn Abi Talib. Ali ibn Abi Talib, he was sent immediately, and the Prophet ﷺ told him, to stick your flag outside. This is now call for war. You are not leaving. So Ali ibn Abi Talib arrived with his contingent, and he basically put the raya, He put the flag that we're mean business now. And so Ali got there and when they saw him and they saw the flag, Ibn Ishaq says they began yasuboon, they began shatam, cursing and vile things about the Prophet ﷺ. You know the most foul words and he didn't narrate it. It's not about adab to narrate what they said. And he didn't narrate it either. But they started saying the most vulgar things about the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ also was making his way there. and he passed by a group of Sahaba and he said to them, has anybody preceded us? Who else has arrived before me? And so they said, we haven't seen anybody except Dihya al-Kalbi riding on a white mule. Who is Dihya al-Kalbi riding on a white mule? Jibreel a.s. We only saw Dihya just wandering all by himself in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful mule. And of course, Dihya as we have said more than once was one of the most handsome if not the most handsome of the men of Medina. and so whenever Jibreel would want to be seen by the other men, he simply would take on the form of Dihya. So that they knew that there's somebody, but they wouldn't think he's an angel. So he would take on the structure or the form of the most handsome man of Medina and that is Dihya al-Kalbi. So they said, we just saw Dihya on a beautiful white mule just walking away nonchalantly past, right? They didn't realize this is of course Jibreel a.s. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, هذا جبريل, that was Jibreel, that Allah has sent him, يُزَلْزِلَ الْأَرْضَ مِن تَحْتِهِمْ to shake the ground from under their feet. And the Prophet ﷺ arrived, and when Ali saw him, he rushed out to intercept him. And he said, Ya Rasulullah, why don't you just camp over here? Why? Didn't want the Prophet ﷺ to hear the insults. Look at his protection. Why don't we just stay over here? Khalas, I'll set it up for you here. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, perhaps they're saying things about me. Because he immediately understood. What do you think? I'm not going to understand what's happening? like you want me to come all the way here? For what? Perhaps they're saying things about me that are irritating you. So he said, yes, Ya Rasulullah, they are. So he wanted to protect them so much that stay far away from the fortress. I forgot to mention, of course, because every Yahudi tribe, they have a fortress. Okay, I mean, I forgot to mention this. The Banu Qurayla, like all of the other Yahud of the tribe, they have a fortress that was their architecture, that was their style. And as we had said, some of the Aws and Khazraj had attempted to imitate. So the rich amongst them had cheap imitations, but not the real deal. These guys had the real deal. So they have their massive fortress, that is protected fortress. It's completely... The Muslims don't have the technology at this level to break it. They'll have to simply lay siege to it. So the Prophet ﷺ said, perhaps they said something to irritate me, or to irritate you about me. So he said, yes. So what did the Prophet ﷺ say? He said, once they see me, they will not be able to say those things. And he knew this group. That they're saying this behind my back. If they see me, they can never say this. And so he went all the way up and he set his camp right there. In front of the fortress. And the Prophet ﷺ said that, O group of the Yahud, didn't Allah humiliate you? Aren't you now humiliated? And hasn't Allah's anger come upon you? Are you now going to admit at least that khalas is over now? And they said, Ya Abul Qasim, O Abul Qasim, you were never one who acted foolishly meaning please have mercy please spare us, you were never one who acted foolishly right, you were always a wise man you were never one who acted foolishly and so the Prophet ﷺ surrounded them and told them to surrender and they refused, so the siege was set up and so they camped around the entire fortress days turned into weeks weeks turned into almost one month all the books of Sira pretty much agree that this siege lasted for 25 days. And Khandaq most likely lasted for 20 or 25 days. So the entire ordeal, and they're literally walking distance from their houses, but there's wars going on. The entire ordeal almost two months lasted. This is now very tense situation. So for 25 days they are surrounding. Now there is no battle or war because this is khalas. They're surrounded. They can't do anything. And they're outnumbered as well. By a factor probably two to one. So it wasn't as if it was a massive outnumbering. You have the Banu Quraidah, you have the Muslims. And so the procession surrounded them. And of course inside, or of course, Huyay ibn Akhtab, remember? Huyay, the leader of the Banu Nazir. Right? Who through his own arrogance and foolishness found himself inside. Right? And of course they have Ka'b ibn Asad, who is the leader of the Banu Quraidah. And as the days turned into weeks, Ka'b said to his people, oh my people, I suggest one of three choices let's do one of three things when did this happen, we don't know obviously nobody is going to put a schedule of when this happened but we can assume sometime towards the end, when the situation is getting tense Ka'b said let's give one of three choices I give you number one we accept this man's religion for wallahi we all know that he is the prophet that the one that has been predicted in our books we all know this I mean come on it's an open secret now we all know this is the man that has been predicted in our books and if we do so then our lives and our property will be safe khalas we'll get off then if we accept Islam because Islam forgives everything everybody knows this at the time Islam forgives every sin so if we accept Islam then khalas we are all safe they said wallahi we will never leave our religion we're never gonna leave the laws and the the Torah all. We're never going to leave our religion. Now interesting here that when they're about to die basically he says the secret that everybody knew but is too embarrassed to admit. And that is we all know this is the one. You know when it's literally towards the end now he opens up and he says it to his people. We all know and they didn't deny it by the way. None of them said no no I still have my doubts. I mean by now especially who can have any doubts? All of the miracles have appeared. Everything is clear. And this really is the worst type of arrogance which is to know the truth and then still not follow it. This is the worst type of arrogance that is imaginable. So they said, we're never gonna give up our deen. So they said, okay, option number two, which is much more gruesome. Option number two is what? Let us kill our own families. And then charge outside with our swords drawn until one of us two is eliminated. And if we die, then khalas, we have left nothing to worry about. And if we win, there are plenty of women that we can marry afterwards. So the second option is kamikaze. Kamikaze, okay. Yes, in a way, yes, exactly. The second option is this, get rid of our own family so that we don't have to worry about what's gonna happen to them. We are gonna do this job and then we just unsheathe our swords and barge out. Khalas, last man. and it was a far shot chance but it was possible they're outnumbered 1 to 2 max 1 to 3 it's not as if the odds are completely impossible so he said khalas let's do this and of course there's no way this is going to happen so they say we're not going to kill our own family obviously it's understood they're not going to do that and so khalas they turned that option down and so the third option he said was okay if you refuse the first two then the only option we have is we surprise attack them and the only day that will be a surprise is the day of sabbath which is our surprise basically they wouldn't be expecting us to break our own sabbath so let's attack on our sabbath so that they are not expecting it so we have the advantage of the sabbath in attacking them and of course his people said that we will never break the sabbath don't you know that if we do this Allah will send a punishment and what not upon us, this is to them, that's the number one law. You know, not even following the Prophet ﷺ, but breaking the laws of the Sabbath. And so, they refused to do this. And Ka'b got so angry at them, he said, as Ibn Ishaq says, he says, Wallahi, since the day your mothers have given birth to you, none of us has ever made up one decision in their lives. Right? You're so indecisive, you can't make up anything. I'm giving you three options, and you refused all of them. Then they sent Sha'as ibn Qais as a messenger to the Prophet ﷺ. One of their own. And he begged and he pleaded and he said, O Muhammad ﷺ, give to us what you gave to the Banu Nadhir. Which was, the Banu Nadhir were, leave your properties and take your families and whatever the camels can carry. This was what happened to the Banu Nadhir. Give us that condition and okay, we're happy. You can take our properties and possessions, but, sorry, our lands, not our properties, our lands, and we'll take the money. And we'll take the camels, we'll take the families, and we will go. The Prophet ﷺ said, No. Comes back with the second offer. Khalas. Keep the camels and the property. Just save us. Now they know, they understand. We said this many weeks. Now they know exactly what they're in for. Right? Let us go with our families. Okay? Keep all of the properties. And the Prophet ﷺ said, No. Only an unconditional surrender. I will not accept anything less than an unconditional surrender. And this shows us, by the way, and I've said this again for the last five weeks. treachery and lying is never allowed. I mean, we know they're going to die. But he did not give them a false promise and then got them out and then did it. No. Because you're not allowed to be treacherous and treasonous. You're not allowed to be double-faced about this. They wanted a condition. He could have said, okay, khalas, yes. And then when they come out, do whatever he wanted. But no. He's a man of his word. And treachery is not allowed in any circumstance. And he said, no, only an unconditional surrender. So, Sha'as goes back, and then comes again, him or somebody else, and he says that we want Abu Lubaba to come inside our fortress. Send for Abu Lubaba. So the Prophet ﷺ said, khalas, go Abu Lubaba, go. Now who is Abu Lubaba? Abu Lubaba is one of the Aws, and the Banu Khurayza had the alliance with the Aws. The Banu Khurayza had the treaty with the Aws, just like the Banu Nadir had with the Khazraj. so the the Aws are very friendly they were very friendly they were the hulafa they were the allies of the Banu Quraid in the days of Jahiliyyah the Banu Quraid in the days of Jahiliyyah and Abu Lubaba especially was a close confidant and friend in the days of Jahiliyyah right so he was one of those whom they knew very well he would visit their their fortress he would drink with them there was a friendship that lasted for many years so they said call Abu Lubaba out of all of the people of Medina they were the closest to him so Abu Lubaba went in and Abu Lubaba of course he is a great sahabi, he has witnessed Badr in that he was technically in the army but the Prophet sent him to do an errand so he didn't actually fight at Badr but because he had wanted to participate he got a share of Badr and he is written amongst the Badriyun so he is technically a Badri and he has also participated in Uhud and he participated in other battles and he has a good record, but this was a slip that was about to happen This was a slip that was about to happen, a human slip. A human slip that really comes from, you know, the friendship and compassion that he had with them in the days of Jahiliyya, in the days of Islam. So he entered their fortress. And Ibn Ishaq says he was surrounded by the people. They're all like so happy to see him and also grieved. And remember, this is now a siege. Probably we're talking about the 20th or 23rd day, very close to the end. You can imagine how tense they must be. and the women and children began crying and begging for mercy from him as if he's gonna do anything and so Ibn Ishaq says his heart became soft for them because they were friends in the day his heart became soft for them and they said what do you think should we surrender or not they're asking him should we surrender or not and so Abu Lubaba said yes you should but then he made a motion like this meaning you're gonna have to surrender but he said as soon as I said this this is Abu Lubaba speaking as soon as I said this wallahi my feet had not moved from my place except that I realized I had been treacherous to Allah and his messenger I am disloyal to Allah and his messenger this is khayana this is khayana to Allah meaning that I am showing them something that firstly he wasn't 100% sure about because the Prophet didn't say this but secondly whose side is he on after all that has happened whose side is he on this is a matter we call it really of wala and bara and that is loyalties whose loyalty do you have is it Allah and his messenger or is it the Banu Quraitha and to show sympathy in such a tense situation to the enemy after all that they have done. This is what the khayana really was. Right? And so he said, I hadn't even moved from my feet. My feet hadn't moved, excuse me. Except that I knew that I had betrayed Allah and His Messenger. And he says that he left the fortress bypassing the army. Bypassing the Prophet ﷺ. He just went away. And he went immediately to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. And he tied himself to one of the pillars which is called the pillar of Abu Lubaba or the pillar of repentance, it is called. And if you go to the masjid, which inshallah in two weeks we'll be there, inshallah for those of us who are going, inshallah ta'ala. We will show you, I will show you this pillar and it actually has on it the pillar of tawbah. And inshallah remember this story then, this is the pillar of tawbah. Still we know where it is, right? Abu Lubaba tied himself to this pillar. And he said that, Wallahi, I shall remain tied to this pillar until Allah accepts my repentance. and I shall never venture to the Banu Qurayza again. For I will never be in an area where I disobeyed Allah and His Messenger. Which shows us even the area where you disobeyed Allah and His Messenger, you should avoid it. I don't want to be in that land where I disobeyed Allah and His Messenger. Now, he didn't come out from the Prophet's perspective, he didn't see him. After a while he asked, what happened to Abu Lubaba? Eventually the news spreads, they find out he's tied himself to the masjid, they come back and they tell the Prophet ﷺ what has happened. So he said, if he had come to me, I would have asked Allah to forgive him. But now that he has done this to himself, I can't do anything. Why? Because he's made a promise to Allah's nadir. This is a nadir. That wallahi I'm not going to give from this place until Allah reveals the tawbah. The Prophet says, I can't do anything. This is a nadir. And yufuna bin nadir. Allah says in the Quran, they fulfilled their nadir. And he made a nadir. and once you make another if you say wallahi I'm gonna do this and this and you mean another, well then you are obliged to fulfill the another to Allah basically with conditions that are beyond the scope right now but yes you're supposed to fulfill it so he said I can't do anything, he made the another and to finish the trip so he remained tied, Allah knows for how long, probably more than a week he remained tied to this post and after the incident had all finished and the process had returned, one day at Fajr. One day at Fajr, the Prophet ﷺ woke up to go pray in the masjid, and he was laughing. And Umm Salama said, ما أضحكك يا رسول الله What has caused you to laugh? أضحك الله سنك. Which is a very good expression in Arabic, which translates as, may you ever be laughing as long as you live. It's a good expression in Arabic that you know, may you always be happy. أضحك الله سنك. And so, what has caused you to laugh at this time in the early morning? So the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah has accepted the tawbah of Abu Lubaba. so Umm Salama said should I not go out and tell him because Umm Salama's house was right connected to Aisha's and at that stage Umm Salama's house did have a direct door later on all these doors were shut except for the door of Aisha but at that stage Umm Salama's door also had a direct access to the masjid so she said should I not go out and tell Abu Lubaba and this was before hijab had been revealed as well so there is no concept of hijab at this point in time and so the Prophet said yes if you want. So Umm Salama comes rushing out and she says to Abu Lubaba that thank Allah or be happy Allah has accepted your repentance. And all of the Sahaba who are waiting for Fajr they go and they want to release him from the chains and shackles and he said no until the Prophet ﷺ comes and he unties me himself. To be sure that Allah has accepted my tawbah. To be sure that there's nothing left until the Prophet ﷺ comes and unties me himself. And so the Prophet ﷺ before praying Fajr, he went and untied Abu Lubaba with his own hands, and then led the Salatul Fajr. And this is the famous story of Abu Lubaba. And it is said that two verses were revealed because of Abu Lubaba. The first is Surah Anfal verse 27. يَا أَيُّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَلُوا لَا تَخُونُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ وَتَخُونُوا أَمَانَاتِكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ O you who believe, do not betray the trust of Allah and the Messenger. And betray your own trust as a Muslim. while you know you're not supposed to do this don't betray the trust of Allah and His Messenger one riwayah says this was revealed because of Abu Lubaba and then the repentance of Abu Lubaba is Surah Tawbah verse 102 Surah Tawbah verse 102 which says وَآخَرِينَ اعْتَرَفُوا بِذُنُوبِهِمْ خَلَطُوا عَمَلًا صَالِحًا وَآخَرَ سَيِّئًا عَسَى اللَّهُ أَن يَتُوبَ عَلَيْهِمْ and there are others amongst the Sahaba وَآخَرِينَ اعْتَرَفُوا بِذُنُوبِهِمْ by the way Hassan al-Basri and other Sahaba used to say this verse is the most optimistic verse in the whole Quran for me. This verse is the most optimistic verse. Memorize it, pay attention to it. وَآخَرِينَ There are others amongst them. Not as elite as the ones that have gone by. There is a lower level now. وَآخَرِينَ اِعْتَرَفُوا بِذُنُوبِهِمْ They recognized their sins. They admitted they have done sins. اِعْتَرَفُوا بِذُنُوبِهِمْ خَلَطُوا عَمَلًا صَالِحًا وَآخَرَ سَيِّئًا They have mixed up good deeds and bad deeds. they've mixed them up, they have some good and they have some bad may Allah might forgive them and Ibn Abbas said every time Allah says asa he will do it Allah might forgive them so Abu Lubaba it was revealed because of him he has so many good deeds, he has badr he has uhud, he has this, and then he fell into some wrong things as well they have mixed up good and bad Allah will forgive them inshaAllah Hasan al-Basri said that this is arja ayat in fi kitabillah the most optimistic verse in the book of Allah because inshaAllah all of us we have no doubt evil but inshaAllah we have also done some good inshaAllah so we are of those inshaAllah that we acknowledge that's the key we acknowledge we are sinful and we have mixed up the good and bad deeds may Allah forgive us in any case this is Abu Lubaba now we get back to the story where Abu Lubaba left off when he exited the fortress. So, 24 days have gone. The next day is going to be the 25th day. The very last night now. And apparently they decide that, khalas, we don't have any option, we're going to surrender. We're inferring this because of what happens now. They decide they're going to surrender. Now, they couldn't have lasted forever. How long? The supplies are going to cut off. There's no escape. All of the Muslims are surrounded. The fortress, there really is nothing they can do. The Prophet ﷺ is adamant, unconditional surrender. Khawlas, unconditional. What can they do then? There's no alternative. Let's just move on then. And so, the night of the 24th, very minor incident, but it's still very interesting. That in the middle of the night, of course the guards are surrounding the fortress, the Muslim army I should say. They're surrounding the fortress. So, they hear somebody come outside. The sentry says, who is it? So, the man says, Amr ibn Sa'dah. And one of the sentry, one of the Muslims who were standing there was Muhammad ibn Maslama, the famous Sahabi Muhammad ibn Maslama and he recognized who is this Amr who was this Amr Amr was one of perhaps two or maybe even the only out of the Banu Qurayza who had vocally refused to follow what Ka'b ibn Malik had done Ka'b ibn Asad had done and he said, I will never betray Muhammad ﷺ he's a Yahudi, he hasn't accepted Islam I will never betray the promise and he vocally opposed his people so he wasn't happy with what they had done, but he's in the fortress that's where he's living now, we're assuming this this is what is not mentioned when he hears they're gonna surrender the next day he wants to just try his qadr, to get out because he's not he doesn't feel a part of his people anymore and he's opposed them because of this issue So he leaves the people and he was the only one, or maybe there was one more, there's an ikhtilaf, how many, but one of the very few, perhaps definitely the main one, who had expressed his opposition to what his people have done. Now this is very important, because he's with them but he's not with them, right, you get the point here. So Muhammad ibn Maslam is the middle of the night, Muhammad ibn Maslam basically has to make a decision now. do we kill him, do we imprison him do we take him to the Prophet ﷺ and so he basically says a very eloquent phrase which translates into simple English as, oh Allah overlook my overlooking of him, just forgive me for forgiving him basically, like he has a soft spot for what he's done, now you're trying to leave so he simply let him go he didn't do anything, he let him go and it is said that he made his way to Medina spent the night in Medina and the next morning he just disappeared and Allah knows, nobody knows what his end was, he just left the city and when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam found out about what happened, he said that was a man whom Allah saved because of his honesty that was a man whom Allah saved because he fulfilled his part of the bargain, meaning, okay he didn't convert but he didn't want his people to do what he did, and so Allah made a way out for him, he didn't the Prophet ﷺ did not get angry at Muhammad ibn Maslam. And he said, okay, he did what he did, and Allah saved him because he was a man who wanted to fulfill the treaty. So look, and this shows us, this is the key point here, we're gonna go back to this over and over at the end of today, that these people were punished for what they did and not who they were, and this incident is one of those many indications. He did not convert. He remained upon the religion of the Banu Quraithah. But even the Prophet ﷺ remarked, this is a little gift Allah gave him because he was true to his covenant he was faithful so Allah saved him because of his honesty the next morning the message came that they're willing to surrender khalas, they're willing to surrender now the message has come they are all inside the fortress so immediately the aws who of course are the allies of the Banu Qurayza, the aws around the Prophet ﷺ, they began pleading. Because as of yet the Prophet ﷺ has not said what he's going to do. Now, Abu Lubaba and others have understood what he wants to be done. Right? But he hasn't said it. And because he hasn't said it, the Oaths, remember their days of Jahiliyyah, their transactions, their friendships, their what not, and they start begging and pleading with the Prophet ﷺ that spare them. And one of them says, Ya Rasulullah, you spared the Khazrajist tribe, spare our tribe as well, which is the Khazrajist tribe. The Banu Nadhir. The Banu Nadhir, you spared them. And the other one, before. The Banu Nadhir and Qaynuqa, before them. The Banu Nadhir was the recent ones. It just happened recently. You just spared the Banu Nadhir. And you did it for, who did he do it for? Abdullah ibn Ubay. Abdullah ibn Ubay. Remember Abdullah ibn Ubay. Kept on begging him from the Khazraj. He's from the Khazraj. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I give them to you. With the conditions you wanted basically. which was what? let them take their money and their properties as much as their camels can carry remember they took even their doors so he gave them that so now the Oaths are feeling what? we deserve the same treatment for our group but subhanallah there is a world of a difference between what the Banu Nadir did and what the Banu Qarithah did there is a world of a difference but the Oaths I mean they are humans as well and they want mercy for their own friends that they had so they are begging they are pleading what to be done And so the Prophet ﷺ said that, will you be happy if one of your own decides their fate? Will this do enough if one of your own decides their fate? They said, of course, bala ya Rasulullah. So he said, thaka Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. I have chosen for you Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, your leader. Your own leader. Khalas, so I'm not gonna decide anymore. Now wallahi, this is, what can we say? the messenger of Allah stepping down from his prerogative to give the ruling and saying you guys decide this is, I mean, what can we say even though he knows that if he said it they would do it but he's a leader and a leader has to gain his followers and not impose himself on even if he's Rasulullah S.A.W there's a hikmah in dealing with your own people and so he says to them khalas, your leader Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, it will be his verdict right, and this is just an amazing, amazing facet of the seerah, that he's willing to step down and allow Sa'd ibn Mu'adh to judge, in a judgment that is really the right of Allah and the right of the messenger s.a.w, but he's willingly said, he's willingly compromised he's willingly said, okay, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh is able to judge, now Sa'd ibn Mu'adh of course, he's been dealt that death wound, remember right, his entire, the deep artery has been cut right over here there is no healing and Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh up until this point 25 days have gone by he is still in the tent that was literally the hospital tent that they had literally it was like a clinic tent and there was a this is a side point here that there was the equivalent of a nurse amongst the Sahaba and her name was Rufayda with a dal Rufayda and Rufayda ibn Ishaq says she was the volunteer always to take care of the wounded and to deal with the sick, this was her job, which is a nurse basically, right? She had volunteered to be that nurse. Rufayda was her name. And she had a tent that was the tent of the sick. It's basically a hospital of our times, right? And she's the nurse that's cleaning the wound and taking care of their knees and giving them food and water involuntarily. She's doing this fee sabi'illah, right? So he was in the tent of Rufayda still. He was in the tent of Rufayda still bleeding. 25 days non-stop bleeding. Can you... I mean, you know, the wound is not going to heal. He's going to die soon. And so a group of the Banu Salama became very happy, they rushed back to Medina, and they said the Prophet ﷺ is calling you, and you're about to judge between the Banu Quraidha. And they put him on a mule, and he was bandaged, and he's still bandaged, and the wound is still bleeding. And so he is slowly taken all the way to the tribe, or the area of the Banu Quraidha. and on the way there, when he was walking, the aws surrounded him, the ones that were with him. And they continued to tell him, you have to be merciful, reminding him of the days of Jahiliyyah. Remember this, and they did this, and we did that, and this, that. And one of them said, that you have only been chosen by the Prophet ﷺ because you're going to be merciful. That's why he chose you. And so he said, when this was said to him, He said that now is the time for Sa'd to not care about the criticism of any critic when it comes to Allah and His Messenger. Now is the time. Now his own people, all of them were hoping for a verdict. And Sa'd says, now is the time. Meaning, I'm about to die. If I'm not gonna be faithful now, when is there gonna be a faithful time? and subhanallah compare this with even Abu Talib or anybody else at their deathbed right, compare this with anyone else that at the end of their lives people want to go out with a bang for their people right, they want to leave the legacy people will speak about me in this manner right, what did Sa'ad say? now is the time I really should not care about what people think it is the time to be sincere to Allah and His messenger when he said this it was understood by the aws which way Sa'ad is heading and some of them immediately understood that khalas, he has not he's not gonna do what we want him to do and when he came to the Banu Qurayza and the Prophet saw him being escorted on the mule he said to the Ansar, qumu ila sayyidikum stand up to greet your leader. And there's not a single person in the history of the seerah that the Prophet ﷺ ordered others to stand up to greet. He himself would not allow the sahaba to stand up when he walked into a room. And this, by the way, leads to another huge controversy in fiqh, which we don't have time to get into, about should you stand when somebody comes or not. There's a huge controversy in fiqh. And again it goes back to Banu Qurayza and Sa'ad, and it goes back to the Prophet ﷺ himself not wanting the sahaba but to stand up, there seems to be a bit of a tension. Because the Prophet ﷺ said, hadith is authentic. Whoever loves it that people stand up for him, let him be prepared to sit down in the fire of hell. Whoever loves it that people always stand up for him, then let him be prepared for his seating place in Jahannam. Now he said this, and yet he is telling the Ansar, قوموا إلى سيدكم. Stand, and the hadith is mutafakali, Bukhari and Muslim. Stand up to greet your leader. How do you reconcile? Long story, but inshallah, the correct position, Imam An-Nawawi and others, they say. whoever has taken this as a habit for himself, and he loves that people do it, then this is what the hadith applies to. Right? Nobody should expect others to stand up when he enters a room, everybody in the room stands up. This is not the way of Islam. But, once in a while, if a respected elder comes back from a journey or what not, and we stand up to greet him a one-off, not as a regular habit, then this is something that is جائز المستحب so it is authentically narrated that the Prophet ﷺ when Fatima came to see him after a while that she had been away and she came to greet him he stood up to kiss his own daughter he stood up, he was so happy to see her and again he's standing up out of happiness to see her so it is permissible جائز to stand up one off once in a while and not as a regular habit and custom that when somebody enters and then he expects everybody to stand up. This is not something that we approve of as a custom and as a tradition. But if a grandfather comes, if a guest comes to your house and you stand up to go greet him, this is like you're standing up to welcome him. Were he to enter the masjid, you would not stand up for him. Were you in somebody else's house? So this is not standing up for his sake. You're standing up to greet him as a one-off. So this is something that is... Anyway, I didn't want to get into that. That's just a fiqh point. Back to where we were. قُمُوا إِلَىٰ سَيِّدِكُمْ Stand up for your leader. Then the Prophet ﷺ said to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, that your people have chosen you or have accepted you as a judge for these. Meaning, for the Banu Qurayza. Your people have accepted your judgment for these people. Now, the Banu Qurayza are still inside the fortress. All of this is taking place and the Banu Qurayza are away from the scene. It's between the, not even all of the Sahaba, it's really between the Aws and the Prophet ﷺ. The Muhajirun and the Khazraj, really, they're not as involved. Of course, the Muhajirun, you know, there's nothing to do with this tribe anyway. And the Khazraj, they had animosity with them from the days of Jahil. Remember, that's the point here. The Khazraj had animosity with this tribe, and the Aus had animosity with the Banu Nadir. So frankly, the Khazraj would not be cared at all if the verdict was given against them. They have no sympathy for them. It's the Aus that had the sympathy for them. So, it's really between the Aus and the Prophet ﷺ. A little bit of, you know, call it tension, but even tension maybe is too harsh, but a little bit of difference of opinion about what to be done. So he says to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, your people have chosen you. So Sa'd says to his people, Unashudukum lila, I call you to Allah, I tell you to make a promise with Allah. Will you listen and obey me if I give the verdict? Are you now content that once I give the verdict, end of story. You're not gonna argue, you're not gonna debate. And so they said yes. That's why we're happy. Yes, it is you. And he then, subhanallah, what a beautiful incident here. He turned to the Prophet ﷺ, and out of respect he lowered his face in front of him. And he said, and you as well. And he cannot just say directly to the Prophet ﷺ. He lowered his face because he cannot look up to him and speak to him like this and say, and you as well, ya Rasulullah, you are also content that this is going to be, you know, whatever I say will be the final verdict and khalas, no criticism afterwards, right? And the Prophet ﷺ said, yes, we have agreed. Wallahi, it's just mind-boggling to imagine that the Prophet ﷺ, ya'ni, what can we say? Wallahi, I mean, this is a leader, isn't it? You know? The Rasulullah ﷺ, and he is willing to go down to the ruling of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh just because of the Oath's sensibilities. He said, yes, whatever you decide, it will be done. And so Sa'd immediately, without a second's hesitation, he has been thinking about this verdict from the last 30-40 days. He has nothing, he has to be any decision about. Instantaneously he says, حُكْمِي فِيهِمْ My judgment is them, in them, is that their men should be executed. And their property distributed. And their women and children be taken captive. Instantaneous verdict. This is what needs to be done. Their men to be executed, their property distributed. And their women and children taken as captive. and as soon as he says this the Prophet ﷺ said wallahi ya sa'ad you have decreed upon them the qada'ullahi ta'ala min fawqis sab'i samawat this was the judgment of Allah from above the seven heavens he didn't want to say it the Prophet ﷺ because of the aus so he let them basically do it this way but when sa'ad said it this was the decree of Allah that you have done and by the way this shows us Allah's decree is going to be one there's not multiple decrees it is one decree, but the Prophet ﷺ was willing in this case to for the sake of unity of the ummah, for the sake of ta'lif al-qulub, being gentle with the people, to basically have a softer decree, but when Sa'ad said this, he says, this is the hukm of Allah, literally, is one of the phrases in the hadith as well, and when this verdict was given then of course the commandment was given to perform these executions and the men were all tied up and they were led to an area of the one of the ladies of the Banu Najjar owned a vast area and trenches were dug and the books of Sira mention that all of the male adults were basically taken batches by batches and they were executed this is the hukum of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon them and one of the young men who survived Atiyah al-Quradi he narrates that I was a sabi, I was a boy that was spared that day because I didn't have hair. Which means the adults were the ones that were executed and the women were of course spared. And it is mentioned a number of stories here. Huyayy ibn Akhtab, this leader of the Banu Nadir. Huyayy ibn Akhtab, when he was let out of the fortress, he was wearing his finest garment, a red silk embroidery. He had worn his finest garment. and he had used strings to tie it around his body because he didn't want anybody to take it from his body after his death. He wanted to use that till his death, right? And when he passed by the process and being led to the execution, he looked at him and said, Wallahi, I have never regretted my animosity and enmity towards you. يعني to the last as they say. ما ندمت I have no regrets that I have shown animosity to you. And then he said a phrase that, we seek Allah's refuge from, because it is a true phrase. But whoever Allah humiliates, that is the real one who is humiliated. We seek Allah's refuge from khidlanullah. But look, the guy realizes. I mean, it's just amazing. I mean, deep down inside, he knows whose side Allah is on. And so he says, whomever Allah has humiliated, that is the one who is truly humiliated and he then turned to his people that were left and he said oh my people don't be sad because this is the decree and calamity that Allah has decreed upon the Bani Israel meaning this is gonna happen to us and this has been happening to us and will continue to happen to us meaning the punishments that Allah himself says in the Quran la yaba'atanna alayhim ila yawm al-qiyamati man yasumuhum su'al azab and then he lowered his neck and was executed and Ka'b ibn Asr when he was brought out Ka'ab ibn Asad was always more repentant he wasn't as arrogant he had to be convinced remember the leader of the Banu Qurayah they had to be convinced when Ka'ab ibn Asad was let out the Prophet ﷺ said oh Ka'ab why didn't you benefit from the advice of Ibn Kharash now I did my quick searches about Ibn Kharash and I went here and there about the books of the seerah I couldn't find anything today but I'll try to continue looking up but from the context it appears that Ibn Kharash was one of their rabbis that had died before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ and he had predicted the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. So he said to Ka'b, why didn't you benefit from Ibn Kharash? For he believed in me and commanded you to follow me and gave his salams to me through you if you saw me. The only thing to understand then, he was one of the rabbis who had predicted the coming of a prophet. And the Prophet ﷺ saying, it's obvious I am that prophet. Why didn't you benefit from the advice of Ibn Kharash? So Ka'b says, I swear by the Torah, Ya Abba al-Qasim that this is true. He did tell us this. I swear by Allah, he did tell us this. And were it not for the fact that the Yahud would criticize me and say that because I was scared of death, I converted, I would have followed you even now. But I die upon the faith of the Yahud. Once again, to the very end, still better than the previous, but he is going to die upon the faith of his people. And there were no children killed. And as for the woman, there was only one woman who was killed out of all of the women. And Aisha narrates her story that Aisha says, I was sitting with the prisoners and a lady of the prisoners was laughing and joking with me. All types of jokes, even as her people were being executed. And I was amazed at her attitude, what is going on. Until somebody called her name, we don't know her name. Somebody called her name and she stood up. So I said, where? Why is he calling? So she said, to be killed. So Aisha says, why? She says, I have done something. She knew that it was her death. I have done something. And later on we find out that she in the siege or the siege for 25 days, she had killed one of the Sahaba by throwing a grinding stone. You know the stone that you grind the wheat and what not from. She had taken it to the top and she waited for somebody to pass and she threw it and so it killed a certain sahabi his name is mentioned and so because she murdered or she killed him in this manner so when the fortress was conquered so she was the only one that was executed and Aisha says that I never cease to be amazed at her laughing and her attitude and then knowing that she was going to face death now this is a type of you know when you get to this she gets a bit hysteria really I mean you kind of lose it right that Aisha says she knew she was going to... Well, I mean, Aisha didn't say this, but Aisha says, I never cease to be amazed at her attitude. And then what happened, I think in modern science, we can kind of figure out this is a type of paranoia is the term, or what would you call it besides hysteria? I mean, she went a little bit hysterical or whatever, shock or whatever. And she knew she's going to happen. So she's cracking jokes at the time of death, knowing she's about to die. And while her people are being killed, and then she is the only one that... amongst the women that are killed. And there are a number of other stories. an interesting story that is narrated is that of Thabit ibn Qais ibn Shammas. One of the Ansar, Thabit ibn Qais ibn Shammas, he has a story, and that is that in the wars of Bu'ath, what are the wars of Bu'ath? Who can remind me? So when did it finish, the wars of Bu'ath? Right before the Hijrah by two years, three years. The wars of Bu'ath were the wars between the Aus and the Khazraj, and between the Banu Qaynuqa and the Banu Nazir and the Banu Qurayza, right? So in the wars of Bu'ath, Thabit ibn Qais ibn Shammas, he was saved, his life was saved by one of the Banu Qurayza. His name is Zubair ibn Batta. Zubair ibn Batta. So this is a Quradi, he had saved Thabit ibn Qais ibn Shammas. So Thabit then went to the prisoners, he found Zubair and he said, Oh Zubair, do you remember me? And Zubair said, of course I remember you, you're the one that I saved. this and that. So he said that it is time for me to repay that favor. Do you wish me to repay that favor? And he said of course a generosity from a generous person will always be appreciated. Yeah, I mean he's about to die, of course. And it is said Zubayr had now become extremely old by this time. He's, you know, white haired, he's a very old man. So Thabit goes to the Prophet and says, Ya Rasulullah, please give me Zubayr. Allow Zubayr to be spared. So the Prophet said, he is for you. Okay, he's for you. So he goes back to Zubair. And Zubair says, of what use is life without family? So he goes back to the Prophet ﷺ and begs for family and children. He says, there for you. So his wife and his children are spared. So then he says what? Money. Money. Of what use is life without money? Okay, I need my... So, back to the Prophet ﷺ. what do you think? Khalas for you as well subhanallah right then now listen to the twist at the end right then Zubair says where is so and so he mentions somebody he's been killed where is so and so he's been killed where is so he mentions his own or he's about to be killed right when he realizes that he's gonna be the only one of his tribe basically left right or one of the few there were only a few that actually did survive he then said what is the purpose of life without ahbab without friends and tribe and so you send me to my death instead of somebody else, that was what he wanted so he didn't accept any of this and he in fact was killed because of this he was killed because he said he was an old man and he said what's the point of living now khalas just you take care of this so it was done also one or two others survived, it is said that some of the some of the Banu Nazir sorry, some of the Banu Qurayza some of them had converted to Islam and so they were spared anybody who had converted to Islam, they were spared and also it is said one or two maybe maximum four or five Shafa'ahs were done just like this, right? there's only one or two that I mentioned and perhaps a few others were done, but this also shows any Muslim who had a very special favor upon another, they were actually allowed to, they were allowed to take one or two people that they had a special favor. We just give an example, that he owes his life to them after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he was allowed to take that favor back. It was Zubair's decision, he didn't want it. But the Prophet ﷺ gave that to him and to one or two others in the same story. Now, how many people were killed? The books of Sira and Hadith mention broad varying numbers. Ibn Ishaq, who is the most authoritative, says between six to seven hundred. And then he says, but some have exaggerated and said 8 to 9. Some have exaggerated the number. They have made it much more. And there's 8 to 9. And this is basically the range he gives. One of the hadith in Muslim Imam Ahmed mentions around 400. Allah knows best. And whatever it is, it is not a small number. There is no question. It's a large number. This is the entire adult tribe of the Banu Khuraiza. So Allah knows 400, 600, 800, max say 900. Allah knows best. And much booty was received according to one of the sources. 1500 swords and 1500 shields. This is an immense benefit to the Muslim Ummah at the time. 1500 swords. Swords and shields were not easy to have and they go down generation to generation. You use them over and over again. 1500, that's the entire people of Medina. they can have swords and shields now 2000 spears 300 party armor suits 300 and thousands and thousands of sheep and goats and camels like animals that are there and they also found a large quantity of khamar of alcohol but all of this was destroyed nobody got obviously the distributed alcohol of the alcohol was destroyed it was at that point in time according to one version that the rules of ghanima were solidified and the one who had a horse was given three shares of the one who was walking one for his horse and double for him, meaning one for the expenses of the horse, now in those days the Muslim army is not composed of paid people, the Muslim army has volunteers, and so you use your own weapons, your own money, your own horse you have to take care of, anybody who has an animal you take care of it, right? so when the booty is distributed your animal gets a share of the booty not meaning you get the point the maintenance fees so the owner of animals got three shares and the one who had no animal one share so the three shares one for the animal and two for a double for the person because he is risking more he is risking the animal when he comes in he has more of a responsibility so he gets three shares in this regard and one fifth of this entire amount was given to the Islamic state and the Prophet ﷺ as per the rules of Surah Anfal. And there's a footnote here, which will come back to inshaAllah towards the end of the seerah, that amongst those whom the Prophet ﷺ received in this battle was Rayhana, was one of the female captives, Rayhana. And Rayhana, the Prophet ﷺ invited her to Islam, and initially she refused, and she remained upon her religion. And so eventually the Prophet ﷺ decided to transfer ownership away because he did not want to keep somebody that was not a Muslim. And so he let her for a long time to decide her fate. And then eventually when she realized that the Prophet ﷺ was going to leave her, and she is a slave, she decided to convert to Islam. So this shows us that the way that the Prophet ﷺ was treating her and the gentleness, she would rather remain with him than be given to somebody else. Even though it was the Muslims who in fact did what they did to their own people. But still in the end she realized being with the Prophet ﷺ would be better for her. So she converted to Islam. When she converted to Islam, the Prophet ﷺ did what he did with all of his wives that were of this nature. And he said, I will free you and marry you and your freedom will be the mahr. Now the books of Seerah differ. Quite a lot of books say that she willingly did not want this. And she wanted to remain basically a mulk al-yameen. she wanted to remain مُلْكُ الْيَمِينِ and she did not want to be become a wife and she said this is better for me and for you why this is the case there are interpretations and then one small minority group says that no she accepted the offer and she became a wife so we'll talk about the wives of the Prophet ﷺ in an entire number of episodes way towards the end whenever Allah blesses us to get there and we'll realize contrary to popular perception in fact we have a lot of difference of opinion about how many wives the Prophet ﷺ had and the common figure that everybody knows is but one opinion. And this is another issue, for example, Rayhana, we really don't know. And there is nothing conclusive. And the majority say, and the muhaqqiqun, those who are well researchers, they say, Rayhana, she accepted Islam, but she refused to become free. She'd rather remain, she wanted to remain a slave, even though the Prophet ﷺ gave her the choice. So, in any case, that's another issue. And the final issue that we'll discuss, a little bit delayed today, but the final issue that we'll discuss, obviously, And that is how this incident has been interpreted. It is understood that this is an incident that is politically something that has been smeared and been used in a very negative manner. We don't need to even mention this. It's pretty obvious that the group that has been killed, obviously there are those that charge the Prophet ﷺ with being a, with calling for killings of that ethnicity or that religion, etc. And no doubt, there is no doubt that the punishment was harsh. And even the Prophet ﷺ was willing to compromise if Sa'd had agreed. That there was a spectrum of opinion. And that there was the possibility of being merciful and there was the possibility of being harsh. but even the most spiteful critic should not and cannot academically say that they were killed because of who they were. Anybody who says this honestly, they just want to say falsehoods. We can understand, even though we as Muslims don't agree, we can understand those who say that was excessively harsh. We can understand. But anybody who says they were killed because of who they were, honestly this is just a flagrant lie and none of the early scholars of Islam, none of the scholars of Sira ever even hint at this they were killed because of what they did not because of who they were and that's as I said anybody who says anything other than this really we have to say that's where we draw the line you're just being unfair, this is not academically valid the Prophet ﷺ did not do this to the Banu Nadeed, he didn't do this to Banu Qaynuqa and this is something that if you look at the entire circumstance, look at how many times they were told. Three times they were told. One time was literally right before this incident by a few months. The Prophet ﷺ, after the Banu Nazir had been expelled, before he went to the Banu Nazir, Ibn Ishaq says, he went to the Banu Qaynuqa. And he gave them one more opportunity. Right? One more opportunity. Do you want to remain upon? You're the last one left. Right? And they said yes. And the whole story and the circumstance and attempting to attack the women and children. Wallahi, anybody who puts it into perspective now, the problem comes. Anybody who talks about it, the entire ahzab is cut off. The entire context is just ignored. And they say, Oh, he killed 700, he did this, he did that. And no context is given. And this is wallahi the average way that is understood. And this is just not fair. You need to put things into context and perspective. And when you do that, a non-Muslim can say that was excessively harsh. They can say that. We as Muslims say, no, it was the hukum Allah, and harshness has its place. By the way, I don't see a problem saying it was harsh, personally. So what? It has to be. It has to be harsh. No, but being harsh is not wrong all the time. Sometimes it's good to be harsh, and sometimes it's good to be merciful. I said this many times, the religion of Islam is the perfect religion, because gentleness is the rule, but once in a while, you really have to show some severity and harshness. I don't see a problem saying that there was an element of harshness that was deserved. The point is, of course, it's deserved, right? Yes, forgiveness could have been done, but you can't always forgive. You need to show there is a line you cannot cross. And frankly, I mean, subhanAllah, I mean, many Muslim scholars point out, Deuteronomy 20 verses 10 to 14. I quote you Deuteronomy, the Old Testament. That when you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open the gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. That's peace by the way, right? If they refuse to make peace and engage in battle, lay siege to that city. This is what happened with the Banu Qurayza. And when the Lord your God delivers it in your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. And ask for the women, the children, the livestock, and everything else in the city, you may take it as plunder for yourselves, and you may use the plunder the Lord your God has given you from your enemies. حُكْمُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَىٰ فِيهِمْ This was their hukum against them. Literally word for word, letter for letter. Right? And this is literally, write it down. Deuteronomy 20, 10 to 14. Deuteronomy 20, 10 to 14, it's right there in their books. Right? And what the Prophet ﷺ wanted, even though he didn't do it. That's the whole beauty of it. Right? Their own allies. And the ones they themselves wanted, they're the ones who did it. And the Prophet ﷺ, yes, he praised it. He said, this is hukmullah ta'ala fihim. Right? But he didn't do it. And in the end of the day, yes, he wanted this to be done, but it was the judgment of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh that was executed. And Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, of course, I already mentioned last week, and with this we conclude, I already mentioned last week the blessings of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, and I forgot to mention one or two things. I mentioned many of the blessings of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, and one of the earliest converts, and his beautiful speech at Badr, excuse me, right? that beautiful speech that should be written with the ink of gold such a beautiful speech Sa'd ibn Mu'adh the only person as I said that the Prophet ﷺ commanded others to stand up for the only person in the seerah قوموا إلى سيدكم stand up for your leader Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was that person who when he was about to die he made a dua to Allah allow me to live till that day and Allah allowed him to live till that day and he died basically a few days after this literally as soon as this was done he made a promise to Allah And Allah Azza wa Jal fulfilled that promise. Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh has mentioned that when they carried his janazah, the Sahaba said, we have never carried anyone lighter than him. And the Prophet said, why should it not be light? For verily, 70,000 angels have come down. They have never come down to this earth except for now. And they are carrying Sa'ad's grave with you. How can it not be light? As if you're carrying air. You're not carrying anything. This is not you carrying Sa'ad ibn Mu'adh. And our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to Sa'ad, meaning in the grave when he's about to be buried. جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا This is the Prophet ﷺ saying to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. I mean, this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, right? When the Prophet ﷺ is saying to Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا مِن سَيِّدِ قَوْمٍ That from the leader of the people, you know, you are the leader of the people, جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا You have fulfilled your promise to Allah, and Allah will fulfill His promise to you. You have done your job, and Allah will fulfill His promise to you. and when he was placed in the grave the Prophet ﷺ was surrounded by all of the sahaba baqi' was full of the sahaba when he was buried and his face color changed out of sadness and sorrow and he started saying subhanallah subhanallah subhanallah and the whole baqi' started saying subhanallah because when the Prophet ﷺ was saying it all of the Muslims were saying subhanallah subhanallah and then he said allahu akbar and they said what ya Rasulullah why the change, why the shift And the Prophet ﷺ said, and that beautiful hadith, and it's a very powerful hadith, and it's a very scary hadith as well, that this righteous servant, هذا الذي, this man, for whom the throne of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala shook, اهتز عرش الرحمن Meaning, as I said last week, either at the anger of his death, or at the happiness of meeting him. اهتز عرش الرحمن وفتحت له أبواب السماء والسبعون ألف and so the skies of the heavens have opened up and 70,000 angels have come down to witness his shahada. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? لَقَدْ ضَمَّ ضَمَّةً He has now been squeezed in the grave and then set free. And if anyone were to have been freed from the squeezing of the grave, it would have been Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. And that's why he was saying, Subhanallah, Subhanallah, then Allahu Akbar, he's now been opened up. And this shows us that, may Allah Azza wa Jal protect all of us, every one of us will face this, that as soon as the body is placed, there is a dhamma, there is a squeeze. It's just a squeeze for the believer and then let go, right? And this is what our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, that Sa'd ibn Mu'adh has just been squeezed, his squeezing. And if anyone had been saved from even this, it would have been Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. and this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh that the processor remembered him for so long we even said when the gift was given to him the first name that came to mind that Sa'd ibn Mu'adh's handkerchief is better than all that I am wearing this is Sa'd ibn Mu'adh Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd and others they say Sa'd ibn Mu'adh was a tall, broad man fair skinned in color handsome with a full beard and he died a tragic death a young death because of this and he died at the age of 37 He died at the age of 37. And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us of those who follow the footsteps of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and be resurrected with the nabiyyin and the siddiquin and shuhda'i and salihin. وَحَسُنَ أُولَٰئِكَ رَفِيقًا And with this, inshallah, time is really late. InshaAllah we'll speak afterwards. I need to give some announcements as well. With this, inshaAllah, we are finishing, or not finishing, but pausing our seerah. Season finale? Season finale. we are pausing our seerah next week

Seerah 61 - Minor expeditions between Khandaq & Hudaybiyyah - Dr

Al-Fatiha. the renewal, if you like, the resumption of our series of the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ after the hiatus that we took in the month of Ramadan. And alhamdulillah, we are on, I think, number 63, 64 now, around that time, alhamdulillah. And we have finished in the last series, we finished the battle of Khandaq, or the battle of Ahzab. And we are now in the end of the fourth year, sorry, in the end of the fifth year, and the beginning of the sixth year of the Hijrah. And the next major incident will be the incident of Hudaybiyah that will take place in late 6th year Hijrah. So we have around 7-8 months to cover. And in these 7-8 months a number of things happened, none of which was as significant as Khandaq or as Hudaybiyah. But we still have to obviously be chronological. And what we'll do today is discuss a number of minor skirmishes and expeditions that took place. and the fact of the matter is that these skirmishes and expeditions were not that significant politically but in each one of them certain things happened that are interesting for us to know and we're not going to discuss all of them there are more than a dozen of these skirmishes we're not going to discuss all of them but we'll discuss at least four or five that have some interesting stories that are well known in the seerah and let us begin with the expedition of Muhammad ibn Maslama to Al-Qurta Al-Qurta, Muhammad ibn Maslamat Al-Qurta. And this was a minor expedition, a sariyyah, involving 30 of the sahaba that were dealing with the tribe of Banu Bakr ibn Kilab in the 6th year of the hijrah, most likely in the month of Shawwal. Most likely in the month of Shawwal. Now, the expedition was a success. They did what they were supposed to do. And on the way back, something interesting happened. So the story is actually not about the expedition, but about a minor incident that is an interesting story. And a beautiful story. And that is that when they're returning from conquering this tribe, this tribe was a rebellious tribe, so they conquered them, and they're coming back. They came across a small convoy. And something seems strange, something did not seem right about this convoy. We're not told what, but most likely, Allah knows best, this is my assumption, most likely, there were clearly the signs of this being an elite or a noble or a rich group of people, and they don't know who they were. And so, they brought them as prisoners to the Prophet ﷺ. and they did not even realize whom they had captured. And when they brought the people to the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ asked them, do you not know who your prisoner is? They said, who? And he said, that you have captured Thumama ibn Athal. Thumama ibn Athal. Thumama ibn Athal was the chieftain of the tribe of Banu Hanifa. And the Banu Hanifa were one of the largest tribes of Arabia. So this is like somebody like Abdul Muttalib type of figure. Like the big guy. He is a very senior figure and he is the chieftain of the tribe that is basically the size of Quraysh. This is the Banu Hanifa. This is a massive tribe. And it is a tribe in Central Arabia. And Thumama just happened to be on a convoy, we'll understand why in a while, that was not guarded. He didn't have his typical bodyguards. He's just going in a small group and some things didn't seem right. So on the way back they took these people and they brought them to the Prophet ﷺ. and Thumama of course he had a clear position before this time, he's not neutral in the war, he was supporting the pagans against Islam and he had publicly threatened to kill the Prophet ﷺ if he ever could because he's of the enemy tribe, Banu Hanifa he's not a sympathetic tribe and so the Prophet ﷺ made a dua to Allah this is beforehand, and he said that O Allah, allow me to have power to have control over Thumama allow me an opportunity to be in control over Thumama. And of course this was the dua of the Prophet ﷺ being answered. That literally Thumama came to him unexpectedly as a prisoner of war. And the companions did not recognize him and the Prophet ﷺ recognized him. Obviously Allah Azzawajal told him through Jibreel this is Thumama ibn Athal. And so the Prophet ﷺ commanded the Sahaba, treat him well. And so there was no prison at that time. There was no, you know, there's no place to keep them. So they kept him in the masjid and in order that he is safe they tied him they tied his hand basically to the pillar or something so that he cannot escape so he is a prisoner in the masjid of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and on that evening the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam told his wives to send his own food to Thumama now the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam's food would not have been better than what the sahaba are cooking but it's a symbolic gesture it's a token that when the messenger would have come, he would have said, this is from the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, this is his food to you. So he's sending him his personal if you like, plate or share of his personal plate, he's sending it to Thumama. The next day in the morning he goes to Thumama and he says ماذا عندك يا ثمامة? What do you have to tell me? What do you have to say? And so Thumama answers يا محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم إن تقتل تقتل ذا دم وإن تنعم تنعم على شاكر وإن ترد الدنيا وإن ترد الفدا فسل ما شئت فَتْسَلْمَا بَدَلَكَ يَا مُحَمَّدْ إِن تَقْتُلْ تَقْتُلْ ذَا دَمْ If you're gonna kill me, you're gonna kill somebody whose blood is very heavy. I'm not anybody here, I am the chieftain. You're gonna have a civil war on your hands. إِن تَقْتُلْ تَقْتُلْ ذَا دَمْ وَإِن تُنْعِمْ And if you are generous, تُنْعِمْ عَلَى شَاكِر You're gonna be generous to somebody who recognizes and will repay you back. And if you want money, then ask whatever you want and you have your price. now this shows you this guy is not begging for life this shows you this man is a noble man he has dignity in all sense he's a royal, I mean there's no royalty but you get the point here, this is the chieftain you kill me, go ahead kill me, but realize you're gonna kill somebody whose blood is worth a lot you forgive me, you will forgive on somebody who recognizes a favor, will pay you back and if you want money that's what you're interested in, believe me I can offer you all that you want so the Prophet ﷺ advised him to accept Islam and Thumama did not say anything so the Prophet ﷺ let him that day next day the same thing happened in the morning, the second morning the same thing happened what do you have to say for yourself the exact same phrase so the Prophet ﷺ let him be the third day the exact same sentence the exact same response three days he's keeping in the masjid now the reports don't tell us but it's understood it's obvious what is he gonna see in the masjid what's he doing in the masjid what do you think he's going to be absorbing in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ for 76 hours he's staying there for 3 days and something and he's staying there what do you think he's going to be hearing the salah of the Prophet ﷺ the Quran of the Prophet ﷺ no doubt the Prophet ﷺ had his durus his halaqat his conversations with the sahaba as he did and Thumama is sitting back there and he's just being ignored but what do you think is the wisdom or the point of having Thumama in the masjid you see for yourself what our religion is so for three days he's kept and in the meantime the Prophet ﷺ is hoping he'll accept hoping he'll accept but Thumama does not accept at the end of the third day the Prophet ﷺ when he still said the exact same thing when he said the exact same thing then the Prophet ﷺ said to the Sahaba go release Thumama let him go, cut off his rope so they cut him off and Thumama stood up and exited the masjid. And he went behind a grove of date palms and he took a bath and then he walked back in 10 minutes later and he said, Ashadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu annaka rasulullah. And then he said, Ya Muhammad, he's still addressing him by his first name because he doesn't learn, he hasn't learned the etiquettes yet. He's still addressing him by his first name. Even though he's a Muslim, he doesn't start Ya Rasulullah right now because he's still new. Cut him some slack. Ya Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, I swear by Allah that there was no face in this whole world that was more despised to me and more hated to me than your face. But now wallahi it is the most beautiful and the most beloved face to me. And I swear by Allah there was no religion that was more despised to me than your religion. But now wallahi it is the most beloved religion to me. And I swear by Allah there was no city that I hated more than your own city. I couldn't imagine going to your city. But I swear by Allah, now it is the most beloved city to me. Look, three days, all it took to see what is the reality of the Prophet ﷺ, of Medina, of the Sahaba, of Islam. And then he explained what the story was. He said, I was on my way to do Umrah. This explains now he's not in an army, he's not in a tijara, expedition that requires bodyguards. He expected nobody would be, I mean the Quraysh would not possibly harm him. And he wasn't expecting the Muslims to be so far north. Because this was an expedition coming back, remember, right? So he wasn't expecting the Muslims to be in the middle of nowhere. It just so happened, literally criss-crossing the desert, just a complete coincidence obviously, Allah had decreed it, that the Muslims are coming back and they cross him right as he's coming down to Mecca. And so he says, I was intending to do Umrah. Should I now continue my Umrah, now that I'm a Muslim? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, yes, go back, go and continue your Umrah. And that evening the Sahaba brought him his supper or meal again. And because the Prophet ﷺ had told them to be generous with him, so they were giving him luxurious foods, the best of Medina. Large quantities and everything. This is how the POWs were treated. That he was getting better food than the Sahaba and even the Prophet ﷺ. And they brought him the usual large trays. And he just ate a little bit and that was it. and they were astonished that this was a man for the last three days he's been consuming all of these varieties of food all of this quantity of food and now today he's just eating a little bit so the Prophet ﷺ said why are you astonished? what are you amazed at? a man ate in the morning with the stomach of a kafir and now he is eating at night with the stomach of a Muslim and verily the kafir eats with seven stomachs and the Muslim eats with one stomach subhanallah the Islam had an automatic impact even on his personal habits even on his manners of eating and drinking that he was content with a smaller quantity of food and Thumama proceeded onwards to Mecca where according to Ibn Ishaq the first person ever to enter Mecca with the proper Islamic talbiyah was Thumama Ibn Uthal And of course the talbiyah was known to the Quraysh from the days of Jahiliyyah. There was one big problem which we said many many many halaqas ago and that was what? They added shirk to the talbiyah. They added pure shirk to the talbiyah. لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ لَبَّيْكَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ إِلَّا You don't want an illa when it comes to shariq. إِلَّا شَرِيكًا هُوَ لَكَ تَمْلِكُهُ وَمَا مَلَكَ You have some partners oh Allah. you have some partners, this is what they would say so Thumama cut off the shirk and the first Muslim to enter Mecca loudly with talbiya was Thumama ibn Athal, because the sahaba are in Medina, they haven't entered Mecca since they left Mecca so Thumama was the first sahabi to enter, and when they heard him with this talbiya, this is a strange talbiya, it is a talbiya clearly not upon their culture, so they asked him, asabawta ya Thumama when a person would leave the jahili religion they would say he has become sabi' you know in the Quran the Sabians so we talked a little bit I think we talked about this I'm not even sure but in any case whatever they are the Sabians whatever they are the Quraysh mistakenly said to anybody who left their faith you're a Sabian you're a sabi' anybody who leaves their religion they would say he's a sabi and so they would make fun of the early Muslims by calling them sabi'un and so they said to Thumama Asabauta, have you become a Sabian? have you left our faith and become a sabi? and so Thumama said no, I have become a Muslim I'm not a sabi, I am a Muslim and I testify La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah at this, some of the Quraysh, they surrounded him they unsheathed their swords they wanted to do something but others calmer voices prevailed and they said if you kill him you're going to face the entire Banu Hanifa this isn't some trivial guy here this is the chieftain and this is going to cause you much grief let him be now the details are not given but clearly this meeting was tense clearly Thumama was at the verge of almost being killed here and so he became so enraged at all of this that his response was wallahi not a single seed of grain will come to you from the Banu Hanifa and from up north until the Prophet ﷺ explicitly commands me to do so. He got so angry at the Quraysh, he said, I'm not gonna allow a single grain of wheat to come to you. A single grain of wheat. Now, Thumama was basically in Central Arabia, which is what we now call the Najd area, right? And grain would come to them from up north, most of the grain would come from up north. And Thumama has the highways. Thumama is blocking the roots from there. So he got so angry, he said, I swear by Allah, not a single seed of wheat, not a single grain of wheat will reach you, until the Prophet ﷺ explicitly commands me, then I'm gonna release this tension. He got so angry at them. And he did his tawaf, he did his umrah, and he returned back and he fulfilled his promise. He cut off all supplies from the Quraysh, weeks and months went by, and the Quraysh, their supplies dwindled, other sources could not be found for the quantity that was needed and eventually they were forced to basically eat a substance that is called ilhiz. Ilhiz, have any of the Arabs heard of this? Ilhiz or it is now a gone thing. I'm assuming it's gone because I haven't come across this other than in the classical books of Sira. We find a number of traditions that use this word ilhiz that once when the Prophet made dua against them and they had a drought Ibn Ishaq mentions in another place in his book that they were forced to eat ilhiz. and then here as well they were forced to eat ilhiz and what is ilhiz? I tried to look it up in a number of books I only found a few things what I found was that ilhiz was a type of food that was only resorted to at times of famine and drought because it was completely disgusting and of its ingredients that I mentioned is camel's blood and camel's hair so you do the rest what is it going to be? a mixture of camel's blood and camel's hair and whatever other ingredients this is called ilhiz, they were forced to eat this at times of extreme drought. So the situation got so bad when they don't have any wheat eventually they were forced to eat ilhiz and so Abu Sufyan had to swallow his pride and write a letter to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam but even as he swallowed his pride his arrogance could not be completely covered at this stage and he wrote to him somewhat of a harsh letter even though beggars can't be choosers but he couldn't just beg. And so he said to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, Ya Muhammad and innaka taz'umu you claim that you are preaching silatul rahim you're preaching to be good to your relatives and here you are allowing us to die and wither away how could you do that? basically I ask you by Allah and by our ties of kinship that you allow the wheat to resume and so the Prophet ﷺ wrote a letter to Thumama to allow the wheat to resume and so the wheat then began to resume to the people of Mecca and the food supplies went back to normal. Now, before we move on, so some benefits from this story. So subhanAllah, look here at how amazingly the dua of the Prophet ﷺ was answered. That Allah Azza wa Jal answered the duas of the Prophet ﷺ by and large. Yes, some of them He did not, we know some of these. But by and large, the duas of the Prophet ﷺ have been answered. And this shows us obviously, doesn't need to be said, the maqam of the Nabi, the status of the Prophet ﷺ. And Allah helps His religion in different ways. Allah helps His religion in different ways. Thumama was like a gift out of nowhere. The whole tribe of Banu Hanifa did not convert, but the chieftain converted. And once the chieftain converts, you will have a large number of people converting. Also we notice over here, and this is obviously a standard of the teaching of Islam, gentleness will get you what harshness will not get you. Gentleness will get you what harshness will not get you. Thumama was treated gently. Thumama was treated with dignity. Thumama was given better food than the rest of the people. and so for three days when he sees the reality of Islam, his heart opens up and the process by the way, what did he do? Neither did he accept any money from him nor did he threaten to kill him. He literally said, khalas go, you're free. He gifted him his independence after Thumama had promised to kill him. He gave him his life back. Obviously, what is that going to do to Thumama? So kindness will get you what harshness will never get you. Also from this we learn, Ibn Hajar comments on this, that it is allowed for non-Muslims to enter masajid. Because Thumamah was tied up to a post for three days in the masjid. So clearly, and this is the vast majority, although for some reason some people are strict about this, but in the seerah, wallahi there are so many instances of non-Muslims entering the masjid and staying there, and even the process of allowing the Christians of Najran to worship in the masjid. Think about this, right? The Christians of Najran were allowed to worship in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. Wallahi if we did this in our times, we would have a mini qiyamah here if we were to allow this if any reason, like the church across the road allowed us to pray there for one month, we all remember this subhanallah, if any church came and they said we need your building or what not, wallahi I would say, tafaddar go in there, there's a place for their go but we know in the community what's going to happen yet our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he allowed a number of Christians and he's allowing thumama to sit in the masjid, obviously there's a difference between Christians coming and then pagans praying. Obviously, Thumama did not pray to an idol. Obviously, we're not gonna allow that. But he allowed the Christians to do their adhkar to God the Father, to the Lord. And there's nothing wrong in Islam for allowing them to do this, even if we don't follow them in that particular factor. In any case, this shows us, as Ibn Hajar says, the permissibility of non-Muslims coming inside the masajid. Also, this hadith is one of the fundamental evidences for the well-known Islamic concept that a non-Muslim who wants to embrace Islam should do what? Take a bath. This is one of the fundamental evidences used for this. And the scholars point out that this was so well-known that even Thumama who's a pagan, he knows he should take a bath before embracing Islam. So, anybody who wants to accept Islam, then we advise him that one of the... It's not wajib obviously, but it is recommended that you take a bath. it's a symbolic gesture and it's also by the way no doubt non-Muslims don't have it in their sharia to take a bath after janabah so no doubt there's a strong possibility that days or weeks might have gone by or whatever that he's in the state of janabah so just to be symbolically pure and physically pure we should recommend anybody who wants to convert to take a bath like Thumama did also from this we learned that if a non-Muslim embraces Islam he should not stop his good deeds continue his good deeds Thumama wanted to do umrah and just because he's embraced Islam he should not stop his Umrah we also see here the hypocrisy of the Quraysh the hypocrisy of the Quraysh that the Quraysh who are the ones who have kicked out their own relatives, tried to assassinate their own relatives, now they're telling the Prophet ﷺ, you're the one teaching to be good to relatives, why aren't you good to us and we see here the tenderness and the mercy of the Prophet ﷺ that he responded to their request this also shows us by the way a very interesting point, no doubt Our Prophet ﷺ was strict with the Quraysh. After all, he's gone to war with them four times in the past, another two times are gonna happen, right? Or things are gonna happen. No doubt. And on the battlefield, they're attempting to kill one another. And yet, he doesn't wanna starve the women and children. He doesn't wanna starve them to death. So notice here, the strictness is tempered with pragmatic mercy. Okay, we're going to war. That doesn't mean I have to kill all of the people of Quraysh, right? You see, he could have said no. And wallahi had he said no, who couldn't complain? they deserve this but our Prophet ﷺ is رَحْمَ لِلْعَالَمِينَ yes we're gonna face you in battle in Badr, in Uhud, in Khandaq you just tried to kill us a few months ago in Khandaq you cut off our supplies notice you cut off our supplies for one month but now when it's my turn I'm not gonna do the same to you and he allowed them to resume in their supplies of food and by the way as for Thumama Thumama is from the Banu Hanifa and there was a very infamous person from the Banu Hanifa that is Musaylim al-Kadhab. Musaylim al-Kadhab was also from the Banu Hanifa. And when Musaylim announced his false prophecies, prophethood, and the battles of Ridda took place, Thumama was on the side of the Muslims against his own tribe. And this is the clear-cut sign that he had fully embraced Islam. He's fighting his own tribe. The false, not all of his tribe, but the people who had embraced Musaylim's false message. So Thumama is fighting with the Muslims against Musaylimah's forces and a number of things happened and eventually he died a martyr not exactly in the wars of the Riddah but a long story but basically he died because they attacked back and they basically killed Thumama so inshallah he died or he died a shaheed may Allah inshallah accept his shahada now the next incident is a very small one but we should just keep it in mind especially in light of other incidents that took place and that is that one more assassination attempt from the Quraysh against the Prophet ﷺ. And this was Abu Sufyan. Abu Sufyan had announced a bounty for anybody who kills the Prophet ﷺ. And after the battle of Badr, after the battle of Uhud, Abu Sufyan is the de facto senior leader of the Quraysh. There's nobody to that level, right? Before it was Abu Talib. Abu Talib has now died. Even Abu Lahab had somewhat of a type of respect, right? and Mughira, Ibn Shu'ba and sorry Al-Waleed bin Mughira all of these elite were there one by one they're dying out and so Abu Sufyan is by default he is now the senior most leader of the entire city of the Quraish and that is why by the way we're jumping the gun but when the process from conquered Mecca one of the very few people he honored by saying whoever stays in the Kaaba is gonna be safe whoever stays in the house of Abu Sufyan will be safe. And he gave him a hundred thousand flock. I mean he gave him a fortune. All of this because Abu Sufyan he converted but his conversion was not easy. Because he took a long while fighting Islam and this is another thing. Now he's trying to kill the Prophet ﷺ through a secret assassination. And so a Bedouin comes, he wants the bounty. He says, I'm gonna go kill him. We don't even know the name of this Bedouin. It's just one of those footnotes in the history of Ibn Sa'd. And so Abu Sufyan supplies him with a camel he supplies him with the food as needed and he gives him the weapons to go and kill the Prophet and the Bedouin invents a story wanting to accept Islam, whatever they all knew this is the way to get to the Prophet in six days he made it to Medina which was pretty fast in six days that's pretty much as fast as you can do it in six days he makes it to the Prophet he enters the masjid with this false story whatever the story is we don't know most likely he's saying he's a representative from his people or whatever and when he entered the masjid, the Prophet ﷺ said, this is a man who has treachery written on him. Allah told him, Jibreel told him, maybe in his firasa, this is a man you can see treachery from him. Soon as he said this, the Sahaba tackled him. Right there. Soon as he said this, the Sahaba tackled him. When they tackled him, the dagger comes out of his belt. You're not supposed to enter in, you know, in a meeting with the leader with this secret dagger. It's clear something is going on. the dagger falls out. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, if you are truthful to me, I shall let you go. Otherwise, dot, dot, dot. So he spills all the beans and he says this and this and this is what happened. And so the Prophet ﷺ honored his promise to him and said, okay, you are free to go. And when he said you are free to go, after all he had seen the Bedouin as well embraced Islam. We have no idea what his name was. He embraced Islam. And what is interesting here, despite all of this, still Abu Sufyan was honored to the level that he was honored. this is amazing that Abu Sufyan after all of this and what has preceded in Uhud and in Badr still now the process when he conquers Mecca Abu Sufyan is forgiven and this story is a perfect stepping stone to the next story which is one of those extremely controversial stories even though frankly I don't find it that controversial but it is one of those stories that Islamophobes and non-Muslims they love to bring up against our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and that is the assassination of Sallam ibn Abul Huqayq. Sallam ibn Abul Huqayq. Now, Sallam ibn Abul Huqayq. So we've already talked in detail about the assassination of who in the past? Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf. We had an entire session on Ka'b and I encourage all of you to go back to that session, it's online, and listen to how I presented it and how I think it's really not that big of an issue. Really, I don't see it that big of an issue. and salam is basically similar in this regard. It's also an assassination in this regard. Or we can call it a targeted killing as is the modern terminology, right? We can call it like this, okay? This is not collateral damage. This is targeted, if you like, extrajudicial, if you like, killing. It is now common. As I said, in modern times, nobody has a right to open a peep anymore. After all that has happened in the last 10 years, khalas, this is now standard warfare. Well, we don't know the exact date, but clearly it happened after Ahzab and before Khaybar. After Ahzab and before Khaybar, most likely sometime around here, the 6th AH. And Salam ibn Abul Huqayq was one of the rich leaders of Khaybar. So Khaybar has not yet taken place. Khaybar is another major battle we'll talk about in 3-4 weeks inshallah. Khaybar is gonna come. The big battle of Khaybar is going to come. Salam is one of the big shots of Khaybar. and Salam had been one of the main financiers of the battle of Khandaq, the battle of Ahzab, which just took place five months ago. Salam being this wealthy billionaire if you like, he has financed the tribe of Ghatafan. Now go back, rewind, remember the bulk of the fighters of the Ahzab were basically hired mercenaries. Remember that? The bulk of the people were hired mercenaries. They are not interested in an actual fight of paganism versus Islam. They just want their money and their supplies and what not and that's it. And that is why when the weather turned bad and when Allah sent His punishment, the first people to run away were the hired mercenaries. They're not there out of a genuine desire, right? Who paid for these mercenaries? Number one on the list, Salam. Okay, so Salam has to be eliminated. Because he done it before, he's gonna do it again. and also a message has got to be sent you're not going to get away with this anybody else who wants to think about this the message has to be sent and so a number of people of the Khazraj they themselves came up with the idea the Prophet ﷺ did not tell them go kill Salam because this is a very dangerous expedition they're going to have to go to enemy territory Khaybar is far distance away at least two and a half three days camping by traveling and Khaybar is fortified every single mini tribe has a massive fortress, right? and we had already said that the Yahud had developed this architecture and the Muslims really had not developed it they didn't know how to do it, and the Yahud had thick fortified walls that Muslims had not yet learned how to conquer, they didn't have the machinery, they didn't have the weapons to conquer, and we will see when the battle of Khyber takes place, this was the biggest problem, the Prophet ﷺ stood there or not stood there, but camped there for a month in Khyber, not knowing what to do because it's just very difficult. Even in Banu Nadir, he had to camp outside. In Banu Qaynuqa, there were always issues because the architecture, the fortresses, there were massive thick walls, and they were basically structured in a way that the Arabs on their horses and camels could not really attack them. So this is gonna be a secret expedition where it's not gonna be massive. It's gonna be a small group that manages to pinpoint Salam and then eliminate him, right? And that's why, of course, in modern terminology, some have called this an assassination. Whatever you wanna call it, It's something extrajudicial killing. It's something that was common back in then. And frankly it has been resurrected in our times as well. And so the Khazraj volunteered. Question. Why would the Khazraj volunteer with this idea? Where would they come up with this? Why are they so interested in doing this scheme? Response. They felt that the Aus had beaten them by taking care of Ka'b ibn Ashraf. And they felt that the Aus have 1-0. The score is 1-0. and so they wanted to do something that shows that the Khazraj were just as dedicated the Khazraj were just as warrior, just as brave they could also take on challenges and they took on a challenge three days away unlike Ka'b who was one hour away the Khazraj said we're gonna outdo this and we're gonna do this and we're gonna get rid of Sallam ibn Abul Huqayq and so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave them permission to do so but the only thing he said make sure you do not kill any woman or children. This is not something that I'm gonna allow you to do. You wanna kill, you wanna kill, sorry, Salam, but don't kill any women or children. Now by the way, footnote here, so in those days there was no such thing as civilians versus military, civilian versus army. Every adult male was the army. Right? Every adult male, there is no army that is basically conscripted army. Everybody who's a fighting age will fight. That's the way it was. so you know when we hear these hadith and we say well how about non-fighting men back then there was really no such thing every military or every man of age was a military man and this is the case still in some countries and it was the case back in the days of the prophet s.a.w. so when he's telling them don't kill women and children it's not too much of a stretch to say don't kill civilians in our times, right? we take the principles of the sharia extrapolate into our times, it's really what the goal or the maqsad of the sharia is. Don't kill those who have nothing to do with this. Right? You want to kill Salam? He's caused his harm. He has number one financier of the entire expedition. Okay, get rid of him. But don't kill any women or children. So, five people volunteered from the Khazraj and their leader was Abdullah ibn Atiq. Abdullah ibn Atiq with a kaf, not a qaf. Abdullah ibn Atiq. And Abdullah ibn Atiq was chosen because he could speak fluently the language of the people of Khyber most likely this language was Hebraic, Hebrew-Arabic most likely was a mixture, neither pure Hebrew nor Arabic, that these tribes had developed their own language and because he is a Yathribite in the good old days Abdullah ibn Atikhamin, and because he's been raised amongst the people so he spoke their language like a native person, he spoke it fluently, and this is if you're gonna do this type of attempt you're not gonna be stuttering in Arabic when everybody in the fortress speaks fluent Hebraic. So he volunteered along with four other of the Sahaba, and they immediately made their way to Khyber, and they camped outside wondering how they're going to get in, what is going to be the strategy to get in, and Abdullah ibn Atiq said, I have an idea, leave it to me. And so the way that it was in the past, in fact up until recently, in all Muslim cities and non-Muslim cities up until recently, they would always shut the doors at Maghrib time, right? all the doors of the city are shut. Anybody wants to come in after that, they'll have to wait till the morning, when you can see. And so he waited, waited, waited, until it was right maghrib time. And he then made his way to the visual distance of the guard, so that the guard could see, and he pretended that he is basically urinating. That he is somebody urinating and relieving himself, right? And the guard is shutting the door, and he sees in the figure, somebody urinating in the distance. Now obviously, you're not gonna think this is a spy, this is like, come on, hurry up before the gate gets closed. And that's exactly what the guard said. I'm gonna close the gates, hurry up. And so, he quickly rushed in, and the gate shut behind him, individually. And, he must have hidden somewhere, again, the details are scant, he must have hidden somewhere. When nightfall came, he then went back to the gate, opened it up, allowed the rest of them to come back in. So now they have the five people in the fortress, in the walls, and they find their way to the house of Salam and Allah knows how they did this. Again, the details are not mentioned but one would assume that the structure of the inside of the fortress was such that the richest person or the noble person has the central and the largest. However it was, they found their way there and they made their way into the house and eventually they assassinated or they killed him or they exterminated him, whatever word you want to use, they got rid of him. and his wife saw them she set out an alarm she cried as loud as she could one of them, one of the sahaba was about to basically kill her in order to stop the cry but then he remembered what did the Prophet ﷺ say no women, no children so he sheathed the sword back and the five of them fled on the way out so the room of Salam was protected in that it was on a ladder that was leading in to a higher room so he had a way out you had to climb up something to get to his top room if you like, he was on the third floor second floor, so Ibn Atiq the leader was, it is said that he had feeble eyes, and when they were racing outwards, he slipped, he didn't see the step, and in the process he sprained or he broke his foot, we don't know whether he sprained or broke it, basically he could not walk, so the other sahaba had to carry him outside, and then they had to rush back to Medina while the cry is being given in the city that must have been a very harrowing experience we don't have details other than this but subhanallah your imagination can really get involved here now that one of them is crippled the four of them are now the cries being given she's yelling and screaming Allah knows how they did it but they escaped without a single casualty other than his broken or sprained foot and when they came back to the Prophet ﷺ the Prophet ﷺ told him to stretch his foot out and he rubbed his hand on the foot and of course lo and behold by the permission of Allah ﷻ the foot becomes perfectly healed. Now, obviously, I encourage you to go back to Ka'bah ibn Ashraf's story for all of the disclaimers. But just in a nutshell, frankly, those were different times, there were different norms, there's a state of war going on. The main point really is, this was expected, this was understood, this is a part of the territory back then. We just talked about Abu Sufyan trying to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. It's a two-way street. This is the way the world worked back then. Nobody is saying, that any Muslim can just start doing this himself anywhere they are. No scholar in the history of Islam ever says this, right? Can a khalifa use such a tactic in our times? Well, let's talk about this when we have a khalifa, right? And then we'll worry about what is this allowed, what is not allowed. And frankly, there are people like Shaykh al-Qardawi and many others who have basically extrapolated entire volumes about modern nation-state rulings, modern jihad rulings, and they have all said, look, the sharia is a platform, it is a spectrum that allows you for modifications, it allows you for some changes. And if there are customs in place, if there is a United Nations treaty in place, if there is a type of other protocol in place, the sharia allows us to adapt to that protocol. And if for example, once upon a time, before our own country opened this door, 10 years ago let's say, once upon a time, this type of extrajudicial killing was considered to be illegal. Was considered to be not allowed. Okay, if theoretically there were to be an Islamic caliphate, it's not a problem for them to sign on and say, you know what, khalas, we will also consider this to be not allowed. Now, we don't even know, it's up in the air. As we speak, there are drones taking place here and there and here and there, and you know, there's gonna be targeted surgical strikes on this and that. This is now an accepted norm. So for anybody to criticize something that took place 14 centuries ago, we're gonna tell this person, look, get relevant, get pertinent, deal with your own case that you're doing right now, before you start criticizing something that took place 14 centuries ago. Frankly, I don't find this issue to be problematic at all. Some people make a very big issue. I think it is what it is. That's the way people operate it. And we have a number of incidents, Salam and Ka'b and others, that clearly it was something that was a two-way street, as we said. The next incident that we're going to mention, again, it's not that necessary or not that politically important, but what's important is what happened as a result of it, is the Ghazwa of Bani Lahyan. Now, who can remind me, what is the difference between Sariyah and Ghazwa? Who can remind me? Sariyah is without the Prophet ﷺ, Ghazwa is with the Prophet ﷺ. So this was a Ghazwa. And the Ghazwa means the Prophet ﷺ is with them. And so, this was a Ghazwa against the tribe of Bani Lahyan. And the Bani Lahyan was the tribe that tricked the Muslims into sending large emissaries. Remember, we talked about this. you know, Adal and Qarra and Banu Lahyan, these were those tribes that they tricked some emissaries to come and they then started killing the Sahaba massacres took place, this is one of those tribes, so this is now clearly this is called for one of those tribes that was betrayed the trust of the Prophet that fabricated a story that killed a number of Sahaba and the Banu Lahyan were the ones who actually killed Khubayb, the story of Khubayb, remember he was tied up as a prisoner of war and he was the one who prayed two rak'ahs before he was killed, this is Khubayb, this is Banu Luhyan is the one who killed Khubayb, this is that tribe that killed Khubayb in just cold blood, so the Banu Luhyan the problem with them, or why is it coming so late? Because the Banu Luhyan were in the Hijaz they were not up north or up south they were close to Mecca, and so going to the Banu Luhyan is problematic because you're entering into basically close to the Quraysh. So the Prophet ﷺ, he did not want to tell anybody where he's going. And he took 300 sahaba, and they exited Medina from up north. Everybody's thinking they're going to some tribe up north. But as was his tactic ﷺ, and he didn't tell a single soul, that when he left the city with 300 people, then he doubled back, and then the people realized we're going basically towards the direction of Mecca. And then when they came close to the Prophet ﷺ, told them that we're going to attack the Banu Lihyan. however in this case the Banu Lihyan had their spies waiting or they had their precaution mechanisms whatever it was they saw the army coming and so they fled all of them they fled and so the city was basically or their camping grounds were desolate so the procession remained there 2-3 days to basically show them who's boss to show them who's victor and to basically frighten them to not do something like this again but there was no actual battle or war that took place and that's why this Ghazwa is a ghazwa but it's not one of the more significant ones. So why are we talking about it? Because it was most likely, there was a bit of a controversy, most likely it was in this ghazwa that Allah Azza wa Jal legislated Salatul Khawf. Salatul Khawf. And the story goes as follows, that what happened was the Banu Lihyan sent an emissary to the Quraysh that we're being attacked by the Muslims, come and help us. So the Quraysh sent a small force under the charge of Khalid ibn al-Walid who's still not a Muslim. He's actually going to convert in less than a year. But he doesn't know that and the Muslims don't know that. So the Quraysh send a small force and the force, there's no actual battle that takes place. But Khalid ibn al-Walid camps in front of the Muslims, the Muslims in front of Khalid ibn al-Walid. So they can see one another. And time for Dhuhr comes. So what are you going to do when it's time for Dhuhr? You stand up and you pray. And one of the Quraysh said, if only they were to do this again because they don't know what salah is so now they see the whole salah and they're praying and prostrating this is the perfect time perfect time to launch an attack and so they say to Khalid if only this were to happen again this is the perfect time for all of us to just charge because even if it's gonna be a problem they must have taken their shields off they would have done sajda what not so Khalid said wait they have another time coming, just wait, we'll do it at Asr. Okay? And in the interim between Dhuhur and Asr, Allah sent Jibreel down. With Surah An-Nisa' Verse 102 So Allah commanded the Prophet ﷺ with what is called Salatul Khawf. And Salatul Khawf, the way that this was legislated was that the Prophet ﷺ was told in Surah An-Nisa verse 102. When you make the iqamah, you stand with one group and let them have their armor on, which shows they would have taken it off previously, while another group guards, the other group doesn't join the salah, then the first group goes to the guarding and the second group comes and prays with you right, so you basically the process does one jama'ah and half of the jama'ah half of the muslims pray and the other half are on guard, they're not praying. Then in the middle of the salah, the first jama'ah goes, the second jama'ah comes. So the Prophet ﷺ prays one salah and the people behind him, they basically split it. Now, how this happens and what is the fiqh? The chapters of fiqh are very long in this regard and there's so many ikhtilafat and this is something that the books of fiqh discuss. It's not our job to discuss it in the seerah classes, but the point being this is when it came down. And also according to one hadith, it also appears this was the time when the Prophet ﷺ taught the Sahaba the Dua al-Safar. The Dua al-Safar. The first time we have a mention of it, it appears to be in this Ghazwa al-Bani Lahyan that the Prophet ﷺ said, اللهم نعذبك من وعثاء السفر وكآبة المنظر وسوء من قلب في المال والأهل And then he also said on coming back, عائبون أعيبون تائبون ربنا حامدون For those of you who know the Dua, this is where it's been narrated. So perhaps this was the time when they first heard of the Dua al-Safar. and the second to last and the long story we're going to talk about today very interesting story and that is the again the story is not interesting because of the politics but because of one incident that happened and this is the Sariyah of Zayd ibn Harithah to the place known as Al-Irs Al-Irs and Al-Irs is in modern day in modern day Unaiza Al-Irs is in modern day Unaiza or Qasim which is again north of Medina so the Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd ibn Harithah we all know Zayd ibn Harithah this is one of the last things Zayd does he's about to meet a tragic death we'll talk about that in a few weeks we all know Zayd ibn Harithah the one whom the Prophet ﷺ adopted Zayd ibn Harithah and then the adoption cancelled so the Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd ibn Harithah most likely in Jumada al-Ula of 6 AH he sent him with 170 people to intercept the caravan of the Quraysh as it's returning from Syria okay so this is one of those big interceptions again just like Badr, just like all of them this is one of the big ones and he sends Zayd ibn Haritha to get this big caravan and lo and behold, Alhamdulillah the caravan is captured in its entirety and so all of this wealth comes back and all of the camels come back and the prisoners of war come back and the story is interesting because of one of the prisoners of war the story itself is pretty straight forward Zayd went, Zayd saw, Zayd conquered And he came back with all that he had conquered. And who was one of these prisoners? This prisoner was Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabiyah. Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabiyah. And who is Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabiyah? The son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ. The son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ. the husband of Zaynab bint Muhammad. The husband of Zaynab bint Muhammad. Now, who is this Abu al-As? Abu al-As is the son of, by the way, he's a Quraish, he's pure Quraish, he's from the tribe of the Banu Abd al-Sham. He's not Banu Hashim, he's Banu Abd al-Sham. And the Banu Abd al-Sham are a standard, traditional, you know, fine clan of the Quraish. His mother is Hala. Everybody should have now a light bulb go off. who is Hala. There's only one Hala in the whole seerah that we're interested in. His mother is Hala. And Hala is the older sister of Khadija. Okay? Hala is the one who first hired the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, then Khadija. Hala is that Hala. Right? And so Abu al-As is the son of Hala. Which means he's the cousin of Zainab. Okay? And Khadija in the days of Jahiliyyah, before Islam, Khadija had asked the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to marry Zaynab to Abu'l-A'us, her sister's son. Her sister's son, right? And the riwayah says, the Prophet ﷺ would never refuse anything for Khadija. Subhanallah. Whatever Khadija wanted, she got. He never said no to her. Subhanallah. And we have already talked about the love of Khadija and what, you know, nobility and how much love he had. So the Prophet ﷺ would never say no to Khadija. Whatever she wanted, she would be given. And so when she requested this, khalas, it was decreed. That Zaynab would marry Abul As. Now, by the way, how many daughters of the Prophet ﷺ do we all know? Four. What is the order of those daughters? Fatima. Fatima's the youngest, youngest, youngest. Zaynab. Umakul Thum is next. Ruqayya is next. Ruqayya is number two. Umm Kulthum is number three. Fatima is number four. Everybody memorize this. This is your Prophet's daughter, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. These are the daughters. These are the true Al-Bayt, the real Al-Bayt of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Number one, Zaynab. Number one, Zaynab. Number two, Ruqayya. Number three, Umm Kulthum. And number four, Fatima. And most likely Fatima was born in Islam. Most likely Fatima was born after the Wahy began. and the other three were born before Islam. Now, so Zainab's marriage has been decided. We already said many, many, many, many months ago, probably years ago, Ruqayya and Umm Kulthum, they had already been engaged but not married. Who had they been engaged to? The sons of Abu Lahab. Right? The sons of Abu Lahab they had been engaged to. When the da'wah began, when the processing began preaching, Abu Lahab cancelled. Abu Lahab said, No way I'm gonna allow my sons to marry your daughters. And he cancelled. And the Quraysh put pressure on Abu al-As that ask whatever you want. And name any woman you want. And we will marry you to her, but get rid of Zaynab. Divorce Zaynab, and we'll give you anything you want. And Abu al-As refused. And he said, nobody can substitute or take the place of Zaynab. Abu al-As loved Zaynab immensely and so he did not he was not bribed and they remained married and when the procession emigrated to Medina Zaynab remained with her husband Zaynab is married now she is an adult the other daughters come but Zaynab has her own family and by the way they had a daughter her name was they had a daughter her name was Umama the sister says Umama yes right This daughter was the one whom the Prophet ﷺ prayed while carrying. In salah, sahibu khadi. He's carrying this baby, and he's doing sajd and ruku' with this baby, that's Umama. That's Umama binti Zainab. Umama binti Abul Rabi'ah. Sorry, Abul Asibna Rabi'ah. So this is Umama, they had a daughter. By the way, they also had a son, but he died as an infant. And Umama lived a long life. And Umama, I'm going into one of these tangents again. Who did she marry? She married Ali ibn Abi Talib, after her khala died. Her khala is who? Fatima, exactly. After Fatima dies, so now she's a young lady, now Ali proposes for her. And Umama then marries Ali and they have some children as well. In any case, back to the story. Where are we now? So Zainab, so this is Abu al-As. He's the one who has married Zainab and he remains in Mecca in the battle of Badr, he joins the Meccan side, not out of hatred of Islam, but he's forced to do so. He doesn't really fight a passionate battle. He's taken as a prisoner of war, as we know. And his family, his wife, sends in ransom for her husband. And what does she send? The necklace that Khadija had and had gifted her. And this brought back so many memories to the Prophet ﷺ. and he requested, because again it's not in the hand of the Prophet ﷺ, the guy who captured him, he wants the money. Right? The Muslim who captures him wants the money. And so the Prophet ﷺ requested him that if you think it is appropriate, then let him go fee sabidillah. And because he couldn't pressure him. And it is not his nature. So obviously when any Muslim is asked in this manner by the Prophet ﷺ, khalas, he is yours ya Rasulullah. We didn't know this at the time, but the Prophet ﷺ had made him promise what? send me send me Zainab you're forgetting, send me Zainab and remember the story of Zainab trying to leave the city and then her pushing her back and what not, all of this is that story right, and that is why the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did have a lot of respect and even love for Abu'l-Aas because he said in a hadith in Bukhari when he was talking about some of his other son-in-laws he said, as for Abu'l-Aas he spoke to me and he told the truth. And he promised me and he fulfilled his promise. And then he criticized some other people, other son-in-laws of his, but Abu al-As, he said no. He was firm in his, you know, so he did not do this to me. So, Abu al-As returns after the battle of Badr, he sends Zaynab to Medina. Okay? So now Zaynab is in Medina, Abu al-As is in Mecca. At least two, three years have gone by and lo and behold he is now captured and he is now a POW in Medina okay, this is where we are now okay, now the next morning in Salatul Fajr the Prophet ﷺ stands up says Allahu Akbar and from the women's side a loud voice comes O Muslims I am Zaynab binti Muhammad and I have given Abu al-Aas ibn al-Rabi' my protection. So, O Muslims, you give him your protection as well. In Salat al-Fajr, the whole gathering is there. Those days people would show up for Fajr. Sorry about that, but I had to say that. Those days people would show up for Fajr. And so, the whole masjid is in shock. In Fajr, she's making announcement. Because she wants everybody to hear. And the Prophet ﷺ, when Salat is finished, he said did you hear what I heard? I'm not imagining did you hear what I heard? they said yes O Messenger of Allah he said wallahi I had no knowledge of this as much as you meaning I have no clue she was gonna do this right? this is just as much of a surprise to me as it is to you and then he said the famous statement which is all the madahib agree he said that all of the Muslims are the same when it comes to a man when it comes to protection the least of them can offer protection to anyone and so O Zainab we have given protection to those whom we have given protection for. Now what is this protection or aman? So any Muslim, and this is in fiqh and all of the madhhab, any Muslim, even a child, even any Muslim, yani man, woman, some say even a Muslim slave, anybody has the right to simply, if there is a particular non-Muslim in the state of war that has done him a favor or what not, say, look this person, he's under my protection. Don't harm him now, I will deal with this person. and this is mutawatid, this is well known it's the standard principle of Islamic fiqh and so the Prophet ﷺ used this principle and he said, look Zainab, if you have said this then all Muslims are the same in this regard and we will give aman to those whom you have given aman, meaning we're not going to harm him then, khalas, you have given him aman then he is a person who will be protected and the people who had captured him and his property once again the same thing, twice he has negotiated for Abu al-Asib ibn al-Rabi'ah, twice subhanallah, right, but remember Abu al-As is not a Muslim, that's the whole point if he only do accept Islam, all of this would go away right, he's not a Muslim, and he's not accepting Islam, so twice, this is the second time he negotiates and he says, basically the same thing to another group of sahaba he says, that you see what has happened and you know the status of Abu al-As in my family that he is Zainab's husband, so if you wish you can return his money and his section of the caravan to him and that is more beloved to us and if you decide to keep it then that is your right and the right that Allah has given you, subhanallah, it's very clear I can't force you to give this back, this is your right but if you give it basically Allah will reward you it's up to you what you want, now obviously who could possibly say no and so the Ansar who had basically taken this portion of the caravan and they have, now by the way this portion of the caravan, this is Abu'l-As' basically not personal property, but this is the investments that people have given him. So he has people's merchandise and people's money, they've gone to Syria, they're coming back. So this is a lot of wealth, it's not just his wealth. So the Ansar go and they say to him that, Oh Abu'l-As, you are the Sihir, the son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ. Isn't it time you accept Islam? If you do so, we'll give you your money back and you can stay in Medina. in other words they tried to bribe him with Islam through the money like come on at least be a Muslim before we give you your money back the Prophet ﷺ hadn't told them to put this condition but they feel like a little bit more zealous like come on we're not going to give our money back to a non-Muslim let's give it back to a Muslim at least we can say okay he accepted Islam and let him remain here with us and so Abu al-As responded that what an evil suggestion that I should change my faith and be treacherous because of that in other words you want me to be greedy for the money and ignore the amanah that has been given to me just to accept Islam this is not a good suggestion and this was not from the Prophet this was from those Ansar who thought that it would at least be better if he embraced the faith so he refused to embrace so in any case the Ansar gave him all of the money back, in any case because that's what the Prophet told him so Abu'l-As took all of this money and he returned back to Mecca and he returned every single amanah back to its rightful owner and he asked the people of Mecca, has anybody given me anything that remains? And so they all said, no, Jazakallah, you have done your job, excellent. And in the whole caravan, it was only Abu al-As who managed to return the money to his owners, right? As soon as all of that had taken place, then in front of the Quraysh he said, now, ashadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu anna Muhammad rasulullah. That he didn't want to accept Islam in Medina, why? Because somebody is gonna say, you did it for the money, you did it for the life, you did it for this and that. now that I've gotten rid of all of my obligations and nobody can accuse me. I'm a free man back in my hometown. Let me embrace Islam publicly. And Abu'l-Aas, his great-grandfather is Abd al-Sham. He is lineage of Quraysh. You cannot harm a hair on his head. Abu'l-Aas is from the stock of the Quraysh. This is hardcore Qurayshi. You cannot touch Abu'l-Aas. And so Abu'l-Aas has the audacity and the courage and the guts to announce the shahada in front of the Kaaba. And he then returns back to Medina as a Muslim. And so they are then reunited. Now, this story could be problematic for two reasons, both of which are related, so pay attention to this. The first issue is that when he is captured as a POW, as a prisoner, clearly he's not a Muslim at the time. and the Prophet ﷺ frees him or lets him go basically on the presumption that the two of them are still married. Now, the Prophet ﷺ when he did free, he said to Zainab, this man is a mushrik, so he is not allowed for you. فَإِنَّهُ لَا يَحِلُّ لَكِي So they didn't live together at that time, that's only when he came back. as a Muslim. But still, is there a marriage at this time or not? And even more problematic, which is where all of the fiqh comes in, the real fiqh problem is, when he did return back to Medina, the hadith in Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi al-Nisa'i, the authentic hadith says, that the Prophet ﷺ returned him to her without a mahr. Means without a nikah. There was no new nikah done. The procession returned him to her without a new nikah. Why is this problematic? It is problematic because we all know in fiqh that when the wife converts to Islam and the husband does not, what happens to the marriage contract? It is annulled. And if the husband accepts Islam within the iddah of the wife, whether it is one month or three months, there is an ikhtilaf, but the correct opinion is one month. It is one menstrual cycle by the way. There is a point of fiqh. if there's a non-Muslim couple. Now obviously if the husband embraces Islam, that is less problematic. Why? Because a Christian or a Jewish wife can remain. Now obviously a pagan wife could not remain. But a Christian or Jewish wife can remain. So that's not a problem. But the other way around is problematic. You have a non-Muslim couple, the wife embraces Islam, and the husband does not embrace. Technically in a sharia, caliphate system, what would we do? And even in private, even in America, we will advise a woman this, but it's up to her what she wants to do. We can't do anything, it's up to her. But we will advise a woman if she converts in this land, and her husband does not convert, that look, he is not allowed for you. He is not your husband, shari'i wise. He is not your husband anymore. So according to the madhhab, basically, in this iddah, if he converts, no problem. So she has one month iddah. If he converts in two weeks, no problem. Khalas, the two of them are married. If he doesn't convert, after one month, what happens to the marriage? Null and void. Right? And if he wants her back after conversion, majority of scholars say, what? New marriage, new nikah, new mahr. And that's the majority position by the way. Right? This hadith is problematic because it explicitly says, without a new mahr, without a new nikah contract. Now, to make a long story short so the majority have interpreted this hadith here and there and they still hold their position that if a woman converts after one month her marriage is broken, if her husband wants to return to her her ex-husband we should say then a new nikah and a new mahr is needed after he accepts Islam however there is a minority dissenting opinion and it was championed by many people and Ibn Taymiyyah is one of them and that is and this is an interesting case, this is a A trivia question. It's a very unique scenario. He said, and the evidence seems to suggest that, so this is my position as well. That such a woman is in a unique scenario and situation. If she wants, she can marry anybody she wants with a new nikah and a new mahr. Any Muslim she wants. Right? After the iddah is over, now she can marry any Muslim who proposes he wants to marry. She wants to marry, she marries him. and if her husband embraces Islam, and she has not married in the meantime, then she may resume marital life with him, without a new nikah or mahr. So she's in an interesting scenario, in that her ex-husband becomes halal, without a marriage contract, without a mahr, without a nikah, if they both agree for this. and so they say this is the trick question what woman is there who can marry without a nikah, without a mahr or what not, she can get married in a situation that's very unique basically now obviously there are many conditions of them she didn't marry somebody else, obviously if she marries somebody else then khalas that is permanently broken of them is that the husband eventually converts because in this case at least 3-4 years have gone by and Abu al-Aws has not converted. And Zaynab has not remarried. When he does convert, the Prophet ﷺ simply allows them to resume married life. And this shows us that, inshallah, this is the correct position. And it's really common sense. It doesn't, you know, it's a very... You understand the fiqh behind it. It's very simple. That this is called the ankihat al-kuffar, the marriage contract of the non-Muslims, what is to be done. And by the way, another point here, just while we're mentioning this, a fiqh point, and we just have one story left anyway so inshallah we have some time the fifth point here if a couple, non-Muslim couple converts simultaneously by unanimous consensus of all of the scholars of Islam they do not need to redo their nikah in an Islamic manner and this is something that only some overzealous ignorant Muslims require if two non-Muslims convert and they were married this is the key, obviously if his boyfriend, girlfriend were not going to accept this they were married in however their culture or society deemed them to be married however, whether they were pagans whether they were buddhists, whether they were christian whatever they were if they both convert then their marriage contract will be automatically transferred as an islamic one even if the conditions of nikah were not met when it was done there was no wali, or there was no ma it's all irrelevant and how do we know this? as Ibn Hajar and Shawkani and others say in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ thousands of couples converted and never once did any Muslim say how did you guys get married? and what happened in your marriage? and let me do the checklist here it was accepted so marriages of the non-Muslims when they convert those marriages are valid however they occurred and this we learned from the seerah and from this incident as well the final mini story and this is just an interesting story for the fiqh of food actually, that's really what it's famous for and then inshallah next week we will do the battle of khaybar inshallah ta'ala, or sorry the treaty of Hudaybiyah before the battle of khaybar, the final story the sariyatul khabat the sariyatul khabat, and khabat is the withered leaves that are on the thorn shrubs the withered leaves, this is called khabat and it is called صَلِيَةُ الخَبَطِ because the Sahaba were forced to eat khabat so what is this story sometime before the treaty of Hudayb we don't know exactly when the Prophet ﷺ sent another large caravan to intercept the Quraysh we don't have any other details were they coming up or going down most likely this would have been the one when they're going up to Syria and then the Sadiya of Zayd was when they were coming back down Allah knows best so he sent a large expedition of 300 men to attempt to intervene to intercede to block the caravan of the Quraysh. However, they were not successful. And the Quraysh managed to elude them. And because of this, the Muslims when they tried to chase and what not, eventually they ran out of supplies. The supplies dwindled and eventually the supplies ran very very low. Their leader was Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn al-Jarrah. And so when the supplies became critical, Abu Ubaidah commanded everybody to give any food that they have. And so all of the food of the army was collected. and then he began rationing. Everybody gets the exact same amount. And the ration continued to dwindle and dwindle and dwindle until finally they had one date per person per day. And then even that ran out. And Jabir ibn Abdullah narrates, and the hadith is in many books including Bukhari, that they would have to put the date seeds, they kept the date seeds. They would put the date seeds in their mouth and suck on it throughout the day. And they would drink water with the date seed there so that they get some type of psychological taste there. And they were forced to eat khabat. And khabat is basically the thorn bush. It has those dried withered leaves. They would have to pluck those and eat those khabat just to basically survive. And eventually they made their way to the shore. There is a city close to Medina. In our times it will take you like two hours to drive. Not that far. Called Yambur. Yambur. And it is a petroleum city there. it's close to Medina, it's on the shore so they made their way close to Yambur and lo and behold they found that massive whale most likely reading it this is a blue whale this is one of the biggest creatures on earth, because the way that the hadith describe it, it is simply unbelievable, right, and Allah gifted them this basically, they found this massive whale, they said, the likes of which we had never seen before, and there are so many stories they say, was it, I forgot now the riwayah of Bukhari, was it 13 or 14 sahaba sat in the eye socket of the whale. Just the eye. You have 13 men sitting in that bone of the eye. And they took one of the bones of the whale, and they planted it on the beach. And Abu Ubaidah chose the largest camel. And he sat on that camel. And he managed to walk right underneath the bone without having to lower his head. this is like 20 feet we're talking about not 20 maybe 15 feet because a camel as it is and on top of that Abu Ubaidah is sitting and he doesn't have to lower his head this is the bone sticking out from the ground clearly this is one of those massive whales and they called it Ambar we don't know what type it is in our time and they rejoiced so much that they camped one month because of the whale cut them some slack we would have probably stayed two months they were so happy they're about to die of starvation that they camped one month and they actually gained fat and they continued to eat of this whale, 300 people eating one month of this whale until finally they decided to go back and they pack their bags with the meat and they go back to Medina and they tell the Prophet ﷺ what happened and they asked him what we did, was it permissible or not and subhanallah they're worried we ate a dead animal even though in the sharia it's allowed to eat dead animals in the case of darura but they're worried and they're confirming is it halal for us to eat this animal and so the Prophet ﷺ said do you have any meat of it left they said yes, he said bring it to me and so according to my humble knowledge and I could be mistaken but as far as I know the one and only time the Prophet ﷺ ate seafood was this time the one and only time he tasted seafood now why did he eat the meat to demonstrate for them that it is completely halal to eat seafood. Completely halal to eat seafood. And by the way, this also shows us that seafood does not require slaughter. In fact, it doesn't even require to be caught. Because they did not catch the whale. The whale was dead already. And this clearly shows us that a sea creature, any creature from the sea, and this is the vast majority opinion, and only the Hanafi madhhab has a disagreement here, with all respect to them. The other three madhhabs say, everything from the sea, shrimps and crustaceans and crabs and squid and eel and what not. Everything you can think of that comes from the sea is halal, because whale is not a fish, it is a mammal. A whale is technically not a fish as we know. It is a mammal. And our Prophet ﷺ ate of that whale, and our Prophet ﷺ said, أُحِلَّتْ لَنَا مَيْتَتَانِ وَدَمَانِ فَأَمَّلْ مَيْتَتَانِ فَالْجَرَادُ وَالْحُوتُ وَأَمَّلْ دَمَانِ فَالْكِبْدُ وَالْطُحَالِ That the Prophet ﷺ said, two dead animals are allowed for us. We don't have to slaughter them. Number one, جَرَاد, locusts. And number two, الْحُوتُ, the whale. And by mentioning the whale, he intentionally wanted to give the biggest creature from the sea to tell us, if the biggest creature is halal, how about the smaller creatures? If this massive whale is halal how about the smaller creature? And Allah says in the Quran Surah Al-Ma'idah verse 96 أُحِلَّتْ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ وَطَعَامُهُ مَتَاعًا لَكُمْ وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ That the catch of the ocean is halal for you. أُحِلَّتْ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ وَطَعَامُهُ And the food of the ocean. And Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ is what you catch. طَعَامُ الْبَحْرِ what is dead and it throws at you. both what you catch and what is dead right, if you catch it then you kill it even if you didn't kill it, it is halal and therefore, and this is in my humble opinion very clear that all types of seafood, all animals that live in the ocean are halal for us, regardless of how they got on the table, regardless of who captured them, how they were captured, whether they were dead, what not, they are all halal and this is the main point of this tradition of this incident, and we just conclude by pointing out that it was also during this time the fifth year and the sixth year of the Hijrah where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed the legislation of Hijab Hijab came down around this time and also the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam married Zaynab bin Tijah at this time and the story of the marriage of Zaynab is in my humble opinion frankly the most controversial story out of the seerah this is the most controversial number two is something else I mean whatever it might be. But number one is Zainab. And I am debating whether to have an entire halaqah now or to delay because as you know, when we finish, the seerah already said this, we can have a whole series about the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. It might be better to delay this story there, but we will see inshaAllah. But around this time, in the fifth year of the hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ married Zainab binti Jahsh. And then we just conclude by saying according to some authorities, our Prophet ﷺ sent 14 sariyyahs and participated in two ghazwas between Khandaq and Hudaybiyah which is what we just covered we only covered 4 or 5 of them the rest of them are mentioned in Ibn Ishaq they're all there but frankly even though this is Alhamdulillah an advanced class there's gotta be some levels and details we leave out, these are simply names and who fought against whom and how many people died and frankly most of us would not know these tribes and they would not be relevant to us so whoever wants to look them up they can look them up in Ibn Ishaq they're not even translated to English any seerah book in English really does not mention all of these 14 and what not because it really is something that only the very advanced students and knowledge and scholars will benefit from and as for us I think I have summarized I chose today all day I was just deciding which ones to tell you I chose these 4 or 5 and I decided the rest of them will just summarize that they took place and inshallah will continue next Wednesday Thank you.

Seerah 62 - Between the Battle of Khandaq & Hudaybiyya - P1 - Dr

So we now move on to one of the most significant, one of the most interesting lessons in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. And this incident marks a turning point for Islam. It is the precursor to the conquest of Mecca. And in fact, Allah ﷻ calls this incident a clear victory. إِنَّا فَتَحْنَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا We have given you a clear victory. Many Muslims, they consider Surah Al-Fatah to be for the conquest of Mecca, but this is not true. Surah Al-Fatah came down at the treaty of Hudaybiyyah. And so the fath that Allah refers to, إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْعًا مُّبِينًا We have given you a clear victory. This is a reference to the incident of Hudaybiyyah, which is what we are going to talk about inshallah today, and for the next few series or lessons. And the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, or the incident of Hudaybiyyah, this is especially relevant to Muslims living in the West. No doubt the whole seerah is important. But especially the incident of Hudaybiyyah, there is a marked significance for us living here in the West. And we're going to come to this when the time is appropriate. But in a nutshell, basically, the Treaty of Hudaybiyah demonstrates that at times, political alliances or treaties or agreements that we have with others, it forces us to allow other states to do injustice, other empires to get away with unjust policies. And all that we can do is to turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for help. We can't do much beyond this. The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah shows us that sometimes for the Muslim community to simply make dua to Allah against the oppressor, this is all that we can do. And sometimes we go beyond this. And of course, when do we make dua and don't do anything? And when do you go beyond this? This is something the scholars of each era and each land and each community will decide. But as we will see in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, clearly injustice happened. clearly the Quraysh did zulm upon the Muslims and the Prophet ﷺ because of an agreement he had he could not defend those particular Muslims and he had to sacrifice a few for the benefit of the larger or the more and of course Allah took care of both the few and the more by the way the mic seems bad, is there something do you hear something I think tone it down a little bit and by the way just FYI so the first lectures of seerah I ever gave more than 15 years ago I forgot, it's been a long time the first lectures of seerah I ever gave dealt with two stories and those are the first two stories I ever gave a public lecture about the seerah is the slander of Aisha and the story of Hudaybiyah because both of them are very relevant and very pertinent to society we already talked about the slander of Aisha and how slandering is something that leads to so much evil. And also one of the earliest lectures of seerah I gave is the incident of the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. Now, the first issue. What do we call this incident? Because some of the books reference it as the Treaty of Hudaybiyah and some references as the expedition or the ghazwa of Hudaybiyah. In Arabic, sulhal hudaybiyah or ghazwatul hudaybiyah. And both of them have their, if you like, pros and cons. most of the later writers, they reference it as the treaty of Hudaybiyah or the peace treaty of Hudaybiyah Sulh al-Hudaybiyah, however the Sahaba, most of them referenced it as Ghazwat al-Hudaybiyah, and this is interesting why is it interesting that they called it Ghazwat al-Hudaybiyah why is it interesting why is it a little bit abnormal if you like a little bit there was no Ghazwah there was no Ghazwah, what is a Ghazwah generally speaking a ghazwa means when the Prophet ﷺ fought remember we said the difference between sariyyah and ghazwa and there was no actual battle that took place and yet most of the sahaba called this ghazwatul hudaibiyah and we find this in the hadith for example of Salamat ibn al-Akwa' the famous hadith we did many many many months ago in which he said that I participated in seven ghazawat with the Prophet ﷺ and he began to list them until he finally said number five Ghazwat al-Hudaibiyah So he called it Ghazwat al-Hudaibiyah Even though there was no actual battle that took place And other Sahaba also called it Ghazwat al-Hudaibiyah So why would they call it a Ghazwa? Well because the fighting didn't actually take place But the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba Came a hairs width close to actually fighting And they were prepared to fight And they took the covenant to fight So it is as if they might as well have actually fought. So they had the determination, they had the resolve to fight. So they called it Ghazwa. Also, it can be called a Ghazwa because this expedition or this incident of Hudaybiyah is so significant politically that it really references more than just the incident of Hudaybiyah. So some scholars say it actually makes more sense to call it the Ghazwa because Ghazwa means there was a conquest and Allah has called it a conquest. إِنَّ فَتَحْنَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا what was the cause of this ghazwa what was the reason why the Prophet ﷺ left Medina sometime during the sixth year of the hijrah we don't know exactly when the Prophet ﷺ saw a dream in which he saw himself doing tawaf around the Ka'bah and being in ihram which means he's in umrah and shaving his hair which means he's finished the umrah so he saw himself doing all of these rites of umrah and he interpreted this because as we know the dreams of the prophets are all true. He interpreted this that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is commanding him to go to Mecca and do Umrah. And this dream, it is not mentioned explicitly that the Prophet ﷺ saw it. But what is mentioned is that when Hudaybiyah is going on and after Hudaybiyah, references are existing to the dream. For example, the Qur'an itself references. The Qur'an itself references. لَقَدْ صَدَقَ اللَّهُ رَسُولَهُ رُؤْيَا بِالْحَقِّ Verily the dream that you saw, Allah will cause it to be true لَتَدْخُلَنَّ الْمَسْجِدَ الْحَرَامَةِ You will have a surety in the future So Allah says you saw a dream It's going to be true But it will happen in the future آمِنِينَ مُحَلِّقِينَ رُؤُسَكُمْ You will be safe and secure And you will have had your hairs shaved off And also in the famous hadith of Bukhari As we will come to That Umar ibn al-Khattab Came up to the Prophet ﷺ and said Ya Rasulullah Did you not tell us That we would be doing tawaf and shaving our hair so where would he get this information from? Allah told him through the dream and the Prophet ﷺ said, I told you, but did I say it was going to be this year? No, it could be next year. So clearly then there are references to the Prophet ﷺ having seen a dream. And so the Prophet ﷺ announced his intentions to the Sahaba and to the surrounding Muslim tribes. By now it's the sixth year of the Hijrah. So Badr has taken place, Uhud has taken place, Khandaq has taken place. The Islamic Republic or the Islamic, if you like, political area has become relatively large. So the surrounding areas are also Muslim. So the Prophet ﷺ announces his intention that he will embark on a Umrah to Mecca. So everybody who is able to join should join. And all of the historians, all of the seerah experts agree. And this is amazing that they actually agree on a date because usually they don't agree. Even the battle of Uhud is debated. Even the battle of, oh so many battles are debated. The battle of Khandaq is a huge debate. when it took place, the battle of all of these battles is a huge debate, for some reason this battle is pretty much unanimously agreed, the Prophet ﷺ left Medina on the 1st of Dhul Qa'dah in the 6th year of the Hijrah so this is pretty much unanimously agreed in fact I don't know of any difference of opinion amongst all of the classical scholars of Sira, that the Prophet ﷺ left Medina on the 1st of Dhul Qa'dah and he had made the announcement to the Ansar, to the Muhajirun to the surrounding tribes that he would be performing the Umrah. Now we can imagine the Sahaba have not seen Mecca for six years. And the excitement would have been so high as well the anticipation, as well the nervousness, what's going to happen. And when the news reached the Muhajirun and Ansar, they immediately prepared, it's gonna be at least a month, a month and a half to go do Umrah and come back. And Allah knows what's going to happen. They're preparing. As for the Bedouins, As for the A'rab around Medina, they refused to participate. And the Quran references this and also books of Sira and Tafsir reference it that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in Surah Al-Fatah that those who remained behind from the A'rab, from the Bedouins, they said, شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُونَ وَأَهْلُونَ فَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهَا They gave an excuse to the Prophet ﷺ and they said, our properties, our money and our families, they prevented us. So ask Allah to forgive us, we're not able to go. شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُنَا فَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَنَا Then Allah exposed them. يَقُولُونَ بِأَلْسِنِتِهِمْ مَا لَيْسَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. And Allah عز و جل tells us, this is in Surah Al-Fatah verses 10 onwards, what was their real excuse. بَلْ ظَنَنْتُمْ أَلَّنْ يَنْقَلِبَ الرَّسُولُ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِمْ أَبَدًا وَزُيِّنَ ذَٰرِكَ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَظَنَنْتُمْ ظَنَّ السَّوءِ وَكُنْتُمْ قَوْمًا بُورًا you thought that the Prophet ﷺ and the believers will never return back alive and you thought the worst thoughts of Allah ﷻ and you were a wretched people that your opinion of Allah is so cheap and so that as if the Prophet ﷺ is going to die the Sahaba are going to die so you made an excuse and Allah exposed their excuse in the Qur'an and we have also in the books some of the books of Tafsir that these Arab, these Bedouins they said that this man, meaning the Prophet ﷺ wants us to go to the very nation that came here to kill us the battle of Badr, the battle of Uhud they came here to kill us surely this is not going to happen we will not go marching to our deaths let us make an excuse and just tell him something else and this is exactly what they did they invented an excuse and Allah ﷻ exposed them and subhanAllah their excuse and their laziness and their fear prevented them from upgrading themselves to have the highest honor after the battle of Badr. As we will come to later on, the Sahaba are not one level. The Sahaba have ranks. And the highest ranks, all we can say the highest rank is Ashara Mubashara. These are the ten. The second highest are Badr. And the third highest are Hudaybiyah. Bay'at al-Ridwan. And we see here a causal relationship. those who were brave to go Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed them with such an immense blessing that the Prophet ﷺ said to them when he gave them bay'at al-ridwan he said no one on earth is more pious and righteous than this group in front of me now that the Prophet ﷺ praised them in this manner and that is why anybody who was present in bay'at al-ridwan he gets an automatic upgrade from the sahaba that's really second only to Badr so Badr is the highest Al-Badri, and then the one who participated in Bayat al-Ridwan, and asked for these people, the Arab because they were hesitant so they deprived themselves of the blessing of Allah, and of course this is a well known principle of Islam, the more tawakkul you have in Allah, the more Allah will bless you in the end, the books of Sira mentioned, Bukhari and others mentioned 1400 companions left Medina for Mecca, now notice here, every single battle or every single ghazwa, the numbers are increasing. What does this show us? More and more Muslims are embracing Islam. Right? Badr is 300 something. Then Uhud gets up to 700 something. Right? Then Khandaq we estimated maybe there was like a thousand or something men. Right? So slowly but surely we see, now unfortunately the books of Sirah, they don't fill in all the details, but we can extrapolate. The very fact that 1400 men are going out for the Umrah clearly shows that now the Muslims, mashaAllah, tabarakAllah, are numbering in the thousands now. Alhamdulillah, the tide is turning even in terms of quantity. So 1,400 of the Sahaba, they left Medina for Mecca. And there are a number of reports. Now here the books of Sira differ. This is the big controversy. Were they armed for battle or were they not armed for battle? There seems to be both opinions found in the early books of Sira. Some books mention that they were only wearing the fighting swords. So they had different types of swords. There's a sword that you use for animals and just to protection. Then you have, sorry, not fighting swords, defense swords, excuse me. Then you have fighting swords. And that is the sharper sword that is used for actual battle. You have the fighting gear. You have the helmets. You have the armor. Now, scholars have differed or early reports have differed. Did they have the armor and weapons or not? Some books mentioned they did. Some books mentioned they didn't. And one way to combine these two, and this seems to be the position that inshallah is the correct one. One way to combine these two is that they were not wearing these weapons and armor but they had them in case they needed them. They had them in separate caravans or in separate, you know, the camels are carrying all of it but they are not wearing it. Now obviously they are not wearing it for another reason and that is because they're in ihram. And when you're in ihram, you really cannot wear weapons. You're not allowed to wear, you know, these types of things. So in the state of ihram, it is difficult and it is not feasible to wear these types of things. So Allah knows best. Those people who said they weren't armed, they're saying they weren't wearing the arms. And those who said they had arms means they had them in the caravan if they needed them. And this in fact makes sense because the Prophet ﷺ would not just walk in blindly, not knowing what is going to happen. His whole seerah shows us that he took every reasonable precaution. Now, another interesting thing, that the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca on the first of Dhul Qa'dah. And this is an interesting point here, the first of Dhul Qa'dah. What is so interesting about the first of Dhul Qa'dah? Because Ash'hulul Hurm, or the sacred months, they start from the first of Dhul Qa'dah. You all know the sacred months by now. What are the sacred months? Where is Ramadan? MashaAllah. Okay, good. Trick question. Okay. There is no... Ramadan is not of the sacred months. There are four sacred months, right? Minha arba'atun hurm. Inna iddatu shuhuri inda Allahi thna'ashara cha'aran fee kitabi Allahi yawma khalaqa as-samawati wa al-arba'atun hurm. Surah At-Tawbah. There are 12 months of the year. This was what Allah had decreed the day He created the heavens and the earth. Out of those 12 months, four of them are sacred. Arba'atun hurm. and this was the religion of Ibrahim and so the Arabs of Jahiliyyah had adopted that but they made a big mistake or not a big mistake they made a big treason for these months what did they do? they mixed and matched they changed them around if they wanted to go to war they would say okay let's pause Ash'hul Hurm instead of calling this Dhul Qa'dah let's call this Shawwal we'll delay Dhul Qa'dah to the next month so they kept on swapping back and forth and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said this type of swapping back and forth innama nasi'u ziyadatun fil kufr This is the essence of blasphemy. You're playing with the law of Allah. And then, just as a footnote, a tangent here. So when the Prophet ﷺ did hajjatul wada'ah, when the Prophet ﷺ did hajjatul wada'ah, it so happened that the restructuring of the year made it back to the original 12 order. And so the Prophet ﷺ said that in this year, the 12 months have reverted to the original order that the cycle was when Allah created the heavens and the earth. So let there be no more swapping around. because you see after so much swapping there was confusion now what month is what can you imagine for centuries they're swapping back and forth so the people were then confused so it's just a yearly and by the way this is one of the years they couldn't have one of the reasons they could not have a calendar so from that year of hajatul wada'a up until our times the ashur have been set in stone the way that Allah ﷻ intended so what are the sacred months? dhul qa'dah, dhul hijjah, muharram back to back and then Shawwal Sha'ban Rajab Rajab Rajab Okay Memorize this This is basic Basic basic stuff Dhul Qa'dah Dhul Hijjah Muharram And then Rajab These are the four sacred months Now The Prophet ﷺ left Makkah On the very beginning of the sacred month So literally he is delaying his departure Until the Ash'hul Hurm begins And this is clearly intended It's not a coincidence whenever he saw the dream we don't know but he's waiting for the first of Dhul Qa'dah and literally and it happened to be a Monday Monday the first of Dhul Qa'dah the Prophet ﷺ leaves Medina why? because he wants to send the clearest message possible to the Quraysh that I have no desire for war I have no desire for war I'm leaving peacefully I'm wearing Ihram and I'm going peacefully to Mecca Now, of course we understand, or if we don't then I'll clarify here. This was a huge gamble or risk. And obviously the Prophet ﷺ is putting his trust in Allah when he's doing this risk. But it is a risk. Why is it a risk? Well, technically, technically, the Quraysh are supposed to allow everybody to come to Mecca in the sacred months. Ibn Abbas himself says that in the sacred months and in the haram, the murderer sorry the one whose father was murdered would see his father's murderer doing tawaf but he would not touch him this was the law of Jahiliyyah the law of Ibrahim obviously that the law of Jahiliyyah that the Quraysh prided themselves on that once the Ash'har al-Hurm is announced and the people of Mecca know and the people of Arabia know it is now the sacred months so there should not be any fighting and remember we talked about the incident right before the battle of Badr when the Sahaba, they had the little bit of an expedition outside of Mecca and they killed one person on the first day of the sacred months. What happens? The people of Mecca, the Quraysh, raised a huge hue and cry. They kill in Ash'ar al-Hurm. Right? And يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامِ قِتَالٍ فِيهِ Allah revealed in the Qur'an, they ask you about fighting in the sacred months. قُلْ قِتَالٌ فِيهِ كَبِيرٌ Fighting in the sacred months is a kabir. And this means in Islam, anybody, now this obviously applies to nations and states, anybody who engages in offensive war in the Ash'hurul Hurm this is Kabiratun Mila Al-Kabair this is a major sin that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for wisdoms that are some of which are obvious and some of which Allah knows, for political stability for the economy of the world, there should be one fourth of the year, everybody should be at peace, and if there needs to be a war that is offensive, delay it to a time that everybody should be on guard, everybody should know So four months of the year, there should be complete peace. And therefore the Prophet ﷺ leaves on the first of Dhul Qa'dah, so that everybody can be sure that I am leaving in the state of Ihram, in the month of Haram, to visit the land of the Haram. And technically, the Quraysh are not allowed to prevent anybody from entering Mecca during Ash'r al-Huram. And in their history, they have never done so. There's always a first, there's gonna be a first now. In their history, they have never done so. and this would be the very first time in the history of the Quraysh that they would disobey the law of Ibrahim and knowing it is the Ash'hulul Hurm announcing it is the Ash'hulul Hurm still they do not allow the pilgrims access to the Ka'bah and this is gonna happen in a few days so the Prophet ﷺ leaves on the first of Dhul Qa'dah and he reaches the Miqat and the Miqat of course of Medina is the Miqat of Medina is Dhul Hulayfa Dhul Hulayfa and it is the sunnah to pray two rak'ahs in Dhul Hulayfa it is well known, it is the sunnah and to this day pilgrims who leave Medina they will stop in Dhul Hulayfa and they will pray two rak'ahs and we talked about this in the fiqh of hajj and to reiterate, the two rak'ahs are prayed because of the valley of Dhul Hulayfa and not because of the ihram many people have the position and this is a position that the fuqah have held but there is no basis for it that you pray two rak'ahs every time you enter the ihram and this doesn't seem to be the case rather the case is the Prophet ﷺ prayed in Dhul Hulayfa because he said this is a sacred valley and so he prayed two rak'ahs because of the valley of Dhul Hulayfa and so he prayed two rak'ahs and then he put on the ihram and he also consecrated the animals the consecration of animals is something that unfortunately the Muslim ummah has almost lost in its entirety and this is a practice that was instituted by Ibrahim ﷺ and it was very common up until recently in history when people stopped bringing camels and animals for Umrah. And by the way, you can take Udhiyah in Hajj and in Umrah because the Prophet ﷺ is going for Umrah. And yet he has with him animals. In fact, in one report, he took 70 camels. 70 camels is a fortune. And subhanAllah, this year he took 70. Hajjat al-Wada'ah, he took 100. And this shows us that another point we benefit. The Prophet ﷺ always wanted to increase when he did something. That he was going for Umrah, he takes 70. He goes for Hajj, he takes 100. That whenever he wanted to do something again, he didn't want to do it the same way, he wanted to do it even better. That every year, every instance, he's moving up. So this year he takes 70 camels, and when you enter Ihram, you consecrate the camels. What does it mean, consecrate the camels? And this is Ihlal. In Arabic it's called Ihlal. And Ihlal means to basically put special decorations, garlands, different types of signs that these days is very rare to see. You put it on the animal. And the reason why you put it on the animal is to designate. This animal has been dedicated for the Fuqara and Masakin of Mecca and we are going to take it as a token to present basically to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala pass out the meat to the Fuqara and Allah will bless us for that. And the Arabs of old, all of them, and this is something unfortunately is now lost because people don't do it that often. When they would see these animals, this is a sign of piety. It is a sign of Iman. And they valued this. Why? Because you have all of these camels. Now technically, once you have consecrated an animal, you're not supposed to use it. Unless you have to. so if you only have one camel and you have consecrated it then you're allowed to ride the camel to Mecca but if you have two camels and you've consecrated one you are not allowed to ride that camel because you have dedicated it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you have dedicated it to the fuqara so this is a sign of sha'air this is a sign of one of the signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah says with regards to these camels وَمَنْ يُعَظِّمْ شَعَائِرَ اللَّهِ فَإِنَّهَا مِنْ تَقْوَى الْقُلُوبِ whoever shows honor to the symbols of Allah, then showing honor to the symbols of Allah comes from the taqwa of the heart. And the context of these verses in Surah Al-Hajj is a direct reference to these animals. By the way, have any of you seen these animals, these types of consecrations? Is it common in Pakistan anymore? I don't know. It is, huh? Okay, so you decorate them in this way. Exactly, yes, that's the point, yeah. Yes, exactly, that's the consecration. Exactly, I was wondering is this still... Of course, it is, I mean, when we did hajj, when I did hajj with some local Arabs, not going with the tour. See, when you go with the tour, what happens? You stick with the tourists, right? You do it when you're taking the animal to Mecca, right? That's a different issue. But when you're going for hajj and umrah, then you're supposed to show the people that these animals have been dedicated to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, right? And by the way, I mean, I'll look up into this issue, but I'm not saying it's wrong by the way. But the point of consecration is, it is the hadith, it is the udhiyah that you take to the Ka'bah. Okay? So the Prophet ﷺ had all of these 70 animals consecrated, dedicated if you like. And if you remember, for those of you who have heard the story before, towards the end of this story, what happens? He shows these animals, he demonstrates he has all of these animals to some of the emissaries that had come from the Quraysh. and this softens the heart of some of the emissaries and they say all of these animals for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it is not allowed to stop these people from going to the Ka'bah so he used this as a tactic as well to soften the heart now obviously the niyyah here is not to do this but he is using this later on to soften the hearts of the enemies in the Quraysh because it was a part of their culture and it was a part of our culture that these animals are meant for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be distributed to the Fuqara of Mecca, to the Hujjaj, to the pilgrims, to the people doing Umrah in Mecca. So nobody should touch them to stop them. They now have a sacred status. So the Prophet ﷺ consecrated his animals at Dhul Hulayfa. And it was at Dhul Hulayfa that he chose a Sahabi by the name of Busr ibn Safwan al-Khuzai to go to Mecca and find out what the Quraysh were doing and come back and report to him. Now, again and again we find the caution of the Prophet ﷺ. Again and again, that his tawakkul is so perfect, he knows Allah Azza wa Jal will take care. But he does everything in his power to make sure that the plan is perfect. And we see this throughout the whole seerah. Tawakkul means you do everything you can, and then you leave the rest to Allah. He's sending a spy. Which spy did he choose? Nobody famous. Nobody knows him from the Quraysh. He's not even from the Ansar or the Muhajirun. He's from the Khuza'a. And the Khuza'a is a neutral tribe. He's a Muslim. The tribe is neutral. The tribe of Khuza'a is neutral. Why is this beneficial? Because if he sent an Aus or a Khazrajite, big trouble. If he sent a Muhajir, everybody knows all of the Muhajirun. So he sends somebody that nobody knows has converted yet. And his tribe is a neutral tribe. You go to Mecca, you find out what's going on, they're gonna hear that I've departed Mecca Medina excuse me they're gonna hear what is the reaction of the Quraysh come back and tell us right and this also shows us that the Prophet ﷺ was expecting opposition unlike his other military expeditions he didn't give another area that he's going to you know it was common for the Prophet ﷺ wherever he's going if he's going north he'd exit the city south if he's going west he'd exit the city east so that the news spreads oh he's exited east and then he's gonna double back this was common for most of his expeditions when it came to this incident of Hudaybiyah he went straight to Mecca and this was also to demonstrate I have nothing to hide I don't have a double agenda I'm leaving in Ihram in the month of Huram of sacred month of Haram in order to go to the Haram and he sent Busr Ibn Safwan al-Khuzai and we will see what Busr will come back with in a few days as he was proceeding news reached him that there was a group of writers in an area called Ghayqa, it's an area a little way off the path. So he thought this might be the Quraysh sending a contingent. So he sent a small group to verify who these people are. Turns out it wasn't the Quraysh, it was a false alarm. But an incident happened that the books of fiqh love to mention. It's not quite relevant to the politics of Hudaybiyyah and Sira, but the books of fiqh, in fact every single book of hadith, Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nisa'i, Imajr, every book of hadith mentions this particular incident so let me put it in here even though it's not politically relevant it is relevant for the fiqh of something that happens so in this mini expedition and by the way this also shows us that the Prophet ﷺ has guards around the army or around the 1400 he has convoys, he has spies he has everybody, not spies but lookouts is a better term here, not spies but lookouts that people are scouts, it's a good term, yes scouts he has scouts around the army So when they see some group in the distance, the scout comes back, tells him there's a group, he sends a contingent. Make sure it's not the Quraysh, find out what's going on. And it turns out it's another group, not anything to worry about. And on the way back, as we said, an incident takes place, which is interesting for fiqh. What happens was on the way back, there were a group of sahaba, probably 10, 15 in number, and amongst them was Abu Qatada al-Ansari. And Abu Qatada al-Ansari, for some reason that the books do not mention, and I looked this up as much as I could, I could not find anything. He was not in ihram. Why? I don't know. But for some reason, he was not in ihram. And everybody else was in ihram. Now it is also mentioned that Abu Qatada was put in charge of the sacrificial animals. I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not. But for some reason, he was not in ihram. He was just accompanying the army. So, what happens? That's related to fiqh. On the way back, the sahaba see a herd of zebras. or in one report I heard of gazelles. Now we know that in Ihram you're not supposed to hunt. We covered this many times. You're not supposed to hunt. So when the Sahaba saw and zebras or gazelles, by the way there were zebras in Arabia at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. There are no more any wild zebras. In the time of the Prophet ﷺ there were wild zebras. And the term for zebra is حِمَار الوَحْشِ And many English translators they completely mistranslate حِمَارَ الْوَحْشِ to mean a wild donkey. And they say حِمَارَ الْأَهْلِ a domesticated donkey. It's a big mistake. حِمَارَ الْوَحْشِ is a zebra. And the sharia has allowed zebra to be hunted and it has forbidden donkey. And the Prophet ﷺ explicitly said in the battle of conquest of Mecca, he explicitly said Allah and His Messenger have allowed الحُمُرَ الْوَحْشِ and they have made حَرَامَ الحُمُرَ الْأَهْلِ So donkeys are haram to eat and zebras if you hunt them properly are halal to eat. And they are apparently a delicacy for the Arabs at the time. So the sahaba saw a flock of zebras. None of them moved. None of them gave any motion to the zebras. And they didn't even tell Abu Qadada that there's zebras over there. Because they didn't want him to see. Because it's haram for them to hunt zebras. Abu Qadada is not in ihram. and this is why this is interesting in fiqh now what do you do if you're a group that's half in ihram half not in ihram can those not in ihram hunt for those in ihram now this is quite irrelevant for us who are going on five star packages from Mecca and our meals are provided we don't go bow and arrow into the desert hunting once upon a time this was a very crucial fiqh issue for all hijjaj from around the world we thank Allah that technology has changed and what not that we don't have to worry about this anymore but you can see why this was very important for all hijaj around the world so Abu Qatada he eventually saw the zebras the sahaba did not motion to him there are zebras over there he saw the zebras and he didn't have his bow and arrow with him it was in the back and so he told the sahabi and he's on his horse he told the sahaba that were walking said hand me my bow and arrow and they refused to do so they said we are in the state of ihram and it's not allowed for us to hunt so they didn't hand him the bow and arrow he jumped off the horse got his own bow and arrow jumped back on and then started galloping towards the zebras managed to catch one of them and slaughter it and comes back with zebra meat the sahaba said we are not allowed to touch this we cannot eat because we are in the state of ihram and so they returned back to the camp and they asked the Prophet ﷺ that was this meat allowed for us to eat or not? And the Prophet ﷺ asked them, did any of you motion to him where the zebras were? They said no. The Prophet ﷺ asked them, did any of you help him in capturing or hunting the zebras? They said no. So he said, in that case, eat and if you have any extra meat, bring it to me as well. The Prophet ﷺ loved meat, a sunnah that alhamdulillah I definitely follow. So he said, any extra meat, bring it to me as well. And so he ate of that meat. Now, you all understand the fiqh here that's not relevant to us. And that is, if a non-muhrim amongst people in ihram, in and of himself, without any help, and scholars say, even nudging somebody and winking, there's an animal over there, right? This is helping. Because when you're in the desert, you see an animal in the distance. Even just pointing, or handing him a spear, handing him a bow and arrow. In our times, handing him a hunting gun or rifle. All of this constitutes for the muhrim, helping. But if the one not in ihram goes of his own accord, and he hunts without having been told or helped, and he then gifts the hunted animal to those in ihram, obviously the animal becomes halal so this is the fiqh point which is not quite relevant to us for those who are going for hajj or what not I don't think you're going to apply it this hajj around Allah knows best but what I find very interesting subhanallah it really is pun intended food for thought over here very profound here we find the cautiousness of the sahaba how careful they were no doubt the sahaba wanted that meat no doubt it is a delicacy for sure they have not eaten meat for a while they're on an expedition they probably have dates and water right يعني سبحان الله I'll speak for myself and I know many of us in the room are the same we don't have meat on the dinner table we don't have dinner on the table right I can't imagine two days without meat one day with great difficulty right two days it's like astaghfirullah nightmare right the sahaba have been on an expedition they're eating dates and water there is this delectable exotic meat and they do nothing to capture it when it is presented for them cooked on a table equivalent I'm being metaphorical here still they say what? no wallahi what iman is this? think right and subhanallah let me be very frank here how lax we are especially about food and drink how lax we are about our income who cares inshallah Allah will forgive or you don't even think is it halal or haram? And the sahaba, this is really a sign of taqwa and iman. They want to make sure every luqma, every morsel of food is halal. Because they know the big sin of eating haram. Our Prophet ﷺ said that the flesh that is nourished through the haram will not have any chance of entering Jannah. And our Prophet ﷺ basically told us in that famous hadith that the one who eats haram, his dua will not be answered. So there were no doubt, one who is cautious in his food and drink, no doubt this is a sign of iman and taqwa no doubt and that's why one of the outward signs of islam in sahih bukhari and sahih muslim man salla salatana waistaqbala qiblatana waakala dhabihatana fathalikumul muslim the outward sign of islam whoever prays our prayer and faces our qibla and eats of our dhabiha man salla salatana waistaqbala qiblatana waakala dhabihatana fathalikumul muslim that is the muslim who has the protection of allah and his messenger So we find over here a remarkable example of the piety. And this is the laws are ambiguous. They don't know. Maybe it's halal, maybe it's not. Can you imagine if they know for sure it's haram? They're not going to eat until they ask the Prophet ﷺ. And this is what happens over here. And then the Prophet ﷺ tells them that it is halal. So the Prophet ﷺ continues to go onwards until finally Busr al-Khuzai returns back. Busr has gone to Mecca. He has pretended basically he's a regular person, a pilgrim. He's not told them that he's a Muslim. He hears what the Quraysh are planning. He comes back. And at this point, the Prophet ﷺ had reached an area called Asfan. And if you're driving from Medina to Mecca, you will find a big sign that says Asfan on your left-hand side. He reached this area, Asfan, around midway between Mecca and Medina. And Busur informs him that the Quraysh have heard of his departure, that they have armed themselves and they have worn their leopard skins. Now what is this? Leopard skins, they would wear it as a sign of war. They would have leopard skins and they would wear it literally as a sign of now, we're going to go for war. And they had even taken their women and children with them. And this is again a sign of, we've talked about this in Badr when they did this, in Uhud, excuse me, in Uhud when they did this, that they wanted to show their strength. So they've taken their women and their children and he said, they have sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to camp at Ghumaim. And Ghumaim is on the road right outside of Mecca when you're coming in from Medina. When you're coming in from Medina, there's a plane. And that plane you have to pass it if you want to get to Mecca. So Khalid ibn al-Walid is camped right there with a force that's meant to block you, that's meant to protect you. Sorry, to attack you. When the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he said وَيْحَ قُرَيْش Woe to Quraish They have been consumed by war. They're war hungry. The war drums are beating. What would they lose? مَاذَ عَلَيْهِمْ What would they lose if they let me and the other people? Meaning, why do they have to get involved in my affairs? If they hate me so much, let the other Arabs deal with me. And then the Prophet ﷺ said, if the other Arabs attack me and win, they will get the result they want which is what? the process is not there anymore and if I win over them the honor will be theirs how so? he is Quraishi and if the process wins the victor then automatically the Quraishi will also basically bask in that victory so what does the Quraishi think will happen? what do you think will happen by preventing me? for by Allah I shall continue continue to fight them with what Allah has sent me until Allah either grants me victory or this neck of mine is cut off look at his resolve and subhanallah here the Prophet ﷺ we sense here the anguish, the pain, why are my own people hating me so much and this clearly demonstrates he did not want to fight his own people, this clearly shows us what is in his heart he does not want to fight his own people he loves his people with the love that everybody will have for his own nation his own blood relatives why are they doing this to me? it's a win-win if they leave me and it's a lose-lose if they fight me basically that's what he's saying it's a win-win if they leave me meaning either the other arrows will consume me and so they'll be happy, scot-free or I will win over them and so the Quraysh will become part of my victory win-win for them and if they want to attack me it's a lose-lose whoever wins we're killing one another kith and kin blood relatives are killing one another and this really shows us the inner thoughts of the Prophet ﷺ our Prophet ﷺ did not like war he did not want to fight and shed blood that's not what he was about and this is a clear indication against the Islamophobes against those who are you know reading into the seerah in this manner our Prophet ﷺ only fought because he had to fight and he did not want to fight his own people. So the Prophet says that when he heard that the Quraysh are arming, he was sorely disappointed. He didn't like this. He did not want them to fight him. And so he stopped the caravan and he camped in a shaded area and he addressed the entire group. And he began by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and doing the khutbah that he usually does, the khutbah of the hajjah. And then he explained to them what is going on. And he said that the Quraysh have sent out an expedition. Khalid ibn al-Ruyli is camped at such and such a place. And so what do you think we should do? Oh, excuse me, before he asked them, he said, he gave his own idea. What was his own idea? He said that we should attack the surrounding tribes that have also sent men with the Quraysh. Because they're not going to get to Mecca because Khalid is stopping them. So if we can't get to Mecca, let us attack the tribes that have also sent men. Because it wasn't just the Quraysh, it was the surrounding tribes as well. let's waylay those tribes surprise attack them so that the Quraysh will then be forced to be drawn into this conflict or this area but then he said what do you think we should do and at this Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu ta'ala he gave his opinion and he said ya Rasulullah you only left your house intending the house of Allah your niyyah was the Ka'bah, Tawaf, Umrah you didn't want any war or any battle this was not your niyyah so let us go where we had initially intended let's forget about war let's go straight to the Kaaba and we will only fight if they fight us and so Abu Bakr gave another opinion and that opinion was let's not start the battle let's do as we had initially planned to do and we will only fight if they force us to fight and so the Prophet ﷺ liked this plan and he said Umdu or let us go forth Bismillah ta'ala Let us go forth in the name of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala And this shows us again and again The concept of shura in Islam That the Prophet ﷺ never enacted something Without consulting the people And this is the sign of a true leader Because if a leader Invokes his veto power If a leader says obey me because I'm the leader The people will even if they obey They will do so Half grudgingly They'll do so, not too happy. But when the shura comes involved, and everybody agrees to a plan, and everybody's back and forth was heard, now there's gonna be genuine enthusiasm. And notice here the Prophet ﷺ changed his mind. He had a position, Abu Bakr gave him another plan, and he found this plan to be more reasonable. And this shows us, where's our brother here who always wants to go back and forth, the ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ very clearly. Remember we had this controversy a few months ago. Does the Prophet ﷺ have ijtihad from his own or not? This is a clear-cut example, right? That the Prophet ﷺ has his ijtihad, and Allah allows him ijtihad, right? And either way, we have to follow the Prophet ﷺ. But he changed his own ijtihad. When he saw another position, and Abu Bakr's position made sense to him, he said, okay, let us do this. Bismillah, let us go in the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it is said that at Asfan, the same lands, the same plain at Asfan, He prayed Salatul Khawf because there was a fear that the Quraysh would attack them. Now here there is a big controversy that we're not going to get into because it really is advanced and not that relevant for us. The controversy occurs, was this the first time Salatul Khawf was prayed or not? Remember last week I said that there was a battle, the battle of Banu Lahyan, where some scholars say that the Salatul Khawf was prayed over there for the first time. okay the other opinion is that the salat al-khawf was prayed for the first time at hudaybiyah or in this incident of hudaybiyah and frankly it's a very trivial issue the difference is like seven eight months before between this and that some say that battle some say this battle uh and there's pages and pages written i think there's not that much point going into this uh tangent uh but you should know that many scholars say the first time that salat al-khawf was prayed it was in asfan on their way to Hudaybiyah. In fact, it would be correct to say this is the majority opinion. It would be correct to say this is the majority opinion. So if you're asking a quiz, when was the Prophet ﷺ first time he prayed Salatul Khawf, you should answer here, you will probably be correct in terms of the quiz answer because they will go look up the popular books. But technically speaking, there's actually three occasions where scholars have said he prayed Salatul Khawf for the first time. The majority say it was over here. Now, since Khalid had blocked the path, and Abu Bakr has said we're going to go to Mecca, what's going to happen? they have to find an alternative road to Mecca they cannot walk straight into Khalid's army because that's asking for war so the Prophet ﷺ asked who can take us amongst such and such a path? so he knows of another path but he doesn't know how to get there and subhanAllah we really don't think of this too much but the fact of the matter is there were well-known highways in the time pre-modern highways there were well known highways clear markings and you find you know there would have been the same thing small establishments buying and selling to the traders water spots food spots just like we have in our times and there was well known pathways that the major caravans would take and this is something that we really don't think about but the fact of the matter is yes this is exactly how things work and to go down another road you really needed to have an expert guide and the Prophet ﷺ said who amongst us can take us down and he mentioned the path name, the other path. And so somebody stood up and said, I know how to get there, Ya Rasulullah. I know how to get to the other path from here. Because the other path is not from here, it's on another road. I know how to get from point A to that point B. I can guide you there. And so the Prophet ﷺ made him the scout or the leader in terms of the guide. And this man, in order to get to the other highway, if you like, they had to pass through an entire valley of thorns and a volcanic rock. So they had to go through an entire plain that caused them to bleed, their feet to basically become sore, and they're walking through this so much so that the Prophet ﷺ encouraged them by saying, this valley that we're going through now, for you, is like the door was for Bani Israel. What is this door for Bani Israel? أُدُخُلُ الْبَابَ سُجَّدًا وَقُولُوا حِطَّةٌ نَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ خَطَايَاكُمْ وَسَنَزِيدُ الْمُحْسِنِينَ and he then recited this verse and he said no one shall pass through this valley except that all of his sins will be forgiven it was so difficult and their feet are bleeding and their shrub is now going against their shin and their ankles and everything so the Prophet ﷺ eventually he said that going through this valley all of your sins will be forgiven and this gave them immense motivation and it gave them the impetus that they needed to to go through this entire valley because it would be a forgiveness for their sins. He said, no one shall go through this valley except that all of his sins will be forgiven except for the man with the red camel. He made one exception. The man with the red camel, his sins will not be forgiven. So they began wondering, who is the man with the red camel? What is going on here? And so they found one of their men, the 1400, one of them, he was announcing at the back that I've lost a red camel. Has anybody seen it? I've lost a red camel has anybody seen it so they came up to him and they said that why don't so obviously you're the man you're the red camel here why don't you come with us let us go to the Prophet ﷺ perhaps he will include you in the forgiveness as well whatever you've done let's ask for and so it turns out this man was a clear Bedouin with nifaq in his heart his response showed this he said for me to be searching for my camel is more beloved for me than to go to your companion to have my sins forgiven. So the Prophet ﷺ, Jibreel told him basically, there's one man, he's not gonna be forgiven. Because he's not there for the right reasons. And subhanAllah, this is a very deep theological issue that we have to be very careful about that people don't misinterpret. But not everybody who was physically with the Sahaba was a Sahabi. And this is actually mentioned in the Quran. وَمِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ That Allah ﷻ says مُنَافِقُونَ مِنْ حَوْلِ الْمَدِينَةِ مَرَدُوا عَلَى النِّفَاقِ لَا تَعْلَمُهُمْ نَحْنُ نَعْلَمُهُمْ وَمِنْ مَنْ حَوْلَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ مُنَافِقُونَ وَمِنْ أَهْلِ الْمَدِينَةِ مَرَدُوا عَلَى النِّفَاقِ لَا تَعْلَمُهُمْ نَحْنُ نَعْلَمُهُمْ That Allah ﷻ says amongst the Bedouins there are many who have nifaq. You don't know them, we know them. Now obviously why is this problematic? Because the other group, the non-Sunni group they jump at these texts. You understand this point, right? And they say Allah Azza wa Jal clearly says that there are munafiqun amongst those who are around the Prophet ﷺ. You understand this point, right? And they say therefore, the major sahaba are munafiqun. Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah. Now, this is not the time to go into detail to refute them, but it's very easy that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala clearly says that وَمِمَّنْ حَوْلَكُمْ مِّنَ الْأَعْرَابِ that those who are around you of the Bedouins, Munafiqun and then some of them are also living in Medina. As for the major Sahaba there is no doubt that the Quran and Sunnah has praised them specifically, indirectly and directly. So we don't take a generic verse that there are Munafiqun and use it to negate specific evidences that Abu Bakr is in Jannah, Umar is in Jannah Uthman is in Jannah Ali is in Jannah that Abu Bakr is this that Umar is this that Ali is this that Uthman is this we don't take a general verse there are some munafiqun and use it to trump explicit specific verses you understand this point? right? and there is no question that those whom they accuse of I seek refuge in Allah hypocrisy or kufr really whoever accuses them of hypocrisy really that person ends up being a hypocrite really this is the reality you cannot accuse Abu Bakr and Aisha and Umar and Uthman of having evil except that the evil is in your heart rather than theirs this is what we firmly believe and that's something that is clear in the Quran and the Sunnah we don't have any ambiguity in this regard so the point being this hadith shows us or this incident shows us a reality that we already know that there were some unknown we don't even know his name there were some minor players if you like physically present but their niyyah is not for Islam whatever his niyyah was some business transaction get some booty whatever his niyyah was it's not for the sake of Islam and when he's worried where's my camel gone and he's looking for his camel the sahaba say come we will ask the Prophet ﷺ to forgive you he says for me to be hunting my camel is more important than going back to your sahibukum he said your companion where is the iman of this heart obviously that's a clear indication of why the Prophet ﷺ said everybody will be forgiven except the man with the red camel. So they spent the entire day walking through this valley. It was a very difficult journey. And by the time they exited the valley, the night had just begun to fall. The night had just begun to fall and they had reached the plain known as Hudaybiyah. Now they reached the plain of Hudaybiyah. So this valley of thorns, this difficult valley was basically between them and the main highway. When they finished there, they finally get to Hudaybiyah and Hudaybiyah leads directly to the road that the processim wanted to get to from Hudaybiyah to Mecca there is a direct road that the processim wanted to get to this is not the road from Medina Hudaybiyah is actually on the way from Mecca to Jeddah and not from Medina to Mecca Hudaybiyah is on the way from Jeddah to Mecca so it is west and the processim is going down south so he has to go across all the way to the west and obviously why is he doing this? because he doesn't want war because he wants peace he doesn't want to fight Khalid al-Walid he goes around all of this way and the night begins to fall and as soon as they enter Hudaybiyah this is when the Prophet ﷺ camel the Prophet ﷺ camel refuses to move and in fact it sits down it sits down and of course when the Prophet ﷺ camel doesn't move nobody else is going to go in front of him he is leading the way nobody is going to go And so the Sahaba began yelling out to the camel, حَلْ حَلْ Which is what the Arabs would say to the camel to stand up and go, right? Just like every animal has a certain call that you give it. Every single animal, this is the way. So they had something for the camels, حَلْ حَلْ Which is, come on, move, let's go, let's go. Giddy up, as they say to the horses right now. And the camel did not move. And so they began getting angry at the camel because you're blocking everybody, you're stopping all of us. And so they said, قَصْوَاء has become stubborn. قَصْوَاء was the name of the Prophet ﷺ's camel. قَصْوَاء has become stubborn. And the Prophet ﷺ said, قَصْوَاء has not become stubborn. And neither is that in her nature. It's not in her nature to become stubborn. Rather, حَبِسَهَا حَبِسُ الْفِيلِ That the one who stopped the elephant has also stopped her. حَبِسَهَا حَبِسُ الْفِيلِ The one who stopped the elephant has also stopped her. And it was at this point in time as well that they ran out of water. They ran out of water and they complained to the Prophet ﷺ about the lack of water because they were not expecting to go away from the main road. Remember we had said the main road has these stations. They know exactly where they can buy and sell. They know where to go for the wells. Well, they're not on there anymore. They've gone to another road and now they're at this plain of Hudaybiyah. Now, by the way, what is Hudaybiyah and why is it called Hudaybiyah so Hudaybiyah most of the scholars say that it is without a Shadda, Hudaybiyah and a minority say there is a Shadda, Hudaybiyah trivial difference but both are valid, so both are mentioned Hudaybiyah and Hudaybiyah both are mentioned and it seems as if the name Hudaybiyah it comes from the Arabic term Hadba and Hadba Do the Arabs here know what حدبة means? Is it a common Arabic word or is it one of those classical words that is lost? Ah, very good. So there is something. Half the Arabs know, half of them don't know. Hunchback. Hunchback, right? Okay. So حدبة is what they call a hunchback. Right? And apparently, there was a tree in this plain that was like a hunchback. So it was going down. Right? There was a tree going down. and there was a well next to the tree. So initially they called this land Hudaybiyah, the little tree that is crooked. Because Hudaybiyah is from the word tasghir, fu'il, jubail, tasghir. Hudaybiyah, the little tree that is crooked. And then that name came to be the well, and then it came to the plains. So Hudaybiyah is this plain, and in our times Hudaybiyah is called Ash-Shumaisi. and next time you guys go for Umrah your plane will land in Jeddah you will drive to Mecca keep an eye out around 10 minutes 15 minutes before you get to Mecca keep an eye out and you will see a sign that says Ash-Shumaisi to your right, this Ash-Shumaisi is Hudaybiyah in our times it's called Ash-Shumaisi because obviously place names they change over time in our times for some reason they call it Ash-Shumaisi and it is 20 kilometers outside of Mecca, right? On the road from Jeddah, so if you guys are coming from Medina you won't see Shumaisi. On the road from Jeddah to Mecca, 20 kilometers outside of it, before you get into Mecca you'll find a Shumaisi, and 20 kilometers is basically the distance that they would do in a few hours. So it's what they call one marhala, one journey that once you got riding you're not going to stop till you get to Mecca, one journey away from Mecca. Now from this we gain some benefits before we move on. First and foremost the name of the Prophet ﷺ's camel, Qaswa. Look at how much details has been preserved that we even know the name of his camel. And this shows us that if we know the name of his camel ﷺ, we know far more important things about the Prophet ﷺ. Those who say the sunnah has not been preserved, those who say, how do we know what happened? Subhanallah, we know the number of white hairs in his beard. We know this. Anas al-Malik said, I counted 14 white hairs in the beard of the Prophet ﷺ. He's literally sitting there counting the white hairs. Subhanallah. Again, the detail that the seerah has been preserved. So the Prophet ﷺ's mule is called Duldul. And his camel is called Qaswa. And his sword is called this, and his shield, they would name their swords and shields. In those days they would name them. And so all of this is known to us. We also have over here, Subhanallah, it's an amazing point here. When they criticized the camel, the Prophet ﷺ defended the honor of the camel. This is not the characteristic of qaswa. It's not the nature of qaswa. So if the honor of a camel deserves to be protected, how about the honor of a Muslim? Look at what happens when you jump to conclusions and you smear somebody. Smear a camel, right? The Prophet ﷺ protected the honor of the camel. Neither has qaswa become stubborn and nor even is it in her nature to become stubborn. She's a gentle camel. Don't get angry at her, right? And so this shows us that next time you hear somebody smear somebody else, remember, even a camel's izzah has to be protected. Especially the camel of the Prophet ﷺ. How about another human being? Also here notice the beautiful linkage that the Prophet ﷺ said. That the one who stopped the camel is the one who stopped the elephant. Wallahi, how perfect, how apt is that? How eloquent is that, right? In the both cases, they're animals going into Mecca, right? In the both cases, the point is to honor the Ka'bah. And by stopping these animals, the Ka'bah is going to be honored, right? So the Prophet ﷺ is saying, the one who can stop a bigger animal than Qaswa, and that's the elephant, that is the one that has stopped my animal. And just like there was a wisdom for stopping Abraha's elephants, so too there's a wisdom for stopping Qaswa. And so let us put our trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and realized there is a wisdom over here. So where the camel stopped, Qaswa, that is where they set up camp. And they went to the well of Hudaybiyah. There was one well over there. And lo and behold, the water had basically almost dried out. There's just some little bits at the bottom of the well. It's supposed to be at the top. Rather, the well has already dried out. And it is just a little bit left in the bottom. And so they're complaining to the process, and we don't have any water. We're out of water. our animals are thirsty, we have been in the valley the whole day, we need water. And so the Prophet ﷺ went to the side of the well and he sat on it. And he told some of the Sahaba to jump in or to make their way down. Some scholars say that some people by a turban they went down. And so they went into the well and the Prophet ﷺ handed them some of his quivers, the arrows from the quiver, excuse me. He took out some arrows from his quiver And he handed it to them And they also raised up The little bit of water that they could in a bucket And he gargled that water Into his mouth And he threw it back into the bucket And he lowered it into the well And the sahaba said That the water just began to gush out After he had put his arrows After he had thrown his Madhmada into the well The water just began to gush out and the ones in the well, they had to rush out so that they don't drown. So they had to rush out so that they're not drowning. And the entire camp of 1400 people, they drank and they continued to drink as long as they were encamped in Udaybiyah. Their animals drank to their fill. And this was one of the many, many miracles of the Prophet ﷺ of taking a small quantity of food and making it into a large quantity. And the Prophet ﷺ now that he realized that negotiations are going to begin, that Mecca is one stone's throw away, that thing is going to happen, so then the Prophet ﷺ made an announcement, that wallahi I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul the Quraysh will not ask of me any condition that the signs of Allah are respected except that I will give them that condition, as long as we avoid bloodshed, subhanallah, notice here how keen the Prophet ﷺ is. He doesn't want fighting to occur. Any condition they put, as long as that condition has sha'air al-Islam, right? Sha'air Allah. As long as there's nothing haram, anything that they put, I will agree to it. And why did he agree to this? Why did he say this? So that the sahaba realize as well that I am willing now, as long as we get to the Ka'bah, as long as they allow us to go, and as long as there's no bloodshed and everything is peaceful, whatever conditions they put I will be willing to do that and this is a prelude to some very harsh conditions conditions that even Umar and others they could not understand at the time this is a prelude to prepare them mentally to prepare them and the camp, he settled down in the camp, Khalid ibn al-Walid obviously now 1400 people when they go places they cannot go in secret and so the scouts of Khalid's army come back and tell him the Prophet ﷺ is not coming from here Rather he's going from Hudaybiyah He's camped over there So Khalid was forced to return to Mecca And the Quraish then had to change their tactics And they began a series of emissaries Which we cannot start now Because that would really be I cannot start that right now Because that would be the whole I have to stop in the middle This is a good place to stop even though we have some time But now is the negotiations are going to begin And that's going to be inshallah ta'ala Next Wednesday inshallah ta'ala So we have 10 minutes for Q&A a bit longer than usual. Usually I'm rushing to the end, but today I thought, let me actually purposely finish a little bit early, so we leave some time for Q&A, inshallah. Yes? How Abu Qatada hunt a zebra in Rajab? So the brother is saying, how could Abu Qatada hunt a zebra in Ashur al-Huram, which is Dhul Qaida? The response, imagine if you lived in the desert or any land other than a city and Allah had told you you're not allowed to hunt for four months this would mean you don't have food sometimes for four months there are no prohibitions for hunting in Ash'hurul Hurm none at all what is haram is aggression against humans not aggression against zebras In Ihram, wherever you are in the world And in the Haram of Mecca In the Haram of Mecca By the way Not the Haram of Medina by the way The Haram of Medina and Mecca have over 50 differences I gave a paper about this once A long time ago The Haram of Mecca and Medina have over 50 differences One of the differences One of the main differences hunting is only haram in the haram of Mecca. Right? Whereas the haram of Medina, it is allowed. In the haram of Jerusalem, there is no, it's not even haram technically. They say, al-haram al-thalith, the three harams, there's no such thing. There's only two harams in Islam. But anyway, that answers your question inshallah. Yes? In four months of haram, did they apply to a nation, or individual? Somebody gives me an offer, MashaAllah He wants to know Can I beat somebody up if somebody beats me Any act of defense Is halal At any time of the year We're talking about War of aggression War that you began That sometimes what this nation calls Preemptive wars So these types of preemptive That there is no imminent threat you are going to attack this is what is prohibited as for individual fighting this is always haram two Muslims are never allowed to fist fight or fight with weapons you know it's something that is always haram and only if somebody attacks you are you allowed to defend okay so we're talking about an aggression against one political state against another political state sisters any question from the sister side back to the brother side another question yes Yes The people who were left behind The question is Why were those who were left behind Considered sinful When the Prophet ﷺ did not command them to go the response is they are criticized for lying. They're criticized for lying. Not every Sahabi went for Ghazwat al-Hudaibiyah, but some might have had other excuses. But the reason why those A'rab, those Bedouins are criticized is because they blatantly lied. And they thought something very evil. And they thought, بَلْ ظَنَنْتُمْ أَلَّنْ يَنْقَلِبَ الرَّسُولُ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهِمْ أَوَدًا وَزُيِّنَ ذَلِكَ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَظَنَنْتُمْ ظَنَّ السَّوْءِ You thought a very evil thought. And that evil thought of course was that they thought that the Prophet ﷺ would die. Okay, so this is why they were criticized. They lied through their teeth. They lied and they said, شَغَلَتْنَا أَمْوَالُنَا وَأَهْلُونَا Our money and our families have prevented us. Whereas that wasn't the reason. Okay, there was a hand raised. You had a hand? Go ahead. People said that the last of the Quran سَعْدُ مَنْ بِمُخْطَارِكَ وَمَرَاحِ بَعْدِ الصَّحَابَةِ No, no, no, no, never, no. يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامِ قِتَالٍ فِيهِ قُلْ قِتَالٌ فِيهِ إِشْ حَلَال قُلْ قِتَالٌ فِيهِ كَبِير وَصَدٌ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَكُفْرٌ بِهِ وَالْمَسْجِدِ الْحَامِلِ وَإِخْرَاجُ أَهْلِ مِنْهُ أَكْبَرُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ So the brother is saying that in the incident I referenced when Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas killed a person and he took two captives and he came back to the Prophet ﷺ so he is saying that didn't Allah ﷻ say that it is okay to fight in Ash'r al-Hurm? No. We talked about this in a lot of detail before the Battle of Badr and we said Allah ﷻ gave blame where it is due. and he did say that fighting in Ash'hul Haram is a major sin and they should not have done this that it wasn't the right thing to do but Allah says who does the Quraysh think it is to criticize Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas for they have committed far worse sins for they have prevented people from coming to the Masjid Al-Haram forget in Ash'hul Haram they have prevented Muslims from worshipping Allah in Masjid Al-Haram that wasaddun anstabillahi wa kufrun bihi wal masjid al haram ay wasaddun an masjid al haram to prevent people from coming to masjid al haram akbaru it is bigger in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so Allah did not say fighting is halal rather Allah said it is kabir it is a mistake but who do you think you are or Quraysh to criticize the Muslims for anything after all that you have done final questions yes So a question that if you visit Jeddah, must you do Umrah? No, not at all. In fact, I know this sounds bizarre to many of you, but technically speaking, you don't even have to do Umrah if you visit Mecca, much less Jeddah. Even though one would say, how could you possibly go to Mecca and not do Umrah? But there might be some businessmen, and this is common by the way for those who are living around Mecca, that they have to deliver goods in Mecca. So taxi drivers is a classic example. So here you are in Memphis thinking, how can any Muslim visit Mecca and not do Umrah? But how about the taxi drivers from Ta'if and Jeddah, right? They go between Mecca and Jeddah maybe five times a day. You expect them to do Umrah every single time? So technically speaking, you can even enter Mecca without ihram, without doing umrah. Even though people like us who go there once every few years, then obviously it really is a lack of adab not to do umrah. So even if a businessman who goes once a year is going, we tell him, wallahi akhi, this is not appropriate for you to go, but it's not haram, it's not sinful. As long as he's done umrah and hajj and he's going for a legitimate business or whatever reason he's going, then we cannot criticize him but we'll say it's not appropriate as for the one who's going regularly obviously had we been in his shoes we'd do the same thing as well and with this inshallah any question for the sisters? mashaAllah quiet day for the sisters mashaAllah okay we have a question here where? yes go ahead yes so the sister is saying that she doesn't understand how is it possible for the Prophet ﷺ to grant forgiveness to somebody and the response is that the Prophet ﷺ did not grant forgiveness, rather Allah told him that this valley will be such a big blessing for all of these people because they're struggling, they're bleeding they're what not, so the Prophet ﷺ was told that this valley to you is like the door was to the children of Israel when Allah says in the Quran, enter the door adkhulul bab, humbly and ask Allah to forgive you, Allah will forgive all of your sins, you know the story in surah al-baqarah for the children of Israel. So the Prophet ﷺ said, this valley to you is like the door to the Israelites. And all of you shall be forgiven. Meaning at this point in time, maybe this man of the red camel became better later. Allah knows. But at that point in time, his crossing over the valley would not get his sins forgiven. Except for the man with the red camel. Is that clear? He's not telling, sorry, he's not granting forgiveness. He is informing them that Allah Azza wa Jal has blessed them except for that man and we clearly saw what was in his heart that he did not deserve that forgiveness. And inshallah with that we will pause for this and come back next Wednesday. For those of you who didn't attend on Tuesday, so we have started the Sahih Bukhari class and we'll be starting our first Sahih Bukhari hadith actually of the book of Dua next Tuesday. And I ask any of you who wants to attend, please register with Brother Rusli, because we need to print out the binders and distribute them, or actually sell them at cost price next Tuesday. So we need to know how many binders we need. And with that, Jazakumullahu khayran. We can give the adhan and pray, inshaAllah. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Seerah 63 - The Treaty of Hudaybiyya - Part 2 - Dr

Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. So we continue today with the Treaty of Hudaybiyah part 2. And in the last halaqah, in the last seerah, we had discussed the beginnings of the incident of Hudaybiyah. We talked about why it's called Hudaybiyah, why some of the sahaba called it a ghazwa, how the Prophet ﷺ entered into the area, he bypassed the troops of Khalid ibn al-Walid, and that the Prophet ﷺ, Allah عز و جل caused the Prophet ﷺ's camel to camp at that plain that is called the plain of Hudaybiyah. Now, so he stopped basically when the Prophet ﷺ camped. He realized Allah wanted him to stop here. So they set up their camp. Now, during the course of the next few days, many things happen. And the problem, which is one of the standard problems of the whole seerah, is that we have tidbits of various specific incidents. And the problem comes, how do you piece it together? How do you get, we have A, B, C, D. how do we know it's ABCD or ACB or DAB, you see what I'm saying we have lots of small narrations and this is the standard problem of the entire seerah, and this is demonstrated usually in these types of incidents, like Uhud for example is one of the most complex we have at least a hundred narrations about specific things that happen at Uhud how can we piece it all together same thing goes at Hudaybiyah we have one sahabi giving us one incident another sahabi giving another incident So to piece it chronologically is the big question. You guys, when you read the books written by modern scholars, you think this is all a beautiful narrative. When you go back to the classical sources, that's where the unraveling occurs, right? And one of the jobs of modern scholars is to piece it together in digestible formats. And so at a basic level, we just follow any modern scholar. But when you want to go advanced, this is the big issue that comes. So I will present you a narrative or a version that Allah knows best. There's no way to know which is the exact correct chronology, but I'm just warning you, if you read some of the books, you will find bits and pieces here and there, and that is because the chronology is something we have to piece together. So, one of the things that happened, and I'll begin with this, even though we don't know exactly when it happened, was that the Quraysh tried to surprise attack the Muslims in Hudaybiyah. The Quraysh tried to surprise attack the Muslims who were camped in Hudaybiyah. When did this happen? The first day, the second day, the third day? nothing is mentioned. We have no idea. It might have happened right at the very end it might have happened right at the very beginning. But we just mention this separately because this is a one incident, then the rest of the today will be all about emissaries back and forth so we're gonna be a continuous narrative of the emissaries. The Prophet ﷺ sending one, the Quraysh sending another, the Prophet ﷺ sending another, the Quraysh sending another. So we'll begin that after this one incident. So we said the Quraysh launched a surprise attack. And this hadith is recorded in Sahih Muslim that we learned that 80 people of the Quraysh, they launched a surprise attack from the valley, or sorry, from the mountain area of Tan'im. Tan'im is what we call Masjid Aisha in our times. And so the Tan'im is neighboring Hudaybiyah. And so they launched a surprise attack from Tan'im. And there were 80 armed men, and they launched, or they surprise attacked the Muslims in the early mornings, right before or around Salatul Fajr, hoping to catch them by surprise. However, the Muslims were well prepared. And the Muslims they had scouts and envoys so they saw them coming and so instead of surprise attacking the Muslims the Muslims actually surrounded them and forced them to surrender without causing any bloodshed. Which is an amazing miracle. Without killing one of them. They forced them all to surrender they dragged them or they brought them to the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ forgave all of them and commanded them to return back to Mecca. And this is an amazing twist, if you like, an amazing story here, before the beginnings of the negotiation, that clearly demonstrate, what does it demonstrate? Peace, exactly. It demonstrates that the Prophet ﷺ has no interest in bloodshed. That he has the full right in every legal system you can imagine. He has been surprised attacked, right? Every single legal system in the world will say, you have the right to defend, to kill anybody who's attacking you, and if the whole 80 people had been decimated, every legal system in the world would have said he is fully justified. Yet what happens? Not a single drop of blood is shed, and they are returned safely to Mecca. They're commanded to go back where they came from, and Allah mentions this in the Quran as a blessing that he has given. Surah Al-Fatah, verse 24. And by the way, all of Surah Al-Fatah is a reference to Hudaybiyyah. All of Fatah. A lot of average, or Muslims who haven't studied, lay Muslims, they assume Surah Al-Fatah has to do with the conquest of Mecca. Because Fatah is Fatah. And Fatah usually means the conquest. But this is a big mistake. Fatah means any conquest. And no doubt when you say the Fatah, you mean the conquest of Mecca. No doubt. But Surah Al-Fatah has nothing to do with the conquest of Mecca. Surah Al-Fatah in its entirety was revealed right after Hudaybiyah when the Prophet ﷺ is returning back to Medina. as we'll talk about when we get there. So, إِنَّا فَتَحْنَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا This is Hudaybiyyah, not Mecca, not the conquest of Mecca. And in Surah Al-Fatah, verse 24, وَهُوَ الَّذِي كَفَّ أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنْكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ عَنْهُمْ بِبَاطْنِ مَكَّةً مِنْ بَعْدِ أَنْ أَظْفَرَكُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ And He is the one who stopped their hands from reaching you and your hands from reaching them in the valleys of Mecca, even after you had victory over them. Notice here. He is the one who stopped their hands from reaching you. They could have had a huge impact. 80 people fully armed, surprise attack on a sleeping camp. And then they were just planning to attack and run back away. So hundreds would have died. Out of the 1400, easily 200, 300 decimated and then the 80 flee back. Allah says, هُوَ الَّذِي كَفَّ اَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنْكُمْ He protected their hands from you. And then Allah says something amazing, and He also protected your hands from them. Because you might have wanted to kill them, but if you had killed them, the whole peace process, the whole negotiations would have come to a standstill. Obviously, if the Prophet ﷺ had killed even one of them, he would have been justified. But could there have been a Hudaybiyah then? And Hudaybiyah, as we will see, was the biggest victory that Allah gave to the Muslims after the conquest of Mecca. Basically the biggest victory is the conquest of Mecca, and then Hudaybiyah. What happened after Hudaybiyah is clearly a victory. If one drop of blood has been shed, there would not have been any Hudaybiyah. So Allah is saying, this is my blessing. I stopped their hands, I stopped your hands, even after you captured them. مِن بَعْدِ أَنْ أَظْفَرَكُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ Even after you had captured them. So this shows us that the Prophet ﷺ, his intentions were not for war, his intentions were completely for peace. Now, for the rest of today's seerah, we'll talk about the emissaries, the negotiation, back and forth. And again, so many scholars have attempted to reconstruct who went first, who went second, because really in the end of the day, we don't know. And what I'm going to present is but one alternative, one theory, and wallahi, if somebody presents another, this is something that is my ijtihad, Allah knows best. And there are other scholars, if they look to the seerah, they'll find other sources as well. So, the first person who appears to have become an emissary is neither Qurashi nor Muslim. Neither Makki nor Muhajir al-Ansar. And he is a third party. A third party from the tribe of Khuza'a. And Khuza'a was one of the major tribes around Makkah. And Khuza'a was generally sympathetic to Islam, generally sympathetic to the Prophet ﷺ. But at this point in time, they hadn't embraced Islam. and one of the leaders of Khuza'ah by the name of Budail ibn Warqa Budail ibn Warqa Budail ibn Warqa one of the leaders of Khuza'ah he it appears to be and again the stories are very sketchy the details are very sketchy it appears to be he volunteered to be an emissary a third party, a neutral party nobody is gonna doubt him he's neither on this side nor on that side but he is physically, geographically in the vicinity he lives in that area and also he does not want bloodshed and he is a noble Arab, he does not want any civil war and so he and Budail ibn Warqa eventually accepts Islam so we know that deep down inside his sympathies are for the Prophet ﷺ eventually he accepts Islam, right now he is not a Muslim so Budail goes to the Prophet ﷺ as the leader of Khuza'a he is the leader, the tribal leader of Khuza'a and he offers him help and he says not Ya Rasulullah, Ya Muhammad because he is not Muslim Ya Muhammad, I have just come from the other side of Hudaybiyah, and I have left the sons of Ka'b ibn Lu'ay, and Amir ibn Lu'ay, on the other side, armed to the teeth. Now, who is Ka'b and Amir ibn Lu'ay? These are the great great great ancestors of the Quraysh. This is how they're talking about the other tribe. That the sons of that great legendary warrior, their sons are camped over there, meaning the Quraysh of Mecca. I have left Ka'b and Amir ibn Lu'ay, on the other side of the water of Hudaybiyah and they have a group of armed men and they're waiting to fight you and prevent you from entering the haram. Meaning, Ya Muhammad, calm down, don't have anything hasty, don't cause any bloodshed, there's an army on the other side. Right? So the Prophet ﷺ responded, we have not come to fight. Rather we have come to show honor to the house of Allah, meaning to perform Umrah. And then he says the same phrase that he said this, I mentioned this last week, that he said this to the Muslims, he now says it to Budail, he will say it to Suhail ibn Amr, he will say it to every single emissary. The same paragraph, that indeed war has damaged the Quraysh, and they have been hurt by it. And if they wish, then we can negotiate and be peaceful. And if they wish, then I will show them what we are made of, and my neck will be chopped off from, or my neck will be chopped off, my head will be chopped off from my neck until Allah decides the matter. Meaning, it's up to them. They want peace, they want war. I prefer peace. But if they want war, I'm willing to give them war. And then he said, and if they want, I can give them some time so that they can think about this and leave the city for us. Meaning, if they're awkward, they're seeing us here, I can give them the option of abandoning Mecca. Give them some time, then they can leave Mecca. We can go in, perform the Umrah and then leave. Now this suggestion, the Quraysh eventually took it. But they had the condition. What was the condition? Next year. Right? Not this year, next year. So the Prophet ﷺ had this idea, which eventually the Quraysh agreed to. That look, if it's awkward, I understand. Let them, anytime they want, give them a few days, we're waiting here. Tell them to leave Mecca, and I will enter, and we will do the Umrah, then we will leave, and they can come back to Mecca. But if they stop, or if they refuse, then I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul, I will fight them upon this matter until, and there's an expression in Arabic, until my neck is cut off and Allah's decree be done. There's an expression in Arabic that I will do this until I die, until my neck is cut off, until Allah's decree will be done. So Budail said, I will go and inform them of your request or your position. Because as of yet, the Quraysh have not officially been told why the Prophet ﷺ has come to Mecca. So Budail goes to the Quraysh and he says, I have spoken to this man and I have heard him say something. If you wish, I can repeat it for you. Because Budail has not been chosen by the Quraysh to be an emissary. Budail is volunteering. So he says, Look, I just visited this man Muhammad ﷺ. If you want to hear what he has to say, allow me permission. Ibn Ishaq says, The foolish amongst them said, the foolish amongst them said we have no reason to listen to you you have nothing new to tell us why should we listen to you? we know exactly why he is here the Sufaha amongst them said this that you are not going to give us any information we don't already know but Ibn Ishaq says the ones of intelligence said let him speak let him say what he has to say and so he informed them of the Prophet's intentions I have come with peace not in war and war has been lose-lose for the both of us. We've been fighting for too long. War has tired you out. It's tired us out. Let's just be in peace. Let me go visit the Ka'bah. And if you want to leave, you can leave. And I will then come whenever you guys are ready. And then I'll go back to Medina. But if you refuse, then I will fight you until the death. And Allah Azza wa Jal's decree will be done. So he informed them of what the Prophet ﷺ said. Now notice over here that it is always the ignorant, the closed-minded. They don't even want to hear what the other party has to say. Right? It's nothing new. In our times, we have the descendants of those ignorance. They're called Islamophobes. Right? They literally want to shut their ears. Doesn't matter what you have to say. They've already made up their minds about Islam and the Muslims. It doesn't matter how reasonable, how... No. Literally, the sufaha al-qawm, the foolish amongst them, they want war, or they want bloodshed, or they want violence. And it is the people of intelligence that are open-minded. The people of intelligence that are wise, that control their emotions and listen to the other side. And also, really this shows us the evils of arrogance. That the foolish amongst them don't even care what is the reason of the Prophet ﷺ. We are not gonna even listen. And arrogance is so foolish, it blinds even your intellect. And we see this in the case of Iblis, the number one person who was arrogant in the history of humanity, that his arrogance was so blinded, He refused to listen to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. His arrogance got the better of everything. So this shows us that eventually Budail was allowed to speak. And so Budail summarized for them the message of the Prophet ﷺ. And then he gave his own advice. He said, O Quraysh, you are being hasty with this man. Your anger is getting the better of you. He has not come to fight. He has come to visit this house honoring its sanctity. so Budail who is a neutral person from Khuza'a and eventually he embraces Islam right now he's not a Muslim he already the seeds of doubt are being sown amongst the other camp and Budail is the first person and there will be many more who come and side with the Prophet ﷺ that you guys are being hasty here the Quraysh responded by Allah we will never allow him to enter Mecca and the Arabs will say that he had the better hand over us and this, the Quraysh stuck with to the very end when this thought came in khalas, this is the first time it's being verbalized, now for the rest of at least a week must have gone by that's it, they've made up their minds we will never allow him to come into Mecca why? what's the reason? so that the Arabs don't say that he managed to have the upper hand it's all a matter of pride and izzah, it's all a matter of honor, that my honor will be wounded, my pride will be harmed if the Arabs hear that the Prophet ﷺ entered Mecca and we weren't able to stop him. And in the end they got this, they got this condition because they insisted. And the condition of the Prophet ﷺ, obviously that was also gotten so the two of them compromised as we will all know to come next year but I'm jumping the gun over here. So the matter of Budail ended. That Budail tried and the Quraysh really did not budge on this issue and there's no negotiations done. And therefore what began after this is another series of back and forths. But this time the emissaries will come directly from either the Muslim side or the Qurayshi side. Budail is from neither. He's a neutral person. It appears his was the first time somebody attempted to bridge this gap. Now what's gonna happen is a series of back and forths. And it appears that the first person to volunteer to go from the Quraysh side was Urwa ibn Mas'ud. Urwa ibn Mas'ud. and Urwa ibn Mas'ud was from the tribe of Thaqif he was a Thaqafi Urwa ibn Mas'ud a Thaqafi and Thaqif is based in which city? Ta'if Thaqif is based in the city of Ta'if and the city of Ta'if as you know is the sister city of Makkah Makkah and Ta'if are at there's a little bit of a tension but there's also some camaraderie and there's jealousy meaning they're competing but there's also some camaraderie, there's a bit of a tension between the two. And so, Urwa ibn Mas'ud is one of the leaders of the city of Ta'if from the tribe of Thaqif. And he is also now in Mecca figuring out what to do because this is a matter of communal pride. So, Urwa stands up and he says, am I not a father to you? Am I not a son to you? This is the way the Arabs speak, meaning, am I not really a part of your tribe? Just because I'm from Thaqif, don't you know my loyalties lie with you, Quraysh? And it is also said that his mother was from the Quraysh so he's literally saying that I am also of your blood and so Urwa the reason he's beginning this way he needs the approval of the Quraysh to be an official emissary so he begins by saying am I not a father am I not a son to you do you accuse me of being unjust and they keep on saying no we know who you are and then he mentions many things that he's done in the past did I not in such an occasion help you here did I not cause some bloodshed to be averted did I not cause reconciliation, so he mentions his blessings his resume, right? he's presenting his resume to the Quraysh to make them realize, look I am somebody who's gonna look after your interests even if I'm not a Qurayshi, I'm Thaqafi, but perhaps I can reason with this man, and so to all of the above, they praised him, they said yes you are, yes you are, until finally he said, okay so Budail has come to us with some news some plan, some idea let me go back to him meaning the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and see what I can negotiate okay so Urwa then Urwa Ibn Mas'ud then he becomes the first real emissary that the Quraysh sends even though he's not Qurashi he's Thaqafi he becomes the first emissary that once the news comes that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wants peace and not war so Urwa says okay look let me go and negotiate let's see what we can do and so Urwa goes to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Prophet ﷺ tells him the exact same thing that he says to Budail. We have come in peace. And the same paragraph, right? That hasn't war become tiresome for the Quraysh? Haven't we both suffered from the war? Why don't the Quraysh let us be? We are just like the people. We want to go and do Umrah and Tawaf and then go. Right? And if they wish, I can give them the same conditions. So the Prophet ﷺ already has a plan. And it's a very reasonable plan. He's appealing to the emotions of the Quraysh. Why the bloodshed? Enough is enough now. I'm just coming for peace. You can see there's no war going on here. Let me go like all of the other people. And if you feel awkward, then we give you a time, you leave the city, we'll come and then we'll leave. And that's it, end of story. So the same plan is given to Urwa. Urwa then comes back to the Prophet ﷺ and says, what is really the matter with you? What is all of this that you're causing tension between your people and you? you say you call to Allah but then you come with a group of people we don't know who they are meaning the Ansar who are these people? these are not Thaqif or Quraish you come with a whole group, we don't know who they are and you break the ties of kinship we are one group we are Quraish and Thaqif, we are next to each other now you bring in the Aus and the Khazraj and there were other Muslims as well by this time from the smaller tribes we don't know who these people are You come and you break the ties of kinship. And you break the sanctity of the haram. And you intend to spill blood. And it's as if he didn't hear anything the Prophet ﷺ said. He already has something in his mind. So the Prophet ﷺ refutes all of these points. And he says, I have only come to fulfill the ties of kinship, not to break them. And I have come to change the religion of my people to a better religion. I want them to be better. and I have come to make their lives a better life. Now, it's very interesting over here. Look at what he's smearing the Prophet ﷺ with. Breaking the ties of kinship, coming forth with a weird theology, new theology, and bringing a group of strangers, who are these people and why are you coming to them? And also breaking the haram sanctity because you have come to us, meaning as if you're coming for war. And what we find in all of these smears is that there is a kernel of truth that has been layered with layers of lies. After all, from their perspective, they could say he's breaking the ties of kinship. Because from their paradigm, what's going on? The Prophet ﷺ is breaking something new. So they say, you're breaking the ties of kinship. From their perspective, his religion is the strange religion. From their perspective, he's coming to Mecca with 1400 people. And why am I saying this? Because every single smear against Islam, against the Prophet ﷺ, against us as Muslims, deep down inside somewhere, there is perverted truth. There is a mixture of truth and a lot of falsehood. And had it not been for that kernel of truth, nobody would ever believe it. It is the sunnah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that mankind that have a bad intention, they will take this kernel of truth and coat it with a coat of untruth and lies and it's because of that kernel of truth that even the worst allegation there is some perversion to it that causes the people to believe in that allegation so for example what was our Prophet ﷺ accused of what was some of the things he was accused of tell me, number one what? magician, he's a magician okay, what is the sign of a magician? he comes forth with some type of magic some type of something strange did not our Prophet ﷺ have some miracles right? so there is a kernel of truth and they have distorted it to the point of being a major lie what else did they accuse him of? poet and what is poetry? beautiful speech and what is the Quran? Ahsan al-Hadith and Ahsan al-Kitab so there is a kernel of truth and then it is put with so much lies on it, right? and the reason I say this is that we as Muslims need to have the perception or the wisdom to see through to what is this kernel, so that we can then clarify. We are accused these days of being a violent religion, and we'll lie from their perspective, from their perspective. Put yourself in the shoes of a Fox News viewer. From their perspective, all they see is violence coming from our lands. There's a kernel of truth, and then there's all of these lies, and misconceptions, and paradigm shifts. We need to understand this before we open our mouths to defend our religion. Here we have Urwa coming forth with the same type of kalam like this. So the Prophet ﷺ responds back, I am the one fulfilling the tithes. These are the ones breaking it. I am the one coming with a better religion, not a worse religion. I am the one I want good for my people, and I want them to have a better life, not a worse life. And as I said, this is the same reality to this day. All of the allegations against Islam, whatever they might be, Islam suppresses women. Subhanallah, look at the culture around us and what passes for entertainment and what goes on in modern times. What is the filth that we see? Who is the one exploiting women? Who is the one exploiting women? We protect and honor the women, but just because we protect and honor them, that protection becomes exploitation. So again, there is a kernel of truth from their perspective. We need to understand their perspective before we can defend our religion. So Urwa then responded back. And he said, O Muhammad ﷺ, if you were to remove the matter of your people, forget who these people are, forget you and your animosity. Have you ever heard of any Arab who destroyed his own tribe before you? Meaning forget the personal animosity. You and the Quraysh are at such odds, you might actually cause their destruction. And he said, if it is the other, meaning if they are going to fight you, because either you're gonna fight them and win, or they will fight you and win. So he is saying, he's trying to reason with him from the jahili perspective. Have you ever heard of an Arab who fought his own tribe and then got rid of them? You will eliminate your whole tribe of the Quraysh if you win, is that what you want? And if it is the other, meaning if they fight against you, and they are going to be the ones winning, then he said, by Allah, I don't see around me men that I recognize. These are not people that I recognize. Rather, they seem to be a medley, a mixture, a hodgepodge of different bandits who will run away from you and leave you at the earliest chance possible. What's he saying? What's he saying? Not just Quraysh is more noble. hypocrites, do you think Urwa understands who's a munafiq and who's a Muslim? Nothing to do with hypocrites. Why would they not be loyal? Different tribes. Not just less, no, not just less of Arabs. Different tribes. Why? What's the big deal if they're different tribes? From Urwa's perspective, put yourself in his shoes. from Urwa's perspective why are these medley mixture of different Arabs behind you? Because the way he has viewed the world Quraysh on one side Hawazin on one side Kinana on one side Saqif on one side This is the gang mentality I don't care if my tribe is right or wrong I am with my tribe Right? This is his perspective And I will defend my tribe no matter what the cost no matter who does what I will fight with my tribe. So now for the first time in his life, he is seeing a group of people, nothing unites them from his perspective. From his perspective, nothing unites them. He doesn't understand the unity of Islam. He's complete blind. Obviously he doesn't have Iman. He is going to embrace many years later, not now. Right now he has zero, nothing. And he doesn't even understand. he's looking around and he says I see around me a group, a medley a mixture of people if they are attacked by the Quraysh every one of them will flee you instantaneously why? because they're not loyal to you, why will the Oaths guard your back why will the Khazraj be on your right hand side, why will this and that ever be behind you, and remember the Muhajirun the actual Qurayshi of the Sahaba were very few in number less than a hundred, so the bulk of the 1400 were non-Khurshi. Right? So he says, I don't recognize any of these men. They're not even men. Now, when Urwa said this, he heard a vile curse. He heard a vile curse. And the curse is so vile I cannot even translate it in the masjid. And even if it were not the masjid, I would not translate this amongst the audience. But it is a curse that is extremely vulgar and very crude. And it is coming from the last Sahabi that you would ever expect to hear a curse word from. And that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. When Urwa said, I don't see any men around you. Who are these people? The minute that battle is seen, they will all flee and abandon you. He heard a loud shout. and he heard a voice say in Arabic since most of you don't understand Arabic for the Arabs here you want to hear it again it's in all the books of the seerah it's a very vulgar phrase very vulgar phrase and he says who is that and Abu Bakr says not even Abu Bakr This is the son of Abu Qahafa. Right? And so Urwa says that, Wallahi had it not been for a favor that you did to me, and I haven't paid you back, I would have responded with a similar remark. So there's a pause here. I mean, the vulgar thing has to do with the private organ of a female, and Allat is the god that the Arabs worship, and umsus means to go suck on. And that's the private organ and then allat. And so Abu Bakr utters a very vile curse to allat, which is very derogatory and very demeaning. And why does he mention allat? Because allat was the god of Thaqif, which is where Urwa is from. Allat was in Thaqif. And Thaqif was known for protecting allat. and Allat was the most famous idol of the vicinity. أَفَرَعِيْتُمُ اللَّاتَ وَالْعُزَّةَ وَمَنَاتَ ثَالِثَةَ الْأُخْرَىٰ This is Surah An-Najm. So Urwa is the guardian, he is the chieftain, he is the guardian of Allat. And so Abu Bakr says, and then he says, go and suck on that, and then he says, do you really think we will abandon him? Do you think we will abandon him? That's what you think? So now what we find here is something amazing. We find Abu Bakr's anger goes from 0 to 100 in 0.1 second. 0 to 100, 0.1 second. Instantaneously. Why? Because this man has accused the Muslims of abandoning the Prophet ﷺ. And he becomes so angry that the most gentle, the most kind, the most shy, the most, the most, the most. He loses his anger, he loses his temper if you like, and he curses a vile curse. Using words that are definitely impolite words. Very crude words. And this shows us the ghir of Abu Bakr. The iman of Abu Bakr. That he wasn't angry because he was insulted. he was angry that the Prophet is being insulted that his people around him will abandon and he felt such anger that he uttered a phrase that otherwise other than this situation would be something that is inappropriate but this shows us that there are some very rare exceptions that sometimes being vulgar does get the point across this is the exception and not the rule that sometimes in such a context, and the Prophet ﷺ did not rebuke Abu Bakr, he did not, it shows that look, it's understood his anger got the better of him, and he uttered a phrase that otherwise would not be appropriate. And this shows us that, again, once in a blue moon, like in the incidence of Hudaybiyah type of stuff, that sometimes being vulgar is something that there is a benefit to, but the general rule is obviously we completely avoid such talk, but sometimes there is nothing that gets the message across like Abu Bakr's insult to Allat. Because this is an insult to Allat. And generally speaking, the Quran says, don't insult their idols. And it's a very derogatory thing, and it's a very vulgar thing, showing them, who do you think you are with your false god, that you even consider a female, and you view females in this manner. That females are not the same as males, and should be killed and what not. That's how the Jahili Arabs were. So who do you think you are to come and preach to us that we're going to abandon our profit. And why did Urwa say, if you didn't have a favor over you, I would respond. So we learned from the previous books that Urwa had a debt that he wasn't able to pay off. So Abu Bakr gave him the money to pay that debt off. Abu Bakr gave him the money to pay that debt off in the days before this. And so Urwa says, you still have a favor that I haven't repaid. And had it not been for that favor, I could have responded in kind. But because of that favor, I have to repay that favor. The repayment of the favor is, I will not insult you. Now this shows us subhanAllah that being nice and good always has its advantages. Abu Bakr r.a was such a nice person. He is giving loans to Urwa ibn Masud al-Thakafi. How does he know that a time will come when that loan will be repaid in such a manner. And so, Urwa basically tries to basically ridicule the Muslims. Actually his intention was not to ridicule. He was dead serious. He really felt, who are these people that are gonna fight you? He thought he's being sympathetic. Like, Muhammad come to your senses, look around you. You think these people are gonna fight you? And he doesn't realize what is Islam. He doesn't realize what is Iman. He doesn't realize the anger that Muslims feel when their Prophet ﷺ is insulted. This is an anger we all know, we all see it in the modern world. And Urwa continued trying to convince the Prophet ﷺ to give up the plan, to go back. And it was the custom of the people of those times that when two leaders met, they would hold on to their beards of the other as a gesture of brotherliness, of this is, you know, we're equal, we're peers, right? So they will hold on to the beard to make a point. this was the custom of the people of that time and he did this a few times and every time he did it out of the blue the scabbard of a sword would appear the handle of the sword I should say not the sword and it would hit him and thus hitting got harder and harder until finally when he did it one more time the scabbard came or the handle like the back of the sword came and hit it so hard and he heard a voice that said, get your hand away from the beard of the Prophet ﷺ before the hand will be cut off from its owner. Meaning next time you do that, you're not gonna have a hand. So finally he said, who is this voice? Because there was a man in armor, in the turban around him, who is this voice? And it turns out it is his own nephew, Mughirah ibn Shu'bah al-Thaqafi. Mughirah ibn Shu'bah the famous. and Mughira is the nephew literally the father's the brother's son, literally the nephew so Mughira ibn Shu'ba is the nephew of Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi Mughira ibn Shu'ba the famous sahabi now Mughira ibn Shu'ba he has a story by the way Mughira ibn Shu'ba in his early days in his young days he was a playboy he was a bandit, he was a bad person drinking, womanizing and he got involved with the wrong company this is before Islam, and he became a part of a bunch of thugs, a bunch of the mafia let's say, right? And he began participating in robbery until finally he participated in highway robbery. Meaning, you know, there's a caravan going by, innocent caravan, nothing to do with anything. And him and his comrades, they go and they attack this caravan, they kill, and they get all the money, and they take the money. and so he was a part of this group and one time he went and did this type of highway robbery and the tribe that he did it against, they declared war against the Thaqif basically because Mughira and his comrades were from the Thaqif so the Thaqif had to bend over backwards, pay a lot of blood money calm the situation down when these guys saw this, they all fled this gang, they all broke up and fled they can't go back to Thaqif and Mughira eventually, after here and there and here and there, he eventually hears of Islam and he decides to convert and he then comes to Medina. Okay? So now he's turned over a new leaf. He's no longer the highway bandit. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told him, this is back in the few years ago, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told him, that as for your Islam, we will accept it. But as for your money and all of your booty that you stole, we cannot accept any of that. You can't bring this here. And this shows us the wisdom of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that you have baggage, literally baggage in this case you have goods, you have money that is haram for you to have taken you kill people we can't accept that your Islam, okay your Islam it cancels all of your sins, if you're truly a Muslim then Alhamdulillah join us but we cannot benefit from your wealth and your money, and this shows us the fairness of Islam, look subhanallah, the fairness of Islam that Mughira had gotten this money and this money is not a Muslim money it's the money of a pagan but it's still haram money because in Islam the lives of non-Muslims are also sacred unless there's a legitimate reason right in Islam you cannot just go and commit and by the way this is a very very important refutation of those who accuse the process among the early Muslims of being highway robbers and we talked about this in the Meccan stage many many lectures ago that one of the main criticisms that orientalist or non-Muslim researchers say oh the early Muslims were a bunch of highway robbers And they say this because once again, who would they attack? The Quraysh. And it is 100% true that they used to attack the caravans of the Quraysh. 100% true. But they never attacked the caravans of neutral tribes. And again, there is this kernel of truth which is then layered here and there. So this incident of Mughira, not directly related to Hudaib, we'll go back, shows us what? That the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba were not only not highway robbers, they did not accept any money that came from what is called highway robbery and they refused Mughira to bring in this money and so Mughira had to accept Islam and start from scratch and that's exactly what happened and now he becomes a good Muslim Mughira is a famous companion there's so many hadith from him and now he is like a bodyguard he's like a personal bodyguard of the Prophet ﷺ he's standing there you know right next to him and when his own uncle puts his hand so you can imagine he feels an extra anger because this is his uncle so he out of all of the sahaba he feels enough guts to put his sword say get your hand away because the rest of them he is the chieftain of Thaqif but Mughira is also from Thaqif and Mughira he doesn't feel that type of problems as the others do in getting physical with his uncle so he says next time you do this you won't have a hand to come forth to the beard of the Prophet ﷺ so Urwa says who said that and Mughira says it is Mughira ibn Shu'ba meaning this is your nephew Mughira and so Urwa responds back to him and he can respond back to him he was silent at Abu Bakr but now this is his nephew and he says oh traitor oh traitor are you still not basking in your traitor in your deceit in other words you have ruined our reputation and you're still living the life of a traitor if you like and so he basically made fun of not made fun of but he ridiculed or he basically cursed Mughirah because of this. And this shows us that, again, the Prophet ﷺ's fairness when he accepted Mughirah's Islam but not his money. But nonetheless, Mughirah could not respond because he did have that problem. That's a valid point his uncle said, that we're still, we had to deal with your treason, you know, we had to sacrifice so much money, we had to do so many things to avoid civil war and bloodshed, and now you're the traitor and you're doing this to me. And he could not respond to that charge, that barb if you like because there was a point of truth to that and Urwa began looking around and continued to make negotiations with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam but obviously the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is not going to return to Medina so the negotiations broke down and he probably stayed in the camp an hour or two trying to convince the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam to go back he then returns to the Quraysh and remember Urwa is the chieftain or one of the major leaders of the Taqif he then returns to the Quraysh and his description of the Sahaba, his description of the Sahaba is one of the most amazing descriptions in the whole seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. Why? Because he describes the Sahaba as an outsider. The Sahaba did not describe themselves the way he described them. Because at the time he's an outsider, later on he's gonna become a Muslim. But at this point in time, he has never seen Islam or the Sahaba. This is the first exposure to Islam and the Sahaba. And so we hear descriptions that no other Sahabi says because he is an outsider. What does Urwa say? Urwa goes back to the Quraysh and he says, Ya Qawm, O people, I have visited the kings and entered the palace of Caesar of Rome and Kisra of Persia and Najashi of Abyssinia now because he is the chieftain of the Banu Thaqif he has had the luxury that very few Arabs have had that he has literally had the honor of going to the Caesar's palace the Sassanid emperor's palace and Najashi's palace he is Urwa he is the chieftain of Thaqif he is from the tribe of the city of Taif so he has that honor that he can say I have been to all of these leaders guess what he says Wallahi, I have never seen any king being shown respect the way that Ashabu Muhammad show respect to Muhammad ﷺ. Neither Rome, nor Persia, nor Najashi. No one has that amount of Izzah that the Ashab of Muhammad ﷺ have for Muhammad. Wallahi, ma nakhama nukhama he didn't even spit except that one of the Sahaba caught that spit before it touched the ground and rubbed it on his face and body for barakah for barakah right that the Prophet and never did he wash himself with wudu except that كادوا يقتتلون على وضوئه it is as if they were fighting one another to catch those drops of water coming from him. Now subhanallah, none of the sahaba told us this. Why? Because they took it for granted. It's nothing weird to them. And there's also an element of modesty. Like we're not gonna tell you this, right? But here we have Urwa ibn Masrud as an outsider. He's never seen such a bizarre scene in his life. Right? Who amongst the kings can say when they spit, somebody jumps and catches that spear wallah you think about it this is not you don't do this for any normal human being right who amongst the kings when he washes his face the water does not reach the ground because there are sahaba that are just gonna catch the water and then put it on themselves and urwa goes on that if he wanted to command them something he only needed to raise his face and look and they would race to see who would be the first to do that command. Without even opening his mouth, the sahaba are there to do his every beck and calling. And he says that when he spoke, they all lowered their heads and their voices in front of him. And none of them would look at him directly out of haybah and respect. There is no king in the world except that his minister, his vizier, people look at him and talk to him. Even if they address him with respect, but the whole audience is looking at the ground? Nobody. You speak to them directly. And the Prophet ﷺ did not command them to do this obviously. But it is natural. It just comes. In Arabic it's called haybah. And haybah in English it means the immense respect. That there's so much respect, they're not even looking up directly at his eyes. And this reminds all of us, it should remind us of that famous hadith of Amr ibn al-As. Amr ibn al-As was one of the last sahaba to accept Islam before the conquest of Mecca. He was one of the last sahaba. And what did Amr ibn al-As say? That wallahi there was nothing more beloved to me than to stare at the Prophet ﷺ. But if you ask me to describe him to you, I couldn't do that. Because I could never raise my head and look directly at him out of haybah, out of respect for him. That he's battling himself to look at the Prophet ﷺ. Right? Because on the one hand he loves to look at him. it's beauty emanating. As the hadith of Jabir, that looked at the full moon, and looked at the process of man, wallahi, the process of man is more beautiful than the full moon. Right? And then on the other hand, he cannot look at him. Why? Because there is this awe that comes. Reverence that comes. That you cannot even look up, directly into his eyes. So, he's battling with himself. I wanna look, but I cannot look. And this is what, this exact narration reminds us of. That he himself, Urwa as a non-Muslim is saying, that they would never look at him directly in the face, اجلالا وحيبة and out of jalal, out of respect for the Prophet ﷺ. Now, what I find absolutely amazing, I don't know if any of you caught this bit. What happens to Urwa in one hour? What was he saying at the beginning of this hour? What did he say at the beginning? Who are these people? Right? They're gonna abandon you at the first sign of a sword. Then in one hour what happens? Look, wallahi I've never seen anybody like them. Neither Najashi nor this nor that. They can't even look, they can't, they can't. Do you see this, right? From where to where. And words fail. All of us to talk about that change in Urwa. One hour to see the sahaba and how they interacted with the Prophet ﷺ. converts Urwa into a believer of the Sahaba. Think about that, right? From coming from his jahili mind, and he doesn't see beyond Islam, and he's like, who are these people? How would they fight you? Then he goes back, and he says to the Quraysh, I have never seen a group that respect and love their leader more than the Sahaba love the Prophet ﷺ. And then he goes on, and he says, and I have measured them for you, I have absorbed them for you, so know that if you wish the sword, they will give you what you wish. Now subhanallah, look again the change. He's telling the Prophet ﷺ that, you better be careful because these people are never going to fight for you. Right? Now when he goes back to the Quraysh, without the Prophet ﷺ opening his mouth to defend the Sahaba, to see someone as soft as Abu Bakr utter a vile curse, to see his own nephew take the sword and literally poke him so many times and then say I will cut your hand off if you dare touch the beard of the Prophet ﷺ to see the Sahaba in this manner he comes back a convert not yet to Islam that's going to come he's going to convert to Islam but he comes back a convert in the Iman of the Sahaba not in Iman yet but even a Kafir cannot deny the Iman of the Sahaba So he says, I have seen a group, I'm quoting from him, I have seen a group, they don't care what happens to them if their companion is harmed. Meaning the Prophet ﷺ. They don't care about themselves. They will do everything to protect him. Even the women amongst them would never hand him over no matter what the cost. Forget the men, even the women. Subhanallah, where to where? Wallahi to me this is one of the most beautiful paragraphs of the seerah that I love to read because it demonstrates something that in so poetic terms and in so beautiful terms that we don't hear from the sahaba themselves so then he says take my advice I fear that you will not be able to win over him he has too strong of an army even though quantity wise the Quraysh are triple the Quraysh are at home they're triple and the Muslims are only 1400 but still he says I fear you won't be able to beat them and besides now he gets soft and he says he is a man that has come to this house wishing to honor it and with sacrificial animals but instead he is being deprived and denied and prevented immediate shift of sides here right he leaves Mecca telling the Quraysh you know I'm on your side you know I have your back You know I've always been on your side, right? One hour meeting with the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims and now his heart is with which side, right? And wallahi, these are things you cannot control. This comes from iman, raw iman. This comes when a group believes in Allah ﷻ, people see that belief. Even if they don't have it, they can sense it. And this is a big lesson for us, brothers and sisters. our main weapon is not arms it's not weaponry of the hands our main weapon is our belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and if we have that the rest will fall into place and this clearly shows that that the Prophet ﷺ did not intellectually respond to everything all that needed to be shown was Islam and the Muslims cooperating together showing their respect to the Prophet ﷺ At this the Quraysh got angry. The Quraysh got angry. And they said, if only someone else besides you had said this. If only someone else besides you had said this. Ya Aba Ya'fur, Ya'fur was his kunya. Aba Ya'fur was his kunya. Ya Aba Ya'fur, if only someone else besides you had said this. Meaning, come on, we thought better of you. You as well, now you're switching sides emotionally. If only somebody else has said this, but we will not allow him this year. This year there is no question. So once again the Quraysh are sticking to their guns and they do stick to their guns to the end. Their arrogance and their fanaticism, their stubbornness has got the better. Khalas, we have made up our minds. Doesn't matter who says otherwise, the Arabs are not gonna say that he entered Mecca despite us. We will have the upper hand. And here we find over here so many benefits. I already mentioned many of them here that Urwa's opinion changing. But one thing I have to point out here, that wallahi brothers and sisters, a spade is a spade and the truth is the truth. Here, a kafir at the time, he's going to accept Islam. Right now he's a kafir, pagan, idol worshipper. He recognizes the maqam of the sahaba. What do we say to those who claim to be Muslim and they don't recognize the maqam of the sahaba? Wallahi it's mind boggling. that a pagan cannot help but be so impressed, awed, saying, I've never seen a human sight like this in my life. And it is wallahi shameful and sad that there are people who do not respect the sahaba and they claim to be worshipping Allah and following the messenger. And here we have a pagan testifying to the maqam of the sahaba. Also we see over here that the Prophet ﷺ clearly is waging a type of psychological battle. And clearly he's winning. Anybody that comes to meet him, he comes back convinced. Right? And therefore, the battle is not just verbal. It's not just physical. There's also a psychological side. And one of the best ways to win the psychological battle is simply to stick to your principles. Be firm in what you believe. And eventually, people will respect you for that firmness. Wallahi, even those who don't believe. when you are firm to your beliefs they have to admire your principle stance you know what, I might disagree but he's a man who follows his beliefs and we unfortunately are too embarrassed many times to stand up to our beliefs and we also witness over here the long term thinking, the strategy the diplomacy of the Prophet his diplomatic ways of basically dividing the Quraish up or the Arabs up so bit by bit people are simply getting away from the Quraishi position. And we'll see, now we have the Thaqif breaking away, we'll see another person break away with another major group. This is long-term strategy of the Prophet ﷺ. Now just as a side point, as a footnote here, so Urwa was from the tribe of Thaqif, as we said, from Ta'if. And Urwa, he accepted Islam in the 9th year of the Hijrah, after the conquest of Mecca. He officially accepted Islam in the ninth year of the Hijrah. And we're going to talk about his story probably in around two months maybe inshallah ta'ala if Allah gives us life and we continue the seerah when we get to the story of Thaqif and what not. And he was one of the first of the elders of Thaqif to accept Islam. One of the first of the elders of Thaqif, of the noblemen of Thaqif to accept Islam. And eventually we'll get to the story of Thaqif. Thaqif was perhaps the most difficult tribe. I mean after all they did what they did back in the day, remember? The incident of Ta'if, that's Taqif. Right? The same incident of Ta'if is Taqif. They did what they did. And Taqif was the most stubborn tribe to the end. Even when they accepted Islam. They gave the most bizarre conditions. Ya Rasulullah, it's cold in Ta'if, we don't want to do wudu. Literally. Right? Do we have to do ghusl? We don't want to do jihad with you. How about zakat? Can we just get rid of zakat? Because we don't want to give our money to you. Right? They had so many weird and bizarre conditions. We'll come to that, when we come to that. That's the tribe of Thaqif. That even when they reluctantly embraced, they had all of these bizarre conditions. So this is from the tribe of Thaqif. And Urwa eventually accepted Islam. He was the first of the elders of Thaqif to accept Islam. And he traveled to Medina in the 9th year of the Hijrah to embrace Islam at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ, to announce his Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ told him, that, إِنِّي أَخْشَىٰ عَلَيْكَ I'm scared for you, that your people, I know your people basically I'm scared when you go back what's gonna happen to you and Urwa was very confident too confident and he said, Ya Rasulullah my tribe, listen to what he said if I'm sleeping they would never wake me up meaning I have that maqam amongst them that if one of them saw me sleeping nobody would wake me up even that's how much they respect me well they respected you before your Islam Now you will see what Islam does. Right? So he felt so confident, he said, don't worry, I can take care of myself, my people respect me. The Prophet ﷺ knows what happens when you start giving da'wah to Islam. The Prophet ﷺ was more respected amongst the Quraysh than Uro was amongst the Taqif. Right? But he insisted, I want to go back, I want to go back. So the Prophet ﷺ let him go back. Okay, you want to go back, go back. And he returns to his people, and he begins preaching Islam to them, and he hears from them the shatam and the sab and the vulgarity and the cursing that he could never imagine his own people do to him. And so he goes back to his house saddened and distressed and spends the night there. The first night he comes back and the next morning it's fajr time. So he goes on the roof, he gives the adhan and he starts praying. And when somebody sees him pray, takes a bow and arrow and shoots him right then and there on the top of his roof. and it is said Taif is at a mountainous region and it is literally on top of the mountain and it is said that the arrow not only hit him but he fell basically into the ravine or into the valleys underneath and he died a shaheed. And when the news reached the Prophet ﷺ he said, مَثَلُ عُرْوَة كَمَثَلِ صَاحِبِ يَاسِينَ مثل عروة كمثل صاحب ياسين عروة is like the one of Yaseen meaning Surah Yaseen what is this you all understand? the one وَجَاءَ مِنْ أَقْصَ مَدِينَ الرَّجْنُ يَسْعَى قَالَ يَقُمْ اتَّبِعُ الْمُرْسَنِينَ اتَّبِعُ مَنْ لَا يَسْعَى and then they killed him and he says that So the Prophet ﷺ said that he called his people to Allah and in response they killed him. He called his people to Allah and in response they killed him. Anyways, I went into the tangent of Urwa. This is Urwa. At this stage obviously he's not a Muslim. Clearly we can say, clearly it was at this stage that Islam first entered his heart. When? When he saw the respect the Sahaba had for the Prophet ﷺ. And he realized this is not human. Well, I'm sure they say it's not human, but it's not natural. Something divine is coming here. Right? That Allah has given some respect, there's revealed something like this, that otherwise the kings do not automatically get that. Right? And wallahi this is so true, that every politician, even if he is in power, The people only respect him for his chair, for his kursi. They don't respect him for him. They respect him for what he can offer them. Whereas our Prophet ﷺ, we respect and love him for who he is. And not for what he can offer us monetarily. And this is the difference between respect that we give to the prophets and respect that the people of Kisra and Caesar give to their people. In any case, back to the story of Hudaybiyah. So, Urwa goes back, he is rebuffed, and so Taqif cuts off now. So Taqif is not going to participate. Bit by bit, the conglomeration of the Quraysh is being cut off. And we're going to see another one in a while. Here the Prophet ﷺ felt the need to send somebody now from his side. And so he decided to go with somebody who is not from the Quraysh, and not from the Ansar either, somebody who is one of the other tribes, and he chose a sahabi by the name of Khirash ibn Umayyah Khirash ibn Umayyah from the tribe of Khuza'ah. He wasn't from the Aus or the Khazraj, he was not from the Quraysh or the Muhajirun. He was from the tribe of Khuza'ah. Why did he choose him? I tried my best to look up what is the reason why. The only reason I could come across myself, it wasn't something that is mentioned, is that perhaps because he is neither Ansari nor Muhajir, that he can be viewed as someone relatively neutral for the time being. Even though he is a Muslim, even though he's in the camp of the Muslims, but hopefully he won't rile up the anger of the Quraysh, by sending somebody who is a Qurayshi, like Abu Bakr or Umar, that's the second step. The next step is to send a Qurayshi. Right now he hasn't gotten to that step. He sends somebody who's somewhat tribal-wise neutral. The tribe of Khuza'a is a neutral tribe. Allahu'alam, this is the only reason I could find, to find somebody from a tribe that has not been involved with the Quraysh directly. The Aus, the Khazraj, there is spilled blood now. Badr has happened Uhud has happened Khandaq has happened so the Quraysh will have something in their hearts as for their fellow Qurayshis like Abu Bakr and Umar clearly they will have some things against them so perhaps the only wisdom that I could come across he chooses somebody that has a neutral tribe and that's the tribe of Khuza'a so he sends Khirash ibn Umayyah and in order to demonstrate that he really wanted peace that there is no evil that he has he sent Kheirash on one of his own camels by the name of Ath-Tha'lab. And in those days, people recognized other people's horses and camels, not like us that we have no clue. You could show me a hundred horses, they all look the same to me. But in those days, people are different, they recognize whose camel and whose horse this is. And so he chose the camel that they would recognize, that this is the camel of the Prophet. So it's a meaning, I want peace here, I'm sending my personal envoy on my camel to you. and when Kheirash entered with the camel of the Prophet they clearly recognized that is his camel and their anger flared up, they surrounded him a mob gathered, shouting, jostling shoving, threatening, eventually the camel is wounded and hamstrung so they cut off basically what is it called the the sinew, the backbone not the backbone, the leg, the ligament the ligament of the knee they cut it off so that the camel is hamstrung and they're about to kill Kheirash the mob is gathering you know mob mentality there's just people coming and their anger is coming until finally another person of Khuza'a calms them down who was in Mecca at the time calms them down says this is a Khuza'i you don't want to get involved with this don't bring this down and they get there to their senses and they send him back without even a major discussion taking place so the procession realizes that a neutral guy is not going to work a neutral person is not going to work now it's the Qurayshi's turn who do they send? it appears that somebody else volunteered just like Urwa from Thaqif volunteered so now we have another person volunteering and this person his name is Al-Hulais ibn Alqama from the tribe of Kinana Al-Kinani from the tribe of Kinana and Kinana was the largest tribe in the surrounding areas outside of Mecca and these tribes they were generally called Al-Ahabish we've talked about Al-Ahabish in the battle of Ahzab when the bulk of the army were from the Ahabish not Habashi Ahabish and Ahabish they are basically the name given to the tribes around Mecca and the biggest of them is Kinana so Al-Hulais ibn Alqama from the tribe of Kinana he volunteers because again other tribes are getting involved now this is a major issue why is this a major issue? not only is the past tension but there is a theological issue involved that the Quraysh are preventing a group coming to Mecca and this is a very big deal because the Quraysh are not allowed to prevent people coming to Mecca and this is gonna cause a scandal either way and so Al-Hulaysh volunteers says let me go and speak to the Muslims the Quraysh agree and when Al-Hulaysh approaches the Prophet system recognizes him from the distance and by the way this shows that clearly the Prophet's vision is way beyond 2020 for him to recognize somebody far away before even Hulais enters the camp and he says this is Al-Hulais ibn Alqama from Kinana so he mentions to the Sahaba who this man is from the distance he's there this is Al-Hulais ibn Alqama from the Kinana and his people they show respect they consider sacred the sacrificial animals one of the things known about this tribe is that they valued the animals that we decorate you know we talked about the decoration of the camels and the sheep when you send them to the Kaaba, they consider this to be very sacred so show him our sacrificial animals so Hulais is still in the distance he's walking and the Sahaba take out hundreds and hundreds remember 70 only the Prophet ﷺ had how many would be total? there must be at least 500 and these are just the camels on top of this you have the sheep and the goats and others and all of them are decorated with their markings and their special ribbons and strings this is as I explained to you this is what they would do and this is still done to this day that you decorate the animals to demonstrate this is the camel this is an animal we have dedicated it to the house of Allah and the poor people in the house of Allah so Hulais is coming and before he even gets to the camp the sahaba bring out hundreds of camels And they bring the camels to the valley that he is coming down into. And he sees the entire valley full of camels that have been decorated for the Fuqara of Mecca. And he sees the Muslims in Ihram doing the Talbiyah, they're basically showing their status. And Al-Hulaysh doesn't even enter the camp of the Muslims. he turns around he goes back to the Quraysh and he says Subhanallah it is not allowed to prevent these animals from reaching their destination and from preventing the pilgrims from visiting the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala without even speaking to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam he is converted over again we see here the diplomacy of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam we see here the long term vision we see here psychological warfare basically, right? he sees Ulais, he recognizes him and he says, I know exactly what his soft spot is and that soft spot is an Islamic soft spot which is what? venerating the house of Allah being in Ihram, saying the Talbiyah these camels are going to be given to the poor people show him why we're here we're here for peace and not for war we're here to do tawaf around the Kaaba we're here to be pilgrims and not to shed any blood So when Hulais sees all of this, and there was one point as well, that because the Muslims had such a difficult journey, and they hadn't been through the main road, not only were they hungry, their camels were hungry. And you could see the hunger of the camels. And this is very dangerous, because these camels, if they don't get to the Kaaba in time, poor people will not be able to eat of them. Sacrificial meat is all gone to waste, and you could see the camels thinning up, you could see the camels hungry and weak, and so Hulais feels a sense of great anger against the Quraysh. How could you prevent the Muslims from coming to the Kaaba and they have what they have? When they heard him switch sides, now this is like the third, fourth person switching sides emotionally, they insulted him and they said, who are you? You're just an ignorant Bedouin. Because again, this is not the Qurayshi, this is not Thaqif, these are the outlying tribes from Kinana. You're just an ignorant Bedouin. our mistake was to send you we shouldn't have sent you and we see over here now subhanallah as soon as they said this al-Hulay swore by Allah that none of the Ahabish would support the Quraish half the tribe now half the army now, it goes away we already have the Thaqif walk away now we have the Ahabish walk away look at what's happening here the truth will always win in the end the truth will always win And in this case, the Muslims had 110% of the truth, they just want to do tawaf, they want to do umrah. And the Quraysh are 100% zalim. Clear black and white. And so we have honest people, who are idol worshippers, they're pagans, right? But the truth is higher than their theology here. They realize what the Quraysh is doing is wrong. And to add insult to injury, so they send Hulais then when Hulais comes back with his opinion what do they say? you're just a fool you're a Bedouin we shouldn't have sent you what is that going to do to Hulais? and by the way Hulais it is mentioned in the books that he was considered to be a wise man he was considered to be a person of intelligence and this will add more insult that they go back to ethnicity you're just a Bedouin basically you know this is racism and it's 100% racism right? who are you? you're just a Bedouin you're not Qurashi we shouldn't have sent you in the first place so what happens? He swears by Allah, none of his people will be on your side. Khalas, we're out of here. You're left to your own. So bit by bit, what's happening? The large sympathy that the Quraysh had is now being cut away. And eventually it's only gonna be the Quraysh left and they're gonna have to be forced to negotiate. Also we see over here that every community, it has its righteous people. Every community, it has its righteous people. And this is a point that unfortunately some minority of Muslims in their overzealousness, and Alhamdulillah I'm sure none of you here but there are people that are so narrow minded that they think that if you're not a Muslim you can't have any good in you wallahi this is so ridiculous if you're not a Muslim no doubt your theology is wrong but does this mean you cannot be honest you cannot be truthful you cannot stand up for justice no, in the whole seerah we have so many examples that we have idol worshippers standing up for what is true and the Prophet ﷺ is welcoming this, taking advantage of it and wallahi we see in our times as well in this land of ours there are a small minority of right wing Islamophobes, they want to smear the whole religion they want to say this and that, and they want to ban the sharia and they want to kick Muslims out and they want to, you know, recently there was just this week in Europe somewhere one of the universities banned hijab or something another university banned the niqab, right? ironic, because they're saying they're championing women's rights and freedoms, and yet they ban the hijab and the niqab, and this is causing a huge controversy. So a lot of non-Muslims are standing up and saying, how can you ban a woman's dress if she wants to dress like this? This is against our values. How can you ban a woman who wants to wear a veil, who wants to wear a headscarf? Because they're saying it's a security risk. To wear a headscarf becomes now a security risk. To wear a niqab becomes a security risk. Nonetheless, we have here, what happened recently, the anti-sharia bills all across America 23 states anti-sharia bills we had the ACLU we had so many Americans that are not Muslim they say come on, get over it they're a group of religious people they have the right to practice their faith like every religion has the right to practice its faith every society has its good people and its bad people every society don't we have our good and our bad as well? every society has and the Muslim takes advantage of the good wherever it comes from. So here the Prophet ﷺ is finding Hulais, he finds it and he recognizes, this is the way that I will show him we are upon the truth. There's also an interesting point here, and that is that, it is a part of prophetic wisdom to use those psychological factors that are appealing to every group. So Hulais for example, from the tribe of Kinana, he has a soft spot for sacrificial camels. Do Muslims also have sacrificial camels giving to the poor of Mecca? Yes. if we use that is there anything wrong? no so we have another issue here which again we have some overzealous Muslims as well and let me give you some examples of modern times this happened to me for example that I gave a talk about how Islam tells us to be green you understand what be green means? environmentally conservative and take care of the water and energy and what not, right? So, somebody comments that, so just because it's fashionable for the non-Muslims to talk about it, so now you also have to follow in their footsteps. It becomes un-Islamic to mention something that is Islamic just because non-Muslims talk about it. Wallahi, this is so narrow-minded, you just want to scream with frustration. Does our religion tell us to conserve water? I can give you ten evidences, yes it does. does our religion tell us to use resources naturally and carefully, yes it does does our religion tell us to treat animals nicely animal rights, right I gave a lecture about animal rights here in other places as well and comments come back from YouTube viewers and what not like that, oh just because they talk about animal rights, so now you have to talk about animal rights, subhanallah wallahi this type of fanaticism it's really it's very frustrating honestly for us to have to deal with, wallahi we have green Islam, we have animal rights in Islam, no doubt I'll be the first to say this we don't change what Islam says because it's popular or unpopular no doubt so, and I gave the talk about animal rights and I mentioned this, if some people say that it is unethical to kill animals for food you have to go vegetarian we say thanks but no thanks it is sunnah to eat meat and Alhamdulillah sunnah to eat meat. Okay? So we draw the line where, look, if people go to extremes, we say no. Our religion, Brother Adil, anytime there's a meat joke, we have the barbecue expert over here, Alhamdulillah. So the point is that, no doubt, we don't change the sharia because it's popular or unpopular. But, if there's a trend going on in society, is there anything wrong with talking about that trend in Islam? this is the part of our da'wah you understand what I'm saying here, right? we get this directly from what's happening now with Hulais ibn Alqamah, that the prophet demonstrated something that is clearly Islamic, but Alqamah has a special soft spot for this issue so guess what, we'll just show that issue to him, and it will help us, we're not bending the truth, this is the reality this is the truth, and it will get his heart into our sympathy for our religion, and that's exactly what happened now let me just try to finish this up inshallah so now Hulaysh goes back without even without even meeting with the Prophet because he is convinced that these people are right and the Quraysh is wrong the Quraysh are rude to him so Hulaysh cuts off, khalas you're on your own now so now it is back to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's turn and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam decides to send a Qurayshi, khalas you clearly don't want somebody neutral, let's send a Qurayshi, who should we send the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam chooses Umar ibn al-Khattab. Why choose Umar? Perhaps because of his strength and bravery. Because you are walking into enemy territory. Again, we don't know why. We have to make an assumption. Why Umar? The only thing that comes to mind, because in terms of many other factors, there are other people, Abu Bakr is there, Uthman is there, Ali is there. Why Umar? Can all of the Sahaba were there? Well, perhaps because Umar was physically the strongest of them and the most bravest of them and this is the first time that an official emissary has come from the Prophet ﷺ back into Mecca, think about it 6 years have gone by and no Muslim has set foot in Mecca as a free person as an emissary, no Muslim yes there have been prisoners of war yes there have been people who have been killed in Mecca but no Muslim has come back free, walked into the lion's den that will require courage and bravery who better than the very person who announced his Islam when he converted and then he said whoever wants his mother to cry for him tonight let him meet me outside before I exit from Medina remember? that's Umar ibn al-Khattab okay? so he chooses Umar ibn al-Khattab and Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala he says to the Prophet ﷺ that Ya Rasulullah my animosity to the Quraysh is well known and I fear that the Quraysh will not accept me and that they will kill me. He said this, I think that they will kill me and I don't have anyone from my tribe of Adi ibn Ka'b to protect me. We don't know, perhaps his tribe had been killed or what not. He doesn't have the Bani Adi anymore. So if you want me to go, I will go. But Uthman ibn Affan has more nobility in their eyes than I do. Now remember, in the eyes of the Quraysh, what protects you? It's not physical strength, it is your tribe. So he says, if you want me to go, I will go. So nobody will ever accuse Umar of being a coward. We know who he is. And he's saying, if you want me to go, I'll go. But if you want somebody who will actually be able to speak, perhaps Uthman would be the better choice. Now, by the way, out of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman many of you don't realize this Uthman was the closest in lineage to the Prophet ﷺ Abu Bakr and Umar were like 6th and 8th cousins literally, 6th and 8th cousins Uthman, he's from Banu Abd al-Shams Banu Abd al-Shams is the great grandfather great grandfather of Hashim and Abd al-Shams are brothers right, so that's just 3 generations, 2-3 generations back and of course who is Banu Abd al-Sham who is the main guy Banu Abd al-Sham who can click quickly no the main guy that's alive right now in Mecca Humayya long died you all know his name Abu Jahl is alive now Abu Jahl is alive now Abu Sufyan Abu Sufyan is Banu Abd al-Sham and Abu Sufyan is like a second cousin to Uthman right? cousin and a half, cousin once removed that's very close for the Arab that's very close, right? he's like an Am basically Abu Sufyan is literally like a almost like a direct Am not a direct Am but like a cousin of the father like that Abu Sufyan, who is Abu Sufyan? the undisputed leader of Mecca right? and Uthman is his somewhat nephew okay? so Umar's idea is accepted by the Prophet ﷺ and again this shows us that the Prophet made ijtihad, ijtihad is a human ijtihad and it is possible that somebody can give a better position if the Prophet sees it, he takes it and in this case he saw it and so the Prophet sent Uthman ibn Affan and I have the whole story prepared but unfortunately I thought I would finish the story to get to Bayat Ridwan because we're but anyway we have plenty of time Alhamdulillah there's no urgency to finish the seerah anytime soon so I will have to simply pause here and talk about the Bay'at-ul-Ridwan and why Uthman was delayed and what happened to him in Mecca we will talk about that inshallah next Wednesday and we have a few minutes for question answer and then break for Salatul Isha yes Ali ibn Abi Talib no doubt he was also known for his bravery and he is known for his courage but in terms of age Umar was senior to him Ali is still relatively very young and there's also a sense of a young man not being given the respect that an older man is given so Ali when the Prophet ﷺ passed away he's 30 something years old so at this stage he's in his 20s remember Ali the hijrah took place and Ali is not even baligh so one thing we always need to realize Ali is Ali and we as Ahlul Sunnah, we are the true followers of Ali. Wallahi, we are the Shia to Ali. You can quote me on that. We are the true Shia of Ali. Shia means the followers, right? Because we give him the respect he deserves. And had we been alive in his time, wallahi, we would be the first to follow him. We are his true followers. but we always neglect or forget that Ali رضي الله عنه became who he became at the time he deserved to become it when the procession passes away he's still 30, 31 years old you're not gonna become the leader of the ummah at 31 when you have Abu Bakr at 62 and then when Abu Bakr dies Umar is now 60 perfect age for the leader of the ummah and Ali is still 33, 32 right? so we have to understand Ali became the right Khalifa when he deserved to be the right Khalifa right, and throughout Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Uthman's life Ali was their greatest vizier their greatest mentor, their greatest not mentor, but their greatest helper the right hand man throughout all of these years Ali always helped them in whatever he was doing so yes, Ali was indeed a very brave person, and we will see this in the battle of Khandaq especially, we will see the bravery and the strength of Ali and what he did but at the same time right now Umar is the most appropriate choice in this regard and Allah knows best Khaybar excuse me Khaybar Khaybar yes what happened to the camel who wore the hamstring we don't know what happened to the camel it was we don't know nothing is mentioned Al-Qaswa no no no not Al-Qaswa Tha'lab this camel was called Al-Tha'lab this was another camel not Al-Qaswa Al-Qaswa was the one he was riding he had another one called a thalib and this is the one the Prophet ﷺ had multiple camels this was one of them a thalib yes based on the story of Hudaybiyah how do you deal with the arrogance of the world today? how do you deal with the arrogance of the world today? I think the lessons of Hudaybiyah are very clear that you will always have a group that is arrogant always but you have to remain firm to your principles have firm faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and reach out to the people in the other side that are not arrogant. And get their help against their own people who are arrogant. And eventually Allah Azza wa Jal will help out those who are upon the truth. And inshallah we'll have a whole lesson about the benefits of Hudaybiyah. And this is going to be one of those issues we'll talk about. Final issue sisters, no question from the sisters today. No question from the sisters today. Going once, going twice. Back to the brothers, yes. Hold on, yes sister go ahead. so the question is was Al-Mughira in Ihram or not there are some incidents mentioned of some of the Sahaba that clearly were not wearing Ihram, we mentioned some of them last week so Allahu'alam I'm not able to understand and I was not able to find anywhere in the books why some Sahaba were in Ihram and others were not it appears that Al-Mughira was one of those who was not in ihram. Why and how did some of the sahaba do this or not? Allahu'alam. And I haven't found anywhere that discussed this. Allah knows best.

Seerah 64 - The Treaty of Hudaybiyya - Part 3 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. And last lesson, I had reached the point where the Prophet ﷺ and the Quraysh had a back and forth for a number of different emissaries. I think there's an echo in the mic. Where's our brother Adam? Adam? Yeah, we have an echo in the mic if you can fix it. And so we had mentioned the fact that there had been at least three or four back and forths. And now it was the Prophet ﷺ's turn to send somebody of a senior rank. So he offered, he chose Umar ibn al-Khattab. And most likely the reason that he chose Umar was because of the physical strength of Umar. An intimidating personality, a very strong person, and somebody that physically even had the courage to walk into Mecca. So Umar ibn al-Khattab, he said, Ya Rasulullah, I fear that the Quraysh might not accept me as my animosity, my enmity is well known. And I don't have anybody from the tribe of Banu Adi ibn Ka'b, which is his own tribe, to protect me. and he said very clearly, if you wish I will go. He's not backing out, he's not a coward. Nobody can accuse Umar of cowardice. He said, if you wish I will go. But, if you wish then send somebody who's more noble than I. And that is Uthman ibn Affan. Now, this really shows us the true fiqh of Umar. The last person anybody can accuse of cowardice is Umar. Well known. From the day before Islam up until his death, there is nobody more fearless than Umar. and had it been an issue of ego he would have been at the forefront let me go make history so what whatever happens but he is worried that his animosity with the Quraysh will cause the Quraysh not to have a solid treaty with them he's sacrificing his ego for the sake of the Muslims he doesn't want to be in the limelight nobody can accuse Umar of backing down because of you know fear or what not so he says my animosity with the Quraysh meaning they know how angry I am, they know what I've done, they know all of my incidents at Badr and Uhud and who I've killed and what not. So they might even kill me and of course Umar doesn't worry about his life. They might even kill me and so the purpose of sending me which is to have a treaty, which is to enter Mecca will be pointless. So send somebody whom they genuinely look up to without that animosity. And that is Uthman ibn Affan, the noble, the shy. And then of course the main point about Uthman ibn Affan. Who is Uthman ibn Affan? Uthman ibn Affan is the great grandson of Umayyah. And Umayyah and the Hashim were brothers. And so the Banu Umayyah and the Banu Hashim, they are now two competitors amongst the Quraysh. And Uthman was the closest of the Khulafa al-Rashidun after Ali. Obviously Ali is Banu Hashim. Ali is the only Khalifa who is Banu Hashim. From the other three, Uthman was the closest in nasab and lineage. Abu Bakr and Umar were six and eight generations respectively. Six and eight generations. And Uthman was four generations. And Ali was of course grandfather. The grandfather of Ali and the grandfather of Prophet ﷺ. Ali is Banu Hashim. Uthman is Banu Umayyah. And Banu Umayyah and the Banu Hashim are relatively close. Not only that, the Banu Umayyah has amongst them some very powerful people still alive. unlike Banu Adi which is Umar's tribe he is saying nobody is left they have died in, one of them died in Badr and other in Uhud so there's nobody left nobody is going to help me anyway so why don't you send Uthman not only is he, the baggage I have he doesn't have it, also he has his family to protect him in case they attack so Umar radiallahu anhu sacrificed his own spotlight if you like for the sake of the Muslim community and this is not astaghfirullah as some other groups interpret that Umar cowered out. لَحَوْلَ أَخُوْا سَلَبِ اللَّهِ Honestly, really? Umar ibn al-Khattab is gonna chicken out? This is ridiculous to claim that Umar had a spat of fear here. Wallahi, the entire life of Umar demonstrates he was the bravest and perhaps sometimes even foolhardy brave. Meaning, above and beyond what bravery is required, he sacrificed his position for the Muslim community. Also, perhaps the treatment of Khirash. Remember the process of Khirash from Khuza'ah? We talked about that last week. and they hamstrung the camel and they gathered around him. Perhaps Umar said, look, if that's what's gonna happen, then let's find somebody who might actually get the job done. So he thought of Uthman ibn Affan and the Prophet ﷺ then sent Uthman ibn Affan. And as he was entering Mecca, there was of course emissaries or people basically called them envoys or not spies, but I mean protectors, people blocking all of the roads to Mecca. So when he comes in, he went through a road that is called Baldah. Baldah was one of the roads into Mecca. And the group that was there monitoring that road, they stopped Uthman and they mocked him. They told him to get back. They said, we're not gonna negotiate with you. You have no hope of getting into Mecca. And there is no room for negotiation. So he was about to return. But in that group, there was his own cousin. And that is Aban ibn Sa'id ibn al-As. And Uthman ibn Affan. Affan and Sa'id were brothers. Uthman ibn Affan ibn al-Aas ibn Umayyah. Uthman ibn Affan ibn al-Aas ibn Umayyah. And this is Aban ibn Sa'id ibn al-Aas ibn Umayyah. So it's literally his first cousin. And Aban was much older than him. And he was a well-respected figure. When Aban saw how the people were treating his own cousin, perhaps his own heart softened. Or perhaps he respected Uthman from before anyway. So he got out of his own horse, and he took his horse to Uthman, and he said, you ride and I will protect you in Mecca. You will meet whomever you want to meet and I will be your protector. And remember, these were the ways that the Jahili Arabs gave visas. Remember, this was their entrance visa. How was their entrance visa? You need a person to protect you. You need somebody who will say, you're under my aman. I give you my aman and then you can enter the city. So, his cousin said, you know what? I will sponsor you. I'll give you the visa. You're under my protectorship. And to demonstrate this, he put Uthman on his own horse and on his own saddle. And this shows us the honor that Uthman is getting. And he led him into Mecca and he personally took him to meet with all of the other leaders of the Quraysh. And Uthman ibn Affan, he met with Abu Sufyan. Now Abu Sufyan is his direct relative. Abu Sufyan is his father's cousin. Abu Sufyan is from the tribe of Umayyah remember the Umayyah dynasty who founded it who is the founder his son who is Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan Muawiyah is the first Umayyah caliph Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan so Abu Sufyan and Affan are first cousins some basic lineage you should know and that's why by the way in the incident in the fitna in the civil war when Ali was killed Muawiyah sorry when Uthman was killed when Uthman was killed Muawiyah said you have to avenge the death of Uthman and it's as if Muawiyah felt this is Banu Abd al-Sham being harmed and you're Banu Hashim so there was a little bit of a tension and Muawiyah felt responsible that I need to defend my relative Uthman right? so to reiterate Abu Sufyan and Uthman they are uncle nephew but cousin not direct uncle nephew i.e. Affan and Abu Sufyan are cousins, first cousins. And so Muawiyah and Uthman are second cousins. Clear? Muawiyah and Uthman are second cousins. So he meets his uncle Abu Sufyan, he meets the other leaders of the Quraysh, and none of them basically allow the Muslims to come this year. And they've already agreed that they're not going to enter this year, and they say the same phrase. Each one of them says the same phrase. let not the Arabs say that they had the upper hand over us let not the Arabs say that we were forced to let them in also the Prophet ﷺ told Uthman that if he is able to get to Mecca then he should meet all of the Muslim converts who were in dire situations, who were trapped and tell them that Allah is aware of their situation and Allah will make a way out for them soon so Uthman met some of the Muslim converts who were in chains who were being persecuted and this shows us and of course the treaty of Hodebi has a very famous convert who was in chains we'll mention him today this shows us that there were a group of Muslims who had not yet been able to migrate to Medina not because they didn't want to but because they were being tortured and persecuted and they didn't have the means to migrate to Medina so Uthman was sent specifically as well that if you manage to get in make sure you tell them Allah Azza wa Jal will give them a way out soon. So in the whole negotiations, it took much longer than was to be expected. For whatever reasons, most likely to arrange with Abu Sufyan, with Safwan, with Safwan ibn Umayyah, with all of the major leaders, it's not gonna be something easy. Maybe each one of them gave half hour, 45 minutes, whatever time slot. So we can imagine, we don't know exact timings. I wish we had more details. As you know, one of the big problems of the seerah, simple narrations. how long did it take? we have no idea but realistically it probably took up the better part of a whole day maybe Uthman went in the morning and up until Asr time no news is coming and that's way beyond what anybody would have expected for a quick meeting and a return you would have expected it takes you know one hour, one and a half hour for it to take nine, ten hours for whatever reason this is something that's and no news like Uthman goes in and it's a black box nobody knows what's happening so it is understandable how and why some of the people panicked and small rumors began getting bigger and bigger, just like is the case in every society, in every situation. If one buddy says something, then it begins rolling and gathering moss or gathering steam, whatever you want to say, until it becomes almost like a solid fact. And again, the details we have no idea, but it is pretty self-evident. Somebody would have said, what if he's been killed? What if they killed him? And then that one thing, somebody else took it, and it goes, most likely they killed him. Then as it gets later, for sure they must have killed him, right? That small thing, bigger and bigger, until finally there was this premonition, there was this dread amongst the Muslims, after all it's been so many hours, he has not come back, then what has happened? So therefore, the news kind of sort of was accepted as a fact, because Uthman kept on being delayed, because he didn't come back, until finally there was this notion amongst all of the Muslims that he must have been killed. Surely, if he were alive, he would have come back by now. And they're not going to keep him prisoner because he's too noble to keep as a prisoner. You're either going to kill him or you're going to let him go back. So when the rumors spread to the Prophet ﷺ, and it appeared that the Muslims were kind of sort of made up their minds, this must be the case. He then said, we will not leave until we exact revenge upon them. We're not going to let this go. This is simply too much. We send an emissary, one of their own, and this is what they do. So he says, we are not going to leave until we exact revenge and we fight them. Now, look at the circumstance. They're 1400 and the Quraysh are at least triple this amount. They are tired having traveled from Medina and the Quraysh are full rested. They are hungry, water is low. Additionally, their animals are tired. They don't have riding horses. The Quraysh are fresh in their houses. armor, weapons, unlimited supply food, unlimited supply the Muslims, everything is limited supply and most importantly they didn't come prepared for battle even if we say and this does seem to be the case that the Prophet ﷺ had some armor and some weapons it wasn't an actual war preparation it wasn't as if they were going to Uhud or to the Khandaq where they're actually dressing up they're making sure they have the arms no, this was an Umrah trip And maybe they might have had some weapons on some caravan, but they definitely did not have weapons that were suitable for an all-out war. And so, when the Prophet ﷺ is calling them for a battle, this really is almost certain death. Because you're outnumbered, you're outmaneuvered, you're outflanked, everything. And of course, this is why this oath is so important in our religion, that Allah and His Messenger have both praised this oath immensely. and a crier was sent out to all of the Muslims saying that Jibreel has come down. The Ruhul Qudus has come down to the Prophet ﷺ and he is calling you to give the allegiance to him. So Jibreel himself was sent down. Now of course Allah knows that Uthman is well alive. But this was a test for the believers to see if they would give their oath to the Prophet ﷺ or not. So the crier went out that Jibreel has come down, Ruhul Qudus is here and the Prophet ﷺ is calling all of you for an oath and a pledge to fight the Quraysh and not turn back. The pledge was that they do not turn back, which means they die in battle. They don't flee from the battlefield. If they have to, they will die, but they're not gonna turn around and run away. And this was the oath of allegiance, which eventually became called the Bay'at al-Ridwan, or the oath of pleasure. Ridwan is pleasure. And why is it called the oath of Ridwan? because Allah revealed in Surah Al-Fatah verse 18, لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايُعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ Allah is well pleased with the believers when they give you their oath under the tree. لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ So رضي الله بَيْعَةَ الرِّضْوَانِ It is the oath of Ridwan. And the Prophet ﷺ was sitting under a tree and Allah mentions this tree in the Quran, إِذْ يُبَايُعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ Under the tree. So the reference to the tree is even in the Quran. And the Prophet ﷺ took the oath of allegiance from all of the people except for, it is said, one hypocrite who when the crier came, he jumped behind his camel and basically crouched under the shade of his camel so nobody would see him. But Allah exposed him in the Quran and it is well known, even know his name, who this person was. So this was the hypocrite who refused, he was scared to fight now. And some say this is the same person that we already mentioned, that Allah has forgiven everyone except for the owner of the red camel. Some say this was the same person, that this was that hypocrite. And when all of the Sahaba had finished the bay'ah, the oath, the Prophet ﷺ then in front of all of the Sahaba, he took his left hand and he said, this is for Uthman. And he put it in his right hand and he took the oath on behalf of Uthman ibn Affan. رضي الله تعالى عنه So, this is called the Bay'at-ur-Ridwan. And obviously it shows us here the bravery of the Sahaba, unarmed, defenseless, traveling, not having all of the weapons, fighting the people that are arrested, healthy, firm, lots of supplies, and they're willing to fight until death. Until basically the end is met. And that is why the people who swore allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ on Bay'at-ur-Ridwan are given a status that is second only to Badr. only to Badr, as a whole group. Of course, above Badr, there are individuals. And those individuals are the ten. Above Badr, there's simple individuals. And those are the ten promised jannah. But generically as a group, the highest group that has been praised by the Prophet ﷺ are the Badriyun, the people of Badr. And then the second highest group are Bayat al-Ridwan. And there are so many ayat and hadith, all of Surah Al-Fatah, and inshaAllah, if not next week, the week after that, we'll summarize them, ayat of Surah Al-Fatah as a commentary. As we know, it's my methodology to try to bring in the Quran as much as possible. We did this for Badr and Uhud and Ahzab. We'll also do this inshallah for Hudaybiyyah. The Surah Al-Fatah was all revealed for Hudaybiyyah. And many references are for Hudaybiyyah. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran, رضي الله عن المؤمنين Allah is pleased with them. And Allah says, عَلِمَ اللَّهُ مَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ Allah knows what was in their hearts. And this is the highest testification that none of them were cowards. None of them were hiding. Allah knew their hearts were ready to do everything. So Allah says, فَأَنزَلَ السَّكِينَةَ عَلَيْهِمْ Allah has revealed the sakinah. And Allah Azzawajal says that, يَدُ اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِهِمْ Allah's hand is above their hand. So you see the process in hand is like this. And the sahaba, what they do is they put it on top. And they hold the hand of the processor with both of their hands. And they swear a special oath. Ya Rasulullah, we will fight behind you and we will not abandon, we will not flee. So Allah is saying that it wasn't just their hand was in your hand, but rather Allah's hand was above their hands. يَدُوا اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ And we affirm that Allah's yad was above their yad in a manner that befits Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But what a praise for these sahaba. What a praise. Imagine Allah is saying, they didn't just give you the oath. they were giving the oath directly to me يَدُ اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ يَدُ اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ what a blessing those sahaba had what a great honor that they had that they took the oath of allegiance directly in the hands of Rasulullah ﷺ and Allah is saying it's not just your hand my yad was above their yad and the Prophet ﷺ said to them at that time he said أَنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أَهْلِ الْأَرْضِ you are the best people on earth right now you are the best people on earth none of the people of earth are better than you and in one hadith he said after he went back to Medina he said that no one who has given the bay'atul ridwan shall ever enter the fire of hell none of those people shall ever touch the fire of hell and this hadith is in sahih muslim none of those people shall ever touch the fire of hell and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala therefore gave them a good, a glad tidings and he said that Allah عز و جل will give you ghanima that وَبُشْرَةُ حِبُّونَ Allah will give you a good bushra and a ghanima وَفَتْحٌ كَبِيرٌ and a major victory and we will discuss what is this ghanima and what is this major victory this is the battle of khaybar and again there is a lot of simple misunderstanding when people read surah al-fatah they think this is fatih makkah and this is the biggest misunderstanding no, fatih makkah has nothing to do with surah al-fatah at this stage Surah Al-Fatah came down before the Fatah Makkah and the Fatah of Hudaybiyah was a different Fatah that was a prelude to the Fatah Makkah so Surah Al-Fatah is related to Hudaybiyah and Allah says in Surah Al-Fatah that I'm gonna give you Ghanima I'm gonna give you a victory and a Ghanima Ghanima means lots of war booty and very soon in fact the very next seerah lessons the 3-4 lessons from now we're gonna be talking about the biggest monetary victory for the Muslims ever since the beginning of Islam, and that is the conquest of Khaybar. The conquest of Khaybar changed the financial situation for the entire ummah. And Allah says, that's the ghanima and the fath that's going to happen. And this shows us a direct correlation, we've said this from the beginning. When you stand up for Allah, and you put your trust in Allah, Allah gives you back much more. In this dunya before the next. Even in this dunya before the next. We've seen this throughout the seerah. The battle of Badr, when they went out to the battle of Badr, Allah says, I'll give you one of the two good things. Allah ended up giving both of them. I'll give you both the victory and the caravan. Next year they got the whole caravan. We talked about this when we talked about it. The same over here, that when those people showed their bravery, these sahaba, Allah Azzawajal, after they showed it, when they showed it, they don't know what's gonna happen. They think they're facing death. And Allah Azzawajal on the way back said, Allah is well pleased with you. لَقَضْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ Allah is well pleased with you فَعَلِمَ مَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ فَأَثَابَهُمْ فَتْحًا قَرِيبًا وَمَغَانِمَ كَثِيرَةً يَأْخُذُونَهَا and a lot of مَغَانِمَ you will take a lot of booty and this was the largest غَنِيمَ that they ever took down in the history of Islam because there was going to be one bigger thing and that is after that is حُنَيْن that's one bigger غَنِيمَ after that after the conquest of Mecca but in the history of the seerah the conquest of Khaybar is definitely of the top two ghanibas that they got. Now, also over here we see in this incident, the great blessings of Uthman. That subhanallah, what an honor. The sahaba had a great honor. Wallahi they had an honor that should make us cry out of positive jealousy. We're allowed to have positive jealousy. That they got to have the yad of the Prophet ﷺ in their hands and they're giving bay'ah. But Uthman had an even higher honor. Because the Prophet ﷺ represented Uthman with his own body and his own hand. How much more noble do you want? He said, this is the hand of Uthman. Meaning, if Uthman had been here, this is what he would have done. But since he's not here, let me stand in his place. Think about that. Let me stand in his place. Let me pretend to be Uthman. and I will give the oath on behalf of Uthman. Here you have Rasulullah ﷺ testifying for Uthman. How can anybody utter one word against this man? Wallahi anybody, anybody who says anything about Uthman, in his heart there is nifaq. Wallahi alladhi la ilaha illa hu. Anybody who says anything about Uthman, he cannot have genuine love of Allah in his messenger. It's not possible. When the Prophet ﷺ is saying, This is the hand of Uthman. Then you are insulting the hand of the Prophet ﷺ when you criticize Uthman. Because he took his place, and he said, this is for Uthman's. And he gave the oath of allegiance to himself. Imagine, on behalf of Uthman. رضي الله تعالى عنه And subhanallah, the bitterness about Uthman is nothing new. This goes back to the very earliest, the Kharijites. The first group to criticize Uthman and eventually kill him, were who? The Kharijites, right? And we have in Sahih Bukhari, A beautiful narration that illustrates, this is nothing new. In Sahih al-Bukhari we have, one of the Kharijites came from Masr. And the Kharijites, some of them were from Iraq, some of them were from Masr. And he went to do Hajj. And he saw a large gathering around an old man. So he said, who is this man? So they told him, this is Abdullah ibn Umar. Abdullah ibn Umar. So he made his way through the crowd, and he said, oh ibn Umar, I have some questions to ask you. And it was their methodology to be rude, interrupt every gathering, the harshness that we still find presence in some groups, and the type of overzealousness and fanaticism that we find. This all goes back to the khawarij. Oh Ibn Umar, I have some questions to ask you. Ibn Umar says, go ahead, ask. I ask you by Allah, did Uthman turn his back and run away at Uhud? Uthman is the khalifa, right? And he's trying to find fault with Uthman. Eventually him and his group are gonna kill Uthman. Right now he's alive. did Uthman turn his back and run away from Uhud in the battle of Uhud Ibn Umar says you ask me by Allah I answer you yes he did so the man said was Uthman absent at Badr he said you ask me by Allah I will answer you yes he was absent at Badr the man said and was he missing at Ridwan Bayat Ridwan so Ibn Umar said you ask me by Allah I tell you he was missing at Ridwan so the man said Allahu Akbar happy, I got all that I wanted turned around and walked away Ibn Umar said come back here come back here as for your first question yes Uthman fled Uhud but Allah testified in Surah Al-Imran that Allah has forgiven them Allah has forgiven them and so I testify that he is forgiven as for your second question that he didn't participate at Badr. Then he was married to Ruqayya binti Muhammad s.a.w. And the Prophet s.a.w. commanded him to stay in Medina. And he got a share of the booty. He is considered a Badri, hukman. Uthman has the rare honor of being considered a Badri even though he wasn't at Badr because he was obeying the Prophet s.a.w. by remaining behind. And you know Ruqayya died when he came back, right? So Ruqayya was, this was the death of Ruqayya. She was deathly ill. She was on her deathbed. I mean, of course, in this situation, you know, he was told to remain. We covered this when we covered it. And as for your third question, what a fool, wallahi, what a fool. Bay'ah to Ridwan, Uthman wasn't there. Ibn Umar said, Ridwan only occurred because of Uthman. The whole Bay'ah was because of Uthman. And the Prophet ﷺ used his own hand to take the oath on behalf of Uthman so go back now with all of this to your people tell them this what I'm telling you and this shows us the blessings of Uthman Ibn Affan and the fact that the criticisms about him and I've given a long talk about Uthman which unfortunately I think was not recorded but it was a detailed talk about his assassination and what the complaints were and the blessings of Uthman Uthman Ibn Affan radiallahu ta'ala an and there are so many hadith we have enough that the Prophet ﷺ said should I not be ashamed and shy of somebody even the angels are shy of him this hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim that even the angels are shy of Uthman he's such a humble and a meek and a noble person I'm awkward around him even the angels are awkward around him can you imagine the angels feel they have to be a little bit extra around Uthman can you imagine who is this man right and so anybody who criticizes Uthman Wallahi the person really is a jahil And more than just a jahil So also we have over here That 1400 sahaba They gave the Bayat al-Ridwan They participated in Bayat al-Ridwan And the bulk of the famous sahaba Were here Abu Bakr and Umar and Ali And all of the famous sahaba And all of them And this is one of the most explicit And there are like a million evidences that we believe as Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama'ah that the Sahaba are worthy of our ultimate respect. This is the fundamental cornerstone of Sunni Islam. What does Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama'ah mean? The group who follow the Sunnah and the Jama'ah. The Jama'ah are who? Number one, they are the Sahaba. And this is what separated us from day one from the other groups. The Kharijites, the Mu'tazilites, and the other group, they all said we're not gonna respect the Sahaba. And this is what separated us from all of the other groups in the beginning of Islam. And this incident, بَيْعَةَ رِضْوَانَ is but one of like a million evidences. Literally the Quran and Sunnah, common sense, reason, logic, everything tells you that the Sahaba have the highest maqam. And if you're gonna ridicule the Sahaba, you have no religion left. Because who gave you the Quran? And who gave you the Sunnah? Other than the Sahaba. You have no knowledge of the Quran and of Islam except through the Sahaba. And as one of the famous imams of the past said, if you were to ask the Jews who are the most righteous people, they will say, the 70 who accompanied Moses on Turi Sayna. And if you were to ask the Christians who are the most righteous people, they will say, the 12 disciples who accompanied Jesus Christ. If you were to ask that other group who are the worst and the most vilest and the scum of all of mankind, that other group will say, those who accompanied the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Wallahi it doesn't even make logical sense Right? Think about it By common sense Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Will choose the best people to be around The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam And anybody who disagrees Wallahi they have to deal with Allah azawajal on the day of judgment In this world we can only make dua for them And you know have logical debates Other than that It is up to Allah azawajal to deal with them The point being that Bayat al-Ridwan and the ayat And the ahadith of Bayat al-Ridwan even if you reject hadith, what are you going to do with surah al-fatah? لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايُعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ How can you deny the Quran? It's right there in the Quran. When all of the sahaba gave bay'ah under the tree, and Allah says, لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ And that is why we as Sunni Muslims, we say, رَضِيَ اللَّهُ Whenever we mention a sahabi, what do we say? أَبُو بَكَرْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْ عُمَرْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْ Where do we get it from? There's at least a dozen times, رَضِيَ اللَّهُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ And here we have in surah al-fatah. And Abu Bakr was there, Umar was there, Uthman, he wasn't there but the Prophet ﷺ was there, Ali was there, Abdur Rahman ibn Auf was there, all of the major Sahaba were there, how can anybody again criticize the Sahaba? Another interesting point before we move on again, all of this is just related to Bay'at-e-Ridwan, is the issue of the tree itself, some interesting things about the tree itself. as for which tree it was I mean it was a land which had lots of little shrubs and trees over there it is narrated that one or two of the sahaba they might have remembered the tree it is said that Jabir ibn Abdullah and Jabir, we all know the story of Jabir and the story of Jabir and the camel we did the whole halaq on that Jabir ibn Abdullah who was still a young man at the time he's probably around 19 now or 20 so Jabir lives a very long life and he's over 80 years old when he dies 78, sorry something when he dies and eventually he becomes blind so one of those years when he's blind so very late on, he's narrating these incidents and then he says as he's blind he says, if only I could see and if I had eyes I would show you exactly that tree that we sat under now that tree is significant because Allah mentions it and the Prophet ﷺ sat there for so long, you know, getting the bay'ah, so clearly there's a lot of history attached to that tree. At the same time, it does look like the majority of sahaba really could not identify the tree for one simple reason, and that is that there were so many other trees, and if you come the next year, I mean, wallahi, you guys try this as well, that, you know, go to a wood or a plain, if you come back in a year, everything looks pretty much exactly the same, or one tree cannot be told apart. And it is authentically narrated in Sahih Bukhari that one of the companions said, when we got there, you know, the next year later on, the next year, we tried to find that tree, but no two of us could agree which tree it was. And this is human nature, right? One person can say, no, this was it. No, no, no, this one looks more like, no, this, it's human nature. You have 50 trees in the vicinity, and each one will have a slightly different memory. And, it is authentically narrated that within a decade or so, after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, the Bedouins, and the new converts to Islam, they began venerating the tree. And they built a masjid at that tree. even though, I mean, which tree was it? But they built a masjid, mashallah, they built a masjid. And it is narrated that one of the taba tabi'un, so this is taba tabi'un, he saw this masjid in the middle of nowhere, because this is outside Mecca, there is no civilization, there is no people living there. And he sees the people congregating in this masjid, he asked them, what is this masjid? They said, this is the masjid, this is the tree that the Prophet ﷺ gave the bay'ah to Ridwan, he took the bay'ah to Ridwan. So he went back to Mecca and there was Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib. And Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib is one of the leaders of the Tabi'un. He's one of the most knowledgeable scholars. He's the student of Ibn Abbas. And he's a Meccan. He's a person residing in Mecca. And Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said, My father was of those who took Bay'at al-Ridwan. My father was of those who took Bay'at al-Ridwan. And he and his companions could not figure out which tree it was. are you telling me that your companions meaning mocking this person are you telling me your companions know better than the sahaba and wallahi what a powerful statement here my father was there and these people that are praying they have no clue and you're telling me they know more than my father knew and the sahaba knew and in the musanaf abdu razaq with an authentic isnad and this is a very important point and I have looked this up myself and teach classes about this so it's a very important issue theological issue Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala news reached him that the Bedouins had built a masjid there or that they were venerating the tree some of them were like rubbing their backs on it you know for you know getting some blessings and what not and so he chastised them and he commanded that the tree they were venerating be cut down and chopped not that that was the actual tree even because that was their imagination, right? Nobody knows which tree it was, but that he ordered that it be cut down and chopped. Now, this incident is a whole different tangent, and it's a very important tangent, I'll just summarize it very quickly, and that is the whole issue of venerating places, or venerating icons or objects, that some people might believe to be sacred. You see, we have here a tension between ignorant or superstitious or emotional practices on the one side and authentic academic knowledge based Islam on the other. And this tension is nothing new. We still have it to this day. And I can give you a million examples and all of you know of a million examples in your own family and friends and what not. There is this tension between the emotional side, I want to do something. The tree here, the Prophet ﷺ sat under it, even if he did sit under it, even if he did, what are you gonna do? Prostrate down to it or what? You see, this was the fiqh of Umar. This generation, they were simply rubbing their backs and building a masjid. If this is what's happening when Umar is alive, what do you think will happen in 100, 200, 1000 years? وَاللَّهِ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّهُ If Umar had not done his job and it left, whether it would now be an idol that is worshipped besides Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In fact, what is an idol other than taking a holy place or a holy person or a holy saint and making them bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And all you need to do is to look at the bulk of so many places around the Muslim world in India and Pakistan, in Bangladesh, in Egypt, in Algeria, in Tunisia, so many places. And one finds the grave of a righteous person, right? The mazar, the dharih and people go there and some people are doing things that are relatively okay, making dua to Allah that's fine, okay, others sajda to the grave, tawaf around the grave, making dua to the grave ya jilani, ya madad ya ali madad, ya abdul qadir this is subhanallah unbelievable, right and where does it all start, this notion that this person is sacred now, what is the grave of abdul qadir al-jilani compared to the tree that the Prophet ﷺ sat under. Think about that. Can anybody compare the grave of any righteous person with the very tree that is mentioned in the Qur'an? إِذْ يُبَايُعُونَكَ تَحْتَى الشَّجَرَةِ Allah mentions it. And the Prophet ﷺ sat there for at least a solid hour. How long is it going to take? 1400 people individually giving the bay'ah. Even if you say 20-30 seconds. I mean you do the math, right? Subhanallah, quite a while he's sitting there with his back to the tree under the shade. And then I ask you, if you knew that that tree was right there, which of these two groups would me and you fall under? Allah is easy to criticize, but put yourself in their shoes, right? Which one would you fall under? And this shows us the difference between emotionalism and between academic Islam. Our religion is not based on feelings. Our religion is based upon what Allah and His Messenger have told us to do. and they did not tell us to venerate any land or any site or any icon other than Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem. These are the three holy lands. Now, as for the remnants of the Prophet ﷺ or the athar of his wudu or what not, this is something he allowed. And we mentioned in Hudaybiyah as well that when he would do wudu, the Sahaba did this. So we say, if Allah had blessed us to be alive when the Prophet ﷺ was alive, then the remnants of his wudu yes, but not where he sat under a tree, and the Sahaba understood this distinction, right not where he sat under a tree, this was not something that the Sahaba did, in any case, that is an interesting theological point here, and it shows us that this tension between basically mystical Islam, if you like, and between academic Islam, who were the mystical Muslims at the time, these were the ignorant Bedouins, right they feel they have to do something and the more academically inclined, which were basically all of the Sahaba all of them, they're like what are you guys doing? you're gonna sit under a tree and rub your back on it? none of the sahaba did that and this shows us as well that if we are going to visit any site of early Islam, we go for historical reasons, not for what is called baraka or tabarruk, we go for historical reasons, yes if we knew that that was the true, we go and we take ibra, we take a lesson from it and we remember these ayat of surah al-fata we go to the battle of badr, the location and we remember this was where badr took place But we don't take some sand and think it is holy. Right? We go to Ghari Hira, and we simply are odd. And my humble opinion, by the way, there's no problem going to Ghari Hira. Some of the scholars are ultra strict, and I understand that strictness. And they say, you should not go to Hira. Why? Because of these types of reasons. And I understand that strictness. But in my opinion, if you go with the right niyyah, you're not going to venerate Hira. You're not going to venerate Badr. You're going so that the history of that area seeps into your heart. So that you are overwhelmed at, my god this is where iqra came down so you feel a sense of awe but you realize that the rocks there are not something you're gonna touch you're not gonna take a piece and then bring it back here subhanallah what is idolatry other than taking a piece of rock somewhere and then putting it in the masjid putting it here putting it there that's not what we do so in my opinion this is a very good example of what happens when emotionalism is left unchecked and who can accuse umar ibn al khattab of being somebody who doesn't love the prophet Because you see the tension we have in our culture especially. If you start talking like this, they will label you. They will label you. Either they'll call you what? What does it call you? Well, Vahabi. Okay, that's Vahabi is there. But they give you also the one who hates the Prophet. Astaghfirullah. What is it? Ghushtaq. What is it? Ghushtaq. Okay, so Ghushtaq. I don't even know this word. Ghushtaq means what? The one who hates? Insulting. Anybody who insults the Prophet is not a Muslim. anybody who insults the Prophet ﷺ is not a Muslim but their veneration of the Prophet ﷺ is something the Prophet ﷺ himself would have rejected and so these extreme groups they have kind of sort of the kernel has been around from the Bedouins and you can see this tension is not new it has been there from the very beginning anyway back to Hudaybiyah so when the news finally reached the Muslims that Uthman was walking back, was on his way back so Uthman the news by the way of the treaty of Ridwan reached Mecca so the Quraysh heard that the Muslims have taken a treaty so we don't know but most likely they must have kind of panicked and sent Uthman back faster or expedited or what not that okay everything is fine with your companion they sent him back so when they sent Uthman back and the Muslims got the emissary that he is coming so some of them they said Uthman oh how lucky he is he must have gone inside of Mecca, so he must have done the tawaf as well. At least he got to do that. Here we are, stuck here outside waiting for, perhaps, perhaps, we have no idea, perhaps around 4 or 5 days had gone since they're waiting at Hudaybiyah. And again, I try to look up as many riwayat, we don't know how many days this back and forth is taking place. Perhaps 4 or 5 days, maybe even more. So, they said, how lucky is Uthman, he must have gone and done the tawaf because he was able to enter Mecca protected. But the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, I don't think he's going to do the tawaf. How can he do the tawaf when we have not done the tawaf? Meaning, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam realized, Uthman's adab and Uthman's respect would not allow him to do something the other Muslims were not doing. But the other Muslims, they just assumed, they basically said, why would he not? Why wouldn't he do when he's been protected and he's been allowed to go? Now, another thing we notice here, Subhanallah, how eager they are to see the Ka'bah. How eager, they've been deprived from their home, they've been kicked out, and they're missing the tawaf and the umrah so much. And they're feeling jealous. Uthman must have gotten there, and we're out here. Really look at, they wanted to respect the sha'ir of Allah, the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. How excited are we to go see the Ka'bah. And here they are, they're just like, he must have gone, he must have gone and the Prophet ﷺ said, no, I don't think he's going to do that and when they saw him return they surrounded him and one of them kind of sarcastically remarked have you satisfied yourself now with the Ka'bah, khalas, like you're done you did everything you wanted to do after having done the tawaf, to which he replied what an evil thought you had of me did you think that I would do tawaf while the Prophet ﷺ is still here, wallahi if I stayed in Mecca for one year, I would not do tawaf until the Prophet ﷺ did it before me. Subhanallah. And here again we have the defense of the Prophet ﷺ of Uthman. لَا أَظُنُّهُ يَفْعَلْ I don't think he's gonna do that. That's not the nature of Uthman. For him to do tawaf, when we are all here, he wouldn't be the one, you know, and this shows us obviously the respect that the Sahaba and especially Uthman gave to the Prophet ﷺ. How can I do tawaf when the Prophet ﷺ is stuck outside? How unfair and unjust and cruel would that be? That I'm going and getting the luxury when Rasulullah ﷺ is deprived outside? Wallahi, if they kept me for a year, I wouldn't do tawaf until they let the Prophet ﷺ do tawaf. And again, this shows us, once again, it shows us what? The blessings of Uthman ibn Affan r.a. And according to Al-Bayhaqi in his dalail, in one of the books of the dalail, he mentions that when the news reached the Quraysh about the bay'at al-Ridwan, they trembled. they got scared and what does that show you a small group of Muslims right, not unarmed but not as armed as well as they are tired and what not but they have Iman and they can cause the mighty tribe of the Quraish to tremble in their houses, they got scared and this was why they decided we need to negotiate before they do something this was why they decided we need to have some treaty and so they sent an official delegation and initially they sent somebody by the name of Mikraz ibn Hafs Mikraz ibn Hafs and it appears that this was just a quick sending they hadn't really thought things through in that Mikraz did not really have a plan or an agenda and when the Prophet ﷺ saw Mikraz he said to the Sahaba that this Mikraz is an evil man Rajul Usu, he's a bad person and this is not going to be working for us. And when Mikraz approached, he and the process began negotiating but there was simply no terms for negotiation. Each Mikraz was giving conditions and what not that simply were not acceptable to anybody. And as they were talking and the negotiation was completely stalled then from the distance appeared the final delegation. And this was the delegation that would solve basically the problems. And there were three people in that delegation. And the senior person amongst them and the main person was none other than Suhail ibn Amr. Suhail ibn Amr. And when the Prophet ﷺ saw Suhail, he said, قَدْ جَاءَ سُهَيْلَ سَهُولَ عَلَيْكُمْ أَمْرُكُمْ Suhail has come. And Suhail comes from the verb سَهُولَ And سَهُولَ means to make things easy. So Suhail has come. Allah has made things easy for you now. Through Suhail, Sahil will be reached. And Sahil means ease and opening. And this leads us to another theological point, and that is the issue of good omens. Good omens. Positive omens. And this one phrase shows us what does it mean to have a good omen. Our Prophet ﷺ said, that there's no such thing as superstitions, as bad omens. لَا عَدْوَى وَلَا طِيرَةَ وَلَا هَامَّةَ All of these bad omens, like in our world, bad omens are like Friday the 13th, or a black cat, or breaking glass, or an upside down horseshoe, or all of these things, you know. And then good omens are four leaf clover. All of these things that our culture is familiar with. And of course, every culture has these types of things. So, the Prophet ﷺ said, all of these things don't exist. لَا عَدْوَى وَلَا طِيرَةَ وَلَا هَامَّةَ They don't even exist. and in one hadith he said that believing in omens is a type of shirk if you believe a black cat is going to harm you if it crosses your path you have some serious theological issues so the Prophet ﷺ said this is all shirk, there is nothing like this then he said but I like positive optimism I like good omens so they asked him what do you mean by al-fa'al he says a good word or a good phrase that somebody hears. This hadith is in Bukhari. Now, what does this mean? So let's give an example that is easier or clearer to understand. A good omen is to read in, there's two conditions. Number one, a positive sign. A positive message. Number two, that is linked to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. if these two conditions are met then a good omen is recommended and it is something that is a part of our religion and a good omen is nothing other than being optimistic in Allah that's really what it is a good omen is being optimistic in Allah and an example of a good omen that perhaps our culture will understand and I can assure you this example has never been found in any book of fiqh because this is a culturally relevant example. If one of us is making dua on a cloudy day, and we're making dua, we're making dua, we're making dua. Then we open our eyes, and we look out the window, and we see a beautiful rainbow. If we say, this is a sign from Allah that I should cheer up, and that my dua will be answered. there is nothing wrong with that in fact it's good the Prophet said I like al-fa'al yu'jibun al-fa'al why is there nothing wrong with that because shouldn't we already be thinking that Allah will give us what we want optimism and iman so anything that boosts that optimism anything is something that is jahiz it is mustahab in fact you should always be optimistic so anything that you read as a sign as a positive sign suppose it was cloudy you make dua and the sun comes so the sun is a type of brightness so your heart always feels happier when you see the sun after a cloudy day it's like your heart goes up if you say oh this is a sign that my problems will diminish like the clouds and the help of Allah like the sun will come in upon me no problem it's okay in fact it's good you ajibuni al fa'al And one of the examples of the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ is exactly here. Suhail comes from the root that means to make things easy. And when Suhail came, the Prophet ﷺ said, Suhail has come, Allah has made things easy for you. So he derived a positive omen. That khalas, this is good news now. That Suhail is coming and our matters will be made easy for us. and in fact that's exactly what happened that when Suhail came finally the impasse was broken right the multi days keep on going finally it is broken and there are so many other things that are said one of the examples that one of the sahaba gave so there's a name in Arabic called wajid and wajid means wajada the one who finds so one of the sahaba said imagine you lost or you lose something and you're trying to find it then somebody calls out to his friend ya wajid Ya Wajid. And you hear that and you take this as a good sign. I will be the Wajid. Does that make sense to you? I will find what I want to find. Because Wajid linguistically means the one who finds. And somebody is calling his friend who is called Wajid. Hey Wajid, come here. And then the man who is trying to find something, a lost item, he says this is a sign from Allah. I'm gonna be the Wajid now. I will find my thing. This is an example, again, in our culture I give you some other examples. My point being, whatever you read in a positive sign, that Allah is sending a positive sign to me, that inshaAllah my problems will be solved, inshaAllah my dua will be answered, inshaAllah my sickness will be cured, whatever positive sign. Two conditions. Number one is positive. There is no such thing as negative. So if you're making dua, and then there's a thunder, don't think that this is a sign that Allah has rejected my dua. Doesn't work that way. Okay? There's no opposite, okay? And then of course the second sign, or the second condition, you must link it to Allah. And this is one of the biggest problems of all of our bad luck things that we have. It's not even linked to Allah عز و جل. Bad luck from a cat crossing your path? Come on. I mean how foolish is this, right? Where is that coming from? So, only positive and then linked to Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى. Any case, there's a lot of fiqh and theology to be right from Hudaybiyah, so I have to go into these tangents. Now back to Hudaybiyah. Where were we? Okay, so Suhail comes. Before we even move on. Who is Suhail? And what is the story of Suhail? So Suhail, well firstly he is the highest level delegate sent in Hudaybiyah. Everybody else is relatively low level. And Suhail is the highest level that has been sent. And he is one of those who is a member of the Nadi. Basically he is an MP, he is a member of the parliament. You know the Quraish they had their Nadi, they had their little group of leaders and what not. Suhail is a member of that little clique, that little group. So clearly this is a politician coming now, not one of these emissaries, not some messenger. This is a man who has been delegated with authority, Suhail ibn Amr. And Suhail ibn Amr is one of the high profile members of the Quraysh. And remember that at the battle of Badr, when Suhail was a prisoner of war, and he was brought into the house of the Prophet ﷺ. Remember some prisoners were even brought to the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And I commented, where in the history of humanity, has the leader ever housed a prisoner of war in his own house. The one and only time in the history of the world is the Prophet ﷺ. The elite members of the Quraysh, he housed them in his own house. And number one amongst them was Suhail ibn Amr. Right? And remember when one of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, she went back, she came rushing back home. This was before hijab had been revealed. So there is no hijab at the time. She comes rushing back and she sees Suhail ibn Amr, his hands tied to his neck. And that's how they tied prisoners of war. And she kind of slipped. Right? And what did she say who remembers? Oh, you who takes notes. You should have killed yourself? It would have been more befitting. Like, why are you embarrassing us by being a prisoner of war? Would have been better for you to be dead than I see you like this. In other words, like seeing somebody as noble as Suhail, in the days of Jahiliyyah, now a prisoner of war with his hands tied, she kind of slipped. And she said, you're humiliating us by being a POW, right? You see the point here, right? And the Prophet ﷺ turned at her and said, are you taking sides against Allah and His Messenger? Then she snapped out of it. And she said, Ya Rasulullah, I didn't understand. It's a slip, sometimes like you know, but the point being, the image of Suhail as a POW, right? and her shock shows us what? The status of Suhail. That's what I'm trying to get across to you, right? The status of Suhail as being somebody that was greatly respected amongst the Quraysh. In fact, he was called Khatib al-Quraysh. Khatib al-Quraysh because he was the most powerful orator. And he was the most eloquent in their nadi. That he was, when it comes to debate, when it comes to negotiation, he was the man. That's why he's being chosen here. that's why he's being chosen here he knows what to say and how to say it and that is why if you remember we go back to the battle of Badr Umar when he saw Suhail captured he said ya Rasulullah let me cut his tongue off so that he doesn't speak against us again so he has a long history of saying some very powerful things right and what did the Prophet ﷺ say who remembers he said the Prophet ﷺ said that this same person He did say that, but he said something else as well. He said, I am a prophet and we have not been commanded to mutilate people. It's not our sharia to mutilate. We don't cut people's tongues off. That's not our sharia, right? So, he forbade him to do that. Then he turned to Umar and he said, and perhaps one day he will say something that will please you. There's a type of prediction here. right now you're taking sides the time will come he might flip and say something that will please you and this shows us that Suhail and this is an amazing thing we mentioned this last week and this is a constant theme of the whole seerah that I'm teaching you because fact of the matter is we do have quite a lot of Muslims they have this black and white view that anybody who's a kafir has got to be evil to the core and this is simply false from the seerah and from a human psychological point of view. Every one of us interacts with non-Muslims. They're honest, they're upright, they're generous, they're kind. Some of them would defend our rights and their rights even if they meant at a great expense. Some of them would even die fighting for a noble cause. And this is a reality you cannot deny. Anybody who lives amongst non-Muslims, only those who have no clue, they can spout this radical black and white world view. Here we have Suhail that no doubt he is a kafir at this point in time. Yet deep down inside him, there is a kernel of good. And Suhail was an enemy of Allah and His Messenger at this point in time. In fact, he participated in Badr, and in Uhud, and in Khandaq. Yani all of the major battles. And perhaps the only person more senior to him was Abu Sufyan in terms of actual nobility. Yet deep down inside, there was some good in him. And the Prophet ﷺ recognized this. Umar did not. Umar did not recognize this. The Prophet ﷺ recognized that look, despite all of his bad... And by the way, so imagine what must he have said, which the books of Seerah don't record, that God Umar is so angry. His eloquent speech is against Islam. That God Umar is so angry, let me just cut his tongue off. All of this has not been recorded. But the Prophet ﷺ saw in him some good. إِنْ يَعْلَمُ لَهَ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ خَيْرًا Allah says in the Qur'an. If Allah sees some good in your hearts. And so, what happened with Suhail? What was this prediction? Well, Suhail converted at the conquest. He was of those who converted at the end. And so there is no doubt that overall, the status of Suhail is not the status of Abu Bakr and Umar. It's not the status of the early converts. It's not the status of the muhajirun. Suhail is not a muhajir. Suhail and his group, they converted the very last batch. And Allah says in the Quran, not equal are those who converted before the conquest versus those who converted after the conquest. and Suhail converted after the conquest, right? Yet, the books of Sira mentioned and the books of history mentioned that out of all of the converts who converted after the conquest, the most worship-minded was Suhail. The most salah, the most fasting, the most zakah was Suhail. And when the Prophet ﷺ died, Suhail was still in Mecca, and the people of Mecca by and large were all converts at the conquest of Mecca. Remember, the Muhajirun had to go back to Medina, right? We'll get there, but you already know this. None of the Muhajirs was allowed to live in Mecca. You already know this. They had to go back to Medina. So who's living in Mecca? It's all the people who converted a year and a half ago. You have the Abu Sufiyans, you have the Suheils, you have all of these people, right? and so many of them flirted with the idea of leaving. Khalas, the Prophet ﷺ is dead, let's go back to our old ways. So much so that the Sahabi, the governor, that the Prophet ﷺ appointed to be the ruler of Mecca, he feared for his life and he went into hiding because commotions began and mobs began gathering and the news of the Prophet ﷺ death was a traumatic time And this governor, he felt that they're gonna come and kill me. So he went into hiding. Who's the one who calmed them down? Suhail ibn Amr. Suhail ibn Amr stood in front of the Kaaba. And he gave them a fiery lecture. Khatib al-Quraish. And he warned them and admonished them. And he said to them of the sentence that has been recorded, O people of Mecca, look at how eloquent this phrase is. do not be the last group to convert and the first group to renegade and apostatize. How beautiful is this, right? You already have the dishonor of being the last group to convert. Now you want to add to this on your resume the first group to leave Islam and he played a major role in bringing them back to their senses. And he was the one who brought the governor out of his hiding and then basically reinstated him. And it is also mentioned that when they visited Umar in the Khilafah of Umar, that Suhail and Abu Sufyan and others, they visited Umar in Medina. And when they went to the house of Umar, they found a line there. You know, people are gonna go see the Khalifa, right? And in that line are Bilal and Suhail al-Rumi and Ibn Mas'ud and all of these that they consider to be low. and when the secretary comes out and he sees all the people there so he calls number one in line is Bilal ibn Abi Rabah and then he calls the other Badriyun, one after the other and Abu Sufyan says to Suhail I have never seen a day like this before we are here and we are, I mean you have to realize who were these people, right? this is, if Quraish had kings these are the kings of Quraish These are the MPs of Quraish, right? And who is Bilal? And who are these other people? So Abu Sufyan says, I have never seen... And they're all now Muslim, but still, you know, it takes a while to get to that stage. So Abu Sufyan says that, I have never seen a day like this. We are here. And these abid, these slaves, and these, you know, whoever they were, they have been given precedence over us. Now look at what Suhail says. and you see the Iman of Suhail subhanallah where was he even in the incident of Hudaybiyah how harsh he was we will see how harsh he was but deep down inside there was some good and when eventually the Prophet managed to get to that good by the help of Allah that good overwhelmed him what did he say to Abu Sufyan he said I can see the anger in your faces and there was a group from Mecca there I can see the anger in your faces but if you wish to be angry then be angry at yourselves for they Bilal and others were called to Islam and we too were called to Islam same time they raced forward and we lagged behind and the blessings that they obtained in racing forward listen to this are far more than the honor of them entering the door of Umar before us now. You understand this point, right? In the eyes of Allah, the blessings they have by having accepted Islam are much more than now they're entering the door of Umar and then we're still waiting in line. Be jealous at that good rather than the good of entering the door of Umar. Imagine now, we really see Iman from the heart of Suhail now coming, right? And then he told them that if you cannot catch up with them, the least you can do is to exert yourself in jihad fi sabidillah so that at least we can try to come close and saying this eventually he basically signed up to join the army that was fighting the Romans in Syria and he eventually died a shaheed fighting in Syria and again that's an amazing story of Suhail ibn Amr who was he, where was he and now what did he become so out of the converts of the conquest of Mecca Suhail is considered to be the most or of the most towards the most righteous and the most zahid amongst them. Now, he might have become a great companion later on, but right now he's still a bitter enemy. And the Quraysh have sent him to basically negotiate a treaty with the Prophet ﷺ. And they have very clearly told him, make sure whatever you agree to, that he does not enter Mecca this year. And that was the big condition. The Quraysh were willing to compromise a lot of things. But this one condition, No, for let not the Arabs say that he had the better hand over us. And what makes the matter even more personal for Suhail, was that Suhail had two sons, and the both of them had given him trouble with Islam. And the both of them had caused so much dishonor to his family name. As for the older son, and his name was Abdullah. Abdullah has a very interesting story, that we didn't mention in the Battle of Badr. Now I reiterate, I've said this many times and no doubt, inshallah ta'ala, this seerah that I'm teaching you is, inshallah, perhaps the most comprehensive in the English language, inshallah ta'ala. But at the same time, it's not everything. Because really that's a whole different level. And I would call it an intermediate level seerah. Advanced level means you go over every chain and which one is authentic and who said where and that's really not suitable even in the English language in my opinion. So not every story has been mentioned. And this is a story that I actually left it out in the Battle of Badr and I regret having left it out because it is not relevant here. So I'll just quickly mention it here. And that is a story of Abdullah ibn Suhaid ibn Amr. And very briefly, it's a very interesting story that Abdullah ibn Suhaid, he was a secret convert and there was some tensions between him and his father but he didn't want to go public with his Islam. And he realized that my father being who he is, this is gonna cause big problems for me and so he basically quelled it, he was trying to convert publicly but his father clearly would not allow this so he kept his Islam secret, so when the battle of Badr happens he sees an opportunity, what opportunity? to finally get to Medina how? in the very army that is meant to fight Medina right? so Abdullah volunteers and he walks literally with them under their noses as a part of the army. And when they camp for the very first time and they can see each other, Abdullah basically takes his horse and sneaks away and he joins the ranks of the Muslims and he fights on the side of the Muslims at Badr against the side of the Quraysh. Now can you imagine the shame that Suhail had to deal with back in Mecca? Right? Can you imagine the criticisms? How embarrassed Suhail would have been in front of his, you know. Now he's the prisoner of war and his son is now watching him as a prisoner of war in Badr, right? Suhail is a prisoner. His son is on the side of the Muslims now. And this caused Suhail so much anguish, pain. This is his eldest. This is the firstborn. All the hopes, all the dreams. Guess what? When Suhail runs over to Medina, Suhail's younger brother starts talking of conversion. And clearly he is a convert. And Suhail's younger, sorry not Suhail, Abdullah's younger brother, sorry. Abdullah, Suhail has two sons. Abdullah and then Abu Jandal. And Abu Jandal is the one we're gonna talk about right now. Right? Abdullah ibn Suhail and then his younger brother Abu Jandal. When Abdullah flees to Medina, Abu Jandal clearly expresses irritation that he can't do the same he wants to how come he want to go, he got to go, right? you know how siblings are all the time, right? he got to go, I need to go as well now and it was clear to Suhail that Abu Jandal is a Muslim because you see the same thing happened with Abdullah that Abdullah is trying to convince his father to convert and his father is not converting and so Abdullah basically says, okay, okay, let's not convert but it's clear that he is a convert now you understand here right that there's the tension and so Abu Jandal's Islam is now certain so Suhail locks up Abu Jandal and tells the servants and slaves to torture him throw him into the dungeon deprive him of food and water and he is chained since the battle of Badr up until now the incident of Hudaybiyah that's four and a half solid years the father has kept his own son in a dungeon. Torturing him, telling him to worship the idols, basically the same thing that's happening, right? And he is refusing to let Abu Jandal go to Medina. He says, I've lost one son, I'm not gonna lose both of them. Until you convert, then you will be free. And of course, you know, they're not gonna lie and say, okay, I'm gonna worship the idol. You know, they're not gonna do that. These are, they have the iman, they're not gonna do that. So, Abu Jandal has been locked up, and of course, Abu Jandal's story will be the one that we are talking about here. Subhanallah, we're going much slower than I was expecting, but there's so much to mention. Let's just go for another 5-10 minutes, and then let's call it a break. So, Suhail then comes as the official delegate, and the Prophet ﷺ and Suhail, they agree to write a treaty, and this is the famous story, all of us are familiar with it, the standard story, and I will just narrate it to you for those who are hearing it for the first time. That's the Prophet ﷺ call for a scribe, and Ali ibn Abi Talib was the one who was the scribe there. And so Ali ibn Abi Talib began writing down and the Prophet ﷺ began dictating. Because Suhail has now come to negotiate a treaty, he's the one who says, come, let us write the sulah between us. Let us write the compromise, the treaty between us. So the Prophet ﷺ began dictating. And this shows us the assertiveness of the Prophet ﷺ. That he's not a meek leader. He's not somebody who's gonna, no, okay, let's negotiate. this is what I want. So every time he's saying something first, right? And this shows us as well, Suhail might have been Khatib of the Quraysh, but the Prophet ﷺ is far more powerful and eloquent than him, obviously, right? He cuts off Suhail, he goes, okay, let us write it. بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ So the Prophet ﷺ's forwardness is being shown here. As the leader, he's now going to negotiate, right? بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ And Suhail, as we know, he says, as for this phrase, بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ I have never heard of it before and I don't know who is this Ar-Rahman let us write it the way we are accustomed to writing Bismillah now again this is a matter of ego isn't it what would Suhail lose if there were Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim it's just a preliminary the letterhead what would Suhail lose it's a matter of ego and pride I want to show you who's the boss I'm not going to compromise anything and remember what our Prophet had said and he said this publicly. And he said it publicly so that the Muslims understand what's at stake. He said that by Allah no condition will the Quraysh ask of me. And that condition respects the signs of Allah except that I will give them that condition. Basically as long as bloodshed is avoided and as long as the sacred, because bloodshed would be haram, meaning this is the haram. And they're not supposed to fight in the haram. In a haram, it's a major sin. So as long as they avoid any haram and bloodshed is avoided, I will give them any condition they want. As long as sha'ir al-Islam and sha'ir Allah are honored. So the Prophet ﷺ said, very well, write it, bismillah. Now Ali had not yet written it down. So he says, bismillah. So he says, bismillah. Then the Prophet ﷺ again took charge. And once again we notice, he's the one showing who's the boss. And the Prophet ﷺ said, this is what Muhammad, Rasulullah ﷺ, has agreed to with Suhail ibn Amr. Okay? So Ali is writing, this is what, هذا ما صالحه محمد رسول الله. So this is what Muhammad, and he writes the word Rasul. As we know, this is the famous story. He writes the word Rasulullah. And by the time Suhail hears this, he says, as for you being Rasulullah, And this is very true from his perspective. Wallahi, if we believe you to be Rasulullah, neither would we prevent you from the Ka'bah, nor would we have fought you, Badr, Uhud, Ahzab, right? Rather, write it the way your family, your people knew you, Muhammad ibn Abdullah. Now again, this is major ego, right? Who cares what the title is, if you really want a treaty, but this is a matter of his ego. So, Hale wants the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims to know, we're not gonna let you get away with anything. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Wallahi inni la rasoolullah. Wallahi I am rasoolullah, even if you deny this. Doesn't matter, doesn't change the reality. So, write down Muhammad ibn Abdullah. And here is where one of the reports says, and this is definitely, there's nothing strange about this, even though it's not in some books, but it is in other books that Ali ibn Abi Talib basically said, Ya Rasulullah, I'm not going to delete Rasulullah. I'm not going to delete Rasulullah. Yani his own anger now got the better of him. That who does this man think he is? That I'm gonna delete or I'm gonna scratch out Rasulullah from this document. And so it is said, and there's again nothing wrong with this version as well, that the Prophet ﷺ basically took it and scrapped it out. In those days you had leather to write in, and there is no whiteout. How are you going to take something out? You take a knife or you take something, you just basically rub it off, and then it's not going to be there anymore. And so it is said that with his own hands, he basically scribbled it out. And this shows us again the humility of the Prophet ﷺ. It shows us the iman of Ali ﷺ that he said. And amazingly, by disobeying the Prophet ﷺ, he's actually honoring him. Think about it. In this one case, by saying, I can't do this. I just can't. He's actually honoring the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ didn't persist. He understands Ali's dilemma here. He didn't persist. I'm commanding you, who are you? No. So he takes it himself and he simply rubs it off. And then the document resumes again. And the Prophet ﷺ said, so again he takes charge, right? That the Quraysh will let the Muslims do Umrah. notice again he's always subhanallah what do you expect from Rasulullah he is no coward he is not going to be quiet at the negotiation table every time he's the one forward but Suhail he's representing Quraish and so he says as for this year we cannot do this rather that will be for next year so khalas that is it now there is no compromise that this year you are not going to be able to do the Umrah, rather you will come next year. And then Suhail continued, so now the Prophet ﷺ basically that was the main condition he wanted, to do Umrah, right? He didn't want anything else. He has no other condition. So Suhail basically improvised. And he said, yes you'll do Umrah, but that will be the next year on our terms. Now Suhail adds his conditions. And if the Prophet ﷺ wanted to do Umrah the next year, well then you're gonna have to listen to my conditions now so what was his condition that not a single man from us renegades or defects over to you even if he be on your religion except that you will hand him back to us you see Suhail especially has been harmed his son is on the other rank and his other son wants to go there so Suhail wants this condition for personal reasons. And he also wants it because this has really traumatized the Quraysh. They have lost a lot of people in this manner. Right? And the Muslim said, Subhanallah, what an unfair condition. How can we return anyone of the Muslims back to you while he has come to us and chosen us? And a commotion began. How can we give this condition? And Ali did not write it. Because of this commotion going on. The Muslims honor their pride has been hurt. And probably a few minutes are dragging on. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wills one of the most interesting and clearly melodramatic episodes of the seerah. There is no denying that this is the will of Allah that right at this point in time something happens that is simply so melodramatic and so difficult to stomach. This was a test for all of the Muslims and that is Suhail's son Abu Jandal. Clearly now by the way, let's put a footnote here. Abu Jandal is trapped in a dungeon but in the last four years he's figured out a way to get out. But even if he gets out, where is he going to go? He doesn't have a horse, he doesn't have a camel. How is he going to get his way to Medina? You know when you're trapped in such a scenario, you might figure out a way to get out. But then once you get out he's going to have a chain around him, you know, all of the people of Mecca know him, what's he gonna do? So he might as well just stay there, at least he's being fed and given some food and some water. He's gonna die out in the desert. He has no way of getting to Medina. And realize, I mean, in those days it's not a matter of escaping from the dungeon. How are you gonna get from Mecca to Medina? He has no money, he has no ride, the people of Mecca all know him as being the son of Suhaib. What chance does he have? So he stays in his status quo. Now he's heard that for the last 3-4 days the Muslims are camped outside. He doesn't know his father has gone to negotiate. However it is, he finally manages to basically get out of that dungeon. He still has his chains. But he gets out of that dungeon, and he flees, hoping finally to be protected by the Muslims. And while they're discussing, and clearly as I said, the will of Allah Azza wa Jal to demonstrate this is something so clear here. That they hear the dangling, the chinging of the chains here, the clanging of the chains. and in the distance they find Abu Jandal screaming out Ya Alal Muslimin Oh Muslims finally yes I found you guys Alhamdulillah he doesn't know his own father is sitting there right he doesn't know what is being discussed he does not know that the very condition that is being discussed deals with Suhail and his own two sons right and Suhail turns to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he says this is the first one that this condition is going to be applied on and with that very melodramatic shahrazad ending we will have to pause and come back inshallah ta'ala next Wednesday

Seerah 65 - The Treaty of Hudaybiyya - Part 4 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. about the writing down of the treaty of Hudaybiyah and in it in it we have Suhail ibn Amr finally agreeing with the demand of the Quraysh that whatever you do just make sure he doesn't come back next year and the rest they left it to Suhail so Suhail as soon as the treaty begins so Bismillah way too loud lower whatever you did there was nobody asleep to that level okay Bismillah, testing are you guys done? done playing around? huh? you didn't do anything? no, you definitely did something is this better now? okay so, Suhail ibn Amr as we said, he had his own personal agenda he's already lost one son the other son is in his basement as he speaks and it was the qadr of Allah otherwise the Quraysh did not put this condition on him, but no doubt they would like the condition right, so this condition excuse me, this condition is coming from him and Suhail says that not a single man will come to you from us, even if he be upon your religion, except that you will return him to us right, so before they write this condition down, a number of people object, before even it is written down, and they say subhanallah how can we return one of ours to the mushrikoon when he has chosen us as a place of protection. And realize the bulk of the Sahaba had migrated from Mecca. If this condition had applied six years ago, there would not be Islam in Medina. Right? They feel this condition, especially personally, they feel it. Because every one of the Muhajir, this condition applies to them. And how many are the people, every few days somebody is migrating, fleeing from their family, fleeing from persecution, fleeing from torture, and the Muslims embrace him. So, if they were to implement this condition, the trickle of Muslims would be cut off completely. And there would not be now a surge of Islam. And no doubt this is a very big factor. We need quantity, we need quality. Additionally, there's the issue of helping innocent Muslims. They're being persecuted, they're coming to Medina, we need to protect them. So, the Muslims find this condition to be very very demeaning, very harsh and before even it is written down, they are objecting to Suhail. And the very fact that they're objecting while the conditions are being said, it really shows how emotional this condition is. Because technically it's not their place to be speaking now, right? This is the Prophet ﷺ and Suhail. Technically it's not their place to be getting involved in the negotiation. But this shows us how emotional, how personal this condition was. And a number of them remarked, how can we, and maybe it was Umar ibn al-Khattab, because we will see later on that he really found this condition to be very problematic. He said, how can we return a Muslim to the mushrikun when he has come to us as a Muslim? So Suhaib insists, no, this is going to be the condition. And as I said, and there is no question, if you look at the timing and the context and everything, wallahi this is, you really cannot, it is simply too melodramatic. It's simply too much going on. Allah Azza wa Jal wanted to send the message clearly. And that is, right when they're discussing the condition, it has yet to be written down. perhaps five minutes are going back and forth between those who are objecting and Suhail who is insisting right then and there Abu Jandal who is the younger son of Suhail he's the one who comes to the army of the Muslims his chains are still tied around his hands his torture marks the blood clearly visible his upper chest is clearly exposed because he's being tortured he's being kept in a depraved condition for two to three years and no doubt he's figured out a way to escape but how where can he escape to So when he hears the Muslims are right outside the city, now he realizes this is my chance. I can escape right to the army, because as I explained last week, he can escape from the dungeon. You've probably figured out in 2-3 years how to escape. What's he gonna do after that? What's he gonna do once he gets out in the streets of Mecca? How's he gonna get to Medina? Where does he have the money, the ride? All of these are cut off. So when he hears that the Muslims are camped outside, now he realizes it is my golden opportunity. and whatever his plan was that he had made in his mind for 2-3 years, he saw the conditions appropriate and he managed to flee and rushes out to Hudaybiyah right at the time when his father is negotiating with the Prophet ﷺ. So, he throws himself upon the Muslims and he calls out, O Muslims, help me! O Muslims, save me! And Suhail of course sees his own son in the distance. And he recognizes this is Abu Jandal. and Suhail turns to the Prophet and he says this man is the first one that you shall return to us as per this condition obviously this is his son he's not going to let him go now it's his only son left the other one is already in Medina we're not going to let this one go so the Prophet said that we haven't written down the conditions yet we're still discussing them Suhail said if you refuse then wallahi no more conditions khalas treaty is over because obviously this is his son and again had it been anybody else maybe right but this is his son if you refuse then I will not agree with you anything ever after this so the Prophet ﷺ said habhuli gift him to me and then we'll start the condition after this just one gift give him to me and the rest will be khalas we'll implement it and he said I'm not going to gift him to you so the Prophet said just go ahead and do it and in my reading of the seerah I have never found a place where the Prophet ﷺ is pleading multiple times the way that he was pleading for Abu Jandal the son of Suhail ibn Amr multiple times he said just make an exception for him just gift him to me just go ahead 3-4 times he's literally pleading with him to gift him Abu Jandal his own son and of course this is his father. And he said, kept on saying, no, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to give him to you. This is the condition, take it or leave it. And it seemed as if the entire treaty would basically go into a stalemate until finally Mikraz, who was Suhail's companion, the one that failed in the actual attempt and the Prophet ﷺ said, this is an evil man, he's not going to do any treaty with us. And he failed while he was having the discussion. Then Suhail ibn Amr came. Mikraz said, okay, we will at least guarantee his safety from now on. In other words, okay, he'll remain with us, but he's not gonna be tortured in this manner, right? So, Mikraz, he has a role as well in this, and that is that, when he saw the insistence of the Prophet ﷺ, he felt some type of deadlock that we need to break it, some impasse. So he said, okay, we will protect him for you from now on, right? Meaning he's not gonna be persecuted. He's not gonna come over to you, but we're gonna make sure that he's not gonna be tortured in this manner. So Abu Jandal is watching the entire proceedings. His father on one side and the Prophet ﷺ on the other side. And it's clear that probably another 5-10 minutes goes by and the negotiations are against him. Abu Jandal cries out, O Muslims, will you return me to the mushriks while I have come to you as a Muslim? now put yourself in his shoes for 3-4 years he's been building up the hope when can I make my way to the Muslims and in this meantime he must have heard of at least a few dozen of the Sahaba made Hijrah from Mecca to Medina and found safety in Medina right, it's happening people leave all the time and they're still leaving to this time and his dream when can I get out and when can I get to Medina when will I get safety and away from these chains chains and subhanallah look at how he was tested he freed himself from the chains he made his way to the camp of the Muslims and now he is being turned away so he is now begging and pleading for his life will you return me after I have come to you and I have sought your protection don't you see what they have done to me don't you see what they have done to me and the narrator in Ibn Hisham and every single book says that the marks of torture were clear on him and the mushrikun had tortured him a severe torturing so you can imagine the whips the lashes the chains the emaciated body the blood clear that this man has been tortured and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam addressed him directly and he said isbir ya Aba Jandal be patient O Abu Jandal for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will make a way and an exit out for you فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ جَاعِلُ لَكَ مَخْرَجًا وَسَبِيلًا Allah will make a way out for you, be patient. And we see here subhanAllah how persistent the Prophet ﷺ was, when he could not get it, at least he gave him that consolation. And he said to him, make sure that you put your trust in Allah, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will free you insha'Allah ta'ala. Umar, when he saw this happening, and most likely it was Umar who said, how can we do this to them O Messenger of Allah how can we give them this condition when he saw what was happening he stood up and he walked towards Abu Jandal and he said to him that be patient O Abu Jandal the same thing that the Prophet ﷺ said but then he said something very militant he said and realized that their blood is not worth anything and as he said this he pointed with his eyes to his sword. Umar had a sword, right? And he's pointing with his eyes that, look, here's the sword, use it against... Now he would have had to use it against his own father and against Mikra's, right? We can't do anything because we are with this side. You have come from their city. If you were to get rid of them, that's your business and we're not gonna get involved basically, right? That's your job to do. So he gave him the opportunity by giving the isharah, giving him the green light that here's the sword, take it and do something with it. Right? But for whatever reason, and most likely, it appears it was simple psychology that in the end of the day, this is his father. In the end of the day, he cannot do such a deed. And so he did not take this opportunity. And Abu Jandal was therefore put back into his chains and returned back to Mecca. But the condition that Mikra said, he's not going to be tortured after that. And other conditions were placed after this. Of the conditions was that, there would be a peace for 10 years. For 10 years, neither side would fight. And they said, the exact phrase they said, no armor and no swords. Which is an Arabic phrase that means no fighting. No armor and no swords between the two sides. And the conditions came that both of the two sides can engage with treaties with any other entity. Both Quraysh and the Muslims can engage with treaties with any tribe that wants to enter into alliances. And if any tribe entered with the Muslims, all of these conditions must apply to them. And if any tribe entered with the Quraysh, all of these conditions will also apply to them. So there is now this sense of political separation, political entity being established. You have the right to negotiate fully and legitimately with any other group and we also retain this right. And of the conditions was that when the Prophet ﷺ said we will be performing Umrah, the first thing Suhaib said, As for this year, then no. Let not the Arabs say that you had the upper hand over us. That shall be next year. And this was of course another blow for the eagerness of the Muslims. They've been marching for a week and a half. Now they've been camped out here for so many days. Another blow. It's not going to be this year. It's going to be next year. And when you come next year, you tell us. And we will give you three days to vacate the city. You will do what you want. And then you will leave. And we will come back to the city. And of course we already said that of the conditions was that if any Muslim were to come rejecting the people of Mecca and going to Medina, he will be returned. If any man did this, he will be returned. However, if any Muslim came to Mecca after having rejected Islam and returning to the ways of their forefathers, he too shall not be returned. So it's clearly a one-way street. Right? Clearly, the Quraysh are demanding something that is not fair. We're not going to do to you what we want you to do to us. We will not return your people, but you will return our people and clearly this is a slap in the face anyone who is neutral will realize the arrogance of the Quraish here and can you imagine the anger of the Muslims in this regard as well and this is exactly what happened and we already mentioned that it was Ali who wrote the contract and except for one phrase where it is said that the Prophet ﷺ took it and erased it himself and according to one version of Bukhari it says that he wrote it, we'll come back to this version and what it means and both of the sides had their witnesses on the side of the Muslims, there was Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali, all of them were witnesses all of the four, Khulafa and Rashidun were witnesses on the side of the Quraysh there was a delegation, Mikraz and Suhaydan there was one or two other people from the Quraysh all of them were witnesses to this covenant, now before we move on whatever negatives that we will feel at this point in time. And before we talk about any other positive, the one biggest positive that is clearly occurring is that for the very first time, the Muslims are being treated as an independent, powerful, political entity. No matter what you want to say, and we feel anger, and the Sahaba's anger was much more than ours, obviously a million times more. but clearly for the first time the treaty of Hudaybiyah the Muslims and the Quraish are on the same table they're on the same negotiation level because you don't write a treaty except with an equal and the fact that the Quraish are forced to write such a treaty the Muslims have been upgraded now after all of these battles and all of this finally the Muslims are being given the respect and the izzah of being a separate political entity. So much so in fact, and this is another point of the Hudaybiyyah, that notice on one side you have a religious identity, Muslims. On the other side you have a tribal slash ethnic identity, Quraish. And we see here the beginnings of the real split between Islam and paganism. That in Islam what really ties you together is what? your religion. It is more powerful than the ties of kinship, the ties of nation state, the ties of tribalism. Whereas in every other society, including the society we are living in, there are things that trump your religion, that are more important than religion. And for the Quraysh, it was the tribe. So, even though there are two different entities, the nature of every entity is very different. If you understand what I'm saying here. The one is a religious entity, the Ummah. And the other is a ethnic entity. and that is the Quraysh and those who undertake an alliance with them and then the clause that says whoever wants to can undertake a treaty with the Muslims, whoever wants to can undertake a treaty with the Quraysh what is happening here? the entire Arabian peninsula is being divided into two Islam and Kufr this is the precursor to the Fath-e-Makkah, it is the precursor to the conquest of all of Arabia right? that it's not just Quraysh versus another tribe of Quraysh or another, the Banu Hashim, which again in the beginnings of Mecca, it was the Banu Hashim versus the Quraysh, remember, right? The Shabab and the boycott and all that. In the beginnings of Islam, it was really something that was relatively small. Slowly but surely, the entire Arabian Peninsula and the Arab race is being dragged in until finally, and this is amazing, within a few years, paganism will be wiped out from the face of the, at least the Arabian earth, right? There are no more Arabs who worship idols. Think about that, right? How the Arabs were and then what happened. And this is now the camp being divided. On the one side, Islam. On the other side, idolatry, paganism, jahiliyyah, ethnicity, tribalism. All of this is being represented, right? So for the first time, people have to make up their minds which side of the coin are you on. And this is the treaty of Hudaybiyah is the precursor to this division and split. So, Suhail then returns back happy and content. They have their conditions, the Quraysh have their conditions, Suhail has his conditions. At this, Umar radiallahu ta'ala, he was the one who verbalized what was in the minds of many Muslims. And he came up to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him a series of rhetorical questions. And as we have already said so many times, a rhetorical question is said to emphasize that which you already know. It is said to emphasize the known. he said are you not the messenger of Allah alas the Rasulullah are you not the messenger of Allah the Prophet said Bala he said are we not upon the truth and our enemies upon the batil upon the misguidance he said Bala yes so then Umar said then how can we accept the lower hand the humiliation ad-daniyata being disgraced in our religion how could we have allowed them to trample over us like this we came here basically wanting, I'm extrapolating the version only says, how could we accept humiliation, but put yourself in the shoes of the sahaba now, how they're feeling the majority of them they're feeling very much angry at the Quraysh they're feeling let down at the Quraysh how could the Quraysh have done this to us and why did we accept these conditions we should have refused why do we have to say yes, when we're coming in peace, we have been waiting here for 2-3 weeks outside Kamtas, outside Makkah. It's taken us 10 days to get here. An entire month must have gone by minimum for all of this to go on. We're tired, we're hungry, we're away from home. We just want to go to the Ka'bah. And we've been stopped. Additionally, now we have all of these other conditions that we weren't even expecting. No more Muslims come to us. We have to return every Muslim back to them. And they get to keep anyone. Not that there's a threat, but it's an emotional factor. Not that there were any people who left Medina to go to Makkah. That didn't happen. But it's an emotional factor. Why should we allow ours to go to them and they will not be coming to us? And the Prophet ﷺ said, I am the Rasul of Allah, I am the Messenger of Allah, and I will not disobey Allah, and He will help me. Meaning that I don't know what to tell you other than this was what I was commanded to do. I don't know what else to tell you. I don't know where this is leading. but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told me this is the intent here Allah azza wa jal has told me to accept these conditions and I will not disobey him and Allah will help me how? I don't know but Allah azza wa jal will help me and this is a solid response how are you going to respond to this? this tactic is basically a very solid response and that is Allah azza wa jal will help me Umar cannot argue here so Umar then backtracks and attempts a new line of reasoning this is a dead end now He said, Allah Azawajal will help me. Khalas, that's true. Let's go back. So try another tactic. Ya Rasulullah, didn't you tell us that we will be doing tawaf around the house of Allah? There's another tactic now. Okay, that's not working. Let me try another thing. You told us, Ya Rasulullah, when we were in Medina, that come with me and we will do tawaf around the house. And obviously we're not going to do tawaf now. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, Indeed, I told you. But did I say you will do it this year? Umar said, no. So the Prophet ﷺ said, then you will do it next year. My vision will come true. You will do it. But I didn't tell you this year. And I saw the dream. Allah didn't tell me which year. I assumed it's this year. Now we find out it is next year. So you will come back to the house and you will perform tawaf around it. Now, here we see that Umar's anger, his ghiara is for the religion of Islam. he is feeling angry because he feels Islam has been trampled on he feels the religion of Islam has been given the shorter end they've been short changed because of the Quraysh and his ghiara or his anger is not coming out of a Safarullah jahilist out of anything, it's coming for the religion of Islam however it is clear that he made an error and a mistake and that he surpassed what is legitimate because the Prophet ﷺ represents Islam completely and Umar does not represent Islam and emotions make a man do things that he or she will regret and that is why our Prophet ﷺ when the man came to him and said advise me he said لا تغضب don't get angry he said advise me more don't get angry don't get angry don't get angry because in anger a man does what a man later regrets anger is that one emotion that whenever you act upon it you will later regret it and Umar ibn al-Khattab definitely acted out of anger and even though the base of that anger was coming from Iman this is a very important point here why was he angry? that his own ego was hurt? Why was he angry? That jahili customs were trampled on? No, he was angry because he felt that the religion of Islam had got the short change. That the religion of Islam had been humiliated by the Quraysh and he wants to know what he can do about it. No doubt he went beyond his bounds and he himself realized this. Not yet though. He needs somebody else to put him in place. And what man is there that can put Umar ibn al-Khattab in place? None other than Abu Bakr. So he goes to Abu Bakr. And the very fact that he goes to Abu Bakr number two, shows us the rank of Abu Bakr. Out of all of the Sahaba, even Umar knew, that here is a man that I can express after the process of who should I go to. And he asked him the exact same questions. That, are we not upon the truth? Yes. And is he not the messenger of Allah? Yes. Then how can we accept humiliation in our religion? At this, Abu Bakr radiallahu ta'ala, he got angry at Umar. and he said to him Ya Rajul and that is a very harsh thing to say that oh man hey you Ya Rajul watch out he is the messenger of Allah meaning who are you to say these types of things he is the messenger of Allah and he will not disobey his Lord so you hang on to the stirrup of his saddle i.e. put yourself at your place you hang on to the stirrup of his saddle you know the saddle on top of the camel you hold on to the bottom of that otherwise there is no salvation or there is no hope for you and we clearly see here that Abu Bakr r.a without the Prophet ﷺ speaking with him he already has analyzed all of these things in his head and he has no issues accepting what has happened and this clearly shows the superiority of Abu Bakr over Umar. That Abu Bakr رضي الله تعالى عنه, even though no doubt he's also hurt, he's also angry, but he understands there must be something I don't know. Allah knows and his messenger knows and I do not know. And he said the exact same thing to Umar, that yes indeed he said we would do tawaf, but did he say we would do it this year? No, so then we will do it next year. We will come back and do it and perform it. And this shows us the correspondence of what Abu Bakr says to what the Prophet ﷺ says. Without the Prophet ﷺ telling Abu Bakr these things, it clearly shows us Abu Bakr's fiqh, Abu Bakr's understanding. And we also see over here a side of Abu Bakr that is generally overlooked. Our image of Abu Bakr is a extra polite, crying, humble, soft man. And this is valid. But there is a side of him that comes out when he is provoked. And we have already seen this in Hudaybiyah. he's the one who gave the vile and vulgar threat something we could never imagine Abu Bakr to say and now when Umar's coming to him he tells him, ya rajul oh man, calm down, what are you doing? and he puts Umar in his place and of course he would do this later on at the death of the Prophet as well, when Umar emotionally really he did lose it emotionally and wallahi he has every right to lose it at that time, when the Prophet passes away, Umar cannot fathom it. He cannot imagine a world without Rasulullah ﷺ. It is Abu Bakr that puts him in his place. It is Abu Bakr that quotes him the verse Umar says, as if Abu Bakr cut my two legs from underneath me. Nobody has the audacity to speak to Umar except Abu Bakr. What does that show? That no doubt Abu Bakr is soft and crying and gentle and humble and meek. But when push comes to shove, when a man needs to be a man, nobody beats Abu Bakr as well. Including Umar. And this is the fiqh and this is the superiority of Abu Bakr over Umar. So Umar radiallahu ta'ala, he himself later said that, فَفَعِلْتُ لِذَٰلِكَ أَعْمَالًا After this I continue to perform good deeds, hoping that Allah would forgive me for what I had done. And it is said that he gave so many slaves, freed so many slaves, he fasted so many days, he prayed so many nights, Meaning, he realized he had done more than he should have, even though it's an act of emotion. And Allah Azza wa Jal, and he has forgiven these types of emotional outbursts, but he realized that he had gone beyond what was appropriate. And he said, I made that up. I continue to do things until I feel that I had made it up. And we see here the confusion of Umar ibn Khattab, his disappointment. He later remarked during his khilafah to those around him. He said that on the day of Hudaybiyyah, the Prophet ﷺ put a condition on us. If any other leader had put it on me, I would never have accepted it. So he's being frank here. That if any other leader had told me that I have to give up Muslims and hand them back to the pagans who are torturing them, I would never have accepted this. He cannot understand this except that it is coming from the Prophet ﷺ. Also, Umar was not alone. no doubt Umar was the only one who went directly to the Prophet ﷺ but the frustration and anger was common and we have another Sahabi Sahli ibn Hanif, a very well known Sahabi, Sahli ibn Hanif many years later in the battle of Sufian when the Muslims were once again lined up to fight this time other Muslims, he's trying to calm them down and he says O people O people, ayyuhannas always find your own opinions blameworthy over the Qur'an and Sunnah. Meaning, accuse your own opinions before you accuse the Qur'an and Sunnah. Accuse your own positions before you accuse the Qur'an and Sunnah. Verily, I remember myself on the day of Abu Jandal. Notice, he didn't even call it the day of Hudaybiyah. يَوْمَ أَبِي جَنْدَلْ can you imagine the emotional trauma the shock to see this man being tortured throwing himself to the Muslims in front of their eyes he's taken away the Sahaba would rather have died in battle defending Abu Jandal than willingly meekly hand him back and go back to Medina this is their Iman here how can we just hand him back so the whole day has been called Yawm Abu Jandal and Sahra Ibn Hanif says I saw myself, I remember myself on the day of Abu Jandal if I could have rejected the command of the Prophet ﷺ I would have done so this is an amazing amazing quote Sahad ibn Hanif is one of the famous Sahaba, he is known for his piety, his taqwa and many years later he confesses something to another group why is he opening up here? because the battle of Sufyan was a very traumatic battle and people were as you know, a war was just about to be launched between Muawiyah and Ali ibn Abi Talib and there was a lot of tension in the camps and Sahal wanted to calm them down and basically say, look, follow the Qur'an and Sunnah even if you don't understand it. Avoid the bloodshed, just obey Allah and His Messenger. Obey the hadith of not fighting this and that. No matter how sure you think you are, accuse your own opinions before you accuse the Qur'an and Sunnah اتهم الدين على الرأي your own رأي make اتهم of that make accuse your own opinion before you accuse the religion wallahi that quote needs to be memorized by all of us especially in this time where everybody's opinion holds more weight than what the Prophet ﷺ himself said right where everybody thinks oh I understand this I know this better right so much so that I'll never forget I met one of these Qur'aniyun, these munkar you know the ones who reject hadith wallahi what he said it made me almost lose my consciousness at him in anger and what not when I quoted him a hadith he said that was the opinion of Muhammad I mean just like mind boggling you know that was his opinion you don't have to quote me his opinion wallahi this is kufr, there's no two ways about it If you're gonna do this, just say, that's his opinion, I have my opinion. This is, wallahi, it is kufr. There's no two ways about this. My point being, this type of attitude, even though alhamdulillah none of us have it explicitly, yet it is common in the ummah that when we're quoted a hadith, when we're quoted a verse of the Quran, we think, we should know better than this. We don't have to take this exact hadith, and this is not the spirit of Islam. سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ We hear and we obey, and this is what Sahle ibn Hanif is saying, that accuse your own interpretations before you accuse the Qur'an and Sunnah. Accuse your own opinions before you accuse the Qur'an and Sunnah. Because I was about to reject the command of the Prophet ﷺ because I felt it to be wrong. And if I could have done it and gotten away, I would have done it. Right? And this shows us, of course, later on he himself realized that Hudaybiyyah was a victory. He himself realized this was the best thing to do. But at the time, he couldn't see that. And at the time he could only see one thing, and that is we have lost. We have accepted humility. This is not Umar, this is Sahal. So the point is this sentiment was not alone with Umar. There were many other Sahaba who felt the same sentiment as well. No doubt we also see over here that a very important lesson in making up one's transgressions. Umar made a mistake. He said, فَفَعَلْتُ لِذَٰلِكَ أَعْمَالًا I made it up by doing good deeds. and this shows us the sins that we do the best way to make up to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the best way to come closer to Allah is to increase our good deeds and that is why real tawbah will bring about extra actions it's easy to say Allah forgive me, Allah forgive me but real tawbah will bring about a change in lifestyle and change in actions Allah says in the Quran except who repents and believes and does righteous deeds. وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا So he linked عَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا to tawbah. إِلَّا مَنْ تَابَ وَآمَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا And this is what Umar himself understood. I made a mistake, I needed to make it up by doing a lot of good deeds after that. And the same applies to any mistake that we have done. Also another very interesting thing that we learn over here. No doubt what Umar did was beyond what was exactly appropriate, right? Now I have to say before we move on, that the other group, the non-Sunni group, they use this type of stuff and they say, they say about Umar what they say. But this is ludicrous because Umar's anger was a misjudgment of an Islamic anger. In other words, his anger is not personal. His anger is not coming from his own ego. His anger is not, I'm not gonna listen to you, which is what Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Saluh said in the battle of Uhud. Why should we listen to you? You didn't listen to me. That is nifaq and kufr. As for Umar's emotions, there is no doubt, we all agree, he agrees that he went beyond the bounds. Right? We're not making any excuse that his adab was not the best, that his anger got the better of him. And he made a mistake. But the mistake was a mistake of emotion, not a mistake of kibar or arrogance. Number one. And a mistake of emotion, everybody makes it. And you are forgiven for making him like the man who finds his camel lost in the desert and he utters a statement of kufr. He's forgiven because of his emotion. And as soon as Umar's emotions got the better of him, sorry, as soon as his emotions calmed down, and he got the better of his emotions, he realized. So this is an emotional outburst. Number two, where do those emotions come from? From the love of Islam. No doubt, misinterpretation, because you cannot love Islam more than the Prophet ﷺ. but the point is his emotions came from an anger for the sake of Islam, we need to take this into account, right? so the other group really has no evidence whatsoever and clear fact, neither the Prophet ﷺ nor Abu Bakr or any of the Sahaba held this against him they understood that his emotions got the better of him, they understood these emotions to be stemming from Islamic anger and so they let it be, he himself made up for it with his own deeds but the point here, a very important lesson that is demonstrated by this outburst and by the process in responding back to him and defending himself. A very important lesson. And that is, objecting to, even arguing with respect with the leader is something that the sharia allows. Bringing another point of view. Trying to see your position. And no doubt, I'm not gonna claim here that Islam has freedom of expression. It doesn't have freedom of expression the way that western society does. You cannot make fun of Allah and his messenger. There is a line that is to be drawn. But you can criticize and give other positions to the rulers. It's not as if you just have to acquiesce and agree. Now, if they insist, you must follow the rulers legitimately. A legitimate ruler. But you have the freedom to disagree. You have the freedom to bring another position, to argue a point back and forth. Umar is arguing three or four different tactics. and if this is being done with Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam how about somebody who is not to that level and this clearly demonstrates and this is in contrast to what some of the more extreme hardcore ultra conservative movements say that whatever the wali al-amr says, khalas, sami'na wa ta'ana no, ultimate sami'na wa ta'ana is only to Allah and his messenger, ultimate as for the wali al-amr or the person in charge or the khalifa or whatever no doubt if it's a legitimate khalifa and he insists you to do something halal you must follow. But you have the right to go back and forth. And this is demonstrated in Umar ibn Khattab's own attempts with the Prophet ﷺ. So, now that this is over, and Umar ibn Khattab clearly understands that he was at fault, and the Sahaba have to wrap up their bags, the Prophet ﷺ basically said, قوموا, stand up, shave your heads, and basically let's return. Now this obviously was such an anti-climactic ending. After having been built up, that inshallah finally we'll have a big breakthrough finally we'll be able to go to the Kaaba finally Suhail is coming everything will be made easy for us instead they're told khalas end of story let's shave and let's go back and the Sahaba were so depressed that the only time in the whole seerah as far as I know nobody had the heart to implement what the Prophet ﷺ said in my humble reading I haven't found any other instance in the whole seerah like this and this really shows us how traumatized they were one thing after another is happening one from their perspective humiliation after another and now finally shave your hairs and go now by the way this is something new in the sharia pre-islam didn't have it and that is if you cannot go to the Ka'bah and you're stuck and you stop khalas you get out of your ihram you shave your hair wherever you are and you return now the muslims had never heard this this is the first time it's ever happening it is now a standard part of our sharia by the way, right? if any of us, may Allah protect all of us if any of us are prevented from going to the haram whatever happens whether it's a political thing and by the way throughout Islamic history so many times there were political crises the pilgrims had to return home or pilgrims from one country had to return home or it's an economic crisis or it's a plague or whatever is happening and the road is blocked, whatever and you cannot make it, you cannot do it what do you do? this is what you do wherever you're stopped, wherever you're stuck, and you know you cannot make it in time for Hajj, or if it's an Umrah, and you cannot go on for whatever reason, then you will basically shave there, sacrifice your camels there, get out of Ihram right then and there, and then you will make it up later on. As the Muslims did. Right? That's exactly what the Muslims did. Now this ruling was new. They had never heard of it before. Why had they never heard of it? Because when would they apply it? Right? this is the only time they applied it themselves and this is the only time in the history of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the seerah that it is applied that he didn't actually make it to the Ka'bah right and so he told them shave your hair do your adhiyah and let's go back and return so not only is it anticlimactic not only is it a lack of iza humiliation now this is a ruling that really is bizarre these animals were meant for the Ka'bah our ihram is not gonna be removed until we do tawaf and sa'i this was their understanding and it is the general rule now they're being told don't worry about it, khalas it's done shave off your hair, sacrifice your camels get out of your ihram, wear your regular clothes we're going back home and the shock was so much and this is understandable as well completely and also another thing is when no single person is being commanded and all of them simply sit there there is this complacency with the mob when the mob does it, I'll also do it no one person is being singled out when everybody is immobile so then, everybody remains immobile when nobody is standing up khalas, I'm not standing up either and the Prophet ﷺ repeated this a second time and nobody moves he repeated it a third time and nobody moves and clearly the tension is great here and the Prophet ﷺ then returns back to his tent and Umm Salama is in his tent Umm Salama is in his tent and the Prophet ﷺ is visibly agitated and he confides in Umm Salama that I commanded them to shave their head and not one of them responded to me so Umm Salama said do you wish that they follow you O Messenger of Allah he said yes so she said then why don't you show them you're doing it when they see you doing it they will follow you Subhanallah some basic human psychology basic human psychology and the Prophet took the advice of Umm Salama and he went outside he called for his barber, there was a sahabi that was known for basically trimming and shaving hair he called for his barber and he shaved his hair off in front of everyone and when the sahaba saw him shaving his hair off and they realized that khalas this is it now and he's doing it so when he started doing it Then they started calling for each other to shave their hairs off until finally everybody was يقتتلون. They were fighting one another. And this happens every time when we ourselves do hajj. You're fighting for the barber. Who's going to be next? I'm going to be next. I'm going to be the one, right? Anybody who's done hajj knows exactly what I'm talking about. You know, barbers are scarcity that day. And mashallah, everybody becomes a barber as well, which is a very dangerous thing on that day. Do not ever do a first time barber on your own hair. You can do it on his, but don't let him do it on you, okay? so that everybody is now fighting to make to shave their hair off and it was here as well that the Prophet made dua for those who shaved their hair off and he said may Allah Azza wa Jal have mercy on the and some of them had only trimmed their hair so they said and those who cut so he said second time may Allah have mercy on those who shave so the ones who trim said and those who cut for the third time he said may Allah have mercy on those who shave when he said for the fourth time when they said and those who cut so the fourth time he said, and those who cut as well. And from this the scholars have derived the famous ruling that we have all covered in the fiqh of Hajj and Umrah so many times, and that is that shaving is much more rewarded than trimming. Shaving is much more rewarded than trimming, and that's because the Prophet ﷺ made dua three times for those who shaved, and once for those who trimmed. So with this the animals were sacrificed, and it is said that the meat was still sent to Mecca, and subhanallah look at the Quraysh, they will accept the meat right, but they will not accept the Muslims, and it is also said that the first camel that the Prophet ﷺ sent was Abu Lahab's camel which he had conquered or captured in the battle of Badr, somebody was riding it and he sent sorry not Abu Lahab, Abu Jahl Abu Jahl was not in the battle of Badr, Abu Jahl was in the battle of Badr Abu Lahab died in Mecca Abu Jahl's camel that they had conquered, not conquered, they had captured, they had confiscated the camel of Abu Jahl. And it was a well-known camel. Obviously, Abu Jahl will afford the most expensive and whatnot. And those days, they recognized camels, by the way. You know what I mean? Not like us, everything looks the same. They recognized camels, right? So, the first camel that he sent was the camel of Abu Jahl. And this is no doubt, psychological tactic as well. And this was painful for the Quraysh that this is the camel that is being sent to them. Nandala, so the Prophet ﷺ shaved his hair and sacrificed the camels and then they're on the way back. And on the way back to Medina, Umar obviously feels greatly troubled by what he has done. And finally when he calms down and his senses return to him, he realizes he needs to apologize, he needs to make up to the Prophet ﷺ. So he rides up to the camel of the Prophet ﷺ and tries to engage in conversation. says salam, but there's no response says salam for a second time no response, as if there's being ignored, says salam for the third time and that's the maximum you're supposed to say as you know, you're only supposed to ask three times and there's no response, and so Umar thought the worst that khalas, I am now finished and he said to himself he narrates later on, he says to himself let Umar's mother mourn the loss of her son. Let my mother start crying over me now. Khalas, I am gone. And he thought that because of his deeds now, he has lost any chance at salvation or mercy. And it appears that his fears seem to be confirmed by a writer who came up to him and said, the Prophet ﷺ is calling you. Khalas, now this is it. I'm gonna end now everything, right? So, he rides up to the Prophet ﷺ and he sees the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam's face beaming with joy just light coming out of it and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam started reciting the famous chapters of the Quran Surah Al-Fatah that I seek refuge with Allah in the name of Allah Inna Fatahna Laka Fataham Mubeena Li Yaghfiru Laka Allahuma Taqadnamu Min Dhanbikuma Ta'akharu Wa Itimma Ni'matu Alaika Wa Ihdika Siratul Mustaqeema and he recited and the entire Surah Al-Fatah was revealed at this point in time it was a one singular Surah that came down. And Surah Al-Fatah is one, two, three and a half pages. No, one, two, three, four and a half pages. Surah Al-Fatah is four and a half pages. And the whole Surah came down at that particular point in time. And the beginning of it summarizes the entire Surah. And inshallah next Wednesday, we'll quickly go over some of the main verses of Surah Al-Fatah. As is our custom, as you know, I always want to go over the Qur'an when the Qur'an is revealed about the seerah so that we appreciate for the rest of our lives. Whenever we read Surah Al-Fatah, we should link every ayah to exactly what it is referencing. InshaAllah I hope you understand this is lengthy But no doubt I think it is very important That we link the Quran directly to the seerah And that inshaAllah we'll do the first 20 minutes inshaAllah next week Before we move on And so the beginning of the surah summarizes it إِنَّا فَتَحْنَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا We have surely given you the biggest victory This is فَتْحًا مُبِينًا A clear victory There's no doubt about this victory And so Umar said أَفَتْحٌ هُوَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ Is this a victory? He's asking is this a victory? And the Prophet ﷺ said, إِي وَاللَّهِ It is a victory. And so Umar said, اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ And he began racing with his camel up and down the lines of the Muslims saying, إِنَّا فَتَحْنَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا Allah has given us the biggest victory. And our Prophet ﷺ praised the surah and he said, Allah has sent down a surah that is more beloved to me than everything on this earth. In other words, the surah cheered him up more than anything on this earth could cheer him up. And the Surah Al-Fatah, of course, it predicts so many things. We'll talk about that next week. But it predicts the forgiveness of the Sahaba that Allah Azza wa Jal will give them Jannat and Tajim at-Tahta al-Anhar. One of the main themes of the Surah is praising the Sahaba. لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ And the very last verse, مُحَمَّدُ الرَّسُولُ اللَّهُ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ Those that are with him. And then Allah praises them in the Quran. he gives one of the most poetic examples of the Sahaba. Right? سِمَاهُ فِي وُجِمَةِهَا ذَٰلِكَ مَثْنُ فِي تَرَاتِي وَمَثَلَهُمْ فِي الْإِنْجِيلِ كَزَرْعٍ أَخْرَجَ شَطْعَهُ Allah compares the Sahaba to a beautiful tree that has been planted by the farmer and the farmer is happy at what he has seen from this tree. And the farmer in this instance is the Prophet ﷺ planting the Sahaba and he is happy at what the Sahaba have done. In that, no matter it was a very difficult test, but in the end they did pass it. No matter it was difficult, they were emotional, but in the end when push came to shove, they followed through and it is impossible to imagine any other group following their leader in such a difficult circumstance firstly with the Bayat al-Ridwan and then with the emotional and then Abu Jandal all of this, they're simply following along and so Allah praises the Sahaba throughout Surah Al-Fatah and Allah blesses them with a great promise of forgiveness and وَمَغَانِمَ كَثِيرَةً تَأْخُذُونَهَا you will shortly gain a lot of war booty. وَمَغَانِمَ كَثِيرَةً تَأْخُذُونَهَا You'll shortly gain a large victory. And of course that victory, they didn't know it at the time, it was going to be the battle of Khaybar, which is going to be our next major battle in two weeks. Inshallah Allah Ta'ala will discuss that. So Surah Al-Fatah was revealed, and the Muslims, all of them, their attitude changed from being depressed, from being gloomy, to understanding this was a victory, and thanking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for that. And in this there is a very controversial theological point. It's not easy to say this, but it must be said. It's a very controversial point and we have had discussions about this in this masjid as well. The fact that the sahaba's psychology changed instantaneously at the revelation of Surah Al-Fatah. First and foremost was Umar. notice Umar's 180 degree turn is it a fatah? ee wallahi Allahu Akbar inna fatahnaka fat'han mubeena instantaneous 180 degree turn this clearly demonstrates for us that they realized the humanity of the Prophet ﷺ and the infallibility of Allah's wahi because the whole point they were worried this may be not coming from Allah directly this is your ijtihad and that's why they were feeling this isn't the best until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala confirms it inna fatahna laka fatham mubeena and this is a very controversial point even as we said in this masjid there is some back and forth that took place that the prophet was allowed ijtihad by Allah as we had said and that ijtihad is binding on the ummah regardless of whether it is binding on the ummah. Whatever it comes from, we have to follow it. But the sahaba simply felt that maybe, even though we're gonna follow it, and they did follow it, but maybe there's something we didn't understand, maybe there could have been a better option or whatnot, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, no, this was, إِنَّا فَتَحْنَ لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا The change of psychology, especially of Umar instantaneously, it clearly demonstrates this theological point that we have said so many times throughout the seerah, and that is, ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ is something Allah allowed him to do. And his ijtihad, if Allah approved it, it was silence, and if Allah wanted to change it or do something else, Wahy would come down and he would change it. And this is what we see throughout the seerah, and this incident proves that as well. So, the Sahaba returned back to the city of Medina, and most likely, they stayed in Hudaybiyah for around 20 days. Ibn al-Waqidi says 20 days. And Ibn Sa'd as well says around 20 days they stayed. So back and forth between the Quraysh and the Muslims for 20 days. And the entire trip lasted them a month and a half. So the entire trip from beginning to end, they left Medina, they came back after 6 weeks. And when they returned back to Medina, the first incident occurred that will test this treaty. And that is Abu Basir. Abu Basir's story is a very quick and interesting story. Abu Basir was somebody who lived in Mecca. He was not Quraishi, he was from Khusa, but he's living in Mecca. And he's basically a part of the, basically the tribes now have associated with Mecca, and his tribe is associated with Mecca. Abu Basir is the first muhajir after Hudaybiyah to make his hijrah to Medina. And Abu Basir comes, and the Prophet ﷺ does not say anything. He's in the city. After two, three days, the Quraysh or the Khuza'ah basically send the two emissaries. Two emissaries and they say, hand us back Abu Basir. According to the treaty, hand us back Abu Basir. We have a treaty, you agreed. So the Prophet ﷺ called Abu Basir. And he said to him, these two men have come to take you and you came knowing the treaty that we signed. And I will not be treacherous. So return to your people. Now, notice here, Abu Basir and everybody in the world knows the treaty. Abu Basir feels, come on, you're not really gonna do this, right? So he risks it. He leaves Mecca, he goes all the way to Medina. And notice here, when he comes, the Prophet ﷺ does not turn him away. Why? And we're gonna see this over and over again. Because the Prophet ﷺ is following the letter and not the spirit of the contract over here. He's following the letter of the contract. The letter of the contract did not say, you have to return the person. The enforcement of the contract is not up to you. You don't have to patrol Medina and make sure people go away. The enforcement is open. So the Quraysh come for the enforcement. And when they come, he says, okay, you've come, then okay he's yours I can't protect you from them notice here right so if they had not come it's not my job to enforce you didn't tell me I have to enforce and so Abu Basir is living for a few days when they come Abu Basir says the same thing that Abu Jandal said and he said are you going to return me O messenger of Allah after Allah has saved me and he was told exactly what Abu Jandal was told that Allah will make a way out for you Allah will make a way out for you so Abu Basir was handed back to these two men and the story goes that when Abu Basir was with their company he started chatting with them, he started becoming friendly with them, opening up their, you know, just feeling comfortable and what not, psychological, you know, tactic and then when they sat down and they reached Dhul Hulayfa which is literally 25 minutes outside by drive and those days can take an hour and a half to walk, so when they sit down and they start eating some dates. So the conversation has now become so open that Abu Basir starts praising one of the man's swords. I've never seen a sword this beautiful. This is an amazing sword. What have you done with it? Tell me. So he starts recounting, you know, a man's pride. I've done this and I've done that. You know, in our days men talk about how big of a fish they caught with a fishing rod. Those days they have some real stories about swords and what they've done, right? So he says, you know, I went in this battle, I did that battle and I killed this and I, you know, did that. oh you did this, oh great, mashallah you keep on making his ego bigger and bigger right, by talking about his manly swordsmanship and then Abu Basir says let me see this legendary sword, it's an amazing sword let me see it, and of course naively the man hands him the sword, instantaneously Abu Basir hands, chops off the man's head, and turns to the other man to chop his head off and the man just yells and screams and runs on his bare legs back to Medina. Right? And he races back to Medina and he makes it to Medina before Abu Basir himself makes it back to Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ has barely handed over Abu Basir, probably an hour and a half, two hours has gone by, still sitting with the Sahaba. And this Qurashi who has come to take Abu Basir, he comes yelling and screaming into the masjid. Tired, all disheveled, you know, because he's been running non-stop, right? Panting and he's saying, that my companion has been killed and I'm just about to be killed, so protect me. The guy just killed my other companion and now he's turning to me, so protect me. And after a while, Abu Basir came and he said, Ya Rasulallah, you have fulfilled your responsibilities, you returned me to them, but Allah allowed me to escape. Meaning, give me another chance now. Right? Allah allowed me to escape. Now I can stay, right? and the Prophet ﷺ did not speak to him directly he turned and he spoke into the air and he said وَيْلُ أُمِّهِ مِسْعَرُ حَرْبٍ this is a very poetic thing it doesn't really translate into English but it basically means woe to his mother meaning, woe to his mother is an Arabic expression meaning that he's going to not be living soon woe to his mother يعني he's not going to be alive too much مِسْعَرُ حَرْبِهِ what a great warrior he is translates like this. What a great warrior he is, what a talented swordsman, if only he had someone else to help him. Meaning? I cannot help him. Right? Woe to his mother. This guy is lethal, he's dangerous. What a great weaponry, what a great talented warrior he is, if only somebody could help him. Now by turning away, the indication is given, before somebody else comes, you had better get out of my sight. Right? And this shows us the precision of the Prophet ﷺ that look, it's not my job to put you in chains and take you back to the Quraysh. But you cannot live here because the treaty clearly says that nobody can live here if somebody comes to pick them up. And now that you've killed this guy, they're gonna come back again. And so the Prophet ﷺ hinted at him that look, I can't help you. So Abu Basir understood and he immediately fled from the masjid and ran away. Because he understood, now that another party is going to come and the Prophet ﷺ is not going to give me a chance to be here. And so he ran away and he set up a small place to live in which was close to the city of Jeddah, but more on the shore, more southern on the shore, southern from Jeddah, close to Mecca. And in the meantime when he set it up there, he sent the message out that I'm over here Abu Jandal heard that Abu Basir is setting up camp over there so Abu Jandal can escape and go down a little bit, he couldn't have gone all the way to Medina so he escapes and he meets with Abu Basir so Abu Jandal and Abu Jandal, the both of them they meet up and the news spreads that you can't go to Medina oh Muslim converts come over to our new city and so 10, 15, 20, 30 40, 70, 80 people eventually congregate 80 people congregate and they basically form a new camp and a new settlement and what do you think they're gonna do now that they're 80 strong attack the caravans of the Quraish attack the caravans of the Quraish and they made it their livelihood and wallahi this is completely justified you're not letting us live with you in peace you're not letting us go to Medina in peace you're not letting us do anything well guess what we are going to now attack back at you and so and notice here as well by the way subhanallah the treaty of Hudaybiyah said that there's gonna be peace for 10 years correct but this group is not being allowed to sign a treaty with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam by the orders of the Quraish correct so they're not on the side of the Prophet so the treaty doesn't apply to them and this is the intricacies of the own Quraysh they're the ones doing this and so the treaty doesn't apply to them and therefore they make it their livelihood that every single caravan that goes to Syria that they would attack it and situation became so bad because 70-80 men is a strong contingent And the caravans are long caravans of 70, 80, 90 camels. And you cannot protect a caravan, you know, against a marauding band of 80 who are living in the desert. You don't know where they're gonna attack from. It's very problematic. And so, within a year and a half, the Quraysh sent a delegation. Abu Sufyan sent a delegation to Medina, begging the Prophet ﷺ, by the rights of kinship, please take these 80 people and put them in Medina. Begging the Prophet ﷺ, if you truly are our blood, have some mercy on us and take these people and keep them with you in Medina. Get them away from that city. Get them away from their encampment and take them back to Medina. And so the Prophet ﷺ sent a messenger to Abu Basir and told him to bring all of your men back to Medina. But alas, Abu Basir had suffered a wound or he was sick with one of the two riwayat. And he got the letter but subhanallah he actually died because of his sickness before reaching Medina so he was buried where that camp was but the rest of the 70-80 they came back to Medina and they basically took up life with the Muslims and here we have one of the first signs of how the treaty of Hudaybiyah would become a victory one of the first signs we see here what's happening here that وَمَكَّرُوا وَمَكَّرَ اللَّهُ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَكَّرِ you cannot outwit Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you cannot no matter what you think or what not Allah azza wa jal is the best of all planners and look at the infinite wisdom of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that the pagans literally literally they have to beg the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam to take the very people that they insisted not to take they had to beg him to take him back and this shows us in the end Allah's plan will always be the winning plan And the very Abu Jandal who was the cause of all of this is the one who led the camp back into Medina. Abu Jandal, son of Suhail. Look Allah's perfection. The very person who basically set it all off, Abu Jandal is the one who led the camp back into Medina. Also before we go on here, one of the most amazing lessons of this incident, which is commonly overlooked is the iman of Abu Jandal in particular and then Abu Basir. I cannot think of a test that is more traumatic or difficult than to be rejected for political protection by the very Prophet that you believe in. Think about that test. to go right to the camp of the Muslims, and to see the Prophet ﷺ right there. And you really think, khalas, that's it man, I've made it. Three years I've been tortured, now here I am. And then the Prophet ﷺ tells you, sorry I can't, go back. Can you imagine the iman, how it must have been shaken to the core, and yet still iman wins. May Allah protect me and you. Wallahi we get into the most minor issue. We start doubting what's wrong. Get into a car accident. Get into some minor loss of money. And our Iman is shaken. Look at how weak our Iman is. Now put yourselves in the shoes of Abu Jandal. The very messenger that he believes in. Tells him, I'm sorry I can't do anything. Go back. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Abu Jandal shows us what he did. he remained firm and what happens? subhanallah out of nowhere Allah's help here Allah's izzah from there and you return back leading an entire an entire caravan an entire group of Muslims with lots of money and ghanima from the Quraish you're the leader you're the person of honor the warrior of honor you're now the soldier of honor and you come back into Medina subhanallah he who puts his trust in Allah Allah Azza wa Jal will fulfill that trust وَمَنْ يَتَوَكَّرْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ وَمَنْ يَتَقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ مَخْرَجًا And Abu Basir shows that, Abu Jandal shows that. Abu Basir as well. Twice he comes to Medina. And still the Prophet ﷺ says, Woe to your mother, what a great warrior, I can't help you. And he has to flee. He doesn't even know where he's going. Put yourselves in the shoes of Abu Basir now. He can't go back to Mecca, he can't go back to Medina. What's he gonna do? every city has a treaty either with the Quraysh or with the Muslims that's Hudaybiyah there is no neutral land what does he do? he founds his own country basically I'm just exaggerating country but you get my point his own political entity now one person and can you imagine how long was he like this we don't know the stories who's going to record that for us but put yourselves in that shoes imagine his loneliness no wife, no family, no society but then somebody else hears that's Abu Jandar Abu Jandar comes these two are already legends in the convert community who cannot immigrate khalas you got both of the legends in one place instantaneously 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, binti uqbah ibn abim mu'id uqbah ibn abim mu'id we've already done him in the past he's one of the seven who were around the camels, the one who threw the camel on the Prophet ﷺ this is uqbah ibn abim mu'id he had a daughter, umm kulthum umm kulthum embraces Islam at this stage, around this time she embraces Islam and she flees persecution and she finds her way to Medina now this is very sensitive it's one thing to return a man to be tortured to return a woman that's very painful as every one of us understands here it's very painful and even the Prophet ﷺ did not know what to do now should we return her what are we going to do and then Allah ﷻ revealed Surah Al-Mumtahina verse 10 Allah ﷻ revealed Surah Al-Mumtahina verse 10 and it says that يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا that oh you believe إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ مُهَاجِرَاتٍ فَامْتَحِنُوهُن if believing women come to you then test them make sure that they are coming for the sake of religion they're genuine converts right and if you find them to be genuine then فَلَا تَرْجِعُهُنَّ إِلَى الْكُفَّارِ don't return them to the kuffar لَا هُنَّ حِلُّ لَهُمْ وَلَهُمْ يَحِلُّونَ لَهُنْ neither are they halal for these women as spouses nor are these women halal for them but you must return the mahr of every one of their husbands you have to return it because that's not fair that she takes the mahr and comes she has to return the mahr and then Allah says after the iddah is over if you wish to marry then you may marry them and this Umm Kulthum she was married to Zayd ibn Harithah Zayd ibn Harithah the adopted son she was married to Zayd ibn Harithah and so Allah Azzawajal said that any mahr that they have done you return it back to them and then after they have their iddah finished then you can marry them now why was it allowed to have the women stay because once again the Prophet ﷺ is following the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law it was Suhail who said that لا يأتي منا رجل no man shall come to us that follows your faith except that you shall return that man to us now it is understood and that is the spirit of the law that when you say man you mean person it's understood that when you say man it applies to a person right? that's how most treaties are written well most treaties before lawyers were invented but you know, lawyers change everything now. But that's how, you know, you write generically. And so, he basically, and no doubt, the majority of the muhajirs were men. And when you're writing this, what is in mind is a man coming. So, the treaty, the spirit of it, no doubt, includes women as well. That's the point. But it doesn't say so. And so, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, look, you didn't agree to women basically. You agreed to men. And it literally says in the treaty, لَا يَتِمِنَّا رَجُلٌ It says رَجُل. The treaty, what they wrote down, no man shall come to us except that, shall come to you except that you should return to him. And it doesn't say women. And so Allah عز و جل made the قضاء, He made the decree that it will not apply to women. And therefore, women were allowed to immigrate but not men. And subhanAllah, once again, Allah عز و جل's plan came into effect. That it was not on the minds of either parties. but Alhamdulillah women were given the exception because as we understand it's tough enough for a man, how about a woman being tortured and persecuted we're not going to stand for that and it was not a part of the treaty and so they were allowed to emigrate and one more thing that we'll mention and then we'll break and then inshallah next Wednesday we'll talk about all of the benefits of Hudaybiyah and Surah Al-Fatah and then also move on inshallah One final incident occurred on the way back from Hudaybiyah. And as we said, they spent around 20 days camped at Hudaybiyah. And then they spent another week and a half, 10 days going back and forth. So a total of 6 weeks they spent away from Medina. And on the way back, that famous incident occurred. Where after a long day of heavy marching, all day they've been marching. And they march all the way late into the night. And it was the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ to march as much as he could at night time. He liked to march at night as well because he said that, there's a hadith that says that land shortens at night. And the meaning is that you actually are able to travel more at night. Anybody who has driven at night and driven in the day, you actually end up stopping a lot more in the day. And things happen in the day. Whereas at night, if you manage to stay awake, you mashallah drive non-stop and it goes much more. Not that I'm encouraging you to drive at night if you get sleepy. But I'm just saying, for those who are used to long drives, then driving at night has its benefits. and our Prophet ﷺ would like to travel at the night time. So he's traveling as much as they can until finally when everybody is exhausted and tired, they get off of the side of the road and they camp. And he says, who shall stay awake and protect us and guard us and then wake us up for Fajr. And Bilal volunteers that, I'll be the guard and I'll be the protector and I will be the alarm clock and mu'adhin for Fajr. But everybody is dead tired and as we know the famous story that the first to wake up was either Abu Bakr or Umar when they felt the rays of the sun on them. And this means this is around 7, 8 o'clock in the morning. Imagine how tired for a group that never ever sleeps beyond the break of dawn. Not just because of Fajr, because of their livelihood. That's when people are programmed to wake up is at the crack of dawn. can you imagine the entire 1400 not a single one woke up until around maybe 8 o'clock when the heat of the sun gets to them how tired they must be of this whole trip, physically exhausted and Abu Bakr or Umar start saying Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar because subhanallah they never had the audacity to shake the Prophet ﷺ they're not gonna say wake up ya Rasulullah So how did they wake him up? Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. By saying Allahu Akbar. And then the Prophet ﷺ woke up, and lo and behold, Bilal is still asleep. Right? They all surround Bilal, and he's still asleep. Obviously, he tried his best, and he was the last to fall asleep, so he's going to be the last to wake up. So he wakes up and he finds everybody staring at him. Right? And so he said, Ya Rasulullah, I tried, but the one who took my soul took my soul. I mean, I tried to stay away, but I wasn't able to. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, let us get away from this place, because shaitan has caused us to miss fajr, so let's go a little bit further. And then they prayed fajr a little bit further. And now here's a bit of a controversy. Did this incident happen twice or once? Because there are other versions that mention this incident after another battle, which we'll talk about. And some riwayat mention it happened after the battle of Hudaybiyah. Not the battle, after the incident of Hudaybiyah. Some riwayat mention it came on the incident of Hudaybiyah, and other riwayat mention other things. So scholars have differed. That did this happen twice in the life of the Prophet ﷺ, or it only happened once? And frankly, it's very difficult to say for certain. Allah knows best. Maybe it happened twice. Maybe it happened only at this time, and then the other version is a mistake. Or maybe it happened at that version and this version that mentions Hudaybiyah is a mistake. Nonetheless, what we learn from this is that subhanAllah, the only salah of the Prophet ﷺ ever to have been missed by oversleeping is Fajr. Now we have already covered in the battle of Khandaq, Salatul Asr was delayed one time because of the volleys and the arrows coming in and Allah had not yet revealed Salatul Khawf. Salatul Khawf had not yet come down. Salatul Khawf came down in the next few months. We talked about this, right? Salatul Khawf came down after Khandaq. And so in Khandaq, they delayed Asr, not out of laziness, but out of war. And the Prophet ﷺ made dua against them and he made Asr up before he prayed Maghrib. And from this, Allah Azza wa Jal allowed us the basic fiqh, which is whenever you miss a salah, you need to make up the miss salah before the current salah. So for whatever reason, now obviously for the Prophet ﷺ he had the best reason in the world. There is no salatul khawf, salatul jihad, and he is in the middle of the war. He has not one minute to spare to go in and pray. So if for whatever reason, and in our case it's almost always laziness or forgetfulness, may Allah forgive us. If for whatever reason we don't pray, what are we supposed to do? We make up the first prayer, then we pray the current prayer. Now in this incident it is no doubt another blessing in disguise because no matter how righteous and pious we are the one salah that humanity oversleeps once every while we hope the Prophet ﷺ once in a lifetime or maybe max twice in a lifetime. If it happened twice, it happened twice. There is no three. Or maybe it's one time. So in the entire 23 years of the Prophet ﷺ maybe once, maybe twice max. And both of them, not when he's home. Never once did he miss Fajr at home. On both occasions, or they might be the same occasion, he's missing them after something like this. This long day, camping, and then, you know, oversleeping. And in this there is just a little bit of a consolation for us as well. That it is human, once in a blue moon, to accidentally miss Fajr. Now of course for us, wallahi there is no comparison. We're sleeping in our beds, we have alarm clocks, we have this and that. Look at the Prophet ﷺ and his situation and scenario. But my point being, if Allah wanted to, he would never have missed Fajr. Correct? If Allah wanted to, he would not have missed Fajr. Jibri would have come down and woke him now. Right? But there is a wisdom here. And that wisdom is all of us, we, the best of us, it doesn't matter. Right? The best of us, once every while, it just happens that the alarm clock does not go off, you know, you do whatever, legitimate reason, and this is a demonstration for us that if it happens beyond our control, we didn't intend it, then inshallah ta'ala we just pray it as soon as we're able to now as for the Prophet ﷺ he felt that the area itself was not good because shaitan caused bilal and shaitan caused the people to fall asleep and so he wanted to get out of that area and so that's a special ruling as for us in our houses, obviously that's nothing we can do, we will pray in our houses but this clearly shows us the sunnah of what to do when you miss a prayer and you wake up late and that is you pray it as soon as possible and inshallah next week we'll talk about at least 30 benefits that we can derive from the incident of Hudaybiyah if not more and also we'll go over quickly Surah Al-Fatah and then inshallah mention some other incidents that took place right after the treaty of Hudaybiyah Thank you.

Seerah 66 - The Treaty of Hudaybiyya - Part 5 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. up and conclude with the incident of Hudaybiyah. And we'll begin by quickly going over some of the main verses in the Quran in Surah Al-Fatah that mention the incident of Hudaybiyah. And as I had said that Surah Al-Fatah came down in its entirety while the Prophet ﷺ was going back from Hudaybiyah to Mecca. And this is one of those rare surahs that was revealed in its entirety. Usually the surah did not come down in its entirety. Sometimes the surah took 7-8 years to come down like Baqarah. It took over 7-8 years in fact you can even say it took 9 years because the last verse of Baqarah was the last verse revealed. Surah Al-Fatah is one of those surahs it came down wholesale, all of it, from beginning to end in one go. And it came down neither in Mecca nor in Medina and yet it is Madani because it came down after the Hijrah so it is called Madani even though physically it didn't come down in Medina it came down on the way back to Medina. And unfortunately, we do not have time to go over every single ayah, but I ask you to read the entire surah in the context of our series in Hudaybiyyah. And I'll just go over some of the main ayat. And unfortunately, again, because of time, I'll have to quote the English and I really hate doing this because the Quran is only in Arabic, but translation is merely a translation. And so for the sake of time, we'll just quickly quote some of the translated verses. So obviously, the first portion of the surah that surely we have given you a clear victory surely we have given you a manifest victory why have we done this? so that Allah may forgive your sins لِيَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ لَكَ مَا تَقَدَّمَ مِنْ ذَنْبِكَ Allah may forgive your sins the past of them and those that will come and He may perfect His favor upon you and keep you upon the right way and that Allah Azza wa Jal help you with a mighty help so Allah is saying this treaty and this incident is one more way of showing your honor and of forgiving your sins. Now what has the treaty of Hudaybiyah got to do with forgiving the sins of the Prophet ﷺ? The pain, the anguish, the grief that is caused is something that causes sins to be forgiven. And the treaty of Hudaybiyah caused our Prophet ﷺ some grief. Also, any honor and blessing that is given forgives sins. So this is a treaty that honor and blessing is being given to the Prophet ﷺ. And then in verse number 5, And so that he may give the believing men and women jannat in tajjimit tahtiyal anhaar and save them from their evil. And indeed this is a great achievement with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So Allah has given you this conquest, this fatah to forgive your sins and to cause the believers to enter Jannah. This is a blessing for you. It's a great victory for you. Then in verse number 10, Surely those who give you the oath of allegiance, إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُبَيُّونَكَ They give the oath to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They're not giving it just to you. The hand of Allah is over their hand. يَدُوا اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ So Allah emphasizes that those who have given the bay'ah to Ridwan, they are giving the bay'ah directly to me. Then verse number 11, 12 and 13, Allah mentions those who remain behind, the munafiqun. That when you go back to Medina, they will tell you, the Bedouins and the Arab, the Bedouins, the hypocrites will tell you, oh we were busy because of our money and our children. So please ask Allah to forgive us. They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Rather, and Allah later on says, you thought that the Prophet ﷺ and the believers will never return to Medina. And that thought was made alluring to you. And indeed you had an evil thought. And you were a people that were doomed to perish. So Allah exposes their excuse. Of course there's so many miracles here because before the Prophet ﷺ returns to Medina, Allah tells him what the people will tell him. Before he gets back, Allah tells him, سَيَقُولُوا They will say to you. And how did the Arabs know what they would say? How did the Arabs, they had not heard of Surah Al-Fatah being recited, yet they quote Surah Al-Fatah without knowing they're quoting Surah Al-Fatah. That the Bedouins come and they give an excuse. They said, we're busy, it was harvest season, it was this and that. And of course this is very similar to Tabuk that's gonna happen in two years. But the same point here. They gave an excuse. And Allah says, they say with their tongues what is not in their heart. Rather, they thought you would never come back. And what an evil thought. They thought the Quraish would kill you. What an evil thought. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then mentions that in verse number 18, لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ That verily Allah is well pleased with the believers when they swore their allegiance to you from under the tree. And Allah knew what was in their hearts. So Allah sent down peace upon them and rewarded them with a close victory. Notice the contrast. Allah knows the heart of the hypocrites. And Allah exposed their hearts. And Allah also said, the believer said something, and that is the oath of allegiance. And they meant it. So Allah knew what is in their hearts. And because of that, Allah sent down forgiveness. and Allah has given them a close promise, a near victory. What is this near victory? As we will mention it is the conquest of Khaybar. And in it the Muslims got more booty and more ghanima than they had ever gotten in any battle before Khaybar. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that in verse 22 and 23 that if the Quraysh had actually fought you وَلَوْ قَاتَلَكُمُ الَّذِينَ كَفُرُوا Suppose that the fighting had taken place. Even then, even though you were numerically less, they were the ones who would have turned around and fled, and they would have not found any protector. So Allah says, you were the brave people, you challenged them, and they didn't fight, even though they were more than you. But I will tell you, even if they fought, you would have remained, and they would have fled. And this is another praise for the Ansar and the Muhajirun, that Allah tells them of the future that is not going to happen. And this is of the interesting things. Allah knows the past, Allah knows the future, Allah knows the present. Allah knows the future that is not going to happen if it happens how it would happen. This is also of the knowledge of Allah. Allah knows that future that will never happen. But if it happened how it would happen. Because Allah عز و جل is predicting something that's not going to happen. There was no battle in Hudaybiyah. Yet Allah says, if you had fought them, they would have turned around and fled. And you would have remained on the battlefield. and that's of course a blessing for them. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala criticizes them in verse number 25. They were the ones who rejected and disbelieved and turned you away from the sacred mosque. وَصَدُّوكُمْ عَنِ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ And they also turned away the animals that were meant for the sacred mosque. So Allah is criticizing the Quraysh. They prevented you and they prevented the charity from reaching its destination. And then, were it not for believing men and believing women that you do not know about and you might have killed were it not for them Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would have caused a battle to take place I'm translating by meaning here and the point here is Allah is saying in Mecca there are many Muslims in Mecca there are many Muslims they're persecuted they're hiding their faith and if there had been a battle they would have been forced to be on the side of the Quraysh because their Islam is secret and you would have been forced to kill them and if you had killed them and later on discovered that they were Muslims you would have felt great grief and therefore it is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that prevented this bloodshed from taking place even though you had conquered some of them remember there was an incident where the Muslims had conquered a small entourage and despite this conquering they had submitted and they had surrendered without any blood being shed and then in the final verse Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reaffirms the vision and the dream laqad as-sadaqa allahu rasuluh ru'ya bil haq that surely Allah has shown the true vision to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Allah has shown the true dream you shall enter la tadkhulunna there is an emphasis, you shall enter the masjid al-haram after having shaved or trimmed your hair, you will be in security you shall not fear and Allah knows what you do not know so he brought about a near victory fathan qariba a major victory through this so you will get your umrah but you will also get a victory and what is this victory? some say this victory is the prediction of the conquest of Mecca Allah knows best and some say this is khaybar again some say it was other victories and we'll mention some of those victories today and then the final two verses are verses that praise the Prophet ﷺ and the famous phrase Muhammadur Rasulullah which only occurs twice in the Quran. La ilaha illallah, the phrase in that way occurs once and then the phrase Muhammad Rasulullah in this particular manner, it occurs twice. And this is one of those two times, Muhammad Rasulullah, that the Muhammad Rasulullah is the messenger of Allah and then the rest of the verse is a praise for the Ansar and the Muhajirun, those who are with him. Wal ladhina ma'ahu, they are strict against the Kuffar and they are compassionate amongst the believers. You will see them bowing down, prostrating, seeking the pleasure of Allah they have prostration marks on their faces from the effects of the sujood and then Allah goes on and praises the sahaba in this manner and by the way not really related to Hudaybiyah but the last verse of Surah Fatah which is verse 29 it is one of the only two verses in the Quran in which every single letter of the Arabic alphabet exists it's just a little bit of a trivia point here. Every single letter of the Arabic alphabet occurs in this verse. There's only one other verse like that. In any case, just a brief summary of Surah Al-Fatah. Now today, for the rest of today, we're really gonna do the main lessons and the benefits from the incident of Hudaybiyyah. And we begin, we'll divide this into four sections. Firstly, benefits from the seerah. Secondly, theological benefits. Thirdly, fiqh benefits. And then fourthly, modern political thought benefits, right? So we divide this into four sections. Firstly, seerah benefits. As for the seerah benefits, of the greatest benefits is that it forced the Quraysh to treat the Muslims like an equal party. Because treaties are only enacted between two equals. Otherwise it's a command and it's a haughty arrogance. But for the first time, the Quraysh and the Prophet ﷺ are brought to the table as equals. And therefore this is demonstrating that the Muslims are not only gaining ascent, eventually they will gain the upper hand. And therefore another point here in the seerah, that some of the Quraysh, many of them maybe, realize that the tide is turning. And it was this realization that made them so paranoid, so crazy, that they said, whatever happens, you're not gonna enter this year. Let not the Arabs say that you had the upper hand over us. What does that show? It shows that they did have the upper hand. But there is this arrogance. You know when you're just stubbornly arrogant. You don't care what anybody says. Right? It doesn't matter. They've reached that paranoia now. They've reached that level that people are gonna say you're more powerful, so whatever happens, you're not gonna enter Mecca. In that, we notice their insecurity. We notice they realize the table is turning. And as the table is turning, some of them, those who were the closest to Islam, this was the final straw that they needed in order to embrace Islam. And very soon, we will come to the last converts before the conquest of Mecca culminating with Khalid ibn al-Walid and Uthman ibn Abi Talha and Amr ibn al-Aus. It was the treaty of Hudaybiyah that was really the last straw for these people that they realized that there is no way that this religion is going to diminish and disappear. It is the truth. And they needed to see some of them, their iman was not as quick as Abu Bakr. They needed to see signs. And Hudaybiyah was the final sign that they needed to see before they embraced Islam. also of the benefits in the seerah is that this peace brought about for the Muslims a comfort and security that they had never felt before. Badr, Uhud, Khandaq, these are all fresh. And there's always this fear, when will the Quraysh attack again? What will the next battle be? But now that the treaty of Hudaybiyah is enacted, this brings about a psychological sense of peace, of calm. And that peace and calm allows them to concentrate on other issues that they did not have the luxury to concentrate on before Hudaybiyah. First and foremost, the issue of the remaining Yahudi tribes. And that is in Khaybar now. And that's exactly why, less than one month after Hudaybiyah, Khaybar takes place. Because there is a big thorn. And that's the Banu Nadir and the remnants of the Bainu Qaynuqa still causing issues. And they need to be dealt with. But as long as we're the threat of the Quraysh, as long as we have other issues, we can't have the luxury to deal with Khaybar. Because Khaybar, as we will study from next week inshallah onwards, that was a fortress. And it's gonna require a lot of work. Who has the time and the energy to dedicate when we're worried about the Quraysh? Now that the Quraysh is taken care of, we can concentrate on the other threat. And that was the threat of the Banu Nadir, and the remnants of the Banu Nadir. Also this peace allowed for the very first time, the Prophet ﷺ to start thinking globally now. Or maybe acting globally is a better term. Obviously he's thinking globally from day one. So to start acting globally. Now that the local threat has been eliminated for the very first time. Now Hudaybiyah takes place in the seventh year. And now in the next year of the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ is gonna start writing letters to the leaders. He writes letters to at least a dozen. and we'll talk about the letters in one lecture or maybe even two. And so for the very first time, the Prophet ﷺ begins writing letters to international leaders because Quraysh is now finally, we can deal with this. It's something that's bottled up. So we have now the opportunity to look global and to look beyond this. This also shows us that the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, it gave or it affirmed the sense that the Muslim Ummah is now an independent republic. that it can negotiate now with the Caesar, with Kisra, with Muqawqis. The Prophet ﷺ is writing letters as a political leader now. And Hudaybiyyah either affirmed or it simply added to that aura of the Muslims being an independent political entity. Also, one of the greatest blessings of Hudaybiyyah, perhaps the greatest seerah blessing, is that it allowed for the first time Muslims and pagans to interact without fear of bloodshed. Throughout the Arabian Peninsula, it allowed Muslims and pagans, idol worshippers, to engage in buying, in selling, in traveling, in mixing with one another. And this allowed the message of Islam to spread peacefully. And this obviously caused many people to convert. And so Hudaybiyah was not a jihad of the sword, it was a jihad of peace and a jihad of da'wah. And frankly the jihad of peace and the jihad of da'wah was far more effective in terms of converts than any jihad of war. Because you're not gonna convert people by the sword. But you will convert people by persuasion, by talking about your theology. And what happens when you have peace? You can talk about your religion. And Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, and if you remember Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri is the most famous scholar of the Tabi'un, died 124 Hijrah. and clearly he is one of the main architects of our fiqh and our seerah and our usur, really one of the main bastions of sunnism, Ibn Shahab al-Zuhri. But we don't know much about him in terms of masses because he didn't write a separate book like Bukhari or others, that was before his time. But we owe everything really in terms of Islamic academics to Ibn Shahab al-Zuhri. Ibn Shahab al-Zuhri said, there was no victory given to Islam before Hudaybiyah that was bigger than Hudaybiyah. there was no victory given to the Muslims before Hudaybiyah then Hudaybiyah why? he said this is Ibn Shihab speaking that the people were all at peace with one another so they would mix and talk and mention Islam and so not a single intelligent person heard about Islam except that he entered it and this is still him commenting in the next two years after Hudaybiyah the number of Muslims doubled or even more than this. Islam had been preaching its message for 16 years. No, 19 years. 13 plus 6. 19 years it is preaching its message. And in 2 years after Hudaybiyyah, the number of converts doubles from the 13 years pre-Hudaybiyyah. Think about that. And Ibn Hisham, who is Ibn Hisham? who is Ibn Hisham? come on guys the story and the seerah guy what did he do? Ibn Hisham he didn't write the seerah he copied whose? Ibn Ishaq very good he summarized and edited Ibn Ishaq this is now standard you guys should know this right Ibn Hisham quotes Al-Zuhri and then he says the proof for Al-Zuhri statement is that in Bayat al-Ridwan, there were 1,400 people. Two years later in the conquest of Mecca, there are 10,000 people. So all you have to do is look at the numbers. That the bulk of the Muslims of Medina, not all of them, the bulk of them participated in Ridwan. That's 1,400 men. In the conquest of Mecca, where did these 8,000, 9,000 extra come from? they have converted in the last two years. That is what Ibn Hisham is saying. All you have to do is to look at the numbers. So this shows us that a peace treaty might actually be a far bigger victory than a military endeavor. And of course of the points and the benefits of seerah of Hudaybiyah is that Hudaybiyah is a blessing and a status for those who participated in it. As I mentioned two weeks ago that the Prophet ﷺ said to the people of Hudaybiyah, أنتم خير أهل الأرض You are the best people on earth. And in another hadith he said, No one who gave me the bay'ah will ever enter the fire of hell. And of the final benefits of the seerah from Hudaybiyah is that Hudaybiyah was a direct line to the conquest of Mecca. Without Hudaybiyah, you cannot have the conquest of Mecca. As we will see when we get to the conquest of Mecca. It was the treaty of Hudaybiyah that allowed the Prophet ﷺ to engage in a military expedition when the Quraysh did not live up to their side. and therefore had it not been for Hudaybiyah there would be no conquest of Mecca so there was a very clear victory now second stage theological benefits for those who came late we said there's going to be four stages of benefits seerah benefits, theological benefits, fiqh benefits, modern political science benefits theological benefits very quickly because we've done most of these before but just to reiterate of the theological benefits Ibn Al-Qayyim writes And Ibn Al-Qayyim by the way is one of the greatest masters of extracting benefits from the seerah. Hardly anybody has done that type of analysis that Ibn Al-Qayyim has done. And that is to really think about the seerah and then extract points of benefits. And I hope that inshallah I'm following in that footsteps to really examine every episode, every incident and extract what you can extract. So Ibn Al-Qayyim and he did this, he does this in his book Zad al-Ma'ad which is in five volumes. It's a great book and it has an entire section about benefits from the seerah. So Ibn Al-Qayyim says that of the benefits from Hudaybiyah, there's a long section, of the benefits, the permissibility of standing guard for a person of importance. Because typically this is not allowed. Our Prophet ﷺ has forbidden a Muslim ruler from sitting down and everybody rising in his presence. This is the general rule, right? And he said anybody who likes this, he should be prepared to sit in the fire of hell. or be prepared to meet the punishment of Allah and the fire of hell. فَلْيَتَبَوْا مَقَعَدَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ So, we learn that the general rule, we know this, that when somebody comes in or when somebody is sitting down of importance, you don't stand up as a token of respect. We know this. However, in Hudaybiyah, what happened? When the emissaries came, Al-Mughira, Abu Bakr, others are all standing with their swords ready. And Ibn Al-Qayyim remarks that they did this as a show of force, even though it was not the habit of the Prophet ﷺ to have an armed guard. It was not his habit to have an entourage. It was not his habit to have the elite bodyguard. That's not his habit. He didn't have that. But at Hudaybiyyah, this took place. Why? To show the Quraysh that the Muslims respect their leader even more than you guys respect your leaders. To show them basically the protocol that they're accustomed to. There is a protocol that is accepted. There is a protocol that is known. And if the sahaba had all been sitting down in haphazard fashion, the emissaries of the Quraysh would have understood, you're not gonna do anything for your leader. So to demonstrate that respect, the way they are accustomed to it. So in this case, it is allowed for a maslaha, for a particular reason. Also of the theological benefits we learn, and I talked about this in a lot of detail, is the issue of al-fa'al. And what is al-fa'al? Who can remind me? Optimism. Also good omens. Al-fa'al, good omens, right? We read in something positive. And what are the two conditions of al-fa'al being legitimate? Everybody should know. The two conditions, O note takers, in the name of Allah. That it's true, how do you know it's true? so if it doesn't come to pass it's not true that's not the condition so number one it's a good omen not a bad omen not true it's good positive it's a positive omen there's no such thing as negative bad luck doesn't exist positive omen something optimistic number one and number two is what you link it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you link it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala okay that you say this is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so if these two conditions are met you may read in a positive sign and the most common type of reading in is by something you hear but you can also do by something you see so you hear the name of somebody you hear a positive sentence right then you read in something positive. And the Prophet ﷺ, when Suhail came, he said, قَدْ سَهُلَ أَمْرُكُمْ So from Suhail, he derived a positive omen that now Allah is sending the ease. This is gonna be the ease. Everything was an impasse. So we learn from here the point of al-fa'l. Also there was a hadith, I didn't mention related to Hudaybiyah. I'll just quickly mention it about theological benefits. That at one point in time in Hudaybiyah, it rained very severely. One of those, they were camped for around 20 days or so. and so one of those days it rained very severely and the next day the rumor started spreading that from the days of Jahilah they would have a custom that they would say it rained because of such and such a star they'd have a pre-Islamic custom because of such and such a star it rained so apparently one or two people said something of this nature after Salatul Fajr the Prophet ﷺ said do you know what Allah said last night they said what he said Allah said some of my believers have woken up believing in me and some of them have woken up believing in the stars and rejecting me. So those who said it has rained because of the star have rejected me and believed in the star. And those who said it has rained because of the blessings of Allah and the rahmah of Allah are believers in me and rejecters in the stars. Now, a lot of theology here but we don't have time for this. just very briefly. So the Arabs had a superstitious custom in the pre-Islamic days that they would attribute rain to a particular star or a season or a time of the month. A time of the... مُطِّرْنَا بِنَوِكَدَا It rained because of such and such a cycle of the moon or such and such a star. And we have similar things in our times. We have a good luck stone. We have these types of things. We have similar types of things. Every culture has it. So apparently one of them remarked this in the passing, that oh, it rained because it's the star's turn now, it's that star's turn. Tonight is the zodiac sign, whatever it might be. That's that particular point. And there's no doubt that when the sahaba said this they did not mean it in their hearts because they're believers. So when you say this without meaning it, this becomes minor shirk. But when you say it and you mean it, this is major shirk. And so, when we ascribe any blessing, we need to ascribe it directly to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We are not allowed to ascribe blessings to other than Allah. So we do not say, oh I was sick but the doctor cured me. We do not say, oh that house was under fire but the fireman saved the house. This is inappropriate to say. How do we phrase it? We say, I was sick but then Allah cured me through the efforts of the doctor. the house was on fire but then Allah saved the house through the efforts of the fireman right? so we link it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this is the proper adab with Allah we don't just link it to secondary causes or to even direct causes we believe in causality causality means you throw a stone it's gonna break the window right? believe it or not some Muslim groups did not believe in causality we believe in causality but we don't ascribe blessings except to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we say Allah Azza wa Jal cured us through the medicine of the doctor. So we ascribe it to Allah and this is proven in this hadith. You don't say, it rained because of the star. And that's what we extract from this point which occurred in the incident of Hudaybiyah. Also in the incident of Hudaybiyah, the theological issue of Tabarruk with the remnants of the Prophet ﷺ. Tabarruk means to seek blessings. We clearly have seen in Hudaybiyah that Suhail ibn Amr narrated that the Prophet ﷺ's wudu, that even his spit, that we know in other hadith, his sweat, his hair, all of this was used to gain blessings from. And this is something that is clearly allowed and nobody can deny this except somebody who's ignorant or somebody who's arrogant. It's clearly allowed that we seek blessings from the body and the sweat and the remnants of the water and the hair of the Prophet ﷺ. But it is only allowed for him and not for anybody else. no other person is of that level that we go behind him and seek his barakah and blessings that we kiss his hand thinking that we're gonna get blessings from him, that we get his turban and we think it's a great honor he's given me his turban as some of the other groups have it no, it is only the Prophet Muhammad that it is allowed to do tabarruk with the remnants and of course there are no remnants of his in our times, but the sahaba they would use that in their times, and also by the way there's an authentic hadith that when he saw them take all of this water and all of this he said why are you doing this? so they said because we want to receive Allah's blessings he said whoever wishes that Allah and his messenger love him, let him be truthful in his speech trustworthy in his amanah and let him not irritate his neighbors this hadith is in Tabarani and what this means is what? when they said we want to get blessed by your remnants of the water he's not saying that's wrong it is right but he said you really want to get blessings then speak truthfully and be honest in your interactions and make sure your neighbors love you and don't hate you so he's basically telling them a better tactic and a better reward even though it is allowed but he said if you want Allah and his messenger to love you then follow this tactic also of the greatest benefits of Hudaybiyah is the issue of Qadr and that is that sometimes things happen and we don't understand why they happen and on surface it appears nothing but wrong chaos, evil, harm and yet Allah knows and we do not know and one of the fundamentals of qadr is to resign your fate over to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it happens, it happens and you expect the best from Allah as Allah says وَعَسَأَن تَكْرَهُ شَيْءًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ You might hate something, but it is good for you. In another verse, it is possible you hate something, but Allah will bring much good coming from that which you hate. وَيَجْعَلْ لَوْ فِي خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا A lot of good will come from that thing that you hate. And this is the perfect example here. That's the sahaba did not understand. We see the reaction of Umar. Even the processum did not know what to say other than I'm obeying Allah. Allah will help me. He doesn't know how. At the time, he doesn't know how. what does he tell Umar? Allah will help me but he doesn't understand how because at face value it really seems like a humiliation after every single point but in the end we will see we already have mentioned last week and we'll see over again Hudaybiyah was the greatest victory since the beginning of Islam in terms of conquest in terms of converts in terms of the conquest of Mecca it's a victory and a victory and a victory but when it happens who knows so this is a fundamental point we derive and that is Qadr, belief in Qadr. Also a theological benefit from the incident of Hudaybiyyah, a very important benefit is never ever ever assume you know better than the Qur'an and Sunnah. We have statements from Umar ibn Khattab, from Suhail ibn Hanif, the both of them they said, اتهم الرأي على الدين accuse your own opinion before you accuse the religion. accuse your own understanding before you accuse the Quran and Sunnah the both of them Umar ibn Khattab said that I saw myself almost rejecting Islam meaning, what does he mean? my bad manners were so bad I worry that I might almost become a kafir on that day this is what he is saying that I saw myself almost rejecting and he also said the famous statement that if any other person had told me to do that I would never have accepted but it's because it's the process I accepted if any other ameer had told me that I'm supposed to hand the Muslims back I would never have done that so you see how close he is but he realizes in the end you have to submit and this obviously this only applies when there's an explicit text of the Quran and Sunnah you do not say I think when Allah and his messenger have spoken you do not say my opinion when Allah azza wa jal has clearly expressed his opinion because his opinion is fact, your opinion is dhun. It is completely wrong. So when the Qur'an is explicit, سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا And this is demonstrated in the treaty of, in the incident of Hudaybiyyah. Also, a very interesting theological tangent, which I did not bring up, I was wondering should I bring it up or not, but I said what the heck, subhanAllah, let's just go ahead and mention all of the details, right? Very interesting thing happened in the 4th century of the Hijrah, related to the incident of Hudaybiyyah. And that is what? a huge controversy erupted in Andalus over the fact or the question did the Prophet ﷺ read and write or not? And one of the most famous scholars of Andalus, his name is Abu'l-Walid Al-Baji, great scholar of Maliki fame. Every faqih and every Maliki student of knowledge knows this name. He's a very famous Maliki scholar. He's from Andalus. And he wasn't the only one, Abu Dhar al-Harawi and the other one as well, I forgot his name. A number of scholars, they followed him in this. They began to claim that the Prophet ﷺ can read and write. And this spread amongst the masses. And other scholars got involved and they said, anybody who says that the Prophet ﷺ can read and write is a kafir. You know the problem of calling different people kafir, it's not just in Pakistan. It actually happens all over. Right? It's a common thing. and it happens all the way even in Andalusia that they said anybody who says that the Prophet ﷺ can read and write he's a kafir, why? according to the other group and that's the majority at least they said that he cannot read and write and that's also my opinion, he cannot read and write even though I don't make takfir of Al-Baji but they made takfir of him, they said why? why do you think they made takfir of him? in what? it's mentioned in the Quran, what is mentioned in the Quran? النبي الأمي the unlettered prophet so they said anybody who says he can read and write has rejected the Quran, he's a kafir so there was a actual court case that was brought against Abu al-Walid al-Baji who was the most famous scholar of his time and the sultan had to get involved he was brought in front of the sultan and he was basically said look all of your other ulama are accusing you of being a kafir because you've rejected the Quran because you say the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam can read and write. So he said, I have clear evidences that he can read and write. He said what? Number one evidence, hadith in Sahih Bukhari, incident of Hudaybiyah. That when Ali ibn Abi Talib refused to erase Muhammad Rasulullah, one version in Bukhari, and this is literally what it says, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam took the kitab, and he did not وَلَا يَحْسِنَ الْكِتَابَ he didn't know how to write وَكَتَبَ مُحَمَّدْ إِبْنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ so it clearly says he took the book he didn't meaning the scroll and he didn't know how to write and he wrote مُحَمَّدْ إِبْنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ because you know the thing of محمد رسول الله and Ali said I'm not going to delete that remember that so the virgin in Bukhari clearly says he didn't know how to read and write and he wrote this is what we have agreed to and then the hadith goes on so he said this is an explicit hadith, he didn't know how to write and he wrote they said how about النبي الأمي he said النبي الأمي was when he became a prophet, before he was a prophet after he learned how to read and write so Allah describes him in the early stage and then the later stage went there's no reason for him not to read and write he learned how to read and write so they said how about the verse in the Quran وَمَا كُنْتَ تَتْلُ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَلَا تَخُطُّهُ بِيَمِينِكَ إِذَا الَّرْتَابَ الْمُبْطِرُونَ that you never recited any book before this nor did you ever write with your right hand write with your right hand وَلَا تَخُطُّهُ بِيَمِينِكَ and you never wrote with your right hand so they said this ayah is very clear he said this ayah is an evidence for me and against you why? because it says وَمَا كُنْتَ تَتْلُو مِنْ قَبَلِهِ from before the revelation of the Quran you didn't recite a book or write which means مَفْهُمَ الْمُخَالَفِ فَفِرُهُمْ وَسُلُّ الْفِقْرِ after the Quran was revealed you did learn how to read and write so and he quoted other evidences I have already confused you enough I don't want to confuse you more than this believe me, they could not defeat him they could not because he brought for everything that they said, he brought an evidence and in the end the case was dismissed because he had legitimate Quranic evidences and Sunnah evidences that they could not say that this is kufr, he's not rejecting, and this clearly shows us that you can have some strange opinions and still not be a kafir and it is up to the ulama it's not up to the lay people the lay people do not and are not qualified to decide who is a Muslim and who is not a Muslim it is up to the ulama the scholars of theology especially to know what is kufr and what is not kufr and the master should not get involved in deciding who is a kafir and who is not a kafir this is something the ulama do so in the end the case was dismissed and the position he held it till he died but it remained a minority position and later scholars they wrote entire treatises on this issue to refute him and the fact of the matter is that the evidences are mutawatir that he was an Nabi al-Ummi that he did not read and write and as for the version in Bukhari that says he did not know how to read and write there's two interpretations to and then he wrote there's two interpretations the first of them and that's a minority opinion as well he wrote his name only and they say most people who don't know how to read and write they can write their name this is an opinion but the second opinion is inshallah the stronger one because we would like to stick to the Quran when it says النبي الأمي and we would like to stick to the Quran that says that you never wrote with your hand even though it says من قبله but it doesn't mean من بعده you did مفهوم المخالف is not a very strong استدلال for those who know أسول الفقه and they say the Prophet did not write but he commanded somebody to write and this is allowed in any language we say the governor rebuilt the city. In English we'll say the president, well not the president in this case, especially the government's closed, not going to do anything these days. Let's say the governor rebuilt the highway. Okay? The governor rebuilt the highway. We all understand the governor, God forbid he would actually ever work, but I mean, you know, physically, he's not going to go to the trenches and dig the highway, is he? But when we say the governor rebuilt the highway, what do we mean? He commanded the rebuilding of the highway, right? It is allowed to speak in this type of language when it's the leader involved. So he took the book, he took the scroll, and he didn't know how to write, but he commanded somebody to write. And so this is the other opinion that is given, okay? Let's leave it to the end, inshallah. In any case, the majority position, which is the safer one in any case, is that he did not go on to read and write. Nonetheless, I found this interesting that we should just bring this up with Hudaybiyyah. Okay, these are the theological benefits. Now we move on to the third section of benefits. What's the third section of benefits? No, fiqh benefits. Fiqh benefits from the treaty of Hudaybiyah, from the incident of Hudaybiyah. Fiqh benefits. The most obvious fiqh benefit, the most blatant fiqh benefit, the permissibility of engaging in peace treaties with an otherwise evil enemy. The worst enemy imaginable. The Quraysh were not neutral. The Quraysh were not pacifist Ahli Kitab. The Quraysh were not people that were freedom and democracy and what not. The Quraysh were the worst enemies the ummah has ever seen. We will never have a worse enemy than the Quraysh. Why? Because nobody is actually opposing the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ other than the Quraysh. Anytime another group, another nation, another country opposes Muslims, they're not opposing the Prophet ﷺ directly. Correct? The only people who actually opposed the one man whom Allah sent to them. Everybody else, we are not the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. When an enemy attacks us, even if they attack us for Islam, and we have had many of attacks in the last 14 centuries they're not attacking the Prophet ﷺ directly but the Quraysh they attacked him directly they tried to kill him directly they expelled him directly what greater zulm and what greater injustice is that yet still the Prophet ﷺ engaged with them directly and had a peace treaty with them and this shows us that even the most evil and the most vile and the most crooked and the most corrupt and the most, you know, literally, literally the most evil people. You can engage in peace treaties with them. And here the scholars have differed that does this mean that there's a maximum of 10 years or not? Imam al-Shafi'i from the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, he said, the maximum is 10 years, but you can keep on renewing as much as you want. But it has to be only 10 year increments, right? So, the maximum for the khalifa, and this is of course for the khalifa, the khalifa is allowed to engage in a peace treaty for 10 years with an evil enemy, then after 10 years he has to have another treaty then another treaty, and he can do that, but he cannot extend more than 10 years but Abu Hanifa and Riwayat Imam Ahmad and others, they say look 10 years was just what the Prophet ﷺ did, you want to have more, you want to have less there is no limit, and inshallah that is really the strongest position that, it depends on the circumstances of the time, just because the Prophet ﷺ said 10, doesn't mean that's the max you can have whatever is the political circumstance for this time. And in fact some modern scholars in modern times very famous fuqaha Dr. Wahba Az-Zuhayli, that famous scholar from Syria and also Sheikh Al-Qardawi as well they have basically held positions that are unique for our times and they say, in light of current circumstances, in light of the modern world we can in fact extrapolate that there can be permanent peace. Not just 5 years 10 years, we can actually have permanent peace. If that is the way the world is expected to be, then we can have permanent peace. And this is an opinion that is also mentioned in our time. So this is the main fiqh point that is derived. Another fiqh point that is derived is that even though vulgarity and cursing is typically haram, there are some very, very, very specific scenarios where it in fact becomes allowed. And Abu Bakr's vile curse, it's a very vulgar curse. and to be honest I did not even translate it properly out of respect otherwise it is even more vulgar than what I said don't do it don't worry I'm not doing it but the fact that somebody as otherwise shy and full of adab as Abu Bakr he utters such a curse in a state of anger to get a point across to somebody who's just insulted Islam and him and the Prophet ﷺ it shows us that there are some very minor exceptions to this rule because the Prophet ﷺ didn't criticize or get angry at Abu Bakr afterwards also we learn from this of the fiqh that we learn is that the one who cannot continue Hajj and Umrah he stops, he's called the Muhsir, he stops Ihsar means you basically stop from going for Hajj and Umrah, he stops where he is he sacrifices the animal, he shaves his hair or trims his hair and then he can resume his normal life. And this is something that we learn from the treaty of Hudaybiyah. Also we learn for the very first time that the rulings for ihram, you can get out of them for a legitimate reason. And this is something I didn't mention before, but Ka'b ibn Ujra, one of the companions, suffered from a major medical issue and that was that he was infested with lice. and it was causing a lot of irritation and he was sick and what not and when the Prophet ﷺ saw him he said, Subhanallah, why didn't you tell me that it was this bad? Shave your hair off. This is while he's in Ihram, while they're still waiting for the Hudaybiyah. The treaty has not been signed yet. So they think they're still going for the Umrah. So he said, shave your hair off because the life is in the hair. Shave your hair off and then give a fidya. Give a fidya. Feed or fast or whatever you can do, give a fidya. So in Ihram, if you have a medical issue because of which you need to wear actual clothes, let's say. Right? Classic example, you know, the elderly, they have a bladder problem, let's say. Okay, they need to wear something to protect themselves. They cannot wear the ihram. Completely legit. They must do this. And then they give a fidya, feeding the people or whatever, or they can sacrifice an animal if they want. So, any legitimate reason for breaking from the ihram, you're allowed to do that, and then you give the fidya. This is what we learned from the incident of Hudaybiyah. We also learned from the incident of Hudaybiyah, Ibn Al-Qayyim mentions this, the permissibility of seeking the help of a pagan, of an idol worshipper, even in extremely sensitive matters. And he gets this from, if you remember Ibn Sufyan Al-Khuzai, or Bishr, both are mentioned, Bishr and Bishr both are mentioned as his name. Remember the very first envoy or spy, if you like, that the Prophet ﷺ sent. According to Ibn Al-Qayyim, he was a mushrik. And so he says, from this we derive the permissibility of hiring out or renting or trusting a mushrik against fellow mushrikeen if we really know this person. However, other scholars say Bishr was in fact a new Muslim and a convert and a secret Muslim. And so there's a bit of a controversy was Bishr a Muslim or not. In my seerah I took the line he was a Muslim three weeks ago. Now I'll just mention there is a controversy. And again I reiterate my seerah is not advanced advanced because that would really take us as it is. So it's intermediate so sometimes they just gloss over things. I'll now go back and say there's a bit of a controversy was Bishr a Muslim or not. I taught you that he was a secret convert and this is what many people inshallah this seems to be the stronger opinion however Ibn Al-Qayyim felt he was a pagan even if we don't take this story as evidence, the evidence is still there. That in the Hijrah, in the battle of Uhud and many other places the Prophet ﷺ actually got the help of a pagan that was trustworthy. So it is allowed to seek help of a non-Muslim enemy against other enemies if you trust this enemy. If you trust him for whatever reason might be. And this is clearly inshaAllah the case in this seerah. Also we learn from the fiqh benefits of the treaty of Hudaybiyah, the permissibility of being strictly literal about a treaty, even if it means you contradict the spirit of the treaty. As long as you don't contradict the letter of the treaty, you're not contradicting the treaty. Where do we learn this from? women, women migrating. Women migrating. Right? Because the treaty said, no man shall come. And it's understood when you say generically man, with all respect to the feminists and what not, it is understood that when you say man, you mean woman as well. But in this case, the sahaba, the Prophet ﷺ, they stuck by the letter. even if it meant the spirit is lost right as long as you do not contradict the letter of the treaty then this is something that is permissible and also we have another evidence here and that is that the Prophet ﷺ was told that you're not going to allow somebody to live in your midst but he was not told it's your job to send them back correct so he waited for the Quraysh he was not told it's your job to enforce correct so he didn't enforce so much so when Abu Basir came back again the Prophet ﷺ just spoke to the air and said what a great soldier is Abu Basir if only there was somebody to help him meaning you had better get out before I'm forced to draw my hand so he actually allowed him the opportunity to go and this clearly shows us that look he was not obliged to fulfill the handing over of the Muslims and therefore he didn't do that the Quraysh did not put him upon him and he did not do that so this clearly shows us that as long as you follow the literal letter of the law and you don't contradict the stipulation you are safe in this regard also we have over here an incident that took place I already said that it rained severely in one of the days of Hudaybiyah and the day that it rained Maghrib and Isha was not prayed in Jama'ah in fact the Adhan was given and when the Adhan time said حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ and حَيَّ عَلَى الفَلَاحِ the mu'adhin did not say that and the adhan was changed and we are to this day supposed to change the adhan in Muslim lands when the people hear the adhan we're supposed to change the adhan when the people cannot come to the masjid and we say صَلُّوا فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ instead of حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ or in this case the mu'adhin said صَلُّوا فِي رِحَالِكُمْ pray in your tents and so the sahaba prayed in their tents because it was raining so bad and they did not pray in jama'ah And this shows us that at times of difficulty, and this is very true by the way, and we have had cancellations of our seerah and salah years ago when there's a hurricane or a tornado warning or whatnot, we say no, no, we should not come. When I was in Connecticut as well, severe winter, I mean snow falling and whatnot, plenty of times we'll get an email that, okay, no salah today. Even there is times, subhanAllah, remember, I didn't pray Jumu'ah and I stayed at home, and my khutbah was in the masjid, and the masjid is 10 minutes away. But there was a blizzard coming and the blizzard got worse and worse and worse. By 11 a.m. we said, no Jumu'ah. Because this is the sunnah. You don't put your life in jeopardy driving to the masjid in that type of circumstance. And then, no, no, this is not the way. صَلُّوا فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ صَلُّوا فِي رِحَالِكُمْ And we learn this from Hudaybiyyah as well. Also we learn, but let us not act too much upon this point that we learn. That is, if you oversleep, fajr. right, let's not overact too much on this but if once in a lifetime as it happened to the Prophet ﷺ or maybe twice because there's an ikhtilaf as we said some say this happened twice and some say it happened once, even if it happened twice subhanallah, for some of us it happens twice a week or twice a month, astaghfirullah may Allah azawajal forgive us it happened to the Prophet ﷺ maybe max twice in his lifetime both of the times on a jihad expedition never once in Mecca and Medina did he oversleep, never once and even I say in this there is great rahmah from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because wallahi the best of us this happens to us once in a while the best of us it happens and we shouldn't feel proud of it but we should realize it's human that is something once in a while that happens ask Allah's forgiveness and then pray to raka'ah as soon as you can so we learn this from the incident of Hudaybiyah with this we now get to the final benefits from Hudaybiyah and perhaps the most controversial ones and this is modern political thought I had mentioned when I started Hudaybiyah that my very first seerah lecture ever was about Hudaybiyah before I ever spoke about the whole seerah I concentrated on two stories only and I gave those quite a while here and there and still I think online I think still the audio or something might still be there I don't think it was recorded in video And this is the late 90s or early 2000s. This is quite a while ago. And the two stories were the Treaty of Hudaybiyah and the Slander of Aisha. That for me, these two stories were the most intriguing. Each one for personal and political reasons. And this one, the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, I felt it's very relevant. Actually, it is not late 90s, it's early 2000s because it was post 2001. Right, post 9-11. I gave this post 9-11 and that is the treaty of Hudaybiyah because the fact of the matter is we are living in very very difficult times we are living in Akhiru Zaman really there is no question that we are the end of times here and there are so many problems internal Muslim problems the people are far from the religion the rulers they are as they are to make matters worse there are external problems as well non-Muslim governments that are affecting policies that are harming the Ummah policies that are political, policies that are economic, policies that are military. So many things going on. The creation of Israel and the taking away of the land of Palestine from the people who owned it. The economic policies. Anybody who studies what the International Monetary Fund is doing, the IMF, and how it subjugates third world countries and especially poor and Muslim countries with giving them large loans. And then when they cannot repay, then they start subjugating them with cheap exportation of their goods. Wallahi, this is like highway robbery. And that's why many, many non-Muslims are protesting against the IMF and what it does. Because this is just blatant criminal behavior that's taking place. But this is the reality. And all of us are suffering, at least in the Muslim lands. Economic, if you like. Also military. What happens militarily around the world with drones and the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. I mean, these policies, no doubt, are adversely affecting many, many Muslims. So much so, that it is a common belief in many parts of the Muslim world that the West is engaging in an all-out war, and especially America, they say, is engaged in an all-out war against Islam. This is the belief that many people have, and we know this belief from many people back home. This is the reality that many people view all of these policies as being somehow an all-out war against the religion of Islam itself. and this in turn obviously has caused them to react in many different ways many people around the world Muslim and non-Muslim all you need to do is look at South America have a revulsion of America they hate America for what it has done to them it's not just a Muslim thing by the way look at Venezuela and all of these countries Nicaragua there's so much animosity and by the way just to tell you guys wallahi if you think that Muslim lands have been treated bad just read what happened in Nicaragua and Venezuela in the 70s, 80s Go read what has happened in those lands. And then you realize that, frankly, most Muslim lands have not had it as bad as those countries have had it. In terms of American policies, and Chomsky is one of the greatest people to talk about this. In fact, going to my tangents here, that's how Chomsky rose to fame in political thought. When he criticized South American policy. Nonetheless, let's get back to our point here. So, all of this has caused a lot of people to react in different ways. some of them verbally, and a small group of them extremely militant reaction. And the classic example is Al-Qaeda. And this group, it claims that it is the universal duty of every Muslim to fight against the great Taghut of our times. And many of them say it is haram. This is where we get practical now. It is haram for us as American Muslims to remain in this land. It's not allowed for us to be living here. It's not allowed for us to be paying taxes. Because they say that this is not faithful to the religion of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that you are doing something which is haram. Now much can be said, much is said. I myself have said a lot in this regard. You can see this on YouTube and what not. And I have given a lot of lectures about this point. And I don't have time to reiterate all of these now. We're talking about Hudaybiyah now. But I've given a number of lectures online. And I can reference them later on. and you can listen to them online. But now I just want to mention that, I mean just for your information, I do not view American foreign policy as a war directed against Islam per se. This is not my opinion at all. Yes, Muslims around the world are suffering as a result of foreign policy. But in my humble analysis, agree or disagree, if the lands that had oil in them were Buddhist, if Palestinians were Jains or Confucianists it would not have changed American foreign policy that much America does what it does because it thinks this is in its self interest, in its economic interest, in its financial interest and yes there are lobby groups within America that are pushing certain agendas and yes it helps that we are the brown other, it helps, it would have been more difficult if it was a white Christian civilization, no doubt. But in essence, in my humble opinion and I believe most people who study political science would agree with this, what America is doing, it is doing not because they want to destroy Islam but because they feel this is better for them to do for whatever reason. Economically, politically, militarily, strategically, it's not something that is directly meant to attack the religion of Islam. And Allah knows best, that's really not the point here. The point here is that we as American Muslims or Western Muslims to be in broader, we're accused of doing that which is haram, of preferring our American identity over our Islamic identity, of loving a country above loving Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and I seek Allah's refuge and I know all of you do as well from ever putting my wala of Allah my loyalty to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala above, or secondary sorry to any other loyalty, we believe that our loyalty to Allah and His Messenger is the ultimate loyalty. And I just gave a recent lecture at Isna, which is just three weeks ago, or last month. I gave a recent lecture at Isna about the reality of being a Muslim in America and speaking truth to power. And you can listen to that. We're very explicit in this point. However, let's get relevant here. What does Hudaybiyyah do? Hudaybiyyah shows us that it is allowed for different factions and portions of the Ummah to have different political treaties and different alliances with those who are without a doubt, the Quraysh, pure enemies of Allah and His Messenger. You can still have treaties and alliances with them. How much more so then, when there is no Khilafah, when the current countries we're talking about, they might not actually be fighting for the sake of religion. This is my opinion. They're not fighting for religion. they're not even religious people by and large sure there's the odd general and the governor and what not that are fundamentalist but by and large American foreign policy does not stem from the bible, it doesn't stem from their understanding of the new testament it doesn't stem from their love of Jesus Christ it stems from their love of power and money that's what it stems from and this is I think the analysis of most of us in this room and I think frankly anybody who studies modern political science so put all of this together the point being that from Hudaybiyah we learn it is allowed to have alliances and treaties with some nations, with some political entities, even if that nation or that entity is harming or persecuting or even killing some Muslims. Can you imagine the personal pain, the anguish, the grief of our Prophet ﷺ as he sees Abu Jandal, as Abu Jandal himself with blood and chains saying, you're gonna return me back to them and I just came here? Put yourself in the shoes of the Muslims there. Put yourself in that camp right then and there. That's why Umar lost it. He couldn't, just could not fathom this, right? How can we return this guy? But there are benefits that outweigh the personal harms. And sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to achieve a greater good. the Muslims in Medina in fact the Arabian Peninsula benefited immensely from this treaty so much so that Allah called it a Fatham Mubeena however it most certainly did not appear a Fatham Mubeena to Abu Basir and Abu Jandal when it happened when it happened there's clearly no way they're gonna say this is Fatham Mubeena it seems like nothing but humiliation and in our times we don't have Abu Jandal we don't have Abu Basir, we have the prisoners of Guantanamo. We have tens of thousands of Afghani families, Iraqi civilians that have been killed. Tens of thousands of innocent, nameless men, women and children that have been killed in drones. Hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions as a result of the sanctions throughout the 90s, right? And the list goes on and on and on. These are our Abu Basir and Abu Jandas. and our heart bleeds for them. And we're very, very angry at the injustices that caused their death. No doubt, in the end of the day, we believe, and many scholars believe, that it is permissible, it is allowed to engage in these types of treaties for the sake of some good. What is that good? What is that benefit? This is something that we have to discuss and debate amongst the scholars. And I believe that in light of the current circumstances, in light of the circumstances of the world, the political circumstances of Muslim lands, the reality is that we living here in these lands are afforded the opportunity to worship Allah and to benefit other people financially and in our teachings and in our da'wah in ways that even if we were in a Muslim land, we could not do. And this is something most of you in this room personally realize. Frankly, most of you that came here as immigrants were not anywhere near as practicing as you are now. This is a reality. You yourselves, most of you, and there must be exceptions, most of you, coming here rekindled your own faith. It made you more committed to the faith. Many of you came from lands back in the 70s and 80s. You could not practice your faith at all. Especially our Arab brethren that came from certain lands in the 70s and 80s. You couldn't do a fraction of what you're doing now. And currently as we speak, there are on the conservative side, at least 50 million Muslims living in western democracies. We're not even talking about minorities, because if you talk about minorities, India is a Muslim minority of 100 million people. Other lands, we're not even talking about the western, Europe, France, Canada, England, America, Australia, at least 50 million Muslims living in these lands. What are we gonna say to these 50 million Muslims? That it's wajib for you to leave? Go where? Which land will take them? Which country will accept them? There is no khilafah. On top of this, frankly in my opinion, and you're allowed to disagree, I don't view western nations as being waging war against the religion. I don't view this to be the case. They're waging whatever they're waging for their own pockets, for their greed. and it just so happens that one of the targets is those who are Muslim but we're not the only target by the way anybody who thinks this really does not know as I said look at Nicaragua look at Venezuela look at Vietnam have we forgotten Vietnam in the 70s? right? what happened over there? look at you know Russian state it's not Korea right? have we forgotten what's happening in those places? napalm bombings right? it's not just us this is the reality of an empire it's the hubris that every republic feels in its time of glory. And every time of glory is followed by time of decline. And this, frankly, we always see the beginnings of this happening as well. So, the point being, Western Muslims need to make a decision. Do they wish to enter into such a contract, such a treaty with these governments? In return for certain rights and privileges, many of which are not available back home, quote-unquote, back home for some of us. For me, as I say, I was born here. And we also make a distinction, those Muslims who were born and raised here, even more so, where do you expect them to go? Even more so, what nationality do they have? Which land will take them? What is to happen to 50 million Muslims? So, the treaty of Hudaybiyah teaches us that it is allowed for Muslims to have different political treaties. Not all Muslims have to have the exact same treaty. And what might be allowed for one group is not allowed for another. What might be allowed for one group might be haram for another. and so for western Muslims to be living in this land with the visa with the passport this is the treaty you cannot obtain the visa or the passport without having an understanding and what is that understanding? you're going to be a law abiding citizen that's the understanding you're not gonna break the law you're not gonna be treacherous you're not gonna do something that's gonna go against the security of the land if you have such a visa and such a passport, well then, the laws become binding even if you see Abu Basir and Abu Jandal and you cannot help them. You make dua for them. And you say, Allah Azza wa Jal will make a way out for you. Now, somebody will say, Hudaybiyah was unique for the Prophet ﷺ. Who are you to say this is Fatham Mubeena? Right? Who are you to say a treaty with a particular entity is a victory? And so they say, and I've been told this when I gave this talk previously, one of the overzealous Jammani brothers he basically said Hudaybiyah was khas for the Prophet ﷺ unique for him only nobody else can engage in a treaty with a non-Muslim other than the Prophet ﷺ and I said to him this attitude will destroy the whole seerah because everything is only for him then the general rule, anything the Prophet ﷺ does is something he's doing for us as an ummah then he said there are differences between our situation and Hudaybiyah I said and do you think in any situation in the world if you compare it to the seerah it's gonna be 100% the same of course it's gonna be different there are certain things that are worse there are certain things that are better but the concept, what are we extracting number one, that different Muslim groups can have different treaties what the Prophet ﷺ could not do Abu Basir and Abu Jandal could do and that is the tactic of Hazrat Quraish he could not do that Umar could not do that but he goes to Abu Jandal he goes take my sword here take my sword he could not do that but Abu Jandal can so this leads us to a very frank issue and that is that no doubt the treaty of Hudaybiyah it was from Allah that it is Fatham Mubeena and no other scholar can ever claim that a treaty with a modern land is Fatham Mubeena but it is allowed for scholars to make Ijtihad and we will allow the scholars of every era, every society, every place to extrapolate from Hudaybiyyah which context, which treaty can be enacted. And I'll be very frank here that yes, if we say that the person with the visa and the passport cannot do certain things, that does not mean the whole Muslim world cannot do them. Rather, I have been very clear here that it's not my job to speak about what other societies should or should not do. I am an American. born and raised here. I am living in this land. I have only one nationality. I speak to American Muslims specifically and then the broader Western Muslims indirectly. As for Muslims living in other lands, there is no doubt that anybody who sees his country invaded by a foreign army, that if he defends his country and his land and his property from a foreign army, who can criticize him? And I have never in my life spoken about that issue. What I am speaking about, somebody who has citizenship, somebody who has visa, they are not allowed to keep that citizenship and visa, and then do something treacherous. No matter how much Abu Basir's and Abu Jandal's they see, no matter how much Guantanamo and drones, and that's why I'm being very blunt here, that those of our, you know, some 0.00001% of our youth, that are enticed into this type of stuff, that are listening to this type of rhetoric, frankly, we need to tell them, study the treaty of Hudaybiyah. and realize that sometimes there is a broader benefit. In this case, 50 million Muslims in the West. In this case, there is no khilafah that you can migrate to. In this case, the enemy that you want to attack is a billion times stronger than you. If you pick them with a pin, they're going to throw back an atom bomb at you. You have to be very careful about who are you playing with over here. Nonetheless, I say very explicitly, what other societies do, that's between them and their scholars. My job and my role, this is a circumstance beyond my control. I was born here, this is my nationality. What I know, what I will speak to is the American context. And I do have to point out here, I mean subhanallah this is besides the exact topic, but one of my main criticisms of these extremists or these militant interpretations of Islam, one of my main criticisms, number one, the fact that generally speaking, they do not have scholarship amongst them. their scholars are do it yourself clerics their scholars are people who read 5-10 books and they think they're experts by and large mainstream scholars of all Sunni movements Teobandi, Tablighi, Salafi, Ahli Hadith Maliki, Shafi'i, North African Arabs, Saudi, Pakistan the mainstream scholars they are opposed to this type of militancy and if you look at these militant groups who do they resort to? people that are self-taught and frankly the only thing they know how to talk about is jihad, jihad, jihad, jihad they never talk about spirituality they never talk about issues of other fiqh they're not experts at all jihad is a very deep topic and to master it you need to master all the other fields and we have scholars who have mastered all the fields and the topic of jihad but they never go back to those scholars they go back to their own local people those who have never studied in the tradition and they are not ulama by and large and as I said they are self-taught another point that I really criticize this group for is that the fact of the matter is that they follow opinions that maybe they'll find one scholar who said this another scholar that said that and they'll construct a madhhab or a position or a methodology that a basic understanding of the Quran and of the Sunnah and of the Seerah frankly of common sense will tell us it's not Islamic you don't need to have an advanced degree in Islamic studies to know that suicide bombing in the middle of a marketplace is ridiculous you really don't need to have an advanced degree in Quranic exegesis to know that blowing up a Shia masjid for no reason is something that will bring you closer to Allah or last week the incident in Kenya again it's on our minds now somebody going into a shopping mall and literally targeting 7 year old kids killing a Muslim lady for not wearing the hijab Or separating people that are Muslim and non-Muslim, gunning them down. Subhanallah. It's unbelievable, it's bizarre. That these people, I mean honestly, it really is bizarre. And anytime you try to reason with them, immediately, they did this, they did this, they did this. Subhanallah. The people in the bazaar did this. Those children you killed did this. Wallahi, you want to defend your land, defend it against those who are attacking. We would not say anything. People are harming you, people are harming your wife, your child. you have every right to defend against the invading army but for you to go to a marketplace for you to go to the shopping center, the bazaar and start targeting and killing people and forget the fact it is un-Islamic completely, how about the common sense what is the reaction going to be let's look at Shabab, what they did that after this the Kenyan government has now unified the support for sending in another force into Somalia now the reason why they attacked was that the Kenyan government had sent a force into Somalia and they said that they had done this, they had done that I don't doubt at all that an invading army is going to rape and pillage and loot I don't doubt this, I haven't seen it, I don't doubt it but you want to respond by going into Kenya and killing innocent men, women and children, what's going to happen? exactly what happened after 9-11 exactly what happened after 9-11, you prick a pin and they go back and invade two of your lands destroy it completely, bring the economy to a standstill, cause so much chaos in the world. What did you accomplish? Forget the fact it's un-Islamic. Use your common sense here. Right? And again, this is why I feel the treaty of Hudaybiyah is so important. That it really tells us, look, don't act with emotion. Don't act with emotion when you see Abu Basir and Abu Jandal. Yes, we have Abu Basir and Abu Jandal. Wallahi, my heart bleeds for our brothers in Guantanamo. Wallahi, it bleeds. I make dua for them. The inhumanity of it is just sad. How long, wallahi, these people treat their dogs better than our brothers in Guantanamo. We know this. We know this. What can we do? Make dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Make dua to Allah. Make dua to Allah. Make our own lives better. What's happening in all of these other lands? So much is going on. Our heart bleeds for it. But, there are times, there are places for the benefit of the ummah, the greater ummah. What are you gonna do by, as I said, pricking a pin into the tyrant? What are you gonna do? Forget the fact that the print that you print is actually hurting innocent people, killing innocent people. What is gonna happen? What is the backlash? Allah Azza wa Jal will take care. In the meantime, we do what we can. Now again, I wanna be clear, I'm speaking to Western and American Muslims. It's not my job to speak to other societies. They decide what is to be done in their lands. For me, what I speak to is, it is not allowed. And this is what I firmly believe. For a person who has a valid visa and a passport, this is an amanah, this is a contract that you have with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We don't lie. The mu'min is never a kha'in. The mu'min is never somebody who's a double-faced traitor. He never ever promises he's gonna be peaceful and then he does something else. So the one who has this passport, this treaty, they had better learn the treaty of Hudaybiyah. And they better understand that. It is allowed for us to engage in peace treaties with somebody or some entity that otherwise is causing great harm to the Muslims. and it is never allowed to be treacherous. The final point, I have gone beyond my time, but as you see, there's a lot of benefits from the Hudaybiyyah. Final point, completely irrelevant to the Seerah or Marlul-Pirul-Kasas, but of historical interest. Just something, another nukta, another interesting point. In 1994, in 1994, Yasser Arafat, you all know Yasser Arafat, nothing to do with Yasser Qadi, Yasser Arafat, he made a remark in English in South Africa. in which he said, this was after the Oslo Treaty that was signed in Norway, if you remember Oslo, in which some Muslims criticized him. How could you have had a treaty with Israel, with the Americans and whatnot? And so he said, I don't see this as any different than the Treaty of Hudeibiyah. If the Prophet ﷺ could deal with the Quraysh, I can deal with Israel. So he was criticized for this. Okay, now, few years later, when did Arafat die again? 2004? Okay, I forgot it. 2004, okay. Few when he was still alive then. In 1999, somebody whom we all know in this room, but when he wrote this he was unknown. Daniel Pipes. The leader of the Islamophobes. Daniel Pipes is the leader of the Islamophobes. And frankly he is the most khabith and dangerous amongst them. Out of all of the Islamophobes. Right? And one of the reasons is that he actually has a little bit of knowledge. He's got a PhD from Harvard in Middle Eastern history. He's the only one who has a shred of knowledge. The rest of them, Pamela Geller, I mean, honestly, I think her IQ is in the one digits. I mean, you know, like, we don't have to worry about that. But Daniel Pipes, I mean, he really has a little bit. In 1999, the very first signs of who he's gonna become. Before this, he's unknown. نَكِرَ مَجْهُولَ عَيْنَ Nobody knows him. The very first thing he does that shows his nature, his Islamophobia. He writes an article in the Middle Eastern Quarterly called, الْحُدَيْبِيَّةَ And lessons from the Prophet Muhammad's diplomacy. Hence, I'm talking about it now. and typical Daniel Pipes fashion he claims that he has discovered a secret audio tape of Yasser Arafat in which he has a hidden message for the Muslims it wasn't secret it wasn't anything he said this in a public gathering it was recorded by many people but this is typical Islamophobia he said something that was supposed to be completely secret and this is hidden language you know they have this notion that Muslims can have the secret language, they have the code that only Muslims can hear, and non-Muslims are gonna go above their heads, right? We are so smart that a billion Muslims can keep a secret, right? And we can somehow, you know, just give subliminal messages to each other, and nobody else will figure out what it is, right? So Daniel Pipes unlocked the code. What is this cryptography that he unlocked? What is it? That Yasir Arafat said, Oslo is like Hudaib. And he has a 7-8 page article, you can read it, I read it a number of times and the point here he says and I quote directly from the article that the point of Yasser Arafat saying this, what is the subliminal message to the Muslims? Three points he summarizes at the end, number one he made unpopular concessions that will turn out well in the end like Hudaybiyah number two, he will achieve his goal, though what that goal is remains ambiguous, it might just be the city of Jerusalem in parallel to the city of Mecca in Hudaybiyah. Or it might be the whole of Israel in parallel to the whole Arabian Quraish dominion. You see what he's doing here? Right? That he's reading in Hudaybiyah to Israel. Wouldn't that be brilliant? Too brilliant for Yasser Arafat? Believe me, that's exactly what I say. Anyway, it's bizarre. Anyway, so that's the second point. And then the third point, and this is, we're gonna come to this in the seerah later on, but this is the key point here for Daniel Pipes and his ilk. And he intends at the right moment, Yasir Arafat, to exploit a minor transgression to attack the enemy. Now, the what? Oh no, this is Hudaybiyah. This is the essence of Hudaybiyah. What is the conquest of Mecca? The Quraysh messed up. And we'll talk about this when we get there. And the Prophet ﷺ used that mess up to attack them. Okay? So, Daniel Pipe says, don't be fooled by the Palestinians. By Yasser Arafat. This is a subliminal message he's sending to the world's billion Muslims. You guys didn't get it. Let me expose it for you, the Middle Eastern quarterly. How did I unlock the code? And that code is, He has no intentions of real peace. He doesn't want real legitimacy. He just wants to use this as a stepping stone to stab us in the back as soon as he's able to. And this was the beginning of Daniel Pipes. Now, frankly, I don't want to go into the issue of Yasser Arafat either defending or criticizing. It's not my expertise and whatnot. I just found it very interesting that Daniel Pipes has this whole article called Hudaibiyah and talks about the back and forth. and it's interesting as well how those incidents continue to play out even in modern politics even in the modern world 14 centuries ago and now this became and by the way when the article was released it caused a huge controversy CARE made a big issue of it because I mean you know Daniel Pipes it was the first time CARE and Daniel Pipes had a bit of a spat back and forth interesting how something that happened 14 centuries ago has so much relevancy inshallah with this finally we come to the end of our entire treaty of Hudaybiyah and yes I did go into extra detail but I hope you understand why that I really believe that this is a very pertinent and relevant part of the seerah and inshallah from next Wednesday we will begin talking about the next major incident and that is the battle of Khaybar time has run out keep your questions inshallah next Wednesday I'll try to break a little bit early and then we can answer those questions wa ajazakumullahu khayran wasalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Thank you.

Seerah 67 - The Battle of Khaybar Part 1 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. of Khyber. We finished the treaty of Hudaybiyah and the next major incident is the battle of Khyber. And before we begin the battle of Khyber, just a very quick recap of the Jewish tribes in the Arabian Peninsula because the battle of Khyber represents the final expulsion of the Yehudi tribes that were in Arabia at the time, or I should be more precise, Central Arabia at the time. And a lot of Muslims always get confused between all of the various tribes. So just a quick recap of some of the previous incidents that have taken place about the interaction between the Muslims and the Yahud. And who can remind me, how did we have Yahud in Central Arabia? How did they get there? Who can remind me? So one theory says they came from Yemen. That's one theory. Another theory? How did we have Yahud in Central Arabia? So another theory, they were sent by Musa himself looking for a prophet. And we said this theory really seems a bit of a stretch in imagination. But it is found in some of the early books. Another theory is that the Jews of Central Arabia were there from the Jewish diaspora. Now what is the Jewish diaspora? The Jewish diaspora is the expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem. And there are considered to be three diasporas. There are two major ones and one minor one. The major one, the earliest one, took place in 587 BC when the infamous Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple of Solomon and he exiled the Jews from Jerusalem. And this was the first expulsion and that was when most of them went to Iran. And one theory says some came to Arabia, but honestly that seems way too early because 587 BC means 1000 years before the Prophet ﷺ's birth. That seems too early. The second diaspora took place in 70 CE under the Roman Emperor Titus. Once again, the Temple of Solomon was destroyed and once again, the Jews scattered everywhere. And it is most likely in this diaspora that the Jews made their way down south to Yemen. Most likely. There was a minor diaspora in 135 CE under the Emperor Hadrian. So basically similar to the 70 CE, just another 50 years after that. And most likely, it was the second diaspora. So the first diaspora when the Jews went to Iran. and that is why Iran has always had a large Jewish population. To this day there are many Jews in Iran. This goes back to the first diaspora over 2,500 years ago. The second diaspora took place as we said 70 CE and most likely that was the diaspora that the Jews went down to Yemen. And either some of them just settled in Yathrib at the time, that's one theory. Or another theory which actually makes more sense, a group of Yemeni Jews after having settled in Yemen for hundreds of years they actually went back up north to Yathrib and this explains many things this explains why they were Arab in culture in language, in tribes because it is not of the methodology or of the ethnic makeup of the Jews to be divided into these types of tribes whereas in Yathrib they were divided into tribes You had the Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Nadhir, you had the Banu Quraida, and you had other small tribes. And it is not of the character of the Jewish nation to be divided into tribes. This is a very Arab thing. Where did they get this from? Most likely, it seems, and this Allah knows best, and I've researched this as much as I'm capable of researching. To me, it seems that the most logical theory is that after the second diaspora of 70 CE, large groups of Jews came and settled in Yemen. and we have historical evidence that Yemeni Jews have been in Yemen for around 2000 years right we have historical evidence we have records Yemen by the way we all know Yemen was a civilization far more advanced than Central Arabia where the Prophet ﷺ was sent Yemen had a kingdom Yemen had writing Yemen had a history we have records from Yemeni kings who are enacting treaties with the Jews and these treaties they date back 1,600 years, 1,700 years. So the Jewish presence in Yemen is very ancient. And that's very clear. By the way, there are no Jews in Yemen anymore because in 1947, 48, 49, there was a huge airlifting which America helped to do as well financially where they airlifted the Yemeni Jews to the modern nation of Israel. And from what I understand, there's only a handful of Yemeni Jews left in Yemen. Literally just maybe 50 or so. left. But the bulk of them have been repatriated into Israel and they make up a unique ethnic group because they have a heritage that is different from Ashkenazi and from Sephardim and from Meherazim. There's three major groups. Yemenis are neither of these but anyway, they're going to a tangent. Let's get back here. So, Allah knows best but it appears that the Jews of Central Arabia came from Jerusalem to Yemen in 70 CE. Then sometime we don't know when. We have no records whatsoever. and if you remember this was the problem of the history of the Jews in Arabia we don't have any records other than the Islamic records there's no mention of them in non-Islamic sources so we don't know when they came what their history is and then of course as we know eventually all of them were expelled by the Muslims so we have no record other than what is mentioned in our sources so where did they come from? Allah knows but most likely they came back up from Yemen maybe 100 years or 150 years before the advent of the Prophet ﷺ to Yathrib. Maybe around 200-300 CE. Not 500-600 years before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. Why do we know this? Because if you look at their quantity in Yathrib and their tribes, three major tribes, generally speaking, the more people that are born into a tribe, the more the tribe subdivides. This is the general way. You cannot have too large of a tribe, or else the system doesn't function. Neither can you have too small of a tribe. You need a proper quantity. And the fact that there's three tribes, and their quantity probably is around 6,000 male Jews in Medina at the time, 5,000. So 5,000 Jews going back maybe 300 years, really does make sense if you extrapolate back that in the beginning there may be 50 or 80 or 100 Jews would have come. A small group, just a caravan of maybe 20 families, right? And from those 20 families, they then started their tribal descent in Yathrib. So Allah knows best, we have no clear indication. But it seems that the Jews of Yathrib were there for around 200 years before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. And this also explains the Aus and the Khazraj, why they seem comfortable with the Yahud of Yathrib. Why? Because the Aus and the Khazraj are also from Yemen, if you remember. We talked about this. The Aus and the Khazraj are also from Yemen. They are not from the Hijaz region. They have migrated up as well. So perhaps, Allah knows best, perhaps, either the Yahud came there first, and then the Osa and the Khazraj felt comfortable settling with them, and the Yahud also felt a win-win situation. We need quantity and protection. You guys knew us back in Yemen. We have some alliances and treaties. So let's continue that. Or the other way around. The Osa and Khazraj settled first, and then the Yahud of Yemen said, why don't we also have an alliance with you? So eventually the both of them are in Yathrib. And this really makes sense if we say the both of them originated from Yemen. And this is the theory that I say and Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. So remind me quickly which was the first Jewish tribe that had some issues and they were expelled? Who can remind me? The Banu Qaynuqa. And when was the Banu Qaynuqa expelled? When was the Banu Qaynuqa expelled? This is a quiz. You didn't know, a surprise quiz today. When was the Banu Qaynuqa expelled? Right after Badr. Right after Badr. It was expelled right after Badr in Shawwal of the second year of the Hijrah. And the reason for this was that they had given veiled threats to the Prophet ﷺ that you haven't fought real men. If you have real men, then we would have won. And then the second tribe is the Banu Nadir. And the Banu Nadir took place after the battle of Uhud. And the reason for this was they tried to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. Somebody told them to sit over here, conveniently under a wall. And they went and they decided to try to assassinate him. And Jibreel came and told him to leave. And so the Banu Nadir were expelled as well. And then, of course, the last of the tribes was Banu Qurayl. They were not expelled. They were in fact executed as we had mentioned. And that was because of the treason during the Battle of Khandaq. So, with this expulsion, all three of the Yahudi tribes of Medina were eliminated. There was no Yahudi tribe in Medina. However, the Banu Nadir, those that had been expelled before, and also the Banu Qaynuqa, elements amongst them, they migrated to Khaybar. And Khaybar was the closest tribe, Yahudi tribe, from Medina. and especially the leaders of them Huyay ibn Akhtab who is the father of Safiyyah who is going to become the wife of the Prophet ﷺ and Salam ibn Abul Huqayq these were very open and hostile enemies they moved to Khaybar and from Khaybar they continued to instigate the Muslims and we know that in the battle of the trench the Yahud of Khaybar helped some of the fighters from the battle of the trench and they were the ones who convinced the Banu Quraidha to also break the treaty. If you remember, members of the Banu Nadhir, of the Banu Qaynuqa, the first two tribes, they actually traveled to Medina during the trench siege. And they made their way to the Banu Quraidha. And they were the ones who convinced them. Remember this story, right? They were the ones who convinced them that break your treaty, we will support you, don't worry, we have your back. Right? Remember that story there. And additionally they helped one of the factions of the battle of the trench with their arms, with their weapons. And therefore the Prophet ﷺ as soon as the treaty of Hudaybiyah was finalized and the threat from the Quraysh was eliminated, now he can worry about the one potential threat in his backyard. And that is the people of Khaybar. There was only one threat left in the local vicinity and that is the people of Khaybar. And Khyber, what is Khyber? Khyber is a luscious, fertile city, 230 kilometers north of Medina. So Khyber is above Medina, whereas Mecca is south. Khyber is north of Medina. And Khyber sits at the top of a huge underwater river. You know there are rivers that are, not underwater, but underground rivers, sorry. Huge underground current that flows. and many of you should know this, that there are actually large rivers that flow underground. And Khyber and Medina, both of them, they actually sit on top of these huge undercurrents. And Khyber actually has far more fertile land than Medina. In terms of mass, Khyber is larger. But there is a smaller city. They have more land, but there's not that many people living there. Whereas Medina has more people, and the quantity of land is less. So Khyber, the name Khyber, it is said that it goes back to one of the Amalekites, that his name was Khaybar, or another opinion says that it goes back to the Jewish name for a fortress, Khayabir, they say. I don't know, I haven't checked the Hebrew dictionaries, they say there's a Hebrew word for fortress, Khayabir, so Khaybar comes from that. Or another theory is that it actually comes from an Arabic word, and Khabir here would mean fertile. So Khyber that which is fertile, giving you lots of luscious land. And Khyber was one of the largest date producing areas in the entire Arabian Peninsula. And it was populated only by Yahudi tribes. There were no Arab tribes in Khyber. Khyber was a completely Yahudi area. And they had done what they had done in every other land. And that is they had built their unique fortresses. And this again shows us that most likely the Yahud of Central Arabia were from South Arabia because building fortresses is more of a South Arabian phenomenon. Whereas had they come directly from Jerusalem, how would they know how to build a fortress? So again this kind of shows us that the Jews of Central Arabia, of Medina, of Yathrib, of Khyber, they come from South Arabia which is Yemen. And Yemen they have the knowledge of building dams, they have the knowledge of building fortresses. so this adds to this theory that the Yahud of central Arabia actually are coming from Yemen but we had mentioned before the Arabs had not mastered the art of building fortresses the Yahud kept it a secret they did not teach anybody else how to build these massive fortresses and it was not in the custom of the Arabs except one or two who tried to imitate them and their fortresses were second rate the real fortresses were built by the Yahudi tribes and Khyber was known in the entire Arabian peninsula as having the biggest and the most magnificent of these fortresses. And it's not just one fortress. Rather, every mini tribe of the Yahud had their own fortress. So we can imagine every mini tribe of around 100, 200, 300, maybe even 500, the entire mini town, mini city, it is living inside this completely walled fortress. And their fortresses were walled and they were impenetrable for the Muslims who didn't have any other weapons. They didn't have, at the time, they did not have any major weapons to actually destroy the walls of fortresses. As we will see, that's one of the issues of Khaybar. And therefore, the Muslims realized this would be a very difficult battle. Because you are battling against a wall, a fortress, what can you do? And this is one of the reasons why Khaybar was problematic. And we mentioned the main reason for attacking Khaybar was, frankly, it was a preemptive. There was no immediate threat from Khaybar. i.e. there was no plot coming that Khyber is going to attack now. But Khyber were treacherous. And Khyber would do anything, especially the Banu Nadir people, to get back at their land in Medina. And so it was a pre-emptive attack, so that the people of Khyber do not launch an attack against Medina. And also, by the way, you know me to be somebody who doesn't beat around the bush. I don't have any problem being politically incorrect. the fact of the matter is, this was how things worked back then. It was the survival of the fittest. Khaybar did not have any treaty with Medina. Had there been a treaty, we can maybe discuss. There is no treaty. And in those days, every single land has to be prepared. Why do you think the Yahud had a fortress in the first place? Because the whole land of Arabia was peaceful, lovey-dovey, singing kumbaya? Didn't work that way. Survival of the fittest. Every single tribe would wait for an opportunity to attack another tribe. That was the lay of the land. And people who quote this and say, oh look at this, look at this. We say to them in response, this was how every single group did it. Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Pagan, that was the law of the time. And we don't have to necessarily import that into our times. We firmly believe when there's a treaty, we have to abide by the treaty. And in modern times, scholars are free to derive Islamic law for 2013. but Islamic law at this point in time there is no treaty with the people of Khaibar and they are completely legitimate targets and so the Prophet ﷺ announced that he was going to Khaibar and probably around 1700 people again exact numbers are difficult 1600-1700 people marched with him to Khaibar and slight difference between when it took place Ibn Ishaq says Khaibar took place in Muharram of the 7th year after the Hijrah Al-Waqidi says it was Safar or Rabi'ul Awal of the 7th year one month apart and this is easy to reconcile it began in Muharram and ended in Safar which makes complete sense Imam Malik and Al-Zuhri they said Muharram of the 6th year of the Hijrah but this goes back to their calculation of the Hijrah if you remember we said some scholars considered the first year of the Hijrah to be the year before the Hijrah i.e. 0 Hijrah so in reality when they say 6 AH they mean 7 according to the standard that was later adopted. So the majority of position Muharram 7 AH was when Khaybar took place. And this shows us that the Muslims barely rested for two weeks after Hudaybiyyah. This shows us the process was thinking what is the next step. This shows us the long term planning of the process. And barely two weeks have gone by after they returned from Hudaybiyyah. And immediately he is thinking of Khaybar. because Khaibar is the only threat in Central Arabia. And the Muslims left in high spirits, all of the books of Hadith, Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, they mention that when the Muslims were marching, they were so enthused, they were shouting at the top of their voices, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, La Ilaha Illallah. They were screaming. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Ayyuhannas irba'u ala anfusikum. O people, be gentle with yourselves. Calm down. Relax. you're gonna tie yourselves out for verily the one that you are calling out to is not deaf he can hear you and he can see you and he is nearer to you than your jugular vein and another version he said he is with you so Allah is with us in his knowledge Allah hears wherever we are so there is no need to raise your voice that loud and the process in a march is 230 kilometers so in our times it will take literally 2 hours, an hour and 40 minutes by car so it's not that far away 230 kilometers is not that far away and the Prophet ﷺ reached there probably in less than 2 days of marching and he did not stop until he was right outside the city there was no city, excuse me what was Khaibar? Khaibar was a bunch of fortresses, how many fortresses? the books of Sira mention quite a lot and for sure there were others that are not mentioned, there's at least 8 or 9 fortresses, most likely maybe 15 fortresses. And each of these fortresses is its own mini camp. And Khaibar was divided into two halves. I.e. in one half there was like 6, 7, 8 fortresses. And then on the other side of the plains was another 6, 7, 8 small fortresses. And each of these small fortresses was within visual sight of the other. So the two halves are far away. But within these two halves, so remember what is Khaibar? Khaibar is a large land. Khaibar is many acres of green lush land. Khyber has lots of agricultural land upon which dates are being harvested and within this land the land had basically two halves on one half you had a number of fortresses within visual distance and then on the other half we don't know the exact distance between these two halves but we can imagine it's gonna be a few hours marching there was gonna be other of these fortresses and when the Prophet ﷺ came to Khyber it was a complete surprise for the people of Khyber They were not expecting in the slightest anything to happen immediately. And Sahih Bukhari informs us in a number of books that the Prophet ﷺ intentionally camped the night away from Khaybar. So they started marching before Fajr to completely surprise them. And when they finally came within the distance of the first camp or the first fortress, they saw the people exiting the fortress with their plows and with their axes and with their tools to go to the farm to go to the agricultural to take care of their fields with the all of the instruments that is needed for harvesting and when they saw the Muslims they abandoned their instruments and they rushed back running, calling out that Muhammad and his army has arrived Muhammad and his army has arrived now pause here, the very fact that they say this shows that even though they're surprised, it's not a complete surprise. They knew that they had crossed some boundaries, and that if anybody is going to attack them, it is going to be the Prophet ﷺ, the armies. So they yelled out that Muhammad has arrived, Muhammad has arrived. And this clearly shows they were dreading, they had this premonition because they have done something they shouldn't have done. And they know there is a threat from the Muslims. And so when the Prophet ﷺ came, so then they ran inside and they closed the doors and they sealed it. And here is when the Prophet ﷺ uttered his famous lines which are mentioned in every book of Sira and every book of Hadith. Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar Kharibat Khaybar The Prophet ﷺ said, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar Khaybar has been destroyed. Wa inna inza anzalna bisahati qawmin fasaa sabahul munzaleen And whenever we arrive at the border of a land or a country or a people, then what an evil mourning, what an evil mourning it is for those that have been warned. In other words, they're in for some tough times now. And the Prophet ﷺ is saying, خَلِبَتْ خَيْبَرَ خَيْبَرَ has been now destroyed. It will be destroyed. And the books of Sira basically mention a bunch of incidents as usual, we have to piece them together. And what we piece together is the following, that the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba, they conquered one fortress at a time. Because now what's happened, all of the tribes have locked themselves up. All of them have basically sought protection in their own unique fortresses. And perhaps this was one of the reasons for downfall. That in their ingenuity, they never thought, what if an army comes straight to our land? We will not be able to help one another. And each group will have to face the entire army. Which is exactly what happened. that no doubt if a small raiding party would come these fortresses would help but what if an army would come 17, 1800 people maybe even 2000 people each of these mini fortresses would not have more than 500 max men max 500 maybe even 200, 300 some of them you're not going to be able to fight that army so in their ingenuity they had a gaping hole in their construction of these fortresses and that is they could not unite to fight against an army. And in this was their downfall. So the Prophet ﷺ kept on targeting one fortress after another. And some of the names of these fortresses have been preserved. So they would name their fortresses Abu'l-Nizar, As-Saab Fortress, Abu'l-Nizar Fortress. One of the fortresses, Na'im. Na'im was one of the largest fortresses. And the Muslims fought 10 days. And they threw arrows. And they did whatever they could. Abu Bakr took charge for a few days, then Umar took charge, and for 10 days they fought. And one of the famous sahaba, Mahmud ibn Maslam al-Ansari, he died, he died a shaheed. When the people of the fortress, they threw a large log. So you know one of the tactics of the people of the fortress is, you throw things. You know, you've all seen these movies, where they have things they throw, boiling oil, they throw that. They have slits for the arrows, they throw heavy objects. So this is all a part of the tactics of the fortress. And the Muslims did not ever encounter this before in Mecca, in Medina. This is something that is new for them. And they did not quite know what to do. Mahmud ibn Maslam al-Ansari, one of the Ansar, he came too close to the edge, and they threw a large log onto him, and they squashed him to death, and he died a shaheed. And this was very demoralizing to see the death of Mahmud in this manner. and so the Sahaba for 10 days were battling this one fortress, Al-Na'im, and they went to sleep that night, and the Prophet ﷺ after Salatul Isha, he made an announcement. He said that tomorrow at Salatul Fajr, I will hand the banner to someone whom Allah and His Messenger love, and Allah will grant us victory at His hands. So he made a prediction, that tomorrow morning I will hand the flag to someone whom Allah and His Messenger love. And he will be the one at his hands we will have victory. And Umar ibn al-Khattab said, never in my life did I wish to become a leader like I did on that night. That was the one night of my life I desire to be a leader more than any other night. Because this is a great victory for Islam. and in the morning the Prophet ﷺ prayed fajr everybody is excited he turned around and he said where is Ali ibn Abi Talib and so they said he has some problem with the eyes and he cannot open his eyes so he has remained in his tent he had some infection of the eyes he is remaining in his tent so the Prophet ﷺ said bring him to me and so when Ali ibn Abi Talib came the Prophet ﷺ spat into his eyes and he became cured. And he then handed the raya or the banner to Ali ibn Abi Talib. And he said to Ali ibn Abi Talib, Imri, Bismillah, go forth and in the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, keep on going and do not turn back. In other words, be firm, be resolute and you will be the victor. And this was a great blessing for Ali ibn Abi Talib. It is a great blessing for Ali ibn Abi Talib that he was told by the Prophet ﷺ to be the commander at whose hands the victory would take place. And he came forth with the banner and then he paused. And he wanted to ask a question. But the Prophet ﷺ had told him, go forth and don't turn back. And he wanted to ask a question. So he paused where he was and instead of turning around because that would have been turning back, he shouted at the top of his lungs, Ya Rasulullah what conditions should I give them when I get there he doesn't want to turn around because that would be disobeying because the Prophet said go forth in the name of Allah and do not turn back and so he shouts out what are the conditions I should be placing upon them and so the Prophet said fight them until they testify La ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah if they do so then their lives and their properties are protected from you and me from, and their affair is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for by Allah if Allah guides through you even one person then it is better than a million dollars a herd of camels, we have translated this a million dollars, a whole herd of camels, it is better for you than one person be guided to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this shows us that the ultimate goal of these types of expeditions is not killing, nor is it Islamic land and conquest, it is inviting others to the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Why is the process I'm telling Ali ibn Abi Talib at the time when after 10 days of fighting against Al-Na'im and fighting against this tribe, what does he tell Ali ibn Abi Talib? Call them to La ilaha illallah before you begin fighting. And if they agree, then stop fighting. And their property is theirs. And their money is theirs. Because by Allah, if one person is guided to Islam through you, that is better than a whole herd of camels. And this clearly illustrates the Islamic psychology behind these expeditions and conquests. What was it? Money, wealth, fame, fortune, nothing. It was da'wah, inviting people to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Ali ibn Abi Talib went with a contingent and the chieftain of this fortress, his name was Mirhab. And whatever happened on that day, we don't know the details other than Mirhab felt bold enough to challenge the Muslims to a duel. And so Mirhab went out of the fortress, and he was known to be a ferocious warrior. And firstly, Amir ibn al-Akwa, one of the Ansar, took on the challenge, but Mirhab managed to cut him off, and Amir died a shaheed in the battle. And the next person to take up was Ali himself. Even though generally speaking, even though he's the leader, he should not technically be the one doing this. But he wanted to take charge. And so Ali ibn Abi Talib took on Mirhab in the duel before the battle. And he managed to get rid of him. He managed to kill Mirhab. And this was one of the biggest and the first victories for the Muslims. And a huge demoralization factor for the tribe. Because this was like the first major loss of Khaybar. The first major issue of Khaybar that their chieftain dies. and eventually the people came out to actually fight the Muslims and they fought a severe fighting. That's what's going to happen when you're trapped into a wall, you're trapped into a fortress. But the Muslims eventually overcame. It was during this expedition where the famous story takes place that all of us have heard when we were children. And it is a story mentioned in a number of books of Sira that one of the commanders of the tribe, of the Yahudi tribe, he managed to knock out the shield of Ali ibn Abi Talib. And Ali was left defenseless. And he then went to the wall of the fortress. And the wall of the fortress we all have seen in movies. These are massive structures. This is not something you pick up with one hand. He went to the wall of the fortress and unhinged it. And he used that entire wall, the entire door, excuse me, the entire door of the fortress. He used that door as a shield for the remainder of the battle. And then when the battle was over, he threw it aside. and Abu Rafi' the narrator he says after that incident seven of us we looked at that door and we tried to pick it up but we were not able to pick it up seven of us we tried to pick up that door we were not able to pick it up and there is no doubt this is a karama this is a mini miracle that was given to Ali ibn Abi Talib and we are the true followers of Ali ibn Abi Talib we give him every credit where it is due and we do not be miserly or stingy in giving him any credit that Allah and His Messenger have given him. Ali ibn Abi Talib was a man who Allah loved and whom the Messenger loved. And he loved Allah and he loved the Messenger. And he was of the greatest of the Sahaba رضي الله تعالى عنه وعلى آل البيت أجمعين So Ali ibn Abi Talib, he showed us his bravery in the battle of Khaybar. This was the conquest of Al-Na'im. When Al-Na'im was conquered, they moved on to the next fortress and that is called Al-Sa'ab. And Al-Sa'ab took them three days to conquer and it was a great miracle from Allah that they conquered it because their food supply had basically dwindled to nothing and they didn't have anything left and when they conquered As-Saab amazingly this entire fortress was stockpiled with grain with lots of food for the Muslims and so they used this food for the remainder of their duration over there and it was stockpiled with water with all of the food that they needed so the entire army lived off of this food for the remainder of the battle of Khaibah A number of stories are mentioned here as well in the battle of Khyber. Of them is the story of the slave who came to the Prophet ﷺ. And he had heard that there is a man with a new religion. And he's claiming to be a prophet. And he was a slave of the Yahud. He was a slave of the people of Khyber. So he comes to the Prophet ﷺ. And he says, what are you about? So the Prophet ﷺ said, I'm a prophet. So he said, what is a prophet? What have you come with? So the Prophet ﷺ explained to him what is Islam. and when he heard this the slave accepted Islam right then and there and he said my master has sent me to graze the flock what do I do with this flock so the Prophet ﷺ said you must return it to the master because it's not permissible for us to take this your master gave it to you as an amanah you have to go return it and so the Prophet ﷺ rubbed the heads of the sheep and told the slave, go to such and such a place and the sheep will return to their master automatically. Otherwise the sheep will not return to the master. But the process and basically, he made dua and with the barakah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So the slave went to a certain place, he let the sheep go, the sheep returned to the master and the slave came back to the army. We don't even know his name, we have no idea who he is. And he fought and fought until a stray arrow killed him. And the Prophet ﷺ stood over his body and because he was a slave, he possessed nothing and he only had a loincloth. You know, that's all he had, just covering his awrah. And as he was standing over the body, waiting for the burial, this is after the battle is over, they're burying him. Then the Prophet ﷺ turned away his eyes and closed his eyes. And they said, what is the matter, O Messenger of Allah? And he said, his two hurun'een have come to greet him. His two hurun'een have come to greet him. And this was why he lowered his eyes. And this was a man who never did one sajda to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But there was no need for sajda because there was no time for salah. He accepted Islam, he died later on in the day. And this is a number of cases. In the battle of Uhud we also mentioned someone. Here we also mentioned somebody. So in the seerah we have a few cases of people who accepted Islam and they die before praying even one prayer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's because the time never came for salah. Otherwise as we know praying is a part of Islam. Now, what is really interesting here is the meticulous honesty of the Prophet ﷺ in rejecting the sheep. Saying the sheep cannot belong to me. Even though he is at war with this nation. Why? Because if you want it, you have to conquer it properly. And this slave, it was not his right to hand over the sheep to the Prophet ﷺ. Because the slave has been given an amanah by the master. and had the Muslims conquered the master then the master and his sheep are theirs correct? but this is not the way to go about doing it so the prophet s.a.w. returned all of the sheep to the master even though the irony is he's actually fighting the master in war but this is not how you capture the property and this shows us the high standards that Islam has placed for acquiring property for the honesty in trading and in transaction Another story is also mentioned, and this story is actually, scholars differ, is this the same story that people mistook in the battle of Khaybar, or is it two different stories, because we find the same story in a number of battles. At least two different battles, we find the same type of story. So Allah knows whether it is one battle, and the narrators got confused, and some said this, some said that, or did the same rough incident occur in multiple battles, Allah knows best. But it is authentically mentioned, in Sahih Bukhari even, that this occurred in the battle of Khyber. And that is the famous story of the Bedouin who was fighting a mighty fight and the people are impressed. And the people say, this is a man of Jannah, walking on earth. This is a man from Jannah. And when they came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, this is a man from Jannah. The Prophet ﷺ said, no, rather he is a man from Jahannam. And the Sahaba said, if this is a man who is going to go to Jahannam, and he is fighting the way he is fighting, who amongst us can go to Jannah? and one of the sahaba said I'm going to follow him find out what the deal is why is he from Jahannam and he followed him until an arrow glazed him it cut his hand, it injured his hand and when he saw that his hand was no longer usable so he then took his sword, put it on the ground and then jumped onto the sword to commit suicide so the reason he was fighting was to basically be called powerful and mighty he wasn't really fighting for his ego and honor. And people have different reasons why they want to die. For us in this world that we live in, in this time and place, this is very difficult to imagine. But for those who have been to war, or they have been in battle, they understand this type of mentality. That you want a legacy. You want people to talk about you. You want people to establish your fame. That I am this and I am that. And that was his niyyah. His niyyah was not for his sake. Allah. When he realized he couldn't fight anymore, khalas, I don't want to be, you know, not being able to fight. And he then committed suicide. And so, the man who was following him, went back to the Prophet ﷺ and said, that ash-hadu an la ilaha Allah wa ash-hadu annaka rasool Allah. And the Prophet ﷺ said, what is the matter? We know you're a Muslim, you're not accepting Islam again. What is the matter? So he explained to him what had happened, and the Prophet ﷺ said, that it is possible that a person does deeds that appear in the eyes of the people to be deeds of the people of Jannah. But eventually, Qadr catches up to him and he dies while doing a deed of the fire of hell. And it is possible a person appears to be an evil person doing the deeds of the people of Jannah. But Qadr catches up to him and he does the deeds of the people of Jannah and then he enters Jannah. And this shows us, very simple point, we all know this, That al-a'malu bil khawateem. Allah judges us depending on the end of our lives. What do we die, what state do we die in? That is what will be the ultimate judge. And here was a man, he died in an evil state, and therefore his end is evil. Eventually they kept on conquering, conquering fortress after fortress. Eventually they came to another, that is called the fortress of the castle of Zubayr, it is called. And this fortress did not have its own internal well, but rather it was fed by an external water supply and so the Muslims blocked up the water supply so that the men had to come out and fight and eventually when they fought they were defeated and with the defeat of the fortress of Azubayr the one half of Khaybar was conquered all of those other fortresses were conquered and the other half remained and so the Prophet and the Sahaba they crossed over to the other side of Khaybar and they began another series of mini conquests So remember, Khyber was not a simple battle. Khyber was a series of battles, at least nine battles. At least eight or nine battles, some of which lasted ten days, some of which lasted one day, some of which lasted three days. So all of these battles are taking place, they then cross over to the other side, and in the same manner they engage one, two, three, and at least three battles we know of in the seerah, very similar that they are fought, until finally, and by the way, every time one fortress falls, so the group of fighters there they run over to another fortress because they're running for protection so every time they're running more and more groups gather in the remaining fortress because as soon as they surrender they're not gonna surrender they're gonna be people that run on horse they're gonna run to the other fortress and so they gain protection over there eventually there was one of the largest fortresses left and all of the many tribes that had anybody still alive was now living in that large fortress And so the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims just camped outside and they waited. Because this fortress was too big for them. And a solid two weeks went by until finally the people inside realized there's nothing we can do. There's no place to run. We cannot run. We cannot hide. And so they negotiated a surrender. They negotiated a surrender. And here is where a lot of scholars differ in the past. Was Khaybar a conquest or was it a surrender? Why does it matter? well, firstly there's fiqh differences that are beyond the scope of this class if it's conquered and if it's surrendered there are slight fiqh differences secondly, it's a matter of prestige or honor for the Muslims and it's a matter of humiliation for the group that is conquered if the group that is conquered surrendered willingly, they gain some izzah and if they were forced and if they were militarily conquered, then this is humiliation right, so it's a matter really of history and a little bit of fiqh and scholars differ. Why do they differ? Because what the confusion of Khyber is, they fought so many battles, but right at the end, the final big fortress, they negotiated a surrender. So is it an actual surrender? Did they wave the white flag? Or were they conquered? In our terms, wave the white flag, you get the point here, right? Did they wave the white flag metaphorically? Or were they conquered? And scholars have differed, and the majority position, and Ibn Qayyim mentions this in his Zad and other great scholars is that they were conquered. And the evidence for this is the fact that had they wanted to surrender they would have surrendered from the very beginning. The fact that one after the other every single one of the fortresses was conquered and it was just a matter of time when they would have done this one as well and they realized this that we are going to be conquered so let's negotiate some type of treaty. And so they worked out a treaty initially the process and wanted to expel them but they argued they petitioned and they said that Ya Abul Qasim they're not gonna call him Rasulullah Ya Abul Qasim your people do not know how to operate these lands or man these lands or maximize production of these lands and we are people that we know Khyber inside out so why don't we agree to a percentage you let us stay here and we'll give you a percentage and so back and forth they went until finally the conditions were worked out that number one that the people of Khyber would give 50% of their produce to the Muslims now the people of Khyber had hundreds of acres of land and 50% is a massive amount it is a fortune we're talking about tens of millions maybe even a hundred million this is equivalent tens of millions is going to be the biggest amount of money they have ever seen, the Muslim community. 50% of khaybar will come to the Muslims. Number two, that the maintenance and the cost and the labor is going to be not 50-50. 100% sure. We don't have any maintenance or labor. Any cost associated with the land, that's your business, not ours. And then the third condition, this treaty is in effect for as long as we want it to be in effect. We can cancel when we want to cancel. There is no full long-term treaty. This is a temporary treaty and we can cancel it at any time. If you agree to these conditions, you can remain. And so the people of Khyber decided to remain with these conditions. And in fact, this shows us the foresight of the Prophet ﷺ to allow them to reign. Because the fact of the matter is that the Muslims, they neither had the experience nor even the manpower at this point in time to leave 300, 400 people at Khaibar. Khaibar would need more than that. Khaibar would need like a thousand people to take care of it. And at this point in time, the Muslims don't have a thousand people to spare. Additionally, the people of Khaibar know Khaibar better. Let them take care of it and we get a massive fortune in return. And this is exactly what happened that they continued to send their money to the Muslims until towards the end of the Khilafah of Umar, Umar ibn al-Khattab, now that Islam had expanded, and there were so many Muslims around the entire Islamic Republic, there is no need now for anybody else to man this. And so he said to them, according to the conditions, you know, whenever we want to break it, we're going to break it, and so you have to choose another land to live in. So they were sent to other lands, and they were told to leave after a particular date, and that was the end of the Yahudi presence in Central Arabia so after these negotiations are taking place at one point in time we don't know when the books of Sira simply mention the famous incident again we all know of it since we are children since we have children we heard the story and that is the poisoning or the attempted poisoning of the Prophet ﷺ after these negotiations some food was gifted to the Prophet ﷺ and it was cooked later on we find out by the wife of one of the leaders that had been killed later on we find out now when the food is gifted they don't know so one of the tribes gives delicacies foods and we can imagine the people of Khyber being who they are they have a different cuisine and they have some exotic foods and they have some different ways of cooking it and no doubt they would have decorated it and made it like a massive gift and it is understood that when a person has conquered and now this is the leader, so you show some honor to him. So it's not surprising that any people would try to appease the new leader by sending a beautiful gift. And so they sent him a lavish food item, massive tray full of meat and other items, whatever their cuisine will be. We don't know what their cuisine was. And we know now later on that the woman who cooked this, she asked around, what meat does the Prophet ﷺ like the most? And she was told that he loves the shoulder blade of a lamb. This was the favorite meat of the Prophet ﷺ. The shoulder point of a lamb. And so she put poison in the whole lamb, but especially in the upper shank or the shoulder blade. That's where she concentrated this poison. And in fact some of the books of Seerah mention the name of this poison as well, but there's no point in me mentioning the Arabic name, it's something long gone, the recipe for this poison. But it was a very, very potent poison. It was a very powerful poison. And we know this because of exactly what happened. When the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba sat down to eat, the Prophet ﷺ put a bite in his mouth. And as soon as he put it in his mouth, he said, everybody stop eating. Everybody stop eating. He said that, but unfortunately, one Sahabi by the name of Bishr ibn al-Bara had already eaten and it was too late for him and the Prophet says to him, everybody stop eating the shoulder of the lamb has told me that it has been poisoned in other words the lamb is speaking to me in this meat, the shoulder is speaking to me, it has told me that it has been poisoned so obviously Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allowed the meat to speak to the Prophet ﷺ so the Prophet ﷺ did not swallow but he put it in his mouth and as for Bishr it appears he swallowed a little bit and Bishr fell ill, fell severely ill, a number of other Sahaba they spat out the the meat before they swallowed so they had to be treated and they by and large lived the Prophet ﷺ as a result of this poison he felt a pain and he felt the effects of this poison for the rest of his life for the rest of his four years he has now four years left to live for the rest of his life so much so that on his deathbed when he has a week left or a few days left he will mention to Aisha that oh Aisha I can still feel the effects of that poison from the Yahudia of Khaybar I feel it in my heart arteries and I feel that now is the time the poison has finally reached my heart. Now, his death was written, but the poison was one of the causes that made that death more painful. He's still feeling. He says, Sa'asha, I can still feel the pain of that poison to this day. And the Prophet ﷺ asked for Bishr, he eventually died in a few days. Right now he's sick, he's vomiting, what not. After a few days he dies. So the Prophet ﷺ called the tribe that had gifted him this meat. And he challenged them. He said, if I ask you anything, you promise to tell me the truth. They said, yes, we tell you the truth. So he said, who is your ancestor? Who is your communal ancestor? The one that you ascribe to. So they mentioned a name so and so. The books of seerah don't mention. So the Prophet ﷺ said, you are lying. Your ancestor is so and so. Meaning he's proving to them, I know what you do not know. And Allah has taught me what you are telling me is true or not. So they said, you have, no, whatever this, we don't know why they mentioned another name. Perhaps there was some point of embarrassment about this person, so they substituted him for another person. Allah knows the reason, we don't know. But they said a lie. They said our ancestor is so and so. And the Prophet ﷺ said, no, your real ancestor is so and so. They know who the ancestor is. So they said, صدقت يا أب القاسم You have spoken the truth. You have been honest with us. So you know who our ancestor is. So then he asked them again. So if I ask you a question, will you be honest with me? You already showed me you're lying. Will you be honest with me? So they said, يَا أَبَا الْقَاسِمُ You already see now that if we lie, you can tell, so there's no reason for us to lie. We will be honest with you. We will be honest with you. So he asked him a second question. Who is going to the fire of hell? Another trick question. Are you honest with me or not? So they said, we will go for a short period of time. But then Allah will save us. And you and your people will remain forever. Now this was their belief. Allah says it in the Quran. Right? Allah says in Surah Baqarah, وَقَالُوا لَنْ تَمَسَّلَ النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَامًا مَعْدُودًا We're only gonna be there for a while. They said basically, we know we're sinful. We know we haven't lived up to the laws of the Torah. so we're gonna be punished for a while then we're gonna move on, you guys will stay there forever so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said ikhsa'u feeha remain humiliated and basically ikhsa'u also means to shut up basically, ikhsa'u feeha remain in the fire of hell and by Allah we will not remain after you it is only for you basically, right we are not going to be the ones that come after you in that place, so now I will ask you a third question will you tell me the truth and they said we will say the truth so he said did you poison the lamb did you poison sorry the goat, did you poison the goat and they said yes we did and perhaps it was their honesty that saved them from all being killed Allah knows best because they were not all killed perhaps it was dishonesty they said yes we did so he said why would you do that so they said well if you are a liar in your claim to be a prophet, we would be free of you when you're conquering. And if you are a prophet, then our mischievousness would not have harmed you anyway. This is their mentality basically. Right? Either way, how can you get angry at us? If you're a liar, well then, we would have gotten rid of you. And if you're not a liar, then no matter what we did, you would not have been harmed. You see you're still alive basically. Right? Now look at the arrogance here. they see that the Prophet ﷺ has been saved but it doesn't affect them. And as Allah says in the Qur'an, يَعْرِفُونَهُ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ They recognize clearly, just like they recognize their own children. But it is a matter of pride and prestige. And so they admitted that they had poisoned. And they said it was so and so. So the lady, she was the cook that did it. So he called for the lady. And he said to her, why did you do this? and in some books of seerah it is mentioned that you killed my husband and you killed my uncle and so on so they all died in the battle so I wanted to kill you as a result so she was honest that this is revenge you did this I'm going to do this back to you and some of the sahaba said to execute her because obviously this is what she deserves now here is where the riwayat differ because some riwayat say that he did forgive her and somebody mentioned that she was killed and so scholars have tried to reconcile all of this and Ibn Al-Qayyim basically as usual Ibn Al-Qayyim the master of seerah comes along and he finds the way through and he says the Prophet ﷺ forgave her for what she had done to him but after a few days when Bishr died she had to be killed for Qisas because she killed Bishr the other Sahabi that died from the poison so the haqq of the Prophet he forgave her and he did not retaliate for himself but when Bishr died and Bishr died after a few days at Khaybar so then it is not fair for Bishr that Bishr's death goes unavenged and so he had to do the qisas on behalf of Bishr and so the lady was eventually executed now eventually so that all of the many fortresses of Khyber were conquered and all of the Muslims who participated in the treaty of Hudaybiyah were given extra shares. Why? Because Allah had promised them this in the Quran. Surah Al-Fatah وَعَدَكُمُ اللَّهُ مَغَانِمَ كَثِيرًا نَتَأْخُذُونْهَا فَعَجَّلَ لَكُمْ هَذِهِ Allah has promised you, you will gain a lot of ghanima. Right? And Allah says in the Quran that this is something that you have been promised. فَعَجَّلَ لَكُمْ Allah has expedited, made it fast for you. What? Your reward in Jannah, Allah has given you a bit of it in this world. فَعَجَّلَ لَكُمْ هَذِي Some of your rewards up there, you're getting it now. For your patience in the battle of Khaybar, in the battle of, in the treaty of Hudaybiyah. Your sabr, your patience, your iman in the treaty of Hudaybiyah, Allah is saying, you will get a massive victory. And so, every single person who participated in Hudaybiyah, was given massive shares out of the incident of Khaybar. and another major incident happened that was a great cause of joy and that was that while the Muslims were still at Khyber and the Prophet ﷺ has finished the negotiations and he has just conquered all of Khyber on the same day Ja'far ibn Abi Talib makes his way to Khyber Ja'far ibn Abi Talib has now returned from Abyssinia with around 50 or so Muslim men and women he has come from Abyssinia and he has been gone for over a decade. Because it is now the 7th year of the Hijrah. It is now the 7th year of the Hijrah. And they went to Abyssinia perhaps in the 5th year. Perhaps, we don't know exact dates. Not of the Hijrah, of the Dawah. 6th year of the Dawah, right? Maximum would have been 7th year of the Dawah. They would have been to Abyssinia. So, at least a decade, maybe more than a decade, the Prophet ﷺ has not seen one of his best friends and one of his most beloved cousins now remember Ja'far is older than Ali Ali is a young child, the Prophet ﷺ raising him, Ja'far is much older and the Prophet ﷺ has a very different relationship with Ja'far than he has with Ali, and Ja'far was very beloved to our Prophet ﷺ and when he saw Ja'far he stood up to greet him and he kissed him on the forehead, our Prophet ﷺ kissed Ja'far on the forehead and he said I don't know which of the two things is making me happier today Fathu Khaybar or the return of Ja'far which of the two things is making me happier that I'm so happy to see Ja'far ibn Abi Talib that he's saying I don't know which of the two is making me happier I conquered all of Khaybar and I will imagine this a whole month of battles and the biggest conquest in terms of monetary conquest since the beginning yet his joy he is saying I don't know which is making me happier today فَتْحُ خَيْبَرُ or رُجُوعُ جَعْفَرُ These two have come to me on the same day. And subhanallah, even though the people from Habasha, the Muslims, did not participate at Khaybar, they all got a share as well in Khaybar. And this is an amazing, amazing blessing for them. It shows us that Allah Azza wa Jal never ignores the sacrifice of those who have sacrificed. because their hardships were hardships that no Muslims ever had to endure at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Their hardships of emigrating to a foreign land, a foreign place, learning a new language, new culture, new civilization, whole different ballpark if you like. And Allah knows what has happened and as we know one of the biggest losses in my opinion, the details of Abyssinia we really don't know. Who's gonna preserve it for us? Just have tidbits here and there. but more than a decade of harsh living civil war has taken place we know that there was a civil war in Abyssinia they were almost going to be expelled that the other king, Najashi was on their side Najashi's nephew was against them and Najashi had I mentioned this back in Najashi it was two years ago whenever I said that Najashi actually had prepared a secret ship for them and he says if my nephew kills me, you go to this place and there's a ship waiting just for you this is what Najashi is thinking of when he's about to die even though Allah saved him And when Allah saved him, the Muslims are so happy that Allah has saved Najashi against his enemy, right? So all of this is happening. And here is a group of Muslims that did not participate in Khaybar. And yet because of their sacrifices, they all got a massive amount of reward in this dunya because of what they have undergone. And there's a beautiful hadith here. Let me just go into a tangent before we come back to Khaybar. Beautiful hadith here that when they returned to Medina, so Asma binti Umayis, one of those who had emigrated to Abyssinia. Asma' binti Umayyus from Mecca. All of the people in Abyssinia are Meccan, obviously. There are no Ansari in Abyssinia, right? Because Abyssinia take place from Mecca. Asma' binti Umayyus, when she comes for the first time to Medina, so after a day or two, she visits her friend Hafsa, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. And when she visits Hafsa, her friend that she hasn't seen for 10-15 years, then Umar ibn al-Khattab comes back. And he asks Hafsa, who is this lady with you? And Asma says, this is Asma binti Umais. So Umar says, binti Umais? Of course he knows Umais her father. Binti Umais, you are the Habashiyya, you are the seafaring lady. So he's being a bit sarcastic. The Habashiyya lady, the seafaring, the ocean lady. Then he says that, we have more right to the Prophet ﷺ than you. Because we emigrated to Medina with him. so he's just semi-teasing her like we have more right than you to the Prophet ﷺ because we have beaten you in emigrating to Medina you guys are coming after 7 years we've been here now 7 years in Medina Asma snapped all of this frustration and anger just snapped at Umar and she said you have no more right for the Prophet ﷺ you were at least with him for all of these ten years. He would console you at times of grief. He would feed you when you were hungry. He would guide you when you were mistaken. And we suffered, and we toiled, and we were in a strange land with nobody. Wallahi, I'm not going to eat or drink until I go to the Prophet ﷺ and tell him exactly what you said. And see for yourself who's right or wrong. And so right then and there, she went to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ in front of everybody, all the sahaba. And she started ranting about Umar ibn Khattab that, Ya Rasulullah, Umar said this and this, and I said I'm not going to eat and drink until I come straight to you and I say exactly what he said. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, that he does not have any more right over us than you. Go back and tell him, he made one hijrah, you people made two hijrahs. You made the hijrah to Abyssinia basically, and then from Abyssinia, you made the hijrah to Medina, you have double hijrah, they only have one hijrah. And so she went back flaunting this hadith, that look I told you so, right? And the news spread like wildfire to all of the Muslims who had emigrated from Abyssinia. And the whole day went by and all of the Abyssinian Muslims, the ones who had emigrated, are coming to the house of Asma wanting to hear directly the details because they want now. They want to hear directly from Asma what happened and what did the Prophet ﷺ say. And the riwayah goes, they were never happier than they were on that day when the Prophet ﷺ said that they have more right than Umar because they did two hijras and Umar did one hijra. So this shows us they also had their reward. Of course, all of this happiness is going to be tempered very shortly by the death of Ja'far very soon. And the death of Ja'far was a very tragic event for the Prophet ﷺ and we will come to that when we come to that. So the conquest of Khaybar was indeed a very huge demoralizing factor for the people of Quraysh. because Khyber was known to be the most fertile and the most protected and the most monetary if you like area of all of the urban peninsula and now it is in the hands of the Prophet ﷺ this is money making it's a lot of money a lot of power and it was also the most impenetrable fortress and yet the Prophet ﷺ conquered it and it was a huge demoralizing factor for the Quraysh and of course when they conquered Khyber they conquered some smaller cities and tribes that were around Khyber as well there are places called Waad al-Qura and others and they all agree to the same conditions you guys stay here, we will give you 50% and one other incident happened at Khyber that was the people of Fadak and the people of Fadak were a smaller tribe, a smaller area not as large as Khyber and the people of Fadak they became scared that what if the Muslims come here so without any army, without any threat without any people marching the people of Fadak sent their letter to the Prophet ﷺ that we also agree to the exact same conditions. And the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba had never stepped foot in Fadak and there was no intention to go to Fadak. So the Prophet ﷺ accepted this and the lands of Fadak, the small lands of Fadak, they were a special gift by Allah to the Prophet ﷺ directly. Because there was no army that went there, there was no groups of Sahaba that fought there, it was a privilege or a blessing that Allah gave directly to the Prophet ﷺ. And so the lands of Fadak were gifted, if you like, by Allah directly to the Prophet ﷺ. And he would use the proceeds of Fadak to take care of his family. And Khaybar generated more wealth than anything the Muslims had ever seen. And in terms of land, in terms of land, Khaybar was the largest conquest in the history of the Prophet ﷺ. in terms of money maybe Hunayn was bigger maybe, we don't know exactly we don't have figures but Hunayn did not have much land Hunayn had other types of wealth in terms of land there is no competition the largest and frankly land is always more expensive than material possessions the largest conquest in the history of Islam for the Prophet ﷺ in terms of lands to be acquired by the Muslims and the most priciest lands was khaybar. And it wasn't just lands, of course lands is the most, but they had food, all of these fortresses had their grains, they had armor, they had weapons, they had animals, they had slaves. All of this was given over to the Muslims, and it was at this point in time that the muhajirun returned to the ansar the lands that the ansar had given the muhajirun in the first year of the hijrah. Rewind, go back six years. When the muhajirun came, what did the ansar do? They gave, they gave, they gave. and the muhajirin always felt that this is not ours now that they got land they returned to the ansar the original land that had been gifted to them and ibn umar says we never ate to our fill until after khaybar ibn umar is a muhajir his father is umar ibn khattab we never ate to our fill until after khaybar and of course good things always come to those who wait Allah's reward will always come for those who are patient for so many years the people toiled and struggled some of these have been Muslim now for 20 years from the beginning of Mecca and eventually every one of them every one of them he now gets a lifelong fortune because it's going to be given to him every year every year the produce is going to come without lifting a finger he gets a massive amount and that is enough to take care of him and his family and this is of course what we expect from anybody who sacrifices for the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah will give him in this dunya before the akhirah and one final point that we're not going to go into detail now, inshallah maybe next week we'll go into the details of this and that is that in this time a number of marriages have taken place of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam we skipped over one of the most controversial or hot topics and that is the marriage of Zainab bin Tajash and I'm still wondering when and how to squeeze that in, whether we should wait till the end or actually we already skipped over so I guess we'll have to wait till the end for that one. But that is one of the most difficult stories of the seerah for non-Muslims to basically smear our process. And that's why it's very difficult for us to mention this in this gathering. The problem comes, have we been in Muslim lands? We can just gloss over it and say we don't care about the other versions. Let's talk about one version. But just like the satanic verses, I can close my ears, but I cannot close your ears. Other people say things. Non-Muslims say things. And I'd rather you hear it from me and we try to explain it than you hear it from somebody else and you don't know how to defend. Right? So that's really why that topic is very awkward. Because there are reports that are different than the standard accounts. There's two or three accounts. Just like remember the satanic verses. Remember there are three accounts there. One of them is very, very evil. And the other one is understandable. And the other one is very trivial. So we have to explain. And the same thing happens in the story of Zaynab, that there are some claims that are made, and sometimes those claims are not nice for us to hear. But I'd rather we discuss it in an academic fashion, and then respond to it, and how that will be done, I still don't know. But inshallah, we'll get to there. So the marriage of Zaynab bin Tijash, we have glossed over. We talked about very briefly about, I think we did about Rayhana, did we talk about Rayhana from Banu Qareedah? we talked about Rayhana from Banu Quraidah that the processor married her and she probably died in his lifetime one of his two wives to die in his lifetime the other marriage that no need to talk into a lot of detail is a very simple marriage that took place probably a month before Khaybar maybe even after Hudaybiyah maybe right before Hudaybiyah basically around this time two marriages take place around this time two marriages take place one of them, the first of them is the marriage of Ramla binti Abu Sufyan, Umm Habiba, she is Ramla binti Abu Sufyan, and of course the daughter of Abu Sufyan. And her husband was in Abyssinia, and she became a widow in Abyssinia, and she had nobody in Abyssinia, and the Prophet ﷺ sent her a marriage proposal from Medina while she is in Abyssinia. Because she had nobody to take care of her in Abyssinia. obviously all of the Sahaba are married there and there's nobody there that's going to take care of her and she is the daughter of Abu Sufyan I mean her father is the chieftain there is nobody more noble alive amongst the Quraish than Abu Sufyan and in those days lineage was the number one reason why you married a woman in our times our society has told us it is beauty but in their society it wasn't beauty in their society the number one reason you married a woman is pride of who the father is. And that dictates a lot about your relationship. Because once you marry into the tribe, now you have something negotiable with the tribe. This is a part of the land. And this is exactly what our Prophet ﷺ did in who he married. Each one of these marriages, there is some long-term wisdom. By marrying the daughter of Abu Sufyan, you are sending a message. And of course, Ramla was who she was. She was of the most loving to the masakeel and fuqara. she is of the earliest muhajirat she is, her credentials don't need any praising but her lineage is unparalleled she is the daughter of Abu Sufyan and so the Prophet ﷺ proposed for Ramla and the Najashi himself gifted the mahr on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ so the highest mahr of any of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ was to Ramla why? because when Najashi heard he became so happy he was the one who conducted the nikah ceremony he acted as the wali for Ramla because Abu Sufyan is not a Muslim. He acted as the wali. He's the one who gifted her lots of gifts. So the best wedding ceremony of any wives of the Prophet was Ramla's because it took place in the palace of Najashi. And then he sent her with some trustworthy people to Medina. And we don't know exactly when she arrived but maybe Hudaybiyah a little bit before, maybe a little bit after. But around this time she's arriving. And then in the battle of Khaybar Safiyya binti Huyay the daughter of the chieftain of the Khaybar Huyay ibn Akhtab back from the Banu Nadir the one who's run from Banu Nadir to Khaybar so Safiyya as well she is married and we will talk about Safiyya inshallah ta'ala next week Safiyya binti Huyay and then move on Thank you.

Seerah 68 - The Prophet's Marriage to Zaynab - Dr

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. Today's topic is one of the most difficult topics and I have been postponing it for a long time. But then I realized that there's no point delaying it. You have to obviously deal with the facts and then discuss it in an academic manner. And wallahi the fact of the matter is I would rather not have to discuss this topic and all of the allegations and all of the stories and what not. but we're living in a climate and a time and a place where our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is attacked by so many different sources by so many different people and they bring forth all types of calumnies, all types of issues and I'd rather you hear it from me and we discuss it in analytical detail the way that we talked about the satanic verses if you remember we talked about it in a lot of detail we mentioned different reports and then we came forth with a conclusion and we explained if you remember there were three different versions out there and we explained which one, who said what and why each group said that. And similarly in this case, the story of Zaynab bin Tajash is also a very contested and a very controversial and a very sensitive story. And in some ways it is even more sensitive than the story of the satanic verses because it deals with what is considered to be a love story by many of the non-Muslims. It is considered to be a story of ishq and a story of mahabba. And so obviously, it becomes much more sensitive, and it's a very awkward discussion to take place. And this is really an issue that many of the later scholars, in fact, completely turned away from it, and did not even mention it in their books. And we only find this in the earliest books, the versions that we're going to mention. And as I said, had we been living in a different time and place, in a very Islamic environment, there's no need to go into all of these versions. but I would rather we talk about it in a confined environment, so that when you're exposed to it outside by an Islamophobic person, by an anti-Islamic website, by sources that are not so sympathetic, at least you will know the correct version, or at least you'll know what are semi-plausible interpretations, and then we talk about it, inshallah ta'ala, in a more academic manner. Now, who is Zainab bin Tajash, and when did she marry the Prophet ﷺ, and what is so controversial about the marriage. Well, Zaynab was not born Zaynab. Zaynab was born Barra. Zaynab was born Barra. And she was from the tribe of the Banu Khuzaymah. So she is not Banu Hashim. She is Qurashi. Banu Khuzaymah is of the Quraysh tribes. She is of the Banu Khuzaymah. But her mother was Umaymah binti Abdul Muttalib. So the Amma of the Prophet ﷺ. Her mother is the sister of Abdullah. And so from her mother's side, she becomes the first cousin of our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And she was around a decade or a decade and a half younger than the Prophet ﷺ. Probably more than a decade and a half younger than the Prophet ﷺ. Again, as with all these birthdates, who keeps track of the birthdates of those times? We don't know exactly how old she was when she married the Prophet ﷺ. But most books say she was around 35 years old when she married the Prophet ﷺ. Now, she had been previously married in Mecca, and she became divorced, and she migrated with her brother. She migrated with her brother, and she had been divorced, so she is now available for marriage. She migrated with her brother to Medina, and the Prophet ﷺ sent a proposal on behalf of his quote-unquote son, Zayd. Because at that time, Zayd was still his son. You understand what I'm saying? His son meaning the adopted son. Zayd he was called Zayd ibn Muhammad up until this point in time. So he sent a proposal on behalf of Zayd. That I want you to marry Zayd. And she said, I am the widow of the Quraysh. I am the most illegible bachelorette of the Quraysh. And you want me to marry Zayd? So you can sense from the beginning she's not too happy with Zayd. That she felt Zayd was not to her caliber. That it's not gonna work out. And it is human nature that the woman wants a man she can respect and look up to. And this is human nature. It is ingrained in the fitrah, right? And that is why, I mean, a bit of a modern issue here, but subhanAllah, when a man proposes to a woman, he finds out the woman is, let's say, earning more money than him. Or has more degrees than him. What happens? The man feels intimidated. No, no, it's not gonna work out. Whether it's right or wrong is besides the point. Talking about human nature. It's human nature that if the woman wants somebody she can look up to and respect. And the man wants someone that he as well feels, okay, I am the man of the household, right? I am the person who has the authority. So Zaynab felt that Zayd is beneath her. That he is not a real Quraishi, he is not someone that is worthy of me. And so, from the beginning she kind of said, it's not appropriate. But the Prophet ﷺ insisted. And according to one interpretation, Surah Al-Ahzab verse 33, was revealed because of this. And Surah Al-Ahzab verse 33, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in this verse, وَمَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلَا مُؤْمِنَةٍ إِذَا قَضَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمْرًا أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُمُ الْخِيَرَةُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ It's Surah Al-Ahzab verse 36, excuse me. That it is not appropriate for any man or woman, once Allah and His Messenger have decreed something, that they then follow their own opinion about this issue. And we find in the earliest books of Tafsir, that there is an interpretation, this verse was revealed because of Zaynab. when she and her brother said, we're not gonna get married to Zayd. Her brother as well said, Zayd is not worthy for our family. And Allah then revealed that once the messenger has made a choice, you cannot have another choice in this regard. And so when the ayah was revealed, the both of them said, we are content with Zayd. And Zaynab is well known that eventually when she did marry the Prophet ﷺ, that she was really the only competition that Aisha had in terms of mahabba, in terms of love that the Prophet ﷺ had. Aisha's only main competition was Zaynab. And the wives of the Prophet ﷺ were divided into two camps. The camp of Zaynab and the camp of Aisha. That you had a number of women that were on the camp of Aisha, the number of women on the camp of Zaynab. And the long story of Surah Al-Tahrim, يَعِيُّ الْنَبِيُّ لِمَ تُحَرِّمُ مَا أَحَلَّ اللَّهُ لَكَ O Prophet, why do you make haram what Allah has made halal? one interpretation was that this was revealed because the Prophet ﷺ overstayed in the house of Zaynab and Aisha became so jealous that she and Hafsa concocted that story that when he enters in you ask him what is that bad smell coming and this is the honey that he was eating a type of honey from Zaynab's house and so the both of them said there is some bad smell coming from you so he said wallahi I am not going to ever eat at Zaynab's house again and then Allah revealed in the Quran, يَا أَيُّ النَّبِيُّ لِمَ تُحَرِّمُ مَا أَحَلَّ اللَّهُ لَكَ تَبْتَغِي مَرْضَاتَهَا as wajik. That's one interpretation that Bukhari has in his Sahih. The point being that, Zaynab, as Aisha herself says, and this hadith is in Sahih Muslim, she was the only one who competed with me in status in the eyes of the Prophet ﷺ. She was the only lady who was a genuine competition for me, meaning while I was alive. Remember Khadija was another competition, but that was, she's not in front of her. Zainab is the only one that is in front of her and therefore after Aisha perhaps Zainab was the most beloved but obviously when Aisha and Zainab are both there they don't know this and that both of them are competing for one another in this regard despite this jealousy Aisha has a lot of praise for Zainab and Aisha says we already mentioned in the story of the slander that when the Prophet ﷺ asked Zainab what did you think of Aisha Zainab said Ya Rasulullah, I will only speak the truth. I know nothing but good of her. And Aisha herself said that Zainab's piety saved her from saying anything. Whereas her sister, and that was Hamana bin Tijaj, this is Zainab bin Tijaj. Hamana bin Tijaj was one of those who spread the rumors, right? And her sister wanted to defend Zainab, not defend but cause problems between Aisha and the Prophet ﷺ out of a love for Zainab. But Zainab herself, Aisha said, her taqwa prevented her. She had the opportunity to backstab, but she didn't. Her taqwa prevented her. And she didn't say anything. And Aisha herself says, in another hadith, in another incident, when she spoke about Zaynab, after the death of Zaynab, Aisha herself said, I have never seen any woman more righteous in religion than her. And more fearful of Allah. And more truthful in her speech. And more caring for her relatives. And more generous with her charity. and more energizing in her efforts to come closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, except that she had a temper that would come quickly and then go away. This is a very beautiful hadith where Aisha praises Zainab in an entire paragraph. An entire paragraph. She says, I've never seen a more religious lady than her. Imagine the wife of the Prophet ﷺ saying this about Zainab. And Zainab was sawwamatun qawwama. She was one who regularly fasted and prayed and she was well known amongst the wives of the Prophet ﷺ for being the most generous of all of his wives. She was called the mother of the orphans and the mother of the poor. And in the famous hadith, when the wives were discussing who will be the first wife to pass away after the Prophet ﷺ, so the Prophet ﷺ came out and he saw them all arguing and debating. He said, the one amongst you that has the longest hand will be the first to meet me. And so for the next few years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ, they will all line up against a wall and they would measure their hands. They would have the hand put and who has the longest hand? Eventually Zaynab was the first to die. They understood what the Prophet ﷺ said by the longest hand, the one who spends the most. The one who spends the most because she was the one who would spend the most. And so they realized what the Prophet ﷺ meant. When did the Prophet ﷺ marry Zaynab? Lots of reports, but inshallah the strongest opinion is that it took place in the beginning of Dhul Qa'dah, of the fifth year of the hijrah. The al-qa'dah of the fifth year of the hijrah. And we know this for multiple reasons. Most importantly, the verses of hijab were revealed on the night of the wedding of Zaynab and the Prophet ﷺ. The verses of hijab came down. Before the wedding of Zaynab and the Prophet ﷺ, there was no hijab. So women did not wear hijab. They did not cover themselves the way that the sharia required them to cover because there was no sharia revealed at that time. So when was the sharia of hijab revealed? The night of the wedding of Zaynab and the Prophet ﷺ. That was when ayatul hijab came down. And we know in other reports that the ayatul hijab came down in Dhul Qa'dah of the fifth year of the hijrah. We also know for a fact that the marriage took place before the slander of Aisha. Because Aisha mentions Zaynab protecting her tongue during the slander. So definitely before the slander. And therefore to say it occurred in the Dhul Qa'dah of the fifth year of the hijrah. Insha'Allah it fits in perfectly. We also know, before we get to the controversial stuff, we also know that Zaynab's waleema was the most luxurious waleema out of all of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. That this is mentioned in all the books of hadith. That the best waleema that the Prophet ﷺ gave for any of his wives was that for Zaynab. And they asked Anas, what was the waleema? He said, meat and bread until all the people were filled. meat and bread which is basically what our waleema is, I told you many times they had no rice, the processor never ate rice in his life, rice only came to the sahaba when they conquered the Persian and the Roman Empire, so the processor never ate rice so what was the luxury? bread the staple starch was the bread and then meat, and so he had all the meat and all the bread which is to this day, this is what a waleema and aqeeqah is, right? and that was only for Zaynab for most of the other wives, they did not have the capacity to sacrifice an animal. It was just whatever other food was available. But for Zainab, he invited everyone. He sent Anas ibn Malik to, he gave a whole list as the riwayat go. Call Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali. He gave a whole long list. Then he said, go to the people of the Suffah. Then he said, go to the Masjid. Then he said, go in the pathway. Then he said, anybody whom you meet, call him. And so everybody came. And they ate from a small dish. And And Anas says that, I thought the dish would take care of two or three, but wallahi over 70 people ate from the dish. And when they all finished, it was still the same amount as it had in the beginning. And therefore the story of the marriage of Zaynab is something well known. And the way I'm going to discuss the story is actually do it in this manner. We'll first discuss the verse in the Quran. Then we'll look at the books of Hadith. Then we'll look at the books of Sira. Then we'll look at the books of Tafsir. And we'll go in chronological order. We'll look at the Quran. what does the Quran have to say? Then we'll look at the books of the six books of Hadith. And then we'll look at the books of Sira. And then we'll look at the books of Tafsir. And as for the verse in the Quran, the primary verse, in fact the only verse that explicitly mentions this is Surah Al-Ahzab verse 37. Surah Al-Ahzab verse 37. And what does Allah say? And this is right after Ahzab 36, which is according to the majority opinion also regarding Zaynab. That no believing man or woman should ever have a say once Allah and His Messenger have decided to do something. The majority interpretation, this also relates to Zainab, Zainab's marriage to Zaid. Now verse 37, now you need to memorize this verse or at least the translation. وَإِذْ تَقُولُ لِلَّذِي أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَأَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِ And remember when you said, to the one whom Allah has blessed with Islam, and the one you have blessed by freeing him and adopting him. وَإِذْ تَقُولُ الَّذِي أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَأَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِ أَمْسِكْ عَلَيْكَ زَوْجَكَ Keep your wife. وَاتَّقِ اللَّهِ And fear Allah. So, the Prophet ﷺ is telling Zaid, Keep your wife, do not divorce her, and fear Allah. وَتُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ مَا اللَّهُ مُبْدِيهُ And you hid in yourself, in your heart, that which Allah would make clear to the people. So, the Prophet ﷺ is telling Zayd, keep her, fear Allah, do not divorce her. But as you said this to Zayd, there was something in your heart that you were hiding. That which you were hiding, Allah would make it known to the people. وَتَخْشَ النَّاسِ Why did you hide it? You were fearful of the people. You didn't want the people to speak. wallahu ahakku an takhshah but Allah has the ultimate right that he should be feared he shouldn't have been scared of the people and this is an itab this is a minor rebuke for the Prophet ﷺ that why were you scared of the people you should have been scared of me not scared of the people falamma qadha zaydun minha watara now pause here completely irrelevant to this story well not completely irrelevant but it is not directly relevant to the marriage. The only Sahabi ever mentioned by name is Zaid. Right here in this verse. Ever. No Sahabi has the honor that Allah mentioned him by his name in the Quran. Other than Zaid. And this is the biggest blessing that Allah has given Zaid ibn Harithah. Right? That Allah mentions him by his name. فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدٌ Even Abu Bakr comes a distant second compared to this that Allah references him with the direct pronoun. And Allah calls him sahib, which is still good, but you can't compare to Zaid. Right? And it is narrated that when the Prophet ﷺ died, one of the sahaba remarked, had Zaid been alive, we would never have chosen Abu Bakr over him. That it was an obvious choice, if Zaid had been alive, that we would have chosen Zaid to be the next, the first khalifa. Right? so Zayd's maqam unfortunately is not known amongst many of the Muslims because he died in the 8th year of the hijrah he died as we'll talk about actually very shortly, maybe 2-3 weeks is going to come the incident of the death of Zayd so Zayd died, it was a huge tragedy the Prophet ﷺ was crying, he was visibly grief struck, and because of this most of us we don't understand the maqam of Zayd who is Zayd, and what is the maqam of Zayd Allah mentions him by name in the Quran so when Zayd finished off فَلَمَّا قَضَى يَزُودُ مِنْهَا وَطَرًا قَضَى وَطَرًا, who is an Arabic expression which basically means divorce took place. There's no need to get into the linguistics, it's a deep meaning, which no need to get into. When Zaid divorced her. Let's just translate it like this. قضى وطره has other meanings, but the implication, when Zaid divorced her. فَلَمَّا قَضَى زِدْمِ وَطَرًا زَوَّجَنَاكَهَا We married you, we married her to you. زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا Once Zaid's divorce has finalized, we marry her to you. so that there is no haraj, there is no problem for any believer to marry the wives of their adopted sons, ad-iyaihim, once they have divorced them. And of course, we understand one of the wisdoms behind this that nobody denies that quote-unquote adoption is not the same as a biological son. And a quote-unquote adopted son is never gonna take the status of a real son. So the real son's wife becomes a mahram. but the adopted son's wife does not become a mahram the biological son's wife and the biological daughter's husband becomes a mahram for the parents right but not somebody that you have raised as an orphan and he's not your biological son or daughter that doesn't become a mahram so Allah is saying so that there should be no problem after this that anyone wants to marry an ex-wife of the adopted son or an ex-husband of the adopted daughter now one of them wants to marry that is something that is allowed. وَكَانَ أَمُرُ اللَّهِ مَفْعُولًا And Allah's command will be done. Now the next verses are very beautiful and they're very relevant. I'm not going to go into them in the detail. I want you to read them. The next page and a half is all about praising the Prophet ﷺ. The next page and a half, that Allah says in the Qur'an, مَا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَى أَحَدٍ مِنْ رِجَالِكُمْ وَلَكِ الرَّسُولُ اللَّهِ وَخَاتَمَ النَّبِيِّينَ Muhammad is not the father. And Muhammad's name is mentioned. And Allah only mentions his name four times in the Qur'an. And Muhammad's name is mentioned. مَا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَى أَحَدٍ مِّرْجَالِكُمْ Muhammad ﷺ is not the father of any of your men. Rather he is the Khatim al-Nabiyyin. He is Rasulullah and Khatim al-Nabiyyin. And then Allah says, Allah is the one who sends his salat upon you. And eventually in the same surah, next page, Allah says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهُمْ لَتَنَا مُنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا اللهم صلي وسلم على سيدنا محمد. So the whole page and a half is a praise for the Prophet ﷺ. Right? Therefore, this ayah is in the context, actually comes at the beginning of an entire passage that the Prophet ﷺ's maqam is praised. And Allah says, مَا كَانَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ مِنْ حَرَجٍ فِي مَا فَرَضَ اللَّهُ لَهُ There is never any difficulty in anything that Allah has decreed for His Prophet. There should be no difficulty. And this is what Allah has decreed. So, this is the Qur'an. What do we learn from the Qur'an? we learn that the Prophet ﷺ told Zaid do not divorce her but he hid something in his heart out of the fear of the people and that which he hid in his heart Allah would tell the people or Allah would indicate what it was this is what we learn primarily and we also learn that Allah married Zainab to the Prophet ﷺ directly the Zawaj took place Allah عز و جل revealed it in the Quran the Nikah contract we recited to this day this is the Nikah contract the nikah contract between Zainab and the Prophet it is in the Quran Surah Al-Ahzab and we recite it to this day so let us look at the books of hadith the books of hadith in Bukhari and At-Tirmidhi Anas ibn Malik said that Zaid came to the Prophet complaining about Zainab but the Prophet kept on saying to him keep your wife, don't divorce her amsik alika zawjak Anas said if the Prophet ﷺ were to have hidden anything from the wahi he would have hidden this verse this hadith is in Bukhari if he would have kept any ayah to himself he would have kept this ayah so this is the hadith in Bukhari notice this version of Bukhari does not give us any details honestly it only says Zayd came to the Prophet ﷺ complaining and the Prophet ﷺ said keep your wife that's all it says what was he complaining, why did the Prophet ﷺ say keep your wife, what was he hiding it's not mentioned so Bukhari and Muslim don't have anything explicit about the reason what Allah is referencing that the Prophet ﷺ hid we have other reports as well that don't quite mention the reason or what the Prophet ﷺ was hiding but they give other details that are interesting but they're not quite relevant to our story, of them is in Sahih Bukhari, Anas reports that the verses of Hijab were revealed regarding Zaynab. That was when Allah revealed Hijab. The night of Zaynab's marriage, Allah revealed, نَزَلَتْ آيَةَ الْحِجَابِ That was when Ayatul Hijab came down. And Anas said, Zaynab would boast to the other wives, زَوَّجَنِ اللَّهُ مِنْ فَوْقِ سَبْعِ سَمَوَاتٍ Allah has married me from above the seven heavens. In another version, she would say to the other wives, As for you, your fathers and your brothers married you off to the Prophet ﷺ. As for me, Allah married me off to the Prophet ﷺ from above the seven heavens. Okay, so what is to be expected? That Zaynab is happy, she's proud, she's boasting to the other wives, which is all jais and halal and we expect it between co-wives. She is saying, I have this honor that none of you have. That Allah married me off directly from above the seven heavens. In At-Tirmidhi, we learned that Aisha says the same thing that has been reported from Anas. That Aisha says, if the Prophet ﷺ were to have hidden any ayah from the Qur'an, he would have hidden this ayah from the Qur'an. Which means, this ayah is painful. Which means, this ayah is painful. And the Prophet ﷺ is being criticized in a way he has never been criticized. And if he were to have hid something, he would have hid this ayah. So this ayah is telling us something that is awkward for the Prophet ﷺ to tell, but because he is honest and he is صادق الأمين, because he is رسول الله ﷺ, he will reveal everything that Allah has said. And there's only one hadith in the Mustadibah Ahmad that gives us some indication. And as is to be expected, there is a controversy over its authenticity. This is how we're all gonna get into the whole issue of authenticity. In the Musnad of Imam Ahmed, from Imam Ahmed's teacher Muammar ibn Ismail, from Hammab ibn Zayd, from Thabit, from Anas, that the Prophet ﷺ came to the house of Zayd ibn Harithah. So he saw Zayd's wife Zaynab in the house. Now Muammar, the Shaykh of Imam Ahmed says, I do not know whether Anas said the next statement or whether it was interpolated by my teacher Hamad. So Hamad is the teacher of the teacher of Imam Ahmad. So Muammar the teacher says I don't remember this phrase. Did it come from Anas? Or did it come from my own teacher? I don't remember where did it come from. What was that phrase? So something entered his heart. Something entered the heart of the Prophet ﷺ. فَوَقَعَ فِي قَلْبِي Something came to the Prophet ﷺ. So Zaid came complaining to her about him, but the Prophet ﷺ said, hold on to your wife and fear Allah. أَمْسِكْ عَلَيْكَ زَوْجَكَ وَاتَّقِ اللَّهِ And it was that when Allah revealed Surah Al-Ahzab. Or at least this verse of Surah Al-Ahzab. And we also find in the books of Sira and also in some books of hadith such as Sunan al-Nisa'i, other details that are not relevant to the story that we're interested in, but they're relevant to the overall surrounding details. And that is, when the Iddah of Zaynab finished, the Prophet ﷺ said to Zayd, go to Zaynab and mention my name to her. So pause here now. Eventually Zayd does end up divorcing Zaynab. Okay? The Prophet ﷺ never told him to, he eventually does it anyway. He divorces Zaynab. and the Prophet ﷺ then tells Zayd go to Zaynab and mention my name if she wants to marry me or not in the version of Ibn Sa'd the Prophet ﷺ said to Zayd I don't trust anyone more than you so go to Zaynab on my behalf and this is before hijab has been revealed and so even though the divorce has been finalized Zayd can go and visit Zaynab because there is no hijab as of yet there is no segregation and what not that has not yet been revealed and so Zayd goes to Zaynab and he finds her getting the barley ready so doing the mill what is it called the grinding mill and just basically cleaning the barley and Zayd says when I saw her I felt shyness that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had mentioned her name so I turned around so that I don't see her and I spoke to her with my back to her that Zayd is now feeling a sense of haya that the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned Zaynab and he's interested so I feel awkward now even though they had been married for at least three years at least three years they had been married but now that the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned her now he turns his back and he speaks to her facing the wall and his back is to Zaynab and he says O Zaynab the Prophet ﷺ has mentioned you and he has sent me to you meaning are you interested or not and so Zaynab said I will not respond until I seek Allah's assistance. Meaning pray istikhara. I will not respond until I seek Allah's assistance. And Zaynab stood up to pray in her area of prayer, which she had in the house. And at that point in time, Allah revealed the verse of Surah Al-Ahzab. زَوَّجْنَا كَهَا And the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with Aisha at this time. and he became the ghusya alay which means he closed his eyes and they could see that the wahi was coming down. And so he then recited this verse and he sent a messenger to Zaynab that this is the verse that has been revealed. And Aisha says, when I heard this verse, then there is a beautiful Arabic expression which has no English equivalent, but she basically said, I became struck with jealousy from every angle. From every angle I became struck with jealousy because of what I knew of her beauty and worse than this because of the manner in which the Zawaj took place. And that is the Quran coming down. And so when the verse came down, so the Quran has been revealed and this is of course after the Iddah of Zayd. After the Iddah of Zayd, Zayd goes back and says to Zaynab, the Prophet is interested, Zaynab stands up to pray Istikhara and basically even before she finishes, her Istikhara is responded to by the Quran. The Qur'an comes down. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ entered into the house of Zaynab without any other marriage contract, without any other witnesses, because it's in the Qur'an and the world is a witness, without any wali being necessary, because Allah said, زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا And this was the only marriage in the history of the world basically, that was legitimized directly by Allah ﷻ without the need of any other mahr, any witnesses, any other nikah, nothing. The nikah is there in the Quran. Zawajnakaha, end of story. Allah says, Zawajnakaha, we married you to her. Khalas, who is going to now needs to be a witness? Who needs to be the one? That's it, end of story. Okay, so, we're beginning to see some of the problems or issues arising. Now let's look at the books of Sira. We turn first and foremost to Ibn Ishaq. And, Ibn Ishaq is something you should know about. we haven't really mentioned this before but unfortunately one of the biggest criticisms against Ibn Ishaq is that he for the most part really ignored the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and their stories there's no separate section the Zawjat of the Prophet ﷺ there's hardly anything just tidbits here and there he doesn't have a separate section dedicated to the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and therefore there's not anything narrated and all of Ibn Ishaq about the meaning of these verses, about what the Prophet ﷺ hid, in his heart nothing is mentioned. It's nothing, neither this nor that. So we don't have any luck with Ibn Ishaq. And it's not just for Zainab, it's for most of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. We really don't have much coming from Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Sa'd is the next authority of the seerah. And Ibn Sa'd dies 230 hijrah. And Ibn Sa'd gives us a very detailed version which I will call version A. And there's only two versions, version A, version B. And version A is the problematic version. Version A is the version that has caused a lot of criticism. And it is found in a lot of detail in many, many books. You are hearing it for the first time now from Ibn Sa'd. But as we will see, it's actually mentioned in many books. What is Ibn Sa'd's version? Remember this is version A. Ibn Sa'd says, and when did he die? 230 Hijrah. We're gonna do this chronologically. We're gonna see who said what at what era. Because this shows things as well. Ibn Sa'd said, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and I'm quoting directly from Ibn Sa'd that I have translated. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam went to visit Zayd, but he was not home. And Zaynab came to answer his knock. And this is before hijab, so there's not a problem. So she came wearing her regular dress. Meaning she's not wearing anything extra because it's not hijab. That's what she would have been wearing anyway. and said, he is not here, O Messenger of Allah, but come on in. Meaning, the Prophet ﷺ is visiting, how can you like not say anything? Come on in. But he turned away, and he muttered. And the only thing that she could hear was, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ سُبْحَانَ مُصَرِّفَ الْقُلُوبِ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ سُبْحَانَ مُصَرِّفَ الْقُلُوبِ And مُصَرِّفَ الْقُلُوبِ, the one who changes the hearts. The hearts are changing. Zayd comes back, this is from Ibn Sa'd. And Zaynab tells him the Prophet ﷺ visited. He said, why didn't you invite him in? She said, I did. He said, what did he say? Zaynab said, I don't know, but all I could hear was, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ سُبْحَانَ مُصَرِّفَ الْقُلُوبِ So Zayd understood that perhaps the Prophet ﷺ was inclined towards her. Zayd understood that perhaps the Prophet ﷺ, Zayd understood by سُبْحَانَ مُصَرِّفَ الْقُلُوبِ that perhaps the Prophet ﷺ was inclined towards her. And he went to the Prophet ﷺ and offered to divorce Zaynab. But the Prophet ﷺ said, أَمْسِكْ عَلَيْكَ زَوْجَكَ وَاتَّقِلَّهُ Which is in the Quran. Keep your wife and fear Allah. But after this incident, all that was remaining in Zaynab's heart left. And he kept on insisting to the Prophet ﷺ that he wanted to divorce, saying that she had a sharp tongue, saying that she kept putting him down, saying this, saying that. So Zaid never really got along with Zainab. And so Zaid did not want to persist in the marriage. And he kept on asking the Prophet ﷺ to divorce. And the Prophet ﷺ kept on saying, أَمْسِكْ عَلَيْكَ زَوْجَكَ وَاتَّقِ اللَّهِ Eventually he divorces her. Meaning the Prophet ﷺ never told him to do this. But he just could not bear Zainab anymore. Her tongue, her sharpness, whatever. He divorced her. And then when the Prophet ﷺ was sitting what Aisha, the Wahi came upon him and he recited Surah Al-Ahzab. Okay, so this is Ibn Sa'ad's version. And this is version A. And this is the version that is problematic. We understand why it is problematic. I don't need to explain obviously why it is problematic. It's understood why it's problematic, right? The emotions that are felt. This is what is problematic. Right? That Zaynab is now married to Zayd and as the version very explicitly says, that he inclined towards her. And he said, Subhanallah al-Azim Subhanamusarrifal Qulub. Now, this is what we find in Ibn Sa'd. Let us now look to the books of Tafsir. And we find the books of Tafsir will obviously concentrate on this verse, obviously because it's in the Qur'an. So every single book of Tafsir ever written in the history of Islam has a version of events, correct? You understand this point? Because it's directly in the Qur'an, right? And today, all of today, from 9 o'clock in the morning, I have been in my library looking up literally 40-50 books about this and that. this is, inshallah this research is new and novel and it is thoroughly done, inshallah ta'ala. And I went over dozens of tafsir and I'm summarizing what I went over today. One of the earliest tafsirs in existence is that of Muqatir ibn Sulaiman. Muqatir ibn Sulaiman's tafsir is the earliest tafsir in print. Muqatir ibn Sulaiman died 150 Hijrah. Nobody earlier than him we have that has written a tafsir. Now Muqatir ibn Sulaiman he's actually not a scholar, he's a storyteller. And he's not considered to be academically reliable. He's simply a qasas. He's simply a person who just talks about stories. He's not reliable. So we don't turn to his tafsir for reliability. We just turn to it to get a glimpse of what people were saying in 150 AH. That's really what we turn it to. We don't turn to it for reliable tafsir. Muqatir ibn Suleiman is not an academic scholar. He is a storyteller, a qasas. And so we just turn to him to see what people were saying, not for academic opinions. Muqatil's tafsir mentions version A in quite a lot of vivid detail. More details that I found other places, but it is mentioned in version A. Now, if Muqatil was the only person who mentioned version A, we would say, Alhamdulillah, he's the only person, end of story. But he's not the only person. We just had Ibn Sa'd, now we have Muqatil, now we turn to the next famous tafsir, and that is tafsir Al-Tabari. Al-Tabari died 310. And Al-Tabari is the most orthodox, the most authentic, the encyclopedia of tafsirs. This is the bastion of Sunni tafsirs. All tafsirs come from At-Tabari. At-Tabari is the polymath. He is the historian. He is the seerah expert. He is the mufassir. This is At-Tabari. Muhammad ibn Jalil At-Tabari. Died 310 Hijrah. At-Tabari mentions version A as basically the only version. It's the standard version. And he mentions reports from Qatada and from Ibn Zayd and from other authorities that explicitly mention version A and basically support this version. He goes back with his isnads to Qatada. Who's Qatada? Qatada is the student of Ibn Abbas. And Qatada is the main mufassir of the tabi'un. And Qatada died 103 hijrah. So Qatada says, what the Prophet ﷺ hid in his heart was the desire that Zayd divorce her. he wanted Zaid to divorce but he didn't say it this is what he hid and he mentions from Ibn Zaid as well who is another scholar from the Tabi'un similar reports and this is the standard understanding of At-Tabari and At-Tabari is who At-Tabari is he is a one of the in fact frankly he is the greatest scholar of Tafsir of the early centuries nobody is greater than At-Tabari going next in order another Tafsir written by a Persian Hanafi scholar by the name of Samarqandi who died 375 and he wrote a book of Tafsir called Al-Bahra Al-Uloom and he basically mentions the same version A. And the next Tafsir, Tafsir Al-Thalabi who died 427, the same version. And then we have non-Sunni Tafsir, Az-Zamakhshari in his Kashaf, the same story. Zamakhshari dies 538. We have Fakhreddin Al-Razi who is a famous Ash'ari scholar and he has his Tafsir Al-Kabir. Al-Razi died 610. He has all of this. So we have all of these Mufassirun mentioning version A. as if it is the standard one. Okay, what is version B then? Let's get to version B. Version B is not actually a specific incident. It's an interpretation. It's not a story. Version A is a story. Version B is no story. It's simply an interpretation of the verse. And what is this interpretation? And where is the first book that mentions it? Well, the first printed book that I could find that mentions this is Al-Bayhaqi's Dala'il al-Nubuwa. And Al-Bayhaqi died 458 Hijrah. and Al-Bayhaqi and I'm not saying that it doesn't exist before Al-Bayhaqi I'm saying in my limited library this is all that I could come across and also online I downloaded some books today as well I could not come across a book that is printed that has this exact version before Al-Bayhaqi but it is referenced before Al-Bayhaqi but not with this explicitness and what is this version B? version B is the following Ali Zain Al-Abideen who is Ali Zain Al-Abideen? Who is Ali Zainul Abideen? Hussain's? Hussain's son. Zainul Abideen is Hussain's son. Ali Zainul Abideen asks one of his students, one of his peers, What does Hasan Al-Basri say about this verse? وَتُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ مَا اللَّهُ مُبْدِيهِ What does Hasan Al-Basri say about this verse? So this narrator says, I told him what Hassan says about the verse. And from other reports we find out that's version A he is saying. I told him, this is what Hassan says. Version A. Ali Zain al-Abideen said, No, not version A. No. Rather, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had informed the Prophet ﷺ that Zaynab would become his wife. Now, pause here. That's version B. That's all version B is. Now, pause here. This changes the whole dynamics. Version A, what was he hiding in his heart? His inclination for Zaynab. Clear. This is what he's hiding. He wants to legitimately marry Zaynab, so he has an inclination towards her, so he wants Zaynab to divorce, but he's not gonna say it. Why is he not going to say it? Because the people are going to say that, oh, he caused Zaid to divorce and then he married the divorcee. Right? So this is version A. Version B says the following, that Allah had told the Prophet ﷺ that Zainab will become your wife. So Zaid now comes to him and Zaid says, I want to marry Zainab. and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam knows that eventually Zainab will be his wife knowing this he tells Zaid don't divorce her why? because he was scared what was he scared of? that the people will say he married the wife of his adopted son which is a jahili no-no the whole dynamics have been changed here every single phrase has a different linkage now what did he hide in version A his inclination in version B what did he hide the fact that he knew that he would eventually marry Zaynab version A what was he scared of that people will spread rumors version B what was he scared of what was he scared of the jahili practice of marrying your adopted son was a very evil thing for them. So people would say, oh my God, he married his adopted son's ex-wife. This is what he was scared of. That this was a criticism, that was a jahili criticism. Now, these are the version A's and the version B's. So version B, chronologically, it does seem to appear after version A. Now if you look at some early tafsirs, interestingly some early tafsirs mention both versions together. And most important amongst them we have Ibn Atiyah in his Al-Muharrar Al-Wajiz. Ibn Atiyah died 500 and don't quote me, 540 or so. 540 something. Ibn Atiyah died. Ibn Atiyah mentions all of version A in its entirety. And then he follows it up by mentioning version B and then he leaves it at that. These are the two versions that I found. This and that. Al-Baghawi, and Al-Baghawi is a very famous scholar of tafsir. He has a famous book called Ma'alim al-Tanzil. Al-Baghawi died 516. Al-Baghawi mentions the same version in great detail. And he actually quotes Ibn Abbas. Ibn Abbas as saying, that what the Prophet ﷺ hid was a love for Zaynab. وَتُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ What he hid was a love for Zaynab. Qatada he mentions as saying that what the Prophet ﷺ hid was a hope that Zaid would divorce her. But then he brings in version B. This is Al-Baghwi. He brings in version B. And he quotes all of, from Ali ibn al-Husayn and then he says and I quote from Al-Baghwi. And this second interpretation, version B is more befitting and more appropriate for the maqam of the prophets. So the first author to say version A seems to be problematic. is Al-Baghawi. In my reading, I haven't found anybody who even found version A problematic. Al-Tabari quotes it nonchalantly. Nothing, no big deal. Ibn Sa'ad quotes, all of these other authors are quoting it. Al-Baghawi 516 says, some have said that version B is better because it is more appropriate to the status of a prophet. Now, notice here by the way, why did he choose version B over version A? Not because of isnad, not because of quantity of people, simply because in content it makes more sense that the Prophet should do version B and not version A. Okay? This is the reason he prefers version B over version A. Then, and then he's very interesting, he says, even if the first story, version A, is correct, the other interpretation, which is that he hid for her a love and a desire to marry her is actually not something that tarnishes the reputation of a prophet. So, Baghawi says, I think version B is better. Because that would make our life easier. But even if you insist on version A, it's not the end of the story. Why? Because he says, it's not actually something that tarnishes the reputation of a prophet. For, a servant is not criticized for a desire that comes to the heart, as long as he does not intend any evil. Because love and inclination is not something that is in the control of men. And this is Al-Baghawi from 516 Hijrah. Right? At the turn of the 5th century, the turn of the 6th century, Al-Baghawi is saying, I like version B because it's easier for us to swallow. But even if we insist on version A, it's not a big deal because it's only an inclination of the heart. So we find here a shift now. That version B seems to be getting a little bit of traction and then as we go on and on, version B seems to take more and more role until version A is actually ignored and completely set aside and then castigated and then criticized and then as we will see even more bizarre things are said about it. The next tafsir is Ibn al-Jawzi's Zaid al-Masir. Ibn al-Jawzi died 597. Ibn al-Jawzi says there are four opinions about what the Prophet ﷺ hid. Four opinions. Number one, his love for Zaynab, narrated by Ibn Abbas. Number two, a promise from Allah that he would eventually marry her, as narrated by Zayn al-Abidin. This is version A and version B. What is 3 and 4? It's actually version A as well. Number three, a wish that Zayd would divorce her. And this is what Qatada and Ibn Juraij and Muqatid said. number four, the intention that if Zaid divorced her, he would marry her, and this is what has been reported from Ibn Zaid, in other words, if you look at it these four opinions he mentions one, two, sorry, one, three and four are all version A one, three and four are all version A, and then only two is version B right, so he says, this is what has been narrated what did he hide, a love for her hoping that Zaid would divorce well, it's the same thing, or if Zaid divorced, I will marry again. It's the same thing. Version 2 is only mentioned once and that is that Allah had told her he would marry Zainab. And he then says, some scholars have said that it is not possible that the Prophet ﷺ was inclined towards her and wanted Zaid to divorce her. This is, who is speaking now? Ibn al-Jawzi. You must have heard the name Ibn al-Jawzi. He's a famous scholar. Very famous scholar of tafsir and hadith and fiqh. He's very famous scholar of the Hanabillah, he's of the Hanbali madhab. And he's well known for, his most famous book is Talbis Iblis, and also he wrote Sifat As-Safwa. And they have actually both been translated into Urdu and some of them even into English. Very famous scholar. So Ibn Al-Jawzi says, some scholars have said that it is not possible that the Prophet ﷺ was inclined towards her and he wanted Zaid to divorce her, even though this is what is commonly found in the books of Tafsir. So he admits, look, this is the predominant interpretation. but this story has been found problematic rather these scholars have said that he was criticized in this incident for concealing the fact that eventually she would become his wife and that it is also said that he felt out of a concern for her that if Zayd would divorce her he would marry her to fulfill the ties of kinship since she was his cousin in other words Ibn Al-Jawzi removes the love factor completely removes the inclination factor and he says he wanted to marry her to take care of her because she is his cousin but he doesn't actually quote an authority he simply says this is better really he is a modified version B basically right same goes with Al-Qurtubi and the famous Andalusian scholar Al-Qurtubi in 671 that he mentions version A in a very explicit detail then he follows it up with version B and then he says our scholars have said that this is the better interpretation of the verse and it is this interpretation that the critical researchers have approved. So we notice here that in the first 3-4 centuries, it's only version A that is predominant. Version B is found. In the 4th-5th centuries, version A and B are both mentioned. But then some people began to say version B is better, let's just ignore version A. Then in the 6th-7th-8th centuries, version A is basically never mentioned anymore. and the best example for this is Ibn Kathir and after him Ibn Hajar Ibn Kathir died 774 Ibn Hajar died 852 so we see now an evolution taking place and what happens is the later scholars for example Ibn Kathir says and Ibn Hajar says basically the exact same thing when they talk about this verse they say some of the earlier books have reports that we would rather not mention literally we would rather not mention them. Some of the earliest books of Tafsir have reports, we want to just cross them out. Ibn Kathir says, we don't want to waste our time talking about them, they are just not authentic. Not even mentioning what it is. It's not even a mention, it's simply only version B is mentioned, and there's no mention at all of version A. In fact, we don't want to mention it. So Ibn Hajar never mentions it. Ibn Kathir does not have anything, he simply says we will not mention anything of this. We're just gonna cross it out. And then what happened as a result of this, was that later scholars, they actually began to say that these other versions are fabrications. And many modern scholars who are not experts in tafsir or hadith, but they're famous amongst the masses, they went even more bizarre. And they said that this version A is a fabrication by evil orientalists, that have corrupted our books. and they have introduced it to bring doubts upon the character of the Prophet ﷺ and frankly that type of conspiracy theories and what not we simply have to reject interestingly enough I actually found Ibn Al-Qayyim and we know Ibn Al-Qayyim who he is in his book Ad-Da'u wa Ad-Dawa which is a really interesting book by the way just a footnote here Ad-Da'u wa Ad-Dawa somebody wrote Ibn Al-Qayyim a letter and the letter is ambiguous that he's suffering from a problem and he doesn't mention what is the problem. And the whole which means the disease and the cure for the disease. That's what it means. Adda is the disease. Dawa is the cure for the disease. What is this problem? It's actually ishq. The problem is ishq. Okay? And because of ishq, how many problems arise in this world? Right? Most of the problems of this world go back to ishq so this young man writes Ibn Al-Qayyim a letter that I'm suffering from and he doesn't mention the problem but it's understood he is completely ashq with a mashuq and he is saying I don't know what to do and I need help in this and that so Ibn Al-Qayyim writes a beautiful book Ad-Da'u Ad-Dawa it's worth its weight in gold and it's all about how to cure the problems of basically ishq in this regard and he has entire chapters dedicated to ishq and he has a whole chapter about the dangers of ishq okay some of you guys need to read these chapters haqiqi haqiqi you want to start about ishq there's much that can be said but I will keep that side hidden don't worry there's a beautiful line of poetry there's a beautiful line of poetry Subhanallah, where does it begin? رَمَانِ الْوَاشِقُونَ The gossip mongers have accused me of loving her. The gossip mongers have accused me of loving her. And I say to them, that is a sin I will never repent from. ذَاكَ ذَنبٌ لَسْتُ مِنْهُ أَتُوبُ Okay, so much can be said about عِشْقًا مَعْشُوْقًا Here we have Ibn Al-Qayyim writing a book, Ad-Da'u Ad-Dawa. he has a chapter called the dangers of ishq. After this, right at the end of the book, he has the permissibility of certain types of ishq. Now not all ishq is haram, obviously. Some ishq is good, some ishq is halal. Some ishq is necessary for a happy married life. Is that not the case? What you guys didn't think of marriage when talking of ishq? La hawla khusila billah. When I mention marriage, you laugh. When I mention ishq, your imagination goes elsewhere. I hope your wives are not sitting here. Okay. Ibn Al-Qayyim mentions certain types of ishq are good. They're halal, they're encouraged. Correct? Right? And he mentions stories from the salaf, from the sahaba, of halal ishq. Okay. And of what he mentions is this story. Very interesting. He mentions a sanitized version A. that the Prophet ﷺ saw Zaynab and then they divorced her and then Allah married Zaynab to the Prophet ﷺ. Okay, so this is interesting that Ibn al-Qayyim seems to find no problem with this version of events. Now, let's summarize some of the pros and cons of version A and version B. Let's summarize some of the pros and cons. Version A, in terms of the text of the Qur'an, wa tukhfi fi nafsika ma allahu mubdi In terms of concealment, it makes more logical sense that what the Prophet ﷺ is hiding is not a sin, but it's something embarrassing. Notice it's not a sin. Allah did not say, you have to seek refuge. You made a mistake. There's no them that the Prophet ﷺ did. But the context of the verse seems to suggest it's something embarrassing, but it's not sinful. And hence the reports from Anas and Aisha and others and Hasan al-Basri, if the Prophet ﷺ were to have concealed an ayah, he would have concealed this. It makes sense version A. Correct? Version A makes sense in that regard. In terms of the sheer quantity of early authorities, in terms of At-Tabari and Ibn Sa'ad and all of these others, Qatada and what not, Ibn Abbas, it does seem to have been the standard interpretation of early early Islam. Now, some have said, oh some of these reports are weak in isnad. And this is true, some of them are. But firstly, even if one or two are, the sheer quantity of all different narrations found in all different books, really it's not that difficult to say the gist of the story could be deemed to be authentic. secondly, these same isnads that go back to Qatada and Ibn Abbas and Ibn Zayd and what not in At-Tabari's tafsir for example, these are the same isnads that At-Tabari uses throughout his whole tafsir, so if you wanted to be that picky then you have rejected basically 80% of At-Tabari so this is something to keep into account, also there is another point that is raised, version B says that what was it the Prophet ﷺ was hiding who can remind me that he was informed that he would eventually marry Zaynab okay if he knows he will eventually marry Zaynab why delay it? I mean if you know it's going to happen and you believe Allah has told you it's going to happen it doesn't make sense that you're just gonna say keep your wife you know you're not going to deny Qadr correct? I mean if Allah has decreed it you know it's not going to be you cannot get out of it none of us is gonna say this So it doesn't make any logical sense that if the Prophet ﷺ knew that eventually he's going to marry Zaynab, that he just delays it, delays it, delays it. To what extent? To what point? In fact, if we look at the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, that type of courage and bravery, he had it all the time. On the story of the incident of Isra'ul Mi'raj, the next morning he wakes up, and he knows he has to tell the people, right? We talked about that story. And he told them despite whatever the reality might be. So the fact of the matter is, version A, the Prophet ﷺ is embarrassed about a human emotion. Version B, it's as if he is trying to deny Allah's qadr. Think about it. Think about the difference. Version A is actually acceptable. Human emotion, you're embarrassed. version B you're trying to outwit Qadr or something like delay Qadr and that's not, who's gonna say that it's not gonna be possible so that's the pros of version A what's the con of version A, what's the negative of version A obviously one thing and that is so the well then we can say the one thing is what is the what is the real problem about version A here. It creates a stigma of our Prophet ﷺ and his inclinations. This is the real problem. Okay. Why is that problematic? It's actually not problematic at all because he's clearing up any air. Any problem was complete. He's sending the very ex-husband. first time around Prophet ﷺ sent that proposal from Malachi we'll talk about this in the pros and cons of version B of version B the real con right now of version A is obviously the problematization of the inclinations of the Prophet ﷺ many of us and that's what the majority of the later scholars of tafsir found problematic as Al-Baghawi explicitly says it's not appropriate for the maqam an-nabuwa. Right? This is the standard feeling that most later scholars of tafsir had. And that's perfectly legitimate. Okay, version B. Those who support version B, they have some solid evidences as well. Of them, one of you mentioned, it's not as if he had never seen Zaynab before. Zaynab is his cousin, he's grown up with her. It's not as if all of a sudden he's seeing her for the first time. so they would say version A does not make sense that instantaneously an inclination begins after all the verses of hijab were not revealed until after the marriage by unanimous consensus so there is no hijab before this point in time also as you yourself said he in fact proposed to her on behalf of Zayd and if he had been interested he would have proposed directly to her from day one and Al-Baghawi mentions an interesting point here as well this is a really deep point here so think about this Al-Baghawi says Allah says in the Quran وَتُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ مَا اللَّهُ مُبْدِيهِ you hid in your heart that which Allah would make open Al-Baghawi says what did Allah make open? زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا which is in the Quran we married you to her so version B is supported by the text of the Quran in that what did Allah say Allah did not explicitly say you were inclined towards her correct? it's not in the Quran wa tukhfi fi nafsika ma allahu mubidi you hid in your heart that which Allah would make open al-Baghawi says what did Allah make open the fact that Zaynab has married you زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا and so he says this shows us that version B is more well of course version A version B I am saying this you understand he simply says this riwayah is more weight than the other riwayah now which version is correct in the end of the day wallahi Allah knows best and I agree with Al-Baghwi's final analysis the final analysis which is even if version A is correct it doesn't mean any sin was committed a man is not accountable for emotions as long as he does not act upon them and the story does not have any sin in it at all and that is why even in the Quran there is no command to repent or that he has done a mistake rather you were embarrassed at something and it was more appropriate that you should have feared Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so both versions are there whoever wishes and what I do not though agree to is this claim by especially later people in our times that version A is a fabrication that the non-Muslim zanadiqa evil heretics have put into our books this is honestly you know it doesn't behoove us it sounds you know we love conspiracy theories this is a problem with the Muslim ummah we love conspiracy theories blame it on this and blame it on that no version A is a part of our tradition it's clearly mentioned by most if not all of the early scholars. This is the reality. Version B is also referenced. It's there. Eventually version B becomes the standard. Okay. Now whoever says version A, let him follow Al-Baghwa and Ibn Al-Qayyim and others. And that's not a problem. That okay. What happened in and of itself is not sinful. And our Prophet ﷺ, now this really goes back to how we view our Prophet ﷺ. That is there any problem in viewing him as a normal man with normal inclinations. In fact, there are plenty of references in the seerah that clearly indicate this. And of them is the marriage with Juwadia. If you remember Juwadia, right? That when Juwadia came to ask for her people, Aisha said, as soon as I saw her, I hated her. Because I knew what the Prophet ﷺ would say. now this hadith is authentic, reported in all the books I hated her because I knew the Prophet ﷺ would see in her what I see and he would think exactly what I'm thinking and that's exactly what happened when Juwaydiyah came and Juwaydiyah said, I am the son of I am the daughter of the chieftain, I am the bint of fulan and fulan, I am, I am, I am she's arguing to free her people so the Prophet ﷺ said, why don't I free you and marry you and in fact her people were freed at that marriage we all talked about this, right? but what did Aisha say? that I knew the Prophet ﷺ would see in her what I saw in her. And in my humble opinion, I think a Prophet that is human is a Prophet that I can actually relate to and look up to. Whereas when you make the Prophet into this semi-mystical figure who is above humanity, Subhanallah, what is wrong with a Prophet that has normal male inclinations but can control them? That is perfection. That is perfection. that he never once, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, did anything wrong, despite having the same inclinations me and you have. To me, that is the role model. When you make the Prophet into an angel that does not have any inclination, then where is the role model for us? You see what I'm saying here, right? And even in this version, if you were to say version A, which the majority of early scholars said, honestly, what is there that is problematic? It is possible that inclinations come later on in life. It is possible. But what did the Prophet ﷺ do? He turned away and he said, سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ سُبْحَانَ مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ And he kept it. And that is exactly what you're supposed to do. Right? It's exactly what you're supposed to do. And it so happened that Zayd never liked Zayd I and it was vice versa. And now this is an excuse for Zayd. خَلَصَ الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ For Zayd it's a burden off. He doesn't want such a wife. Because she was harsh to him. she did have a sharp tongue, she did consider herself to be, you know, not appropriate for Zaid from day one. So Zaid says, perfect opportunity. Ya Rasulullah, let me divorce her, let me divorce her, let me divorce her. And the process is embarrassed. And, وَتُخْفِي فِي نَسْتِكَمْ اللَّهُ مُبْدِي Keep her. أَمْسِكْ عَلَيْكَ زُوْجَكَ وَاتَّقِلْ لَا Until finally Zaid cannot take it anymore without the process of telling him he still divorces her. Once it is done, now she is a free lady without any husband. Why not? Why should not the process of marrying her? So he sends the proposal. And then Zaynab herself doesn't just jump for joy. Zaynab said, let me pray istikhara. Let me think. And as she is praying, Allah reveals in the Quran, وَزَوَّجْنَاكَهَا And Aisha says, Ibn Abbas says, Al-Hasan Al-Basri says, if the Prophet ﷺ were to have hidden any verse in the Quran, it would have been this one. It is in the end of the day, awkward. But it's not haram, it's not sinful. Wallahi, every man is embarrassed when he might have inclinations for a woman. That is, you know, it's human nature, we are all going to be embarrassed. But it's not haram if it is controlled. So, bottom line, version A, it's there, whoever follows it, that's fine. Version B is also there, whoever follows it, that is also fine. And just a quick side point, some scholars have tried to merge the two versions together and bring forth another story. And whoever does this as well, inshallah, that too is fine. Let's just conclude with the story of Zaynab, that Zaynab continued to live a life of piety, a life of Taqwa, she was well known for taking care of the orphans. She was called Umm al-Masakin, the mother of the poor, the mother of the orphans. And we already mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ said that the first one to die would be the one with the longest hand. So when the Prophet ﷺ passed away, and Umar began sending Ata, and Ata was, so let me explain to you now. Umar, Abu Bakr and Umar had different policy Abu Bakr would give a stipend to everybody in Medina exactly equal, everybody got the same amount of money, it's a salary from the government for being who they are Umar said no, I'm going to make a list, a criterion category A, B, C, D, E, F, G he had a whole list of people and the highest category were the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and then the earliest converts and then the middle converts and then the late converts and then the conquests of Mecca converts which are the last category. Fath-i-Mekka. Right? That was the last category. So the number one category are the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. They get the biggest amount. And that amount was 12,000 dirhams. That is a fortune. 12,000 dirhams would be sent annually. And Zaynab was given this 12,000 and it was poured in front of her. Cold coins all the way up. And she kept on saying, لَحَوَّلَ رَخُوْا سَلَّى بِاللَّهِ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ You know, may Allah protect us from fitan. And she kept on looking at this money. And as the money is in front of her, she gave this much to her servant and said, go to the house of so and so. Then she gave this much, go to the house of so and so. And she kept on doing this until not a single penny was left. The whole 12,000, imagine 12,000 coins. One by one by one by one. she did not go to sleep until she had nothing left Umar heard of this and he said what a lady this is and he visited her house knocked on the door and said I heard what you did to the money, here is another thousand for you and what do you think she did with that thousand all gave it away and she made a dua to Allah let me not see this money again next year because money is a fitna Wallahi brothers and sisters Money is a fitna Money is a fitna Imagine if somebody gave you a million dollars right now What would you do with that? Thank Allah that Allah is not testing you With that type of wealth That is beyond your control Money is a fitna And so she said Oh Allah let me not see this money again And so she passed away before her Salary came of the next year That whenever Umar decided to do it So she passed away the next year And she passed away in the 20th year of the Hijrah the first wife of the Prophet ﷺ to pass away. And Umar was the one who prayed her janazah prayer for her. And all of the major sahaba walked to Baqi al-Gharqad. And she was the first of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to be buried. And all of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ are buried in that same place. And the first of them, Zaynab is right there. She is the first wife of the Prophet ﷺ to be buried in that place. And Zaynab was known as being Sawwama and Qawwama. and someone who was as Aisha herself said, I never saw a woman more muttaqi than her. This is Aisha saying, right? So wallahi she deserved to be our mother of the believers. She deserved to be the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. And whatever story you follow, version A, version B, both of them are valid. There's nothing wrong with either of them. And the fact of the matter is, when you have an evil heart, you can take the most innocent story and make it the worst story. And when you have a pure heart, then innocent stories will remain innocent, you don't, you know the non-Muslims who want to disparage the Prophet ﷺ, they don't need Zainab's story, they can do it from any incident and we have seen this enough so those who believe in the Prophet ﷺ and we are all inshallah of them we don't have any problem in my opinion with either version of events, right? and those who don't believe in him wallahi they have bigger problems to worry about than this and that version, and in the end Zainab is our mother, she is the mother of the believers and she deserves all of the praise that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given her and with that we conclude if there are any questions about this inshaAllah ta'ala yes this was the second version of the I know all these scholars but somebody you should have to create for somebody to say okay this is against the maqam of the Rasulullah the maqam of the Rasulullah was given by Allah so by questioning it is it against it and that's why this looks better. Do you think it's appropriate? There's nothing wrong when a scholar says that I don't think this is appropriate for the maqam of the Prophet ﷺ as long as he bases this on legitimate concerns. And I think it is a legitimate concern if you wish to consider the Prophet ﷺ to be above human desires. This is the point here. That if you want to make the Prophet ﷺ to be some type of superhuman and many of the scholars did. And I have mentioned there is this tension to this day in Islam. To this day there is this tension that is the Prophet ﷺ more of a mystical figure or is he an actual bashar, you know, that, إِنَّمَا نَا بَشَرٌ مِثْلُكُمْ You know, born of human parents. You know, to this day there are groups in our own home country, they believe the Prophet ﷺ is Nur ilahi. Right? They believe he is Nur from Allah ﷻ, that he is not a human, that he doesn't eat and drink, that he doesn't cast a shadow, that he doesn't do this, that he doesn't do that. you know this, right? and that is one manifestation of that tension and on the opposite side you have those who don't consider the Prophet ﷺ to be fully a prophet and they have ta'an or they criticize the maqam al-nubuwa and the middle path is innama ana abdullahi wa rasuluhu I am abd and I am rasul he mentions the two things that I am both abdullahi and I am rasulullah so it depends on how you interpret it I don't see those scholars who said it have a legitimate way but I don't see a problem in version A Allah knows best believe me I tried my best to look up I did searches I didn't find anything that Ibn Taymiyyah has on Zainab and I'm still looking I spent and I'm not bragging or boasting I spent all of today from the morning up until right now doing this research and I wish I could spend more time this is deserving of a much longer research but I did my best to find what Ibn Taymiyyah had to say and I was not able to do that ok, yes no, this is not the case Jawadi's example is the best clear cut example that he saw Juwaydiyah and he proposed to her right then and there. Obviously, Allah Azza wa Jal approved of it, but not that it first came down that you must marry Juwaydiyah. Okay? Yes, go ahead. In Surah Al-Aqsa, there is a coming ayah, one of them, that Allah Azza wa Jal mentioned that you should be just with your wives, but what is in your heart and the love of your beloved self, then you may not have the love or the same تُرْجِمْ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُؤْوِي لَيْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ Yes. وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا كِتُبُّكُمْ So, probably it's more this can say that for all his wives, he may have love for some more as compared to the others but Allah said, you just remember what is in your heart Allah knows. Yeah, so, Dr. Elayih points out that in Surah Al-Ahzab, in the next page Allah clearly says that it is possible the love that the Prophet ﷺ has in his heart will differ. That, تُرْجِي مَن تَشَاء مِن هُنَّ تُؤْ إِلَيْكَ مَن تَشَاء وَمِن ابْتَغَيْتَ مِن عَزَلْتَ فَلَا جُنَحَ عَلَيْكَ That whatever the Prophet ﷺ had in his heart, there is no sin upon that. And even the Prophet ﷺ himself said, that, O Allah, this is my qasim that I'm doing as much as I can, but what is in my heart, do not hold me to account for that. And this is the reality of this. The Qur'an itself explained this. Yes. I don't have any disagreement with that that's what we're all saying I am not of those people so yes go ahead So the question is, did Zaid disobey the Prophet ﷺ? So here we have, when the Prophet ﷺ is acting like a shafir, like an intercessor, then it's not something that is wajib for the person to accept. And this is understood from the hadith of Barira. The hadith of Barira. That Barira was a slave lady at the time of the procession who is married to another slave. So a slave can marry a slave. Now, Barira was freed by Aisha. Barira was freed by Aisha. And when she was freed, she now has the choice to remain married or to just get rid of her husband. She has the choice now. Okay? So, Barira decided to get rid of her husband. and her husband loved her, ishq again mashallah, her husband loved her a deep love. And he began begging and pleading with her, that please take me back. We'll work it out, don't worry honey, we'll work it out, you know that type. And he was following her in the streets of Medina. Crying and begging her. And she, doing only what a woman can do, not even glancing at him. And so the Prophet ﷺ said to his uncle, Al-Abbas, that, Oh Abbas, aren't you amazed at how much Mughira, it was her husband's name, Mughira loves Barira, and how much Barira hates Mughira. Aren't you amazed at this marriage that was there for so long that as soon as she could get out, khalas. Right? And so she says to Barira, he says to Barira, the Prophet ﷺ, Oh Barira, why don't you take him back? The guy is crying his eyes out. Just take him back. Have some mercy. Barira says, أتأمرني يا رسول الله Are you commanding me to take him back? Subhanallah, look at her iman. Are you commanding me? Then I'll take it. Then he said, لا إنما أنا شافر No, I'm just trying to bring about reconciliation. so then she said with the scorn only a woman can possibly muster فَلَا حَاجَةَ لِي فِي I have no need of him خَلَص so we have over here Barira's understanding that the Prophet ﷺ in this type of matter she's not he's not commanding her this is just Shafi' this is just like trying to reconcile so there's no issue here that eventually the marriage is not working out that eventually the divorce takes place final question, sisters you have no questions in this round this is again Shafir this is the same as Barira take him back, the same thing here no question from the sisters I take it, too controversial for them ok, back to you the same question ok, with that Thank you.

Seerah 69 - The Battle of Khaybar Part 2 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. had left off from before our Eid break, and that is the Battle of Khaybah. And we took a little bit of a break with the story of Zainab ibn Tijaj. So let us now resume from the Battle of Khaybah. And I already mentioned that the Muhajirun from Habasha had arrived and met the Prophet ﷺ the very day that he conquered Khaybah. Correct? Remember that, right? And what did the Prophet ﷺ say to Ja'far quickly? What did he say to Ja'far when he saw him? What makes me happier I don't know Seeing you or the conquest of Khaybar I don't know which of the two is making me happier today Seeing you or the conquest of Khaybar Now with this group that came from Habesha It is most likely that with this group arrived One of the wives of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam And that is Umm Habiba Ramla binti Abi Sufyan Umm Habiba was the daughter of Abu Sufyan Her name is Ramrah Her name is Habiba She had a daughter obviously named Habiba And her husband Ubaidullah Ibn Jahsh Was one of the very very few Sahaba Who was a Sahabi Then he became a Murtad We can count these people on the fingers of one hand Maybe even he's the only one Or there might have been two or three more in the entire seerah And the most famous of them is Ubaidullah Ibn Jahsh So he's not actually a Sahabi He used to be, then he became Murtad. Once you become Murtad, you're not a Sahabi anymore. So, Rubaidullah ibn Najash, obviously was the husband of Ramla. He was the father of Habiba, so he's Abu Habiba's Umm Habiba, was his wife. And he was a Christian before converting to Islam. And he was one of the four people, if you remember the story way back in the beginning of the Makkan Sira, way back in the beginning, there were four people that became Hunafa. Of them is Zayd ibn Amir al-Nufayn. This is one of those four, Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh. So he's pretty old in age. And he had become a Christian. Then when the Prophet ﷺ began preaching, he converted to Islam. Then he emigrated to Abyssinia. Then when he saw the land of Christianity, he went back to being a Christian. And the story of her, Umm Habibah and him is, inshallah we'll be discussing, we'll talk about Umm Habibah at the end of this era. So when he became Murtad, Umm Habibah left him and he died very shortly. He died a Murtad in Habasha, he was buried there. So Umm Habibah is all alone in Abyssinia, she has nobody to take care of her. So our Prophet ﷺ sent a proposal to her new wali, and her new wali was none other than Najashi himself, the emperor himself. Because he was a Muslim, and he is the leader, and her father is not a Muslim. So who is the wali then? So the leader becomes the wali of the one who doesn't have a wali, right? So the Prophet ﷺ sent a khitbah, a proposal to her through Najashi. So Najashi took on becoming her wali. And Najashi was happy that he was very excited that the Prophet ﷺ sent the proposal to her. And in fact, he gifted her the entire mahr amount. And he held the feast of the wali. So he gave the mahr on his bihar. The Prophet ﷺ didn't ask him. He just gifted the Prophet ﷺ the mahr. And he gifted Umm Habibah with a lot of lavish gifts as the mahr on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ. and the wisdom of this marriage is obvious it is enough that she is the daughter of Abu Sufyan end of story like her father is the leader of the Quraish her father is the leader of Kufr there is no better thing to be done right now than that the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam marries Ramla binti Abi Sufyan and a quick reminder so we talked about Zainab last class and now we talk about Ramla or Umm Habiba So quickly, the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, we need to catch up to them. Because today will be a lot of discussion about yet another marriage of the Prophet ﷺ. So number one is obviously Khadija. Number two? No. Number two? No. Sauda. Number two, Sauda. Number three? Aisha. Number four? Hafsa. Number five? Zayna bint al-Khuzayma. We talked about her very quickly. She passed away. She was the one, few months, she was married to the Prophet. Number five is Zayna bint Khuzaymah. Number six, we talked about her as well, many halakha zurba. Umm Salama. Umm Salama. Number seven, Juwayliyah. Juwayliyah was from which tribe? No, the Banar Musalif. The one that when he married her, all of her tribes were? Three, this is Juwayliyah. That's number seven. Then number eight was Zayna bint Jahshan. We talked about her. In the last halaqah. Then, number 9 is Umm Habiba Ramla binti Abi Sufyan. And, today we'll talk about number 10 in this order. Obviously, two of them have passed away. So, this is number 8 of the living wives, and then two have passed away. And before we get there, there is one somewhat controversial incident dealing with post-Khaibah, what happened right after the conquest of Khaibah. And this is with regards to one of the Yahudi, his name was Sa'ya And Sa'ya was the uncle or in one report the brother of Huyay ibn Akhla Who was the leader of the Jews of Banu Nadir Now pause here, Banu Nadir have been exiled Banu Nadir went to Khaybak The Banu Nadir now are instigating Ahzab The Banu Nadir are doing a lot of damage So Huyay is one of those that is the leaders of the Banu Nadir And Huyay was killed in the very beginning of the battle of Khayyam So the Prophet ﷺ asked his brother or his uncle Whose name was Sa'ya That where is the gold of Huyay Huyay had left Medina with a lot of gold Now remember the Banu Nadir They were allowed to leave with anything they could carry And remember they even took the doors of their houses Remember that They took the doors of their houses This is the Banu Nadir So he said where is all of that gold Why is he asking for the gold because of the conditions of Khaibah, from what we mentioned last time, of the conditions from Khaibah, was that the tribes of Khaibah would hand over all of the gold and silver and weapons and armor. And they'd be allowed to keep their houses and lands for the time being. Remember that was the agreement, right? That instead of exiling you, as we had exiled the other tribes, they were the ones that said, let us remain and we'll take care of the land and will give you 50%. Half of the produce will give you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, we will agree to this with a number of conditions. Of them, that you hand over the gold and silver and you hand over the weapons and the armor. And you will not hide any of this or else the treaty will be null and void. So he asked, Sa'ya, where is this gold of Huyay? Because Huyay had, he was the leader of the Banu Nalik, he had a lot of gold. He had treasure chests of gold. So Sa'iyah said, it's all been finished. The wars and the spending, all of it has been finished. And the Prophet ﷺ said, It's only been a recent time when he left Medina. And the money is too much to have been spent in such a short period of time. Clearly you're lying. But he insisted, he insisted, he insisted. Now, this is where the controversial incident happens. and that is the books of Hadith and the books of Sira mentioned that when Sa'ya insisted of, I have no idea, I have no clue, so the Prophet ﷺ handed him over to Zubayr and he said, extract the information from him. So Zubayr did whatever means were necessary to get the information from him. Which obviously means beating up or roughing him up and what not. Now obviously this is used as something in our times to say that the Prophet ﷺ is condoning torture, let's say, or something like this, right? So, this is the thing that is being used by non-Muslims to say, look, the Prophet ﷺ is using torture on a prisoner of war, on a POW. And, as you know me, I am not an apologetic, and I call a spade a spade. And the fact of the matter is, whatever the Prophet ﷺ did, whatever you want to call it, this was the norm of the time. And, Hurriy was lying, and they knew he was lying. and it's not Hurya, sorry, Sa'ya. Hurya is dead. Sa'ya is lying and they knew he was lying and guess what? Within a while, Sa'ya immediately handed up information. He said, Oh, you know, I think I saw him going to such and such a valley. He might have gone there. But you know, he didn't want to really say I knew. So he said, I think I saw him going to such and such a valley. He might have gone in that direction. So they went to that valley and they found, you know, rough dirt that had been dug up. That was where all of the gold had been hidden. So the Prophet ﷺ realized that he's lying, and he got this information from him. Now, these were a time when the Geneva Conventions have not been signed or agreed, and the fact of the matter is that was the norm of the time, that was what people did, all civilizations did it, and I think it is rather idiosyncratic for us to look at the seerah in light of Geneva Conventions or whatnot. That's something, in modern countries, Muslim or non-Muslim, whoever signs up, they will agree. That's what our sharia says And if any country signs up to these conventions Or accords Then we must live up to it But to backtrack and to say Well why didn't this civilization live up to that treaty I honestly think there's no point Even getting down this This was something completely the Norman understood And our Prophet ﷺ Did not do anything That other peoples did not do And in the end Sa'ya was living and he went on living his life He was just roughed up and what not and whatever happened, whatever you want to call it, no doubt he was lying and he knew the consequences. And he got those consequences and the information was extracted from him. So, again, I don't see the point in sugarcoating it. It is what it is. The next issue that happened in the post-Battle of Khaybah is the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ with Safiyyah. Safiyyah bint Hulay ibn Akhtar. The same one whose goal was mistaken. Huyay bin Akhtab, the same one who is the leader of the Banu Nadir. Safiyyah was his daughter. And Safiyyah, she tells us her own story in many ahadith. She tells us that when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated to Medina, I was a young girl, I was the favorite of my father and my uncle, whose name was Yassif. So her father is Huyay and her uncle is Yassif. And she said that, I was the favorite and every day I would come outside when they came back from the fields rejoicing and happy and they would play with me and talk with me. One day, she was probably around 10 years old or something when this incident happened. They came back and they were very depressed and very agitated. And I didn't understand what had happened but that was the day the Prophet ﷺ arrived. And they had gone to see him. And I went up to them yelling and running like little girls do and they just completely ignored me. And I saw the two of them with their shoulders dragging. like completely depressed. And my uncle, Yasser, asked my father, Huyay, Ahu, Ahu, is he the one? Ahu, Ahu, is he the one? And Huyay said, yes, by the Lord of Musa, he is the one. He is the one. They saw all of the signs. So his uncle said, what are you going to do? What are we going to do? So he said, we will oppose him as long as he lives. will oppose him as long as he lives. Right? So this is Hurya. And when the Bari Nadir were exiled, so Safiyyah is exiled with them, and Safiyyah then grows up in Khaybar, and she gets married to somebody in Khaybar, so she is now married, and she's probably around, if she was 10 at that time, so Khaybar took place in the 70s, so 17, 18 years old now. Right? So she's married, and she's now 17, 18 years old, she doesn't have any children. And in the battle of Khaibar, the Banu Nadir were at the forefront of the attack because obviously they felt more angry than the people of Khaibar. Because they're the Banu Nadir, they've been exiled from Medina. So more of the Banu Nadir died than the people who lived in Khaibar originally. And therefore, Hurriyya was killed in the battle of Khaibar. We already know Hurriyya was killed because of the gold story. her brother was killed Safiyyah's brother and her husband was killed as well all are killed in this entire 20 days ordeal right so she's left an orphan and a widow ok and when the Babilal Khaybar finishes the Banu Nadir now the Banu Nadir were their properties and their peoples were confiscated unlike the people of Khaybar who were allowed to live Remember the people of Kharibah, they got off by giving half of their wealth. The Banu Nadir, they were taken as captives and they were taken as ghanima. And therefore Safiyyah was distributed along with everybody else. And she fell in the lot of Dihya al-Kalbi. The famous Sahabi who when Jibreel would come to him would look like Dihya al-Kalbi. But many people came to the Prophet ﷺ suggesting that she was too good for Dihya. that she should not be in the lot of Dihya. After all, she's the daughter of Huyay. And also, it is said that she was a very beautiful young lady as well. And so a number of Sahaba said that, Ya Rasulullah, you should take her and not leave her for Dihya. And so the Prophet ﷺ ransomed her or paid her price from Dihya, which was a large amount because in those days, obviously, it will be a lot of money to purchase a Dahi slave. So he paid her the price that was normal, the normal price. And he then took Safiyyah. Now, when he took Safiyyah, people did not know, is he taking her as a jariyah, as a slave concubine, or as a wife? Because both are allowed. And she is a slave. So by purchasing her from Dihya, so she becomes now the concubine of the Prophet ﷺ. was sent to him. So they didn't know is she a concubine or is she a wife. So they wanted to see how the Prophet ﷺ would treat her. When it was time to leave Khaybah, to exit from Khaybah, and he had not yet consummated a marriage, so he's leaving with her, he brought her to the camel, and he put the camel down. Now the camel itself is a huge animal. The camel will be over here if it's on the ground, as most of you who see camels know. So even a young lady is not going to get onto the camel like this. So what did he do? And this is a very romantic, if you like, incident in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. He knelt down on one foot. So one foot is on the ground. And with the other foot, he put his thigh on and he bent his knee. Right? So he made his thigh like a stepping ladder for Safiyyah. Right? So he bent down, and one knee is on the ground, and the other foot is on the ground, and the knee is in the air. You understand? Right? And so the thigh is now a stepping stone. Right? For Safiyyah to get onto the camel. And notice here Safiyyah's intelligence, and she was a very intelligent lady, that she did not want to put her shoe or her foot onto the Prophet ﷺ. So what did she do? She used her knee on the thigh of the Prophet ﷺ and she put her one knee on that thigh and then she then jumped onto the camel so that her foot did not come on top of the Prophet ﷺ. And he then put her on the camel and he then took his cloak and he covered her with the cloak so that she is now completely covered. And when the sahaba saw this they realized what? She's a wife. Because this type of hijab is only for the wives of the Prophet ﷺ not for the jawari, not for the concubines, right? This type of hijab that no one will see you even your entire body. And so the entire body she is behind the Prophet ﷺ, and the cloak is on top of her, and she's just covering it. Now, she doesn't realize what this signifies, because she doesn't know Islamic law, right? So she does not realize what this signifies. And the first talk that happened, the Prophet ﷺ wanted to spend the night with her, but she said no. She refuses. So, the Prophet ﷺ leaves her be. They keep on going, until they are one night away from Medina. They're one night away, And then she says Tonight, okay So the next night she agrees So the Prophet ﷺ told Umm Sulaym Who is the mother of Anas al-Nimali To get her ready And so Umm Sulaym narrates that I took two pieces of cloth And I put them between trees So that you can use this as a beauty salon Right, that she has to now Make her look beautiful And the women had whatever they could get And she complains, this is from the Ibn Sa'ad Salakat She complains we didn't have any of the jewelry and any of the decorations. You know, every culture has things you do on the wedding night. And she's agitated that I don't have any of this stuff. But whatever we have, we may do with it, right? We didn't even have perfume, she said. Because you're not going to take your perfume when you're going. Those days, they didn't have, modern ladies have their own vanity basket. They didn't have any vanity baskets back then. So, they didn't have any of this. We didn't have perfume. But whatever we had, we used it to beautify her and what not. And then when we finished, she said, we smelt a perfume more fragrant than any other perfume we had smelt Allah Azawajal blessed her in this regard and we then prepared her for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and she herself narrates certain incidents that took place on this very night she said that when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam entered in upon her a part of the conversation that he had, he said to her something very harsh, but there's a wisdom in this he said to her your father, Hulay was the most open of the Yahud in their animosity against me. Your father was the most open of the Yahud in their animosity against me until Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala caused his death. Now that's a very harsh thing to say. Right? But there is a wisdom behind this. And the wisdom is to see her reaction, to see her iman or kufr, to see her loyalty or disloyalty. You see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and this is an assumption. He is thinking, should I take her as a wife or not? And he cannot take her as a wife if she has hatred, if she has vengeance in her mind, if she has retaliation. Correct? So he tells her something very provocative which is the truth. Your father was one of my worst enemies. And her response was, Ya Rasulullah, doesn't Allah say in the Quran, If my father was an enemy, that doesn't mean I will be an enemy. No soul should take the burden of the other. So when the Prophet ﷺ saw this, and this was what he wanted to see, right? He said to her, you have a choice now. Choose yourself. If you accept Islam, I shall keep you for me. Because she's still a Yahudi. and if you remain in your faith then perhaps I shall free you and you can return to your people now once again she's being given a choice and the choice seems to be very bitter to be honest you remain a slave with me if you're a Muslim because that's what the wording says because what is the other wording if you remain a Yahudi I shall free you and you can return to your people And again, this is clearly a test. Right? Now the Sahaba understand that she's a wife because of that, but she has no idea. She literally thinks she's a slave. So the Prophet ﷺ said, if you accept Islam, you shall remain with me. And that's absolutely valid. She didn't realize remain with me as a wife. She thought remain with me as a slave. And if you want to remain in your religion, then perhaps I shall free you and you can go back to your people. And the perhaps here is like meaning I will do that. Okay? And this is another test. That if she is not a real Muslimah, why would she want to remain with the Prophet ﷺ? She'll want freedom and go back to the Khaybar, go back to any other group of Yahud that will take her. Because realize that now she is all alone in a new culture, a new civilization, a new environment. And she replied, Ya Rasulullah, I was already inclined towards Islam even before you offered it to me. and I have already believed in you even before you asked me to convert. In other words, she already accepted Islam in her heart and I have no desire to remain in my faith. Also, she has said, I have no family. My father and brother are no more. And notice in her wisdom and precision, she does not mention husband because it's awkward. Look at her intelligence, right? My father and brother, are no more. Let's just ignore the ex-husband. Okay? Because he's also dead. He was also killed in the battle. My father and brother are no more and you have asked me to choose between kufr and Islam. And she said, Allah and his messenger are more beloved to me than being free and going back to my people. Now this is clear iman. This is like Zaid ibn Khalid when he said, I'd rather remain here than go back to free man to my people. Right? So when she passes the test and just think over here how amazing this Iman is. Wallahi, I think it is true to say that never in the history of humanity can we find such an example where a conqueror comes and conquers a group and this lady whom he has conquered her family, her tribe, her wealth her father, her brother, her husband have all been killed by the conquering nation. Right? And instead of feeling animosity, hatred, vengeance, rather she has converted to the conqueror's faith and will choose to be a slave under him rather than a free lady with her own people. Now you tell me what does that show? It shows us Safiyyah had a pure heart and Islam is a true religion. That's really what it shows us. Safiyyah had a pure heart and Islam is a true religion and that is why when Safiyyah saw the truth what did she see? we don't know but she's been with the army for at least a week by now as a prisoner right and then as the wife of the Prophet she's been with him two three nights and now is the first night now so she's riding on the camel for sure there would have been some conversation taking place for sure the Prophet after he showed her this romantic gesture for sure there's good talk going on as well and her heart has now been completely taken in and she knows that this man is the messenger of Allah. So she converts so much that she completely ignores and forgets and forgives her father, her brother and her husband's demise. And she becomes a loyal Muslima who wants to remain as a slave rather than be a free girl and return to her tribe and what not. And so because of this, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam freed her right then and there and married her. Because technically she was still a slave. Because when you free somebody, you have to say, you will free somebody. And when the Prophet saw her for the first time, he saw a big cut and bruise on her face. So he said, what is this? Where did this come from? So she said, my husband Kinana gave this to me. It's a fresh bruise. My husband Kinana gave this to me. I saw a dream last week, basically. I saw a dream that the moon had risen up from Yathrib and it had gone high up and then dropped right into my lap. So I told my husband about this and he smacked me right across the face punched me and said do you expect that the king of the Arabs is going to marry you? You want to be with the king of the Arabs? He called the process of a king. So he interpreted the dream which is the correct interpretation that the moon is the Prophet ﷺ coming from Yathrib, and that she will be married to the Prophet ﷺ. So she said, as soon as he had hit me, I started my menses right then on that day, and he never approached me until he died. So subhanAllah, Allah Azza wa Jal took care of that issue as well. That, the last thing that he did was actually hit her and smack her across the face. And then left her in this state, and she was in the menses until she was pure, and she was a widow in that state. Her husband had already died. So she clearly had a premonition from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam would become her husband. And this also made it easier for her no doubt to accept Islam. Allah is preparing the way for her to accept Islam. And it is narrated that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked her why she had refused the first night to spend with him. Why now that we're farther away and closer to Medina? and she said, I was scared of the Yahud perhaps retaliating when we were close by. So I wanted to get farther away, closer to Medina, so that I'm not worried about retaliation. And this increased the love that the Prophet ﷺ had for her. So you clearly see her iman and her intelligence. And the Prophet ﷺ freed her and he made her mahr, her freedom. And from this, the Fuqaha have basically said that of the Islamic principles, which is not really relevant in our times because we don't have the issue of imam and slave. But if a person wants to marry a slave, there is no need for a contract, for two witnesses, for a wadi. There is no need even for a mahr. Because the mahr will be her freedom. She becomes a free lady, that is her mahr. And her wadi is her master. And there is no need for witnesses in this case. So, marrying one's own concubine Is something that all you need to do is say I have married you And that is what the Prophet ﷺ did He married Safiyyah And he made her mahr Her freedom He made her mahr, her freedom And so this was where the Prophet ﷺ Consummated the marriage The next morning he comes out of the tent And he finds in the distance Abu Ayyub al-Ansari With his sword in his hand Standing He says, Allahu Akbar, what's going on? And Abu Ayyub says, Ya Rasulullah, this young lady has just lost her father and her brother and her husband. And I was not, I didn't feel safe leaving her alone with you. So I was waiting there with the sword just in case you could hear me. Voluntarily, the whole night he's there with the sword. And the Prophet ﷺ laughed because Subhanallah, she is now a convert And she believes in the messenger She loves the Prophet ﷺ And Abu Ayyub is thinking that Astaghfirullah, she's going to do something You know, bad to the Prophet ﷺ So the Prophet ﷺ laughed and he made dua for Abu Ayyub al-Ansari And he then said to the people Whoever has any food, let him bring it This is going to be the wali manna And so the people brought whatever they had Some people had dates Some people had a little bit of solidified butter Some people had some barley And so they all mixed it up and they made a very simple, rudimentary type of food. It was called al-hees. And al-hees is basically a mixture of date and a little bit of butter and a little bit of barley juice. Mix it up and you get some type of, you know, what we're going to call it. Very equivalent of a cake, something like this, right? That's really what it was. And that was the waleema of the Prophet ﷺ with Sultiyya. And another very small incident occurred. And it's pretty small, but it's actually very interesting. Very interesting. And that is that, when he is coming back with Safiyyah, and she is on the camel of the Prophet ﷺ, so when the Sahaba saw the walls of Medina, it was their custom, and it was the custom of really all of us, when we see Memphis finally after 10 hours of driving, right? What happens? Feel good, but then you speed up just a little bit. So when the Sahaba saw the walls of the city So they began beating their camels Just like a little bit extra And the Prophet ﷺ joined them in this Now somehow This is so interesting The camel of the Prophet ﷺ Fell over and tripped Perhaps on another camel We don't know the details So both he and Safiyyah were flung From his camel Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Now this is very dangerous How many deaths have occurred By people falling from an anil Especially the camel Even in the seerah we find a number of sahaba That their camel just fell back And they died because of that So both the Prophet And Safiyyah are hurled From the camel and they fall down On the ground And when the sahaba saw this All of them turned away Why? Because to give her privacy All of them turned away None of them is daring to Look and Say anything And it is said that Abu Talha The stepfather of Anas Ibn Malik Was the only one who cried out Are you alright? The rest are just too shy Like what do we do? It's like a moment of great awkwardness And he was the only one that said are you alright Ya Rasulullah? And the Prophet ﷺ said I'm okay, I'm not hurt. Exactly, literally they translate I'm not hurt, right? And he stood up immediately once again he took off his cloak and he covered up Safiyyah. And he then put her back on the camel and they went back to Medina. Now this incident I think it's so significant simply because if Allah had willed the camel of the Prophet ﷺ would not have killed him. if Allah had willed the camel of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam would not have acted like any other camel acts but it is the will of Allah as well to show us that our Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is just as human as every other person in his humanity yes he is Rasulullah yes he is Khatam al-Anbiya al-Mursaleen but he eats, he drinks, his camel trips like everybody else there is nothing divine about him or his camel And just like other people's camels trip His camel will also trip Now just a few things about Safiyyah That we mentioned her That Safiyyah was one of those wives That the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Had an immense love for her Like he did for all of his wives But the other wives Were somewhat jealous of her And she didn't have much support amongst them Otherwise The wives of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Were divided into two camps Zainab's camp and Aisha's camp, right? And Safiyyah really seemed to be in neither of them because she really didn't have family. And so the Prophet ﷺ really felt this more and perhaps that was what brought him more sympathy for her. It is said that when Safiyyah came to Medina, all of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ rushed to go see her. This is now their competition, right? They rushed to go see her. And Zainab remarked to Jawadiya, that I think this one is going to cause trouble. I think this one will take the process away from us. So she's feeling now jealous. And this shows us that clearly she had beauty and Iman and Taqwa that they were feeling threatened. And Juwailia tried to minimize this and said, don't worry, she is from a group, meaning the Jews, that they are rarely lucky with their husbands. It's a very, if you like, stereotypical response, that a bit of a smearing, that they always have divorces, don't worry. Her group is a group that doesn't really get along that much with their husbands. So she's trying to console her by saying, they don't know how to treat their husbands, don't worry, we'll be fine with that. But in fact that didn't happen. What she was hoping for didn't happen. And in fact, the Prophet ﷺ, and of course all of his wives, And wallahi this shows us the true nature of the process of that. No doubt his wives were jealous of one another. But each wife felt special with him. And this is the reality of really this shows us what a man he was. What a gentleman and what a man he was. That no doubt the wives are jealous of each other. But each wife is thinking that yes I am so special and I am this and I am that. And each one has these stories that indicate this special relationship. So once the Prophet ﷺ visited Safiyyah and she was crying. And he said, what is the matter? She said, Hafsa said about me that I am bint al-Yahudiyah. You know, you understand. Just a smear. That I am this, you know. And so I'm crying. This is an insult, like you're smearing. And so the Prophet said, why didn't you defend yourself? She said, how? He said, you should have said that your father was a prophet, meaning Harun. She's a descendant of Harun. And your uncle was a prophet, meaning Musa. And you're married to a prophet. What do they have over you? Your father's a prophet, your uncle's a prophet, you're married to a prophet. You should have defended yourself. And I get to show you the love that the Prophet ﷺ had for Safiyyah. That it is narrated that on Hajjat al-Wada' her camel fell ill. Safiyyah's camel fell ill, fell sick, so she couldn't ride the camel. And Zaynab binti Jaqsh, and Zaynab was wealthier, and Zaynab is coming from a more prestigious family, and she is the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. Zainab bin Tajash had some extra camels That she's going to sacrifice as Hajj So the Prophet ﷺ said to Zainab Why don't you lend her one of your camels She's going for Hajj And She scorned this Because again there is mutual jealousy And Wallahi this shows us subhanAllah that Even the best of the best It's possible to have these types of Human politics You can't get out of it You can't Even the Sahaba But you cannot get out of these things. Even though sometimes they have a bit of an argument. Even though they're the best of friends. But hey, even the best of friends, they have a little bit of back and forth. So she said, what? Me? Like, kawaii. I mean, you want me? My camel? To the Yahudia? No way. Once again, she smeared her. Now she's not a Yahudia anymore. She's a Muslim. Right? But again, this is a smear. And the Prophet ﷺ got so irritated with Zaynab. Now Zainab we just saw last week In our last halaqah Does Zainab know that was also very special And the Prophet ﷺ didn't love her with a special love But when she acted in this way That she refused to share a spare camel So the Prophet ﷺ got so angry at this That as a punishment for Zainab He boycotted her for a period of time That you have a spare camel We're going for Hajj And you're not going to give it to Safiyyah And you smear her on top of that So he boycotted her until she calmed down and she realized she made a very big error, a big mistake, and then the Prophet ﷺ, after a few weeks, when he returned from Hajj basically, so for the whole Hajj, she was being boycotted because of this incident. That when they returned from Hajj, and the Prophet ﷺ came to her and gifted her an expensive gift, we're talking about Zaynah, and made up with her then after this, right? Another incident that is narrated was that when the Prophet ﷺ was on his deathbed in the house of Aisha, all of the wives had come to visit him. Now they don't realize he's about to die, remember? They, well, we'll get there when we get there, but they don't know he's about to die. And he is suffering severe pain, severe fever, tossing and turning, and you can tell the agony on his face, and Safiyyah begins to cry. Safiyyah begins to cry. And she says, Ya Rasulullah, how I wish I could take your fever and burden on me, so you don't have to be in this fever and burden. How I wish I could take it on me. Now, she's the first wife to say this, all the other wives feel jealous. and threatened, so they began winking and, you know, things here and there like, yeah, right, yeah, whatever it was, we don't know. It's the adab of the wise, they don't tell us these sordid details, right? We don't know exactly what was said. But they, sarcastic mock and whatnot, and so the Prophet s.a.w., in his sickness, in his fever, he said to the other wise, go do madhmada. Do wudu and do madhmada. He said, why? He said, because you have made fun of Safiyyah, mock Safiyyah, and wallahi she has spoken the truth, she would want to take on my fever and pain. And you're mocking her for this, that she's just saying this to get him in. He didn't say all these words, but she's saying, wallahi she has spoken the truth. And basically you have lied against her. Right? So go do wudu and do malmallah, because I will forgive your sin of this. Now, again, look at subhanallah, the love that Safiyyah has for the one who's conquered her. For the one whose army has caused her tribe what it has caused. and the one whose army has basically gotten rid of her father and brother and ex-husband, all of this is gone. Now subhanAllah, at the time of the death of the Prophet ﷺ she is crying, she is wailing, she is saying I wish I could take on the pain that you have. What? Where does it come from? You tell me in history, where have we had this type of change? You would expect such a lady to be full of anger, bitterness, anguish, revenge. You would expect such a lady to want to kill this very person that she is married to. in any other circumstance. But this is Islam. This is Rasulullah. This is Iman. Complete 180 degree turn. It's unbelievable. Wallahi, you just think about it. And yet here we have Safiyyah as a very beautiful example of what happens when Iman enters the heart of a person. And she lived a relatively long life. She was one of the last of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ to die. And she died in the year 52 Hijrah. 52. That's very long. She saw all of these things. She also wanted to help Uthman when he was under siege. So a lot of things are mentioned about her. And she died in the time of Muawiyah. So this is the story of Safiyyah. And so she got married at this point in the incident of Khaybar. One more thing about Khaybar. We're talking about post-Khaybar. What happens post-Khaybar. Another interesting incident that takes place post-Khaybar is the arrival of the single most important narrator of Hadith in the history of Islam. And that is Abu Hurayrah. Abu Hurayrah. Right? Abu Hurairah is number one in terms of quantity of hadith. Nobody even comes close to him. And perhaps one day we'll have a lecture why that is the case, even though he joined the Prophet ﷺ in the seventh year of the hijrah. So he only accompanied the Prophet ﷺ for three full years, three years and a month. He was with the Prophet ﷺ for three years, and yet his number of hadith outshines every single other sahabah, without any exception. Number one is Abu Hurairah, number one. Right? And this is when he arrived. He had come from Yemen. He's a Dawsi. His name is Abdurrahman ibn Sakhar from the tribe of Ad-Dawsi. He's a Dawsi. So he's a Yemeni. And he's decided to make hijrah to Medina and he works his way up and he hears the process and he's in Khyber. And of course Khyber, remember, was on the way to Medina for him. He's coming up. So Khyber's on his way. So he diverts from Medina and he goes to Khyber. And therefore both the Habashi Muslims and the Dawsi, there was a small group two or three of the Dawsi and Abu Hurairah was the most famous of them. They both arrived in Khaibar after Khaibar had been conquered. And as for the Muslims from Abyssinia the Prophet ﷺ gave them a share of the booty. As for the people from Dawsi, he asked permission from the Sahaba. That would you mind if they also take a share? And they all agreed. So Abu Hurairah got the honor of getting a fortune from Khaybar without actually lifting a finger. He got his share of the booty even though he didn't actually fight in this battle. And from then on Abu Hurayrah is a constant part of the seerah. So you can put this down as well that the battle of Khaybar was the time when Abu Hurayrah basically became a sahabi and he joined the Muslims of Medina. Another interesting narration from the from this incident of Khaybar which took place sometime in between but we don't know exactly when and it's not related to the battle so I'll delete it to the end is that a group of women participated in the battle of Khaybah as well and these women from the Ansar they volunteered in an expedition to come along with the Prophet ﷺ and they said, Ya Rasulullah we want to come with you in order to help the wounded treat the sick and also just do any other work you know, water whatever needs to be done we want to help out in the background And so the Prophet ﷺ allowed them to come. And this shows us that even though the general rule, he never took women in a battle. But because Khaybar was so clearly a victory, because Khaybar, there was no problem or concern that any issue would happen. Because of this, the Prophet ﷺ allowed the women to come to the battlefield. And so a number of them, we don't know exactly how many, a number of them came. and a very interesting story, which many people find very strange, but it shows us that Islam is not that strict. That the youngest girl amongst them, probably, you know, eight, seven years old or something, she did not have a right. And so the Prophet ﷺ, on the way to Khaybah, so he doesn't have anybody else, Safiyyah is going to be on the way back. On the way to Khaybah, he tells this young girl, come and ride with me. So she sits on the luggage, there's luggage that you have on the camel, So the Prophet ﷺ is sitting here, and then there's a luggage behind him. So she's sitting on the luggage, and she's going along with the Prophet ﷺ. This young girl, we don't even know her name. Her name is not even mentioned. She just tells her story, and it just says a lady from the tribe of such and such from the Ansar. And she says that when the camel stopped, and the Prophet ﷺ told me to get off, I saw that I had blood. And this was my first cycle. and I became terrified as all girls do when the first time they get their cycle and I said she said I stayed on the camel and I didn't move even though the person saying come on down like we're here now she didn't know what to do she's terrified she's embarrassed she's ashamed and what a place and what a location to get your first and all the sisters who have your horror stories your first time imagine this girl's horror story for as long as she lived right think about that okay where, at what time, behind whom subhanallah, think about that so she's terrified, petrified she doesn't know what to do so the Prophet said come down and she did it, and when she did it the Prophet looked and he could see the traces of blood on the saddle the luggage and what not so he said which is perhaps you are having your cycle and she just nodded yes so he said okay, don't worry, go and cleanse yourself and make your matter firm. Meaning wear whatever you need to wear. Make it appropriate and then come with some water and salt and wash this blood from the saddle and then get back where you were sitting. So subhanAllah the Prophet ﷺ calmed her down in such a gentlemanly manner that don't worry about it. It's no big deal. Cleanse yourself. Get yourself ready the way you need to and then come back and wash this stain off properly because this is not just stain. You need to wash it off. wash it off with water and salt and then sit back where you were sitting no irritation, no anger no nothing, subhanallah and so she did as she was told and she would tell later on she would say that my participation in the battle of Qaybar the Prophet ﷺ gifted me us women, he gifted us some gift we didn't get a share, because there was no battle we got a gift, and the gift that I got was this necklace, she would wear a necklace for as long as she lived, she said the Prophet ﷺ gave this to me, and he was the one who put it on around my neck as the gift for helping the sick people and whatnot. So I will never part with this as long as I live. And when I die, it's going to be buried with me. That's what she said. She wants to be buried with this necklace. And she, basically, that was her walsiyah that when she died, she wanted the necklace to be buried. And this shows us that, subhanAllah, Yanni, this girl is what, in those days, they probably began around 7, 8 or something, right? So this young girl, the Prophet ﷺ puts her on the saddle. And it shows us that in these types of situations and scenarios if there is no danger or fear and that's the big if. These days I would not want to put this to count any man. But I'm saying if there is no danger of shahwa, of lust, of any type of fitna like this it's not a problem for a man to have a young girl on the camel. And they're in public. Everybody's saying there's nothing there. There's no habit at all in this regard. And what we really see here is how the Prophet ﷺ handled a very awkward situation where she was the one that was feeling now comforted at the Prophet ﷺ. The Battle of Khaybar also saw a number of fiqh points revealed. So we'll just go over them quickly. Of them, as per Sahih al-Bukhari's hadith, and there's a bit of a controversy when this took place. Sahih Muslim's hadith says it took place in the Battle of, or the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. But there's a hadith in Bukhari that says this very same thing, which we already mentioned, took place in Khaybar. So we don't know. What is this thing? The prohibition of eating don't eat meat. Now, we mentioned in Hudaybiyah there is a hadith, and there is an authentic hadith. The prohibition was in Hudaybiyah. There is another hadith that says khaybar. No doubt this is human nature's behavior, somewhat confused in this regard. Either khaybar or Hudaybiyah. Also, we have other prohibitions as well that came down in the incident of Hudaybiyah. of them is the prohibition that when you have a concubine, a jawadi, a jariyah, that you are not allowed to be with her until she goes through her cycle that the iddah takes place. And this was the first time that this ruling had come down. And so they cannot be touched until the iddah takes place and then they become lawful. Also at this time, for the first time, zawaj mut'ar was made haram. Now zawaj mut'ar, do we all know zawaj mut'ar or do I need to explain Zawaj Mut'ah? No. We don't know. So Zawaj Mut'ah is Zawaj where a time clause is put. Zawaj where a time clause is put. So, Uzzawujuki, I shall marry Uzzawujuki, Usboor, Shahar, yani one month, one week, something like this. Right? This was a Zawaj that was allowed in the old days and in pre-Islam and in early Islam. Then it became prohibited in the battle of Khaybar. Now there's a bit of a controversy and it seems that Allah knows best that it was prohibited and then allowed and then prohibited and then allowed. So it actually went back and forth and back and forth and then it was prohibited. So there was a bit of a confusion in early Islam is it still prohibited or not. And some said it is prohibited. Sorry, the majority said it is prohibited and a very small minority said that it is allowed. And then as you know this is the difference between Sunni and non-Sunni groups as well. The former dhahib of the Sunnis have all agreed that it is completely prohibited. And the other school says that it is allowed. Also, in the battle of Khaibar, a number of prohibitions were revealed. Of them is something called the interest of commodity. Riba al-fadl. Riba is of two types. Interest is of two types. And both are forbidden in Islam. The first interest is the interest where you purchase time for money, basically. Right? So, somebody says, I'll give you a thousand dollars for a month if you give me back one thousand one hundred. So you're purchasing time for money. That's the common type of interest, it's the interest that we're all familiar with. There's another type of interest in the Sharia also for me. And that is riba al-fadl. The first type is called riba al-nasi'a, by the way. You should know these are two basic types of riba. This is riba al-fadl. Riba al-fadl is a little bit more complicated. And not the time to get into all of the details here. but in a nutshell, specific commodities, there's only a list of commodities, of them is wheat and grain and dates. So specific commodities are not allowed to be bartered except in the same amount. Now where did this hadith come from? So the Prophet ﷺ, remember khaybar is a land producing dates. So a person brought him a big bag of dates And these dates were of a quality that is mentioned, the name is mentioned, I forgot now the name. But it's like a very luscious, fine quality date. And he brought him this. So the Prophet ﷺ is impressed, he said, are all of the dates of khaybar like this? Like this is the best quality date. Are all of the dates of khaybar like this? So he said, no ya Rasulullah, this date is such and such. We purchased one, now he said sa'a, like one kilogram, one kilo or one pound. one pound, it's less than a pound, for three pounds of normal dates, the other dates. This date, which is the luxury date, we purchase it for three times its equivalent in the normal dates. Okay? So the Prophet ﷺ said, do not do this. Rather, sell the larger quantity of dates, the three pounds, get the money, and then use the money to purchase the good quality dates. Right? Now, why and how this is a bit of an advance, is not the fiqh al-riba class here, but you should know that there are a number of specific commodities, and these commodities are staple food items, and they're also monetary, by the way. So, currencies, for example, come under this, right? You cannot exchange dollars except in the same amount, right? You cannot exchange $10 for $20 as a transaction. You cannot do this, because this comes under riba al-fadl. Okay? You have to do the same amount. If I give you 10 coins, to give me $10 bills, for example. Right? You cannot exchange more for less. You're going to charge somebody for breaking, for example. Right? That's technically not allowed. Okay? Now, we're not saying that you buy something for $10, you give $20, he gives you $10 back. This is not that you're buying. You're buying. We're talking about exchanging money for money. This is riba al-fadl. Or exchanging dates for dates, or salt for salt, or wheat for wheat. If you exchange, it has to be the same quantity. $10 for $10. 10 pounds, no. If it's dollars versus euros, there's something else. Dollars versus Canadian, something else. We're talking about the same currency. It has to be the same amount. Obviously, if you were to do this, take your Syrian, what is it, Riyaz? What is Syrian? Lira. Syrian lira and falafel. I have 100 lira here, I want the $100. It doesn't work that way, no. It's only in the same currency. And the final thing that we'll mention That we have some guests that we want to hand over to So very honored and welcome guests Thank you for coming by The final point that we want to mention is The Treaty of Khyber Allowed one more business transaction Which is a very very important business transaction And the fancy term for it is Al-Muzara'a And it's also known as Sharika or a partnership Now what is Muzara'a? وزارع means as the Prophet ﷺ did with the people of Khaybah, that you take charge of the land, of watering, of irrigation, of all of the labor, and you'll give 50%. Right? So this is a business partnership. Where the partners don't have to do the same things, the both of them. And this was not known in Medina. The people of Medina didn't do this. The people of Medina, if they owned the land, they would plow the land, irrigate the land. The concept of, okay, I have 10 acres, I don't have the energy to do it. Let's see if I can rent it for a percentage of the produce of the land. That's what it is. Right? You're gonna say, so for example, you have 10 acres of land that you don't have the time or energy or whatever to actually farm yourself. وَزَارَ عَبْلِسِ الْإِسْلَامِ This is the Islamic transaction that says, you are a farmer, I'm the businessman or I'm the landowner. The farmer comes to me, or I come to the farmer, either way, it doesn't matter, and I say, look, these are 10 acres. If you farm them, and you plant the seeds, and you take charge of the manual labor, now, who owns the land? I do. You don't have the farm. You don't have the land. Then we will split it, you know, 30, 70, or however the percentage we agree. 50-50, 60-40, right? This is called muza'arah. And this is allowed in Islam And this is a business partnership Now again, Islam forbids interest But it encourages partnership You want to do a business You don't go to get a loan from the bank Because the bank is going to benefit Whether you win or lose You want a business You go to somebody who actually believes in your business And somebody who is willing to share Your risk of profit and loss That's the point here, right? The business investor doesn't have to. They can be a silent business partner. Here's the capital. Here's the check. You do the business side, right? And we'll split the cost, the profits, whatever you agree. 50-50, 30-70, whatever you two agree. That's between the two of you. Now what happens? The one who gave you the check, he's not going to profit unless you profit. Right? There's no guaranteed profit. And therefore there is a bit of a risk involved. And in Islam You cannot have this type of guaranteed profit That interest brings Because interest, the rich benefit from the poor Regardless of how poor the poor are Regardless of any act of God Of any misfortune The rich benefit merely because they have idle money Lying around at the bank And the Sharia does not allow this Islamic law does not allow this You want to benefit your money You find somebody that you trust That you're interested in this business project And you share the risk of profit And the risk of loss And when you do this, then you won't have the type of false dichotomy or this type of extreme capitalism that exists in some lands. Where one of them, what is it, the top 1% own, I forgot the statistics, the top 1% own like 60% of the rest of us. In fact, I remember there was one article that said the richest 400 people in America, 400, not even 1%, the richest 400 people earn and control as much as 65% of the rest of the population. That's just mind-boggling. Really it is. 400 people, 400, you could fit them in our masjid. Right? Controlling immense, now frankly, we're being a little bit romantic and idealistic, but our system would not allow for this. It wouldn't. You wouldn't be able to get that type of accrued wealth. Because you'd have to risk your money every time you invested in somebody, right? You'd have to also want to, you know, be sure of that. And if it's a loss, it's a loss for you as well. You can't take them to court and say, give me a loan. You're a business partner. So, if you profit, you'll also share a lot. This is called a shariqat. And one version of shariqat is land shariqat, which is wazaaraat, which is you share the profit and the loss of the produce of the land. And with this we conclude the incident of Khaybah. And inshallah next week we'll talk about the letters of the Prophet ﷺ that he sent to Rome, to the Sassanid Empire, to Heraclius and Caesar, and the letters to the rulers of Bahrain. We'll talk about some of that next week. Thank you.

Seerah 7 - The early manhood of Prophet Muhammad - Yasir Qadhi _ September 2011-BKh04EyJw1g

Al-Fatihah Rasuluh. Amma ba'd. We thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and we praise him for all that he has blessed us with. And as we come here today to resume our class after an interlude of around six weeks or seven weeks because of the blessed month of Ramadan, all of us subhanAllah we feel a sense of post Ramadan if you like depression. All of us we feel a sense of emptiness especially when Ramadan finished, it was just a shocking, if you like, experience that here we are surrounded by Iman, surrounded by brotherhood, surrounded by Quran, and then instantaneously overnight, even though it was the day of Eid, even on the day of Eid, we felt a spiritual emptiness. And this is lasting and persisting, and this is in fact the reality of Ramadan. And inshallah, it's also a positive sign, because it shows that we appreciated the blessings of Ramadan. And we were enjoying the spiritual environment of Ramadan. And in that absence we feel a loneliness, we feel an emptiness. And the positive is that it shows that we appreciated the blessings of Allah in Ramadan. Now the question arises, how then do we increase that spirituality? How do we re-enter that beautiful spirit of Ramadan? And the response is, of course you can never recreate that feeling of Ramadan until the next Ramadan. That's what makes Ramadan special. But what we can do, a number of things that we can do, first and foremost, one of the biggest differences in Ramadan and after Ramadan, is masjid attendance. Masjid attendance. In the days of Ramadan, mashaAllah, the masjid is absolutely full. And we need to have a tent outside to house all of the people. And then the day after Ramadan, that attendance is one-fifth or one-tenth, or we say Allah's refuge, even less than that. And this really shows that Ramadan is the month of the masjid. the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is filled up and therefore one of the things that we need to do is to increase our association with the masjid another way to recreate that feeling of Ramadan is that of course the Ramadan is the month of the Quran and we were reciting the Quran and listening to the Quran and surrounded by the Quran and therefore once we are used to this after Ramadan we need to have a healthy relationship with the Quran by reciting it by increasing our prayers in it by listening to it. And as I advised you many times, especially in the month of Ramadan, that we should cut back on listening to that which is of no value when we go to work, when we're going from point A to point B. And instead listen to beneficial stuff and especially the speech of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Another difference between Ramadan and post-Ramadan is the increase of naffal worship. In Ramadan, we're doing lots of things. We're fasting, we're praying extra, we're giving charity. When Ramadan finishes, a lot of us resume our schedules that we had before Ramadan, and this is a mistake. We should all have an increasement in some type, whether it is in the quantity or the quality or both of our deeds, we need to increase that. And of course of the ways to get back some of that spirituality and to feel what we want to feel, is of course to immerse ourselves in knowledge and to study the book of Allah, and to study the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, and to study the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, because nothing increases one's iman like knowledge. Nothing increases one's iman like knowledge. And therefore inshaAllah, one of the ways to get back that feeling is to resume our halaqat which we were doing. And that is exactly what inshaAllah ta'ala we are doing now. Now in our previous lectures, we had discussed the early prophet or the early seerah of the Prophet ﷺ and his childhood. and we had gotten to the place where he became orphaned once again for the third time with his grandfather Abdul Muttalib and we explained some of the reasons why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested this young child with so many different tests and that was as we said to make him stronger to make him independent to make him someone who has a sense of compassion at the same time so that Allah could say that we took care of you nobody has any favor over you, Allah directly took charge of taking care of you. And there are many other benefits and blessings, hidden blessings in that. The next stage of the Prophet's life involves a story that all of us are familiar with, and that is his travel to Syria as a young child. Now this story is a story that we all know, and to summarize, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam undertook a journey to Syria when he was around 9, 10 11 years old, his uncle Abu Talib would go with the caravan and it is said that the year that he was going the Prophet ﷺ said, who are you leaving me with? How can you leave me all alone here? He's a young child. And so Abu Talib cried out of compassion and he decided to take the young boy along even though that was not the initial plan. And they went to the land of Syria, the رحلة الشتاء والصيف as we mentioned over and over again, they had a summer journey and they had a winter journey. They're going up north to Syria and then they're going down south to Yemen. And so the Prophet ﷺ traveled with Abu Talib as a young child and they would pass by the monastery of a monk by the name of Buhayrah. Monks or hermits were those people in medieval Christianity, they had cut themselves off from society. And these days they are very rare but you find them. They are still certain chapels and certain monasteries in the mountains, in the far away places, and this is still around even here in America we have places that nobody goes in or out except if you're a part of that order a part of that if you like, servitude, you have dedicated yourself to the church, and there are special monasteries for men, special monasteries for women and in it, all they do is they worship, they pray they sing to their lord, they have cut off themselves from marriage, from any type of recreation, and they're 24-7 just worshipping Allah. And it was more common in the past, and it is still a phenomenon that is existent in our times. So they pass by a monastery, and the monastery has nothing to do with the travelers. And they have gone by this monastery many times. This time, the leader of the monastery, the monk in charge of the monastery, he followed them out, and he called them, and he said to them to, there's a number of versions of the story. In one version he invites them to the monastery. And in another version he simply discusses with them directly. And in the end he tells Abu Talib that this young boy that you have with you is going to be the prophet of the Arabs. I saw every single tree prostrate, a spiritual prostration. He did it, nobody else saw but he saw. And I saw the cloud shelter him. And in another version he sat under a tree and the monk said that the sign of the prophet would be that he would sit under this tree. And he asked him, who is your father? And so Abu Talib said, I am his father. And the monk said, no, this is not possible. So Abu Talib said, I am actually his uncle. And so the monk said, yes, the Prophet cannot have his father living, that is of the signs. And this is a long story, and at the very end of it, the monk allegedly says, that be careful because the Romans, in another version, the Jews are going to kill this lad if they get a hold of him, and therefore be careful and protect him, and he is going to be the leader of the Arabs. Now, this is the story that all of us have heard. It's time for a little bit of critical thinking and a little bit of isnad analysis. This story is problematic on many levels. First and foremost, the story mentions in one version that Abu Bakr was accompanying the Prophet ﷺ. And in another version it says that Bilal was the slave of the caravan. And this is simply historically impossible. because Abu Bakr and the Prophet ﷺ Abu Bakr would have been too young and there is no recorded friendship when the Prophet ﷺ was 10 years old additionally Bilal has not yet been born much less become a slave in Mecca when the Prophet ﷺ is 10 years old another problem with this story is that the contents raise our eyebrows not that the Prophet ﷺ has been predicted in the previous scriptures we know this, that he has been predicted but the manner of the story and the fact that had Buhairah actually said this to the Prophet ﷺ in front of Abu Talib the Quraysh would have known and Abu Talib would have known and many years later the Prophet ﷺ would have said oh my uncle why are you doubting I'm a Prophet don't you remember when I was a teenager such and such happened don't you remember that Buhairah said this when I was 10 years old how can you doubt it now and the Quraysh would have known of this story as well and all of this sends our alarm bells ringing and this shows us that subhanallah we need to be a little bit more careful in what we read in books and folklores and legends not everything is authentic and when we look at the chain of this narration we find that indeed there is some problem even with the chain there is some problem with the content and that is why many of the early scholars I'm not the first one critiquing it Imam al-Zahawi ibn Kathir ibn Sayyid al-Nas a lot of the classical and medieval scholars they found this story problematic For example, Imam al-Dahabi said, Abu Bakr was only 10 at the time. And as for Bilal, he was purchased by Abu Bakr after the da'wah began. 30 years down the line. And he had not yet been born. And al-Dahabi is speaking, why would the trees shelter him, when according to the same report, the clouds were walking on top of him. It makes no sense for the trees to offer a shelter, when there's already clouds that are going over him. And why don't we find that the Prophet ﷺ reminded Abu Talib of this incident and the statement of the monk? And why didn't he mention this to the Quraysh when he began preaching his prophethood? And if this really had occurred, they would not have found his prophethood something strange and they would have welcomed it. And if it had really occurred, then when Jibreel visited him in Ghar-e-Hira, he would not have wondered who is this angel. and he would have welcomed it instead of running back to his wife and Khadijah out of fear. End quote. Now this is the mind of a critical thinker. He's thinking that it doesn't make any sense. That if the Prophet ﷺ knew that he's going to be a prophet, then he must be waiting for it and expecting it. Now, somebody can ask, what's the big deal? Why do you have to be so critical? It's a beautiful story and our Prophet ﷺ is praised even more. The angels are sheltering him, the clouds are coming, the trees are prostrating. Why do you have to be so academic? Can't you just tell these fables and let it be easy about this? To which the response comes, indeed, the stories of the seerah, by and large, have not been narrated with those same rigorous chains as the hadith pertaining to halal and haram. And even Imam Ahmad, he said, when it comes to halal and haram, the hadith will be very strict. and he went like this. And when it comes to hadith, sorry, when it comes to seerah, he said maghazi, when it comes to seerah, he went like this. No big deal, let it be. And this is true. Because many of the details of the seerah are mentioned in reports that are not 100% verifiable. And so we know the details of the battle of Badr and the number of camels in the battle of Uhud and a specific fight in the battle of the Khandaq. Many of these stories are not narrated with those rigorous chains. And by and large, even in my narration of the seerah to you, I let these stories go by. No big deal. However, sometimes we have to stop it. Why and when? When the story raises problems. And this is one of those stories. Why does it raise problems? Because the primary problem really of the story is that many people who don't believe in our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., they have to answer a very difficult question. Where did the Prophet ﷺ get the idea of being a prophet, and the knowledge that he came with as a prophet? And this is something that is a mu'jizah, a miracle. And I mentioned this many times previously, that our Prophet ﷺ did not know the stories of Isa and Musa. He never heard the name of Yunus. It's not of the ancestry of the Arabs. What has he got to do with that branch of humanity? Neither is the concept of prophecy known to the Arabs. After the time of Ismail, 2-3 thousand years ago, the Arabs have never seen or heard of a prophet. And they never knew what is a prophet. So for the prophet Muhammad s.a.w. to come and say, I am a prophet, he is bringing something novel for the Arabs of his time. And the Quran mentions this many verses. You didn't know what was Iman. You didn't know what was Wahi. You didn't know what were the stories of the prophets of old. And for the longest time, people would say, the Prophet ﷺ learned this, the non-Muslims would say, he learned these stories in his journey to Syria. And this is an example here. Buhairah fired up his imagination. One of the famous orientalists of the last century, he goes, this monk fired up his imagination. he must have told him stories of Jesus Christ and Moses. And so the young lad came back, and 30 years later, those stories are found in garbled form, because they're not in the pure form of the Old and New Testament. The Islamic version is always different. And so apparently from this guy's perspective, he learned these stories, and then he regurgitated them as an older man. And the response to this is that, really without even you bringing in this tangent, the story doesn't make sense. Many of our classical scholars rejected it. and in my heart I don't find this to be a comforting story. Imam al-Zahabi said, I think the story is fabricated. And so the story of the mock, the story of the Prophet ﷺ meeting the mock, it has some problems and it is not mentioned in every book of seerah and its isnad has issues and its content has issues and therefore it is best to simply narrate it and point out that many of our classical scholars did not find the story acceptable. the next phase in the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam's life was that when he was a young man, probably around 15-16 years old and as we said many times the early life of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is the most undocumented we have nothing from the time he was 9, 10 till the time he's 15, except for one story here, one story there, and we explain this many times, nobody is witnessing what's happening and recording it nobody knows that this person is gonna be a prophet of Allah. Nobody is writing down anything. There is no writing in Makkah, right? There is no records. Additionally, those who lived long were few. The people who accompanied the Prophet ﷺ when he's a young boy, who are they? Where are they now? By the time he's 50, 60, most of them have passed away. By the time he passes away, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, where are the people who would have remembered, oh, this is what happened when he was a child. Even look at your own fathers. You have memories, of course, you know. Your own fathers and your grandfathers, how much do you know when they were 8 years old, 9 years old, 10 years old, what happened to them? All you know is one story here, another story there. Isn't that the case? And this is your own father. How about someone 14 centuries ago, the Prophet ﷺ, when there is no records, there are no photographs, there are no nothing. So imagine now, and so we have a lot of blanks in this regard. So the next bit of information we have was the first job of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, hadith is in Bukhari, so it is completely authentic. Allah never sent a Prophet except that he was a shepherd. He was a shepherd of sheep. So they said, not even you O Messenger of Allah. And this shows, notice this, the majority of the Sahaba didn't know that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had a job as a shepherd. And they are his companions. And so how about the other details when he was a child? So they said, how about you? they thought he would be an exception because they never thought he was a shepherd. How about you, Ya Rasulullah? So they're trying to find an exception. Because he's just said, all the prophets are shepherds. So they said, but how about you? So they're trying to, but you aren't a shepherd. So he said, yes, I was. I was a shepherd. And I used to tend to the flock of the people of Mecca in return for some qararit, some pennies. The smallest denomination. Some cheap coins, some pennies. Because what is a shepherd gonna get you? In return for some pennies. this is what I would do. And in another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ in one of the later expeditions, he saw some of the shepherds taking care of the sheep that they had. And so he said, I advise you to find the tree of the Arak, a specific type of tree, and find the darker branches, because it will be better for your flock. So they were shocked and they said, how do you know this, O Messenger of Allah? how do you know which plant is the best for the sheep and not even which plant but which season of the plant is best for the sheep so he said I used to be a shepherd I used to be a shepherd and every prophet that Allah has sent used to be a shepherd and in another version of the hadith in Musa A.S. he said Musa was sent when he was a shepherd meaning sent by Allah to the people when he was a shepherd and Dawud was sent to become a prophet when he was a shepherd And I too was a shepherd in Ajad. Where is Ajad? Now there is a big hospital called Ajad Hospital. And it is right behind the haram. And that is Ajad. That is the place of Ajad. I was a shepherd in Ajad. That hospital behind the haram, the closest hospital to the haram itself, is called Ajad. And it was in a valley. And so he said, that is the valley that I would go take my sheep in, and I was a shepherd in this valley of Ajad. And this is so true. Musa alayhi salam was a shepherd. He was a shepherd for the man in Midian. Remember when he went out and the man said, I need you to take care of my flock and if you do, then I'll marry my daughter to you. He was a shepherd. And as he was a shepherd, then he became a prophet. Similarly Dawud, the story of David and Goliath, right? Dawud was not a famous person. Dawud was some shepherd. Dawud was nobody. And they were all wondering, how are we going to kill Goliath, Jalut? And so Dawud came to the prophet, to the king, Saul. Talut, and he said I will kill this mighty giant, and everybody laughed, what are you as a shepherd? and he invented the, what did he invent? the slingshot right? and he figured out how to throw a stone with great force at the mighty king or the mighty emperor Goliath Jalut, and this is how he became the king and the prophet, he was a shepherd and similarly our prophet Muhammad he was a shepherd tending to the sheep of the people of Mecca. What are some of the wisdoms? Why would Allah Azzawajal do this? If Allah had willed, our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would have been born in the lap of luxury. If Allah had willed, he would not have to lift a finger. If Allah had willed, money would be poured upon him as a child and as a teenager and as an adult. Why would Allah will that our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam starts his life with the most menial, the lowest paid, the most difficult job really in all of Mecca? Why would Allah Azza wa Jalla will this? Because there's a lot of wisdoms here. First and foremost, being a shepherd gives you the opportunity to engage in solitude, to think. When you're a shepherd, you're all alone. You go away from society, from people, you take your flock of sheep, there are no other human beings. And you have solitude, you contemplate, and you think about the purpose of life. And subhanAllah, this is something, we just look around us. those people who are busy with the dunya are the least spiritual those people who are engrossed with the world with our jobs those people who have nothing to do other than this world they can get by ignoring religion and it's not a coincidence by the way that atheism is more popular and more common in the most opulent and rich countries and also amongst the professions that have the most money generally speaking farmers, you know, people who are involved with nature, they're very religious people, isn't that the case? Right? Why? Because when you're involved with nature, with the creation of Allah automatically it has an impact on your soul. You cannot really be an atheist if you're tending the flock and you're seeing nature and you're taking care of your cultivation and you're seeing, when you're involved with this you have this iman, this ruhaniya this spirituality and when you're cut off from the creation of Allah and you're immersed in this dunya your heart becomes hard and you can ignore Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you can even be so arrogant as to say there is no God and again it's not a coincidence the people who are the poorest on earth are generally the most religious and the people who are the most immersed in materialism they have the hardest hearts and they can ignore the fact of religion and being religious another benefit of being a shepherd sheep are very similar to men in that they need to be taken care of or else they're gonna go astray they need to be taken care of or else they will go astray sheep need a shepherd and every single animal has a personality and the shepherd understands this personality and I have never been a shepherd but I have spoken to shepherds I have spoken to those who took care of flock in Arabia and they told me the exact same thing that you need to treat every animal according to that animal's personality some sheep are stubborn some are soft and gentle some they know where they're going others they follow the pack some are the leader, some are not so the shepherd gets to understand each and every sheep in the flock now someone like me, they all look the same I can't tell them apart but the shepherd knows everyone if you go to any farmer, he'll mention names this is this, this is that, this is this to me they all look the same, right? But to the shepherd, he knows everyone and everyone's personality. And he deals with every animal according to its personality. And this is what a leader needs to do. And this is what a prophet of Allah needs to do. That they need to deal with every person according to their mizaj, according to their personality. Also another blessing of being a shepherd is that being a shepherd makes you soft and tender on the one hand, and brave and courageous on the other. soft and tender for your own flock, and brave and courageous in fighting wolves and in fighting other beasts that will attack these sheep. And you are all alone in the desert. You're all alone. There's not a group of people there with you. And so it simultaneously makes you soft and loving because these are your animals. You have to take care of them. And it also makes you brave and fearless because you are responsible to protect your flock against the enemy. And our Prophet ﷺ said, That the people who own horses are gonna be the ones who are full of pride. And the people who own camels are gonna be the ones full of arrogance. And the people who own sheep will be the ones full of sakinah and wikar, humility and humbleness. Right? Horse owners, they're always proud. Nothing wrong with that if you don't take it un-Islamic. The Prophet ﷺ making a factual statement that horse owners, they have this sense. Camel owners, they become coarse and they become arrogant a little bit. And sheep, those who take care of sheep, they have waqar and sakinah, humility and humbleness. And this is exactly one of the reasons why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made every prophet a person who took care of sheep. And so a shepherd inculcates certain qualities, patience, humbleness, humility, bravery, mercy, tenderness. And it is not a coincidence that later on in life, our Prophet ﷺ was very tender towards animals, because he was a shepherd. And there is a whole aspect of animal rights in Islam, which inshallah maybe one day we'll give a talk about animal rights in Islam. I've given a whole talk previously in other places about animal rights in Islam. Our Prophet ﷺ once, a camel came to him, a camel came to him and began making its noises. And tears came out of its eyes. The hadith is in Sunan al-Isai. And the Prophet ﷺ soothed the camel. and calmed it down until it stopped crying. And then he said, where is the owner of the camel? And a man came. And he goes, this animal has complained against you. Subhanallah. This animal has complained against you that you overwork it and underfeed it and you beat it. Fear Allah with regards to these animals that Allah has blessed you with. Subhanallah. Subhanallah. You're not allowed to be cruel even to animals. And he's telling the owner, fear Allah with regards to this animal that Allah has blessed you with. There's a tenderness even towards animals. Where did this come from? Of course, from Allah. But all of this builds that up. Being a shepherd and taking care of the flock. Another aspect of being a shepherd at this young age, he's hardly 14, 15 years old. It shows that he understands he needs to earn money. He's not going to be a freeloader off of his uncle Abu Talib. He needs to get on his own feet and be independent. And to help his uncle out to take care of the expenses of the house. Yet another blessing of being a shepherd is to show the simple lifestyle of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that he used to do the most, the most, if you like, baseline of manual labor. There's nothing really that is more, you know, difficult and more, and lesser paid than this. This is the baseline of manual labor. And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did it. and he got paid for it. And this really shows us that there is no sin, there is no dishonor in working for your own money, and in working for your own rizq. Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did it. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, that the purest money that you can earn, is the money that you earn from the labor of your hands. This is the purest money. You do some physical work from the sweat of your back. You do some physical work, and then you get paid for it. And then he said, and even the Prophet Dawood a.s. he would earn his money from the labors of his hands. What was the Prophet Dawood who can tell me? What was he? He was an iron smith and he was also a carpenter. He was a carpenter and an iron smith. And he would get money from these things. And that is how he would take care of himself. And this shows us as well, that one of the greatest signs of sincerity is that you do something for the good of the people in return for nothing from them. The Prophet ﷺ earned his own sustenance. He didn't get it from the people around him. And there are many verses in the Qur'an, قُلْ لَا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا قُلْ مَا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مَالًا I'm not asking you for money. I'm not asking you for sustenance when I'm preaching to you what Islam is. I have no motive for doing this other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is the reality that when you don't have a favor, sorry, when the people don't have a favor on you, then you are more pure in your call to them. When they're not paying you, what excuse and motivation do you have for being a prophet of Allah? And also one final point here. It shows us that even when the Prophet ﷺ became a prophet, and he had all that he wanted. If he wanted to have it, he could have had it. He was not embarrassed to tell people of his simple past. I started over there. And this is the reality of everything. Not just religion, but the deen and dunya. You need to start at the bottom, and work your way to the top. And then you will be the most successful. If you start at the top, somehow it happens, a fluke of coincidence, a birthright, something. You're not ever gonna be as successful as those who started from the bottom, and work their way to the top. And this is the reality of business as it is the reality of the religion as well. Look at the most successful entrepreneurs on the face of this earth. People like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and all of them, they all started from the bottom, from their basements and from their backyards and from their garages. Isn't that the case? And they are the ones who then build the largest empires. Never is the one who inherits all of this instantaneously as successful as the one who builds it from scratch. So sunnah of Allah, and the same applies with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He started right from the bottom to get to the highest pinnacle. He went through every phase of life, and then when you get there, then indeed Allah has blessed you with it, and Allah has caused you to deserve it and earn it. Otherwise, if you just get it without any labor, then you will not appreciate it, and you will not do justice to it. So our Prophet ﷺ begins being a shepherd, and he works his way all the way to the top of being the Prophet of Allah. And look how true is the statement of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when He says, مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَى Your Lord has not abandoned you, nor has He shown you any harshness. وَلَا الْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مِنَ الْأُولَى And every stage that happens to you will be better than every stage that came. Your life will become easier, and even the next life will be better than this life. وَلَا الْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مِنَ الْأُولَى وَلَا سَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَى Allah will give you until you are content. You will be content. Everything. أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيمًا فَآوَى Didn't I find you an orphan and I was the one who protected you? وَوَجَدَكَ ضَالًّا فَهَدًى And we found you not upon guidance and we gave you guidance. وَوَجَدَكَ عَائِلًا فَأَغْنًى And we found you with nothing and we gave you all that you needed. We found you with no money and we gave you all the money that you needed. Therefore, فَأَمَّا الْيَتِيمَ فَلَا تَقَهَرْ وَأَمَّا السَّائِلَ فَلَا تَنْهَرُ وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثُ Be good to the beggar, be good to the orphan. When Allah has blessed you with so much, have a soft heart. And that's what we said. When you begin in such a harsh manner, you will have a soft heart. And you will appreciate the blessings of Allah. And if all of this were to have been handed to him instantaneously, then he would not have had that appreciation that he had. After this incident of taking care of sheep and being a shepherd, Only two or three things are narrated before the prophethood begins. The first of these are the Fijar Wars. The Fijar Wars of the Quraysh. When the Prophet ﷺ was a teenager, probably around 18, 17, maybe even 15. We don't know for sure exactly because again nobody is recording dates. Between 15 to 18. When the Prophet ﷺ was a teenager, and most likely by the way closer to 15, because he didn't physically fight, he didn't participate. and this shows that he was not of that age that he would carry a sword and they would usually allow a person to carry a sword at around 15 that's when he became what we call 18 in our days that's being a man in those days they didn't have the luxury to wait till you're 18 15, 14 is when you become a full adult so the Fijar wars is a series of small battles that broke out between two large tribes of Arabia and again not to get too much into the Arab tribes of old, but we need to have a little bit of understanding. The tribe of Quraysh belongs to a much larger tribe. It's called a branch, not a tribe, of Kinana. Kinana is not the name of one tribe. Kinana is the name of many large tribes. Of them is Quraysh. And another large branch of the Arab race was a tribe, or not a tribe, but a branch called Qais Ailan. Qais Ailan. Qais Ailan, it is composed of tribes such as Ghatafan, such as Hawazin These are tribes that are going to come up in the seerah, right? Ghatafan, Hawazin, they belong to the larger branch of Qais Ailan Quraysh and others, they belong to the larger branch of Kinana To make a long story short, a person from the Kinana Which is one of the larger tribes of Quraysh So Quraysh belongs to Kinana A person from Kinana killed somebody from the Hawazin and when they found out the Hawazin attacked the Kinanite tribes and Quraysh is one of them this is what Jahiliyyah is you kill one of mine I'm gonna go kill one of yours so the tribes of Kinan including the Quraysh they rushed back into the Haram what is the Haram? the holy sanctuary of Mecca right and the outlying lands why did they do this? because the rule of law which is still a rule of law in our religion when you enter the Haram what happens? وَمَنْ دَخَلَهُ كَانَ آمِنًا Whoever enters the haram, you are safe. So they rushed back into the haram, Hawazin followed them, and because they were so angry, so incensed, they didn't care about the haram, and they attacked the kinana. Now, this is interesting here, the initial fault was that of the side of the Quraysh. But the rebuttal was much more severe, because killing one person outside the haram is a crime. Attacking the sanctity of the haram is a much bigger crime. Much bigger crime. And therefore, the Quraysh declared all out war against Hawazin and against the Qais Ajlan. You guys understanding this point here, right? Both sides are at fault. The initial fault was done by the Qurayshi side. Not somebody from Quraysh, but from Kinana, the larger sub-tribe. The initial fault. Then the other tribe attacks Mecca. And they break the haram sanctity. Now the Quraysh are incensed. You have broken the sanctity of the haram, we are going to attack you. And so all out war broke out. This is called the wars of Fijar. And initially, the opposing side was winning and the Quraysh was losing. Eventually the Quraysh won over and then a peace treaty was enacted. The fighting was limited. Finally a peace treaty was enacted and the Quraysh agreed to pay the blood money and so the fighting stopped. The Prophet ﷺ says in an authentic hadith when he's much older. He says, I remember participating in the Fijar wars. Why is it called Fijar wars? Fijar means evil, fujur, fajr, evil. Evil wars, why? Because both sides committed evil, but especially because the sanctity of the Haram was broken, which is the height of evil. These are evil wars, Fijar wars, because the sanctity of the Haram was broken. So, the Prophet ﷺ said, I remember fighting in the wars of Fijar, and I would collect arrows for my uncles and hand them back to my uncles. Now what does this mean? So arrows are weapons you can use back and forth. When somebody shoots an arrow and it misses the target, in fact even if it hits the target, you can take it out or you can pick it up and then you can use it back against the enemies. It's an ammunition that you can use over and over again. Correct? So the Prophet's job was to go find those arrows and to go look for those arrows in the mountains. When he found them, he would go and return them to his uncles and they would then use them against the other tribe. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I do not regret participating in that war. I participated and I do not regret it. It's nothing wrong that I did, that I helped the Quraysh against their enemies of the Qais Ailan. Also it is narrated that whenever the Prophet ﷺ would appear with the Quraysh, on that day, the Quraysh would win over. Whenever he would not be at home, the Quraysh would lose ground. And so when Abu Talib saw this, he said, by Allah, you're not gonna leave my sight anymore, you're gonna stay with us. And eventually they reached a peace treaty, and the fighting stopped after that. In another few years, even a more famous incident occurred. And this is called the Hilf al-Fudul, or the Hilf al-Mutayyabeen. The treaty or the pact of Fudul, also called the treaty of Mutayyabeen. And what is this about? And at this stage, the Prophet ﷺ is probably in his early 20s. Probably in his early 20s. So a number of years after the Fijar Wars. This pact or this treaty occurred in Dhul Qa'dah, one of the sacred months in Mecca. According to one report, the Prophet ﷺ was exactly 20 years old. What happened was, a person from the tribe of Zubayd, and Zubayd is a tribe in Yemen. And so the Yemenites, when you're in Mecca, the people did not consider this tribe to be as elite. They are a low class tribe. So the people of this tribe are not the status of Hawazin or Thaqif. And they're very far away. So when you're far away, what this means is you don't have people willing to fight for you, right? Now let's say right now, we just talked about a war between Hawazin and Kinana. These two are tribes neighboring one another. If you kill somebody from one tribe, the next tribe is across the border. They're gonna come and attack, which is exactly what happened. This guy from Zubaydah, if they were to do something to him, where are his allies, where are his brothers, where are his tribes? All the way in Yemen. Who's gonna come to defend you? And this is the reality of Jahili society. So what happens? This person from the tribe of Zubaydah sold an item before Hajj. He's come as a merchant. He's brought his leather, he's brought his good. That's how you get your money. and he sold a number of items to Al-As ibn Wael, the father of Amr ibn Al-As. The famous Amr ibn Al-As, this is his father, Al-As ibn Al-Wael. And Al-As ibn Al-Wael, he is a chieftain, he is a politician, he is a career statesman in the Quraysh, and he is a rich businessman. He sold it to him before Hajj. And Al-As said, I'll give you the money after Hajj before you go back to Yemen. Come to me after and I'll give it to you. So he goes, okay, fine. I can wait that long, I don't need it now, I need it back in Yemen. so he performs the hajj and then he says I need my money al-As says come back tomorrow so he comes back tomorrow al-As says come back tomorrow again comes back tomorrow and then he continues doing this until he realizes that he's not going to get his money back and he's simply stalling him and he's not giving him his money and so this person goes to the other sub-tribes he goes to the Banu Hashim, he goes to the Banu Abd al-Dar he goes to the Banu Abdi Manaf, all of them in Quraish, and he goes, I need some help these guys are not giving me my money back and everyone makes an excuse, why? because Al-Asri bin Wael is a politician he is rich, he is a leader, and you don't want to get on the bad side of a leader, everyone makes an excuse, oh I really can't do anything, this and that and therefore, feeling completely trapped, and not having any other outlet, he decided to make this a public issue. What did they do in those days? They would write poems. And they would announce these poems. Poems in those days is like news media. It's like the internet. It's like a blog post, right? It's like Twitter. You're gonna just send it immediately. And you're not limited to 160 characters when you write a poem. And so, he wrote a poem. He didn't even, I mean, in those days you didn't have to write it. It just comes to you naturally. Subhanallah, it's amazing. I don't know how they did it. It just comes to you naturally. And then you say it out loud. And then this spreads everywhere. That this person has made this poem. And so, one day, when everybody is in front of the Ka'bah, which is basically, everybody would gather around Asr time, all the people of Makkah would now come, and they would say, this is a social place as well. He now comes and he says out loud, his poem that he has compiled. يَا آلَ فِهْرٍ لِّمَظْلُومٍ بِضَاعَتَهُ بِبَطْنِ مَكَّةَ نَاءِ الدَّارِ وَالنَّفَرِ Oh, family of Fihr. Fihr is who? Who can tell me? Who is Fihr? Who is Fihr? we mentioned this so many weeks ago Fihir is Quraish Fihir is the name of Quraish Fihir is the name of Quraish Quraish is his title so he says Ya ala Fihrin O tribe of Fihir O Quraish limazloomin bita'atahu I am a one who has been unjustly treated because of my merchandise bibatni makkata I am in the valley of Makkata na iddari wal wannafari far away from my home and far away from people to protect me. وَمُحْرِمٌ I'm still in my ihram. أَشْعَث My hair is not been combed because he's in ihram. لَمْ يَقْضِ عُمْرَتَهُ I haven't even finished my umrah. يَا لِلْرِجَالِ Where are my men to help me? وَبَيْنَ الْحِجْرِ وَالْحَجَرِ Between the hijr, the maqam Ibrahim, and the hajar, the stone, you are doing this to me. I am in ihram, and I am in this state, and I am between the hijr and the hajar. The hijr is that round semicircle and the hajar is the hajri aswad. And this is being done to me. إِنَّ الْحَرَامَ لِمَنْ تَمَّتْ كَرَامَتُهُ The true haram belongs to those who are noble. وَلَا حَرَامَ لِثَوْبِ الْغَادِرِ الْفَجْرِ There is no sanctity to the one who wears a thawb. Most likely there was a thawb in there involved as well. Who wears a thawb while he is a cheat and a steel and a lowly person. You don't have any karama, you don't have any sanctity, simply because you live in Mecca, simply because you're in a holy land. You are a bunch of cheaters and losers. That's what you are. That's basically what he's saying. And I am in this state of ihram, and you are doing this to me. Just because I'm far away from my house, and my land and my people. So the news spread like wildfire. And Az-Zubayr ibn Abdul Muttalib, the Prophet's ﷺ elder uncle, Az-Zubayr ibn Abdul Muttalib, heard of this. And he said, we have to do something about this. This is not gonna go on anymore. And he convened a gathering of all of the senior members of the Quraysh in the house of somebody whose name you should memorize. He comes up in seerah over and over again. Abdullah ibn Jud'an. Abdullah ibn Jud'an. Abdullah ibn Jud'an was a distant uncle of Aisha. She was a distant uncle of Aisha. and he was considered to be the most noble of the people of Mecca of his time. He didn't live until the da'wah, he died before the da'wah began. But he was considered to be the most legendary in terms of hospitality, in terms of genuine sincerity, and he was known to be the problem solver. And he was the most elderly. So they convened in the house of Abdullah ibn Jud'an, And here is where they agreed to a pact, a treaty. What was the pact and treaty? That they would side with the oppressor against the oppressed. Regardless of what ethnicity or what tribe was the oppressor. They would side... Sorry, did I say that wrong? I said it the other way around. They would side with the oppressed against the oppressor, obviously. They would side with the oppressed against the oppressor, regardless of which tribe the oppressor belonged to. And they said, even if the one who is shown injustice is from a far away tribe, and the oppressor is from a Quraysh sub-tribe, we will side with the one who has been oppressed, and we will get his full rights from the oppressor. And they all went in front of the Ka'bah, and they publicly announced this, and they signed their names on a document. Now, there is no document, there is no signature. What do you do in those days? You dip your hands in perfume. They're all illiterate. They don't know how to read and write. There is no pen and paper. How do you sign your name? You go in public, you announce everybody that this is our treaty, and then you dip your hand in perfume, and you put that perfume on the Ka'bah, on the same place. Everybody puts it on the same place. And that is why this is called, حِلْفَ الْمُطَيَّبِينَ طَيِّب means perfume. And so this is the treaty of those who have perfumed themselves. حِلْفَ الْمُطَيَّبِينَ It is also called حِلْفَ الفُضُولِ Many people try to explain why. The most strongest reason seems to be that when Al-Aasi bin Wael heard of this, he became irritated and angry. And he said, why did they have to get involved in a matter that is فُضُولِ None of their business. Because فُضُولِ means none of their business. right? fuduli to them, it's none of their business, why are they getting involved? so this is another interpretation of why it's called hilfal fudul and then there are other reasons why people say it's fudul but this seems to be the strongest why it's called hilfal fudul so because he said this is amrun fuduli none of your business what I did and so they called it the treaty of no business because it is our business hilfal fudul, that's one another name, so it's called hilfal fudul and hilfal mutayyabeen and the Arabs had never heard of such a pact before. This is the first time this is basically what we call government. Where people come together and they say, no, enough is enough. We're not gonna allow injustice. And the Prophet ﷺ said, hadith is in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ said, I witnessed in the house of Abdullah ibn Jud'an a treaty that were I asked to uphold it even in Islam, I would do so. If I were to ask to follow the treaty even now, I would do so. And I would not be willing to give up my place for a lot of red camels. Meaning, if you were to tell me, if you were to give me a lot of money, and I were not present at that treaty, I would not do so. I would not be willing to do so. In that treaty, he's saying, they all agreed that the rights would be given back to the ones who deserve them, and that no oppressor would have the upper hand over the one who was oppressed. Now, from these two incidents, the Hilfal Fudul and the Fijar wars. What benefits can we derive? And then inshallah with that we will open the floor. From these two incidents, the Hilfal Fudul and the Fijar wars, what benefits can we derive? Many benefits. First and foremost, the Prophet ﷺ did not regret participating in the wars of Fijar. And the fact that he later says this and boasts about this, somebody can say, but hold on, he wasn't a prophet at the time. This is something he did before prophethood. How can you derive lessons from it? We say, he narrated this later on, and he said, I do not regret this. Showing that what he did was correct. And this shows us that it is permissible, and some scholars have derived this, some ulama have derived this, that it is permissible to even fight in wars and battles that are not necessarily religious, because this is a war that has nothing to do with religion. It's a war to defend the haram and the sanctity of the haram. Both sides are pagan. Both sides are idol worshippers. Both sides believe in the same gods. And yet the Prophet ﷺ participated. Now others point out that he didn't quite physically fight. He aided, he helped. What did he do? He gave the arrows to his people. So there's a lot of fiqh that people are debating to what level. But the bottom line is that even in such wars where things are being defended which are not purely religious, the Muslim has some leeway to do something to get involved. Because the Prophet ﷺ did do something. And in this war, it's not a clear cut line of good versus evil. Because both sides have done some evil. But one side has done more evil than the other. And the Prophet ﷺ was fighting on the side that was closer to the truth. And again he wasn't quite fighting but he was participating in some manner. And this is some point to think about in the world that we live in, when many of the battles that are being waged, we're talking about battles that don't involve Muslim lands, let's say, many of the battles are very murky. Can we help out? Can we support? This is some fiqh that can be discussed from this incident. Likewise, the issue of the Hilfah, Fudul and Mutayyabeen. These incidents show that, and this is a very important point for us in America, that the Prophet ﷺ was actively involved with the society of his time. even though the society of his time was not Muslim. And he was proud of that involvement. And the causes that he got involved with are not purely religious causes. So the Hilf al-Fudul involves justice, involves truth, involves helping the oppressed. And later on he is saying, I am proud to have been there and even now as a prophet and a Muslim were I called to uphold that treaty, I would proudly do so. And this clearly shows us that getting involved in public causes is a part of being a good Muslim. And this is one of the biggest problems that we have as a minority here in America is that we think we should only get involved in what we think are purely Islamic causes. We don't get involved with racism, with oppression, with poverty, with child abuse, with sexual abuse. We say, oh, these things, these are just other problems. We only get involved with Palestine and Kashmir and a flood over here and a flood over there and an earthquake over here in Muslim lands. Those are all good causes. I'm not, astaghfirullah, making fun of it. But at the same time, from the seerah, what do we learn? The Prophet ﷺ was an active part of his society. And he is supporting justice in his society. And that justice has nothing to do with Islam or non-Islam. with Muslim or kafir. And this is one of the biggest faults in my humble opinion of us as a minority. That we still don't seem to have a connection with the society around us. Think, imagine what da'wah we would have if a representative of the Red Cross society wanting blood, donating blood, is a bearded Muslim with a skull cap and he comes on TV. We need blood for our cause. Nothing to do with Islam, no da'wah, but that is the best da'wah. Imagine somebody talking against racism, talking against oppression, speaking out for the rights of these migrant workers, right? A muhajjib, a sister, coming on the television and saying, we need to protect children's rights, we need to do this and that. No, nothing about we need to convert to Islam, we need to give that, no. But her message is her da'wah. And her involvement with society is the best da'wah that she can do, right? This is what our Prophet ﷺ said, because basically, brothers and sisters, Oppression is oppression, regardless of who does it and who it's done against. Racism is racism. Child abuse is child abuse. Poverty is poverty. You don't need to be a Muslim to suffer from poverty, or to be helped because you're a Muslim. It affects all of us. And, listen to this, when you become involved with the problems of society, people see you as sincere. Then when you come forth and say, I'm a Muslim, your Islam is shown to be a sincere faith. And that's what our Prophet ﷺ did. He was involved with the problems of his society. And he's solving those problems. Then when he becomes a Prophet, he is known, he is loved, he is respected, his message now becomes acceptable. And nobody can come and say, who are you to preach to us? Where were you when we needed you? Where were you when society was suffering from a problem? You guys are following this point, right? And we as a Muslim community, the fact of the matter is we are cut off from the society around us we don't have active engagements with them we don't have any type of cause that subhanallah I mean I need to be concerned with my just as much as my neighbor for crime because crime affects me and it affects him I need to be concerned about the murder rates of Memphis I need to be concerned about all of the issues surrounding me and when I get involved in those issues and I become active in them now when I come forth and I say, well my religion is Islam, people are gonna listen to me. Because I have standing respect in society. And that's exactly what our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did. The bottom line here, there are values that are human values. Not necessarily just Islamic values. Justice, security, fighting against oppression. And the Muslim needs to be at the forefront in all of these issues. and because the truth is linked together. When you support justice and you have the proper theology, it will come forth as a total package. Unfortunately for us, da'wah is only talk. Preaching through theology. Preaching through talking to others. Debating with Christians and Jews about, no, this is one minuscule aspect of da'wah. And it is not the bulk of da'wah. Our Prophet ﷺ showed us what we need to do. and finally as well this clearly demonstrates the status of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam even before becoming a prophet despite the fact that he is hardly 20 years old he is called to witness the treaty of Jud'an and to participate along with dipping his hand he was the youngest participant and this shows us that they saw in him a future leader or else they would not have invited a young man to participate in their gatherings. He was the youngest participant in the house of Jud'an, and this clearly shows they sensed in him that he would become a great leader, and that is exactly what happened. And this incident also shows us that despite all of the differences and despite all of the problems of the Arabs and the Quraysh, they still had good in them. And they had characteristics of nobility and of virtue. And despite their tribal differences, they agreed to come together to help the wrong and the oppressed, and this shows us that even though it was a time of Jahiliyyah, there was still an element of virtue in them. And it was because of this virtue, and because of this element of good, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose to send our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in their midst to revive those very virtues. Insha'Allah ta'ala, next halaqa, next Wednesday, we will talk about the story of the marriage of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with Khadija and with other two or three stories, the building of the Kaaba and also how the Prophet ﷺ was protected as a young man before the Prophethood. And these are the final stories that we know before the actual Prophethood begins. Only two, three stories left and that is all that we know. Forty years of the Prophet ﷺ's life. Really all that we have done, completely I have not left anything. I have given you every story that we have from the classical tradition and you find how little it is. And this is Allah's wisdom, he has preserved what we need to know and there has much that has happened that will not have been a benefit to us and for wisdom known to Allah, it has been basically not been preserved and inshallah ta'ala with this we open up the floor for around 7 or 8 minutes of questions and then we will pray salat al-isha inshallah, yes bismillah you mentioned that Jid'an died before the da'wah and I just thought about that you mentioned how he was a noble guy what does Allah do with such people who did not become Muslim obviously they did not get the da'wah so the question is what is the fate of those who have not heard of Islam this is a question that springs to the minds of many many many people and the response is multifold first and foremost and I don't direct this only to you this is actually to everybody here it is not of much benefit to us to think about what is going to happen to other people. And to concentrate too much on this is actually problematic for us. We leave their affairs to Allah. That's the general rule. And the general rule as well is ask questions that are of benefit to us. And this is, we derive it from the Prophet's Hadith, that my ummah shall remain in good until they start asking about the children of the idol worshippers. Interesting, vague hadith. My ummah will remain in good until they begin asking about the children of the idol worshippers. Some of the scholars have interpreted this hadith. My ummah shall remain in good until they start debating about issues that are of no concern to them. I mean, what difference does it make to us what is going to happen? Allah is the most knowledgeable. Allah is the most merciful. Allah is the most wise. Allah is the most just. Let's leave it at that. That's one response and that's level one. And again, this is not just directed to you, don't feel, because everybody has this question on their minds, right? And so, the scholars say, and this is again, I'm not the one saying that, again, this we find in our books of theology, that this is a fundamental problem with many people, they worry about others too much. And Islam tells us to worry about ourselves. عليكم أنفسكم Worry about yourself. And when you do that, then you actually go very far. When you think about other people a lot, what happens is, you get lazy, and then you think yourself, mashallah, all high and mighty. Right? That's the first point. The second point, after having said, don't ask, I will then answer anyway. Because there is a theological benefit here. Scholars have differed greatly over this issue. And the bottom line is that people who had access to the teachings of Islam, or knew monotheism, but did not avail themselves to that knowledge, they will not have an excuse in the eyes of Allah. And this particular person, Abdullah ibn Jud'an, there is a hadith in Bukhari, that Aisha asked, Aisha is the distant niece, the great niece or grand niece, whatever, of Abdullah ibn Jud'an. And Aisha says, O Messenger of Allah, Ibn Jud'an was a great man, who was kind to the neighbors and good to the people. What will be his fate? What will happen to him? So the Prophet ﷺ said, He is going to the fire. So Aisha says, Why? So he says, and listen to this, He never said once, رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي Now, this is a very interesting point here. And I said this two, three days ago in the halaqah that I was having at night. In our times, people consider piety and righteousness to be only being good to others. If you're good to other people, khalas, that's all we need from you. You will go to heaven. If you open up an orphanage in Calcutta, khalas, you will become world famous. Doesn't care what you believe, doesn't care if you think God has a son, this becomes irrelevant. If you open up a hospital, if you're smiling to everybody, oh he was a good and loving man. In this hadith we learn no. That's all fine and dandy, yes. But there's an element that you need to do as well. And that is even more important than being good to others. And that is believing in the one who created you. And worshipping the one who created you. In the end of the day, being good to people is good. But worshipping Allah is better and more important. of what use is it to be good to mankind when you deny the one who gave you the greatest good and that is Allah. And so this person Ibn Juz'an never once did he say, رَبِّغْ فِي اللِّهِ رَبِّغْ فِي اللِّهِ He lived a life carefree of religion. He didn't have any religiosity. And so, it's a very simple question, why should Allah forgive somebody who never asked for forgiveness? Why should Allah reward somebody who never did anything for his sake? Very logical question, right? Why should Allah reward somebody? In our times, the verdict of piety is based completely on how good you are to others. In Islam, the verdict of piety is based on two things. What you believe and how good you are. إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ Both go together. You need to have the proper belief and do it for Allah, and then you need to have good amal that follows along with that. If you have one without the other, it is of no use. It is of no use. And we say this very clearly as well. Just because somebody says they're a Muslim, doesn't mean anything. Does not mean anything. And we believe as Muslims, that no human being has the right to say, you're going to Jannah, and you're going to hell. No. You don't say this to anybody, unless Allah has said it. so we say Abu Bakr is going to Jannah Iblis is going to hell I can say this because Allah told me we say Umar is going to Jannah Firaun is going to hell we say this because Allah has told me otherwise we don't say of any person even the greatest scholars Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafi'i, Imam Malik we say we hope they're going to Jannah InshaAllah they're going to Jannah but we don't say categorically and the same applies for the worst people on earth we don't mention names and say, so and so is going to hell. We don't say this. Why? Because who am I? Who am I? We leave it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but we speak in generalities. Whoever believes in Allah and does righteousness, will go to paradise. This is generalities. And I hope to be amongst them. And whoever rejects Allah, or does not act in righteousness, will go to the fire of hell, and I seek refuge in Allah from being amongst them. And this is something we're very clear about. Our religion is a religion where you need to have the proper belief and the proper action. And if you have one without the other, you're not going to get there. And the people in the time of the Prophet ﷺ's early life, they knew the true religion of Ibrahim. And they knew that Ibrahim was not an idol worshipper. And yet they simply wanted to ignore and live a carefree life. And therefore, the majority of them were not forgiven because of that. Sisters, you have a question? Yes, go ahead. Hilfal fudul, and it's also called hilfal mutayyabin. Hilfal fudul and hilfal mutayyabin. Yes, go ahead. As-salamu alaykum. We talked about a very relevant topic about community involvement that we don't seem to be aware of enough of. We are first generation Americans, and that's a historical perspective of how that happens. but I also find blame in how our scholars and our organizations have not paid that much attention to community service and the way to establishing mosques and mosques and massages. What do you say about that? Do you see that role of involving all of the Muslim leadership to motivate us? So the question is that what is the role of the leadership in pushing the community to get involved in these community projects? there is no question that the preachers, the du'a, the ulama, the lecturers they have a big role in educating the Muslim masses about this reality of our faith and there is no question you are correct in pointing out that most people do not mention community activism you hardly hear a khutbah about getting along with the community and in fact not just this you hardly hear a khutbah about a social problem this is itself a problem you hardly hear a khutbah about something that is relevant to the community a lot of times khutbahs deal with things that are not relevant to the people living here. And I hope inshallah I don't fall into this, because I have always tried my best, personally speaking, to always be relevant to the community, and to speak of something that the community needs to hear. Definitely this is changing inshallah, with the second and third generation. And I hope that inshallah, as we progress in the next few decades, inshallah we hope that the Muslim community will understand the importance, Islamically, politically, socially, to become relevant to the community around them. Of course, there are a lot of factors here. One of the factors is the cultural element. When our fathers came, and some of you are of that immigrant generation, of course, there is this detachment that this is not my place. Of course, it's natural. There's nothing wrong with that even, right? I mean, you weren't born and raised here. So, there's always this element of you have adopted this as your homeland. A lot of people when they came, they initially thought, five years, ten years, let me just get my education, let me work 2-3 years and those 2-3 years became 20-30 years some of them are still talking about going back home you know who I'm talking about here and they still have a home empty back home, somehow deluding themselves to think that they're gonna go back and live there so when your foot is still one foot is still back there I mean the fact of the matter, how are you gonna become involved in a society you don't think it is your own and I have said many times, I mean for those of us who are born and raised here, this is our home when we can think of no other. We wouldn't be able to function. Wallahi, I wouldn't be able to function in Karachi. My parents might have lived there 20-30 years. I cannot even imagine living there. It's not my hometown. So therefore, it's something that, inshaAllah, I'm optimistic. Those who have been born and raised here, they automatically feel the need to be socially relevant because this is their society. And inshaAllah, with the help and encouragement of new community leaders and new activists. Inshallah, we hope this will change. And I'm also very happy at what we have done here at MIC. We have done a lot of stuff, you know, with the blood drives, with the Heart Song Church. This is exactly what we need to be doing. Becoming socially relevant, making sure that the community knows who we are. Alhamdulillah, this is what we hope to become a type of model institution for other masajid in North America. You want to add a point, Danish, to this? Yeah, I want to add a point. I think the point is we also should encourage our parents, first generation Americans, to encourage their children to go into professions that are non-progressive. Encourage their parents to encourage their children. Okay. Our scholars and our da'at and our lecturers and our community leaders should encourage the parents of our societies and our communities to not only become physicians and lawyers and I think the threshold is near. But also, sociologists, historians, academics. Academics. Of course. sort of the gamut of the journalists and I think that Alhamdulillah, post 9-11 especially I think that a lot of people finally see the need, that engineers and doctors are great when it comes to solving equations and curing diseases, but really they're not going to become, make Islam a household name, they're not going to make this community, you know a name here, and subhanallah, all you need to do is look at the effects that somebody like the boxer Muhammad Ali had. Right? A million doctors couldn't do what this one man did. And that is to make Islam, this is back in the 60s and 70s, a household name and a symbol of respect. A million doctors and engineers could not do what this one man did. And that shows us, I mean, we need to broaden our horizons. We need to be able to, we always complain about, you know, another group, they do this, they do that, they do this, they do that. You know, if you go study these other groups and what they've done. You know, it's not as if they were handed this plate and it just descended out of thin air. They worked for it. And they got people to be active in media, active in the corporations, active in business, active in this and that. And therefore when you're a minority and you spread your people to the places where they need to be, this is how a minority survives. There's nothing nefarious or evil about it. Wallahi, I'm being blunt here. This is a reality. If you're a minority amongst a majority, the only way to survive and to flourish is to make sure that your minority is in positions of influence and respectability and power. We are oversaturated with engineers and doctors, lawyers and accountants. Alhamdulillah, we need that. But there's an oversaturation. We have a whole area here that we need to fill. My thing that I'm always pushing is we need scholars and activists from the second generation. Of course, that's my passion and forte. that we need to stop importing with all respect to our imams and scholars. We need to stop importing. We need to stop outsourcing Islam. We need to make our own teenagers. Find somebody who's bright, educated. Instead of sending him to Harvard, send him to Azhar or Medina. Pay for him, finance him. And then tell him, when you come back, you're gonna be our imam. Because we need a second generation imam. We need somebody who can give a khutbah and our youth want to go listen. Not give excuses to go run away. Right? Because it's socially relevant. All of this goes back to this issue of, you know, not just scholars and imams, but we need people involved in the media, representatives, spokespersons, everybody. And to each his own. I mean, alhamdulillah, I have a certain niche here that I'm doing this. I wish I could get involved in other things, but I can't. But every one of you should have a passion and a cause. Every one of you should have something that, look, I feel very strongly about, let's say, domestic abuse. I feel very strongly about it. Excellent. Go find a non-profit, an NGO that's educating, that's preaching. And get involved with that. I feel very strongly about cancer. Subhanallah. Go do something then. Educate the people. Give public service campaigns as a Muslim. All you need to do is, Muhammad so and so is being the spokesperson for the National Cancer Society. Subhanallah. Something as simple as that. That you are becoming socially relevant as a Muslim. This is one of the best da'was that you can do. Much better than a debate. much better than me preaching to a non-Muslim audience. You're gonna preach through actions, which is what our Prophet ﷺ did. Inshallah, it's time to stop for Salatul Isha. We will resume next week. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Seerah 70 - Letters to various Rulers - Dr

Al-Fatiha. the next segment of the seerah which is almost always discussed after the battle of Khaybar. And that is the segment dedicated to the letters and the emissaries that the Prophet ﷺ sent to the various rulers. Now, what must be kept in mind is that these letters were not sent all at the same time. Rather, there are various letters that have been sent. Some scholars have documented over 25 letters that the Prophet ﷺ sent. And the problem comes obviously each one of these letters is not worthy of an entire hour long lecture. So what typically the early scholars of seerah have done is to just dedicate one chapter, roughly about now, to all of these letters. And the realization is that, look, these letters occurred at different times and they were sent to different people. And what are the lessons that can be drawn from these letters? And why is it discussed right now? Because it was around this time, after Hudaybiyyah, probably even a little bit before Khaybar where the letters began, but it was after Hudaybiyyah and continued all the way up until the death of the Prophet ﷺ. And therefore, we will also follow this methodology and talk about some of the main letters and some of the benefits that we can derive from these letters. And the first of these letters which we have already referenced is the letter to Najashi. The letter to Najashi. And the Prophet ﷺ sent him a letter around this time. Now, this is not to be confused with Ja'far's dialogue. Ja'far's dialogue took place more than a decade ago Ja'far's dialogue literally a decade or in fact more than a decade probably 13 years have occurred since Ja'far has emigrated Ja'far has actually returned now in the battle of Khaibar so perhaps the letter came when Ja'far and the group had already left Abyssinia and the Prophet ﷺ sent him a letter and told him that from Muhammad ibn Abdullah to Najashi the emperor of Habesha inviting him to Islam telling him what is the Islamic belief about Isa that he said that I believe in Isa as the messenger of Allah, as his Ruh as the pure word that was given to Maryam so he summarized the Islamic teachings of Isa and then he said Aslim tuslim, accept Islam you will be safe and he concluded this letter by the verse of Ali Imran O people of the book come to terms that are common between us Ya Ahl al-Kitabi Ta'alaw ila kalimatin sawain baynina wa baynakum come to terms that are common between us. That we worship Allah alone, and that we don't take ourselves as gods besides Allah. And this was clearly the most successful of all of his letters. Because as we know, the Najashi accepted Islam. Now, there does appear to be some ambiguity. When did the Najashi accept Islam? And Allah knows best, but a lot of people assume that he accepted Islam when Ja'far gave him da'wah. but the fact of the matter if he had embraced Islam back then why would the Prophet ﷺ send him a letter now after Hudaybiyah and therefore what appears to be the case that Najashi was sympathetic to Islam but he had not actually embraced Islam Najashi was open to Islam and therefore one of the very interesting things we notice in the letter to Najashi unlike the letter to Kisra and the letter to Qaisar the Caesar and the Sassanid Emperor the Najashi letter does not have any threat at the end that if you don't accept then all of the sin of your people will be upon you whereas in the letter to the emperor of Rome and in the letter to the emperor of Persia both of these emperors they got this dire ominous warning at the end of the letter if you do not accept then you shall carry the burden of all of your people on the day of judgment whereas Najashi seems to have been spared this particular clause why? perhaps because the Prophet ﷺ knew he just needed a little bit of a push, he's gonna be accepting Islam. So Najashi, as we know, embraced Islam. And in fact, according to At-Tabari, according to At-Tabari, Najashi actually sent his own son to respond to the letter. And he sent his son with 60 members of the Habesha, and his son's name was Arha. Arha ibn As-Hama, because his name was As-Hama. Remember Najashi's name, Najashi is a title, the Negus, Najashi is a title. And his name was As-Hama or As-Huma, and this is his son Arha. So according to At-Tabari, he sent Arha with 60 delegates to give him gifts, and to announce his Islam, and to ask or to request or to say to the Prophet ﷺ, that if you want, I am also willing to come to Medina. If you want, I will come to Medina. But according to Atabari, the two boats drowned and all of the people died. And so this delegation never came. But the Islam of Najashi obviously was known to the Prophet ﷺ. And two and a half years later, in the ninth year of the Hijrah, when Najashi passed away, the Prophet ﷺ on the very morning that he passed away, he announced to the Sahaba, the very morning that Najashi is in Abyssinia, the same morning the Prophet ﷺ said, your brother has died in Habasha, your brother has died in Abyssinia, and let us go pray janazah for him. So the one and only time that janazah salat ala al-ga'ib was prayed, without a body being present. The one and only time when janazah ala al-ga'ib was prayed was when Najashi passed away. And that leads to the whole controversy in fiqh. When is janazah ala al-ga'ib prayed? And the correct opinion appears to be when a person dies and nobody prays janazah where he died. This seems to be the strongest opinion. That janazah is prayed, salat ala ghaib is prayed for those who their janazah is not prayed for them, so then the Muslims in other localities will pray for them. In any case, this is the famous letter to the Najashi. The second most famous letter is the letter to Caesar, emperor of Rome. And we already mentioned this in some detail, but there's no harajah repeating all the details because it has been more than two years since we mentioned this letter. So there's no problem in reiterating some of the details. And this letter is reported in Bukhari and Muslim. So it's a Mutafak alayhussalam authentic hadith. And it mentions the letter that the Prophet ﷺ sent to the Caesar. Now, who was the Caesar of his time? The Caesar of his time was Heraclius. And Heraclius reigned from 610 to 641 CE. Heraclius was the emperor of Rome at this time. and Heraclius by and large is viewed in a very favorable light by both Muslim and non-Muslim historians. Heraclius has a very glorious reign and he is credited with major victories especially against the Persians, the Sassanids. And of course, Surah Ar-Rum predicted this, right? Surah Ar-Rum, Alif Lam Mim, Ghulibat Ar-Rum Fi Adana Ardi Wohum Min Ba'di Ghalabihim Sayaghlimuna Fi Bida'i Sineen And I went over the story before that the Romans had suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Persians. And Allah mentions this in the Quran. Because what had happened was, the Persian emperor, Khosrow, Khosrow Aparviz, called Khosrow Parviz, Khosrow Aparviz had launched an attack against the Romans. And this had lasted 15-20 years. And this attack, Khosrow had managed to conquer most of Iraq, Mesopotamia, he had conquered Syria he had even conquered Damascus and Jerusalem I mean this was when the Persians were ruling Jerusalem not the Romans so the Persians had conquered Jerusalem and the Persians had conquered had conquered Damascus and they even made their way into parts of Egypt and it seemed as if the Roman Empire was on its last leg then what happened Allah revealed in the Quran Alif Lam Mim Ghulibatir Rum Fi Adna Ardi Wa Hum Min Ba'di Ghalabihim غَلَبِهِمْ سَيَغْلِبُونَ في بضع سنين. Allah says in a few years, the Romans will gain the upper hand. And when this verse came down, obviously the Romans were on the brink of defeat. Maybe even their civilization would have been wiped out almost. But what happened? Heraclius managed a very brave regrouping of his troops and he launched a counter offensive and he regained almost all of these lands up until in 628 CE. And this is when the Prophet ﷺ is alive. The verse has come down when he's alive. In 628 CE, Heraclius reaches the capital of the Sassanid Empire. And this is the famous city of who knows? Tesifon. Asfahan. Tesifon. The English name is Tesifon and Arabic is called Isfahan. Right? And to this day, Isfahan by the way, it has the ruins of that massive palace. Beams going, I don't know how many, 90 meters into the sky, like massive beams and palaces. So Heraclius lays siege to the very city of the Sassanid emperor. But there are fortified walls he cannot get through. And eventually, Khosrow, the emperor of the Persians, he has to flee for his life from the city. And he dies a few days later. His son actually does a kudayta. And his son, Khosrow's son, takes over. And Khosrow dies a very brutal death. We'll talk a little about that today as well. And Khosrow, we know exactly when he died. He died on the 27th of February, 628 CE. And this is, we'll talk about this in the 7th year of the Hijrah. And this is when the Prophet ﷺ is alive. All of this is happening, right? Heraclius gains the upper hand. Khusro is killed. He is deposed by his own son in a Qudaita. And this occurs when the Prophet ﷺ is alive. Now, back to the story of Heraclius. Heraclius was a great warrior. He was a political leader. And he was also very learned in Christian theology. Unlike most emperors of the time, Heraclius actually was a scholar of Christianity. And Islamic sources mention this, right? Christian sources mention a number of incidents that clearly indicate that this guy knew what this was all about. He understood theology. And perhaps his most famous issue of theology is that he tried to bring forth a type of compromise between the two major factions of Christianity of his time. He wanted to bring about unity amongst the Christians. And the two major factions of his time were the Monophysites and the Diophysites. Now this is before Catholicism and Protestant Christianity is literally yesterday. We're talking about 1500 years ago here, right? In those days, the two major branches of Christianity were the Monophysites and the Diophysites. And to this day, the Aqbat and the Nestorians are one version. And then Catholics and Protestants are the Copts and the Nestorians of Iraq. They still are the monophysites, sorry, they're the diophysites, excuse me. And then mainstream Christianity, which is Catholicism and Protestant and Orthodox Christianity, is the other side. So, Caesar or Heraclius attempted to combine these two theologies, and believe it or not, he actually brought forth a new theology that was kind of halfway between the two. So, he wanted to bring about a compromise that would allow both factions of Christians to unite. however, no matter he might have been a great politician, he clearly was not a skilled theologian because anybody who knows anything about theology knows there is no compromise when it comes to theology there's absolutely no compromise it's my way or the highway and so his new theology was neither accepted by the monophysites nor by the diophysites and so it kind of withered away and that theology which also has a name, is it monolithic? I forgot this fancy name for it And the whole issue, by the way, is over Jesus Christ, what is He? And you know, by now, I've said this so many times, the primary controversy of early Christianity for the first 400-500 years is over who is Jesus Christ, what is He? Is He God? If He's God, then how is He related to God Himself? Is He co-eternal? Is it the same substance, different substances, the same will, two wills? And all of this was the discussion for all of these hundreds of years. So, Heraclius tried to bring forth a new theology, and it lasted for a while, but neither group would compromise, so it kind of dwindled away. But the very fact that he's doing this shows what? That he understands theology. He is sympathetic, he knows what the controversies are. Now, as for the letter of the Prophet ﷺ to Heraclius, it is mentioned in a lot of detail in Sahih al-Bukhari, that the Prophet ﷺ sent Dihya al-Kalbi to the governor of Basra. Pause here, where is Basra? What is Basra? Who can tell me? No, I told you this so clearly three months ago. South of Damascus. This is not Basra. This is Basra. Right? There was no city Basra when the procession was there. Basra was made by the Muslim armies after they conquered Iraq. Right? Any reference of Basra, which is how it's pronounced, in the Sira literature, is to a small town south of Damascus. Okay? And it still stands to this day. So, the procession and Basra was an Arab town with Roman culture. Right? So it's Arab, but it's the very fringe of the Arab peninsula. And so they are Christian. And the culture, the language, the currency is all Roman. So whenever the trading expeditions would go north, they would trade at Basra. Right? Because that was where they would go. رحلة الشتاء والصيف This is Basra. So they would go to Basra, and then they would trade, and then they would come back down to Mecca. So the Prophet ﷺ sent a letter to the ruler or the governor of Basra, so that he will send it to the Caesar. And it so happened that Heraclius was visiting Jerusalem at the time. Did the Prophet ﷺ know this or it was a coincidence? We don't know. But most likely it was a coincidence. So the Prophet ﷺ sent a letter to the emperor through Basra. And Basra, because it's just very short from Jerusalem, it arrived very quickly in Caesar's hands and Caesar was in Jerusalem. and here we begin the narration from Abu Sufyan that Abu Sufyan narrates this in Sahih Bukhari and I mentioned this detail in detail I think I did mention this narration right? a long time ago the conversation between Abu Sufyan and Heraclius I'll quickly repeat that very quickly because we went over it in detail that Abu Sufyan narrates that he was trading in Syria pause in Basra he was trading in Syria in Basra when a crier comes out and says you are being called to Jerusalem. So they march to Jerusalem. And he doesn't understand what's going on. Lo and behold, Abu Sufyan is called to the presence of the emperor himself. And this is an amazing story. Abu Sufyan from Quraysh is now standing in the palace of Caesar in front of the emperor himself. What an auspicious occasion. And Caesar calls him and all of the Roman dignitaries are there. He calls his Arab translator and then he translates these questions to Abu Sufyan. That the whole group is there. Most likely there were some other tribes as well, non-Qurashi Arab tribes, because this is how the groups went. And so Abu Sufyan asks, sorry, Heraclius asks all of these Arabs, who is the closest in relation to you to the man that claims to be a prophet? The only Qurashi is Abu Sufyan. And Abu Sufyan is like a third cousin twice removed, or third cousin once removed, I think. So Abu Sufyan says, I am the closest relation, right? Abu Sufyan is Banu Umayyah and the process is Banu Hashim they go back literally three generations and it's the same person so Abu Sufyan says I am so Heraclius says sit in front of me now this is amazing it shows us Heraclius' wisdom Heraclius knows that all of these people are enemies he knows these people don't like the Prophet he knows they're still pagans how do you extract information from an enemy and prove it to be correct look at Heraclius' tactic and this clearly shows this was a wise and an intelligent ruler Heraclius used them against themselves and he divided the group into Abu Sufyan who's sitting in the front and the rest of his colleagues sitting in the back so Abu Sufyan cannot see the rest his back is to them and he says to Abu Sufyan I will ask you a series of questions and he says to the group behind Abu Sufyan if Abu Sufyan lies motion to me that he's lying Now obviously if one of them motioned, he'd get a prize, he'd get some money, he'd get honor, right? So Abu Sufyan was forced to tell the truth. Because he knows if he lies, somebody's gonna snitch on him, right? Somebody's gonna rat him out. Somebody's gonna say that he's lying and then Abu Sufyan will be exposed. So he said, wallahi had it not been that I was afraid that my companions would accuse me of lying, I would have not spoken the truth. Because at this time he's not a Muslim. Abu Sufyan will accept Islam when does he accept Islam? conquest of Mecca so this shows this incident takes place around 7 AH this incident takes place in the 7th year of the Hijrah so he asks Abu Sufyan what is the status of this man amongst you? how is his family? Abu Sufyan says he belongs to a very noble and good family he asks has anyone in your society ever claimed to be a prophet before him? Abu Sufyan says no he is the first man We didn't understand what is Prophet until he began preaching that he is a Prophet. Were any of his ancestors kings? No. Do the noble and rich follow or the poor and the downtrodden? The poor and the downtrodden. Are they increasing day by day or decreasing? They are increasing. These converts, when they convert, do they eventually give up and leave the faith or do they remain in the faith? They remain in the faith. no murtad, they remain in the faith have you ever accused him of lying no, we've known him to be an honest man does he break his promises no, he has not broken any promise but right now we just have a treaty with him, which treaty Hudaybiyah and we don't know what he might do Abu Sufyan says this is the only thing that I could squeeze in right we don't know he might break it, that's the only thing he could squeeze in, we don't know what he might do have you ever had a war with him? yes what was the outcome of that battle? sometimes he won, sometimes we won Badr, Uhud, Ahzab sometimes he won, sometimes we won what does he command you to do? he commands us to worship Allah and Allah alone and to not worship anything that our forefathers used to worship and he ordered us to pray to speak the truth to be chaste and to have good relations with our relatives so Heraclius then explained every one of his questions he said I asked you about his family and you replied that he belongs to a very noble family and in fact all of the prophets of God come from noble families in their peoples I asked you about anybody else if he had claimed to be a prophet before you said no if the answer had been yes I would have thought this is just a fashion a fad that people have invented now he is the other person It's cool to be a prophet, right? But you're saying nobody before him said that he's a prophet in your society. I asked you if his ancestors were kings. You said no. If his ancestors had been kings, I would have thought this is a technique or a tactic to get his kingdom back. Politics runs in blood. Once you or your family have been in politics, look at the Bush dynasty, look at the other dynasties here, the Kennedy dynasty. Once it's in your blood, it's in your blood, right? So Heraclius says, if there had been politics in his blood, I would have thought this is just a technique to get people behind him and to regain his kingdom. But you said he doesn't have kings in his ancestry. I asked you whether he's ever accused of telling lies before about money and gold and silver. And you said, no. So I wonder, a person who has never lied about gold and silver, about money, how could he lie about God? Now this is amazing here. Heraclius, the kafir, is giving Abu Sufyan the mushrik da'wah. You're saying he's an honest man, he's never lied or cheated or betrayed a trust. He hasn't lied to you about gold and silver, now you expect he will bring forth the biggest lie, and that is the lie about God himself? Doesn't make any sense. Heraclius said, I asked you who follows him, the rich or the poor? And you said the poor. and this is in fact all of the prophets of God the poor accept their message before the rich anything that attracts rich people any type of methodology or other ologies without mentioning names here that attracts the elite and the rich something is wrong the truth is always accepted by those who have nothing and the rich and powerful have the most to lose by the truth and that's why even in this land which group has the largest converts it's not the rich and powerful right? it is those that are socioeconomically of a lesser level they're the ones who have converted more and that's the reality Heraclius says I asked you whether his followers are increasing or decreasing and you said they are increasing and this too is the sign of the truth that the truth always gains more followers I asked you if anybody left his religion and you said never. And in fact, once faith enters the heart, it can never leave the heart after that. In other words, it's a sign of Iman. It's a sign of a true religion that when Iman enters the heart, it will never leave after that. I asked you whether he has ever betrayed you, and you said no. And the prophets of God can never betray or break a promise. I asked you what he ordered you to do. He said that he ordered you to worship Allah and Allah alone, etc. and these are all the marks of a prophet then Heraclius said if what you have said is true then he will very soon occupy this very space under my feet and we knew from our scriptures that God would be sending somebody but we didn't expect it to be from your race you see they didn't expect the Arabs to bring forth the religion of Ibrahim again they were expecting it from the Yahud they were not expecting the promised one or they weren't expecting the one that is predicted to come from the Arabs and and then he says if I could reach him definitely I would go to him and I would wash his feet etc etc and then Heraclius called for the letter to be read after understanding the context right so notice here again the wisdom and the foresight he wasn't hasty to open the letter he's getting a letter from somebody who claims to be a prophet let me find out who is this man. So he sends for Abu Sufyan, let me find out the context, now he opens the letter, and of course the letter is Bismillahirrahmanirrahim from Muhammad Abdullah wa Rasulihi ila Hiraq al-Azim al-Rum to Heraclius the emperor of Rome. Aslim tuslim, accept Islam you will be safe. Aslim yutik Allahu ajraka marratain, accept Islam Allah will give you a double reward. And if you reject Islam, then you will be committing a sin and the sin of the Areeceen will be upon you. Now Areeceen is a word that has caused problems for our classical scholars because it's not an Arabic word. And most scholars have interpreted Areeceen to mean the peasants, meaning the folk, the common folk. If you, O emperor, refuse the truth, then you shall bear the blame of the common folk. Now we'll get back to this word later on, but remember it is Areeceen. and then he recited the same verse of Ali Imran come to a common term between us the same verse Ali Imran verse 64 when Heraclius finished the letter this is Abu Sufyan saying there was a great human cry in the royal court and we were told to leave his gathering I mentioned to my companions as we exited that the matter of Ibn Abi Kabshah Ibn Abi Kabshah was a derogatory term for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he said Abu Sufyan is not a Muslim now and Ibn Abi Kabshah is a very derogatory term and it's something that is said out of gesture, out of a bad nickname. The matter of Ibn Abi Kabshah has become so big that the ruler of the Bani Al-Asfar, the Romans, is now scared of him. The matter of the Prophet ﷺ is now so big that the ruler of emperor is now scared of him. Then Abu Sufyan says, that was when for the first time in my heart I realized that this matter Islam would eventually prevail and this was the first time Islam entered my heart after 20 years of opposing now in the palace of the Caesar Abu Sufyan says I realize this is beyond my control now right? and Abu Sufyan therefore reluctantly he converted he did convert reluctantly towards the very end and there is no question that as we say this we don't mean to disrespect but as Allah says those who convert at the end after the conquest are not like those who convert before and Abu Sufyan is of those who converted at the very end and even then there was some reluctance and it took a while for Iman to come into his heart and we will talk about that when we talk about that now we also learn that the Prophet ﷺ sent a letter to the Caesar when he was camped in the battle of Tabuk so most likely then this is a separate letter some have said it is the same letter but most likely this is a separate letter and it could be the same because we really are not sure of this and in the Musnad Imam Ahmed we learn of a very interesting footnote to this incident that is not mentioned in Bukhari it's not mentioned in Bukhari and that is that Heraclius responded back by sending an emissary to the Prophet ﷺ he found an Arab from the tribe of Tanukh. We don't know his name, but he is called the one from Tanukh, At-Tanukhi. And this is called in Sira literature, the Hadith of the Tanukhi. Hadith of Tanukhi. We don't know his name. Just a man from Tanukh. And he found an Arab that he trusted, and the Tanukh were Christian Arabs. And so he handed a letter to him, and he said to this Tanukhi, that I am actually sending you as a spy, basically. The letter is just a ruse. I'm sending you as an Ayn. look out, it's a spy and I want you to monitor three things number one does he mention the letters that he sends to me and to the other kings does he mention the letters is that something comes up in his conversation number two does he mention the night when my letter will be read to him see what is his response there's a question in there does his response mention the night the night, day and night, the night. And number three, see if he has something strange on his back. Khatam al-Nabuwa. So the Tanukhi came, and the Prophet ﷺ asked him, who are you? He said, I am a man from Tanukh, and the Caesar has sent me. And the Prophet ﷺ said, that you should embrace the religion of your forefather Abraham. You should become a Muslim. And the man said, let me think about it. I'll think about it, you know. And here is a letter from Caesar. so the Prophet ﷺ did not even open the letter and he just had a conversation with the Tanukhi and he said in that conversation the Tanukhi is reporting, so the whole conversation we don't know, but Tanukhi remembers certain things, he said the Prophet ﷺ I sent my letter to Kisra the emperor of Persia but he tore it up we'll talk about this in section 3 right now we're talking about the letter to Caesar the next section is the letter to Kisra. I sent my letter to Kisra, but he tore it up. So Allah will tear his kingdom up. And I sent my letter to the Caesar, and he protected it, Hafidhaha. So Allah will protect his kingdom. So the Tanukhi said, check one. First check, right? That by sending the letter to the Caesar and protecting it, so his kingdom will be protected. then he opened up the letter and in it the Caesar asked him a question and that question was your messenger told us that your book describes the Quran describes a heaven that is as broad as sorry a Jannah not a heaven a Jannah that is as broad as the skies and the earth Jannatun Arduha Qassamawati Wa Arduha Assamawati Wa Al-Ardi right so the question is if Jannah is as big as the skies and the earth where according to your religion is Jahannam? this is the question and the Prophet ﷺ responded Subhanallah fa ayna al-laylu iza aqbala al-nahar Subhanallah you're asking Allah to outwit him where do you think the night goes when the day comes? so he responded to the question with another question and the question had the term Layl in it So the Tanukhi said Check two, number two check as well Right, then he stayed A day or two waiting to see If he could, you know, look at the Back of the process, but obviously how is he gonna See the back of the process, because he's wearing A shirt, so finally The Tanukhi says, okay I'll go back and tell him I saw two of the three signs, right So he went to the process and he said that And he's not a Muslim at this stage, and he said that Oh Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam I will now go back to the Caesar and I'm leaving to return to him. So the Prophet ﷺ said, wait. He turned around, lowered his shirt, and said, go and tell your Caesar what you have seen. So he showed him the third sign which is the Khatam al-Nabuwa. And so the man returned with all three checks. So clearly from our tradition, now obviously I don't need to tell you, from the Western tradition, these details are not mentioned. This is from our tradition, right? From the Western tradition, it's actually pretty amazing that the reigns of the Caesar and Heraclius and all of these incidents match up perfectly. But the Western tradition does not mention any of these letters, much less the details of theology or what not. Obviously this is from our tradition and the Western tradition does not have anything of this nature. But from our tradition we learn that the Caesar then realized that this is true. and Bukhari then returns to the narration of Caesar now this story of the Tanuki is not mentioned in Bukhari and you need to understand it to understand the next bit, so Bukhari actually has two stories and you would think it's the same story, it's not the same story these are two separate stories the first of them is Abu Sufyan and Heraclius the second of them is Heraclius pretending to embrace Islam these stories don't happen the same day they actually happen maybe a year or two apart, so the second story takes place after the Tanuki incident. Is that clear? Right? We add the Tanuki incident in the middle, then we get to the story that is mentioned in Bukhari. And the story goes as follows, that Heraclius was the head of the Christians of Rome. And one of the narrators mentions that when Heraclius one day woke up, he woke up in an angry or in a sad mood. And some of his priests asked him, why are you in such a sad mood? Heraclius said that I have seen a dream and my astrologers have foretold a very evil omen, a very evil sign. And that is that a leader has appeared of a new people. This leader will challenge me. A leader has appeared of a new people and these people circumcise themselves. These people circumcise themselves. So his viziers, his ministers, his senators said, what is there to worry about? The only group that practices circumcision are the Yahud. And go and send another problem, another irritation, go and send another command and decree. And of course, anti-Semitism has always existed in ancient Christianity. And I said this many times as well. We as Muslims did not know the meaning of anti-Semitism up until recently. Historically speaking, anti-Semitism has been a uniquely Christian phenomenon. And it is impossible for the Arabs who are Semites to be anti-Semitic, because that will mean they're against their own peoples. Nonetheless, The point being that this issue of irritating the Jews or putting more restrictions on them has always been a theme of medieval Christianity. So his viziers, his ministers said to him, not viziers, viziers is a Muslim term. His ministers, his senators said to him, why don't you just send another rule upon the Yahud, make them, clamp them down upon them, do this and that. And before the rule could come, before Caesar could enact such a rule, Dihya al-Kalbi arrived in his court. Dihya al-Kalbi arrived in his court with the message of the Prophet ﷺ. And the Heraclius said, go check is Dihya circumcised or not. Now, the Arabs by and large did not circumcise themselves. This was something that began in Islam. By and large, the Arabs did not circumcise themselves. Some of them did, some of them didn't. It wasn't a custom that was amongst all the Arabs. And so, Dihya al-Kalbi was examined by the guards of Caesar. lo and behold he's circumcised and that's what made Heraclius really concerned that something's going on here and Heraclius then wrote to a letter to a friend of his in Rome and who was even more knowledgeable than Heraclius, most likely this is John IV who was later to become the Pope this is my theory but Allah knows best John IV later becomes the Pope of the Catholic well it's not quite Catholic at this stage with the Christians. And so Heraclius writes a letter to somebody, we don't know his name in the seerah, to somebody in Rome who is more knowledgeable than him. And Bukhari does not mention, but it is my theory that it is this man who writes the three signs to Heraclius. This is my theory, take it or leave it. That these three signs, this man writes to Heraclius. That go test the Prophet with these three signs. Then Heraclius sends the Tanukhi with these three signs. The Tanukhi comes back and it's all check. So then he realizes this is the one. Now Bukhari continues. That, when he got the Tanuki back, basically Bukhari continues that he called all of the senators into the room, closed the door, and then he announced to them, what do you think if I were to say that this messenger that has come, I embrace his faith. Now obviously by this time, the Roman Empire is the bastion of Christianity, and they start bolting, and they start saying, there's no way you're gonna be our emperor, If you leave the faith of Jesus, etc., etc. So they find the doors closed. And Heraclius says, I was just testing your faith. I will always be true to Christianity. Now obviously this whole story is only found in Muslim sources. It's not found in the Christian sources. And so Heraclius basically does not accept Islam. And he dies upon his faith. Now actually he dies somewhat of a miserable death. There was a coup in his own palace eventually. This is after the ending of Islam. Heraclius was alive when the Muslims conquered Jerusalem the prediction that he said he saw it happen he said they will rule this land under my feet and less than seven years and this is amazing and we've said this many times before that these massive empires were literally conquered by literally a bunch of Bedouins from the desert coming out of the desert without the arms the weapons without the military techniques. He is speaking from Jerusalem surrounded by, you know, the Roman Empire goes for another 300 miles. And he says, if what you're saying is true, eventually he will control this land. It wasn't eventually, it was seven years from when he said that. He's still alive. He sees the carving up of the Roman Empire. Damascus, Syria, Jerusalem, Palestine. All of this goes to the Muslims. And then Alexandria within a few years as we talked about, right? All of this goes. And then of course the Sassanids are a whole different story. And we're going to talk about them right now. So this is Caesar. How about the emperor of Rome? Now the emperor of Rome, sorry the emperor of Persia. The emperor of Persia, his name was Khosrow. His name was Khosrow. And he had a title of Aparwiz. Aparwiz. And this Aparwiz is commonly referred to in our cultures, especially in the Pakistani and Indian cultures, Parvez. but his actual name was Aparwiz Aparwiz maybe but it is now made into Parvez in our culture anybody who is called Parvez this is where it comes from any Parvez's in the audience? no Parvez's over here huh? Parvez Musharraf Parvez Musharraf okay so the president of Pakistan is named after the Sassanid ruler he's no longer the president? so many coups happening I don't know I don't keep track of Pakistani politics anyway so and this Aparviz this Khusro reigned from 590 to 628 and 628 and he was the last of the great Sassanid kings the last after him the Sassanid empire never regained its glory the very last emperor of the Sassanid empire the great emperor, there were some minor skirmishes and a few people after him and then within nine years, the Sassanid Empire literally imploded, right? After in his own lifetime, having conquered almost half of the Roman Empire. Imagine, Khosrow Aparviz was the emperor who conquered Damascus, who conquered Jerusalem, whose forces entered Egypt. Can you imagine this man's might? And he saw the empire crumble before his very eyes and within less than a decade, the Sassid empire was wiped off the face of this earth as if it never existed. And why did this happen? Well, from our stories is very simple. Obviously, modern historians have their theories here and there. Even though really, no matter what, whether you believe or not, there's no question, it is an amazing, amazing, amazing event of human history that this mighty civilization and empire that was threatening the very existence of Rome 10 years ago, right? Literally disappears. بين عشية وضحاها it disappears within a few years and it completely implodes and crumbles and it embraces Islam so much so that Zoroastrianism is no longer practiced in the lands of Zoroaster and the mighty fires that were lit and all of this all now, khalas, you know, it is now gone that mighty empire, it embraced Islam and it became under the role, under the rule of the Muslims, now Khosrow Aparviz as we said rules from 590 to 628 and historians by and large, Muslim and non-Muslim have painted him as a very cruel emperor, as a very lustful sensual emperor books of history mention that he had a harem harem, of course it wasn't called a harem harem is an Arabic word that he had a harem of 3000 concubines and he was a person given to sensual pleasures and people hated him for his cruelty, this is khusro and the Prophet ﷺ sent him a letter through the ruler of Bahrain because Bahrain at the time of the Prophet ﷺ wasn't just the island it was actually more than the island and he sent Abdullah ibn Hudhafa to the ruler of Bahrain to pass on the letter to Aparviz and At-Tabari mentions the text of the letter Bismillahirrahmanirrahim from Muhammad the messenger of Allah to Khusro the emperor of the Persians peace be on those who follow the guidance and these are who are the people who follow the guidance those who believe in God and his messengers and testify that there is no God other than him and that he is unique having no partners and that Muhammad is a slave and messenger and I call you with the da'wah of Allah with the call of Allah for I am the messenger of Allah to all of mankind to warn those who are alive and to establish evidence against those who reject so therefore aslim tuslim the same phrase accept Islam, you will be safe but if you refuse then you shall have the sins of all of the Majus on you as the leader you have a double responsibility, now the emperor was a very arrogant person and when the letter came to him he scoffed at this letter and he mocked the messenger the messenger of the Prophet and he tore up the letter in front of his face and when the news reached back to the Prophet this hadith is in Bukhari the Prophet said that he tore up my letter Allah will tear his kingdom up every tearing and that's an emphasis that as he tore my letter up so Allah will disintegrate his kingdom because of the disrespect that has been shown and the emperor sent a message to one of his other governors by the name of Bahdan and Bahdan was also a governor but not from Bahrain Bahdan was a governor more towards the what would now be the not the Qatari side, but more on the Yemeni side. Like more on the southern coast. Right? So, and Baadhan was more trusted to him than the emperor, than the than the governor of Bahrain. So he sent a letter to Baadhan. And he said to Baadhan, go send me some spies. Sorry, send some spies to Medina and find out more information about this man. And if you're able to physically bring him back to me, bring him back. I mean, what arrogance. Two people are gonna go and bring back the process. when the Quraysh fell, but you see his arrogance. But definitely bring me back news about this man. So Ba'ath chose two of his trusted emissaries, and their names were Baba Weih and Khur Khasra. Baba Weih and Khur Khasra. And they went to Medina with a letter, and the letter was just a ruse, it's not anything important. The point is to get some information about the Prophet ﷺ, about Islam. And when they arrived in Medina, they were terrified because they knew they were spies and if they were caught they would give me trouble they were terrified and the Prophet ﷺ said wait and come back to me the next day I don't want to get the letter right now come back to me the next day the next day the two emissaries came and they brought the letter again and the Prophet ﷺ didn't even open it and he said go back to your Rabb your Rabb meaning because they called we in Islam are not allowed to call Rab, you know, but they call their emperors Lord they call their rulers Lord so go back to your Rab and tell him that my Rab has killed his Rab his Rab being Khusro his Rab being Khusro this is definitely a play on words, you go back to your Rab, their Rab is Baadhan, right? And go tell Baadhan, your Rab, that my Rab has killed his Rab, meaning Khusro, and that his son has taken over. Now, the two were completely in shock. And they went back to Baadhan without even talking about the letter or anything. They went back to Baadhan, and by the time they got back, they discovered the news as well, that in fact Khosrow Aparwiz Khosrow Aparwiz had fled from Asfahan and his son Yazdajard, his son had performed a coup d'etat had executed a coup d'etat and his son had sent an army to actually imprison his father this is very common in the old times, people would kill their own fathers and brothers for the sake of power to imprison his own father In the meantime, Yazdajar offers a peace treaty with the Romans. So the Romans go back. They don't actually conquer Ctesiphon. So Heraclius goes back. And Yazdajar murders his own father. He kills his own father in a very cruel way. He starves him to death for five days. And then in dungeons. It's a very cruel death. And it's just the way they used to do things back then, I guess. And western sources mention that this incident happened around 28th February, 628 CE. The killing of Khusro happened in 628 CE. And this corresponds exactly with when this might have been happening possibly in the seerah. And that is Jumad al-Ula of 7 AH. Jumad al-Ula of 7 AH. And for those who deny the seerah or deny a hadith, these types of things, I mean you cannot fabricate this type of stuff. the precision to get it down to a right date. You know the Munkir Hadith people, right? You know the people, you cannot possibly fabricate these things. Because it's very, it's impossible to bring it down. That while the emissaries are there, and the Prophet ﷺ says, my Lord has killed his Lord today. Go back and find out. And that's exactly what happened. That in Jum'ah al-Ula of 7 AH, Khusro met his death. And exactly as the Prophet ﷺ predicted, that within a few years, Allah literally disintegrated the kingdom of the Sassanids as if it never existed. And such an implosion has rarely been seen in the history of mankind. Where a nation collapses for no clear reason. Now obviously, if you don't know a reason, you'll have to find some. And modern historians, they say, there was this, there was that. But in the end of the day, I mean, these intrigues happen all the time. They're not the end of kingdoms. military victories and for 350 years the Romans and Persians were at each other's throats neither of the two disappeared anyway the Muslims came and within 8 years Tesifon became Isfahan which it is to this day and the entire province, the entire lands of Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan and Khorasan which is what the Sassanids controlled all of them came under Muslim lands and this is predicted by the Prophet ﷺ Now, what happened to Baadhan? What happened to the two emissaries? When the two emissaries returned, we learned from one of the small treatises written by Abu Ubaid al-Qasim bin Salam, one of the early authors, 234 A.H. He writes a book about taxes and jizya and whatnot. And he has a paragraph there, which actually is a part of the seerah. And he mentions that when these two people came back and told them what the Prophet ﷺ had told him, So Baadhan realized that this man is a true prophet. Baadhan embraced Islam. These two emissaries embraced Islam. And large groups from that area of Yemen, which would be the eastern tip of Yemen. The eastern, what is in the Oman area? What is in the Oman area? They embraced Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ then sent them another letter after they had embraced Islam. And he told them about the rules of Jizya. and he said that if anybody accepts Islam and prays and fasts and what not, they are a part of the believers. If not and they remain majus, so they were majus in that area, then let them pay the jizya and that is fine. So this is the story of Kisra and Ba'dan. There were other letters written as well and we'll just quickly go over two of them and then conclude. And of the most famous of the next batch of letters is the letter to Muqawqis. And Muqawqis is the title given to the governor or the ruler of Egypt. Muqawqis is a title, just like Kisra is a title, and Najashi is a title, Muqawqis is a title. And Muqawqis is a title given to the ruler of Egypt, and his name was Jurayj ibn Mina. And the Prophet ﷺ wrote him a letter, and we don't have in any authentic narration the actual text of the letter. We don't have that. But we do know that Muqawqis was polite and he sent back gifts and he sent back cloth and he sent back dul-dul, which was to become the mule of the Prophet ﷺ. And he sent back Marya and her sister Shirin or Sirin. And Marya of course is Umm Ibrahim. And so he gifted these things to the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ is said to have remarked that the khabith, referring to Muqawqis, the khabith has protected his kingdom by his politeness basically. But Allah will not allow his kingdom to last. The khabith has protected his kingdom for the time being. But Allah will not allow his kingdom to last. And the Prophet ﷺ also sent letters to the governors of other areas which are now in Oman. And he sent Amr ibn al-As, the famous Amr ibn al-As, he sent him to what is now Oman. And the leaders of Oman also embraced Islam. He sent letters after the conquest of Mecca. So Oman embraced Islam and then after 200 years, Oman became an Ibadite country. And that's a separate story that the Ibadis came and took over Oman after 200 years. Until that day it has been Ibad. and he also sent letters to other tribes as well and scholars have listed over 20 such letters to various provinces within Arabia the more important ones we have discussed and then the rest we don't have to discuss each and every one one of them being to Musaylim al-Kadhab one of them being to the Banu Hanifa and they said, the Banu Hanifa said we will accept Islam only if you share power with us and if you give power to us then we'll embrace Islam and the Prophet ﷺ responded back to him that inna al-arza lillahi yurithuha man yasha'u min ibadihi The earth belongs to Allah and Allah will give it to whomever He pleases. And as you know what happened with Musaylimah after this. Now some of the benefits we can derive and then inshallah we'll call it in the evening. Some of the benefits we can derive from these letters. First and foremost long-term goals. Long-term goals. Although most of these letters did not have any immediate major impact except for Najashi really. that was the only one that really had a significant impact. And even that by the way, it was significant in that Najashi embraced Islam, but his people did not embrace Islam at the time. Only Najashi did. And that's why there was no janazah over him when he died. So there was no major political impact from these letters. But the fact of the matter is that, there clearly is the intention to make the message of Islam a global message. And that's really the key point here. That it is amazing that within one decade of the Prophet ﷺ writing these letters, every single land that he wrote a letter to was within the lands of Islam. There's no land that he wrote a letter to, except that in less than a decade, that land was incorporated into the land of Islam. And this is an amazing reality that the Prophet ﷺ is indeed aiming global. And so what's happening here is that the Prophet ﷺ is making the Islamic Republic or the Islamic Empire an international nation. A nation or an empire or a republic that is now worthy of dialogue, worthy of exchanging ambassadors with Kisra, with Caesar, with Najashi. This is now becoming a civilization like all other civilizations. Also, just as we notice whom he did send letters to, let us also notice whom he did not send letters to. No doubt everybody knew that there were civilizations beyond the Romans and the Persians. And beyond the Habasha. These were the three major areas he targeted. Everybody knows beyond the Habasha there's a whole continent of Africa. Everybody knows beyond the Persians there are the Chinese, the Sin and what not. But the Prophet ﷺ did not send them any letters. Why? Well because there's no direct contact with them. There's a pragmatic approach here. That concentrate on those that have dialogue with the Muslims and the Arabs. now another interesting point here is that clearly the response of the rulers has some type of theological weight for us look at what the Prophet ﷺ said to Kisra he tore my letter up Allah will tear his letter up look what he said to Muqawqis because he was polite to me Allah will keep his kingdom look at what he said to the Caesar because he preserved my letter Allah will preserve his kingdom and look at what Caesar said to Tanuki does he mention the letters of the kings that he writes to. So clearly there's something theological that we have in our tradition about this regard. Another interesting thing, look at the letters themselves. Each letter is just one paragraph, very short, very succinct, very to the point. It's not drawn out intensive theology. Each letter begins with Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. So this is a sunnah that we should follow in official letters that we write. Each letter begins from so and so to so and so. This is part of the etiquette that is now standard. And the Prophet ﷺ is utilizing it. من محمد بن عبد الله رسول الله إلى so and so. So he mentions who he is, he mentions who he is writing to. And each letter explain the message of Islam in five sentences or sometimes four. Simple, to the point. Islam is one God, worship Him. It's very simple and to the point. Notice as well that each letter is catered to the one it is being written to. The letters are not all the same. so the letter that he writes to Najashi and to the Caesar has the verse of Al-Imran in it but the letter that he wrote to Kisra did not have any verse in it because Kisra is not Ahl-e-Kitab and the verse in Al-Imran is about Ahl-e-Kitab and in Najashi's case he explained to him what he believes about Jesus Christ I believe Jesus to have been born of a virgin birth. So he's explaining Christian theology to Najashi that this is what we believe. So this is another interesting point as well. Also one very important point for us here is that when the Prophet ﷺ wrote his first letter to the Caesar, he was told, the emperors do not accept letters from other rulers unless the ruler himself stamps it and seals it with wax. so you have to seal the letter with wax with your stamp and then the other ruler will open it so that it is very clear nobody has read it in the middle so the Protestant was told that this is the international diplomacy, these are the laws of writing letters to international in an international manner what did he do? we all know what he did he made a ring for himself and he ordered wax to be poured and then he put the wax on the... He sealed the wax on the letter, right? And this is a very simple evidence to show there's nothing haram about imitating the norms of modern culture. There's nothing wrong with how others do business and we follow their norms. There's a few people that still, oh, we have our own... Islamic culture, by and large, is not necessarily Islamic. meaning you're allowed to be broad-minded in this regard. Etiquettes, mannerisms, dialogue, cuisine, clothes, all of this is open. And therefore when the Prophet ﷺ heard, look there's a new way, I have to do it in this manner, he actually did it in that manner. And notice as well, he addresses the people with their highest titles. From the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to the emperor of Rome, to the emperor of Persia. And he's giving them their honorary titles. And this is something again, a part of the etiquettes. Also, one of fiqh point to be derived here, that from the letter to the people of Oman, it says in that letter, that take jizya from the majus. And this clearly shows, there is a controversy in the four madhhab. Two of the madhhab say, that jizya can only be taken from Ahl al-Kitab. So in an ideal Islamic land, you can only have Ahl al-Kitab and Muslims. But the Hanafi madhhab, and most of the later Malikis, they say, no, jizya can be taken from anybody. And of course, the Hanafis definitely needed this rule because they ruled over Central Asia and they ruled over India. And Central Asia and India had plenty of non-Ahli Kitab. Right? And so they definitely needed this rule. But the evidence clearly shows that this position is the stronger one. Because the Prophet ﷺ is writing to the people of Oman and Majus are not Ahli Kitab. Majus are not Ahl al-Kitab And yet Jizya is to be taken from them So this clearly shows that It is open Jizya can be taken In an ideal Islamic state Jizya can be taken from any entity Now final point Remember I said that the term Arisiyun or Arisiyin Has brought a lot of discussion In classical hadith commentaries And the reason being That Arisiyin Is not an Arabic word And if you look at any commentary of Bukhari people are struggling what did he mean by Arisiyun Arisiyin and most people say he must have meant the peasants and the masses however in our times or recently Abu'l-Hassan Nadwi the famous scholar from India Abu'l-Hassan Ali Nadwi very famous scholar and Alim Rabbani he actually has an interesting opinion and this opinion makes a lot of sense to me he says Arisiyun means the followers of Ares. And Ares is the Arabic of Arius. And Arius is a very, very famous, or I should say infamous Christian theologian who died 336 CE. And Arius preached a very different version of Christianity than other early Christian theologians. And Arius preached a version that, I'm not going to say it is Islamic because it is different, but it is far closer to the Islamic notion of Jesus than other notions. For example, Arius believed there was a time when there was no Jesus Christ, there was only God. And Jesus then came into being later on. Clearly, that is not what mainstream Christians say, right? And the Arius heresy became so widespread that when Constantine embraced Christianity, the first thing that they needed to do was to get rid of this Arius version of Christianity. So what did he do? Constantine, and this is very basic knowledge, all of us should be aware of this. Constantine called an international gathering of Christian bishops from around the Roman Empire. and they gathered together in the city of Nicaea not Nice Nice is a different land Nicaea Nice is in France Nicaea is in I think modern Turkey Nicaea yeah it is in modern Turkey Nicaea is in modern Turkey and in Nicaea in the year 325 they debated for weeks on end and they came forth with a creed and the main point of the creed was refuting who? Arius and the Arius heresy was made official anybody who believes in the doctrine of Arius is a heretic meaning a murtadi, a kafir and he's not allowed to live here so Arius was exiled and Arius fled down north and in the Nicene decree it says anybody who has any books of Arius shall be burned at the stake and he'll be killed So the writings of Arius have almost become non-existent. And all of the information we have about him, we have from his enemies. And we don't know for sure exactly what he said. But clearly his teachings are much closer to Islam than any other version of Christianity. And the fact that the Prophet ﷺ is writing two and a half centuries later, referring to Christians as Arisiyun, the followers of Arius, is very profound. it actually demonstrates that the Prophet it is as if he is saying and by the way I think this is the correct opinion by the way because Arisiyun is not a term for peasants in the Arabic language Arisiyun is not an Arab word and our classical scholars had a lot of trouble what is this word, what does it mean and Arisiyun is exactly what you would call in Arabic the followers of Arius, exactly what you would say is Arisiyun is the followers of Arius and in fact early Muslim books that write about Christian heresiology. They mention Arisiyun, but they don't make the connection that that's what is mentioned in Bukhari. And one of the reasons that I think this is really the correct opinion is that if you look at the letter to Kisra, to Khusro, the Prophet ﷺ said, if you reject, then the sin of the Majus will be upon you. And this parallels exactly what is in Caesar's letter. Because if you understand Arisiyun to be peasants, then that doesn't match what he's written to Khusro you guys following? whereas if Adi Seyun means Christians of a certain type that would match what is being written to Khusro and it is as if the Prophet ﷺ is saying that look out of all of the groups of Christians now when the Prophet ﷺ came the Arius heresy had almost died out but it's still alive there are still people that follow Arius and there's small pockets and it is as if the Prophet ﷺ is saying that look the Arisiyun are the closest to Islam. And if they hear my message and if you allow them to hear my message they will embrace. But if you deny my message to them then the group that will for sure convert you will be responsible for them on Yawmul Qiyamah. And this shows us that at a time when no Arab in Central Arabia would have possibly known of Arisiyun versus Monophysites versus Diophysites our Prophet ﷺ is fully aware and he is writing about the Arisiyun and just to give you an idea about how close Islam is to Arius and the belief of Arius Peter the Venerable who was Abbot of Cluny and who was one of the most famous Christians of the Crusades, very Christian theologians of the Crusades and Peter the Venerable is also the first Christian to ever translate the Quran into a Romance language, into Latin the first person to ever study Islam academically in order to refute it and to translate the Quran into Latin around 1250 or so. This is Peter the Venerable. Peter the Venerable is a very famous person. All Christians who know medieval Christianity have heard of Peter the Venerable. And Peter the Venerable writes the refutation of Islam. And in it he says that Muhammad ﷺ is the successor to Arius. It's amazing that when he studies Islam, Peter the Venerable says that our Prophet ﷺ, he is nothing but a successor to Arius. So he sees in our theology echoes of Arius' theology. And that of course is the Islamic position that Jesus is not divine or the son of God. That Jesus was created at a particular time and he has all the honor that he has as a prophet and a human being. Now Arius, he might not have been exactly like that. But no doubt he does not believe in the divinity of Jesus the way that the other Christian groups believe in. and that is a very interesting point the final point, 10 seconds quickly sorry to disappoint you but all of these pictures that you've seen of letters of the Prophet ﷺ these are all not authentic the actual letters of the Prophet ﷺ have not lasted to our times that's just not possible to have done the writing material, they're written on parchments, they're written on leather they would not last for 14 centuries no document from that time has lasted on parchment, it's not going to and there are books that have, you know, Muslim books that have these pictures. These are all, you know, they're not real. Our Prophet ﷺ's letters have been preserved in memory, in the context, but not the actual physical letter that along with anything from the time of the Prophet ﷺ, neither his clothes, nor his shoes, nor his ring, nor anything. All that you see here and there, sorry to disappoint you, but no, it's not going to last for, you know, 14 centuries. These are things that are of a, you know cloth and what not it's not going to last for that long so these are not authentic and with this inshallah we will stop for today and next week we'll talk about Umrah Al-Qada' and what happened when the Prophet ﷺ fulfilled his promise to go back to the Umrah Thank you.

Seerah 71 - Umrah Al Qadah - Dr

Al-Fatiha. So today inshallah ta'ala we will move on from the battle of Khaybar. And in the next six months, a number of minor expeditions happened which frankly even though this is an advanced seerah class, but there's nothing really a huge tangible political change through those minor expeditions. So we'll skip over them. The Prophet ﷺ sent Umar ibn al-Khattab, he sent Abu Bakr, he sent other sahaba on expeditions where perhaps one tribe might have embraced Islam or another small area conquered. But in the broad scale of things, it wasn't anything as large as, let's say, Khaybar or Khandaq or Ahzab. And so we really skip over those small points because the fact of the matter is we don't know these tribes that well in our times and we don't know the geography of each area, meaning the audience here. So there's no point in go over them. So we just skip the next few months and we move to Umratul Qada, which is the Umrah, that is the Qada, that is the making up of the Umrah. so the Umrah that they were supposed to do in Hudaybiyah they make up for it that's why it's called Umrah al-Qadha it's as if they have to make up for the Umrah that they did not technically do even though they did it in terms of Allah's reward so the Umrah of Hudaybiyah is an interesting Umrah in that we assume that the Prophet ﷺ did it in reward even though he didn't do it in actuality so when somebody asks you how many Umrahs did he do we begin number one Umrah al-Hudaybiyah We actually began like this. Why? Because Allah gave him the reward for it. And he shaved his hair off. So it's as if he did it, even though he didn't actually do it. So the first Umrah that he actually did is Umrah al-Qadha. And Umrah al-Qadha, the Prophet ﷺ left Medina in the 7th year of the Hijrah, in the month of Dhul Qa'dah. 7 AH in the month of Dhul Qa'dah. And he left with around 2000 Muslims. So this is now a massive amount of people going to Mecca. and this time they took all of their weapons with them, unlike the last time. This time they took all of their weapons with them and they were prepared just in case the Quraysh would prevent them and take them to battle. So when the Quraysh heard that 2,000 Muslims are coming and they are armed, when they came close to Mecca, the Quraysh sent out a delegation led by Mikraz ibn Hafs who was also in the delegation of Hudaybiyyah and Mikraz said to him, O Muhammad ﷺ, We have never seen you be treacherous in anything small or big. So what's with the weapons? How come you're coming with these weapons? When we had agreed that you would come with no weapons other than swords inside their scabbards. In other words, the bare minimum, that's all you're gonna enter Mecca with. But we see that you have horses, you have bows and arrows, you have armor. How can you be doing this? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, And we shall not enter Mecca except as we agreed. we're not in Mecca yet, I'm outside Mecca we shall not enter Mecca except as we agreed and once again here we have the Prophet ﷺ being faithful to the letter of the law he brought the weapons all the way to the Haram and then he left the weapons outside of Mecca and he entered Mecca with the swords inside the scabbards so he is fulfilling the letter of the law which is you shall not enter Mecca except with the sheathed swords and he did actually have a supply of weapons right outside of the haram where 200 people 200 people guarded those weapons and the rest of them 1800 of them they did tawaf and then they swapped over 200 came back and 200 did tawaf so the point being that here we find the Prophet ﷺ did not trust the Quraysh and he made sure that he had the weapons but he still fulfilled the contract and treaty by not marching in with all of those weapons and the Prophet ﷺ entered Mecca and it appears when you look at the books of Sirah that the Quraysh divided into three groups some groups remained in their houses, locked doors for three days other groups another group congregated in their parliament which was called Darun Nadwa, their parliament was called Darun Nadwa and Darun Nadwa was their largest house as well and it had a large area and so lots of people could remain there and one group even left Mecca and they just camped outside in the valleys and hills for three days. So it was basically up to the Quraysh. None of them wanted to interact with the Muslims and they did this for political reasons and for fear. They're worried what's going to happen. So they either lock themselves in their houses or they congregate in Dar al-Nadwa and they lock the door of Dar al-Nadwa or some of them even left the city of Mecca for three days just waiting for the Muslims to leave. And a rumor spread coming from the Dar al-Nadwa a rumor spread that the Muslims, now remember, the Quraysh have not seen the Muslims for, at least the bulk of the Quraysh, the women and those who have not gone on war, they haven't seen their kith and kin, they haven't seen their relatives for six and a half years now. They haven't seen them, and this is a long time, especially back then when family lived together. They haven't seen these people. And so one of them spread a rumor, oh, the Medina has harmed them and they've come back weaklings. the droughts of Medina not the droughts but the wabaa the diseases of Medina, the plagues the plagues of Medina now remember Mecca was a sparse climate very little greenery so it was a harsh climate but there wasn't much because of the harshness there wasn't much disease Medina has water Medina has agriculture Medina has cultivation so they have a whole different type of diseases in Medina and if you remember when the Sahaba migrated to Medina they all fell sick and the Prophet ﷺ had to make special dua. Oh Allah, remove the plagues of Medina and throw it in Juhfa, another uninhabited place. Go throw it over there. Abu Bakr fell sick and he thought he was about to die. Bilal fell sick, he started versifying poetry of how beautiful Mecca was, right? So they're used to Mecca. So they spread a rumor that the people are now returning weaklings. They're thin, they're emaciated and they have now been affected by the plagues of Medina. When the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he commanded the Muslims with many things first and foremost to raise their voices with talbiyah, out loud secondly to show their right shoulders, expose their right shoulders and this was the first time that this sunnah was introduced that we all know now that when we do our first tawaf we expose the right shoulders only for the first tawaf we expose the right shoulders and thirdly he said that they should walk around tawaf, the first three with raml, which is almost a run. It's a brisk walk, which we all know from the books of fiqh. We know how it does. We can never do this when we do tawaf because there's always rush there. But imagine there was no rush. Then the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba, they were almost running. And there's a walk that you do that is basically as fast as you can walk, but you're not quite running. You're not quite sprinting, but you're walking as briskly as possible. And that's what the Sahaba and the Prophet ﷺ did. And this is what is called the Raml, that they were walking as fast as they could. And they did this for the first three rounds. And when the Quraysh saw this, they said, Wallahi, there's nothing wrong with them. We've never seen them to be more energetic than this. And truly it must have been an amazing sight for the Quraysh to see. Imagine for the first time in history, 2,000 Muslims are around the Ka'bah. But never before has this quantity come. In the history of mankind, remember, right? No doubt in the time of Ibrahim and others, you probably had him and Ismail and maybe if there would be two, three other people, right? Then after this time, where were the Muslims coming in mass congregation, right? And the Quraysh had their jahili practices. Some were doing tawaf naked, some this, some that. The first time in history where we see what we see to this day. And that is the whole city full of people in ihram. Talbiyah be given out loud 2000 strong And 2000 is a large number And there is no doubt that never in the year Would 2000 people come Except during the Hajj And here you have 2000 people Crowding Mecca It must have really been a daunting sight For the Quraish And this sight actually did have an effect And that is why Three very prominent conversions Took place right after the Umrah It's not a coincidence when they're seeing this amazing sight that has never been seen before in the history of mankind Muslims all dressed saying the Talbiyah and even the Talbiyah for the first time in the history of the world this Talbiyah that we are now familiar with is instituted because the Quraysh had a Jahili Talbiyah a Talbiyah of Shirk لَبَّيْكَ اللَّهُمَّ لَبَّيْكَ لَبَّيْكَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ إِلَّا شَرِيكًا هُوَ لَكَ تَمْلِكُهُمَا مَلَكًا this is the Talbiyah of the Quraysh the Jahili Talbiyah and we have of course لَبَّيْكَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ that we don't add إِلَّا شَرِيكًا تَمْلِكُهُ وَمَا مَلَكُ we say لَبَّيْكَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَكَ and we stop over there so the talbiya loud the whole people of Mecca can hear imagine the psychological impact this is having on the Quraysh who is the superior now? who has more quantity? who has the more energy? the tide has changed it's not changing anymore the tide has changed less than a year and a half from now or less than two years from now and Mecca will be in Islamic control. And this type of showing, this type of demonstrating of one's power, of one's whatever, this is something that is a standard part of the seerah. We see it in the battle of Uhud with Abu Dujana, wearing the red turban and then he's walking around in a manner that would otherwise be considered arrogant. But what did the Prophet ﷺ say? This is a misya, a walking that Allah despises except at such a time and place. We also see in the battle of Hudaybiyah, sorry, in the treaty of Hudaybiyah. When the Meccans sent the envoy and the Prophet ﷺ said, show him the camels. And all of the camels were put in front of him and paraded. And this was a person from a tribe that exalted the hadith, that considered the hadith to be a very important sign. And all of this shows us what? That PR as we call it, is an important part of our religion. Legitimate PR. And once again as usual, we have those that are overzealous and hot tempered and those that are on the opposite extreme and could not care. That we need to look at the image we give of Islam to others. And it is a part of our da'wah to give an image of strength and positivity. To give an image where the people see us and appreciate us. And that image changes. What image do you give from time to time, place to place? Here is a man who respects the hadith. Show him the camels. Right? The Quraysh are saying you're weak. Show them you're strong. Right? So, in our time, in America, in other places in the world where we happen to be living, when people accuse our religion of something that is false, that is wrong, we need to show them, no, that's not the case. They say Islam is a violent religion, we show them, no, we're not. We're a peaceful religion. They say Islam is this, we show them, no, Islam is that. They say Islam teaches you to hate Christians and Jews, we say, no. We show them, this is what we're doing. And doing this type of quote-unquote PR, we're doing this because we're not changing the deen no doubt if somebody changed their religion and if somebody said oh Islam accuses you guys are let's say I don't know you guys are mean to women because you tell them to cover up we're not going to say oh women don't cover up anymore because we're not going to change our deen for the PR but if anything that is an illegitimate criticism and our deen and our religion is free of this charge to emphasize that point merely for the sake of demonstrating that our religion is contrary to what you're saying, this is not istaghfirullah, like some of the hard-tempered people say, oh now you're catering to the kuffar. Now whatever they want you to do, you will do. No, this is being extremely rash and hot-tempered. Our Prophet ﷺ is not catering to the kuffar when one of them is impressed by the hadith and he shows them the hadith. When on the battle of Uhud, he needs to demonstrate strength. When in the incident of Umrah al-Khawah, he wants to show them, no, we are not weak. this is all a part of PR and living in the world that we live in there are different accusations that are given and almost all of these accusations are false or misrepresented and it is our job to clean our religion and show a positive image as long as we do not change our theology and ethics now the Prophet ﷺ stayed in Mecca for three days and the books of Seerah really don't give any details of those three days which means that it was nothing strange happened. It was just a standard. He stayed there, he prayed, nothing strange happened. We can assume that the Prophet ﷺ led them in salah five times a day in front of the Ka'bah. We can assume that it was a peaceful time, nothing else happened or else it would have been mentioned. Because nothing else is mentioned, we assume that the Quraysh lived up to their treaty and did not interfere with the Muslims. And the Prophet ﷺ also ordered the 200 that were guarding outside. There was a swap. 200 went there, took their place and they came in. So everybody was able to perform the Umrah. And wallahi, we wish we had details, but we can only imagine the feelings of the Prophet ﷺ after entering Mecca six and a half years, right? How was the Prophet ﷺ feeling? He sees the house of Khadija. He sees where he grew up. He sees the very valleys. He sees each and every corner. Subhanallah, when we return to a house that we haven't lived in, when we return to a neighbor we haven't been to, all of our memories, they flood back to us, right? And things that we have forgotten about, they come back to our memory. And how emotional we feel. Imagine our Prophet ﷺ, right? Imagine all of his memories, every single one of them. 53 years of his life he is in this city, right? The city of his mother and father, his grandfather, the city of Abu Talib, the city of Khadija, the city where all of the good and all of the bad that happened is happening here. We wish we had all of this documented, but we can only imagine that the feelings that our Prophet ﷺ had, overwhelming all of these emotions. And for three days they stayed there, and then one or two things happened on the way out. And of those things is that Al-Abbas r.a, Al-Abbas, he suggested to the Prophet ﷺ to marry Maymuna. And Maymuna was to be the last of his wives. the final wife that he married was Maymuna. And Maymuna was not only the last wife he married, Maymuna was the last of his wives to die as well. So she was the last of the Ummahat al-Mumineen to pass away. And Maymuna was married to Abu Rahm ibn Abdul Uzza, and she became a widow. And so she was without any husband, and she was in Mecca. And so she's a Muslim now, and she is the sister-in-law of Al-Abbas. So Al-Abbas' wife is Umm Al-Fadl. Al-Abbas' wife is Umm Al-Fadl. Umm Al-Fadl's sister is Maymoona. So Abbas is sister-in-law. So Maymoona is now left without anybody and she's alone in Mecca and she doesn't have anybody to take care of her. She's a Muslim. She doesn't want to remain with the Quraysh, with the non-Muslims. So she says to Umm Al-Fadl, find me a husband. Find me a husband. And so Umm Al-Fadl says to Abbas, we need help. she needs a husband. So al-Abbas goes immediately to the Prophet ﷺ and says that I am the wali of Maymuna and he is now the wali, he is the one in charge of Maymuna and what do you think of Rasulullah of her? And he praises her immensely and of course he knew Maymuna, he knew of Maymuna from the days of Mecca, she is of course Qurashi, she is in Mecca and so the Prophet ﷺ agreed to the marriage of Maymuna and Abbas was the wali and Abbas was the one who basically took charge of the marriage ceremony. And here there is a huge controversy in the books of fiqh which are not really relevant to aqidah and theology but it's a lot relevant to fiqh that one sahabi he is Ibn Abbas and Ibn Abbas is the nephew of Maymuna Ibn Abbas says the Prophet ﷺ married Maymuna in the state of ihram now this raises a huge and it's authentic hadith that he said this this raises a huge controversy because technically you're not supposed to get married. Now when Ibn Abbas says he got married, he meant the nikah contract. By unanimous consensus the marriage was not consummated except outside of Mecca even, not even inside of Mecca. Because of what we'll talk about right now. The issue is when he literally, metaphorically signed the contract, when he did the act, was he in ihram? Ibn Abbas said he was. And this raises a huge controversy. The books of fiqh discuss this and they try to figure a way out. But the fact of the matter is this is an honest mistake from Ibn Abbas' part because we have authentic narrations, not the least of which is coming from Maimuna herself. That Maimuna, when she tells her story, she said that when the Prophet ﷺ married me, he was outside of Ihram, he finished his Ihram. He finished and he was not in Ihram, and he married me in the state of Hil, not in the state of Ihram. And some people try to interpret Ibn Abbas' statement that what he meant by in Ihram, وَهُوَ مُحْرِمٌ that تَزَوَّجَ وَهُوَ مُحْرِمٌ not that he was in ihram but he was in Mecca inside of the haram right that is a problem linguistically that's not how you refer to somebody inside of Mecca but it's not a problem from a fiqh perspective of course people in Mecca get married that's not a problem right a lot of people think that in Mecca you're not supposed to get married or even engage in intercourse then what do you think the married people of Mecca do right so this is not the issue the issue is in the state of ihram you're not supposed to get married in the state of ihram. But obviously outside of ihram, this is completely permissible. So the majority position and it's a related fiqh issue, the Prophet ﷺ did not marry Maymuna except after the ihram finished and he was in the state of hil. Now, he marries Maymuna and it is now the third day. And he has not yet consummated the marriage. The Quraysh come, excuse me, sorry. The Quraysh come and they say three days are up. Three days are up. And so the Prophet ﷺ tries to renegotiate with them. And he says, فَهَلَّ عَلَيْكُمْ What is the matter? And it's an expression in which English would be like, is it really a big deal if I stay a little bit longer? Would it harm you if I stayed a little bit longer? I just got married. Let me enjoy the marriage. Let me be a married man. Let me be a groom amongst you. And tomorrow we can have a big feast. Come and enjoy food. literally he said come and we will have the feast tomorrow right now subhanallah this he's offering them a celebration and he's saying we'll have a huge celebration you guys come as well and you enjoy the food here and he's using this to basically see if they can stay longer and there is no doubt that the heart of the Prophet ﷺ was in Mecca even though he was now in Medina there's no doubt that Mecca is his birthplace Mecca is the city that he's raised in it is the city that he feels emotional about however the Quraysh would not budge and the Quraysh said لا حاجة لنا في طعامك we don't need your food he's being a little bit rude here we don't need your food you know it was basically three days three days يَنْ السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ get out of here so they were a little bit blunt in this but that was the condition and so the Prophet ﷺ honored the treaty and left without incident and therefore he was not able to consummate the marriage except at a place outside of Mecca called Salif where they camp for the night. And it is just a coincidence that Allah Azza wa Jal willed that Maimuna on her way back many many years later to perform an Umrah, she actually passed away at Salif. The very place where she got married and she is buried at Salif to this day. So she got married at Salif and she passed away at Salif 53 years later. No, not 53. She passed away in the 61 of Hijrah. So you do the math. 61 Hijrah, she passed away. The final wife of the Prophet ﷺ passed away. This is Maymuna. And Maymuna bint al-Harith is her name. And Maymuna bint al-Harith is the sister of, as we said, Umm al-Fadl. She's the sister of Umm al-Fadl. Now, by the way, we don't know much about Maymuna. Maymuna is one of those wives we have very little information about. And inshallah, when we get to the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, whatever information we have, we will give it. Now, what we find from this is that the Umratul Qadha, it shows now without a doubt that the tide has fully changed that the Muslims are in the superior hand they have the more quantity, they're the more better organized, that the Quraysh are dwindling and they're about to die out and that's why a number of Sahaba they converted as we'll talk about another fact that we benefit is that the fact that the Prophet ﷺ is renegotiating the terms of the treaty even though he's in Mecca so he's saying give me another few days even though they both agreed to three it shows us that you always have the option to go back to the drawing board if both sides agree treaties can be renegotiated if both sides agree if they don't agree then you have to stick by the treaty so this clearly shows us the treaty was clear three days now the process is trying to extend why shouldn't you try to extend but when they refused that was the agreement and this shows us again renegotiation is completely halal another very interesting point look at the tactic that is now being tried and that is to soften their hearts I'm just married, let's celebrate come and enjoy the food with me tomorrow now what is happening here he's actually trying to win them over through another means these are the same people that are at Badr and Uhud and Khandaq these are the same people that have done what they have done but now that he's in the upper hand he needs to bring them in and he tries different ways and Allah knows if they had said yes another twist might have happened Allah has his ways and Allah has something else planned but the tactic here is what? the goal is not to be harsh or to kill them or to enslave them the goal is to win their hearts and minds so now he says come on let's celebrate I just got married he uses his marriage as a da'wah he's like I'll throw you a big party he literally says share ta'am with me and we can imagine if the Quraysh had come no doubt he would have given them a massive feast and this would have been another type of da'wah. And again, this clearly shows us, in the next two weeks from now, we're going to be breaking bread and turkey with another group over here. And this is a part of who we are. Again, we have those that are ultra harsh and those that are this and that. Subhanallah, here's our Prophet ﷺ saying, with pagans, let's come and break bread together. Well, there's no bread, but you get the point. Let's come and eat together. And why? Why? Think about it, why? Because when you intermingle in this manner, when you break bread together when you eat together you cannot your hatred softens down your anger calms down and now that the Prophet ﷺ has the upper hand he doesn't need to be on the defensive that much now he can show them that look look at who we are intermingle with us and perhaps Allah will guide them through Islam but they were stubborn and hard hearted and I'm sure and again the book of Saseera don't mention but I'm sure the leaders themselves realized We don't want our people to go soft. We don't want our people to start feeling something soft against the Muslims. We need them to be boycotted from the Muslims. So the Prophet ﷺ showed friendliness, but they did not respond in kind. One small incident took place on their way out of Mecca. Literally as they're coming out of Mecca, a young girl, 6-7 years old, she comes running after them, and she calls out to the Prophet ﷺ and his immediate entourage, Ya Am, Ya Am, O my uncle, O my uncle, Take me, don't leave me in Mecca. So there's a young girl, she has been in Mecca with extended family, and she manages to basically escape, not escape, but run away. I mean, you know, they're not gonna keep her, she's not in prison, but she's being taken care of. She's an orphan girl, and she now runs away, and she says, Ya Am, Ya Am, don't leave me in Mecca, I wanna go with you to Medina. And who is this young girl? This young girl is Umara, the daughter of Hamza, binti Hamza. Now, Hamza, he had been married in Mecca, but he had divorced his wife. So, he did not have women with him in Medina. But he had a wife in Mecca. And for whatever reason, we don't know the story, he had divorced her. And so they had a daughter by the name of Umara. Umara binti Hamza. Of course, Hamza has died in Uhud. Hamza has died in Uhud. And this is his daughter, Umara. And Umar's mother Her name is Salma binti Umais And she is the sister of the famous Very famous Asma binti Umais Asma binti Umais is a very famous sahabiya This is the sister of Asma Her name is Salma binti Umais And by the way Salma and Asma Don't get confused here Their mother, not their father Their mother Was also the mother of Maymuna That the Prophet ﷺ just married So this is the same mother but not a father. And subhanallah, it's a small society. Intermarriage is very common. And this is one of the problems when you start going here. It gets very confusing after a while. Because in the end of the day, everybody in Mecca is related to everybody else somehow. And this is a tribal society, right? Everybody is related somehow to everybody. Even if it's six generations back, six cousins, seven cousins. But we can trace lineages. And then usually when you trace lineage, you only trace to the father. And that's easy to do. when you bring in the mothers as well then of course the mothers have their interrelationship as well, so you have cousins through mothers obviously and so it complicates matters so just to give you one example here that in fact Salma being the sister of Maimuna so the Prophet ﷺ is now married to Maimuna and so he becomes a type of uncle even to Umara right, you understand Umara's mother is Salma Salma's sister is Maimuna, half sister or sister through the mother. And now the Prophet ﷺ has just married Maymuna. So Salma basically, she's a young girl. Now, why would she do this? Obviously we're reading in the books of seerah, don't mention, but they don't need to mention. She's a young girl, but she'd rather be with the Muslims than with the pagans. It's very simple. She does not want to be raised by extended family, by her relatives in Mecca. She wants to be with the Muslims. And it's really amazing that a young girl, how has she heard of Islam? What positive image does she have? And she's seven years old. Or maybe she's seen them for three days. Allahu a'lam, again, these are stories you just have to, you wish you could, but you don't know. But we can just piece in the dots that whatever folklore, or whatever, not folklore, but whatever she's heard, whatever she's seen, she has a very positive impression now of Islam and the Muslims. She knows these are her relatives. She's never lived with them. She's never lived with them. But she feels so confident to leave whoever is in Mecca, who is taking care of her, some extended family, we don't know. She doesn't want to live with them, and now she is going, and she wants to be taken care of by the Muslims. So, when they found out who this is, that this is Umar ibn Hamza, so Ali ibn Abi Talib, he took her by the hand, and he gave her to Fatima. And he said, here, this will be now our Yateem to take care of. We'll take care of her. And when the others found out this is Umar, so Zayd ibn Haritha came. And Zayd said, The Prophet ﷺ made me brothers with Hamza. This is at the Hijrah. And so I am the brother of Hamza. So this is my niece. So my family should take care of her. Then Ja'far came in. And Ja'far is the older brother of Ali. And Ja'far said, I have the same rank as Ali in terms of she's my cousin. But, now another twist of lineage here. my wife is her khala so I'm married to her blood khala, right I'm married to her khala, now Asma binti Umais we just said this Asma binti Umais is Ja'far's wife, okay Asma binti Umais, wallahi what a woman what a woman Asma binti Umais married to Ja'far and then she married after Ja'far she married we went over this I'm 100% sure we went over this where are the note takers hmm he's busy writing Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and then after Abu Bakr as-Siddiq who does she marry Ali ibn Abi Talib so she's married to Ja'far and Abu Bakr and Ali and this is Asma' bin Ti'umais so Asma bin Ta'mis right now is with Ja'far and as we said her sister is Salma and Salma's daughter is Umar is that clear now? so Ja'far said not only is she my cousin, Hamza is my uncle she is the daughter of Hamza my wife is her khala so now the three of them began disputing who should take care of this orphan and it becomes heated that each one is saying I have the most right and it is amazing wallahi what 10 years of Islam has done to the status of women when 10-15 years ago nobody would have wanted this girl nobody would have wanted to take care of this girl, she's a girl end of story, you don't want to take she would have been lucky if she had remained alive right? now she's coming as a yatima, as an orphan and each one of them wants the sharif to take care of her And they're having a bit of a fight, verbal, that who's gonna take care of her. Each one of them is bringing his merits, that I am more qualified, I have more right, this is my yatima, because who takes care of the yatima? The closest relative. So all three are saying, I have the most right. And so the Prophet ﷺ had to get involved. And this is very sensitive, because no doubt whoever you decide, the other two are gonna be hurt. And so he begins by praising all three of them. all three of them he brings their maqam very high up and so he says to Ali ibn Abi Talib that anta minni wa ana minka you are from me and I am from you and this is a fadila that we give to Ali ibn Abi Talib as I have said a few days ago every blessing for Ali and the Ali Muhammad we give it whatever the Quran and Sunnah gives it we don't have any problem with this and our Prophet ﷺ said to Ali anta minni wa ana minka that you are from me and I am from you In other words, you have a maqam and a fadila. We were raised together in the same household that I took you in. Now you're married to my daughter. And so many other things that are similar. I am from you, you are from me. And then he said to Zayd, that Zayd, you are our brother and our protector, our maulana. Anta akhuna wa maulana. And again, this is to calm him down. Even though Zayd was actually the adopted son, now he's not the adopted son. So now he's saying, Zayd, you are my brother. and subhanallah even though the relationship had been father and son but now he's saying you are my brother and you are my maulana meaning the one that I turn to for help and comfort you are my maulana and then he says to Ja'far that oh Ja'far you resemble me the most physically and in manners and Ja'far was remember older than Ali and Ja'far and the Prophet ﷺ had I think was it 10 years difference or 8 years difference like Ali and him had a 30 year gap but Ja'far is much closer in age to the Prophet and they both were raised in Abu Talib's house so he has a very different relationship with Ja'far than he has with Ali and so he says to Ja'far you resemble me in looks and in manners so he calms all of them down look I'm not being biased against any of you then who does he decide to give it to he says Ja'far she is yours because الخالة بمنزلة الأم الخالة بمنزلة الأم that the خالة, the mother's sister, is the same as the mother. She will take the status of the mother. Right? And so he gave the daughter Umara over to Ja'far to take care of. And from this long fiqh discussion, which is not relevant to this class, but these are the hadith that fiqh is based upon. Right? that when a person is an orphan, when a young child is an orphan, who has the privilege to take care of him? Is it the khala or the amma? The amma is the father's sister. So three of the madhhabs say the khala takes precedence. And one of the madhhabs says, no, the amma takes precedence. So again, there's a bit of a tension here. And it goes back to this, those who say amma, they bring their evidences. Of them is inheritance, for example. Because the khala does not inherit, whereas the amma inherits. So they have their evidences. And then the other three madhhabs say, No, inheritance is separate than child custody. Or child custody is completely irrelevant to inheritance. So they have their evidences, but this is a crucial hadith. That because Umar's Amma is... Now who can quickly tell me who is Umar's Amma? Safiyyah, very good. Umar's Amma is Safiyyah. And Safiyyah is alive right now. But she is not handed over to Safiyyah. She is handed over to Asma. And Asma is her khala. So again, this is a fiqh point, not really to our class. but you see where fiqh comes from then that these are the types of things that we can decide fiqh from but the Prophet is also a cousin and that's why she's coming she knows this is my family here and she's saying, oh uncles, come and take me so the point being that subhanallah wallahi it's amazing how Islam changed the mentality of the people now that instead of a girl being despised now she's a girl and she's an orphan and Islam has put into the heads of every one of us, we should take care of orphans. And that a girl is someone to be honored in the family. So they are now wanting the fadila, who's gonna take care of the daughter of Hamza. And of course, this isn't just any girl, her father is Hamza. Let's not forget this as well. That all of them feel an obligation to Hamza as well. And that's why Zaid, even though he's not quite blood, but he says, look, the brotherhood was there. And it's my responsibility. So he's now arguing, right? that you made me a brother with him, so surely it's my responsibility to take care of her. So the Prophet ﷺ as we said gave it to Ja'far. Now, this is the story of the Umar al-Qadha. And this is really one of the final psychological blows upon the Quraysh. The conquest of Mecca is around the corner. There's really nothing major that takes place in terms of political move, change between Umar al-Qadha and the conquest of Mecca. The battle has completely turned over. The Quraysh are clearly on the lower side. and this is proven in the conversion of the final three people before the conquest of Mecca. The final three. And all three of them converted right after Umrah. All three of them converted right after Umrah al-Qadha which shows us a psychological impact Umrah al-Qadha had on the Quraysh. And we'll mention all three of their stories as briefly as we can. The first of them was Amr ibn al-Aas. Amr ibn al-Aas. And his conversion story is one of the strangest conversion stories in the entire seerah. Amr ibn al-As he felt insecure seeing the power shift in favor of the Prophet and he began wondering what would happen if Mecca is conquered, where would I go and this was especially true after the battle of Khandaq, Ahzab that Amr ibn al-As he narrates his own story and he said that it became clear to me after Khandaq that it's only a matter of time before Mecca is next remember Khandaq was when really the shifting of the tide really began. And so it became clear to me that Mecca would be next. So I told a group of my friends that would look up to me. And remember, Amr ibn al-As, he is the politician. He is one of the siyasa, he is one of the diplomats. And he has been sent to Najashi to secure the release of the immigrants to Abyssinia. This is Amr ibn al-As. He was the diplomat, the statesman, the politician. So he has a group that looks up to him. So I went to this group and I said to them, that you know, I have been telling you that the affair of this man Muhammad shall be supreme very quickly. And I have an idea, what do you think? They said, what is the idea? He said, let us emigrate to Najashi and live under him. And he had a friendship with the Najashi and live under him. So if Muhammad is successful over his people, then we shall live under Najashi. because living under him is preferred to us than living under Muhammad ﷺ. But if Quraysh wins over Muhammad ﷺ, then we are who we are, we can always return and make an excuse and the Quraysh will accept us back. So, Amr did not want to engage in any more battles, he just wanted to live his own life. And this shows us his animosity was of a different type, and that's why he was more open to Islam. He just wanted to live his own life, He said, okay, let's just leave and go live under the Najashi. So that they, all of them, they said, that's a great idea. Let us then leave Mecca. And the fact that they left Mecca at this stage clearly shows us, they know that it's only a matter of time now. So, Amr ibn al-Aas moves to Najashi and to Abyssinia. And he takes with him the most expensive furs and camel leather. And that's what Najashi would love. They knew this was his, they loved. And this was what Mecca was known for, giving fine camel leather. So they took these fine camel leathers to Najashi as a bribe basically. And they went to the Najashi and they visited him. And they found out that while they're in the town of Ja'far, Ja'far is still in Abyssinia at this time. And the Prophet ﷺ had sent a message to the Najashi through Amr ibn Umayya al-Dumari, one of the Sahaba, that tell Ja'far to come back. So now this is the message to come back and eventually Ja'far will come back at the battle of Khaibar. So this is now the message to come back. So Amr ibn Dumayyah is in town and he is delivering the message to Najashi. Now Amr is a messenger, he's not under the protection of Najashi, unlike the other Muslims of Abyssinia. Amr is a messenger, he's coming, he's gonna go back. And of course Najashi is a Muslim, Amr doesn't know about this. So Amr says that let me ask permission from the Najashi if we can kill this envoy. And get rid of him in order that the Quraysh will then respect me. In order that I have a privilege over the Quraysh. Just for revenge basically. So he entered in upon the Najashi, he gave him all of the fur and the leather. and he then asked permission to kill the messenger of the Prophet ﷺ. And he says, this man he represents someone whom we despise and he has killed many of our noblemen. Will you allow me to kill him in revenge for all the people that basically the Muslims have killed. At this, the Najashi got so angry that his face became cloudy with anger. And he took his hand and he smacked it on his own nose. Now we can assume that this was an expression of disgust and anger in their culture. Right? That we can assume that this is something that is expressing extreme revulsion. Like how could you ask this of me? And Amr says, Amr ibn al-As says, that I became so terrified when I saw his anger because this is the emperor now. At that I thought, I wish the earth would just open up and I would just be swallowed. That I didn't have to now, you know, see what is going to be next. And as soon as he sees the anger, Amr, you know, falls down and says, I'm sorry, I did not know you would get so angry. And if I knew you would get so angry, I would never have asked this of you. And the Najashi says, that do you ask me to hand over to you the envoy of the one whom the Great Spirit descends upon? An-Namusa Al-Akbar. you want me to hand over his envoy to you, the same spirit, the namus that came to Musa and you want me to give him to you so you will kill the envoy of this man and Amr kept on excusing himself pardoning himself, asking for forgiveness then the Najashi said, and Najashi and Amr had a relationship, remember even in the seerah, he was the one that came a few years ago, you know, seven years ago and seven or eight years ago now and told the Najashi to send them back. So they have some relationship. So the Najashi says, Ya Amr, wayhak, woe to you. Obey me in this regard and follow this man. For wallahi, this man is upon the truth. And for sure he will be victorious over his enemies just like Musa was victorious over the Fir'aun. Now this is amazing here that Amr has run away from Makkah to run away from the Prophet ﷺ's message. And he comes to the emperor of the Habasha. And lo and behold, the emperor of the Habasha is a Muslim as well. And he is giving him da'wah. And they say this is the only time that a tabi'i gave da'wah to a sahabi. And the sahabi converted and the tabi'i remained a tabi'i. Right? Because Najashi is not a sahabi in that sense. he never saw the Prophet ﷺ right and he is a type of tabi'i called the mukhadram and mukhadram means those who live during the time of the Prophet ﷺ but never saw him there's a category of tabi'un they're called mukhadramun and the mukhadram is the one who lives but they're still tabi'un who lives during the time of the Prophet ﷺ but they didn't see him so Najashi is a tabi'i and Amr becomes a sahabi so the tabi'i gives da'wah to a person who becomes a sahabi right and that's an amazing you know you can ask a quiz question in gatherings and parties for the sake of Allah, not to impress anybody. That what tabi'i was there that gave da'wah to the convert who converted to become a sahabi. And this is the response to this. That Najashi gave da'wah to Amr ibn al-Aas and Amr ibn al-Aas then converted that. He said to Amr ibn al-Aas that basically you're running away and this man will be victorious. Follow me and obey me in this regard and become a Muslim. So, Amr was so overwhelmed by all that he had seen. I mean, can you imagine, for two or three weeks he's running away from Mecca, he's gonna start a new life. And all of a sudden, lo and behold, the one person whom he thought would give him refuge from the Prophet ﷺ, turns out to be a follower of the Prophet ﷺ. Think about that, right? So, Amr basically realized, this is it, you know. This is the truth. And so, Amr says to him, will you accept my Islam on the behalf of the Prophet ﷺ? because he's obviously sending messengers to you will you accept my Islam? and so the Najashi says yes so he gave the bay'ah to Najashi for Islam Amr ibn al-As accepted Islam in front of the Najashi right then and there and when he came out to his fellow companions he didn't tell them what had happened I mean after all he's the one telling them to come to Abasha now he's gonna turn around and he knew they would maybe get physical with him so he didn't tell them anything and he eventually made an excuse to go back to Mecca. And so he returned to Mecca. And on his way back into Mecca, he finds two people walking out. Meaning, not literally in and out, but there is one road of Mecca. And as he's on the road back, he meets two people basically on this highway. And this is a desert highway. I mean, you're gonna meet everybody and interact with them. And so on the way out, he meets two people. And these are Khalid ibn al-Walid and Uthman ibn Talha. And he says to them, where are the two of you going? What's up? Where are you leaving? You packed your bags, all of your belongings. Where are you going? And they say, we are going to the Prophet ﷺ. And we are going to accept Islam. The matter has now become clear to us. Khalid al-Walid says, استبان الأمر now. It's very clear. It's crystal clear that this man is a Prophet. And I am going, wallahi, to embrace Islam for how long? إلى متى? The Sunni said, for how long are we going to deny this? Right? So, Amir ibn al-A'l said, Wallahi, that is exactly why I have come back to Mecca. Right? That he wanted to come back to Mecca, change his affairs, whatever, finish up everything, and then migrate to Medina. And so, the three of them emigrated together and they became the very last batch to embrace Islam before the conquest of Mecca. And when the three of them came, Khalid ibn al-Wuli was the first to accept Islam. We'll talk about Khalid inshallah today as well. Then it was Amr's turn to accept Islam in front of the Prophet ﷺ. And we just coincidentally mentioned this hadith yesterday in our after Isha, Halaqah, right? Coincidentally, now we're talking about it today. Where the Prophet ﷺ stretched his hand forward and according to one report, Amr pulled it back. According to another, he held onto his hand rather than the palm. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, Ya Amr, ma laka, what is the matter with you? And so Amr said, before I embrace Islam, I have a condition. The Prophet ﷺ said, what is that condition? Amr said, that all of my past sins be forgiven. I don't want anything to be brought up in the past. Whatever happened, happened. Now khalas, it's a new slate now. That all of my past sins be forgiven. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Ya Amr, أَلَا تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ الْإِسْلَامَ يَجُبُّ مَا كَانَ قَبْلَهَا وَأَنَّ الْهِجْرَ تَجُبُّ مَا كَانَ قَبْلَهَا وَأَنَّ الْحَجَّ يَجُبُ مَا كَانَ قَبْلَهُ Don't you know, O Amr, that three things wipe away everything before them. Number one, embracing Islam. Number two, migration. And you have just migrated. Right? And number three, Hajj. And the fact that Hajj is mentioned is our only hope. For us who are born Muslims, and we have emigrated this way rather than that way. Some of us emigrated. I have been born here so there is no emigration but for the rest of us mashallah hajj is where we need to be concentrating on inshallah inshallah so the point being our Prophet ﷺ said don't you know that this is already accomplished by you embracing Islam and going for hajj and so this became the final batch that embraced Islam so this is Amr as for Khalid Khalid's conversion story as well is very interesting Khalid of course who is Khalid Khalid ibn al-Walid and of course al-Walid is al-Walid ibn al-Mughira and al-Walid He is the chieftain of the Banu Makhzum. And I've done this so many times, I hope all of you know now, who are the Banu Makhzum? The Banu Makhzum is Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl's tribe, right? And the Banu Makhzum are the statesmen. And the Banu Makhzum were the ones who were the most rivalry and the most jealousy of the Prophet ﷺ. There were three major, like again, what is the Quraysh is composed of many small tribes, right? And many of the smaller tribes, they knew their level that we're not going to get to that level. Like the Bani Adi, which is Umar ibn al-Khattab's tribe and whatnot. These are average Quraishi tribes. And to be a Quraishi, you are already honored in the rest of the Arabs. But within the Quraish, they had their own hierarchy. And there were three that were at the top basically. Right? And one of them kind of sort of dwindled out after Islam. And two only remained, the Banu Hashim and the Banu Umayyah. Right? But pre-Islam, in the days of Jahiliyyah, there was the Banu Hashim, the Banu Umayyah, and the Banu Makhzum. These were the three that they all had major roles to play in the days of Jahiliyyah. And they would all compete with one another. And Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira was the chieftain of the Banu Makhzum just like Abu Talib was the chieftain of the Banu Hashim. So Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira was basically the most famous of the Banu Makhzum and he was also the official poet of the Quraysh. When the Quraysh competed in competitions, they would send Al-Walid to represent them. Al-Walid was the official poet of Mecca. Nobody was close to Al-Walid when it comes to poetry. And that is why when the Qur'an was revealed, they all came to him. That you need to say something. They all came to him. You have to give us an official statement. So he says, let me think a while. And he as Allah says in the Quran This is surah muddathir This is all surah muddathir That That That Allah says This baneen one of them is Khalid ibn Walid He is referenced indirectly in the Quran Right Many children One of these children is Khalid ibn Walid وَمَا حَدْتُ لَهُ تَمْهِيدًا ثُمَّ اتْمَعَنْ عِزِيدًا كَلَّا إِنَّهُ كَانَ لِأَتِنَا عَنِنَا إِنَّهُ فَكَّرَ وَقَدَّر He plotted and he thought and planned. فَقُتِلَ كَيْفَ قَدَّر May he be cursed. Look at how he planned. ثُمَّ قُتِلَ كَيْفَ قَدَّر May he be cursed again. Look at how he planned. Meaning, he had an evil agenda. When he was asked, what will you say about this new Qur'an, this new revelation? He plotted and planned and Allah describes his emotional state of mind, his psychological state, and his physical state, walking about in the house, right? All of this in the privacy of his house, Allah revealed it in Surah Al-Muddathir. In Wallahi, one of the most eloquent passages of early Mecca. Surah Al-Muddathir, if you read it, it's so powerful. So, we shouldn't say the Qur'an is poetic because it's not poetry, but there is some rhythm and rhyme in Al-Muddathir that is very unique, right? So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed Al-Walid al-Mughir in this manner. Al-Walid is the same one. عَبَسَ وَتَوَلَّىٰ أَنْ جَاءُ الْأَعْمَىٰ وَمَا يُدْلِيكَ لَعَلَهُ يُزَكَّىٰ أَمَّا مَنْ اسْتَغْنَىٰ Ask for the one who thinks he has everything. This is Al-Walid. Right? So when Ibn Ummi Maktum came, the Prophet ﷺ was speaking to Al-Walid. And Al-Walid was a nobleman who no doubt he was an enemy, but he was not a vulgar enemy. Like Abu Jahl. He was an enemy that was attracted a little bit. And that's why he was listening to the Prophet ﷺ. And that's why the Qur'an affected him as we learned from the Qur'an as well. And that's why when the Prophet ﷺ was giving him da'wah, he was so hopeful. Then tip, tip, tip, Ibn Ummi Maktum comes along, right? With the staff. And then Al-Walid says, you want me to follow a religion where these are your followers? Thanks, but no thanks, basically, right? and that's when Abbas saw Tawalla and Jawa al-A'ma the Prophet ﷺ felt he's so close but he wasn't close because he had kibr but he felt he was so close so that's when Abbas saw Tawalla was revealed in any case all of this is Al-Walid Al-Walid's son is Khalid ibn Al-Walid and Khalid ibn Al-Walid of course was raised in the lap of luxury and the lap of horsemanship and the lap of being trained by the best trainers because his father is the chieftain so he learns the arts of war and he did not participate in Badr because he was on an expedition. But after this, he participated in every single battle and in every single battle, he caused the most damage. We know what happened in Uhud. It was Khalid ibn Walid. In the battle of the Khandaq, Khalid was one of the very few people who actually broke through the defenses, made it into Medina. He jumped over the trench with a small group, made it into Medina, then he was surrounded and so he then wisely retreated. But he actually broke the defense mechanism. and Khalid was also the one who was sent to Hudaybiyah to block the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ outmaneuvered him once again and this by the way this little point here that the Prophet ﷺ outmaneuvered Khalid in Hudaybiyah it clearly shows that he was the better military commander obviously because he has Allah on his side that he was the better military commander that the Prophet ﷺ managed to outmaneuver Khalid and still camp at Hudaybiyah and the story of Khalid's conversion is mentioned by Khalid himself in the first person and Ibn Kathir and others narrate this in their history that Khalid says that when Allah wanted good of me he threw the love of Islam into my heart and I said to myself I have witnessed all of these battles against Muhammad ﷺ and every time I have participated I have sensed that I am being turned away that something is beyond me I have sensed something supernatural and that Muhammad shall be victorious then the final straw was at Hudaybiyah when I met him at Asfan and I was prepared to charge but it was as if he sensed us and even in the salah they prayed salah al-khawf when I thought Khalid thought they'll attack during salah right Khalid thought don't worry and we talked about this by the way that when they were praying so Khalid said don't worry I know exactly what to do. When they go into sajdah, we'll just fire and charge. Right? And what happened? Allah revealed salatul khuf right then and there. Right? And so it is as if he said, he knew what I was thinking. And not only that, he outmaneuvered me at Hudaybiyah after this incident, and he managed to outflank me and pass us by. And so he said, I realized that this man is protected. That I cannot get to him, and I realized after the Hudaybiyah treaty that he will be victorious. Once again, this is very clear now that the tide is changing. So I thought to myself, where should I go? First place that all of these people think about is Abyssinia. But then he says to Abyssinia, over there, what am I gonna do there? And his own followers are also over there. Then where should I go? Heraclius? Rome? If I go to Rome, I will have to become a Christian. And I will have to change all of my culture and leave my land and live as a stranger. So what should I do? So I continued remaining confused in my state until the Umratul Qadha. When the Umratul Qadha took place. And the Prophet ﷺ entered Mecca and he did not find me and he asked about me. So my brother left me a message, a letter. Now Khalid's brother, his older brother, Khalid's older brother was named Al-Walid Ibn Al-Walid. So his father is Walid and his brother is Al-Walid. And Al-Walid ibn Al-Walid embraced Islam as a prisoner of war in the battle of Badr. So Al-Walid was captured in the battle of Badr. And he became a prisoner. And Khalid brought 4000 dirhams for his ransom. And Al-Walid had embraced Islam as a prisoner. And he waited for his brother to come and pay the money. and Al-Walid and Khalid then went outside and back to Mecca. And the first night they camped, when Khalid woke up, Walid had disappeared and taken his horse and gone back to Medina. And he wanted the Prophet ﷺ to have the money from the Quraysh and he himself returned. This is Khalid's first exposure to what Islam does. Like your loyalties become to Allah and His Messenger. So Al-Walid wrote him a letter. And the letter said, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As to what follows, I have not seen anything stranger than you running away from Islam and you are as smart as you are for how long will you oppose Islam and the Prophet ﷺ asked about you when he came to Mecca and he said where is Khalid and I responded Allah will bring him someone like him the Prophet ﷺ said it is not befitting or appropriate that he neglect Islam and if he were to put his talents and energy with us against the mushrikun, it would be better for him and we would give him honor. We would prefer him over others. So my dear brother, make up what you have already passed because many opportunities have passed you by. Wassalam. Meaning what? You've missed all of these great battles and I was a part of them. Right? Before it's too late, change over. Or else everything will be gone. And Allah wanted the good of Khalid. So he embraced Islam the very last batch before the conquest of Mecca. So when he received this letter, khalas, he decided I'm gonna embrace Islam. And he thought to himself, who should I go to to bring me company and we go to the procession together. So he went to Safwan ibn Umayyah. And Safwan ibn Umayyah, his father had died at Badr, his uncle had died at Badr, but they were friends. So he went to Safwan ibn Umayyah and he told him, what do you think of embracing Islam? and Safwan said Wallahi if I am the last person alive in the whole world I will not embrace Islam if I am the only Qurashi pagan it doesn't matter I am not going to embrace Islam so he said I left him thinking this is a man who has lost his relatives at Badr he is not going to be interested then I went to my childhood friend Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal so Abu Jahal and his father are best friends Ikrimah and Khalid are best friends as well and they have grown up together and they are literally they are second cousins and they are the best of friends. So he went to his cousin, second cousin and his best friend Ikrimah ibn Abijad and they're of the same age as well. And they're confidants as well. They're basically very close friends. So he goes to Ikrimah and he tells him about his feelings and thoughts and he says I feel that I should embrace Islam. Ikrimah panics. Ikrimah panics. And he starts raising his voice and yelling and shouting and it is the middle of the night and he says you are going to leave us wallahi this is not going to happen you the son of al-walid you this you that how and in the panic he goes and he calls abu sufyan and he calls others of the seniors of the quraish and they all gather in the house of ikrimah and ikrimah basically spills the beans that khalid wants to embrace islam now he's surrounded by all of the seniors of the quraish and according to one of the versions of the story that it actually came to unsheathed swords in front of Khalid. That one of them said, if you embrace Islam, and this is the threat here now. If you embrace Islam, then you're gonna have to face this. Now at this point, Ikrimah himself was shocked now. And he said, will you kill him merely because he changes his opinion? Now Ikrimah then did not want the matter to get violent. Ikrimah just wanted to stop him but he didn't realize that if you're gonna set this in motion the natural consequence is this so Ikrimah diffused the situation and Ikrimah told them to go home and he would deal with it so Khalid realized he can no longer stay here and so that very night and according to one report he had also given da'wah to Uthman ibn Talha Khalid ibn Al-Walid so on that very night when this incident takes place, Khalid and Uthman ibn Talha, they decide to leave Mecca without telling anybody. And both of them basically start walking. And within the next day or so, they bump into Amr ibn al-Aas who's on his way back from Habasha. And they realize and confirm that all three of them are going to the Prophet ﷺ. Now by the way, Uthman ibn Talha, he is the key holder of the Ka'bah. The Banu Abd al-Dar, they have the keys of the Ka'bah. And the keys of the Ka'bah is a great honor to have obviously. And this is the one who is in charge of the keys. And so Uthman ibn Talha also embraced Islam. And the three of them therefore marched into Medina simultaneously. Uthman ibn Talha, the symbolic basically one who is in charge of the Ka'bah. Amr ibn al-As, the symbolic statesman and envoy and politician of Quraysh. Khalid ibn al-Walid, not just the symbolic. the real military leader of the Quraysh, right? And notice the three things put together here. The Ka'bah, the military genius, and the political leader, the statesman, right? This is not a coincidence. Obviously Allah's Qadr. This is clearly assigned to the Muslims and against the Quraysh. Your time is up. Your time is up completely. The keys of the Ka'bah now, right? Your military genius, your statesman, they are all leaving. And the three of them, they embraced Islam. And they became the last batch of Muslims whom Allah Azzawajal says in the Quran, لا يستوي منكم من أنفق من قبل الفتح وقاتل, ولك أعظم درجة من الذين أنفقوا من بعد وقاتلوا. وكلا وعد الله الحسنى. Not same are those who embraced Islam before the conquest versus those who embraced Islam after the conquest. Those who embraced Islam before are better and the both of them Allah has promised good. وكلا وعد الله الحسنى. Now from this story, both of these stories of Khalid and Amr, we notice so many things. First and foremost, Najashi's love for the Prophet ﷺ. That he gets angry when Amr wants to kill the envoy. And this love, this ghiara, we call it this protective jealousy, it's a sign of Iman. And I've said this many times, we should not be embarrassed that our emotions are riled up when Allah and His Messenger are mocked or anything that is done to hurt our image and our faith and our religion. That's where our priorities lie. And we should never be embarrassed of this, right? No doubt, we don't get violent, we don't get extremist, but to feel anger. Look at, Najashi is boiling now. You want me to kill the envoy of the man whom Jibreel comes down to? Right? His anger is just bursting. So much so that Amr says, I wish the earth would swallow me up. And this Iman is coming from somebody who's never seen the Prophet ﷺ. Right? So this is a part of our iman. That when Allah and His Messenger are mocked and ridiculed, when something is done to harm the prestige of Islam and our religion, we should feel that sense of violation and anger. And this is a part of having faith in Allah and love in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Also we have over here, that Amr knew everything that Najashi told him, but when Najashi told it, it finally clicked. Najashi didn't tell him anything he didn't know that this man is claiming to be a prophet that Jibreel is coming this is exactly the claims of the Muslims but when it comes from Najashi what happens? it clicks in him and this is human nature that all of us have experienced sometimes the truth depends on who it comes from and if it comes from somebody else then it might actually make sense to you Right? You're going to see something, you're going to get into a lot of trouble for this. But husbands, when your wives say something... Understood. Understood. Okay, no need to go on. Okay. He doesn't want to be embarrassed. Okay. Khalas. Frankly, wives is a two-way street as well. But anyway. Okay. The point being, it's human nature. That it doesn't matter if a spouse says it, right? It's human nature. Like, I want to hear from somebody else. Okay? and if the same matter is said by a stranger oh you know what so and so said oh you know what I heard honey didn't I tell you the same thing oh who are you that guy on the anonymous internet blog site he said it right it's human nature so here we have again human nature as well and this shows us brothers and sisters sometimes da'wah you need to think a little bit more broader that it's good that da'wah is given through different manners and channels and mechanisms and means The truth is the same. And we see the same thing by the way with Abu Sufyan and? Abu Sufyan and? The Caesar, Heraclius, the exact same thing. That Heraclius says to Abu Sufyan, that are you, basically, he didn't say this, he didn't say, are you a fool? He doesn't lie about gold and silver. You yourself have told me he doesn't lie. And now you expect him to lie about God himself, right? And Abu Sufyan said, that was the first time, you know, Islam became something in my heart. is the same truth but it's coming from somebody that you don't expect it to come from. So this is human nature when it comes to da'wah. Also notice over here the psychological da'wah to Khalid. That the Prophet ﷺ is mentioning his name. The Prophet ﷺ is saying if he comes over we will honor him. That he realizes it's a big deal for him. And you want to tell him look we'll also take care of you. And this is also a part of giving da'wah. Also notice over here the concern of Amr ibn al-Aws. And in fact it is also said that Khalid asked the same condition as well. That that is, O Messenger of Allah, can my sins be forgiven when I accept Islam? The concern for Amr, that now, and this shows us genuine iman. This isn't just political iman. Genuine iman. That he's worried about his sins. Ya Rasulullah, I want my sins to be forgiven now. I want a clean slate to begin with. And this shows us again the maqam and the status of Amr ibn al-As. And the fact of the matter is that a lot of people, astaghfirullah, they talk about Amr in a manner that is not appropriate. because of what happened afterwards. He did become a politician. He was on the side of Muawiyah. He did what he did. But there is no doubt that he is a Sahabi, a companion, a great companion, a companion who embraced Islam before the conquest of Mecca and a fundamental principle of theology. This isn't history. This is Aqidah. A fundamental principle of Aqidah. We do not speak ill of any Sahabi. We don't doubt their Niyyah. We can disagree with their Fiqh and their political decisions. We don't have to follow everything. Ibn Abbas said X is halal, and Ibn Umar said X is haram. Okay, we look between the two of them. We don't have to follow the one over the other. Ibn Umar had this position, Ibn Abbas had another position. Okay, we can disagree. But we never, ever, ever criticize the intention, the niyyah, the Islam of any companion. Even if they commit a sin, we say this was a sin they committed, and Allah Azza wa Jalla, meaning an open sin. It is true some of the sahaba did sins, that they're not ma'asum, Only the Prophet ﷺ is Ma'soom. But we don't doubt their niyyah and their sincerity to Islam. And Amr ibn al-'Aus, we see his sincerity in this one incident. And also we talked two days ago about his deathbed. And that's a different story. But when he was dying, the guilt that he was feeling, I don't know what I did, I hope Allah forgives me. That clearly shows a sense of Iman. And we conclude by pointing out that the conversion of these three people, and I already explained their symbolic conversion here. that the keys of the Kaaba, and that's the religious conversion, right? And Khalid, and that's the military conversion. And Amr, and that's the political, the statesman, he's the envoy, the conversion. So with these people coming, wallahi, it's basically complete, it's a done deal now, that the Quraysh are basically about to be completely wiped out from the political power, and this was a precursor to the next step. There were some many other expeditions as well that took place after this incident, but again, for the purposes of this seerah, these minor expeditions that the Prophet ﷺ did not participate in, we will simply overlook them and then inshaAllah move on in our next seerah to the next topic. And with that, inshaAllah, jazakumullahu khayran.

Seerah 72 - Battle of Mu'tah Part 1 - Dr

Al-Fatiha. because of logistical issues. And the last lecture that we had was concerning, who can remind me? The Umrah al-Qadha. We talked about the Umrah al-Qadha. And now we have one major incident before the grand finale of the conquest of Mecca. And this major incident is the Battle of Mu'tah. So the Battle of Mu'tah will take this lesson and our next lesson insha'Allah ta'ala. And next week will be our final seerah for the year, for 2013. And then insha'Allah ta'ala we will begin the new seerah basically in the beginning of the next academic year insha'Allah ta'ala. So we have basically this class and next class which is gonna be both of them are gonna be the battle of Mu'tah and everything that happened after the battle of Mu'tah up until the incidents about the conquest of Mecca. Now, the battle of Mu'tah the battle of Mu'tah has a naming problem. And that is what do we call this battle? Do we call it Ghazwat al-Mu'tah or do we call it Sariyat al-Mu'tah? The majority of scholars have called it Ghazwat al-Mu'tah, but this is a little bit problematic because what is the definition of a Ghazwah? The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ participated along with it. And Mu'tah was not one in which the Prophet ﷺ participated in. And yet, pretty much the majority of early scholars and even medieval scholars, they called it Ghazwat al-Mu'tah. Why did they go against their own, if you like, methodology for this particular battle? One simple reason. And that is the quantity of people who participated. The quantity of people who participated in Mu'tah was far more than the quantity of any other Sariyah. In fact, it was more than the quantity of most Ghazawat. How many people participated in Mu'tah? 3000 Sahaba. So because we had the largest quantity up until this time. and also because the enemy is not just any enemy. It is the Romans and there is no battle that the Sahaba fought against the Romans in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ other than this battle. The only time the Muslim faced a non-Muslim enemy, sorry not a non-Muslim but a non-Arab enemy if you like, right? The only time that the early Muslims in the time of the Prophet ﷺ faced a non-Arab enemy was in this battle. So it is a very significant battle. so they wanted to upgrade it, so they called it غزوة المؤتة. But some later scholars reprimanded this terminology and they said, no, it should not be called غزوة because we want to be consistent. Now the Sahaba by the way, they didn't call it غزوة المؤتة, they usually called it جيش الأمرا. And this is the wording in Sahih Bukhari and others, جيش الأمرا. The army of leaders. Why? Because أمرا doesn't mean he princes, means leaders. Why? Because in no other battle did the Prophet ﷺ appoint more leaders than he did in مؤتة. The most number of leaders, as we'll talk about in a while. So and so. Then if so and so is killed, so and so. Then if so and so is killed, so and so. Three leaders he appointed. So one after the other, he appointed three leaders. In no other expedition in his entire lifetime did the Prophet ﷺ appoint three leaders. So they called it the expedition of leaders, جَيْشَ الْأُمَرَىٰ And others call it وَقْعَةَ الْمُؤْتَىٰ or the incident of Mu'tah. So we either call it جَيْشَ الْأُمَرَىٰ or we call Jaisalman is the army of leaders. Or we call it Waq'at al-Mu'tah, but it is not appropriate to call it Ghazwat al-Mu'tah. Why? Because as we said Ghazwah, by definition of the early scholars, is something that the Prophet ﷺ participated in. Now what is Mu'tah? Mu'tah is the name of a small village and the land around it, in an area that used to be in the Roman province of Syria. It is currently in the country of Jordan. So Mu'tah is currently in Jordan, in the modern country, nation state of Jordan, the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. And Mu'tah occurs between the two cities of Amman and Kark. Amman and Kark are two very famous cities in Jordan. These are large cities, square right between the two cities, literally in the middle between these two cities. To this day there is a small area. It is known as Mu'tah in the classical books, but modern Arabs they call it Al-Mazar. And Al-Mazar is a village, that is Mazar literally means the mausoleum and it is called Al-Mazar because the three sahaba are buried at that village. The three sahaba that passed away, the three leaders are buried to this day and their qabirs are known to this day where they are and there is a very small settlement of a few thousand people around that area. So it is a small village and town Al-Mazar to this day that people know. Now why did Mu'tah take place? And frankly the answer to this question is not easy. we don't seem to have a lot of details about why such a large expedition went all the way up north at this time and we have to kind of extract informations and reasons and scholars have tried to piece together what is the incentive or the motivation of this battle the number one reason given and the earliest reason given is mentioned by Al-Waqidi and Al-Waqidi says that the reason why Mu'tah took place is revenge revenge for what? revenge for the killing of Al-Harith ibn Umair Al-Azdi, who is the messenger of the messenger of the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Harith was the Rasul of Rasulullah. He was the envoy, the ambassador. He had been sent to deliver a message to the Romans. And in order to get to the Romans, you have to go through the lands of the Arab Christian tribes up north. And the most predominant of these are the Ghassanid tribe. The Ghassanid tribe were the largest Christian tribe. Originally the Ghassanids are Yemeni. Originally they are from Yemen. And they migrated up north and they were Christians and they had converted to Christianity. And because they were Christians, they felt more of an affinity with the Romans than they did with their fellow Arabs who were pagans. So the Ghassanids were vassals. What are vassals? Vassals are subservient entities. They are basically, you agree to whatever the boss agrees to. and the Ghassanids were the Arab vassals to the Romans. So if the Romans needed anything in the Arab lands, they would designate the Ghassanids. You go take care of this. And in return, the Ghassanids had favor from the Romans. This is one of the favors that they're gonna get, right? Why would the Ghassanids do this? Well, because when they needed help, the Romans helped them out, as we will see in the battle of Mu'tah. So what happened with Al-Hadith, the Sahabi Al-Hadith? When the Prophet ﷺ sent him up north, he was captured by the Ghassanids. the Ghassanis took him to their chieftain Sharahbil ibn Amr Sharahbil asked him who he was he said I am an envoy meaning you can't touch me I'm an ambassador I'm an envoy here's my letter and it is to the emperor the Heraclius of Rome and you must let me go I am the Rasul of Rasulullah ﷺ and Sharahbil mocked him tied him up tortured him brutally and with his own hands killed him and this is a very vulgar thing to do on many counts. Firstly, obviously he's an ambassador. To this day, ambassadors, envoys are not touched. To this day, if there's any diplomatic issue, the country will not harm the ambassador. They will say, get out of here, as what happened between two Muslim countries recently, right? We know that. The envoy will say, you leave. We don't want you here. But the ambassadors, the envoys, the diplomats are never killed. This is the general rule of humanity. and the fact that Sharah Bil did this he crossed the red line worse than this even is the fact that the chieftain does it himself this is a full mockery of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and Islam it's one thing to tell your minions go kill the man and it's one thing as he himself did he took the spear himself and he thrust it in after he had been tortured the sahabi had been tortured He'd been tied up and bound to a stake and brutally tortured. And then the final blow is dealt by none other than Sharahbil ibn Amr, who is the chieftain of the Ghassanids. And honestly, you could not get more crude and more vulgar than this man and what he had done. And clearly, this means war. And his perspective is, what are you gonna do to me? I am the chieftain of the Ghassanids. I am 700 kilometers away from you, which he was. He was far up north, remember? What are you guys gonna do? This is what I think of you guys. basically. So this is the height of insult, the height of arrogance, and it has to be responded to, and therefore as soon as peace had been established in the Hijaz region, because when that happened, the Prophet ﷺ really could not do anything. He has to worry about the Quraish, he has to worry about a surprise attack. Now the Treaty of Hudaybiyah has taken place, Khaybar has taken place, the Prophet ﷺ's lands, wealth, security is established. So the first thing on his mind is, we need to deal with this guy. Right? So that is the first reason given, and frankly it is a very good reason in and of itself. So this is the first reason that has been given. The second reason that is found in some of the books of the seerah, and this reason frankly does not seem to have much evidence other than one report from one ancient book of the seerah, but it doesn't seem to have other evidence, but Allah knows maybe there was some truth to it. that the governor of Basra, now I keep on saying not Basra, Basra, and Basra was a small principality right outside of Damascus. And it was the border, the periphery between the Arabian Peninsula and the Roman Empire. And this was where رحلة الشتاء والصيف took place, to Basra. And to this day, as I said, the city of Basra is still existent and you still find the remnants of the market bazaar that is over 2-3 thousand years old, this bazaar. Because it was the center of many different civilizations. The Nabataeans would come, the Arabs would come, the Far Easterners would come, the Romans would come, the Greeks. They would all come and they congregate in Basra. Basra was the marketplace of the medieval world. So it is said that the governor of Basra had threatened the Muslims after the letter had reached him via Heraclius. After the letter had reached, through Heraclius it went to him, through him it went to Heracles excuse me so the governor of Basra had threatened to launch an attack against the Muslims so this is mentioned Allah knows best I don't find it too convincing of the reasons I don't find it too convincing number one we don't find it in other books but number two most importantly the battle of Mu'tah did not take place at Basra nor did they attack the actual army of Basra they attacked the Ghassanids right so the first reason does make sense Ibn Kathir mentions another reason A third possible reason, which in all likelihood is not quite a reason, but it is a wisdom. And there's a difference between a cause and an effect. And this seems to be an effect of the battle rather than the cause. Ibn Kathir mentions that this battle was preparation for the later battles against the Romans. This was a signal for what is about to come. That the Prophet ﷺ wanted to send the message to the world and especially to his own Sahaba. That our message is a global one. It's not gonna stop with the Arabs. We have to go beyond. And he wanted to demonstrate this in his lifetime. Even if he himself could not participate or actually engage in anything in his own lifetime because he could not because he was unifying the Arabian Peninsula. But the message has to be given that this religion is a global religion and it's going to go beyond the Arabian Peninsula. So Mu'tah is a prelude followed by Tabuk in which he actually did participate but there was no war as we'll come to Tabuk later on. Tabuk was also meant against the Romans. So Mu'tah was meant against... Now here, I have to pause here. Was Mu'tah meant against the Romans? Allah knows best but it probably wasn't meant directly for the Romans. But there's no doubt. Why? Because Mu'tah was directed against the Arab Christians, the Ghassanids. Now the point being, if you're going to mess with the Ghassanids, you are messing with the Roman allies. So even though in all likelihood the Prophet ﷺ did not anticipate the Romans coming in to Mu'tah, he knows what he's getting involved in. So even if it's not stage one, stage two will be the Romans. And Tabuk was clearly intended for the Romans as well. Tabuk, there seems to be that, that okay, bring it on, let's see. And they didn't show up. So Tabuk was meant to be a revenge of Mu'tah. and they didn't show up. The Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba showed up, and they didn't show up. So the point being, that it is as if the Prophet ﷺ is telling the Sahaba, that when you finish up with the Arabian Peninsula, you need to go beyond. And the number one area was Syria, the Bilaad al-Sham. Our Prophet ﷺ was always talking about Sham in his lifetime, and that is why the very first land that was conquered after the death of the Prophet ﷺ was none other than Sham. The very first land. In fact, it was conquered, the only land that was pretty much conquered in the reign of Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr pretty much had sealed the fate in his lifetime. And then as you know, the death of Abu Bakr and the nomination of Umar took place. And the battle is waging. And eventually Umar is asked to take over the cities of Jerusalem the very first month of his taking power of Khilafah. So Syria, excuse me, Bilad al-Sham is something the Prophet ﷺ is intending for. So مُؤْتَى is like the first domino. It's the first step to move on beyond this. Then it's gonna be تَبُوك and then it's gonna be, in fact, the very last expedition that the Prophet ﷺ sent through Usama ibn Zayd, as you remember as well. And that too Abu Bakr said, how can I turn it back? And then eventually, of course, it is conquered. So Ibn Kathir says, another wisdom of مُؤْتَى is this psychological foundation to be laid, the next stage will be the Roman Empire. And indeed that is exactly what happened. One can also derive that there is a divine wisdom. And what is this divine wisdom? That Khalid ibn al-Walid who is eventually going to become the general and the commander, he manages to witness the tactics of the Romans first hand. He gets a whiff of their methodology. He participates and he saves himself and the Muslims as we will discover in this battle as you all know anyway. And this allows him experience that nobody else has. And eventually it will be Khalid who will lead the Muslims beyond as we know. So Khalid ibn al-Walid who is going to later go on and fight the Romans and the Persians. Khalid ibn al-Walid is the one that has that experience by fighting with the Romans in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. The point being, mu'tah was a... It wasn't something that was immediately necessitated by an enemy attack. It seems to be that the Prophet ﷺ either wanted to avenge what had happened, or he wanted to set the ground for future conquest, or he wanted to do both. And Allah knows best, but these are the only things that we can derive. So in Jamadul Awwal, Jamadul Ula, of the 8th year of the Hijrah, we're already in the 8th year of the Hijrah now. In Jamadul Ula of the 8th year of the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ made an announcement that he wanted the Muslims to go to the area of the Ghassanids. And there was no ambiguity here because the Sahaba that needed to participate needed to know how far it would be. It would be the farthest they had ever gone. They had never gone this far before. And it would take them at least a month, a month and a half of travel and journey and back. So this is not something that they're going to just come and go in a few days. So he had to tell them where they're going and he encouraged them to volunteer. And of course he appointed some people and over 3,000 sahaba, around 3,000 sahaba basically signed up. And notice over here how quickly the numbers are changing. A few years ago, Badr was one-tenth this number. Literally, six years have gone by since Badr. And in six years, the numbers hasn't doubled, tripled, quadrupled, has increased ten times. In 6 years from 300 we get to 3000. Forget even 6 years. One year ago and a year and a half ago in Hudaybiyah. In Umratul Qadha we have 1400, 1500. Now within one year double. And these are the volunteers. There must be other people in Medina. So from these we piece together that Medina is becoming larger and larger. It's becoming a metropolis. It's becoming the center of the future Islamic civilization. so 3000 people signed up to go and they left on a Friday of Jamadul Awwal of 8th year of Hijrah we don't have an exact date we know it is a Friday from a Hadith in Tirmidhi and that Hadith is reported by Ibn Abbas that the Prophet ﷺ sent Abdullah Ibn Rawaha on an expedition and it was a Friday so Ibn Abbas said I said to myself should I leave with them or should I pray with the Prophet ﷺ first Jumu'ah then he said let me pray with the Prophet ﷺ Jumu'ah then catch up to the army later on so the scenario is as follows the army is leaving in the morning maybe 8-9 o'clock at the crack of morning basically and Ibn Abbas is debating I don't want to miss Jumu'ah so should I just wait for Jumu'ah pray with the Prophet ﷺ get an extra Jumu'ah then on my horse alone quickly ride up and catch up to the army Ibn Abbas decided with the latter then let me just wait and pray Jumu'ah so he prayed Jumu'ah with the Prophet ﷺ the Prophet ﷺ finished and he saw Ibn Abbas in the masjid and he knew Ibn Abbas had signed up to go he said what is the matter with you why didn't you go Ibn Abbas said ya Rasulullah I wanted to pray with you and then catch up with them he thought he wanted to get extra reward by praying Jumu'ah so the Prophet ﷺ said that if you were to give sadaqah of all of the money of this world you will not be able to get the reward of that having left early with them the few hours that they have extra above you, you would not be able to get that reward back. Meaning, you sacrifice the bigger reward for the smaller reward. And the bigger reward is to be in the ghazwa with the people, even if you wanted to stay behind for a good cause. But that cause is something that everybody else is doing. What they are doing is a very noble thing. And if you gave all of the money in the world, you will not be able to get the reward of having left earlier. And this hadith is in Tirmidhi. there's a slight weakness in the chain, but there's no problem using it for historical purposes. And the Prophet ﷺ, the one and only time in his entire life, he appointed three commanders, one after the other. And what this indicates is, he understood the severity of the battle. He understood this is not an easy task, that something bad might happen. Never did he appoint three people, one after the other. And in this battle, he appointed three people. He appointed Zayd ibn Harithah as its leader. And he said, إِنْ قُتِلَ زَيْدٌ فَجَعْفَرُ وَإِنْ قُتِلَ جَعْفَرٌ فَعَبْدَلَّا بِنْ رَوَاحَةٍ If Zaid is killed, then Ja'far shall be in charge. And if Ja'far is killed, then Abdullah bin Rawaha shall be in charge. And this is in Bukhari. And in one version in Al-Bayhaqi it is added, and if Ibn Rawaha is killed, then let the Muslims choose somebody else. So he gave this command as well. If Ibn Rawaha, then you guys choose on the spot who's left, and figure out who should be your leader. and this shows us the status of Zayd and Ja'far and Ibn Rawaha all three were near and dear to the Prophet ﷺ especially Zayd ibn Harithah we don't need to mention who Zayd ibn Harithah is that Sahabi who has the honor of being the only Sahabi that is mentioned by name in the Quran we just talked about his story a few weeks ago فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدٌ مِنْهَا وَطَرًا that Sahabi that Aisha herself said that never did the Prophet ﷺ send Zayd on an expedition except that Zayd was the one in charge of the expedition. Zayd was never number two in any battle. Never did Zayd participate except that he was number one. And then listen to what Aisha is saying. And if Zayd had been alive when the Prophet ﷺ had died, no one would have been chosen above him. and that's amazing because who is Aisha? the daughter of Abu Bakr and she herself is saying that if Zayd had been alive no one would have been chosen above him so this shows us the status of Zayd ibn Harithah and even Ja'far r.a. he felt a little bit hurt Ya Rasulullah I'm your cousin basically I am your cousin and you choose Zayd and the Prophet ﷺ sensed this that Ja'far felt a little bit hurt that I am number two after Zaid. And so the Prophet ﷺ consoled him and encouraged him and said, you do not know perhaps this is better for you. And it was indeed better for him that he became one of the most famous shahids because of this coming second in place, coming second in line. So he said, you do not know, perhaps Allah has something better written for you. So Zaid and Ja'far and Abdullah ibn Rawaha went after the other. And the Prophet ﷺ, he gave them a white flag. And of course white flag does not symbolize surrender. This is a modern western notion. This is back then white, black, whatever. You just have a banner. He himself handed the banner to Zayd and he accompanied the army all the way to the standard place where every single group would bid farewell to their travelers. And this was called the hill of farewell also known as come on The hill of farewell You all know it You all know it You all know it I just said it for you The hill of farewell ثنيات الوداع طلع البادر علينا من This is what it is None of you clicked? ثنيات الوداع ثنيات الوداع means the farewell hill It's literally what it means the farewell hill I'm positive I mentioned this haven't I mentioned this before? I mentioned this I know I mentioned this right ثنيات الوداع is where this was a small hill outside of Medina where every single traveler that went out would be accompanied by his loved ones his families just like in our times you drop your loved ones to the airport you walk to the check-in gate well these days you can't even get in but once upon a time you remember back in the 90s and 80s you would walk with them all the way to all the way to the gate, right? And then you bid them farewell, okay? Those were the good old days. Now, what was the equivalent back then? ثَنِيَةُ الْوَدَاعِ That they would go to ثَنِيَةُ الْوَدَاعِ and it was a little bit of a mound. Then they would go on the mound and then wait until the travelers had left, right? So they walk with the beloved all the way to the ثَنِيَةُ Then the locals stay on the ثَنِيَةُ ثَنِيَةُ means a hill, a mound. ثَنِيَةُ الْوَدَاعِ The mound of bye-bye, farewell, وَدَاعِ So they stay there, and then the travelers move on. And so the Prophet ﷺ, it was his sunnah to accompany his armies to Thaniyatul Wada. And so when he returned from Tabuk, the little girls came to meet him. And they were the ones singing, طَلَعَ الْبَدْرُ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ ثَنِيَّاتِ الْوَدَا And I mentioned when we did the hijrah, that it is not accurate to say this occurred at the hijrah. Rather this poem was said at the return of Tabuk. and I gave my reasons then and I'll give them again because I know you've all forgotten even the note takers with their iPads have forgotten as well. So we'll go back and inshallah redo the reasons at Tabuk. But the correct opinion is that this poem was versified at Tabuk. طَلَعَ الْبَدْرُ عَلِيْنَ مِنْ ثَنِيَاتِ الْوَدَعِ وَجَبَ الشُّكْرُ عَلِيْنَ مَا دَعَ لِلَّهِ دَعَ But the point being this is ثنيات الودع. We wanted a long tangent of ثنيات الودع. Where were we? We're in Jamadul Ula, eighth year of the Hijrah. The Prophet ﷺ is accompanying the army to ثنيات الوداع and he sends them forward and he makes dua for them and he gives them the banner and he gives them advice about being firm and not turning back and what not. Abdullah bin Rawaha was seen crying at this farewell and someone asked him, what is the matter? Why are you crying? And he said, I am not crying because of the love of this world nor am I crying because I have an inclination for it but I'm crying thinking of the verse in the Quran that Allah has said, وَإِن مِّنكُمْ إِلَّا وَارِدُهَا كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَقْضِيَّةً That every one of you shall pass over it, meaning Jahannam. And this is a promise of Allah that will be enacted. And so his crossing over Thaniyatul Wada' and saying goodbye, it brought back, not brought back, but it gave him that imagery of Jahannam and of crossing over the Sirat of Jahannam. So he began crying and he said, what am I going to do in that crossing? Meaning I've managed to cross this. How about that crossing? I don't know how I'll be crossing there. So we find obviously they were very emotional. There's a sense of danger that the Prophet ﷺ is accompanying them. He's giving them the flag and whatnot. And one of them cries out, one of the sahaba that remained behind, may Allah accompany you and allow you to return safely and soundly. And Ibn Rawaha versified, and Ibn Rawaha was a poet and we'll mention Ibn Rawaha's poetry in a while. And I translated some lines for this class. Beautiful poetry, beautiful poetry. But again, when you translate in English, you lose the rhythm and rhyme and eloquence. But he versified right then and there. The sahabi made dua, come back safely. Ibn Rawaha said, as for me, and this is poetry, I'm just translating. As for me, I ask for Allah's maghfira, and a blow that is mighty. Sword blow that is mighty. and that causes the blood to gush out. So that when people pass by my grave, meaning you want me to come back, I want a grave somewhere, somewhere there. When people pass by my grave, they shall say, Allah guided him to be a warrior and how rightly guided he was. So he versified his premonition that I don't think I'm coming back. That you might want me to come back, but he goes, as for me, I pray that Allah's forgiveness and a sword or a blow that is mighty that causes the blood to gush so that when people pass by my grave they shall say Allah guided him to be a Ghazi, a warrior and how rightly guided he was meaning he was indeed a Ghazi and Ibn Ishaq in his seerah he mentions another interesting story on the way there Zayd ibn Arqam is a famous sahabi of all we've done his story his name has come up here and there Zayd ibn Arqam was a young man and he was an orphan who had been adopted by not adopted but taken care of by Abdullah ibn Rawaha. So he's a distant relative of Abdullah ibn Rawaha. So he's growing up in his household. So Zayd is riding on the camel with Ibn Rawaha. And he's probably now 15, 16 years old. So he's riding on the camel with Ibn Rawaha. And in the middle of the night, Ibn Rawaha, he's giving poetry. And he has another beautiful passage which Ibn Ishaq mentions. I did not translate that. But the gist of it is once again, let me die, O Allah. Let me not come back. Let me meet my death and die a shaheed. So he begins making this type of beautiful poetry. And the poetry is so moving that Zayd ibn Alqam bursts out into tears. That you're gonna die and I'm not gonna have you here. So he begins to cry. So Abdullah ibn Rawaha has his stick that he used for the camel. And he, you know, jokingly he hits Ibn Alqam, Zayd ibn Alqam with the stick. Jokingly, not like a hit, but you know, he hits him with the stick. And he says, Ya Luka. And Luka literally means, oh fool. But it's again a friendly way of saying this, you know. It's not like a harsh way. You know, يَا لُكَعْ Oh foolish one, what would it matter you if I become a shaheed and Allah blesses me and you get the camel to yourself on the way back? Then subhanAllah, like he's, you know, praying for shahada, but at the same time he's softening the mood. Like, why are you so, okay, I get my share and you get your share. And that's exactly what happened. Right? That on the way back he was on his own. Zayd ibn Alqam. So here is Abdullah ibn Mu'assin saying, oh fool, why are you so worried? If I don't come back, Alhamdulillah, I get what I want, and you get more space on the camel. So Alhamdulillah, we find over here, Ibn Rawaha has a premonition that he is about to basically pass away. And who is Ibn Rawaha? Ibn Rawaha, Abdullah Ibn Rawaha, his name has come up a number of times. Does anybody remember anything, or do I not want to embarrass myself and you by nothing, just move on silently, no questions, no quiz. Abdullah Ibn Rawaha, his name has come up many times, as recently as 2-3 weeks ago. I should give you a hint. I don't see the point of notes when... It's for later. When later? Every time I ask a question later, it's not answered. Okay, I won't embarrass you anymore. Abdullah bin Rawaha, he has participated... Firstly, he's an Ansari. He's not a Muhajir. He's an Ansari. So from Medina, he has participated in Aqaba. So he's one of the chosen, the Nuqaba. because the Ansaris that were chosen at Aqaba are the elite of the Ansar. So Ibn Rawaha is amongst those. And Ibn Rawaha was the one whom the Prophet ﷺ sent back from Badr to give the good news that Badr was a success. And when the Munafiqun saw Ibn Rawaha on the camel of the Prophet ﷺ, remember? That he gave his own camel to Ibn Rawaha. And he said, Go tell the Muslims what has happened. and Ibn Rawaha was running into the city, overjoyed that Abu Jahl has died and so and so has died and so and so has died. The munafiqun said, rather, astaghfirullah, the Prophet ﷺ has died, Ibn Rawaha has gone crazy because he's riding his camel and he's just spouting forth ludicracies. This is Ibn Rawaha, that the Prophet ﷺ gave him the camel. Ibn Rawaha as well, he was known for poetry along with Hasan ibn Thabit. Ibn Rawaha was another famed poet. Perhaps in some ways, He was more famed and more righteous even than Hassan ibn Thabit, but he died an early death. So Hassan is more known to us, even though in his lifetime Ibn Rawaha was more famous. And in terms of righteousness and piety, even though all of the Sahaba radiallahu anhum, but he was of a different level than Hassan ibn Thabit. And a number of things are mentioned about Ibn Rawaha, just to show his iman of them. there is a hadith, نِعْمَ الرَّجْلُ عَبْدَ اللَّهِ بِالرَّوَاحِى that the Prophet ﷺ said, what a great man is Abdullah ibn Rawaha in his lifetime. And also, he was the one, the very famous incident, you've all heard about it here and there. He was the one, once the Prophet ﷺ was giving a khutbah, and a delegation or something came, so the Prophet ﷺ said, sit down, meaning wait for the khutbah, sit down. So he said, اِجْلِسُوا, sit down. And Ibn Rawaha was just entering the masjid. And he heard the Prophet ﷺ say, sit down. So at the door of the masjid, he just sat down right there. You must have heard, many of you have heard of this incident. This is Ibn Rawaha. That he just heard the Prophet ﷺ say for something else, اجلسوا. And he was over there and he didn't see what's happening. He just heard, sit down. So as soon as he heard it, سَمِعْنَا وَطَانَ he just sat down right at the doorstep of the masjid. And the Prophet ﷺ smiled and made dua for Ibn Rawaha. And I mentioned him 2-3 weeks ago in Umrah al-Qadha. In Umrah al-Qadha, Abdullah Ibn Rawaha was the one who was singing lines of poetry, versifying lines of poetry about the Prophet ﷺ against the Quraysh. That, O Quraysh, leave him be, he is such and such, and you are such and such. So he is versifying lines of poetry. And Umar, as is his usual case, Umar was obviously very strict in this regard. He said, O Ibn Rawaha, how dare you sing poetry in front of the Prophet ﷺ in the state of Ihram, in Mecca. Like, come on, we have you no shame. How can you do this? And the Prophet ﷺ said, دَعُوهُ, let him be, for verily his words are more painful to the Quraysh than arrows coming from the heavens. Because of course, sometimes propaganda and PR, PR is sometimes more painful than physical. So he said, let him be, this is what he needs to be doing. And of course, I've said this many times before, so poetry is a weapon of the people of the past, and in our times it is media and internet and other things of this nature. we need to use the tools of our times to do what the Prophet ﷺ allowed the earlier Sahaba to do. So this is Abdullah ibn Rawaha. He has a whole stellar legacy. And he is a poet. And in fact, even in this battle of Mu'tah, there are entire passages which we don't have time to go over. I'm just giving you tidbits on his way there. In the battlefield, he has poetry before he passes away. All of this, we just have tidbits and we have to this day recorded. Nonetheless, so they're on their way to basically what is now Jordan and the peripheries of Syria. And they marched to the land or the province of Ma'an. And Ma'an is basically in the country of Jordan. But it appears that the Ghassanids panicked. They heard that a large group of Muslims, larger than any that had ever left Medina, appeared. And they panicked. And they sent out emissaries to every one of their allies, including the Romans. So they sent out emissaries to a number of other Christian Arab tribes. And these were the tribes such as Lugham or Judham or Al-Qin. These are all Christian Arab tribes. Al-Lughami is another famous Arab tribe and Judham is another famous Arab Christian. All of these are Christian Arab tribes and because they were Christian, so they had a good relationship with the Ghassanids. And he also sent an emissary to the Romans. Now here we have one or two early Sira books make a mistake And they said Heraclius himself responded And came down to fight And this is a very clear error Because Heraclius himself Never fought the Muslims And even later on When the conquest took place Of Jerusalem and what not And Heraclius is still around Heraclius never participated Directly against the Muslims how could he when he knew that this was a prophet of Allah how could he himself he never participated not that we're exonerating his kufr he died a kafir but he was not that foolish to face the Muslims in battle his generals his armies his lieutenants they faced but he himself never appeared in battle against the Muslims and one book of Sira mentions and it is a mistake one early book later books don't mention this and even Ibn Ishaq does not mention this this is a mistake that they're just trying to exaggerate that Heraclius himself came he did not come. And therefore, Arab Christian tribes, the Ghassanids, the Luham, the Juzam, Al-Qin, four or five other tribes, they all gathered together and the Romans sent a small contingent as well. So all of these gathered together before the Muslims made their way into Mu'tah. So they're still a few journeys away, a few days away and the news spreads so the Ghassanids take precaution. And that precaution means thousands of people have gathered together to defend and fight against the Muslims now how many people gather together the standard number that is mentioned in many classical books is 100,000 100,000 and some books even mention 150,000 and one book of Suhaili in the medieval times he mentions 200,000 Roman soldiers came and the fact of the matter is we need to be a little bit more critical the Arab tribes in totality did not number 100,000. How could 100,000 come and fight against the Muslims up north? The fact of the matter is, it is human nature. Astaghfirullah, I'm not accusing the early historians of lying, but it is human nature to read in larger numbers. You see a crowd and you read in larger numbers. And in fact, this is a well-known psychological phenomenon which has been clearly documented. Even I remember when the elections were taking place between the previous president here in this country. So the supporters of both camps would be eager to point out how large their own rallies were and how small the other rallies were. And there was a blog that was documenting the same rally. One reported by MSNBC would have this number, one reported by Fox would have this number. The same rally. And there was a blog that was tallying that this rally is estimating 500 and they're estimating 5,000. The same rally. And the number was hugely different. And it's really a matter of judgment. like you see a large number and you just assume 100,000 the fact of the matter we have to be a little bit more critical the Romans would never have sent 100,000 against the Persians how would they send it against some Muslim Arabs at this time they would not have been viewed as any major threat if anything they were probably a few hundred max a thousand Roman infantry and the rest of few thousand Arabs had come together there is no doubt that the Muslims were outnumbered double or triple one modern Muslim author this interesting story of this guy I don't have time to get into it he's actually a Pakistani general who became a practicing Muslim and wrote a lot of good books about the battles of the process and he wrote a very good book translated into English about Khalid ibn al-Walid and he was a general in the Pakistani army and he dedicated a lot of time to studying the battles of the process and the battles of Khalid ibn al-Walid and he estimates he has gone to all of these sites and looked at all of the evidence he estimates that max there were maybe 10,000 people. This is a more reasonable figure than what is traditionally narrated of 100,000. It's a bit of a human exaggeration that such a large number could never have come out of nowhere so quickly to fight against a group that internationally had not yet had any major victory. The Muslims were not viewed as any international threat by the Romans yet. They have not even done anything to the Romans. So the Romans did send a contingent. We know this for a fact. Another point is, now that the Romans are involved, we have records from the Roman side. We'll talk about that next week inshaAllah. We have records from the Roman side about this battle, about this contingent. Because the Romans had a recorded history. The Romans are a civilization. Unlike the Arabs at the time, there is no recorded history. But the Romans are keeping register and check. So we actually have this battle mentioned in the Roman books and I'll get to that next week inshaAllah. For now, let's just say, perhaps at max they were 10,000. At max. maybe even 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 is being generous. But the point being, no doubt the Muslims were greatly outnumbered, far more than what they had expected, because they were only expecting the Ghassanids. Now you have the Lugham, the Juzam, the Al-Qin, the other Arab Christian tribes, and you have an infantry group from the Romans as well, who had joined them. All of this is unprecedented. The Muslims did not know what to do. and when the news reached the Muslim camp they began to wonder what should we do and they in fact camped for two days not proceeding for two days in one of the valleys of Jordan they camped for two days back and forth discussion that this is not what we had initially planned we had initially planned to fight the Ghassanis the Ghassanis would have been max 4,000, 5,000 so we have 3,000 good enough but now we have double triple the quantity we have the Romans involved and we did not expect the Romans to come Now hold on, why are they so, quote unquote, worried about the Romans? It's not about her being worried, but being practical. Why the Romans? Because the Romans are a totally different fighting breed. They are superior armed, better trained, better horses, better weapons. They are a different class of fighters compared to the Arab class of fighters. And the Sahaba know this. So they said, we didn't come prepared to fight this group. What do we do now? and one group said let us just camp here and send a messenger back to the Prophet ﷺ and get his command either he'll send us more people or he'll tell us to retreat or he'll tell us to go and we'll do whatever he wants but let's just wait for him now this is gonna take at least two weeks because they're already in Jordan what is now modern Jordan for them to come send a messenger all the way down then come all the way back at least two weeks take place and another group said let us return we didn't come for this let us go back because we have come to this land shown our force stepped in their territory and frightened them so mission accomplished the goal was to send a message we sent the message mission accomplished let's go back and Zayd asked Zayd ibn Haditha asked Abdullah ibn Rawaha O Ibn Rawaha, what is your opinion? And this shows us that at times of difficulty, you turn to people of wisdom, not the novices. You turn to the senior people. Ibn Rawaha is one of the leaders of the Ansar. And Zayd is also of the leaders of the Muhajirun. So he turns to him and says, what is your advice? What do you think we should do? So Ibn Rawaha stood up and he gave a very moving and eloquent speech. He's the poet. And there is no doubt that Zayd knows what Ibn Rawaha is going to say. but he wants an eloquent tongue on his side. So this is also the tactic of Zayd. Zayd wants to convince the rest of the Sahaba. But Abdullah ibn Rawaha has a better tongue than him. And throughout the journey, ibn Rawaha has clearly given his hints. I'm gonna die shaheed, khalas, that's it. Everybody knows this. So Zayd choosing ibn Rawaha is basically knowing what ibn Rawaha is gonna say. Ibn Rawaha stands up, the most eloquent of the group, and he gives a beautiful khutbah. Ya Qawm, O my people, what you're scared of is exactly what you're after. Beautiful way to begin. What you're scared of is what you are desiring. You're scared of death, but don't all of you want to die shaheed? What you're scared of is your goal. So you are scared of your goal because of your goal. Your goal has become an impediment for the actual goal. You see what I'm saying here? Right? what you're scared of is exactly what you're running away from and that's what you want i.e. shahadah and death so the point being he's saying you're scared of dying isn't that why we're all here that that's the ultimate goal and what is the matter with us that Allah will bless us with one of two things إِحْدَ الْحُسْنَيَينَ as Allah says in the Quran إِحْدَ الْحُسْنَيَينَ either victory or shahadah either victory or shahadah and we know that Allah does not help us through quantity or weapons but rather through our Islam that Allah has blessed us so let us go forth and face one of the two inevitable realities so he gave them a rousing lecture and that sealed the fate everybody was motivated that we've come so far let it be the Prophet ﷺ sent us so let us go forth and so they all decided to go forth and face the Romans and the Arab Christians so for two days they were camped they then continued moving onwards and they passed by one of the smaller villages in modern Jordan and its inhabitants all know what's going on. So they sent a small contingent towards the back of the army, the rear of the army to shower them with arrows. And it so happened that a number of Sahaba were injured and one of them died. That the arrow pierced his heart and he died. And this was at the back of the Muslim army. So they went forward and they said to Zayd, let us go back and fight the village. And for sure they could have fought the village because the village is a small amount. So this shows us by the way that the whole landscape was hostile. Everybody obviously would be against them. Understood, they're going to enemy territory. So let us go fight the village. And Zayd said, No, I don't think this is a good idea. For the enemy is in front of us. And I don't want to be sidetracked into another battle that will wound and tire out and separate us before we meet the enemy. So he sacrificed, even though the village could easily have been taken care of with the 3,000. But no, we have a bigger thing ahead of us. What has happened has happened. Let's deal with the bigger guys first. So he refused to get retaliation and he moved onwards towards higher up north. And eventually they decided to, and it was the Muslims who decided the area of the land, the land that is now called Mu'tah. And it was, as we said, a small encampment and there was a large plain. And we have to guess why this land was chosen. we don't know. And again realize, because the process of did not participate in Mu'tah, so even the reports about it are far less than the reports of Uhud and Badr and Khandaq. Because anything that the process of is not immediately involved in, automatically the reports diminish. So we have to piece together the whole battle of Mu'tah is recorded in a page or two. That's it. All of the details, we really do not know, sadly. And that's one of the problems as we're reconstructing the seerah. It's just something we have to kind of piece together. The point being, probably they chose the land of Mu'tah or the ground of Mu'tah for logistical reasons. Definitely one of the things that we know for sure ease of access to water because they are travelers. They are not in land that they're familiar with. So there was a river close by that they could get their water from. Probably if we want to read in even more and there's no harm in doing so, probably we can also say there was a line of retreat that they could take advantage of if the need arose to. Why do we say this? because that's exactly what happened with Khalid ibn al-Walid. Did Zayd have this in mind? We'll never know. But it could be added that perhaps he also had this in mind. That there's a line of retreat that would protect them if the need arose. Because definitely, even if Zayd didn't have that in mind, the land did have such a land, such a passage, that Khalid ibn al-Walid took advantage of later on. And we'll talk about that next week, about that issue of Khalid ibn al-Walid. And it was the Muslims who chose this area of Mu'tah, And as always the case, they divided themselves into three. They have the middle, and then the right and the left. And each one was given a commander. And Al-Waqidi reports that Abu Hurairah was a part of the expedition of Mu'tah. And remember Abu Hurairah had met the Prophet ﷺ. Where? Where does he join the Prophet ﷺ? Abu Hurairah. Khaybar. Khaybar. He joins him at Khaybar. Abu Hurairah joins him at Khaybar. And Abu Hurairah is given a little bit of... Yes, you're vindicated. Yes, Alhamdulillah. he's given a little bit of the shares of the booties of Khyber as well so Abu Hurairah and Ja'far did not participate in Khyber but they all, they got some of the ghanima of Khyber so Abu Hurairah was a part of the battle and Al-Waqidi says that when Abu Hurairah, and this is the first battle of Abu Hurairah, so Abu Hurairah has not fought Badr or Uhud or anything, and by the way a lot of people don't realize Abu Hurairah, even though he's a narrator of Hadith, he also fought in battles and this is the battle of Mu'tah which is one of the most traumatic battles he was a part of that battle so Abu Hurairah's eyes opened up wide when he saw the army in front and one of the Sahaba chided him and he said what is the matter with you Abu Hurairah are you amazed and shocked at how large the army is so he said yes so the Sahaba said but you were not with us at Badr you were not with us at Badr and let me tell you we did not win because of the size of our army. And what does this show, this comment? About their iman and their point of view on the battle right now. Confident that they're going to win. They are not walking into a suicide. This is the point here. They are not thinking, oh khalas, just because we're 3,000 in there, 10,000, 9,000, we're gonna lose. No, they believe they're going to win and be victorious. And this is the attitude of the Muslim. The Muslim does not walk into a suicide attack. This is not what the Sahaba did and what some modern scholars use to try to justify these suicide attacks and bombings that some people do in our times. Wallahi, the seerah does not demonstrate this at all. Here we have Mu'tah, which was one of the most traumatic or difficult battles. Yet the view of the Sahaba is what? we will win we're going to win now wanting shahada is not the same as suicide Ibn Rawaha wants shahada but he fights a vicious battle there's two different things right and here's the sahabi telling Abu Hurairah are you worried because we're smaller than them don't worry been there done that you were in there we were there we won at Badr and they were three times our size nothing different now they're three times our size we'll win again right It shows us the positive outlook of the Sahaba that they expected to win. And again we have to piece together the battle. We know that Zayd gave the command to charge and Zayd because the procession gave him the flag, he did not give it to anybody else. So it's a matter of honor. The procession handed him the flag. So Zayd took the flag and he charged in from the front. And he was in the charge of the middle of the flank. And he was attacked from every side until he was surrounded by the enemy. because of the flag. And the enemy always wants to get the flag. He was surrounded by the enemy forces, and he met his death surrounded by a whole flank of non-Muslims around him. We don't have the details of who killed him or how he died, but he was killed. And when he was killed, so Ja'far took the flag. The flag was basically handed back until it came to Ja'far. And Ja'far fought one of the most vicious fights that has ever been recorded in the history of Islam. The bravery of Ja'far al-Mu'tah is almost unparalleled to any other battle in any other Sahabi during this period of the seerah. He charged in with his horse. He fought valiantly until eventually somebody cut his horse's legs off. And so the horse fell forward. So he rolled over. And then he stood up and he's surrounded by non-Muslims because now he's in the thick and thin. and he single-handedly while holding on to the flag with one hand. Single-handed now, literally single-handed now. He is fighting the people around him with the people have swords, spears, javelins and there's people stabbing and putting in every single wound until finally somebody surprises him and cuts off his entire right hand which has the flag in it. Cuts off the entire right hand and before even the flag can hit the floor, the left hand comes in, swoops down and takes the flag. So now he is literally just standing there with one hand and the flag is in there and as a matter of basically pride, the other group chops off his left hand because they want to embarrass, they want to get the flag fall. And the flag this time does fall to the ground but he bends down and takes the two stumps and then puts it on his chest and raises it once again. And finally a Roman infantryman comes and literally cleaves him in half from behind. He takes one of those big Roman swords and literally just cleaves almost the entire body in half from behind. And they found him with great difficulty buried under a lot of bodies. Ibn Umar said, I participated in Mu'tah. and afterwards we went hunting for the body of Ja'far and we finally found his body in the middle of the dead now subhanallah pause here this one man he was under a pile of dead people what does that show us about the wounds the damage that he had inflicted on others and we found him and we counted over 90 stabs and wounds and marks and cuts across his entire body 50 of them in the front and 40 in his back. Meaning he's facing the enemy. He's not turning around. We counted. And can you imagine? This means literally, Ibn Umar has the body of Jafar in front of him, and he is literally counting the wounds. Why would he be doing something so morbid? Why would he be doing something so morbid? Who can tell me? It shows the bravery. This is not morbid. This is the true badge of honor. This is the real badge of honor. that Ja'far stood his ground he kept on holding to the flag until 90 people had basically wounded him and still he has not given up until his soul leaves his body and both of his hands were cut off and it is reported in Sahih Mus, Sahih Bukhari that Abdullah ibn Umar, the same ibn Umar whenever he would pass by the children of Ja'far he would say, Salamu Alaikum O sons of the one with two wings يَبْنَ ذِي الْجَنَاحَيْنِ And there are many hadith that put together become hasan, each one is slightly weak, that the Prophet ﷺ says, I saw Ja'far in Jannah, Allah had given him two wings instead of his two hands. And he is flying around anywhere that he wants. So that's why Ibn Umar would say, السلام عليك O children of the one with two wings, يَبْنَ ذِي الْجَنَاحَيْنِ So if somebody says, who is the one with two wings? it is Ja'far ibn Abi Talib he is the one with two wings Yabna Dhil Janahain is the children and the Prophet ﷺ said I saw Ja'far with two wings in Jannah and when Ja'far dies then Ibn Rawaha takes the flag and Ibn Rawaha before he plunges in he hesitates and on the battlefield and subhanAllah you have to be a classical Arab to do this modern Arabs have lost this talent versifying on the spur of the moment Sahih you've all lost the talent it doesn't exist anymore, right? just to versify on the spur of the moment with the pressure this is a talent that has long gone modern Arabs got talent is nothing other than western talent this is not talent this is regression, not progression real Arab talent Arabs got talent was poetry you just on the spur of the moment you give their poetry and that is unfortunately almost gone now وَقَلِيلٌ مَاهُمْ but Ibn Rawaha he began to versify and one of the people on the battlefield narrates this to us later on. And it's like a paragraph and some of the few lines I just translated for you that before he plunged in, he paused because he knows this is death. Now subhanAllah, he's been waiting for death all of this journey. When he sees it, pauses a bit. And he says something and somebody hears him. And he's speaking to his own soul. And he says, I swear, O my soul, you shall proceed. You shall proceed or لَتُكْرَهُنَّ I will force you to proceed. Meaning his soul is now battling with him. It's beautiful, like he's in jihad against himself. And he's telling his soul, you shall proceed or I will force you لَتُكْرَهُنَّ to proceed. The people have gathered, the clamor has risen, but what is the matter with you? you don't want Jannah. لَتُكْرَهُنَّ Now you have Jannah. Then he says, surely what you have desired has eluded you for too long. What are you, يَبْنَ الرَّوَاحَةِ except a drop of fluid put in a Shanna, put in a bag. Meaning you are nothing but a drop of despised fluid. نُطْفَةٌ فِي شُنَّةٍ يعني you are just a drop in a despised bag, or sorry, despised fluid in a bag. What are you that you are so precious upon yourself? Meaning what here? He's telling his soul, what's the matter? Why are you scared now? This is what you've been waiting for. Jannah is around the corner. You had better go or I'll force you. Why do you want to stay when you're nothing but a drop of despised fluid? That's all that you are. And you want to remain in this state when you have the potential to go much beyond this. And he then jumped into their ranks and he died a shaheed as well. And subhanAllah, what this shows us is something so beautiful, so human, this is what makes the sahaba the sahaba, and what is that? they are not angels he's been wanting shahada for this whole journey now it's right in front of him and what happens? his humanity is shown, he hesitates wallahi, me and you we would have fainted or run behind he hesitates, right? we could not even lift the sword that he had in his hand. Wallahi we could not. I don't think anybody here really could even handle that sword and the instruments that they have. Have you seen the things that those Zahaba used, right? So he hesitates. What is bravery? Bravery is to conquer your fear. It's not to not feel fear. Then if you didn't feel fear, you're not a human. Bravery is to conquer your fear. He feels the fear. Then what happens? He conquers it. And wallahi to me, now some people might read in and some have done those who want to make fun of the sahaba you know the other groups and what not so they make fun of this and say oh this sahaba is now you know scared of death and what not wallahi subhanallah this is not fear this is bravery this is the essence of bravery and it shows us the humanity that he is so close to death but who amongst us can just walk in like this so he is debating and then finally his iman gets the better of him and he eventually goes in and he dies a shaheed. And then Thabit ibn Arqam from the Ansar, he was a Badri, he was a famous sahabi from the Ansar. Thabit ibn Arqam, when the flag falls, Thabit jumps in and gets the flag and runs out of the melee. And he takes refuge in a little bit of area behind the army. And it is allowed in our religion, Allah says in the Quran, that you may turn your back if you're trying to regroup. إِلَّا مُتَحَرِّفًا لِقِتَالٍ So he turns his back and runs away because he wants to get the flag to safety. The flag is the symbol of safety. And he runs back into the safer area and he says, هَلُمُّ إِلَيَّ O Muslims, come to me. So the battle is taking place 20, 30 meters away, 50 meters away. The battle is taking place. We need a new leader. So whoever is there, come quickly around me. So the Muslims re-root because he has the flag. And he's not Zaid and he's not Ja'far and he's not Ibn Rawaha. It's pretty clear all three are gone. He's holding the flag. and when a group come around him he says quickly choose a leader amongst you who will be our leader and he's holding the flag and he says who's gonna be the leader obviously somebody's gonna say you obviously it's human nature right you be the leader and he says no way not me choose somebody else so they look around themselves who can qualify who can be the one and their eyes settle on the one who was the newest of them to Islam the youngest of them in coming to the faith, barely a month or two has gone by since he has accepted Islam. He is a fresh Muslim, right? And he is somebody who was their most avowed enemy, has caused them the most damage and harm in Uhud, in Khandaq, in Hudaybiyyah. And the hearts have not yet wounded. Sorry, the wounded hearts have not yet healed, right? Because in the end of the day, he has done what he has done, right? So many of them have lost their lives, their relatives at Uhud because of this one man. And he's the youngest of them. But Islam forgives everything. And situations like these call for leadership. So all eyes turn to Khalid ibn al-Walid. And Khalid when he sees all of this, he says, how could I? Meaning, of course he understood, I am who I am. Now we think of Khalid as Sayfullah. Remember, at this stage, he is the newest Muslim. He is fresh into this religion. He has a history of hatred and animosity and killing. Right? And his father Al-Walid, how many verses in the Quran against him? So he says, how can I? But they insist. And so Khalid takes the flag. And next week we'll talk about what happens with Khalid. But this week, I wanted to just conclude with something that's taking place simultaneously in Medina. So what happens with Khalid, we'll do next week. This week we'll just do one or two hadith and then finish off for today. That as this is unfolding in Mu'tah, almost 700 kilometers, 800 kilometers away, as this is unfolding in Mu'tah, the Prophet ﷺ is vividly describing every detail of the battle simultaneously. As it is taking place in Mu'tah, he is talking about it in the masjid in Medina. All the sahaba have gathered live updates. And he is telling them in graphic detail exactly what is happening. And this hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim and it's very rigorously authentic that Anas ibn Malik said, and Anas is the child, he's in Medina. Anas is not in Mu'tah. Anas ibn Malik said that the Prophet ﷺ told us about the deaths of Zayd and Ja'far and Ibn Rawaha before the news reached us. Meaning, before the messengers came, the messenger is telling us. right before the people came from the battle Rasulullah is telling us and he said Zaid took the flag and he was killed and Ja'far took it and he was killed and Ibn Rawaha took it and he was killed and Anas said and his eyes were crying sallallahu alayhi wasallam his eyes were crying until he said hatta akhadaha sayfun min suyufillahi ta'ala until a sword from the swords of Allah took it and Allah gave him victory at his hands this hadith is in Bukhari Aisha narrates an even more moving episode and this is also in Bukhari Aisha says that when the news of the death of Ibn Harithah and Ja'far and Abdullah Ibn Rawaha came the Prophet ﷺ sat down and grief was clearly visible from him subhanallah he is so emotionally hurt now he has to physically sit down and we all know when a very big news comes to us we cannot even stand up we have to just sit down can you imagine the stress and the pain and the anguish Zayd ibn Harithah the one who as we know the story of Zayd when his own father and uncle came to free him from slavery and this was before Islam and the Prophet ﷺ said to Zayd your father and uncle have come, go you are free and Zayd is shocked you want me to go back with them and he turns to him what did you tell them and he didn't say ya Rasulullah he's not Rasulullah what did you tell them and he says I left the matter to you the two of them are going back and forth right that I left the matter to you and he tells his father and uncle in that case I will never choose this man over anybody else and his father says to Zaid oh my son you will remain a slave with a strange tribe rather than come back a free man with your father you will remain a slave as a stranger rather than come back as a free man with your father and he says that oh my father the love that this man has shown me no one else can possibly show me and when he said this that was when the Prophet ﷺ took Zayd in front of the Quraysh in front of the Ka'b and he said this is now Zayd ibn Muhammad this Zayd ibn Muhammad the only one whom Allah has honored by mentioning in the Qur'an there's no other Sahabi that comes close to this Abu Bakr comes a distant second by being referenced as a direct pronoun. Direct pronoun. That's nowhere near being a name. Right? Allah mentions Abu Bakr إِذْ يَقُولُ لِصَاحِبِهِ When he mentions to his companion. صاحبه Abu Bakr is sahabi. But that's a direct pronoun. زَيْد is فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدٌ مِنْهَا وَطَرًا This is the Zaid that Aisha says that if anybody had been alive, if he had been alive, no one would have chosen anybody other than Zaid. So Zaid has just died. Somebody whom the Prophet ﷺ has been gifted At the marriage of Khadija Almost 30 years have gone by And he's been raising up Zaid 15 years have gone by Sorry, 20 years have gone by And Zaid has been in his household Not even 20, 30 It is 30, I'm correct 30 years have gone by And now Zaid has passed away Ja'far Remember what happened with Ja'far when he came back at Khaybar He stood up to kiss him on the cheek He stood up and he hugged him and he kissed him And he said, I don't know why I am happier today. The conquest of Khyber, this fertile land, millions of dollars in our time. Or seeing Ja'far. Which of the two has made me happier today? And he has been away from Ja'far again for 13 years. He's been raised up with Ja'far. Ja'far is closer to him in age than Ali. And now Ja'far has just been killed. And leaving behind widows and children. And Abdullah ibn Rawaha, the Sahabi who has been with him from the beginning in Medina. All three have died. And he literally sits down, visibly grieved, crying. Aisha is watching from her curtain, from the room, she's watching. And she is hurt like every wife would be when her husband is hurt. And Aisha says, I was looking at him from the corner of the house, meaning from the curtain. And a man came to him and said, Ya Rasulallah, Nisa'u Ja'far, the women of Ja'far. And he mentioned their crying. This is Aisha reporting. So the Prophet ﷺ told him, go back and tell them to stop. So the man went. And then he came back again, and he said, Ya Rasulullah, I stopped them, I prohibited them. Then he mentioned that they didn't listen. So the Prophet ﷺ again commanded him. And again the man returned, for the third time. And he says, Ya Rasulullah, the women have overpowered us. the women have overpowered us I can't do anything and so the Prophet ﷺ said then go throw dust into their mouths فَحْثُ عَلَىٰ وُجُوهِهِنَّ التُّرَىٰ عَلَىٰ أَفْوَاهِهِنَّ التُّرَىٰ go throw dust into their mouths then the messenger meaning this man goes back and from the corner of the room without even him knowing comes the voice of Aisha whipping him just like every single woman when she comes to the defense of her husband, then woe to you, and then again woe to you. Nobody can defend a husband better than his wife when she wants to defend. And that when is the big question. But when she wants to defend, then she can defend. And of course, Aisha is going to defend the Prophet ﷺ. And she gets so irritated, she says to this man, the messenger, meaning the one between him and the women of Ja'far, that rather may Allah throw dust on your nose, not on their women's nose. because neither have you done this nor did you leave this suffering from the Prophet ﷺ. Now this hadith is somewhat cryptic for those who read it for the first time. It is in Bukhari and Muslim, it's an authentic hadith. And really, let me explain it first and then we conclude our today's talk inshallah then resume next week. The point here is that the Prophet ﷺ is so grieved, he's so much in pain, he literally sits down, he's crying, he's in a very, we literally will call the shock, that's what we call it, he's in shock in grief, and news spreads all over Medina, so the wives of Ja'far, the children of Ja'far they began mourning what is mourning? mourning means crying out loud, mourning means beating themselves mourning means wailing and wailing says, you say when you wail, how are we going to live who is going to take care of us this is as we know, it is not allowed in Islam correct? it is haram it is a major sin now the women know this but they have not been tested yet it's one thing to say it's haram it's one thing to be tested and then pass the test so for the first time in this household the man dies the women it's ingrained in them from their upbringing they revert to their practices and they start wailing so this man who is this man he's not mentioned? Because Aisha is narrating the hadith, and she was harsh to him, so as is her sunnah, she doesn't mention names. So we don't know, some cousin, some relative. This man comes and he says, Ya Rasulallah, the women are wailing, what do I do? What do I do? So the Prophet ﷺ says, and by the way, notice as well, when Aisha narrates, what does she say? She says, the man came and said, the women of Ja'far, and he mentioned of their crying. Notice, what has she done? she's toned it down. She did not mention their wailing, even though they're not just crying. You understand this point here? Aisha is covering up the faults of these women. No need to mention explicitly what is understood. She's not a gossip monger. She's not a tattletale. She's not somebody that wants to spread everything. No. She simply generically says, he mentioned of their crying. And they weren't just crying. Because if they were crying, there's nothing haram in that, is there? Right? They were doing much more than crying. So, the Prophet ﷺ says, go back and tell them stop. The man comes and he goes, I did. So the Prophet ﷺ says, go back and tell them again to stop. Then he comes for a third time. Now, wallahi, put yourself in the shoes of this man. Whoever he was, the cousin or another, an elder son or whatever. He's confused. He can't control his own women. He's also in shock. His own relative has died. He's trying to get some comfort and help. He's going to the Prophet ﷺ. And what can the Prophet ﷺ do? The women are panicking, the women are wailing and crying. And so the third time, and no doubt the Prophet ﷺ has every right to get frustrated. Now this is an expression in Arabic, go throw dust as we know, we should know by now. It's not a literal thing, it's just the way the Arabs expressed irritation. This is like when you express irritation, right? This is not a literal thing, it just means irritation. It means they're doing something wrong. And it's not meant to be done literally, take dust and throw it in their faces. And what we find here, subhanAllah, I really love this hadith for so many reasons. Of the reasons I love this hadith, it shows us the traumatic reality of the sahaba. It's a human image here. Of the reasons I love this hadith, the Prophet ﷺ is being very pragmatic. It is haram to wail, correct? Okay, women are wailing. What has he done? He's told them three times, stop wailing. They didn't stop. What are you gonna do? what can you do? this is the point here there was an element of pragmatism right? he is irritated he is frustrated, he is in trauma, the women are going even more in trauma, he is trying to calm them down through this man, the man is saying the women have overcome us, we can't stop them from wailing and screaming, and he just comes irritated, he says then go throw dust on them the point is what do you want me to do then? what can I do? they are not doing it, you are not stopping them, what do you want me to do. And Aisha, she is hurt and in grief because she sees her husband in grief, because she sees what is happening. Zayd has died and Ja'far has died, Ibn Rawaha has died. He is frustrated, he is irritated. And now this man is coming and he's not acting wisely. Why is he not acting wisely? This is not the concern that you should bring to the Prophet Muhammad right now. This is not something you need to come three times for. You need to gain some sense. and that's what she says to the messenger here rather you're the one that deserves dust to be thrown on your mouth because neither are you able to control your own women nor are you sparing the Prophet ﷺ from this pain and suffering now is not the time to go and bring these petty things in front of the Prophet ﷺ so she lashes out at the man and she says you're the one who's deserving of the dust being thrown and wallahi the whole incident you are crying for all three of these people and for the women of Ja'far and for Ja'far. Your heart is grieved, our heart is with the Prophet ﷺ, with Aisha, with this man. You don't know who to cry for because all of them, they have their own personal trauma and tragedy taking place. The battle of Mu'tah really had a serious psychological blow. The Prophet ﷺ lost the most beloved person to him and that was Zayd ibn Harithah, his adopted son. He lost the one person that came the closest to being a real son. He would have been a real son had Allah not revealed in the Qur'an that u'd'uhum li'aba'ihim. For all sense and purposes, he was the son. As Ibn Abbas said, Wallahi I had no idea that Zayd ibn Harithah was, sorry, Zayd ibn Muhammad was Zayd ibn Harithah until Allah revealed Surah Al-Ahzab. Meaning I had no clue that Zayd wasn't Zayd until Allah told us that Zayd is somebody else. Right? This is the relationship that Allah, that the Prophet ﷺ had with Zayd. and now Zaid has come to an end Ja'far has come to an end Ibn Rawaha has come to an end what will happen in the battle of Mu'tah on that cliffhanger note inshallah ta'ala we will come back next Wednesday inshallah ta'ala and finish off our seerah for 2013 as I said at the beginning this will be the next week will be our final seerah for 2013 then there'll be a little bit of a break and then we'll come back at the beginning of the new academic year and calendar year and then resume our seerah from there and we are already late so we'll pause questions till next week because we'll stop Mu'tah next week inshallah ta'ala and with that we give the adhan and pray salat to Disha inshallah

Seerah 73 - Battle of Mu'tah Part 2 - Dr

Al-Fatihah And this is our second and final discussion of the battle of Mu'tah. And last week I had gotten to the place of Khalid ibn al-Walid having been appointed. And the Prophet ﷺ explaining to the people what had happened in the battle and his reaction in Medina. Now let us go back to the battle and mention what did Khalid ibn al-Walid do. And once again I reiterate that unfortunately we really just have two or three explicit narrations from which we have to derive the entire story. So what appears to be the case is that Khalid ibn al-Walid, he realized that there is no way to achieve actual victory. And that the only real victory would be to preserve the Muslim army from complete destruction, from massacre. So what did he do? He has a two-pronged tactic. the first tactic was that he organized the army for a quick short term attack and the purpose of this was to cause the Romans to stop from their onslaught so he wanted to just launch a quick attack to pause the Romans and cause them to stop in their onslaught and how did he do this? again we only have one narration but I'm sure there were other things that he did but one of the things that is mentioned is that he strategically positioned the archers so that the archers were able to stop the onslaught of the Romans from coming. And Ibn Ishaq mentions, for example, one small incident that one of the archers was an elderly man by the name of Waqid ibn Abdullah al-Tammimi. And even though he had a good arm still, but his eyes were feeble. So he told his two companions that lift me on top of your shield and I'll sit on top of the shield and you carry me as high as you can. And I will shoot as hard as I can and you will be my eyes. So he used two people to basically guide him, turn more this way, more that way. And so a group of archers basically were the primary method that was used. And there's no doubt that there was a direct onslaught as well. And this is mentioned by Khalid himself in Sahih Bukhari. He says that on the day of Mu'tah, nine swords broke in my hand. Nine swords, one after the other, kept on using nine swords until I finally only had left one Yemeni shield. So from this we derive that there was also an onslaught, there was also an attack on the ground, on infantry, and this was led by Khalid ibn al-Walid. And what this did was that by the time night fell, the two armies had managed to separate themselves outside of the distance of a bow and arrow. So they are now safe from the bows and arrows throughout the night. The two armies are now within visual sight, but not within the sight of bows and arrows. And so when night fell, the Muslims are at least safe for the time being. And they took shelter behind a hill. And it was on that evening that finally the martyrs could be buried. So the bodies had been lying there for the entire day. So in the evening, that was when the martyrs could be buried and the three of the leaders. And that is of course Ja'far and who else? Number one was who? This is a simple question. Zayd. And number two? Ja'far. And number three? Abdullah bin Rawaha that all three of them were in fact buried in one grave now what happened the next day fact of the matter is the books do not tell us anything at least the classical books from what I could find nothing explicit is mentioned but I did find in one of the later books a technique or a strategy and I don't know where this author got it from but Allah knows best but it appears to be something that is constructed or read into the classical books that another tactic that he did the next day, Khalid ibn al-Walid, was that he gave the impression that a group of reinforcements were arriving. He gave the impression to the Romans that a group of reinforcements were coming from Medina. And what this did was it caused the Romans and the Christian Arabs to simply pause because now they're worried that other groups will come. And in this pause, Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Muslims basically managed to run away from the battlefield and achieve complete security. Because had they left in front of the eyes of the Romans, the Romans would have followed them. And if they had followed them, they would have been massacred. So by giving the illusion of reinforcements coming, the Romans paused for a few hours. And in that few hours, Khalid ibn al-Walid and the Muslims managed to escape to security. Now, how did he give the illusion of people coming? Well, one of the books mentions a tactic of telling a group of sahaba to spread out thin in an area that had sand and far far away and use certain instruments or certain let's say wings or whatever to beat the dust up and to run forward in the dust so that when you see from the distance there is an illusion given that hundreds of horsemen or hundreds of people are coming and so you have the dust storm gathering in the distance this is one version that is given and Allah knows best but we have a lot of details, sorry, we do not have a lot of details, but the fact of the matter is that what Khalid ibn al-Walid managed to do was to save the bulk of the Muslim army from what otherwise would have been a complete disaster or catastrophe, so much so that only a handful of Sahaba passed away. We know the names of around 15, probably another 5 or 10 whose names we do not know. So the fact of the matter is out of 3,000 people, 1% basically passed away. 1%. And that is alhamdulillah, a very, very great, if you like, victory in its own way, that faced with the odds that they were faced with, faced with the superior fighting power, still the fact that less than 1% of the army actually passed away or died, and the rest of them returned. So from this, the question arises. And by the way, on the way back, they passed by the same village that had wounded them and killed one of their own, and they extracted revenge. Again, the books are not clear what exactly they did, but they extracted revenge, and they got their revenge from those people that had killed the Muslims. Now, the question arises, is Mu'tah a victory or is it a loss? There are three opinions about this issue. The first opinion is that Mu'tah is a victory. In fact, they said it is a big victory. And this is the position of Musa ibn Uqbah, who is a contemporary of Ibn Ishaq, and also a famous seerah expert of the classical time. And also the opinion of Imam al-Bayhaqi, who died 438, and also the position of Ibn Kathir, who died 790 something. So Ibn Kathir, the famous Ibn Kathir. They all felt that Mu'tah is a massive victory. What is their evidence? Well, their primary evidence, well, of the things they say, not their primary, of the things they say, the fact that the Muslims by and large returned successfully with less than 1% casualty. Number one. Number two, the fact that they took some more booty, which is true, they took some booty. Back with them. We'll talk about one of the stories today as well. And number three, their main evidence is what the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself said. What did he say? The hadith is in Sahih Bukhari. We already mentioned the first part of it last week. And that is that the Prophet ﷺ told them of the deaths of Zayd and Ja'far and Abdullah as they're being killed and he's describing it. And he is crying. And then what did he say? Until a sword from the sword of Allah took it and Allah gave them victory. now the evidence here is qalas Q-E-D as they say nothing more to be done if the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says فَتَحَ اللَّهُ عَلَى يَدَيْهِ then it's فَتَح and فَتَح means victory so they basically use theology and they say qalas if the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said it then qalas it must be a فَتَح just like Allah says إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُبِينًا even though Hudaybiyah seemed to be a loss but Allah says it's فَتَح so it is a فَتَح so it's basically a theological point That because the Prophet ﷺ said it's a fath, mu'tah is a fath. Okay. Those who are more historians, so Al-Waqidi and Ibn Sa'ad, and also all non-Muslim historians that write about this event, they consider this to be a loss. They consider this to be a loss. In light of the fact that the Muslims, well, firstly, they lost three very, very important, significant leaders, one after the other. They lost the flag. And secondly, the fact that they had to retreat and the Romans remained. And generally speaking, the one who retreats is not the victor, generally speaking. So they're looking at it from a more military, a more political perspective, and they say, Mu'tah was a defeat. The third opinion is that it's neither a victory nor a defeat. It is in fact a draw. Neither side won clear cut. And they say, Now this is the position of Ibn Ishaq himself. It is the position of the Andalusian scholar Ibn Abdul Bar. It's also the position of Ibn Al-Qayyim and his Zad al-Ma'ad. That Mu'tah was basically neutral. No side was a clear victor. They say similar to Uhud, which is also the correct opinion in Uhud by the way, that it is not a victory or a loss. It's basically a little bit of both, so it becomes equal in the end. And in some ways the Muslims had the upper hand. So in this position of the Mu'tah, they say Mu'tah is neither a victory nor a loss. Now why? because they say neither side attack the other and the two sides returned both of them back to their places and they say neither side took prisoners of war when I say attack the other I mean at the end of the battle there was not a clear frontal assault from either side both of them returned back and the fact that neither side took prisoners of war and in terms of dead it is probably equal or maybe the Quraish sorry the pagans or the the Arab Christians and a little bit more. But it's not as if there's any significant issue there. And therefore, because both side returns back home, and neither side annihilates the other, therefore it's a tie. It's a draw. Now, in my humble opinion, each of these three opinions is correct in its own way. Which is basically all three are correct. I.e., from each perspective, they have an element of truth. From a purely theological perspective, if the Prophet ﷺ said it is a fath, سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا It is a fath. At the same time, the fact that he calls it a fath doesn't mean it's a fath from a military perspective. It could be a fath from other perspectives. So if somebody comes and says, yes, it is a fath in that long term the goals are achieved. This is valid. But it doesn't mean that it is a fath in this particular battle. It's a different type of fath. Just like Hudaybiyyah was a long term fath. Short term, all of the Muslims were quite incensed what is going on in Hudaybiyah, right? Even the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah knows, I'm not gonna disobey Allah, Allah knows. So the Fatah might be long term, but in the short term, Al-Waqid and Ibn Sa'd do have a point that in the end of the day, it was the Romans who remained in their lands, the Arab Christians remained in their lands, the Muslims did not conquer even an inch in this battle, and the Muslims have to return home. So the second opinion does have some truth to it, And of course the third opinion also has a lot of weight to it. In that, actually it's not a pure loss because neither did the Romans attack the Muslims, rather they let them go. And therefore we can say that the Prophet ﷺ called it a victory in that the Sahaba managed to save themselves from death. And that is a victory. Not necessarily that Mu'tah was a military victory. Victory can be of different types. and this victory was a victory of the fact that less than 1% of the army was massacred was martyred and the bulk of the army returns home and also in my humble opinion I think this is one of the problems that many of our Muslim historians have they want to somehow make every battle positive for the Muslims and they don't realize that subhanallah it is actually of great benefit and wisdom that some battles don't come out to be so positive that Allah azza wa jal is showing us that, look, you're not gonna get everything on a silver platter. Sometimes you have to struggle and sometimes even the sahaba, even our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in Uhud, what is Uhud? Except this illustration, right? That we really don't have to demonstrate, and this is really, I think, one of the problems that many Muslim, not just theologians, historians, seerah, that everything has to be read in a certain light. And I think that this is actually problematic because when you go through something negative, and you don't find anything in the seerah that is anyhow negative, how are you gonna relate? Whereas if this battle actually is not fully positive, which is really my position, then you actually find some comfort in this, when you go through some negative, when other issues arise. And here we have another wisdom, and that is that even the sahaba are human. And sometimes they'll make, not necessarily a mistake, but they'll make a judgment that doesn't turn out to be in the best interest in the immediate future. Maybe the long term everything will work out, and that's the benefit. In the long run, Allah will take care of everything. But sometimes in the short run, victory might not be that tangible. So the Sahaba returned back, the Prophet ﷺ rejoiced at their return, he welcomed them. But what happened was within a few days, rumors began to spread, smear campaigns were launched against the people who participated in Mu'tah. How do we know this? Because it is mentioned in one of the books of Hadith that the Prophet ﷺ saw the wife of Salama bint Hisham, and he said, what is the matter with Salama? I haven't seen him in the masjid. Is he alright? Why is he not coming? And so his wife said, Ya Rasulullah, he has not come out of his house. Because every time he exits, people make fun of him. And people chastise him and rebuke him. And they say, O you who escaped, O you who ran away, have you run away from the way of Allah? أَفَرَرْتُمْ مِن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ Have you run away from the path of Allah? Which means of course over here, jihad. So Salama has remained in his house, not leaving out of this rebuke. So what this shows is that some of the Sahaba, those who did not go, they or perhaps some of these were hypocrites. We don't know the details of who were saying this or perhaps it was a mixture of both. The Sahaba felt a bit of positive anger like why could you have fled? And the hypocrites felt a way of smearing. And so both of them are possible. So the people who had participated in Mu'tah were then being smeared. That you are cowards. You have fled the battlefield. You didn't stand your ground. And they're being mocked. أَفَرَرْتُمْ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ Have you run away and fled from the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? So when the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he said to all of the masjid over there, that هُمْ لَيْسُوا بِفُرَّارٍ They are not runners away, they are qurrar. And qurrar means the ones who will come back and fight again. So he took the smear, and he changed one letter, the fa to the kaf, and he made a positive word out of it. And this is of the fiqh and of the rahmah and of the long-sightedness of the Prophet ﷺ to take a smear, furrar, which means runners away. And he says, no, they are qurrar. And qurrar means they will come back and fight again. And so the Prophet ﷺ then basically shut down all of the smear campaigns with one word. they are not runners away they are not fleers they are not cowards they will come back to fight again meaning they save themselves from death and they will come back and they will fight again and by the way this clearly shows us that and this is a very sensitive issue and I don't want this to be misunderstood that no doubt martyrdom genuine and legitimate martyrdom is a goal of every single Muslim at the same time this goal is not expedited foolishly you don't walk into the battle wanting to die and therefore just standing there doing nothing this is not of the fiqh of our religion because if everybody did this then there would be no legitimate battle every warrior would just throw his arms and say yalla bismillah when I meet Allah azawajal right, this is not the way and therefore these sahaba 99% of them return back some of the sahaba seemed a little bit overzealous like how dare you turn your backs how dare you run away from them and the others that actually had fled, they obviously felt guilty. That's why Salam is sitting at home. That you know what, maybe there is a right point, maybe I should have stayed there, maybe I should have just died. But the process is demonstrating, no doubt martyrdom is a genuine goal of every Muslim. This is, wallah, you cannot deny this. Our Prophet ﷺ clearly said that a legitimate martyrdom obviously is something we all want. But we don't want foolish martyrdom. we don't want illegitimate martyrdom and this is what this hadith shows that they haven't run away out as cowards they have protected themselves so that they can fight a legitimate battle once again they're not Farrar, they are Qarrar and after the army had returned and last week we had mentioned the story of the women of Ja'far and they were wailing and screaming and you know the messenger comes back three times as you remember this story from last time so when this occurred the Prophet ﷺ commanded that food be prepared for the family of Ja'far. And he said, إِصْنَعُ لِآلِ جَعْفَرَ طَعَامًا Prepare food for the family of Ja'far for a matter has occurred that has made them busy. And so food was prepared for them. And after three days, he visited the family of Ja'far. He visited the wives and the children of Ja'far. And he said, After today, let no one cry over my brother. And he called Ja'far, أَخِي because Ja'far is an akhi and a cousin is a close confidant of the Prophet ﷺ so let nobody cry after today over my brother and he called for the children of Ja'far and there was Abdullah ibn Ja'far there was Muhammad ibn Ja'far so he called for the children of Ja'far and Abdullah was the older of the two and Abdullah narrates this hadith Abdullah was probably 7 years old 6 years old at the time he remembers this so Abdullah is narrating the hadith that the Prophet ﷺ visited us after my father had died. And he called for us to come and all of our hair was disheveled. In fact, the wording in the hadith was, he said, we look like baby chickens. Like completely, you know, every hair. The reason obviously being that the mother is not going to comb their hair. She's just lost a husband. She already is quite traumatized. We heard what happened last week with her. So she's not really combing the hairs of the children at this stage. So their hair is all disheveled. And the Prophet ﷺ sees this, so he orders that a barber be called. he takes charge even of the barber of the children he orders that a barber be called and that their hairs be trimmed or shaved off and then he praises or talks to each one of the children and he says as for Muhammad Muhammad ibn Ja'far as for Muhammad he looks just like my uncle Abu Talib and of course Abu Talib is Muhammad's this Muhammad's grandfather right Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Abi Talib so he said this one looks just like my uncle and then he called for Abdullah and he said, ask for Abdullah, he looks just like me and he acts just like me. In other words, the point is, every one of these children, he's like kind of making them feel something special, right? And Abdullah was the oldest of them, so he held on to Abdullah's hands and he raised it up and he said, O Allah, allow Ja'far's progeny to remain, يعني أخلف في ذريتي جعفر which means that, basically means, O Allah, bless the remainder of Ja'far's progeny, O Allah, allow them to flourish, Oh Allah bless Abdullah in all of his transactions because Abdullah is going to be the man of the house now Abdullah is going to be the caretaker so Oh Allah whatever he does for money basically in his safakat which means buying and selling Oh Allah bless him in all of this and he said this three times and he told them that your father has been substituted instead of his two hands because they have heard the gruesome news that both of his hands have been cut off that they have discovered his body without two hands So they've heard this. So he tells them, as for your father, Allah has substituted two wings instead of his two hands, and he is flying around in Jannah wherever he wants to go. And his mother, their mother, who is their mother? Who is the mother of these children? Who is the mother of these children? We have mentioned her name at least ten times in the seerah. none of the sisters this is disappointing because sisters should know the names of the sahabiyat no I'm not even going to mention you anymore there's no point bin someone I like this she's bin someone asma binti umais no bells ringing still asma binti umais asma binti umais who is asma binti umais the daughter of Umayyad Asma bint Umayyad Asma bint Umayyad was firstly the wife of Ja'far then when Ja'far passed away right now he becomes a shaheed Asma marries Abu Bakr and when she marries Abu Bakr so the two of them have who's named today isn't a good day for us It's too cold, that's why. So, coldness destroys memory. Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. The famous Muhammad. I mean, how many children does Abu Bakr have? Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. Right? Then Abu Bakr passes away. Then who does Asma marry? Ali ibn Abi Talib. Right? So, Asma married Ja'far and Abu Bakr and Ali. And from each of them she has children, mashaAllah tabarakallah and of course this shows us obviously I've said this so many times the stigma of divorce did not exist amongst the sahaba as it exists in later Muslim societies, a divorced lady was not considered to be someone that is khalas that might as well live the rest of her life alone that type of attitude did not exist amongst the sahaba and we have so many of the sahabiyat marrying one after the other and they didn't consider divorce to be that type of stigma. There's a little bit of an anecdote mentioned about Asma when Ali was married to her. So Muhammad ibn Ja'far and Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, right? There are two half-brothers. They began debating with one another whose lineage is better. Now their mother is one, right? And so Muhammad ibn Ja'far said, I am the son of Ja'far. I am my father this, my father that. And Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr is saying, I am this, I am that I am my son and my father is Abu Bakr and this and that And so Ali is sitting there watching these two young men You know, boasting that which one of their fathers was more noble So he wants to tease his wife Asma So he says, khalas, your mother shall be the judge Now the two men are his competitors in terms of ex-husbands, right? So he wants to tease his wife Like which one will she choose? So your mother will be the judge Who was the more noble of the two? because she was married to the both of them. So he calls Asma out and he says, you decide between your two sons. And so he puts her on the spot. This is just an anecdote, not related to Mu'tah. And he puts her on the spot. Which of the two men is better? And look at the intelligence of Asma. Asma bint Umay says, as for the shabab, the young men, then Ja'far is the Sayyid of them. And as for the Quhl, and that's like the wise senior men, then Abu Bakr is the sheikh of them. So in other words, both are top. Because Ja'far was young when he passed away, Abu Bakr was obviously 63, 64 when he passed away. So she's saying, both of them were the best. So Ali says, then what have you left for me? So he's got the best here, the best there, that means I'm the last of them. And of course, wallahi it shows us, what does it show us? You tell me. What is the one thing it really shows us? The joking around, of course, between husband and wife and whatnot, but who are the families that we're talking about here? Who are the families? Think about it. Aal al-Bayt and Abu Bakr. Do you notice any tension? Do you notice any hint of a problem? I mean, wallahi, it's so... Honestly, it's so ludicrous to read in that there were tensions. here's Ali marrying Abu Bakr's ex-wife here's Ali joking that which one of the two is better Abu Bakr or his own brother because Ali's brother is Ja'far and once Asma gives her intelligent watertight answer he then jokes back at her like what have you left for us and wallahi it's so obvious that there was no tension amongst these great sahaba the way that some groups say And again, you know our theology, but every incident of the seerah shows us, even something as trivial as this, that this type of tension has been constructed and read in, the sahaba themselves are getting along completely, you know, fine in this regard, and alhamdulillah for that. In any case, back to the story of Mu'tah. So this is Asma' binti Umayyus. So Asma' comes out, and Asma' begins to complain about the orphans, meaning, she's saying, Ya Rasulullah, they're all orphans, meaning who's gonna take care of them who's gonna take care of them and the Prophet ﷺ said are you scared of poverty for them when I will be the one who will take care of them in this world and the next أنا وليهم I am their wali in this dunya and the akhirah so he took charge immediately or directly of the children of Ja'far and all of this demonstrates the care and the concern of our Prophet ﷺ especially for orphans. He himself was an orphan and he knew what it felt like to be an orphan. From this incident by the way, we also derive some very interesting sunan. Of these sunan is that when a family suffers a death or a tragedy, it is sunnah to gift the family with food. Especially for those who are the closest, like very close friends. That they should take charge of giving the family food. And this is proven in the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. إِسْنَعُوا لِآلِ جَعْفَرَ طَعَامٍ Make food for the family of Ja'far because something has come that will cause them to be too busy to cook for themselves. Also it is sunnah to visit and to give words of consolation and to give words of encouragement. It is also sunnah to visit but not for a long time. i.e. it is discouraged to sit for a long time. It is makrooh to turn that visit into a socialization session. The visiting is just to console and to give dua. You sit for what is reasonable in one's culture, maybe in our culture half an hour or so. You sit to give them consolation, and then you let them basically have some private family time. And also it is makrooh for the host family to feed the visitors. This is wrong, and in some cultures it happens. This is wrong. The family who has suffered a tragedy, they should not be hosting. And there is a hadith to this effect. It is narrated by Jalil ibn Abdullah al-Bajali, the famous Sahabi. Jalil ibn Abdullah al-Bajali, he said, we used to consider gathering in the house of the mayyit, and they're preparing food for us, a part of the wailing that the Prophet ﷺ forbade, the niyaha, the niyaha is forbidden. So notice he said two things. We used to consider gathering in the house of the deceased. Now, by gathering he could not have meant visiting, because the Prophet ﷺ visited. so by gathering is meant you stay there and you make your visit into a socialization this is not the purpose of consolation and the feeding of the guests i.e. by the people that suffered a tragedy we used to consider this a part of the forbidden niyaha the forbidden wailing this is a part of it and therefore we have to be careful that we do not fall into this as well also of the wisdoms we learn here that the processant waited for three days and then he came back and he consoled them. And what this shows us is that for three days as we know, mourning is allowed. And then after the third day, mourning should stop. Except for the wife who remains in her iddah. And iddah is slightly different than mourning. Mourning, the legitimate mourning is to feel a sense of loss, a sense of grief and crying. and altering your lifestyle or schedule to a little bit. i.e. you're so depressed you don't feel like eating too much. You're so depressed you maybe take off from work. This is halal and ja'iz for three days. Beyond this, to beat yourself, to wail out loud, to cry claims of kufr, who's gonna take care of me, how will I live? I cannot live without you. This is haram. so wailing and wailing means to raise your voice out loud and shrieking and these were things that they are still done in some cultures Muslim cultures and in fact our Prophet ﷺ said four are the things of Jahiliyyah my ummah will never give them up four are the things of Jahiliyyah my ummah will never give them up number one he said niyaha alal mayyit and niyaha is basically the types of pagan customs that existed in Jahiliyyah of them is wailing of them is crying out loud he said these will remain in my ummah forever even though they are from the Jahiliyyah. So what then is allowed? I gave you some examples of what is allowed. Crying without wailing, tears coming out. Our Prophet ﷺ himself, when the news came, Aisha says he had to sit down. I mean, what do I think about that? Rasulullah ﷺ, he's so overcome with grief, jealous. I mean, that's a shock. And he was crying. Anas says he was crying. And Aisha says, you could see the grief on his face. This is all permissible. Now as we said last week, Asma or I should not mention is the women of Ja'far and the family of Ja'far went a little bit beyond. And here we find a big wisdom. The Prophet ﷺ attempted to stop them, attempted to stop them through the messenger three times until finally when it cannot be done, khalas, okay, let them be. Then on the third day he comes and he puts an end to it. let no one wail over my brother anymore khalas end of story and this shows us that look sometimes you just cannot enforce perfection even in the extended family of the Prophet ﷺ things happened that he did not approve of think about this and I say this all the time that when a person dies now is not the time to become fine tuning detail of what is sunnah and what is bid'ah and what is complete person is overcome with emotion. The person has lost his mother, his grandmother, his father, doesn't understand fully. If you are an intricate member of the family, then you speak and you say, okay, let us do this. If you are a stranger or an acquaintance or just a friend, now is not the time to become Mr. Sunnah and tell them this is bid'ah and this is haram. You let them do what you want and then at a better time, at a better occasion, you can teach them what is the appropriate sunnah. It's not necessary that you enforce everything at this get-go. Here our Prophet ﷺ himself cannot control the extended members of the family of Ja'far. What can be done? But on the third day he comes and he corrects it all. He goes, okay, end of story. These kids haven't been combed, clean their hair up. You're gonna stop crying, you're gonna get your life to act together. So after three days, you have to stop living in that shock state. Deal with it. Get to terms with it. And as they say, time heals all wounds. And wallahi this is true. Time heals all wounds. Allah has made us this way. No matter how big the tragedy, how great the calamity, eventually you move on and you simply live your life. And therefore, three days is the maximum time given where the death of somebody can cause us to alter our schedule. And that's halal for three days. It's halal. But after three days, khalas, end of story, and move on. The only exception, the wife, she remains four months and ten days with extra rulings. And those rulings are not mourning. They're ihdad rulings. and the haddad rulings are basically, she does not beautify herself the way that a wife should beautify for her husband, out of respect for her husband. And she remains in the house as much as possible. This is something specific for the wife, four months and ten days. But even after three days, she should try to just get into the schedule again of eating and drinking and whatnot, and try to overcome the extra grief. Even though it is halal for her, for a longer period of time, out of respect and honor for the status of the husband. So all of this we learn from the story of Asma binti Umayyad and the children of Ja'far. And as I said that after Hu'iddah was over, that later on Abu Bakr proposed for Asma and Asma then married Abu Bakr. How about Zayd? Zayd of course had a son and his name was Usama ibn Zayd. And it is mentioned in the Musannafa Abdul Razzaq that whenever the Prophet ﷺ would see Usama after the battle of Mu'tah, that he would tear up, he would cry when he saw Usama. Because Usama is now probably 14 at this stage, probably maybe even 13. I mean we don't know exactly, between 13 to 15. He's just a young man, just about to become an adult. And now at the prime of his youth, he's lost his father. And he looked, he resembled his father. And so the memories of Zayd would come back to him when he saw Usama. And so we learned that even when he saw Usama, he himself would tear up and he would become grief-stricken looking at Usama ibn Zayd. And after a few days he came to the masjid. And the sahaba were sitting there huddled up. Some of them were crying. And he said, why are you crying? So they said, why should we not cry, O Messenger of Allah, when the best of us and the most noble of us have left? Why shouldn't we cry? Such a big calamity. And of course in particular, they meant the three who had passed away. So our Prophet ﷺ said, but do not cry. Do not cry. For the example of my ummah is like a garden whose owner has cut the leaves and the branches and prepared his houses so that each year gives a better crop than the last year. Now pause here, what does this mean? So in order to grow the garden, you have to cut the leaves and actually get rid of some of the things to fertilize and to make the garden grow. So in order, like for example, what do we do with roses? You have to prune it and cut it and basically do it. So the Prophet ﷺ is giving this analogy but he's giving with the date gardens, the date growth. So he's saying the example of my ummah is like this garden. The owner of the garden has to cut and prune and do things in order for the garden to flourish. And the next year shall be better and the next year shall be better. and the Masih Isa will meet this Ummah and there will be a group that he meets that are like you or even better than you he's talking to the Sahaba and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not humiliate an Ummah I am the first of them and the Masih is the last of them Allah will not humiliate an Ummah I am the first of them and the Masih is the last of them now this hadith is a very very beautiful hadith and scholars have differed about its authenticity, Ibn Hajar has said it is Hasan and it is narrated by Ibn Abi Shayba and some of the more stricter scholars such as the ones of our times have said that it is slightly weak in any case Ibn Hajar said it is authentic by the way but the meaning is definitely beautiful and it's also authentic in its own way, Allah will not humiliate an ummah, the first of whom is myself and the last of whom is Al-Masih Isa ibn Maryam And this is so true That who is the last person to pass away of this ummah It will be a group of people with Al-Masih With Isa ibn Maryam You all know we did this in the series of the Day of Judgment The last Muslims that will pass away Will pass away with Al-Masih with them and amongst them And perhaps from this Perhaps we can say The very last Muslim to pass away will be Al-Masihis of the Maryam. Perhaps we can say Allah knows best. That I am the first, and he was the first, and Al-Masih will be the very last. And what a beautiful way of showing the perfection of this Ummah. So he said Allah will never humiliate this Ummah. I am the first and Masih is the last. And Al-Hassan ibn Thabit and many of the other Sahaba, they wrote long lines of poetry about the martyrs of Mu'tah. And these are recorded in Ibn Thabit and other books. And the point being, from all of these narrations, from all of these narrations we learn Mu'tah was a very traumatic incident for the Sahaba and especially for the Prophet Muhammad it was one of the most traumatic episodes of the seerah and sadly many of us are completely unaware of Mu'tah we don't even know who died and what happened in it but you look at the trauma, you look at the grief that had afflicted all of the Sahaba and especially our Prophet Muhammad and we notice its importance and its status Now there's also one final story about Mu'tah before we conclude and summarize. And that is that there's a side story mentioned which has some benefit. And that is that in the battle of Mu'tah, there was also a group of helpers, al-Muddadi, al-Muddadi's from Yemen. That's not a tribe. The al-Muddadi means the one who's helping. And they had joined the army to fight against the people of the Romans and the Arab Christians. And one of them, a story is mentioned about him. One of them, he only had one sword in the fight. And when the Romans came near, one of the Muslims had sacrificed an animal to feed to the army. So he asked him, can I take the skin of this animal? So the sahabi said, take it. So he took it and he made a leather armor out of the skin. He tanned it, he fixed it, and he made a double, he doubled it up and he made an armor out of it. And there was a Roman, perhaps lieutenant, again the books of Sira do not mention his level and rank, but there was a Roman with very, it says bright armor, golden armor. And he was wreaking havoc in the lines of the Muslims. And so this Mudadi basically attacked him with only goat skin and a sword. He attacked him and managed to kill this Roman, maybe lieutenant or general. and he took his horse and his armor and his weapons and he took everything as booty now of course this is the fiqh that the one who kills the soldier will get the personal belongings of the soldier now when the battle is over so he takes all of these into his basically baggage and Khalid ibn Walid says what is this? he's the commander he says what is this? so the man says I killed the Roman and so I get all of his goods. So Khalid said, this is too much. And they said that there was a golden coat of armor. And there was a beautiful horse. So you can imagine, he's clearly not just a soldier, he's clearly somebody high up. Whatever would have been there, which would have been very valuable and very whatnot. So Khalid says, this is too much for one soldier. You must give some to the treasury. You must give some to the general fund, to distribute to everybody. So the man says, but this is the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. This is what he told us to do. That the qatil, the soldier who kills, gets everything from the soldier that he killed. And this is the general rule. Right now again I said this applies to an army that is not paid. As for an army that is paid by the government, remember in those days, the armies were voluntary. And each person has been told that whatever you get is going to be yours. And then on top of that, the general treasury you will get to share and what is the percentage of shares between the one who has a horse versus the one who doesn't? The one with the horse gets three. One for him and two for his horse. Why? Because taking a horse into battle, that horse or that camel is worth a lot of money and you're risking it. And also when you take your own horse, you are responsible for maintaining, feeding, whatnot. so it's a big responsibility it's also the big risk of loss so all of these battles this is the chapter of the fiqh of the war booty and you know we don't have we're not going to talk about this too much now but it is true that the one who kills gets the armor and all of that now Khalid was new remember he's a new Muslim Khalid says no you're not going to get all of this so he takes a percentage and he gives it to the general fund that's gonna give to the whole army. And he just gives him something that is, whatever, trinkets or whatever, you get this. And the man says, I'm going to complain to the processor. So Khalid doesn't say anything. Khalid, they go back to Medina. The man goes to the processor after everything has settled down and he complains. That, Ya Rasulullah, I killed the Roman general, I got this and Khalid took it from me. So he called Khalid and Walid to confirm. Khalid said, Yes, Ya Rasulullah, I took this percentage. So the processor said, here, give it all back to him. So Khalid gave him all that he had earned. And at this, the man scoffed and mocked at Khalid and said, ha, didn't I tell you? Now you got what you deserved. So he mocked Khalid. So the Prophet ﷺ said, what is this? Why did you just say this? So the man explained that I had told him that I'll take him to you and I will complain. and now your verdict was in my favor. At this the Prophet ﷺ became angry at the arrogance and the insolence of this man. That the man was now like boasting. Didn't I tell you? Now you got what you deserved, you got your scolding. And he said, in that case, O Khalid, do not give it to him. In that case, Khalid, do not give it to him. Will you not leave my commanders for me? take the good from them and leave their bad. And this hadith has generated a lot of discussion about what is this meaning and what's not, but I think it's pretty self-explanatory. And that is that this man deserved his armor, his booty, but when his arrogance got the better of him, the Prophet ﷺ needed to send a message to the rest of the army that you cannot treat your leaders in this manner. You deserved it, you could have gotten it if you were humble. Okay. But when you were so arrogant, and arrogance is a worse sin, as for Khalid, he made a genuine mistake. Khalid did not know, or he didn't believe this man. He didn't know that the one who kills gets the armor, and he felt this is a lot. He didn't take it himself. He just gave it to the general fund. So Khalid made a genuine mistake. and this man's arrogance trumped the right side that he was on. And this is a very important point here. Notice this, the man was right but his arrogance was so wrong that favor was not given. The judgment was not in his favor. And this clearly shows us the dangers of arrogance even for the one upon the truth. Even for the one upon the truth, your arrogance can make you upon the batil. And Khalid was wrong in this case but he was right in the sense that he acted in his own ijtihad. And he wasn't chastised. And the man that was chastised was the one who showed the arrogance. Also we learn over here that it is allowed for a judge, a qadi, to alter a verdict in light of new circumstances. It is allowed for a qadi to change his ruling. Because right then and there, the Prophet ﷺ changed his ruling. And it is allowed in light of other circumstances. Also a very interesting point, the Prophet ﷺ said to, and this was the point of it aren't you going to leave my leaders to me? meaning, have you no respect for my leaders that you're going to mock them in this manner? this is the meaning of the hadith have you no respect for my leaders? now, who appointed Khalid to be a leader? the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W.? no, the people did yet what did he call Khalid? my leader Umarai, my leader and this shows us the Sunni doctrine this is the Sunni doctrine that the Khalifa, the Sultan, the Wali whom the people choose is the Wali or the Sultan of Allah on this earth. Even though the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ did not choose Khalid because he was not of those three. But when the people chose Khalid, he becomes the one whom the Prophet ﷺ chose. And this is Sunni doctrine by the way. That the Khalifa, legitimate Khalifa, represents, basically there's a hadith, there's so many hadith of this matter. For example, perhaps one of the most deep ones, As-sultānu waliyyullāhi fil-ard. In another hadith, As-sultānu dhillo allāhi fil-ard. That the sultan is the representative or the sultan is khalīfatullah in one version. As-sultānu dhillo allāhi, is the shadow of allāhi on this earth. Meaning, he is representing the shari'ah. and he is the one who is ultimately responsible and that is why when the Prophet ﷺ passed away Abu Bakr said, I am Khalifatul Rasulullah and Umar ﷺ, I am Khalifatul Rasulullah they feel as if they're standing in the maqam the political maqam at least of the Prophet ﷺ you understand this point here and this is Sunni doctrine that the legitimate ruler does have a respect and an authority that must be given to him in matters of this dunya and I have spoken about this many times especially after the Arab Spring, that such a hadith, they are applicable to legitimate Islamic rulers who are khulafa. As for modern day dictators and presidents and parliaments and whatnot, these, you cannot apply Islamic injunctions when they themselves are not ruling by Islam and through Islam. When they are secular regimes or democracies, you cannot use the sharia for or against them. They don't represent Allah Azza wa Jal sharia. Now whether they should be obeyed or not goes back to the scholars of those times and they look at maslaha and mafsada, they look at pros and cons. It is not correct to use the ahadith about obeying the ruler with regards to rulers who do not obey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and overall their implementation of the sharia in the land. And we're not talking about their personal sins, we're talking about overall their sharia. And in any case, again the point is the sultan or the khalifa represents the judgment of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as much as is possible by a non-prophet on this earth. Now one interesting point, before we conclude, one interesting point here, is that this battle of Mu'tah is actually mentioned, one of the very few things that is mentioned by the Byzantine chroniclers, the non-Muslim chroniclers. And it is extremely interesting that the earliest historian of the Byzantine Empire that writes about Muslims and his name is Saint Theophanes. Saint Theophanes. And he's an aristocratic monk. And he wrote a very large book in ancient Latin called The Chronicles. Or not even in Latin, it's ancient. It's been translated, excuse me, into modern Latin. And then from there it's been translated into English and other languages. And this work is the earliest work of the Byzantine Empire that mentions the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And it mentions even the battle of Mu'tah. And Theophanes died around 820 CE. So 820 CE is very early on. That's one of the earliest books written. And he uses sources that we no longer possess. And one of the sources that he uses is that of an Arab source that is a non-Muslim source. That he's using an Arab source to talk about the Islamic side of things. So he becomes one of the very few Roman authors with access to material and names and stuff that is not found in most of the other Byzantine sources. No other Byzantine chronicler was so well equipped with the material that Theophanes was. And he wrote, as I said, his book, The Chronicles, which has been translated. And very interestingly, he mentions the battle of Mu'tah in that chronicle. and I downloaded the book and I actually printed out the page from the chronicle, from his chronicles. And he mentions in the year 630. Now he doesn't mention 630. He actually says in the year 623. But that's because their calendar when you convert it to our calendar, it's a little bit different. And then he always has the dates according to the Roman emperor and according to the emperors of the civilizations of that year. So he says Heraclius 22nd year, the same Heraclius. Abu Bakaris, because they're adding OS, they add OS, Abu Bakar's first year. Now this is a mistake from his side. He puts the battle of Mu'tah in the first year of Abu Bakar's Khilafah. And obviously he's not 100% accurate. And by the way, his description of the Prophet ﷺ is full of stereotypes and antiquated and what not. But clearly by 700 CE, the Romans have heard of the new religion and the new Prophet and the new Sahaba and their theology. And it's interesting to look at it from their perspective. It's full of incorrect inconsistencies and stereotypes. But he's mentioning a new religion, a new prophet, the children of Ishmael, descendants to Abraham, calling to monotheism. So he's mentioning certain truths and then he mentions vulgar facts as well that are the typical stereotypical things of multiple wives and this and that. The standard motif, the caricature that was painted by the Romans is being passed down. So Theophanes says in the first year of Abu Bakr, in the 22nd year of Heraclius. He says that Muhammad, he doesn't call him Muhammad, he mentions Muhammad, but he had appointed four emirs. This is another mistake, he had appointed three. But again, this is their side. Four emirs to fight the members of an Arab nation that were Christian. And we already mentioned this, right? And they came in front of a village called Mughiya. So he says the village was called Mughiya. and they in that village was stationed Vicarious Theodore now Vicarious Theodore they say he was the brother of Heraclius so it is mentioned in our books that the brother of Heraclius participated in the battle of Mu'tah so he also is mentioning that Theodore was there and they intended to fall upon the Arabs on the day when they sacrificed to their idols now this is an interesting tidbit that I did not find in any of the books of the Arab side of things or the Muslim side of things. He is saying, they intentionally chose a day that was a festival for them. And if this is the case, then that makes a lot of sense. You choose a day when they will be distracted. Our source books don't mention this. His book mentions that they chose that day. The vicarius, meaning Theodore, on learning, now this is very interesting, and Allah knows how true this is, on learning this from a certain Qurayshi, Qurayshite, called Qutaybas who was in his pay meaning there was a spy there was a spy that had informed on them now this spy could not have been from the Sahaba because they're not going to get a spy this would have been from the Arab Christian community that there's somebody there who is in the pay of the the vicarious he gathered all of this information and ascertained the day and the time when they were about to attack and therefore he himself attacked them at a village called Mutas. Now again, in our books Mutas is not mentioned but perhaps that was their name for a village. Now listen to this. And he killed three emirs and the bulk of their army, this is not true, the bulk of their army is not true, he killed 1%. One emir, listen to this now, called Khalid, whom they call God's sword. escaped. Theophanies is mentioning Khalid as Sayfullah. And this is amazing. That they already know Khalid is the one who caused them to escape. And why? Because they call him the sword of God. So the title that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave to Khalid ibn al-Walid had reached the Roman Empire. and theophanies when he's recording history he is writing they call this man the sword of God and he's the one who managed them to escape and to me I was really I mean when I read this in tertiary so I said I can't this is too good to be true so I actually downloaded the entire book and tried to find where this is and here I actually downloaded it today and I said khalaz I'm gonna read it myself and alhamdulillah it's right here directly that one whom they call the sword of God and it's something Allah Azza wa Jal said the Prophet ﷺ gave him the sword of God the sword of Allah and that is why his shuhrah spread even to the Romans and of course I mean before we go on of course this is why Khalid ibn al-Walid had to die in his bed it is mentioned that when he was dying he began crying and there was a visitor there and he said turn me around and look at me from the front and back you will not find two fingers on my body except that there's a scar and a mark and a bruise and this and that and yet here I am dying on my bed you see Khalid has warrior blood and when you have warrior blood you don't want to die on your bed he's crying like I spent my life battling I have a whole stellar record here I am dying on my bed he doesn't understand the wisdom but Ibn Kathir and other all of the later scholars they say Khalid was Saifullah and it is not allowed for anybody to break Saifullah in the battle only the one who unsheathed the Saifullah can put it back where it belongs and that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Khalid and Walid is too holy to die on the battlefield it's too much because if you were to break Saifullah then what does that show? so the one man who did so much that he's actually called the sword of Allah is not allowed to die on the battlefield and he did not understand this but inshallah he got the ajr of the shaheed but he has too holy to die as a shaheed now final point here so the primary benefit of the battle of Mu'tah what exactly does this do? it opened up the northern lands because I would say 95% of the battles of the seerah are southern. Medina downwards. The battle of Mu'tah is the largest battle up north. And there were small skirmishes, but Mu'tah was the mother of all northern battles. You understand this point? All of the other battles are going down south. Mu'tah, what it did was, okay, I agree, we all agree, the Romans were not defeated. And the Christian Arabs were not defeated way up north in Tabuk and what not. But what happened was the reach of the Ummah has spread at least to the peripheries now. And the strength of the Muslims is established and fear is put in the hearts of those Arab Christian tribes. Fear is put in their hearts. And we will come back to this in Tabuk. That when the Prophet ﷺ himself marched north, they couldn't even fight him. and there's no denying that Mu'tah had an impact. If only 3,000 of them could do so much damage to, however, 10,000, 15,000, we don't know the numbers, but suppose there were 15,000, 10,000. If only 3,000 could do so much damage and still escape, what are we gonna do when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself comes? So when tabook takes place, they don't even show up. I'm telling you this beforehand, but we'll come to tabook later on. They can't even fight the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. So it's the first and only major battle that takes place up north. It's also the first and only battle in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ with the Romans. It's the only battle with the Romans. And obviously this opens up the door of fighting the Romans after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. Khalid ibn Walid in particular gets that experience and he knows the tactics of the Romans. He faces them in battle. And of course Allah will use him later on to fight the Romans. All of this is intended. after this, now remember, when does Mu'tah take place? What year does it take place? Beginning of the 8th year of the Hijrah. The beginning of the 8th year, when is the conquest of Mecca? Ramadan of the 8th year. Ramadan of the 8th year. Hajjat al-Wada' is the 10th year. Right? Ramadan of the 8th year. So we're about to now, very soon insha'Allah ta'ala, finish off the conquests because the very next incident is going to be the conquest of Mecca during the two years after the treaty of Hudaybiyah. Basically Hudaybiyah is sixth year and then Mu'tah is the beginning of the eighth year. During this year and a half to two years, every single serious threat to the Muslim community has been eliminated. By going up north, the message has been given to them, you cannot attack us. that's the least thing and remember the Ghassanid chieftain what was he saying? I'm gonna show you who's the boss I'm gonna come down, I'm gonna do this now it's all threat, you're not gonna do anything once you see what they can do to you in your own territory so it is true to say Mu'tah was not a victory but the message was given and that message was don't mess with us you can't mess with us and therefore at the end of this incident, the battle of Mu'tah every single serious opposition to the Muslim community has been eliminated. The only threat even that in quotation marks that is left is a weak, debilitated, declawed, detoothed, neutered Quraysh. Nothing left. It's just an old dog without any teeth. Nothing left. Lots of empty air. But they're all now defecting over. And that's what Amr ibn al-As himself, that's why he left. Like what's left now? It's only a matter of time. We will be conquered. Even Amr and he's the statesman, he's the politician he sees this, that's why he's the very last to go and therefore inshallah ta'ala we will pause our seerah for a few weeks for the break and then we will resume inshallah next Gregorian year 2014 and inshallah ta'ala we should be finishing the entire seerah within the Gregorian calendar 2014 inshallah ta'ala and with that if there are any questions or yes why do you think the Bible of Moses is not as famous as the other battles? Why do you think the battle of Mu'tah is not as famous as the other battles? Number one, because the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ did not participate. So it is a... What is that? It is the... The survey. The survey? Okay. Yeah, okay. Number one, because the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself did not participate. Right? Number two, because the details of the battle are very sketchy. And they haven't been mentioned in a lot of details. And there are a number of reasons for this. Of them is that, once again, the Prophet ﷺ did not participate. And of them is that, by and large, the battle is not a positive memory. And when it's not a positive memory, you don't tell it in gory detail. It's a loss. And losses are just covered up. And you don't go into a lot of detail. So these are the two reasons that come to mind. And Allah Azza wa Jalla knows best. Yes? No, they didn't because they thought reinforcements were coming. So the pause was too late. And by the time they figured out it was a ruse, so then they're not gonna go after them. Yes. We mentioned this last week. Were you here last week? No, no, the Roman, no, no. Theophanies did not say that, no. Theophilus did not say that But he just mentions that Theodorus sent a battalion And there were the Arab Christians as well Both were there We do not know Why the Prophet Did not participate in this Allah knows best We can only assume things why did the Prophet ﷺ not go to Mu'tah but he did go to Tabuk which actually would have been more dangerous and it was more difficult and it was in the summer months so Allah knows there must have been something else going on Allah knows best yes so he said it's a victory the Sahaba or these Sahaba were accused of running away from the battle to separate things. They were accused of running away, turning their backs on the Romans and fleeing. And you can say that that did occur, that they turned their backs and they saved themselves. So the fact that they fled does not necessarily disqualify it as being a victory and that's what I am also saying. That when the Prophet ﷺ calls it a Fatah, it is a Fatah in its own way. and that is that the Muslims are saved. But the Muslims were not fleeing out of cowardice. The Muslims were fleeing because it's no point, just it's useless. It's a tactical retreat for a later fight. That's what the Prophet ﷺ was saying. They are not running away out of cowardice, they are tactically retreating. And Allah Himself allows a tactical retreat in the Qur'an. Allah does not allow fleeing from the battlefield. in the Quran. Allah says do not flee unless it is a tactical retreat. And this is what our Prophet ﷺ himself said that this is a tactical retreat. Yes? As we said last week the reasons for this battle are a little bit vague but no doubt the consequences I just mentioned are very real. And that is the Islamic Republic is now established all the way, almost up until the periphery of the Roman Empire. And even the Arab Christians are now threatened to attack Medina. So the sign has been given that we are too powerful for you. And perhaps that was the main wisdom. That the only threat possible would have been from up north, and that threat has been eliminated. And Allah knows best. Thank you.

Seerah 74 - Recap & Battle of Dhat Al Salasil ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. a few weeks. We're now resuming our seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. And we begin with a brief recap because in this recap we will inshaAllah refresh our memories and move on to the next step which is the conquest of Mecca. We're now in the 8th year of the hijrah and the Prophet ﷺ is 61 years old now. He's 61 years old. Mashallah we have covered the entire seerah up until this stage. And our Prophet ﷺ is now nearing the pinnacle really of his career and that is the conquest of Mecca. Of course in Mecca for 40 years he has lived amongst his own people. For 40 years we talked about how they respected him how they loved him more than anyone else in their community and every single indication was that he would become the next leader or at least if not the leader then amongst the elite and amongst the noblemen. But when our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam began preaching a new belief system other than their own and he began preaching equality amongst all people and he began preaching in the worship of Allah, they became his worst enemies. They rejected him merely because of a new belief system. And they fabricated against him lies that they knew were lies. They accused him of being mad. They accused him of being crazy. They accused him of being a magician. They accused him of being a fanciful poet. Now it's very interesting here, they never accused him of being power hungry. nor did they accuse him of being insincere because even though they could accuse him of being crazy they could not accuse him of wanting power and even in this we notice the fact how sincere he was that nobody accused him of being insincere nobody said you want this for money for power, for greed they made ridiculous accusations he must have gone crazy was the main one because that's the only explanation they could give to what he was saying. And because they could not harm him personally, after all he was the grandson of Abdul Muttalib, and every single law that they had protected the one of blood. This was their culture, this was their mannerisms. Whoever's blood is holy, whoever's blood is not holy, but you know, noble blood has to be protected. And nobody could possibly harm a hair on his head physically, because of the fact he is the son of Abdullah, the grandson of Abdul Muttalib, the elite of the Banu Hashim. So they took out their anger on the weak. They killed so many of the early Muslims, Sumayya and Yasir. They persecuted Bilal. Eventually when they couldn't harm him physically, they boycotted. And they said, we're not gonna sell you anything, which means even food and water. How can you live when nobody's gonna sell you food and water? How can you live when nobody's gonna sell you clothes? So what did our Prophet ﷺ do? and Abu Talib was with them in this regard. Out of anger and out of disgust, they left Mecca. And they self-imposed exile onto themselves. Eventually this also led to the emigration to Abyssinia. Their hatred, their filthy tactics continued to increase until finally they began to physically harm our Prophet ﷺ either through altercations or trying to choke him in public as they did or throwing an animal carcass onto him. And in the very final years, When Abu Talib died, Abu Lahab went to an even lower level, and initially he would follow him around everywhere, and anytime he spoke to a gathering, anytime he gave a lecture to the tribes, the hujjaj that had come, Abu Lahab would call out from behind. And Abu Lahab would say, don't listen to him, he is my nephew. And I can vouch that he is gone senile, he is crazy, he is a poet, he is this, he is that. And wallahi, imagine the scenario, how painful it must be. Somebody is literally waiting outside your house, he's your uncle. And he's waiting to follow you wherever you go. Imagine how much hurt our Prophet ﷺ would have been, until finally when Abu Lahab got so irritated, he withdrew his protection. And he basically said, you are no longer a part of the clan. And he disowned the Banu Hashim. He disowned somebody of the Banu Hashim. And he said, I'm not gonna help you out. And this was when he went to Ta'if. to try to get protection from the tribe of Taqif. He was rejected from Ta'if as we know. And then when he came back, nobody could offer him support until finally Muttam ibn Adi was the one who gave him that support. Until eventually in the very last year, when push came to shove, the Quraysh finally decided to do the unthinkable. After 13 years of preaching, they decided to finally do the unthinkable and that is to kill him. And this was unheard of in the Arab tribes that they would gather together to assassinate one of their own. This went against every law that all the Arabs held sacred, especially in the Haram, and by the Quraysh, and from the Banu Hashim. Like all of these sins made it even bigger. And they all agreed to commit this vile deed. And that was when, as we know, the Hijrah occurred of our Prophet ﷺ. and he left the land of his birth and the land of his ancestors and the land of his people in fact the land of his great great great grandfathers Ismail and Ibrahim who had immigrated there with Hajar and he said to Mecca he said he spoke to the city and he said you are the most beloved of all cities to me and were it not for the fact that my people have expelled me from you I would never have left you this is how he felt about Mecca and even in Medina the Quraysh did not leave him alone even in Medina they continued their persecution and in Medina a number of battles took place and we went over all of these battles in great detail and the first and really the biggest of them and this battle truly was the biggest victory after the conquest of Mecca and that is the battle of Badr the battle of Badr is really the biggest victory in the whole Islamic era the Sira era except for the conquest itself that in the battle of Badr, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala truly demonstrated the truthfulness of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And in it, each and every senior leader who participated from the Quraysh were decimated and killed or taken prisoner of war. And truly this was a huge victory. The Quraysh never recovered from Badr. The Quraysh never fully recovered from the loss of Badr. their stalwarts, their noble scions if you like Utba ibn Rabi'ah, Shayba ibn Rabi'ah Umayyah ibn Khalaf, Abu Jahl himself, Al-Aas, all of these major figures, every one of them died, it was a blow that in fact if you look at it, the Quraysh never truly recovered from it in Uhud, the Quraysh realized that even if they sent their entire city to Medina it would not eliminate Islam because never had the Quraysh fought unified in a battle until Uhud. So all of the Quraysh send their sons, they send their army, and they realize that, no, Medina is still protected. In the battle of Khandaq, they realized if they send the entire Arabia, still Allah will protect Medina. Because in Khandaq, what happened as we said, was something that had never happened in the history of the Arabs. And that is, they unified different tribes on the basis of theology, not on the basis of tribalism. For the first time, the pagans united with other pagans, and they forgot all of their past wars, they forgot all of their previous issues, and they united merely to fight against Tawheed, and to fight against Islam. And they sent an army the likes of which the Muslims could never fight. No, no matter how much they had, they couldn't fight all of Arabia. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protected them, and finally after being so demoralized, they were forced to acknowledge the superiority of the Muslims in the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, even though they tried to save face by stalling the Umrah for one year. But the reality was the Treaty of Hudaybiyah acknowledged that now the Muslims are a dominant force, and we have to agree to conditions with them, and each and every one of those conditions, as we said, flipped against them in the long run. And, of course, the main condition of peace, it worked against the Quraysh. The very fact that they had to ask and sue for peace and it worked against them, it shows the superiority of the Muslims that in that time frame, the two years of peace, so much good happened on the political front, on the moral front, on the number of converts front. So much good happened that really it's just the beginning of the end and the end of the Quraysh's insight. when the Muslims finally have that peace that they needed from the Quraysh, what they did was they eliminated all other threats. They eliminated all other threats. And the most significant threat in Central Arabia was the Khaybarites. The most significant threat in Central Arabia, the largest unified power that had weapons and money were the people of Khaybar. They didn't have the most quantity. The most quantity were in other tribes. But they had what the Arab tribes did not have. They had fortresses, and the Arabs did not have fortresses. And they had money, and money can buy you power. And so the largest, not the largest, sorry, the most well fortified encampment, and the wealthiest power that could oppose the Muslims, were the people of Khaybar. So after the treaty of Hudaybiyyah, immediately within a month or two, the Prophet ﷺ sets his eyes on Khaybar. So again, all of this, it is as if Mecca is the prize and everything is happening to get to the prize. From the battle of Badr onwards, everything is being done to eventually get to Mecca. Of course I forgot to mention that even symbolically as soon as the Hijrah occurs, symbolically the Qibla is changed back to Mecca. That your back has turned to Mecca when you had to leave, but now you will face Mecca five times a day, in fact more than five times a day to pray. So even this symbolism within the first year, that the qibla was not changed in Mecca itself. But after the hijrah, the qibla is changed. There is a clear symbolism here. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, قَدْ نَرَىٰ تَقُلُّ بَوَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ فَلَنُوَلِّيَنَّكَ قِبْلَةً تَرْضَاهَا فَوَلِّي وَجْهَكَ Turn your face towards Masjid al-Haram. You had to turn your back to leave it, but turn your face to Masjid al-Haram. And we said this is a symbolism here that you will eventually get Mecca back. as we had said on the treaty of Hudaybiyah. So in this peace treaty, the Muslims realized, or the Prophet ﷺ in particular, need to realize, realized that he needed to eliminate all other threats. So the eyes were set on Khaybar. And with the elimination of Khaybar, not only was the only serious threat in the Hijaz eliminated, but the Muslims acquired more wealth than they had ever acquired in their lives. and they acquired all the weaponry of Khyber because one of the conditions of Khyber was give us all your weapons. All of the weapons of the people of Khyber came into the hands of the Muslims. And weapons are difficult to obtain in those days. Weapons are not easy. And the people of Khyber had very good weapons because obviously they have the money to purchase them. And not only did they get weapons, they also got constant income. How did they get constant income from Khyber? The crops, right? Without having to lift a finger, right? As Ibn Umar said, we never ate to our fill basically until after khaybar. We're always hungry, meaning it's a metaphor here like, we're always suffering from poverty until khaybar. So, with khaybar comes financial stability, financial security. With khaybar comes weapons. With khaybar comes the final elimination of a threat internally in Arabia. And with the loss of khaybar, This is the final demoralization for the Quraysh. There is no other power now. They've tried Badr, they've tried Uhud, they've tried all of Arabia, at least the pagan side. The only hope that might have been left were the Yahud of Khaybar. And they too have been eliminated. Who then is gonna fight? Who then will do anything? So you can imagine the demoralization. Imagine being in Mecca at the time. The city must have been at least two-thirds empty by now. Imagine, houses would now be empty. The Sanadid or the noblemen of Quraysh are now gone one after the other. More than half the people have converted and gone to Medina. Even the city is now somewhat empty. Can you imagine how the Quraysh will be feeling now? Seeing the procession rise in power more and more. One victory after another. And again it is as if the entire seerah is leading up to the events of the conquest of Mecca. And so after Khaybar, we talked about in the last few lessons before we took our break. we talked about the battle of Mu'tah. And the battle of Mu'tah, the battle of Mu'tah, it was not as we said, a victory in the military sense. It wasn't a pure win in the military sense. However, it was a victory in another sense. Not only because the Prophet ﷺ said it was a victory, but most importantly, it was a sense of morale boost to the Muslims that they took on the mightiest superpower in the world. And that's the Roman Empire. Because this is the only time, we said so many times, the only time the Muslims fought the Romans in the life of the Prophet ﷺ was Mu'tah. It never occurred after this. And they didn't win. But they definitely did not lose. And the fact that over 95% of the army can come back intact, untouched. This was a huge victory. they stood up to the mightiest superpower and they came back pretty much unscathed yes some major losses Ja'far died, Ibn Rawaha died Zayd died, yes the major losses big losses but the bulk of the army came back and what do you think now the morale, there is a message being sent, send us the Romans we'll even take them on you can't even harm us and that is why our Prophet ﷺ said that this is a fatah, this is a victory even though it wasn't the military victory, it was a morale victory. It was a victory in PR. It was a victory that the Arabs had never fought the Romans. There is no fight. You know all of us know in our legendary knowledge that we have of the Roman sentry men and the Roman armor and the Roman tactics. And all of this is true. Why were the Romans the superpowers? Because they had the better everything. The better men, the stronger men. The better equipment, the better horses, the better tactics, the better generals. The Arabs didn't fight the Romans. The Arabs were subservient to the Romans. They didn't ever take on the Romans and fight. Well, guess what? The pagans didn't take on the Romans and fight. The Muslims did. And the Muslims came out the victors. In the sense, as we explained, what do we mean by this? That the Romans were not able to harm them. And they came back 95% or more than 95% unscathed. And so, what do you think the morale would have been amongst the Quraysh now? That even the Romans were not able to eliminate And all of this is a PR campaign that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is blessing the Muslims with. Because indeed, more than half the battle is perception. More than half the battle is perception. It is the morale on your side and the demoralization on the other side. And that is why our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam, when the people criticized the returners from battle of Mu'tah, and they said, you are deserters. You are farraroon. You are deserters. our Prophet ﷺ, what did he say? No, they are not farraroon, they are karraroon. They will go back and fight again. And of the first fights they did was the conquest of Mecca. It is as if they came back from Mu'tah, and the Prophet ﷺ saying, no, they haven't run away. They have a bigger and more important battle to fight. And that will be the conquest of Mecca. And this as we said, the main, or one of the main points of Mu'tah we can say, one of the main points of Mu'tah was the PR victory for the Muslims that truly the Muslims are now taking on a superpower and they're coming out somewhat the victors they are not being harmed when they take on the superpower in addition to all of these political victories the Muslims in the last two years have won on the moral front and on the quantity front as we said more people embraced Islam in these two years than had embraced Islam since the beginning of the da'wah. 20 years or 18 years versus 2 years. More people embraced Islam in these 2 years of the Treaty of Hudaybiyah because the Treaty of Hudaybiyah was only active for 2 years before the conquest of Mecca. Literally 2 years. More people embraced Islam than had embraced Islam in basically the previous 10 years or so. And this clearly demonstrates again that the spreading of Islam primarily was not done through the sword. it was done through interaction and through people mixing with the Muslims. So, the purpose of summarizing all of this, it is as if every single episode of the seerah is leading up to the climax. And there is no doubt, wallahi, that the climax of the seerah is the conquest of Mecca. Everything after the conquest is just footnotes, really. Everything after the conquest, okay, the battle of Tabuk and Hunayn, and it's just basically you know, finishing off basically. But the ultimate, if you like, climax of the seerah is the return of the Prophet ﷺ to Mecca, coming back to the very city that expelled him out. And it was really the final domino to fall once Mecca is in the hands of the Muslims. And they already have Central Arabia, and they already have Northern Arabia. Khalas, the peripheries must fall. Because really they have the bulk of the country. They have the bulk of the land of the Arabs. What is left? The small peripheries, Oman and Bahrain and Qatar and Yemen. These are small principalities. And they are not centers. They are not leaders of civilization. They are following the center. And if the Muslims have the center, the rest is going to simply fall. And that is exactly what happened. So the conquest of Mecca truly is the climax of the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. And the rest of the incidents that occurred after are like footnotes to the ending of this climax. And before we actually begin the incidents of the conquest, and because we're giving such a thorough seerah class, we have to mention just one or two incidents that occurred in the few months between the battle of Mu'tah and the month of Ramadan of the 8th year of the Hijrah where the conquest of Mecca began. And we began with a ghazwa. And like all of these small ghazawat or these sariyyahs, like all of these small expeditions, what is really beneficial for us who are beginners of this seerah is not the political side of the battle, but the incidents that occurred in these battles and the benefits we can derive from them. If you notice, when we mentioned the smaller battles, it's not about the politics of which tribe did they conquer and what, but rather small things happen in the battle, and these small stories have moral benefits for us, or they have theological benefits, or they have fiqh benefits for us. So, we begin with the most significant of these minor battles, none of these are major, and that is called the Ghazwa of Thatu Salasil. The Ghazwa of Thatu Salasil. And the Ghazwa of Thatu Salasil for the advanced students of history should not be confused for the other battle which is called the Battle of Thatu Salasil which was the downfall of the Persian Empire. That's called the Battle of Thatu Salasil or two battles. One in the Sira and one in the reign of Umar ibn al-Khattab. So don't get confused. Some people get confused with this. They're both called ذات السلاسل but for different reasons. And this one is called غزوة or سريع because it took place in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. And the other one is called just the battle of ذات السلاسل. There's no غزوة or سريع there. And the battle of ذات السلاسل which is in the time of Umar was the battle that was the downfall of Yazdijard, of the Sassanid Empire. Khalid ibn al-Walid on one side and Rustum and Yazdajar on the other side. And that was the end of the Sassanid Empire. And that's why it's so important, but that's beyond the scope of the seerah. Let's not get confused with that. For us, we're interested in what happened in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. And the reason why the names are the same is for two different reasons. There's no similarity. This Ghazwa is called Ghazwa Thudat-e-Salasil because there's a pond called Salasil and it took place close to the pond. right? Salasil was the name of the pond the other battle which is the battle that took place in the reign of Umar ibn al-Khattab it is called Salasil because the prisoners were all tied up in chains and Salasil means chains and the Muslims had so many prisoners so they called them the ghazwa of basically lots of prisoners, that was Salasil so there are two different reasons why it is called that was Salasil in any case, I'm just saying this because if you hear that was Salasil usually it's about the battle and not the Sariyah. Because the Sariyah is relatively small. So don't get confused like, oh I studied the Zatul Salasil. No, you studied the Sariyah, not the famous battle of Zatul Salasil that took place in Umar ibn Khattab's time. So what is the Sariyah that we're interested in? It took place a few weeks after Mu'tah. A few weeks after Mu'tah. And therefore it would be around Jumad al-Ula or Jumad al-Thani of the 8th year of the Hijrah. Jumad al-Ula or Jumad al-Thani of the 8th year of the Hijrah. And it was against one of the relatively large tribes that was up north. And that was the tribe of Quda'ah. Now, the tribe of Quda'ah was not as north as the tribe of Ghassan. Who is the tribe of Ghassan? Who can remind me? The what? The Christian Arabs up north. The allies of the Romans. And this is one of the furthest tribes up north. This is one of the furthest tribes up north. In fact, their territory is almost touching modern Jordan basically, way up there. So this is way up north. And that tribe was the tribe that the Prophet ﷺ attacked in Mu'tah. Okay, that was the tribe of Mu'tah, in the Mu'tah he wanted to attack the Ghassanids. The tribe of Quda'ah was not that much north. It was between Ghassan and Medina. And also it was northeast as well. Not full north, a little bit northeast. And so it's not that far away compared to Ghassan. and the tribe of Qudaa had aided the Ghassanids in the battle of Mu'tah. They had helped the Ghassanids in the battle of Mu'tah, and therefore this was a response to that aiding. This was a response to that aid, and the Prophet ﷺ called Amr ibn al-As to him. Amr ibn al-As narrates the story in the first person, and he says, The Prophet ﷺ called for me and commanded me to wear my garments, and my armor, and come to him. So I did that, and when I came to him, he was doing wudu. He looked at me up and down, sa'ad al-nadhar, he looked at me up and down, trying to assess me basically. And then he said, I wish to appoint you a leader of an army. I wish to appoint you as a leader of the army, and Allah will protect you and give you much ghanima. Allah will protect you and give you much ghanima and I am optimistic for you that you will get much wealth so Amr ibn al-As says Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of Allah I did not accept Islam in order to become wealthy rather I accepted Islam to be a Muslim in other words for the sake of Islam and to be with you Ya Rasulullah so Amr ibn al-As says I didn't accept Islam to be wealthy. Now what is the point here? So we see here, Amr ibn al-As, it is as if he feels a little bit hurt. That, Ya Rasulullah, you're offering me money. Now remember, when did Amr accept Islam? He just accepted Islam right now. He's a brand new Muslim. Barely two months, three months old. Literally brand new Muslim. And remember, Amr ibn al-As is from one of the nobility of the Quraysh. his father Al-As so many verses of the Quran against his father Al-As Al-As ibn Wael and he has died, Al-As has died so Amr is of noble birth and he has been raised very luxuriously and Allah blessed him to be the last convert before the conquest of Mecca of the last three batches the last three sahaba Khalid ibn Al-Walid, Uthman ibn Talha and Amr ibn Al-As they three all converted the very last converts so this is Amr and Amr is a brand new Muslim so the Prophet ﷺ tells him I want to send you on expedition and I'm optimistic you'll get a lot of money on it so he feels a bit like maybe insulted or hurt Ya Rasulullah I didn't accept Islam for money basically you think I came here for money I accepted Islam because I want to be a Muslim and I want to be close to you Ya Rasulullah and this shows us obviously his ikhlas to Allah and it shows us his love for the Prophet ﷺ he's a genuine Muslim and by the way Amr ibn al-As is the one that he was the one who he said that the way that the Prophet ﷺ would look at me I would think that I am the most beloved to him so I went and I asked him Ya Rasulullah who is the most beloved person to you so he said Aisha so then I said no no I meant amongst men so he said her father then he said I kept on asking and he kept on mentioning and my name was not on the list, that list. So I stopped asking, fearing that my name might never come. So the point here is that Amr being one of the last converts, yet because of the nature of the Prophet ﷺ, Amr felt the most beloved. Because it was the nature of the Prophet ﷺ to make everybody feel so much love coming from him. And yet Amr was not on the elite list of the first ten or so, the first five or so, so he just let it be and didn't ask anymore. This is Amr ibn al-As. and we see his ikhlas over here and by the way we have to mention this Subhanallah Amr ibn al-As later on he got involved in the political turmoil and on the side of Ali he did this on the side of Muawiyah he did that you know in the fitan he has a role to play and because of this some of the other sects and some modern historians they kind of give him a bad rap and they say this and they say that about him but of course we have said many many times throughout the seerah lectures it is a point of theology for us to respect the sahaba. And especially somebody like Amr, who is showing how much he loves Allah and His Messenger. And we say whatever Amr did later on in his life, he was sincere in his ijtihad. And Allah Azza wa Jal will reward him for what he was right in, and forgive him for what he was wrong in. And we don't say anything bad about any of the sahaba, especially one who converted before the conquest. And Allah says in the Quran, لَا يَسْتَوِي مِنْكُمْ مَنْ أَنْفَقَ مِنْ قَبْلِ الْفَتْحِ وَقَاتَلُ أُولَٰئِكَ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةً مِّنَ الَّذِينَ أَنْفَقُمْ بَعْدُ وَقَاتَلُ They are not the same, those who embraced Islam before the conquest, and those who fought before the conquest. These people are higher in the eyes of Allah, than those who accepted after. And Amr accepted Islam and fought before the conquest. Now the Prophet ﷺ is sending him on a fighting expedition. So by the testimony of the Qur'an, People like Amr ibn al-As are at a higher level than those who converted after the conquest. And therefore, here we have this ikhlas coming from him. Ya Rasulullah, I didn't accept Islam in order to be rich. I accepted Islam because I wanted to be Muslim and I love you, I wanted to be with you. So our Prophet ﷺ said, Ya Amr, ni'mal maalus salih lil rajulis salih. And this is a very beautiful phrase that should give us comfort when we go about earning our sustenance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Prophet ﷺ told him, يَا عَمَرُ نِعْمَ الْمَالُ الصَّالِحُ لِرَجُلِ الصَّالِحِ O Amr, how beautiful is pure money for the righteous man. How beautiful or how good, ni'mah means how good it is. How beautiful is pure money for a righteous man. And this hadith shows us that for the one who will use the money in a good manner, there is nothing wrong to be eager for money itself. In other words, when Amr felt insulted, the Prophet ﷺ corrected his misunderstanding. And he said, O Amr, there's nothing wrong with wanting money and with having money as long as the man is righteous and the money is pure. So he gave two conditions. Al-maal as-salih. So you cannot get haram money. And al-rajul as-salih. So the man has to be good as well. And therefore from this hadith, we derive that having money, earning money, wanting money, in and of itself is not wrong, as long as the money that you acquire is pure, and that you feel you will use it to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And in fact how true it is that people of wealth can accomplish so much that people that don't have wealth cannot do. People of wealth can help in manners that the people without wealth cannot do. And no doubt money is one of the biggest tests that Allah has left us with. As our Prophet ﷺ said, the test that Allah has given to my ummah is the test of money. Fitnatu ummati almal. But the test can be passed with flying colors, and you can fail miserably. The believer is not somebody who shies away from the test. He asks Allah to make him pass the test. The believer is not somebody who says, I don't want money. No, O Allah, grant me righteous money and allow me to spend it in a good manner. This is the dua we should make. O Allah, I want rizq wasi' I want a lot of rizq. That is halal, that is pure. and that I spend for your sake. And here our Prophet ﷺ is telling Amr, there's nothing wrong with wanting money as long as you are righteous. So Amr was given 300 men and he was told to basically surprise attack the tribe of Quda'ah. The tribe of Quda'ah. And it's very interesting that Amr was given a position of leadership even though he was only 3 months old. 3 months meaning Muslim. Because you judge your Islam like this. He's literally 3 months into his Islam. And perhaps, perhaps, our Prophet ﷺ is wanting to test him. Wanting to see the future potential. And this is kind of demonstrated that when Amr comes to him, he gazes at him up and down. This is what the hadith says. That he looked at him up and down. And when a person usually does this, you're trying to assess. And the Prophet ﷺ wanted to test his character and judge whether he is worthy of bigger and more tasks than this. And this is in fact the role of a true leader. Is that you give, and not just a leader, not just a leader in the political sense. Even us with our children, us in our workforces. We test people with a little bit, see if they pass, then we give them a bigger one. And this is our Prophet ﷺ testing Amr with not a major battle. He didn't hand him the conquest of Mecca. He handed him that is Salasil. Which is a relatively, not one of the big ones. 300 people under his command and Amr went with these 300 and even if Amr was a new Muslim he was not a new military general he had the upbringing of a soldier his father was the chieftain he has been trained like Khalid ibn al-Walid and others as we had said Khalid and Amr were close friends and of a similar age so they're relatively on the younger side now I would venture I'll have to look at about venture in their late 20s at this stage So, Umar ibn al-Aas is given this leadership, and he is told to go to Qada'ah, and it was in the winter, it was in the winter when this incident occurred. So, he traveled only at night, he did not travel in the daytime, in order to make sure that the enemy didn't hear of his coming. And at night, even though it was freezing cold, he refused to allow the army to light a fire, throughout the entire trip. So much so that they complained and they grumbled, and Amr said to them, if you light a fire, I will push you into it. No fires to be lit. And when they eventually returned, they complained to the Prophet ﷺ that, Ya Rasulullah, he refused to allow us to light a fire. And Amr explained, this is when they returned back, and he said, O Messenger of Allah, our quantity was limited, 300 people, compared to the massive tribe of Qudaa. And I didn't want the tribe to see how small we were. We traveled only in the dark and we basically hid ourselves from them. I didn't want anybody to see how small our tribe, our quantity was. So he took some very harsh precautions and he eventually got to the outskirts of the tribe of Quda'ah and he then realized that 300 was not enough for an attack. So he withdrew and he sent a message to the Prophet ﷺ, we need more men. 300 is not enough. So the Prophet ﷺ sent reinforcement of 200 to make it 500. and in this 200 reinforcement were Abu Bakr and Umar and other major companions and in charge of this reinforcement was the famous companion Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn al-Jarrah Abu Ubaidah one of the elite of the Sahaba as we know one of the ten one of the big of the Sahaba Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn al-Jarrah is told to be the commander of this reinforcement and the Prophet ﷺ says to Abu Ubaidah when you get to your companion meaning Amr make sure the two of you agree and do not disagree. Whatever you do, make sure you agree and don't disagree. When the reinforcements arrived, it was time for the salah. And when the iqamah was called, Abu Ubaidah goes forward to lead. Now the leader of the salah is the leader of the army. It's not like in our times when anybody just becomes no. And the imam of the salah was the imam of the Muslims. and in early Islam as well. In early Islam as well, it was the khalifa who always led the salah and who gave the khutbas. There was the symbolism that the imam is the leader in every sense and not just for salah. And that symbolism was there for early Islam. The Umayyad khalifa gave their own khutbas. The Umayyad khalifa, they gave their khutbas and they led the salah. It was only later on with the decline of the ummah that even the khalifa then basically was not even qualified to give the khutbah. In our times, we seek Allah's refuge if a ruler gives khutbah. But the point being that Abu Ubaidah went forward. Amr said, No. You are reinforcements. I am the leader. And some tension broke out. Because in the end of the day, Abu Ubaidah is senior in every sense. in terms of Islam, in terms of Quran, in terms of everything. I mean really, Amr is three months old, right? But Amr said, No, I ask for reinforcements, right? You are in charge of the reinforcements, but I'm in charge of the army. And some of the sahaba on the side of Abu Ubaidah said, that Abu Ubaidah is our amir. And you might be the amir of those people, the 300, but Abu Ubaidah is our amir. and some tensions broke out and Abu Ubaidah then agreed to step down and said Ya Amr the Prophet ﷺ said to me the last thing that he said make sure the two of you agree and do not disagree so even if you will disobey me I will not disobey you so that we can end up agreeing if you're not gonna listen to me that okay I think I should be the leader khalas, I will, natanazal, I will step down and you can become thee and you can, and I will obey you and therefore he allowed Amr to lead the salah and therefore to lead the army after him because Abu Ubaidah had assumed that he would be the leader now, now that he is there, he is a senior one, he should take over, Amr did not, and Amr insisted that he would be, and so Abu Ubaidah gave that position up and he allowed Amr to be the leader, now this incident and again this is why we discuss these dhatus salasil, dhatus salasil for us at this basic level, we don't know about Quda'ah, we don't know where they were, I'm talking about at this basic level. The advanced scholars know this. But for us in this masjid here, it's just a tribe and another. These incidents are what we derive benefits and lessons from. And one of the things that we, so this incident, one of the things we can derive from it is, the Sahaba are humans. We have to break this image of the Sahaba being superhuman. The Sahaba are humans. And as humans, they battle the same emotions that we battle. And there are tensions that Abu Ubaidah feels, I am more qualified than you. And Amr says, no, the process and put me in charge. And in a sense, both of them are right in what they're saying. Correct? Right? But even though they are humans, they are the best of generations of humans. And therefore, the role model that we gain is to look at how they resolve this conflict and tension. that Abu Ubaidah agreed to basically step down. And he stepped on his own ego. Who amongst us? Wallahi, imagine this. This man is a new Muslim. Three months, he's younger than him by at least a decade. Abu Ubaidah has been at Badr and at Uhud. He has been an early Muslim. He's one of the ten. He's this, he's that. He's done so much. And quite literally a much younger man who's a brand new Muslim. and there's no doubt the quantity of Quran he's memorized. How much could he have memorized? There's no doubt his tilawa, there's no doubt his fiqh cannot be compared. Yet, and Amr in the end of the day, and he radiallahu anhu, but he was the son of his father, and that lineage really has in it, and this is a reality, this is not meant to be a, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah, anything negative, but they had in their blood power. And it's natural that when you have the power, you act as if you have the power. It's natural, There's nothing wrong with this, right? Sons of kings and queens and what not, even when the kingdom goes away, they still act royal. Isn't this the case, right? To this day, ya khawar, the dynasties that are gone, their descendants and exiles still call themselves royal highness and royal this and that, and they act like this, right? The dynasties that no longer exist, of all of the Muslim and non-Muslim lands, to this day, they have the blood of royalty in them. Now, Amr had that upbringing, and he has it in him, and this is why he became the politician that he became. And again, we don't say this in a negative way. So he insisted, I am the leader. And Abu Ubaidah stepped on his own ego, swallowed his own pride. And wallahi this shows that Abu Ubaidah was the better of the two in Iman and Taqwa. We do not deny this. With all respect to Amr, Abu Ubaidah was the senior. But because he was the senior, what did he do? He sacrificed his personal ego for the sake of what? Unity. and wallahi what a lesson for us what a lesson for us this is true leadership this is true leadership to step down for the sake of unity in the community and he said okay even if you're not gonna follow me then in order not to disobey Rasulullah I will follow you right that's what you call Iman and that's what you call leadership our Prophet ﷺ told us to agree well one of us has to compromise if you're not gonna compromise basically, I will compromise for the sake of the Prophet ﷺ. And therefore, we benefit here again as we said, the true leadership is not necessarily about actually being in charge. True leadership is sacrificing for the community. Also we gain another interesting point here, that in the army of Abu Ubaidah, was people like Abu Bakr and Umar. And by unanimous consensus, Abu Bakr and Umar are better than Abu Ubaidah in terms of taqwa, in terms of seniority, in terms of ranking. Yet Abu Ubaidah is put in charge. And this shows us that to be put in charge, you don't have to be the single most muttaqi person. It's okay to put somebody in charge and he's not the single best person. And the technical term is إِمَامَسُ الْمَفْضُورِ عَلَى الْفَاضِلِ Which means the leadership of the one who's not as good over the one who is better than him. and this is one of the differences between us and between some of the Shia groups that they say that Imam or their leader has to be the best person in the whole world and we say that's impossible and historically not the case and there are many instances to demonstrate it is okay for a leader not to be the very best person he can be and the one beneath him is father because Abu Ubaidah is not the best compared to Abu Bakr yet he is the one in charge over Abu Bakr one could also say that perhaps Abu Ubaidah was put in charge because of military reasons to have the most Iman is not necessarily the most qualified in every aspect you can be Muttaqi but that doesn't mean you're the best tactician you're the best military planner and perhaps Abu Ubaidah was put in for these reasons in any case so Abu Ubaidah agrees to step down, Amr takes charge and Amr coordinates an attack against the tribe of Qudaa, we don't have any real details because there was no major battle when the tribe of Qudaa saw 500 people attacking them, complete surprise. They basically dropped everything and fled. And they ran. And so therefore, the Muslims did not conquer the entire tribe, because it was too large. The tribe of Qudaa was too large. But it was a victory in the sense that the message was sent, don't mess with us. And fear was put in the hearts of Qudaa. And as the Prophet ﷺ predicted, much ghanima was conquered. Obviously when the tribe leaves, there's so much property, so much possessions left behind in fulfillment of what the Prophet ﷺ had said. So there was no major casualties, it was basically a major victory financially, and no major casualties for the Muslims, exactly as the Prophet ﷺ said, you shall be safe and Allah will give you much more booty, and that's exactly what happened. Now in the books of hadith we find an incident here that Amr narrates, and we don't know exactly when it happened but it's a fiqh incident and it happened in this ghazwa and it's an embarrassing incident of Amr but he's not embarrassed to mention it to us because there's much fiqh in it and he says that on one of the nights of that I had a wet dream I woke up in the state of Janabah on one of the nights of that I became Junub and they're in the middle of the desert, it is freezing cold, it's the winter time and Amr said I was worried if I take a ghusl I will perish kill myself in this cold weather to take my clothes off and to take a bath and the desert cold by the way is very different the desert cold it's a very different type of cold the wind is I've only experienced it a few times it's a different type I've lived in Connecticut which is very cold in its own way but that cold is the cold of the snow and it's cold but the desert cold, I don't know how to explain it but they say it like hits the bones it gets to the bones, and it really does it's a very different type of cold and they're in the middle of the desert, no protection and Amr says I got worried if I take a bath it will basically, I'll freeze to death or I'll perish, so I did tayammum and I led Fajr with my companions because he's the Imam when we return, they complain to the Prophet ﷺ. So they already have a long list of complaints about Amr. He did this, he did that, he did this, he did that. Right? One of the things they said was that Amr led us in the state of Janabah. This is what they told the Prophet ﷺ. He prayed in the state of Janabah and he was our Imam. So the Prophet ﷺ called him and said, did you lead them in the state of Janabah? Now this shows us, whenever you hear information, verify. Verify. There's always two sides of the story. Right? So they complained. and from their perspective, they have water, they got plenty of water. Amr refuses to take a bath and he insists on leading the Ibn Fajr. So they're very angry. And they go and complain to the Prophet ﷺ. So he calls him and says, Ya Amr, asalayta bihim wa anta junub. Is it true that you led them in salah and you were in a state of janabah? And so Amr said that, O Messenger of Allah, I heard Allah say, meaning I read in the Quran, and I heard Allah say that, O you who believe, لا تخطر أنفسكم من الله كان بكم رحيمة Do not kill yourselves, for verily Allah is very merciful to you. And I was worried that if I took a bath, I would end up killing myself. So therefore I did tayammum, and I didn't take a bath. And so Amr says, فضحك النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ولم يقوشين He laughed at my explanation, and didn't say anything to rebuke me. And this is a fiqh incident, it's not a major theological point, but it shows us many things and this took place sorry he mentions clearly in one of the nights I said this in one of the nights of that to Salasil he said this so that's why I'm mentioning it here this is in the books of Hadith and he says in one of the nights of that to Salasil you know this happened to me now this shows us many things firstly tayammum takes the place of ghusl by unanimous consensus tayammum takes the place of ghusl not just wudu secondly it is allowed to perform tayammum even while water is present if there is a legitimate reason now before this point in time the only time the sahaba had performed tayammum was when they didn't have water and we have the hadith of Ammar and the hadith of Ali and others incidents took place they didn't have water and they performed tayammum this is the first time in the seerah while the Prophet ﷺ is alive, that the Sahaba have water, or at least one Sahabi has water. And he refuses to use the water and he does tayammum intentionally leaving the water. That's why this is an interesting point here. Right? And this shows us therefore, that tayammum can be performed in the presence of water, if there is a legitimate reason. What is a legitimate reason? There are two that generally are mentioned in the books of fiqh. number one is the Amr's scenario it's freezing cold and you know you are in that circumstances that it would really be harmful to perform water, you die of pneumonia or whatever else, or number two they say if you have a skin ailment that the water cannot touch it, right? These are the two main reasons that are given, that you have a surplus of water, we're not talking about you only have a bottle and that's you have to drink it, we're not talking about, no, you have water but you cannot use it so this shows you're allowed to do tayammum This incident also demonstrates for us that the Sahaba derived Islamic laws through their own reasoning, even when the processum is alive. In other words, they did ijtihad, even when the processum is alive. And ijtihad has always been how you derive Islamic laws that are not explicit. this also shows us that the one who does tayammum is not in any way diminished in his capability to become the imam so if there are two people one of them has wudu and the other one does tayammum we will not care in deciding who is the imam whether the person did real wudu or not it doesn't matter the both of them are considered to be equivalent and equal and we will look at whose Quran is better and who is more qualified to be the Imam so the fact that Amr did not disqualify him from being Imam when the rest of the Sahaba are doing we also gain over here that Ijtihad or deriving Islamic laws takes into account real life situations and scenarios and by this I mean that here we have Amr faced with a text and that text Surah Al-Ma'idah text I'm talking about that when you are junub take a bath this is an explicit command yet Amr understands that look this command has to have certain leeway in the circumstance I'm in he's not what we would say a die hard literalist I have to apply the verse even if I'm gonna die and he understands that look this verse cannot possibly be applicable to me right now, because it will lead to my destruction and death and there is a verse in the Quran that can be used to justify my reinterpreting the verse of Ma'idah so as not to cause my destruction and death. Is that clear? Right? In other words, let me phrase it even more bluntly. There is always, there has always been and there always will be a tension between those who are ultra-literalist on one side. The text says it, end of story. Versus those who say, look, maybe the text needs to be understood in light of the circumstance we're in. And this tension has been from the time of the Sahaba. Some of the Sahaba were more literal, and some of them were more open to like, well okay, that is the text, but sometimes we need to see when we can apply it. And of course this tension exists in our times in much more extreme than it exists amongst the Sahaba, and there's no easy solution in this regard. And no doubt our religion takes into account our situation and scenario, and we are required to be faithful to the text and balancing the two is always a delicate act. There is no easy solution. But I just wanted to point out, here is Amr and he knows the commandment of Allah about doing Tahara and yet he understands, look, this can't possibly apply right now because of a real situation or scenario that he is in. In any case, this is the battle of that of Salasil. What was the effect of this battle? This battle effectively conquered the north at least from a PR perspective. Not militarily, i.e. the north, when I say north I mean what? Northern Arabia. Northern Arabia was never a threat after this. The Ghassanids have been terrified after Mu'tah, right? They will go once more to Tabuk, the battle of Tabuk to the actual Romans, and the Romans never showed up, as we will get to in that point in time. And after this battle, really northern Arabia by and large has become safe there is no major threat from northern Arabia and in fact a number of tribes accepted Islam and there is an alliance formed in northern Arabia and one final incident that occurred not in that to Salas but in one of the smaller battles that took place right before the conquest of Mecca and no need to mention tribe names and what not because honestly there is very little benefit for us in confusing you with all of this type of stuff but just one incident occurred in one of the other battles, not that of Salasil, in which Allah revealed a verse in the Quran. So it's interesting to read this verse in context of this incident. And that is that, in a very small expedition, the Prophet ﷺ sent a small group of Sahaba to attack one of the tribes that was threatening the Muslims. And they passed by a person by the name of Amir ibn al-Adbat al-Ashja'i. Amir ibn al-Adbat al-Ashja'i. And Amir was a secret Muslim. His tribe was not a Muslim, he had converted. And so when he saw the Muslims, he became happy and he said, As-salamu alaykum. And as-salamu alaykum is the sign of being a Muslim. And in the contingent of the Prophet ﷺ, there was a man who had a personal problem with Amir from the days of Jahiliyyah. And he had a vendetta from the days of Jahiliyyah. What it is, we don't know. but there's lots of petty things in the Deen Zahliya and his name was Muhallim Muhallim Ibn Jutham, a very complicated name Muhallim Ibn Jutham so Muhallim, the rest of the Sahaba when he said Assalamu Alaikum, this is a sign of Islam, so they welcomed him, they put their arms down, everything Muhallim refused to accept his Islam and he said you are not a Muslim and he single handedly attacked him and killed him and took his belongings as war booty basically with the pretext what was his point of course nobody knew what is in his heart until Allah revealed it but he said he is just saying this he is not a real Muslim he is just pretending to be a Muslim and when the news reached the Prophet Allah revealed in the Quran surah an-nisa verse 94 surah an-nisa verse 94 that that oh you who believe if you are traveling in the way of Allah, فَتَبَيَّنُوا, verify. وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَنْ أَلْقَى إِلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامَ لَسْتَ مُؤْمِنًا And do not say to the one who says salam to you, you are not a believer. تَبْتَغُونَ عَرَضَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا Because you want some money of this world. So Allah exposed the niyyah of Muhallim. Allah exposed the niyyah in this verse in the Quran. You're not doing this for iman. you're doing this because you had a vendetta and you wanted his belongings and interesting thing happened here is that this murder because it is a murder it led to a huge dispute between the two tribes obviously the tribe of Muhallib and the tribe of Amir huge dispute and eventually they both accept Islam and after the battle of Hunayn they both come to the process of the chieftains and they demand that this murder be resolved. The murder of Amir. And the both of them are very angry in this regard and it causes a lot of tension and the Prophet ﷺ has to calm them down. We'll get to that story when we get to it. And I will quiz you then and I'm sure every one of you will forget but I'll quiz you then when we get to it about this incident. And the Prophet ﷺ had to calm the both of them down and he agreed to pay 100 camels on his behalf. On his own behalf. Because in the end of the day, he's the leader. And he sent Muhallib. so he has to take responsibility so he calmed them down he gave a hundred camels and the tribe of Muhallim the tribe of Muhallim said to the Prophet ﷺ why don't you ask Allah to forgive him and one of the very few times in his life the Prophet ﷺ refused he refused because of Muhallim's character because of what was in his heart and it is said that after he said this within a few days Muhallim died. Ibn Ishaq mentions the story. That after a few days Muhallim died, and when his tribesmen buried him, the next morning they found him on top of the ground with his face down. So they dug another hole and they buried him again. The next morning again, the same thing. They did it again, the next morning again. Then the tribe basically put him between, they found a valley basically, and they left his body in the valley, and they went on the top, and they just threw stones to cover up his body, while he's not actually buried. So they just threw stones to just cover up the body. And the Prophet ﷺ said something very profound. He said, Verily, the earth covers up people worse than him. His crime wasn't the worst. The earth covers up people worse than him. But Allah wanted to warn you through him by showing you the sanctity of life between you. this is a beautiful beautiful point the earth covers up people worse than Muhallim Muhallim didn't do the biggest crime in humanity but Allah wanted to teach you a lesson, the sanctity of human life that you are just saying, oh he's not a Muslim and Allah knows what was in your heart and you just wanted your vendetta and you wanted the money and this is one of the few times when the Prophet ﷺ did not even ask Allah to forgive because of for sure Allah told him about his internal character about Muhallim these are the major incidents before the thing that leads to the conquest of Mecca and the time is up and I don't want to start the few incidents that or the one incident that leads to the actual conquest inshallah next Wednesday we will begin the actual conquest of Mecca and it will take probably around two or three weeks by the will of Allah Ta'ala Thank you.

Seerah 75 - Pt

Al-Fatiha. resuming our seerah class after last week's break. And inshallah ta'ala we will begin talking about the actual incidents of the conquest of Mecca. The actual incidents that occurred for the conquest of Mecca. Now the treaty of Hudaybiyah going back two years, one of the clauses in the treaty of Hudaybiyah was that either side, the Quraysh and the Muslims, they had the permission to form alliances with any tribe. And that if those alliances were formed, the same conditions of Hudaybiyah would apply. to those tribes as well. And those conditions included no warfare. So any tribe could enter into an agreement with the Quraysh, and any tribe could enter into agreement with the Muslims. So, many tribes entered into agreements with either side. And the two tribes that concern us here, that eventually broke out into war, are the tribes of Khuza'ah on the one side, and the tribe of Banu Bakr on the other side. The tribe of Khuza'ah and the tribe of Banu Bakr. Now, the tribe of Khuza'ah is actually one of the famous and classical Arabic tribes. And actually they have a lot of history. And they're gonna bring this history up in front of the Prophet ﷺ. So we need to talk about the Khuza'ah because their conversation and their poetry will bring up the history of the Khuza'ah. So who exactly are the Khuza'ah tribe? The Khuza'ah tribe are in fact related to the Prophet ﷺ. And they also have a history with the Banu Hashim. The Khuza'ah tribe is one of the legendary classical tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. And they were the ones who initially expelled the tribe of Juhurhum from Mecca. Who can remind me who is Juhurhum? Who can remind me who is Juhurhum? The in-laws of Ismail a.s. Very good. That's right. The in-laws of Ismail a.s. So when Ismail a.s. settled in Mecca, well, when Ibrahim left him in Mecca, and he grew up, Remember there was a tribe that walked, that was wandering, and they saw the water and they asked permission to live. That is the tribe of Juham. And the Juham tribe was in charge of Mecca for a long period of time, maybe over a thousand years, we don't know. Obviously we have no recorded history. And initially they were righteous people. Over the course of time they became very evil, they did a lot of crimes, they started stealing the money from the Hijjaj. And so they did not deserve to be the custodians of the Ka'bah. And it was the tribe of Khuza'a that first fought them and kicked them out. So, for over 300-400 years, the tribe of Khuza'a was the tribe in charge of Mecca. That's a big honor. That's a big honor for the tribe of Khuza'a. And their chieftain was Amr ibn Luhayy al-Khuzai. We talked about him. What is Amr ibn Luhayy known for? For? For introducing Hubal. for introducing the idolatry. He was the first person of the Bani Ismail to introduce idolatry to the Arabs. And he did this when he went to the Amalekites, the Amalekites of Syria, and he saw them worshipping gods, and they were mighty and powerful people, and he felt a complex, like wow, how come you're... And the Amalekites, they say they were a race of giants, they're 6-7 foot tall people, and they were mighty civilization and whatnot. So they said, this is because we worship these gods. So he said, can you give me one of these gods? So they gifted him Hubal. And Hubal remained the principal idol of the Quraysh in Mecca. It was the main idol of all of Arabia. And that's why the battle of Uhud, what did Abu Sufyan say? U'lu Hubal. That Hubal is succeeded. Right? And the Prophet ﷺ said, Allahu Akbar, Allah is bigger than your Hubal. And so on and so forth. So this is Amr ibn al-Nuhayy al-Khuzai. probably around the year 300 CE this occurs. That the Khuza'a take charge of Mecca. Maybe 200 something, 250 something CE. We have no dates, but we're trying to piece it together. Amr ibn Al-Nuhayl Khuza'i took over and we said because of his status and because of his prestige and because he returned to the Arabs the Ka'bah. So they loved him. He was a generous man. He really was at least a generous man. He was a noble warrior. Unfortunately he was also a pagan. so they accepted his leadership and they accepted his paganism and he was the one who introduced idolatry to the Arabs and Khuza'a was in charge of the Kaaba for over 300 years until finally the Quraysh took it over from the Khuza'a and who can remind me who took it over from the Khuza'a now this is a real trick question all of this was basic stuff who can remind me which ancestor of the Prophet ﷺ and we mentioned this obviously this is our second I think seerah or something no, Adnan is no, no, no Adnan is before Khuza'a even Adnan is before Adnan is the 20th generation ancestor of the Prophet ﷺ Qusay Qusay ibn Kilab that's the Prophet ﷺ's great-great-great-great grandfather that is the Prophet ﷺ's grandfather four times removed Qusay ibn Kilab was the one who wrested the Ka'bah back from the hands of Khuza'ah, and then it went to the hands of the Quraysh. And Qusayy ibn Kilab married the chieftain of the daughter of Khuza'ah. And when the chieftain died, that's when he broke out into a struggle, and he managed to overtake the Ka'bah. So this is where the Khuza'ah blood is the blood of the Prophet ﷺ. Qusayy's wife, i.e. the Prophet's ﷺ great-great-great-grandmother, is from the tribe of Khuza'ah. And believe it or not, the Khuza'ah will bring this up. Subhanallah. And we'll get back to this point. Like they knew their lineages and genealogy inside out. So Qusay had married the daughter of the chieftain of Khuza'ah. And when the chieftain dies, Qusay manages, we talked about this when we talked about it, he manages to basically kick the Khuza'ah out and he becomes the next chieftain. But they still remained on cordial terms, believe it or not. There wasn't like a massive civil war. That he became the chieftain and the Khuza'a remained on good terms with the Quraysh. And eventually Abdul Muttalib, the grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ, he forms an alliance with the tribe of Khuza'a. And this alliance as well is brought up by the man who comes to the Prophet ﷺ. And again, that's why I have to tell you all of this stuff from now. So Abdul Muttalib forms an alliance. And they call their alliances Hilf. Hilf al-Fudul is one of them. a treaty. And this alliance is recorded in the classical books of Sira, such as Al-Baladuriz and Saab, in its entirety, and it's in very poetic language in the classical ancient Arabic. And Abdul Muttalib forms a treaty with the tribe of Khuza'a, that the two tribes shall be one, as long as the sun is hot in the daytime, and the sun rises on the tribe of Thabir, and this they have the poetic language and one generation after another we will always be together against anyone who causes either one of us distress or harm. So they formed a Hilf. That if anybody harms one tribe, the other tribe will come to their aid as well. And the agreement said, as long as the generations proceed, this will be a permanent Hilf. And the Khuza'a will bring it up. Your grandfather made this treaty with us. So they're gonna bring all of these things up, okay? This is the tribe of Khuza'a. After the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, Khuza'a, members of the Khuza'a had accepted Islam. Maybe not all of them, but definitely a good amount of them had accepted Islam. And so they agreed to join the Prophet ﷺ in the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. They will come on his side. And the other tribe was Banu Bakr. And the Banu Bakr were one of the few pagan tribes that were still around the Meccan vicinity. and they joined the Quraysh side. So you have the Khuza'ah and you have the Banu Bakr. The both of them physically are located close to Mecca, outside of Mecca. So the both of them are in the outskirts, the perimeters of Mecca and the Khuza'ah are now Muslim or at least they're on the side of the Muslims. As we said, maybe some of them were still pagan, but they have a lot of converts. There's a lot of Muslims amongst them. As for the Banu Bakr, they were all pagans. So the Banu Bakr is still worshipping idols and so they sided with the Quraysh. This was in the 6th year of the Hijrah. Two years go by. In the 8th year of the Hijrah, the Banu Bakr decided to engage in a night raid on the tribe of Khuza'ah. Now, why? There's a one main reason and then there's one secondary reason. As for the main reason, the Khuza'ah and the Banu Bakr had had warfare for the last 100 years. Just like the Aus and the Khazraj, on and off battles, So the Khuza'a and the Banu Bakr had had people killed, camels stolen, and one death led to ten other deaths, ten deaths led to a hundred deaths, so on and on. Then Islam came, and they were forced to pause for a while. Then the Treaty of Hudaybiyah came, and they split sides. So there's still revenge in the minds of Banu Bakr. They still want revenge for the dead, and they have the list of the names. These people were killed ten years ago, fifty years ago. We haven't extracted revenge. and then the second reason is the law of the jungle or I should say the law of the desert in this case there is no jungle the law of the desert was that every tribe understands that they're under threat from attack from other tribes and you will steal their property now they had a code of conduct believe it or not that the tribes would raid other tribes and they would try their best not to kill anyone and definitely women and children were spared and it was like understood that every tribe has the risk of being attacked by another tribe and then camels are stolen, property is stolen and they try their best not to kill and if they kill, it will be those who are defending and they don't touch the women and children. This was the law of the desert if you like, that survival of the fittest basically. This was understood, not that it was legalized but it's just a risk that you take, right? This is a risk that is understood. So the Khuza'a decided to undertake this type of, sorry not the Khuzad, sorry the Banu Bakr, decided to undertake this type of raid and to resurrect the wounds to get revenge from the past. But they knew they had an alliance, they knew they had a treaty so what did they do? They sent their noblemen to the Quraysh and they explained to them that look we want revenge and we know that we have agreed to the treaty, can you give us permission for just one raid? The Quraysh not only agreed to do this but some amongst them such as Suhail ibn Amr and others and Safani ibn Umayyah actually gave them weapons most likely for a percentage of the booty because there's no other reason they would give them weapons they gave them weapons and the books don't mention but it's understood when you're giving them something you'll expect the rent on that so they negotiate okay you take these weapons you do this and one of them remarks don't worry as long as you attack in the middle of the night how will Muhammad ever find out? So they consciously, knowingly approved of the raid and this goes against the treaty of Hudaybiyah. This is a very important point here. It's not as if the Banu Bakr did it and the Quraysh are innocent. The Quraysh not only knew, not only approved, their elders actually gave weapons to the Banu Bakr. And so armed with both physical permission and spiritual permission and physical weaponry. They surprised attack the Khuza'a in the middle of the night at a small pond called Al-Watir, which is outside of the Haram area. The Haram boundaries, it's outside of the Haram boundaries. There's a small pond that existed in the past called Al-Watir. The Khuza'a had camped over there for the night and a surprise attack, the Banu Bakr come and they expected that everybody would be asleep. They'll get the camels, maybe kill one or two men and then go back. Lo and behold, the entire operation botched up. Somebody raised the alarm, all the men woke up, the women and children began screaming. Now, everybody is basically awake and they're fighting and defending. And a mini massacre ensues. A mini massacre ensues. More than 20 people were killed, including women and children. 20 is a huge number for a small tribe. 20 is a massive amount. typically in these raids maybe one person is wounded, max like something happens, maybe he died but 20, this is a massacre and there is one particular incident that really proved to be very troublesome and that is that when the Khuza'a attacked one of them, sorry when the Banu Bakr attacked, one of the people of Khuza'a he fled and ran away and he was pursued by the Banu Bakr until finally he entered the Haram area so he's thinking let me just get into the haram I'll be safe, now remember even the jahili arabs they realize when you're in the haram you cannot fight so he's running, he's running he finally gets to the haram area and he turns around and he says I'm in the haram, and he mentions the name of the person oh so and so, I'm in the haram ilahaka ilahaka means fear your god, fear your god we're in the haram now and the man from Banu Bakr utters a blasphemous statement and he says, there is no God today. لَحَوْلُ رَخُوْ سَلَامِ اللَّهِ And he goes and he kills him. So he kills him inside of the haram after uttering this blasphemous statement. That khalas, there is no such thing as religion and God today. Don't call anybody now. And he kills the person from Khuzaa. So obviously this was not a part of the plan. And Allah Azza wa Jal completely embarrassed and humiliated them that the news spread because it's not gonna be kept hidden. and immediately the chieftain of Khuza'a with a delegation of 40 men left for Medina. Help. War. The chieftain of Khuza'a goes to the Prophet ﷺ and his name was Amr ibn Salim al-Khuzai and he recites a beautiful one page long poem which is truly very very eloquent. It is mentioned in Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham. Of course Arabic poetry is not something we can mention in our seerah class over here. And honestly, even this poetry, if I were to recite it to you, I needed to translate it for myself because it's classical and none of the Arabs over here as well would have been able to help me because this is something that goes back to ancient Arabic and not modern Arabic. But it is beautiful poetry. A page long. And in this, he mentions that both him and the Prophet ﷺ have a common ancestor. He reminds the Prophet ﷺ of his great-great-great-grandmother. Right? That we both have the same ancestor. Right? And it is truly amazing how the Arabs kept track of their genealogy. Wallahi, most of us don't even know the names of our grandparents, the full names of our grandmother and grandfather, we don't even know. Khala is gone. Much less each one on both sides. Much less to go back five generations and say we have a common, you know, woman. Not even this isn't the male lineage, this is a woman's lineage, right? And we have a common female ancestor. So he reminds the Prophet ﷺ of this. then he reminds the Prophet ﷺ of the treaty of Abdul Muttalib with his own grandfather that the Banu Hashim and the tribe of Khuza'a, we had this treaty until the day that the sun shall never rise, until generation after generation, he brings up that treaty and subhanallah the Arabs might have been illiterate, but Allah blessed them with a memory to memorize all of these facts of the past, they love their history, they love their genealogy so he brings this up And then he mentions the treaty of Hudaybiyah as well. In other words, three reasons. We have common lineage. Your grandfather, my grandfather, we had this treaty. And now we as well, we joined your side in the treaty of Hudaybiyah. And then he mentions the details of the massacre, that they came to us even as we prostrated and were in sajda. Rukka and sujjada, he said they came and they slaughtered us. Nothing protected us, not even the haram. So it was, and of course this is how you do propaganda, whether positive or negative, this is how news spreads, this is CNN this is Fox News, you write a poem and it spreads like wildfire and the better the poem, the more it will spread so he wrote a beautiful probably he just composed it, these are natural poets you know, not that he sat down and wrote it but it just came to him, tilqai and haqadah so he gives his poetry and very strong and moving the Prophet ﷺ was moved when he heard the poetry and he said that you shall be helped Ya Amr ibn Salim, Satunsar, you shall be helped. And then he said, May Allah never help me if I do not help the Banu Ka'b. This is an expression in Arabic. May Allah never give me anything if I don't give you the help that you deserve. It's an expression in Arabic that basically means, I am going to help you or else. There's no question out of this that you will be helped. So the Prophet ﷺ was moved by this poetry and he promised them they will be helped. And there was a cloud coming in the horizons and the Prophet ﷺ said, this cloud is the sign of victory for the Banu Bakr. This is signaling the positive sign of victory for the Banu Bakr. So this incident, before we move on, so it shows us many things. First and foremost, I already mentioned, it showed us the knowledge of the Arabs, of genealogy and history. That how they bring up. It also shows us they were a people who cared about lineage and connections, family ties. even a fifth cousin they'll bring it up and they'll say you are related to us as a fifth cousin wallahi we don't even know our second and third cousins khalas gone off the plot you know but the Arabs had this knowledge and they cared about it and we also learn from this that the treaties that are enacted even before Islam are binding the treaties that are enacted even before Islam are binding as long as the treaties themselves don't have any haram conditions and that is why the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam upheld it even in Islam and this treaty that his grandfather did he didn't even do it but his grandfather Abdul Muttalib did a treaty that said our generations and your generations will be bound by this treaty and therefore treaties done before Islam are valid and this also shows us before we move on that good omens are allowed and encouraged in Islam and I have spoken about good omens many times that the Prophet ﷺ said there's no such thing as bad omens but I love Al-Fa'al and he was asked what is Al-Fa'al he said a good word or a good vision that somebody sees. And al-fa'al is optimism. And optimism is a good omen. And a good omen is allowed with two conditions. The first condition is that you read in a positive sign. And the second condition you link it to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. These are the two conditions that a good omen is allowed. What is a good omen? We see in this hadith right now. That the Prophet ﷺ saw the rain coming, or a cloud coming, and clouds are good omens, it's gonna rain. So he interpreted this, this is the help of Allah. That Allah is going to help you because I see the cloud. In our culture for example, something that will be more understandable to us, we make dua, we open our eyes, we see a rainbow outside. Okay? This is in our culture, rainbow has that type of positive image. If we say that, oh Allah is showing me this rainbow to show me that, this dua is gonna be answered. there's nothing wrong with this at all because number one you have read in something positive not negative we don't believe in negative omens we don't believe in black cats or Friday the 13th or anything like this we don't believe in breaking glass or knocking on wood this is all nothing to do with our religion and it's superstitious stuff bordering on shirk we don't believe in negative if you make dua and then you hear the thunder this is not Allah telling you no don't worry about that there's no such thing as a negative omen but a positive omen yes we believe in so a positive omen we read in something positive yes our dua will be answered yes they will be given victory and then we link it to Allah we don't link it to some medallion we're wearing or some good luck charm astaghfirullah that is also shirk so any type of good omen whether it's a good word a good phrase you hear somebody is you know making dua or even in a tense situation and then you hear two people you just pass by them and one of them is happy and says, Alhamdulillah, I got the job. Now it's nothing to do with you. But you say, oh this is Allah showing me that I'll also find my job or whatever your situation might be. You read in a positive omen to something else. Okay? This is al-fa'al. And the Prophet ﷺ said, hadith is in Bukhari, yu'jibuni al-fa'al. Okay. We now move on. So, the Prophet ﷺ promises the Banu Bakr you will get helped. Sorry, the Khuza'a. Why am I mixing up today? SubhanAllah. The Khuza'a. That you will get help. سَتُنصَرُونَ You will be helped and I will help you. May Allah never help me if I don't help you. That's a very harsh statement, but it is meant as an expression. It's not meant to be taken literally, that I will help you for sure. So what did he do? Now, here is the big question. Ibn Ishaq mentions that he began preparing an army, and then he eventually marched on Mecca. now this has led the majority of scholars of seerah to interpret that the Prophet ﷺ took the attack against the Khuza'a as an automatic breach and he did not negotiate at all with the Quraysh and he simply went on and marched and attacked this is the majority interpretation and this interpretation there is nothing wrong with it because he has every right because the Quraysh knowingly broke the treaty And the Quraysh aided in breaking the treaty. So this interpretation is not wrong at all. There's nothing sinful, astaghfirullah, in this interpretation. However, there is a report that Ibn Hajar and others mentioned that actually suggests that he did try to negotiate. And they refused, then he attacked. And this would make more sense. And it would give more, if you like, logic or rationale to the attack of Mecca. Not that the first version of events is anything wrong with it, because in the end the Quraysh did disobey. But the second version, or I should say the version that has this detail, it seems to show the Prophet ﷺ is even trying one last time. And there's no doubt that, generally speaking, our Prophet ﷺ was always trying to avoid this type of bloodshed and problem. And this report mentions that the Quraysh were sent an ultimatum. The Prophet ﷺ sent them a message. Ibn Hajjah says that the Isnad is Mursalun Sahih which basically means it's authentic to the Tabi'i and there's a small link between the Tabi'i and the report there's a missing gap but generally speaking most of the Sira goes back to the Tabi'un anyway so in reality this is really an authentic narration by and large if you look at it from the perspective of the Sira and this mentions that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sent an ultimatum to the Quraysh which actually is very reasonable the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to the Quraysh in order to make up for this deed you must cut off ties with the Banu Bakr and pay the blood money for the people they killed and if you don't do this then you have to face war now honestly that is as reasonable as you can get he tells the Quraysh cut off your ties with the Banu Bakr they are not worthy of this treatment and they will face whatever they will face none of your business and you have to pay the blood money because in the end of the day this is your ally and they're under you and you are ultimately responsible for their deeds so you have to pay the blood money when the Quraysh got these demands according to this report they outright refused on both accounts number one the money what is going to be the blood money for 20 dead people? 2,000 camels 2000 camels is a fortune it would have wiped the Quraish almost out to give you an example how many camels were at Badr, how many camels were at Uhud not even a few hundred 2000 camels this is wiping out their fortune, they would be left with hardly anything, that's a massive amount of camels and money and then they said in regards to the alliance with the Banu Bakr, they said the Banu Bakr is the only tribe on our religion in the vicinity. And if we cut off with them, we'll be left alone. So this shows us that everybody else had converted now. The Quraysh are pretty much alone. And the Banu Bakr is the only tribe that has no Muslims. All the other tribes in the Hijaz at least. In the Hijaz, they're either fully Muslim or a good portion of them are Muslim. And it does appear by the way that the chieftain of Khuza'a at the time was not a Muslim. It does appear that the chieftain was not a Muslim. and of the reasons that suggest this is that he does not mention Islam at all. But they were sympathetic to the Muslims and many of their tribes member were Muslim. And this is also proven in the poem that he mentioned some of us were slaughtered رُكَّعًا وَسُجَّدًا They killed us in ruku' and sujood. We tried to seek shelter and they still killed us. So the point being that the Banu Bakr were the only pagan tribe left in the vicinity and the Quraysh said no way we're going to break off with them. There are only hope left in this area. and so they refused to negotiate they refused to agree to this demand then the prophets the Banu Bakr no the Banu Bakr are the only tribe that is pagan that is the right name the Banu Bakr is the only tribe that is pagan in the vicinity so the Quraish refused to budge and they said these two conditions are not acceptable to us and they literally said if we were to give this money we'll be left with nothing except the clothes on our back 2,000 camels is not a joke. So when this was rejected, it is mentioned that Abu Sufyan wanted to try to find a common ground, maybe get the money down, maybe do some other type of deal. When one of the younger members of the Quraysh refused any ultimatum, any budging, Abu Sufyan himself decided to try to go to Medina and negotiate the Treaty of Hudaybiyah all over again. and the Quraysh approved of him going and they put him in charge that do whatever you can so that the treaty of Hudaybiyah is reaffirmed because they realized they have broken it so they want to reaffirm the treaty of Hudaybiyah and they agreed to send Abu Sufyan to Medina now this is one of the most interesting episodes in the seerah Abu Sufyan the chieftain is now coming to Medina begging the Prophet ﷺ to not attack. He has never entered Medina for the last decade. He has only come at Uhud and at Ahzab as a military commander. He has only come to attack. And other skirmishes as well by the way. He has never come to Medina to negotiate, to speak to. And he wants to now come to beg and plead for the lives of the Quraysh. that don't attack us, let's continue with the treaty of Hudaybiyah. And so he goes on his way without any other person because he doesn't want to cause any problems and what not. He goes to Medina. Now there are two versions mentioned. Ibn Ishaq mentions one version and Ibn Sa'ad mentions another version. And Allah knows best which one is right. Honestly I could not, I read both of them and I could not figure out which one would be the more authentic of the two. but the one version has it that the Prophet ﷺ was the first person Abu Sufyan went to. Then he went to Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Ali. The second version has it he went to Abu Bakr, then Umar, then Ali first then he went to the Prophet ﷺ. And Allah knows best but I would personally lean towards Ibn Ishaq's version which mentions he went to the Prophet ﷺ first because it would not make sense for him not to try immediately with the Prophet ﷺ. This to me seems the more logical version of events. But Allah knows best. So in the version of Ibn Ishaq, he goes to the Prophet ﷺ and he attempts to renegotiate. But Ibn Ishaq said, فَلَمْ يَرُدْ بِشَيْءٍ The Prophet ﷺ did not respond to him at all. Which means whatever he demanded, the Prophet ﷺ did not promise him. Nothing. Nothing was given. So Abu Sufyan felt panicked. Because he didn't get a verbal yes. He was not answered at all. Are we still upon the treaty? No, no information was given. The Prophet ﷺ, however he did, we don't know the details. Maybe he averted, maybe he was silent. But whatever he did, Abu Sufyan understood that the situation is perilous. So Ibn Ishaq says, Abu Sufyan then found out his friend Abu Bakr. Friend means from the days of Jahiliyyah. His friend Abu Bakr. and Abu Bakr told him flat out لا استطيع I cannot help you at all flat out he said I cannot help you so he then sought out Umar who was his one time business partner in the days of Jahiliyyah he sought out Umar ibn Khattab and he said can you go to the Prophet and intercede on my behalf Umar outright mocked him do you think I will go for you in front of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? Never. Umar outright was sarcastic. So Abu Bakr and Umar are now turned down. He goes to Ali. And Ali was of course his closest relative in all of Medina. Because after all Abu Sufyan in the end of the day he is of the second cousin. The grandfather's, the cousin of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Abu Sufyan is a part of the Banu Hashim. and he goes to Ali ibn Abi Talib and he says to Ali that oh Ali you are the closest person in this whole city to me after the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam meaning in lineage you are the closest city the person to me and I need your help so can you please go to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and intercede on my behalf do not let me go back embarrassed and humiliated to my people don't let me go back empty handed and the book Sursir ibn Ishaq mentions when he visited Ali, Ali ibn Abi Talib was at his house and Fatima was there and Fatima was taking care of Hassan and Hassan was playing around her. So he's begging Ali to go to the Prophet ﷺ and he tells him that look you are the closest man in lineage to me and please go to the Prophet ﷺ don't send me back empty handed. And wallahi, how amazing is this sight. Ali is a child in his eyes. Ali is a child in his eyes. In his eyes, he is double the age of Ali. He is double the age of Ali ibn Abi Talib. And yesterday, he is the one leading, instigating Badr, leading Uhud, commanding Ahzab. And barely few years have gone, and now he is going door to door, begging Abu Bakr, pleading with Umar, going to the youngest Ali of them رضي الله تعالى عنه and pleading with him that please go to the Prophet ﷺ don't let me go back empty handed and such is the qadr of Allah ﷻ تُعِزُّ مَن تَشَاء وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَاء such is the qadr of Allah ﷻ that yesterday he was who he was and today nobody is helping him out at all and so Ali says to him وَيْحَكَ يَا أَبَا سُفْيَانَ woe to you O Abu Sufyan والله when the Prophet ﷺ has decided a matter we are not going to persuade him otherwise. Meaning, you don't understand. We don't go and interfere with the Prophet ﷺ's decision. وَيْحَكْوَوْا to you. Once he has made up his mind, whatever it is, I don't know what it is. I'm not going to persuade him otherwise. So, Abu Sufyan turns to Fatima. And he says to her, يَبْنَتَ مُحَمَّدٍ O daughter of Muhammad, والله, look at the humiliation of this man now. Can you go ask this little boy of yours to go and seek protection on our behalf? Little boy is who? Hassan. How old is he now? Five years old. He's five years old. Can you go ask this little boy, the grandson, to go to his grandfather and seek protection for us? And if he does so, he shall be respected until the day of judgment. He shall be the Sayyid al-Arab until the day of judgment. Subhanallah. Begging Ali, now begging Fatima, now getting to Hasan. Getting to the five-year-old boy, and wanting him to go get protection for the Quraish. Any pleading. And wallahi you see the fear now. The tables are not turning, the tables have turned. Khalas, he knows it, he sees the end in sight. He cannot do anything now. And Fatima, and by the way it's interesting here, he promises he will make Hassan the Sayyid al-Arab we don't care about your Sayyid al-Arab our Rasul Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has made him Sayyid al-Muslimin he has made him the Sayyid of this Ummah we mentioned this when we talked about the Karbala lecture this son of mine is the Sayyid and Abu Sufyan thought he could make him the Sayyid of a nation he is the Sayyid of the Ummah he is the Sayyid of the entire Muslim world and he is the Sayyid of the Shabab of Ahl al-Jannah as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said and our Prophet ﷺ already made him the Sayyid. We don't need Abu Sufyan to make him the Sayyid. So Fatima responded that my son has not even reached the age to grant you security and no one can offer protection against the Prophet ﷺ. We are not people to go against our Prophet ﷺ. Who can come between us and our Prophet ﷺ decree? You don't understand basically. You don't understand how this works. Once he has decided something, we will obey and hear him. And so before he leaves, he again turns to Ali, pleading with him. And he says, Ya Aba al-Hasan, Ya Aba al-Hasan, you see my situation, you see how desperate I am, give me nasiha, what should I do? He's almost crying by now, you can tell. Anything, just tell me what should I do? So Ali says, I don't know anything that will help you out now, but you are the Sayyid of the Bani Kinana. The Bani Kinana was what they would call the Quraish. Quraish, who is Quraish? Who is Quraish? Who is Quraish? Who is Quraish? That's good. One of the opinions is fair, yes. But the more common opinion is that it is النضر ابن كنانة. Right? النضر ابن كنانة. So sometimes they would call the Quraish بني كنانة. The broad Quraish. They would call them the بنو كنانة. Because نضر is the son of كنانة. So sometimes they would say بنو كنانة meaning the entire Quraish. So Ali says, I don't know anything that will help you, but أنت سيد بني كنانة. So Abu Sufyan is the single most prestigious and honorable person of the entire sub-tribes of the Quraysh put together. You are the Sayyid of the Banu Kinana, so why don't you just go to the masjid and announce in front of all of the people that anybody who can protect you, just protect you. Just beg the entire population basically. And so Abu Sufyan went to the masjid and made a public announcement begging, Wallahi what humiliation And Allah will guide him to Islam And Allah has forgiven him But not after he had to pay a little bit at least For what he had done And this is again the qadr of Allah Allah allowed him to live and to repent And to accept Islam And so he was forgiven But right now he is a pagan And he will have to suffer in a manner that He will suffer And that is the pride He has to now go in front of the entire population And he says O people, I am Abu Sufyan. Is there any who will give me protection? Now what is this concept of protection? So one needs to understand this is how the Arab society worked is that a person would give means I've given you my protection. So any tribe person, any member of a tribe could give protection on behalf of the tribe. and say, okay, you are under my protection. Nobody can harm you. And this ruling was adopted in Islam as well. That our Prophet ﷺ said, every Muslim can give protection to anybody else. And that is why male, female, young and old even, even a young person, who's not even baligh by the way, the majority of scholars even say, a person who's not even baligh can give protection to a person. And this is what our Prophet ﷺ himself said in the authentic hadith. So he's basically saying, oh and the example of this one, the process came back from Ta'if, remember? Nobody is given him protection. He has to go, one could say it's a visa, even though it's not exactly, but you get the point. One could say it's a type of contract, that okay, now I am safe, nobody is gonna harm me. So Abu Sufyan makes a general announcement, that oh people, anybody who can give us protection, please give us protection. But obviously, who would dare stand up after the process is not said. anything, who would do anything. And so Abu Sufyan had not a single hope of any protection from anybody. And before he left, he paid one more visit. And this was a visit to his own daughter. Umm Habiba Ramla binti Abu Sufyan. And Ramla binti Abu Sufyan, of course, she had not seen her father for over 15, 13 years? Because she had emigrated to Abyssinia. She had emigrated to Abyssinia in the middle of the Meccan era. And her husband was one of the very, very few people who left Islam, became Murtad. He died Murtad. And the Prophet ﷺ, she was all alone. She had nowhere to go back to. Her father was Abu Sufyan, she was not going to go back to Mecca. and so the Prophet ﷺ proposed to her while she was in Abyssinia. And Najashi was the one who threw the Walima on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ. This is Ramla. This is that wife of the Prophet ﷺ that Najashi threw the festival and paid the mahr and then she went back with Ja'far ibn Abi Talib. And when did Ja'far arrive back? Who can remind me? Khaybar. Right at the day of the conquest of Khaybar. right, Ja'far returned the day that Khaibar was conquered and so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had already the nikah had been done already and so he took Umm Habibah as his wife at the battle of Khaibar and therefore she has not seen her father for probably 13 maybe 15 years, she has been gone, khalas, so now Abu Sufyan before he leaves he has to see his daughter and so he visits the house of Umm Habibah and as he comes in and he wants to sit down Umm Habiba covers the blanket and shows him the what are you going to call it the spine of the bed right, like the soft mattress, she covers it up quickly and you know the hard part of the bed whatever would be the frame of the bed, of course it's not a raised bed you understand, it's on the floor the Prophet ﷺ did not have a raised bed but there is some type of framework that would be there and she picked the covering, the soft covering and he's gonna sit on this hard surface, right? So, he looks at her and he says, I don't know, are you protecting me from the mattress or are you protecting the mattress from me? Meaning, what are you trying to do here? Do you think that the mattress isn't good enough for me so you're gonna put another one or you think I'm not good enough for the mattress? Which of the two is it? And so, Umm Habiba says, no, this is the blanket of the Prophet ﷺ. This is the bed, the sareer of the Prophet ﷺ. وَأَنْتَ مُشْرِكٌ نَجَسٌ And you are not going to sit on his bed. صلى الله عليه وسلم And subhanallah, what humiliation. Wallahi what humiliation. One door after another shut in his face. Not a single person going to help him. And now his own daughter says, go sit on the floor. don't even sit on the bed وَأَنْتَ مُشْرِكٌ نَجَسٌ you're not gonna sit on the blanket of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم even though of course technically from a fiqh perspective you can have a non-Muslim obviously touch a utensil but this is out of adab for the Prophet this is extra respect for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and so even he is turned away for his own daughter and so he says to his daughter يا ابني يا أمي my daughter I don't know what evil has touched you after you have left me. I don't know what, how, what, you've gone crazy basically, what is happening? And he then returned to the Quraysh and he told the Quraysh in vivid detail all that had happened. That Abu Bakr refused to help, that Umar mocked him, that Ali he said was the softest and the most cooperative of the group. But he could not really help me out except that he told me to stand in front of the gathering and say what I said. So they said, did you say that? And he said, yes. So they said, you have been made a fool of. Basically this is, you have been made a fool of. This is a mockery, لُعْبَة. They're playing with you. That you had to humiliate yourself in this manner. And Abu Sufyan said, there was nothing else I could do. That was the only thing that I could do. And truly wallahi, this is one of the most bizarre instances of the seerah you see. I mean bizarre meaning, look at what has happened. Look at who Abu Sufyan was and now what has happened with him. And clearly the tide has changed. subhanallah once the Prophet ﷺ is asking for protection outside of Mecca nobody will protect him barely nine years later the chieftain of the Quraysh has to come back now begging for protection and he is not worthy of getting that protection and we also see over here a little bit of a spectrum of response to Abu Sufyan a little bit of a spectrum of response to Abu Sufyan that you have three responses Abu Bakr, Umar and Ali and each of them is slightly different. As for Umar, he's the harshest of the three. He actually makes fun of him. He mocks him. And he says, you really think that I'm going to go to the Prophet ﷺ on your behalf? You gotta be kidding basically. Like I said, you gotta be kidding me. And in the middle was Abu Bakr. Was that neither was he sarcastic, nor was he harsh, nor was he gentle. He said, I cannot help you. I can't do anything for you. and then you had Ali who was generally speaking a little bit more softer a little bit more cooperative had an entire conversation with him and even gave him a course of option that look try, why don't you try a public gathering maybe that might help you and subhanallah from this we benefit that responses to such attacks and such people should be somewhat varied it's good to have some people who are extra harsh and it's good to have some people who are a little bit softer some spectrum, obviously within a reasonable amount some, not everybody should react the exact same way and this goes to any situation in the community any politician, any issue that takes place, it's good for some people to be extra angry, for others to reach out and say, okay, well, if you apologize we can accept you back, there's a healthy amount of opportunity here, and you know, the cops have a technique, they call it good cop, bad cop technique right, they have that technique, they have it down to a science, okay? The point is even they realize that human psychology is good to exert pressure from one angle and to be softer from another angle. And this is we find it in the three responses Abu Bakr and Umar and Ali ibn Abi Talib. Now, Abu Sufyan returns and nothing has been resolved. And the Prophet ﷺ announces that he is going to lead a very large expedition somewhere. and everybody must hearken to the call. Now, in Islamic Sharia, it is wajib when the leader calls the people by fard'ain, he says every one of you should come, sorry, by individuals, that it becomes fard'ain for every capable male to answer that call. This is the general rule, especially when it is a Prophet ﷺ. So he said, every male that is able to go is gonna go and he didn't say where and therefore you have to give time, you have to give a week or so let the people prepare, they have businesses to take care of they have families to prepare for so he gives them time and news spreads that there's gonna be a massive battle, but nobody knows where, he didn't even tell his most trusted and closest confidants and that is Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and his daughter Aisha رضي الله تعالى عنها. It is mentioned in the hadith that during this week long period, Abu Bakr visited Aisha. And he said, did you hear the Prophet ﷺ call? And she said, yes, I am preparing his bags. I am preparing what he needs to take. I am doing that, yes I know. So he says, where is he going? Abu Bakr is asking Aisha, where is he going? Aisha says, wallahi ma adri, I have no idea. I don't know where he is going. And wallahi, what does this show? It shows us that the Prophet ﷺ did not even tell the people that he genuinely trusted. Why? Possibly there's no issue of trust. But as we all know, when you tell a secret to even one person, what happens? It spreads even in an innocent manner. Even in an innocent manner. And this is the reality. This is the reality that somebody will say something to a trusted friend. Oh, you promise you're not going to tell anybody, right? And then this, and then this, and then khalas. the next thing you know, the whole community knows about it. So the Prophet ﷺ did not even tell Abu Bakr and Aisha what is going on, and such utmost secrecy is hardly parallel in the whole seerah. So we clearly find how big of a deal this is, that he does not want to give the plot away. Now obviously I'm kind of rushing things up here, realize that this didn't take place the day after Abu Sufyan left. A few weeks go by, and in fact, Ibn Sa'ad mentions in his Maghazi, Ibn Sa'ad mentions that the Prophet ﷺ intentionally sent out a small expedition up north as a scouting party to give the impression that the massive army is gonna go up north towards Syria and this is absolutely logical because Mu'tah has already taken place Mu'tah has just taken place and people's minds are fresh with revenge and that is why the next year he's gonna go Tabuk, right? Next year he's gonna go Tabuk. So he gives the false impression he's going up north. Mecca is down south. He sends a scouting group. You know the scouting group, they will look where should we camp and where's the water gonna be. He sends a scouting group of eight men. Turns out complete tactic. There's nothing going on up north, right? And everybody knows they're going to a certain valley up north. And so the news spreads okay, maybe he's going up north. And eventually of course the very and this group of eight people they went to an area Ibn Sa'ad mentions it is called Batn-i-Dham and this is up north and eventually of course the Prophet ﷺ has to tell them where he's going because they have to march towards Mecca and so quite literally the day before the journey quite literally the 11th hour that is when he announces actually we're going to Mecca and this shows us exactly the interpretation of what the Prophet ﷺ said when he said, الحرب خدع or حرب خدع that war is deceit. Now this hadith is misunderstood by some Muslims and also by the far right, the Islamophobes, that they say the Prophet ﷺ allowed people to lie. And therefore you can't trust any Muslim in anything he says. And of course you know the Islamophobes, they smear us in this manner and they say everything is taqiyah, taqiyah, taqiyah they say and all of this stuff subhanallah this incident demonstrates what is al-harbu khid'ah or al-harbu khid'ah, both are allowed what does it mean? the Prophet ﷺ did not lie you are never allowed to give an oath or enact a treaty and you know you are going to go against that oath and treaty giving a qasam, giving an oath signing a contract is never allowed. And you know that you're not gonna fulfill that treaty and that contract. This is khiyana. And khiyana is never allowed. Khid'ah is deceit. Deceit means you send eight people up north, people think you're going up north, you go south. Where is the treachery here? There is no treachery. Islam never allows treachery in any circumstance. You're never allowed to be treasonous and treacherous. You are, every nation practices al-harbu khid'ah by the way. Every nation practices one thing, you know, in war you do this, that's why camouflage gear and this and that, that's all a part of warfare. This is natural, there's nothing strange or illogical about the phrase of the Prophet ﷺ that war is indeed deceit. So, by this time, not a single muhajir or ansar remain behind. every single muhajir participated and they have every right to this is their home now and every one of the famous ansar participated and additionally the outlying tribes as well sent in their troops as well the tribe of Muzaynah sent in a thousand the tribe of the Banu Sulaym sent in 1,700 and so on and so forth until eventually the Prophet ﷺ gathered over 10,000 people under his banner and subhanallah look again at the wisdom of Allah barely 7 years ago barely 6 years ago there are 300 at Uhud and the Prophet ﷺ begs and prays to Allah before the battle O Allah if we are destroyed فَلَنْ تُعْبَدَ فِي الْأَرْضِ you will never be worshipped again if we are destroyed in this battle and here now 7 years have gone look at the astronomical growth of Islam from barely 300 and even 2 years before this and 1 year before this What is happening? The battle of Ahzab is just yesterday. When 10,000 people are on the other side of Medina. 10,000 is the same number of the Ahzab. 10,000 are on the outside of Medina. And once again the Prophet ﷺ makes dua to Allah. We cannot fight 10,000. Now look, after the treaty of Hudaybiyah, what has happened? 10,000 of the Sahaba are now marching to Mecca. And they arrive in the swiftest manner possible. the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca in the 10th of Ramadan, on the 10th of Ramadan, in the 8th year of the Hijrah. The 10th of Ramadan, the 8th year of the Hijrah. And he arrived on the outskirts of Mecca on the 19th of Ramadan, in the 8th year of the Hijrah. And that is 9 days. And that is an amazing time for 10,000 people. On average, a small caravan would take 7 days. So for 10,000 to take 9 days, This is a miracle how quickly they went. And the Prophet ﷺ did not want to give any hint away. And that is why he announced it at the 11th hour right before they left. By a day he said, we're actually going to Mecca just in case preparations need to be made and what not. And it was at this point in time that one of the famous Sahabi fell into the biggest error of his life. And that is as soon as he heard, he wrote a top secret letter to the people of Mecca. and telling them, take precautions, the Prophet ﷺ is coming, prepare yourselves, you will be attacked. And his name is Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a and that is a long and beneficial story and we will leave you at that cliffhanger inshaAllah and we will come back to the story of Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a and why did he do what he did and why did the Prophet ﷺ eventually spare him. It's a story full of benefits and full of much wisdom and even much fiqh and even much aqidah all of this is there, inshallah that will be the beginning inshallah of next Wednesday and with that we have a few minutes for questions before we break for salah Bismillahirrahmanirrahim So Dr. Nadeem just mentioned that this issue of giving protection still exists in some areas of the world. And yes, that is definitely the case in those areas that you mentioned. And this is one of the benefits of having a civilization, if you like, that you don't have to worry about every tribe and being at the mercy of every tribe. Any other questions before we break for the salah? Yes. The question is, I don't understand that the marriage of Prophet ﷺ with the man of Ibadah, the sheikh and the khabashah, he did, but how did the marriage take place? So the question is, how did the marriage take place? You don't have to have the two parties in the same room for the nikah. And in particular for the Prophet ﷺ, there is no need for a wali for him because النبي أولى بالمؤمنين من أنفسهم the nabi in the Quran it says our Prophet ﷺ is أولى بالمؤمنين من أنفسهم he is more of a wali for the believers than themselves so in particular our Prophet ﷺ did not, who is gonna be a wali for him and therefore he proposed and Najashi acted as a middle man if you like and he was the one who basically accepted but this is all formalities in fact the Prophet ﷺ does not need any wali's permission to get married and therefore when Umm Habibah agreed then the marriage took place in Habashan Abyssinia and it was the Najashi who paid the da'wah and also had the festival, he was the one who paid for the walima, he had a massive walima in his court and the Prophet ﷺ wasn't there, so the walima is for the Sahaba in Abyssinia. And so the Waleemah was taken care of by Najash. You don't have to be in the same, and even in our times, you can have nikah over Skype. You can have nikah over Skype, not a problem. As long as the conditions are met, you have, now we need Walees, we need two witnesses. So if you have the two witnesses, and you have the Walee, and you have the bride and groom, and they are, you know, one party is in here, one party is there, and via Skype. Fuqaha basically said, and this is modern fatwa, that if you can verify the people that are involved, then inshaAllah it is a valid nikah. With that inshaAllah, I guess we will break for the salah, and I will see you next Tuesday for the Asmaullah class inshaAllah. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Thank you.

Seerah 76 - Pt

In today's lesson, we will continue from where we left off. left off regarding the conquest of Mecca. And we had mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ did not inform anybody where he was heading until the very last minute. And probably the day before or two days before, we don't know exactly when, he told them that, okay, we're heading to Mecca. Because you have to tell them eventually, they have to leave the city, they have to prepare, they need to know they're going to face a battle, possibly. So he tells them that they're heading towards Mecca. Now, what happens? One of the Sahaba, one of the Sahaba by the name of Hatib ibn Abi Balta'ah, decides to warn the Quraysh that the Prophet ﷺ is coming. And this story will take up the bulk, maybe even the entire of our seerah today, because it is a very, very significant story. A story that has a lot of benefits, and a story that is used today in a very political manner. A lot of controversy exists to this day about interpreting the story of Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a. So, who is Hatib and what happened? Hatib, according to the strongest opinion, was a mawla from Yemen. And a mawla is somebody that would have an immigrant status. A mawla is somebody that has an immigrant status. And he was a mawla to one of the Qurayshis. and what this means was he has a second class citizenship in Mecca and he had converted to Islam and he had emigrated to Medina but for reasons that are not mentioned in the seerah his family, his children and according to one report even his mother remained in Mecca and they did not come with him to Medina now there is another opinion as well and that is that Haltab was a slave who had won his freedom and purchased his freedom And if we take this opinion, then we understand exactly why his children and his mother and whatnot had not left because they're all slaves. There's a second opinion that Haltib was a slave, but both opinions say that Haltib was not a pure Quraishi, that Haltib was an Arab, and either he was a Mawla or he was a slave, and he had converted to Islam and left for Medina, and his family was still in Mecca. Now, Haltib wrote a letter directed to the people of Mecca. and the content of this letter is not mentioned in Ibn Ishaq but it is mentioned in one or two other books of them, one of the reports mentions that he said to the Quraysh he sent a letter that the Prophet ﷺ the Muslims are leaving with an army and he might be heading towards Mecca or he might be heading elsewhere so take precautions then according to this report Hatib would have sent the letter before the Prophet ﷺ made the announcement because he's not telling him exactly where there's another report that he specifically said that the Prophet ﷺ is heading towards you with an army like the night, كَالَّيْلِ The meaning here poetically is it is dense and it is full of people because the night is like very dark and you can imagine the hordes of the army. This is compared to the darkness. And he is rushing towards you like a river, like a torrent. And I swear by Allah, even if he were to come to you alone, Allah would help him over you because Allah will fulfill his promise now the second version basically shows that Hathib is telling them look doesn't matter what you do he will win but I'm just telling you this that he is coming your way and therefore Hathib did not he basically spilled the beans he gave away the secret of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam now how did he manage to get this letter or what did he plan to do he found another Mawla lady from the Quraysh, from the Abdul Muttalib, from the Mawali of Abdul Muttalib's Banu Hashim. So he found a lady who was going back to Medina and he paid her a Mecca and he paid her some money to smuggle this letter to the Quraysh. And he didn't tell her the contents, he didn't tell her the message, he simply paid her some money and he said, your job is to smuggle this letter to the Quraysh and make sure nobody knows of this letter. And so she took this letter and folded it up and took, untied her hair and put it in the middle of her hair. And then through the braids, she tied the letter inside the braids of her hair. So the letter, the package was inside the braids of her hair. And she then began the trek back to Mecca. And notice here that Haltib, he chose a person that's not famous, we really don't even know her full name. and not somebody that's noble, so that attention would not be drawn to her. And he didn't even tell her the contents of the letter for secrecy. And the only thing she was told, you have to smuggle this letter, and you will get the money if you smuggle this letter. And she hides it in a place that she assumes nobody will ever discover, and that is in between the braids of her hair. And there is no way that anybody would have found this out. because who is gonna know that Hatib wrote a letter even the lady does not know what is in the letter and she's just getting some money to take the letter to Mecca nobody would ever have figured out had it not been for divine intervention Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent Jibreel down and Jibreel told the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam exactly what happened that Hatib wrote a letter and this lady is taking the letter and you had better stop her and so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told Zubair ibn al-Awwam and Ali ibn Abi Talib that go to a place called Roudat Al-Khawq which is right outside of Medina. Go to Roudat Al-Khawq, you will find a lady on such and such a caravan, right? She has a letter, stop her and bring the letter back to me. So he told them where to find her. He described the entourage and what she's gonna be riding and he said, bring that back to me. And look at how detailed knowledge he had directly from Jibreel. They galloped to this caravan and at Rauzat al-Khaw exactly they found the caravan, they found the lady and they demanded that she hand over the letter. The lady claimed, I don't know what you're talking about. And so they searched through her entire belongings, every single item they went through it, they stopped the camel, they searched the camel, they searched the saddle, nothing was to be found. At this, when it is clear then that it's not in the belongings and you know she's not, she doesn't have a bag, she's wearing just the whatever, the blouse or the skirt that the women would be wearing. And she's not a Muslim. This lady was one of the Mawla of the Quraysh. She's not a Muslim. She's going for personal reasons back and forth between the cities. So Ali ibn Abi Talib said, I swear by Allah, neither has the Prophet ﷺ been lied to, nor have we been lied to. You will either give us the letter, or we will strip you down and search you directly. Now notice here, neither has the Prophet ﷺ been lied to, nor have we been lied to. i.e. Jibreel didn't lie to him and he didn't lie to us. Look at his yaqeen. Look at his yaqeen. There is no way Jibreel lied to the Prophet ﷺ and there is no way he lied to us. You must have the letter. So either you hand it over or لَنُجَرِّدَنَّكِ We will strip you. Literally, this is what it means. We will strip you and search you completely. And Ibn Ishaq says, when she saw their determination. And you can imagine, they would have been fuming. And you can imagine their anger. When she saw that they are going to execute this threat, she told them, turn around. So they realized that she's going to unclothe herself. So they turned around and she took off her headscarf and she untied her hair and then gave them the package. And they then brought her with the package back to the Prophet ﷺ. And subhanallah, you have to remark here, That okay, she's a non-Muslim lady, but still she has that much haya that she is covering herself. And even in such a tense situation, she does not want them to see her hair. And by the way, covering the hair was something that all ladies did, Muslimah and non-Muslimah. They all did it at the time. This is something that was the custom and the culture of all civilized society, not just even in Arabia. It was done everywhere in Rome, here in America 200 years ago. This was the culture of the people. and even in such a time she tells them turn around so that I have to take my headscarf off and wallahi it is sad that many of us we don't have the haya even that this lady had that at such a tense time she still did not want the men to see her hair and she asked them turn around she then hands them this and they then take her as a prisoner with the letter to the Prophet she tells them exactly what happened how to pay me some money and he told me to hide this letter and take it to the Quraysh. That's what I did. I don't know what's in the contents of the letter. And she's not mentioned after this and we can assume that she was let go because in the end of the day, she did not really know she's even doing any crime. She probably figured out this is some type of secret, but she had no idea that this is gonna be treason or treacherous. And she's simply doing the beck and call of Haltib. So she is let off because she's not aware of any crime that she has done. So the Prophet ﷺ called Haltib. and the lady is there and the letter is there. And shows them the letter, the plot has now been uncovered, and Hatib confesses, yes ya Rasulullah, this is my letter. He confesses, this is my letter. And Umar immediately said, ya Rasulullah, da'ni adribu unuqa hadhal munafiq. Allow me to chop off the head of this munafiq, faqad kafara billahi wa rasulihi. He has become kafir in Allah in his messenger. allow me to chop his head off because he has become a kafir but the Prophet ﷺ said Ya Hatib, ma hamalaka ala ma sanaat O Hatib, why would you do something like this? O Hatib, why would you do something like this? and Hatib's response is recorded in many books of hadith actually this story is mentioned in almost every book of hadith Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi it is mentioned in Muslim Ahmad it is mentioned in Ishaq Seerah This is one of the most common stories of the conquest of Mecca, and it is mentioned in a lot of detail. And Hatib's response has been pieced together from various narrations, that he said, O Messenger of Allah, why would I want to leave Iman in Allah and His Messenger? Why would I want to leave Iman in Allah and His Messenger? I did not do what I did, leaving my faith. Nor did I prefer Kufr over Islam. I did not do this for love of Kufr. And I have not changed who I am or what I was. I'm still a Muslim basically. I haven't changed. I did not want to betray, meaning Islam, nor did I want to be a munafiq. It's not my goal to betray Islam or to be a munafiq. I knew that Allah would fulfill His promise and execute His command. Meaning, I knew you would conquer Mecca. I had no doubt that you would not be harmed. I had yaqeen that Allah would protect you. But what is His excuse? rather I wanted to establish a favor with the Quraysh so that my family and property would be protected for all of your other companions have family that would protect their other relatives and I have no family in Mecca to protect my family now what is he saying here he is saying that the Ansar that are gonna attack Mecca they don't have any family they don't have to worry about anything the Muhajirun that are gonna attack Mecca every one of the muhajirun belongs to one of the clans Umar ibn al-Khattab is the Bani Adi Abu Bakr is this and Uthman is the Banu Umayyah, they're all the big clans and no matter what relatives they have, they're not gonna be harmed because they're the clans of Quraysh obviously, who's gonna harm their own clans but I have my family according to one report, my mother is there my sons are all there and I don't have any tribe to protect them what do you think is gonna happen when they hear I am attacking they will obviously harm or kill my family and so I wanted to have some type of favor that they know that I have done some good so my family will be protected and look he has some perverted logic that I know Allah will protect you right he has some Iman in this regard that look you're not gonna get harmed I have full trust in Allah Allah will protect you I knew my letter would not harm you I just wanted to get some fadl, some blessing over the Quraysh. So the Prophet ﷺ said, صدق حاطب حاطب has spoken the truth, لا تقول إلا خير Nobody should say anything about حاطب anymore except good. حاطب has spoken the truth. This is his excuse and nobody should say anything bad about him. But Umar was still fuming. And Umar said, Ya Rasulullah, he has betrayed Allah and his messenger so allow me to kill him. Now, the first time he said, this is a munafiq and he has kafara billahi wa rasulihi. He has rejected Allah and his messenger. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, he is speaking the truth, he has iman. Then Umar says, he has khiyana. Even if he has iman, he is a spy then. He has betrayed the trust placed upon him, so allow me to kill him. And this shows us that Umar is the first time he was asking for the execution basically as if Hatib is a Murtad. As if Hatib is a Murtad. And we'll get back to this point later on. And the second time he's asking, he's asking as a punishment for the crime of spying. He's asking for the punishment for the crime of betraying the trust. So the first one would have been Ridda and the second one would have been a punishment of the punishments of the Muslims so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said did he not witness Badr did he not witness Badr and how do you know O Umar perhaps Allah has looked upon all of the people who are at Badr and said اعملوا ما شئتم فقد غفرت لكم do as you please for I have forgiven all of you how do you know this is what Allah has done he has looked at the people of Badr and he has said I have forgiven all of you so Umar began to cry and he said Allah Allah and his messenger know best and at this Allah revealed Surah Al-Mumtahina Surah Al-Mumtahina begins Ya ayyuhal ladhina amanu la tattakhidhu aduwi wa aduwakum awliya'atul quna ilayhim bilmawadda O you who believe, do not take my enemies and your enemies as allies. لَا تَتَّخِذُ عَدُوِّي وَعَدُوكُمْ أَوْلِيَاءً تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِمْ بِالْمَوَدَّةِ You want to offer your friendship to them. And they have rejected. What is the answer? تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِمْ بِالْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا إِمَا جَاءَكُمْ مِنَ الرَّسُولِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا إِمَا جَاءَكُمْ مِنَ الْحَقِّ يخرجون الرسول إياكم While they have rejected what truth has come to you and they have expelled you and the Prophet just because you have believed in Allah, your Lord. Then Allah says تُسِرُّونَ إِلَيْهِمْ بِالْمَوَدَّةِ You secretly try to befriend them. وَأَنَا أَعْلَمُ بِمَا أَخْفَيْتُمْ وَمَا أَعْلَنْتُمْ And I know what you hide and what you reveal and whoever does this amongst you فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ has strayed a very far away straying. He has strayed greatly from the path. So this ayah deals with Hathim. And Allah says to Hathim and through Hathim to anybody in a later generation, O you who believe, do not take as allies those who are your enemies and my enemies. لَا تَتَخِذُوا عَدُوَئِذَكُمْ أَوْلِيَا Don't try to befriend my enemies and your enemies. They are your enemies. Anybody who is an enemy of Allah will be an enemy to the believers of Allah. And don't try to secretly befriend these enemies. Because they have hated you only because you have worshipped your Lord. And تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ رَبَّكُمْ Just because you believe in your Lord. And if you secretly befriend them, Allah says, I know what you're doing. Haltib is being told, I know what you're doing. And whoever does so has strayed greatly from the path. And Haltib does not really appear before this incident too much, except that he participated in Badr. In fact, there's nothing mentioned about Hathib before this incident other than that he is a participant at Badr. He also participated at the Bayat al-Ridwan. And one more thing happened to him before he passed away and that is that the Prophet ﷺ chose him to be an emissary to the king of Egypt, the Muqawqis or the king of Alexandria. He sent him to Muqawqis. So Hathib became an emissary to the Prophet ﷺ in the next year and then he died in the 30th year of the Hijrah in the caliphate of Uthman. And just an interesting tidbit here, one of his descendants, five, six generations down, one of his descendants, 170 years after him, 108 years after him, became one of the main students of Imam Malik. And his name was Ziyad al-Shabtun. And Ziyad al-Shabtun was one of the narrators of the Muwatta of Imam Malik. And he was one of those who took the Muwatta to North Africa. And he was one of those who spread the Maliki Madhab and the Muwatta of Imam Malik in North Africa, two or three of Imam Malik's main students, including Yahya ibn Yahya, they were the ones who studied with Imam Malik in Medina, and this was the time when Andalus was being opened up and conquests were taking place. So a lot of those students, two or three of the main ones, they migrated from Medina to Andalus. And it was for that reason that Andalusia became Maliki in Madhab. And to this day, the Maliki Madhab is the most predominant in North Africa, as all of our North African brothers know. So one of the people who spread the Maliki Madhab in that region and in Andalusia was one of the descendants of Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a such as the Qadr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now, this story has so many benefits. This is the story of Hatib. We want to pause for a while and discuss some of the benefits of the story of Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a. Of the benefits of this story is the infinite knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that nothing escapes Allah. And this reminds us of the hadith of Bukhari that the lady who complained about her husband came to the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And Aisha says, Wallahi, I was trying my best to hear what is she saying from behind the curtain. And I heard a phrase and I couldn't hear a phrase. And Allah heard it from above the seven heavens. لَقَدْ سَمِعَ اللَّهُ قَوْلًا لَتِي تُجَادُلُكَ فِي زَوْجِهَا وَتَشْتَكِي إِلَى اللَّهِ And Allah Azawajal says, Allah hears the one who comes to you arguing about her husband and complaining to Allah. So Aisha says, I couldn't hear, I was in the same room. She was literally in the same room behind the curtain. I couldn't hear. And Allah heard from above the seven heavens. Here we have another story of Halt ibn Abi Balta'a that Allah Azza wa Jal exposed the plot and nobody would ever have found out. Also we see over here that dua is the weapon of the believer. Our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam made a dua. We mentioned it last Wednesday. He made the dua that, O Allah, do not allow my plans to become known to them. This dua was answered. This dua was answered. This was the real precaution. He made a dua to Allah, O Allah, do not expose my plan to them. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala answered that dua, and the plan was not exposed. Also, of the benefits of the story, look at how Allah worked, what He wanted to do. If Allah had wanted to, a lightning bolt would have come out and struck the woman. If Allah had wanted to, the earth would have opened up and the woman would have fallen down. If Allah had wanted to, the camel would have lost in the desert and she would have died of thirst. Correct? But Allah عز و جل wants you to do as much as you can, and He will do the rest. Allah wants to see from us our efforts, and then He will take care of the rest. so even when Allah is intervening directly he still wants us to do the rest of that you see the point here that the Prophet ﷺ had to go send people stop the girl search her then bring her back and subhanallah this is the sunnah of Allah even when Allah is going to help you still have to stand up and run you still have to physically exert yourself Allah is not gonna help you when you're sitting on your behind not doing anything you want Allah's help you have to give 100% then you put the rest in Allah and this is what we see clearly from the miracle of revealing Hatib's plot that even the miracle was just enough that okay now you do the rest and why is this because Allah wants to see who does versus those who do not do and another benefit over here is that the penalty for treachery and for treason is death. The penalty for treachery and treason is death. And that is clearly shown in Umar, the second question. That he's saying, Ya Rasulullah, he has betrayed us. Let me execute him. And this is the general rule across all countries and nations. This is the agreed upon rule that still is applied to this day across the globe. Even in this land in America. As recently as 50 years ago. The Rosenbergs were executed, husband and wife, couple were executed for selling pieces of paper to the Soviet Union. They were given the death penalty for selling pieces of paper, that's it. They sold pieces of paper and this was deemed to be worthy of the death penalty. And the judge famously remarked that you have done something worse than murder. I would have given you a lighter penalty if you had murdered somebody. So nobody can come and say Islamic laws are barbaric. the reality is treachery and deceit is not considered to be an excusable offense really in hardly any nation state including this country of ours. Now there's a lot of controversy in fiqh books. Can the treacherous person be forgiven or not? There's a lot of controversy. If somebody is treacherous to the Muslim state and he sells the secrets and this is obviously talking about a hypothetical Muslim state. if there's a Muslim who is living in such a state and he betrays the trust of the state. And he sells the secrets. Or he tells about the plans. Can he be forgiven or not? And many scholars say he cannot be forgiven. And Ibn al-Qayyim argues that it is up to the ruler. If the ruler wants to forgive like the Prophet ﷺ, he can forgive. But other scholars argue the Prophet ﷺ only forgave because of the Battle of Badr. And the Battle of Badr is something specific to 313 people. And therefore, anybody else will never be excused for that crime because the crime of Haltib was only forgiven in light of the battle of Badr. And who can then compete with the battle of Badr? So the majority opinion is that, not the majority, it's to say a large group says that there is no repentance for the spy. And a minority or a slightly lesser than 50% maybe argues that no, it is up to the Khalifa and Ibn al-Qayyim is of this opinion as well. We also benefit from this, the humanity of even the Sahaba. Even the Sahaba are humans. And a Badri, a person who participated in the greatest battle in Islam, can fall into such a major error. And this gives us hope, because all of us are sinners. All of us are sinners. and who amongst us can claim to be sinless? If even the Sahaba fell into mistakes and errors and yet Allah forgave them when they repented, then how about us as well? And in fact Allah Azzawajal describes this act, فَقَدَ ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ He has gone far away, but Allah did not call him a kafir. Allah did not strip away Iman. Allah said he has gone far away. and therefore this was a major sin but Haltab did not become a non-Muslim because of it. We also see over here the forgiving nature of the Prophet ﷺ. He is defending the life of Haltab and he does not allow Umar to execute Haltab. And of course we see as well the nature of Umar and of course Umar we understand his sternness but we need to understand that sternness was coming out of a love of Islam. That strictness was coming to protect Islam. Umar wanted to make sure that nobody would do this again and his strictness was a mercy to the Ummah when the Ummah needed it we needed Umar at times and at times the strictness of Umar will not work with the people below him sometimes you need soft, sometimes you need strict and Allah gave the Ummah Umar ibn al-Khattab when they needed Umar ibn al-Khattab and if you notice it was in the time of Umar that most of the conquest took place that was the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab And we also benefit from this, that we judge people based upon the sum total of who they are and what are they doing. We judge people based upon their good and their bad, and not just their bad. And this is a very important point, that we look at what people are doing, we look at overall are they doing a positive impact or a negative impact. and the righteous person who commits one error or a mistake is not the same as the sinner who is a habitual sinner and commits the same mistake. This is like the story of the boy who cried wolf, right? Somebody who never cries wolf and he cries wolf once, you accept him, you trust him. But the one who is always crying wolf, what's gonna happen? He will not be treated like the one who never cries. And in fact there is a hadith that supports this In Sunan Abu Dawud, our Prophet ﷺ said, أَقِيلُوا ذَوِ الْحَيْآتِ عَثَرَاتِهِمْ Which is a very beautiful hadith, which translates as, the people of nobility, when they fall into a mistake, then cut them some slack. I'm translating, you know, not literally, but to get the point here, right? The people of nobility, ذَوِ الْحَيْآتِ the people of sha'n the people of stature in your community when they commit some type of error when they slip then cut them some slack this is a hadith in sunan abu dawud and this shows us that when a person of stature of nobility not necessarily a person of religiosity only but there are people that are movers and shakers of the community there are people that are the financiers of the masajid and the community centers They might not be the people of knowledge, but they are ذَوِ الْهَيْئَاتِ They are the people of stature in the community. Right? They are people who have done something positive, value for the community. They do something wrong, the Prophet ﷺ said, basically أَقِيلُ which is overlook it. يعني cut them some slack. And this shows us exactly what we see over here, and that is, we look at the overall positive and negative. And we do not judge somebody looking only at the negative. And this is one of the most common problems in our times, and that is that we are blind to the good that somebody is doing, and if a person falls into an error, khalas, the whole world stands up and doesn't sit down, the whole world becomes a critic. And this is especially true, and I have to say this, even though I'm a part of those who are being attacked in this regard, but inshallah it's not for me, I'm not doing this for my ego or what not, but the scholars and the students of knowledge and the du'at of the world. It's not possible except that they will make some mistakes. After all, they're talking every day of their lives, almost. Right? The mashayikh and the ulama, what do they do except talk, talk, talk, talk. Right? And these days their talks are permanently recorded. Correct? These days everything they do gets onto YouTube, gets onto this and that. And it is impossible that somebody who has a thousand hours or five hundred hours or a hundred hours, that you're not gonna find something that is clearly a major mistake and some minor mistakes and some slips of the tongue. Correct? Right? And some of these mistakes will be genuine mistakes. Meaning he messed up. After all he's human. So for somebody to now go and collect those errors and say, Oh look, he messed up here. He messed up there. Wallahi, this shows honestly a disease of the heart. You do not see the overall. Here is a shaykh that has a thousand lectures. And you go and find 20 minutes, five minutes, three minutes, even if he's wrong in those three minutes look at the good that he's done and see the positive and the negative and wallahi this is something that clearly in our times we have this issue and problem but for those of us that inshallah want to follow the sunnah, we are told look at the good and hatib is judged in light of who he is in light of the fact that he is a badri also another benefit that we get from the story of hatib is we confirm reports. It is amazing that the woman has the letter and the evidence is quite literally in the hand of the Prophet ﷺ. And yet he still calls Hathib and says, did you do this? Think about that. Think about that. Everything. I mean, forget the lady and forget the letter Jibreel has told him, Hathib has done this. do you need any more evidence right Jibreel has told him Haltab has written the letter and given it to such and such a lady go stop the lady you don't need any more evidence yet he still calls Haltab and he confirms do you think the Prophet ﷺ doubted that Haltab did it of course not Jibreel has told him everything I mean that's it but why is he doing this for us to verify to us when we hear such things even if the evidence is in your hand confirm 100% then look after Hatib confirms literally the evidence is in his hand the handwriting of Hatib everything, the lady says Hatib send me the money, everything still he then asks Hatib for explanation which shows us what? it shows us what? give a chance, what is the other party going to say? Hear their point of view. Even if Hatib did it, what is his reasoning for having done it? What is his circumstance? Perhaps there is a reason we don't understand. And this also shows us therefore, that just because you confirm a person did something, without hearing his side of the story, don't pronounce the final verdict. Verify what was the cause, what was the reason for this. and this shows us one of the major differences in Islamic law and most of western law especially American law and even British law western law this is a side tangent here but by and large western law is codified it's canonized which means that the judge will open up the book and say okay you are guilty of this and this crime and the law has mandated that you will get between 100,000 and 150,000 fine and between 5 years and 7 years, let's say. You get my point here. It is mandated. And the judge has no power if the jury has said you are guilty, the judge has no power to get rid of those punishments. You understand? He only has very minor fine-tuning between 100, 150, let's say. Between 5 years to 7 years. Fine-tuning. But it is canonized. Everything is set in stone. You cannot go out of it. And if it goes out, you're inventing a new law basically. Otherwise, if there's a precedent established, every pre-law school and every lawyer knows this. Once the precedence is established, 99% of judges will follow that precedent. And they will stick by it. Once it's done, it's done. Now in the Islamic system, which is very different, the qadi, not Yasir Qadi, the qadi, the qadi will look at the human factor. Islamic law through most of its time was not canonized and this is a wisdom of the sharia Islamic law was not canonized, why? because people have different reasons for doing crimes and sometimes the extenuating circumstances really and truly absolve the liability upon this person and there are so many cases and there's actually a strong movement here in America as well to, I mean the classic case is the three strikes and you're out law in California one of the most barbaric laws in this country three strikes and you're out three offenses of any type and you'll be given life in jail and sometimes these offenses are quite literally you stole a bike and you punched somebody and you did this and that three minor things and the person is now going to jail for life. Because they have established this law since whatever, in the 80s or 90s, I forgot when. And khalas, that's it. Three strikes and you're out. And there are hundreds, if not thousands of cases where the judge himself has said, I'm sorry, I wish I could help you. But, you know, I can't control the law. The law says this and that's it. And that's why Islamic law generally did not canonize. Now it did canonize in the last period of the Ottoman Empire and then that was a failure. They did the Qanun, they did the Tanzimat reforms it is called. The Tanzimat reforms, they tried to canonize Islamic law, but it didn't quite work that way. The British also tried to do, by the way, in India in the 1800s, but that too did not work, it wasn't successful. And this is one of the reasons, back to the story of Haltib, that there are extenuating circumstances and the judge sees the humanity of the person, maybe there's a reason and what not and has the discretion what to do in this regard another benefit that we gain from the story of Haltib is that when the Prophet ﷺ asks him why did you do this and Umar is there with the sword to execute him Haltib does not plead for his life Haltib does not say spare me Haltib does not say you know don't kill me Haltib is arguing to defend his Iman not to defend his life and subhanallah this really shows us he was a man of iman he was more concerned about his iman than he was about his life when Umar is saying let me kill this kafir what irritated him was not the kill part it was the kafir part the munafiq part and his whole paragraph that I recited to you was what? ya rasulallah I'm still the same person ya rasulallah I don't have any desire to become a kafir Ya Rasulullah, I knew Allah would protect you. Not once does he say, spare me. In fact, most likely, Hatib thought he would be executed, and he's resigned to that fate. What he's worried about is to be labeled a kafir. And he's pleading to be labeled a Muslim. And wallahi that shows his iman. The concern is not the knife or the sword. The concern is, Ya Rasulullah, I'm still the same person. I have no desire to embrace kufr after Allah has guided me to Islam, I have no ragba for kufr, he says this, I have always been a Muslim, and so this shows us the iman of Haltib ibn Abi, balta'a he's going to die from his opinion, he wants to die in Islam also we see over here the softness of Umar as well that instantaneously from the anger of wanting to kill Haltib, when the Prophet ﷺ says to him, What do you know? What do you know, O Umar? وَمَا يُدْرِيكَ means quite literally, how do you know anything? What do you know, O Umar? Allah looked at the people of Badr and said, do whatever you want, I have forgiven you. And that one phrase causes the anger in Umar to completely dissolve and he begins crying from that anger. We view Umar as being a very harsh and strict man. The fact of the matter is, he had a very tender heart as well. Under that harshness was a very soft heart. And Umar began crying, and he is crying, it does not mention why he is crying, but perhaps he is crying because he himself is a Badri, and the blessing that he has just heard is overwhelming. Or he might also be crying because he is saddened at his, or he is like repenting from his own quickness to kill Khaltib, and he just hears that Allah has forgiven Khaltib, and he wants to kill Haltib. So we don't know the exact reason, but it became so emotional, this one phrase, that Umar begins to cry when he hears what the Prophet ﷺ has to say. Another benefit from the story of Haltib is that when the Prophet ﷺ said, لا تقولوا إلا خيرا Nobody should criticize Haltib after today. Then Haltib lives for another 22 years. And never once does anybody utter against him, Oh, this is the traitor. Oh, this is the one who did such and such. No. Once the Prophet ﷺ has said, do not say good about him. Sorry, do not say anything but good about him. Once he has said this, خَلَصْ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا Can you imagine what type of leader must the Prophet ﷺ have been to have so much respect that for 22 years as long as Hathib lives, forget 22 years, up until now, nobody criticizes Hathib. we excuse him, we sympathize with him why? because our Prophet ﷺ said nobody should say anything bad about Hatib, subhanallah what amazing respect that Rasulullah ﷺ has amongst the Muslim Ummah that once he has said this, Hatib's huge crime actually becomes something that we overlook and we say nothing but good about Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a also we have one final point which is really a long one, I'm going to try to finish this in at least 10 minutes and then move on to one more incident the story of Hatim has taken on a huge controversy especially in modern times and the controversy deals with the status now you have to pay attention to this it's a theological controversy and it deals with modern politics and political issues and also it deals with the jihadist movements as well. And that's why it's very controversial. The issue is the status of the Muslim who helps an enemy against other Muslims. Clear? The status of a Muslim who helps an enemy who is invading the Muslims helps the enemy in that invasion. because that's what Hatib is doing. Hatib is giving away the secrets. Right? Hatib is basically giving away the secrets and helping the enemy against Islam. Now, Hatib himself, nobody ever considers him to be a non-Muslim because the Prophet ﷺ testified. So, Hatib is Sahabi, the Prophet ﷺ forgave him. The question is somebody else who does it, not Hatib. Hatib is Sahabi, the question is what about somebody in our times if he were to help an invading force and this invading force is invading a muslim land and this muslim helps him maybe even as a part of that army you understand we're getting more and more political over here maybe sells them things maybe works for them or their defense forces or maybe does this and that or he's a computer programmer working for that, you know the whole issue here comes in and there is a whole spectrum of opinion but there is two primary opinions here, the first opinion is the more stricter one and that is anybody who helps an invading force against a Muslim nation and land that person has become a kafir by that action and their primary evidence is Surah Al-Ma'idah verse 51 Surah Al-Ma'idah verse 51 وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِنْكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ Whoever allies with them shall be one of them. وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِنْكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ Whoever becomes an ally to an invading force to enemy of Allah and His Messenger will become one of them. So this group says therefore anybody who helps an invading force and betrays the Muslims that action of his is an action of kufr in and of itself equivalent to worshipping an idol equivalent to disrespecting a mushaf equivalent to astaghfirullah cursing Allah and his messenger clear? right? and this is the position of many of the medieval scholars. And in particular, it is the position of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab, and the later scholars of the Najdi da'wah. This is a very common position of theirs. So much so, that in his famous book, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab, he wrote many books. And of those books is Nawaqad al-Ashara, or the 10 things that negate one's Islam. And the 8th number on this list of 10 is to aid the kuffar against the Muslims. To aid an enemy force, basically against the Muslim, this is an naqid min nawaqid al-iman. Which basically means, it destroys iman. And this was also the opinion of the Egyptian, Shaykh Ahmad Shakir, rahmahullah ta'ala, the famous muhadith who passed away, 1927 or something, 1930, basically in the early part of the last century. Sheikh Ahmad Shakir was obviously alive during the time of the British occupation of Egypt. Many people don't know this. And some of these facts need to be said very clearly. That Egypt was invaded by England. And England ruled Egypt directly and indirectly for almost a century. First Napoleon invaded in 1792. Then Napoleon fled back and left. Literally overnight he became scary. basically he just abandoned it, and then the Brits invaded, the Brits overtook the country, and then they ruled it, and eventually King Faruq was overthrown, because King Faruq was seen to be a vassal of the British. We talked a little bit about this in the 1914 lecture. The point being that Ahmad Shakir was alive at that time. And Ahmad Shakir wrote a fatwa that anybody who helped the British in any fashion or form, even by speech, that he approved of the British rule, or he did anything, such a person was a kafir murtad. And either he is very ignorant, and Allah might excuse him, or he will accept Islam again and repent. Otherwise this person is a murtad who has left the fold of Islam. And that's a very harsh position. And it is a position that is held by many scholars in the past and in the present. Some amongst them, this group, some amongst this group, and this is very popular in later Najdi circles. They separate between two concepts of tawalli and muwala. And they say tawalli and muwala are two separate things. This is very advanced stuff. I don't want to confuse you too much. But they say there are levels of cooperation. Let me put it this way. There's a higher level and they call it tawalli. And that is kufr. And there's a lower level called muwala and that is not kufr. And they give examples that tawalli would be to fight in the army or to be a spy. Muala is to sell fruits and vegetables to the army. Let's say. Right? They're coming through your town and you sell them fruits and vegetables. That's not gonna make you a kafir. That's a major sin. That's Muala. Okay? So they distinguish between Tawalli and Muala. Now this is an opinion and this group would say that Hatib was forgiven specifically because of his status at Badr. You understand this point? Hatib is a specific case you cannot make qiyas on anybody khalas, nobody else will be forgiven like Hatib and this is the position of as I said many scholars including any very respectable and famous scholars my own teacher Shaykh Ibn Uthaymi Shaykh Ibn Baz the previous Grand Mufti, this is the standard position of the later Najdi Dawah and that is that any type of support to any army or what not is kufr akbar it is kufr it's not a sin it is kufr and you are not a muslim anymore there are other opinions as well it's not the only opinion in the book and Shaykh Al-Assam Ibn Taymiyyah had another opinion and his opinion was that if a person aids such an army for a personal reason and not a religious reason. It is possible that that is a sin and not kufr. Now, we all agree, both sides of this group, that anybody who aids the enemy of Allah out of a love for the enemy because he's the enemy, and out of a hatred of the Muslims because they're Muslim, well then, this is kufr simply by these emotions in the heart. even if he sat at his house and didn't do anything we would say if you want the enemies to win over the believers simply because these are enemies and these are believers then this is kufr akbar is that clear? right? if a person has this type of notion then this is kufr anyway but what if somebody is helping for a personal reason and Ibn Taymiyyah says and for those of you who are advanced students of knowledge and you are interested in this stuff Majmu' al-Fatawa volume 7 page 523 Ibn Taymiyyah says it is possible that a person loves these enemies for family reasons or for another maslaha another worldly benefit and this would be a sin that diminishes his iman and would not make him a kafir as what happened to Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a when he warned the Quraysh about the invasion of the Prophet ﷺ and for which Allah revealed Surah Al-Mumtahina. So, how does Ibn Taymiyyah interpret the story of Hatib? That Hatib committed a sin and not kufr. Why? Because he didn't want to help the Quraysh because he loved the Quraysh because the Quraysh were idol worshippers. Had he wanted to help the Quraysh because the Quraysh were idol worshippers, then this is kufr. Khalas. End of story. but he wanted to help them out of a love for his mother out of a love for his children and so he preferred the love of his children over the privacy of Allah and his messenger in this regard i.e. the secret and this is a major sin but he did not do an act of kufr he did not and this is the whole paragraph of hadith if you look at it what is he saying? that ya Rasulullah I have no desire to commit kufr ya Rasulullah I'm still who I am Ya Rasulullah, I'm still a believer. His heart is still full of Iman. And therefore, this is a very controversial issue. Now why is this controversial in our times? Because the fact of the matter is that a lot of the fitna and fasad happening in our times in Syria especially, in Iraq, in many other lands, what happened as well in Afghanistan in the 80s was that this rule well firstly as a general rule almost all of the quote on quote jihadist groups and when I say jihadist by the way it's not a derogatory term this is just an academic term that is used to describe them they are groups that are involved in this understanding of jihad I don't view killing innocent people as jihad this is not jihad but these people have their versions and understandings and they're called the jihadist groups right we all believe as Muslims in legitimate jihad which is a jihad for the sake of Allah and his messenger We don't believe in the jihad that these groups do, which is innocent killing and bombings and whatnot. These jihadist groups, as a general rule, all of them follow the stricter positions about takfir. They love the issue of takfir. Takfir means what? Calling a Muslim a kafir. As a general rule of thumb, the jihadist groups are also takfiri groups. That they're very quick in making takfir. Anybody who doesn't agree with their version of Islam, he's not just a bad Muslim, he's a kafir. Not just a kafir munafiq, not just a munafiq murtad, not just a murtad. He is the, he's helping the kafir against the Muslim. Now, regardless of what the theoretical understanding of Hathim's story is, the problem comes when you take this theoretical understanding. Even if you follow the position of Muhammad ibn al-Wahhab, let's say, right? And I don't have a problem theoretically with Muhammad ibn al-Wahhab's position. The problem comes when you cut and paste it from the book and you apply it to your group. So your group becomes Islam. And another group that is praying, practicing, following the sharia, five times salah, avoiding the major sins, because they don't agree with you, they become kafir. Right? And they might help another group against you. And this is what's happening in Syria by the way. Right? In Syria we have the fanatical jihadist groups and we have the moderate groups. They're both combined in fighting against the Taghut, the Firaun of our times. They're both combined against fighting against him. Correct? Now what happens? One group might, not might, one group does go to excessive violence. Shooting and killing and killing innocent people. So another group which is also fighting Bashar al-Assad will come and say, guys stop, if you don't stop we're gonna force you to stop. And they might bring in another force an army and stop the more fanatic group. You're following so far, right? I obviously don't want to mention names at this stage, but you understand theoretically what I'm saying. Then what's gonna happen? The more hardcore, the more fanatic group is gonna invoke this principle. And they will say, you have aided a Muslim group by appealing to the UN, let's say. Okay? So you are kafir, مُرْتَدْ ضَالْ مُضِلْ مُنَافِق So you are halal to kill. And then they start killing one another which is exactly what's happening. And you know if you're following the news, you know exactly which groups I'm talking about here. There are moderate groups that want to fight the Taghut and they're not killing innocent people. And then you have the fanatic Takfiri groups that are also fighting the Taghut but now they're fighting other Sunni groups as well. And they're using the story of Hatib as one of the main evidences and the whole issue of Nawaqad al-Islam and the 8th principle of the Nawaqad al-Ashara and they're simply cutting and pasting and they're saying this is Naqid bin Nawaqad al-Islam. And this type of fanaticism and this type of basically extremist ideology is more dangerous for the Ummah more dangerous for the Ummah than the invasion of the non-Muslims to Muslim lands. And this is really one of the biggest battles that we are waging from within now. That when we, and I am one of them, who criticizes these extremists, immediately the reaction comes that, oh, you must be supporting the kafir, so you are kafir. Right? And of course, I have been made takfir of at least a hundred times by now from these groups. Even though I have said a million times that we all agree that the foreign policy of this land is the greatest source of the anger and the terrorism. We all agree. I have said this multiple times. That the reason why people are so angry is because of what this land has done in those countries. There is no justification. But their anger must be expressed in a legitimate manner. And if they were to express it in a legitimate manner, we will support. But if you're gonna kill innocent people, you're gonna bomb indiscriminately, no, this is not jihad that Allah and His Messenger have laid out. So when we try to correct this, and others try to correct it, Khalas, immediately we become helping the kafir. Why? Because we're somehow criticizing them. So they begin to represent the religion of Allah. And to dare criticize them, it is as if you are criticizing Allah and His Messenger. And this type of perverse mentality, honestly, it is the essence of Kharijism. It is the essence of what Kharijites view themselves. We are the true people, everybody else is kafir, munafiq. And unfortunately the issue of basically the story of Hatim and what not is used in this regard. In any case, we also need to point out that by unanimous consensus of all the scholars of Islam, of all the scholars of Islam, a person who commits an act of kufr doesn't necessarily become a kafir. A person who commits an act of kufr does not necessarily become a kafir. You might have extenuating circumstances. You might have something called ta'weel. Ta'weel means you have some perverted logic. And Hatib's story is the best example of this. Hatib had ta'weel. And ta'weel means perverted logic. Perverted logic here is what? Hatib felt Allah is gonna protect you, Ya Rasulullah, I just wanna protect my family. This is not kufr. It's wrong, but it's not kufr. and his ta'weel was valid to excuse kufr from him. You see my point here, right? Or another extenuating circumstance would be complete ignorance. Somebody can be jahil and Allah will excuse complete ignorance. So there is an example of the man, the Prophet ﷺ said, the man who was a sinner his whole life. Then when he died, what did he tell his children? Burn my body into ashes and distribute the ashes because I don't want Allah to resurrect me. So he felt by doing this, he could outwit Allah. So Allah gathered the ashes, said, كُنْ فَيَكُونَ The man is in front of him. Allah says, Why did you do this? And the man said, I was scared of you, O Allah. So Allah forgave him because of that fear, even though what he did is an act of kufr. Because what did he do? He thought he could outsmart Allah. Right? But you cannot outsmart Allah. Why did Allah forgive him? Ignorance. Ignorance. Or you could be forgiven because of, what else? Being forced. The story of Ammar ibn Yasir. Ammar ibn Yasir. What happened with Ammar ibn Yasir? The Prophet ﷺ asked him when he was forced to bow down to the idol, to praise the idol, how was your heart? And he said, مُطْمَئِنٌ بِالْإِيمَانِ My heart is still firm in the faith. So the Prophet ﷺ said, إِنْ عَادُوا فَعُودُ If they return, you return as well. he did kufr but he didn't become a kafir because he is forced so the problem with these groups is that they honestly are overzealous fanatics when it comes to everybody is a kafir and they have tendencies of kharijism in them how they view other muslims how they are willing to kill other muslims and that is why I felt very important to because they use the story of Haltab over here that they say and their evidence is that Umar assumed him to be a kafir because of what he had done. This is their evidence. Right? Because what did Umar say? Umar said, allow me to execute this munafiq because he has kafara billahi wa rasuli. And they say the Prophet ﷺ was silent. Silence is his approval. And therefore, he agreed the action was an action of kufr. Okay? So this is the evidence that this group uses. And in response we say, that is an interpretation. And it might be a valid interpretation. Even though I personally lean towards Ibn Taymiyyah. but I admit there's a legitimate difference of opinion and I respect Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab's position and the position of his school after him. I respect that. They have the right to hold that position. But we say, you cannot just copy and paste from a book and then apply it to your group and expect your group is Islam and your group is representing Allah and His Messenger. This is the essence of fanaticism. And these groups have caused more tension and damage to the ummah even than the invading forces have caused. and this is the reality that I personally believe in. In any case, this is the story of Haltib ibn Abi Balta'ah. I wanted to move on but we have already finished our time. Inshallah, we will continue with the story of the conquest of Mecca. Inshallah ta'ala, next Wednesday. Are there any questions about the story of Haltib before we conclude for today? Any questions about the story of Haltib ibn Abi Balta'ah? Na'am, fardal sheikh. So the brother says, how about using the kuffar army to conquer a Muslim land's army? See, in my opinion, all of these questions at a theoretical level are easy to discuss. Then at a practical level, you get into so many other variables. at a theoretical level we can say anyone who is willing to kill others that believe in the same faith that he does by using people who do not believe in his faith and he does it for dunya he does it for maal he does it for jaa there is no doubt that this is kufr in my humble opinion this is tawalli that you are preferring a person's how do I phrase this? You are willing to sacrifice لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله and turning to those who have rejected this in order to fight somebody for a worldly reason. But the problem comes, there is no real life scenario that is that simple. In the real world you have a million other factors. And I do not want to go into specifics. But I challenge you to think of, look at what's happening now. One Muslim country is helping another Kafir country against another Muslim country. And then the other Muslim country is opposed. And the other Muslim country is there. Each one of them has maslaha siyasiyah. Each one of them has political reasons. None of these players by and large really care about the religion when they do these things. None of them is doing it for the sake of the religion. Had they been fighting a Muslim for the sake of religion, there is no question in my mind this is kufr akbar mukhrij minal millah no question you're gonna turn to aduwa Allah to fight against wali Allah because this person is a believer and because the other is a non-Muslim this is no doubt that you have loved this is tawalli this is the essence of tawalli but if you look at Hatib's story Hatib did not love kufr and hate Islam Hatib loved his mother and wanted to protect her. Tayyib, the hakim loves his kursi. He's not doing it because he hates Allah and His Messenger. Not that I'm saying they're all Muslim or they're not Muslim. The hakim has other problems. Aslan, they're not ruling by the sharia which is a bigger problem than this whole issue. But my point is in the real world there is no cut and dry scenario. And that is why I find it problematic to discuss such matters purely at a theoretical level. and I think one of our biggest problems is that these jihadist groups are all juhal they don't have ulama amongst them we know this they don't have ulama amongst them they read a book and they assume the book applies to them and the job of the faqih is not to read a book the job of the faqih is to apply the knowledge to the real situation the faqih is not google that you cut and paste the faqih is a person who thinks correct? the faqih is the one who extracts the ruling and the problem is when you speak in theoretical levels the jihadist groups hears the theory and then thinks it is cut and paste for his reality you see the point here so in my humble opinion we leave theory as theory and we don't extract it into reality without going to a faqih and a sheikh and an alim and then you know mentioning exactly the scenario and situation and then getting the fatwa from him. Let me just say as I said, fighting Islam for Islam is kufr akbar. This is unanimous. But fighting a Muslim for a dunyawi reason is not kufr akbar necessarily. Is that clear? This is kufr asghar. This is kabira minal kabair. as our Prophet s.a.w. said that everybody knows kufr asghar here you fight a Muslim for money, this is kufr asghar you fight a Muslim for kursi, for siyasa this is kufr asghar but you fight a Muslim because he's a Muslim this is kufr akbar ok? yes, there's really gonna raise a lot of issues I know but yes, welcome back from your long journey and you now come at the most interesting time when we need to hear your voice. Fadl. Fighting for, fighting a Muslim for Islamism. So we have two groups. A group that is, that does not think that we... Of course this is totally theoretical and has nothing to do with the country you're from or the current situation of what is happening or even yesterday's news. Of course, completely theoretical, abstract country. Suppose there was an Islamic party that came to power. Suppose the army came and took them away. Suppose, yes, okay, suppose, go ahead. What's concerning me is that some people actually... What's concerning me is that... The theory will not remain theory. I think this is an excuse that some part of the Islamists, that they are being oppressed because of their sort of Islam, their desire to politically employ Islam or Sharia. And I'm seeing this as a case of the second rule that you gave, that, I don't know, maybe I'm probably wrong, but you said that fighting a Muslim for the sake of being Muslim is kufr akbar. And then fighting a Muslim for the sake of something or word of this is like kufr asr, where it's not totally going out of the way. So if you can elaborate on this issue, especially this Islamism issue, because people think that if I'm an Islamist, then I'm a sort of a higher rank Muslim than the typical people that do not believe that we have to employ Islam in an institutionalized way. But again, here's the point now. You're asking a question that is so loaded with modern issues, you cannot avoid answering without being realistic about the situation and scenario. And wallahi, the situation is too complex for a simple two-minute fatwa. And very bluntly, this situation is far bigger than me to comment on it. Wallahi. This is a situation that your own scholars of your land and the scholars of the Middle East themselves are embroiled and engulfed in. And this is a time of fitna. You have people of knowledge differing in their analysis. And we don't doubt the iman of anybody who has demonstrated that he has iman. Right? We don't doubt the Islam of the one who shows his Islam outwardly. At the same time, wallahi, I don't know what to tell you. All that I can say is, this is a time of fitna and fawda. This is a time of great chaos. And it is always better to err on the side of caution when it comes to takfir. This is the general rule, ya ikhwa. My dear brothers and sisters, keep your mouths quiet if you can. rather than say, so and so is a kafir. Our Prophet ﷺ said, من قال لأخيه كافر يا كافر فقد باء به أحدهما. Whoever Muslim calls another Muslim a kafir, the label will apply to the one of the two. If it will not apply to him, it will come back to you. And I think one of the biggest problems we have is we're so obsessed. Is this group kafir or not? Is this group Muslim or not? Is this group... And this is, you know, whether they're Islamist or Ikhwani or Sufi or Ash'ari or Sufi or Tablighi or Salafi or Shia. Subhanallah. Just let's move above all of these labels and judge people. Firstly, only those who are qualified to judge should judge. Why judge? I mean, why judge? Secondly, yes. Secondly, only those who have a reason to judge should judge. There are some people who need to judge. There are some people who are ulama which they need to judge. For the most of us, the average person amongst us, the general rule is very simple. Take the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. من صلى صلاتنا واستقبل قبلتنا وأكل ذبيحتنا فذلكم المسلم له ذمة الله وذمة رسوله Whoever prays the salah and faces the qibla and slaughters according to our rituals, that is the Muslim. And Allah says in the Quran that وَلَا تَقُولُ لِمَنْ أَلْقَى إِلَيْكُمُ السَّلَامَ لَسْتَ مُؤْمِنًا Don't say to the one who says salam to you, you're not a Muslim. So somebody says salam, السلام عليكم, and you see them in the masjid, and you see them praying, and you see them doing the sha'air of Islam, they are a Muslim, unless and until something happens that expels them from Islam, which is just as certain as the certainty that put them into Islam. I.e. you saw them worshipping an idol for example, out of willingness to worship the idol. otherwise the safer rule the average Muslim deals with anybody who claims to be a Muslim as a Muslim and Allah will not punish you if you say oh Allah I didn't know he was a kafir I'd rather err on the side of caution and you were quiet and Allah might punish you if you call other people kafir when they're not kafir so to err on the side of caution is better this fitna no doubt you know where my sympathies lies I've been very explicit in them in the khutbas and in the durus no doubt you know my sympathies lie yet we also know for a fact that there are people on the other side who have a love of Allah and His Messenger who are praying who are reading the Quran yet for some reason some ta'weel they feel such an animosity to this group not because of the religion but because of whatever politics or whatever perception they have and this is something you know and I know correct? so let's not bring in kuffar and iman into this equation and actually the khutbah I gave about Egypt I was very clear about this that both sides have their ta'weel as long as the people involved are practicing Muslims we're not talking about the secularist camp aslan we're not talking about those who don't want aslan, Islam, that's they have self-proclaimed themselves what they are we're talking about the people that are praying and practicing on both sides they have ta'weel and Wallahi if Ali and Muawiyah RadhiAllahu Anhumah It was better for us to be quiet about the two of them How about people after them Right Neither side is gonna reach the level of either Ali and Muawiyah Correct So they have good on this side And they have some good on the other side No doubt one of the two is closer to the truth Yet even the one that is closer to the truth Is not fully innocent Each side has its problems So Wallahi ya ikhwa Let's just keep takfir out of it My whole point in going into this tangent was to demonstrate, well many things, of them is how modern political theory is based upon the seerah directly. And how modern events are shaped by the seerah. And of them as well is to show, look, there's not just one opinion of the story of Haltib. You have the position of, yes, it is true, some scholars had this position. But you have Ibn Taymiyyah's position as well. And Ibn Taymiyyah's position, in my opinion, is more precise than the position of the later school. So I wanted to also demonstrate the diversity in that. Anyway, we have gone way beyond the time. Thank you.

Seerah 77 - Pt

In our last lesson we talked about the beginning of the conquest of Mecca and we went into a lot of detail with the story of Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a. Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a, we derived so many benefits from that story. Now we return to our story where we had left off. The Prophet ﷺ departed Mecca on what day? Quickly, this is review. What day did he depart Mecca? No, not today. You're getting confused with another battle. Which month? 10th of Ramadan. Ramadan. Conquest of Mecca is Ramadan. He arrived in Mecca on the 17th. he departed on the 10th or actually on the 1819 he departed Mecca on the 10th of Ramadan in the 8th year of the Hijrah and he leaves one of the Sahaba in charge and this Sahabi is not one of the famous people because the fact of the matter is every famous Sahabi participated in the battle in the conquest of Mecca but still somebody has to manage the affairs of Medina so we have a Sahabi whom we have never heard of before or even after this incident Abu Rahim Kulthum Ibn Hussein which really shows us that the people who were left in Medina were not of the major players, there might have been a legitimate reason for this person to be left in Medina. The fact of the matter is, everybody of the major Sahaba participated in the conquest of Mecca. The Prophet ﷺ, as soon as he reached the area called Qudayd, and Qudayd is literally just right outside of Medina. As soon as he reached Qudayd, he broke his fast, because it's Ramadan, they're all fasting. So he broke his fast at this place, and the Sahaba broke their fast as well. And this shows us a very simple and important fiqh point which is the position of the vast majority of scholars and that is, travel does not begin from within the city. You are not allowed to break your fast or shorten your prayer while you are still in the city. So if you are going to Timbuktu, you cannot shorten your salah in your house before you leave. If your flight is at 3 p.m. let's say, You cannot shorten your salah inside Memphis airport or wherever your airport is. You cannot do qasr because travel begins outside the city, not inside the city. Similarly, if it's Ramadan, your flight is at 4 p.m. You are not allowed to break your fast and not fast that day, knowing that you're gonna do safar. No, you have to begin the safar that day, not safar, the fast that day, and you must remain fasting until you board your plane and the plane departs from Memphis or wherever your city is and you are outside the city limits, then you may break the fast. Then you may start your qasr and your jama' of the salah. And this is clearly demonstrated in the seerah. They proceed onwards and they're barely two days out of Medina. They're barely, you know, they're still less than halfway. And they pass by the valley of Juhfa. And the valley of Juhfa, is mentioned in the seerah and other incidents. And lo and behold, they find coming from Mecca to Medina, none other than the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ, Al-Abbas with his wives and children. Al-Abbas is coming with his family as a muhajir. Abbas had no idea that, because remember, this was top secret. Remember, Hatib's letter had been intercepted. Nobody knows that the conquest is taking place. and lo and behold, Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib comes to do hijrah. And Allah had written for him the honor, the sharaf, that nobody else got after him, and that is the last human being ever to enter into the realm of the muhajirun. And Allah عز و جل gave it to him just barely, because he didn't actually reach Medina. The Prophet ﷺ had left, and they meet not even halfway. maybe one fourth or something of the way, Al-Abbas and his family comes, and he announces his Islam, and the Prophet ﷺ rejoices immensely, after all this is his uncle, and he tells Al-Abbas, go take care of your family, and then join us quickly. Go back, settle down, check them into whatever place you have, no doubt they would have assigned somebody, get your wives and kids settled in, and then come and join us, we're going to conquer Mecca. And so Al-Abbas quickly does this and because he's a single rider, when he drops his family off, he can catch up to the caravan which is obviously proceeding at a much slower pace. Now very quickly, remind me, how many uncles of the Prophet ﷺ play a role in the seerah? How many uncles of the Prophet ﷺ play a role in the seerah? Give me a number. Three, four. Four at least. I like this. Cautious. Iqbal uncle is cautious. Hamza, Abbas, Abdul Muttalib, Abu Talib, and Abu Lahab. These are the four uncles that play a role in the seerah. As for the other uncles, they are not alive when the da'wah phase begins. i.e. they all have passed away before the Prophet ﷺ reaches the age of 40. There's only four uncles that live to see the Prophet ﷺ preach Islam. Two of them die as non-Muslims. One of them, the worst enemy, and the other, the best non-Muslim ever. And that's Abu Talib. Right? And this is the sunnah of Allah, this is the qadr of Allah. The two blood brothers, the one of them is the worst, and the other is the best amongst the non-Muslims. And then of the two other brothers, Hamza and Al-Abbas, once again there is a bit of a disparity, because Hamza converts in the middle Makkan phase, and Hamza becomes Sayyid al-Shuhada. So he reaches the highest rank. And then Abbas, Allah blesses him to be the very last muhajir. After this there is no hijrah. لا هجرة بعد الفتح There is a famous hadith, متواتر. There is no hijrah after the conquest. لا هجرة بعد الفتح So Abbas becomes the final person that Allah honored to be a muhajir. And even this as we said is kind of three quarters of the way, but still it's accepted from him because his niyyah was to make hijrah. And Allah bases things on niyyah. Now, there is a huge controversy amongst the scholars of the seerah. When did al-Abbas accept Islam? This is one of the big controversies that the scholars of the seerah discuss in pages and pages. And it's an interesting question. There are many opinions. One opinion which is very bizarre in my opinion, is that he accepted Islam even before the Prophet ﷺ's hijrah, i.e. in the Meccan phase. And this is bizarre to be honest, and there's not a shred of evidence for this. The second opinion is that he accepted Islam right before Badr. and the evidence for this is that the Prophet s.a.w. remember at the battle of Badr he had said do not kill three people if you see them don't kill them because they have been forced to come number one on the list was Al-Abbas so from this there is an opinion that he accepted Islam right before Badr, this is opinion number two, opinion number three, he accepted Islam at Badr as a prisoner of war, post Badr I should say, not at Badr, post Badr so Al-Abbas was taken a prisoner of war along with his sons and his nephews and al-Abbas had to ransom himself and it is said that he accepted Islam at that point at the ransom this is opinion number 3, opinion number 4 he accepted Islam before the battle of Khaybar and the evidence for this if you remember going back in your notes that when the news falsely reached Mecca that the Prophet ﷺ had been defeated at Khaybar what happened to Abbas how did Abbas react to the false news this is a false news if you remember the story go back to your notes that it was a tactic that one of the Muslims basically said that defeat has occurred and he intended the Quraysh to basically it was a tactic if you remember and when the news spread Abbas became depressed and Abbas became extremely grieved until finally this Sahabi visited him privately and said Ya Abbas this is actually the biggest victory the Muslims have ever had and he shouted Allahu Akbar. So for him to say Allahu Akbar and to be happy that the Muslims have won, Al-Khaybar shows what? That he's a Muslim. So this is opinion number? Four now, right? Opinion number five, that he converted right here and now, which is right now we're talking about. So these are five opinions. Now, Allah knows best, but, so opinion number three, four and five would say, all of them would agree, that he remained in Mecca at the command of the Prophet ﷺ as basically a spy. Right? As an informant. That al-Abbas was an informant at the behest of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is something that if you follow the other positions, you will say that is why he remained in Mecca. Except for the fifth opinion. The fifth opinion would say, he converted and he immigrated at that point in time. The fact of the matter is that the evidence is somewhat ambiguous. and you cannot say for certain when did Al-Abbas accept Islam Ibn Abdul Bar said that he accepted Islam right before Khaybar Ibn Hajar argues that he accepted Islam right now which is at this incident we're talking about Ibn Kathir argues that he remained in Mecca at the command of the Prophet ﷺ basically as a Muslim so we have three great scholars three great opinions Allah knows best in my humble opinion one thing is for sure that we can say without a shadow of a doubt and that is after the battle of Badr his heart opened to Islam whether he accepted or not is ambiguous but up until Badr he was hesitant after Badr he knows Islam is true he might have accepted and Allah knows best maybe he did but even if he didn't he knew Islam to be true and that is why he is helping the Prophet ﷺ and that is why he is informing on the Quraysh and that is why he was so happy at the conquest of Khyber and if you go back to your notes on the battle of Badr, which I'm sure all of you have memorized inside out and you know exactly what happened what did the Prophet ﷺ when the Prophet ﷺ told al-Abbas what is your ransom and it was an astronomical figure Abbas said, Ya Rasulullah he didn't say Ya Rasulullah, he said, Ya Muhammad do you want me to become impoverished and poor you want me to go beg the people, I don't have this money what did the Prophet ﷺ say Oh Abbas, what happened to the money that you buried at such and such a place the night before you left for Badr and you told Umm al-Fadl, your wife that I'm worried if something happens to me and I never come back so I'm gonna hide the money here and there and so what happened to that money? So Al-Abbas said, and how did you know Ya Muhammad, because he's not saying Ya Rasulullah How did you know? For Wallahi, nobody was there other than me and Umm al-Fadl and I know Umm al-Fadl is not gonna tell you It's not possible So he said, Allah Azzawajal told me and then Al-Abbas said, Ash-hadu an-nakala rasoolullah. That there is no way you could have done this, right? Now, this phrase has been interpreted to mean an acceptance of Islam. And it is possible. It is possible. And Allah knows best. So, we leave this vague, even though, Allahu a'lam, my heart, this is not an academic, my heart seems to, I feel comfortable saying, that the battle of Badr opened Al-Abbas to Islam and he was a Muslim but he didn't declare it and he declared it at the, right now this incident of meeting up with the Prophet ﷺ right before the conquest this is when he publicly declares but his heart is a heart of Islam and he was a believer in Islam and that is why he helped the Prophet ﷺ also by the way there is a hadith that is not authentic it's actually a very weak hadith in Mu'jim al-Kabir of At-Tabarani that the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said. It's not an authentic hadith, but there's no problem using weak hadith in history in this manner, that the Prophet ﷺ said to Al-Abbas, you are the last of the muhajirun, just like I am the last of the mursalun. You're the last muhajir, just like I'm the last nabi. There's no nabi after me, there's no muhajir after you. And by the way, Al-Abbas was the only uncle, the only elder of the Banu Hashim to live after the Prophet ﷺ demise. He lived for another 20 years. He died in 32 Hijrah in the Khilafah of Uthman. And the Sahaba respected Al-Abbas an immense amount. I mean, after all, he is the brother of Abdullah. After all, he is the uncle, the amm, of the Prophet ﷺ. And once when somebody irritated Al-Abbas, the Prophet ﷺ gave a khutbah, and he said that O muhajirun and ansar, verily the uncle of a man is like his father, do not irritate my uncle, the uncle of a man is like his father the uncle is like the father, in the other hadith he said the khala is like the mother, right? so the uncle is like the father, so do not irritate me through al-abbas and it is narrated that whenever Abu Bakr and Umar or any of the senior sahaba, they saw al-abbas they would get off of their camel, they would get off of their horse as a token of respect to al-abbas and not ride on top of him. And in the famous hadith of Bukhari, when the Muslims were suffering the drought in the 18th year of the Hijrah, the famous year of the drought is called عام المجاعة. There was a drought and there was a plague. And that year, when Umar ibn al-Khattab gathered all of the Sahaba, and they went out to perform Salat al-Istisqa, and the people are dying from thirst. Umar ibn al-Khattab finished the khutbah by saying, Oh Allah, we used to go through you, we used to go through Rasulullah ﷺ to get to you إِنَّا كُنَّا نَتَوَسَّلُ إِلَيْكَ بِنَبِيِّكَ وَالْآنَ نَتَوَسَّلُ إِلَيْكَ بِعَمِّ نَبِيِّكَ and now we will do Tawassul through the uncle of your Prophet and Tawassul here means we will ask somebody to make Dua we will ask him to make Dua قُمْ يَا عَبَّاسَ فَادْعُوا لَنَا stand up O Abbas and make Dua for us so this is a great honor when there are Badriyoon when there are all of the early immigrants and the converts are still alive. Who does the process, who does Umar choose? To make dua for the entire community? Stand up, O Abbas, and make dua for us that Allah causes rain to fall. And Abbas lived a long life. He died after the age of 85 or so. And he had become blind towards the end of his life. And he is described as being very handsome and very loud voiced. He had the loudest voice. And we will come to this in the battle of Hunayn when the people began to flee, the Prophet ﷺ said to Abbas, Oh Abbas, call them. And so Abbas would, Abbas stood up on his mount and he called all of them back. And it is said in the books of Sira that Abbas had a slave who would be a shepherd for him. And when the slave was grazing the flock and it was three miles outside of Mecca, when he wanted him to come back, he would just call him. And his voice would go for three miles and the shepherd would come back. and of course I'm going into a tangent here but Allah Abbas and his of course Abbas so many things about him the famous nukta or the incident or the question that somebody asked Al-Abbas after the death of the Prophet ﷺ O Abbas أَأَنْتَ أَكْبَرُ أَمْ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهِ who's bigger meaning older أَأَنْتَ أَكْبَرُ أَمْ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَى اللَّهِ who are your age wise so Al-Abbas smiled and he said Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Akbar Minni Wa Ana Asannu Minhu The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Is bigger Maqam than I am Don't use this word Right And I am more aged than him I was born before him Right Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Akbar Minni Don't say Anta Akbar Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Rasulullah Akbar Minni And look at the intelligence And the adab that Abbas has That he says Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam Which is his nephew And Abbas was three years Older than the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and I mean again so much can be said but one of the biggest blessings that Allah gave Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib was that one of the most prestigious and longest ruling dynasties of Islam is called the Abbasids from Abbas, direct descendants right, they ruled Islam from, who are the history buffs, who can tell me, when did they rule Islam where are my students from my classes they should know this MashaAllah really good after the Umayyads and before the Ottomans MashaAllah this is what we expected from us perfect from 750 CE up until the invasion of the Mongols which is 1258 and then when even the Mongols invaded and then the Mamluks defeated the Mongols what did the Mamluks do? they got one of the nephews of the Khalifa the Abbasid Khalifa and they installed him as a puppet Khalifa so there was a puppet Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo from Baghdad they transferred one of the nephews of the so he's still an Abbasid and the Abbasids therefore ruled up until Salim I which is the Ottoman guy in 1515 or so so from 750 CE up until the 1500s the descendants of Abbas were at least nominal Khalifa the direct descendants and they're called the Abbasids they were the Khulafa of Islam Harun al-Rashid all of these are direct descendants of Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib and that's why they're called the Abbasids in any case that was a whole tangent back to our story so Abbas accepts Islam at this auspicious time and he becomes the last of the Muhajirun and Abbas then reaches the army and proceeds with them to Mecca today's entire lesson is about conversions before the conquest because very important conversions take place. We have now two more conversions. Abbas is marching with the army. The army is coming close to Mecca. And the news has now spread. You cannot stop the onslaught of 10,000 people and news spreading. The news has reached Mecca that the Prophet ﷺ is coming, but they don't know when. They don't know when. Because the caravans are going back and forth. And of course the news is going to reach there. So the Meccans were taken by surprise. However, two people out of panic and fear decided to exit Mecca and try to embrace before the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca. And this is yet another two famous conversion stories. But they weren't muhajir, they didn't emigrate to Medina, they're simply converting outside of Mecca. And they actually convert around 20 kilometers outside of Mecca, which is basically one day's journey outside of Mecca. They're waiting for the Prophet ﷺ outside of Mecca. And these two people, the first of them was Abu Sufyan, not the famous one. This is always people get confused. Not Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, who is the father of Muawiyah. We're gonna talk about him right after this. Because he also converted, the next conversion story. The first of them is Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith ibn Abdul Muttalib. So he is the first cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. and his father Al-Harith is the eldest son of Abdul Muttalib and Harith died even before the Prophet ﷺ was born most likely Harith is the eldest son of Abdul Muttalib and he was the only son that was there when Zamzam was discovered and that was the time when Abdul Muttalib said what? Oh Allah if you ever give me ten sons I will sacrifice one of them for you he only had Al-Harith this is Al-Harith well this is the son of Al-Harith So this is the first cousin whose name is also Abu Sufyan, Ibn al-Harith ibn Abdul Muttalib. And another cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, and that is Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah ibn al-Mughira. Now where is Abdul Muttalib here? So Abdullah ibn Abi Mughira, his mother is Atiqah. And who is Atiqah? Aatiqah is the aunt of the Prophet ﷺ which is the daughter of Abdul Muttalib right? so they are both first cousins and they are first cousins to the Prophet ﷺ the one of them from the father's side the other from the well the father's brother and the other from the father's sister clear? right? so the one from the father's brother and the other from the father's sister by the way Aatiqah was she alive when Islam came or not? yes, how do we know this? she saw the dream which battle? Badr what happened to her we don't know and most likely she must have died in this time frame when the conquest takes place she is no longer mentioned so most likely she died in this time frame and whether she accepted Islam or not is a difference amongst the scholars nonetheless this is Atika's son this is Atika's son over here and his name is Abdullah Ibn Abi Umayyah Ibn al-Mughira now the both of these are first cousins but they are also of the most open mockers of Islam. Open enemies of Islam. And they had caused a lot of pain to the Prophet ﷺ. As for Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, Abu Sufyan was known for his poetry. And he composed many poems in the Meccan stage mocking the message of Islam and ridiculing the Prophet ﷺ. And this is, in those days, this is the worst form of spreading PR campaigns. This is the worst type of slander. To write poetry against the Prophet ﷺ. And as for Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah, an incident had occurred in Mecca, in public, that Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah had challenged the Prophet ﷺ in early Mecca, in public in front of all of the leaders of the Quraysh that O Muhammad ﷺ your people have given you so many offers and you've refused all of them you understand the offers right? your people have given you so many offers you have refused all of them and they have asked you for wealth from your God as the Qur'an says turn this mountain into gold give us this, give us that they have asked you from wealth for your God and you have not given us that so I swear by Allah I will never believe in you until you climb up to the skies in front of me with a divine ladder and then you bring down a book, a covenant and this is by the way referenced in the Quran this mocking is referenced in the Quran this exact phrase is mentioned in the Quran right? or you bring down the malaika or we see this, we see that so he says go back up to Allah show us climbing up to Allah bring down the book, bring down a treaty from Allah that you are not a treaty but a covenant a book from Allah, show us the angels then he says and even if you do so I still don't think I'll believe in you means the height of arrogance and he's doing this in front of the Nadi or the parliament of the Quraish and there are other incidents of these two as well no doubt can you imagine these are cousins of the Prophet ﷺ, how he would have felt, right? Can you imagine? These are cousins, and no doubt pre-Islam, the cousins have camaraderie, brotherhood, he's grown up with them. He's grown up with them, they are his cousins, both of them. And now they are mocking him publicly in such a vulgar manner. And it also so happened that Abdullah, the second one, Abdullah, his father, don't get confused now, although this is lineage and genealogy, his father is the father of Umm Salama, the mother of the believers. But the mothers are different. So they're half siblings, right? So Abdullah, the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, now he's the cousin through his mother. Correct? He's the cousin through his mother. His father married another lady, and that union produced Umm Salama. Umm Salama is the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. Right? So Abdullah goes to his sister. Now you follow me while we're interested. He goes to his sister, not to the Prophet ﷺ. And he begs her, can you go shafa'ah to the Prophet ﷺ? I'm your brother after all, you know. He's the elder brother, and that's his cousin. And the two of them are cousins to the Prophet ﷺ. Can you go and intercede on our behalves in front of the Prophet ﷺ? So Umm Salama feels pity after all. They're brothers, this is his brother, it's her brother. She feels pity for him. and she enters into the tent of the Prophet ﷺ and she says, Ya Rasulallah, so and so and so and so, your cousin and your cousin, يعني ابن عمك وابن عمتك, right? يعني your maternal cousin, your paternal cousin, so and so and so and so are here. فهلك من حاجة إليهما Which basically translates as, can you help them out? You know, can you do something for them? They're here now to express their regret and remorse. the Prophet ﷺ said لا حاجة لي فيهما I have no need for any of them I have no need for any of them I don't need to see them I don't want to see them now pause here before we move on that when people hear these types of incidents for the first time they it clashes with their perception of the Prophet ﷺ they say how could the Prophet ﷺ not have wanted to see them? Wasn't he رحمة للعالمين? Wasn't he somebody who did what he did at Ta'if? Didn't he say in Mecca, اذهبوا فأنتم طلقاء لا تثيب عليكم اليوم. Didn't he do the Bedouin in this way? Didn't he? Didn't he? Didn't he? Right? So their perception of the Prophet ﷺ seems to clash with specific incidents that we have by the way, by now all of you know from the seerah that we find these types of sometimes harsh side as well. Right? But for those who are not accustomed to the seerah, they are shocked. Like, what do you mean? He said, I don't want to see them. لَا حَجَدَ فِيهِمَا لِي فِيهِمَا Which is a very frank and blunt way of basically saying, I don't have any need for them. Quite literally, I don't have any need for them. You know, after all that they've done, I don't want to see them, basically. He doesn't even allow them an audience to come into his presence. Now, the fact of the matter is that, and I've said this so many times before, that, لَقَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فِي رَسُولِ اللَّهِ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنًا You have in the example of the Prophet ﷺ the perfect methodology to follow. Yes, wallahi, it is true that he was rahmata lil'alameen. How can you know when Allah says so? Yes, he forgave and he forgave and he forgave. But you cannot establish political rule by always turning the other cheek. You cannot forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive without once in a while showing harshness. and that is why any religion the preachers turn the other cheek they can never live up to it as a society no society can ever live with this methodology you cannot because people will take advantage of you and that is why we see in the Prophet ﷺ the general rule is mercy the general rule is forgiveness but there is also a fear that when you cross the line you are not going to be forgiven and the both of these people clearly cross to the line. Also we notice from the seerah, and this is not new, I've said this before, that the Prophet ﷺ treated people according to who they are. So the Bedouin is not treated like the senior sahaba are treated. The Bedouin is not treated like the senior sahaba are treated. The Bedouin is shown mercy. Whereas the senior sahaba, a higher standard is raised. When Mu'adh recites a long prayer in salah, The Prophet ﷺ gets angry at him. يَا مُعَاذَ فَتَّانٌ أَنْتْ Are you gonna cause fitna to the people? When Usama ibn Zayd kills the person who said, لا إله إلا الله, the Prophet ﷺ is furious at him. And he kept on, مَا زَالَ يُكَرِّرُهَا He kept on repeating, أَقَتَلْتَهُ بَعْدَ أَنْ شَهِدَ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهِ What are you gonna do with لا إله إلا الله on the Day of Judgment? Until Usama said, Wallahi, I wished I was a brand new Muslim out of the anger of the Prophet ﷺ for me. I wished I had just accepted Islam. All of my blessings, I wish I would obliterate them. for the forgiveness he would have shown me had I been a new Muslim. That's what he's trying to say. What is Usama saying on that day? We did this incident a few months ago. When he killed the person, and the Prophet ﷺ kept on telling him, what will you do with la ilaha illallah? Did you open up his chest? Did you see why he accepted it? And what did Usama say? I had wished that I was a brand new Muslim. Meaning what? He would have been softer with me had I been a new Muslim. Because of who I was, he was so harsh with me. So, if this is the case, and it is the case, then we understand. These are cousins. They know better. They know better. How could they have done this to their own cousin? How could they have done this to somebody whom they grew up with? Loving, camaraderie, playing, respecting each other, as cousins always do. How could they have betrayed him when he was the most in need of them? so yes, strictness should be demonstrated at this time and he says to Umm Salama لا حاجة لي فيهما I have no need for them basically tell them to go back I don't even want to see them after all that they have done and there is another wisdom here as well and that is that in this harshness there is an imtihan for them there is a test for them this is the test of their real sincerity if they are not sincere if they're half sincere, what's gonna happen when they hear the harshness? they will not just leave but reject become arrogant, say okay fine you don't want us, we don't want you but if they understand what is Islam and who is Rasulullah what's gonna happen? they will insist, they will beg they will plead, right? all you need to do is look at Adam and Iblis look at Adam and Iblis after Jannah what happened? Iblis is arrogant and Adam says رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنفُسَنَا وَإِلَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَا مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ this is sincerity and that is kibr so this harshness has wisdom and the wisdom is to test and so the prophet says basically I don't even want to see them and it was most likely a test or maybe he really did mean it Allah knows best we don't know what did he intend to do either case this was the correct decision because as soon as Umm Salama comes out of the tent and tells them sorry no audience and obviously the Prophet ﷺ had volunteer bodyguards he would not, nobody could just barge in obviously especially the conquest of Mecca so the two of them are not even given an audience inside his tent immediately Abu Sufyan and he is the elder of the two after all his father is Al-Halid the eldest brother Abu Sufyan begins raising his voice begins yelling and screaming, begging for an audience, knowing that the Prophet ﷺ can hear him. And Abu Sufyan has with him one of his younger sons. His name is Ja'far ibn Abu Sufyan. And he becomes a famous sahabi later on. At the time he's just a young child. And he raises Ja'far's hand. And he says, Ya Rasulullah, if you don't let me come in, then I swear by Allah, my son and I will depart from here and go into the desert and die a miserable death. I'm not going back to Mecca basically. Right? My son and I will leave here. If you don't have mercy, then I'm just gonna die like this. So Ibn Ishaq says, and other books of seerah say, فَرَقَّ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَامُ لَهُمَا The Prophet ﷺ felt softness for them. Subhanallah, in the end of the day, they are his cousins. This is his cousin and the son of his cousin, this is his nephew. The young child is his nephew. Probably never seen him in his life because he's a young child, but in the end of the day, it's blood. It's his nephew. And when he hears his cousin, and no doubt they have memories from the past, no doubt they have grown up together. When he hears his cousin begging and pleading, being so desperate that, I'm not gonna go back to Mecca, I don't have any food and water, I'm just gonna go into the desert, and I'm just gonna die a miserable death. Right? If you don't see me. This is like, you can call it emotional blackmail, but subhanAllah it worked. Because our Prophet ﷺ had a gentle heart. He had a soft heart. so he allowed the two of them to come in after this begging and pleading and Abu Sufyan had a poem prepared and it's a beautiful beautiful poem which as usual we simply have to gloss over wallahi one of my biggest regrets of doing the seerah in English is these poems because the seerah is full of these profound poems that we just have to gloss over and frankly even if we were doing it in Arabic right and I was to recite these poems to you I would need a translator and you would need a translator the Arabs I'm talking about because these poems their balagha their fasaha their taabeer their words that they use is simply beyond modern Arabic and no matter how good your modern Arabic is unless you are an expert in that era's Arabic which none of us really are even I need a translator and you need a translator but when you do unlock these poems they're very beautiful So he recited a one page long poem, it is mentioned in Ibn Ishaq and other books. And in that poetry he has, هَدَانِ هَادٍ غَيْرُ نَفْسِي وَدَلَّانِ إِلَى اللَّهِ مَنْ تَرَدْتُ كُلَّ مُطَرَّدِ Which translates as, a guide, other than myself, guided me to Allah. A guide, meaning the Prophet ﷺ. Other than myself, guided me to Allah, meaning the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. A guide whom I myself repelled at every opportunity. طَرَدْتُ كُلَّ مُطَرَّدِ I kept on pushing him away, but he continued to guide me to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he said this long poetry, and this was a line in that poetry. When he came to this line, our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he hit him like, you know the brotherly hit. He hit him in the chest. And he said, Iwallahi you repelled me every time you could meaning this is like the brotherly chastisement you did it every time you could you are absolutely correct you kept on you kept on pushing me away whenever you could and subhanallah it shows us the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam no doubt of course he is a human he is hurt his cousin has done this to him he is hurt that he has been repelled in such a manner so when Abu Sufyan says this so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam you can imagine it now comes out now, right? The grief that he felt. And he said, yes, wallahi, you repelled me every time you could repel me. And Abu Sufyan, this Abu Sufyan, not the famous one we're gonna come to in a while, Abu Sufyan showed many brave stances after this, and especially in the battle of Hunayn, which takes place in a few months, in a few weeks actually, in the battle of Hunayn, we will see the iman of Abu Sufyan. This Abu Sufyan, the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, we will see what he did, and what he said, and how he chastised the Quraysh for fleeing. So Abu Sufyan clearly showed his iman. And the Prophet ﷺ accepted their repentance and the two of them then became Muslim. So this is three conversion stories. Now we have the fourth. Four conversion stories today. That is our episode for today before we break for next week. So they continue proceeding onwards. Now they are less than one day's distance to Mecca. And the Quraysh are expecting some attack, but they don't know exactly when, they don't know how far the army of the Prophet ﷺ is. And the Prophet ﷺ camps around 20 kilometers outside of Mecca in a place called Marra al-Zahran. And Marra al-Zahran is the final stopping station. He will wake up in the morning and march into Mecca. So this is the final station. And the Prophet ﷺ tells the Sahaba, we will camp here. and he tells them, go ahead and light your fires. Meaning we're not scared. 10,000 people, what are they gonna do? Now, Mecca probably has less than one-fifth, one-sixth of the inhabitants that used to be in it 15 years ago. Mecca is now almost desolate. The people have emigrated, the people have been killed. And the tribes and the allies of the Quraysh, more than three-quarters have accepted Islam. And the few that remain are not going to fight on their behalves. there is no question that khalas, that the table has turned alhamdulillah, izzah belongs to Allah and His messenger and now the Prophet ﷺ tells the sahaba go, light your fires no fear, no need to hide your quantity or anything go ahead and light your fires can you imagine 10,000 people lighting their fires at night can you imagine the scene can you imagine as far as the eye can see it is a lit or set ablaze with the fire of the camps and Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib, the brand new convert. The Quraysh haven't yet discovered that he's converted. Al-Abbas feels in his heart sympathy for the Quraysh. After all, he was with them yesterday. And he begs the Prophet ﷺ, let me go and negotiate before you attack. Let me see if we can resolve this without an attack. So the Prophet ﷺ gives him his own mule. His own mule. He gives him his own ride. And he says, Bismillah, go. And see what you can do. so in the middle of the night and late at night Al-Abbas goes to Quraysh begging and pleading wondering what is to be done and he narrates in the first person and this is recorded in its entirety in Ibn Ishaq and other books that he's narrating exactly what happened in the first person that Al-Abbas said that I said to myself oh what an evil morning it is for the Quraysh oh what an evil morning it is for the Quraysh if the Prophet ﷺ enters Mecca by force and attacks Mecca before they come to him and submit. It shall be the destruction of the Quraysh for all eternity. Meaning humiliation. Meaning if the Prophet ﷺ conquers the Quraysh in this manner with a bloody war, then that's it. There shall be no more Quraysh after this. And he's worried what is gonna happen. And as he's walking in the distance, he sees three people coming in his direction. So he becomes quiet, he figures out who these three people are. And he, it's night, and he's listening who these three people are. Turns out, these are three of the senior leaders of the Quraysh. Abu Sufyan, the Abu Sufyan. Not the cousin. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb ibn Umayyah. This is the Abu Sufyan, the father of Muawiyah. Abu Sufyan along with Budair ibn Warqa and Hakeem ibn Hizam. All three are senior members of the Quraysh. And they have been on a nightly basis coming out to see where is the army of the Muslims. They're scouts. Coming and going, coming and going. And they're doing this worried. When are they gonna attack? And they come across and they see this entire plain lit with 10,000 fires. And they're wondering, what is happening? Because in their minds, they can never imagine the Muslims are this large. They cannot see the Muslims being 10,000. So Abu Sufyan and Budail began having a conversation. Who do you think these people are? It doesn't even occur to them as the Muslims. Budail becomes happy. And he says, this must be the Khuzaa. They've heard of the war, they're coming to defend us. Complete opposite. These are our side. This must be Khuzaa. And Abu Sufyan responds, they neither have the guts nor the quantity to be this. and Abu Sufyan knows tribes better than Budail does they neither have the courage and guts to support us they'll abandon us and they did and even if they came they don't have 10,000 people this can't be them and while they're discussing Abbas calls out Ya Aba Al-Hamdala and Hamdala was the eldest son of Abu Sufyan Ya Aba Al-Hamdala and Abu Sufyan recognizes Ab al-Fadl, which is the kunya of Abbas. Because they all go by kunyas, as you know. And of course, Fadl ibn Abbas is the older brother of Abdullah ibn Abbas. Fadl ibn Abbas is the older brother of Abdullah ibn Abbas. So, Abu Sufyan recognizes the voice. He goes, Abu al-Fadl, what are you doing here? They still haven't figured out he's a convert. He has converted. They still don't know what's going on. Now, remember, in those days, people would travel for food. They would go hunting. They would get firewood. It's not, and if you go missing for a day or two, it's not the end of the world. So, what are you doing here? So, Abbas says, وَيْحَكْ Woe to you, this is the army of Muhammad ﷺ. It's not Khuza'ah, it's not your helpers. This is the army of Muhammad ﷺ. And if he conquers you tomorrow, then know that you shall be executed. Now, I don't need to tell you who Abu Sufyan is. By now, we all understand who is Abu Sufyan. there is no leader that even competes with the seniority of Abu Sufyan. They've all died at Badr. All of his friends and colleagues, Badr and Uhud are all gone. The only senior leader that can claim to really represent all of Mecca is Abu Sufyan. And there is no way that according to Al-Abbas he will be allowed to live. After all that you've done, you will be executed. And if we enter Mecca tomorrow, your head will be the first that shall be executed. So Abu Sufyan says, what can I do? What do you advise me? And Abbas says, come with me. Come with me and I shall ask the Prophet ﷺ to forgive you, to protect you. I shall intercede. And so Abu Sufyan not seeing any other option, he cannot see any option now, he's gonna die. He sees 10,000 people in front of him, he agrees. and Al-Abbas puts him on his own camel, not his camel, his mule. And it's not his mule, whose mule is it? The Prophet ﷺ's mule. Al-Abbas and Abu Sufyan, in the middle of the night, walk back into the army of 10,000 strong. And every time somebody stops them, who is there? Al-Abbas says, this is Al-Abbas on the mule of the Prophet ﷺ. This is Al-Abbas. and having the mule of the Prophet ﷺ is a sign of what? Not just protection but trust. Like the Prophet ﷺ must have given you for some expedition so no questions asked. Right? No questions asked. Wandering directly into 10,000 strong each one of whom would love to kill Abu Sufyan. But in front of him is Al-Abbas that both of them are riding the most sacred animal that the Muslims know that belongs to the Prophet ﷺ. So nobody dares to ask or stop or anything. And they get closer and closer and closer. And as they get closer, the seniority of the Sahaba rises until they pass by Umar ibn al-Khattab. They pass by Umar ibn al-Khattab. And Umar, and again it shows you their love for the Prophet ﷺ. They're guarding him, they're protecting him. And nobody can pass by except that everybody's wondering. It's whatever the time might be, 2 a.m., 3 a.m., we don't know what time it is, right? But whatever the time might be, this is not a time where people return on camels and mules. So Umar jumps up, who is there? And he doesn't need to ask any questions, he recognizes from the eyes. Abu Sufyan, adu wallah. He says, Alhamdulillah, Allah has given you to me without any covenant or treaty. It's a gift. Let's celebrate. Alhamdulillah, Meaning what? You're wandering in. You don't have any protection. This is the state of war. Alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed us. Abbas says, O Umar, he's under my protection. Now, pause here. Remember two lessons ago, we talked about the concept of aman. And the Prophet ﷺ said, that all Muslims can give aman. All Muslims can give aman. Even the lowest of them can give aman. And children can give aman, according to the majority of scholars. women and slaves, everybody can give aman all Muslims can give personal aman, one on one that so and so is under my protection and the rest of the Muslims have to basically listen and obey that this is of course in classical Islamic law so Abbas says he is under my aman so Umar is not going to let this go he accompanies armed guard you are not going to leave my sight he accompanies him to the tent of the Prophet and and no matter what time of the night it is this is Abu Sufyan, it's a major incident eventually they are granted the audience and Umar obviously, what do you think he's gonna ask for? Execution, right? Says, Ya Rasulullah, هذا عدو الله this is the enemy of Allah and Allah has given him to us without any treaty, without any covenant you know, there's no you didn't promise him anything and he deserves this and Abbas began arguing with him says no he is under my protection I told him he can come here and Umar insists and Abbas insists and the process is silent and then Abbas says stop it oh Umar basically it would be even more harsh than this you can say in English you can use even something more harsher than this be quiet type of stuff you understand what I'm saying here just stop it oh Umar for wallahi if he were from the Banu Adi the Banu Adi is the tribe of Umar you would never want to kill him but because he is from the Banu Abdi Manaf you are brave enough to do this now the Banu Abdi Manaf is the combination of the Banu Hashim and the Banu Umayyah the Banu Abdi Manaf combines the Banu Hashim and the Banu Umayyah and so the Banu Umayyah and the Banu Hashim are kind of cousins unlike the Banu Adi that are very distant cousins so Abbas brings in the tribal card. And this clearly shows that he's a new Muslim. He's still thinking somewhat in those lines. Right? Oh Umar, if he was from your tribe, you wouldn't want to kill him. At this, Umar stops completely. Because that's crossing the line. And he says, careful Ya Abbas. And wallahi listen to this statement. Wallahi listen to this statement. This is Umar ibn al-Khattab. فَوَاللَّهِ Your acceptance of Islam, the day that you accepted it, was more beloved to me than my own father Khattab having accepted Islam had he been alive. Subhanallah. Had my own father accepted Islam, it would not have been as joyful to me as you accepting Islam, only because the Prophet ﷺ was happier at your Islam than he would have been happier at the Islam of my father. Subhanallah. This is what you call love. and this is Umar saying this Wallahi it reminds you exactly of what Abu Bakr said Wallahi it reminds you exactly what Abu Bakr will say tomorrow when Mecca is actually conquered and he brings his father Ibn Abi Qahafa and eventually he accepts Islam and Abu Bakr begins to cry and he says Ya Rasulullah I would give anything to see Abu Talib here and him accepting Islam at your hands rather than my own father, Subhanallah This is what you call, حُبَّ الرَّسُولَ صَلَّى اللَّهِ That Umar wanted to execute Abu Sufyan, then when Abbas throws the tribal card, then he shows him, no, what are you talking about? Your Islam is more beloved to me than my own father had he been alive, simply because it brought more joy to the Prophet ﷺ. How dare you play the tribal card on me? And this clearly shows us the iman of Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله تعالى عنه. When the Prophet ﷺ saw these tensions, rise up and what not and flare he said let's basically call it an evening oh Abbas take Abu Sufyan to your tent bring him to me tomorrow morning take him to your tent he's not going to go home now and bring him to me tomorrow morning and Abbas took Abu Sufyan to his tent and they spent the entire night going back and forth Abu Sufyan and Abbas Abbas is trying to convert him Abu Sufyan is hesitant and not willing to accept until finally the next morning Abbas brings Abu Sufyan to the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ says that Ya Abu Sufyan isn't it time for you to acknowledge that there is no God but Allah isn't it time come on how long are you going to deny this and subhanallah what does Abu Sufyan say, Abu Sufyan says فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي May my mother and father be given in ransom for you. مَا أَلْطَفَكَ مَا أَكْرَمَكَ مَا أَوْصَلَكَ How gentle are you? How merciful are you? How fulfilling are you to the ties of kinship? Meaning, I would never have done what you're doing to me. I would never have done this. For you to allow me to live and treat me in this manner, and now call me to Islam. Abu Sufyan says, فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي May my mother, and this is the highest, I've said this before, but for those who forgot, this is the highest praise that you can give in Arabic, because anybody can sacrifice yourself. When you're willing to sacrifice your mother and father for something, then you're sacrificing. And Abu Sufyan as a mushrik, is so overwhelmed at the kindness of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he says, فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي مَا أَلْطَفَكَكَ How gentle and sweet are you? ما أرحمكك ما أوصلك How, and here it means how much are you fulfilling the ties with me? Then he says that أما هذا As for this shahada لا إله إلا الله Had there been any other gods besides Allah I would have seen them help me by now. Subhanallah. This is amazing. Had there been other gods besides Allah by now we would have won something. Right? For you to be in your place and for me to be in mine, clearly shows my gods don't exist, basically. So, Abu Su'ad... Now, what does this show us, by the way? Wallahi, it's really amazing that deep down inside, many of these people genuinely believed in idolatry. And I keep on bringing this up, especially to our younger Muslim brothers and sisters who literally think naively, let me just talk to somebody five minutes and they'll be accept Islam instantaneously. here we have the leaders of the Quraysh seeing the Prophet ﷺ interacting with him for 23 years and they still believe that Allat and Al-Uzza are gods besides Allah think about that it's very difficult to change your theology that you have been raised in it's very difficult to abandon the culture that you consider dear and Abu Sufyan is now finally the light bulb is clicking after 22 years basically he is saying you know if my gods really were true then I wouldn't be here right now which means what? at Badr at Uhud at Ahzab he genuinely believes in his gods it was Abu Sufyan at the battle of Uhud what did he say? أُعْلُ هُبَل didn't he say that? and this means he believed it and Umar responded Allahu Akbar now look where is Hubal? Where is Umar and where is Abu Sufyan? Look at the Qadr of Allah, how things change, subhanallah. So Abu Sufyan says, you know, I agree with you now. There should be no La Ilaha Illallah. So then the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam says, وَيْحَكْ يَا أَبَا سُفْيَانَ أَلَا آنَ لَكَ أَن تَشْهَدْ أَنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ Woe to you! Isn't it time you testify that I am Rasulullah? Okay, you testify La Ilaha illallah, now testify I am Rasulullah. And he says the same phrase, فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي يَا رَسُولَهُ فِدَاكَ أَبِي وَأُمِّي may my mother and father be given as ransom. How merciful you are, how kind you are, how generous you are. As for this matter, مَا زَادَ فِي الْقَلْبِ مِنْهُ شَيْءٍ I'm still hesitant. So think about this now. I agree, لا إله إلا الله. As for Muhammad Rasulullah, I'm not 100% sure. Abbas loses it. You can imagine, they must have had a long discussion, short night's sleep. You can imagine, right? Abbas is very angry now. And he says, Ya Abbas Sufyan, either accept or else you're gonna get killed tomorrow. One of the two now. Now notice, this is not the Prophet ﷺ speaking. Because in Islam, we don't threaten people like this, right? But this is a new Muslim. And this is Abu Sufyan's friend. He's saying, Come on Abu Sufyan, you have no choice now. I did all that I could, now it's your turn basically. You can imagine, right? I did all of this, now you're in front of the Prophet ﷺ. You're gonna have to. And so with reluctance, Abu Sufyan said the shahada. Subhanallah, subhanallah. What a story, what a story. After so many battles and years and incidents, after all the torture, after all the threats, after this and that, now right before entering Mecca, the greatest chieftain of the Quraysh alive, with difficulty and reluctance, but Islam is Islam and he accepts it. And wallahi brothers and sisters, just think about the perfect setup that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had planned for this incident to occur. لو أنفقت ما في الأرض جميعا We could never have brought about this whole setup. If we had spent the entire money in the world, we could not have brought about this perfect, perfect, perfect setup. Wallahi, down to the minute detail. Who is Abbas? Where is he at the point in time? who meets him, what time, everything is absolutely perfect, right had any other sahabi seen Abu Sufyan, he would have killed him or Abu Sufyan would not have trusted him, Abbas happens to be on the mule of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, right, wandering straight through the camps on the mule of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, with the disguise of Abu Sufyan, you know covered up, you know, in the shawl to protect him subhanallah, wallahi think about this truly this is Allah's aid coming there is no way you can set this thing up when Allah wants something he says kun fayakun and so eventually after all of these years Abu Sufyan finally accepts Islam and of course this also shows us that no doubt it is haram to threaten somebody to accept Islam and the process did not do it but Abbas is kind of being a little bit eager and it shows us that if somebody half-heartedly accepts Islam let it, okay some of us have a very different idea we say no no, you must accept Islam fully from the heart well you see the fact of the matter is we believe Islam to be true and therefore if somebody is half-hearted we will tell okay, bismillah accept, and when they accept we are certain that Islam will win them over because we're confident Islam is true and this is exactly what happened with Abu Sufyan that he's not quite fully convinced right now but eventually he will be convinced and this is our trust in Islam that yes that's exactly what's going to happen and of course we talked about Abbas starting the Abbasid dynasty well Abu Sufyan is from the Banu Umayyah Abu Sufyan starts the Umayyah dynasty here we have two converts Abbas and Abu Sufyan speaking with one another look at the Qadr of Allah little do they realize that between the two of them, they shall rule Islam for over 1,000 years. Little do they realize when they're having this conversation in the tent throughout the entire night, that my descendants and your descendants put together, we shall rule the bulk of Islam for over almost 1,000 years. Subhanallah. Look at the qadr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. One final point here and that is that, so when Abu Sufyan converted, Abbas said, Ya Rasulullah, you know that Abu Sufyan is a man of pride give him something to make him feel proud give him a gift to make him feel proud and so the Prophet said that famous statement that we are entering Mecca tomorrow so we are going to enter Mecca tomorrow whoever is in the Haram shall be safe we are not going to touch him whoever is in his own house shall be safe and whoever is in the house of Abu Sufyan shall be safe so this also shows us that you must humor people according to their mizaj, according to their backgrounds Abu Sufyan is a man of pride, he's a leader he doesn't want to be treated like everybody else so the Prophet ﷺ gives him an honor that your house is the only public house basically your house will be, well there might be one or two more we'll get to that next lesson but the first public house mentioned whoever enters the house of Abu Sufyan he is protected, we're not going to harm him Abu Sufyan's house becomes a sacred place for us not to harm anybody and the Prophet ﷺ told Abbas that take Abu Sufyan to such and such a place at the neck of the valley and let him see all of the army as it goes through in its march to Mecca and so Abbas took Abu Sufyan to the top of the valley and all of the army is going to pass through as they enter Mecca. And Abu Sufyan was amazed as far as the eye can see. Convoys and cavalry and people are coming in. And assignments and groups. And each group has a different banner. And he's asking, who is this banner? And Abbas says, this is the tribe of Sulaym. Who is this banner? And Abbas says, this is the tribe of Muzaynah. Who is this banner? And Abbas keeps on saying, because these are all converts. And Abu Sufyan cannot understand yet that Islam combines all of these tribes. And he was never expecting all of these tribes to come under the banner. And he kept on saying, how can we fight against the Muzaynah? How can we fight against the Sulaym? They're each 700, 1000, what not. Then, right at the very end, Ibn Ishaq says, there came Al-Khadra. And Al-Khadra is the, it's called the convoy of the Prophet ﷺ. And it was given the name Al-Khadra. And Ibn Ishaq says, you could see nothing other than the brightness of the armors. This is the prophecies and the final contingent coming. And all of the muhajirun, all of the ansar. And Abu Sufyan is amazed and he said, who is this convoy? And Abbas said, هذا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم والمهاجرون والأنصار. This is the process of the muhajirun, the ansar. And Abu Sufyan says, we have no manner of opposing all of them. O Abbas, the kingdom of your nephew has become very great. مُلْكُ إِبْنْ عَمِّكُ The kingdom of your nephew has become very great. And Al-Abbas says, وَيْحَكْ It is not a kingdom, it is prophethood. It is Nubuwwah that has brought him this. And Abu Sufyan says, فَذَاكَ إِذًا Let it be Nubuwwah then. Meaning, okay, if that's what you say it is, that is what it is. Subhanallah, what a melodramatic sight. Imagine if you will, imagine now, 10,000 Sahaba marching in. And here is the leader of the Quraysh witnessing all of this. Three years ago, there were 10,000 outside the gates of Medina. Three years ago, Arabia had combined to eliminate Islam. And now, look at the Qadr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. From where to where. Yesterday, our Prophet ﷺ is expelled from Mecca. and he is fleeing for his life. He only has Abu Bakr after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He only has Abu Bakr. They have to hide in a cave and they're fleeing for their lives. For three days they hide in that cave. And now subhanallah, less than eight years have gone by and our Prophet ﷺ is at the head of an army, 10,000 strong. And the Quraysh, where are the Quraysh? Where is the Izzah, the Batar, and the Riyah, and the Kibriyah of the Quraysh? Only Allah azza wa jal, walillahil izzatu jami'ah and inshallah we will continue where we left off from not next week, we can take a break next week inshallah we'll continue two weeks from now with the conquest of Mecca, are there any quick questions about today's lesson before we conclude yes so the question is can you do jama' before you begin the travel? If you have no easy alternative, so you're going to be in the plane from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. let's say, or 6 p.m. whatever, and you're going to miss the time for asr, and it's going to be inside the plane. In this case, in my humble opinion, it is allowed to do jama' but not asr. You may do jama', very exceptional circumstance, but this jama' has nothing to do with the safar. This jama' is allowed for a strong haja. And you may only do jama' of dhuhr and asr, or of maghrib and isha. You cannot do jama' of asr and maghrib. How can you do jama' of fajr and dhuhr? So jama' which is combination, is allowed in extremely extenuating circumstances. Once in a very very blue moon, for a major event, or a traveling is a type that you're not gonna pray standing up or what not so you may do jama' doctors have to have surgery to perform and you cannot leave for even 5 minutes you may do jama' and you know what's gonna happen you may do jama' but you cannot do qasr because qasr has to be done during traveling okay Thank you.

Seerah 78 - Pt

Al-Fatiha. the conquest of Mecca. And in our last lesson, we had discussed the Prophet ﷺ reaching right outside the city of Mecca. And a number of famous people converted right then and there. Quickly remind me, who were the people who converted outside of Mecca before he entered Mecca? Well, Abbas didn't convert outside of Mecca. Abbas converted closer to Medina. Abbas converted and he is considered to be a muhajir. Because his niyyah was to do hijrah. So it is true he converted before the conquest, but he converted closer to Medina. So who converted outside of Mecca? Sufyan? Who's Sufyan? Abu Sufyan. Which Abu Sufyan? Okay, so Muawiyah's father, but he converted towards the end. Before them was a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, he converted, right? and along with him was his cousin as well. So two of the cousins of the Prophet ﷺ converted and Abu Sufyan converted. Abu Sufyan, the famous Abu Sufyan, he converted after Al-Abbas spent an entire night debating with him in the camp of the Muslims. And Allah Azzawajal basically blessed Islam with the conversion of Abu Sufyan. Now just a little bit of an interesting historical tidbit here. you all know I gave the lecture on Karbala and that is a very controversial lecture and what not it is very interesting here that someone wanted to kill Muawiyah sorry Abu Sufyan and the Prophet ﷺ forbade him from doing so who is that person? Umar ibn Khattab interesting right and the dynamics of the group that now respects or we should say over respects the Alulbayt their perspective of Umar is what? Right? And how they view Yazid, the grandson of Abu Sufyan. Here we have the dynamics. Umar wanted to execute Abu Sufyan. Multiple times asking, come on ya Rasulullah, he has no this and that. So the Prophet ﷺ actually said no. And this is very interesting. And of course history, the grandson of Abu Sufyan is of course Yazid. Yazid ibn Muawi ibn Abu Sufyan. Right? And Umar is the one who wants to execute him. Had he been executed, then it would change the entire course of history. But Allah has a plan, and no one can overcome the plan of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Nonetheless, getting back to our topic here. So, we are now on the 20th of Ramadan in the 8th year of the Hijrah. So it is now the morning of the conquest of Mecca. The 20th of Ramadan on the 8th year of the Hijrah, it is the morning of the conquest of Mecca. And the people of Mecca still do not know that the army is an hour away. يعني سبحان الله when our Prophet ﷺ made dua Oh Allah, conceal my plan from the Quraysh it is humanly impossible to conceal 10,000 people from the city it's impossible yet because of that dua so Allah ﷻ did not allow the plans of the Prophet ﷺ to be exposed to the very literally to the minute that the army walked in a few minutes before that we'll see what happened that's when the people of Quraysh realized what's happening subhanallah and it is truly a miracle of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that it was kept under such if you like secrecy and the Prophet s.a.w. divided the army up and al-waqidi and other books they have a long detailed list of which tribe did what and who was given that and these names are not interesting to most of us here but we can say to be very generic that there were three primary contingents and each one of them had lots of smaller if you like subgroups there were three primary contingents and on the one of them the Prophet ﷺ put the Ansar in charge on the other he put the Muhajirun in charge and in the middle was a mix and a group and he was in the middle and so in the side of the Ansar he placed Sa'd ibn Ubadah Sa'd ibn Ubadah is the leader of the Ansar pause here there are two Sa'd that were leaders of the Ansar Sa'd ibn Mu'adh and Sa'd ibn Ubadah and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh when did he die? Jazakallah khair Sa'd ibn Mu'adh when did he die? Khandaq And that's what the Prophet ﷺ said, the throne of Allah has shook from the death of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh. So the two Sa'ds were the leaders, one of them dies, the one Sa'd remains. Sa'd ibn Ubada is the one who when the Prophet ﷺ passes away, the Ansar gather in his house, they want to make him the leader. This is Sa'd ibn Ubada, this is that one. So clearly he was given leadership roles in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. He's given the banner to take charge of the Ansar and all of the groups of the Ansar. And the Muhajirun have Khalid ibn al-Walid in charge. And some of the scholars, Al-Waqidi mentions, there were 700 muhajirun and 4,000 ansar. And the rest of them, 5,300 were from the other tribes, Muzaynah and Sulaymah and others, the other tribes from around Medina. And as Sa'd ibn Ubada is marching, he began to chant and cry out that, اليوم يوم الملحمة اليوم تستحل الكعبة Today is the day of death and destruction. Malhama is the Armageddon if you like. Today is the day of blood and destruction. Today the Kaaba itself will lose its haram and become halal. اليوم تستحل الكعبة Abu Sufyan heard this. And he rushed to the Prophet ﷺ complaining. That how can he say today the Kaaba will be made halal. So understand what does halal mean here. halal means it will not be haram and what does haram we have said this at least 10 times by now why is the haram called haram it is from haram why is the haram called haram because that which might be halal outside of it has become haram inside of it even the plucking of leaves even the hunting of animal even blood that is allowed to be shed you hunt an animal it's haram in the haram you cannot hunt gazelles and deers you cannot go hunting or pluck the trees that are wild as we have discussed in the books before, in our lecture series before. So the haram is sacred. It is sanctified. So Sa'ad says, today the haram will no longer be sanctified. اليوم تستحل الحرام So Abu Sufyan and the Quraysh have never verbally said the haram is halal. They might have done things that are against the haram, but technically they've always said the haram is haram. So he goes and he complains to the Prophet ﷺ. and the Prophet ﷺ said كذب سعد and كذب in modern Arabic it means he has lied in classical Arabic كذب means he's made a mistake كذب means أخطأ he made a mistake كذب سعد this is wrong and he ordered that the liwa or the banner be taken away from Sa'ad because of this mistake and instead he gave it to a Zubayr ibn al-Awwam who is a Qurashi he gave it to his cousin Zubayr ibn al-Awwam. And the middle battle or the middle cavalry was led by Abu Ubaid al-Amir ibn Jarrah. And so all of the leaders were from the Quraysh. And this clearly shows us the psychological awareness of the Prophet ﷺ. That the people who enter the Ka'bah and the Haram should all be from the Quraysh. Let there be no non-Qurayshi. He understood that only the Muhajirun should lead the Fatah into Mecca. And it also shows us that the Prophet ﷺ would make ijtihad, his reasoning, on the spot. That initially he chose Sa'd, and Sa'd is not a Qurashi. And when he heard something, he realized, you know what, this might cause problems. The jahili sentiment might be risen. Or, and of course, I mean, Sa'd, he didn't intend any evil, but he became overzealous. He said things he should not have said. He didn't intend any evil, but sometimes in your good, you do things that you should not do. And so the Prophet ﷺ took it away from him, and gave it to another Qurashi. And Abbas told Abu Sufyan, Abbas told Abu Sufyan, that you had better rush back to Mecca and tell them not to fight. So we see here, Abbas is acting as an intermediate between the Quraysh and the Prophet ﷺ. Remember, he's the recent convert. His loyalties are with Allah and His Messenger, but his heart is still somewhat attached to the Quraysh. After all, that is his tribe, his people. He's just left. So he tells Abu Sufyan, go back and warn the Quraysh not to fight. We don't want any bloodshed. And so Abu Sufyan rushes back into the city and this is when finally the people of Quraysh hear the news that the procession is right outside the city. Now honestly it is truly mind-boggling how it is possible for an army of 10,000 to reach literally the door of the city of Mecca without anybody finding out. But this is the dua of the Prophet ﷺ that Allah Azza wa Jal protected the army from even finding out when it is arriving. Otherwise, truly it is a miracle. Even the caravans between the cities, news reaches that the caravan is there, so and so is in the caravan. This is the way of the Arabs. But this largest army that Arabia had ever seen, it manages to make its way straight to Mecca without the Quraysh being aware that the Muslims were there. So Abu Sufyan rushes in on his horse and he is galloping and he is screaming at the top of his lungs, يَا مَعْشَرَ قُرَيْشِ O tribe of Quraysh, هَذَا مُحَمَّدُ Here is Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he has come to you with an army, you can never fight. لَا قِبَلَ لَكُمْ بِهَا Don't even stand to fight it. So, come to my house and you will be safe. Subhanallah, what did he just do now? The very last place of safety that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned, he makes it the only place of safety. Forget the haram, forget your houses, come to my house, you will be safe. Now obviously this Abbas was so correct. What did Abbas say? That ya Rasulullah, this is a man, he loves leadership, he loves sharaf and honor. Give him something to make him feel proud. And so the Prophet ﷺ gave him, remember this is from last lesson, the Prophet ﷺ gave him, whoever enters your house will be safe. And so now he rushes back to Mecca, and he says, come to my house, I guarantee you will be safe, right? And this shows that Abbas understood Abu Sufyan's psychology. And he runs through the streets of Mecca, the people start panicking, they start running and rushing, Helter and Skelter, the people gather around him, and he's telling them all of the details, I was just with, he doesn't tell them he's accepted Islam, I was just with Muhammad, he's not even saying Rasulullah now, I was just with Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, I've seen the army, you cannot fight, go ahead and surrender, do not take up arms. And as he's surrounded by this crowd, Subhanallah, an amazing humiliation occurs. And that is his own wife cannot believe that her husband is doing this. Who is Abu Sufyan's wife? Hind. Hind. Hind has done so much in the seerah. And she will still do some other things. We're gonna study that as well next Wednesday inshaAllah. She's gonna still do some other interesting things. Hind is an interesting character, let us just say, in the seerah. And of course she accepted Islam, so may Allah Azza wa Jal. Allah has forgiven her, she has accepted Islam. but at this point in time obviously she is not a Muslima and when she sees with her own eyes the rumors are true that her husband is telling them to surrender she darts through the crowd and she smacks her own husband in public Ya Latif, right? and she twists his facial hair I mean this is a wife that is a wife women don't take notes here she twists the facial hair and she starts giving him the most vile curses imaginable in public and some of this is recorded in Ibn Ishaq it's actually a bit hilarious and funny to be honest but these words are no longer used anymore اقتل الحميت الدسيم الأحمس just kill this lazy I don't even want to translate some of these things but you get the point she accused him of being you can imagine in the anger here right, uqtul, kill I mean this is the wife here and she's now telling the other people of Quraysh this, you know, whatever whatever, whatever, expletive, expletive kill this cowardly she even called him fat which I mean is interesting here, you know what I'm saying it's a weight issue, but the reason why she's calling him fat is to indicate laziness is to indicate cowardice, right I mean for sure Abu Sufyan is a warrior there's no question about this, but the point here is saying this is a person he doesn't have any guts he doesn't have any courage and so kill this lazy treacherous etc what an evil leader he has been meaning how can we take you as a leader and you wanna surrender and subhanallah what a public humiliation the wife is now doing this in public to her husband but Abu Sufyan retained his dignity and Abu Sufyan responded back woe to you don't let her cause you to act rashly. Calm down. Telling the crowd, don't let her cause you to act rashly for I tell you that an army has come, you cannot fight. You cannot fight it. There's no point. You are going to lose. Come to my house, you will be safe. Once again, my house, my house, my house. One of them said, of what use is your house to all of us? Meaning, how can we all fit? Of what use is your house? then he spills the beans whoever enters the haram is safe whoever enters his house and closes the door is safe whoever enters my house is safe now he tells them the whole story okay so in the end the message of the Prophet ﷺ is conveyed and so Ibn Ishaq said the people began running into their houses scurrying away the people began running to the haram because realize not everybody has a house there will be travelers there will be hujjaj there will be mu'taminin not everybody owns a place of residence right and not everybody can go to their house. Their house might be on the other side of the city. So the Prophet ﷺ gave them a number of alternatives. You can go to the Haram, that's the center, downtown, right in front of the Ka'bah. Stay there, you will be safe. You can go to your own houses, you will be safe. And there are certain public houses. Now, it is also said the Prophet ﷺ allowed the house of Abbas to become an open sanctuary and the house of Abu Sufyan. And maybe one or two other houses. The books of Sirah might mention other houses as well. The point is there were two or three public houses all open. that anybody can go there. And there's the haram and there is your house. And the Prophet ﷺ divided the army into three, as we said, contingents. And the one of them entered Mecca from the western side in our time. And the other entered Mecca from the eastern side. These were the two main entrances of Mecca. And he specifically forbade them, do not fight anybody. Do not unsheathe your sword. Do not kill anyone. unless they attack you. Then you can fight back in defense. Otherwise, it is forbidden to kill anybody. And that except he said a few people and he mentioned them by name. If you see these people, you may kill them. And these names will come later on inshaAllah. But otherwise, the general rule was you cannot fight anybody. And in this immediate chaos, a small group of Qurayshis banded together and they decided to fight back. How many? the books of seerah do not give us much details about this minor skirmish and what is very clear is that it was a chaotic skirmish they literally had probably half an hour they literally had you know just minutes to go running around get some people get whatever weapons they had so the books of seerah only mention a line or two and it's very clear that it wasn't an organized assault against the muslims it was just helter skelter it was chaotic and the one in charge of it was Ikrimah the son of Abu Jahl Ikrimah ibn Abu Jahl he could not imagine refusing and along with him he gathered together the two most famous leaders that were still alive Safwan ibn Umayyah and Suhail ibn Amr Safwan ibn Umayyah and Suhail ibn Amr we have dealt with all of these characters throughout Badr and Uhud and what not of course Suhail ibn Amr is the one who did Hudaybiyah the one whose son was being tortured and chained Abu Jandal that's the son of Suhail ibn Amr and Safan ibn Umayyah Umayyah is of course the famous one who persecuted Bilal and all of them this is Umayyah and this is the son of Umayyah Safan ibn Umayyah so basically these Ru'asa or these Baqiyah or the remnants of the Quraysh they decided to band together and fight back but it was doomed to failure how can you possibly fight 10,000 people and the books of Sira do not mention much details at all it only mentions that a handful were killed of the Quraysh. Ibn Ishaq mentions 13 or 14. Waqidi or others say like 20. But still, okay, from the whole city, a dozen. Or maximum less than two dozen. And from the Muslims, two or three were killed. And they were in the flank of Khalid ibn al-Walid. So it was the flank that Khalid was heading. The small contingent attacked them. Otherwise the rest of them were not able to attack. And thus Mecca was finally conquered on the 20th of Ramadan in the 8th year of the Hijrah with barely any loss of life after 21 years of difficulty. The Prophet ﷺ returned, the undisputed conqueror of the city of his birth, of the greatest city in the history of not just Islam but of humanity. And the people of Mecca could not possibly put up a fight. and therefore the Prophet ﷺ after the city was conquered, the Prophet ﷺ then entered it upon his camel from the area that is called in today's time Kudai. And Kudai is a famous area outside of Mecca. If you come from the southeastern side, the east, the parking lot, yes, but it is on the northeastern side or is it southeast? I think southeastern side. It's well known to be the large parking lot. If you want to park your car and take the bus into Mecca, Qudai has a massive parking lot, that's Qudai. So the Prophet ﷺ entered from that area, Qudai riding his camel, and he was dressed in his armor, so he's not in his ihram. And we know from one book of hadith, he had a red turban on him on this day, and it was flung underneath his beard. So he didn't have the turban behind him, he had it underneath and beneath him. and Ibn Ishaq and so many other books of seerah and what not mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ lowered his head all the way down to the camel so much so that his forehead was almost touching the back of the camel. And he was praising Allah, glorifying Him, saying the takbir and reciting Surah Al-Fatah. إِنَّا فَتَحْنَا لَكَ فَتْحًا مُّبِينًا We have given you a manifest victory. And the Prophet ﷺ made his way through the streets of Mecca, everybody in awe of him, until he stood in front of the Ka'bah, still on his camel, and in front of the house of Allah عز و جل, that his own father Ibrahim had built. He began doing tawaf, riding the camel, and he had in his hand a staff. He did not have a sword, he had in his hand a staff. And every time he passed by one of the idols, and there were over 350, some say 360 idols, one for every day of their year. Every time he passed by an idol, Ibn Ishaq mentions, he would point towards that idol with the staff. And if the idol had the face forward, it would fall forward. If the idol had the face backward, it would fall backward. Meaning, every one of those idols was destroyed directly by the Prophet ﷺ. A miracle of Allah Azza wa Jal by simply pointing the staff. And he kept on reciting that, جاء الحق وزهق الباطل إِنَّ الْبَاطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا The truth has come and falsehood has disappeared and vanished. Verily, the falsehood, batil, must eventually disappear. And he kept on going around the Ka'bah doing tawaf and every time he passed by the black stone as well with the same staff he would touch the black stone. With the same staff he would touch the hajar. He did not get off the camel. He did tawaf around the camel. around the Kaaba. And he called the people. The people had been gathering while he's doing tawaf. And this haram is filling up with the inhabitants of the city of Mecca until finally the entire city of Mecca has now packed inside of the haram. And in front of the Ansar, in front of the Muhajirun, in front of the people of Mecca, he calls for the keys of the Kaaba. And the keys of the Kaaba are given to him. So he takes the keys and with his own blessed hands, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, he unlocks the doors of the Ka'bah. And he enters the Ka'bah, he enters the Ka'bah, the house of Allah azza wa jal. And he finds inside the Ka'bah as well, signs of paganism and idolatry. He finds pigeons made out of sacred or blessed, from their perspective, you know, materials, precious stones. He finds other small things. and he takes them out and he throws them and he cracks them until inside of the Ka'bah as well is cleansed. And there were images inside the Ka'bah. Of them, there was images of angels. And there was on one side an image of Ibrahim a.s. And in his hands were the arrows that are used to throw in front of the idols. And the Prophet s.a.w. said, قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ May Allah curse them. What has Ibrahim got to do with this divination, with this shirk? قَاتَلَهُمُ اللَّهُ May Allah curse them. What has Ibrahim got to do with this paganism? And then he recited, مَا كَانَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ يَهُودِيًّا وَلَا نَصْرَانِيًّا وَلَكِنْ كَانَ حَنِيفًا مُسْلِمًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ Ibrahim was neither Yahudi nor Nasrani. Rather he was a pure Hanif that was a Muslim. And he was not of the pagans. According to one report, not in Ibn Ishaq, this is not Ibn Ishaq. According to one report, it's in Ibn Sa'ad and others that, on one side of the Ka'bah there was a picture of Mary and Jesus. now frankly this is a little bit bizarre and firstly the report is very weak secondly why would the Quraish draw Mary and Jesus it does not make any sense for them to draw Ibrahim makes sense for them to draw the angels makes sense because they thought the angels were the daughters of God nonetheless even if there was such an image we learn from Ibn Ishaq all of these images were wiped away and destroyed all of these images were destroyed thus when all of the idols had been demolished and the house of Allah had returned to the purity that it deserves, the way that Allah عز و جل had intended it and the way that his father Ibrahim had built it. Then when he had cleansed the haram of all of the filth of idolatry, he then turned to face them, speaking from the door of the Ka'bah, standing on the doorsteps of the Ka'bah with the doors of the Ka'bah open in front of him. Wallahi imagine the scene Imagine what I mean this is such a pinnacle Wallahi of the seerah Here we have the house of Allah Azza wa Jal Here we have the people of Mecca The Quraysh and the Ansar and the Muhajirun Muslims and pagans More than at least 12,000 people Are going to be here in the entire vicinity We have the 10,000 that are the Muslims At least 2,000 of the local The Qurayshis And all of them are waiting What will the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam do and he cleanses the Ka'bah, he opens up the doors. Now he stands and he faces them, speaking to them from the doors of the Ka'bah. What symbolism, what imagery. The doors are open. Here is Rasulullah standing at the house, the Baytullah, standing on the steps of Baytullah. And in front of him are thousands and tens of thousands of people. And he then gives them a very short khutbah and sermon that Ibn Ishaq and others record. that he says, لا إله إلا الله وحدة نصر عبدة وصدق وعدة وهزم الأحزاب وحدة لا إله إلا الله So he begins with Tawheed. He begins لا إله إلا الله There is no deity worthy of worship other than Allah. And he has fulfilled his promise. He has aided his servants. هزم الأحزاب وحدة He has destroyed all of the armies by himself. All of the enemies that were opposed to the religion have been destroyed by himself. Then he said, Verily, every single claim and matter of Jahiliyyah has been abolished by me. Everything of the ways of old is gone. We have established Tawheed, we will now negate everything from the days of Jahiliyyah, except two things. Two things will remain of the customs and the ways of Jahiliyyah, two things will remain. And that is the sadana and the siqaya. And this is basically the custodianship of the Kaaba and the feeding of the pilgrims. Now, the custodianship of the Kaaba and the feeding of the pilgrims. So, the custodianship of the Kaaba was of course the keys, and the keys were the right of Uthman ibn Mad'un and his tribe, and the keeping of the, sorry, the hospitality to the pilgrims was the Banu Hashim's responsibility. So the Banu Hashim had the responsibility of Siqaya, of course Zamzam, that's Abdul Muttalib. The responsibility of feeding the pilgrims and giving them water, this is the Banu Hashim. And the responsibility of the tribe, the keys is Banu Abd al-Daw. So the Prophet ﷺ said, all of the customs of Jahiliyyah are destroyed, except for these two. We will keep these two traditions alive. Everything else is gone. Then he said, verily Allah has abolished the arrogance of Jahiliyyah. What is the arrogance of Jahiliyyah? And the arrogance of Jahiliyyah is the tribal orders. The arrogance of Jahiliyyah is the hierarchy of customs and tribes. Allah has abolished all of the arrogance of Jahiliyyah. كُلُّكُمْ مِنْ آدَمُ وَآدَمُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ مِنْ ذَكَرٍ وَأُنثَى وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ شُعُوبًا وَقَبَائِلًا لِتَعَارَفُوا إِنَّ أَكْرَامَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ He recited the entire verse. And by the way, the same paragraph was also said in the Hajjatul Wada' as well. The same message was given there as it was given here. And that is, all of you are from Adam, Adam was from dust. Basically, the mannerisms of Jahiliyyah, where there is a hierarchy of nobility. If you're Qurashi, if you're Hudhali, if you're Khuza'a, each one has a role. all of that is gone. All of you are from Adam, and Adam was from dust, and therefore there's going to be a new system and order, and that is the order of إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ The one who has higher privilege is the one who has more taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then with all of the Quraysh gathered around, that is when the Prophet ﷺ asked that famous question, that مَا تَظُنُّونَ أَنِّي فَاعِلٌ بِكُمْ What do you think that I shall do to you? What do you think that I shall do to you? And so they said, خَيْرَ You're going to do the best. خَيْرَ أَخٌ كَرِيمٌ وَابْنُ أَخٍ كَرِيمٌ You are one of us. You're a noble brother. And you're the son of a noble brother. Your father as well is one of us. You must do good. You are our brother, and you're the son of a brother. And the Prophet ﷺ gave those famous lines, اِذْهَبُوا فَأَنْتُمُ الطُّلَقَاءَ لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْيَوْمِ يَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ Go for you are free. There is no blame on you today. He quoted Yusuf a.s. And we gave a hold of Seerah of Surah Yusuf as well. And we mentioned how beautiful and the ending of Yusuf's story was. And this came down when the Prophet s.a.w. most needed it in Mecca. When he was being persecuted. When he was being ridiculed and tortured. And the message was given to him from the very beginning. that when you shall be in the position of power, here is Yusuf on the throne, there are his brothers doing sajda in front of him. A time will come, you are on the throne as well. You are on the house of Allah and everybody is physically underneath you. Everybody is literally in your control. You must follow the footsteps of Yusuf. اذهبوا فأنتم الطلقاء Go for you are free today. Wallahi words cannot do justice to this scene. Wallahi the imagination simply just goes to places where we cannot, what a wish we could see this type of scene that is being played out and enacted in front of our eyes. We simply cannot describe the significance and the beauty of what has just occurred. But some benefits before we move on. That the Prophet ﷺ, when he conquered Mecca, he wanted to honor Mecca like no other city had been honored. And he conquers Mecca by commanding the conquerors not to fight when they are attacking the city, not to attack even. And never in the history of humanity has an army been told when they're attacking a city, don't attack, don't conquer, don't unsheathe your swords. Never in the history of humanity has a city been conquered simply by the army marching in. And this is something that Allah blessed Mecca with. And also when it is conquered, we see the humility, the humbleness of the Prophet ﷺ he does not enter it like a pompous arrogant king he does not enter with his chest puffed up with pride haughty and mighty no he enters in a manner that is unprecedented once again in human history neither before nor after has any conqueror entered with his head bowed down in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so much so that his face is almost touching the back of the camel. What humility is this? And how who else can possibly demonstrate that type of gratefulness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Notice as well, that when he comes in as a conqueror, the first thing he does is not to deal with the business of conquering. The first thing he does is to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The first thing he does, he goes straight to the Ka'bah and he venerates and honors Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the priority right now. Deal with the biggest victory in mankind we'll deal with that later. Right now, thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by doing the tawaf. And as he does the tawaf, along with worshipping Allah, he does the second greatest act, and that is, you need to do it as you worship Allah, and that is to reject ta'hut. That is to, la ilaha illallah. He is doing both. He is worshipping Allah, negating the worship of other than Allah. And so as he is doing tawaf, he destroys the filth that is around the holiest place on earth. and he finishes with the external idols. Then he deals with the internal idols and filth, and then he deals with the Quraysh after demonstrating for them what truly is the message of Islam, and that is the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone. In his sermon, he summarizes the main points, and that is he praises Allah, and la ilaha illallah wahda. He just begins simply by this. This is the reality of what I've been calling you to for over 20 years now. لا إله إلا الله وحده That Allah عز و جل alone is worthy of worship. نصر عبده وصدق وعده وهزم الأحزاب وحده لا إله إلا الله Then after praising Allah and glorifying Him, He then mentions to them that all of your old ways, they must be abolished and gone. All of them are gone now. This is now a new system that will come in. And this system is only the one of taqwa has a higher status over the one who has lesser taqwa. Otherwise, everybody is from Adam, and everybody is from, and Adam was from Turab. Then he asks them, what do you think I should do with you? What do you think I will do with you? And by asking them, what should be done? This is such beautiful psychology. He doesn't just command and say. Rather he asks them. And by asking them, so many things are demonstrated. First and foremost, his own superiority over them. That now I am in charge of you. I have now the power in my hands. So he gives them that in a very gentle manner. He doesn't boast. No, rather he says, you understand it is now my turn. So what do you think I should do with you? So he establishes the rank that he deserves in such a humble manner. At the same time, the implicit fact of the question or the implicit tone of the question, you have done so much wrong you deserve a punishment but he doesn't say that it's implied once again it is the perfection of his akhlaq he doesn't say how could you and why did you but he does want to get the point across you guys really messed up basically you guys really did something wrong and so he does it in such a beautiful manner what do you think I should do with you and automatically the impression, not impression it's implied here, it's understood that what have you done you deserve to be punished even though he doesn't say that and by asking the question he extracts from them their hopes, their admiration for him, that in the end of the day, when push comes to shove, they knew he was a good man and he allows them to testify with their own tongues what they knew, but they were too cowardly to say before, or they were too arrogant to say before. So he brings it out of their hearts, and they all testify, khaira, you must do the best. After all, you are an akhun kareem. You're such a generous man who belongs to us, and your father as well belonged to us. Akhun kareemun, wabnu akhin kareemin. And no doubt this demonstrates our Prophet ﷺ is rahmatan lil'alameen. No doubt, this and ta'if put together. Wallahi, this is the seerah summarized. what he did with the Ta'if, when he was persecuted and alone, what he did in Mecca at the conqueror, and at the pinnacle of his strength, and the both times he forgave. When he was alone, and when he was at the head of an army. At the both times he forgave for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. No doubt this shows his character that he is rahmatanil alameen, but it also shows us the reality of this religion. This religion is not about bloodshed. This religion is not about military victory and war. this religion is about the worship of Allah however it's done if it requires war or if it's done through peace sometimes strictness usually mercy and this is demonstrated in the seerah from the beginning to the end also one of the interesting points here as well that it is said he prayed inside the Ka'bah now we don't know exactly when he prayed did he pray before the sermon or after the sermon we don't know exactly when some can say that he prayed before he gave the sermon on the footsteps and according to others he prayed after the sermon Allah knows best you really I mean it's not you know how are you going to resolve this I can say my gut instinct but that doesn't mean much here but Allah knows best it would make sense that he prayed before he gave the sermon or the talk that he prayed two raka'ah and according to some he prayed six raka'ah two two two in three different directions and Bilal was with him and it is narrated in Sahih Muslim and others that later on, many years later, Ibn Umar asked Bilal where did the Prophet ﷺ pray when he went inside the Ka'bah. And so Bilal pointed, he prayed here, he prayed here, he prayed here. So Ibn Umar would always want to pray in those places as well. And of course, I mean for those who do not know, praying inside the Ka'bah is an established sunnah from this act. From this act we know it is sunnah to pray inside the Ka'bah. It is a sunnah that is very rare in our times because the Ka'bah is locked up. May Allah Azzawajal give me and all of you an opportunity to practice this sunnah. But if anybody is blessed to do this, so which direction do you pray in? So the Bilal and others told us that when you're inside the Kaaba you may pray facing any of the walls. You take the wall as your qibla and you just pray this wall, that wall, that wall, any wall you may pray. And he began with the wall that was opposite the door. So he walked in and he prayed with his back to the door. And he prayed two raka'ah right in front of the wall that is facing the door of the Ka'bah. So, according to one report he prayed before the sermon, and my kind of gut instinct would say this makes sense. Some say he then prayed and then he came back out. Allah knows best. Then when he came back out, and he still had the keys in his hands. Ali ibn Abi Talib says to him, Ya Rasulullah, why don't you make the siqaya and the hijab together and put it to us? I.e. why don't you combine the care of the Ka'bah and the feeding of the pilgrims to the Banu Hashim? Now subhanAllah this goes back to a hundred year old custom now. and Ali wants the honor for the Banu Hashim Ali wants now to combine because if you remember from the earliest Seerah lectures where we were talking about the rivalry and the way that it was resolved was that Abdi Manaf and others they decided to distribute one son gets this, one son gets that, one son gets this right, and this rivalry was kept alive and it was manifested when the Kaaba was being rebuilt and everybody wanted to put the black stone in the time of the Prophet ﷺ so now again Ali he wants to now get it for the Banu Hashim. And the Prophet ﷺ did not answer him. Rather he said, أَيْنَ عُثْمَانِ بِالطَّلْحَةِ Where is Uthman ibn Talha? He is the Banu Abd al-Dar. He is the one we talked about his conversion. So he was brought immediately to the Prophet ﷺ, and he said, إِلَيْكُمُ الْمِفْتَاحِ Go ahead and take your keys, Ya Uthman. Today is the day of Al-Wafa' wa Al-Birr, fulfilling the promises and giving back what is due. And Allah Azza wa Jal had revealed before at this that, أَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا That return the amanat to the people that deserve it. And many scholars have interpreted this verse to be applicable to this incident that the Prophet ﷺ gave the keys back to Uthman ibn Talha. And since he gave it back to Uthman ibn Talha, Since that time, up until our times, never in the history of our religion has anybody dared to take it away from the descendants of Uthman. To this day, you will see it on YouTube. Maybe next time, maybe we can hook it up, I'll show you. They interviewed the descendant of Uthman ibn Talha. He's on YouTube. They interviewed his 42nd or I don't know how many descendant. And that is the actual descendant of Uthman ibn Talha. they still have, of course the key has changed obviously, because the door has changed obviously, right? But the symbolic key that is given, it is still in the tribe of the Banu Abd al-Dar, and it is still in the descendants of Uthman ibn Talha. Now, remember, remember what allowed the Prophet ﷺ to attack if you like, or conquer Mecca. What had allowed him to do this? Who can remind me? After all there was the treaty, So when one of the allies of the Quraysh had attacked one of the allies of the Muslims, would you happen to remember the tribe names? Khuza'a. Yes, good. Banu Bakr and Khuza'a. Okay, so the Prophet ﷺ had not forgotten. This is what allowed us to do this. So he now allowed the Khuza'a to attack the Banu Bakr as a retaliation. as a retaliation because that was after all the purpose that they had killed more than 20 people and he allowed them to engage in a minor skirmish and he said you have until Asr and only Asr so they literally had few hours and most of the time is in the heat of the sun and it was intentionally done to basically curb it and end of story you have only until Asr and then that is it and after the prayer of Asr the Prophet ﷺ then forbade them there shall be no more bloodshed in the Haram now, the Haram has returned back to the sanctity that it had and it so happened that on the next day one of the people of Khuza'at did kill one of the people of the Banu Bakr in revenge and the Prophet ﷺ became extremely angry and he gave a sermon to them and he threatened them to do this again and he said if it is done again then the one who does it it shall be permissible for the murderer's family to extract qisas. You're not under my protection anymore basically. And he said that the haram has returned to its sanctity the way that Allah Azza wa Jal had created it. And if anybody tells you that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam fought and shed blood in it then you say to him, this is a hadith then you say to him Allah has allowed the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he didn't allow you. And Allah only allowed him for one hour of the day. Sa'atan min naha. He only allowed him for, now sa'at doesn't just mean one hour, it means like a time of the day. Allah only allowed him for one bit of the day. And then, at now asr time basically, it is now returned to the way that it has been. Now, the conquer, the conquest of Mecca was a unique conquest in that not only was no fighting allowed, no war booty was taken. No POW was taken. No land was conquered. There was no actual battle, if you like. It was something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed him with, because it is a sacred land and a haram. The Prophet ﷺ, as we said, before he entered Mecca, he had mentioned a few people that were not given amnesty. So we'll quickly mention those few people, who they were, and then return to the story of the conquest of Mecca. And this is not going to be the last episode of the conquest of Mecca. We have at least another two, I think, to go. The email said today is the last. It's not the last. We have another one or two to go. So, the Prophet ﷺ, when he sent in the commanders for the conquest of Mecca, he said everybody should be spared except for a few people. Now, who are these few people? Books of Sira mention different numbers. Al-Waqidi says there were exactly six, four men and two women. but Ibn Ishaq does not give a number but he gives names that Waqidi does not give and Ibn Sa'ad as well so the earliest books of seerah mention some mention 6 some mention 7 some mention 8 and some even say 9 but even if it's 6 to 9 so between 6 and 9 this is the number of people that were not spared so from a city of maybe 2000 less than a dozen were mentioned by name and for these people the Muslims were told for these people you may kill them wherever you find them it doesn't matter and who are these people and the beauty of it is that even these people more than half were eventually forgiven even this list that was an exception still in the end many of them were forgiven who are these people number one on the list Iqrima ibn Abi Jahal I will talk about him in a while Iqrima the son of the Firaun because the Prophet ﷺ said, Abu Jahl is the Fir'aun of my Ummah. Number one is Iqra bin Abu Jahl. Number two on this list is Abdullah ibn Khatal. Abdullah ibn Khatal. And Abdullah ibn Khatal, he had converted to Islam and came to Medina, performed the Hijrah. The Prophet ﷺ sent him on an expedition, him and another Sahabi, to give a message to somebody. And on the way there, Abdullah ibn Khatal murdered the Sahabi took his stuff and fled back to Mecca and became a Murtad so ibn Khatal was not allowed to and not only that he then purchased two slave girls who were known for their poetry and he asked them or he charged them with writing poetry against the Muslims and against the Prophet ﷺ which is of course in those days this is the height of propaganda to write these types of poetry. So he purchases two well-known poets, female poets that were slaves, and he puts them full-time that you're gonna just write poetry against the Prophet ﷺ and against Islam. So this is Abdullah ibn Khatal, and as ibn Khatal with Atta, and some books say Abdullah ibn Akhtal, so Abdullah ibn Khatal or Akhtal, and ibn Akhtal or ibn Khatal, he had a very harsh execution. He actually fled to the haram itself. And he jumped onto the doors of the Kaaba. This is when the army is coming in the process. I'm still outside. He hasn't come yet. This is obviously before the speech, right? So he jumped onto the doors of the Kaaba. And he begged for forgiveness. And he said, protect me from the Kaaba. Like from the honor of the Kaaba. Because the Kaaba is the sacred place. You're not supposed to do any bloodshed, obviously. Even the days of Jahiliyyah. So when the Sahaba saw him, and he took the curtain of the Kaaba, and he put it around himself. Don't kill me. in other words this is the height of sanctity you understand right don't kill me like using the curtains of the Kaaba is clinging on to it even the Sahaba felt this is too much right there we can't do this now so they actually sent an emissary back and they said Ya Rasulullah Ibn Al-Akhtal he is protecting himself with the curtains of the Kaaba what should we do and the Prophet said kill him so he was executed so it was a very harsh punishment and was executed right then and there there was another execution, Miqyas ibn Subaba he too had pretended to become a Muslim only in order to do a revenge killing so long story but one of the Sahaba had killed his brother and so he wanted to get revenge so he pretended to be a Muslim he then entered Medina, he then assassinated he then returned, so he too was executed. So these two are executed. One of the most interesting stories is Abdullah ibn Abi Sarah or Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarah that he accepted Islam emigrated to Medina he's a Qurashi emigrated to Medina and he was one of the few who began writing for the Prophet ﷺ as a scribe. And eventually he became Murtad and he returned back to Mecca and he started fabricating lies against the Prophet ﷺ saying that the Qur'an was from his dictation. Now this story by the way is used a lot by orientalists. The story is they jump on the story. And he would say that I would change the Qur'an. And this is a lie. He's just smearing Islam with. And I would change the Qur'an and the Prophet ﷺ would say, let's say. And so he became Murtad, he returned back to Mecca. His story is actually very interesting. Very quickly we'll just say that what happened was he was the foster brother of Uthman ibn Affan. Uthman ibn Affan. I.e. they have the same foster mother. So they're very close. And when Mecca was conquered, he somehow secretly managed to get to Uthman and begged him for forgiveness. so Uthman hid him until things calmed down until Mecca was conquered, everybody's calmed down after a few days Uthman brings him directly to the Prophet and he begs for forgiveness and asks to be forgiven and accepts Islam he's standing in front of the Prophet and all of the Sahaba around the Prophet does not do anything complete silence and the silence becomes so thick and dense but nobody, what can you do? After a long pause, the Prophet ﷺ says, okay, accepted. Then he leaves. The Prophet ﷺ then turns to the Sahaba and said, weren't any of you wise enough to understand why I didn't say yes? Why didn't you execute him? meaning the command was to execute that was the previous command right the command was to execute weren't any of you wise enough to understand so one of the Ansar said ya Rasulullah why didn't you motion with your eyes like this you know why didn't you motion with your eyes and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said it is not befitting that a Prophet of Allah give signals with his eyes to kill somebody it's not even when I did it you are laughing it's not befitting for a Rasul, for a Nabi to give isharat with his eyes, it's not befitting, but subhanallah, and that's a beautiful story by the way so much benefit from the story because this man, Abdullah ibn Abi Sarah when he repented, he truly repented and eventually he, Hasun al-Islam his Islam became very strong, he regretted what he had done, Umar appointed him to be the governor of Egypt by the way, he was the governor of Egypt, one of the first governors of Egypt, in fact the first governor of Egypt after Amr Amr was the conqueror and so the first political figure that was sent to rule over Egypt was Abdullah bin Abi Sarah and he lived a very righteous life and he died a beautiful death as well and subhanallah it really shows us that we've said this so many times but our Rasul salallahu alayhi wa sallam is indeed the best human but he is not God, he is not Allah and Allah had a different plan for Abdullah bin Abi Sarah and no doubt he deserved to be executed and had he been executed it is deserving but Allah had something else planned and so this is one of those who was not executed also on the list to be executed were the two women the slave girls we talked about the ones who had written lots of poetry and their names were Fartana and Sara Fartana and Sara these were the two names and of these two Fartana was executed Sarah eventually she fled eventually she asked for forgiveness and she was forgiven so her life was spared as well so we talked about Ibn Akhtal and Miqyas they were killed Abdullah bin Abi Salah was spared of the two women one was spared Ikrimah Ibn Abi Jahal was eventually spared as well very very interesting story of Ikrimah Ibn Abi Jahal that when Mecca was conquered he was the one trying to fight when he lost, he fled he fled immediately he didn't wait for the procession to enter in and he fled to Jeddah, he took a ship to Habasha, he went to Abyssinia that he was gonna go into exile what's he gonna do now, where is he gonna go Arabia is conquered, so he flees to Jeddah, from Jeddah he goes into a ship and he goes to Abyssinia and on the way to Abyssinia a beautiful story happens and that is, that the ship, now obviously a few days he would have been in Jeddah, then he's now getting on the ship to Abyssinia, and so a storm overtakes the ship and you know, you can imagine these are going to be their dingy ships back in those days and very old and what not, and the captain of the ship says that we don't have the power to withstand this storm for sure we're going to drown looking at the conditions here, for sure we're going to drown so now is the time to make dua to Allah for wallahi you and I both know that our gods are not going to help us at this point in time now the captain was a pagan as well right so he now he's telling the people on the ship you have only one way to be saved that's a miracle from up there and you better make dua to him and not to these false gods because we both know let's cut all of the crap basically we both know only one being is going to help us and that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all of these other idols are not going to help us Ikrimah says that was when it struck me subhanallah imagine this man as well Allah had intended something good for him even though he is the son of the Firaun of this Ummah even though the number one on the list kill whatever you see is Ikrimah number one on the list and wallahi he deserves to be on the list but Allah has another plan so on the ship after 20 years of being who he is. Then he said the light bulb went off basically. Well, he didn't say that obviously, but you get the point. And he said that it occurred to me then that if our gods will not help us when we need them, then why should we worship these gods when we don't need them? Right? It's simple common sense here. When we need them most, these gods are not going to help us. So then why at ease and comfort, we should go back on land and worship these gods and forget about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he realized after all, that La ilaha illallah is true. Which shows us over and over again, that these pagans, many of them, Abu Sufyan included, and Ikram and others, they genuinely believed that these gods were living beings. These gods could hear and obey and listen to and what not, and give them what they wanted. And therefore do not be surprised when you meet somebody who still believes in these types of things. Or whatever their culture and civilization says. It's not that easy to be persuaded from the religion that you happen to be born into. This is the fact of the matter. And finally Ikrimah says, and this is his own story, he's narrating it, it's a long hadith. Ikrimah says that, O Allah, I promise you, if you save me, I will accept Islam. and I will go to your Rasul ﷺ and I will find his and I will put my hand in his hand and I will find him to be forgiving and merciful so Allah saved Iqnima and as soon as he went back to Jeddah he immediately went to the Prophet ﷺ who was still in Mecca before Hunayn and he had wrapped himself in a turban because if anybody would see him he would kill him immediately he had wrapped a turban around his face and he made his way, very dangerous made his way through the camp until he stood in front of the Prophet ﷺ and he now unfurled himself and he said, Ashadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu annaka la rasoolallah then he gave his whole story and so when he gave the story so the Prophet ﷺ then accepted his Islam and Ikrimah, he died a shaheed fighting against the Romans later on so he clearly showed himself to be sincere as a convert So here's yet another one that was spared. One or two more are mentioned. Three more we'll quickly mention that we're done for today. Three more we'll mention. So how many have we mentioned so far? No, definitely more than five. Ikrimah, Ibn al-Akhtal, Miqyas, Abdullah ibn Abi al-Sarah, and the two women. We've mentioned six. Of these six, how many were actually killed so far? So far three are killed and three are spared. Okay, we'll mention another three to make it nine. of these three, two are killed and one is spared. Okay? So a total of five people killed out of more than two thousand. So who are these other three? Very quickly, number one is Al-Huwayrit ibn Al-Nuqayth Al-Huwayrit ibn Al-Nuqayth and number two is Habbar ibn Al-Aswad. Who can remind me who Habbar ibn Al-Aswad is? Who can remind me who Habbar ibn Al-Aswad is? He's a bad guy. He remembers I said the name. I like this. I know you said the name somewhere in the seerah. MashaAllah. Is he the one who attacked Prophet during the Uhud? No. He was killed right then and there. Yeah. No, this is two years or three years ago. This is a long time ago. do you not remember the Habbarid dynasty of India yes the Habbarid dynasty of India of the first Islamic dynasties ever in Multan, in Sindh in Pakistan you Pakistanis and I should say us Pakistanis should know this dynasty the city of Mansura which is outside of Multan and Karachi and others still to this day you find the remnants they are called the Habbarids this is their ancestor Habbar whom the Prophet ﷺ by name said he should not be spared obviously he was spared because there is a dynasty called the Habbara dynasty okay so what did Habbara do can you remind me now that I told you who it is or you still don't remember still don't remember so Habbara was the one who refused to allow Zaynab the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ to emigrate remember in the battle of Badr Zaynab's husband right? the prophet had made an agreement with him that I will set you free if you send my daughter back, that was the agreement right? and so he followed up with that promise but he acted a bit foolishly in that he publicly sent the daughter back and he should have done it discreetly so in broad daylight he sends Zainab with their belongings and everything and the Quraish are fuming how dare we return the daughter of Muhammad to hadith, never gonna happen. And they surround, they don't know what to do because it's a woman. Habbar was the one, took his spear and shoved it at the animal, not at her. The animal jostled backwards, she fell off, she was pregnant, she had a miscarriage. She lost the baby. This is Habbar. Okay, so Habbar as well, his name was put on the list. Eventually he too repents and he is forgiven. So he manages to get to the process and he's forgiven. Hawaydith ibn al-Nuqayyad he did something similar but to the two younger daughters of the processam and there was no pregnancy, there was no miscarriage but when the processam immigrated, so this is way before the early part of the seerah when the processam immigrated, obviously his daughters did not immigrate at the time he immigrated with Abu Bakr obviously so he had entrusted Abbas to bring the other two daughters that were not married, to bring them and save, deliver him in Mecca. And so Fatima and Umm Kulthum were being taken by Abbas. And this Qurashi, Huwayrit ibn Nuqayth, he was the one who refused to let them go for a while. He threatened them. The two girls fell off of the horse as well. And so he also caused them harm. But obviously they lived obviously. But the very fact that you would do this to two girls and threaten Abbas and what not. so he was also not spared and he was executed. So it was Ali who then executed because Ali is married to Fatima it's full perfect justice here. It was Ali who then executed. And the final person on the list I said two were killed no two were spared sorry one was killed. Two were spared. Habbar was spared and then the final man on the list was spared. Hurwaitith only was killed. The final man on the list you all know his story we've done it in a lot of detail and that is Wahshi. Wahshi as well was put on the list that he has killed Hamza and he should not be spared and Wahshi knew that he would not be spared so Wahshi as soon as Mecca was conquered he fled to Ta'if he fled to Ta'if and he only converted when the people of Ta'if converted after Hunayn when the people of Ta'if converted and they sent their delegation so Wahshi was a member of that delegation and Wahshi accompanied the delegation to the Prophet ﷺ I gave you his story two years ago as well that when he converted at that point in time so the Prophet ﷺ forgave him this was now in Medina now, this is not the conquest of Mecca this is a year later year and a half later so Wahshi comes and the Prophet ﷺ tells him oh Wahshi tell me your story in detail and Wahshi told him all that he had done and the Prophet ﷺ is crying till his beard is now wet. And then he says, Oh Wahshi, I have forgiven you, but don't show me your face. What a punishment. Wallahi, what a punishment. Don't show me your face. Get away from my sight basically. And so Wahshi, as long as the Prophet ﷺ was alive, Astaghfirullah, what a punishment. He could not be in the same area as the Prophet ﷺ. Wherever is the Prophet ﷺ, he has to run away. La hawla wa lakho salamu ala. And even after, he was guilty of crimes and what not and one of the sahaba said I knew that Allah would not spare the killer of Hamza and he was guilty of drinking and what not till the day that he and we don't say this astaghfirullah to and he was in the end of the day a sahabi and but the sahaba are levels not all of them were like Abu Bakr and Umar and Wahshi is definitely not of those as-sabiqoon al-awwaloon he converts at the very end and he has even if he is forgiven but still there are you know taints in that forgiveness but still in the end radiallahu anhum all of them ajma'een this we're already above our time but very quickly again just to summarize again so the full list of people is nine that multiple books of seerah give here and there the full list is nine of this full list only four are actually killed and five are in the end spared so even the exceptions turn out to be exceptions even the exceptions by and large are forgiven other than basically 4 people at max and the rest of them also are forgiven inshallah ta'ala we will continue next week about the conquest of Mecca and what happened and we're still in the Ka'bah by the way the Prophet ﷺ is still standing on the footsteps when we come back next week inshallah and then continue from there Thank you.

Seerah 79 - The Conquest of Makkah Part 5 ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. conquest of Mecca, we're still talking about the incidents that occurred in the conquest of Mecca. And as is typical with all of the incidents of the seerah, what we have is lots of narrations and we need to piece the puzzle together. We need to figure out what exactly happened when. So in our last class, I went into a little bit of a tangent regarding all of the various people that the Prophet ﷺ had not forgiven. And obviously, each one of these stories took place over the course of the next two, three weeks. We just lumped them all together for logistics sake. But even of those, we said there were either 6 or 7 or 8 or 9, even of those, the bulk of them eventually were forgiven, and only a handful were executed. And as we said, this is the general rule of Islam, that mercy and tolerance and compassion, but strictness must be shown as the exception to send some fear. There's got to be some sense of strictness in order that people do not cross the line. So we had mentioned all of these stories, Now let us return to the actual conquest of Mecca. We had mentioned the Prophet ﷺ gave the khutbah straight from the doors of the Ka'bah. And the symbolism is so obvious, it is so powerful, that here he is standing in the Ka'bah, quite literally he's standing in the Ka'bah. The doors are open behind him. And the people of Mecca are gathered around him. And what a beautiful, powerful scene. Quite metaphorically and symbolically the doors of Allah are open up. And anybody who wants to embrace Islam, can embrace Islam. And there is Rasulullah ﷺ at the doors of the gate. I mean, the symbolism here is simply too profound. It's too obvious that here the Prophet ﷺ is standing at the doors of the Ka'bah, the doors are open, and he is inviting them to accept Islam. And in front of him are all the people of Mecca, and he tells them, go forth, you are free today. اذهبوا فأنتم الطلقاء And obviously he offers them to accept Islam. and at this point in time he then instructs Bilal the famous instruction and that is to climb up to the top of the Kaaba and to give the Adhan from the top of the Kaaba this one incident of the seerah is one of the most famous incidents that even somebody who doesn't know anything about the seerah the one or two things he will know is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala honored Bilal to be the first mu'adhin in Mecca the very first human being ever to give Adhan in the holiest of holies on top of the Ka'bah was Bilal. And this is a lesson we have learned from our youth. And it is such a true lesson, even if we've heard it a million times, truly how amazing it is that the voice that used to call out in the valleys of Mecca, being persecuted by the Quraysh, the voice that used to testify to the unity of Allah in the valleys of Quraysh, Ahadun Ahad, Ahadun Ahad, that same voice would be chosen by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and by His messenger to now proclaim at a time of izzah. He who remained firm at a time of humiliation shall be honored at a time of izzah. He who remained firm and persevered during times of persecution, that will be the one who will come out on top during times of being honored. So, the one who kept his voice for the sake of Allah and refused to budge, that was the same person that was chosen to now announce and proclaim ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah on that beautiful day, on that auspicious occasion, on the top of the Kaaba. And truly, it was an honor that was unprecedented in the history of Arabia, that an Abyssinian slave with no lineage, and no background, and no connections with any of the Quraysh, should now be chosen to go literally and metaphorically on the highest of the high, literally above the Quraysh, and metaphorically being chosen above them to proclaim on behalf of the Messenger of Allah, to proclaim the testimony of faith, the testimony of the adhan. And of course the adhan summarizes the religion of Islam. حَيَا عَلَى الصَّلَاةِ حَيَا لَلْفَلَاعِ اشَدُوا وَلَّا إِلَهَا It really summarizes the teachings of Islam. And we learn from this as well, the truth of that Islamic principle, and it is summarized in Arabic, and you should memorize this even if you don't speak Arabic, it is an Islamic principle, it is a Quranic and a Sunnah principle. الْجَزَاءُ مِنْ جِنْسِ الْعَمَلِ الجزاء من جنس العمل This is an Islamic maxim, theological and fiqh. It is a rule that Allah and His Messenger have shown to be true. And that is, you will be dealt with how you deserve to be dealt with. Good for good and bad for bad. الجزاء, جزاء means your reward or your punishment. من جنس العمل It's gonna be the same characteristic as the actions you did. so the one who as we said persevered and whose voice proclaimed the truth of Allah when being persecuted that was the reward given to this voice that now his voice will be chosen at times of Izzah and honor to proclaim the truth of Allah and the oneness of Allah as well and when Bilal's voice is now proclaiming the Adhan Abu Sufyan was standing there in the midst of some of the elite of the Quraysh of them is Al-Harith Ibn Hisham and Itab ibn Asid. And these are all from the Banu Makhzum. And Al-Harith ibn Hisham, Al-Harith ibn Hisham, he is the, you should write this down, it's a very important characteristic of Al-Harith, not an honorary one, but it's an important one. Al-Harith ibn Hisham is the full brother of Abu Jahl. Abu Jahl, this is his brother, Al-Harith ibn Hisham. And Al-Harith ibn Hisham, the full brother, both mother and father the same. And Al-Harith ibn Hisham was there with Abu Sufyan. and Itab ibn Asid. And Itab says, and they're all from the elite of the Banu Makhzum, Al-Harith and Itab. Itab says, Allah has honored my father Asid. Allah has honored my father for having him dead right now. It's a blessing he's dead right now. Allah has honored my father for having him dead right now. He doesn't have to see the humiliation upon us how this black man has been chosen above us. Subhanallah. This is jahiliyyah, right? How this black man has been chosen above us to now stand on top of the Ka'bah. Thank God my father is dead not to see this. Look, this is now he's saying, how much the hatred is that you're happy your father is dead rather than see Bilal on top of the Ka'bah. So this is, Itab says this. And Al-Harith who is the full brother of Abu Jahl, Al-Harith says that, Wallahi, if I thought this man was upon the truth, I would be following him. Meaning, he's not truthful. If I thought he was upon the truth, I would be following him. So he's saying, astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah. He's saying that Prophet ﷺ is not truthful. And you understand. And he's mocking him. And Abu Sufyan now, Abu Sufyan, is he a Muslim right now or not? Yes. When did he accept Islam? Few hours ago. Few hours ago. Correct? Because literally outside Mecca, the morning comes, he rushes back. Right? So he's literally a brand new Muslim. What does Abu Sufyan say? Abu Sufyan said, as for me, my tongue is sealed. I'm too scared to say anything. Because if I were to say anything, even the rocks would inform the Prophet ﷺ of what I said. Now, this statement is very interesting. What does it show us? he's afraid but he's still not he's kind of in between right? like one side of him is still sympathetic to all that's been said right now and another side is like you know I can't say anything right now sorry guys meaning what? my heart is sympathetic to you and what does this show? that for some people Islam takes time for some people, he's a politician as well yes, that shows as well that no doubt and politics ran in his blood and we don't mean this in a negative way we never say anything negative about the sahaba but no doubt there was that sense of siyasa of su'ada, of being in charge and Abu Sufyan, this statement is very interesting because it demonstrates Iman had not yet entered his heart, but still he's a Muslim, like ironically it's really bizarre he believes that if I say something, the Prophet shall find out. Which means what? He believes that the Prophet shall find out. He is a prophet. But still his soul is not submitting. And we see this over and over again, that Islam is of levels. And Allah mentions in the end of Surah Al-Hujurat, what does Allah say? That, O Bedouins, you are not yet mu'mins, rather you are just Muslims. Don't say we are mu'mins, rather say we have accepted Islam. وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي خُلُوبِكُمْ Iman has not yet fully entered your hearts. And we see this in the Sahaba and wallahi we see this in front of our lives as well when people convert to Islam. How many are the people who convert for whatever reason, whether it is marriage or whether, well in these days in America it's really only marriage. But in Islamic societies, people converted for fame, for getting rid of the taxes. Because if you converted, you'd have less taxes. The jizya and what not, right? People converted. some of them remain so so in their conversion and we see this around us as well that people convert let's say for marriage and many of them their Islam is mediocre and we accept their Islam and leave their affair to Allah and some amongst them mashallah tabarakallah their Islam becomes stronger than the Islam of the born Muslim we see this in our own lives and we see this from the time of the sahaba that Abu Sufran right now is kind of battling it I don't want to say anything so Is that? Oh, that's yours. Okay. I thought it was the masjid alarm. No problem. Okay. Personal doctor alarms are permissible. Doctors have darura. No problem. So Abu Sufyan saying, I don't want to say anything else. It must be exposed. So later on when everything finishes, we'll come back to what the Prophet said. Later on the Prophet ﷺ is exiting the haram and he passes by the same group. He passes by Abu Sufyan al-Harith and Itab. And he says, I know exactly what the three of you said. As for you, Ya Harith, you said such and such. As for you, Ya Itab, you said such and such. As for you, Ya Abu Safiyan, you said such and such. He narrated for them letter for letter and word for word the whole conversation. Right then and there, Al-Harith said, Wallahi, you must be a prophet. Because nobody was listening to our conversation and none of us want to inform you. Ashadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu anna kala rasulullah and al-Hadith accepted on the spot itab eventually as well accepted and of course Abu Sufyan has already been a Muslim and al-Hadith ibn Hisham he later on his Islam became very strong and he narrated many hadith there is a very famous hadith in Sahih Bukhari that is a very beautiful hadith that after the conquest of Mecca after the story he asked the Prophet O Messenger of Allah, tell me, how does the wahi come to you? How does the wahi come to you? This is Al-Harith ibn Hisham. كيف يأتيك الوحي يا رسول الله? And Bukhari has this hadith and so many versions of this hadith. And the Prophet ﷺ said to him, sometimes the wahi comes to me like the ringing of a bell. And it's very difficult upon me. And sometimes Jibreel comes to me in the form of a man, and I understand what he says, and that's easier for me. Now it's interesting here that Al-Harith ibn Hisham had the audacity to ask a question that even Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali would never dare ask. And that is, how does the wahi come to you? And sometimes, a person who is not that close to you can ask you a very frank question, and somebody who is much more closer to you will not ask you. The Sahaba were too shy to ask such probing questions. And that's why Ibn Umar said, that we would love it when an intelligent Bedouin would come to Medina. Intelligent and Bedouin. Two characteristics, right? That are rare, combined, but we would love it. Why? Because a Madani would never be so frank. And a Bedouin who's not intelligent wouldn't be of use to us. We would love it when an intelligent Bedouin would come to us, so he would ask questions, and we would listen. Because the Sahaba had too much, in Arabic it's called Haybah, and there is no simple term in English but it's like reverence and respect to the level of you cannot question these things. Can you imagine Abu Bakr saying, Ya Rasulullah, tell me about Jubileen and how he comes to you. No. The Sahaba are sitting with their heads down. The Sahaba, not one word comes from their mouths. Harith ibn Hisham is a brand new convert. He's like, tell me everything, I wanna know. How does Jubileen come to you? And so the Prophet ﷺ responds to him. And it is also narrated in another incident later on that when the Prophet ﷺ is in tent, was in his tent, and Jibreel came down and the Wahi began and the Sahaba recognized when the Wahi began because he would close his eyes and he would lower his head and sweat would appear and he would be cut off from the world around him. So when that happened, Umar called Harith and said, now look, Wahi is coming. So when Harith came, he picked up the tent, the flap of the tent and he saw the state of the Prophet ﷺ when Wahi was coming down. And this is a privilege given to him because of who he was. Like he is one of the Saadat, one of the seniors of the Quraysh and he converts. So he converted at this stage. He became a good Muslim. He died a shaheed fighting against the Romans in the battle of Yarmouk. He died a shaheed. And Al-Harith ibn Hisham, by the way, is involved in a story that all of you have heard here and there. And that is a famous story in the battle of Yarmouk of three sahaba dying one after the other when water is sent to them. And each one sees another sahabi and he says, go send it to that sahabi, go send it to that sahabi. And all three of them one by one until all three die and the water still remains in the cup. You know the story. You've heard this. You've heard this so many times. We'll get to it. We'll get to it, okay? Refresh the memory. So, in the battle of Yarmouk, which was one of the most important, decisive battles in the history of Islam. It was against the Romans and it paved the way to open up half of the kingdom of the Romans. Syria and what not opened up after this. In the battle of Yarmouk, major losses on the side of both sides. it was a victory for the Muslims, but major losses in terms of lives killed. And one of the most interesting stories that takes place is that after the battle when the people are going to take care of the wounded. So a boy comes and he sees a person who is almost dying. He gives him a glass of water. And as he lifts the cup up, he sees somebody else in the distance who is also dying. He says, go send it to him. So the first person here is Al-Harith ibn Hisham. the second person we already talked about him last week Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahal look now how their things are combined so he says go send it to Ikrimah and so they send it to Ikrimah and when Ikrimah is about to take it then he sees the third person Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi'ah so he says send it to Ayyash by the time he gets to Ayyash, Ayyash dies he goes back to Harith, Harith is dead he goes back to Ikrimah, Ikrimah is dead so the glass remains with him and all three of them refuse to take the glass because they saw somebody they thought was more in need it's just interesting subhanallah these now the people that converted at the conquest some of them their islams were so so and some of them their islams went to the roof of those who proved themselves their strength of islam were people like al-harith ibn hisham and ikrama ibn abi jahil so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam we said he gave the khutbah he invited them to islam he then made his way to mount safa he made his way to safa and he sat somewhere on safa perhaps in the middle, perhaps at the bottom. He sat somewhere on Safa, and there he took the oath of allegiance for all of the people who were willing to embrace Islam. And this is really the primary visualization of the statement of Allah, وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا This is this ayah coming into effect. That hordes and hordes of people are just lining up, thronging around him, waiting to give the bay'ah, the oath of allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ. And how apt it is, how perfect it is, that where the da'wah began, it shall end as well. Where did the public da'wah begin? Mount Safa. This is where it began. And things are coming full to a circle. Everything is coming now to an end and a close. And our Prophet ﷺ sits down where he once stood up. there's also some symbolism here as well that he now sits down to now pretty much finish off the task that began 20 years ago 1920 years ago that began 2 decades ago and now people are coming to him embracing Islam one after the other and the bulk of the people of Mecca converted at this point in time and an interesting anecdote here that a lot of fiqh is derived from we're going to talk about the fiqh inshallah in the next lesson the benefits, the fiqhi benefits to the conquest of Mecca is next lesson. One of the interesting tidbits here, one of the sahaba comes with his brother, blood brother. The sahabi is a previous convert. And he says, Ya Rasulullah, this is my brother. My mushrik brother, this is my brother. And I want you to give him the oath and the blessings of hijrah like you have given me. Now, when anybody emigrated, the Prophet ﷺ gave him the good tidings that you have now done hijrah, you shall get jannah, this, that, all of the blessings. so this brother wanted his blood sorry this Muslim wanted his blood brother to get the same blessings he had and this is Islam you want for your brother what you want for yourself the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said this is one of the most famous hadith that ever was said in the conquest of Mecca it's in Bukhari and Muslim you want your brother to get the blessings of hijrah لا هجرة بعد الفتح There is no hijrah after the conquest of Mecca. All of the blessings of hijrah were for those who got it. I can't give your brother those blessings anymore. He wasn't there, he didn't get it. لا هجرة بعد الفتح There is no hijrah after the conquest of Mecca. This hadith is one of the most important fiqh benefits of the conquest of Mecca, which is not relevant to us, it was very relevant to them. And that was what? for 7 or 8 years hijrah was fard'ain on every single Muslim alive you had to make hijrah or else your Islam was deficient you had to make hijrah to Medina when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca that ruling was abrogated and that's why most of you have never heard of it because it was applicable for 8 years that's it when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca he then abrogated the ruling لا هجرة بعد الفتح There is no more hijrah after the conquest of Mecca. Now what does this mean? Nobody can make hijrah anywhere? No. That special hijrah, the one and only hijrah, the hijrah that when you say hijrah, you mean that hijrah. The one and only hijrah has been abrogated. You can have personal hijrahs, you can have hijrahs that will take place for various peoples, various tribes. A civil war takes place, a group of Muslims emigrates to another land for peace and protection. This is a personal hijrah. It's not a general hijrah for the ummah. The general hijrah for the ummah is gone. لا هجرة بعد الفتح That is only after the conquest of Mecca. It has now become the obligation of every single Muslim making hijrah is abrogated after the conquest of Mecca. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, وَلَكِنْ جِهَادٌ وَنِيَّةٌ وَإِذَا اسْتَنْفَرْتُمْ فَانْفِرُوا The only thing that remains is jihad and good intention. meaning good deeds, whatever you have good deeds for and if your brother really wanted the hijrah and his niyyah was there, Allah will give him that all that's only that remains, walakin jihadur wa niyyah, if he wants to make the up, what missed him there's plenty of opportunity gonna come now there's gonna be the Romans, the Persians the jihad is gonna start right now, after the conquest of Mecca, the real conquest, this is now only Arabia so the Prophet ﷺ is predicting your brother wants to get to that level there's two things he can do walakin jihadun wa niyyah he can participate in the actual jihad against the Romans and the Persians and what not eventually he can get to that level and niyyah and niyyah of course means any good deed including the niyyah for hijrah including any ibadat if he is genuinely good perhaps he can also get to that level and if you are called to fight by a legitimate khalifa then obey the khawaila means and if you ever get the call to go out and fight on behalf of the ummah then go and answer that call. So this beautiful simple hadith, it demonstrates some of the fiqh, we'll get back to that next week. So he took the oath of allegiance from all of these men, then after he had finished the oath of allegiance from the men, then the women were called. The women of the Quraysh were called. And all of them gathered in front of the Prophet ﷺ, and they all came, and amongst them wearing the full face veil, so unrecognized by anybody, was Hind binti Utbah, the wife of Abu Sufyan, the one who only a few hours ago was holding on to her husband's beard and mustache, and saying, kill this cowardly da-da-da-da-da, the same one. This is now Hind over here, in front of the Prophet ﷺ. And of course Hind has a history. You all know the history of Hind. You all know the history of Hind, and the battle of Uhud, and what she did with Hamza. This is something that she knew now, and she was scared of. And she is wearing a face veil. Now, the issue of the face veil is a fiqh controversy not quite relevant to us. But the one thing that clearly reading the seerah shows us is that the face veil was known and practiced by the women in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. Whether it's fard or not is a different story that's really besides the point. What I really want to emphasize is the claim that the face veil is an invention that was imported into medieval Islam, this claim is baseless. The face veil or the niqab has been a part of the Islamic tradition. Some scholars have said it's fard, some scholars have said it is not fard. That's the simple controversy of fiqh and that's besides the point here. What I want to just emphasize that many modernists or progressives, they claim that, oh, there is no place for the face veil in Islam. It never existed. No, this is not true. It clearly has existed. The tradition mentions this numerous times. and here we have another incident where some of the women, at least some, maybe not all, but at least some of them were wearing the face veil amongst them was Hind binti Utbah. And so they come, all of them in front of the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ then begins that you shall all give me the oath of allegiance. And he then quotes to them the verse that is mentioned in the Qur'an يُبَيِّعْنَكَ أَن لَا يُشْرِكُمْ إِلَّا شَيْءًا وَلَا يَسْلِخْنَا وَلَا يَزْلِينَا وَلَا يَقْتُلُونَ The verse is mentioned in the Qur'an. So he says that number one, that you shall not worship any besides Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Must abandon all of your false gods. And this Hind says, from the middle of the crowd, Hind says that she made an assumption which was incorrect. She said, you're asking of us something you didn't ask the men. Now this is wrong. She wasn't there. She just assumed that this is a political conquest, not a religious conquest. Think about it. She assumed this is a political conquest. you are our ruler but you're not going to tell us to give up our gods so then she got a little bit irritated and she said you're demanding of us something you didn't demand from the men but this is not true because the men were also told to give up but then when she saw no support and what not she said very well we shall give it to you ok if you want this from us then you're forced us khalas we'll give it again not too happy but she doesn't have any choice here and the Prophet ﷺ has not recognized her she's speaking from behind the niqab but the very fact she's speaking it shows her character by the way think about it as well and she's going to speak again and again and it shows her character she has that type of personality that she's not going to remain silent and some people have that type of personality most people don't find it pleasant nonetheless so she says that so the Prophet ﷺ then says وَلَا يَسْرِقْنَا and you shall not steal at this she retorts back again she says I used to take from the money of Abu Sufyan bit by bit without his knowing I don't know was that allowed or not this new thing you're putting upon me I have to tell you this is my characteristic I take my husband's money and he doesn't know this and Abu Sufyan was there in the audience so to try to resolve something maybe something might happen he said, all of that that has happened in the past, I have forgiven it. Meaning Abu Sufyan is probably more tense than she is. And Abu Sufyan wants to like diffuse the situation. Now this conversation gives away who the woman in niqab is. So this conversation gives her away. So the Prophet ﷺ says, are you Hind? And now she's put on the spot. The slip of her tongue, she didn't want to give her identity away, but obviously she says, I used to take from the money of Abu Sufyan. And so it gives away. And Abu Sufyan immediately, to calm the situation down, maybe she won't be forgiven, whatever she says, I have forgiven anything of the past. Notice he said of the past, not the future. We'll deal with the future later on, wife, okay? Not the past, okay? So, the Prophet ﷺ said, are you Hind? And Hind immediately says that, yes, I am. And forgive the past, may Allah forgive you. Immediately. and forgive the past. May Allah forgive you. And the Prophet ﷺ did not respond to her and he simply moved on. And this really shows us as well, subhanAllah, I mean it's... Sometimes when a person who has not studied the seerah hears these types of stories, it's a little bit difficult, right? Because the perception they have is not the perception that is actually there. SubhanAllah, it's easier to forgive a crime against you than a crime against a loved one. it's easier to forgive a crime against you than to forgive a crime against a loved one. Especially when that crime was done to the dead body. استغفر الله And so the Prophet ﷺ did not punish her, but nor did he say, you are forgiven. And wallahi this is like perfect. He just moved on and ignored her. And this is absolutely perfect. Like no doubt his heart, what did he say to Wahshi just avoid my presence he was forced to forgive he did forgive but he said I don't want to see you and that was such a punishment as for Hind, Hind is not going to come to him she is a woman, Hind is not going to be in his presence so he just ignores her and lets it go and this again shows us the perfection of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam so he just ignores her and moves on and he goes to the next condition Wala Yazneena and you shall not commit zina. Once again Hind says, so every comment she has to give a comment. Right? Every single statement she's got to give a comment. وَلَا يَزْنِينَ And you shall not commit zina. And Hind says, أَوَ تَزْنِي الْحُرَّ Do you expect a free lady to commit zina? Now this is an interesting phrase here. It shows that Arabian society no matter how much debauched and lewd it was, Free ladies, what we would call decent ladies, sharif ladies, right? They would never taint their family honor by this crime. It was people of lewd character. Unfortunately in our society this is gone. But for those of us who come from other lands, or for those who remember maybe in the 50s and 60s in this land, I don't know, you know? That type of notion was still there. dignified families decent families this is unheard of so when this condition was put and Hind is a mushrika I mean you can say she's just accepted Islam one minute ago but still she is coming straight from paganism she's difficultly reluctantly giving up idolatry correct? stealing she's like yeah okay if you really want us to when it comes to zina she gets irritated you expect any of us to be committing zina? and it's really amazing because it shows us that the Quraysh and the Arabs and wallahi this isn't just our scholars say that crimes are really of two types there are crimes that are lewd and something that goes against dignity even if you don't have iman and akhlaq and then there are crimes that are not of that nature And zina is a crime that really goes against modesty. It goes against haya. And therefore, and again, this country is the perfect example. You know, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, fornication was really unheard of in the dignified society. You understand what I'm saying here, right? Only people of a lowly class, only the women of immoral character that are known. You know what I'm talking about, the women that are in that profession. But a dignified lady would never ever do this. So when the Prophet ﷺ puts the condition, immediately she gets irritated. Like, what type of condition is this? Do you expect any of us to be committing zina? أَوَّتَزْنِ الْحُرَّةِ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ And this really shows us, as we said, that the crime of zina is a different category of crime. Then the Prophet ﷺ, and again he's really ignoring her, and it really shows us her character by the way, and it shows us his character as well. then the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says وَلَا يَخْتُلْنَا أَوْلَادَكُمْ and don't kill your children here we see Hinn's sharp tongue she says as for this one then wallahi we took care of them as babies and you killed them as adults at Badr you're telling us not to kill our kids right? as for as for this condition, we were the ones who took care of them when they were babies and then you killed them as adults at the battle of Badr. This was so unexpected this barb, this sharp wit that Umar ibn al-Khattab began laughing so much he fell onto his back. This was such a novel response, right? That the way she understood this that Umar ibn al-Khattab simply lost it there. He started laughing so hard he fell onto his back laughing. and so then these conditions were given and then they all agreed to this Hind is the only one with the tongue to respond back and even then the Prophet ﷺ by and large ignores her and then after this the Prophet ﷺ tells to Umar that go take their oath of allegiance and so Umar took the oath of allegiance the Prophet ﷺ never ever touched the hand of a woman that was not related to him and this is narrated متواتر by Aisha by every single book of hadith that the Prophet ﷺ did not himself take the oath of allegiance from the women. And in fact, once when a woman, later on, not this incident, in the next year, when a woman went to accept Islam, she put her hand out. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I do not give the bay'ah with shaking your hand. My speech to the one of you is my bay'ah to all of you. Simply speaking to you is enough. I don't need to do this. And there is some controversy in the books of fiqh and in modern, in the books of hadith and in modern fiqh scholars, whether Umar ibn al-Khattab actually took the oath with his hand or not. There's some controversy. And there are some reports that indicate that Umar took the oath of allegiance from the woman physically. And there are some reports of this nature. And it could also be said that this is what is understood in the authentic narration when the Prophet ﷺ commands Umar you take their oath and he doesn't do it because if it was only verbal then he's done it and if it's more than verbal then Umar is doing something he didn't do but another group says that well the hadith that mention Umar physically touched them are not to that level they're a little bit shaky and so from this there's a controversy that has existed from the beginning of the classical fiqh and that is, is it allowed to shake the non-mahram's hand? And the bulk of scholars historically have always said that it is not allowed. Some of the Shafi'i scholars and also some of the Hanbali scholars. So not all Shafi'i Hanbalis, but the Shafi'is are well-known, a lot of Shafi'i scholars and even some Hanbali scholars said, based on these narrations and others, that it is allowed with two conditions. Number one, that there is no fitna, there is no shahwa, there is no desire. and number two, there's a need to do so. And they point to this incident for example and they say, clearly there is a need and Umar, it's not possible that Umar would have a need. That's why Umar is chosen. The strictest out of all of them, that he is chosen. So, those scholars who say that it is allowed with these two conditions, they quote these types of narrations. And my opinion is that really it should be avoided and that it is makroo. But I don't consider it to be haram if these two conditions are met. But I still say that it should be avoided. and Allah Azza wa Jal knows best. And we have the example of the Prophet ﷺ, there's no denying the best example. And that is, as Aisha says, Wallahi, she swears by Allah, the hand of the Prophet ﷺ never touched the hand of any woman. The hand of the Prophet ﷺ never touched the hand of any woman, except if it was one of his mahram. So we have in the example of the Prophet ﷺ the best example, and if one of us is not able to live up to that example, then at least we should keep that example as the ideal, and not change that around. let's not justify, some of us might not be able to do that let's not justify and say, ok, no, the ideal is the ideal it is my opinion, as I said, that it is makruh, which means it should be avoided and it is not sinful, nonetheless, the ideal is the ideal, any case, getting back to the story so, the Prophet ﷺ has now given the oath of allegiance to the Quraysh men and the women, and the Ansar began to talk amongst themselves, they feel a little bit neglected now right, now for the Prophet ﷺ is now returned back home and they see all of his kith and kin the relatives, the Quraysh, the cousins they see everybody accepting Islam and so the Ansar began to grumble and mumble and one of them says now that he has returned here softness has overtaken him for his people meaning khalas he's forgotten about us right, they feel now subhanallah what is really the root of their pain it's love it's love right, they feel jealous that the Prophet ﷺ now will forget about us so one of them remarks the love of his relatives has overtaken him and others seem to agree to this sentiment and Jibreel came and told him The Ansar are saying this. And so when he finished with all of the Bay'ah, he then called the Ansar. So we have the men, we have the women, now we have the Ansar. And he says, Ya Ma'shar al-Ansar, O group of Ansar, did you say that the love of my family has overtaken me, I've become soft? He quoted them exactly. And put on the spot, they confessed and they said, yes this was said, O Messenger of Allah, we did say this. Now, it's amazing here. Allah tells him, Jibreel comes down and informs him, yet he still asks them. Think about that. Why? Is he denying Jibreel? It's etiquette and courtesy. It is the manners. Subhanallah, Allah is informing him. And he knows that Jibreel is not going to cut and paste and quote an evil picture. and the reason why Jibreel is telling him is to do what? is to save a bigger fitna you understand? Allah Azza wa Jal is saving for a bigger fitna that make sure this doesn't go into a bigger fitna to quell down any problems yet still the first thing he does is he asks them did you say this? Subhanallah how beautiful of a message for us that when we hear a stranger or an acquaintance remark oh you know your friend said this about you you know your cousin, your brother said this Khalas instantaneously judge, jury, executioner, trial Khalas that's it end of story done you don't even want to give the benefit of doubt here we have Rasulullah being communicated by Allah through Jibreel any problem here watertight yet still what does he do he says did you say this and there are Ansar of course they're gonna not lie and cheat they said yes we did guilty yes we did say this And so the Prophet ﷺ said, Who am I? من أنا? Who am I? أنا عبد الله ورسوله. I am عبد الله and Rasul. I have emigrated to you and with you and for you. Meaning I promised you, remember? I know that. Don't doubt my promise. I am Rasulullah. And I promised you something, and that promise will be maintained. Remember the promise, this is at the Aqaba. This is all the way at Aqaba. So many years ago. that the Prophet ﷺ, the Sahaba, the Ansar, they said to him, and they asked him point blank, that will you ever leave us once the victory is yours? And he said, no. اَدَّمُوا دَمُكُوا Remember that. My blood is your blood. My life is yours. He said that, the famous phrase, that really meant, I am now a part of you, and not a part of my people. I shall always now be a part of you. Now the Ansar are doubting, they're double guessing. So the Prophet ﷺ says to them, who do you think I am now, that I'm gonna break my promise. I am Abdullah wa Rasuluhu. Fal mahya mahyaakum wal mamatu mamatukum. And this cannot be translated into English. It basically means, life is your life and death is your death. Meaning, my life is your life and my death is your death. Meaning, we are together in all of this. He gave a very powerful phrase. Fal mahya mahyaakum wal mamatu mamatukum. Which basically means, we are all together in this. And when he said this, the Ansar began to cry and they begged forgiveness and pleaded for acceptance of their excuse. And they said, we only said this based on what we thought and saw, we were wrong. In other words, they made an excuse for this. And the Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ يُصَدِّقَانِكُمَا وَيَعْذِرَانِكُمَا That Allah and His Messenger believe you, we know you're telling the truth, and we have accepted your excuse. And this is the primary story narrative. after this we have a number of incidents that we don't know exactly when it happened was it on this day or the next day the Prophet ﷺ stayed around 2 or 3 weeks in Mecca, we'll talk about that next Wednesday inshallah, he stayed almost 3 weeks he stayed in Mecca and in those 19 days many things happened and so we have to just narrate bits and pieces we don't know exactly when each of these things happened and for the remainder of today what I'm going to concentrate on is those people who did not accept Islam right now but they accepted Islam in the next 19 days or a little bit after this there are a number of significant people that did not give the bay'ah the bulk of the people of Mecca gave bay'ah some very interesting characters kind of delayed and of those people who delayed was one of the Quraysh who we don't know much about him other than this story I've tried to look him up and I could not find much information about him in the resources and the time that I have to do. And his name is Fudala ibn Umair. That, he seems to be a young man from the Quraysh. We don't know how much was the distance between him and the Prophet ﷺ. But Fudala ibn Umair, for whatever reason, he decided to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. He's so angry at the defeat, he's so angry at all that he has seen, that he decides that, khalas, I'm just going to assassinate. and this would be what we would call a suicide mission because there's no way he's coming out of this alive there's no way he's going to be able to flee so he hides the dagger he hides the thing and he says I'll do it when the process is doing tawaf because when he was doing tawaf so everybody would give him space everybody would allow him to do tawaf and the process did more tawafs than you can count and from this we learn the sunnah that when you're in Mecca you do a lot of tawafs he only did one umrah not now sorry later on but he did lots of tawafs throughout these 19 days the umrah he did when he came back from Jirana when he came back from Hunayn now he didn't do an umrah now this is a conquest but in the conquest of Mecca he did plenty of tawafs for those 19 days and one of those tawafs Fudala comes up the dagger is hidden and he sneaks up behind the Prophet ﷺ and he thinks khalas I'll be able to finish the deed and then whatever happens happens this is an anger he doesn't care about his own life now So the Prophet ﷺ, as soon as he was about to pull out the dagger, he turns around. And the Prophet ﷺ sees him and he says, Is this Fudala? Are you Fudala? And so Fudala says, Yes, it is me. So the Prophet ﷺ said, What were you thinking about doing? So Fudala says, Nothing. I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just doing dhikr of Allah and tawaf. I'm just here for the tawaf. and so the Prophet ﷺ laughed probably because of the blatant lie and he knows it's a lie he laughed and he put his hand on the chest of Fudala put his hand on the chest of Fudala and before he did that he said astaghfirullah and he put his hand on the chest of Fudala and Fudala says that wallahi as soon as he placed his hand on my chest no one was more beloved to me in the whole world than the Prophet ﷺ. And Fudala then accepted Islam at that point in time, and the entire plot obviously is now into thin air, completely gone. Another two very interesting converts, or very high profile converts, Safwan ibn Umayyah is the first one, and Suhail ibn Amr is the second. Safwan ibn Umayyah and Suhail ibn Amr, they both converted in this time frame. as for Safan ibn Umayya now who is Safan ibn Umayya, who can remind me the son of Umayya ibn Khalaf and who is Umayya ibn Khalaf, the owner of Bilal this is Safan ibn Umayya these are now of the leaders of the Quraish so Safan ibn Umayya when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca he was of those who tried to fight when the fighting didn't work khalas he fled and he told his family and what not he said I cannot live anymore I'm just gonna basically commit suicide I'm gonna go into the ocean and fling myself from the ocean you guys take care of yourselves basically there's no way I'm gonna live anymore and I don't wanna go anywhere else so he basically told them it's now end of story for me I'm just going to commit suicide so he fled from Mecca and he was gonna make his way to Jeddah and from there take a ship and then the thing was that's what he said he's gonna basically drown himself so that end of story, he doesn't have to worry about living anymore now, his cousin and best friend Umair ibn Wahab now pause here, who can remind me of the story of Safwan and Umair who is there? Safwan and Umair excellent, yes, excellent mashallah, one of our sisters remembers excellent, and our note keeper as ever, is taking notes no, he was thinking oh, he was just about to say that, mashallah and when did this take place sister do you remember roughly after which battle she's about to say it after Badr after Badr yes you say it immediately after after Badr remember the story of Safwan and Umair their cousins and their best friends and Umair is saying you know I don't even mind I'll go and attempt an assassination but I have daughters and I have a debt or else I do it and Safwan says, he's the rich guy Safwan says, don't worry I'll take care of your debts and from now on, your daughters are my daughters I'll treat them just like I would the lavish everything is gonna be their lifestyle now don't worry about it, you go and take care of it and so Safwan agrees to pay Umair agrees to go and so Umair takes the dagger and the poison and he hides it and he goes, and the point is this is the negotiation for the prisoners of war remember? So the access is given to the Prophet ﷺ. They will be right in front of the Prophet ﷺ. And he has his sword dangling in front of him. And the Prophet ﷺ even says to him, what do you have that sword around your neck for? And he says, oh this! Oh, oh, you know, of what use was the swords in the battle of Badr anyway? It's just hanging there, right? Then the Prophet ﷺ said, you are lying. You and Safwan sitting in the shadow of the Ka'bah, and you said this, and he said this, and he said this, and you know, and he gave the whole and he gave the whole narration. And so Umair immediately converted to Islam. He said, who told you this? And he said, Allah told me. So immediately he converted to Islam. Safwan was bragging and boasting in the meantime. Just wait, you guys are gonna hear some good news, right? And Umair comes back and the good news turns out to be his Islam, right? That was the story of Safwan and Umair. So Umair had fled to, sorry, Umair had emigrated to Medina. So he is now a member of the conquest. He's now coming to Fath-e-Makkah. and he's hunting around, where is my cousin, where is my best friend Safwan? He finds out Safwan has fled and he's threatened to commit suicide. Whether he would have done it or not, Allah knows best, but that's what he said, I'm gonna commit suicide. So Umair goes to the Prophet ﷺ and begs him, that O Messenger of Allah, please give your protection to Safwan. Tell me that I can go and tell him he has protection. So the Prophet ﷺ said, I have given him protection. Umair says, give me something that I can show him, that he will believe me. So the Prophet ﷺ gave him the turban that he wore when he entered Mecca. The turban that he wore when he entered Mecca, he gave him the very turban. He said, go and show Safwan that he has the protection. So Umair goes rushing to try to catch him and he barely catches him in Jeddah before he's about to board the ship. Basically the ship would have been boarding the next day or something. And when Safwan sees him, Safwan becomes angry at him. because Safwan says so you traitor and liar now you are coming to kill me meaning the only reason you could be here is to kill me you're not even gonna let me leave in peace and Umair says no I'm not here to kill you I have come from the best human being and I have come to get your protection and initially he didn't believe anything initially he thinks you're a liar and a traitor anyway now why would he say this because from his perspective from his perspective you came on a mission and now you have betrayed me and I don't want anything to do with you. So clearly there is bitterness and animosity. Umair persisted. And Umair said, Ya Safwan, جئتك من خير الناس I've come to you from the best of all human beings. He is your cousin. And he is the most merciful and the most kind. His honor is your honor. And his sharaf is your sharaf. And his kingdom is your kingdom. And his izzah is your izzah. And here is his turban. He has sent it to you promising. if you come back, you will get protection now this shook him because here's the turban this is the actual turban that he has seen and recognized the Prophet ﷺ wore it when he entered Mecca now he is now in his hand and he's saying he's giving him protection and so Safwan was hesitant but he managed to be convinced to come back to Mecca they returned back to the Ka'bah and the Prophet ﷺ was just finishing Salatul Asr Safwan turns to Umair and says, how many times do you guys pray? He said, five times a day. Safwan said, five times a day, which is what every new Muslim asks us as well. Five times a day. Yes, five times a day. And he leads you in salah five times a day. Yes, he leads us in salah five times a day. It's amazing for anybody who doesn't know our religion that you guys actually pray five times a day. Yes, we pray five times a day. Then when the Prophet ﷺ finished, Allah Ta'ala Asr, Safwan was still on his horse, too scared to get down, wanting to flee if necessary. And he shouts out in front of the whole haram and he says, Ya Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Umair has come to me saying that you're promising a protection. Is this true? Meaning, I don't want to get off my horse until you confirm with me. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, come and get off your horse and come down. And he says, no, until you promise me. Means he is very terrified. No, until you promise me. And you tell me that I have two months of protection. Nothing can harm me for nobody. None of you will harm me for two months. So the Prophet ﷺ said, we shall give you four months. Give you double that amount. And so when that was given, then Safwan came down from his horse and discussed with the Prophet ﷺ. But he did not accept Islam. He did not accept Islam right now. Notice this, by the way, I forgot to mention, that subhanAllah, when Umair is discussing with Safwan, notice the language of Umair he is your cousin his izzah is your izzah his sharaf is your sharaf his honor is your honor this is jahili talk being done for the service of Islam and it's because in the end of the day lineage and blood doesn't matter in Islam but for Safwan it did he's still viewing the world from that paradigm and this shows us again that as long as what you say is true, yes you can say it his sharaf is your sharaf, and his iza is your iza, and he is your cousin, meaning cousin meaning kith and kin, he is your Quraish, so you're so angry at somebody, the more he is honored, the more you will be honored meaning from the jahili stance, right? from the perspective of tribe and what not and so, notice here as well the techniques of da'wah, notice here as well the techniques of da'wah, and we as well, we look at what this society, any society finds positive, if our religion finds it positive, we use it. Of course if it doesn't, then we don't. But if anything is positive in any culture and our religion as well finds it to be positive. So in our times, by the way this is so many examples, but going green for example, right? Or humane trade of animals I've given a lecture here at MIC about animal rights in Islam. You're not gonna find classical scholars writing books about animal rights in Islam. But yes, our religion has animal rights. And it is a part of our duty to showcase what exactly our religion says, as long as we speak the truth. So here we have techniques of da'wah being emphasized. So Safwan was given four months and eventually when the process went to go fight in Hunayn and Ta'if so he asked Safwan to lend him 100 coats of armor. Now Safwan is one of the richest people of Mecca. His father was Umayyah bin Khalaf Safwan has inherited all of this. Umayyah died in Badr as you remember. And so he's inherited all of this fortune. So the process says give us some of your weapon and Safwan says are you forcing me to or are you asking me to what is it is it something you are forcing that I have no choice or are you simply requesting and it's something that I have the choice to say so the Prophet says rather this is a guaranteed loan and this is from this so much fiqh is derived of them is that typically when you borrow something from somebody you are responsible for what you have borrowed if you borrow something from somebody and then you damage it well then typically you are responsible so the Prophet said it is a guaranteed loan guaranteed lending you know not loan meaning a bank loan but you know it's something I'm gonna borrow from you and I guarantee it that it will come back to you or the equivalent will come back to you something happens, it's damaged, you'll get the money back basically so Safwan gave him 100 coats of armor and he participated in Hunayn but he didn't participate as a Muslim he walked with the Muslims, Hunayn of course we'll talk about in 2-3 weeks inshallah he participated in Hunayn but he wasn't actually fighting so much a group of non-Muslim Meccans physically went to Hunayn and they played a minor role, they didn't have any major role and this is one of the non-Muslims and Safwan was there and after the battle of Hunayn when the Muslims and the Prophet ﷺ were awarded the largest ghanima in the history of Islam took place ever, the largest ghanima ever even Khaybar pales in comparison to Hunayn even Khaybar pales in comparison to Hunayn so when they achieved what we would call tens of millions of dollars now in our time, maybe even a hundred million and Safwan is simply flabbergasted, he's staggered at how much wealth, and he sees an entire valley of sheep and camels and he's just looking and drooling at all of this wealth and the Prophet ﷺ says, أَتَعْجَبُ مِنْ هَذَا You are amazed at this. And he says, Yes, of course, who wouldn't be? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, All of this is yours, go take it. This is like a fortune, an entire valley of animals, camels and sheep and horses, an entire valley. It is all yours. And Safwan at that point in time, he says that, Such a gift can only come from the heart of a Nabi. this is a gift that is not human no regular human can give it such a gift can only come from the heart of a Nabi at that point in time he says Ashadu an la ilaha wa shanuka rasulullah Safwan needed to be bribed and that bribe that was given was a bribe that no human could ever give because only a Rasul only a Nabi couldn't care less about money any one of us we have that wealth we'll keep a little bit a big bit for ourselves give a little bit to others when all of this is at the disposal of the Prophet ﷺ take it خُذْهَا فَإِنَّهَا لَكَ one word, go take it and Safwan is so shocked he later narrates and is found in the books of Seerah Al-Hadith he said that that before the Prophet ﷺ gave me he was the most despised person to me but he gave and he continued to give until nobody was more beloved to me than him. People like Safwan who are wealthy, who are used to a certain love of this dunya, when they are shown really what love is more powerful than the love of the dunya, that's love of the akhira. When they are demonstrated to this, they see sincerity. And Safwan realized this is a sincere man. And again brothers and sisters, Wallahi to me, what is the most amazing thing about all of these stories, and I've said this again and again, but inshallah, يعني perhaps to benefit. That these people are interacting with the best human being. And they've lived with him since before Islam and after Islam. And yet still they do not see that he is true. Can you imagine one of us stands to give da'wah and people don't convert and we think, Oh, these people their hearts are all sealed. خلاص, Allah's عذاب is upon them. لحول رقوط سلب الله Rasulullah ﷺ amongst his own people and to the very end what convinces Iqrimah he's about to drown what convinces Safwan this major gift comes to him what convinces other people other stories happen look at Abu Sufyan still vacillating this really shows us that Islam to somebody who has not been born and raised into it sometimes will be very difficult to accept and we need to be on the more lax and generous and giving side. If Rasulullah ﷺ could be refused and rejected so often by people that knew him, who do we think we are to stand five minutes in front of an audience and think everybody is going to convert as soon as my mouth opens up. This is arrogance and it is foolishness and it doesn't work that way. So Safwan eventually he converted to Islam and he is an example of what is called مُؤَلَّفَةِ خُلُوبُهُمْ those whose hearts were basically captured by large amounts and eventually Islam did enter his heart and he died a shaheed and he became known as being a very great worshipper of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala final incident we'll do for today inshallah then we'll resume again next Wednesday the final conversion story again a very beautiful conversion story is another senior leader of the Quraysh who didn't convert immediately and that is Suhail ibn Amr. Suhail ibn Amr. Who is Suhail ibn Amr? Everybody should know Suhail ibn Amr. It's very recent. Hudaybiyah. Hudaybiyah, the negotiator. Yes, he is the negotiator. The one whose son is Abu Jandal. His son is Abu Jandal. This is Suhail ibn Amr. So another senior leader. Now, Suhail ibn Amr, now realize for us all of these are just names. there's things we need to understand like Sufyan ibn Umayyah he's young, his father is the leader who died as for Suhail, Suhail is to the age of Umayyah Suhail is the elder guy, Suhail is like Abu Sufyan as for Sufan he's the young kid, he's like Ikrimah that's a generation younger than the Prophet let's not compare the people that oppose the Prophet the Abu Jahls and the Umayyads and the Umayyads, excuse me, right? The people who opposed him, they're like Abu Sufyan and Suhail ibn Amr. These are the people that are still alive right now. So, Suhail is one of those that is still alive. Of the senior, the people who actually did what they did. So when the Sahaba conquer Mecca, Suhail becomes terrified. He locks himself in his house. He's terrified. He doesn't flee, he locks himself in his house. I'm worried now what's gonna happen. and most of his sons had converted a number of them were in the army of the conquest most of his sons have converted and a number of them were in the army that are coming in and he tells his eldest son Abdullah to go and beg for forgiveness for the Prophet ﷺ even though Suhail's name was not on the list of those who are not forgiven so technically he is under the general forgiveness but Suhail is terrified and Suhail tells his son Abdullah he says to his son I don't know anybody who is still alive who has done more wrong to this man than me now that might be a bit of an exaggeration but just a bit because of the senior leaders he's one of the few that's still alive there are others who have done more but of the senior leaders he's one of the few that's still alive and then he begins listing to his son I participated at Badr and I was there at Uhud and I was at Khandaq and I showed him that harshness at Hudaybiyah. He knows this and he says it. I was the one who refused to budge at Hudaybiyah. And now, I don't know what he will do to me, so go and beg for forgiveness. And you see that he feels now guilty and remorseful, and inshallah, you can sense that now Iman is coming into his heart. So, Abdullah goes to the Prophet ﷺ and he says, Ya Rasulullah, my father is asking for protection. even though as we said his name was not on the list but he wants special protection so the Prophet ﷺ said yes he is protected by the protection of Allah his son rejoiced and raced back to bring his father and he told his father Suhail ibn Amr that Rasulullah ﷺ has given you protection to which Suhail said truly this man has been righteous as a young boy and as an adult and wallahi subhanallah what a beautiful phrase. Truly this man has been righteous. As a young man before Islam he was always known. And even as now an adult he is shown his righteousness. Subhanallah Suhail is probably now in his late 60s now. You know because he is known to Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam as a young boy. And so he is saying this is a person we know him, his manner and characteristic from the very beginning. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam told the Sahaba that when Suhail comes give him respect and do not stare at him, meaning in a mean way. Because they're all going to be angry. Right? So don't stare at him for he is a man of intelligence and honor. ذُو شَرَفٍ وَعَقَلٍ He is a man of intelligence and honor and he is too intelligent to be ignorant and jahil of Islam and if he sees benefit, then he shall accept Islam. Now subhanallah, look, the Prophet ﷺ is even telling the sahaba, don't show your anger, just in your facial expressions, don't show it. He's setting the stage for the man of honor to come and be received. And wallahi, nobody asked for forgiveness from the Prophet ﷺ, except that he was forgiven in the conquest of Mecca. Nobody. Including Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh, the one that became Murtad. And the Prophet ﷺ himself wanted to execute, but Allah had willed otherwise. You know the story from last Wednesday. Nobody asked for forgiveness, except that he was forgiven. So Suhail came to the Prophet ﷺ and after a conversation he did not accept Islam immediately, but once again he was given some time, and eventually he converted to Islam after the conquest of Mecca sorry, after the conquest of Hunayn and Ta'if, the battle of Ta'if and the conquest of Hunayn he converted to Islam in the next month and he also lived a life of charity and sadaqah and zakah one more story inshallah because again I don't want to subhanallah I didn't realize the conquest of Mecca would take us, what is this, the fifth week now? but mashallah alhamdulillah there's so many beautiful stories one more inshallah so that we can minimize next week, very simple and very beautiful story and that is the conversion of perhaps the oldest man in Mecca alive at this time Ibn Abi Qahafa Ibn Abi Qahafa, the father of Abu Bakr Abu Qahafa, sorry, the father of Abu Bakr not Ibn, Ibn Abi Qahafa is Abu Bakr Abu Qahafa is Abu Bakr's father the conversion of Abu Qahafa Abu Qahafa at this point in time is completely blind and he cannot walk except with difficulty and he needs a guide and Abu Qahafa refused to convert to Islam throughout the entire prophetic message you know what he did during the Hijrah you know that he expressed his anger and animosity to Abu Bakr himself and the family of Abu Bakr and he was of those who verbally was opposed to the message and teachings of Islam. And he was not able to physically come to the gathering of the haram and the khutbah because he's too old. But when the Prophet ﷺ was sitting and accepting the oath of allegiance, so Asma binti Abu Bakr, the granddaughter of Abu Qahafa, brought her grandfather by the hand and was leading him to the Prophet ﷺ to get the oath of allegiance. And Abu Bakr was sitting with the Prophet ﷺ as well. And when Abu Qahafa came, the Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Bakr, هَلَّا تَرَكْتَ الشَّيْخُ نَأْتِيهِ فِي الْبَيْتِ هَلَّا Why didn't you leave the Shaykh, the old man? We would have come to him in his house. Subhanallah. This is an amazing phrase here. Why didn't you leave the old man? And he called him the Shaykh, and the Shaykh meant the old man. Why didn't you leave the Shaykh? We would have come to him. And Abu Bakr said, No, wallahi ya Rasulullah, it is more befitting he comes to you. And such humility, did not our Prophet ﷺ say, he is not of us who doesn't show respect to our elders, and mercy to our youngers. This is it here. He is not of us who does not show respect to our elders. So the Prophet ﷺ is showing respect to the elder, the oldest person in Mecca and also we clearly notice here a very simple point and that is why is Abu Qahafa being shown such respect? because of Abu Bakr because of Abu Bakr none of the other elders got shown this respect and this shows us you treat people based on their rank and their lineage and what they have done and what their even families have done there's nothing un-Islamic about this this is not just common sense it is Islamic. When there's a noble family, when there's a person that's done something, that person's brother that person's relative automatically you will treat that person in a way that is different. And there's nothing un-Islamic about this. The reason why Abu Qahafa is being given this first class upgrade, that the Prophet ﷺ is saying you should have left him we would have come to him. It's not because of Abu Qahafa, it's because of the son of Abu Qahafa. It's because of who Abu Bakr is. And the Prophet ﷺ is showing Abu Bakr, Abu Bakr status, not Abu Qahafa status. You should have left him at home, I would have come to him. And Abu Bakr knows who the Prophet ﷺ is, and he says, no, he should have come to you. And they spoke for a while, and eventually Abu Qahafa agrees to accept Islam. And the famous hadith, which is lots of fiqh to be derived from it, but not quite about the conquest of Mecca, but Abu Qahafa's beard and hair was completely white, pigeon white. nothing but white he is probably at this stage 80 years old completely white and the Prophet ﷺ tells the women and the family around Abu Qahafa that when you go home then change this whiteness but avoid black and from this the fiqh is derived that those who have completely white hair and beards and hair they should change it to another color not white and not black or by black we should say the color that is naturally there so a red haired person should not dye it red whatever is your natural hair color you dye something else to show that it's a dyed thing and this is the primary hadith that is used to show that dyeing the hair that is pure white is sunnah but you should avoid black now there's a narration here mentioned by the famous hadith scholar of our times Abu Ishaq Al-Huwaini he mentions a narration I couldn't find it in my sources but I trust Sheikh Abu Ishaq in this regard that when Abu Qahafa put his hand in the hand of the Prophet ﷺ to take the oath of allegiance, Abu Bakr began to cry and sob. And so the Prophet ﷺ said that, Ya Abu Bakr, why are you crying? This is such a happy day that your father has accepted Islam. And Abu Bakr says, Ya Rasulullah, how I wish that the hand that I'm seeing now is the hand of your uncle Abu Talib rather than the hand of my own father. How I wish that the hand I'm seeing now is the hand of Abu Talib. Meaning everybody is accepting Islam now. Everybody. And even my father whom I never ever imagined to accept Islam. And his father is of the age of Abu Talib. His father is not even the generation of Abu Sufyan. This is the generation before. Right? And the only person that we know of that's still alive of that generation is the father of Abu Bakr. Everybody else of that generation we don't know of them in the seerah at this time. So memories are coming back that are associated with that generation. And when Abu Qahafa is accepting Islam, all Abu Bakr can think of, Ya Rasulullah, I would give up anything. I would give up my own father's Islam to see the Islam of someone who was your father figure, your full uncle, and that is Abu Talib. And wallahi, this type of love, it is beyond words. Wallahi, there's nothing I can say here. I cannot, I can't do justice. What type of human is there? Wallahi, what type of love is there? that Abu Bakr is crying because he wants a pleasure to the Prophet ﷺ that is more pleasurable to him than the Islam of his own father and that is the Islam of Abu Talib. He is crying because it's saying, I would have given this up because I know how happy you would have been. And he feels, it's a type, how to phrase this, like he feels a little bit selfish that I am taking honor and glory on this day, Ya Rasulullah, when it should be your relative. That's how the love that he has, he feels, I'm taking it away from you, Ya Rasulullah. I shouldn't be this happy. It should be your happiness. And I will gladly have handed it over to you if that opportunity were there. What type of love is this, Wallahi, that Abu Bakr has for Rasulullah, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. It is something really and truly beyond any words that we can say. InshaAllah our time is up for today. we still have some final conversion stories left and then inshallah inshallah next week we will wrap up the conquest of Mecca wallahi it took much longer than I thought but inshallah there's benefit in this and the goal really is to be detailed I don't want to skip over anything the goal is to go into every single benefit and detail that is beneficial to us inshallah and we have a few minutes for questions today usually we don't have time for questions we have a few minutes before Salatul Isha for questions yes from what we know so Safwan ibn Umayyah received a portion of the spoils of war not all of them it was much more than that even that's the point the spoils of war wasn't just one valley but Safwan was of those who received one of the largest portions and shares. Okay. Other questions? Yes. I'm pretty sure Dr. Bershari is sitting here. If you give us $50,000, we'll give you your parking lot right in front of the front of the masjid. No problem, not a problem at all. Yes, you can. Wallahi, what's the problem in that? Why is that a problem? We show honor to people in this world who deserve honor, and we leave Allah's blessings to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In this world, somebody who has done service for Islam, we show him an honor and that honor should be proportional and relative did not our Prophet ﷺ say that إِنَّ مِنْ إِجْلَالِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى a part of showing glory to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is to show glory to an elderly Muslim who's grown up in Islam يعني a shayba the one that has white hair and to a ruler that is ruling justly and to a حَامِلَ الْقُرْآنِ the one who has memorized the Quran, who acts upon it. إِنَّ مِنْ إِجْلَالِلَّهِ تَعَالَى So we're showing honor to Allah by showing honor to three categories who have done things for Islam. The one of them, he's lived his whole life righteously, and now he's reached an elderly age. It's part of showing glory to Allah to show him glory. Another is the just Muslim ruler, which is rarely cited these days, endangered species. I don't think we have seen one for millennia. but theoretically they exist somewhere but not in the world we live in apparently right now especially in light of latest tragedies in Egypt but in any case let me not start on that one but the just Muslim ruler and the third one is the one who is memorized the Quran what does this show us? the one who has done good for Islam will show him honor in this world so the one who has built a masjid there is nothing wrong if you give him a little bit stronger handshake, smile a little bit more in his presence than you would, and just show him a little bit more respect. Realizing that you don't want to cause him a fitna either. Realizing that you don't want to ruin his intention. But yes, for you and us, when we find somebody like this, it is a part of our religion to show this person a little bit more respect and honor for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Okay? You had the hand raised. Go ahead. No, I think that was my slip of the tongue. Yeah. I think that's my slip of the tongue. Let me check back, but as far as I remember, Hinn did not say, at least in Ibn Ishaq, I'll check back tonight, but I don't think Rasulullah has mentioned, that's my slip of the tongue. Good point. so the sahaba are lined up behind the prophet the women are in front so Abu Sufyan was there Umar was there so when she says this it's such an unexpected answer it is it's completely out of the blue that Umar just started laughing and fell back onto a rock that was behind him it shows us the humanity of Umar they can even take a joke yes final question go ahead yes so there's an ikhtilaf about women dying the same color or not but inshallah the strongest position is that this prohibition does not apply to women that women can dye their hair black and that is applicable to men only and Allah knows best Thank you.

Seerah 8 - Marriage to Khadija & Re-building Kaa'ba - Yasir Qadhi _ Sept 2011--ExBQO7sAWY

In our last week's halaqah, we had discussed some of the stories of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, some of the final stories that we have before he became a prophet. And there are two incidents that we have left that we are going to discuss today of the pre-prophethood stories. And then we are done with all of the narrations of the pre-prophethood stories. And the fact of the matter, as I have said many many times, is that we do not have most of the reports of the Prophet ﷺ's early life. We have probably a dozen or so particular incidents, and that's about it for 40 years of his early life. And there are two incidents left, that we need to discuss before the coming of the prophethood, before the beginning of the revelation. The first of these is his marriage to Khadija r.a. And the marriage to Khadija, how did the Prophet ﷺ meet Khadija? How did this come about? As we had said in our last week's halaqah, that the Prophet ﷺ was a shepherd. He was a shepherd, and he would find people who owned flock, and then he would take their flock, and he would get some meager wages for this. Now, it so happened that Khadija's older sister had a flock. She had a herd of camels. And her older sister hired the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to take their flock out and to graze them outside of Mecca. And she hired two people, we don't have the name of the other person, the Prophet ﷺ and another young man. The two of them were hired to become shepherds for her large flock. After the Prophet ﷺ had finished the grazing, they had to go back into town in order to collect their wages. You pay the salary as soon as the wages are finished. So the young man that was with the Prophet ﷺ and at this age the Prophet ﷺ is probably 23-24 years old. The young man that was with him said, now that we're done, come let's go and ask our wages from Khadijah's sister. From Khadijah's sister. According to some reports his name was Hala. So let us go ask our wages from Khadijah's sister. So the Prophet ﷺ said, why don't you go on my behalf because I am too shy to go because she's a woman. I'm too shy to go. I have haya, I don't want to go ask her, why don't you go on my behalf and you get both of our wages for us. So the person came to Khadijah's sister and it so happened that Khadijah was in her house at that time. And he asked for his wages. Khadijah said where is Muhammad he also has earned half of the wage where is Muhammad so the man said he was too shy to come and ask it from you he was too shy to come and ask it from you and so at this Khadijah's older sister said that I have not seen any man who is more shy and more noble and more honorable and more chaste in his interactions because she's interacting with him because she's a woman so she knows he's lowering his gaze, he's acting in a very elegant manner. So she says, I have never seen any man more. And then she kept on praising the Prophet ﷺ. And the narrator of this report says, this was the first time Khadija heard of his name in such a manner. And just like any human being, that when a person is praised in such a manner, something entered her heart. Because he's being praised in such a noble manner. And eventually, later on in the year, And Khadija had to send her own caravan to Syria. Remember we had said that there was the two journeys of Yemen and Syria. And Khadija owned a lot of wealth. Let's pause here. Where did she get this wealth from? Khadija had been married twice up until that point in time. And her second husband was a wealthy merchant. And the two of them did not have any children. She had sons from the first marriage. but she didn't have sons from the second marriage. Now in Jahiliyyah women did not inherit, that was the general rule. But in this marriage, this person did not leave any siblings and they didn't have any children. And so it became one of the rare opportunities that Khadijah could inherit a lot of money. Otherwise the general rule, women would not inherit money. So her second husband was a rich merchant and he didn't have any siblings. And so when he died, they didn't have any children so then automatically it will go to Khadija. And so Khadija inherited a small fortune. And over the course of the next few years after her husband died, she kept on investing in that money. How would she invest? Just like we invest in our times, she would order some goods to be purchased in the time of Hajj, and then send those goods to Syria, purchase other goods from Syria, send them to Yemen, get other goods from Yemen, sell them in Mecca. This is what businessmen or businesswomen do. But because she's a woman, she cannot go herself to do it. And so, every single time, she has to hire a businessman. Now in those days, and this is still common in our times, but not as common. In those days, you wouldn't hire such a person by a wage. You wouldn't say, you go to Syria, I'll pay you a thousand dinars, and you do X, Y, Z. No. You would make it percentage profit. This is called مضاربة. You would give a percentage profit. And you would say, for example, that 30% of all the profit will be yours and 70% will be mine. Because I'm the one investing, you're the one doing the manual labor, right? And this type of sharing of the profits is something our sharia has definitely allowed and considered to be a part and parcel of legitimate business transactions. So Khadija would engage in this mudaraba, this percentage. And of course, because she's sending a man who's not related to her, who's not looking after her best interest, usually the person she chose would steal. and would lie and would cheat and would not give the whole isab, the whole actual account. And therefore she never managed to get the type of wealth that she deserved. Still she managed to maintain her dignity and maintain a good amount of wealth, but never as much as she actually deserved. And she felt that she had earned it. So when she heard this praise about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, she decided, why don't I choose this young man? Even though he was inexperienced when it comes to business, He had never ever gone on a business trip himself. He was a shepherd, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He was not somebody who was a businessman. But because of his honesty, she decided to overlook the lack of experience. And also the lack of age. Generally you would choose somebody in their 40s and their 50s. Somebody who knows the caravan, the routes, everything. But she overlooked all of this because she wanted somebody honest. And subhanallah, it is human nature that when a man is decent, is elegant with his interactions with a woman, then the rest of his nature is also good. That when a man treats a woman in this manner, this automatically he has a characteristic that is noble. And automatically Khadija felt, this is a man I can trust. And I can send my caravan with him. And so Khadija sent a message to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through one of her servants, saying that the lady Khadija, now Khadija of course at this time was well known because she was the richest lady in Mecca she was not the richest person in Mecca but she was the richest lady because no other woman as we said it's impossible for a woman to inherit so because in this situation she inherited automatically she has the most wealth out of all the women and she is also single and it was very rare for somebody to be single in that society and this is something even Islam carried into it you hardly find any of the Sahaba single They would always marry, and it is something that they consider to be a part and parcel of living. You don't live a single life. Khadija, perhaps for whatever reason, she had been married twice. She felt that she wasn't suitable for anybody, she wasn't interested in anybody. So she had closed this door. And Ibn Ishaq and others, they mentioned that a number of men had tried to marry her because she was of noble lineage, and she was a pure Qurashi, and they liked this. And because she was a wealthy woman, and of course every man would want that wealth, because if he married Khadija, that wolf would become his according to Jahiliyya. And so a lot of men proposed, but Khadija turned all of them down. Because she didn't want to share this wealth, she didn't feel anybody would treat her the way that she deserved. So, she sent a message to the Prophet ﷺ, why don't you take charge of my caravan. The Prophet ﷺ went to Abu Talib and said, oh my uncle, Khadija has sent me such and such an offer, what do you think? And this shows that he was a very respectful young man. That he didn't just impetuously say yes. He got permission, even though he doesn't need permission. He's a young man, he's independent. He doesn't need to ask his uncle. But he got permission from his uncle. And he said, uncle, what do you think? And so Abu Tadir basically said, that, oh my nephew Khadijah is well known to be the richest woman. And this is definitely much better than the job that you're doing now. You're gonna get inshallah good sustenance. Allah has blessed you with this opportunity. Do not say no to her. and so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said yes and Khadija agreed that she would give half of the profits to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and she would keep half of the profits which is a very generous share but she felt that this was a man that if I give him a good incentive he would inshallah do a good job and so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam accepted and Khadija sent one of her servants along as well to him and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam took the caravan to the city of Busra. B-O-S-R-A. Not the Basra of Iraq. And not the, there's another city that's very similar sounding in Turkey, Bursa. No, this is Basra in English. It's called Basra. And Basra is a small town outside of Damascus. By at least, I think 100 kilometers or so. It's towards the way to Damascus, but you haven't reached Damascus yet. It's on the periphery of the Roman Empire. And the Arabs would typically stop at Basra. They wouldn't go to Damascus. Basically, it's like coming to America, you just stop right at the border, let's say Texas, right? And then you just do your buying good and sell, because you don't want to go all the way inside, you're in the country. And this is the most convenient location. And Basra had a huge marketplace that was known just for this. Because it was at the periphery of the Arabs and the Nabataeans and other cultures of the north. Egyptians would also be able to go the Yemenis, they would all be able to go so Basra historically not from the Islamic sources, from the non-Muslim sources Basra is well known to have been a town of economic transactions and to this day, there are ruins in Basra of the marketplace of Basra that goes back to 1500 years, before the time of the Prophet ﷺ and by the way, just as a tidbit as well so Umar conquered Basra in his caliphate and before he conquer Damascus, on his way to conquering Damascus. And Umar built one of the first masjids ever built in what is now Syria. One of the first masjids ever built. And it is still standing to this day. And it is one of the oldest masajid in existence from its original time. Even before the Grand Mosque of the Umayyad. Because of course the Umayyad Mosque was built much later. So this is a mosque Umar ibn al-Khattab built in Basra. Because for them Basra was more important than Damascus. But I wonder to another tangent. Let's get back to the story of the Prophet ﷺ with Khadija. So Khadija had sent her servant, the name is given is Maysara generally. And when Maysara came back, so the Prophet ﷺ went to Basra and then returned. He did not go to Damascus. When the Prophet ﷺ came back, Maysara told Khadija of the care and concern that the Prophet ﷺ had shown, of his honesty. Some reports even mentioned the miracle of the cloud on top of his head. And this is not something that is strange. If it happened, it happened. But there's no authentic reports. And as I pointed out, that we have to be a little bit careful about these things before the prophecy. Because the question arises, that if people had seen them before the prophecy, this would have been a clear sign that he's going to be a prophet. And there are indications being given. Nonetheless, it's something that has been narrated in some of the early books, that there was always a cloud above the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ made double or triple, يعني the Arabic says, which means many times more. The Prophet that anybody else had made before him. Now this is of course for two reasons. Firstly, because he's being honest. And secondly, because there's no question that whatever he does, Allah will bless it. There's no question about that. يعني we go back to when he was an infant and a baby, and Halima herself, her animal, her own breasts, everything was giving barakah. Just that the Prophet ﷺ entered their household, and their camel becomes faster, their she-goat gives milk, etc., etc. And so, there's no question that whatever the Prophet ﷺ is doing, is gonna have extra blessings. So, the caravan came back with ad'af, ad'af. I mean, multiple prophets that Khadijah had never experienced before. Now, this is now increasing the emotions that Khadijah has, and it is very clear, and some of us might feel awkward or hesitant to say this, but subhanallah, firstly, it's narrated in the earliest books. Secondly, there's nothing wrong with feeling such emotions. It's completely permissible. She's a single lady. The Prophet ﷺ is an eligible bachelor. And as I say many times to my students when I teach classes, falling in love is not haram. It's what you do with that love that can make it haram or halal. Falling in love is a natural emotion. There's nothing wrong with that at all. And Khadija, there's no question that emotions came to her, that first she's hearing the process and being praised so highly by her own sister. And then she sees the honesty, and then she sees everything. Then Maysara comes and tells her everything that transpired. There's nothing wrong at all with her now having a desire to marry the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And subhanallah, what lady would not have desired to marry the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The details differ about how the proposal came about, but they all agree about one thing. Khadija was the one who instigated it. Khadija was the one who hinted at it, or who kind of sort of arranged for the Prophet ﷺ to propose. Now obviously the way that proposals happen, the man proposes for the woman. However, if the woman expresses an interest, then this is something that is permissible with conditions, and of course the man is up to the man to then eventually propose even in Islam even in Islam if this happens with certain guidelines then of course this is completely permissible and so Khadija in one version Khadija told a friend or it says another servant of hers who was an elderly lady by the name of Nafisa it is said that she expressed she expressed an interest in marrying the Prophet ﷺ and so Nafisa said leave this to me I will arrange it and so she visited the Prophet ﷺ and she was an elderly lady. And she said that, O Muhammad ﷺ, again he's not a prophet at this time, O Muhammad ﷺ, why don't you get married? So the Prophet ﷺ smiled and said, and who would marry me? Because I am the orphan, poor person of the Quraysh. I'm an orphan and I'm poor. Who's gonna marry me? And so Nafisa said, what if Khadija wanted to marry you? What if Khadija? So she's not saying Khadija is sending me, but it's there, what if my master, What if my friend Khadija wanted to marry you? And the Prophet ﷺ was quiet and then he said, Why would she want me? Notice he didn't say, I'm not interested in her. He's wondering, why would she want me? So the message is given that he is interested. Because he didn't say, no I'm not interested in her. Rather he's thinking, why would she want somebody like me? Because he considered himself to be not somebody that was worthwhile. but subhanallah he is Rasulullah and he was going to be Rasulullah and he is definitely the one whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had chosen for Khadija. And so Nafisa went back and told Khadija and there the matter then went to stage two. And there are a number of versions of how this took place as well. Ibn Ishaq says by the way that this marriage took place in the month of Safar. In the month of Safar, three months after he returned from Basra. Three months after the journey. So for three months there was this back and forth. There are two versions of this story. In my previous classes I never mentioned the second one, but some people mentioned the second version, and therefore I feel compelled to mention it just to point out that it is not authentic. Otherwise I would prefer not to mention this, and in my previous classes I would not have, I never mentioned this many times that I taught the seerah. But there is one version with a very weak chain, that Khadijah's father was alive at the time and he opposed the marriage. And so he was caused to become drunk. And it was made to appear to him or he was convinced that the marriage had taken place and so when he became sober again, it was too late to say no. And there are more details that I'm not going into but it is not something that is a very nice story to be honest. and then we find it to be contradicted by a number of other facts. First and foremost, Ibn Hajar and others point out that Khadija's father had died. Khadija's father had died before this proposal had happened. And so she didn't have a father at the time. And this makes sense because if her father had been alive, then he would have taken the money. Because a woman would not take the money if she has a father or a brother or a husband. so the stronger position is that her father was not alive at all additionally there is another version which is reported by more books than this one book that mentions this version and I pause here and I point out that as I have said before there are a number of books about the seerah written in the first two three hundred years and we go back to these earliest books many of them are without chains of narrations because these are just stories that they collected and nobody knows who narrated these stories so sometimes these stories there might have been such a story, it happened to somebody else. But some narrator got confused and he said, maybe it happened with Muhammad s.a.w. and Khadija. Maybe it happened to some jahili person. So these are stories or legends that have been passed down. It's very crucial that we look at them and then sift through which are authentic, which are not. So the more authentic version mentions that her uncle Amr ibn Asad was the one who performed the nikah. And there was no issue of alcohol or being sober or drunk, nothing like this. This is not a story that is true. with Khadijah's father. That Khadijah's father was not alive, that her uncle Amr ibn Asad became her wali, and Abu Talib came with the Prophet ﷺ, and Abu Talib performed the khutbah. He performed the sermon. And the sermon is recorded in one of the early books, that Abu Talib began by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and then talking about the lineage of the Quraysh. That's what they always talked about. That we are the noble descendants of Ibrahim and Ismail. That Allah has blessed us with this and this. And that of the blessings we have is that we have we are the caretakers of the Kaaba and Allah has blessed us to be the people of Mecca and my nephew the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam my nephew is the one who is no comparison with any other young man in all of Mecca in his manners and his nobility and his lineage and he has proposed to your noble lady Al-Kareema, your noble daughter, your noble lady Khadija with a mahr of 12 uqiyah وَنِشًّا وَقِيَّة is a nugget of silver. So 12 nuggets of silver with a little bit of coins of silver as well. This is a modest amount. I don't want to give you any precise figure but we can say a ballpark figure of a few hundred dollars in our times would be. It's not a massive amount and it's not a token figure of a dollar or two. It's something that we would consider $400, $500. It's an amount that is respectful amount for somebody like the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And so he gave the khutbah at this Amr, Khadijah's uncle stood up and said, this is a young man who cannot be refused, we accept the proposal. And we had already said that Khadijah had been married twice before. From her first marriage, she had a son named Hala. Now, Hala is commonly in our times a girl's name. But in those days, Hala was more of a boy's name. In our times it's become more of a girl's name. So don't get confused. Hala is a male. Hala is Khadija's son. And Hala accepted Islam eventually and lived a noble life with the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Now the question arises how old was Khadija at the time of her marriage? The common opinion that everybody is aware of is that she was 40 years old when she was married. And this is the opinion of one of the classical scholars of Islam. His name is Al-Waqidi. Al-Waqidi says she was 40 years when she was married, and she died when she was 65. Because everybody agrees that they were married for 25 years. And everybody agrees that the Prophet ﷺ was 25 years old. Well, not everybody, one or two say he was 24 and 23, but around this age, 25 years old, when he got married. However, and this is the common well-known age that people have. However, there are more authentic reports that her age was not 40. And I know this is not common knowledge to the most of you, but academically speaking, there are two problems with this age. Firstly, al-Waqidi is not to the caliber of those who report a different age. Al-Waqidi is much lower in the scale. And so we have people like al-Bayhaqi, and Ibn Kathir, the famous scholar Ibn Kathir who wrote the Tafsir of Ibn Kathir, and others report that she died when she was around 50 years old. So if she died when she was around 50, this changes everything. In her 50s they say. She was in her 50s. This changes everything. Another early authority, and his name is Hisham Al-Kalbi, says that Khadija married when she was 28 years old. And we have from Al-Hakim, who wrote a book called Al-Mustadrak, which was one of the books of Hadith. He reports from the famous Ibn Ishaq who is the earliest author of the seerah. Ibn Ishaq, the famous seerah of Ibn Ishaq. That Ibn Ishaq says that she was 28 years old. Now, this appears to be more valid for two reasons. Number one, because the people who are reporting 28 are more in quantity and in quality. I.e. they are more knowledgeable. Ibn Ishaq is the authority of seerah. Nobody is more authoritative than him. And Ibn Ishaq is reporting that she was 28. Additionally Hisham Al-Kalbi. Additionally Al-Bayhaqi says she died when she was in her 50s. That means she was 28, around that age when she got married. But then the second point is even more clear. The Prophet ﷺ and Khadija had at least 6 children. Maybe more. And a woman in her 40s, it is very difficult to imagine her having six children whereas a woman who is 28 it is much more logical and rational and in fact perfect six children at the age of 28 in those days is something that is very reasonable a child every year and a half, every two years very reasonable so for 12 years she is having children so she is having children till she is around 40 and this makes a lot more sense than to say that she was 40 when she got married and academically speaking it does seem to be the more correct opinion that she was 28 years old. Now, some of the points here that we can derive before we move on about the last incident before the marriage, or sorry, before the prophethood. Some of the blessings, some of the morals of the story with Khadija. First and foremost, it shows the importance of honesty and of good etiquette, of good akhlaq. Honesty is appreciated by everybody in mankind and it brings about blessings. because the Prophet ﷺ was honest as a shepherd, shy as a worker at a very menial job. That shyness and honesty upgraded his position in pay rank. Right? This is what happened. That he was honest, he was trustworthy, and he was humble, modest. He had good qualities. What happened? Automatically, opportunities were created that gave him more and more higher positions. And this is the reality of the dunya. That if you show your character, character counts a lot much more even than experience because Khadija overlooked his zero experience he has no experience Khadija overlooked all of that and hired him to become one of the highest paid businessmen in all of Mecca taking the caravan to Bosra it also shows the intelligence and status of Khadija because she saw the Prophet ﷺ as being an ideal and perfect husband and as we said this clearly shows the permissibility of not just natural feelings of desire and attraction, but of even pursuing that in a permissible manner. As I said previously, it is not haram to be in love, it is halal to be in love. It's what you do with it, right? It is what you do with it. So Khadijah had feelings, and she pursued it in a legitimate manner. And that legitimate manner was the manner of marriage. Also, the Prophet ﷺ needed support and comfort for his future mission. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chose for him a woman who would give him that support and comfort. And as we all know and we say, and it is so true, that behind every successful man there is a good woman. This is the fact of life. And this is something that every single person acknowledges. Men can pretend to be macho and strong and what not. But the fact of the matter is, they need a loving, supporting woman in their lives. This is the reality that Allah created men like this. that in public they can put on this persona, but in private they need the comfort and the support of a loving wife. Otherwise, it's very difficult if not impossible. And our Prophet ﷺ, Allah chose for him, Khadija, to be that loving and that comforting wife. And this is something inshallah we'll talk about more later on. The blessings of Khadija are simply too numerous to mention. She was the first to believe in the Prophet ﷺ. She comforted him as soon as the revelation began. She was the one who thought, let's take him to Waraqa ibn Nawfal. Let's take him to somebody who knows what's going on and ask what is happening. She was the only one whom Jibreel would come in the household of Khadijah. He would not enter any other household, any other wife's house. Any other wife's house he would not enter later on. Aisha, Umm Salama, no one. He only entered the house of Khadijah. And Jibreel told the Prophet ﷺ, Once when the Prophet ﷺ was sitting in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ said to Khadija, that, O Khadija, here is Jibreel. Because Jibreel would enter, and Khadija was in the house, the only wife he would enter. Here is Jibreel, and he is sending Allah's salam upon you. Subhanallah. He is sending Allah's salam upon you, and he is giving you the glad tidings of a house in Jannah, where there is not gonna be any noise, and any struggling. You will have peace in that household. And so Khadijah responded that, إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ السَّلَامُ She didn't say, وَعَلَيْكَ السَّلَامُ يَا اللَّهِ Because you don't say, وَعَلَيْكَ السَّلَامُ يَا اللَّهِ Allah is a salam. And this really shows her intelligence. It really shows her understanding of theology, of Islam. That when Allah is sending salam to Khadijah, what is the response? You don't say, وَعَلَيْكَ السَّلَامُ يَا اللَّهِ You don't say that, right? And I've heard a lot of people, when something good happens, They'll say, jazakallah Allah. You don't say jazakallah to Allah. Allah's jazak comes to you. You are nobody to give jazak back to Allah. It's a big mistake, even though they do it innocently. You don't give jazak back to Allah. You don't send salam back to Allah. You don't say, wa alayka salam ya Allah. Allah is as-salam. This is Khadijah's response. Automatically she understood. Inna allaha huwa salam. I can't send salam back to Allah. Allah is as-salam. Wa ala jibreel as-salam. And may salam be upon Jibreel. Wa alayka ya Rasulullah as-salam. And may salam be upon you ya Rasulullah. This was Khadijah's response. And Aisha, who was no doubt the favorite wife of the Prophet ﷺ in the Medinan phase. Of course at this phase Aisha is not even born. She's not even born right now when the Prophet ﷺ marries Khadijah. And so Aisha never saw Khadijah. Never. and yet Aisha says that I was never more jealous of any woman than I was of Khadija even though the Prophet ﷺ had married eventually nine wives and Aisha was one of the nine and she was jealous of those nine no doubt about it there are instances who have of the seerah that she says things and does things that shows her jealousy but she says I never felt the amount of jealousy I did for Khadija even though I never saw her. Even though I never saw her. Why? لِحُبِّ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَامًا لَهَا Because I knew how much the Prophet ﷺ loved her. I could say, she's a woman, she's a wife, she knows. How much the Prophet ﷺ loved her, I knew it, so I was the most jealous of Khadija. And once when the Prophet ﷺ was mentioning Khadija, she said, I had enough of it, that was it. And so I said, Ya Rasulullah, for how long are you gonna mention, and then she said things you shouldn't have said, an old toothless lady. You know she's like an old lady, right? And she said things, basically an old lady like this, when Allah has given you a young fertile ground instead. In other words, I am a young lady and I am fertile ground. And how long are you going to mention this toothless lady like this? And so she said in a manner that only a woman can say. And the Prophet ﷺ got irritated at this. and he said la wallahi no by Allah and because Aisha is saying that I'm better than Khadija basically no by Allah Allah did not give me better than her if you really want to know you're getting me irritated I will tell you he didn't say that first I'm adding it but he said no by Allah Allah did not give me better than her she was the first to believe in me when everybody rejected me meaning Aisha you don't have that blessing she was the first to believe in when everybody rejected me and she gave me of her money when everybody had abandoned me she was the one spending on the Prophet when everybody else had abandoned him and she supported me when the community basically gave me the cold shoulder and Allah blessed me with children only through her he ascribed this to Allah because Allah is the one who blesses it's not Khadijah's or mine so he says and Allah has razaqani, Allah has blessed me with children only through her, none of my other wives Allah has chosen with this blessing and so, after this Aisha learned her lesson and said, I never mentioned her again never mentioned her again because of this jealousy that the Prophet s.a.w. had and subhanallah and one of the reasons why Aisha was jealous whenever the Prophet s.a.w. got a gift when he got money, when he got meat even, because meat was a luxury item he would cut some of the meat and he would send it to this is in Medina way later on 10 years later, he would send it to Khadijah's friends can you imagine, like how much you're thinking of your dead wife that Khadijah has passed away, but you want to give some meat to the friends she was socialized with the friends she was socialized with, and once Khadijah's older sister came to Medina, this is the same one that introduced the same one that praised him, right and Aisha was in the house and subhanallah, this is such a beautiful story that when the sister was walking outside the door, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's demeanor changed because he recognized Khadija's footstep. And when she asked permission for enter, Aisha could see the paleness on her face because all the memories of Khadija came back because this was the wife that he knew it was her older sister but the memories of Khadija were so strong that so many years later still he would be moved to tears almost. and when Khadija passed away one of the sahaba says we did not see him smile for months we did not see him smile for months and it was such a big loss for the Prophet Muhammad and we can go on and on about the blessings of Khadija. We mentioned that Khadija was most likely 28 years old this doesn't change the fact we always like to say that the Prophet married somebody older twice divorced with children, it's still the same that she was older she was twice divorced, she had a child so this clearly shows that the Prophet ﷺ is not a lustful man. That if he wanted to, he could have married a younger lady without children, who had never been married a virgin. If he wanted, he could have done that. But he married somebody of nobility, somebody who was twice divorced with children, and remained faithful to her until Khadija passed away. He never took another wife until Khadija passed away. And then one after the other, he started marrying. and so he wasn't marrying for lustful reasons because he's marrying when he's past 54 years old he begins to marry the nine wives for until he's 54 from 25 up until the age of 54 or so if not 55 because Aisha probably was when he was 55 years old or so so the Prophet ﷺ is remaining basically loyal to Khadija for all of these years and this clearly shows that he was not a man who was lustful that he could control his desires that this was not what he had in mind by marrying somebody like Khadija. And this also demonstrates as well, sorry, the one point I forgot to mention. I already said this, that all of the children of the Prophet ﷺ were through Khadija. We said that there were at least six children. The reason why at least six, the first child of the Prophet ﷺ, you should all know his name, it is Al-Qasim. And Al-Qasim, the Prophet ﷺ's kunya was Abu al-Qasim. That's his first child. His kunya is Abu al-Qasim. Al-Qasim, it is said that he was born in the days of Jahiliyyah. He was born before the Wahy began. He was born before the Wahy began. It is said that Al-Qasim had reached the age where the boys could ride on the camel. Six, seven, eight years old. And then he passed away. That's all that we have. It's the only thing we know about him. Not one story has been preserved. But six, seven, eight years old. Before he passed away. And then the Prophet ﷺ had Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum, and Fatima, the youngest daughter. Four daughters. Zaynab, Ruqayya, Umm Kulthum, and Fatima. And then he had his final son with Khadijah, and that is Abdullah. Now, some people say he also had Al-Tahir and Al-Tayyib. And so they add two more to make it eight. however the strongest position is that Abdullah had two nicknames Al-Tahir and Al-Tayyib and so Al-Tahir and Al-Tayyib is Abdullah and Al-Tahir means the pure one and Al-Tayyib also means the pure one and this is what the nicknames they would have for their child and Abdullah died in infancy without even in Islam he was born after the Wahi and he died in Islam of course the four daughters all of them lived to maturity all of them married and three of them died in his own lifetime so he ﷺ buried his own daughters with his hands the three daughters he buried with his own hands only Fatima outlived him and even Fatima on his deathbed he told Fatima something and she cried and when he saw her crying this is his daughter and he loves his daughter like only a father can love a daughter he calls his daughter again and he whispers something and she laughs many many months later Aisha asked Fatima, can you tell me that conversation, I want to know. And so Fatima confessed and she said, my father told me that he's about to die and I couldn't bear except to cry. So when he saw me crying, he called me and he said, you will be the first of my family to meet me. Meaning you're going to die soon. So I laughed, subhanallah. I laughed because I'm going to meet the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam the first. And Fatima only lived a few months after the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam before she passed away as well. Now, it is interesting to comment here, and perhaps maybe we'll go back to this later on, but it's interesting to comment here, subhanAllah, the Prophet ﷺ, it is as if he is facing the most traumatic problems, after problems. Because the most traumatic thing that can happen to a child is to lose parents. And the most traumatic thing that can happen to a parent is to lose the child. Isn't that the case, right? I mean there is no musibah on earth that is more painful than these two. There is no musibah. Wallahi there is no musibah. And we as parents know this, that there is nothing that is more painful to us than to lose a child. And as a child, the most painful and dreadful thing, and this is something we have forgotten that phase of our younger lives, but the fact of the matter is, subhanallah, look at what happens when a 4 or 5 year old loses their parents in the supermarket. What happens? They go crazy and wild that they cannot see their parents. Because they get so worried. Because there is nothing more conceivably dramatic or disaster for this child than to lose the ones that love and take care of this child. Our Prophet ﷺ is multiple times orphaned. Father, then mother, then grandfather, then uncle. One after the other. And he's multiple times losing his own children. First the eldest, Al-Qasim. And then Abdullah. And then of course he has Ibrahim. Now Ibrahim by the way was not born of his wife, it was born of his maid servant, his Emma. And so none of his wives gave birth. Emma is different fiqh wise, and that's maybe we'll talk about it in its time. None of the other wives of the Prophet ﷺ became pregnant other than Khadija. So it is as if Allah is giving him the most difficult tragedies that is imaginable. And in this, wallahi is great wisdom. It is as if Allah is telling him that your purpose in life is to be afflicted. That this life is nothing but suffering. That even the greatest human being is not gonna live a comfortable life in this world. In fact, because he is the greatest, he will suffer like no one else is suffering. Because it is through these trials that so many things happen. First and foremost, one's relationship with Allah is established. Subhanallah, how true is it? When we live comfortable lives, our hearts become hard. Isn't that the case? When money is pouring in, health is good, wealth is good, who cares? Pray regularly, make dua on and off. Soon as your son falls ill, soon as you lose your job, soon as a musibah happens, what happens? The hands go up. Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Ya Allah. Isn't this the case, right? And Allah knows this. And living through these trials, it makes a person's heart closer to Allah. It's automatic. And the Prophet ﷺ needed to have this closeness to Allah. Also living through these trials, and afflictions, true servitude is reached, that you understand who you are, and who is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Living through these trials and afflictions gives you patience, and you will need patience if you're gonna be the Prophet of Allah. You will need to have the utmost patience. And so he is afflicted with the greatest calamities to bring about that patience. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tested him through these hardships because by these hardships your own heart becomes soft. Subhanallah. When you've lived in poverty, when you've lived in poverty, then you will feel something for those who are poor. It's nature, human nature. And when you've lived in opulence and luxury, you don't connect with the rich, you don't with the poor. You don't connect with them at all. It is not a coincidence that our Prophet ﷺ has so many ahadith about taking care of the orphan. He knows how it feels. There's a hadith that even says, if you can't give money to the orphan, at least rub his hair and make dua, be gentle with him. Because he knows what it is to be an orphan. He knows what it is. And so the commandment comes that at least rub the hair, meaning you show some tenderness to the orphan. So Allah chose these trials upon the Prophet ﷺ, so that when he grows older, he can bear his own trials, and then he can be a merciful person. Because through trials, you develop your own mercy. And even though Allah tried him, still Allah didn't try him beyond his capacity. Allah blessed him with both sons and daughters to give him a taste of fatherhood. And to silence those who try to mock him. Because if he didn't have any children, subhanallah, people could have said very vulgar things about him. But Allah blessed him with both sons and with daughters. Even though Allah took the sons away. And subhanallah, when he took the son away, I gave this halaqah before the tafsir of surah al-kawthar inna a'taynaka al-kawthar fasalal bikwan harin ishanika huwa al-abtar when Abdullah died Abdullah was his youngest son Abdullah was his youngest child when Abdullah died astaghfirullah how crude and how callous Abu Jahl runs through Mecca cheering for joy that qad batara Muhammadun qad batara Muhammad that he's so happy that the Prophet's son has died. That his progeny has cut off because the Arabs, everything is male children for them. Everything is male children. And if you don't have a male child, then you might as well be sterile. You might as well have nothing. And so he's running through Makkah that his progeny has been cut off. His progeny has been cut off. And can you imagine, your son has just died. Wallahi, only parents understand the possibility of that pain. And on top of that, your worst enemy is running through the town crying for joy. how much pain and grief that would have brought to our Prophet ﷺ. And Allah revealed three surahs, three ayat, that were more beloved to the Prophet ﷺ than this whole world and all that it contained. إِنَّا عَطِيْنَكَ الْكَوْثَرَ فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ وَانْحَرْ إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرَ We have given you plenty. Don't worry. We have taken away one thing. We've given you Al-Kawthar. And Al-Kawthar is many things that we explained. Al-Kawthar is the paradise. Al-Kawthar is everything in paradise. Al-Kawthar is the river of paradise. إِنَّ عَطَيْنَكَ الْكَوْتَرَ فَصَلِّ رَبِّكَ وَانْحَرْ Pray to Allah, sacrifice to Him. Those who oppose you, they will be the ones who are cut off from everything. إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرَ Those who follow you will flourish. You will be وَرَفَعْنَا لَكَ ذِكْرَكَ You will be the one whose rank has been raised. Your opponents will be those who are cut off from all good. And as I pointed out, the only people who mention Abu Jahl's name, And Abu Lahab's name are those who despise and hate them. What a legacy is this. What a legacy. The only people in the world who know them, are those who hate and despise them. Us Muslims. That we want nothing to do with them. What a legacy have they left. إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبِتَرُ And there are also wisdoms that the Prophet ﷺ was not allowed to have sons by the way. This is theological issue. That later on in life when the Prophet ﷺ had Ibrahim, he had Ibrahim when he was around 59 years old 59 or 60 years old he had Ibrahim much later in his life and Ibrahim lived for a year and a half 18 months and for those of us who are parents you know that this is the sweetest age of children because then the terrible twos begin after that, right? the most tender age for children the most love that you can have is really at this tender age the year and a half and Allah blessed him with this because it's still such a blessing to be a father and it's such a blessing to have a child to play with but Allah knew that he could not be a father for long term and so Allah caused Ibrahim as well to pass on to the next world and the Prophet ﷺ was greatly grieved and he was crying and in one hadith in Ibn Majah he said listen to this, a lot of Muslims don't know this hadith the Prophet ﷺ said that had Ibrahim lived he would have been a prophet. It's not possible that the son of Rasulullah ﷺ not be a prophet. It's not possible. Had Ibrahim lived, he would have been a Nabi. But there is gonna be no Nabi after me. And so Allah had to steal the prophecy. The Prophet ﷺ knew this. And so this is a theological reason as well that the Prophet ﷺ cannot have sons. And he can only have daughters. And I have to add here as well, what a fitna it was for the ummah that his daughters had sons after and what did our ummah do with those sons and what groups were formed exaggerating the status of those grandchildren through women imagine if there was a male progeny wallahi groups have taken this male progeny from a woman Fatima and made them to be what they have made them if there was a male progeny of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam directly the ummah would have made them into prophets and gods walking on the earth And it is a mercy from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he knew the weakness. And so he just cut it off. Because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's son would have been a prophet, so he's not gonna have any sons that grow to maturity. The last incident that we have mentioned is the incident of the building of the Ka'bah. The building of the Ka'bah, the story is well known to you. And it was that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was around 35 years old. Ibn Ishaq says he was 35 years old. So there are 10 years of marriage to Khadija, we don't even have one narration about what happens. Subhanallah. And as I said, such a big loss, but we put our trust in Allah, that these details would not have benefited us theologically. Allah knows what He preserved for us. So the next story we have is 10 years down the line, when the Prophet ﷺ is 35 years old. The rebuilding of the Ka'bah, the story is known to all of you, but some details maybe you don't know. the Kaaba was damaged by two things in the year before it was rebuilt. The first a fire, the second a flood. Subhanallah, fire and flood, two opposites. And what happened was a woman was cooking close to the Kaaba. Now you have to realize in our times the Kaaba is separated from settlements by hundreds of meters, thousands of feet. In those days, the houses of the people were literally 5-10 feet away from the Kaaba. You didn't need large tawaf gaps because you didn't have tens of thousands of people and millions of people coming. And even, some of you might even remember in the 70s maybe, you know. Some of you might even remember, there were houses outside of Safa and Marwah. Do you remember that? I think you might remember. Outside of Safa and Marwah, there were houses literally, people would be living there. This is in the early 70s. And Safa and Marwah was disconnected from the Haram. That's how small the Haram was. That you'd have to walk outside the round Haram, outside the Kaaba area, you would walk, you would exit the haram and then re-enter the Safamarwa area right, because Mecca was a small city and so you can imagine the houses were very close, so a lady was cooking outside of her house, close to the Kaaba, and one of the embers sparked, and it set the ghalaf, or the cloth of the Kaaba ablaze, the Kaaba was always clothed, from the days of Jahiliyyah they put a cloth on it, and so the fire set the whole Kaaba ablaze, by the time they put the fire out, the Kaaba was damaged but not destroyed. It was weakened but not destroyed. Later on in the year, a massive flood came to Mecca. Now, Mecca is in the basin of a lot of mountains. And once every 10 years or so, there is a massive flood. I have witnessed this myself in one of the hajj's that I have done. Unbelievable to see this. Literally, I was witness and I did that hajj that year. I swear by Allah I was walking from Mina to the Kaaba because the buses were all gone I swear by Allah there were points that the water was up until here and this is on the streets of Mecca not even and I'm walking with my bags on top of me like this I'm sometimes up to here there are pictures of a flood that happened in 1947 or so 1948 where the people are swimming for Tawaf mashallah good exercise they're swimming for Tawaf because the Kaaba was flooded Now in our times, the Kaaba cannot be flooded unless Allah wills a major disaster. But the Kaaba cannot be flooded because they have waterways and gutters to take rid of it. But the streets of Mecca flood still to this day. And I've witnessed this myself. The point being in that year, that flood happened. And the flood destroyed the roof of the Kaaba with all of the water. And it destroyed some of the walls of the Kaaba. So it's partially destroyed and not fully. and so they decided that they need to rebuild the entire Kaaba both damages had done the fire weakened it and then the flood pretty much destroyed the structure even leaving some remnants here and there now it so happened that when the Kaaba was destroyed there was a news of a sale going on in the city of Jeddah at the time they called it Jeddah they called it Jeddah Jeddah is the modern name Jeddah and what had happened was that the Caesar of Rome had sent supplies to one of the cities of Yemen to build a massive church over there. The Persians had destroyed it, the Persians are fire worshippers, the Romans are Christians, so as you know there is a war going on. So as part of that war, the Persians had destroyed a church in Yemen. And so the Caesar from his own money decided to finance the rebuilding of that church. So he got the best wood, and the best marble, and the best craftsman to go and build that church in Yemen. But Allah had another plan. And so the books of Sira mention that Allah sent a wind off the coast of Juddah to cause the ship to basically crash. And the ship was damaged, but it just made it to Juddah, because Allah has a plan. It didn't drown. It made it to Juddah. And when it made it to Juddah, all of the cargo that the Caesar has, the most expensive marble, and the grandest wood. Now, Arabia has no marble, right? There is no fancy wood. It's a desert. You don't get fancy wood in Arabia, right? They don't have these building structures. They don't have craftsmen to that caliber. And Allah had willed that this is gonna happen. And so they set up the merchandise for sale. And it was at this time, because they have to get back to Rome now, the ship is not going to get to Yemen. So they need to get money to get back to Rome. So forget this batch, we'll get another batch, right? So they set all of this merchandise, the marble and the fancy wood and everything. And there was also a Najjar, a craftsman basically, a carpenter or craftsman with the ship. And so the Quraysh, when they heard about this, they gathered together all their wealth and they went to Mecca to purchase, to Jeddah, sorry, to Jeddah, to purchase all of this and to hire the craftsman as well to come. And this is now a craftsman that has been educated in the palaces of the Caesar. You're not gonna get a more qualified person on the face of the earth. How he ended up in Mecca, look, Allah Azza wa Jalla has a plan. Subhanallah, wallah, it's amazing when you think about it, right? How he ended up in Mecca with this fancy material the choicest wood, the marble that the people in Mecca had never seen. This is not what they're used to and accustomed to. So they come together and they purchase all of these goods and they bring them back to Mecca. And this is the miracles of Allah that happened. When they purchased all of these goods, now they're wondering now, the Ka'bah is in semi-destroyed state in front of them, and they're wondering, should we come and destroy it? This is the house of Allah. They've never destroyed the house of Allah, before. I mean, even the thought of it is sacrilegious, right? They don't know what to do. And according to one report of Ibn Ishaq mentions this, that when they were debating what to do, a large snake came out of the well of Zamzam. And it was rumored that there was a snake living in the well of Zamzam. Now this large snake came out, massive snake. And anytime they approached it, hissed at them. And so they wondered, what are they supposed to do? And Allah sent a big bird to pick up the snake and to get rid of it, to throw it behind one of the mountains of Mecca. So they took this as a sign that they should approach the Kaaba. That the snake is not guarding the Kaaba anymore. That we can now go and approach the Kaaba. But they're still terrified. And so each one is nudging the other, why don't you go first? Why don't you go first? Because they're worried what's gonna happen. Until finally, Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, and he is the nobleman that Allah mentions in the Quran, ذَرْنِي وَمَنْ خَلَقْتُ وَحِيدًا This is Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira. And he was their poet and their nobleman. and he became an enemy of the Prophet ﷺ. But he was a nobleman of the Quraysh at the time. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah finally said, Khalas, I'm gonna do it. Hand me the axe. So he took the axe and he marched towards the Ka'bah and he started breaking down one of the walls of the Ka'bah. Nobody lifted a finger to help. Then the rumor spread. Why don't we use Al-Walid as the litmus test? If he survives the night, we'll join him the next day. And if something happens to him, then well, you know, خلاص, he's a good riddance, one person less to worry about, right? So, they basically did not help him that day. And he did his own job as much as he could. Then the next morning, he woke up fine and healthy, everything's fine. So they said, okay, حمد لله, خلاص. In fact, Al-Walid, when he approached the Ka'bah, Ibn Ishaq mentions that, now these are pagans, they're not Muslims. So Ibn Ishaq mentions, he lifted the axe and he said, Oh Allah, don't get alarmed, don't get angry. We're just trying to help the Ka'bah. I mean he's this jahili mentality, he doesn't understand. You know Allah knows his thoughts, right? But he's trying to say, don't get alarmed O Allah, and don't get angry, we're just trying to help rebuild the Ka'bah. And so Al-Walid put one wall down, and so the next day Alhamdulillah the entire Quraysh decided, now we all have to tear the Ka'bah down and then rebuild it. And what they did was, they divided all of the tribes into four groups. All of the sub-tribes of the Quraysh. The Quraysh have many sub-tribes, right? So they gathered together and they divided all of these tribes into four groups. Each of the tribes gets one wall, right? Not each of the tribes because there was more than four. But basically tribes are grouped together based on their lineage. The closest tribes together, you get this wall. Another close group, you get this wall. And the Banu Abd Manaf, which is the great sub-tribe of the Banu Hashim, right? This is confusing, I don't want to confuse you guys too much. but the Banu Hashim is one of the tribes of the Banu Abdi Manaf. The Banu Abdi Manaf is one of the tribes of the Quraysh. So it goes like lineage, like you just keep on making it bigger and bigger. The Banu Abdi Manaf is the branch that contains the Banu Hashim. So the Banu Abdi Manaf is given the most prestigious, and that's the side of the wall. Why? Because they are the most prestigious, they knew it. Abdul Muttalib was from them. And Abdul Muttalib was who he was. So they get the most prestigious. the second most prestigious the Banu Makhzum Abu Jahl is from this tribe the Banu Makhzum, they get the wall that is the Rukn Yamani to the black stone right, you guys following here? the last fourth of the Kaaba so they get the second most prestigious wall and then their other tribes, we don't have to mention their names they get the other two walls now, you all know what happened the Banu Abdi Manaf and the Banu Makhzum are raising the corner that has the black stone, right? the black stone doesn't belong to either wall it belongs to both right? and so when they get to that area, trouble brews why? because the Banu Maghzum and the Banu Abdel Manaf are rivals they remained rivals and they continue to be rivals even after Islam by the way the Umayyads and the Abbas and what not they continued, because the Umayyads go back to this branch so both of them said, put their foot down they said the black stone is my side, no it's my side And then the other tribes also put and said, why should you get the privilege? This is a special stone. Now the Arabs knew that the black stone was a special stone, even in the days pre-Islam. And the fighting between them, or the rhetoric or the anger reached such a level, that construction on the Ka'bah stopped for five days. They reached the level of the black stone and just stopped. because they needed to resolve who is going to put the black stone in. So can you imagine for five days heated arguments, they almost came to blows. The Banu Makhzum secretly put together an agreement with some other sub-tribes that they would fight to death to put the black stone in. And they dipped their hands in blood because they couldn't sign. So they got some camel blood, they dipped their hands in the blood. So this is how they would sign things, like in the Hilf al-Mutayyabeen, what did they dip it in? Ital, perfume. So they would dip their hands in blood. So they secretly dipped their hands in blood. And they made a secret pact, the Banu Makhzum, that no way we're gonna allow anybody to put the black stone except us, even if we die to the last man. Wallahi, what Jahiliyyah. And you're gonna kill yourself, and leave your wife a widow, and leave your children an orphan, because of the honor of later on, Jahiliyyah Arabs, what would they say? that we allow the Banu Abdi. And these are your cousins. Like the Banu Abdi Manaf and the Banu Baghzum are cousins back in the day. Obviously that's the whole point. They all go back to the Quraysh. This is what you call tribalism gang mentality. This is Jahiliyyah. So they were almost about to reach to blows. On the fifth day they all came together and Abu Umayya ibn al-Mughira who was the oldest person alive in Mecca at the time. Abu Umayya ibn al-Mughira was the oldest person alive. He said there will be no bloodshed. We're not gonna fight over this. Let us just give it over to the first person who enters from the door. There was one major door, the one major area we can say. They didn't have a physical door. One area that you would come in when you would do tawaf. Whoever enters the first, he will be his decision. Now, what this basically meant for them, was it's the luck of the draw. It's lottery system. Whoever walked in, who would he vote for, for his own tribe? right, that was the mentality that they had that whoever walked in would obviously choose his own tribe, so we leave it to the luck of the draw, whoever walks in, whatever tribe he belongs to will basically win, that was the understanding because nobody would ever choose somebody else's tribe, it's just humanly impossible for them to think like that so, what they did was they then said whoever walks in, and you all know the story that our Prophet ﷺ walked in, and what is amazing as Ibn Ishaq and others mentioned all the tribes became happy. Because otherwise it would not have been possible for all the tribes to be happy. Only the tribe that that person belonged to would have been happy. But when they saw the Prophet ﷺ, they all became happy because every tribe thought, the Prophet ﷺ likes me so much, he's actually gonna choose my tribe. And this is amazing that even the Banu Makhzum, and the Banu Abd al-Dar, and the other Banus of the Quraysh, they felt such a liking for this person, and they felt he liked them so much, that he's gonna choose us. And so they all were overjoyed. And this is an amazing phenomenon, that even the people who were not Banu Hashim, Banu Abd al-Daw, they felt that he's gonna choose them. And subhanAllah, 50 years later, fast forward, you have Amr ibn al-As, say that famous hadith, that the Prophet ﷺ was so gentle and nice to me, that I knew he loved me the most out of everybody. even though Amr ibn al-As is not in the top 10 and so one day I asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who do you love the most so he said instantaneously Aisha he was not embarrassed to admit he loved his wife the most and so he said no I meant amongst the men who do you love so he said her father Abuha and he linked it back to Aisha then he was quite ago okay after him so he said Umar kept on asking until finally he got the point and he stopped asking. But what is the show? Amr, by the way, Amr embraced Islam in the 8th year of the Hijrah. How could he be to the level of Abu Bakr and Uthman and Ali and Umar? You know, it's not even possible. Point being, he is a late convert, but he thinks the Prophet ﷺ loves me the most. What is that show about how he's dealing with people? Right? That every person thinks, I am the most special to him. Isn't that amazing? And even in the days of Jahiliyyah, the exact same thing. That every tribe is thinking, he likes me the most. He's gonna choose my tribe. And so as you all know the story, the Prophet ﷺ instantaneously, he said, bring me a sheet, bring me an izar, an upper garment. When it was brought, the Prophet ﷺ himself put it on the izar, put it on the garment. And he said, let every sub-tribe send its representative, send its chieftain, send your guy. And all of us will put it simultaneously. And so they all lifted it. So the Banu Mahzum, they fulfilled their promise because they were a part of those who lifted. So they didn't break their promise of fighting to the death, they fulfilled it. And all the tribes fulfilled it, and as you know, the Prophet ﷺ himself was the one who put it into that particular location. Now, they changed the structure of the Ka'bah, and Allah had willed that that change would become permanent. Two things they changed, well three things actually. Four actually, excuse me. Keeps on coming tomorrow. Number one they did. Number one, and the biggest and the most drastic change. Either the marble or the wood, we don't know which. But they didn't have enough because they were using that expensive material for the foundation. And for the top, they were using the regular rocks around Mecca. So they were using the expensive stuff to solidify the foundation so that when the next time the flood comes, it's gonna be a solid structure. So they calculated immediately that they could not build the foundation as large as the original Ka'bah. The original Ka'bah was not a square, it was a rectangle. The original Ka'bah at the time of Ibrahim a.s. was a rectangle. So the front and the back, where the door is now, and the backside of the Ka'bah were almost double the length of the width. That's how the original Ka'bah was. And that's how it was when the Prophet ﷺ was growing up till he was 35 years old. Now they got all of this material and they did not have that expensive material to build the entire rectangle. So they decided to build a square instead. And to mark the other two angles, if you like, or the other two corners with two posts. And to put a little barrier over there, which is as you know to this day. Now, perhaps the mentality was, this is what we can afford, maybe in 100 or 200 years when it's rebuilt, they can have enough money to build the original structure. It was not their desire to make it permanent. They realized that this is what we're doing, maybe the next time it's rebuilt, they can rebuild it from the proper corners as it was. That's the first change that they did. The second change that they did, the Ka'bah was not as high as it became. Of course now it is even much higher than it used to be. Much higher than it used to be. They, according to one report, the Ka'bah at the time of the Prophet ﷺ's early life, was as high as when you sit on a camel. So, maybe up until where our thing is over here, maybe around there. Around maybe what, 15 feet? Something like that, right? it was doubled in height now of course in our times it probably goes 50, 100 feet 70 feet I think, pretty high it's very high when you look at it but in the time of the Prophet ﷺ it was pretty small it was just a long square structure so they doubled it in height that was the second change that they did and so that began the concept of making it very tall and to this day it is a very tall structure the third thing that they did was they made the door of the Kaaba, this is the Banu Abd al-Manaf did this, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam sub-tribe. They made the door of the Kaaba in the middle of the wall, not on the ground where people could go in. Because they wanted to be elite and have access to who can go in and who cannot go in. So because they're building that section, they did something that was not done before. And that is they made the door high. And so they have the keys and they have the ladder and only those whom the the Banu Abd al-Manafah proved they can go into the Ka'bah. And to this day the door is high because of that. And then they did something which is very logical and rational and very common sense. They built a water spout. Because what happened before? The roof caved in because of the water. Too much rain and flood. So they built a water spout. And to this day we have that water spout that we see. The concept came from them. Of course not the same water spout. The concept came from them. the Prophet ﷺ when he conquered Mecca 20 years after this incident when he conquered Mecca the Prophet ﷺ said to Aisha were it not for the fact that your people are still new to Islam I would have destroyed this structure of the Ka'bah and rebuilt it on the original pillars of Ibrahim and made the door accessible to everybody but if I were to do this basically the people would feel awkward because they're new to Islam so if I were to do this I mean if I wanted to I could but I don't want to do it to cause problems to the new Muslims now this hadith is a well known hadith it's reported in Sahih Bukhari in the time of the early Umayyad dynasty what happened was there was a lot of civil war going on and one group led by Abdullah ibn Zubair, the companion, broke away from the Umayyad Empire, and they founded their own mini caliphate in Mecca. Abdullah ibn Zubair founded his own mini caliphate in Mecca. And this was at the time of the infamous Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the most tyrant ruler that the ummah has ever seen. You think today's rulers are bad? Listen to what these guys did, you know, amazing stuff. So that was during the time of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. So Abdullah ibn Zubayr took over the Kaaba, and he was a pious sahabi, he was a companion. And so when this hadith reached him, he destroyed the Kaaba, and he rebuilt it like a rectangle, and he made the door back down to the earth. So he followed the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. then Hajjaj ibn Yusuf overtook Mecca again by throwing catapults into the Kaaba and the catapults destroyed the Kaaba itself amazing, you think the people in Syria and Lebanon and what not are bad this guy attacked the Kaaba and he destroyed the Kaaba because he wanted to get Abdullah ibn Zubayr and then he crucified literally crucified on a plank in front of the Ka'bah, Abdullah ibn Zubayr. And this is a companion, and the son of a companion, and the brother of a companion, and the son of a female companion. Both his parents were companions. This is Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. He is literally a mental case. Nonetheless, the point being, he had to rebuild the Ka'bah, and he didn't want to rebuild it the way that ibn Zubayr rebuilt it. So he destroyed it again. And he built it the way that the Jahiliyyah had built it. The square, with the Hatim, with the door high up. and then it is reported that in the time of Imam Malik the Khalifa at the time said to Imam Malik why don't we go back and build it the way that Ibn Zubayr did it because isn't that what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wanted Imam Malik said no I don't want the Ka'bah to become a toy that kings come along and they put their whims and desires on it and this is what you call Fiqh this is what you call understanding no, because this already happened to me just leave it now And so from the time of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, it has remained upon the foundations of the Jahili Arabs. And the Hatim has been there, and the door has been above this. Now, a number of benefits that we derive, and then inshallah we have some slides. We have some slides to show inshallah, yeah. Notice how everything is planned by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The Arabs are in the desert, they have no fancy wood, they have no marble, they have nothing of this nature and yet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends to them the most choicest material from the palace of the Caesar this is the most powerful man on earth financing what he thinks is the building of a church وَمَكَرُ وَمَكَرَ اللَّهَ and that material with that craftsman came to the lands of Arabia to Mecca and that struck them Thank you.

Seerah 80 - The Conquest of Makkah Part 6 ~ Dr

So we were discussing the conquest of Mecca. And today inshallah we will finally conclude the conquest of Mecca talking about some of the benefits and some of the morals that we can derive. But before we get to that, obviously we still have to wrap up some of the incidents that we still haven't discussed. And I think the last thing we mentioned was the series of converts who converted right after the conquest, those who were delayed in converting. And we have just one or two left of those stories. And the first of them is just a simple story about the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, a female cousin, one of the daughters of Abu Talib and a full sister of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Her name was Ummi Hane. Her name was Ummi Hane and she had embraced Islam at the conquest. So she obviously knows the Prophet ﷺ since his childhood, but she has remained on her faith until the conquest of Mecca. And her in-laws, her husband's relatives, had a problem with Ali ibn Abi Talib. And in the conquest, during the conquest, they fled because they were worried Ali would extract revenge. This is a story not related to Islam itself. And so they fled. Then they had nowhere to flee, so they sent a message to Ummi Hane, can you protect us from Ali? So they came to the house of Ummi Hane, and Ummi Hane is of course the full sister of Ali. And so she locked the door on Ali ibn Abi Talib and allowed the two to remain in her house. Ali became enraged, how dare you come between me and them? And he threatened to harm them. And Ali ibn Abi Talib threatened to harm them. So Ummi Hane, the next morning after they were protected, Ummi Hane went directly to the Prophet ﷺ. And because she was a cousin, she was let into the tent or the chambers. And the Prophet ﷺ was taking a ghusl, he was taking a bath. And his daughter Fatima was standing with a cloth shielding him. Of course they didn't have showers in those days, of course they didn't have separate facilities. If somebody wanted to take a shower, typically you would get somebody to hold a curtain, and you would go to a corner of the tent and quickly take a ghusl. So Fatima was holding a curtain in front of the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ said, who is this? And obviously he's taking a shower. So Ummi Haneh said, this is Ummi Haneh. And so he lowered the curtain to see her, and this is his cousin. So he said, marhaban bi Ummi Hani. Welcome, after so many years, welcome Ummi Hani. And Ummi Hani gave the entire story. That ya Rasulallah, now she's a Muslim, ya Rasulallah, I wanted to protect my brother-in-law, my what not, and Ali promised he's going to threaten to harm them, and I've come to you directly to appeal to you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, we shall protect anybody whom you want to protect. We shall protect anybody whom you want to protect. And of course the story is interesting for two reasons. Number one, from this scholars of fiqh have derived that what we talked about aman or protection is given from anybody to anybody. Everybody in the Muslim community, man, woman, child, free, slave, everybody has the right to give a personal aman, a personal protection. And when Ummi Hana gave her personal protection, the Prophet, and this is a very lax law by the way. Imagine, this is the laws of Islam. Any Muslim has the right to offer protection to any individual. and of course this is in a state of war when Islamic sharia is applicable so any person can say so and so is under my protection and all of the Muslims have to then obey that protection it's a very open system and it is unprecedented in classical times so the Prophet ﷺ said we shall give you protection to whomever you want to protect and then after he finished the ghusl this is an interesting hadith in a fiqh point not related to the conquest of Mecca Umm Hanid said I saw him pray 8 raka'at of Salat al-Duha. I saw him pray 8 raka'at of Salat al-Duha. And this is the only hadith that mentions the Prophet ﷺ praying Salat al-Duha, even though it was a regular habit of his, but he would pray it in the privacy of his house. And his wives for some reason did not report the details, they expected or understood this. The only narration we have of the Prophet ﷺ himself praying, and how many raka'at he prayed, is this one. And that is Ummi Hani. And of course, the blessings of Salatul Duha. When is Salatul Duha? Who can tell me? When is Salatul Duha? After Fajr half an hour? After Shuruq? Before sunrise? Before Dhuhr? So after Shuruq, up until right before Dhuhr, right? No, no, this is, you're talking very specific time. The general time of Salatul Dhuha, after Shuruq, after the sun has gone to a meter's length, it begins. And it lasts all the way until right before Dhuhr by 5-10 minutes. So, you know every Salat chart has Israq time. This is when Dhuha begins. And from Israq time, it will last all the way up until right before Salatul Dhuhr. And this is at least 3.5 to 5.5 hours depending on the time of the year. Correct? Three and a half to five and a half hours. And our Prophet ﷺ said, the best time to pray is when the heat begins to strike you. Which let's say 11.30 or so. That's the best time to pray. But you can pray it at any time. And you can pray two or four or six or eight. All of this is allowed. And in one hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah said, whoever prays four raka'at in the beginning of the day, I will suffice him till the end of the day. So four is the minimum of perfection. Two is the minimum allowed. In fact, it's sunnah, it's nafl, so you can do anything. You don't have to pray duha. You can pray two raka'ah. Four is the minimum of perfection. And eight is what the Prophet ﷺ would typically pray. He would typically pray eight raka'ah of salat al-duha. And this hadith is interesting because it's the only hadith that we learn about his praying salat al-duha. He encouraged us to pray it, but we don't know how much he prayed until we get to the hadith of Ummi Hane. So this is one more conversion. The final conversion story, if we move on to tie up some other loose ends and then talk about the benefits and the lessons of the conquest of Mecca. The final conversion story involves the official poet of the Quraysh, whose name we have not come across up until now. And his name was Abdullah al-Za'bari from the tribe of Banu Saham. And the Sahami tribe was within one of the tribes of the Quraysh. The Banu Saham was one of the many tribes of the Quraysh. And the official poet of the Quraysh was Abdullah al-Za'bari. and he would be the one who wrote poems against Islam and the Muslims before Badr, after Badr, before Uhud, after Uhud. He was the one who had a one-on-one with Hassan ibn Thabit. He would write, Hassan would reply. He would write, Hassan would reply. So the two of them are going back and forth. He was the one that when a poem came, the Prophet ﷺ told Hassan, go and respond and Jibreel is with you. This is Abdullah al-Zabari. This is the poet. Okay, now he lived a very quiet life other than poetry. So we don't have much about him incidents that he's done even before and after. So this is where his name first surfaces when it comes to his acceptance of Islam. And when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca, Abdullah al-Zabari fled. He fled to Najran. Najran is in Central Arabia. And he fled with his cousin and his best friend because he did not feel comfortable obviously, even though his name was not on the list. Still he felt uncomfortable being around the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims. So he fled to Najran. And when he fled, Hassan ibn Thabit gloated. And he wrote a page long poem which is recorded in Ibn Ishaq. Which is the most scathing personal attack against Ibn Zabari. What a coward, he flees to Najran. The whole world curses him. Him and his children are accursed to the Day of Judgment. It's a very, very harsh poem against Ibn al-Zabari. And Ibn al-Zabari when he heard this poem, when he heard this poem, obviously poetry is the communication of the time. Poetry is how you send your propaganda. Poetry is what happens when you want to communicate and give your verdicts or you want to smear somebody, use poetry. So Ibn al-Zabari when he hears this, In fact, he actually feels depressed because he agrees with the sentiment. He agrees that I fled, I was a coward. And he actually begins to think of the content of the message of Islam. And eventually, in the next few days, he decides to convert to Islam from Najran. He's in Najran. So he packs his belongings and he's gonna come back to Mecca, right after the conquest, like a week after the conquest. And his cousin says, where are you going? He says, I've decided to convert. his cousin says we've come all the way here me and you, now you're gonna abandon me here all alone, they're in a strange land a strange city, a strange tribe and now he's gonna return back and Ibn Zabari responds why should I not convert why should I remain with this strange tribe should I not go back to my own kith and kin my own cousin, meaning the Prophet because they were in the end of the day the same tribe, and he is the best of all mankind, why should I not go back to my own kith and kin, my cousin and my own abode and house. So he decides to come back. And the Prophet ﷺ is sitting in front of the Ka'bah with the Sahaba. In the distance they see a figure coming. And the Prophet ﷺ said, that is Ibn al-Zabari. And I see from him the nur of iman. From the distance he's walking, he says, I see from him the light of iman coming. And so when Ibn al-Zabari comes, nobody says anything because the Prophet ﷺ has already said, I see the nur of Islam. And before the Prophet ﷺ can say anything, Ibn al-Za'bar, he says, As-salamu alayka ya Rasulullah. Khalas, right there he's a Muslim. Right? As-salamu alayka ya Rasulullah. Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallah wa ash-hadu annaka la Rasulullah. So he accepts Islam officially and then he says that, Alhamdulillah, all praise be to Allah who guided me to Islam. I was your enemy for so long and I incited through poetry against you. And even his language, by the way I'm translating into English, even his language is pregnant with meaning. It's so profound. And even when you listen to this translation, I rode on horses and traveled on camels and walked on foot to oppose you. Meaning I did everything I could. My tongue, my efforts were all done to oppose you. And I even fled to Najran to avoid you. But Allah still wanted good for me. This is an amazing, and you really sense genuine Islam. You really sense a genuine embracing of the faith. that I did everything to oppose you but still Allah wanted me to accept Islam and I have now come to you as a Muslim and he has caused me to realize how ignorant I was worshipping that which cannot think worshipping a stone that we sacrifice to we venerate but the stone or the idol does not even realize it is being worshipped Alhamdulillah for having guided me to Islam and so the Prophet ﷺ welcomed his Islam and told him Islam wipes away all that you have done in the past all of the sins you've done are now wiped away and clean and so Ibn Zabari for the rest of his life he composed poem after poem in praise of Islam in praise of the Prophet ﷺ as an expiation for what he had done and for some reason that I don't understand much of his poetry has been lost unlike the poetry of Hassan which has been preserved maybe because he lived in Mecca and Hassan was in Medina and Allah knows best I don't understand why but much of his poetry is lost. We only have fragments of his poetry after Islam. And the scholars such as Al-Qurtubi and others said that he wrote much poetry for the Prophet ﷺ after his Islam. And through it he cancelled the evil that he had done before Islam. And he was a great poet. شَاعِرًا مَجِيدًا He was a great poet. And it is narrated as well that after one poem that he recited in front of the Prophet ﷺ the Prophet ﷺ took off his cloak and gifted it to him. and this is what the poets would honor the most when a leader, and of course in this case the Prophet ﷺ gives you his personal cloak. So he gifted him his personal cloak. This was Ibn al-Zabari and that is an honor that rarely the Prophet ﷺ gave to anybody and this clearly demonstrates the status of Ibn al-Zabari. The Prophet ﷺ remained in Mecca. Some reports say 15 days, some say 19, some say 20. Bukhari says 19, so we'll stick with that. Ibn Hisham says 15. And Tabari says 20. But Bukhari says 19 days. So we'll stick with Bukhari's report. And the question came up, where would he live? Whose house would he occupy? And so Ali wanted to regain the house that he grew up in, which is the house the Prophet ﷺ grew up in. And that is the house of Abu Talib. The house of Abu Talib, Ali's house. The Prophet ﷺ grew up in that house. As for the house of Khadija, Allah knows best, but people had taken it over after the Prophet ﷺ left. So the house that remained occupied by the extended family should have been the house of Abu Talib. So Ali said, Ya Rasulullah, O Messenger of Allah, aren't you going to go back to our house? Meaning the house he and him, the Prophet ﷺ, because Ali's house is his father's house as well. And why don't you go back to our house? And the Prophet ﷺ said, And did Aqeel leave any property for us to live in? Now pause here, we need to explain what is this reference to. Abu Talib died, a mushrik, And he had many sons. He had of course, who is his oldest son? This is a strict question. Who is Abu Talib's eldest son? Talib, the sister knows. Smack yourself in the face. What is the acronym for that? SMH, is that it? Talib. Abu Talib's eldest son is Talib. Don't you all feel smart now? Okay, so his eldest son is Talib. Talib and Aqeel, after him was Aqeel. So those of you who said Aqeel as the second eldest. These two, when the Prophet ﷺ was in Mecca, they did not embrace Islam. They did not embrace Islam. Who embraced Islam? Ali and Ja'far. These are the four sons. Ali and Ja'far embraced Islam. Now, when Abu Talib died, Talib and Aqeel were not Muslim. Ja'far and Ali were Muslim. So who inherited Abu Talib's house? Talib and Aqeel. Talib and Aqeel inherited the house. Ja'far and Ali did not get anything. The procession migrates to Mecca. Talib dies. The eldest Talib dies. Aqeel decides to sell everything for the money. So he sells all of the property. now Ali wants it back but it doesn't belong to him so he's asking can we go in like let me get it back but the process is a fair obviously he's not going to acquire somebody else's property so he then is a bit critical of Aqeel Aqeel didn't leave anything for us if he had left it for us we would have but Aqeel sold it all so what this means here and from this we derive fiqh benefits that the mushrik is inherited by mushriks Muslims don't inherit from mushriks. So when Abu Talib died, who inherited? Ali and Ja'far did not get any share of the house. They don't have any right to do anything with it. And the Prophet ﷺ approved of that, because al-Muslim, لَا يَرِثُ الْكَافِرُ ذِي الْحَدِيثِ Then, Aqeel sold it to somebody, that's a legitimate transaction, and the Prophet ﷺ has no right to then confiscate that property back. So he's critical of Aqeel, like Aqeel acted, whatever. it's a bit of a disappointment to him I don't even have a house anymore Aqeel sold it away Aqeel by the way did accept Islam at the conquest so Aqeel becomes a Muslim and he lives a very quiet life he doesn't really get that much involved in the affairs and he just passes away without really doing much other than just living a quiet life but because of this the Prophet ﷺ did not have an abode a house to stay so what does he do? he sets up a tent in his own city of Mecca situation has changed now He sets up a tent to live in for the next 19 days. And the place that he chooses is the famous mini valley close to the Kaaba, literally five minutes walk away. It's called Al-Hujun. And every person in Mecca who lives in Mecca knows where Al-Hujun is. Still to this day, if you tell any Meccan, any person from Mecca, where is Al-Hujun? He'll point, this is Al-Hujun. Now Al-Hujun is very symbolic. Al-Hujun was the place that the Quraysh gathered together to enact the boycott. this was where they had the secret meeting and they signed the document remember the document remember the boycott this hujoon was where they gathered together to sign the treaty or the document to boycott the Muslims and this was the worst that the Quraish ever did this was the lowest of the low and no doubt there is an element of symbolism here that the Prophet ﷺ is now coming and living in al-hujoon now he is the highest of the high and look at how Allah Azzawajal tests people and then blesses them Allah Azzawajal tests him through what happened at Al-Hujun and now he is living there as a conqueror as the undisputed leader of Makkah so Allah Azzawajal demonstrated his perfect justice from where to where this place was where the worst atrocity the Quraysh ever committed occurred and now in the same place our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is being given the greatest honor So he lived in Mecca for 19 days. And during this period, he prayed all of the prayers in the Kaaba, in front of the Kaaba. And he did Qasr for 19 days. He prayed the four Raka'at too. We'll get back to this point later on. You obviously understand this causes a huge issue in Fiqh. You all understand this point, right? For 19 days he stayed in Mecca. And he prayed shortened Salah for 19 days. All of the five. But he prayed them on time. so all of the five prayers he prayed them at the right time but he shortened the four into the two and this we'll get to in the end when we summarize the fiqh benefits and during these 19 days he gave many small sermons he taught the people of Mecca the basics of fiqh that they needed to know so we have dozens of hadith reported about what he said in Mecca most of which deal with teaching the new Muslims their religion of Islam giving them the rulings of dhiyya of so many things So we'll summarize some of the things that he taught the Muslims in Mecca, the new Muslims. Of the first things that he said was he reinstated the sanctity of Mecca. He wanted everybody to understand how holy the city of Mecca is. And of the first speeches he ever gave, perhaps even he gave this on the day of conquest. If not, then the next day after conquest. Obviously we don't have a detailed chronicle of which speech goes when. But one of the earliest speeches he gave, maybe the next morning after the conquest of Mecca, is that he gathered all the people together, and he said, يَا مَعْشَرَ النَّاسِ O people, Allah has made Mecca sacred. إِنَّ اللَّهَ حَرَّمَ مَكَّةً We all call Mecca Al-Haram, right? And we have said many times, what does Al-Haram mean? Al-Haram means it is sanctified. Al-Haram means it is holy. Al-Haram means things that are permissible outside of Mecca are not permissible inside of Mecca. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah has made Mecca sacred. The day that He created the heavens and the earth. And it shall remain sacred until the day of judgment. Mecca is a haram from the beginning of time. It shall be a haram till the end of time. It is not allowed for any believer who believes in Allah and the last day to shed any blood, human or animal. You cannot fight in Mecca. You cannot hunt in Mecca. You cannot shed any blood, meaning you cannot even hunt in Mecca. and it is not allowed for people to pluck the leaves. So we know even the plants of Mecca and the trees of Mecca should be left as is. Everything that Allah Azawajal has put shall remain over there. Then, and he goes on, that Mecca was never halal. When he says halal in this context, it means non-sacred. Mecca was never non-sacred and even for me, sorry, Mecca was never halal before me, nor shall it be halal after me. And even for me, it was made halal just for an hour of the day. Because what did he do? He conquered Mecca. How did he conquer Mecca? By wearing armor. He didn't fight, he didn't, you know, but he did, quote unquote, attack Mecca, didn't he? And it is not allowed to attack Mecca. And for anybody else, obviously. Then he said, Mecca was always sacred before me, and it shall be sacred after me. And as for me, Allah lifted its sanctity for me to attack just for one hour of the day. He literally said, سَاعَةً مِن نَهَارٍ One hour of the day. And now when this hour is over, it has returned to its sanctity as it was before. So if somebody says, and this is the hadith he's saying. So if somebody says, but the Prophet ﷺ fought in Mecca or attacked Mecca or استحل مكة. He lifted the sanctity. You respond back to him. This is an amazing hadith. He is telling us, if somebody tells you, I did this, you respond back to him. Allah has made it halal for the Prophet, and he has not made it halal for you. That's the end of the hadith. So, the point is, he is emphasizing to the people of Mecca, the extreme sanctity of the city of Mecca. And that is why, some of the sahaba, some of the companions, they would go to such extremes, that even if a pigeon landed on their belongings or on them, they would not even shoo it away. They would not even get rid of it out of sanctity, out of worrying that we are disturbing any creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Mecca. And Allah says in the Quran, وَمَنْ يُرِدَ فِيهِ بِالْحَادِنِ Whoever desires to commit a sin in Mecca, just desiring, وَمَنْ يُرِدَ Whoever desires to cause fitna and fasad, to cause problems in Mecca, Allah says we will give him a punishment. So merely intending to harm the city of Mecca, brings about Allah's wrath. So this is one of the things that he decreed in the early stages of the conquest. Also, of the things that he decreed as well, and the famous hadith is in Sahih Bukhari, that the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah and his messenger forbid you from selling alcohol, and selling carcasses, and selling idols. Now where did this thing come about from? So obviously of the first prohibitions in Mecca is what? No idolatry and no drinking. Okay. every house in Makkah is going to have idols and drink. And drink, obviously. Every house in Makkah is going to have alcohol, and every house in Makkah is going to have idols. In fact, the people of Makkah had a very lucrative business. What was the business? They would just take any wood, any stone, paint it and make an idol, then sell it to the people that came from outside of Makkah. Why? An idol from Makkah would give prestige to the idol. So quite literally they would gather some wood or gather some stone, paint it and what not and then sell it. So an idol from Mecca is gonna go for a higher market value, isn't it? So many years. So many years. So many what? So many years. Souvenir from Mecca. Souvenir from Mecca, yes. It's a shirk souvenir from Mecca. Okay. So the people of Mecca had a lucrative business selling idols to the innocent pilgrims and hujjaj, the Bedouins coming and the Prophet ﷺ forbade them. You have lots of idols stocked up, you have lots of khamr. So the Prophet ﷺ said, you cannot worship the idol, you cannot drink alcohol. So what did they do? They began to offer it for cheap. Get rid of it. So the Prophet ﷺ then said, Allah and His Messenger forbid you from selling that which you cannot do. And there's another hadith that says, when Allah has forbidden something, Allah has forbidden you to sell it to others. You see, we have a clear sharia, a simple law here. If something's not right for you, it's not right for somebody else. If you're not allowed to drink, you can't have an alcohol store and sell it to somebody else. Say, oh, I'm not drinking alcohol. No. If it's not good for you, it's not good for somebody else. We don't have this type of stuff that, oh, it's not allowed for me, but I can give it over to you. Generally speaking, generally speaking, and there are some minor exceptions. For example, silk. Because silk is halal, let's say, for the women and what not. But generally speaking, alcohol and idols are the two biggest examples. These items are impermissible to use, to acquire, to sell. They are not allowed for any Muslim to get involved with. And so they had to destroy the idols, literally smash them up. And they had to pour the alcohol into the streets because they are not allowed to sell to other people. And this is something that was adopted in Mecca. And after this now, it is a standard part of fiqh. all of the students of fiqh when you're studying fiqh you learn this principle that which is haram to use and benefit from is haram to sell to others this is a principle of fiqh if you're not allowed it, you're not allowed to sell it to others where do we get this from? conquest of Mecca also in the conquest of Mecca another prohibition as well and this was the prohibition of zawaj mut'a now we know what zawaj mut'a is you don't know, you want me to tell you what it is you know very well what it is you know very well You were the one saying, why isn't it halal? I remember last time. So, zawaj mut'a. Now, zawaj mut'a is a controversial issue, as you know, between the Sunni and the Shia groups. And from the perspective of Sunni Islam, mut'a, by and large, most, the bulk, almost, ijma' of the Sunnis is that it is not allowed. And there is a controversy, when was it prohibited? So, Imam al-Nawawi and other scholars say it was allowed twice and prohibited twice. so it used to be halal then in the battle of khaybar it was made haram then it was made halal again then in the battle of Mecca or the conquest of Mecca excuse me, it was made haram again so this is one opinion and other scholars such as Ibn al-Qayyim are very much opposed to this opinion and they say no, it was made haram and it was only made haram once and it was made haram in the conquest of Mecca so the both of them agree it was made haram it's just a matter of halal, haram, haram once or twice of this nature. And of course, as you know, non-Sunni groups, they don't accept these prohibitions. And it is even attributed to Ibn Abbas, and Allah knows best about this position. But by and large, the standard Sunni schools all adopted these prohibitions. Of the fiqh that we learn as well from the conquest of Mecca. And by the way, a lot of these things are known to you. But most of you didn't know they occurred in the conquest of Mecca. Of the things that all of you know sitting here, but I don't think many of you knew this occurred in the conquest of Mecca. was the famous ruling in Islam that you are all familiar with, that you're only allowed to leave one third of your money outside of your will. Outside of the people that Allah has allocated shares to. As we all know in Islamic law, you have to give your money according to the chart in the Quran, according to the fractions in the Quran. The wife, the son, the daughter, the husband, they all get shares in the Quran. What if you have a friend, a distant uncle, a cousin? What if you have somebody who's a benefactor? How do you benefit them in your will? we all know the maximum you can give is how much? One third. Where do we get this from? Right here and now. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas fell ill. And he thought he was about to die. Even the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims thought he's about to die. Seriously ill. And he thought he's on his deathbed. Turns out he's gonna live another, mashallah, decade and a half. But he thought he's on his deathbed. So he says, Ya Rasulullah, Allah has blessed me with lots of money, and I only have two daughters. so what if I give two thirds of my wealth to people that I want to, the Prophet said no too much so he said okay how about half of it and still the Prophet said no too much so he said how about one third then he said athuluthu wa thuluthu kathir okay one third but even one third you're pushing it it's okay but one third you're pushing it then he said were you to leave your descendants, your heirs rich it is better than you leave them poor having to beg others for help these are your daughters, these are your family it's better you on the generous side with them rather than other people so from this hadith we all know the famous rule and we all practice this rule that you're only allowed to give a maximum of one third to people outside of the list found in the Quran and this also occurs in the story or in the conquest of Mecca another fiqh point that involves a famous hadith that you're all familiar with. This was also the famous incident that you have all read and heard about when one of the women of the tribe of Banu Makhzum, the Banu Makhzum tribe is the tribe of Abu Jahl, it's a very famous tribe. One of the women of the tribe of Banu Makhzum was caught stealing. And they spoke to Usama ibn Zayd, who was the beloved of the Prophet ﷺ. Usama ibn Zayd, because his father was Zayd, and his mother is Ummi Ayman, and Osama was physically born in the house of the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca. Osama has grown up as a baby, as a young man. The Prophet ﷺ loves him immensely. He loved his father. His mother took care of the Prophet ﷺ as a baby. So this is Osama is called the beloved of the Prophet ﷺ, حِبُّ النَّبِي The one whom the Prophet ﷺ loved. So the men of the Banu Mahzum, they went to Osama because they knew the Prophet ﷺ has a soft spot for him. And they kind of convinced him, why don't you just suggest to the Prophet ﷺ to forgive this lady. She is a noble lady from amongst us and you know just let the punishment go. So Usama entered in and asked the Prophet ﷺ that Ya Rasulullah she is a very famous and noble lady why don't you just let her go. So the Prophet ﷺ he became enraged and he said تَشْفَعُ فِي حَدِّ مِنْ حُدُودِ اللَّهِ You want to intercede when it comes to a had of the hudud of Allah you want to intercede and then he said the famous line that we're all familiar with that Wallahi Wallahi lau Fatima binti Muhammad saraqat laqata'atu yadaha my own daughter if she committed this crime I would not forgive her we don't operate this way that the rich and famous get off the hook and the poor and the lowly will be punished right and he gave and he called all of the people of Mecca that's another khutbah that he gave and in front of all of them he said that if my own daughter Fatima binti Muhammad committed a crime then I would establish the punishment on her I'm not going to forgive somebody just because they're rich and wealthy and the maghzumiyah was a rich and wealthy lady and so the relatives wanted to do that so Aisha narrates that this lady after the punishment was done this lady would regularly visit me afterwards and she would petition the Prophet ﷺ for other matters of hers and I would raise her petitions to the Prophet ﷺ to grant her her requests and this also shows us this interesting tidbit This also shows us that once the punishment has been done, once a person has been punished, you're not treated like a criminal for the rest of your life. Once you've done your time, once you have been punished, then khalas, okay, end of story, move on. So the same lady who was caught stealing, she also continues to ask the Prophet ﷺ for other favors, and she gets those favors. Because you're allowed to petition and ask for favors when you're not breaking the law. But the first petition was trying to break the law just for her. And in our religion, we are allowed to intercede for noble causes, we're not allowed to intercede when it comes to protecting those who should not be protected. Also one of the fiqh rulings, not quite that important in our times, but the general ruling is relevant. And that is, there was the case of a child that was born in dubious circumstances. I.e., you understand, some type of affair was alleged. And the person who was involved in all of this, of course this child is born there is a married couple and somebody alleges that this child is mine now this occurred before Islam by the way so all of these crimes and sins are occurring before Islam now the both of these are famous Muslims and as we know Islam forgives all previous sins so we should not think bad of them this is all happening in the past and the two people involved were Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas and Abdullah ibn Zum'a the both of them are famous Sahaba Sa'ad said this child is mine and Abdullah bin Zum'a was married to the lady who gave birth and so he is saying the child is born in my marriage so they complain now that they conquer Mecca now this child is now a young boy and so they are both contesting who should have custody of the child so the Prophet ﷺ gave the famous verdict الولد للفراش وللعاهر الحجر This is a famous hadith that every student of fiqh studies. الولد للفراش Which metaphorically translates, well literally it translates, the child is to the bed it was born on. And metaphorically this means, anytime a child is born, we shall assume without question that the child belongs to the parents who are married. الولد للفراش We don't delve into rumor and what not. We don't دوق إلى وقال you understand we simply base it on the verdict of who's married الولد للفراش the child will be given to the bed it was born on meaning whoever was married we will consider and if somebody is proven to be an adulterer then they will be punished with the punishment of adultery so this is the verdict of Islam that when a child is born we do not question anybody says anything we don't question it we try to cover up false and sins We don't pry and we don't probe. And we assume children belong to the parents that gave birth to them. الولد للفراش This is a famous ruling in Islam as well. Now, this is another issue. Let's not get involved in this right now. Now, one of the main effects of the conquest of Mecca. One of the main effects. What happened after the conquest of Mecca? You see, Arabia, as we all know, was disunited. Arabia did not have a central government. And each tribe has its own mini province, mini city. So, the conquest of Mecca is taken as a symbolic conquest of the central nervous system of Arabia. And the other tribes, and this is well documented in many books of Tafsir and Hadith and Sira. The other tribes who did not get involved in the conflict between the Quraysh and the Prophet ﷺ were waiting to see who wins. Al-Qurtubi and others they explicitly mentioned this that the other tribes were waiting to see what happens that if the Prophet ﷺ eventually conquers Mecca this is an indication that there is no stopping him and we must embrace Islam and one of them remarked as Al-Qurtubi mentions that Allah had protected Mecca from the people of the elephant you all know Ashab al-Fid that Allah protected Mecca from the people of the elephant so if Allah allows this man to conquer it what does that show them? it shows he is a prophet so there is a theological symbolism given by the people of Mecca to the conquest of sorry, by the Arabs not the people of Mecca by the Arabs who are not Qurashi by the people who are in central in south in far north the entire Arabian peninsula is subservient to the city of Mecca when it comes to holiness. There is no other competition. And everybody considers Mecca to be the bastion of their race. Father of Ibrahim and Ismail, right? Adnan, all of them, they go back to Mecca. So the heritage that they all have with Mecca, the association they have with Mecca, the conquest of Mecca translated for them the victory of Islam over paganism. And therefore when the Prophet ﷺ conquered Mecca, this is when tribes that were neutral so far, and whose names we have not even come across because they did not get involved. They began from now up until the death of the Prophet ﷺ began sending delegations that they have converted. And this is exactly what Allah says in the Qur'an, وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا You will see people embrace Islam like armies coming. They're not coming to attack, they're coming to embrace. And therefore, with the conquest of Mecca, the Arabs one by one, the tribes one by one, even the majority of whom, and this is a very interesting point here. Look, our Prophet ﷺ did not fight over 90% of the Arabs of his time. He's only fighting the Quraysh and the few tribes that allied themselves with the Quraysh. Like Hawazin, like Thaqif and what not. How about the rest of Arabia? How about Central Arabia? How about South Arabia? How about Far North? How about the Eastern and Western provinces? Nothing. There is no direct battle. how did they embrace Islam? see this was the wisdom of choosing the grandson of Abdul Muttalib to be the prophet this is the wisdom of choosing somebody with the most impeccable lineage you cannot compete with the grandson of Abdul Muttalib you cannot compete with somebody born and raised in Mecca with somebody who has the symbolic victory of the Kaaba the literal victory of the Kaaba you cannot compete with this person so Allah Azza wa Jal, Allah knows as Allah says in the Quran Allah knows whom he is going to make his prophet. Allah chooses. Allah chooses from the man, from people, who will be the prophets. So Allah chose this man for a reason. Allah chose our Prophet ﷺ for a reason. And of the most obvious reasons, his lineage, his city, his circumstance, nobody could say anything about him wanting more higher status, more higher power. he's coming from the best of the best. And he's coming from the cream of the crop. And he's coming from the holiest of all cities. Now he comes back to his own city. He's not conquering a strange land. That's another point here. Imagine how the Arabs would have felt if another tribe conquered Mecca. Here's another reason here. He is Meccawi. He's from Mecca. This is his city. His own people have expelled him. Now he comes back and he conquers his own city which happens to be the holiest city on earth. and the Mecca and the Quran, the Arabs all agree to this. So now with this conquest, and they all know for 15 years he's been battling his people. They all have been watching on the sidelines. Now with the victory of the Prophet ﷺ over the conquest of Mecca, this is when the people began to embrace Islam. And from this point onwards, there is a non-stop trickle of tribes sending delegations. InshaAllah in 2-3 weeks, we'll talk about what is called the year of delegations. What is the year of delegations? The next year and the year after this. Two years actually, to be more precise. Some people say it's only the ninth year. No, it is in fact from the eighth all the way to the tenth year. The next two years are called the year of delegations. Why? Because every second, third day, a new delegation would arrive from another tribe, embracing Islam. No conquest, no army sent. It's just literally people are realizing this is the truth. And it is truly an amazing miracle that paganism is eliminated completely from an entire land hundreds of thousands of people paganism no longer exists anywhere in the Arabian Peninsula and all of this is done in the span of less than 15 years this is what Allah has predicted in the Quran you will see people embrace Islam like armies and of course Surah An-Nasr إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرٌ وَالْفَتَحَ all of you know Surah An-Nasr and it's an interesting story about Surah An-Nasr as well that later on many years later in the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab, Umar would have a senior meeting with the elders of the Quraish, the elders of the Muslims, Ansar and Quraishi. And the youngest person to be admitted was Ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. So some of the other, and he was at this time probably 15 years old, 17, 15, 16, 17 years old. And the other Sahaba objected and they said, Ya Amir al-Mu'minin, O leader of the faithful, we have sons, Older than him. And you don't allow them to come to this gathering. Why are you allowing this man to come? So Ibn Abbas narrates the hadith. Hadith is in Bukhari. He narrates it himself. Ibn Abbas says, One day Umar called me. And I think he called me just to test me. And when all of the people were gathered, he asked them, Can you explain to me, إِذَا جَاءَ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ وَالْفَتَحِ وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا فَسَبِّئَ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكُ وَسَفِرُهُمْ كَانَ تَوَابًا which translates as that when you see the victory of Allah, when you see the blessings of Allah, the conquest of Allah come, and people begin to embrace Islam like armies. At that point in time, praise your Lord and glorify Him, and seek His forgiveness, verily He is all-forgiving and merciful. So this is a surah of the Qur'an, surah An-Nasr. Now, Umar asked them, explain this to me. Some people offered this explanation, others gave generic, Allah is saying when He blesses you, thank him for the blessings. Then Umar turned to Ibn Abbas, the youngest, 15 year old, 17 year old kid. And Ibn Abbas is the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. And he asks him, you interpret it. Ibn Abbas says, they have not spoken correctly. The elders are not, this is not right. Rather, and this is the tafsir, interesting tafsir. Rather, Allah is informing the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ that when Mecca is conquered, your time on earth is about to come to an end. So prepare to meet Allah by increasing your worship and seeking His forgiveness. Verily Allah is forgiving and merciful. And Umar said, this is the only knowledge I have of the surah, meaning you have spoken all that I know. So surah al-Nasr is the beginning of the end. Surah al-Nasr tells us for the very first time, death is close by. You have reached your pinnacle. You have the conquest of Mecca. You only have a short time left. And Ibn Abbas understood from Surah Al-Nasr that our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is being told death is near. Now you have achieved the and this shows us the importance of the conquest. Quite literally the conquest is the pinnacle. That's it. You have now reached at the high point and you just have to wrap up a few last things before Allah will cause your mission on earth to come to an end. So he's being told this, and as we know, barely two years after this, our Prophet ﷺ passed away. Also, by the way, from this surah, think about it, my dear brothers and sisters, our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, being who he is, and Allah tells him to prepare for meeting me by extra worship and extra istighfar. How about me and you? Are we ready to meet our Lord? How about me and you? Where's our istighfar and where's our worship? our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the best human being, the most generous, the least sinful he is told, istaghfirhu he is told, sabbih bihamdirabbik to prepare for death so we as well had better take a lesson and heed and increase in our worship and increase in our istaghfar and we never know when our death will come, our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was given some premonition, we will not get that premonition, he was given some hints, we obviously will not get those hints, so this is Surah Al-Nasr. Now, he stayed, as we said, 19 days in Mecca. What else did he do during these days? So, he sent a number of mini expeditions around Mecca. Primarily, to invite the neighboring tribes to Islam, and to destroy the major centers of idolatry. So, there's two types of idols. There's the personal home idol, and then there's the idol that is the temple idol. There's an idol in a temple. This is the public idol that people go to. As for the idols in your homes, he gives a general command, everybody destroy your own idol, get rid of them. As for the temple idols, he will send people to get rid of those. As for the idols that are venerated out in public, so he sends a number of sahaba to get rid of the most largest and the most famous idols around Mecca. And he sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to destroy Al-Uzza. And of course Al-Uzza is mentioned in the Quran. also he sent a delegation or a group to destroy Al-Manat, also Suwa all of these famous idols close and around Mecca and it is reported that when Khalid arrived at the temple of Al-Uzza and of course there were the, what do you want to call them the people who take care of the idols or the custodians of the idols or the clergy of the pagans I mean whatever term you use for them there were those people there when they saw Khalid coming and they realized what would happen one of them flung an axe around the neck of Al-Uzza and said, Oh Uzza, you protect yourself, I have to flee. So they all left and Al-Uzza did not protect itself and Khalid destroyed Al-Uzza. So within the span of a few days, basically all of the idols in the vicinity of the Hijaz, in the area of the Hijaz region were all destroyed. Now, all of this greatness was marred by a mini tragedy, but it was not something our Prophet ﷺ did, it was a mistake done by one of the companions. It was a tragedy, a mini tragedy, and this also shows us that subhanAllah, humans are always prone to error. No matter how much greatness you have, there's always gonna be some marring, some deficiencies, right? In this world, there is no perfection. this is the greatest time of the religion of Islam, still something trivial is going to happen that mars this, but it wasn't from our Prophet ﷺ it was a mistake made by Khalid ibn al-Walid, now remember Khalid ibn al-Walid, when did he convert? just before he's a brand new Muslim right, so he makes a very very serious mistake and this mistake hurt our Prophet ﷺ and he had to personally apologize to the people involved and make up for it. And it is a mistake that involves one of the tribes that, so Khalid is sent on a number of expeditions, one after the other. He has a checklist basically. He has a checklist, do this, do this, do this. Now one of the items on the checklist was to go to the tribe of the Banu Jadima, which is a days distance away from Mecca, and as well invite them to Islam. Now, generally speaking, all of the tribes around Mecca embraced Islam. Because it's understood with Mecca, there is no point opposing idolatry. Now, Khalid ibn al-Walid had a personal history with the tribe of Banu Jadimah. In the days of Jahiliyyah, this tribe had killed his uncle, and there was some blood between the two of them. So when Khalid now appears on the horizon with an army behind him, what did the Banu Jadimah think? They thought war. they thought attack so the Banu Jadima initially a group of them took out their swords and they led an attack this led Khalid to attack and he was a new Muslim and he made a very big mistake which is that when other members of the tribe, now obviously if you're attacked you're going to attack back, but other members understood what's going on and they announced their submission to Islam, they announced no, we're along with the rest of the people and we know in our religion we know this from Ali ibn Abi Talib story of the man who spat on him we all know this, right? even on the battlefield you give up right then and there if somebody says I shahadu an la ilaha illa shahadu an masoor Allah right then and there we all know the story of Ali ibn Abi Talib with the sword pulled out and the man at the very end he does this, right? and the story of Usama ibn Zayy we talked about this as well that the man who embraced Islam right at the very end. And Osama still ended up killing him in the process and became so angry at him. And said, did you open up his heart? And did you see why? Are you in charge of his heart? Now Khalid did not know any of this stuff. Khalid did not know any of this. He's a brand new Muslim. He put in charge. So when a group attacked, he attacked back and he attacked according to the customs of Jahiliyyah. Which is no mercy. No mercy. You attack me, end of story. we're gonna kill all of you now he didn't end up killing all of them but he did kill a lot of innocent people he ordered the other sahaba to attack and the other sahaba said no we're not going the senior sahaba amongst them Abdullah ibn Umar amongst them Abdurrahman ibn Auf they disobeyed a leader because in Islam you're only allowed to obey a leader when he commands you that which is allowed and this is a clear instance of them disobeying a leader and he got irritated at them that I am your commander. Even though they were senior to him in Islam, but because he was militarily senior, you understand he was appointed as a military leader. He said, I am your commander. And Ibn Auf said, no, I am not going to attack. And so he became angry at Abd al-Rahman Ibn Auf and he gave him a vile curse and what not. And one of the causes for confusion as well appears to be that the tribe of Banu Jadhima did not say the appropriate phrases even. They didn't say Aslamna. they said صَبَأْنَا صَبَأْنَا now if you remember from our Meccan class the Arabs would consider the new religion of Islam to be Sabianism الصابعون and they would call Islam صَبَأْتَ you have embraced Sabianism right, so they would call Islam Sabianism so this group said, Sabakna, Sabakna. And the other senior companions understood the reference. And they didn't do anything. But Khalid ibn al-Walid, already angered because of the attack, did not take this into account. He didn't understand, he didn't know the sanctity of this, so he did end up killing some of the people who should not have been killed. Immediately, news reached back to the Prophet ﷺ, and this hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim, it's well known, these are all well known hadith. The first thing the Prophet ﷺ did, he stood up, he faced the Ka'bah, he raised his hands and he said, Allahumma inni abra'u layka bima fa'ala Khalid. O Allah, I absolve any responsibility for what Khalid has done, I didn't command him to do that. O Allah, I didn't command him to do that. That's basically what he's saying. O Allah, I absolve myself of the actions of Khalid ibn al-Walid. I did not command him to do that. And he sent Ali immediately to resolve the issue. And he gave Ali a large amount of wealth to give the blood money, the compensation money to those who had been killed. And so Ali ibn Abi Talib went to resolve the issue and he gave very generously to each and every person. He apologized on behalf of the Prophet ﷺ. And when Abdur Rahman ibn Auf came back, he complained to the Prophet ﷺ as well about what Khalid had done. and he listed for him what he had said. And you remember, Khalid is a new Muslim. Remember this, right? So Islam and the etiquettes of Islam still haven't been taught to him. So, Abdurrahman ibn Auf, who is one of the earliest converts, he complains to the Prophet ﷺ and the Prophet ﷺ gives that famous hadith that all of us know. لَا تَسُبُّوا أَصْحَابِي Do not curse my companions. For wallahi, if one of you were to give the mountain of Uhud in gold as charity, you would not be equivalent to what one of them gave with a handful or even half of a handful. Now, this hadith we always quote it. And this is our reason for respecting the companions. But, who is it being said to? Khalid ibn al-Walid. It's being said to Khalid ibn al-Walid, another sahabi. And Khalid ibn al-Walid is being told, you had better not curse the senior companions. Because if you were to give the mountain of Uhud in gold, it would not be equivalent to half of what they gave. If this is Khalid, where do we stand on that scale? Think about that. If this is Khalid being told that you cannot reach Abdur Rahman ibn Auf, you cannot reach Abu Bakr and Umar, you cannot reach Uthman and Ali. Imagine where do we stand on that scale, right? So the context of this hadith actually makes us respect the Sahaba even more. Even more. because it is being said to a brand new companion, which is Khalid ibn Walid. And we know Khalid ibn Walid, even though he's a brand new companion, he is still a highly respected companion. Eventually he becomes a very respected Sahabi. But at this point in time, he's brand new, and he's being told, do not curse my companions. And as we said, so the Prophet ﷺ remained in Mecca for all of these days. And the main point here is that he consolidated the immediate vicinity, but there was one major center left close by. And that major center we'll talk about inshaAllah in our next lesson. We're gonna finish up with the benefits of the incident of Mecca. What is the next major city? Ta'if. And Ta'if was the city that had expelled him. Ta'if was the city that had tortured him. Ta'if was the city that had pelted him with stones. Ta'if was the city he had the opportunity to destroy if Allah gave him that opportunity and he forgave. now Ta'if could not be attacked with an army even though he had 12,000 men Ta'if was a difficult city to attack and we'll talk about the reasons for this next time but briefly because it's on the top of a mountain it's on a plateau it's on a plateau it's difficult to get there once you're there they have a thick fortress they have rainfall they have plenty of water they have vegetation they can last out a siege and up until this point in time the Muslims have not developed any way of getting past a fortress. They don't have the mechanisms, the weapons. They don't have the weapons to destroy thick fortresses. Remember in Khyber, they had to literally wait it out. In Khyber, remember, they literally just had to wait out. But in Khyber, they could cut off the supplies. But in Ta'if, they cannot do this. So Ta'if will represent a big challenge. So we will finish up with some of the benefits of the conquest of Mecca. but the next lesson is going to be Hunayn and Ta'if and we will inshallah do that in our next lesson let us conclude by summarizing some of the fiqh benefits and then the primary theological benefits from the conquest of Mecca as for the fiqh benefits derived from the conquest of Mecca they are numerous and we'll only list maybe around 15 of them actually there are much more than this number one of the fiqh benefits derived from the conquest of Mecca it is allowed to break your fast during Ramadan for a legitimate reason. Where do we get this from? Where do we derive this from? When did they break their fast? When they left Medina, it was the month of Ramadan, and they broke their fast. All of them. None of them were fasting. And it is the month of Ramadan. And it is the 8th year of the Hijrah. When was Ramadan obligated? Second year. So Ramadan is now an established faridah. But in the 8th year, when they go for the conquest of Mecca, all of them break their fast. So that's one fiqh benefit. You're allowed to break your fast in a travel. We all know this. Another fiqh benefit, traveling begins outside of your home city, not outside of your home. Traveling begins outside of your home city, not outside of your home. When did they break? that where did they break their fast? Outside of Dhul Hulayfa. They did not break it when they left their houses. So, in our times, where does Qasr start? And when can you break the fast? Not when you leave for the airport. Not even in Memphis airport. Not even when you're driving down I-40 or whatever when you're getting out of the city. Only when you symbolically leave the city. When you feel that there's enough distance now that okay, I have left the city limits. and of course in our times it's like a guesstimation you get a rough idea you use your common sense and judgment here when you leave the city limits then you can break the fast then you can pray Qasr you cannot break the fast in the morning of Ramadan when your flight's at 4pm no you can't break your fast after the flight takes off and you leave the city if you want to you can even though it's 4pm few hours left but anyway besides the point it's up to you if you want to or not you're allowed to do that so traveling begins when? outside the city. Okay, the next fiqh point. Salat al-duha should be eight raka'ah that's perfect. But because it's a nafil salah, it doesn't matter. Two raka'ah, four raka'ah, six raka'ah, but eight raka'ah is the perfection. And this is the sunnah of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. The next point, it is recommended for the musafir, for the traveler, to pray all four raka'ah prayers as two raka'ahs. Asr. this is encouraged and it is strongly encouraged in fact one can say it is very strongly encouraged how do we know this? because our Prophet ﷺ is in the holiest of holy places where every single prayer is equivalent to a hundred thousand other prayers he is in front of the Ka'bah and he is still praying for Raka'at as to so if anywhere in the world you shouldn't do Qasr, it should be Mecca but our prophet says obviously this is because he's the imam we when we go to Mecca we're praying behind the imam we will follow the imam but if suppose we don't pray dhuhr in the haram we come now we have to pray dhuhr, we pray two raka'ah as visitors clear? right? we if we're praying by ourselves, we will pray two raka'ah even in the haram, you wanna pray more? pray extra nafil but the four raka'ah are all pray to Qasr is an established sunnah for the musafir, for the traveler ok, the next fiqh point for how long this is where the controversy occurs, there are over a dozen opinions, I have written a very lengthy article that I reference to you online, it is called the Islamic definition of travel, just google it you will find a three part series over 20 pages, but it is inshallah easy reading, it's simple enough and I go over each of the opinions and the evidences. You can find this online on Muslim Matters. So I don't want to go over all of that right now. The majority opinion is the three day one or three and a half days and the Hanafi say 15 days, right? So the three madhahib, the Shafi'is, the Malikis and the Hanbalis, they say that if you want to stay beyond four days, they want to stay four days and beyond, then you have to pray full. If you say four days or less, right? so three days plus so if you're staying twenty raka'at humbly say because that's what four days is if you're staying nineteen raka'at you will do qasr and if you do more than that you will do long however Ibn Taymiyyah argues based upon this incident of the conquest of Mecca that there is no time limit that you may remain musafir as long as you are musafir so there's a huge controversy over this issue and in my humble opinion it really depends on your circumstances if your circumstances are such that you are a traveler and you're living like a traveler then you may pray qasr but if you decide to follow the safer opinion that is better for you and if your circumstances are such that you are living like a temporary resident so I've given many examples in the past for example your company sends you for a training and the training is one week long and you're living in a hotel and you're living out of a suitcase. It's clear you are a musafir, in my opinion. Even if it's more than four days. And if you pray qasr, then not a problem. You are following what the Prophet ﷺ did. However, your company sends you for a six-month training somewhere. Now, you have to get a car. You have to acclimatize yourself. You have to know where the halal stores are, the mosques. So you kind of settle down, even though it's six months. You know it's six months, but you're not a musafir. so where is the cut off point there is no date cut off point it's a psychological frame of mind it's how you're living your life it's what you're doing and how you're living so this is where the grey area comes and if you want to err on the side of caution and follow the four day rule then that is better if you want to err on the side of caution it's a simple rule then that is better of the fiqh positions that we can derive from this is converts when they convert to Islam and their couples, the marriage contract shall remain valid regardless of who converts first for a period of time. And this is very important for converts to know. How do we know this? Because in the conquest of Mecca, we had a number of men embraced Islam, then their wives embraced after them. We also had a number of women embraced Islam and their husbands come a week or two later. classic example is Iknem Ibn Abi Jahl remember he fled to Mecca, Safwan wanted to commit suicide remember, right? he ran away and he said, khalas, I'm not gonna live anymore his wife was the one who's like converted and begging and so we have a number of cases of women who converted first, their husbands are still pagan then when their husbands come back they're not asked to do a new nikah ceremony right? they're not asked for a new mahr new witnesses, no what does this show? this shows us that when a person converts to Islam, a time frame is given. How long is that time frame? Most people say three months. 3 months. A time frame is given. And there's an ikhtilaf with the length of time. We don't want to get involved right now in that. But the point being, if after this point in time, the other spouse converts, then the marriage contract, even though it was done pre-Islam, and even though for a time the two could not technically be married, So a Muslim man with a pagan lady, can we have this? No. A Muslim lady with any other man, can we have this? No. Yet in the conquest of Mecca, the both of them happened for a while. And the Prophet ﷺ allowed the marriage contracts to become realized if the both eventually converted in a short time frame. And therefore from this we derive the fiqh ruling that the marriage contracts of other people who convert to Islam will be valid and remain valid after Islam for a period of time. Of the things that we learn, well, we learned this from the hadith of Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan, that women love this point here, women are allowed to take money from their husbands without their husband's knowledge. Like that, unconditionally or what? The men are very uncomfortable right now. what are the conditions that's why we don't have any money okay what are the conditions remember what the conditions are here if it's done if it's done for legitimate causes for the family that is that the husband is being extra stingy and it is done for the cause of the family obviously wives cannot just buy a five thousand dollar what is it what is the purse name? huh? what is the purse? I just found out there are purses of $40,000-$50,000 like it's just mind boggling like wow, anyway so wives cannot just go and charge a credit card for $50,000 purse and say oh I'm allowed to spend your money, no Islam allows the wife to take her husband's money if the husband is being stingy with the family if the husband is being stingy with the family and the needs of the family are not being met, the hadith of Hindu that we did last week, it clearly demonstrates, and it's a well-known principle, that the wife can then take and go grocery shopping, purchase the clothes for the kids, stuff that needs to be done, it can be done without even the permission of the husband. Of the fiqh benefits we learn, is that when an item is haram, then it is haram to sell the item. When an item is najis, or filthy, or haram, we cannot make a business out of the item. And we learned this from the conquest of Mecca. Of the fiqh benefits that we learned, that it is sunnah, it is mustahab, for a person, for an elderly man or woman that has completely white hair, what is a sunnah? To dye the hair. To dye the hair. And we learned this from which incident? Abu Qahafa. Abu Qahafa's conversion to Islam. Of the fiqh benefits we learned here, the permissibility of visiting Mecca and entering Mecca without ihram. The permissibility of entering Mecca without ihram for a reason. Now this is a bit of a controversy amongst the scholars. Some say that this was only for the Prophet ﷺ, but others say no. And the reason they say this is because imagine going to Mecca for a reason other than umrah or hajj. They feel this is not befitting. And wallahi I understand this, but at the same time, think of those people whose businesses involve things in Mecca. Think of taxi drivers between Jeddah and Mecca. Think of fruit sellers that purchase their stuff in Ta'if and then come and sell it in Mecca. Right? Think of the people there. Don't think of us in Memphis. It is a big shame if one of you were to go to Mecca for any reason and not do Umrah and Tawaf. Correct? That is honestly pathetic. After spending so much money and you want to have a business transaction with somebody in Mecca, لا حول رخوص إلا بالله We say you have lost the plot. But somebody who's going to Mecca five times a day, five times a week, whatever, and the taxi driver is between Jeddah and Mecca, go ten times a day. So alhamdulillah, they can use this incident of conquest of Mecca to say it is not mandatory to do tawaf and umrah, sorry, yeah, to do tawaf and umrah every time you enter Mecca, it's not mandatory to wear ihram. Because how did the Prophet ﷺ enter Mecca? He was wearing the armor. He wasn't wearing ihram. And the final point we'll mention here about the fiqh benefits is that some scholars have derived from this, and this is a bit of a controversy again in fiqh, the scholars of fiqh, breaking one condition of a treaty is tantamount to breaking the entire treaty. Because how did the Prophet ﷺ conquer Mecca in the first place? The Quraysh broke one of the clauses. when they broke one of the clauses the processum considered the entire treaty null and void okay, so this is another point that is derived, as for the theological benefit then it is pretty obvious, it is pretty obvious what the theological benefit is and that is that in the end victory will always be on the side of the truth in the end victory will always be given to those who have taqwa the theological benefit is obvious Allah says in the Quran كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَأَغْلِبَنَّ أَنَا وَرُسُلِي Your Lord has decreed that He shall always be victorious in the end. In fact He doesn't even speak in the second person. كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَأَغْلِبَنَّ أَنَا وَرُسُلِي Allah says your Lord has decreed I shall be victorious along with my prophets and messengers. And this conquest of Mecca clearly shows of course we as Muslims obviously believe this to be a miracle and truly it is a miracle for us. After the persecution of Mecca, after being expelled, after an assassination attempt, for him to come back, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in eight years, and to conquer the capital of the Arabian Peninsula without any war, without any bloodshed, a peaceful conquest, which was simply, I mean it truly is an amazing point here. And then this conquest to precipitate the entire embracing of Islam, of the Arabian Peninsula. Obviously for Muslims, this is a divine gift from Allah. It is demonstrating that when you're patient, when you persevere, when you do not falter in the path of Allah, eventually Allah will reward you with the victory at the end. Our Prophet ﷺ demonstrates this, the ups and the downs. And frankly, most of the seerah so far has been the downs, right? So much we have talked about. You must suffer in the path of Allah before you will get the rewards. Even the prophets have to put in the effort. Nobody gets the reward sitting at home and thinking Allah is just gonna throw the blessing down at him. You have to stand up and strive. You have to do what you can. You have to show Allah your dedication, your strength, your determination, and you will suffer. How much has our Prophet ﷺ suffered? How many battles have been fought? How many loved ones have died? We just talked about the battle of Mu'tah recently, that the Prophet ﷺ is in shock and he's crying, and he's lost so many of his loved ones. But in the end, when you put in the sweat and the toil and the effort, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never causes the efforts of the righteous to go unrewarded. And we see this in the conquest of Mecca. After all of these difficult years, our Prophet's system is rewarded with the greatest victory imaginable. And that is the return of the holy city of Mecca to its rightful owners. And that is the descendant of the Prophet Ibrahim a.s. InshaAllah in our next lesson we will continue from where we left off and talk about the incident of Hunayn and Al-Ta'if and before we conclude there are some announcements to be made

Seerah 81 - Battle of Hunayn Part 1 ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. lesson we had mentioned. We finished off the conquest of Mecca, correct? Everything? None of the... None of the... We finished all of the blessings, all of the benefits, all of the moral and the theological. We finished all of that, correct? Okay, so we now move on to the battle of Hunayn and Ta'if, but there's one incident that I didn't have time to mention. By the way, the microphone is not working. It's too... Do you see the feedback? It's a little bit high, right? It's good? Where is Adam? if you can check it out. I think the bass or something. So there's one incident that I didn't have time to mention in the last lesson. And if you remember we talked about Khalid ibn al-Walid and the mistake, the issue of the prisoners and the whatnot that he had killed. Remember that? We talked about that last time, right? So there's one tragedy that took place that we didn't mention and it's very interesting because it shows the soft spot that the Prophet ﷺ had for this particular scenario, that it so happened that of the people, and obviously this was not something that was commanded, it was a mistake, and it was an ijtihad of Khalid. Remember we talked about this, right? The mini massacre that took place. So, of the little incidents or episodes that took place, that one of the prisoners of war that was executed was a young man. And he begged the Muslim, the Sahabi, to go take him to the women's side for some reason. So the sahabi said, okay, whatever reason he was in chains and what not. So there he talked to his betrothed. He was actually engaged. And he versified a beautiful poetry for her, love poem for her. This is right before the prisoner is being executed. So he versifies a beautiful love poem which is mentioned in Ibn Ishaq, in the Seed of Ibn Ishaq. And she in return obviously was completely wailing as well and she also gives back a love poem. And as he is executed, so she then takes him and he dies in her arms. Classic love story if you like. Now, obviously we said this was not something that the Prophet ﷺ commanded. This was something that Khalid made ijtihad and he was criticized and the compensation was paid. When the Prophet ﷺ heard this story, he became enraged even more. And he said, أَلَيْسَ مِنْكُمْ رَجُلٌ رَحِيمٌ Wasn't there anybody that had mercy in his heart to stop this, Khalid doing this? So this really demonstrates that, and this is a very interesting story, that the Prophet ﷺ has rahmah or tenderness for what? For the romanticism, right? For the romantic poetry that was versified between the two. And he said, أَلَيْسَ مِنْكُمْ رَجُلٌ رَحِيمٌ wasn't there anybody who has rahmah that they could have stopped this from taking place and wallahi this is a very interesting scenario if you like that takes place in this incident of Khalid ibn al-Walid, in any case getting back to the issue of conquest of Mecca, who can remind me how many days did the processor remain in Mecca? 19 days 19 days he remained in Mecca and when he was camped in Mecca, news came to him that a large army was gathering outside of Mecca. Who is now going to attack? The only city that is within attacking distance of Mecca, that is Ta'if. The only large city attacking distance from Mecca is Ta'if. And if you remember, what is the tribe name of Ta'if? Which tribe is it? Saqif. And their idol is? Allat. Their idol is Allat. So the Saqif and the Quraysh have been competing with each other for centuries. But now that the Quraysh has been defeated, Thaqif comes to their aid. Thaqif wants to now fight. Why did they want to fight? What was the reason of this fight? Some have said that Thaqif assumed that the Prophet ﷺ was going to attack them rather than Mecca. But this seems to be a bit of a stretch because why would the Prophet ﷺ attack the citadel of Ta'if? Remember Ta'if? The city of Ta'if was on top of the mountain. Why would the Prophet ﷺ attack the citadel? Rather what seems to be the case is that the tribe of Thaqif understood that the conquest of Mecca meant what? The end of idolatry, the end of paganism. The tribe of Thaqif understood, if we don't take Mecca back, and of course there's no doubt they also had another goal in mind, and that is to take over the Kaaba. Because the Thaqif were competing with the Quraysh. So they have two intentions. The first intention is that they want to protect paganism from monotheism. If they realize with Mecca conquered, there is no stopping monotheism to spread in the Arabian Peninsula. And the second reason they had, was they want to now vie with the Quraysh. The Quraysh have been vanquished, we will become the new custodians of the Ka'bah. And so, the tribe of Taqif began sending out emissaries to every pagan tribe in the vicinity. And for the first time ever in the history of Arabia, and this is really amazing that, every battle that we've seen, the numbers are increasing exponentially. Never have the Arabs united the way that they united in the last 10 years. In Uhud, then in Ahzab, and now in the battle of Hunayn, which is gonna happen right now, right? Each time the numbers grow and grow and grow. And the battle of Hunayn was the largest gathering of pagan Arabs in the history of Arabia. Think about that. Since the Arabs were a race and civilization, they had been in disparate tribes, in different groups. never had anything united them other than their tribalism, their father and their forefathers. For the first time, there is a religious warfare taking place. Monotheism against polytheism. And the tribe of the Taqif, the tribe of the Taqif now takes charge because they are basically second in prestige to the Quraysh. So with the Quraysh vanquished, the Taqif becomes stuck, sucked up into the vacuum. They become now the closest possibility for the success of paganism over monotheism. So the tribe of Thaqif send out as many emissaries as they can, and then the next two weeks, because the Prophet ﷺ is there for 19 days, and also since he has left Medina, Thaqif know that he's coming. So they probably had around a month. So eventually, over 20,000 pagans gathered together under the banner of Thaqif, but they're not just Thaqif, there's lots of small tribes, right? Thaqif is the largest. And the second largest, they're called Hawazin. These are the only two names we'll mention, we're not gonna mention the other two. the other plenty because obviously it's going to get confusing. Remember Thaqif and Hawazin. And to be very simplistic we can say Thaqif were the people who lived in the city of Ta'if. Hawazin were the Bedouins around Ta'if. These are the two largest they probably formed together around 10,000 or so. And then the rest of the 10,000 came from many different tribes they gathered together to form around 20,000 people. Now the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam obviously heard rumors that things are taking place. And so he sent one of the sahaba, Abdullah ibn Abi Hadrad. Abdullah ibn Abi Hadrad and Abdullah ibn Abi Hadrad was a relatively new convert. And so it was assumed that the tribe of Thaqif would not know that he had converted. Plus you have 20,000 people, you're not going to monitor each and every one of them. He sent Abdullah ibn Abi Hadrad to basically intermix with and he was from that region to intermix with the people to pretend he's basically walking along with them and gather the information how many and what are the different tribes. Abdullah ibn Abi Hadhrat comes back and he informs that never has he seen this many people 20,000 marching and he tells them of all of the armor, the weaponry now the people of Ta'if we have mentioned many times they had an advantage over so many other tribes that they lived on a plateau and they were naturally protected. You all know the city of Ta'if and generally speaking because of this they were also mashallah tabarakallah, better They had access to rainwater and vegetation and fruits. They had better prepared armies. They had also built fortresses around their city. So they were known to be good fighters. And Abdullah ibn Abi Hadrad comes and informs the Muslims, or excuse me, informs the Prophet ﷺ about what is happening. What does the Prophet ﷺ do? As always, he calls the senior companions. And this is always the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. He calls the senior companions. What should we do? And the senior companions, Abu Bakr, Umar, they are astonished, aghast. They weren't expecting war. They're happy. This is a happy time. You conquered Mecca. What more do you want? Right? Alhamdulillah, we're happy. Now, we're gonna have the biggest battle we've ever had in our lives. So, there was confusion, there was silence. Then, Umar said that, perhaps Abdullah is wrong. Meaning, he's made the story up. This can't be true. Abdullah became enraged at Umar. And he said that, perhaps if you think I am wrong, remember you also thought somebody better than me was wrong as well meaning who? the Prophet ﷺ right? so he kind of he kind of no no this is Islam not accepting Islam he goes all the way back like this isn't the first time you thought somebody was wrong and he was right so he became enraged that how dare you think I'm accusing of lying or something so he then prodded back at Umar that this isn't the first time you accuse somebody better than me of being wrong and he wasn't wrong So Umar, you know Umar, he became enraged. And he complained to the Prophet ﷺ, Ya Rasulullah, look at what he said. And the Prophet ﷺ responded that, Indeed Ya Umar, you were misguided and Allah guided you to Islam. And what this little incident shows, and I've mentioned this so many times, the Sahaba were not angels. It is human nature to differ. It's human nature to be a little bit harsher, to have a little bit back and forth. This is, you're never going to find any society where there's nothing of this nature. and in Allah's wisdom he demonstrated for us the most perfect society that has minor differences minor altercations I mean you have people that say a comment and it hurts you and you respond back in kind and vice and it goes back and forth but in the end of the day the sahaba were a unified force amongst themselves somewhat here and there in the end of the day when it came to protecting the religion of Islam they are a unified force and we see this again and again and it's also so it doesn't make you a bad Muslim to fall into these minor issues. In an anger you might say something. Now the both of them are not, it's not actually a sin. Maybe he's wrong. It's not actually a sin. And then he as well gets angry. It's not the first time you thought somebody was wrong. You thought the process was wrong as well. They're both not sinful, but obviously it's not good as well. So this shows us, look, nobody can be perfect. Nobody can be perfect. And in this we learn the humanity of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. We also learned the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ in mitigating, in calming down this difference of opinion. That this anger that existed between the two, he just calmed it down. He did not take sides over here. And the Prophet ﷺ realized that there would be war. And therefore he asked help from the new Meccan converts. Along with the 10,000 that had come from Medina, he realized he need weapons, he needs armor, and he needs other equipment and people. So now you have around 2,000 men in Mecca who had remained after the conquest. So he turns to them for help. That I need your help as well. And therefore, some of the big names of Mecca, some of whom were not even Muslim, participated in the battle of Hunayn. And this is very significant because there is a huge theological controversy. Can non-Muslims be in an army of Muslims when they're fighting an Islamic war? and there's back and forth. This is not the time and place. But here we have in the incident of Hunayn, a number of very famous non-Muslims. Of them is Safwan ibn Umayyah. Remember the story of Safwan. Who will remind me what happened in last week with Safwan ibn Umayyah? Not yet. You're jumping the gun. You're jumping. This is what we're going to talk about today and next Wednesday. Right now is Safwan a Muslim? No. No. he's asked for an extension and the Prophet ﷺ gave him two months, yes, so Safwan is in this interim trial period he's not a Muslim, and he's also the son of Umayyah ibn Khalaf, he has inherited a fortune, so the Prophet ﷺ goes to Safwan ibn Umayyah and he has lots of weapons in his stock house, he has lots of armor, and he asks for his armor, I need your armor, I'm going to fight in Hunayn, so Safwan said are you confiscating it from me Are you taking it despite the fact I don't want you to? Or are you asking me to lend you my armor? So the Prophet ﷺ said, لَأْبَلْ عَارِيَةٌ مَأْمُونًا Or عَارِيَةٌ مُؤَدَّى I'm asking you for a loan that I guarantee I will pay back. This is a loan, or I'm gonna borrow, it's not a loan money, but I'm gonna borrow it, and I guarantee if anything's damaged, anything's harmed, you will get something equivalent or the price of it back. And this also shows us the fiqh principle, which is agreed upon pretty much, that when you borrow something from somebody, you are responsible for it, reasonable responsibility. And if something happens to it in your possession, and you have borrowed it from somebody, Islamic law requires that you pay back the damage because it was in your possession. And this is proven from this hadith, that the Prophet ﷺ said, no, it is a loan that is guaranteed. عَرِيَ مُؤَدَّة I guarantee you, you will get it back. And so, generally speaking, when you borrow something from somebody, and I mean you borrow somebody's car let's say and then you're in an accident let's say generally speaking it is your responsibility because you were the one who took it from the person and we learned this from the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ he also went to Abu Sufyan ibn al-Haram borrowed armor from him he went to Hakim ibn Hizam borrowed some money and weapons from him all of this was borrowed and everything that was borrowed was paid back to those who had given the loan and the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca on the 6th of Shawwal on the 6th of Shawwal he left Mecca after having been in Mecca for 19 days some say according to, as we said last week there's a difference of opinion how many days he stayed in Mecca, some say he stayed 10 days some say he stayed 2 weeks some say he stayed 19 days and 19 days is Bukhari's version and so we'll stick with Bukhari's version Ibn Ishaq says 15 I think or 10 I forgot and al-Waqidi says the other. But Bukhari is the more authentic, so we'll stick with Bukhari. So Bukhari says 19 days he remained in Medina, sorry, in Mecca. For those who said less, so then they said he left on the 28th of Ramadan or other days, but we'll stick with Bukhari's version, which would mean that he left Mecca on the 6th of Shawwal and he arrived in Hunayn on the 10th of Shawwal. Four days it took him. And the march would have otherwise been two days, but because there's so many people, there were around 12,000 people. 10,000 of the Sahaba and 2,000 of the people of Mecca, most of whom were Muslim, but not all. Most of whom were Muslim, but not all. And they arrived in a valley, it was a valley of Hunayn, still known to this day, around 12,000. Now, why Hunayn? Because the people of Ta'if had already camped in that region. And the people of Ta'if, by this time, as we said, they numbered around 20,000. and the chieftain of Taif was a newly elected young man by the name of Malik ibn Auf al-Nasri. Malik ibn Auf al-Nasri, he was a young man, 30 years old. And he was recently elected to the chief and now this is his first major battle and it is against the Muslims. An interesting thing happens here, which is very common in all cultures and civilizations and that is the clash of the young with the old. The clash of the young with the old. The young want their ways and they think they know best and the old want their ways and they typically do no best. So, here we have another scenario. Now, it is mentioned in the books of Sira that one of the oldest members of the tribe of Thaqif, one of their senior noblemen who had become blind and senile or not senile, blind and old. And his name was Durayd ibn As-Sima. Durayd with a dal, ibn As-Sima with a sad. Durayd ibn As-Sima. Durayd ibn As-Sima was brought with somebody's hand because he's blind. and why was he brought to the battle? to get his blessings that this is our senior most member he's the ex-chieftain he's an old guard and he has fought in so many battles we want his blessings to be present we want him to be here because he's gonna bring us the blessings of his presence and also his wisdom when he's brought to the battlefield before the battle begins he says I can sense that there are women and children and there are animals here who has commanded the women and children and all of our herd and flock to come to the battle so he is told the new chieftain Malik ibn Auf so he says bring Malik ibn Auf to me so Malik ibn Auf is brought and he says why is it that I can hear the babies crying and the goats bleating and the mules braying why have you brought the entire civilization of faqif, men, women children, property, the flocks why have you brought them so this young chieftain says that I have brought them because I want every man to have his family and property behind him. So that when he fights, he will fight the best fight possible. So Durayyid severely rebuked him. Pointed out this was an extremely foolish move. You don't bring women and children to the battlefield. You don't bring all of your property to the battlefield. Your women and children and goats, he said, are not gonna help you win the war. It's men with swords. Doesn't matter if they're there, it's men with swords. and he then asked and he said a man who will lose he said a man who will lose is not going to win merely because his women and children are behind him rather winning requires men with swords he then asked for specific sub-tribes that were called out remember they were calling out the sub-tribes he asked for two or three by name the most intelligent and the most well-known for warfare and he was given the response all of these that he named they never showed up all of the tribes that he named they did not show up so he realized that they understood that this is not a wise move because the people that he trusted and the chieftains that he trusted they had made an analysis and they decided it was not in their best interest to join this impending war and so he said they have done the right thing had this truly been a day of honor and glory then these people would never have abandoned this plane that you are in and I advise you as well to go back oh Malik, oh chieftain, go back rather than fight. So this elder statesman is figuring out, even though he's blind, that this is not the best move possible. And he says, if you're not gonna listen to me, at least take the precious eggs of Thaqif, meaning family and children and whatnot. Take the jewels of Thaqif, let's say, and bring them back to their fortress. For their presence on this battle will not help you. If you win, you will go back and enjoy their company if you lose, at least they'll be safe back home. Now this is a very sensible, very sensible suggestion. And the people of Taqif began contemplating, this is a very wise decision. Maybe we should listen to this man. Maybe he knows what he's talking about. But Durayt, the 30 year old young man, now he needs to prove his manhood. So, what does he do? Sorry, Malik. Malik, he needs to prove his manhood. What does he do? He mocks Durayt. He makes fun of him. And he says, you've lost your marbles as we would say in English, right? You've lost the plot, you don't understand what's going on, and go back to your old people's home and leave the battle to us. When he saw the people were still not fully sure whose side to take, this really shows us how mature Malik is. He said, Wallahi, if you don't listen to me, in front of you all, I will take my sword and kill myself. What a brave and interesting leader, right? So this is how he's threatening them, that you chose me as your chieftain, if you're not gonna listen to me, I'll commit suicide right in front of you. So with this emotional blackmail, the people of Taqif were quieted down and they kept their family and their properties and all of their flocks, even though honestly, like the elder statesman made complete sense, but it was Allah's will and it was worked better for, obviously, this was the plan that Allah Azawajal had willed it, that all of this would come to the Muslims and truly, this is the age-old problem between youthful ignorance and zeal and elderly wisdom and maturity. Right? This is the sunnat Allahi fi khalqihi. This is not just in Islam or in every single society faces the same issue where generally speaking it is the folly of the youth. Right? It is the overzealousness of the youth that causes fitan and mashakil. And wallahi this is something we see in our own societies and cultures and every single society and culture has the same issue. In any case, so as the Muslims exited Mecca and never up until that point in time had they ever had 12,000 people. 12,000 is a massive amount. Now they had 20,000 and the Muslims had 12,000. They had 20 and the Muslims had 12. They had so much weaponry, they had so much artillery. Never had they had the amount of horses and camels. One of them remarked, how can we possibly be destroyed when we are 12,000? and the news reached the Prophet ﷺ that there is a Muslim boasting and he immediately responded back that do not say this for verily there was a Prophet from amongst the Prophets who looked at his army he didn't give us the name we don't know his name most likely this is not one of the Prophets mentioned in the Quran who looked at his army فَأَعْجَبَتْهُ and he felt arrogant and proud puffed up that he has this massive army. And as he looked, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent a disease or pestilence, meaning some type of calamity came, and right then and there the army was defeated without even meeting an opponent in the battlefield. And so he warned them, he cautioned them. And what does this show us? And of course, as everybody knows this, the problems of arrogance. Never ever assume that you are undefeatable or you are the best. No, that's not ever. look at how our Prophet ﷺ entered Mecca when he conquered Mecca, his face and his head is bowed down all the way to the camel head, all the way down to the camel's back, so our Prophet ﷺ became worried, this arrogance is spreading and Allah ﷻ mentions in the Qur'an we'll talk about this verse next week in more detail inshaAllah وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ فَلَمْ تُغْنِي عَنكُمْ شَيْئًا on the day of Hunayn now Allah mentions the day of Hunayn and only two battles in the Qur'an are mentioned by name. Wahud is mentioned by name? Which ayah? You're right, sorry, three battles. You're right, three battles are mentioned by name. Ahzab, Badr, and Hunayn. Ahzab, Badr, and Hunayn. You're right, my mistake. Three battles are mentioned by name. So Hunayn is one of the three. And Allah says, وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ On the day of Hunayn, إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ When your quantity deceived you, made you feel arrogant. أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ means you felt i'jab. i'jab means self-piety, self-praise. You felt conceited. So Allah says, all of your quantity was not able to help you. فَلَمْ تُغْنِي عَنْكُمْ شَيْئًا وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ And the earth, despite the fact it is so vast, felt very narrow and constrained for you. obviously I'm jumping the gun here I shouldn't explain the verse right now but the point is the Prophet ﷺ rebuked them and said you should not feel arrogant walking into the battlefield and one of the reasons why they were feeling this arrogance was because they were brand new Muslims they had just accepted Islam and this is shown in a very interesting hadith which is a very long hadith and it's not the time and place to talk about it in a lot of detail nonetheless it does occur right now and it is something that has much benefit So we'll just take a quick tangent if you like, because this hadith is more theology, but it happens right now. And what is this hadith? The hadith is the famous hadith of Abu Waqid al-Laythi. The hadith of Abu Waqid al-Laythi. Abu Waqid al-Laythi is a brand new convert. He has just converted in Mecca. He has just converted quite literally, quite literally one week ago. Literally brand new fresh convert. And Abu Waqid al-Laythi narrates this hadith. It is mentioned in Ibn Ishaq, and in Tirmidhi, and Musalim al-Mahmad. and it is called the hadith of the hanging tree. ذَا تُؤَنْوَاطِ The hadith of the hanging tree. ذَا تُؤَنْوَاطِ And the hadith goes as follows. That Abu Waqid al-Layfi says that when we were on our way to Hunayn from Mecca, we passed by a tree called ذَا تُؤَنْوَاطِ And ذَا تُؤَنْوَاطِ means that which you hang things on. And he says, this tree was a magnificent, gorgeous, green tree. Imagine in the middle of the desert you have a beautiful tree. So the Quraysh would make a festival around this tree. And every year they would go to that to unwelt and they would sacrifice animals. So they made the tree into an idol. They would sacrifice animals and what was the purpose of this tree? They would hang their weapons on this tree for good luck basically. They would hang their weapons on this tree and they would think this would help them in battle. So they passed by the ذات أنواط. And they remembered this was our tree that we used to have. So Abu Waqid al-Layth he said, يا رسول الله اجعل لنا ذات أنواط كما كان لهم ذات أنواط O Messenger of Allah why don't you make for us another hanging tree? Like they used to have the hanging tree back in the day. So you understand the point here, right? He wants a good luck charm. O Messenger of Allah, make for us the hanging tree like they used to have one in those days as well. Now we're Muslims, we understand we can't choose the old hanging tree. Why don't you bring another hanging tree? So our Prophet ﷺ said, Subhanallah, Subhanallah. I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul. You have said exactly like the children of Israel said to Moses. when they said to Moses then he quoted the Quran اِجْعَلْ لَنَا إِلَٰهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَا قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ now you all know the story that when Allah saved the children of Israel from the Red Sea and from Fir'aun in the Red Sea and they're walking they come across a nation that is worshipping an idol and they say to Musa O Musa, O Moses make for us an idol like they have an idol and Musa becomes angry at them and then they take the golden calf right? that's the story, they take the golden calf right? now, this is in the Quran اجعل لنا إلها كما لهم آلها so the Prophet ﷺ said Subhanallah, you are asking me exactly what the children of Israel asked for Moses, to Moses when they said to Moses, make for us a God like they have a God then he quotes the Quran and he quotes Musa and by quoting Musa, he answers them قال إنكم قوم تجهلون you are an ignorant folk we just accepted Islam now you're asking for this then he said wallahi innaha sunan by Allah this is the custom this is decreed that you're going to follow the pathways of those before you like just like the children of Israel took a false god you too will do something of this nature now this is the famous incident of Thatu Anwalt and it has a lot of theological benefits and this is not the time to derive all of them but nonetheless just some very basic theology here. First and foremost, the whole issue of good luck, good luck charms. Wearing something that is blessed or holy, or doing something that you think will bring about some good or save you from evil. Obviously, any Muslim who understands لا إله إلا الله will understand that only Allah has the power to help, and only Allah has the power to protect. That's the whole point of لا إله إلا الله, that's the whole point of لَحَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ Nothing can change and there is no power except by the will of Allah. So, to ascribe such power to other than Allah is to ascribe another God besides Allah. Since Allah is the one who decrees, when you say that I have a good luck charm, I have a good luck tree, I have a special ring that I wear, I have a gemstone that will protect me you are ascribing to another entity the power to help or preserve or cure or give you good luck or protect you from bad luck and obviously only our creator has that power so in our religion we don't believe in any such thing as superstitious rituals or paganistic customs or what not the issue of Friday the 13th or black cats crossing or knocking on wood or upside down horseshoes or whatever it might be we don't believe in any of this stuff and of course I'm mentioning western examples unfortunately Muslims also have their examples right? give me some examples from Muslim cultures the Taviz that has weird symbols and what not on it how about this? remember this? huh? no the Pakistani is what I'm talking about right? What is it called? Panja. Panjtan Pak. Panjtan Pak. This is a Pakistani thing, you wouldn't know what this is. So, you don't know this? The hanging, you see the five fingers? Your son-in-law knows, how can you not know? I'm not into it. Oh, he's not into it. He's educated. The five fingers, right? And sometimes you find it Muhammad, Ali, Hasan, Hussain, Fatima, as well, written on it, right? Five holy bodies, right? So you find this in some Sufi and some Shia groups, like this is the good luck charm. You enter somebody's house and you see the five fingers, right? And bilibis, yes. And then the other group or the other thing that is very common in Muslim cultures is the turquoise eye. Turquoise colored and Turkish in nature, yes. So the turquoise eye which is, it's meant to protect you from al-ayn, from hasad, from the evil eye, right? You find it in many households here and there. Now people actually believe that that thing hanging on the wall will protect them from the evil eye. Right? And for us, this superstition is not just funny, it is a type of paganism. Because this is in essence an idol. If you think about it, right? What is the purpose of hanging that structure that you think will protect you? You think will save you? you are giving your hope your servitude your allegiance your tawakkul basically this is literally what tawakkul is that your tawakkul becomes in that and therefore if something happens to that icon what happens you get worried it's a bad omen now who's gonna protect us now and therefore this hadith clearly demonstrates evil omens and superstitions is no joke. It's a type of shirk. And how does this show us? In many ways, I mean, the point being that the Prophet ﷺ compared Abu Waqid's request with the request to make an idol. Even though, did Abu Waqid ask for an idol? No. Abu Waqid said, I want a good luck tree. And the Prophet ﷺ swore by Allah. وَالَّذِي نَفْسِ بِيَدِهِ He said, I swear by the one who has my hope, my life. I swear by Allah, you have said exactly like the children of Israel said. But is it exactly like he said in terms of words? No. But he swore it's exactly like. Why? Because the essence or the meaning is exactly the same. You understand this point? The words are different, clearly. Abu Waqit is saying, I want a good luck tree. And the Bani Israel said that, the children of Israel said, we want an idol. They literally said, we want an idol like they have an idol. And the Prophet ﷺ swore it's the same, even though the words are not the same. But the essence or the content is the same. Because what is a God other than the one you turn to for help and protection? What is a God other than the one you ask when you are in need? So now if you have another icon, you have another being, you have another thing that you feel will help you, will protect you, therefore this becomes in essence an idol other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now, we've mentioned all of this, I have to put the footnote here, that the Qur'an cannot be equated with a ta'weez. The Qur'an cannot be equated with this because the Qur'an for us is the uncreated speech of Allah. It is the uncreated kalam of Allah. It is an attribute of Allah. It is a sifah of Allah. The Qur'an is not separate from Allah. The Qur'an is not a separate entity. We can seek protection through the Qur'an. Because the Qur'an is an attribute of Allah. And so when we are fearful, when we are scared, we recite the Qur'an. And we expect the Qur'an to benefit us in this regard. Right? When we are in trouble, we recite the Qur'an. And therefore from this, to have a physical copy of the Qur'an, or a physical verse of the Qur'an somewhere, it can never be shirk. but some scholars have said it is not befitting the dignity of the Quran to be used as a talisman and amulet physically. It should be used verbally. You see the difference? It can never be haram or shirk. But what is the issue? The issue is, is it showing respect to the Quran? If you, now very common, many of us we have the Quran in the glove compartment of our cars, right? Now, it's not. it cannot be shirk because the Quran is not a separate entity, it is an attribute of Allah but is it dignified to just throw the Quran into the glove compartment with some spare pencils and with loose change and with your you know copy of your insurance card, is this dignified? it's not something that is the Quran is kept in a noble place the Quran is وَإِنَّهُ لَكِتَابٌ كَرِيمٌ it's a noble book, right? كِتَابٌ عَزِيزٌ Allah says in the kitab al-aziz so some scholars have said la yalik, it's not befitting the dignity of the Quran to be treated in this regard and others have said well if it is done properly with the right niyyah then this is halal so the controversy is over is it showing respect to the Quran or not it's not over is it halal or haram clear, we'll be very clear here so the same goes wearing the Quranic necklace, right wearing the Quranic tafiz right, somebody writes ayatul kursi and then folds it up into a minuscule thing and then he puts it in a little pouch right, hangs it around his neck okay, or some of our sisters have mashallah gold chains with ayatul kursi dangling from their neck right, now the question is not whether it is haram or halal or shirk or kufr, no it's not but now is it befitting you have the Quran dangling from your neck. What are you going to do when you have to go to the restroom? What are you going to do? What are you going to do when you are committing sins and you have this dangling around your neck? Right? Is this befitting? No doubt committing sins is not good anyway, but committing sins with the Quran dangling on your neck is obviously much worse isn't it? Right? What are you going to do if, you know relations with your spouse what are you going to do? So the question is therefore not haram or halal, the question is is it showing dignity to the Quran and in my humble opinion we should not use the Quran as a physical talisman because of this but if somebody wants to it's not his decision to do so but at least we should remind him that this is not just be careful because the Quran we treat it holy we know this we treat the book in a holy manner and we put it high on the shelf and we have wudu and we touch it and we always show respect to it because it is the attribute of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala nonetheless if somebody has ayatul kursi dangling from the rear view mirror don't just snatch it away and say no calm down maybe he'll say I want to memorize ayatul kursi so I have it there every time I start the car which is actually a very good excuse out I want to memorize ayatul kursi so I'm having it dangling for a while and then I'll take it off after I memorize it but point being this hadith has nothing to do with the Quran this hadith has to do with other types of talismans and good luck and what not of this nature so the same thing applies if you put it on the wall for barakah no so this is not barakah this is for decoration then so this is another issue but the issue is if you put it on the wall for barakah we say the same thing that it's not necessarily wrong as long as you are showing respect and what not to it another thing we learn from the hadith of Abu Waqid al-Laythi at times of amazement at times of something you hear something you should say an Islamic phrase, Subhanallah. Being vulgar is not the best thing that one should do. Right? Saying vulgar words is not of the etiquettes of Islam. And it should be avoided as much as possible. When the Prophet ﷺ heard something that was astonishing to him, when he heard the equivalent of, let's do shirk. What did he say? Did he utter a curse word? No, he said, Subhanallah. Alhamdulillah. Allahu Akbar. So it should be incorporated into our vocabulary. And you will see for yourselves that once you incorporate the adhkar into your daily life, Subhanallah, it's just gonna come in. You see amazing thing, Alhamdulillah. You hear something bad, Lahaura khusila billah. Rather than saying four letter words, or this or that, it becomes your habit to do so. It's not of the best things that a Muslim should do. It's not the best thing. And here we have the process I'm teaching us, the best of manners. He would say, Allahu Akbar. He would say, Subhanallah. He would say, Alhamdulillah. And we too should incorporate it. InshaAllah, these are things we need to incorporate. Also of the benefits we have over here, is that Abu Waqid al-Laythi, he asked blatant shirk. According to what the Prophet ﷺ said. He said, Wallahi this is shirk. You see so far? Right? But was he considered a mushrik? No. This is a very interesting point here. Right? Abu Waqid Al-Laythi, our Prophet ﷺ pronounced a verdict on his saying, but he didn't pronounce a verdict on him. And this is a very, very important distinction that the average Muslim does not make. A person committing shirk doesn't become a mushrik necessarily. A person committing kufr doesn't become a kafir necessarily. A person committing bid'ah doesn't necessarily become a mubtadir. there are conditions that have to be met excuses that have to be removed and this is the job of the scholar not the lay person it's not the lay Muslims job to start pronouncing kafir, mushrik, mubtadi it's not anybody's job this is something that yes if a scholar has to do it maybe he will do it a Muslim can commit an action of kufr but not be a kafir and this is proven by the hadith of Abu Waqid Abu Waqid is asking for shirk who defined this? our Prophet ﷺ defined it You just ask for shirk. He swore by Allah, you ask for shirk. You understand? But Abu Waqid was not pronounced mushrik. Why? Who can tell me? Ignorance. Brand new Muslim. He doesn't understand la ilaha illallah. He doesn't understand Islam right now. Innocent Muslim. He doesn't understand. He thinks, okay, I've left paganism, I can't worship that who unwild. maybe this new religion can give me another ذات أنوات. Brand new Muslim, he doesn't understand what Islam is about. And Islam is all about the worship of one God completely. And Abu Waqid doesn't quite, you know, he's converting with the people. He doesn't know Islam. So our Prophet ﷺ gives him the excuse of ignorance. Okay? And this clearly shows us that a person can commit an act of kufr, an act of shirk, and not necessarily be considered a kafir or mushrik. And this is especially true in our day and age, brothers and sisters. Muslims are so ignorant of their own religion that they'll do the most bizarre and weird things in the name of Islam and they'll think that this is Islamic. And many of us who are, you know, maybe coming from cultures that we know this to be wrong, here in America, you know, people are born and raised in a different culture, they'll do something that is, we'll consider it's blatant ridicule of the religion. For them, this is no big deal. For them, this is a part of their culture and say, well, no big deal. We need to teach them with wisdom. We need to understand, like our Prophet ﷺ didn't pronounce the verdict in Abu Waqid. He said, this is not, you know, إِنَّكُمْ قُومُوا تَجْهَلُونَ You know, this is jahl. This is jahala. This is a type of jahiliyyah, to ask for these types of things. And also the final point before we move on, I didn't mean to go that long, but this is a very beautiful hadith of theology. The final point our Prophet ﷺ predicted, that we are going to follow the ways of the people before us. We're going to follow the ways of the people before us, and it shows us that what is prohibited is to abandon our theology and rituals and to take theology and rituals from other religions. What is not prohibited is to take culture and science and whatnot. All of this, we all know this is halal. What our process and forbade, don't take their ways of worship. Don't take their rituals. Just like the Bani Israel asked for a God, now you're asking for a God. Right? So this is something to do with religion. don't take your religious rituals from other civilizations and cultures you have your own religious rituals okay moving on now we're moving on now so they reached the camps at night and they prayed Salatul Isha this is outside of Hunayn and one of the companions agreed to volunteer to guard the army and the Prophet ﷺ he gave him the good news of Jannah if you're able to do this and another group came back reporting the large quantity of camels, the large quantity of sheep. He said that they have even their women and children, all of them are there. And all of their property, they have brought it from the town of Al-Ta'if. And this worried some of the Muslims. Because when you have all of the property and all of the animals and all, this shows the confidence that they have. And that confidence was in fact what this young chieftain intended, right? That's what the young chieftain intended. The Malik, he wanted to show how confident we are. This worried some of the Sahaba. And our Prophet ﷺ smiled and he said, تِلْكَ غَنِيمَةُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ غَدًا Inshallah ta'ala. Tomorrow, this will be the ghanima that we will take. Inshallah ta'ala. And this shows us two things that we all know of by now. Number one, optimism, optimism, optimism. It's a part of Islam to always be optimistic. Part of Islam to think the best of what's gonna happen tomorrow. And number two, whenever you say something about tomorrow, you say, inshaAllah. تلك غنيمة المسلمين غدا inshaAllah ta'ala. Now, what happened? We're gonna obviously not do the whole battle today. We'll just do another 10 minutes and then continue next week inshaAllah. What happened? This was Thaqif's territory. And they knew it inside out. And what they had done was that being familiar with the lay of the land, they had planned a very devious tactic, a very intelligent tactic. What they had done was that they had selected a valley that the people of Mecca would have to cross to get to the other side. And they had stationed at the end of the valley a small contingent from Hawazin that seemed to be fully battled and prepared. And it appeared that they were basically waiting for the charge. So the Muslims, this was like the bait. The Muslims thought, okay, this is where we have to attack. Little did they realize that the tribes of Thaqif and Hawazin had stationed groups of archers in the valleys on top, in the mountains on top, both sides of the mountain. There was nooks and crevices and caves and basically entire structures there that they knew very well. And they had stationed five, ten, three, five, different groups of archers throughout the entire length of the valley. Because this was their territory. and the goal was that the Muslims be lured in and once they're inside the false contingent of Hawazin pretend to be defeated and this would cause more Muslims to rush in because now this is victory and when all of the Muslims are in between the two sides to then actually launch the actual assault and that would be twofold the first would be archers from the top you would have hundreds of archers showering volley after volley and you cannot do anything you're in the middle they're firing from the top and the second the 10-20 thousand en masse would then charge into the valley and so there would be a double assault and this was exactly what happened as they planned it down to the dot down to the last the final detail that the Muslims rushed forward the signal was given the initial contingent pretended to be defeated and they scattered away this made the Muslims even happier they rushed all forward and then when the bulk of the Muslim army is now between this pass it's a pass away you can still see it to this day when they were between this pass then what happens the signal is given there was a loud noise and signal they had the signal planned and instantaneously volleys of arrows start coming in from everywhere and the Hawazin and the Taqif charge in from the front and the Muslims panicked. And this is exactly what Allah mentions in the Quran. وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنِ اذْ أَعْجَبَتْهُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ فَلَمْ تُغْنِي عَنْكُمْ شَيْئًا وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ ثُمَّ وَلَّيْتُمْ مُدْبِلِينَ The earth became narrow for you despite its vastness. And all of you turned and fled. Then Allah blessed you and you came back. So they turned and fled en masse. Hundreds of people, helter skelter, no one caring for anybody else. There was a mob mentality. and this was compounded by many things. First and foremost, the fact that many of these were brand new Muslims. Remember they have just accepted Islam. And some of them are not even actually Muslim. Secondly, the fact that this was so unprepared. They had no idea this was coming. Thirdly, the problem of arrows is something that we cannot fully imagine. Arrows, they literally come out of nowhere. You can barely, by the time you see it, it's too late to actually deflect it. And when you have people firing in from on top especially, this is almost impossible. And then finally the last point, because of the sheer quantity of the Muslims 12,000, the bulk of them did not have weapons and armor and helmets. The bulk of them really did not have the proper helmets and armor to defend themselves against the arrows. And so what happened was everybody started to panic and people began to rush helter-skelter to find any type of shade, any type of covering to protect them from the onslaught of the arrows. And the Prophet ﷺ was almost left unguarded. Of course the Prophet ﷺ did not flee, he was on his mule. It was as if everybody else was fleeing around him. and the Prophet ﷺ stood up on his mount and he began to call out loudly that, هَلُمَّ إِلَيَّ Come to me. أَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ I am the messenger of Allah. أَنَا مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ I am Muhammad, the son of Abdullah. And with him were of course Abu Bakr and Umar and Ali and some of the Quraysh. And the Prophet ﷺ was with his uncle Abbas. And Abbas was known to be a man with a loud voice. Abbas was known to be a man with a loud voice. And so he said to his uncle, Ya Am, call out to so and so. And he mentioned name after name after name. Call out to the people of Ridwan. The Bay'atul Ridwan. Call out to the people of Hudaybiyah. Right? That was the first on the list. And this shows us the status of the people of Hudaybiyah. That the people of Hudaybiyah, you remember their Iman was demonstrated. You know, they had promised to go into war without having any weapons. Without having the... So he said, call the people of Hudaybiyah. So he said, O people of Hudaybiyah. Then he said, call out the people of the Ansar. And he mentioned tribe after tribe. And, Ya Bani Sulaim, Ya so and so, O so and so. And it is as if Ibn Ishaq mentions, as each tribe was mentioned, it is as if they awoke from a slumber. That when they heard their names, they realized what's going on. That where are we fleeing to? And they began to flock back to the Prophet ﷺ. And they responded by saying, لَبَّيْكَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ here we respond to your call and the Prophet ﷺ kept on himself raising his voice and he said those famous lines I am the Prophet there is no lie about this I am the son of Abdul Muttalib now this is very very interesting because he combines between religion and tribalism he combines between Islam and tribalism. أنا النبي لا كذب I am the Nabi. There is no kathib. There is no lie about this. أنا بن عبد المطلب I am the son, meaning the grandson here, of عبد المطلب. And this clearly shows us that our Prophet ﷺ is invoking both Islamic loyalties, and that's the more important, and then also tribal loyalties. Because who are the people around him? The Quraysh. Brand new Muslims. and many of them would hearken to ana ibn abdul muttalib more easier to ana nabiyu la kadhim and this shows us a very very important point in our times in our times tribalism is almost gone what has replaced it? nationalism and this shows us that nationalism in and of itself I mean the equivalent of tribalism can be used for good purposes some people have gone to an extreme that nationalism is haram or what not. No, not all types of nationalism are haram. Rather, if used properly, any type of sentiment can be used for good and for bad. And this is demonstrated here, that he's invoking, who am I? My grandfather was Abdul Muttalib. Now we all know in Islam, it doesn't matter who your father or grandfather is. We all know on the day of judgment, it's not gonna help you. But in this world it might. And there's nothing wrong with invoking that for a legitimate cause. For a legitimate cause. And this also shows us that having a generic pride in your heritage or ancestry, there's nothing haram in that. As long as that pride is within the pride of Islam. It should never be more than the pride of Islam. After all, who is Abdel Muttalib? The greatest Arab who ever lived in Jahiliyyah. Correct? The most prestigious, the most beloved, every single Arab knows Abdul Muttalib from every tribe we mentioned why, this goes back to 3-4 years ago, all of the list of what happened with Abdul Muttalib, the discovery of Zamzam and Abraha and the miracle and the fact that he did this and that so much, the entire Arab peninsula loves Abdul Muttalib and who is Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the son of the most beloved son, the only son of the most beloved son of Abdul Muttalib and he was the most beloved grandson to Abdul Muttalib. So, now he brings back that lineage, an Ibn Abdul Muttalib. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing haram in talking about that lineage. And of those who remain behind as well, along with his immediate Sahaba Abu Bakr, Umar and whatnot, of those who remain behind was his cousin. We talked about this cousin 3-4 weeks ago actually, 6 weeks ago. Abu Sufyan Ibn Al-Harith Ibn Abdul Muttalib. Remember that? Abu Sufyan Ibn Al-Harith, not that Abu Sufyan. the other Abu Sufyan, remember the one that came to him in the tent, that Abu Sufyan right before the conquest of Mecca and it is narrated that the Prophet looked around trying to see who was around him and there was a man in an armor holding on to the saddle stirrup and the Prophet did not immediately recognize him because this isn't of the elite of the Sahaba even though it's his cousin but in this point he expected his entourage if you like, and he said who is this? and Abu Sufyan said Ya Rasulallah, anabnu ummika I am the son of your mother meaning your grandmother I am the closest person to you anabnu ummika meaning blood, obviously not the son of your literal mother but basically it's his first cousin as we remember Abu Sufyan and this shows us that Abu Sufyan we mentioned him so many weeks ago that he begged the Prophet ﷺ to forgive him that he gave a poem in his honor that he asked for, that he genuinely said he was sorry and this proves now that when everybody is fleeing, Abu Sufyan ibn al-Hadith remained, and he was of those who called the people and the Quraysh back to the places. Now, at this point as well, we see the weakness of some of the people who had just newly embraced Islam. Not everybody of course is a full Muslim at this point in time. And some of the people really, their weakness of faith came out. and of those was the brother of Safwan ibn Umayyah and also Safwan ibn Umayyah the two sons of Umayyah the brother of Safwan ibn Umayyah and Safwan ibn Umayyah that it is mentioned that when the Sahaba began to flee when the Muslims began to flee the brother of Safwan said that good basically, this is great this is happening, today the magic spell will be broken what does he mean by magic spell, who can tell me? Islam, the Quran, the Prophet ﷺ because they accused him of being a magician they accused our Prophet ﷺ of being a magician so he said today the magic spell will be broken to which Safwan replied Uskut, shut up Uskut, for by Allah I would rather be ruled by a Qurashi than by a Hawazini meaning what? pure tribalism, pure nothing to do with Islam. Right? I would rather we win simply because he is a Qurashi. Even if I don't like him. And subhanallah, now you see why our Prophet ﷺ is saying, an abnu abdul muttalib. Right? This is the mindset he's dealing with. This is the mindset he's dealing with. And even the other Abu Sufyan, the real Abu Sufyan, even he seems to have expressed some satisfaction. Because remember, his Islam was with great hesitation. And remember what he said in front of the Ka'bah, that I'm scared to speak, because if I say something, the rocks will tell the Prophet ﷺ. Well, the rocks didn't tell, Jibreel told. This is the real Abu Sufyan. At this point still, he seems to express some happiness. It took a while for him to, you know, to Iman, for Iman to actually enter his heart. And this clearly demonstrates that not all of the new converts really had converted. And I found it interesting here, the Arabs will appreciate this, that there is a saying that is, there's two sayings that are common in the Arabic language, and I found both of them in this incident. So the Arabs know of the saying, لَا فَضَّفُوكَ Right? Where are the Arabs here? Yes. لَا فَضَّفُوكَ Right? What does it mean? you forgot what it means but you use it what does it mean Allahumma salli alayhi wa sallim may God accept your saying no not at all what you said is acceptable what you said is that's not what it means la faddafuka let me say where it's mentioned here that when Safwan heard his brother say this right he said fadda allahu fakah which is the opposite of لا فضّفوك فضّ الله فاك means may God destroy all of your teeth when you have no teeth what happens you can't talk properly you cannot talk properly you start grumbling or moaning you don't get the point you start saying things so he is saying may you never speak again and the expression that is common still to this day, لا فضّفوك means, may you always speak eloquently. Not quite. You guys be the judge. I agree with what you said versus... لا فضّفوك This means that may you always be so eloquent. May God never destroy your teeth, meaning may you always have such eloquence. Okay? Clear? This is what this we find this here. And the other thing which I don't know how common this is Al-Ana Hamiya Al-Watis You use this one? Right? So what does this mean? Do you know? Okay. So this phrase Al-Ana Hamiya Al-Watis. Do you say it in Syria ya doctor? You do say it, huh? It's very Hamia al-Watis in Syria now. That's very true. Allah is the best. May Allah help you, people of Sham. So this phrase, الْآنَ حَمِيَةِ الْوَطِيسِ which is common in the Arabic language, and the Arabs you see here know it. The first person to ever say it was our Prophet ﷺ in the incident of Hunayn. He was the one who said this phrase, and it became then the maxim that people use to this day. Right? And when did he say this? So the Watis is one of the things they would call the tribe of Thaqif and Hawazin. This was one of the nicknames of that tribe. And Hamiat al-Watis means now they've grown hot. So like literally, sorry, metaphorically it means now the battle has begun. Or now the issue has reached its hot level here. Now, we say in English, now the real fight begins. right? this is what it means, what? no, no, this is not no, no, this is not the ending, this is the this is the, when it's just getting to the the good part, yeah, well here's the good part, yeah, this is حمية الوطيس okay, so our prophet was the first Arab to ever use this expression in the incident of Hunayn when did he say this expression? when the Sahaba started surging around him, and then they started attacking he said, now the battle will begin and from that time up until now so this is now the saying that the Arabs have that the fighting has now grown hot and when the Sahaba began coming back and surging back this roused up the army and when the people saw them regrouping more and more people started coming and the Prophet ﷺ stood up again and he took a symbolic handful of dust and stones and he threw it towards the tribe of the Thaqif and he said, شَاهَتِ الْوُجُوهِ that may the faces be disfigured, which is an Arabic expression, that may you all be vanquished. And of course this, it is said, was a miracle as well that this blinded them, this caused them to lose sight of the enemy and the entire group of archers could not send their archers, their weapons forward after this. And he began praying and making dua and the Muslims surged forward and that was when the battle changed and our time has come inshaAllah to pause and we will inshaAllah resume and talk about the victory I have to make some announcements as well and talk a little bit about certain things and we'll talk about the victory inshaAllah next week bi-idhnillahi ta'ala Thank you.

Seerah 82 - Battle of Hunayn Part 2 ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. about the battle of Hunayn. And if you remember the battle of Hunayn was the battle between the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba and which tribes? Hawazin and Thaqif and other tribes. Hawazin and Thaqif and other tribes. The two main tribes were Thaqif and Hawazin. And the Thaqif is the tribe of Ta'if. And Hawazin are basically the Bedouin type of tribes outside of the city of Ta'if. And how many were on the side of the Mushrikun? Around 20,000. and the Muslims were around 12,000 and the Muslims for the first time in their lives felt overconfident never before had they felt overconfident and so much so that they remarked that how can we possibly be destroyed and the Prophet ﷺ told them that be careful there was a prophet amongst the previous prophets that he felt this type of arrogance or pride and Allah in front of his eyes took his army away from him but the damage had been done and they walked into a trap as I had explained and in that trap the 12,000 the sahaba they started running helter skelter they started separating from the Prophet ﷺ but the Prophet ﷺ stood his ground he did not flee in the face of the arrows and the volleys he remained firm and around him were the elite of the sahaba Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali and also his uncle Abbas and a few of the Ansar and slowly but surely they called and rallied the forces as we said and the Sahaba as they continued to gather around the Prophet ﷺ more and more people continued to come back to the fight especially when Abbas began calling them name by name, tribe by tribe that oh Bani so and so oh so and so and when they heard their names it was as if they awoke from their fear and they returned back we also said that the Prophet ﷺ at this stage he took a handful of pebbles and stones. And this is not the first time he has done this. This has happened before at Badr. And he's doing it again now at Hunayn, that he threw it towards the faces of the mushrikeen, and it affected them, it blinded them, it stopped their archers for a while, and this also allowed the sahaba to congregate. And this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala himself mentions in the Quran, that he helped the Muslims. Allah says in Surah Tawbah, verses 25 and 26 surah tawbah verses 25 and 26 laqad nasarakum allahu fi mawatina kathira Allah has helped you in many incidents and battles wayawma hunaynin and on the day of hunayn so Allah has helped you in many battles and he especially helped you on the day of hunayn and wayawma hunaynin on that day idh a'jabatkum kathratukum you were impressed with your own numbers falam tugni ankum shay'a all of your numbers were of no use to you وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُوبَتْ and this vast earth no matter how vast it is it seemed constrained upon you ثُمَّ وَلَّيْتُمْ مُدْبِرِينَ and you turned your backs and you fled so Allah عز و جل describes in one verse vivid detail the problems of Hunayn there was self confidence there was cockiness there was arrogance and Allah says all of this your numbers were of no use to you And this vast land, no matter how many people were in it, it appeared constrained to you. And you had to flee and turn away. ثُمَّ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ سَكِينَتَهُ Then Allah sent His peace. You were terrified, Allah made you calm. You fled in fear, Allah sent His sakinah. And you became calm. And Allah عز و جل sent down, وَأَنزَلَ جُنُودًا لَمْ تَرَوْهَا And Allah sent an army that you could not see. so Allah explicitly mentions in the Quran that once again in the battle of Hunayn the angels helped the believers and it is also reported that a number of Muslims and non-Muslims saw these angels come down of them is Jubair ibn Mut'im who at this time is a Muslim Jubair ibn Mut'im is the son of Mut'im ibn Adi and I've given a whole lecture about Mut'im ibn Adi called the legacy of a kafir you can find that online this is his son Jubair ibn Mut'im Jubair ibn Mut'im narrates that when the two armies met he saw a large black cloud just come down from the heavens and disperse amongst the people like ants like imagine a dense ant storm if you like coming army of ants coming so he said he saw this large by blackness is meant here density everything is congregating together and then it just spreads like ants everywhere and then he realized Jubay said he realized these were the angels coming to help fight for the believers. And there's also a very interesting story mentioned here in Sirat ibn Ishaq and that is the story of a third or fourth cousin of the Prophet ﷺ Shaybah ibn Uthman from the Banu Abd al-Dar. The Banu Abd al-Dar is one of the sister tribes of the Banu Hashim. The Banu Hashim, the Banu Abd al-Dar were the sister tribes. And his father Uthman was one of those who was killed in the battle of Uhud on the side of the Quraysh, on the side of the pagans. And his son Shaybah has just accepted Islam in the conquest of Mecca. And his heart is still angry and bitter that his father has died at Uhud. So when he saw all of the people running away, and the Prophet ﷺ is alone there, his iman is brand new, he's literally one week old, and his Islam is basically a verbal Islam. Iman has not yet entered his heart. Immediately he thought, let me get revenge for the death of my father. So he narrates his story, that he took his spear, and he began galloping towards the back of the Prophet ﷺ hoping that he could just astaghfirullah wa la hawla wa khud salam kill the Prophet ﷺ he could assassinate the Prophet ﷺ in the chaos when everybody is running away and he says that out of nowhere a light came and it was about to burn me it was so bright I had to cover my face and my eyes began screaming and the Prophet ﷺ turned around he must have seen what's happening either he saw the angels and the light or he saw Shaybah basically going berserk and crazy. He understands what's going on. And so he raised his hands and made dua to Allah. And he says, Oh Allah, cause shaitan to depart from the heart of Shayba. Allahumma ahdi Shayba. Oh Allah, guide Shayba. Three times, Allahumma ahdi Shayba. Allahumma ahdi Shayba. And Shayba says that immediately Iman entered my heart and I joined fighting with the Prophet ﷺ against the tribe of Hunayn and against the tribe of Taqif. and Hawazin, and he lived a pious life after this. So it's quite literally amazing that he starts galloping, trying to, astaghfirullah, assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. By the time he gets to the end of the gallop, he's actually fighting on the side of the Muslims against the tribe of Thaqif. So eventually, when the Muslims gathered around the Prophet ﷺ, we don't have much details, but all of the books of Sira say the same thing, and that is that the tribe of Hawazin and Thaqif, they fled. that when they saw the onslaught. Now, it appears as if the tribes of Thaqif and Hawazin were literally counting on that one tactic. They didn't have a plan B, it looks like. They only had plan A. Plan A was, shower them with the volleys, let them run back. And then we can attack. It appears they didn't really have a plan B. And when the Muslims did not run away, eventually they were going to run away. And it appeared as if plan A was working. When it didn't work, and the Muslims are charging full speed ahead, they then retreated helter-skelter. It appears they did not have any other backup plan. They were so confident that this would indeed work. And the Prophet ﷺ commanded the Sahaba to pursue them to the valleys, to pursue them to the mountains. Don't let them go. Why? Because there's 20,000. They're gonna recongregate. Continue to pursue them as far as you can. Don't let them stop and basically rest and then reconvene. And so what happens is after the battle of Hunayn, there's a long list of mini expeditions. That 300 sahaba sent one direction, 200 sent another direction. And so the battle of Hunayn ended at Hunayn and then a number of mini skirmishes took place which we're not going to go into detail. In them many of the famous sahaba, some of the famous sahaba were injured and killed. Of them is the uncle of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari in one of these expeditions. he was put in charge and he pursued the enemy the tribe of Hawazin and eventually he was killed a javelin was thrown into him his nephew Abu Musa gets to him the javelin is sticking out of his chest you know Abu Musa al-Ash'ari the famous sahabi Abu Musa al-Ash'ari is well known narrates so many hadith Abu Musa al-Ash'ari's uncle so Abu Musa al-Ash'ari says to his uncle tell me who has killed you and his uncle is alive bleeding to death so he points so and so so Abu Musa right then and there attacks this man ferociously, viciously slaughters him in front of his uncle's eyes then comes back and says I have taken care of him now what can I do to help you he says take the javelin out he takes it out and the blood is basically too much it's obvious he's going to die and so his uncle says go and tell the Prophet ﷺ what happened that I died fighting and basically dying in this manner and give him my salam and ask him to make dua for me. So all of this, very beautiful ending of his. And so Abu Musa comes back to the Prophet ﷺ. This hadith is in the books of Sunan that he comes back to the Prophet ﷺ and he tells him in vivid detail how his uncle died and the Prophet ﷺ was lying on his tent and he had a shawl on him when he told him that my uncle asked you to pray for him. So he stood up, he put himself up, and he called for water, he did wudu, and then he turned to face the qibla, and he raised his hands as high as he could, so that his armpits could be seen. And then he made dua, and he said, Allahumma ghafil li Abi Amir, that was the kunya of his uncle, Abu Musa's uncle. Allahumma ghafil li Abi Amir, Allahumma rfa'a darajatu fil illiyyin. He made a beautiful dua for him, that O Allah, raise his ranks, O Allah, forgive his sins. So when Abu Musa heard all of this, he said, Ya Rasulullah for me as well one for me and so the Prophet ﷺ made dua for Abu Musa as well that O Allah forgive him his sins and adkhilhu midkhalan kareemah yawmal qiyamah cause him to enter a good abode on the day of judgment and Abu Musa's son was named Abu Burda Abu Burda is the son of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and he's one of the famous scholars of the Tabi'un and Abu Burda became one of the great scholars of Medina and he was very proud of this hadith that the Prophet ﷺ made dua for my father and for my grandfather. And Abu Burda was one of the most famous scholars of the students of the Sahaba, of the generation of the Tabi'un. It is also reported in this battle, in the battle of Hunayn, that in the aftermath, when the Hawazin had run away, so the Prophet ﷺ was walking on the battlefield and this was one of the famous hadith that all of you have heard of vaguely, or many of you have heard of occurs, that he saw a woman that had been killed on the battlefield. This occurred at Hunayn. Okay, so he said, it was not right for her to have been killed. This should not have happened. Who did this? So he was told it is Khalid ibn al-Walid. So he said, go and catch Khalid ibn al-Walid before he goes forward because he had been sent on another expedition. And tell him that he is not to kill anymore women or children or servants, meaning those who are not fighting. You know, so the last word that is used, scholars have interpreted, what does it mean? Elderly or people that are just in the periphery that are not fighting. So basically the point is, this is the command now. That what we would call civilians, in those days they didn't have civilians. In those days, every adult male was a member of the army. But the point is, the people who were not members of the army, specific command of the Prophet ﷺ, women and children and either you can say the servants or the elderly, whatever, they should not be killed. So this is the famous hadith and ruling that is used in all of the books of fiqh and in modern times it's a very important discussion in what is going on in the world that the Prophet ﷺ clearly forbade the killing of non-combatants. This occurs in the battle of Hunayn. So what happened to the people of Hawazin and Thaqif? They fled in many different places as we said. A number of mini skirmishes took place and by and large, almost all of these skirmishes were successful. But the tribe of Thaqif did not flee into the wilderness. The tribe of Thaqif fled back to Ta'if. So the tribe of Thaqif, along with whoever was in that direction, members of the Hawazin, they fled back to the city of Al-Ta'if. And that was where the Prophet ﷺ would turn to next. And perhaps the second largest group, they fled to a place called Autas and there was another battle over there. And there was some casualties. I'm not going to go into the details because these are things that by and large, not much to be derived from. But the Muslims were victorious, but there were some casualties in the battle of Hunayn. And the biggest lesson from the actual battle of Hunayn is that, no matter how prepared you are, if you don't have that iman and thika and tawakkul in Allah, it's not going to help you. If you rely on yourself, and if you rely on your own preparation, you're setting yourself up for failure that's the biggest lesson that we learned from the battle of Hunayn that never were the Sahaba this many and never did they have the amount of weapons because remember from the people of Mecca they had taken loans of hundreds of weapons of hundreds of sheets of armor plates of armor of arrows they had never been as well equipped they had never been as well rested because they've been in Mecca for probably 20 days they've been in Mecca. 19 days they've been in Mecca. They're well rested. They've mashallah eaten and they have plenty of armor. And they have plenty of people. That was the cause of their downfall. And so this shows us that victory comes from up there. Not from down here. No matter what you do, your heart must have full tawakkul that Allah will take care of me. Not my preparation and my good. And in the end, Allah Azzawajal gave them victory because they had turned back from this, the Prophet ﷺ rebuked them and chastised them not to do this. And so eventually Allah عز و جل did give them victory. Now the battle of Hunayn brought forth with it the largest ghanima, war booty that the Muslims had ever conquered up until this point in time. Because when all of these tribes fled, remember from our last lesson what had happened. They made the very big mistake for them, but blessings for the Muslims of bringing all of their families and property and animals to the battlefield. Remember the young chieftain versus the elder chieftain that he wanted the soldiers to fight more bravely. And the elder chieftain said, this is foolish because a woman is not going to help you win the war. A woman back there. Whereas if you lose, she will lose. But if you lose the war and your wife is still back at home, at least she is safe. But the younger chieftain was adamant And so what happened? It is estimated that at least 6,000 prisoners of war were taken, women and children. 6,000. That is a massive amount. Think about it. 6,000. And over 24,000 camels. 24,000 camels. And over 40,000 goats. In our times, honestly, this is like tens of millions of dollars. Quite literally. This is a fortune the likes of which the Muslims have never even come close to in terms of POWs, in terms of animals 24,000 camels that is an astounding amount because remember there were 20,000 people in the army and when they fled they have their camels with them to ride on to use for slaughtering and what not all of this becomes the property of the Muslims and the Prophet ﷺ gathered together all of these spoils of war in a valley called Ji'rana And this valley is well known outside of Mecca. On the way from Ta'if to Mecca, there's the Leblav Valley. He gathered all of these spoils of war and animals here in the valley of Jirana. And it is narrated that when the prisoners of war were being let in, so one of the ladies began screaming and shouting, that how dare you treat me like this, don't you know? I am the sister of your own companion. I am the sister of your own companion. So they said, what do you mean? and she said, I am أخته من الرضاعة I am his foster sister. So when they heard this, they didn't know what to do. They went to the process and said, there's a lady that claims to be your sister. So he said, bring her to me. And she said, I am Shayma. Shayma was the foster sister that she had. So he said, how do I know you're Shayma? How do I know? What is the sign that you are Shayma? You could be any lady claiming you're Shayma. Remember he hasn't seen her for 55 years? 55 years he has not seen her, right? 56 years. He is now 60 years old. He's 60 and he hasn't seen her since he's 4 years old. So, yes, 56 years he hasn't seen her. So he said, how do I know you're that Shayma? So she said, I still have the mark on my back that you bit me one time I was carrying you. So the Prophet ﷺ laughed and realized this is Shayma. And he said, I have two choices for you. Either you stay with us and we shall treat you honorably and you shall be beloved or I shall gift you and you go back to your tribe. And so Shayma wanted the gifts and go back to her tribe and we don't know whether she accepted Islam or not. This is in Ibn Ishaq. In Al-Bayhaqi and other books, we learn of an even more interesting narration. Unfortunately, the chain of narrators has a missing link so it's fishy. We don't know it's true or not. So there's 50-50 chance, could be true or not. But it is said that Shayma brought her mother and father, i.e. Halima and Halima's husband i.e. the foster mother and the foster father of the Prophet ﷺ this is in Al-Bayhaqi and other books that she brought her mother and father to visit the Prophet ﷺ and this is not impossible because the Prophet ﷺ right now is 55-56 years old so Halima would have been maybe 77-78 it's reasonable it's not unreasonable to say that it's not too much of a stretch that this might have happened and it is narrated in Al-Bayhaqi and others and it is said that when Halima came the Prophet ﷺ stood up for her he took off his own shawl and he laid it on the ground for her this is the highest honor possible the highest honor possible that you take off your own shawl from your back and you put it on the ground and he honored her immensely and gave her many gifts did she accept Islam or not? the narration does not say the narration does not say whether she accepted Islam or not regardless he honored his foster mother and his foster sister, that is for sure. So, here in the battle of Hunayn, I forgot to mention only, in the battle of Hunayn, four people died, but many were wounded. And of those who were wounded, interestingly enough, this is the battle, this is a trick question, which is the battle that all of the Khulafa were wounded in? It is the battle of Hunayn. Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, they were all wounded in the battle of Hunayn. And all four of them stood by the Prophet ﷺ. The battle of Hunayn, I said this last week, somebody corrected me, in fact I was correct. The battle of Hunayn is one of only two battles that is mentioned by name in the Quran. I said this last week. Badr and Hunayn are the only two battles mentioned. One of you said Ahzab is mentioned and it flustered me because Ahzab is mentioned. Then I went back and I checked. Ahzab is mentioned but not as a battle. Ahzab is mentioned meaning the confederates, the army that you saw. Right? So Ahzab is not used as the name of a battle. In the Quran, Ahzab is used as the confederate army. You were scared of the army. The battle is not mentioned by name. And the battle is now called the battle of Ahzab, or the battle of Khandaq, but the Quran uses Ahzab to refer to the army. You were scared, or the munafiqun were scared of the army. So in terms of battle, Allah says, وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ and Allah says وَلَقَدْ نَصْرَكُ اللَّهُ بِبَدْرٍ وَأَنْتُمْ أَذِلَّةً so in terms of naming battles the Quran names only two battles Badr and Hunayn and there are so many parallels in fact honestly I could give a 20 minute tangent just about the parallels but I'm not going to because inshallah each one of you can think about them so many parallels between Badr and Hunayn the main parallel between Badr and Hunayn is that the both of them were manifest victories, amazing victories. Badr, spiritual victory, and Hunayn, financial victory. Badr is a moral boost, and Hunayn is a material boost. And Allah helped in both of them with sending angels down, and in both of them the ultimate victory was from Allah. They both tried their best, and then, sorry, in both incidents they tried their best, and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala helped them. So, the prisoners of war and the animals were kept at Jirana, and the Prophet ﷺ put a guard there, an armed guard at the head of the valley, because these are a lot of property here, the Bedouins would be interested to get them back, and he made his way now to Ta'if. So, we need to understand, generally speaking, the scholars of Sira combine two separate incidents in one. They say, the Ghazwa of Hunayn, and the Hisar of Taif. The battle of Hunayn and the siege of Taif. In fact, there are two separate incidents but they occurred quite literally one after another. There was a battle in the fields of Hunayn. Then from Hunayn, literally the Prophet ﷺ marched on to Taif and laid siege to the city. So there are two separate incidents but since they occur back to back and since the enemy is common, Thaqif, you always find it lumped together. the battle of Hunayn and the siege of Al-Ta'if, so much so that people, scholars have differed, should we count these two as one, or these one as two? If you go back to the very beginning of our seerah, there was a 20 minute discussion, how many battles did the Prophet ﷺ participate in? If you remember that. And one of the opinions is Hunayn, and then Ta'if count as two battles. Another opinion is that no, Hunayn and Ta'if is one battle. So all of this comes back to this issue here, depends on how you want to classify it. So Ta'if was not a battle, it was a siege. they laid siege to the city and Ta'if when they marched on to Ta'if so they arrived at the last week of Shawwal now remember Ta'if is a city that is nestled in the mountains it's a beautiful city it has weather there is no semblance of desert in Ta'if Ta'if is a green luscious place I'm sure some of you have been there you would never think you're in the desert there are streams because it's in the top of the mountain there are streams, they have their natural water They have luscious fruits, grapes over there. You get grapes in Ta'if. There's Ta'if grapes. So Ta'if is not like the barren valley of Mecca. And the people of Ta'if always competed with the people of Mecca. They felt themselves superior, but they didn't have one thing that the people of Mecca had, and that is the Ka'bah. They cannot compete with the Ka'bah. But what did they compete with? Wealth and money, finances and fortification. They have plenty of money and plenty of time. So what did they do? they had fortified their city with massive walls. And they also had built instruments to defend against any attack. And these instruments or these weapons were unique to them. For example, they had things on the tops of the walls to throw burning oil on. You know, they have these things that they, I don't know what you call them, burning oil cauldrons, I don't know, but something they would throw onto the people. So all of this is prepared. Right? The turrets on the top, all of this is prepared. You don't find this in any other city in Arabia. This is not something you're going to find. So the people of Ta'if have this luxury. And they had prepared for war, and they had stashed, and they had stocked supplies for almost a year inside their city. And they have running water, and they have fruits and what not. So they were prepared to last an entire year. And it is clear that the people of Ta'if were thinking long term. That they were preparing to attack the Prophet ﷺ for many months. and therefore they had prepared the city in this way and the Prophet ﷺ from Mecca when he heard of the people of Taqif and Hawazan attacking from Mecca he sent two or three people to another tribe and these were Uru Ibn Mas'ud and Ghaylan Ibn Salama he sent them to another tribe, the tribe of Jurash in order to learn specific instruments of war that the Muslims had never used before of them is the catapult the Muslims had never used a catapult and the first Muslim to ever use a catapult was our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam never before in the history of warfare in that part of the world you all know catapult, you pull something back and throw it out, right? so he sent 2 or 3 of the Sahaba to a special expedition from Mecca and it is because of this, these Sahaba that he sent did not participate in Hunayn. Now, by the way, this shows us, what does it show us? Preparation, foresight, strategy. The Prophet ﷺ is thinking three steps ahead. In Mecca, he's already thinking, what if I have to lay siege to Ta'if? That's exactly what happened. So when he comes to Ta'if, those Sahaba have come back after they've learned how to build a catapult, and they also learned how to build the rotting rams so the battering rams, so you batter the, you hit the wall of the city, you hit the door of the city, so they learned how to build that and the third thing, they learned three things, the third thing they learned, I don't know these names in English it's like a large shield that men walk under to get to the to get to the the wall a turtle, okay, it's called a turtle okay, so I don't know the arts of war, so NSA and the government people, I don't know the arts of war so make sure you know what I'm saying, so I'm completely jahil about warfare, so you sure it's called a turtle? turtle, that's what the Romans called it okay, a turtle shell yeah, it's a large, large thing that lots of men come under, and the reason they do that is because of the burning oil the reason they do that is because of all of the weaponry on top. So they learned how to build that. So these are the three things they learned how to build. And by the time the Prophet ﷺ gets to Ta'if, so the group of people that he has sent comes back, and for the first time ever, a catapult is built by the Muslims, right outside the city of Ta'if. That's what you call preparation. That's what you call foresight. And initially the Sahaba camped at a certain area, and they were showered with volleys after volleys of arrows. And so the Prophet ﷺ commanded them to go back to another location. And so they went to another location. And that location eventually when Ta'if accepted Islam, they built a masjid at that location exactly where the Prophet ﷺ camped. And to this day, that masjid is the main masjid of the city of Ta'if. It is called Masjid Ibn Abbas. Anybody who's been to Ta'if? Who has been to Ta'if? Anybody? so did you see the masjid of Ibn Abbas if you went to any large masjid in Ta'if that is the masjid yes exactly that large masjid as soon as you enter these days the masjid is inside the city but when the Prophet ﷺ camped the masjid is obviously outside the city okay these days that masjid is a part of the city because the city has expanded but when the Prophet ﷺ camped there the masjid is outside the city so he camped at that place which is known as the masjid Ibn Abbas right now. And then began the partial siege. Then began the siege of the city of Al-Ta'if and the Sahaba tried a number of attempts to do various things. On one occasion, they used the turtle to come close to the walls of the city, but apparently maybe it wasn't built the proper way or whatever, but the burning oil got through. And it burnt many of them. They fled out from under the turtle and lo and behold, then the showers of arrows began and they lost a number of people in this incident. And the Muslims grew a little bit desperate. What is to be done now? Because how do you attack a city with thick walls? What can you do? The battering rams did not work. The catapults caused some damage but it's not gonna cause the door to open. So they just waited out there. And the Prophet ﷺ suggested that let us leave the people of Ta'if for now. come back at another time. But some of the Muslims were adamant and they said, Ya Rasulullah, are you going to leave them now after we are so close? They had tasted the victory of Mecca, they tasted the victory of Hunayn, now they're on a roll basically. Let's just keep on doing it. So when he saw that they wanted to stay, so he allowed them to stay and they should have listened to the Prophet ﷺ, but they wanted to remain and try one more time. And they resorted to a tactic that is allowed in Islam under extreme circumstances. And that is, they started burning the crops, the agricultural produce. They started burning the land. You know, the produce outside the city walls. Now, burning a land basically means you cannot grow on it for decades. You're ruining it for a very long time. And this is very harmful, generally speaking. And they were desperate, days are going by, nothing's happening, clearly they're not gonna win the siege. So this is like an emotional warfare. And when the people of Al-Ta'if saw this, they started begging and pleading from the rooftops, that we ask you by Allah and by our blood, because in the end of the day they all go back to Adnan and what not, by Allah and by our blood, and by our rights of neighborship, at least don't do this. I mean come on, you're killing us but don't burn our agriculture because it was more difficult for them than the loss of a life because this is their livelihood for generations to come and so when they begged and pleaded in this manner, the Prophet ﷺ relented and he forbade them from burning any more agricultural produce and he also made an announcement the Prophet ﷺ made an announcement that anybody who comes and joins us shall be protected if you come over to our side you will be protected and any slave who leaves and joins us you are automatically going to be free so obviously this is freedom for slaves many of them joined the rank of the Muslims in the middle of the night they snuck outside and they joined the army and they became Muslims and they converted perhaps two dozen or more people slowly in the course of the next few days came down and converted and joined the side of the Muslims but by and large the city remained the same The Muslims really did not know what to do. And another mini skirmish, not a skirmish, but another mini massacre takes place with the Vali's and what not. And the Sahaba once become demoralized once more. And the Prophet ﷺ for the second time says, let us go on. And this time they quietly agree. Without any putting up any fight, they quietly agree. How long did he stay in Al-Ta'if? How long did he put the siege on Al-Ta'if? There are so many opinions and it's really confusing. Some say 20 days, some say 13 days, some say 40 days, some say 2 weeks there seems to be a lot of disparity here, but Allah knows best what seems to make the most sense if you look at the entire narrative of the seerah, he probably stayed there less than 2 weeks less than 2 weeks after conquering Hunayn, after the conquest of Hunayn, he goes to Ta'if he camps outside probably 12 days 11 days, 13 days at max and then realizing this is not going to last, he suggests to them after a few days, let's go, they're insistent we want to try one more time, khalas, try then they lost few more lives and they became demoralized then he said let's go they quietly said okay Allah let's go so after this time he returns back to Al-Jirana where the war booty and the ghanima was and before he left this is the famous incident narrated in many famous books of hadith before he left the sahaba said Ya Rasulullah make dua against Thaqif this is too much now what they have done make dua against Thaqif so the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands and everybody raised their hands like, now we're gonna destroy the people of Taqif. And he said, اللهم اهد ثقيف اللهم اأتي بثقيف Oh Allah, guide the people of Taqif. Oh Allah, bring the people of Taqif to us. And he made dua for them rather than against them. And of course, from this incident before we move on, from this incident, I mean, obviously we learned the importance of Shura. Our Prophet ﷺ wanted to leave, but when he saw the younger Sahaba wanting to stay, he allowed them to stay. And this shows us that a wise leader never forces his decision onto others. A wise leader never acts like a dictator. Even though he is Rasulullah ﷺ, he doesn't act in this unilateral fashion. And we have seen this throughout the entire seerah. It also shows us that the sahaba should have listened to him the first time. That he knows best. But nonetheless, they did not do so. Another thing that this shows us, obviously his mercy for the people of Thaqif, his compassion for them that why would he not ask for forgiveness for the second time when he's done it for the first time and they did to him worse back then than they're doing now after all it was the same city that kicked him out the same city that bloodied and bruised him the same city that tortured him why would he not ask for the same forgiveness again and Allah answered his dua, Allah answered his dua, this shows us the goal of Islam is not vengeance and blood. The goal of Islam is mercy and guidance. The goal of Islam is not just to kill even your enemies. If anybody deserves to be killed now, it is Taqif. After they have done, after the conquest of Mecca, they're still being stubborn. If anybody deserves it, it is Taqif. Still our Prophet ﷺ is hopeful. Oh Allah, guide the people of Taqif. Oh Allah, bring them to Islam. And it is amazing, some of the same people that tortured him 20 years ago, 15 years ago, are still in Taqif. they're still there, still he makes dua for them for the second time of the greatest lessons that I think really is very profound is that this world what we learn from this, this world is never a world of ultimate victory look at our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in his greatest moment of glory he does not get ta'if he's won Mecca you would expect Ta'if is like just the icing on the cake go for it, Bismillah, but no because this world is a world of test, it's a world of tribulation this world is not going to be a bed of roses, you're just not going to get one thing after another, no, you're going to get some, you're going to get deprived of others even in his moment of glory our Prophet ﷺ was shown that you're not going to get everything and he had to suffer, the Sahaba had at least four times the casualties the battle of Hunayn did. The siege of Al-Ta'if had more casualties than the battle of Hunayn. And the Prophet ﷺ was not able to win over the city of Al-Ta'if. And therefore if this is the case with the Prophet ﷺ, you win some, you lose some. You're not gonna win everything. And even if you're on a winning streak, it's gonna be a temporary streak. And if this is the case with Rasulullah ﷺ, how about us? Do we really think that everything will be easy for us, no and just because you lose one doesn't mean Allah is angry at you doesn't mean you've done anything wrong it just means this is life this is how Allah tests you it is the akhirah that is Jannah not this world also of the benefits we learn here is our Prophet ﷺ does not have any problems learning technology or sciences or what not from anybody he sends the sahaba to a tribe far away whether they're Muslim or not, we don't even know most likely they weren't Muslim, he sends them to a tribe to gain this tactic, this knowledge and to come back and to benefit the Muslims with, knowledge is universal, it's not just Islamic, and anybody who has any beneficial knowledge we take from them that beneficial knowledge and then we apply it, and this also shows us that our religion, and alhamdulillah our religion is generally free of such ideology, sometimes you find them, but our religion is not anti-science or anti-technology or anti-modern progress. Whatever is of benefit, we will take it as long as it does not change the fundamentals of our religion. And of the benefits as well is the use of psychological warfare. Two things in this battle. Number one, calling out to the slaves and to the noblemen. Come and we will protect you. Come and we will free you. This is psychological tactic. And then number two, the issue of burning the crops, burning the produce. And still he relented. So deep down inside, he's got a soft spot for them. Deep down inside, so he took it a little bit when he saw them begging and pleading and what not. Even though they're killing him and what not, still he has a soft spot, and he prevents the Sahaba from continuing with burning of the crops. But it shows us the asl, that it is allowed in extreme times to do something of this nature, even though obviously it's not something that is encouraged. In any case, let us return now to where the process in return, and that is Ji'rana. Ji'rana is a famous plain to this day, it's called Ji'rana. if you ever come from Ta'if to Mecca you will pass by the valley of Jirana and he now returned to this valley where in front of him were literally the largest treasures tens of millions of dollars in our times, thousands as we said of camels tens of thousands of sheep and what not and the Prophet ﷺ camped at Jirana waited for more than a week in other words he waited in a Ta'if he probably was 12-13 days, here he waited a week So a total of 20 to 25 days since the actual battle of Hunayn. Almost a month he waited. What was he waiting for? He was waiting for the tribe of Hawazin to come back and negotiate a settlement for their property and their families. Because in the end of the day, these are their families. These are their women and their children. And he wanted the Hawazin to come and accept Islam. And if they accepted Islam, what would happen? everything will be returned back to them. You understand this point? If they accept Islam, everything will be returned back to them. Now, in our times with our western mindset, we will immediately ask, what will we ask? Human rights. Human rights? Not that Islam has been forced. Exactly. That these people are being bribed. With Islam. This is the immediate thing that comes to the minds of many of us. These people are being bribed to accept Islam. And the response to this is what? Yes. Yes. They are. So what? Anything. Because, and here is the point. We are speaking from the paradigm of truth. Islam is the truth. and we will use anything that is halal as long as it's not forced. In the end of the day, it's not being forced on them. Obviously, anybody will want Islam if he will get his money and his wife and children back. Right? There's nobody that will say, khalas, I'm not gonna be a Muslim, keep my wife and kids and keep my money. Everybody will say this. Okay? Everybody. But then what? when he takes his wife and child, when he takes the money, and he has to live in Darul Islam, and he has to pretend to be a Muslim, what's gonna happen? Islam will enter his heart. Islam will enter his heart. Because that's the whole difference from our perspective. We are speaking from a paradigm of truth. And we will give that truth as long as it's not coerced with whatever bribe is necessary. Because once that bribe is taken, and Islam is tasted, eventually Islam will become more beloved than anything else. And this is the reality that we see around us as well. And I've given an example that is more known to us here in America, and that is the phenomenon of marriage conversion. The phenomenon of marriage conversion is very common, that many times a man or a woman falls in love with a Muslim, and initially they are told, okay, you have to be a Muslim if you want to marry so and so. and so they embrace Islam reluctantly or half willingly or whatever then what happens their Islam typically becomes stronger than the Islam of the one born a Muslim right this is a phenomenon that all of us are familiar with it's a phenomenon that is a real phenomenon it's happened to somebody in your family as well probably how is that different than missionaries you can say so So, that is a true point. Wallahi, it's a true point. It is something that is, we have to admit it, it is a true point. That's the point from our perspective, it is the truth and others are not. Another point is also that never has a person been bribed into a faith, or I should say a group, not a person. And then they've retained that faith for generations as a society, except for Islam. That if you accept a religion because of food, because of free, what not, you might accept it for a while, but then your children, or even when this group leaves, then you will go back to your previous faith. And it's very true that missionary work in Muslim lands for the last 70 years, 80 years, it began, missionary work began in the 1880s actually, 130 years ago. and missionary work has been an utter and dismal failure in large segments of the Muslim world there has never been mass conversion away from Islam never and this is something you can go and check it yourself right so it is true wallahi it's true let's be frank here that from their perspective is the same thing okay that is but from our perspective one religion is true the other isn't and the true religion will enter the heart and the one that's not true will not enter the heart. And we see this as we said not just in these laws in many laws of Islam. And here's the point. You know me by now. I don't sugarcoat things. You know me by now. I think sugarcoating or showing a false perspective will harm us in the long run. Let us be honest and deal with the consequences. Let us be honest so that nobody can accuse us of being double-faced or what not. Our religion believes itself to be true. And it acts in that manner. And therefore there are incentives to convert, right? Let's keep the Q&A to the end, inshallah, will there be time. It has incentives to convert. These incentives are built into it, right? There's no denying this. And here's an incentive. That the Prophet ﷺ patiently waiting more than a month for the people of Awazin to come back. Who can tell me where has this occurred before? When a group has converted and they got back everything. Ban al-Mustaliq. Ban al-Mustaliq in Medina. Ban al-Mustaliq, right? When the Prophet ﷺ married, Juwadia. And the entire tribe is freed. Because and Juwadia's father goes back, the chieftain of the tribe, with his property, with the tribe, to the same village. Everything is status quo, except now they're Muslim. This has already happened before. And so the Prophet ﷺ wants the same thing to happen to Hawazin. But they don't come back. And people are eager. Now gets, where's my money? That's your question now. Okay. The people are eager. Where's my share? I want my share. now here's the point now so according to Islamic law in such circumstances the the rules of ghanima are a little bit complicated we don't have time to go into the rules of ghanima but the army will get a certain percentage divided equally and this type of ghanima that is left behind is up to the ruler or the khalifa what to do with it So there's different types of ghanima. The ghanima that is the armor of the person that has been killed, the weapons of the person that has been killed, that's a separate one. Then the property that's left behind in the camps, that is a separate ghanima. And that has separate rulings pertaining to it. And these tens of millions are actually from that type of ghanima. That the soldiers don't get a share of that type of ghanima. The soldiers get a share of a different type of ghanima. So this is completely up to the discretion of the Prophet ﷺ what to do. And what did he do? He began to give the largest gifts that have ever been seen in Islam to specific people. One by one, by name, choosing them. So and so, come forward and get this, get that, get this, get that. Ibn Ishaq lists up to a dozen people, most of whom were from the Quraysh, such as Abu Sufyan. Remember Abu Sufyan's iman, how it was in the conquest of Mecca, right? Shaky, right? He gave Abu Sufyan 100 camels, at a time when most of the people of Mecca didn't even have a single camel. Having a camel is a very big deal. It means you are upper middle class to have one camel. he gave him 100 camels this is a fortune to have and he gave Safwan ibn Umayyah the one who is still not a Muslim has a 2 month grace period he gave him 100 camels from the tribe of Ghatafan Uyain ibn Hisan who was one of the ghalil the very coarse Bedouins but he has a massive tribe behind him he gave him 100 camels from the tribe of Tamim up in Najd Al-Aqra ibn Habis gave him another hundred camels, and so on and so forth. And he gave large gifts to Muawiyah, the son of Abu Sufyan, who was to become the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. And to the full brother of Abu Jahl, Al-Halif ibn Hisham. Basically, so many of the dignitaries of the Quraysh, they go back with fortunes. Perhaps up to 60 to 70 people were given massive fortunes. And the Muhajirun as well. All of the Muhajirun were given some of the shares of this booty. Not as big as 100 camels, but they're getting the shares of this booty. And the one group that was left completely untouched with this booty was the Ansar. The Ansar were given basically nothing. Out of that, remember they were given the other share. Not this which is the big share. They weren't given. And what is going to happen? Human nature kicks in. And some of the younger Sahaba of the Ansar began murmuring. And it clearly mentions the younger ones. None of the senior ones. Some of the younger ones began murmuring. And they say, when there is war, we are told to come. And when there is booty and money, we are nowhere to be found. And another one said, may Allah forgive Rasulullah. يَغْفِرُ اللَّهُ لِرَسُولِ اللَّهِ He gives to the Quraysh and leaves us, even as our swords are dripping with their blood. he gives to the Quraysh and leaves us and yet our swords have their blood still dripping fresh on them so it's human nature money is money and don't think me and you would have done any better money is money and you see people getting fortunes and you think they are enemies of Allah and you know you were fighting them the other day wanting to kill them and now they go with the fortune literally imagine 10 million here 5 million there and you're left nothing right and the sahaba the younger ones began to murmur until finally Sa'd ibn Ubadah the senior of the Ansar he politely requests audience with the Prophet and he kind of hints at them that ya Rasulullah there are you need to basically deal with this there is a sentiment that you need to deal with and this shows us the wisdom of Sa'd as well and it shows us his iman as well he's not complaining but he's not at the same time he realizes there's a legitimate issue that you need to deal with ya Rasulullah and the Prophet asks him where do you find yourself and he is put in a bit of a quandary and he says I am one of my people I can't help it I mean I am one of my people we are feeling this sentiment but you need to solve this so look subhanallah it's really amazing here he is a human but his iman is in the skies wallahi it's amazing look you know he goes to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam trying to solve this problem not to complain but still deep down inside he's also having the same the same desire and even his response in the end of the day I am one of my people and so he says bring all of the ansar and make sure nobody is in our tent except the ansar nobody is in this tent except the ansar So they crammed until there was no space at all. And people are outside listening in from the Ansar. Only the Ansar. And the Prophet ﷺ gave one of the most powerful lectures ever to the Ansar. Which is full of praise of the Ansar. One of the most powerful lectures of the Ansar. That he said, that if all of mankind were to go in one direction, and the Ansar were to go in another direction, I would go with the Ansar. and he said لَوْلَ الْهِجْرَةُ لَكُنْتُمْ رَأً مِنَ الْأَنصَارِ were it not for the hijrah I would be from the ansar meaning I can't help it I'm born in Mecca but if I could I would have basically been from the ansar and he said I give to some people because I fear for their greed and their desires and I don't give to others because I trust that what Allah has given in their hearts that fortune is more than what I can give them and he said the Quraysh is still new to Islam and I wish to comfort them by bringing them close to me and he said O Allah, Allahumma raham al-ansar wa abna' al-ansar wa abna' abna' al-ansar O Allah, have mercy on the ansar and the children of the ansar and the children of the children of the ansar and he said at the very end a line that shook them to their core and the room began to cry until their beards were wet and he said that are you not happy that people go back with sheeps and camels and goats, and you go back home with Rasulullah ﷺ? Are you not happy that people are going with money and wealth and goats and camels? And when we go back to Medina, you will have me in your midst? And they began to cry so much and they said, We are content with Islam and with you, Ya Rasulullah. And so, the Prophet ﷺ calmed them down, and it really shows us the Ansar and the status of the Ansar. really shows us that he didn't give them a single penny. Why? Because what Allah had given them was more precious than what he could give them. Didn't give them anything. He literally said, what Allah has given you is better than anything you could be given, of iman and of tawakkul. And that is why, حُبَّ الْأَنصَالِ مِنَ الْإِيمَانِ This is a hadith that loving the ansar is a part of iman. And hating the ansar is a sign of hypocrisy and nifaq. and so the Prophet ﷺ took care of this now we know in fiqh these are called مُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ مُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ مُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ is a category you're allowed to give zakat even to them, even zakat you can give them and مُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ are those whose hearts you need to bring close there are those people, money sways them, money sways them, and these were the people that money swayed and this is exactly what happened, Safwan ibn Umayyah is the classic example. This is when he converts to Islam. Now, not in the conquest of Mecca, not in Hunayn, not in the siege of Ta'if. When does he convert? Right now, when the money comes pouring in. Because he realizes that this man cannot be a man of this world. He realized it's not possible. No matter how rich you are, you don't just hand over and hand over and hand over. You know all of these tens of millions? by the time the Prophet ﷺ was done, not one single penny went to his pocket. It's humanly impossible for anybody to live like this. This is a sign that he's a true Prophet. And Safwan said that, Wallahi, the Prophet ﷺ gave to me when he gave, and he was the most despised person on earth to me. But he continued to give, and give, and give, and give, until he became the most beloved person to me. it's human nature that such generosity will sway the heart and Hakeem ibn Hizam as well, the famous Sahabi, again who converted in Fath-e-Makkah you know, converted a little bit ambivalent, but now all of this is going to become strong, Hakeem ibn Hizam that the Prophet ﷺ gave him some, and this is free money he's getting more money than he's ever had in his life so he said he wanted some more the Prophet ﷺ gave him, said give me some more the Prophet ﷺ gave him, three times and he kept on giving. So he's thinking, every time I ask, he's going to give me. So he keeps on asking until finally the fourth time, the Prophet ﷺ said, يَا حَكِيمُ O حَكِيم, إِنَّ هَذَا الْمَالَ حَلْوَةٌ خَضِرًا It's a beautiful hadith. This money is sweet and luscious and green. Green, خَضِرًا, green. In our times even more so. This money is sweet and luscious and green. and whoever takes it with an open and generous heart بُورِكَ لَهُ فِي اللَّهِ will give him blessings but whoever takes it wanting greediness and more and more and more then this is like and he gave the method in Arabic the one who eats and is never satisfied يَأْكُلُ الْأَشْبَعِ saying in Arabic and in English it would basically be the one who keeps on wanting and never is satisfied with what he has so in other words he's telling hakeem O Hakeem, if you have money, be generous, Allah will be generous with you. Don't be stingy and greedy and beg for more, then you will also be shown stinginess and greediness. So when Hakeem heard this, he said, Ya Rasulullah, I will never ask anybody for any money after this. And for the rest of his life, and he lived a long life, he never once asked anybody for anything. After this hadith, it really shook him. like the Prophet ﷺ basically said and the hadith goes on that Allah will Allah will put you in charge to see what you are doing with your money every money you have you have to answer for it's not as if it's going to be without any accountability and so Hakeem promised he would never ask for any more money and it was in this time when the converts began coming in from the Bedouin tribes and what not and people simply wanted money, money, money, money. That's all they wanted. And they're converting for the money. Because these are for the people who want to convert. And this is when people are converting and we have at least six or seven incidents here of people asking for money. And you've heard some of these in the various khutbas and durus. Of them is the chieftain of the Beru when he comes and he grabs the Prophet ﷺ by the collar and he yanks the collar of the Prophet ﷺ. And he says, give me some of this money that you are giving to others. give me some of this money that you have and so the Prophet ﷺ smiled and said give him some of the money and he got his share as well and in one occasion the Bedouins surrounded him begging for clamoring for money, money, money until he was literally, his back was against a thorny bush and he's trying to basically stay away from the mob mentality crowd and he goes to the bush and the upper garment of his basically becomes stuck on the shrubbery. And he's surrounded by these Bedouins basically begging for money and this was at the very end when the money had all been finished now. Now they're coming to him at the end and it's all been finished. And our Prophet ﷺ he became irritated at this and it is human nature. There's nothing wrong after so many days of begging to show a little bit of exasperation. We would have lost it from the first day. Our Prophet ﷺ was slightly frustrated and there's nothing wrong with this. It does not go against the perfection of being a human to become frustrated. And he said, return my garment to me for wallahi if I had as many thorns as the shrubs around us. So they're in the land of shrubs. As many camels as the shrubs around you would have found me to give the last one of them to you. I would not keep anything for myself and you will have found me to be a generous person, not stingy or miserly. In other words he's saying, I don't have anything to give you. But right now I don't have anything to give you. And it is also here where that famous incident occurs which is a theological tangent where the beginnings of ultra fanaticism come into play. Where the beginnings of ultra fanaticism, Kharijite mentality come into play. This is when a man came with a scraggly beard and a large forehead and he came to the Prophet ﷺ and he said Ya Muhammad ﷺ and you do not address the Prophet ﷺ with his first name Ya Muhammad, i'dil Be fair in this money. Meaning you're not giving me as much as I deserve. And the Prophet ﷺ said, وَيْحَكْ Woe to you. وَمَنْ أَعْدِلْ Who will be just if I am not just on this earth? And he said, This is a qismah, this is a distribution that you are not doing for the sake of Allah ﷻ. And the Prophet ﷺ said, will you not trust me when the one who is in the heavens trusts me? You are not going to trust me you think that I don't know how much to give to whom, that I'm not being fair when the one in the heavens has trusted me? And the man basically, you know, harshly walked away. And this is really ridda and kufr. And that is why Umar obviously suggested the Umar tactic. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam refused and said, woe to me if the people start saying that I kill my own companions. Woe to me if the people start saying that I kill my own companions. And then he said the famous statement, يخرج من ضئض هذا from his ilk, from his type will come. From his, not necessarily progeny, but from that mentality will come. A group of people that will recite the Qur'an, but it will not leave their throats, meaning, it's an Arabic expression, they won't understand it. And you will think that their salah is better than your salah. And their zakah is better than your zakah. And their actions of worship is better than your actions of worship. Yet they will leave Islam like an arrow leaves the target. Once it has hit it, it goes through, they will leave Islam. And he said, these people are the worst of the people. and in one version the word khawarij is used but Allah knows that hadith is sahih or not but the name khawarijite eventually was called to them and these were the ultra fanatics and we still have them around to this day where quite literally they will kill innocent people and yet they are in their views praying to hajj and reading Quran and what not they have this type of over zealous uber you know fanatic mentality where killing of blood is a trivial matter to them but they will be very careful about the food they eat and the right hand they're going to eat with. So, you know, it really is a fanaticism and many of us are aware of these types of people or some of us have dealt with them in the past and the Prophet ﷺ has said these types of people will come until the day of judgment. And this was the prototype. Where he literally thinks he's more righteous than the Prophet ﷺ. Think about that. Think about that. He thinks he's holier than Rasulullah ﷺ. Saying, you don't know how to give money properly. You're not just I can do a better job than you. Think about that, right? That's exactly the type of mentality that exists in the ultra fanatics of our times. And they are prevalent in certain places. And frankly, they are amongst the jihadist groups. They are amongst these types of terrorist groups that quite literally think it's trivial to spill blood. And yet, in their own lifestyles, they think that they are super fanatic and pious and what not. Nonetheless, this occurs in the battle of, or in the distribution of Jirrana. Now, one of the interesting things here, I find very interesting. So the Prophet ﷺ, when the Bedouins came, when they're harsh with him, sometimes he's laughing and gentle, sometimes he gets a little bit irritated, but he never actually gets genuinely angry. But when this guy comes, this is now not just rude anymore this is not even it's theological you cannot challenge the status of Rasulullah S.A.W you cannot accuse him of not being sincere this is not personal anymore this is theological the line was crossed the Bedouin comes and he yanks the shirt and he says give me some money okay this is greed overlook it be gentle right the Bedouins come and they're surrounding him give us money money money money okay he gets a little bit flustered Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he said if I had I would give I can't what do you want me to do but now this man comes and he accuses the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam of basically not being a just prophet you cannot remain silent at this you cannot allow this to go the maqam al-nubuwa the status or the the sanctity of the Prophet ﷺ, it cannot be overlooked in this manner. And therefore, he said, woe to you, if I am not going to be just, who is going to be just in this world? And he's not defending just himself, he is defending the maqam an-nubuwwah. You understand this point? This is not a personal issue that you insulted me. This is an issue of Allah azza wa jal choosing a person who is appropriate to be a messenger. And when you challenge that status, you are challenging Allah it's not a trivial point here and that's why he said you are not gonna trust me and the one in the heavens has trusted me that's why he has to now go on the very clear cut you have crossed the line with this and when Umar said I want to execute him he did not defend him no maybe there's some good in him no the guy has crossed the line why was he not executed? that's another benefit we extract for the greater good of the community. Not for his good. This is an interesting point here. He was not defended. Remember, go back a few lectures. When Haltib, the one who, the battle of the incident of Mecca, right? When Haltib sent the letter, the process him defended Haltib. He said, Haltib has Iman. Haltib is a Badri. Haltib has fallen into a major... This guy, he was not defended at all. Because he has crossed the line. and that line is to mock our you don't do that, you do not go to that level of challenging the maqam and nubuwa this is something that cannot emanate from a heart of even the slightest bit of iman, you can commit a sin you can do this, you can even commit murder and you still have iman you cannot mock Allah or make fun of the messenger or the status of the messenger and then have iman, it's not possible and so this man he was not defended but what did the Prophet ﷺ say I have to think of the broader picture basically and this shows us a very important point as well look in our religion PR exists there are some amongst us that are very hardcore and like I don't care what anybody says this is the haqq we're gonna follow it no, it is the haqq but you also have to think of the broader image you also have to think what will people say because that's exactly what our Prophet ﷺ said what will people say? What will they think if I kill my own companions? Let not the people say that I kill my own companions. And this also shows us that there's something very important point of Usul al-Fiqh and Fiqh there's something called Maslaha and Maslaha means the greater good of the community. Sometimes you want a course of action that is good but for the Maslaha or for the greater good you will not go on this course and then sacrifice it for the greater good of the community. And this is an example. That perhaps his penalty was death. But for the greater good of the community, you will overlook this. Because what will the people say? What will the rumor spread amongst the people? Oh, he kills his own people. They're gonna twist it. They're gonna misinterpret it. So it's best not to do that course of action. And there are many evidences for this as well. For example, we'll come back to this when he returns to Mecca. another famous example which is really the most significant or the easiest to understand the Prophet ﷺ complained to Aisha that the Quraysh have not built the Kaaba upon the proper foundation if you remember when the flood happened and the Kaaba was not it was a square not a cube remember remember go back 3 years or so the Kaaba is a rectangle the Kaaba is a rectangle sorry not a square and they didn't have funds so what did they do they made it shorter and they just put a mark there the Quraysh were the first people to ever do this otherwise before this time it was a rectangle so the Prophet ﷺ complained to Aisha he's like look what your people have done even though it's his people but now he's like look what your people have done and Aisha says well basically you're in charge now why don't you rebuild it upon the foundation of Ibrahim so what did he say because your people are brand new Muslims I would have done that but Iman is still fresh and I'm gonna destroy the Kaaba and rebuild it there's gonna be a very big deal for them so I'll let it be as it is so because he left it it has remained that way basically for 14 centuries except for 5-6 years in the time of Abdullah ibn Zubayr in the early Umayyad time that when he heard this hadith he actually did destroy the Kaaba and he then built it upon the foundation of Ibrahim and then when Abdul Malik ibn Marwan is in it Abdul Malik, Ibn Marwan when he reconquered Mecca from Ibn Zubayr so then he destroyed it and then built it upon the foundation that was originally in, then when the next Khalifa came, then the next Khalifa asked Imam Malik shouldn't I bring it back to what it used to be because of the Hadith, and Imam Malik said no, I don't want the Kaaba to become a toy for the Khalifas to do as they please with, let it be this is the Fiqh of Imam Malik as well that ideally it should be A square. Rectangle, sorry. Ideally it should be a rectangle upon the foundation of Ibrahim. Right? Ideally. That's what the Prophet ﷺ wanted. But he realized that it's gonna cause too much fitna, so let it be. So because of this, basically it has remained that way. This is called maslaha basically. And this evidence shows us here, that he did not execute this, we call him proto-Kharijite. Because he's not yet quite Kharijite, but he's the one who from that his mentality will come after all of this we have to quickly wrap up subhanallah I'll just try to wrap up in 5 minutes so after all of the war booty has been distributed guess what Hawazin comes too late after it's all he's waited one month since the battle almost and fair enough you know and the people are clamoring all that time the money is there they want it they want it they want it he's waited one month well after that by a few days they come and they basically have decided to embrace Islam and hoping that it's still not too late and the Prophet ﷺ said it's too late now but choose between your wealth and your families let's see what I can do for you you want your money or you want your wives and kids basically they said Ya Rasulullah you're expecting us to choose between these two of course we want our families so he said ok this is what we're gonna do after Salatul Dhuhr tomorrow because they're Muslim now. They've all accepted Islam. After Salatul Dhuhr, so you will stand up in front of all of the people and ask to have your families given back to you and ask intercession from me for the Muslims. I.e. because, now hold on a sec, maybe you don't know what's going on. So, these prisoners of war have now been taken by the fighters. Right? and that's worth a lot of money as you can understand. So the people now want, the Prophet ﷺ choose one, you can't have both now, I can't ask everybody to give everything back, choose either this or that. Obviously they choose the family. So the point is, the goal is to get the families released without any money. That's a lot of money to give up. And the Prophet ﷺ is saying, let's try to rely on the generosity of the Muslims. That's what he's trying to do. He doesn't want to force them because they did wait. It's fair and square. It's Hawazin's fault. They waited and they didn't come. So he says, let's do this. After Salah, stand up and ask that, Ya Rasulullah, we ask you to be our intercessor for all of the Muslims to give our families back. And O Muslims, you as well intercede with Rasulullah to give our families back. so this is a shafa'ah that is allowed because it's a worldly shafa'ah you go to somebody and say can you speak to him for me please in this world it's allowed so they did as they were told and the Prophet ﷺ stood up and said as for all of the prisoners with the Banu Abdul Muttalib with my tribe basically I am in charge of my tribe and so all of them are yours take them meaning the other leaders should stand up and start giving their tribes up as well. And that's exactly what happened. Every one of the Ansar stood up, every one of the leaders of the Ansar said, ask for the ones in mind, then you too, they are for you, Ya Rasulullah. And each one of them is giving up, except for some of the new Bedouin tribes, the Al-Aqra ibn Habis basically, and the Riyain ibn Hisan. These are like the people who had just embraced Islam, and they have gotten their fortunes. they said no, we're not going to give them for free you can purchase them from us and so the Prophet said okay, I will take charge of this, I don't have any money now but as soon as the next ghanima or what not comes you will have the first share and give them back to the Hawazin and so all of the families who returned the Ansar sorry, not the Ansar, they didn't have the Quraysh and whoever else I said Ansar, it's incorrect the Ansar did not have the prisoners of war they didn't get this, this is my mistake but the Quraysh and the other tribes that were willing to give up to the Prophet ﷺ, they were given for free and some of the Bedouin tribes especially the ones up north in Najd they were the ones that did not want to give except for money and the Prophet ﷺ said fine, okay you will get the money but give the families back so in the end all of the Hawazin did get their families back but not their properties, one final point inshallah then we will finish for today and that is that on the way back to now Mecca. So the Prophet ﷺ is returning to Mecca. On the way back to Mecca, when he's camped at Jirana, which is where this took place, this is where he wore the ihram, and he did umrah for the third time in his life. Memorize this, my dear brothers and sisters. We consider the Prophet ﷺ to have done four umrahs. Three of them were real, and one of them was a rewarded umrah. as for the reward in Umrah this was the Umrah of Hudaybiyah he didn't actually do it but Allah gave him the reward as for the three of them the second one the first is that the second is Umrahul Qadha which is the next year then it is this Umrahul Jirana when he entered Mecca he did not do Umrah because he is coming as a warrior, as a military conqueror He's not coming in ihram. He's wearing al-mighfar, he's wearing the battle. None of the sahabahs is wearing ihram. Now that he's coming back into Mecca, now he performs the umrah. So for 19 days he did not do an umrah. He's sitting there doing tawaf, lots of tawaf, lots of nafil, no umrah. Goes to Hunayn, goes to Ta'if, comes back to Ji'rana, then at Ji'rana when he distributes the booty, now he's going back to Mecca, he wears the ihram and he enters Mecca for the third time for umrah and then the fourth and final umrah is the umrah he did in the hajj and what type of hajj did he do, who knows what type of hajj hajj hajj qiran he did a qiran hajj and the qiran hajj is when you do a hajj and an umrah an umrah and a hajj together with one ihram without taking it off so he did hajj qiran and that was the final Umrah that he did of his life. So our Prophet ﷺ did four Umrahs, one of them Hukman and three of them in actuality and the Jirana one is the third of these four. And the issue which I know is going to raise a lot of confusion, but the Sunnah is to do Umrah when you enter Mecca. Not to go from Mecca and do multiple Umrahs. our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the senior Sahaba never did this zero times is it wrong? no it's not wrong is it haram? no it's not haram is it bid'ah? no it's not bid'ah don't misquote me it is sunnah it is what our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did for 19 days he's sitting in Mecca and he doesn't go out and come back and you know the the tan'eem and mashid a'ish and stuff that is common here right? He never did it. And the senior sahaba never did it. And this is something I spoke about when I did the fiqh of Hajj and Umrah. I went into a lot of detail. But I also think it is something that the sanctity of the Umrah. You see when you do Umrah every single day, it becomes cheap. When you do Umrah so many times, you go for five days, you do ten Umrahs there. No, you go for one Umrah and you make it special. you feel you've done it's a minor hajj and umrah is a minor hajj actually it's what a minor hajj is and so you keep the sanctity of the umrah by doing it in that manner and the ultimate sunnah is therefore to do one umrah per entry to Mecca and you can even enter Mecca and I've given examples from Memphis I find it impossible but people who live in that country who are businessmen they will enter Mecca for many reasons they don't have to do umrah every time and Alhamdulillah for that but if you want to do umrah technically one umrah per trip is what is sunnah and I reiterate if somebody insists I want to do an umrah for my mother I want to do an umrah for my father we say okay khalas it's not wrong after all Aisha was crying Aisha was in her menses and Aisha said how is it that everybody has done an umrah but because I was in my menses I did do my umrah what am I going to do so because she's crying the Prophet ﷺ went to please her so he tells Abdurrahman her brother khalas you take her to what is masjid Aisha and have her do an umrah and so he gives her this her own brother who accompanies her does not do an umrah, think about that her own brother who is her mahram now does not do that type of umrah is just to console her, she is crying so now we have people that they are also crying that we want to go for umrah for this, umrah for that, we say khalas okay if you really want to cry and go then bismillah but those who are of wisdom inshallah and understand in this regard and astaghfirullah I'm not, Aisha has a legitimate excuse but for us who go for Umrah we should not in my opinion, but if somebody insists that it's his business and eventually final point here inshallah, the tribe of Thaqif did accept Islam exactly as the Prophet ﷺ had made dua for they accepted Islam the next year and we will talk about that when we get there, inshallah we will resume next Wednesday, I'm not going to be here, I will be in Boston, so two Wednesdays from now inshallah ta'ala two Wednesdays from now, we will resume inshallah ta'ala the seerah, any questions before we break for salah, yes so the Prophet ﷺ dua's that he made in his lifetime obviously those cannot be replicated at the same time there are people who have said of dreams that they saw the Prophet ﷺ and made dua for him that the Prophet ﷺ made dua for them we don't rule this out cannot rule this out if the Prophet ﷺ comes to somebody in a dream and makes dua then alhamdulillah but it's not something that we don't base our religion around such dreams so there's nothing that can be done that was a blessing they had the sahaba that were alive they had access to the Prophet ﷺ and that is a blessing we can never replicate what can we do? yes? the young leader of Safi'i who was the god of property did he die during the battle? do you know what happened to him? that's a very good question I will find out for you I will find out for you as far as I recall he did die but let me find out for you inshallah yes good both of you one after the other we're done Hasnain first first Hasnain very good point very good point so Hasnain says why didn't they help in Ta'if why didn't the angels come and help in Ta'if why didn't they help with the battering ram and open up the door and the response is ذَلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِمَنْ يَشَاءُ See, we never rely on the help of the angels. Allah will give us that help when we deserve it and when He wants to give it to us. At Badr, at Hunayn, at Uhud, they didn't take into account Allah is gonna send angels down. But Allah did. So Allah Azzawajal will help us when we deserve it and He wants to. and this is a very good example here at Ta'if, two days later nothing happens, where were all the angels when we needed them, right? somebody could have said, and the response is Allah knows you didn't need them now you cannot take this is not something you put into your equation you don't calculate that, okay this is gonna be the angels here, no, that's up to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you do the effort, and you take the necessary steps and those steps that Allah will want to bless we'll be blessed, simple as that, final point that we need to break is getting very late is it okay not to do the right thing? is it okay not to do the right thing? look the that's one of the reasons given, so not to do the right thing is very vague you can never do the haram for the community, but you have two options one of which might be 60% good, the other is 50% good, 40% good. You choose the 40% good personally because the community will benefit more from it. Yes. You can never do the haram for maslaha. But you have two halals, two mubahs. One of them might be closer to the truth or more appropriate in one angle. But not in another angle. This is the maslaha here. That is exactly what happened. That Ali felt that for the maslaha of the community the greater good should be that let's deal with this later on because taking into account Qatala Uthman will bring about a civil war that is far bigger than anything Muawiyah is throwing at me, that's what he felt and that's why he didn't do that and with that inshallah we will break for today and I will see you in two weeks inshallah Thank you.

Seerah 83 - Conversion of Ka'b ibn Zuhayr ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. lesson inshallah going to continue from post-conquest of Mecca. What happened in the remaining months of the eighth year of the hijrah and a number of interesting incidents took place. The first of them that we'll discuss took place probably two weeks after the process and returned from the conquest of Mecca back to Medina. And that was the Islam of probably the single most famous poet in the entire Arabian Peninsula. In fact, he would be the greatest poet alive at the time. Now, we already mentioned that the poets of the Quraysh had either been executed or accepted Islam. By now, the Quraysh poets have either, they have either been executed at Badr, they have been killed at Badr, or executed post-Makkah, because some of the poets were executed at the conquest of Makkah. Remember, the role and the nature of poets, propaganda machines. So, the worst amongst them, they were the ones that basically were not forgiven. It was primarily the poets. And some amongst them repented as we already mentioned. Who knows the name of one of them who repented last time? We talked about one or two of the poets. Abdullah al-Zabari. And we also mentioned Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith, the cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. These are all mediocre above average poets. Even the poet of the Quraysh, Abdullah al-Zabari. He's the main poet of the Quraysh. There was a poet really in the Arabian Peninsula that was renowned. He is the premier, if you like, shair of the Arabs at the time. And his name is Ka'b ibn Zuhayr. Ka'b ibn Zuhayr. And Ka'b ibn Zuhayr is the son of Zuhayr ibn Abi Salma. And perhaps this brings back some bad memories of the Arabs in high school. Zuhayr ibn Abi Salma, any bells ringing? In the audience, Zuhayr ibn Abi Salma, somebody please salvage Arabic education, please. Mu'allaqat al-saba'ah, this is Zuhayr the famous Zuhayr of the seven hanging poems, this is one of the authors of the seven hanging poems, Mu'allaqat al-saba'ah this is Zuhayr, his son now Zuhayr died before Zuhayr died before the coming of Islam, Zuhayr died when the Prophet ﷺ was a young man, and he never met the Prophet ﷺ, his son Ka'b ibn Zuhayr, this is the one that we're talking about so his father is really the greatest of the Arab poets, or we can say, of the greatest of the pre-Islamic, the Jahili Arab poets. You know, ranking with Imran al-Qais and al-Nabigha, these are the most famous of all of the Jahili poets. So this is the son, born and raised basically by his father. And throughout the course of the call of Islam, Ka'b ibn Zuhayr had taken an animosity, a position of animosity. He had written poems against the Prophet ﷺ. Eventually his brother accepted Islam and this caused him to become even more angry and he wrote a satire lampooning his brother for converting to Islam he wrote a harsh satire against his own blood brother and eventually when he basically ran out of things to say he crossed the line that you do not cross he began talking about Muslim women and that's a line that we know you don't cross it with the early sahaba and he started using vulgar words and basically went to a level that is simply not acceptable. And it was understood that there is no mercy for him now. Now by the way, he's not a Quraishi, right? He is coming from a tribe, basically in Central Arabia. He's not of the Quraish. He's never seen the Prophet, never been to Medina. So this is his son. And he's from the tribe of Muzaynah. And Muzaynah is up north, north of Medina. And his brother, whom he had lampooned and satired and ridiculed, after the conquest of Mecca, his brother wrote him a very heartwarming letter telling him that look either you had better flee this land if you value your life leave Arabia or else convert to Islam and seek forgiveness for the Prophet ﷺ and repent because if you repent then and he says in his letter the Prophet ﷺ always accepts the repentance of those who repent so even though his brother had basically done the worst thing imaginable at the time which is to write a lampooning satirical poem still the Muslim brother responded in kindness. The Muslim brother responded in care and love. He wrote him a letter basically telling him, look, you don't have any choice anymore. You crossed the line. Mecca is conquered. Your life is at stake unless you convert or you get out of the Arabian Peninsula. And so Zuhair thought for a long time and he realized that in fact he did not believe in idolatry. That he was only sticking to culture and custom. And it wasn't like a deep-seated belief in idolatry. And so he realized that he actually does want to convert to Islam. And he came to Medina. And because he was from the tribe of Muzaynah, nobody really recognized him. He's an unknown person in terms of face. In terms of name, everybody knows him. But in terms of face, nobody has yet seen him. So he enters Medina. And he spends the night at, it is said, the house of a distant relative or acquaintance who knew him. And he told him to keep his matter secret. Salatul Fajr he showed up in the masjid and after Salatul Fajr he prayed Fajr and he approached the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he put his hand in the hand of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he didn't say who he was he said Ka'b ibn Zuhayr is seeking your protection he's basically as if he's the messenger the messenger from Ka'b Ka'b ibn Zuhayr is seeking your protection repenting for what he has done and accepting Islam will you accept so the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam said yes I will accept so Ka'b then said I am Ka'b ibn Zuhayr and as soon as he said this one of the Ansar stood up to basically execute him on the spot but with permission of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam and the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam said let him be he has come ta'iban he has come repenting and accepting Islam so let him be so he said may I recite for you may I recite for you a poem so he has a poem prepared and so the Prophet said go ahead and recite and he recited one of the most famous poems in the entire seerah literature and it is called the classical seerah books call it the poem of Banatu Su'ad the poem of Banatu Su'ad and later scholars call it the poem of the Burdah now the poem of the burda there's two burdas so please make a note of this there's two burdas there's the original burda which is this one there's the original burda what does burda mean? the cloak it's a cloak because it is said that when Ka'b ibn Zuhayr recited this beautiful poem the Prophet ﷺ took off his cloak and gave it to him and that is the highest honor you give a poet that you give your own cloak, you give your own shawl to the poet. And so this is the original Burdah, which hardly anybody reads because it is in deep classical Arabic. And of course it's mentioned in all the books Ibn Hisham and Ishaq. And actually today, believe it or not, I will actually recite some Arabic poetry because some of the Arab brothers were kind of left out that you always skip over the Arabic poetry. So today we're actually going to go over some Arabic lines and I'll quiz you guys. Be ready. Oh, all the Arabs look at... I'll quiz you guys. You ready? You as well, we're gonna quiz you guys inshallah Yeah, this is You're Indian, now he becomes Indian You speak Arabic better than you speak Hindi So This is the original Burda There is another poem That is commonly called Al-Burda And that is the Burda of Busayri That is the Burda of Busayri That everybody in the masjid has heard Even if you don't know it's called the Burda of Busayri this is the famous burda that Allahumma salli wa sallim da'iman abadan this is some of the lines of the poem are Muhammadun Sayyidul Kawlaini wa Thaqalain Al-Fadiqayn min Arabin wa min Ujjami this is the famous burda that's the burda of Al-Busayri Busayri was a poet of the 7th century Hijrah 700 years later 600 years later Busayri is a medieval poet and the reason why that is called the burda and that's the famous one you hear it you know even the famous Pakistani goes Zafar somebody does it and the Arabs as well and the Turks as well every ethnicity recites this poem every ethnicity this is like the most famous poem في مدح النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم basically that is recited and some people criticize it for some lines and others say that's no big deal it's poetic license but the point being that that burda is not the one we're talking about why is that called the burda? because Al-Busayri, the medieval poet, claims that he saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream. And he recited this poem to him in the dream. And the Prophet ﷺ in the dream took off his cloak and gave it to him. Okay? Now this is obviously only coming from the author. And no doubt that raises some questions. But nonetheless, it is called Al-Burda. We are not going to talk about that poem. We are talking about the original Burda, which is the Burda of Ka'b ibn Zuhayr, which begins, بَانَتْ سُعَادٌ فَقَلْبِ الْيَوْمَ مَتْبُولٌ مُتَيَمَّمٌ إِثْرُهَا لَمْ يُقِدْ مَكْبُولُ Now, I'm not gonna go into, this is a two-page poem. The reason why this poem is so classical is because it is upon the methodology or the style of the classical Arabic poetry. And it begins as all classical Arabic poets begin with a love story, believe it or not. And the love story is a metaphor. It's not really literally taken. And the girl is Su'ad. Banat Su'ad. Su'ad left me. That's always love stories. The girl leaves. Khalas. Banat Su'ad. Su'ad left me and walked away. As in the Mu'alaqat al-Saba'a. Kifan nabki min dhikra habibin wa manzili. So every single poem of classical Arabic begins with a lost love. So this one is no different. and this is interesting because he is versifying this in front of the Prophet ﷺ but there's a metaphor, right? There's a simile or basically a meaning that is more profound than what is intended and what we are interested in is really the last third of the poem which is really very beautiful and I thought that for a change today instead of zooming over the poetry I said beautiful poem today I'll go into a little bit of a tangent and just read some of the lines in Arabic with translation and I did not translate the poem I actually got one of the famous linguists, professor of Arabic. It's one of the universities who has translated the poem. This is very deep Arabic. And honestly, no exaggeration at all, these lines are almost impossible for someone like me to translate without immense help. Not just someone like me, in all honesty, most of the Arabs here as well. This is something that is almost impossible. These are now words and styles and ellipses that are simply beyond modern Arabs to understand. so I got the help of a number of translations. And I wanted to recite, and some of these lines are very famous. One of them in particular is something that I myself and some of us in this room will take great pride in, and you will see why when we get there. So the last third of it. نُبِئْتُ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ أَوْعَدَنِي وَالْعَفُّ عِنْدَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ مَأْمُولُ That I have been informed that the Prophet, Rasul, has threatened me, or basically said that I will be executed. But receiving pardon at his hands is a great hope. Slow down. Be careful before somebody kills me. Slow down. The one who gave you or the one who gifted you this Quran with its warnings and its tafsir would be good counsels, لا تأخذني بأقوال الوشاة ولم أذنب ولو كثرت في الأقاويل Don't believe everything the rumor mongers say about me. Even if the rumor mongers are saying a lot. Because I am not as guilty as they claim. So he is saying, لا تأخذني بأقوال الوشاة ولم أذنب ولو كثرت في الأقاويل Don't listen to all of the rumor mongers that they say about me. Even if the rumor mongers are saying a lot of things, I'm not as guilty as they are claiming. And then he has some very powerful lines, which is a huge metaphor. لَقَدْ أَقُومُ مَقَامًا لَوْ يَقُومُ بِهِ أَرَىٰ وَأَسْمَعُ مَا لَوْ يَسْمَعُ الْفِيلُ لَظَلَّ يَرْعَدُ إِلَّا أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُ مِنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ تَنْوِيلُ It's very powerful here that, I am now standing in front of you, Ya Rasulullah. I am standing here, witnessing and experiencing. what if an elephant were to witness and experience it he would be trembling in terror right so he is basically saying I am now standing in a place here listening and experiencing ma lau yasma'ul filu if even an elephant listen la thalla yar'adu he would be trembling with fear illa an yakuna lahu min rasoolillahi biiznillahi tanweelu except if the Prophet ﷺ with the permission of Allah would grant him some respite. حَتَّى وَضَعْتُ يَمِينِي مَا أُنَازِعُهُ Until I place my hand in his right hand, I shall never let go of that right hand. فِي كَفِّذِينَ قِمَاتٍ قِيلُهُ الْقِيلُ In the palm of the one we are all in awe of. قِيلُهُ الْقِيلُ is again very powerful. His, what is قِيل here is like his intimation. What he might hint at, right? what he simply wishes will become the wish right قيله القيل whatever he hints at the people will do basically he doesn't even have to command he just has to wish it and it will become what people say is done and this is very powerful here that he is saying and then he goes into a very beautiful metaphor of the prophet s.a.w. being like a lion and people running helter skelter away like out of fear out of awe of him And then he then goes on to a very powerful line which I think most of us, some of us in this room should take great pride in. And it's one of the most famous lines of Islamic poetry ever. And it is the most famous line of this poem. إِنَّ الرَّسُولَ لَنُورٌ يُسْتَضَاءُ بِهِ مُهَنَّدٌ مِنْ سُيُوفِ اللَّهِ مَسْلُولُ This one line here is the most famous line of the poetry of Ka'b ibn Zuhayr. and we Indians should take great pride in this line. Great pride in this line. Why? إِنَّ الرَّسُولَ لَنُورٌ يُسْتَضَاءُ بِهِ Verily the Prophet is a light that others will take their guidance from. And then he said, مُحَنَّدٌ مِنْ سُيُوفِ اللَّهِ مَسْلُولُ He is like Muhannad. And Muhannad is a Hindi sword. Muhannad is what the Arabs called a Hindi sword so the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is being compared to a Muhannad why a Muhannad? because Indian swords were the best swords at the time in 7th century Arabia the best swords that they would love to import came from India and Indian metal and Indian metallurgy and Indian basically steel was considered to be the pinnacle of perfection. So our Prophet ﷺ is called Muhannadun, which is from Hind. A sword from India. And he is called Sayfun min suyufillahi maslulu. He is an Indian sword that has been unsheathed in the path of Allah ﷻ, basically fighting. And this is really the only praise given of an ethnicity that someone like myself can take pride in. Right? So many of the seerah lessons, they praise the Yemenis, they praise this, they praise that. What can us Indians take pride in? And when I say Indian, now you Pakistanis have better consider yourselves Indian for this hadith. Just for this hadith, put all of those things aside because you all go back to India, right? And we can even say the Bengalis as well because they're also Muhannad. That whole region is Muhannad, right? That whole region is India. So our prophet is being called Muhannad, which is the Indian sword. min suyufillahi maslulu and then it goes on beautiful lines here but the point being the one phrase that is the most important is inna rasoola la nurun yustada'u bihi muhannadun min suyufillahi maslulu this is the most famous line and it translates as the prophet is a light that others seek their guidance from and he is a muhannad of the swords of Allah has been unsheathed and it goes on it's like a page and a half and this the poetry was so beautiful as we said that the Prophet ﷺ was so moved that he took off his burda and he gave it to Ka'b ibn Zuhayr. And he also told him, O Ka'b, you have harmed the Ansar with your tongue, so now praise them. So Ka'b wrote some poetry which is also recorded in the books of the seerah, beautiful lines about the Ansar. And Umar ibn al-Khattab, his favorite poet was Ka'b. He would always quote Ka'b all the time and it is well known that. And so Ka'b basically died a Muslim and he is the most famous poet of his era, and he accepts Islam at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ. What else happened during this final few months of the 8th year of the Hijrah? So, after the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ began conquering the smaller tribes, the smaller regions, the tribes that are semi-independent, around Mecca, around Najd, and he is sending small expeditions, we're not going to go over each and every one of them, because that's beyond the scope of this class. he also chooses leaders and zakat collectors and teachers to send them across Arabia. Leaders, so sometimes he will send a governor. He sends somebody to govern when there is a need. Sometimes he'll send a teacher. So he'll send somebody to teach them the Quran, the sunnah, salah. Sometimes he'll send the zakat collector to collect their jizya and their zakat. And sometimes the same person will do multiple jobs. He'll be the governor and the zakat collector and the teacher. So all of this is a chapter, we'll simply gloss over by saying this is what he did. No need to mention all of the names and who went where. But for the first time what we see, the Islamic state is being reorganized in political lines. For the first time governors are being appointed. For the first time there's a bureaucracy that is put into place by the Prophet ﷺ. Also the Prophet ﷺ sent a number of expeditions to destroy the smaller idols that still were being worshipped. The largest idols, they had been destroyed, but there were still areas that had semi-famous idols. And for the next year, he sent a number of expeditions to destroy these idols. So he sent Tufayl ibn Amr to an idol in Yemen called Dhilkafthain. And this was by the tribe of Daws, which is the tribe of Abu Hurayra. Abu Hurayra is from this tribe. They had a massive idol called Dhilkafthain. And in their arrogance, they had even built a structure, they called it the Ka'bah. So they wanted to compete with the Ka'bah in Mecca. and they called it the Kaaba and Dhul Kafain was in this false Kaaba. So the Prophet ﷺ sent Tufayl ibn Amr with 400 people to basically get rid of the structure and Tufayl said, Ya Rasulullah, I have a problem that I don't, I'm not able to ride on a horse, I always fall off. So the Prophet ﷺ made dua for him that make him firm. So he never fell off a horse as long as he lived and he went to Dhul Kafain and he burnt down this temple, It was a massive temple in Yemen. He also sent Jadid ibn Abdullah as well to Dhul Khalasa. And he said to Jadid ibn Abdullah that, will you not get rid of Dhul Khalasa for me? And Dhul Khalasa was another idol that was worshipped in Yemen, in other province of Yemen. And so Dhul Khalasa was also destroyed. And again this shows us the Prophet ﷺ is feeling irritated at these idols. He said, will you not get rid of Dhul Khalasa for me? So he's not at peace knowing that idols were being worshipped in the Arabian Peninsula. And he did not want idolatry to be especially in the Arabian Peninsula. And that's what Allah revealed in the Quran as well in Surah At-Tawbah, which is gonna come in a few months. Surah At-Tawbah will be revealed in a few months. That, you know, from now on basically no mushrik should be in this land. And our Prophet ﷺ expelled all mushrikeen from the Arabian Peninsula. He did not want any idol worshippers in the Arabian Peninsula. and he also sent Ali ibn Abi Talib to the tribe of At-Tay which is now in the city of Ha'il in Saudi Arabia there is a city called Ha'il this city, Ha'il was the province of the tribe of At-Tay and who is the famous person of At-Tay O Arabs Hatim At-Tay Hatim At-Tay and Hatim At-Tay is well known in pre-Islam as being the most what? Generous. So all of you know this. حاتم الطائي يضرب له في المثل He is considered to be the pinnacle of generosity and of كرم. حاتم الطائي died before Islam. His son عدي بن حاتم is to become a famous sahabi. So the next incident we're going to talk about is this Islam of عدي بن حاتم. So حاتم الطائي as we said every Arab knows of him. You study this in your textbooks back and again in grade school. This is like fables. You know like you have these legends and fables of Hatim Al-Ta'i. Hatim Al-Ta'i it is said that he would feed all of his guests all the time with the most luxurious of foods. There are hundreds of stories said about him. When strangers would come they would be treated like kings. And it is well known that in this entire province, in the entire Arabian Peninsula, no one was known for their generosity more than Hatim Al-Ta'i. and he was the chieftain of the Qabilah of Tayy. He dies, his son Adi comes in charge, and Adi ibn Hatim, he clearly did not have the same traits and characteristics as his father, in that, when he heard that the Muslims were conquering various lands, he decided he wants an escape route. So, he took some camels, he took some wealth, and he prepared them in case he needs to flee, and leave and abandon his people. And that's exactly what happened. That when the Muslims were coming, he heard that the Muslims were coming, he had stationed various people, he is the chieftain. When he hears they're coming, he literally abandons. And he flees with his wives and children, and his wealth, and he flees to northern Arabia, close to the Roman Empire. And Adi ibn Hatim, not Hatim, Adi ibn Hatim had converted to Christianity. Adi ibn Hatim is a Christian. So he has a good relationship with the Roman Emperor. so he flees with his family with his belongings and he's living a comfortable cushy life up north for a while, the Muslims under Ali ibn Abi Talib, they conquer the tribe of At-Tayy, they destroy the massive idol, because that's what's happening after the conquest of Mecca, all the idols are being destroyed, and they bring some prisoners of war back to Medina and lo and behold, one of the women in this gathering, in this prisoner gathering, she begins to basically demand an audience with the Prophet ﷺ She says, I am the daughter of Hatim Al-Ta'i. I'm the daughter of Hatim. So daughter of Hatim is a big deal. Your father was Hatim, which is the most famous, generous Arab. So she demands an audience. So the Prophet ﷺ speaks with her, and she says that, you know, you should free me, and I am the daughter of so and so, and you should be generous, and Allah will be generous to you. So the Prophet ﷺ agreed to free her, simply because she was the daughter of Hatim. So he gives her money, he gives her a camel, he gives her protection and he says go wherever you want she finds out her brother is up north that's Adi ibn Hatim who was the chieftain so she goes back to her brother after rebuking him and getting angry at him that they abandoned her she then says why don't you go back to Muhammad s.a.w go back down to him at this point she's not a convert go back down to him because look, there's one of two possibilities either he's a prophet or he's a king and if he's a prophet you might as well believe and for the earlier you convert the better and if he's a king then you might as well win some favor with him, so she's an intelligent lady she understands, and the very fact that she mentions he might be a prophet shows that she's already thinking that he might be a prophet so Adi ibn Hatim, he tells his story actually in the first person because one of the tabi'un in Kufa Adi died in Kufa, one of the tabi'un in Kufa decided to go to Ali as a very old man. By the way, Ali is one of the longest living Sahaba ever. He died at the age of 120. And he lived a very long life. He actually fought, he saw the killing of Ali, sorry, Uthman, and he fought with Ali ibn Abi Talib in the battle of Siffin. He participated in the battle of Siffin. And because of this, so even the Shia, they respect him immensely. The Shia, you should know they respect a handful of Sahaba. The claim that Sunnis have that they reject all the Sahaba is not true. Rather they reject or they don't like most of the Sahaba and they respect some, a handful of Sahaba. And of those Sahaba is Adi because he fought with Ali ibn Abi Talib. As for us, we respect all of the Sahaba, Adi and the others. So Adi narrates his own story. He was asked this as an old man in Kufa. It's in the first person. And he says there was no one who was more despised to me than the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. but I said to myself after his sister talked to him basically let me go and meet him if he is speaking the truth I shall listen to him directly and if he is not then it won't harm me so Adi makes his way to Medina and this is now in the 8th year of the Hijrah some say the early 9th so basically after the conquest of Mecca and when he arrived in Medina some of the people recognized him and they began shouting this is Adi ibn Hatim and a crowd gathered around him he is a famous guy his father is Hatim and people gather around him and they take him to the Prophet ﷺ that this is adi, this is adi and he walked into Medina without any protection so there is this sense of nobody is going to hurt me, I'm the son of Hatim basically, right? He has this notion and he's correct in that he does have that honor and privilege, after all his sister was freed merely because her father was Hatim so he just walked into Medina without any protection and the people, some of them recognized they start gathering around him, they take him to the Prophet ﷺ and they say this is Hadi ibn Hatim so the Prophet ﷺ said to him, Ya Hadi Aslim to Slim Oh Hadi, accept Islam, you shall be safe, meaning it will be better for your deen and your dunya, and Hadi said that I already have a good religion that I follow meaning I'm a Christian and at the time both the Yahud and the Nasara, they felt themselves what? Superior to the pagans. And they were, and they are, even in our sharia they are. They felt themselves superior. So it's as if he's telling the Prophet ﷺ, why would I want to embrace your faith? I'm not a pagan. Go preach to the pagans. I already have a civilization and a religion that I'm a part of. So the Prophet ﷺ repeated, Aslim to Aslim. And he said the same thing, that I am a person that already has a religion. He said it for a third time. And Adi said, for the third time. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, Ya Adi, ana a'lamu bidinika minka this is a classic line from the seerah awadi I know your religion better than you know your religion meaning what? I know Christianity better than you think you know Christianity I know the message of Jesus Christ better than you that's like this you understand the ta'wa he's giving him right? I know your religion better than you know your religion and then he said and to demonstrate this, this is a very interesting point here to demonstrate this he said are you not the leader of your people? and he said yes the Prophet said do you not take one fourth of their income in taxes? he said yes the Prophet said and do you not know that your own religion forbids you to do this? meaning he is showing him no you are not even following what you know to be true and I know this and this is a very powerful you know da'wasin with the Prophet ﷺ that really demonstrates his knowledge really of the ways and the customs of the people. He's demonstrating to Adi that you are not even following what you know to be Christianity. How about I and I know more about Christianity than you? So Adi said, I became embarrassed, ghajilt. I became ashamed that he has a point here. And I knew that he was a prophet because the very fact he just immediately picks on my hypocrisy. that I claim to be a Christian but I'm not following the teachings of Jesus Christ I knew him to be a prophet and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam then held him by the hand and took him to his house and Adi is narrating this, that on the way to his house, an old lady with a toddler stopped him and began talking to him to get some help and what not, so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam stopped in the road and he continued talking with her until her need was taken care of. Adi says to himself, this man is not a king. This man is not a king. For him to stop when he has me, and of course he knows who he is. He knows his rank and privilege. And that is he is the son of Hatim Al-Ta'i. So he says this man is Laysa bin Malik. This is not a king. Then we arrived at his house, he says. And he took out an old worn mat. And he picked it up and put it under me. And he said, sit. But I was embarrassed because that was the only mat in the room. And if I sat on it, he wouldn't have anything to sit. So I said, no, rather you sit. And he insisted, no, you will sit. So I sat down on the mat. And the Prophet ﷺ sat down on the sand. This is in his own house. And he only has one mat to sit on. And he then said to me, do you know of any other God besides Allah? And Adi said, no, there is no God other than Allah. So the Prophet said, do you know any who is more mighty and powerful than Allah? Adi said, no. Then the Prophet said, verily, إِنَّ الْيَهُودَ مَغْضُوبٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَالنَّصَارَ ضَالُّونَ That the Yahud are maghdoob, and the Nasara are misguided and incorrect in what they believe. and then he said and we're gonna dissect this da'wah this entire conversation inshallah we'll dissect it in a while then he said perhaps you are not accepting Islam because of the state of the people around me meaning political weakness poverty like Adi is a Christian and Adi has contacts with the Roman Emperor and Adi is now living next to the Roman Empire so he is now connected with the premier civilization of the world and Adi is now coming and seeing the Muslims of Medina who at this stage still don't have that civilization. So the Prophet ﷺ said, perhaps you are not accepting Islam because of the state of the people around me. Have you heard of Al-Hira, which is a city in Yemen? He said, yes, I have heard of it, but I haven't been there. The Prophet ﷺ said, verily, it's only a matter of time before a lady will leave Al-Hira wanting to do tawaf in Mecca and not having any company to protect her. And she will not be scared of anything other than, if you like, the wolf or her flock or something of this nature. And it is only a matter of time before the treasures of Kisra, Khusro, will be distributed amongst us. This Adi said, Kisra ibn Hurmuz, the emperor of the Persian Empire, and the Prophet said, Kisra ibn Hurmuz. And it is only a matter of time before a person will go around the streets of Medina asking for somebody to take sadaqah. And he will not find a single person wanting to take sadaqah. Adi is narrating this hadith. It is a hadith. Adi is narrating this hadith and he said, Wallahi, I have seen two of these three things. Which of these two has he seen? The lady, the peace and security of the Muslim land. That from Yemen, which is the furthest point down south, right? The point is like the furthest city down south will go all the way to Mecca. And she's so confident that nothing will harm her that there's no fear even for her. So the political stability he's talking about. Then the wealth. So number one is political stability. Number two is the wealth. You're worried about the poverty? We will be distributing the treasures of Kisra. and Adi says I was of those who participated in the battle against Al-Mada'in Al-Mada'in is Ctesiphon which is the capital of the Sassanid kingdom to this day if you go to Persia there is this Ctesiphon there is this city that is tourist resort and you see these beautiful pillars like literally 50 feet not even 50, 100 something feet massive pillars in the middle of the desert you see the palaces of the Kisra Now to this day, it is a UN heritage site, to this day. And Adi says, I was of those who participated in the Fatah, in the conquest of Medain. And he goes, as for the third, then I know it's going to happen. Wallahi, it's just a matter of time. And of course, we know it did happen, and it will happen again. It happened once, it will happen again. As for it's happening once, it happened in the time of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz. famous year that Umar ibn Abdul Aziz basically secured the entire financial affairs of the kingdom of the Umayyad Empire to such an extent that there were no poor people to accept sadaqah and zakah. This only happened once but it is an ideal that Allah demonstrated it is possible. Right? And it will happen again in the time of the Mahdi. It will happen again in the time of the Mahdi that the Mahdi will also want to give sadaqah and sadaqah and nobody will need any zakah and sadaqah. So Adi then embraced Islam. Now, the story is very interesting for so many reasons. Look at first and foremost the manners of the Prophet ﷺ. His humility, his humbleness. This is what opened up the heart of Adi to Islam initially. This man can't be a king. Also look at Adi already had two clear perspectives. He's either a king or he's a prophet. He's an intelligent man. Him and his sister have understood that there must be one of the two. because he's conquering the Arabian Peninsula. So he either wants political ambition and power or he's correct in what he is saying. And being with the Prophet ﷺ for five minutes and he rules out, this man is not a king. Look at that, just imagine. He rules out, this man is not a king. Now notice as well, the Prophet ﷺ then opens up the theological angle. After demonstrating the akhlaq, which he doesn't need to show off, he's doing this, right? This is what the Prophet ﷺ is demonstrating, his akhlaq. He doesn't need to show Adi what he is, this is who he is. then he begins the theological debate simple and to the point of them is I know your religion better than you right, and wallahi we as Muslims can use this line that we are following the teachings of Jesus better than you are we are following the teachings of Jesus better than you are, the actual message of Jesus we are obeying it, and you can even bring the most obvious examples Jesus was a practicing Jew, he lived his life according to the laws of the Torah he never ate pig he was circumcised he prayed and fasted this is something that is acknowledged by them who amongst humanity still does this and believes in Jesus we're the only people who do this then we go on with other theological points as well also he mentions after basically praising Allah and this is human fitrah what person of religion will say is there any God besides the one God who created you is there anything greater than God Why would you worship anything greater or other than God? So Adi acknowledges لا إله إلا الله not by saying it but by concept. Right? And this is again very simple if the person is sincere and he's a believer in a God then you tell him is there any other being worthy of worship besides Allah? Besides God? Whatever name he knows. And of course he will say no. And then of course after this now here's where it gets a little bit controversial and politically incorrect that the Prophet ﷺ criticized the theology of the other religions. the Yahud are maghdoob and the Nasara are misguided and he said this very clearly and the reason why he is doing this is because you have to prove the correctness of one faith by disputing the correctness of the others you cannot really have a theological debate except by refuting the theology of other faith traditions and this is very touchy in interfaith dialogue in our times that many interfaith dialogues They don't want to talk about the fact that, oh, each one of us believes we are correct and the other one is wrong. In fact, there's a trend now to say we're all good and we're all okay. And last week when I was in Boston at Harvard, this is really one of the points I brought up, is that as we're giving interfaith, let us not shy away from the difficult controversies. Let's not ignore, I mentioned, the elephant in the room, I said, right? And the biggest elephant in the room is really about salvific exclusivity. This is awkward, but it needs to be said. and once it is said so then you understand now you know what the issues are and I talked about that from an academic perspective but it doesn't make any sense to say that all religions are valid when every religion has beliefs that the other deems to be blasphemous we as Muslims do not believe in Jesus Christ as being the only way for salvation as being the Lord and the Redeemer and the Savior this destroys the fundamental premise of Christianity and it is understood that a Christian person would view us as being outside the fold of salvation because for him his entire faith rests on believing the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins, right? and we don't believe this so why is it problematic for him to say this? I don't find it problematic at all quite the contrary if he didn't say this I would say what type of religion do you believe in? like if you think that my beliefs are totally okay then you should be believing what I'm believing why are you being politically correct in this way so we need to be very clear when we have interfaith not dialogue but when we get more than just dialogue because there's dialogue and then you go to debate and when you debate you do need to get to the awkward issue that look we will respect your position in this world and that's your position and you have every political right to hold it but we don't agree with it morally and we don't agree with it theologically and we believe that this position is not accepted to our creator and we expect him to say the same thing about us as well and that's basically a part of this interview so the Prophet ﷺ was very explicit that he does not agree with the theology of the Yahud and the Nasara and he mentions that they are not correct then once he realizes that Adi understands him now he jumps to the impeding factors why is Adi not a Muslim? he gets right to the core of it perhaps you are judging Islam by our socio-economic or socio-political status and this is so relevant my dear brothers and sisters why is this relevant? because how many are the people that know the theology of Islam is very logical but then they look at the modern Muslim world, they look at where does one begin? Buku Haram they look at third world. They look at backwardness, education, this and that. And they're so turned off like, how can this be correct? And there's nothing illogical about that frame of mind. Adi has it right here. You see what I'm saying? Adi has it right here. And our Prophet ﷺ is basically negotiating with him. Perhaps you are not a Muslim because of what you see of the situation around. Then he tells him, look, you're worried about money? We'll get all the money in the world. He worried about political stability. And he just counters each one of these arguments in a very logical and rational manner. And in our times as well, therefore, there's nothing wrong with mentioning the realities of our history. Our religion was not anti-science. We might be third world now, by and large. But we were not third world for all of our history. Rather, the fact of the matter is most of our history weren't third world. We were the leading contenders in science and technology. And no doubt. So, the reason I say this is as follows. We have two extremes as usual. We have two extremes as usual. We have those who consider these aspects of our religion to be the main emphasis of da'wah. Science and technology and middle ages and alchemy and algebra and all this and all that, whatever we did, we invented zero. We didn't invent zero, we got it from the Indians by the way, but that's okay. We'll let you guys have it, alhamdulillah, glory goes to Islam, no problem. But it's all fine. But this is not the main point of our religion. the main point of a religion is theology and we should not have this inferiority complex that we need to prove to them that Islam is all about science no, Islam is primarily about the worship of Allah that's one extreme you have the other extreme that if you ever mention anything of this nature they say oh we don't have to give da'wah through any of this our da'wah is only through tawheed and the kalima and what not but here's our process in giving da'wah through socio-political factors and there's nothing wrong for us with our heritage our history to go back and show the people this is what our faith tradition was, this is what we accomplished, and mention whatever else needs to be mentioned as long as it is legitimate and true. And also by the way from the story of Adi, we also find how culturally aware, how psychologically sensitive the Prophet ﷺ was to be able to judge Adi so quickly. And obviously this is a miracle from Allah, but he's basically reading Adi, and he's leading him along, to the thought process of why are you not a Muslim? Is it theological? Is it this? Is it that? Until finally Adi finds nothing to stop him from accepting Islam. And Adi eventually does accept Islam. And Adi visited the process of multiple times. And in one of these visits, he asked a very important question that we should all memorize and use when we need to use it. It's a very interesting hadith that Adi ibn Abi Hatim, he said, Ya Rasulullah, my father used to be good to his relatives, and be generous with the people, and do this and do that. Shall he be rewarded? So Hatim Al-Ta'i, the most generous of all Arabs. The legend of generosity, the legend of karam, the legend of hospitality, he is being asked about by his son, Hadi. and the Prophet ﷺ responds in a very profound statement. Your father desired something and he got what he desired. That's the hadith. Your father desired something and he got what he desired. And that hadith is in Ibn Hibban and it is authentic according to Shuaib al-An'ud, Hasan. And what did he desire? Fame. Hatim al-Ta'i wanted fame. or you can say prestige or love or shuhrah. He wanted shuhrah. And he got it to the level that 14 centuries later, the Arab world, knows of Hatim al-Ta'i to this day. Think about that. He was generous. And he wanted something. And he got it. And this is an excellent hadith to use when people who are very beloved to mankind, but who do things not for the sake of Allah, they die. Whether they are Nobel laureates, or they are princesses, or they are whoever they are, they did something, for whatever reason they did it. And they got what they desired. And as for the Akhira, تِلْكَ الدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ لَجَعَلُ أَهْلِ الَّذِينَ لَا يُرِدُونَ عُلُوًا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فَسَادًا the istadar al-akhirah is given to those who don't want the fame who don't want to rule over as for the akhirah Allah says in the Quran وَمَنْ أَرَادَ الْآخِرَةَ وَسَعَى لَهَا سَعْيَهَا وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌ whoever wants the akhirah and he strives for the akhirah while he is a believer in Allah that is the one his reward will be given to him and wallahi there is nothing embarrassing about this when a person did not do good for the sake of Allah why should Allah reward him? very simple it's very simple nothing illogical at all about it when a person did not do good for the sake of Allah let him go get his reward for whatever he did and he shall get it and they have gotten it this is Hatim Al-Ta'i and this is Fulana and Fulana whoever they might be people love and respect them they become legends in this dunya but in the Akhira they didn't do it for the Akhira so as we said this is the conversion of Ibn Hatim and he lived a long life and he died after the conquest of Iraq, after the conquest of Medain, after the battle of Sufyan, one of the oldest of the Sahaba to die. He lived a full life before Islam, then he lived a full life after Islam, more than 120 years old. Very quickly we want to finish off some events because next time we will start inshallah the battle of Tabuk very quickly. In this year as well, in the 8th year of the Hijrah, some very interesting things happened very quickly of the personal life of the Prophet ﷺ. There was a marriage, there was a divorce, there was a death, there was a birth in the house of the Prophet ﷺ there was a marriage a divorce, a death and a birth as for the marriage and divorce it is one of the most bizarre stories and frankly inexplicable to be honest and the only reason I mention it is because I don't want to not mention something of the seerah that is so well known but it is only well known to students of hadith and what not the general Muslim population is not aware of the story because it truly is bizarre but I only mention it because of the fact I don't want to be accused of not mentioning something that is well known this is an advanced seerah class as you know what happened was that the Prophet ﷺ proposed to a lady by the name of Fatima bint al-Dahak from the tribe of the Kulab and there is an ikhtilaf about her name there is at least 6 or 7 opinions about the name And when the Prophet ﷺ entered in upon her, the night of the marriage basically, she for some reason said, أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْكَ I seek Allah's refuge from you. From the Prophet ﷺ. I seek Allah's refuge from you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, لَقَدْ عُذْتِ بِعَظِيمٍ إِلْحَقِي بِأَهْلِكِ You have sought refuge in one who is very great. go back to your family and so the marriage was not consummated, so the marriage took place and then before the consummation he divorced her by saying, ilhaqi bi ahliki now, why did this occur? it is unclear because frankly these things are not recorded, why? you know you don't record these personal things even in your own household if there's some scandal that took place in your generation it's just not recorded, why did she say this? What would possibly have... So there's like a number of theories. One theory is that she was mental. Ibn Hajar mentions that she was a little bit, you know, mental. Others say that this was a plot that some of her jealous relatives told her. That when the Prophet ﷺ comes in, this is what you're supposed to say. And she was jahilah in this regard. She didn't understand. But when she said, أعوذ بالله, meaning this is a very big thing. So the Prophet ﷺ said, you have sought refuge in Al-Azim. Okay, khalas. You want... You don't want me? Then khalas. go back to your family. So he sent her back to her family. Whatever the case might be, clearly Allah did not will that she become one of our mothers. And this was how it was averted away. And later on she would say, I am the miskina, I am the, you know, how unfortunate am I that I chose this dunya over the Prophet ﷺ. And she regretted this till she died. But she was not, she was technically married, but the divorce took place the same night. the same night as the marriage literally without any consummation this also shows us a number of things and that is that it is allowed to divorce in indirect language this is called an indirect divorce you have two types of divorce and this is means you say something that has double meanings and you intend divorce the Prophet ﷺ did not want to use the word divorce so he said go back to your house or go back to your family and that was divorce also by the way one of the reasons I do raise this point is because there is this myth that the process of never divorce, this is not true. This is simply not true. And I say this because unfortunately, there is a stigma in the Muslim community attached to divorcees. And this stigma has no basis in the sunnah whatsoever, in the Quran or sunnah. And it is amazing that this stigma exists because the majority of the process of divorce were divorcees. In fact, all of them other than Aisha, right? As we all know, there is a stigma attached to the very notion of divorce. That divorce is inherently evil and anybody who undergoes it, the two parties must be bad or one of them must be bad and especially the woman must be bad. All of this has no basis. And I want to emphasize this point that our Prophet ﷺ divorced. And this wasn't the only divorce. We'll come to it inshallah later on. But he divorced Hafsa. And Hafsa was in her iddah. And Jibreel came and said, take her back. and so he took Hafsa back because Allah said that she's going to remain your wife so he took her back so the stigma that we as a culture have for divorce really needs to be erased and cleaned there's nothing wrong sometimes couples just don't get along okay, khalas, it's not the end of the world it doesn't mean one of them are bad sometimes personalities don't match up we already talked about the very sensitive Usama Ibn Zaid and Zainab we already talked about that right? Sorry, Zayd and Zaynab, not Osama. Zayd and Zaynab. We already talked about this, right? That, okay, they're both great sahaba, sahabiyah, excellent. They just didn't get along. And it's not evil in and of itself to not get along. And sometimes it's just better for the couple to move on. So here, I just wanted to clarify this point. This was the marriage and the divorce. As for the death in the household of the Prophet ﷺ, that was Zaynab. 8th Hijrah, Zaynab. As for the birth, come on. I said a death and a birth the birth is Ibrahim he's gonna die in the 9th year of the Hijrah right now we're still in the 8th so the death was Zainab Zainab Zainab binti Muhammad remember Zainab is his eldest daughter how old is Zainab when was she born come on this is when was Zainab born 10 years before the da'wah 10 years before the da'wah so Zaynab is now quickly 31, 32 years old yeah 10 years before the da'wah and so at this time when she passed away now what was the cause of Zaynab's death? she fell down from the camel at the hijrah and she never recovered from the bleeding that whatever cause remember the Habbar ibn al-Aswad, we talked about him. The Habbar dynasty also of India, we talked about that as well, right? She was injured. She fell off the camel, and that bleeding never quite recovered. And so for eight years basically, she's in pain and suffering until she passes away in this year. And we all know that three of the four daughters of the Prophet ﷺ died in his lifetime. Zaynab was the second to die. I'm gonna have to look this up. The first was Ruqayya, then Zaynab, then Umm Kulthum. Even though the chronological order, Zaynab is the eldest. Then it is Ruqayya, then it is Umm Kulthum. But I want to be 100% sure, but I'm almost sure that Ruqayya died first, then Zaynab died, then Umm Kulthum died. And Fatimah of course lived, and then six months after the Prophet ﷺ, she passed away. And so Zaynab passed away... Ruqayya died when Uthman was nursing her in Bedr. Yeah, so Ruqayya died first. and then Zaynab what year did Umar Qulthum that's what I'm trying to I don't remember but Dr. Bashar is saying the 10th year of the Hijrah so Ruqayya, Zaynab and Umar Qulthum and then Fatima died 6 months after the Prophet so in this year as we said there was a marriage, there was a divorce there was a birth, there was a death in the final months of the 8th year of the Hijrah inshallah when we come back we will by the way who was the husband of Zainab everybody should know we did this so many times Zainab the necklace story the necklace story and also the story of her shouting out at Fajr that I have given protection to dot dot dot her cousin her cousin not not her cousin who was the daughter of the son of come on the son of no no no the son of Hala Hala who is Hala the elder sister of Khadija right So Khadija had wanted Zaynab to marry Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabi'ah. That's what his name is. Abu'l-Aas ibn al-Rabi'ah. And he loved her an immense love, didn't he? We talked about this so many times. That when he was captured as a prisoner of war and he was reluctant to fight, the ransom was to send Zaynab back. And that's what he did. And eventually he made his way to Mecca and Zaynab, without telling the Prophet ﷺ, announced the Salat al-Fajr. that Abu al-As ibn al-Rabi'ah is here, and I have given him protection. And the Prophet ﷺ turned around and said, did you hear what I hear? Yes, we did. Wallahi, I never heard of this until right now. I didn't plan this. Even though he ﷺ said, I did not plan this, right? And this shows how much she loved him as well. And he married her back without a new nikah. So after six years or four years of not being together, they were then together as husband and wife. And then she passed away in this year. and so with that inshallah we finish up the eighth year of the hijrah our next lesson which is going to be after three weeks because I'm going to Malaysia so the last lesson before the summer inshallah we'll get an email inshallah will be the beginnings of the battle of Tabuk inshallah we'll talk about that biiznillahi ta'ala Thank you.

Seerah 84 - Miracles of Prophet Muhammad ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. which is the final of this academic year for the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, we'll take a break from our usual series, and inshallah resume after the month of Ramadan, bi-dhinnahi ta'ala. So I thought to basically break off, let us do something different. And today we will talk about some of the miracles of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Some of what is called in Arabic, mu'jizat of the Nabi ﷺ. Now what exactly is a mu'jiza? and why are Prophets given Mu'jiza. The word Mu'jiza comes from the Arabic Ajaza. And Ajaza means to be weak, to be incapable. And that's why the old person in Arabic is called what? What is an old person called? Ajuz. So the word Ajaza actually means weak. Yet the word miracle comes from the same root as weak. Why would the word miracle come from the word weak? Because a Mu'jiza is something that the rest of mankind is too weak to reproduce. The rest of mankind is too incapable of actually doing. That is why the mu'jizah is called a mu'jizah. And the definition of a miracle, it's self-evident, but some of our scholars have defined it that it is an occurrence that is beyond the typical occurrences that men are accustomed to. It's something that we would call supernatural, above natural, that occurs at the hands of somebody who claims to be a prophet, and it proves the claim of this Prophet to be true. So a Mu'ajiza is a supernatural occurrence that occurs at the hands of somebody who claims to be a Prophet in order to prove this Prophet to be true. Now what is the purpose of a Mu'ajiza? We just defined it. The purpose of a Mu'ajiza is to prove that a particular human being has been sent by Allah. And it is the Sunnah of Allah that He has sent Prophets with miracles. no prophet has ever come without miracles it is in fact a part of being a prophet that you have a miracle it is a sign of being a prophet that you have a miracle now is it the only sign that you're a prophet that's the only sign that you're a prophet or are there other signs that you're a prophet other signs as well and what is the evidence for this in other words some person can say that the prophets they need mu'jizat to prove their prophethood and the only thing that proves their prophethood is a mu'jizah. Some people have said this in the past. This is not true. What is the evidence for this? Simple, who can tell me? It's very simple. The only thing that proves that a prophet is truly a prophet is a miracle. We say no, big X. A miracle is one of the proofs of a prophet. Do you understand the difference? Right? To say that a miracle is the only proof of the prophet means everybody who converts must have converted because of a miracle. But is that the case? did Abu Bakr see a miracle? no, did Umar see a miracle? no, did Uthman? no majority of the early converts did not see miracles the majority of the converts did not see miracles to this day most Muslims who converted, and we have converts in the audience, they didn't see a mu'jiza so the claim that a mu'jiza is the only way to prove the prophethood of a prophet is not true we say a mu'jiza is one of the ways. There are other ways as well. For example, the character of the prophets. The dignity or the truthfulness of the prophets. The way they live their lives. The lifestyles of the prophets. The message, the content of the prophets. All of this proves that particular people are prophets of Allah. Now, one thing that the Quran very clearly mentions. Miracles do not help the arrogant people. Miracles do not help arrogant people. Who do miracles help? Two categories. Number one, people who already believe, it increases their iman. And number two, people who are open-minded and sincere. People who are genuine, are you a real prophet or not? Tell me, prove it to me. Those who are sincere, the miracle works for them. Those who are arrogant, it doesn't matter what you do, they will never believe. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran, the arrogance of the mushrikun. The arrogance of the Quraysh. For example in Surah Isra, verses 90 to 93. Allah says, وَقَالُوا لَنْ نُؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّى تَفْجُرَ لَنَا مِنَ الْأَرْضِ يَنْبُوعًا They said, we will never believe in you until you make the ground open up and cause rivers to flow. Or that you create a palace in the skies. Or that you rise up in front of us. وَلَنْ نُؤْمِنَ لِلُقِيِّكَ حَتَّى تُنَزِلْ عَلَيْنَا كِتَابًا نَقَرَأُ And even then we will not believe in you until we see the book coming down from the heavens in front of our eyes. That we can touch and feel. And Allah Azzawajal says, that say to them, Subhana Rabbi, Hal kuntu illa bashar al-rasoola. Say to them, Subhana Rabbi, I am only a bashar. I'm only a human. I am not God that I can just snap my fingers and kun fayakoon. And in Surah Hijr, Allah says in the Quran, Surah Hijr verse 14, Walaw fatahna alayhim baban min al-samai fathallu fihi ya'rujoon. if we were to open up the heavens in front of them in broad daylight and they ascended in front of everybody's eyes imagine the miracle here, right? the doors of the heavens open up in broad daylight and they're rising up لَقَالُوا إِنَّمَا سُكِّرَتْ أَبُصَارُنَا بَلْنَحْلُ قَوْمٌ مَسْحُورٌ they would say our eyes have become intoxicated rather we are a people that have been bewitched by magic they're not going to believe in another verse surah al-an'am verse 111 one of the most clear cut verses in the Quran about the arrogance why do I begin like this? because these miracles, you will say after you listen to them, how can anybody deny? how can anybody reject? but Allah is already saying it doesn't matter what you do some people's hearts some people's hearts are deaf, dumb and blind surah al-an'am verse 111 Allah says, وَلَوْ أَنَّنَا نَزَّلْنَا إِلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةَ If we had sent down all of the angels so that they can see. وَكَلَّمَهُمُ الْمَوْتَى And the dead from the grave spoke to them. وَحَشَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ قُبُلًا And we resurrected every living, or every dead organism, sorry. We resurrected them back to life. And they spoke to them. قُبُلًا مَا كَانُوا لِيُؤْمِنُوا They would still not believe. What more do you want? What more do you want? And therefore Allah Azzawajal demonstrates this arrogance in that they claim, and subhanAllah I have heard this with my own two ears and I'm sure any of you who have debated with an atheist or agnostic, you would have heard of this too. In their arrogance, what miracle do they want? Show us God Himself. Right? This is in the Quran. This is in the Quran. Surah Al-Furqan verse 21. That Allah Azzawajal says, وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَرْجُونَ لِقَاءَنَا لَوْ لَا أُنزِلَ عَنِيْنَا الْمَلَائِكَةُ أَوْ نَرَى رَبَّنَا Those who have no desire to actually meet us, notice, they're not sincere. They don't really care about religion and religiosity. They say, why don't the angels come down? Why can't we see our own Lord? Show us our God. Now this is what agnostics and atheists say. Okay, fine, you see there's a God? Show Him to me. Allah says, لَقَدْ اسْتَكْبَرُوا فِي أَنفُسِهِمْ They have become arrogant within themselves. Who do you think you are? What status do you have? That the miracles around you are not causing you to believe. Do you think anything else will cause you to believe? And so from all of this we gain a very simple fact. Because a lot of people ask, why weren't the Quraysh shown more miracles? And the response is, because they wouldn't have benefited. And Allah in His wisdom does not play games. Allah says in the Quran, that there's nothing that is games with us. There's nothing that's jokes with us. And our Prophet ﷺ, once the Quraysh said, show us the mountain to turn it into gold. And if you do so, we will believe in you. And Allah, the Prophet ﷺ asked Allah. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, if you want, I will convert it into gold in front of their eyes. But once I do so, they only have an option to believe or else they're gone. Because I don't play games basically. Allah says in the Quran, right? That there is nothing له, there is nothing باطل. Allah doesn't do anything with باطل. You want this miracle, I will do it right now. But this is your final chance. Or, if they don't get the miracle, I will allow them some more chances. So the Prophet ﷺ said, rather I'll trust in the more chances than the one-off chance. And this shows us the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ because if that had happened, they would not have converted. So, I began all of this by this prelude about miracles in order to illustrate why most of these miracles happen in front of Muslims. Some of them in front of non-Muslims, we'll see. Most of these miracles happen in front of the Sahaba. Only a few happen in front of the Quraysh because it is a mercy from Allah that the Quraysh were not given too many miracles because too much arrogance means Allah's destruction. Too much arrogance means Allah's destruction. And so our Lord out of a mercy showed them a few miracles enough to know that he's true, and then gave them respite and allowed them some time until the battle of Badr and the battle of the trench and the battle of what not, until finally at the conquest of Mecca, they either had this option or that option. So, how many miracles was the Prophet ﷺ given? Imam al-Bayhaqi, and by the way I have to also mention here, that the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ has been the subject of special books written. special books have been written in our history that are about the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ and the most important of these are the books called دَلَائِلُ النُّبُوَّة the proofs of the prophethood or the proofs of the prophecy دَلَائِلُ النُّبُوَّة and two of the more famous of these books is دَلَائِلُ النُّبُوَّة of Al-Asbahani and the most famous of them دَلَائِلُ النُّبُوَّة of Al-Bayhaqi who was a scholar from Bayhaq and Bayhaq is now in modern Iran and modern Iran ancient Iran was a bastion of Sunni Islam as you should know that Sunni Islam was always in Iran up until the 15th century and Imam al-Bayhaqi was from Iran as was Imam al-Ghazali and Imam al-Bukhari was also a Persian many of our famous scholars were from this land Imam al-Bayhaqi died 438 Hijrah and he wrote the most famous book about the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ and it has now been published recently in 12 volumes. Dala'ilun Nubuwah of Al-Bayhaqi. 12 volumes. And I have used portions of it for this lecture but obviously I am not reading all of Dala'ilun Nubuwah in one hour. But just to illustrate for you, how many are the miracles? Imam Al-Bayhaqi, who is one of the most important authorities in this regard, he says, over 1000 documented such miracles in the life and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. over 1000 such incidents that we can find that are of a supernatural nature and later on Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar who is the master of hadith nobody can compete with Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar Al-Hafidh ibn Hajar he quotes Imam al-Nawawi and we all know Imam al-Nawawi as well as saying that there are authentically narrated more than 1200 miracles from our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and some have said more than this and the fact of the matter is that these 1000, 1200 are only talking about specific ahadith and specific incidents yet every single statement and action that ever happened to the Prophet is a type of miracle every, his whole life is a miracle his whole methodology is a miracle, his existence is a miracle everything that he said and did is a miracle as the famous Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm said, Ibn Hazm the famous scholar from Qurtuba, from Andalus. Ibn Hazm said, that if our Nabi ﷺ had not been given any miracle other than the miracle of his own life, his own seerah, that would have been sufficient to prove he is the Nabi ﷺ. That's all he needs. We don't need anything else. His life and times, his conduct, his mannerisms, in other words, each and every statement ever coming from the Prophet ﷺ is a miracle. So, what these numbers say, 1000, 1200, we're talking about you know, the splitting of the moon, the water coming from his hands, these are extra above and beyond, but this does not negate that every incident in his life, salallahu alayhi wasalam, is a type of miracle, and so in today's lecture and I have but one lecture really to talk about this how much can I do, how many of these 1000, 1200, how much can this dalail nubuwa of al-bayhaq the 12 volumes, I have it in my library shelf, how much can I summarize in one hour so what I have decided to do is to actually do a little bit of research and categorize the miracles into 10 categories. Now this is not comprehensive, please understand. This is an introductory topic, right? To give you examples of 10 categories of miracles. Each of these categories has hundreds of examples. And I have just chosen some to illustrate 10 categories. And again, I reiterate, please don't think these 10 categories are exhaustive. Rather there's more than these ten categories. This is the research of a day or two. And no doubt, nobody can do justice to the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ. The first category of miracles that we will do, miracles that occurred with inanimate objects. Miracles of the Prophet ﷺ that occurred with neither animals, nor food, nor drink, nor inanimate object. Things that are basically rocks and stones and of this nature. and of these are so many of them is the famous hadith in Sahih Bukhari that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said I still recognize a stone a hajar that used to say salam to me every time I pass by it in Mecca before my prophethood I still recognize that stone used to say salam to me before my prophethood and Ibn Mas'ud said that one time we heard the food that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam put in his mouth say the tasbih while we were sitting around him, reported in Sahih al-Bukhari. The food saying subhanallah as it was put in the mouth of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And in one hadith, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, the famous companion Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, narrated that I was in a gathering with Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali and other of the Sahaba. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam took a group of pebbles in his hand, hasa, you know the gravel. And we all heard the stones praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. the Prophet ﷺ passed these stones to Abu Bakr, and they continued praising Allah in the hands of Abu Bakr. Then the Prophet ﷺ took it back from Abu Bakr, gave it to Umar, and Umar's hands, everybody heard in the audience, the stones saying Subhanallah. The Prophet ﷺ then took it back, gave it to Uthman, and they continued praising, and we all heard, all of us heard this. Then after the Prophet ﷺ left, and we took those stones, nobody could hear anything coming from them. So, and this hadith is reported in Al-Tabarani Al-Usad. Now, the point here is that, subhanallah, the Prophet ﷺ had picked those stones up, and they're praising Allah. And it is as if, it is as if, by picking up the stones, the praise that is already emanating, because everything praises Allah. وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّعُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَلَكِنْ لَا تَفْقَهُنَا لَتَسْبِحَهُمْ There is nothing except that it praises Allah, but you don't hear it. You don't understand it. It is as if when he ﷺ touched those stones, all of a sudden the barrier between us and those rocks was lifted. And we could hear, or those in the audience could hear, what the stones are always doing. And when he gave it to Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman, that barrier was continued to be lifted. Then when he left ﷺ, and the stones were put down, everybody else is picking them up, And the barrier has now returned back to where it is. And it is narrated in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad that once the Prophet ﷺ was giving da'wah to one of the leaders of the tribes of Ahmed ibn Sa'asa'a. And the Prophet ﷺ said, do you want to see an ayah, a miracle? He said, yes. So the Prophet ﷺ said, look at that grove of date palms and call out to that small tree to come. So the tribal chieftain said, O trunk of the tree or it's a baby palm tree it's not fully grown O baby palm tree come and the sahabi says the tree came crawling all the way until it stood in front of the chieftain then the Prophet ﷺ said go back and the tree went back until it resumed its original post and the chieftain converted to Islam on the spot and he said I shall never disbelieve in anything that comes from your mouth after this. Reported to Muslim Ibn Ahmad. And this shows us the purpose of a miracle. This man was ambivalent. This man was open-minded. He was shown a miracle, he converts on the spot. The leaders of Quraysh, doesn't matter what you would have done, they would never have converted. Jabir ibn Abdullah reports, in also the Abu Dawud and Muslim Ibn Ahmad, another hadith. Jabir ibn Abdullah reports, that once we went on a military expedition, and the Prophet ﷺ took me to help him relieve himself, meaning when the Prophet ﷺ would relieve himself. So one of the Sahaba would carry the water, would carry anything and then turn around and protect him for anything that was needed to be sheltering. So Jabir went to basically hold the water and what not. So the Prophet ﷺ went from the army, but he couldn't find any foliage. He couldn't find anything to protect himself with. Until he saw in a valley, two shrubs on either side of the valley. So Jabir said, he went to one of the shrubs. He held on to it, and he said, follow me by the permission of Allah. And he started walking towards the other shrub, and the shrub followed him in the ground, walking with him. Then he went to the other shrub, and he held on to the shrub with his hand, and he said, follow me by the permission of Allah. And he began walking away from Jabir, both shrubs in his hand. You understand, this is planted shrubs, you understand, right? and the shrubs are walking and Jabir is seeing all of this. Until finally when he went some distance, he merged the two together and he said, stick together by the permission of Allah. So the two of them leaned together and they formed a complete protection. And the Prophet ﷺ did what he needed to do behind that. Then when Jabir saw him coming towards him, he said that when the Prophet ﷺ began walking towards me, I saw the two shrubs return to their original places. and this hadith is reported in Musnad Imam Ahmed so once again we have now this was a miracle that was not done to demonstrate anything it was done because the Prophet ﷺ needed protection and so he simply took these two shrubs and made a protection for himself and of course perhaps the most famous in this category of inanimate objects perhaps the most famous incident is we're gonna get to that different category excellent, good point, that's a separate category because of its humendous or great nature. What is the most? The trunk of the tree. The trunk of the tree of the Prophet ﷺ, the entire masjid is jam-packed. Over a thousand people could fit in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. We have a thousand eyewitnesses. That the Prophet ﷺ, when the masjid was initially built, so they had to cut down some stumps of the tree so that the masjid could be empty and they left one of the stumps right in the front so that the Prophet ﷺ could give the khutbah on it. This was in the first year of the hijrah. By the time some wealth began to pour in the third year of the Prophet ﷺ, the fourth year of the hijrah, so somebody said, O Messenger of Allah, why don't we make for you a custom made pulpit, a proper pulpit. Let's carve it out and put three steps in it to do a proper pulpit. So he said, okay, if you want to do it. So one of the ladies of the Ansar, she had a servant who had trained in the art of carpentry. Carpentry was not that common in Mecca and Medina. This is a trade. So she had a servant who was the most famous carpenter. So he was commissioned to build a pulpit. And so the pulpit was now moved to the middle of the masjid. Before this time, the pulpit was towards one of the sides because you cannot decide where the tree is. It just happened to be there. So the pulpit was towards the side. So now the pulpit is moved in the middle. And the very first day that he is giving the khutbah, the hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim it is reported by many sahaba this is mutawatir over a thousand eyewitnesses what happens? the sahaba said we began hearing a noise like the crying of a baby camel loud noises coming like the crying of a baby camel and the Prophet ﷺ interrupted the khutbah and he came down from the mimbar and he hugged the tree and patted it until it stopped crying. It's sobbing. And he patted it until it stopped crying. And then he said, in one version it is said, that if I had not patted it and stopped it, it would have continued crying until the day of judgment. And he then commanded that the tree be uprooted and dug and put underneath his mimbar where it is to this day. To this day underneath where the Imam gives the khutbah, underneath that somewhere is that tree. Whenever Imam al-Hasan al-Basri, the famous tabi'i, would recite this hadith, he would begin to cry. And he would say, a tree cried because it missed the Prophet ﷺ and the knowledge that the Prophet ﷺ spread. How about us and our hearts? Should we not cry as well for not having had the opportunity to hear our Prophet ﷺ? So this is the first category. and that is incidents dealing with inanimate objects. The second category, miracles dealing with animals. Miracles dealing with animals. Once again we have numerous incidents where animals are involved and something miraculous is happening. Of them is the hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet ﷺ in the conquest of Khaybar when the Yahudiyya gave him the shank of a lamb and she had asked beforehand, what part of the meat the Prophet ﷺ loves the most and she was told it is the shank of a lamb. You know the shoulder, the part that the juiciest, the tenderest, everybody likes that part. So she put a lot of poison in that area of the lamb and when the Prophet ﷺ was presented it and he put it in his mouth, he spit it out right then and there and he said, the lamb or the shank of the lamb, this piece of meat, has just told me that it has been poisoned. so everybody spit it out now one sahabi as we had mentioned had swallowed it eventually he died but the shank of lamb had informed the prophet and this is one of the miracles and then of course the Yahudia was brought and she confessed to the crime another incident reported by Abu Dawud that once the prophet was riding on a camel with Abdullah bin Ja'far which is his cousin's son young boy and Abdullah bin Ja'far reports as a young boy, that I was with the Prophet ﷺ on a camel, and he entered a garden belonging to the Ansar. And when he entered this garden, there was another camel there. As soon as the camel saw the Prophet ﷺ, it came up to him, and started making its noises, the noise of the camels, and tears began to come from its eyes. The Prophet ﷺ said, where is the master or owner of this camel? A young man from the Ansar came, and he said, I am the owner. the Prophet ﷺ said do you not fear Allah with regards to these creatures that cannot speak for verily it has complained to me that you do not feed it properly and that you beat it and overwork it so the camel is complaining to Rahmatan lil alameen that my master is not treating me properly he should at least feed me and not overwork me but he is not feeding me he is overworking me he is beating me so he comes to the Prophet ﷺ and he complains And the Prophet ﷺ understands this. And he then tells the Sahabi, do you not fear Allah with regards to these creatures that cannot speak? In other words, who is going to hear this complaint other than me? These creatures Allah has put, and by the way I've given a lecture about animal rights in this audience. And I mentioned this hadith as well. Overworking animals and underfeeding animals and beating animals and animal cruelty. Here the Prophet ﷺ is saying that fear Allah with regards to these creatures. In an even more bizarre incident, narrated in Musnad Imam Ahmed, a group of Ansar came complaining that their camel had gone mad, wild, uncontrollable. And they begged the Prophet ﷺ to help them out. The camel had gone berserk, just rushing to hit people and whatnot. It was trapped in a camel pen. So the Prophet ﷺ went to them, to that pen, and he entered it alone. They said, Ya Rasulullah, this camel is as mad as a rabid dog. Like the dog with rabies. We fear he will attack and harm you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, I have no danger from him. There is no danger for me. And he walked straight up to the camel. And when the camel saw who it was, the narrator says, the camel came in front of him and lowered its forehead as if it was prostrating in front of the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ rubbed its head and picked it up or the rein and then took it back to where it should be basically and it was normal after that. They said, O Messenger of Allah, this was an animal that prostrated to you, it cannot even speak. Surely is it not more befitting that we prostrate to you? And the Prophet ﷺ said, فَلَا تَفْعَلْ Do not do so, for it is not allowed for any human to prostrate to another human being. Mustadibah Ahmad. So here we have a camel showing respect to the Prophet ﷺ in a manner that it is not even allowed for humans to do. We also have the famous story of Suraqah ibn Malik which we have done many years ago on this very masjid. Where Suraqah tried to capture and harm the Prophet ﷺ and his horse would not proceed when it saw the Prophet ﷺ. The horse stopped right then and there. And Suraqah jumped and fell off it. And every time he would cause the horse to run, the horse would stop right then and there. And Suraqah fell off of the horse three times, until finally he realized, this is beyond my control. And in the Sunan of, in the Musnad ibn Muhammad, excuse me, and the Musannif ibn Abi Shaybah, we have a very interesting narration. A very interesting one that, once it is narrated, that the Prophet ﷺ was sitting in his masjid. and all of a sudden in the gathering a camel came running in and made its way directly to the Prophet ﷺ put its head in his lap and began making noises and crying. So in front of everybody the camel is now coming straight to the Prophet ﷺ in front of all of the Sahaba. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Go and find the owner of this camel for it has a story to tell me. This camel is telling me something. go and find the owners, where are the owners so in those days you can recognize the camel, for us all camels look the same in those days every camel is different it has markings, it has this and that so they go and find out where is the owner of the camel they finally find an owner and they said what is the matter with your camel for verily it went to the Prophet and he is saying it has a it has an incident or story to tell so the man became frustrated, he said what is the problem there is no problem, we worked the camel and when it stopped working properly, we then used it to carry water. Then when it can't even carry water for us, last night we all decided and agreed to slaughter it and distribute its meat amongst us. So when the Prophet ﷺ heard the news, so he said, then either give me this camel or sell it to me, do not kill it. And so they gave him the camel. In other words, the camel didn't want to die. And it ran to the Prophet ﷺ complaining that I have been overworked and now I'm old and what not, they want to kill me. So this was an exception was made, that the Prophet ﷺ basically was merciful to this one camel, and did not allow them to do the drastic deed. And there are many other examples of this nature, of dealing with animals. This is the second category of miracles. The third category of miracles, is miracles dealing with food and water, and perhaps this is the largest category, in terms of sheer quantity of riwayat, and I will not go into detail, because we have gone over so many incidents in our own seerah. So many times that the Prophet ﷺ made a small quantity of food, feed a large quantity of people, a small quantity of water, take care of a large quantity of people. And of the most salient examples is that at the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, at the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, where they ran out of water and the Prophet ﷺ put his hands in whatever water remained and he then took his hands out and from between his fingers, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, water began to flow like a fountain, like a tap or a faucet. And people did wudu and washed themselves. In another version, Anas ibn Malik said that over 300 people did wudu from the water coming from between the fingers of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Imam al-Qurtubi, who was also from Qurtuba, Andalus, Cordova. Imam al-Qurtubi narrates that the miracle of the water coming from the hands of the Prophet ﷺ is even more miraculous than the miracle of Musa causing water to gush from a rock. Because occasionally, water does come from within a rock. Very rarely you'll find some water from within a rock. Even if it's a small quantity and Musa made it a large quantity. But never does water gush from flesh and bones. And therefore this is a miracle that was greater than any other miracle. and so many other incidents as well in the battle of Tabuk a small quantity of food sufficed an entire army in the incident of the Hijrah and also in many other incidents even in the Meccan stage the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr passed by a shepherd in the Hijrah they passed by an old Bedouin lady in the tent and there is an old animal that is way beyond giving any milk and the Prophet ﷺ makes dua and the udders fill up and milk overflows and of course this first happened with his foster mother Halima that when the Prophet ﷺ went with Halima all of a sudden her own animals and her own camels and her own goats all of them started giving milk and their udders were always full and this was of the barakah of the Prophet ﷺ perhaps the most famous of all of these incidents is the incident and this was also witnessed by the entire city of Medina in the incident of the trench when supplies had dwindled and the army is now surrounding them and they're digging the trench and Jabir ibn Abdullah comes home to his wife and he says that oh my wife I have heard the voice of the Prophet ﷺ weak he doesn't have food what do we have? whatever we have we have to give him so she says all we have left is that old goat as you know and some flour so he said okay slaughter the goat and start kneading the dough and this will feed probably would have fed 5 to 7 people small goat and flower, we'll feed some amount, I'll invite the Prophet ﷺ and one or two people. So he whispered, as you know the famous story too, the Prophet ﷺ that, you know, I have something prepared. In one version, the Prophet ﷺ basically stood up and announced to the entire trench that, Ya Ahlul Khandaq, O people of the Khandaq, Jabir has a Walima prepared for you. Walima was what we call a da'wah, it was a feast, right? Walima is not just when you have it, the wedding Walima is a feast. Ya Ahlul Khandaq, Jabir has prepared a feast for you. Everybody's starved, everybody's hungry, everybody's overjoyed. So Jabir goes running back. His wife says, what did you do? He said, don't blame me, the Prophet ﷺ announced it. But he said to Jabir, make sure your wife does not put the bread inside of the oven, and also cook the meat until I come. So he told his wife, don't do it until the Prophet ﷺ comes. When he came, he then spat into the dough. he needed it, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, with his own hands. And he helped put the dish into whatever type of furnace they had. And then in batches, the entire army of 1,400 people came and they ate and they left. Each one, as much as could fill the room at a time, the entire army came and ate. And when they left, there was more food than when they began. And this is of the barakah that was witnessed by thousands of people in Medina. And there are many, many other instances as well. So this is the third category. And there are too many incidents like this to narrate of food and drink. The fourth category, and again many instances to narrate, and that is the protection that Allah Azzawajal gave to our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the miraculous protections. How many times was he protected? Out of nowhere, miracles happened to save the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. and once again, really, so many incidents to talk about. Why don't you give me some examples? When did the Prophet ﷺ, was he protected miraculously? Ta'if? Before the Hijrah. Before the Hijrah, by what? During the Hijrah. Yeah. During the night of the Hijrah, multiple times. On the night of the Hijrah, multiple times. First and foremost, I mean, we can mention literally the entire night, right? Everything that happened on that night is a protection, including gharithor including when they're walking outside including you know the protection the spider's web story we talked about that all of these things and the Prophet ﷺ is looking up and he sees their feet and he says Abu Bakr is trembling or the entire hijrah Suraq ibn Malik, the entire hijrah he is protected, what other times is he protected? the praying of Kaaba and Abu Jahl came towards the end and he's wanted to just, that's it. He wanted to just kill him ﷺ. And when he came to kill him, all of a sudden he began walking backwards. And when he was told what? He said, I saw a camel with fiery eyes and teeth as sharp as razors coming to bite me. And they said, there is no camel over here. But he goes, no wallahi, if I had taken one step, he would have basically bitten me to death. So another example of protection of the Prophet ﷺ. The battle of Badr, the battle of Badr as well, miracle of miracles, Yawm al-Furqan, 300 not so well armed Sahaba against a thousand well armed of the Quraysh, right? The battle of the Khandaq also, right? In fact every single battle, even the battle of Uhud, because the battle of Uhud no doubt it was a bit of a loss. But nonetheless, Allah Azza wa Jal protected the persona of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Even if he got injured, but this was perhaps of the closest times to death, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And that's why Aisha said, was there any day in your life more terrible than Uhud? So from her mind, the worst day was Uhud. And the Prophet ﷺ said, yes, Ta'if was worse. Both of these times, Allah ﷻ protected. And of course, the battle of Hunayn as well, we talked about that last month. So basically, so many incidents when it comes to protecting the Prophet ﷺ, and miracles occurring either directly or indirectly, either the angels coming down or animals being prevented like Suraqah or animals coming like the spider. All of these things are incidents that prove the miraculous protection of the Prophet ﷺ. The fifth category, and again as I said all of these are brief. Each one can have lots of examples. The fifth category, knowledge of the unseen that was given to our Prophet ﷺ. Now, question. did our Prophet ﷺ have ilm al-ghayb the response to this, there's two types of ilm al-ghayb there's one type of ilm al-ghayb that only Allah Azza wa Jal has and no one shares it with Allah and an example of this type are the five knowledges that only Allah has, that Allah Azza wa Jal says no one knows when someone will die no one knows where somebody will die no one knows when the wombs will give or what the wombs will give no one knows when is the day of judgment these are the five and more than these five nobody knows there is also ilm al-ghayb that is relative some of it might be given to the prophets alim al-ghaybi falayuzhiru ala ghaybihi ahadah Allah knows the ghayb and he doesn't give the ghayb to anyone illa man irtadha min rasoolin except if he wants a prophet to come to some of this knowledge, then he will give that knowledge to him. So, question is, did the Prophet ﷺ have ilm al-ghayb? The response is, the ultimate ilm al-ghayb, no. Only Allah has ultimate ilm al-ghayb. But some ilm al-ghayb, yes, there is no doubt. That we don't have it, and he had it. Yes, there is no denying this. After all, did he not see the heavens? Did he not see Jibreel? did he not see heaven, did he not see hell did he not see what else did he know and see that we do not know no doubt he had some of the ilm al-ghayb that is ilm al-ghayb to us, not to him but he did not share with Allah all ilm al-ghayb because that is very clear in the Quran that Allah Azzawajal says no one knows the armies that Allah has except Allah no one and Allah Azzawajal says قُلْ لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُمَّ أَتَلُوتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَا أَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبِ the Prophet is saying I don't know ilm al-ghayb this is in surah al-an'am وَلَا أَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبِ وَلَا أَقُلُوا النِّمَلَكَ surah al-an'am or surah al-ma'idah one of the two وَلَا أَعْلَمُ الْغَيْبِ I don't know ilm al-ghayb this is explicit in the Quran first person that Allah is saying قُلْ say to them I am not an angel and I am not this and I am not that and I don't know ilm al-ghayb. So very clearly in the Quran, he is being told to announce he doesn't have unconditional ilm al-ghayb. Yet we know he has some knowledge we don't have. How do we reconcile? I explained. There are types of ilm al-ghayb that he has, we don't have it. But unconditional access of ilm al-ghayb, only Allah has it. So what did he know that he told us? That is of the ilm al-ghayb that was happening for example at that particular time so many incidents that we have of them is the day that Najashi died the day that Najashi died and Najashi died in Abyssinia and the Prophet ﷺ is in Medina and one day the Sahaba woke up and there was an announcement being made come to the masjid they all came to the masjid and the Prophet ﷺ said one of your brothers in the far away land of Abyssinia has died, the Najashi he was an abdun salih he was a righteous man and we shall pray janazah for him. And lo and behold, months later the news comes from the other couriers that Najashi had died on that day. And he informed them of his death the very day that he died, the very hour that he died. And another example of this is, who can tell me? Isra wal-mi'raj. When he saw Jerusalem. When he saw Jerusalem. When one of the Quraysh had been to Jerusalem. And he said, if you've really been to Jerusalem then, can you describe it for me? Can you tell me how many doors? Can you tell me which door goes here? And obviously the Prophet ﷺ had gone at night and he's not paying attention. So he said, I became more terrified than I had ever become. And I thought that they would reject me until I saw Jibreel raise up the city in front of my eyes. And I could see it as they're asking the question. And no question they asked me except that the city was turned this way and that way and I could respond based upon the question being asked to me. What other example we talked about in one last month? The battle of Mu'tah. Very good, the battle of Mu'tah. That right when, who died in Mu'tah? Quiz question, who died? Number one, Zayd ibn Harithah. Number two, Abdullah ibn Rawaha. Number three, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib. Jafar ibn Abi Talib these three died and the Prophet ﷺ what did was it Anas ibn Umar in Sahih Bukhari he said the Prophet ﷺ told us the news of their death before the news of their death came to us that's how the hadith begins that's exactly how the hadith begins the Prophet ﷺ told us the news of their death before the news of their death came to us and he was crying and he's describing in vivid detail what happened and how each person died and he is describing it literally as it is happening. And this is proven to them. A week later the news comes and it's all in vivid detail. And also we have that famous incident when the Khusro or the leader of the Sassanid Empire, the leader of the Sassanid Empire, he sent two spies to Medina pretending to be messengers. And he had a fake message meaning the point was to spy on the Prophet ﷺ. And they arrived in Medina and the Prophet ﷺ recognized them to be spies. He knew this to be spies. So he didn't even look at their letter. He said, come back the next day. They came back the next day. He never opened the letter. And he said, today my Rabb has killed your Rabb. My Rabb has killed your Rabb. And they were terrified. What is going on here? And it turned out that was the same day that the assassinated emperor had been assassinated and his daughter then took over and that was the last of the emperors of the Sassanid kingdom and dynasty. And that caused the two envoys to accept Islam. Why? Because he literally told them, go back and you will find out my Rabb has killed your Rabb. Because why? In their religion they worshipped the emperor. They have a whole theology that the emperor, just like in China and others, the emperor is worshipped. The emperor is to be the son of God, like a type of divine entity. So they called him Rab, and that was their object of worship. So the Prophet ﷺ said, my Rab has killed your Rab. Go back and you will find out. And lo and behold, that same day, the emperor had been killed. So all of these are predictions, sorry, not predictions, that's the next category. I just told the next category. This is category 5, knowledge of the unseen. One example of category 5, I made a category 6, predictions of the future. even though it is also knowledge of the unseen but because it is kind of separate I made it category 6 predictions of the future so this is the 6th category and once again we have quite literally over 150 predictions I literally I'm not exaggerating and if we had time we would go over them but I have talked about some of them in the lecture I gave here about Ashrat As-Sa'a, the day of judgment we went over, in fact every single day of judgment sign is basically a prediction, is it not? Every single Ashrat As-Sa'a is a prediction of the future. And there are literally over 150, some have made it to 350. So just this one category has so many predictions of the future. Of the most prominent was that in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ predicted the conquest of the Arabian Peninsula, which is truly bizarre. And in Medina, he specifically mentions country names while they're still fighting at Badr and Uhud and Khandaq and what not he tells them that you're gonna conquer Yemen he tells them you're gonna conquer Busra and Busra is basically outside of Damascus he tells them you're gonna conquer Sham which is Syria, he tells them you're gonna conquer Baytul Maqdis which is Jerusalem he tells them you're gonna conquer Masr and be sure you're good to its people because you have some bonds with them meaning Hajar is my mother and Hajar is Egyptian. You have some bonds with them. You're gonna conquer Egypt. He tells them the Persian Empire will collapse and you will conquer it and give it booty. And as you know, Suraqa ibn Malik was wearing the bracelets of the Persian Emperor. He told them you're gonna conquer Constantinople. And that took more than 1,100 years. 1,000 years to be conquered basically, right? Constantinople was conquered in 1451. Basically 500 something years ago. It was recent. Yet he said, you're going to conquer Constantinople. Of course, for the Indian-Pakistanis, he also said, you're going to conquer Hind as well. Authentic hadith, Muslimah Muhammad, that you're going to conquer Hind. And he said, and what a beautiful army, or what a ni'mal jaish, what a great army, is the army that conquers Hind. And that's one of the reasons why people wanted to venture into India as well. Point is, all of these lands, all of these lands were conquered, as our Prophet ﷺ predicted. And he even predicted that there would be a naval force within the lifetime of the Sahaba. And the mother of Anas ibn Malik said, Ya Rasulullah, make dua that I am in that naval force and I die in that naval force. And in the middle of the desert, when not a single Muslim knew anything about the art of building ships, in the middle of the desert, he says, you are amongst them. You will be amongst them. And what happened? In the reign of Muawiyah, in the reign of Muawiyah, he was the one who made some naval forces. In fact, it is even Uthman also had some naval forces as well. But it was Muawiyah that made the first to actually have a naval fleet. Because he acquired the Byzantine naval forces. And he acquired them, he then used them. And he sent them in expeditions. and Ummi Milhan was in that expedition and as she went off of the boat in one of the far islands that they went to she slipped and she was on her horse she fell off of her horse and she cracked her skull and she died right over there and they built a masjid for her which is still to this day the first masjid in the famous island of Cyprus to this day there is the masjid of Ummi Milhan and that is where her qabr is. Cyprus, where is Cyprus? Where is Medina? Imagine, right? And she said, Ya Rasulullah, make dua that I am amongst them. Because the Prophet ﷺ laughed. And Umm Ibn Han said, and he was sleeping in her house, he woke up and he's laughing. He said, why are you laughing? He said, I saw people from my own ummah riding the waves like they ride their horses, right? And the Prophet ﷺ had never ridden a ship in his life. And the bulk of the sahaba did not do so. The bulk of them did not do so. And he laughed that, I saw members of my ummah doing ghazwa, riding the ships like people ride their horses. So she said, Ya Rasulullah, make dua, I am amongst them. So he said, you're amongst them. And look what happened, she is amongst them to this day. Where is Medina and where is Cyprus? Look at the map, right? And her qabr is over there in Cyprus. So many of these predictions, and one of the more interesting ones as well, the famous sahabi Abdullah ibn Busur, who was one of the last Sahaba to die. He died, is it 103 or 105 Hijrah, I forgot. That Abdullah ibn Busur, he said, he's narrating in Kufa, as a very old man. He said, when I was a young child, the Prophet ﷺ visited my parents' house. And I remember my father gave him a worn out rug to sit on. And my father asked my mother, is there any food? We don't know why he visited. Abdullah is too young to remember. So he says to the mother, is there any food? And the mother says, yes, we have some hayus. And hayus was a biscuit or a cookie that they would have, where they would take the dates and grind it with flour and something, it's a type of stale biscuit or something that they would have, or a dry cake, something like that. We have some hayus. So my mother sent me with the hayus. This is Abdullah bin Busa as a kid. And I presented it to the both of them, my father and the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ turned to look at me. He rubbed his hand on my head. And he said, this child shall live for a qurn, a century. And I was a young child. I said, how much is a qurn? So the Prophet ﷺ said, mi'atu sana, 100 years. And Abdullah ibn Busur is narrating this hadith, reported in Ibn Asakir. He's narrating it. Sorry, I said kufa. It's in Damascus, sorry. In Damascus, in the middle of the Umayyad period. And he is now 95 years old. And he is telling his students that 95 of those years have happened and I'm still waiting for the next five before I meet my Lord. And his student who narrated this incident, Ibn Asakir, he said, when the news reached me that he had died, I calculated when he told us that hadith it was exactly five years ago. so Abdullah ibn Busur lived exactly to the age of a century 100 as our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and by the way he died while performing the wudu he passed away literally in the act of wudu and a righteous sahabi, a noble man and he died a very noble death so this is category 6 predictions of the Prophet and of course Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and of course once again hundreds of examples category 7 the healing of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam the healing of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. And once again, we have numerous instances when a sick man would be cured right then and there. Numerous instances when a sahabi is wounded, bleeding, something happens, and right then and there, the wound is healed. In the battle of Uhud, perhaps one of the most amazing examples. Qatada. Qatada is one of the 11 people who is in the enclave, guarding the Prophet ﷺ. You know, the most precarious situation. When everybody fled. And there was only a small group of people left with him. And Qatada was the one who stood guard outside of the cave. And he used his own body to protect himself against the stray arrows. Every time he would find an arrow, he would try to move his own body to catch the arrow. Physically. And one of those arrows came right into his eye. La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. And his eye fell out. And when the Prophet ﷺ saw this, he made a special dua for Qatada. And he said, O Allah, your servant Qatada has sacrificed his own face for the face of... And you know putting his face in front of the Prophet ﷺ, so return his eye to him even better than it was when it left him. And Qatada said that immediately that eye healed and it became the most sharpest of my two eyes until I died. Right in front of him this happened. And we also have the famous story of the incident of Ali ibn Abi Talim on the day of Khaybar. That after for 15 or 16 days they're battling and they're tired and then the process is predicted. Tomorrow I shall give the flag to someone that Allah Azza wa Jal will allow conquer or victory to happen. And on the Salatul Fajr everybody's wanting to be me, to be me. And he said, where is Ali ibn Abi Talib? So he said, he is suffering from eye problem. Like he cannot open his eyes. You know, some infection of the eye. And so he cannot walk. So the Prophet ﷺ said, bring him to me. He was brought with his eyes closed. And the Prophet ﷺ spit into his eyes and made dua. And right then and there, his eyes became clear and victory was given to him. And of course, there are so many other examples as well. So again, genre or category number seven, the examples of instantaneous healing that took place in front. And there was a boy that was basically deaf and dumb and not able to walk. And the Prophet ﷺ prayed on him. And right then and there, it was as if they said he had been untied from a string. Like literally as if he's a prisoner. All of a sudden, his whole life he's been born deaf, dumb. He's been born deaf and dumb and paralyzed. Born. And the Prophet ﷺ does ruqya on him. And right then and there, it's as if like a coil, like a spring he comes up and he becomes normal a 7 year old, 8 year old boy and again many examples narrated in this 7th category the 8th category out of the 10 the 8th category is immediate responses to his dua he makes dua and it happens right then and there and of course the most famous example which is recorded in every single book of hadith. Bukhari and Muslim and every single book of hadith is the example of the instantaneous rain. This is one example of literally again dozens where the people of Medina were suffering a drought for many months and the Prophet ﷺ is giving a khutbah and in the middle of the khutbah a Bedouin comes and interrupts and he just stops the khutbah and he says, Ya Rasulallah, we have not had rain for months and our crops are withering and our animals are dying and our children are starving. Make dua to Allah that He sends rain. And Anas is the narrator of the hadith and he said, Wallahi, we had not seen the whiff of a cloud for months. But as the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands, we saw a cloud dense and thick like a huge shield come from behind the mountain of Medina. You know the mountain that if you're exiting from the back gate, the King Fahd Gait, you will find a big mountain over there. From that mountain it came racing forward. And before the Prophet ﷺ's hand had reached his side, we heard the pitter-patter of rain on the roof. And when we went back home, we had to rush back so that not to get drenched. And wallahi we did not see the sun for an entire week. For one week it's raining non-stop. and then the next week when we came praying in the rain in the middle of the khutbah the same man came back or another man like him and he said Ya Rasulullah our crops are over flooded our children are drowning our animals are swimming around make dua to Allah to stop the rain and so the Prophet ﷺ said Allahumma hawalayna wala alayna O Allah send the rain around and not on us and he pointed to the sky and wherever he pointed, these clouds just parted up and we had not seen the sun for a week. And by the time we finished the khutbah, there was nothing but sun in the sky. Now this hadith, again, it took place in front of the entire city of Medina. Numerous narrations, every single book of hadith records this. And there are, again, many examples. But a dua of the Prophet ﷺ being answered right then and there. As soon as he makes it, and we see the effects of that dua. Another example is, I mean again so many, give me another example Badr, okay true may Allah destroy the armies that's true, what else? right then and there Ta'if how so? he didn't avail himself to the angels of the mountains what else? dua for one of the two umarain either Abu Jahl or Umar and Allah gave it to Umar the mother of Abu Hurayrah did we not do the story of mother Abu Hurayrah or not we didn't do it the mother of Abu Hurayrah that Abu Hurayrah he was Yemeni and when he migrated to Medina he called his mother to take care of her and he used to live in Ahl al-Suffah when his mother came so now he has to have an apartment or a house so he finds a house somewhere but his mother is still a Mushrika a pagan and his mother is very hurt that her son has left their religion and she's always cursing Islam and saying bad things about the Prophet ﷺ and so one day Abu Hurairah comes crying, grieving and says, Ya Rasulullah, I can't take this anymore my mother has said too much about you and I cannot take it make dua to Allah that Allah guides her so he raises his hand right then and there and he says, O Allah, guide the mother of Abu Hurairah and Abu Hurairah comes back sad, depressed not knowing what to do and before he enters the house his mother says do not enter I am taking a bath and right then and there that was the bath of Islam and as soon as Abu Hurairah comes in she says Ashadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashadu anna muhammad rasulullah right then and there like literally walking to the masjid and walking back one minute cursing the other minute saying the shahada again so many incidents of this nature but put them under a different category category 8 and that is responses to his dua category 9 stories of the previous prophets. Stories of the previous prophets. Now, how is this a miracle? How is it a miracle that he's talking about the stories of the previous prophets? For many reasons. First and foremost, one needs to realize how uneducated Arabia was. One needs to understand when we think of let's say the jungles of Brazil. would they know the people in those lands that are cut off from civilization would they know the histories of medieval Europe let's say think about it that of course the problem now is you have the internet imagine and even by the way those tribes don't have the internet but just imagine that you didn't have these means of communication these means of connectivity and you came across a civilization cut off from all others and they know the histories of all other civilizations even the names of the Abrahamic prophets the Judeo-Christian prophets were not known to the Arabs why should they? why should they know the stories of Yusuf and Ya'qub? why should they care about Ishaq? why should... that branch was unrelated to them they preserved Ibrahim and Ismail yes, right? but Ishaq onwards is irrelevant to them is that not correct? right? they have no idea they have vague idea of Isa but that's it they don't know anything and that is why when the Quraysh went to Medina and they said give us some test quiz questions one of the questions was ask him about Yusuf and his brothers remember we did the whole tafsir of Yusuf ask him about, because who knows Joseph and his brothers, there was not a single library in all of Mecca in all of Arabia, the Bible had not yet been translated into Arabic imagine this, right there's not a single library in the entire peninsula, in the whole city of Mecca, less than 5 or 10 people can read and write. Even if they can read and write, there is no Bible to read. If they could even acquire it. Imagine all of this, right? In the middle of this environment, an unlettered shepherd with no education begins telling the detailed stories of the biblical flood of Adam and Hawa, which was not something the Arabs cared about. Of Ishaq and Yaqub and Yusuf. Of Isa, of Musa. another, look at how many stories of Musa in the Quran and Allah mentions in the Quran ما كنت تعلمها أنت ولا قومك من قبل هذا neither you nor your people knew these stories before before this Quran came down and of the most interesting tangible if you like evidences for this is that the Quran preserves some stories of Jesus Christ that are not found in the New Testament to this day and yet were discovered recently in sources outside the New Testament. And I will give you some concrete examples. All of us as Muslims know the story of Isa speaking from his mother's cradle, from the hands of his mother. Most of us Muslims in this audience are not aware that this story is simply not found in the New Testament. It's not found. none of the gospels of Matthew or Mark or Luke none of them have it also all of us as Muslims know that the Quran mentions in three occasions the story of Isa and the birds blowing into it and they becoming real birds again you will be surprised as Muslims to know that this story is simply not mentioned in the canonical Christian gospels it's not found and for the longest times Christians would ridicule Look at these Muslims, they have these weird and bizarre stories. Around 150 years ago, in Egypt, an interesting monastery was discovered in the desert. And in it there was the body of a monk from the 4th century CE, before the coming of Islam. 4th century CE. and the body of this monk belonged to a sect of Christianity that was lost, it's gone. And in the scrolls, sorry not the scrolls, in the, what do you call the coffin? There were scrolls, that's what I meant to say. Multiple scrolls. And these scrolls contained Gospels that are beyond the four canonical Gospels. you guys following this? of them is a gospel now you should know that Constantine and others in 325 CE they basically got rid of all of the other gospels there were lots of gospels and Constantine ordered these four to be chosen others later after him it's not just Constantine but later and these four became the canonical all the rest were destroyed and to this day most of them are destroyed once in a while we come across something from the ancient times this was one of the most significant discoveries in the 1870, I think. Basically, last 19th century, 150 years ago. One of these Gospels was the Gospel of St. Thomas. And it is now available on Amazon. You can Google the Gospel of St. Thomas. It was one of the lost Gospels. And in the Gospel of St. Thomas, we have both of these stories. The story of Jesus speaking as a baby, and the story of the birds becoming real birds. And it is amazing that for literally 13 centuries, these stories were not known to any Christian community. Any. They're only found in the Quran. And yet, and this is not, I'm giving you a concrete example, look it up. Go look, buy the book, the Gospel of St. Thomas. Purchase it, read it for yourself. And you find these two stories are not found in the actual canonical Gospels, and yet they are found in the Gospel of St. Thomas. And as Allah says in the Quran, you were not there, you didn't know it, your people did not know it, but Allah gave you this wahi. And this is clearly a miracle of the Prophet ﷺ. The final category 10, I have just said miscellaneous and everything else. Okay? Category 10 is the non-category. I.e. things that don't fit in the previous nine. And by the way, again for those who came late, these 10 categories are not exhaustive. Literally, I thought of these throughout the last day and a half. And this is just small research. No doubt, if somebody thinks more deeply and spends years researching, you will get many more. It's just an introduction for one lecture. Category 10, miscellaneous examples that are above and beyond the previous nine. And of these is perhaps one of his greatest miracles, which is the splitting of the moon in half. The splitting of the moon in half in the very early Meccan phase. This is one of the few miracles that the Quraysh challenged and he did. This is one of the few miracles, as we said, just a handful. The Quraysh challenged him. and he said if I were to split the moon in half would you believe in me and they all said yes and as we all know the story and the Quran is very explicit that the moon was split and the mountain was Safa was in between the two the two halves of the moon and Ibn Kathir writes that this incident has been narrated by numerous chains and even if we didn't have any chain the Quran is explicit enough in this regard iqtarabatissa'atu wanshaqqal qamar and Imam Al-Khattabi writes that the splitting Imam Al-Khattabi died around 330 Hijrah a very ancient scholar he writes the splitting of the moon is one of the greatest miracles ever of any prophet that cannot be compared to the miracles of any prophet because it occurred in the celestial skies outside of this earth that we are accustomed to and inaccessible to us mortals basically hence it was an even greater miracle than other miracles in other words if you look at the other miracles of the prophets they're happening on earth this is a miracle that is happening beyond earth so this is definitely in category 10 miscellaneous and you also have the personal miracle given just for the prophet and that is the miracle of Al-Mi'raj as for Isra he somewhat proved it by talking about Jerusalem as for Mi'raj this is just we believe in him it was a personal miracle just for him a Mu'jiza just for the Prophet ﷺ as we talked about when we mentioned it to console him after the death of Khadija and Abu Talib and Ta'if three major calamities happened and it was the lowest of the low at the time of the Prophet ﷺ and so Allah blessed him with the highest of the high so the miracle of Al-Mi'raj which is the going up and Isra happened on the same night Isra and Mi'raj, they were both given to the Prophet ﷺ. And of course we have to mention here, and we just conclude with this, the greatest and the ultimate miracle given to our Prophet ﷺ. The real miracle that we still use to this day, and that is the miracle of the Quran. That miracle eclipses all other miracles. And that one miracle is more than all of the others combined, infinitely more. and I have given many lectures you can just google Yasir Qadri the miracle of the Quran I have given many lectures about how is the Quran miraculous, why is the Quran miraculous and some of the reasons we can benefit from talking about the Quran in front of non-Muslims and the simplest point really that we can mention here that all of the other miracles that we have mentioned including the miracle of the splitting of the moon all of them we were not witnessing them they happen in front of other peoples they happen in front of other groups we believe but we did not see we believe but we were not witnesses and the only miracle that is still amongst us right now and that is why it is called the eternal miracle and it is called the ever living miracle the only miracle that you can literally say to a non-Muslim when he says how do I know your religion is true The only miracle you can literally hand to him, here is the Quran, here, read this book, listen to its recitation, absorb the message of this book. That's the miracle that has no time constraints, no space constraints. It is the miracle of miracles and that is what our Prophet ﷺ said, that every single prophet has been given miracles because of which his people have believed in him. And as for me, he said the only miracle Allah gave me and now especially after this lecture you see when he says the only miracle that Allah gave me well clearly he has been given thousands of miracles but the miracle of the Quran is so bright that it eclipses all other miracles it is as if all other miracles become meaningless in front of this one miracle the only miracle Allah gave me is the wahi that Allah has sent down to me and because of this wahi I hope to have the largest number of followers on the day of judgment. This hadith is in Sahih Bukhari and it demonstrates that the Quran is the ultimate miracle that removes the time-space factor, the eternal miracle that is the real genuine miracle that we can use when we address to other faiths because these other miracles, what will they say? Well, we have our saints and our whatever. There is no way they will believe. But the Quran is the one miracle that is the miracle of all miracles. And indeed, we as Muslims don't need any of these miracles other than the life of the Prophet ﷺ. His seerah is enough of a miracle for us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the shafa'ah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ on the Day of Judgment. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continue to bless us to be of his ummah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala resurrect us amongst the nabiyyin and the shuhada' and the salihin. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to drink from the fountain of the Prophet ﷺ. May Allah ﷻ make us amongst those whom the Prophet ﷺ recognizes and invites to drink from his fountain. May Allah ﷻ grant us Jannat alongside the Jannat of the Prophet ﷺ. وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَهُ And Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. If there's any quick questions, we have just a few minutes. I don't want to delay too long. And then inshaAllah we will break for Salatul Isha. Quick questions about the topic. Yes. The Dead Sea Scrolls, that was the discovery documented. Is that the same you spoke about the past? No. The Dead Sea Scrolls belong to a group, a community of Jews that were living in that region in Jordan. And they were contemporaneous to Jesus and before Jesus. And it is as if they were expecting a Messiah-like figure. So because of this, it's interesting for us Muslims because there was this notion of a prophet coming that is different than the previous prophets. That's the Messiah, that's Jesus. That's why it's interesting for us. Otherwise, by and large, the Dead Sea Scroll has nothing to do directly with Jesus Christ because it is from a group of Jews. So it's a group of Jews that had this scripture and document. Whereas what I'm talking about, the Gospel of St. Thomas is a Christian scripture. And this is written probably 200 years after Jesus or 150 years and it was discovered for sorry it was discovered 150 years ago and the monk died 400 CE or 600 or 500 CE so in other words even before the Prophet this was this monk from this Christian sect so that's a Christian monk the Dead Sea Scrolls is a Jewish issue or a Jewish scroll yes is there any documentation from other cultures or scientific evidence of the monks as far as I know there isn't believe me I have done my research as far as I know there isn't anything in other sources it's only mentioned in our sources what is the difference between a messiah and a prophet what is the difference between a messiah and a prophet according to our tradition there is only one genuine messiah and messiah means the one whom Allah has anointed literally from messiah which means to rub messiah means to wipe and the messiah it is as if Allah azza wa jal anointed him and in those days you know the concept of baptism the concept of anointing might have been something that the previous prophets did and Christians to this day therefore do and that's what sibgha means sibgha to Allah wa man ahsa min Allahi sibgha and Yusuf Ali translates as the baptism of God and who is better than God at baptizing because it is as if the word sibgha has this connotation the point being that Masih is somebody whom Allah has anointed, i.e. appointed. When you anoint somebody, that's how you appoint them. So he was a special prophet that was meant to finish the seal of the Israelite prophets, not all the prophets, because that will be the next prophet. So the Masih brought the Israelite prophets to a close, and our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which was the very next prophet, brought all of the prophets to a close. Right? And there will be a false Messiah, and that is the Dajjal. And there's a correct Messiah, and that is Isa ibn Maryam. Final question, yes. So all the miracles which we heard had effect to others, right? But there were also miracles which just happened to himself, for example, I guess the heart surgery. So there are other miracles which were only for him personally? Yes, we had mentioned that the Mi'raj is only for him. the mi'raj is a miracle that only he had for him and it gave him some consolation and you mentioned the cleaning of the heart as well and there are other instances of things that only happened to him that would have brought him consolation and him comfort and they are not going to be miracles for us and this is we call it a mu'jiza and it is a mu'jiza but it's not meant to affirm to anybody that he's a prophet, he already knows this. It's meant to increase the certainty. So there's one thing called increasing certainty. وَيَزْدَادَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِيمَانًا That their yaqeen goes up. And then there's another thing to prove to somebody who doesn't have yaqeen. So for us, these miracles, they don't prove the Prophet ﷺ is a prophet because we already believe in it. They only increase our yaqeen that he's a prophet. Clear? Similarly, when our Prophet ﷺ undergoes what we just said. For him, going up to Isra did not prove he was a prophet as if he doubted it before. Rather, it affirmed and it increased his yaqeen. That's how we will phrase it. And Allah knows best.

Seerah 85 - Recap and lessons from Hunayn & Ta'if - Yasir Qadhi - 2014-8-13-HUTtD9cSnds

So in our resuming our seerah after a break of around, how much? 3 and a half months now? Just about 3 and a half months, so inshallah we're resuming and we have to recap and we're actually going to basically go a little bit back because I feel that we were rushed through when we did the battle of Hunayn and Ta'if and I didn't really talk about some of the main points of benefit and if you remember, we had talked about at least 6 lessons about the conquest of Mecca and this occurred in which month and which year everybody should know without looking at any notes this is general knowledge which month and which year did the conquest of Mecca take place Ramadan of 8th year of the Hijrah Ramadan of the 8th year of the Hijrah we mentioned that of the most important products or the most important repercussions of the conquest is that the entirety of the Quraish by and large eventually converted to Mecca some of them immediately others it took a while such as Abu Sufyan, such as Suhail ibn Amr, Ikram ibn Jahl But eventually basically all of the elite of the Quraysh eventually accepted Islam. And after the conquest of Mecca the Prophet ﷺ also destroyed the neighboring idols that were in the neighboring cities around Mecca. And he then heard of offensive by the largest tribe after the Quraysh and the most prestigious tribe after the Quraysh. That is the tribe of Thaqif in Ta'if. The tribe of Taqif and Ta'if decided to attack the Muslims when they were in Mecca. And the Prophet ﷺ heard that Taqif had allied with their cousins of Hawazin. Taqif are the people living in the city of Ta'if. Hawazin are their cousins biologically basically going back a few generations around the neighboring of Ta'if. So Taqif and Hawazin are the two tribes that are rivaling Quraysh in Mecca. And they decided that they're going to launch an offensive against the Muslims. over 20,000 people and the Prophet ﷺ decided to then engage with them in war and so the Ansar and the Muhajirun along with the new excuse me along with the new converts from Mecca they engaged in the battle of what is the battle called? the battle of Hunayn and the Qur'an mentions how many battles by name? two battles by name and then Allah Azawajal mentions the confederates Ahzab and we call it the battle of Ahzab but it's not called the battle of Ahzab in the Quran Allah says that Allah helped you at Badr and then Allah says on the day of Hunayn so Allah mentions two battles in the Quran Badr and Hunayn and we learned when we talked about the battle of Hunayn that initially the Muslims especially the new converts they fled and they ran away and the Prophet and the senior Sahaba remained until eventually the counter offensive was launched and the battle of Hunayn was a resounding success. The battle of Hunayn was a resounding success and the tribe of Hawazin, what happened with them? What happened with the tribe of Hawazin? Remind me. The men fled. The men fled and they left the women and the property and the belongings and so the entire tribe of Hawazin and also large segments of Taqif. Because if you remember, what happened from the tribe of Taif, Taqif, what happened was that the younger overzealous commander said what? Leave the castle and fort and bring all the women and children with them. Right? And the elder said, that's foolish. But the younger said, no, we're going to go ahead and bring our women and children, our properties, everything put them on the battlefield, this was a very very foolish move for them it turned out to be obviously Allah's Qadr and an advantage for the Muslims and the entire property was then confiscated by the Muslims as Ghanima and this was the largest Ghanima in the history of the Sira nothing was larger than the Ghanima of Hunayn because the tribe of Hawazin and Saqif their properties, their women, their children the camels, everything that was then conquered by the Muslims, now I want to now go back and derive some benefits from the battle of Hunayn and the siege of Al-Ta'if, we also mentioned the Prophet ﷺ camped outside the city of Ta'if and it was not success at that point in time and the Prophet ﷺ eventually then returned to Medina and he said Allah will guide them to Islam he said Allah will bring them sooner or later and we'll talk about when they converted that will be in the ninth year of the hijrah so in two three weeks we'll get to the conversion of the people of Ta'if now what are some of the main benefits from the battle of Hunayn first and foremost neglecting the primary cause of victory what is the primary cause of victory trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that's the primary cause of victory as Allah says that if Allah helps you nobody can conquer you What does Allah say that the Quran put their trust in on the day of Hunayn? Their numbers. وَيَوْمَ حُنَيْنٍ إِذْ أَعْجَبَتْكُمْ كَثْرَتُكُمْ On that day they had a confidence and therefore a tawakkul in other than Allah. They put their trust in other than Allah. And what was this trust that they put in other than Allah? They put it in the number, in the quantity that they had. And this shows us a very important point of Aqidah, of theology, of Tawheed. Our Tawakkul has to be in Musabbibul Asbab and not in the Sabab. Let me repeat that. Our Tawakkul must be in Musabbibul Asbab, that's Allah. That means the one who causes the cause. And not in the Sabab or the cause itself. if our tawakkul is put into the cause rather than the one who causes the cause then this is a type of shirk it's called minor shirk generally and there are many examples that are given so if you have an alarm system in your house and you turn it on and you feel khalas the alarm system will protect me this is not shirk akbar that will make you a mushrik you're not worshipping the alarm system right? I hope we're not nobody in the world will worship the alarm system But we say this is hidden shirk or minor shirk. That your tawakkul becomes in the alarm. Does that mean you don't turn the alarm on? Obviously not. You turn the alarm on. But then what's your tawakkul in? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's like when you're sick and going to the doctor, your tawakkul is in Allah, but then you realize Allah has given this doctor the tools, the mechanism, the knowledge that I don't have. I have to go to the doctor, but it is Allah who will bring the shifa and not the doctor or the medicine that will itself, in and of itself, cause the shifa. So if you put your tawakkul in the sabab, this is not going to get you to the end result. This is a very important point in all of our affairs of life. Your job, your degree, your education, your qualifications, all of this is a sabab. Allah has given it to you. You put your tawakkul in that, then this is a type of shirk. It could be major shirk if you deny Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this is inshallah not possible amongst the Muslims, right? But if the person denies Allah, a non-Muslim, and he says, oh this is all from me. So for example, the story of the man in the two gardens. When his brother said to him, this is from Allah. What did the guy say? This is from me. Qarun, what did he say? This is from me. Innama utitu ala ilmin indi. I was the businessman who managed to get this money. And so he's a kafir. That he's neglected Allah. He's basically gotten rid of the musabbibul asbab in his mind. And he makes himself the cause. You understand here? So the one who eliminates مُسَبِّبُ الْأَسْبَابِ completely, and he makes the سَبَب, he makes it the ultimate cause, this is when it becomes شِرْك and كُفْر. Is that clear? Right? Inshallah in the mind of the Muslim this is not possible. Therefore it's not going to be major شِرْك and كُفْر, but it is still a problem or a sin, and it will not bring us success. And that's exactly what happened on the day of Hunayn. On the day of Hunayn, they put their توَكُّل in the cause, and therefore what happened, they did not get to the end result. Now by the way, I have to mention here, there are two types of causes. There is a physical cause and there is a spiritual cause. What is a physical? What is a spiritual? A physical cause is a cause that humanity understands and believes in regardless of religion. For example, medicine. For example, job and education. For example, strength. For example, the alarm system. Do you have to be of a particular belief to practice medicine. Everybody practices medicine. This is a physical cause. A spiritual cause is a cause that is supernatural. It's not a natural cause. It's supernatural. And therefore, you have to believe in a certain methodology, ideology, cult, religion in order to do that. So, if you are in a certain part of the world, you will go to the shaman. Right? The North American Indians had their shamans. Right? Or if you are a Hindu, you will go to the pandit. And he will read something over you. this is supernatural cause. This isn't medicine, right? This is a spiritual cause. You understand this point here, right? We as Muslims have our spiritual causes. For example, what? Dua, Quran. I mean, all of these are spiritual causes. Now, the reason I say this, a spiritual cause, if it is legitimate, can you put your trust in the spiritual cause? Can your heart be attached, ta'alluq, to the spiritual cause? We said your heart should not be attached to a natural cause. Is that clear? Everybody is that clear? This is aqidah, it's not even seerah now. This is theology. Your heart should not have tawakkul, ta'alluq, with a physical cause. You go to the doctor, you realize, I have to go to the doctor. But your heart is attached up there. Okay. Can your heart be attached to a spiritual cause? That's my question. So why is it allowed? Because the spiritual cause by definition is what? It's connected with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So to have your heart ta'alluq with the spiritual cause is tawheed. To have your heart with ta'alluq with tawakkul to a physical cause goes against tawheed. Is that clear here? So we learned this from the incident of Hunayn that we don't put our trust in physical causes. Now of course physical causes are necessary. In that Allah created them to be causes right, with the famous hadith of tie the camel and then put your trust in Allah, this is the basis this is the basis, iqilha wa tawakkal we do the physical causes we go to the doctor, we put the alarm system on, we do a degree education we find our job, but then the heart is attached with Allah, iqilha wa tawakkal, memorize the simple hadith of the Prophet ﷺ and you'll understand, so we put our tawakkal in Allah while we do the physical causes Okay, that's one point we learned about from the battle of Hunayn. Another very important point of theology, of Aqidah. And I glossed over it and I want to just mention this a little bit more in detail. And that is, we excuse people even for major shirk and kufr out of ignorance. If a person is genuinely ignorant but they say they're a Muslim. They believe they're a Muslim. and then they fall into blatant shirk and kufr. And they don't even know it's shirk and kufr. It is possible Allah will forgive them because they're jahil, they're ignorant. This is a very important theological point. And we learn this from the hadith of Abu Waqid al-Laythi that when they were exiting from Mecca on the way to Hunayn, they saw that good luck tree that used to be an idol. and they would hang their weapons on that idol tree. It was a tree that was an idol, right? There was a beautiful majestic tree with branches hanging out and they would hang their weapons on those branches. And they would think that with these now weapons, we will now win in the battle. So Abu Waqad al-Laythi, he's just converted yesterday. Conquest of Makkah took place. Today he's on his way to Hunayn. Doesn't know anything. Hasn't memorized Quran. Hasn't studied Aqidah. Nothing. He goes and he says, Ya Rasulullah, can't you make for us this type of idol too? Can't you make for us thatu anwat? We used to have one in the days of Jahiliyyah. Why don't you make another idol for us? He didn't say idol, but he said good luck charm, thatu anwat. So this is major kufr. You're asking for another idol. And our Prophet ﷺ said it is major shirk. He said, I swear by Allah, you have asked me exactly what Bani Israel asked Musa when they were saved from drowning and Firaun and they went on to the shore and they saw an idol being worshipped they said, O Musa make for us a god like they have a god right, so the Prophet said Wallahi you have said exactly this and that's major shirk, but did he say, O Abu Waqid, repeat your shahada again, you just became a kafir, repent and accept Islam again, did he say that? no, why? because he's a brand new Muslim. He doesn't know any better. So this is very important because we are now living in a time when we hear such strange views amongst even Muslims that are born into Islam. But they're raised in this land or whatever land and they don't know even the basics of the religion. And they come forth sometimes with blatant kufr. And there are so many examples. The most obvious example is the notion of anybody who is good will be going to heaven. Doesn't matter what you believe. You can be agnostic, atheist, idol worshipper, you can be Ahli Kitab, anything. If you're a good person, all paths lead to Jannah. This is a common notion of our times. And to say this is Kufr Akbar. It goes against La Ilaha Illallah. Because you are saying, there are gods that can be worshipped besides Allah. You understand? It goes against the Kalima. It goes against Muhammad Rasulullah because you're saying somebody who denies Muhammad Rasulullah will go to Jannah. Right? It goes against both the kalimas. You have negated your kalima when you say, all paths lead to Jannah. And yet, if you were to ask and do a survey, even, may Allah protect us in our own community of teenagers. Wallahi, even not just teenagers. Do a survey of many. And they will say, oh yes, if you're good. Now, in Islam, you have to be good theologically and action-wise. إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ Right? So instead of saying, oh these are all kafir. No. The person who says this is an ignorant Muslim. He doesn't know any better. And inshaAllah he might be forgiven. He will be the Muslim who says this. He will be forgiven because there is aslul iman in his heart. Meaning, what is aslul iman? He wants to submit to Allah and His Messenger. Is that clear? That is aslul iman. You want to submit to Allah and His Messenger. What is aslul kufr? You don't want to submit like Iblis. أَبَا وَاسْتَكْبَر You don't want to submit. That is the أَصْلُ الْكُفْر أَصْلُ الْإِيمَان You want to submit, but you don't know what you have to submit to. You don't know that you cannot have ذَاتُ أنْوَاط You don't know that only one path leads to Jannah. So, such a person who believes himself to be a Muslim, then commits a major mistake. Even a كُفْر Even شِرْك And they're ignorant. That person will not be held accountable for their ignorance. Rather they must be taught and must be educated. These days we have again so many issues, gender orientation for example. Many of our second generation are saying, what's the big deal if somebody has this orientation or that? It's okay, let them do that. This is a very common thing now. And we say no. To say this is okay, it's like saying it's okay to drink alcohol. To say it's okay to drink alcohol is kufr. To drink alcohol is not kufr. But to say it's okay to drink alcohol is kufr. You see the difference, right? To legitimize haram is kufr. To commit haram is haram. it won't be kufr. And now we have a lot of these trends, especially in our second generation, to the elders and to those, we say calm down. Yes, it is kufr, but just like Abu Waqid al-Laythi, we have to deal with them in a gentle manner. They don't just make blanket, you know, oh, this is, you're not a Muslim anymore. No, you have said something that is un-Islamic, but you will be corrected inshaAllah, with wisdom and manners, like our Prophet ﷺ did. Another point of benefit from the battle of Hunayn, is that even the best of people can be swayed by worldly desires, by power, by ambition, by desire for wealth. It is not in and of itself a sign of lack of Iman to have desires of this world and to be swayed by those desires. The true Iman comes when you are reminded, are you kept in check? When somebody reminds you, when you are shown the truth, Can you put yourself in check? And this is, we see it in the Prophet Yusuf a.s. That the Qur'an explicitly says, he desired her. It is not in and of itself haram to have that natural inclination. You want now, by the way, where am I getting this from Hunayn? What happened in the battle of Hunayn that clearly showed that even some of the Sahaba, they had natural urge and desire and they said something that was not appropriate. Who remembers going back three and a half months? when the, very good, when the Ansar felt somehow that the Prophet ﷺ had not done justice when all the money was given to the new converts, when all the money was given to Abu Sufyan and Al-Aqra' bin Habis and all of these new converts and the Ansar said their statement that really demonstrated how disappointed they were in Rasulullah ﷺ, in and of itself that's very dangerous, to be disappointed in Rasulullah ﷺ. Actually it is a type of kufr. But they're human beings in the end of the day. What did they say? They said, when it comes to the call for war, we are the first on the line to be called. When it comes to money being given, he gives it to his relatives and family, the Quraysh. You understand this point? What happened in Hunayn, that money was given to the new converts. And how much money? By the millions. right? a hundred thousand camel here ten thousand dinars there this is like a massive amount from being a pauper you will become the one percent elite quite literally you will become the one percent elite the people that were given these Abu Sufyan and the elite of the Quraish they became in our in our vernacular millionaires overnight that's how much money was given to them wallahi any one of us we would have lost our minds over there that these people have opposed us fought us, tried to kill us for 20 years, we have defended Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, now when the money is given, where are we? not even called, not even one penny was given to the Ansar think about it, not even one penny was given to the Ansar what do you think is gonna happen? Wallahi, they said one word, what would we have done? put yourself in those shoes, right? and so, they said their statement, and what does this demonstrate? the Sahaba are humans, and I say this because we have a problem, many of the ignorant Muslims, we make the Sahaba into angels and when we make the Sahaba into angels they cannot be role models for us anymore because they're not human anymore the Sahaba are the best generation of human beings كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٌ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ they're human beings they wanted money like I want money and you want money, all of us want money they wanted it like all of us wanted but they were kept in check when the Prophet ﷺ heard he then called them into the tent and he said make sure nobody is there other than you get rid of all of the non-ansar I'm gonna speak only to you, speak frankly and he gave that moving lecture that moved them all to tears and he said that are you not happy that people are going back to their homes with gold and silver in their hands and you are going back to your home with Rasulullah ﷺ amongst you are you not happy, isn't that better than gold and silver and he said I am one of you I'm not one of them because their claim was he remembers his family. And he says, أنا مرؤ من الأنصار I am an Ansari. And were it not for my birth and lineage, I mean I can't help I was born there, right? I would have been of the Ansar. And if all of mankind went one direction and the Ansar went the other, I would go with the Ansar. What beautiful words. Wallahi, imagine, right? And the Ansar, that was what they needed to hear. They were sobbing and crying and they begged Rasulullah for forgiveness. This is Iman. the fact that they had the waswasa doesn't mean that they don't have iman we can all have waswasa, we can all have shaitan give us those thoughts in and of itself to have an inclination that's not a sign of lack of faith or weak faith but to control the inclination to be reminded and then remember that's what our Prophet ﷺ said that the mu'min, he can't be da'if but the mu'min, when he's reminded he remembers when he's given some admonition he opens his eyes and sees and this is what we see of the sahaba as well, they were human beings they were swayed like all humans would be swayed but then they tempered that, they controlled it and this is the role model that we have with the ansar, also of the benefits of the battle of Hunayn we see over and over again that our prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is dealing with people according to their backgrounds and their personalities and their levels. He's dealing with people according to their backgrounds and personalities and levels. Look at how he dealt with the Ansar. He didn't give them a penny and he gave all of them to the new converts of the Quraysh. Look at how he dealt with the Quraysh in the battlefield when the Quraysh fled. When the Quraysh fled, he used a war slogan that he had never used before or after that. What was the war slogan that he used on the battlefield of Hunayn in Arabic? I just, when I saw your hand I just said in Arabic. Just kidding. Okay, in English or in Urdu. Go ahead. He called upon his lineage. And he had never done this in any previous battle. In fact, now what was the war slogan? أنا النبي لا كذب أنا ابن عبد المطلب I am the prophet. There is no denying that. I am the son of عبد المطلب. Now this is what you call the master of human psychology. the notion of who your father and grandfather is, what does our religion teach us? It has the potential to become major sin, maybe even kufr. Kibr. It has the potential to become something of jahiliyyah. When you, and that's what our Prophet ﷺ said, that four things of jahiliyyah will always remain from my ummah. Number one of these four, al-fakhru bil-ansab. Being proud of your nasab. now what is happening right now in Hunayn astaghfirullah our Prophet ﷺ is not disobeying himself he can't he is the Rasulullah so what's he doing then he's not being proud of his nasib but is it wrong to say who your father and grandfather is it's true is he not the grandson of Abdul Muttalib yes so he's using something on that battlefield that needs to be used with these new converts from the Quraysh the one person that would bring that memory back who is your leader? he's not a foreigner he's not a stranger this is the grandson of your legendary chieftain and he says anabnu the son because you can call the son the grandson you can call the grandson the son excuse me you can call the grandson the son he said I am the son of Abdul Muttalib so the same thing can be applied in our times for example nationalism right? for example nationalism oh isn't it tomorrow Pakistan national day? right? tomorrow right? yes okay mashallah so and the day after that is India as well mashallah right? not too much happy faces there okay so the issue of nationalism exactly what we're talking about here it's a new concept I've said this many times but is there anything inherently wrong with ascribing yourself to a geographic region you are from a certain land have a certain culture have a certain cuisine what not so if it is used improperly, it can become kufr, it can become sin. But if it is used within and that's why the war slogan was number one, anan nabiyyu la kalib. That goes first. I am the prophet. There's no denying that. And then after that, I am the son of Abdul Muttalib. So ascribing himself, and this again shows us psychology. Now, so he's dealing with the Ansar in this way, he's dealing with the new converts in this way, he's dealing with the Bedouins in a different way. The Bedouins, after the battle of Hunayn, when the Bedouins came begging for money, He did not give the average Bedouins what he gave the chieftains of Quraysh. The chieftains of Quraysh got fortunes. Do you think these Bedouins got fortunes? No, he just gave them tokens here and there. Whatever it was, until everything was finished. The millions and millions that he had, probably 10 million estimate, I mean, ballpark figure, that much amount of money, all of it was distributed in one day. One day. and he didn't keep one penny for himself or for the elite of the muhajirin and ansar, none of them got anything all of it was given, now the bedouins that came, they got whatever was there until finally all of this 10 million was finished, and the bedouins continued to come in, free money they're coming in, until as the hadith mentions, the Prophet ﷺ was surrounded by a group of bedouins, and they were demanding, money, money, money, give us money, and all of the throng forced him back into there was a a group of trees with thorns over there, the desert shrubs. And they pushed him back to the desert shrubs. And of course, because these are Muslims, I mean, they're saying they're Muslims, and we're not supposed to test their hearts and whatnot. So the Sahaba are not acting like bodyguards now, because these are Muslims demanding money. And they pushed our Prophet ﷺ back into the shrubbery, so much so that his upper shawl was basically caught in that and fell down onto the floor. And the Prophet ﷺ said, hand me my cloak back give me my upper garment back for wallahi if I had coins or gold as much as the thorns of all of these shrubs I would have distributed to the last of you and you would not have found me stingy or miserly now he's obviously frustrated he has every right to be he has every right to be with this group but they're not being treated the way that the elite of the Quraish are being treated so our religion teaches us common sense We treat people according to their backgrounds. And I say this because once again, many innocent Muslims have a naive notion that, oh, we treat everybody the exact same way. No, you treat a dignitary, you treat a VIP in a manner that is conducive to that. And you treat the Bedouin who's treating the Prophet ﷺ rudely, you treat him differently. Nothing wrong with that. There's a hadith, the first hadith of Sahih Muslim in the Muqaddim and the introduction, that Aisha says, أَمَرَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ سَلَامًا أَنْ نُنَزِّلَ النَّاسَ مَنَازِلَهُمْ Our Prophet ﷺ commanded us to treat with people according to their own level. So look at how he's dealing with different people in a different way. Also, of the benefits of the battle of Hunayn, is the issue of making dua for versus against people. For versus against people. And again, I want to clear up a number of misconceptions, because as you know from my talks inshaAllah from the seerah, I'm not an apologist, I don't sugarcoat, I don't paint a picture that InshaAllah the point is I want to be faithful to our tradition Because I always believe honesty is the best policy You tell the truth as it is And then if somebody does not like it That's not our business to change it And if we have a false understanding of the seerah This is going to cause us harm in the long run If we have an image of the sahaba Or even of the procession that's not true Then we discover something in the books In our tradition This will lead to a crisis of faith It is better we just be open about it And teach the people the reality So another common misconception You are never ever allowed to be harsh with anybody And you are never allowed to make dua against somebody This is completely wrong When the sahaba finished the siege of Ta'if And they gave up and they wanted to leave They begged the Prophet ﷺ to make dua against Taqif Is that not true? Right? They begged the Prophet ﷺ Ya Rasulallah, make dua against Taqif. Why? Because Taqif were so stubborn. Because they have been here for two weeks now, according to some reports, and Muslims have died, and the Taqif were the ones who set the trap up, you know, with the help of Hawazin, and, you know, the Muslims are on an all-time high after the conquest of Mecca. All these big highs. Taqif brings it all down. So they said, Ya Rasulallah, make dua against the Taqif. Now, let me ask you, what year are we in right now? eighth year do you think the sahaba are asking something new they've never heard the Prophet ﷺ make dua against somebody they know this is possible they know that sometimes you make dua against a person and they have seen this in previous incidents can anybody give me an example from the seerah that the Prophet ﷺ made dua against somebody when the asr prayer was delayed he made dua against the ahzab what else against the group that put the carcass on him by name. And every one of them was killed in Badr. Which tribes? Which incidents took place where the entire tribe? Qur'an was revealed. Qarra and Ma'una and Raji'ah. All of these incidents. Qatal al-Sahaba, all of this. The Qur'an was revealed. And for one month the Prophet ﷺ made dua against groups of people. And I say this because subhanAllah, sometimes when we hear a da'i, a scholar, a sheikh, make dua against one of the taghiyas, one of the fir'auns of our time, right? Somebody will come and say, don't you know, it's against Islam to make dua against somebody. SubhanAllah, the Qur'an is full of this. Did not Musa make dua against fir'aun? Did not Nuh make dua against his own people? Now one can say, but the opposite is also mentioned, that Ibrahim and Isa made dua for their peoples, that were misguided, right? Ibrahim and Isa, and if you look at the history of, I mean, the personalities of the Anbiya, Ibrahim and Isa were the tender-hearted ones, Nuh and Musa were the more stricter ones, like Abu Bakr and Umar, right? Like Abu Bakr and Umar type of personalities, which shows us, yes, both are there. No doubt, the general rule, you make dua for, but sometimes it is healthy and necessary to make dua against. and therefore in our times there are many tyrants, the tyrant of Syria the modern pharaoh is it not Islamic to make dua against him? Wallahi it is now if somebody were to say oh Allah guide this person to Islam, is that wrong? no that's not wrong, it's okay you can also say oh Allah guide this person to Islam and make him a good Muslim, stop his tyranny and injustice, yes it is jais but the one who makes dua against after all that he's done that's also jais and in fact that is the more logical thing to do, in any case the point is that it's not un-Islamic right, and I want to just make that point over there because we have again this notion that we can never make dua against a tyrant or a dhalim, in fact what are all of the hadith of da'watul mazlum and this is dua against a muslim if a muslim has done dhulm to you if a muslim has stolen your money, confiscated embezzled, if a muslim has dishonored you, that spread slanders and lies, knowing it's a slander and lie. Islamically, Quranically, you are allowed to make dua against this person by name. By name, you can make dua against. And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, that da'atul mazlumi yustajabula. The dua of the one who has done wrong, that laysa bayna wa bayna allahi hijab. There is no hijab, there is no barrier between that person and Allah, his dua and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, which means what? You can make dua even against a Muslim how about a taghiyah a fir'aun of our times, of course we can make dua against such people so if some people make dua for such people that Allah makes them better and guides them, that is fine and permissible and if somebody makes dua against them that oh Allah destroy these people who are killing and murdering oh Allah show them, show us your power through their destruction, this too is jais and it is from the sunnah, now what did our Prophet ﷺ do with Ta'if? Did he make dua for them or against them? For them. So it shows that yes, the general rule, yes, you should be merciful. And especially when the people of Ta'if have already done what they've done and he forgave them in the past, why should he not forgive them again? So that's another benefit from the incident of Hunayn. Yet another benefit from the incident of Hunayn is wisdom in dealing with past offensive. Should you punish people for past offensives or forgive them? We have in the battle of Hunayn a major crime that took place. The new Muslims flood the battlefield. This is a major crime, a major sin. In fact, our Prophet ﷺ said, Seven are the deadly sins. اجتنبوا سبع الموبقات Seven are the deadly sins. One of them is, وَالتَّوَلِّي يَوْمِ الزَّحْتُ To turn away and flee on the battlefield, the day of the battlefield. And these groups of new Muslims, what did they do? they fled the battlefield. That's a major sin. One of the seven deadly sins. And therefore Umm Sulaim, and Umm Sulaim of course is one of the famous Sahabiyat. Umm Sulaim when they all fled, she in fact jumped off of her animal, and she's in the women's section. And she runs to the Prophet ﷺ, and she pulls out, she's a woman, she doesn't have the sword, she pulls out a hand dagger. Right? So amongst the small group of men, you have Umm Sulaim. And the Prophet ﷺ looks at her, and the Sahabah of things goes, what is this dagger? What is this? and she says, if anybody comes, I'm gonna shove it in his stomach. See what anybody can do. This is the bravery of Umm Salim. So when everything calms down, the battle is won, Umm Salim, she's angry now. Because she's the one that had to run from the woman's section to the Prophet ﷺ. And she says, Ya Rasulallah, execute all of those cowards. Who is she talking about? The ones who fled. Execute them, they deserve the death penalty. They were the ones who, the khawana, they betrayed you. execute all of them and the Prophet ﷺ said that O Umm Sulaim Allah Azza wa Jal قَدْ كَفَى وَأَحْسَن he took care of us, he defended us and Alhamdulillah everything is fine and done with meaning yeah they did a sin and crime but now we're gonna kill a thousand people now we're gonna execute all of them so here we find wisdom in dealing this is a major offense but now the done deal is a done deal what will you gain by retribution by criminal offense let it be, move on the past is the past as the saying goes and no use crying over spilled milk and this shows us the wisdom of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam also of the benefits of the battle of Hunain and we see this over and over again the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam uses not just physical means, not just spiritual means he uses psychological means as well, he uses psychological means as well, which shows us that subhanallah you need to understand the human psyche to get your stuff done a leader cannot be a leader unless he knows how to deal with the human situation and the human psyche. And there are so many examples for this. And in the battle of Hunayn, two examples come to mind as well. The longer one, we'll mention that now, is that the tribe of Hawazin, what happened to them? Eventually they accepted Islam, remember? Right? If you remember the story, the tribe of Hawazin, the Prophet ﷺ had their women and their children. Now, the tribe of Thaqif, where did they go? Where did they run? Back to their castles, back to their camp. But Hawazin does not have the camp. So Hawazin fled Helter Skelter. Hawazin just ran away. So Thaqif, they're in their castles and fortresses. Many of their women and children are saved. But Hawazin, all of their women and children are captured. All of their property is gone. So the Prophet ﷺ was hopeful that they're gonna have to come back to negotiate. So he did not distribute the spoils of war. He just left them, took care of them, in Jirana, in a valley. He basically guarded them, put 200 people there, guarded that, and went to Taif. Taif did not work out, came back to Jirana, waited, they didn't come. How long are you gonna keep it? So eventually he distributed all of the property, all of the people, he distributed them amongst the Sahaba. Then lo and behold, the next few days, Hawazin comes and says, we're sorry, we're Muslims, can we get our stuff back? That's what they did. So what did the Prophet ﷺ do? Human situation. Every person who now has a property, a slave, money, he's not just gonna hand it back. Somebody just got handed $10,000. You're gonna come to the next day, oh, you know, can I have it back? You feel now an attachment, right? And this is expensive property. This is hundreds of camels, hundreds of, you know, and then you have the slaves as well, which is very expensive at the time. And so many people became wealthy in this battle. So what to be done? Here's what you call human psychology. So Hawazin came to the Prophet ﷺ. He said, as for what I have, and the family of Abdul Muttalib, I can speak for them. All of this back to you. Oh, excuse me, before he said that, sorry. He said, which is more beloved to you? Your families or your wealth? What will anybody say? They said, is there even a question? Of course, our families. why? because he knows he cannot give everything back to them you cannot return everything you're gonna have to sacrifice, you came late and I can't take everything from their hands but I can take a little bit so which is more beloved to you your families or your property they said of course our families so he said okay, help me out then tomorrow after Salatul Dhuhr when we pray the Salah or it doesn't say Dhuhr, after the Salah most likely it's Dhuhr Asr After the salah, tomorrow, stand up and make this speech. Tell the people you converted to Islam and tell them that, Ya Rasulullah, we ask you to be our shafir, our intercessor with the rest of the Muslims to give our property back. And O Muslims, we ask you to intercede with the Prophet ﷺ to give us our property back. I mean, not our property, but our family's back. Okay? So, notice the psychology here. When everybody prays, how do you feel after salah? It's religious, right? You're all praying together. There must have been 10,000 people behind the Prophet ﷺ, salah. So, you choose the right time, the right place. Right after salah, you're feeling peace, right? You're feeling connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then emotional appeal. because the Prophet ﷺ does not want to command them. Why does he not want to command them? Tell me. It's not fair. It's their right. It's their right. They just got handed a lot of wealth which is their prerogative. And then to tell them, sorry, tough luck, hand it back. It's gonna be painful. So what does he wanna do? He wants them to be generous. he wants them to follow suit with what he's gonna do so he brings about the psychological situation the tender heartedness right the right time, the right place, the right emotional appeal and so they stood up after the salah, they gave their speech, immediately the Prophet ﷺ stood up again there's emotional you're playing with the psychology of these new converts because as for the elite of the sahaba he could have commanded them no problem, how about these new converts what's gonna happen with them, we will see what happens with them so he stands up and he says as for what I have in my family the al of Abdul Muttalib now al of Abdul Muttalib he knows exactly who they are then they are back yours, no problem right as for the rest of you O Muslims then you see the situation of your brothers, he just calls them your brothers, you see ikhwanukum their situation, they're asking for their own wives and children back right, so whoever can give it from the goodness of his heart let him do so, Alhamdulillah Allah will reward him and whoever is not able to do so then we will try our best to free them with the next amount of money that comes, right now he's khalas, it's all gone, he's given everything he doesn't have anything to give now, so he says the next batch of ghanima or fay that will come, then you will be the first recipients by purchase by hire, basically to free the slaves, so immediately the muhajirun said Ya Rasulullah, Sal, Fi Sabilillah. After the Muhajirun, who's gonna stand up? The Ansar, all of them stood up and said, Fi Sabilillah. So, the elite of the Sahaba, the righteous of the Sahaba, they all gave it up. But then, the new converts, many of them, they said, no, only with money. Only with money. And some of them said, Fi Sabilillah as well. So, the point is that, Alhamdulillah, a large percentage, there was no money involved, so it makes it easier for the Islamic treasury. Right? And then those that wanted the money, it's their haqq, it's their right. And this shows us that even the ruler cannot just confiscate property. This was their legitimate right, they fought a battle, they earned that right of wealth, and now they're given their share, now they cannot just be forced to give it up. So the Prophet ﷺ then said, whoever wants to be basically with the money back, the next time we get any money, you will be the first recipients, and therefore eventually all of the family members of the Hawazin were reunited. And subhanAllah, isn't this amazing as well that these were the same people that set the trap. These were the same people that attempted to kill the Muslims just a few weeks ago. These were mortal enemies. Now they come as Muslims. And there is no doubt that the main motivation for them to accept Islam is what? Defeat and family. Right? There's no denying this. But the Prophet ﷺ does not. Khalas, you're our Muslim brothers now. End of story. Because, and we say this over and over again, Islam is true. So however you accept it, eventually it will come into your heart. Islam is the truth. And these people now, their iman might be weak, their iman might not even be existent. Like Allah says in the Hujurat, Surah Hujurat, وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِمَانِ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ Iman has not even entered your heart yet. It's not even entered your heart yet. But it will enter your heart. Because after all, Where are their descendants now? All the righteous Muslims of the world. Right? That's what happens. Iman comes in to the heart. And therefore, this new group of Sahaba were treated with the type of generosity that we expect from our Prophet ﷺ. And that of course helps them accept Islam as well. And another story, I did not mention this last time because we did not have time. That when they accepted Islam, our Prophet ﷺ said, where is your leader? Malik ibn Auf al-Ansari. Malik ibn Auf al-Ansari was the same one who insisted to bring the women and children against the advice of the elders. Remember that was Malik ibn Auf al-Ansari. Where is Malik ibn Auf al-Ansari? That was the main leader who instigated the attack, who led the attack, who had the tactic of the bypass, sorry the overpass. That was all from Malik ibn Auf al-Ansari. So he said where is Malik ibn Auf? They said he managed to get into Ta'if. so he is now in Ta'if so the Prophet ﷺ said go tell him that if he comes to me as a Muslim I shall return his family and property plus give him 100 camels blatant price come, get your women back get your children back get 100 camels and so when Malik heard this it's a no brainer he's lost everything he's lost his tribe he's lost his family he's lost his wealth. Now he's being told if he comes back to the Prophet ﷺ as a Muslim, then khalas not only will he get everything back, he'll become a multi-millionaire. It's a no-brainer. What else are you gonna do? There's no life to live without your family, without your children, without your property, without your tribe. He's the chieftain. Without your tribe, what are you gonna do? So he has no choice. He comes to the Prophet ﷺ. He accepts Islam and the Prophet ﷺ reinstates him as the tribal leader. Subhanallah. The very person who instigated the whole and this isn't the first time this has happened. Who can remind me of another time this has happened? Where the whole tribe fights and then they embrace Islam and then the leader goes back to the same leader. Banu Harithah. Right? The Banu Harithah, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ. The Maymunah. Her father-in-law was the chieftain. And the same thing, they're all prisoners of war and then instantaneously they're all freed, they become Muslim, they get their property back they go back basically to the same land the same people, everything and this isn't the first time what an amazing stories we have of our seerah what other civilization can say this what other civilization can say this that the same person who fought against the Muslims now he goes back with his tribe with his family with his property and everything is status quo except that idolatry is gone and they're Muslims and in fact Malik Ibn Auf al-Ansari, he then versified some lines of poetry, basically saying that the Prophet ﷺ truly is a prophet, because he didn't have to do this. Yet he fulfilled his promise, and he gifted, and he was generous. So this is what money does to people, right? This is the reality. When you see the Prophet ﷺ giving millions of dollars, the equivalent, millions, and not taking one thing in his own pocket, what does that demonstrate? That's what Ibn Habiz, the other chieftain said when he went back to his people, what did he say? He said, Wallahi this man is a Nabi for no king would do what he has done. No king would give all of his money. I have just come from a man, he doesn't care about faqr. He doesn't care about faqr. What man doesn't care about faqr? I care about faqr, you care about faqr. Right? Everybody is worried about poverty. I have just come from a man, it's no concern of him how much money he has, doesn't have. This is only a Rasul. Only be somebody of that level. So when you're so generous and you're so good to the people, you are going to bring their hearts to Islam and that's exactly what happened with the tribe of Hawazin. And this was the general rule of the Prophet ﷺ is to try to find another benefit here. You can add another benefit. Try to find local leaders rather than put leaders from other. Look at what he did with Malik. The same leader of the tribe becomes the leader of Hawazin. Why? Because it is human nature. you will respect somebody from within your own ranks as a leader you're not gonna respect somebody from outside it's human nature that somebody of your own ranks you can take him as a leader he knows you, you know his lineage if you have another ethnicity another person come in it's difficult to accept as a leader also who better to rule than somebody who's already ruled Malik ibn Auf knows how to rule his own people he knows the people in charge he knows the elites he will need So he's handed back basically his power and he's told to now become the chieftain of the same tribe that he was the chieftain of in the days of Jahiliyyah. Another point that we talk about in the battle of Hunayn and I've been delaying this point for a very very long time and some questions have even come up in the last, how long? Three years I've been teaching zirah alhamdulillah here. So we've kind of delayed this. I just want to give a brief talk about this now. And maybe, maybe someday we can give a longer lecture about this. But the issue of the prisoners of war brings up the very, very controversial issue of slavery in early Islam and in Islamic law. And this is a very hot topic that obviously critics of Islam and even Muslims that don't know the sharia that well, they always bring questions. One of the questions I always get asked about from our young men and women is, what does our religion say about this? How do we read these books of the seerah of the Quran? even which mentions malakat aymanukum, the right hand possessions. What do we say about all of these things? Now, this is a very long topic in and of itself. And it is a very controversial topic. And the first thing is I don't like using the term slavery. Because the English term slavery comes with a connotation in West Western history that the Arabic term and Islamic terms never had. The very term slavery is historically loaded. and when we use the term instantaneously we get images of Hollywood movies and what not of American slavery which was honestly historically speaking one of the worst manifestations of this institution in human history even the ancient Romans treated their slaves better than what we saw in this land 200 years ago and this is a historic fact which everybody acknowledges that the way slavery existed especially in this country was really the worst manifestation of that institution in human history. So when we use the term slavery, automatically that type of image and scenario comes up. Whereas that never existed ever in the history of Islam, even in the history of many other cultures, that version did not exist. So I don't even like using the English term. Rather we can use عُبُدِيَّة or رِقْ or something of this nature, which is the Arabic connotation. Now, we need to look at the issue of رِقْ from two angles. firstly within the context of their times and what did Islam do and then secondly within the context of our social political ethical laws and the banning of the institution of slavery in the modern world so firstly within the context of their times within the context of their times we need to understand that slavery or rik or ibudiyya was a universal practice No culture or society had banned it ever in that period. In the Middle Ages early, in the Roman societies, Greek societies, Chinese societies, Indian societies. It was rampant around the whole globe. And Islam was the only and the first to institute laws for ubudiyya. There were no laws for ubudiyya, for rik before the coming of Islam. And Islam was the only civilization to come and give a set of laws about dealing with rik. And of those laws were to limit, to have checks and balances put into place. By number one, restricting where do abz come from. And Islam restricted it to one and only one source. Prisoners of war who are not ransomed. every civilization in the world allowed abds to be basically captured in other lands who were free and then capture them as a free man and then sell them as what happened over here you just go into a land and you just take somebody force him into rik and then bring him as an abd as a prisoner as a slave whereas in Islam there was only one source a legitimate war that is fought and a state fights another state you have these 5-10 thousand prisoners and there's no ransom to be paid nobody's paying their ransom what is to be done? you cannot just set them free they're gonna come back to you what is to be done? you take them as abd as in the institution of rik so that's the only source of getting rik in Islam the second law that was done is to legislate proper treatment which again was unheard of in any other civilization and culture there are numerous ahadith about treating abz, treating amaz in a humane manner. About, quite literally, hadith in Bukhari says that your slaves are your brothers. إِخْوَانُكُمْ خَوَلَكُمْ Right? They are your brothers. Feed them from what you eat and give them to wear from what you wear. And that is why in Islam, there are many instances of you can't tell the rikh from the master. You cannot tell that. And in Islam, leads me to the third point as well. And that is that, Islam legislated the freeing of slaves through multiple avenues. So many penalties. A false oath or testimony, breaking your fast in Ramadan. So many things. What is the penalty in the Qur'an? تحرير رقبة, free a slave. In fact, it legislated zakat money. One of the eight categories of zakat. وفي الرقاب Imagine the highest institution of money, which is zakat. One of the eight is freeing a slave. That's not something to be taken lightly. So Allah Azza wa Jal said, you can use your zakah for freeing a slave. And in fact, not just zakah and penalty. It is one of the highest virtues of Islam. There are chapters, even in the book we are reading on a daily basis, which is Imam An-Nawiyah Ziyad al-Salaheen. There are chapters, the virtue of freeing a rik or an amma. There are chapters that you are told that one of the ways to free yourself from Jahannam is to free a slave. And that's why Aisha and others, they would be hunting for rik to free. So it's a virtue in our religion to actually free an abd or an amma. And fifthly we can say that of the interesting things of our law is that it created a legal framework that incorporates treatment of riks and ammas. But it doesn't require their existence. So if we eliminate the whole institution of abds and ammas, the Islamic sharia is still valid and intact. There is no legislation that requires an abd. There is no legislation that requires the existence of this institution. And therefore, in our times, when there is no such institution as slavery, Islamic law is full and valid. And it doesn't need their existence. And this is an amazing point in my opinion, that clearly demonstrates that Allah Azza wa Jal intended for this institution to be something that is not necessary and required. If it's there, there are laws that governed it for 11-12 centuries. Now that it's gone, we don't need, those institutions don't need to be brought back. And that's why I don't know of any scholar in our times that is calling for this institution to come back. So, looking at now, of course there's also the issue of having conjugal relations with the amas or the female slaves. and this is obviously as usual a very sensitive topic that many people find problematic Muslims and non-Muslims but once again all societies and cultures had the exact same rule it's not something that Islam came with it's not something that Islam was new about every society and culture had the same rule in fact there's plenty of references in the old and new testament and are we forgetting our own father Ibrahim what was Hajar and the lineage of the process and goes back to hajjah this is something that even the old testament and the new testament talk about but previous civilizations and cultures they did not have any rules and in many cultures including pre-islamic arabian culture your amma couldn't didn't just have to be yours you could lend her to other people astaghfirullah and of course what happened was you would then hire her out to other people and this was the common practice that your amma you would hire her out for a night you understand what I'm saying here and the Quran references this fact that this is haram the Quran references it you cannot do this so the Quran came and legislated things even in this regard that if you have such an amma then she must be only yours and children born in jahiliyyah days were considered to be sometimes slaves whereas in Islam the child born from such a union will always be exactly 100% the same as a child from a marriage and that's why Ismail and Ishaq are both equal in the eyes of the Sharia of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Ismail and Ishaq are both equal and in fact if you look at our own history the majority of the Khulafa were born of slaves the majority and that's a huge thing to say and go back and check it The majority of the Abbasids and the Uthmanids, the majority of the Abbasids and the Uthmaniyun, were actually children of slaves. And what does that indicate? That their lineage from the mother's side was not something that brought a stigma to them. It was something that brought no stigma to them. And also if a child was born of such a union, immediately the Amma was upgraded, a free upgrade is given to her. She is no longer an Amma. She is called Ummul Walad. This is the books of fiqh have a chapter called the chapter of Ummul Walad. What is Ummul Walad? Ummul Walad is a special category of Amma. In that, you cannot, after this child is born, sell her to anybody else. She's only yours. Because now that she's a mother of a child, that's Ummul Walad, the mother of the child. She's no longer treated like anyone else. She becomes Ummul Walad, and she cannot be transferred ownership, or sold, or anything of this nature. and she becomes free on the death of the child's father. So as soon as the child's father dies, then she becomes automatically, with his death, she becomes free. Now that's a very interesting law that did not exist in any other civilization and culture. The point being that, yes, I understand this is a difficult topic for many of us, especially our young minds to grasp. And the fact of the matter is, we don't have to deal with this in the modern world. Allah Azza wa Jal legislated something that for the time and the context was the most humane possible. And everything seemed to work towards eliminating this institution. Now that it is eliminated, Alhamdulillah, we don't have to call for it to be brought back or what not. It is now gone from... And by the way, Rik was abolished in Muslim lands from 1870 onwards. So it was recent. Not like in Europe or what not. In Muslim lands, you had abz for a little bit longer. and in the 1870s, 80s, 90s and then 1910, 20, 30s there were abolition movements as they were in Europe as well and there was opposition to them just like there was in Europe as well and many Muslim clerics opposed the opposition opposed the abolishment of rik because they said it is Islamic and some forward thinkers said no we're modern times we don't need it and so eventually Alhamdulillah as we know it has all now been eliminated at least we can say it doesn't exist in the form it used to some can say some of the workers that are in some countries they're treated like slaves that's something else right but the institution of abd or abudiyya it is now gone the bottom line yes wallahi it is a very difficult issue to wrap our minds around but it needs to be said and explained because we've talked about this so many times and this was the reality of the situation throughout the world and our religion came and legislated it made it far more humane if you like than any other civilization, in fact no other civilization had laws about these matters, and our sharia I've just summarized some of the laws, obviously every book of fiqh by the way, every book of classical fiqh, there's a chapter on ahkam al-riq, ahkam al-abd, ahkam al-ama, there's chapters about this and you can go and read about those chapters for historical value if you want to, in our times as we know it is now gone, and nonetheless even in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ notice how many times were the slaves freed and our Prophet ﷺ himself never had a personal slave khadim he never had a slave khadim that he would every slave that he had as a servant or what not he would free and a number of the slaves that he had when he freed them they attached themselves with him and they just volunteered their services to him ﷺ he was salam. Of course there was Marya al-Qibtiya and Marya al-Qibtiya there's a difference opinion about her Islam did she remain a cop or did she accept Islam or not and Marya al-Qibtiya was not a servant as you know of the process I said he did not have a slave servant he did not have a servant that was a slave as for Marya al-Qibtiya then there was an ikhtilaf, did she accept Islam or not and we'll get to her later on but in any case he did not salallahu alayhi wa sallam ever have a personal slave servant of his own and then the final point we'll mention about the benefits of the story of Hunayn and Taif if you remember we talked about the conversion of the single most famous poet, who was he? the conversion of the most famous poet of all of Arabia Ka'b ibn Zuhayr, Hassan was the poet of Medina Ka'b ibn Zuhayr converted to Islam Faraz Daq did not convert to Islam correct? Faraz Daq is yes, what am I saying? big mistake, Faraz Daq is Ummawi, the one I'm thinking of is who is the one in the north part of the world, I forgot the name now, yes, Faraz Daq is way after the most famous poet alive at the time of the Prophet ﷺ is Ka'b ibn Zuhayr Ka'b ibn Zuhayr and after the battle of Hunayn he accepted Islam after a few weeks after that he came to Medina and he accepted Islam so this is not on the plains of Hunayn we talked about his conversion story and his poem is called Banat Su'ad Su'ad appeared and Su'ad is of course the female figure now this is a little bit of a deep point and I hope it's not misunderstood but it needs to be said briefly and maybe in some thick discussion we can go more in detail into this but what i wanted to say pre-arabic poetry had certain motifs and mannerisms and styles and some of those motifs and mannerisms and styles are awkward to say the least for example every famous arab poem pre-Islamic poem always has a love story. Dare I say, every poem in our times is about love, right? Rap, Mute, what is it all about? Every single famous Arabic poem, by and large, right? Has some type of... In fact, it's not even Arab poetry. What is poetry and drama and whatnot except that usually there's some love things involved, correct? This is the reality of our human situation. And pre-Islamic poetry is no exception. I mean, what is the beginning of the mu'allaqat? Should I quiz our elder sheikh here? What's the first line of Imran al-Qais? First line of Imran al-Qais. قِفَى نَبْكِي مِن ذِكْرَةً حَبِيبٍ وَمَنْزِلِي So, let us stand here and weep, looking at the place where our beloved used to be. so he's weeping looking at the tent and the walls that the Habib used to live in okay, the what? yeah, so just looking at the ruins looking at the ruins, right? you remember your grade 12 poetry now coming back to you, huh? it's all coming back to you so, and this is all of the mu'allaqat why do I bring all of this up? because in this poem of Banat Suad the poem Banat Suad I mean, remember the Asif, I have to ask you What's the most famous line in this poem? You in particular. The Muhannad, the Hindi. That's all I remember. What is it? It's just famous to some people. That's a very valid point. I would say it is the most famous line of the poem. But not because of the Muhannad. It's the first part. For us, we'll take the second part of the couplet, right? Yeah. إِنَّ الرَّسُولَ لَنُورٌ يُسْتَضَاءُ بِهِ إِنَّ الرَّسُولَ لَنُورٌ يُسْتَضَاءُ بِهِ مُحَنَّدٌ مِن سُوفِ اللَّهِ مَسْلُولُ That the Prophet ﷺ is a light that people seek the light from. And he is the Indian sword, مُحَنَّد. So مُحَنَّد is the highest quality sword, the sword from Hind, مُحَنَّد. And we talked about this and the pride that every Indian should feel now about the term مُحَنَّد, of the swords of Allah. Now, why am I bringing all of this up? Because if you actually read this poem, as is typical there are paragraphs about su'ad and the love that this man basically has for su'ad has for su'ad and descriptions of the beauty of su'ad now this type of terminology we wouldn't think when we think about poetry of the Prophet ﷺ correct but Ka'b is a brand new Muslim and he's writing one of his most famous poems In fact, this became his most famous poem, Banat Suad. Suad became visible. Suad is now gone from us. So he's talking about the pain and anguish of Suad. And there are lines in this poem that some of the more conservative Muslims that are ignorant of Arabic literature, which is I think the most of us conservative Muslims, would find problematic. You understand what I'm talking about. You have a love poem here, right? What am I trying to get at? Subhanallah, there are styles and techniques and wasilas that are used, sometimes there are things present in those wasilas that you don't necessarily like. Our Prophet ﷺ did not correct him. Don't have this, delete that. He didn't correct, just let it be. It's not the time and place to do this, right? And this is a bit controversial because other poetry he did correct. Other poetry our Prophet ﷺ did correct. When the poetry was incorrect, was kufr sometimes, right? or too much of an exaggeration so the poem in Sahih Bukhari that some young girls came to the Prophet ﷺ on the day of Eid and they began playing the daff and singing and the banging the daff and one of the lines of the poetry was وَفِينَا نَبِيٌّ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْغَدِ we have a Prophet who knows what's gonna happen tomorrow now that's going too far that is a theological deviation our Prophet ﷺ said to these young girls get rid of this line and the rest of it is fine this hadith is in Bukhari by the way we have a prophet who knows what's going to happen tomorrow now what am I saying here is problematic because I'm not going into detail what is and what is not allowed and that really requires some fiqh discussion all I'm saying is sometimes in some places you can't have 100% sanitized version and we have to especially keep this in mind in the modern world that we live in when things are being done people are doing da'wah in ways maybe I wouldn't do it maybe I wouldn't even approve of it but they have their ways of doing da'wah and there's gonna be some issues that have problems in them and again this is not an open light for all types of da'wah it's case by case basis and there's gonna be a difference of opinion all I'm trying to say is bring highlight to is if you read this poetry I can guarantee you almost any conservative Muslim who has never studied classical Arabic poetry. As for those who have studied, they understand this is genre. They understand this is how classic Arabic poetry always has a woman, you know, beautiful lady, descriptions, love. This is the way poetry works, right? But for most of us who have never studied that type of stuff, if you were to actually read this poem, then you realize our process was it was being recited to him. We would just balk, oh my God, how is this even halal? Even though the poem is very famous because it eventually leads to the Prophet ﷺ praising him. So you always begin with the love poetry, you work your way to the subject matter. That's what Ka'b did as well. And we conclude now, what were the results of Hunayn and Ta'if, and then inshallah we're done for today. The results of Hunayn and Ta'if were, number one, a clear victory in the Hijaz, the entire region of the Hijaz, of our Prophet ﷺ. even though Taif even though Taif was still not Muslim it was a small island of shirk in the ocean of Tawheed the entire Hijaz region had now converted to Islam, idolatry had been eliminated publicly there's no idolatry publicly anymore yes, Taif is still pagan within their castle, it's only a matter of few months, they will also embrace Islam and therefore, the battle of Hunayn was the very last battle between Islam and Shirk. That's it. It's gone. After the battle of Hunayn, never did the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba fight against the Mushrikun of Arabia. It's gone now. The next battles are now, Rome, Persia, you know, others. The conquest will begin. Egypt, as for Shirk, in the Arabian Peninsula, Hunayn was the final domino. Khalas. Conquest of Mecca, and then Hunayn, and that's it, Arab idolatry ceased to exist within less than a year, and this is one of the biggest miracles of the seerah itself Arabia was a land of idolatry, and within 22 years idolatry, there are no more Arab idolaters, they're gone, khalas completely gone, this was a miracle that no human could bring about, our lord brought about complete wiping of shirk in jazeelatul arab And of course the final benefit is the tribe of Quraysh in totality having embraced Islam. There are references, by the way, you should know as a footnote. Perhaps one or two or three of the Quraysh fled to Rome or other places. And they died obscure deaths and that's it. End of story. But all of the elites that remained had to convert to Islam. And that is exactly what happened. وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا And with that, Central Arabia had been conquered. the only major province of Arabia that was left was the northern province as for south they are not idolaters they are the people of Yemen and eventually will be conquered in a peaceful way as well not much bloodshed the major battle left will be with the people of north and Allah will that they will not actually fight that's the battle of Tabuk will happen there that there's not actually going to be bloodshed taking place and the people will feel the power of Islam and realize they cannot fight it that will be the battle of Tabuk and inshallah we'll begin talking about the battle of Tabuk inshallah from our next Wednesday's halaqah.

Seerah 86 - Pt

Al-Fatiha. We left off last halaqah and we had finished the battle of Hunayn and Taif and the benefits of the battle of Hunayn and the siege of Taif. And today inshallah ta'ala we will move on to the Ghazwati Tabuk. But before we do that just a very quick note that there were around six months before between the siege of Taif and the battle of Tabuk. what happened in these six months around seven or eight mini expeditions which we're not going to go into the names of the small expeditions the Prophet ﷺ did not participate but he sent the Sahaba to neighboring tribes and neighboring lands and one of the main purposes was to destroy large idols to destroy public idols and also to bring in the small tribes around Mecca around Medina that were still remaining to bring in so there's no need to go into all of the names but for example just so that you know the more famous ones Tufayl ibn Amr was sent to destroy the idol of Dhul Kaffain and Ali ibn Abi Talib was sent to destroy the idol of At-Tayy by the name of Al-Fuls and other idols were destroyed as well now it's a very important point especially in light of modern political issues where we have these groups that are destroying basically sacred sites or what not and they use these incidents from the seerah as evidence to destroy modern sites Now, one thing needs to be reiterated, and that is that the Prophet ﷺ only did this after he had established his political authority in the land. In other words, he's not destroying Dhul-Kaffain, he's not destroying Al-Fulsi, he's not destroying Al-Uzzan, other of these idols, until he has established political authority, right? So this is after the conquest of Mecca, after the battle of Hunayn, when Central Arabia is basically his completely. And he is now expanding and conquering all of Arabia. So when the political power is with the Islamic State, at this point in time they might contemplate destroying the idols of the pagan idols. But there's another issue here now, right? There's another issue. And that issue is, what do our scholars say, what do the madhahib say about the freedom of other religions to worship in an Islamic State, right? This is another issue that many people bring up. And the fact of the matter is that there has been a controversy from the very beginning of Islam amongst the tabi'un and taba tabi'un. By unanimous consensus, Jews and Christians of course are allowed to practice their faith in the Islamic state. This is something well known and the Quran is explicit on this and hadith are mentioned about this point. There is no ikhtilaf at all. The question comes, how about paganistic religions? How about religions that are not Ahli Kitab religions? This is the question and the responses that we've had, ikhtilaf from the very beginning of time. By almost unanimous consensus, there is no idolatry allowed in the Arabian Peninsula, في جزيرة العرب. And this was perhaps the greatest success of our Prophet ﷺ, is that he permanently got rid of idolatry amongst the Arabs, amongst جزيرة العرب. and the ethnicity of the Arabs, right? So to this day, you really don't have idolaters amongst the Arabs. And this is something that is the success of Islam that it completely wiped it out. How about worshipping idols outside of the Arabian Peninsula? Would an Islamic state tolerate that? And the four madhhab have differed on this issue. The four madhhab have differed on this issue. Some of the madhhab said, you can only take as citizens in Ahl al-Dhimma status, Jews and Christians and Zoroastrians. Zoroastrians of course are the Pharisees, we call them in India, Pakistan, the ones that consider fire to be a source of divinity and what not. And the reason that Zoroastrians are included in all of the Madahib is that Umar ibn Khattab, when they conquered Persia, when they conquered Persia, Iran, Umar ibn Khattab said, treat them like you treat Jews and Christians. treat them like you treat Jews and Christians and so they were treated like Jews and Christians in terms of giving the jizya and being allowed to practice their faith within their temples now from this some of the scholars have said only Zoroastrians have an exception from Jews and Christians Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians no other group however two points firstly there's always been an opposing view and the most famous madhab that championed it very strenuously was the Hanafi madhab the Hanafi madhab said you may qiyas on all of the religions why do we stop only at Zoroastrians because Zoroastrians do not believe in our God Jews and Christians do they believe in our God yes what's your evidence the Quran is explicit anybody who denies this and there are many ignorant Muslims who deny this and I have met plenty of them anybody who denies this has not even read the Quran Allah says in the Quran talking about the Ahlul Kitab وَإِلَهُنَا وَإِلَاهُكُمْ واحد We have the same God. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Ishmael, the God of Moses, this is the same God. The God of Noah, that's the same God. Now, Zoroastrians, do they have this God? Our God? No. They don't have our God. They have Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, the God of good and the God of evil, the God of light and the God of darkness, right? Ahura Mazda is the God of good and Ahriman is the God of evil. They have two ultimate divinities. They don't believe in Abraham and Moses And they don't believe in any of this Yet by unanimous consensus All of the madhhab said That the Zoroastrians are treated like Ahl al-Kitab Now based on this The Hanafi madhhab and also some riwayat In the Maliki and Hanbali madhhab They said that therefore All non-Arab Paganistic religions Have the same exception They didn't allow the exception for the Arabs Why? Meaning when I say Arabs here, I mean the Arabian Peninsula. And in those days it was basically the same. You didn't have Arabs in Egypt at the time of the Prophet ﷺ. You didn't have Arabs. So by Arabs we mean Jazirat al-Arab. Why? Because Jazirat al-Arab has a sacred, not a sacred, but a better status or a holier status. Even sacred is not a bad word to use in English. It has a status that the other lands do not have. And our Prophet ﷺ said on his deathbed, أخرج اليهود والنصارى من جزيرة العرب. Meaning in the Arabian Peninsula, you cannot have two religions flourishing. You can have another religion that is on the side, but not apparent, not public. So you can have other religions in small communities, but not flourishing. This is the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. أَخْرِجُ الْيَهُدَ وَالنَّصَارَ مِنْ جَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِ But he never said that you have to expel them from non-Jazeera al-Arab. Jazeera al-Arab is the Arabian Peninsula. So, based on this, the other opinion, and the opinion that pretty much everybody has acted upon in the history of Islam. And this is a very important point that most people who want to just study a book, they ignore history. Historically speaking, what did our Khulafa do? The Umayyads, the Abbases, the Ottomans, what did they do? All of the Khulafa, by and large, they tolerated every minority. as long as that minority was civil. What do I mean by civil? They didn't go murdering. They didn't go on a rampage. They didn't go killing other people. And that is why we have the most bizarre ideologies and religions to this day in places in the Muslim world. We have the most bizarre. I already spoke about religions and ideologies that we don't even believe are Islamic. For example, the Druze and the Alawis were very small groups. We don't view them as being Muslims because they don't believe in the Kalima and they don't pray, they don't fast. And the Alawis, as we know, were a small minority until the French came. I talked about this in the 1914 lecture, remember. The Alawis were a small minority and they were only attacked by the Khulafa when the Alawis themselves became violent. Otherwise, they lived to their own and they were given their basically just hands off, like don't ask, don't tell type of policy. Don't attack us, we won't attack you. And right now, we're looking at what's happening with the Yazidis of Iraq, right? And the Yazidis are one of the most bizarre cults that emanated from within our religion, but then they broke away completely. They have nothing to do with Islam anymore. They don't even consider themselves Muslims, even though their Shaykh, Adi ibn Musfir, was a righteous Sufi Shaykh. But when he died, they continue to just exaggerate and change, and they have some bizarre ideology. Believe it or not, They actually believe that shaitan is, he repented from his sin and he is now worthy of being an intercessor between them and Allah or God. And so they worship shaitan al-tawq, they call him the golden peacock, they call him al-tawud, they call him the golden peacock. And so they have this misnomer that they are satan worshippers. There's an element of truth and there's an element of exaggeration. they don't view shaitan as being shaitan but they worship shaitan in some bizarre way so anyway going to my tangent maybe you don't want to know about yazidis but the topic now is not yazidis right no way this is news this is news to me wow well then bring them we want to speak to them if they converted to islam bring them we want to speak to them and find out because i have never met in my life a person of this belief my point being the yazidis have existed this Adi ibn Musfir, he died around 532 or something hijrah. So that's around a thousand years ago. And it took like a hundred years for them to develop and evolve. This is in the heartland of the Abbasid caliphate. This is in the heartland of the Abbasid caliphate. And they were allowed to just be alone and do what they're doing. What does this demonstrate? Historically speaking, I mean look at the Mughal dynasty. Right? If the Mughal dynasty had attempted to follow the strict Shafi'i position, they would immediately ceased to exist. The majority of the inhabitants were what? Hindu. And they allowed them to be as they are. And this is the standard Hanafi position. So, the point being that, and I say this because these incidents of the process of destroying idols and what not, it is now being used in our times by these groups, firstly to destroy sometimes things that are not idols. Now, technically speaking, I want to be very blunt here. In an ideal Islamic state, you could not practice shirk publicly. So, if you were of another religion, you will worship in the way you want to worship in your place of worship. And these idols that were destroyed were public idols. So there's a difference between a public icon of shirk, you have a public idol, right? Versus the temples that are closed and only the people of that religion come into that temple. historically speaking this is how it had existed in Muslim lands that the people of other religions they had their places of worship Zoroastrians from our perspective they worship fire now I say this, Zoroastrians don't agree with what I said, they don't say they would say we're not worshipping fire and from their perspective they don't consider it worship from our perspective when you present offerings and you bow down and you consider fire to be holy and what not we call this ibadah from our perspective they are worshipping from their perspective they say they don't worship my point being the Islamic state allowed them to worship other than Allah in their lands but within their temples they were not allowed to go public in this regard so here we have an extremism that we see in our times of these groups that they want to destroy anybody that doesn't agree with them and in our religion firstly if you want to do this properly you need to have authority in the land you need to have statehood, our Prophet ﷺ didn't begin his da'wah by destroying the idols around the Ka'bah, did he? did he begin his da'wah by destroying the idols around the Ka'bah? no, when did he destroy the idols? when he conquered Mecca after 20 years of preaching, and these guys they wanna start from this exact point when nobody will accept this from them and then number two, they selectively apply they don't know properly which thing to go and destroy, our Prophet ﷺ allowed, and the sharia allows the freedom of worship of other religions if it is done in in their own places of worship and this is the standard position the majority position and also historically this is how the ummah has always done it I do not know of any case now maybe there could be some obscure case somebody will correct me you know next week I do not know of any famous or well known case of an Islamic caliphate destroying an entire ethnicity an entire population an entire religion just because they disagreed with that religion. I don't know of any Abbasid, Umayyad, Ottoman, Seljuk. I've never heard of this in my study of history. Now again, maybe there's one instance that proves the rule. But the general rule is what? The Ummah tolerated the beliefs of other religions as long as some conditions were met. And of those conditions is, and this is a common sense condition, don't practice your shirk out in public. Don't have an idol in the town square and sacrifice to the idol in the town square. If you want to do something that goes against the worship of Allah Azawajal, that's something in your own religion basically, then you do it within your own community, not in front of others. And I say this again because these types of incidents are misused and abused by the modern groups in our times. And this is not, in my opinion, a correct understanding of the sharia. Now, we move on now to the battle of Tabuk. The battle of Tabuk. And we'll spend, inshallah, a few weeks on the battle of Tabuk. what are the names of this battle why did it take place, when did it take place that's what we're going to talk about inshallah today the names of this battle, two primary names two primary names of this battle both of them are mentioned in the hadith one of them is referenced in the Quran but not by the name of the battle but rather as an incident as for the most prominent name it is Ghazwat Tabuk the expedition of Tabuk why? because our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam himself said as Mu'adh ibn Jabal reports that Mu'adh said that we went on the expedition with the Prophet ﷺ in the year of Ghazwati Tabuk and we were combining our prayers Dhuhr an Asr and Maghrib an Isha until we came close then the Prophet ﷺ said tomorrow you shall arrive at the well or the spring of Tabuk Ayni Tabuk so he used the phrase Ayni Tabuk he called a place of land a small body of water Ayni Tabuk and Ayn means a spring it's not a well that's an incorrect translation Ayn is a small spring so tomorrow you're gonna arrive at the spring of Tabuk and you shall arrive there at the hot time of the day so make sure you do not touch its water until I get there and we'll discuss why the Sahaba had run out of water they were extremely thirsty they thought they were going to die and that they were going to come to Tabuk the next day and the Prophet ﷺ said make sure you do not touch the water until you get there. So Mu'adh said that when we arrived, we saw a small slither of water, like the strap of a sandal. Just a small amount of water, rather than the big ayn. It had dried up, it was the heat of the summer, and there is a small bit left. And we saw two men from our camp already having preceded us. So the Prophet ﷺ asked them, have you touched its water? And they said yes. So the Prophet ﷺ became angry at them. and he said what Allah wanted him to say. This is Mu'adh's hadith. He said what Allah wanted him to say. So Mu'adh did not quote what the Prophet ﷺ said. Why? Adab. You just cover up. The Prophet ﷺ was irritated. He deserved to be irritated. He was angry at these two men for having disobeyed. And he said some harsh phrases and Mu'adh did not want to report these harsh phrases. Out of adab. We are not gossip mongers. We are not tattletailers. What happened, happened. And you should know that the Prophet ﷺ rebuked them. But you don't need to know the words that he used. So Mu'adh said, he said what Allah wanted him to say. Then he commanded us to gather as much as we could of the water in one place. So whatever is the water, to gather it in one place. Then he washed his hands and face in that water. And then the water began to gush out, to spring forth until all of us drank from that water. and there were probably 20,000 people or so. So from this small slither, all of the army drank at the Ayn Tabuk. And so because of this incident that the army was quite literally saved at Tabuk, they were about to die out of thirst. So they were saved at the Ayn Tabuk. So the expedition became called the expedition of Tabuk. And this hadith is in Sahih Muslim. Our Prophet ﷺ said, O Mu'adh, it's only a matter of time. If you live long enough, this very land you will see will be a land of greenery and gardens so he said to Mu'adh ibn Jabal that this land of Tabuk or this place of Tabuk will become a land of greenery and subhanallah when the Prophet ﷺ said this Tabuk was in the middle of the desert in fact it was not a well known place it was just a small oasis nobody lived there you didn't have a civilization or a city around there and today Tabuk simply because our Prophet ﷺ camped there and Allah had willed it and he predicted it, the Prophet ﷺ predicted it. Tabuk is now one of the largest cities in Arabia. It is in fact the largest city in northern Arabia. It's a stone's throw away from Jordan. And yes, Tabuk used to be on the trading route between Sham and Medina, between Sham and Yemen. But nobody really lived in Tabuk. It was not a city or a town. But after the Prophet ﷺ's time and early Islam, people began to congregate over there over time it became more and more prestigious in 1655 CE around 400 years ago the Ottomans built a famous fortress remnants of which still stand to this day and then eventually when the Ottomans built the famous railroad and I talked about the railroad as well in my class 1914 talked about the famous railroad from Istanbul to from Istanbul to Medina from Istanbul to Medina And of course, by the way, from Istanbul it was connected to Europe. So you could quite literally travel by rail in the 1800s and early 1900s anywhere in Europe to Medina. So when the Ottomans connected Istanbul to Damascus to Medina, so they made Tabuk one of the main stopping points. And therefore this increased the city of Tabuk or the dwelling of Tabuk. Until now, subhanAllah, Tabuk is one of the largest cities in Arabia. it has a population of more than half a million people, and it is indeed a land of greenery and trees, exactly as the Prophet ﷺ predicted, one of those amazing predictions. That hadith is in Sahih Muslim, and he told Mu'adh ibn Jabal, that this land of Tabuk, it's only a matter of time, before it will be a land of greenery, a land of jinnah, lots of jannat. And subhanAllah, Tabuk these days is a resort, it's a very beautiful city. Has anybody been to Tabuk? Have you been to Tabuk, uncle, or not? No? I've never had the opportunity to go up to Tabuk. But it is, I have been told that the very oasis that allegedly the Prophet ﷺ drank from, it is still green and oasis right there and it is still water in that place. I don't know, I haven't been there. I have been told. And I've been told that also there is a masjid there that is called Masjid Rasulullah ﷺ. He didn't build it but later people built it to basically demonstrate or commemorate the place that he was. Allah knows best but this is what I have been told about the place of Tabuk. So this is the first name of the expedition, Ghazwat Tabuk. The second name of the expedition is Jaysh al-Usra. The army of great difficulty. Jaysh al-Usra, the army of great difficulty. And this is in fact the more common name amongst the Sahaba. the Sahaba refer to this as the Jaisha al-Usra as the army of great difficulty and Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih al-Bukhari he in fact when he talks about the chapter the book of Sira he actually has the book of Sira then he has all of the chapters when he gets to the book he says Ghazwa tabuk and it is the Usra so he has both names in the chapter heading it is the chapter of it is the expedition of Usra Why was it called difficult? Why was it called the difficult expedition? Wasn't every battle of the Prophet ﷺ difficult? Yes indeed, but the battle of Tabuk was difficult in ways that none of the other battles were. And the battle of Tabuk is significant, I'll just jump the gun and tell you, and most of you know this, there was no actual battle in Tabuk. There was no actual clash of swords and armies meeting armies, that didn't happen. yet the difficulties of Tabuk in some ways were much more difficult than any other quote on quote battle and so it was called the difficult Buzwa even though there was no actual bloodshed, the armies did not meet, but what happened was so difficult, the Sahaba almost died maybe multiple times according to the narrations, why? well, number of reasons, first and foremost this was to be the largest army that Arabia had ever seen up until that point in its entire history. Now every time the battles are happening, we're getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And Ghazwa to Hunayn, how many people? Remind me Hunayn. Between 10 to 12 thousand, right? Between 10 to 12 thousand. Ghazwa to Tabuk, it is estimated, and the books mention figures that probably are larger than they can be. Some say up to 20, even 30 thousand are mentioned. The point being this was the largest. Now, we need to be a little bit careful here. These numbers, it's human nature. Nothing wrong with it to kind of sort of exaggerate. So, if in our Eid gatherings, for example, a person estimates how many people come for Eid. We have 10,000, mashallah. Iqbal definitely wants to make it, mashallah, 10,000. It's human nature. You see a large gathering and you kind of sort of, you know, inflate the numbers a little bit, right? If it's on your side, you want to do that. And then if it's the other side, if you don't like this group, so the classic example by the way, when there's protests taking place, anywhere in the world. Those who are supportive of the protests, mashaAllah, tabarakAllah, the zeros get added. Right? Those who are against the protests, the zeros get cut off. Okay? And this is universal. And subhanAllah, it's human nature. So, nobody should say, astaghfirullah, that are you accusing the historians of lying. It's human nature. It's not lying. You see a large number. So, and the sahaba didn't have a checklist. They didn't go through the roster. One, two, three, four. When somebody is saying 20,000, take it with understanding, okay, means it's a large number. Doesn't have to be exactly 20,000. Realistically, 20,000 seems like too big of a number for that time and place. Nonetheless, it is, let us say, the largest expedition ever mounted by our Prophet ﷺ. So it's large. When it's large, what does that mean? Why would that be difficult? resources, logistics, food water, right so all of this comes into play also the the Ghazwa Tabuk it took place late July late July it took place so it is the hottest time of the year where temperatures rise around 100, 10, 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Medina, for those of you who have been there and I have lived there for 10 years it is just surreal the amount of heat that is in the summer over there, you cannot function at all. And that's why it is the habit of the people in those regions. They don't work between dhuhr and asr. They just stay inside, they have a siesta, and then they work again after asr. You cannot work in such heat. So it took place in late July. Also, Ghazwa to Tabuk is the furthest distance the Prophet ﷺ traveled as a prophet with an army. Of course he traveled to Jerusalem in Isra'ul Mi'raj, that's a separate thing. In his youth he traveled to, with his uncle if the story is valid, he traveled to Syria as well. But as the leader of an army, this was the furthest distance he ever traveled. So he is leading an expedition far away from Medina, probably a thousand miles away, around a thousand miles away from Medina. And this is being, they're walking in the desert sun in July to go to Tabuk. Also going to Tabuk and coming back would have taken more than a month, at least 25 days or so. And August is harvest season. August is harvest season, right? After the summer is gonna be the harvest season. So if they went to Tabuk, they would not be able to harvest the crops. And we need to realize one thing which is very bizarre for most of us to even imagine. Most people for most of their lives, humanity before the era of modern jobs, did not know how much money they would make every month. We are accustomed to something called a salary. We know how much we're gonna make exactly every month. Wallahi, this is a blessing from Allah, the likes of which we cannot understand. The majority of humanity for most of its existence lived day to day, week to week, month to month, just not knowing what's gonna happen. And there were certain seasons that you stored up for multiple years, if you could. and the number one season was harvest season. If you owned a farm, obviously. But even if you didn't, harvest season was the time of money. Why? Labors. People need to do things, right? So, for the entire agrarian society of Medina, and it was an agrarian society, for the entire agrarian society of Medina, harvest season is basically your paycheck, not for the month, for the year. this was the biggest amount of money that would come to them would be in this harvest season and now they're being told sorry guys tough luck no nothing you're gonna have to go leave your harvest leave everything and then come back you know late August and you will not get that big paycheck this isn't the bonus paycheck this is their hand to mouth this is their daily bread so this was obviously another test that they had to do and then of course the primary issue is that what happened in this expedition was that the army ran out of rations, that there was too many people, too many mouths to feed, and they ran out of even water. And it is narrated, Umar ibn Khattab was asked by Ibn Abbas and others that tell us about the issue of the Usra, what happened in the expedition of difficulty. So he said, we left with the Prophet ﷺ in Tabuk, to Tabuk, in extremely hot weather. and we reached a place where we fell so thirsty we thought that our throats would collapse. He used an Arabic expression, we would die. And people went out in search of water but they came back even more tired and hungry and thirsty, nothing left. They're literally about to die. Some people sacrificed their camels in order to squeeze the water out of the sack of the camel. Now, I have never seen or done or tasted this but I'm assuming that is a very disgusting and bitter thing. And it will probably bring you more salt than water. But nonetheless, they were so desperate, they killed their camels. Now when you kill your camel, what does that mean? You have to walk the way back. The walk the entire way back, right? So they decided to kill their camels in order to squeeze whatever juice they could out of the sack of water that the camel has. Until finally Abu Bakr pleaded with the Prophet ﷺ that, Ya Rasulallah, make dua for us. Like we need a miracle basically. We need a miracle. Now can you imagine the state of affairs where they're literally, you know, they think they're going to die in this regard, to which the Prophet ﷺ said, if you wish, and he raised his hands, and Umar ibn al-Khattab said, that he did not bring his hands down until the skies began to pour rain. So this is another miracle, and we have talked about these miracles many times. This is another instance where immediately, as soon as the Prophet ﷺ raised his hands, clouds came and Umar said that we were able to fill all of our canisters and containers with that rain water. Now by the way this also shows us a very interesting thing the Prophet ﷺ did not rely upon miracles he sees the Sahaba at the very verge of death but it was Abu Bakr that had to prod him Ya Rasulullah please for the sake of, why? Because this is what you call this is what you call you have to take the means. He is Rasulullah ﷺ, he's going to get miracles, of course. But he doesn't want to just rely on them. He wants to teach all of us a lesson. That you have to struggle to get to the goal. And this is the reality throughout the seerah, that the Prophet ﷺ had to struggle. Badr, Uhud, we see how desperate, Ahzab, look at the very end. Yes, the miracle comes. It does come. But not at the beginning. Only after struggle. Only after sacrifice. And in this, inshaAllah, is the lesson for us as well. maybe our miracles will not be as blatant maybe one of us cannot just raise our hands and then it will start raining but wallahi the true believers who follow the path of the Prophet ﷺ they will see such many miracles maybe not to this level things will happen to them in their personal lives that they will see for themselves if they put in the struggle if they put in the effort and they taste the bitterness of the struggle then Allah Azza wa Jal will bless them in the end so for all of these reasons it was called Jais al-Usra the difficult jaish and the Quran references this indirectly in the Quran in a verse in the Quran that Allah Azawajal says لَقَتَّابَ اللَّهُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ وَالْمُهَاجِرِ وَالْأَنصَارِ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُ فِي سَاعَةِ الْعُسْرَةِ that Allah has accepted the repentance of the Prophet ﷺ and the Muhajirin and the Ansar, those who followed him at the time of difficulty, سَاعَةِ here would translate as at the time of difficulty those who followed him at the time of difficulty this is surah tawbah verse 117 surah tawbah verse 117 so Allah called it at the time of and that is what the name of tabuk is qatada who is the main student of ibn abbas he commented on this verse this verse refers to the battle of tabuk it refers to the battle of tabuk they left towards syria in the blazing summer and they were tested severely. So much so that it is mentioned that two or more people were rationed one date per day. Two or more people were given one date as the ration per day. And they would split that date amongst themselves. However many, they would split it up. And then they would take the date pit and suck on it one after the other to get some taste and to be able to get some, I mean maybe it's imaginary nourishment but it's better than nothing so Qatada said Allah then accepted their repentance and allowed them to come back home meaning that Allah Azza wa Jal raised their ranks and brought them home and therefore these are the two primary names of this expedition the expedition of Tabuk and the Jaish al-Usra the army of difficulty and I explain why each one is called which when did this take place? it took place in the month of Rajab in the ninth year of the Hijrah six months, exactly six months after the siege of Al-Ta'if. And if you calculate this out in our modern times, it's basically late July or maybe early August is when it took place. Late July or maybe early August, that would be the Rajab of the 90th of the Hijrah. And so we understand why it would be so hot. Now, why did Ghazwa al-Tabuk take place? What are the reasons for this war? What were the causes of Ghazwa al-Tabuk? To be honest, this is something that I have not found a satisfactory answer. After teaching seerah many many times and just glossing over this, I have not found a very clear cut answer. And I have come to a conclusion that inshallah we'll share today. But firstly, what are some of the reasons mentioned by the classical scholars of seerah? Some of them are outright bizarre. Some of them we can just dismiss immediately. for example Ibn Asakir one of the famous historians he reports and this report is mentioned by Baghwi and Ibn Kathir he reports that the Yehud enticed the Prophet ﷺ to go up to Syria they goaded him they tried to basically trick him to go into Syria and they said to him if you are a true prophet then you must go to Asham because Asham is the land of the prophets and Asham is the land of Mahshar of judgment day so according to this report the Yahud wanted to get rid of the process of being in Medina and send him on some goose chase of an expedition so that he abandons Medina so that they could then get rid of the Muslims and according to this report this is why Allah revealed in the Quran Surah Isra verse 76 وَإِن كَادُوا لَيَسْتَفِزُونَكَ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ لِيُخْرِجُوكَ مِنْهَا وَإِذَا لَا يَلْبَثُونَ خِلَافَكَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا وَإِن كَادُوا لَيَسْتَفِزُونَكَ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ They try their best and they almost have succeeded in getting rid of you from the land. They have almost succeeded in getting rid of you from the land. But if they were to succeed in getting rid of you, then they themselves would only last for a short while before Allah destroys them. So this verse in Surah Al-Isra, it is said by Ibn Asaq and others was revealed because the Yahud tried to trick the Prophet ﷺ and send him up to north to the land of Asham. But this simply cannot be true for multiple reasons. Who can tell me some of the reasons? Number one. There is no Yahud left, that's number one. There are no more Yahud left in Medina or the surrounding areas of Medina. Number two. It's really... Can we imagine our Prophet ﷺ just listening to something like this? Just like such a blatant trick. It doesn't make any sense. Number three. It's a little bit more advanced this one. Surah Isra. It's a Makki Surah. So how can I refer to Ghazwat Tabuk? It's a Makki Surah. Has nothing to do with Ghazwat Tabuk. So this reason really we just dismiss it. Other reasons are given that perhaps might be more plausible. One reason given is that, and this is mentioned by Al-Hafidh Al-Haythami in his Majma' al-Zawahid and other books, that the Romans were sending an expedition to battle the Muslims. That the Romans were sending an army to battle the Muslims. And according to this narration, the chieftain of the Ghassanid Arabs, The Ghassanids were northern Arabs, the northern most Arabian tribe that bordered the Roman Empire. And over the course of the last centuries, they had converted to Christianity. So the Ghassanids were one of the Christian Arab tribes. And they had a very cozy relationship with the emperor, with the Caesar. and it is reported in this narration that the chief of the Ghassanids sent a message to the Caesar of Rome that he wants to attack Medina or according to one report that the Prophet ﷺ is dead which was a false report it was a fake report and send an army so that we can attack Medina so according to this report 40,000 Roman troops were sent to Tabuk or at least were sent down and the process went up to battle them. Now, again, I'm a little bit more critical and whatnot. Firstly, the narration itself, it doesn't need to be authentic in terms of isn't. Secondly, the Romans, really it is not conceivable to imagine them sending 40,000 troops to battle the Arabs because they didn't care about the Arabs. They didn't pose any threat to them. They weren't interested in oil back then. And there's no reason for the Roman Empire to send a massive legion down south. It's really nonsensical. If they wanted to conquer the Arabs, they could have done it at any time of the last three, four hundred years. So, this also seems a little bit bizarre. It doesn't seem to be very true. Another report given is that the Ghassanids themselves were the target and not the Romans. The Ghassanids themselves were the target and not the Romans. And that there was a threat that the Ghassanids would attack Medina. Now there seems to be some basis, there's some whisperings in the seerah of the validity of this. For example, when the Prophet ﷺ took a month off from his wives, if you remember the story about there was some marital disputes happening. And the Prophet ﷺ cut off from his wives for one month, if you remember. And he went and he lived in the masjid. We didn't talk about the story. And inshallah when we finish the seerah, we'll just quickly go back and do the ummahat al-mu'mineen quickly. We don't have that much narrations about them. Whatever we have, we'll do them. The mothers of the believers and whatever stories we have about them. And we'll talk about this story as well. That for one month the Prophet ﷺ he cut off from his wives and he stayed in the masjid because the ummahat, the mothers of the believers were demanding bigger houses and more money and what not and then Allah revealed in the Quran that if you want this world and all that it has come and I will give you as much as you want and I'll let you go and you live your own life but if you want Allah and his messenger and the final and the final then this is what I have to offer meaning I'm not going to give you a luxurious life now in that narration in that narration Umar ibn al-Khattab narrates the story that his co-worker his colleague, his friend came running to him rushing and he said something's happened, something's happened and Umar jumped up and he said has the king of the Ghassanids attacked yet and the man said no something worse than this the Prophet ﷺ has divorced all his wives now this turned out to be a bit of exaggeration he didn't divorce them he basically separated for a month. But the point being, what did Umar say? What was he worried about? Has the king of the Ghassanids attacked yet? So this shows us there's some whiff of the Ghassanids having a threat, there being a threat. We've also seen in the past that the Ghassanids have caused issues. They have killed the messenger of the messenger. They did some very harsh things. so perhaps this is a semi-legitimate reason but if this is the case the question really needs to be asked why the month of July? if you want to take revenge at the Ghassanids if you want to attack the Ghassanids the Ghassanids are not going to come down in July it's too hot for anybody to do it so why the month of July? and this really only leads us and by the way there's also the claim here that the Prophet ﷺ wanted to get revenge for what had happened in Mu'tah and in the other massacres and up north were the tribes that did the massacres and the Ghassanis had helped those tribes so he wants to take the revenge also the death of Ja'far as well so he wants to get revenge at the death of Ja'far but once again the question that needs to be asked, why now? this can wait until January why do we need to go right when the season is ripe, the harvest is coming in the desert heat is at its climax why do we want to go at this point in time and really this only leaves us one logical answer and that's the one that I have to come with and that is it was a command from Allah to test the believers that there doesn't seem to be an immediate threat is what I'm trying to say when you read the seerah, when you read the classical books there's nothing that indicates an immediate threat neither from the Romans nor the Ghassanids so what it appears to be the case and Allah knows best, we cannot go back but whatever seems to be the case is that this was a test from Allah, a direct commandment from Allah that could not be obeyed disobeyed, and our Prophet ﷺ told the Sahaba you have to go and fight and there is no questioning once he's given the command, then there is no questioning and perhaps there is some evidence for this in the Quran and this is the opinion not exactly this opinion but something similar to it, is really the opinion of Ibn Kathir and Al-Baghawi they base this on Surah At-Tawbah verse 123 Surah At-Tawbah verse 123 يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ يَلُونَكُمْ مِنَ الْكُفَّارِ وَلْيَجْدُوا فِيكُمْ غِلْضًا O you who believe, do qital to those who are surrounding you. يَلُونَكُمْ Those who are surrounding you of the kuffar. And let them find you to be strict in your battle. Strict in your qital. Now, At-Tabari himself, and he's the earliest mufassir that we have. Al-Tabari himself says that this verse was the verse that commanded the Prophet ﷺ to fight the neighboring Arabs. And once he's done with the Arabs, to turn his attention up north to the Romans. So, this is Surah At-Tawbah. And Surah At-Tawbah was revealed pretty much all of it in Ghazwat-i Tabuk. So, perhaps it is as if this verse came down, and our Prophet ﷺ understood, and of course he understands what is intended by Allah. Our Prophet ﷺ understood, Allah has commanded me to go up north now that I have conquered all of the central Arabs and really the rest of the Arabs are going to follow there's no major threat left from within the Arabian Peninsula other than the Ghassanids way up north and the Ghassanids are a threat not because of the Ghassanids but because of their connection with the Romans with the connection with the Romans so it is as if Allah commanded our Prophet ﷺ to go and fight those who are neighboring them قَاتُلُ الَّذِينَ يَلُونَكُمْ those who are neighboring one after the other go and fight and so our Prophet ﷺ understood this to be the Romans. And what would add to this interpretation is that Al-Waqidi, the famous authority of the seerah, he mentions that the Prophet ﷺ sent out messengers to the neighboring tribes, even to Mecca, requesting them to send all able-bodied men to fight with him. and that he did not hide where he was going. Unlike every other battle, he hid it. He didn't tell them what's happening. But the battle of Tabuk, he was open. Everybody knew what's going on. So this is not a surprise attack. This is an all out, if you like, military expedition. Everybody knows where the Prophet ﷺ is going. And he's calling people from around, even the new converts from Mecca and all of the surrounding tribes, he's bringing them forth. and what really in my opinion seals the interpretation to be this one is that if you read surah at-tawbah cover to cover, and surah at-tawbah is one of the longest surahs in the Quran by the way even though it is the ninth surah, it's actually one of the longest surahs in the Quran, if you read surah at-tawbah cover to cover never is the command for qital and jihad given so bluntly as it is in surah at-tawbah and surah at-tawbah is all about ghazwati tabuk and so Allah عز و جل is commanding in a manner that you will not find anywhere in the Qur'an and that's why surah at-tawbah is also called surah al-qital it's also one of the names of surah at-tawbah is surah al-qital because it is all about qital qital qital and look at what Allah عز و جل says for example in surah at-tawbah يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَا لَكُمْ إِذَا قِيلَ لَكُمْ مُنْفِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ إِذْ ثَاقَلْتُمْ مِنَ الْأَوْضِ أَرَضِيتُمْ بِالْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا مِنَ الْآخِرَةِ فَمَا مَتَعُوا الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا فَالْآخْتِئِرِ إِلَّا قَلِيلٌ O you who believe, what is the problem? Why? What is the problem? مَا لَكُمْ When it is said to you, انفروا, go ahead, forth in expeditions. And انفروا is the term that the Prophet ﷺ is using, that I need you to go out. What is the matter with you? When you are told to go forth, your bodies feel heavily attracted to the ground. اِثْفَقَلْتُمْ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ أَرَضِيتُمْ بِالْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا مِنَ الْآخِرَةِ Are you more content with this dunya then the next. And so what is the comparison of this world with the next except for a small bit. إِلَّا تَنْفِرُوا If you don't go forth, يُعَذِّبِكُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا Allah will punish you a severe punishment. وَيَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ And Allah will bring another ummah besides you, another qawm besides you, and they will not be like you. That's very strict. You have to go. Why aren't you going? If you don't go, Allah will punish you. If you don't go, you're gonna be gotten rid of, another ummah will come after you. And also in the same surah, اِنْفِرُوا خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا Go forth, whether you have something, whether you have lots, or whether you have nothing. خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا means whether you're heavily armed, whether you're not armed at all. Go forth, whatever state you're in. خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا And also Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that, about the munafiqun, لَوْ كَانَ عَرَضًا قَرِيبًا وَسَفَرًا قَاصِدًا لَتَّبَعُوكَ وَلَكَنْ بَعُدَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الشُّقَّةِ That if there was lots of money, and the distance was short, the hypocrites would have come with you. But they couldn't stand the strenuous journey. It was too much for them. And they will swear to you, that if we were able to participate, we would have participated. يُهْلِكُونَ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ Allah is testifying that they are liars, and by these lies they are destroying, themselves. Now, if you look at all of these verses, and by the way, these verses are always used by the jihadist groups, right? And there's nothing wrong with using verses by anybody at any time. The problem comes, these groups, they cut and paste these verses as if they apply only to their particular cause. And this is a big problem. The only time a verse can apply to a specific cause, is for the cause it came down. And any other time, you have to use it with the disclaimer. Might apply, might not apply, right? You see my point here. That Allah revealed this surah when? For which expedition? For Tabuk. Nobody can now take a verse and then apply it to a particular expedition and say, if you don't go on this expedition, Allah will punish you. You understand what I'm saying? Right? That type of specificity can only be done for when the verses came down. All of these verses are valid. And wallahi, there will be many expeditions in the past and in the future where these verses will have some legitimacy. But you are not allowed to, and this is one of the things that these groups do, you are not allowed to cut Qur'an and Hadith, then apply it only for your situation, such that it was revealed just for you. No, it was revealed for battle of Tabuk. And the bluntness of encouraging people to go for Qital in Tabuk, you will not find it for any other battle. And I don't have time in these lectures to read all of Surah Tawbah for you, but please, one of the things of the seerah, in that I reconnect you with the Qur'an. And I want you to read Surah At-Tawbah now, when you get a chance with this in mind. With the incidence of Tabuk in mind, you will find the strictness and the bluntness of going for qital, of encouraging jihad, you will not find it in any other surah. So in my humble opinion, and Allah knows best, it seems to me that the primary reason for Ghazwa to Tabuk was not because of something physical in the world. Not because of armies or expeditions or Ghassan or the Romans. it was because Allah told them to. And the Sahaba were put to a test. And Allah عز و جل wanted to test them. Now why did Allah want to test them? Well for many reasons. One of them to raise their ranks, one of them to test their Iman. And one of them to prepare them for the future Ghazawat that would expand Islam after the death of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Because this was the final Ghazwa. This is it, خلاص. There is no Ghazwa after the Ghazwa تتبوك that the Prophet ﷺ participated in. Right after this, the Prophet ﷺ went for hajj, he fell ill, and then we're gonna come to the end of the seerah. Then what happened? Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, the Umayyads, they're beginning. So it is as if Ghazwat Tabuk was a test so that they pass it, so that they then move on to make the ummah what it was. Allahu'alam, this is my two cents, take it or leave it, but this is what I see to be the case. If you look at the context and the story, there's no threat. It is a commandment from Allah. merely to test the Sahaba. And that is why no battle took place. There's no need for a battle. They passed the test. They showed that they had the determination. In fact, the battle is easier than what they had to undergo, right? To give up all that they had to do. And so, with all of this as we said, it seems as if the Prophet ﷺ was commanded by Allah and the Sahaba were put to the test. And therefore, the Sahaba passed this test with flying colors. And that is why the Prophet ﷺ did not hide where he's going. That is why he made it public. That is why he called out for all of the Sahaba to come. So it was fard'ain for every single healthy male to participate in Ghazwa to Tabuk. Fard'ain. This is not like Badr which was voluntary. This was not like other battles. This was fard'ain. You had to do it if you were an adult male. The only person who was excused was somebody who was genuinely sick or had very extenuating circumstances. We're gonna come to this point, right? So what other battle was it that every able-bodied Muslim from around Medina, even from Mecca, you have to come and you have to participate. it is to me clear and Allah knows best that this was a test for all of the Sahaba so that when they pass this test inshallah ta'ala they can then in the future after the process will move on they have now the iman the faith the courage they have now what they need to go on and basically expand the Islamic Ummah subhanallah so much left here just one quick point inshallah ta'ala then we'll open the floor for questions also there's some announcements that need to be made as well that therefore when the Prophet ﷺ understood the need for having this expedition, the first thing that he did, he began to collect the funds. He began to collect the funds for the expedition and he would stand on the minbar and encourage people to give whatever they had. So sahaba would come and somebody would have a bag of gold, somebody would have some coins, somebody would have whatever it was until the piles began to form in the masjid. And our Prophet ﷺ gave very beautiful encouragements. Whoever finances the Jais al-Usra, he shall be given Jannah. If you help in financing Jais al-Usra, you will be given Jannah. Whatever you can help out with, that's a beautiful blessing and praise. Whoever finances Jais al-Usra will be given Jannah. And so the Sahaba began to donate whatever they could. And of course, we all know the famous story, the lion's share of the donation went to Uthman ibn Affan r.a. that it had just so happened that around a hundred camels of his had returned from an expedition up north. And so he had just got back all of these goods. And when he heard this hadith that whoever finances Jais al-Usra, he shall be given Jannah. So Uthman ibn Affan donated all of that money. And this was in the thousands of gold coins. He donated all of that money and he gave it to the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ had all of this pile of gold just from Uthman in front of him. And he began flipping all of this coin around in his hands. And he said, وَاللَّهِ مَا ضَرَّ عُثْمَانَ مَا فَعَلَ بَعْدَ الْيَوْمِ That wallahi, whatever Uthman does after today, it is not going to harm him after what he has done now. Whatever he has done after today, it will not harm him. And subhanallah, this hadith which is in Bukhari and Muslim, Uthman ibn Affan himself used it when these Neo-Kharijites were around his own house. and they had surrounded him and he did not know they were going to kill him but this was one of the things that do you not know and Ibn Abbas as well used it to defend Uthman Ibn Affan that do you not know our Prophet ﷺ said whatever your complaints are whatever your fabricated complaints are your imaginary complaints are don't you know your own Rasul ﷺ said that whatever Uthman does will not harm him if he, the Prophet ﷺ said that who are you to have these long list of complaints that you don't like his governor you don't like this, you don't like that, who are you to complain when the Prophet ﷺ said whatever he does will not be harmful to him so this hadith was given at the incident of Tabuk and also over here the famous story of Abu Bakr and Umar's competition as well took place that Umar immediately went home thinking that today finally I can beat Abu Bakr because I heard this hadith directly from the Prophet ﷺ whoever finances Jais al-Usra shall be given Jannah and so Umar ibn al-Khattab took half of his wealth and he gave it to the Prophet ﷺ. And I realized again, this is half of his wealth, the rest of the half is for his wife and children. So obviously, there's nothing wrong with this. I mean, subhanAllah, you're not even required to give half of your wealth. This is, the Prophet ﷺ did not say you have to give everything. He said you have to come. What was far was to go physically with him. Ask for money, whatever a person can afford. And imagine giving half of your wealth, not knowing when the next is going to come. Remember, there's no paychecks here. and you have to give up your paycheck for the season. So Umar ibn al-Khattab gave up half of his entire wealth that he possessed. And when Abu Bakr came with what he had, and it was more, the Prophet ﷺ said, Ya Abu Bakr, what did you leave for your family? What did you leave? It looks like you bought everything. And Abu Bakr said, I left them Allah and His Messenger. I left them Allah and His Messenger. That's enough, Allah will take care of them. So Umar ibn al-Khattab said that, I give up. I'm not going to compete with you again after today. No way I can compete with that type of tawakkul. So, this was also in the Ghazwa to Tabuk, that famous instance as well. And our Prophet ﷺ gathered more money for the expedition than he had for any other expedition. Now, subhanAllah, it's a beautiful point here, that six months previously, he had at his disposal all the money he needed. Six months previously, he just has the ghanima of Hunayn and Ta'if. but he used it all fee sabeelillah and nothing was left in his own pocket or in the pocket of the treasury, nothing and therefore when and that was his methodology he did not leave anything everything fee sabeelillah everything, so this had to be refinanced for the ghazwat e tabuk and eventually the funds ran out and began to dwindle down and inshallah we'll just finish on one final narration inshallah and then open the floor for some questions that Abu Musa al-Ash'ari narrates that his tribe sent him to collect some camels to go for the Ghazwati Tabuk why? because you need camels to go you cannot just walk to Tabuk you need camels and you share either every three or every two people will share a camel, so Abu Musa's sub-tribe sends him as an emissary and says okay, we have this many people we need camels so Abu Musa says I arrived and I did not realize that the Prophet ﷺ was في حالة غضبان he was in an angry state I did not know this now why was he angry? this narration does not say most likely it was because of what's happening with the Munafiqun which we'll talk about inshallah tomorrow or not tomorrow next week or the week after that there was a major issue with the Munafiqun most likely this is what is troubling our Prophet ﷺ so I came and I didn't realize the Prophet ﷺ was in a state of anger. So I asked him, and he didn't have anything. And he said, Wallahi, I will not give you anything to travel upon. Like that's a slightly harsh way to say it. Abu Musa wants to come. He wants to go. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Wallahi, I'm not gonna give you anything to travel upon. So Abu Musa says, I returned distressed. Did not realize, I didn't know he was angry from something else. And I thought, I might have done something wrong. He is angry with me. He is irritated at me. I went back and I told my tribe that our Prophet ﷺ said such and such that he's not going to give us anything. And I do not know why. And then barely had any time passed when Bilal came. And Bilal said to me, the Prophet ﷺ is calling you. So Abu Musa came and the Prophet ﷺ said, take these two camels. And then these two and then these two. And he's giving them six camels. So those six camels, I have just purchased them from Sa'ad. so what had happened obviously was that some money had come and so he purchases six camels he remembers Abu Musa needed the camels he gives them to him so the Prophet ﷺ is registering who is coming and what they want and he then fulfills this what this also shows is that when you give an oath and you don't mean it the oath is not considered valid because he said wallahi I'm not going to give you anything why did he say this? because he didn't have anything he did not have anything so there's nothing to give him and we use the phrase wallahi as an expression and sometimes we use it as a genuine qasam and it is obvious from the context one is the two so for example you wanna go and eat over here wallahi I don't wanna go there you don't mean like you're swearing by Allah you're never gonna go there it's just an expression Wallahi we don't feel like going over there right now Whereas In a serious state And somebody has accused you of let's say Lying or something Wallahi I am not lying to you Now when you say it you mean it And there is a clear context And Allah says in the Quran La yu'akhidukum allahu Billaghwi fi aimanikum Walakin yu'akhidukum Bima aqattumu al-ayman Allah does not call you to task for the لغو, for the vain times that you give the ايمان. ايمان means say wallahi. But rather Allah will call you to task for that which you are strict and firm about. And our Prophet ﷺ is a human being, and things are happening that sometimes perturb him, make him angry, the Arabic word used is غضبان. And sometimes he will take it out in a manner that Abu Musa did not understand. But it wasn't because of Abu Musa's fault. and therefore when the money came and he's able to purchase it he gave it to Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari but Abu Musa wanted to confirm because the Prophet ﷺ had sworn wallahi you're not going to give it to me and now he is giving him the camels so he was a bit confused now so he took his tribesmen and he wanted to clarify that you used the qasam and now you're giving me the camels and there's an issue or what not so it was explained to him that no it's alright you can take the camels and this shows us the consciousness of Abu Musa and the Sahaba. They felt awkward like taking the camel, now that the qasam has been given and the Prophet ﷺ said, I'm not going to give you anything. Then he gave him. And so he had to be explained what happened here. And that is that the Prophet ﷺ did not have any money. And so he said, I have nothing to give you. And he came out in a way that sounded a little bit different than it should have. And so when the money came, the camels were purchased and given over to Abu Ayyub, sorry to Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari and inshallah with that we will pause for today and continue inshallah ta'ala next Wednesday bihanallah ta'ala

Seerah 87 - Pt

Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. So we were still doing the battle of Tabuk. We're going to be spending quite a number of lectures on the battle of Tabuk. And it is in fact the final of the battles of the Prophet ﷺ. And so much Qur'an came down. In fact, basically the entire Surah At-Tawbah, Surah Al-Bara'ah, it came down because of the battle of Tabuk. So we will have quite a lot of discussions and details. And the battle of Tabuk, as I mentioned in my last lecture, is not an actual battle. It's actually an expedition. No actual fighting took place. But so many stories happen within the battle that are of interest. So many incidents, so many tangents. The issue of, we're going to talk about in maybe next week or we'll begin next week. The issue of the hypocrites building another masjid. And basically the fitna that that caused. And today inshallah ta'ala, we will discuss one of the most popular stories. I'm sure many of you have heard of this story. But it's always good to refresh our memories and to go into more details. It is one of the most popular stories of the seerah. And it is the story of Ka'b ibn Malik and what happened to him in the battle of Tabuk. The story of Ka'b ibn Malik and what happened to him in the battle of Tabuk. And it is really a lesson for each and every one of us about committing sins and about how to make up for those sins. And obviously this is a story I have no doubt that those of you who have read or even in our regular tani khutbas, you must have heard the story. But wallahi, and I have read this story subhanallah so many times in my life. Every time I read it. And every time I refresh my memory. Really it just hits. It's such a soft and beautiful story. So we never get tired of going over and over. Especially examining it bit by bit and paragraph by paragraph. And so today, and I don't even think I'll finish. Even though it's just one story. I don't even think I'll finish in one lecture. Probably have to do the half of next lecture. Just about the story of Ka'b ibn Malik. Now who is Ka'b ibn Malik? Ka'b al-Malik is one of the early converts from the Ansar. He converted. He's from the tribe of Banu Salama by the way. And the tribe of Banu Salama, the tribe of Banu Salama, we mentioned their hadith a number of times. The Banu Salama, they lived around Masjid al-Qiblatayn. In fact, that was their masjid. Today's Masjid al-Qiblatayn was their local masjid. That was where they would regularly pray. And they wanted to move closer to the Prophet ﷺ in Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ said, that that stay where you are your footsteps Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will record them and some scholars say that surah yaseen's first verses that we write what is a reference to the some scholars say this so Ka'b ibn Malik is from this tribe he converted to Islam before the hijrah so he is one of the very few of the Ansar that has the honor of converting to Islam before the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam emigrated and he in fact took part in the Bayatul Aqaba and so he's one of the 70 odd of the Sahaba, 70 plus of the Sahaba who took part in Bayatul Aqaba so he's of the elite of the Ansar, he's of the elite of the Ansar and his story is mentioned in every book of Hadith and in Sahih al-Bukhari we have a three page narration from him in the first person Which is why this story has been preserved Because he narrated it in the first person Now when somebody narrates in the first person His own story What is the benefit in that? Why do we care even more when it's in the first person? Well firstly the detail In terms of authenticity Every sahabi who says something we say is authentic But in terms of vividness and detail What else? When it's in the first person It's very personal So what are you going to get from a personal story? That you won't get from an impersonal story emotions, excellent point here and this is what we notice, that's why one of the reasons why this story is so painful, and the other long story in the seerah that is narrated in the first person is the slander of Aisha these two stories in the seerah they always hit home one of the reasons they hit home is because they're both narrated in explicit vivid detail in the first person, and as we said this hadith is in Bukhari, but I'm in my lecture today I'm not only going to be utilizing Bukhari, I'll also be utilizing At-Tabari, and his tafsir has more details, and other books of hadith. And as is typical, I'm not going to tell you each one, you're going to have to just trust me in this regard, that we've synthesized all of the narrations, to make it one smooth flowing story. So, Abdullah ibn Ka'b ibn Malik, one of his sons, who became the guide of Ka'b ibn Malik, when Ka'b became blind later on in life, said, I heard my father say, so the isnad goes through his son, Abdullah ibn Ka'b, his son. And Ka'b ibn Malik lived a long life. We'll talk about his life after this incident next week. But for now just realize that he eventually became blind because of old age. So his son would take him around. And his son said, I heard my father narrate the story of the Ghazwa of Tabuk that he failed to take part in. And Ka'b said, now it becomes first person. I never remained behind any Ghazwa that the Prophet ﷺ fought except Ghazwa to Tabuk but also Badr he said but Badr nobody criticized anybody for not participating because Badr was not meant to be a war it was in search of the caravan of the Quraysh and then the Muslims met their enemy no he begins here by saying that I never remain behind in any ghazwa except Tabuk. Then he says, but also Badr. But then Badr is not that big of a deal because Badr was not mandatory. Badr was voluntary. It wasn't understood to be a battle. You all remember the battle of Badr, that it was not a fight in the beginning. It was a raid in the caravan of Abu Sufyan. And so he said, as for Badr, I didn't go, but nobody blamed anybody for not going. But the one that they blamed people for not going is the battle of Tabuk. And he said, I witnessed and I was there on the night of the Bay'at al-Aqaba with the Prophet of Allah when we pledged our Islam. And to me that is more precious than Badr. And I would not substitute that for Badr. Even though Badr is more popular amongst the people than Bay'at al-Aqaba. So this is one first paragraph so profound, so full of meaning. Let's digest it bit by bit. The first point. what I found really interesting here is his own son is narrating this story in such vivid detail and in it are so many mistakes and emotions of Ka'b and those of us who are parents most of us in this room how awkward is it to tell your son of your own mistakes how awkward is it to confess basically and tell your son I failed in this regard but wallahi this is the best tarbiyah imaginable because you are teaching your son how? by example nobody is perfect nobody and the fact that Ka'b ibn Malik is telling his son I remained behind and I did not go on ghazwati tabuk and this is what happened to me and all of the punishments that came and the vivid detail I mean the first thing that struck my mind wallahi is As a parent, you try to hide your faults from your son. You try to make yourself to be the perfect man. And this is subhanAllah, Ka'b telling his son, I really messed up. And I want to tell you my story of how I messed up. Why? Because all of us messed up. And by telling your son, by telling his son, I want to tell you what happened. Because in the end, there's lessons and morals to benefit from. That yes, he did mess up. But what he did made up for his mistake. So the lesson is not in the mistake, the lesson is how to correct that mistake. Also, we have over here an interesting psychology of the pride of the sahaba, legitimate pride. Now we have always been taught pride is haram, pride is haram. Well, that's a bit generic. Pride meaning arrogance is always haram. But pride meaning having a sense of, Alhamdulillah, I did this. And if it's a legitimate thing, you've done. This type of word that we call in English pride, this is not just halal, it is wajib in some instances. You should feel proud of being a Muslim. Meaning what? That alhamdulillah Allah has guided me to Islam. Alhamdulillah aladhi hadani lahada. You should feel in that sense proud. Meaning it's an accomplishment that Allah has given. And here we have an interesting point. The sahaba are having their CVs in their minds. What have I done? And by the way we learned this from Abu Bakr, from Umar. All of the sahaba they once in a while they list. I did this and I did that. And this is natural that you are feeling a happiness of your khidmah to the religion of Islam. Your service to the religion of Islam. So Ka'b mentions that, Of my services, I never remained behind in any battle. I participated in every battle. Of my services is that I witnessed aqaba. And for me, that makes up for Badr. Even though he said, amongst the people, Badr is more famous. But for me, aqaba is more precious. why is it more precious? because Aqaba was smaller, 72 people and also because Aqaba the Muslims converted before meeting the Prophet ﷺ so it's a big honor so he said I would rather I would never substitute Aqaba for Badr so notice in his mind he's thinking of all the good that he's done so the question to all of us when was the last time we sat down and thought what good have I done in this life for the Akhirah because this is a sign of Islam مُحَاسَبَةُ النَّفْسِ you think about what positives I have done And we see this in the seerah and in the lives of the sahaba constantly. That they're thinking of the good they have done. So that they are preparing. They want to increase their resume on the day of judgment if you like. And that's something subhanAllah many of us all we think about is the dunya, the world. We think about job, we think about family, we think. But here are the sahaba in their minds is, what have I done for the sake of Allah? That's on their minds. And this is what Ka'b is telling his son as well. And no doubt this is a badge of honor. And we also have over here that he's setting up the stage for making an excuse for his mistake by mentioning his positives. In other words, everybody makes mistakes but overall, look at my biography. He's telling his son basically. Overall, I participated in every battle. And I participated in the incident of Aqaba, the Baitul Aqaba. So he's establishing his pattern, his resume if you like. he mentions his good points and this is human nature as well that you want to judge somebody not just based upon the one mistake we should say this is authentic human nature many people unfortunately they'll pounce on the one mistake but the good methodology the proper methodology and many of our scholars mention this if a righteous person makes a mistake it is not the same as when an evil person makes the same mistake over and over and over again and this is Ka'b as well kind of setting up the stage that, look, I have a track record of being a good person participating in every battle, I messed up big time in one battle. That's what he's gonna say now, right? And here we learn again that history, repetition, habit, plays a big role in passing judgment on somebody in this world and even in the next. And therefore, the righteous man who slips up, in some ways, we are more lax with him, inshallah ta'ala if he repents and comes back, then the one who is known for his laxity and is never righteous, then we understand that it's not the same thing. And this is what Ka'b himself is saying. Then he goes on in the story. As for the battle of Tabuk, he said, and what happened to me? I was never more physically fit or wealthier than right before that battle. I have no excuse for not participating. Neither was I physically sick nor did I not have the money to do so. By Allah, he said, I swear by Allah, I had never owned two camels before this point in time. But at the battle of Tabuk, I had two camels. So he's talking about his own personal status and wealth. Now, the two legitimate reasons for not participating in Tabuk, number one, you're infirm, you're weak, you're blind, you're limping, you cannot go. So khalas, you're excused, right? Very old person, very sick person, very whatever, okay, you're excused. And number two, I don't have money. Remember in those days, the battles were financed by themselves. Or if the process of had some surplus, he'd give it to you. There was no paid army at the time of the Sahaba. The Sahaba self-financed themselves when they went for expeditions. So if you didn't have a camel, or you didn't have a colleague or friend who would share his camel, because typically a camel was shared by other two or three people. So if you didn't have a camel, nor did you have a group with a camel, well then you're not gonna walk all the way back and forth, and therefore you are excused. but Ka'b says I had no excuse physically I was strong financially I was wealthy and he also said never did I have two she camels before this point until the battle of Tabuk now it also shows us the poverty of the Sahaba it is the norm in our times to have mashallah not just two but three she camels three cars all of us we have two or three cars is the standard it is the norm for the Sahaba the average Sahabi did not own a single camel and that's why even the Prophet ﷺ did not own a camel up until the night before he emigrated to Medina he did not even have a camel he had to purchase one from Abu Bakr owning a camel which is the bare minimum to go around was a luxury for them and this shows us that early Islam and we know this from so many evidences really it was the poverty really was well known that the money started pouring in in the next generation as for this generation the Sahaba, the Prophet ﷺ they really had to struggle So it's a big deal for him that he has two camels. And that's quite literally two cars in our times. Whereas for us, we cannot live in this land, most of us, without two cars. It's like something almost impossible for us to live. Most of us have, mashallah, three or four. Some even have five or six, Allah knows. But the point being, this is now the norm. Whereas back then, subhanallah, even one was a big deal. Then he goes on, he says, whenever the messenger wanted to undertake an expedition, he would always hide his intention he would always pretend he's going to a different area until it was the time of the battle and of course this is not lying this is tauriyah so he doesn't say I'm going to X and then he goes to Y rather he leaves Medina in the wrong direction and people make assumptions he doesn't say anything people make assumptions he must be going here or there then he turns around and he goes to where needs to be gone and obviously this is of the simple tactics of war. When you're going to a battle, you don't announce the day and time unless there's a legitimate need to do so. Generally speaking, you surprise attack. And that's what the norm is throughout all of the battles of the world. So, the Prophet ﷺ would generally not announce. However, when it came to the battle of Tabuk, he announced. We talked about this last week. Why did he announce? Why did he announce? Not just because it's a test. this was not a battle that would be simple and easy you go and you come back in 10 days or a week this was a battle the furthest distance they had ever traveled it was the largest enemy what else? the season the season it would be the end of the summer season and then harvest right after that August would be harvest time and so all of these preparations need to be done You cannot just tell the Sahaba to leave And then they have not taken adequate preparations For their own travel And for taking care of the people left behind So in this case Ka'b said The Prophet ﷺ Because of the severe heat And facing a long journey And the desert And the great number of enemies He gives four reasons All of these reasons He announced he's going to Tabuk So there's no surprise Everybody knew that they were going And as I mentioned last week, the battle of Tabuk was fard'ain on every single capable Muslim. That's why Ka'ab made a mistake by not going. It was a sin not to go, a major sin not to go. Because the Prophet ﷺ is commanding you, you have to go. So every capable, able-bodied Muslim had to go. So Ka'ab says, I move on now. The Prophet ﷺ announced to the Muslims clearly their destination so that they might prepare for the ghazwa. And he informed them of where he was going. And he said, the number of people that accompanied the Prophet ﷺ were so numerous that they could not be listed in any kitab or diwan. So Ka'b says, the number of people who came, I couldn't even write them for you in a kitab or a diwan. Diwan is a register they would use in those times. And this demonstrates for us the large quantity. as we have said in the history of the seerah the battle of tabuk is considered to be the largest number of soldiers marching behind the prophet and the books of seerah give estimates and I have mentioned to you many times that these estimates in my humble opinion need to be taken with a little bit of skepticism or healthy skepticism and there's nothing wrong with that astaghfirullah nobody is accusing the historians or the tabi'un of lying astaghfirullah but there's human nature involved that when you make a guesstimate human nature is you tend to inflate you know the numbers it's human nature and especially for the enemies that when you win the battle it's human nature you see a large group and you will say oh it was 10,000 50,000 and the numbers that are reported in some of these battles it's simply beyond what would really have been taking place at that time so the number that is typically reported is around 30,000 but quite frankly 30,000 seems to be maybe a bit larger maybe they were 15-20,000 in my opinion because if the incident of Hudaybiyah, sorry, of the conquest of Mecca and what not and Hunayn we can maybe double it even safely but to say that within 6 months 30-35,000 it seems like a very large number and Allah knows best, in the end of the day these numbers are not what is important it's the morals that are important but the point of Ka'b here underscores my point. Did anybody count them? No. Ka'ab says, I couldn't count them. That's what he's saying. There are too many to count. And I couldn't fill a registrar with them. So, imagine a registrar in those days, however much was the Dawahwein. I couldn't fill, so thousands and thousands of names. Beyond what a Diwan or Dawahwein would be able to be written in. And he said, any man who intended to be absent assumed that the matter would remain hidden unless Allah revealed it through wahi. Meaning what? Because the number was so much, we thought we could slip under the radar. There was this notion that, okay, if we don't go, who's gonna notice? But there was the fear or risk of Allah exposing through wahi, that these people did not go. Then he goes on. So, the Prophet ﷺ fought this Ghazwa at the time when number one, the fruits had ripened and number two, the shade was so sweet. Meaning, harvest season and burning hot. Right? So the Prophet ﷺ decided to go when the fruits of my garden are becoming lush and ripened, I need to get them. And the shade is ever so sweet and I was more eager for those two than the Ghazwa. So he's being honest here. He's being totally open here. that my heart was more inclined to my fruits and my garden and my shade than the thought of leaving all of the comfort of my house and marching in the desert for a month going to Tabuk. And the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba continued to prepare for the battle. And I started to go out every day in order to prepare myself. But every day would go by and I would come back without doing anything. So the announcement was made around 10 days was given a preparation. Every day people are going to the marketplace buying stuff. you need to buy stuff for your own journey need to take care of your family need to make sure your children are taken care of find people that are gonna harvest the crops it's not as if there's gonna be nobody in the city there will be legitimate people who remain behind so you can make sure that somebody does it so you arrange your affairs and the sahaba are busy doing this as for Ka'b he says every day I would leave and I'd have the to-do list and one thing led to another and I'd come back home and the to-do list has not been even started How many of us can sympathize with that? Right? And he said, every day I would say to myself that, I can do it the next day, no big deal. I kept on delaying, he said, until finally the people got ready to depart. And the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims left the next morning. So they left right after Salatul Fajr, by the way, we'll come to that later on. And I had not done anything on my to-do list. I had not done anything for the preparations. and I said to myself, okay, I'll do it today or tomorrow and catch up to them. Now, remember, you have 15-20 thousand people marching, so the march is gonna be extremely slow. So a single rider would not have any problem catching up to them in a day or two. Okay? So Ka'b, when they leave, he says, khalas, I'll do it today. And that day went by and once again, I did nothing and the next day as well, did nothing. Ya laytani, how I wish I had done something back then. He's telling his son. Ya laytani, how I wish, what a mistake I made for not doing something. After two days, khalas, the opportunity is gone. You're not gonna, three days is too much to catch up for one rider. And this really shows us the evils of procrastination. Delaying. This really shows us the evils of delaying that which you can do now for tomorrow and wallahi subhanallah this deserves a khutbah, I was thinking today that wallahi we need to give a whole khutbah about procrastination, but maybe I'll give it another week inshaAllah ta'ala, you didn't get the joke anyway, okay the issue of procrastination, tasweef, it's called in Arabic tasweef, sawfa, I'll do it the issue of procrastination, subhanallah if you look at the text of the Quran and Sunnah it's all action based when it comes to Iman, what does Allah say? سارعوا إلى مغفرة من ربكم rush and race to your Lord what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say? that وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ قُمْ فَأَنذِرْ Stand up. Get rid of your sheet. Stand up and go warn the people. What does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say when Musa comes to Allah in Turu Sayna and Mount Turu. What does he say? وَعَجِلْتُ إِلَيْكَ I race to meet you, O Allah. So the whole Qur'an is full of these action items and verbs. And therefore, it is the person who doesn't have those action items that has a deficiency in imam. Procrastination is from shaitan. And many of our scholars commented on this, that Ibn al-Jawzi says, procrastination is the most important weapon of shaitan. Procrastination is the most important weapon of shaitan. Because he uses it for everything. For everything. Tomorrow I'll do this, tomorrow I'll do this. And Ibn al-Qayyim says, every time a door of good opens up in front of you, the doors of perhaps and soon also open up to compete with it. Meaning what? Every time you have an opportunity to do good shaitan tempts you with two things. Number one, perhaps or what if meaning do I really need to do this? What if I did this instead? And then the second door is soon meaning I'll do it in a while. And you end up not doing anything. So we learn from this the dangers of procrastination that Ka'b did not intend to remain behind And even though he was honest, he said, I preferred the shelter of my house. But he didn't make up his mind not to go. Rather, what happened was, shaitan continued to procrastinate him, procrastinate him, procrastinate him, until it was too late. And he realized, khalas, I cannot do anything now. And, I mean, subhanallah, these days there's so much written by the people who write in business and management and what not. that one of the most effective habits of productive people is that they don't procrastinate. They do what is on their to-do list as soon as possible. And we learn this from our religion as well. We learn this in the story of Ka'b ibn Malik as well. So, he goes on to his story that, such was the case with me, meaning I kept on procrastinating, until they departed and they hurried away, and the battle was completely missed by me. and after the departure of the Prophet ﷺ, whenever I went outside and walked amongst the remaining people, it grieved me, it hurt me that I could see no one left in the city except one who was known for his hypocrisy or one who was infirm and weak and so Allah had excused him. So he's walking around the city, the city is empty. The whole city of Medina is empty. The only people left, one of two. Either the limp or the weak or the elderly, the very infirm, or somebody who was known for hypocrisy. And this shows us that the people who were munafiqun were well known. Even though in the sharia we do not pronounce them to be a munafiq. We leave their affair to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. yet still the actions of the people of Nifaq are well known and look at what he is saying the only people left in the city were those who were well known for their Nifaq meaning, and this is by the way a very important point in one sense and that is that the groups that do not like the Sahaba, I should say the group that does not like the Sahaba they say that the Quran clearly mentions there are Munafiqun amongst them how do you know which ones they are and this narration is one of the evidences we can use to say look the sahaba are not naive they know who is righteous outwardly and who is munafiq outwardly but the sharia says don't pronounce verdicts on people leave their affair to Allah and here we have this narration the people who are known for nifaq and we don't think about this point that the bulk of these people their names have not been preserved in the seerah other than their leader Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul we know but the bulk of the people, their names have just been overlooked. Why is this? We mentioned so many times. That it is not of the etiquettes of the sahaba, of our religion, to mention evil by name. We just gloss over it, cover it up. And therefore the bulk of these names are not known to us, we just have tidbits here. So he then moves on, so he's depressed, he's going to the city, the whole city is empty other than these two categories. Then he says, The Prophet ﷺ did not remember me until they actually reached Tabuk. Until they reached Tabuk. Now, they reached Tabuk, and he camped at Tabuk. I'll mention the difference of opinion, but some say 10 days, some say 19 days. He camped at Tabuk for quite a while. He camped at Tabuk, almost a month he camped at Tabuk. And in that time, he remembered, where is Ka'b? I haven't seen Ka'b. and a man from the Banu Salama said when he asked him where is Ka'b a man from the Banu Salama his own tribe he's from the Banu Salama a man from the Banu Salama said Ya Rasulullah his two garments and his looking at his properties and possessions have kept him back it's an expression in Arabic which means his fine clothes and his cushions and sofas have kept him back meaning he preferred this dunya over the next. That's what he's accusing of, right? That he became greedy and he wants to remain in his gardens and enjoy himself while we are out here. Then Mu'adh ibn Jabal said, وَيْحَكَ مَاذَا تَقُلْ وَوْتِيُّ Why are you saying this to the man who said this? وَاللَّهِ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ I only know Ka'b to be a good man. Now what did we just notice here? The man who criticized, who was he? what's his name we don't know that was what I want you to point out the one who praised Mu'adh ibn Jabal he's mentioned do you not think Ka'b knows who criticized him and Ka'b knows who praised him right and here is now a chance to get back at the guy even though he's his own tribe he must be even more angry Mu'adh is not from the Banu Salama another tribesman defends him his own tribesman criticizes him And yet, Ka'ab rises above this pettiness. And when it comes to narrate the story, one of the people of Banu Salimah. Subhanallah, how many times in the seerah. Wallahi, even sitting here, talking to you, how many times have I brought this point up? In so many instances of the seerah, at least a dozen times, in the seerah, we come across this point. And this really shows us the etiquette of the sahaba, how I wish we could follow that as well. To overlook, just don't mention, if you have to mention, be anonymous. Somebody, one of the people. No need to keep this legacy and this gossip and this culture of ours. Astaghfirullah is the exact opposite. It loves gossip. It thrives on gossip. There are shows and television things and magazines that are just dedicated to... Isn't there a magazine called Gossip? There is, right? I mean the whole thing and the shows as well. Subhanallah, our religion is the exact opposite. And I've mentioned this so many times. So Mu'adh ibn Jabal defended him. and this shows us as well why is Mu'adh Mu'adh and why is the anonymous person lost in history that Mu'adh ibn Jabal he is the faqih he is the alim our Prophet ﷺ said the one who is the most knowledgeable of halal and haram in my ummah is Mu'adh ibn Jabal and memorize this beautiful hadith of our Prophet ﷺ whoever defends the honor of his brother in his absence Allah ﷻ will defend him from the fire of hell whoever defends the honor of his brother in his absence that defense will become your defense against Jahannam and Mu'adh is the one doing this so next time you're in a gathering and you hear somebody slandered smeared what not stand up and defend that brother if he is somebody you know obviously if it's not then you change the topic you shouldn't be backbiting anyway but if it's someone that you know to be good then remember this hadith whoever defends his brother in his absence Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will defend his face from the fire of hell. And also notice as well, the Prophet ﷺ is monitoring the Sahaba. He notices Ka'b is missing. No doubt he noticed him after 10 days. But after all, Ka'b is not of the Ashara Mubashara. Ka'b is little bit below that, right? So eventually he notices. And he's monitoring. Where is Ka'b? I have not seen Ka'b. And then he is told Ka'b did not come basically. And Mu'adh defends Ka'b ibn Malik. Then the Prophet ﷺ saw somebody in the distance. while he's camped at Tabuk. He sees a rider coming. The narration says, breaking the mirage. It's so beautiful because when the rider is coming from the distance, the mirage will be broken, right? We see this on television when the horse is galloping and whatnot, it breaks the mirage. So Ka'b says, somebody was riding, breaking the mirage. And the Prophet ﷺ saw the rider and he said, let it be Abu Khaythamah. Let it be Abu Khaythamah. And lo and behold, it was Abu Khaythamah. Abu Khaytham is one of the other Sahaba, inshallah we'll talk about his story as well. And Abu Khaytham, he didn't have the money to go. He didn't have the money to go. And when the Prophet ﷺ called for donations, all he had was a handful of dates. So he donated those dates. That's all he had. And he donated those dates. And Abdullah ibn Ubayn and the Munafiqun were in the masjid. And they made fun of this and they said, what will these dates do to finance an entire army? So Allah revealed in the Quran, الَّذِينَ يَلْمِزُونَ الْمُطَّوَّعِينَ مِنَ الْمُنِلْ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ Allah revealed in the Quran verses criticizing Abdullah ibn Ubay. Those who are sarcastic to those who donate of their charity. Allah criticized Abdullah ibn Ubay and praised Abu Khaytham. And Abu Khaytham did not have the money. Subhanallah, eventually he manages to get a camel way after the Prophet ﷺ has gone. And single-handedly he's riding all the way to Tabuk. And the Prophet ﷺ, and he was of those who cried. Allah mentions in the Qur'an, and again we'll get to this story next week or the week after that, that Allah mentions a group in the Qur'an, they cried, we don't have anything. And Abu Khaytham was one of them. And now, alhamdulillah, he manages to get him out. So single-handedly, across the entire Arabian Peninsula, over a thousand miles, he comes from Medina all the way to Tabuk. And the Prophet ﷺ wants him so bad, when he sees a rider out of all of the people left behind, he said, let it be Abu Khaythamah. And of course Allah made it to be Abu Khaythamah. So Abu Khaythamah makes his way to Tabuk, and eventually of course the Prophet ﷺ comes back to Medina. So Ka'b says, the riwayah goes on, When I heard that the Prophet ﷺ was on his way back, my concerns deepened, and my mind went to every single excuse I could think of, saying to myself what can I say to avoid the anger of the Prophet ﷺ when he returns. So his mind is now going every single place. And I took the advice of the senior members of my family, of my tribe asking around. And when I found out that the Prophet ﷺ had returned, all of these false excuses disappeared from my mind. And I knew that I could never come out of this problem with any false statement. Now I'm in this problem, it's not going to be solved with any false statement. فَعَزَّمْتُ I made a decision that I would just confess and tell the truth. And this shows us the reality of Iman that subhanAllah the mu'min might fall into a mistake, but he does not remain in that mistake. And again we have the story of Adam and Iblis over and over again, so many benefits from that story. Both made a mistake. the one said I'm sorry may Allah, I'm sorry oh Allah forgive me and the other one he persisted in his mistake and that is one of the main differences between Adam and Iblis, Iman yes it can slip, nobody is perfect you can make a major sin but then Iman will cause you to rise up and continue down and this also shows us that nothing saves you from a mistake other than genuine ikhlas to Allah nothing will save you from the effects of your mistaken sin other than sincerity. And that is why our Prophet ﷺ said, الندم توبة Feeling guilty is the essence of tawbah. Because when you feel guilty, why would you feel guilty? When do you feel guilty? When you acknowledge you made the mistake. Or else if you don't want to acknowledge even, you're not going to feel guilty. So feeling guilty is the essence of repentance. Without it, there is no repentance. So, Ka'b realized the only way out is to be honest. and he tells the story that when the Prophet ﷺ arrived in the morning, he would always pray two raka'at in the masjid and then welcome the people in the masjid and he would sit in the masjid getting the visitors to come. So when he had done all of this, the stragglers, those of us who remain behind, we all came the next day in a long line to offer our excuses. and he said we were around 80 something in number so in the whole city of Medina only 80 something adult males remained imagine the entire city deserted only 80 or so remained and by the way of those 80 some of them have actual legitimate excuses meaning they were physically sick right the bulk of them were hypocrites no doubt of this 80 because those who couldn't go had already given the excuse because those who were sick and one of their excuses known Ibn Umm Maktum, the blind Sahabi did not need to give an excuse, he doesn't have to stand in line it's understood he's not gonna go so those who have the legitimate excuse, by and large they're not lining up, a few of them might have had legitimate excuses, but the bulk of these 80 are hypocrites and by the way this also shows us how many were the Munafiqun of Medina small fraction, Medina at this time the least it would have is around 4000 people, the least it would have after all of these battles and hijrah and what not, the minimum. There is no authentic quota but we can guesstimate and easily around 4 to 5 thousand people of them, maybe you know 70 or so are these hypocrites lining up. So look at the quantity, small quantity they know who they are. So they all line up in front of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and they gave their excuses and they begged the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam for Allah's forgiveness and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam accepted those excuses and left their secrets to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now, number of points here. Of them is a neglected sunnah that hardly anybody follows and I am just as guilty as the rest of you that it's not a part of our sunnah anymore to pray two raka'at when we return to our city. That it is sunnah. That when we return to our city, we should go to the masjid and basically pray two raka'at of thankfulness or whatever. it is a sunnah that our Prophet ﷺ would always do. That whenever he returned, first thing he would do, he would pray two raka'at in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. And of course, wherever we are, we should pray in the masjid, our local masjid, when we come back. Also, an interesting point here, which we will come back to later on. I'm just gonna zoom over it now. I'm gonna zoom over it because Ka'b's narration does not mention the details. But we're gonna come back in a later lecture about the Qur'an that was revealed in the battle of Tabuk. And of those verses is the verse that our Prophet ﷺ is mildly chastised by Allah for forgiving. عَفَ اللَّهُ عَنْكَ لِمَا أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ عَفَ اللَّهُ عَنْكَ May Allah or Allah will forgive you. So Allah begins by saying Allah will forgive you. Why did you accept all of these excuses? you should have waited until you test who is truthful who has legitimate excuse from those who don't have the legitimate excuse and this shows us that of course Allah Azawajal allowed the Prophet ﷺ to do this eventually by the way this also shows us over and over again and I've said this point at least 12 times by now ijtihad of the Prophet ﷺ the theological point did our Prophet ﷺ practice his own ijtihad and this incident and the verse clearly shows عَفَى اللَّهُ عَنْكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ Allah has forgiven you but why did you let go of them right and it also shows us the nature of our Prophet ﷺ that all of these hypocrites are inventing the wildest excuses and he's saying okay okay okay and this shows us his tender nature that it's obvious they're lying it's obvious and yet our Prophet ﷺ is accepting because we judge people on outward and the guy is saying something then khalas believe him leave his affair to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then it was my turn, Ka'b says. And when I came up to him, and I love this phrase so beautifully, such a beautiful phrase. He says, he smiled to me the way that an angry man smiles. Because you see, when you're angry, you don't smile the full smile that when you're happy. And yet he smiled. Now generally if you're angry, you're not going to smile in the face of the person. Right? we speak from our own experiences when you're irritated at somebody when you're angry at somebody you will scowl you will make sure your lips are dead straight I'm not even gonna give you the least sadaqah of smiling that's how angry I am but our Prophet ﷺ he's not like that the fact that he's angry at Ka'b firstly it's a positive sign because he's disappointed in him the hypocrites are expected the fact that he feels this anger why you Ka'b it shows that Ka'ab had a higher standard in his eyes you're following me, right? why you of all people, you as well? you in this line? so he's irritated at Ka'ab but he still smiles in his face, subhanallah and Ka'ab realizes this is not the smile of a happy person because even when you're angry you cannot fully control your emotions what a beautiful window into the interaction of our Prophet ﷺ he's still smiling because that is his nature But Ka'ab senses this is not the smiling of a happy person. This is smiling of an angry person. And he says, what is your excuse, O Ka'ab? I mean, I've heard all of these excuses. What is your excuse, O Ka'ab? Did you not have good health? Were you not... Didn't you purchase a camel? So he tells to Ka'ab, didn't you purchase a camel? And subhanAllah, I mean, I'm amazed here. Our Prophet ﷺ, obviously, he's monitoring every Sahabi. And Ka'ab is not of the elite ten. I mean yes he's well known but he's not you know of that level that the inner inner inner circle he's not of that yet our Prophet ﷺ is aware didn't you purchase a camel you brought two camels I know this you have a second camel and so Ka'b said that wallahi o messenger of Allah wallahi ya Rasulullah that if I were sitting in front of any other person from this whole world I would have been able to wiggle my way out in front of him and avoid getting his anger. By Allah, he says, I have been bestowed the power of speaking fluently and eloquently. I have the gift of the gab. I have an eloquent tongue. But, if I were to tell you a lie today to please you, Allah would expose me and make you angry at me tomorrow. But if I were to tell you the truth, even though you might be angry at me today, I can hope that Allah will forgive me Ya Rasulullah I swear by Allah I have no excuse Subhanallah Just admitted it I have no excuse I have nothing to say I have never been healthier Or stronger Or wealthier Than Right before the battle of Tabuk The Prophet ﷺ Said أَمَّا هَذَا فَقَدْ صَبَقَ As for this man, he has spoken the truth. Not like the guys before him. And this shows he knows these people, the other ones are lying. He knows it, but it is his gentle nature. As for this man, he has spoken the truth. So, stand up and basically go away, and Allah will decide your fate. Now, before we move on here, in one of the most profound points here, really is the issue of Tawheed versus maqamullah versus maqamun nabi ﷺ. Clearly we have this here. And this distinction is especially essential when we look at the modern groups out there and the way that they view huququllah versus huququl nabi ﷺ. Especially the Sufi groups and the extreme or the Baleelvi groups for example. Here we have Ka'ab ibn Malik. What is he saying to the Prophet ﷺ? He says, Ya Rasulullah, I can get out of your anger, but Allah would know the truth and if you're angry at me today maybe if I speak the truth Allah will forgive me clearly Ka'b understands la ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah it is Allah's pleasure he needs to seek and even if he manages to convince Rasulullah S.A.W Allah is not going to be happy with him if he lies but if the Prophet S.A.W is angry at him today if he is truthful and repentant to Allah Allah will forgive him eventually imagine that, right? and subhanallah these days we have so many groups that they have really reversed the order and they quite literally say that our Prophet ﷺ is in charge of heaven and hell that whoever he decides will go to heaven whoever he decides will go to hell then they give him so many powers and what not and this is not our religion our Prophet ﷺ is the greatest human being but he is not God nor the son of God nor the intercessor to God. No, he is a human being. The greatest, the best, the most merciful. But he is not divine. And in the end of the day, we don't worship him. We worship his creator and sender. And so Ka'b understood this point. And he basically, and this beautifully he summarizes, Tawheed. So he gets up and walks away. And he said, when I walked away, the members of my tribe who were in the masjid, they gathered around me. And they followed me all the way home. And they said, Ya Ka'b, you were a good man up until today. We never saw any evil from you. You're well known, meaning you're one of our best men. You know, you're in the good list of the Prophet ﷺ. Why didn't you join the others with their excuses? Why did you have to embarrass yourself and then embarrass us? Because again, in the end there is this sense of tribalism, right? In the end there is this sense of tribalism. You're one of us. And by sticking out from the crowd in this manner, basically, why did you have to do this? Surely you could have joined the rest of them and the Prophet ﷺ would have just asked for your forgiveness as he asked for their forgiveness as well. So his tribesmen surround him and they say, go back, give it another chance, make an excuse up. And he said, they continue to convince me until I almost was gonna go back. Subhanallah, notice here, right? That the effects of people that are not that righteous, righteous, that they're gonna convince me to go back until I ask them, did anybody else of that long line also say they have no excuse? And so they said yes, there were two men in that 80 plus line, two people, so three total. Three total, who basically confessed and said, we have no excuse, O Messenger of Allah. I said, who are they? They said, Murara ibn al-Rabi' al-Amri and Hilal ibn Umayya al-Waqifi. Murara and Hilal. And Ka'b says, wallahi they mentioned to me two men of Iman and Taqwa. Two men, the both of whom had attended the battle of Badr. They're Badriyoon. And in their company was barakah for me, was blessings for me. So I said, khalas, if they are with this position, I'm gonna stay with them rather than the other munafiqun in that line. Right? And this shows us the importance of quality over quantity. 80 plus men all giving some baloney excuses and two others said the truth but those 80 plus are not worth anything they're not known for anything and those two were both Badriyun so those two outweighed the all 80 and this shows us truth is not judged by numbers truth is not judged by quantity truth is judged by quality who is on, who is the one saying this and this also shows us the importance of righteous companionship that he didn't want to be with the Banu Salama opinion, he wanted to be with the opinion of the two Badris and so Ka'b goes on and he says the Prophet ﷺ he forbade all of the Muslims to talk or interact with us, all three of us out of those who remain behind in the Ghazwa, now notice the Munafiqun did not get any punishment in this world they're simply overlooked in this world their punishment will await in the hereafter and this also shows us the wisdom of worldly punishments and this applies not just to the Islamic state punishments of the hudud but also to any pain and suffering in this world that the believer understands every pain and suffering and every punishment as something that will eliminate the pain and suffering of the next world and that is why it is the believers who are punished now. Ask for the munafiqun, they got away scot-free in this world. And the next, what awaits them will await them. So the command came down that nobody was to interact with us, speak with us, say anything to us until Allah عز و جل allowed them to do so. So we kept away from the people. And the people's attitude towards us changed so much that it appeared to me that I am a foreigner and stranger in my own land. And the world despite its vastness became a constricted place for me. And subhanAllah this shows us and something we know that if one of our loved ones does not speak to us, how much does it hurt us? If just one of our loved ones. Imagine if all of our loved ones and friends and acquaintances, all of them began boycotting us. We can only imagine because this doesn't happen in the real life. It does not happen. Imagine if the whole society, you became a ghost. Wherever you go, nobody can look at you. Nobody can say anything to you. Imagine how you would feel. And this is what happened to Ka'b ibn Malik. And that is why abandonment of a person, in fact it is an Islamic discipline. The Qur'an says that when the spouses are having a major problem and the one of them is not listening, one of the mechanisms is abandonment. You abandon. That okay, I'm not gonna speak to you. This is a tool that you basically get the message across. And of course, the general rule is that it is not allowed to abandon somebody for more than three days due to a personal dispute. However, in an Islamic land, the khalifa could issue a punishment for a particular person if there is a need to do so. This is called ta'zeer or a discretionary punishment. It is one of the mechanisms of ta'zeer or discretionary punishment. So Ka'b says, we remained in our city becoming strangers in our own land and nobody spoke to us. Now what I also find amazing here, that in this whole city, not a single person disobeyed the Prophet ﷺ. And there's no police force monitoring, there's no secret NSA looking at your phone calls and cell phones and video, nothing. But when the Prophet ﷺ says, don't, سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعَنَا the whole city does not do it. that type of leadership can only come from Iman. Where you just, and this is something that is so difficult to imagine, that you are not supposed to look at him, say anything to him, you ignore him completely. And the whole city follows suit. And he said, we remained in this condition for 50 nights. Imagine, 50 nights. Imagine for 50 nights. Wallahi, I mean, think about that. For one day, it's impossible for us to imagine. For 50 days. And Ka'b says, as for my two other companions, the other two, Sahaba Murara and Hilal, they locked themselves in their houses. And they did not interact with the people because it was too painful for them. And they wept day and night about their situation. But for me, I was the youngest and the most outgoing, the most social of them. I was the youngest and the most firmest of them. So I would intentionally walk in the marketplace. Trying to find somebody to talk to. Right? I would intentionally walk in the marketplace. And I would witness the salawat with the Prophet ﷺ. He would walk into the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and pray along with the Muslims in the rows. But no one would look at me or talk to me. And I would go daily to the Prophet ﷺ and greet him in front of everyone. And I would wonder whether his lips would move in response. But I wouldn't see anything. Subhanallah, imagine that pain. when the Prophet ﷺ himself is ignoring you. This is by the way, of course, Allah gave the punishment, right? This is something that Allah revealed. It's not in the Qur'an, the punishment, but the lifting of the punishment is there. So the punishment itself, it was wahi, that is not from the Qur'an. So the punishment comes out, and even the Prophet ﷺ does not return my greetings. And when I would say my salah, I would notice that he would be looking at me stealthily. when I would look to him, he would turn away meaning what? Ka'b obviously wants attention he wants attention, and he's monitoring is the Prophet ﷺ even knowing that I exist is he noticing me? and he realizes when he goes into the corner, the Prophet ﷺ is looking at him, which means what? even the Prophet ﷺ wants mercy for Ka'b he wants him, and he's remembering him right? and subhanallah this also reminds me of a study I read a little while ago that they said one of the worst forms of modern torture is isolation. You know the isolation in the cells that they have, the prison cells, right? The solitary confinement. The solitary confinement. That in fact certain agencies in the UN and also, what is that, amnesty and what not, they say that this is inhumane. That isolating somebody completely is inhumane. Now of course this isn't that type of isolation because he's physically walking around. But the type of isolation that happens in these prisons, as you know, you literally have no human contact. Nobody speaks to you, nobody talks to you, what not. And there are people that have been in that isolation and they come out of it and they write their memoirs. Wallahi you read what they write and like it's so sad that some of them would say that, I would not mind the torture to resume, especially in third world countries. I would rather be tortured, at least have some human, than to be left for weeks and months on end. And of course the food is just put in through a chute or something like this, just throw it in. Nobody sees even another human being for weeks and months on end. So this is a type of psychological torture when it happens there. Of course now Ka'b is in the city, he's not cut off. So the torture is not to that level, but it is a punishment. It's a punishment that is definitely hurting him. and he said with this harsh attitude when it continued to last I felt so exasperated that I finally went to my best friend and my cousin Abu Qatada and I went to his house and I jumped over the wall as I would always do so he has a garden and it's a public garden meaning it's not his inner house and I jumped over the wall and my cousin Abu Qatada was sitting there and I said salam to him فَوَاللَّهِ مَا رَدَّ عَلَيَّ السَّلَامِ He didn't even respond to me. Like he's wanting, he's so desperate for human companionship. He just wants a salam. He goes to his best friend, he's grown up with him, he's his cousin, the one that he basically socializes with, chills out with. He goes to his best friend and he says salam and he doesn't even look at him. Does not even look at him. So he's basically almost losing it now. And he says, يَا أَبَا قَتَادَ I ask you by Allah, don't you know me to be a Muslim who loves Allah and His Messenger I mean you know me I am a person who loves Allah and His Messenger he didn't even look at me I asked him again begging and pleading now that don't you know me in the name of Allah Bismillah I'm asking you don't you know me to be a man who loves Allah and His Messenger and Abu Qatada cannot prohibit it ignores him for the third time and he's now begging and crying and so Abu Qatada just answers up into the air Allah and His Messenger know if you have Iman or not I mean, He doesn't answer him because He's not supposed to, right? He just speaks into the air that Allah and His Messenger know best which is a factual statement so it's not as if He's disobeying He just says a factual statement in every circumstance Allah and His Messenger knows best can you imagine the impact on Ka'b? can you imagine how that would affect Ka'b? that everybody appears to abandon Ka'b And he said, the tears began just bursting forth from me. And I rushed home, jumped over the wall and returned back to my house. Wallahi, we cannot even imagine. You know, it's something 50 days, nobody even speaks to you. And then your best friend and your confidant himself does not even know. And of course, this was the punishment. This is exactly why this is happening. This was the expiation, the kafara. Allah is using this so that khalas they come out much better than they walked into the situation and Ka'b said that in those last days when I was walking in the marketplace so I saw a Nabati a Nabati from the Nabateans basically somebody from up north a Christian from up north from the Nabatis of Sham he had come down to Medina to sell his grain and he was asking as he's selling the grain who can tell me where is Ka'b ibn Malik Who can tell me where is Ka'b ibn Malik? So the people just pointed, that is Ka'b ibn Malik. So he came to me and he said, I have a letter for you from the king of the Ghassanids. The king of the Ghassanids. Now pause here. The battle of Tabuk was against whom? The Ghassanids. Right? So the Prophet ﷺ has come back from trying to fight the Ghassanids. They fled. They didn't fight him. They didn't have the guts to fight with him. They fled. but they know that the Prophet ﷺ was there to fight and so they clearly have spies in Medina perhaps some of the munafiqun they clearly have spies in Medina and the spies are reporting what's going on and of the reports that goes up one of the elite of the Ansar he has been abandoned so within these 50 days the spies go back and report and the king sends a letter to Ka'b ibn Malik and he says to proceed I have been informed that your friend has treated you coldly and Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has treated you coldly and Allah would not allow you to live at a place where you are inferior and your rights are lost join us and we will console you and make you happy now why would the king of the Ghassan want to reach out to Ka'b ibn Malik who can explain this to me why would the king want to do this excellent inflict breakage in the ranks you're breaking the sufoof of the Muslims what else cause pain to the Prophet to the Sahaba that I have one of yours also it's a matter of pride that I have one of yours now so not just causing pain but it's a trophy piece I got one of yours on my side also to know the inner mechanisms and dynamics of the Sahaba you know just like to be a type of spy or something like you know information source of information right I mean America and Russia do this all the time don't they so many different countries do all the time you want to have the informants and the confidants come over you know they seek political asylum they get lots of money but it's not just about the money it's about the prestige it's about inflicting wound how embarrassing is it when an ambassador of a country defects over right it's very embarrassing so the king of the Ghassanis wants this elite Sahabi The king of the Ghassanids wants this ilid sahabi, so he sends him an offer. That, come over, you will be very happy over here. And Ka'b ibn Malik says, that as soon as I read it, I said to myself, this is also of the test. This is also of the test. And I immediately took it to my stove, my furnace, the oven in the house, right? And burnt it in that oven. Now, subhanAllah, wallahi this is so beautiful. That it's one thing to pass the test. And for that you need iman. It's another thing to recognize this is a test. And for that you need knowledge. Ka'b understands why this is happening to him. Isn't that amazing? Like he says, this is of the test. And that is not just iman. Iman will let you pass a test. And you need Iman to pass the test from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But knowledge will help you analyze the test. Knowledge will help you understand the dynamics of what's happening. And that obviously helps you to pass the test as well. And here is what we see. That Ka'b ibn Malik subhanallah, he understands exactly what is going on. And he says, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is testing me even more now with this issue. and I'm not going to fall for this trap. And so in order that he doesn't have any second doubts, he destroys the letter. Obviously, he would have had more information and whatnot, what to do and whatnot. He destroys it immediately, burns it up, incinerates it, so that he cannot even double guess himself. And this really shows us, subhanAllah, that iman is important, but knowledge is also important. And the best combination is iman and knowledge. You can have iman without knowledge. You can have knowledge without iman. But the best combination is true iman with genuine knowledge put together. And that is what Ka'b had. And so he said 50 days went by. Then on the 50th morning, a messenger came from Rasulullah ﷺ. One of the messengers, one of the people came. And he said, O Ka'b, the Prophet ﷺ is commanding you to leave your wife. So I said immediately, should I divorce her or send her to her parents? So the messenger said, no, don't divorce, just don't have any relations with her, send her back. Don't have any relations with her, biological relations. Now, he sent the wife back to the parents. Now, again we see, wallahi amazing, after 50 days, a command comes that is so painful, even your wife boycott her. You can't even be with your wife. you are alone in the house you will be literally just alone everybody has to leave just you and as soon as the command comes Ka'b doesn't say why? for how long? when? what does Ka'b say? do you want me to divorce? or do you want me to leave? meaning he wants to jump at the command of the Prophet ﷺ Ya Rasulullah you say and I will do it well look at that Iman that the command is ambiguous and vague leave your wife meaning what? does he want me to divorce her? I'll divorce her right now does he want me to let her go? subhanallah, what type of iman is this? after 50 days of being psychologically put in this condition then a future test comes and he immediately jumps up and he says whatever Rasulullah ﷺ wants, I will do this and this is really what you call iman and so the messenger tells him no, the Prophet ﷺ said you just leave and so his wife went to the parents house, then he said I found out from some of the other women of the family. They must have come and told him that. Hilal, his wife, has gone to the Prophet ﷺ and asked permission to live in the house without... And she said, Ya Rasulullah, Hilal is a very old man. Nobody will be able to take care of him. He cannot take care of himself. He's too old. So can I just give him his food? Can I just help him to eat and whatnot? So the Prophet ﷺ said, Yes, but do not sleep with him. Do not be in the same bed as him. do not have physical relations. So she said, Ya Rasulullah, ever since your command has come, he has had no need of me. He has been stuck to the wall 50 days. He has been crying all of those 50 days. He has never looked at me. Meaning that's not the issue, don't worry. That's not going to happen. Subhanallah, for 50 days, he has just been crying every day, just next to the wall. No sense of anything else other than repentance. This is, that's what he's saying, this is Hilal we're talking about, rather the older person, Hilal. So she's saying, Ya Rasulullah, don't worry, that's not going to happen. I just want to feed him, otherwise nobody will take care of him, he's an old man. So she got permission to be in the house and cook his food. So some of the women of Ka'b's extended family came and basically said, why don't you as well go and get permission? So they're trying to make life easy for him. And he said, what am I going to say as an excuse? I am the youngest of them. What excuse will I give? I cannot use this excuse in front of the messenger ﷺ. No, I'm not going to do that. And so Ka'ab ibn Malik refused to do this and then a further 10 days went by and we'll have to stop at that cliffhanger right at the cliffhanger here. A further 10 days went by and then at the end of the 60th day, two full months was when Allah azza wa jal basically accepted the repentance. But that story inshallah, we don't have time to finish it before Salatul Isha. So inshallah, we will pause here and continue next week, bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. And because we're not finished, there's no point for Q&A.

Seerah 88 - Story of Ka'b b

Al-Fatiha. We're doing the story of Ka'b ibn Malik. And we had mentioned that our Prophet ﷺ commanded that Ka'b be boycotted. And Ka'b was one of a group of three people who were honest enough to say, Ya Rasulallah, we simply did not obey the commandments. We simply did not obey the commandment to go for jihad. We have no excuse other than the fact that we were lazy. We just did not obey. And so the Prophet ﷺ told them that they should be boycotted. Forty days went by and then the command came as we said, that they should leave their wives or their wives should leave them and go elsewhere and so all of the wives left other than the wife of Hilal she wanted to simply service him and take care of him, feed him otherwise he would not even take care of himself and maybe even die in those 10 days because he was so grieved as we said, Hilal was just sitting next to the door crying non-stop for 40 days so the wife said at least let me take care of him so the Prophet ﷺ allowed him Ka'b was told why don't you ask for your wife. And he said, what excuse do I have? I am a young man. Hilal is an old person. What excuse would I have? So he therefore did not take advantage of this concession and he was by himself for 10 days. And he said that when I was one day, so he's narrating the hadith backward back to where we left off. That one day when I was in the state that Allah described me. And it's beautiful that he's referencing the Quran without actually quoting the Qur'an. I was in the state that Allah described me. What is the state that Allah described him in? So Allah says in the Qur'an that وَعَلَىٰ الثَّلَاثَةِ الَّذِينَ خُلِّفُوا حَتَّىٰ إِذَا ضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ For those three who were left behind, until the whole world seemed to condense on them even though it is so vast. like the world seems to be crashing down on them we'll say in English the world seems to come crashing down on them even though the world is such a vast place they felt as if there's no place out for them and they realize وَظَنُّوا أَلَّا مَلْجَأَ مِنَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا إِلَيْهِ they realize there is no way to save yourself from Allah except by going to Allah you cannot save yourself from Allah except through Allah وَظَنُّوا أَلَّا مَلْجَ مِنَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا إِلَيْهِ So this is the description that Allah gave of them in the Quran. And that is that the whole world appeared to collapse on them. So he said, one day when I was sitting in my state as Allah describes me, completely depressed, and I had prayed Fajr on my rooftop. So this shows us he was so depressed towards the end. He says in the beginning, what did he try to do in the beginning? Go to the masjid, walk in the marketplace. But then after a while that became too difficult for him. So he began to just stay in his house. So difficult was it, he didn't even want to go outside. So he just living in his house, not even going to the masjid. And of course in this case it is allowed because he has been told you should be boycotted. So he's not even going to the masjid, he prays fajr on his own rooftop. That's how lonely if you like, or difficult the situation is. And I was just sitting there, worried about myself, and worried about everything, when finally I heard somebody who had gone to the top of the Jabal al-Sil'ah, pause here, Jabal al-Sil'ah is the mountain that you see when you exit the Masjid al-Nabawi there's a mountain over there so the man went up to Jabal al-Sil'ah and he cried out with his loudest voice, Ya Ka'ab ibn Malik Abshir, so he's giving him from a distance that he's trying to get the message to him that after Salatul Fajr the Prophet would have announced it So it took 20 minutes for this man to go up to the mountain. And he's now yelling out from the mountain top. That Ya Ka'b ibn Malik, Abshir, be happy. And as soon as I heard this, I fell down in sajda. Realizing there could be only one reason for happiness. Like there's no, the sentence is not completed. Abshir for what? No need to mention, there's only one thing. That Abshir. So he said, I fell down in sajda. Realizing that Allah's help had come. And he's saying the Prophet ﷺ had announced that Allah had forgiven us after Salatul Fajr. And the people came to congratulate us. And some people rushed out to my two companions, the other two. And a horseman came galloping to me in haste. And the man on the roof, the man on the mountain, his voice reached me first. but the one who came on the horse riding, he came to convey me in person and I was so happy, I gifted him the clothes on my back and that's all that I had at the time which means in those 50 days he has gotten rid of all of his money, basically as much as he can sadaqah, he said at the beginning of the qissa, he said what? that I have more wealth than I've ever had now in these 40-50 days the cash or the coins he would have had, it's all gone. Of course he still has his garden, he still has other things. But the coinage that he had, it's all gone. Why is it all gone? He doesn't say this, but we read in. Why is it all gone? Sadaqah, he wants to give. So he said, I had nothing to give him in my house. Meaning of wealth. Other than the clothes that I was wearing. So I took off my garment. And of course he's wearing the izar underneath. You know what they wear, the izar. We call it the lungi, he's wearing that. I took off my garment and gave him that as a gift. I was so happy, meaning the guy came all the way rushing from the masjid, galloping on his horse, only to give me the good news. And this shows us subhanallah that how much genuine love existed amongst the sahaba, that when they heard that his tawbah has been accepted, everybody goes rushing. Some go to this sahabi, the hilal, others go to Ka'b, others rush up the mountain top trying to give him news. Look at the genuine love, the genuine wanting good. I mean literally galloping from the masjid al-Nabi all the way to his house. What is he gonna get? Just he's so happy, the good news. It's not even somebody from his own tribe. It's just another person, a sahabi. He's just galloping there. And of course, Ka'b is so happy that you've come to give me the news. He's already heard the news. But he's ecstatic. And so he wants to gift him. He said, I had nothing to give him in my house other than the thawb I was wearing. So I took that off and I gifted him. Subhanallah, this shows you the poverty of the sahaba. Wallahi if one of us were to be gifted Somebody's shirt or kurta or thawb We would be insulted This is true We would be insulted Like what do you mean You give me your used shirt Right But the sahaba were so poor This is the general All of the sahaba They were so poor That being gifted a used thawb Is a big deal As we know most of the sahaba Only had one garment Even our Prophet ﷺ Typically had two garments That's it Two And may Allah forgive me And forgive you our closets are bursting at the seams at the amount of clothes that we have, right? This is the reality of all of us in our time. May Allah Azza wa Jal forgive us. The point being to be gifted a thawb was such a big deal. So he gifted him his thawb. Then he said, I did not have any other thawb. So I had to knock on my neighbor's door and borrow a thawb from him. Borrow the garment from him to go to the Prophet ﷺ. So this literally shows us that in these 50 days, the house wealth, and this doesn't mean he sold everything, we're gonna come to this in a while, he still has other possessions, like gardens and what not, but his wealth of the house is completely gone, depleted. He doesn't even have clothes to wear anymore. So then he went to the neighbor's house, and he borrowed a garment from him. And he rushed to the masjid, and he said, the people began to receive me in batches, wherever I went, They would hug me, they would thank me, congratulating me on Allah Azza wa Jal having forgiven us. And saying, nubashshiruka, glad tidings, mabrook at the acceptance of Allah Azza wa Jal's repentance. And he said, when I entered the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, I saw the Prophet ﷺ and all the people around him. Meaning this was a festival for all of the sahaba. Wallahi, imagine this. what has it to do with the rest of the sahaba that these three people their tawbah was accepted think about it right but when you have that type of ukhwa when you have that type of love when your brother has been saved you feel you have been saved so the whole community is rejoicing they're celebrating a type of eid if you like festival everybody's in the masjid celebrating happy that these three have been forgiven and he said that I saw the process I'm in the middle of the masjid, all the people were around him. And Talha ibn Ubaidullah, the famous Muhajir, the Meccan Talha ibn Ubaidullah, he stood up to rush to greet me. And he shook hands with me and congratulating me by Allah out of all of the Muhajirun. He was the only one who did this. And I will never forget this gesture from Talha. Now subhanAllah, this shows us that acts, it's not as if the Muhajirun did anything wrong. I mean they're happy for him but none of them stood up but Talha stood up to greet him and of course the Muhajirun are of course more elite and more noble than the eyes of Allah and therefore the fact that Talha stood up Ka'b remembers this and he said I'm never gonna forget as long as I live this one gesture that Talha did subhanallah one act of good wallahi you will change a person's heart for the rest of your life one act of good just a smile, just a handshake just a word of comfort when people have left you when people have hurt you somebody comes and says a word of comfort wallahi and I know and you know that at times of distress you really see who your friends are from your enemies at times of difficulty when the person comes and gives you something that is positive even if it's, I mean what is it to stand up what is it, such a small gesture but look, and by the way when is he narrating this, he's narrating this 40 years later, he's an old man, he's blind, he's remembering. And he's now thinking, 40 years ago, Talha stood up. And wallahi, I never forgot that as long as he lived. Can you imagine, right? One gesture like this. Then he said, that I greeted the Prophet ﷺ, and his face became bright with joy, like the full moon. And he said, whenever the Prophet ﷺ was happy, his face became like the full moon. Now this phrase we find it in many ahadith. It's not just this hadith we have found in the hadith of Jabir, in the hadith of Ka'b. So many narrations that when the Prophet ﷺ was happy, beaming like you know we say, his face became like the full moon. And the Prophet ﷺ said, أَبْشِرْ يَا كَعْبٍ That be happy and be given the glad tidings, the best news that you have ever heard since the day your mother gave birth to you. This is the best day of your life. Why? Because Allah has announced you are forgiven What more can you want? Allah has announced this in the Quran We still read it to this day Allah has announced because Allah has accepted your repentance So The Prophet ﷺ said Excuse me The Prophet ﷺ said That be happy and rejoice for the best day Ever since your mother gave birth to you He didn't say why Ka'b then said O Messenger of Allah Is this from you or from Allah? And the Prophet ﷺ said, no, it is from Allah. And this really shows us over and over again, that the Sahaba made a clear distinction between Rasulullah and between Allah Jalla Jalaluhu. This is really what Tawheed is all about. The greatest human being. And Ka'b is saying, I wanna know your forgiveness, which is great, but the real forgiveness is Allah's forgiveness. And remember what Ka'b said, we said this last week, that Ya Rasulullah, if I wanted to, I could have convinced you but I can't convince Allah and I might have pleased you but Allah would have Allah would have exposed me later on and if I make you angry but I'm honest with Allah then I hope Allah might eventually forgive me and this is what happened so this really demonstrates and this is again a very crucial point that many groups in our times as I've said over and over again the status of the Prophet ﷺ and what we do with him and do we go to him for our needs and do we ask him while he's alive and Ka'b is saying is this from you or from Allah which means Ka'b understands that something from the Prophet ﷺ is great but that's not heaven and hell that's not heaven and hell, the ultimate owner of heaven and hell is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he is the one who decides so he is saying, ahada minka am min Allah who is this from, that I should be happy, from you it's good but if it's from Allah that's what I'm waiting for, and the Prophet ﷺ says no no, this is from Allah because he hasn't heard the verses yet. He's gonna hear them later on. And he said that when I sat in front of the Prophet ﷺ, I said, Ya Rasulullah, because Allah has accepted my repentance, I will give up all of the possessions I have في سبيل الله. So which means he still has some left. What does he have left? It's the possessions that are not gold and silver now. He must have land, he must have... I mean the house he's living in, let's say. So these are things he has. So he said, because Allah has accepted my repentance, I will give up everything fee sabeelillah. All of it. I'll be left with nothing. What do you think our religion says about that? Our Prophet ﷺ said, keep some of your wealth with you that is better for you. Don't give everything. Keep some of your wealth with you that is better for you. And so Ka'b said, very well, I shall keep my share of khaybar. Remember khaybar was the largest fortune that the Sahaba got other than the battle of Hunayn. But of course in Hunayn, how much did the Ansar get? Nothing. The Ansar got nothing. So the Ansar got Khaybar. And Khaybar was a good amount of wealth. And so he said that, Ya Rasulullah I will give up everything peace be to Allah other than Khaybar. And Khaybar was a nice good plot of land. You're getting a good income from Khaybar. And so this shows us that a number of benefits that don't act on raw emotion. Don't just act on a spiritual high. Think wisely. He's now so happy, he thinks that khalas, he should get everything left with nothing, and here we have the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ telling him, no calm down, keep some of your wealth for you, for your family, it is better for you, now if somebody were to say we're gonna talk about this even today inshallah in the next 30 minutes, if somebody were to say but don't we know from our tradition that some of the sahaba such as Abu Bakr they gave everything for the sake of Allah, leaving nothing at all at home how do we respond to this? And the response is very easy. That is why he was Abu Bakr. None of the other Sahaba, even Umar did not do that. Right? That is really a difference that we have not reached that level. And it is foolish to give our entire money to Fuqra and Masakin. And then make our wives and children Fuqra and Masakin. This is not what our religion tells us to do. So the Prophet ﷺ said to Ka'b, Keep something for your family, give the rest for the sake of Allah. and we also learn from this that when a positive thing happens to us when something good happens to us we should give charity to thank Allah this is something that is established from our tradition, if you get a raise, you graduate, you have a child of course when you have a child, it is wajib to give the hadiyah, the udhiyah and also to give some sadaqah you know, just like 5-10 dollars, they say the weight of the hair, by the way, somebody asked me the other day, so how do I weigh this hair No, you don't weigh the hair. This is an expression in Arabic. You don't actually take the baby's hair and then put it on a... There is no such thing like that. It doesn't work. It's just an expression that simply means give some small amount of charity. So our tradition tells us that whenever something good happens, what should we do? Thank Allah by giving some sadaqah. And this Ka'b's incident proves that. He knew this in his mind. It's already known to him that when a good thing happens, He wants to give everything في سبيل الله Then Ka'b said Ya Rasulullah Allah has saved me By telling the truth This is why I was saved Allah saved me by telling the truth So as a part of my tawbah I promise never to tell any lie As long as I live Now he's so happy He realizes that Allah saved him because he was honest So he makes a promise That as long as I live I shall always tell the truth then he tells his son because remember this narration is being told by to his son much later on he tells his son that wallahi I don't know any Muslim whom Allah tested more with do I have to tell the truth or lie than me meaning for the rest of my life there were so many opportunities that I felt like I should tell a lie but I remembered my promise and so I never said a lie until this day, he's telling his son I haven't said a lie until this day and I hope that Allah will save me until the day I die right, and this shows us he said I never told a lie intentionally until this day and I hope that Allah will save me for the remaining of my days right, and this shows us subhanallah what a beautiful statement he's already, we don't know his exact age when he's narrating this hadith but he died at the age of 77, 78 and he became blind towards the end of his life So we can assume this hadith is like 75, 76 years old. So he's thinking back 30, 40 years. And he just has a year left. He doesn't know that. Subhanallah, what a humble humility is being shown. That for 40 years I haven't told a lie. May Allah protect me for the remainder of my life. What a beautiful humbleness that is shown here. That he's already such an old man. And there's no need for him now to lie. But still, there's always this humility. I don't know the future. may Allah protect me from the future also notice that he said I never intentionally told a lie and even in this we see his humility maybe I said something that I thought was the truth turned out to be wrong maybe I said something that I was intending it to be factual so he doesn't want to accidentally lie to his son so he says I never intentionally told a lie that I never intentionally told a lie And even in this we sense his humility, his caution in not saying anything that might be an unintentional lie. And Ka'b then goes on and he says, and Allah revealed the verse in the Qur'an, that Allah has accepted or forgiven the Prophet and the Muhajireen and those who were with him. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that, where was I? And Ka'b said that, By Allah, wallahi Allah has never bestowed upon me a blessing greater than Islam, other than the fact that that day I did not lie to the Prophet ﷺ. The best blessing that I ever received after Islam was that day when I could have lied, I did not lie because if I had lied, I would have been destroyed like the hypocrites were destroyed. Because Allah described the hypocrites with the worst descriptions He ever used for anybody. This is Ka'b speaking. What does Allah say? He then quotes the Qur'an. He recites the Qur'an. All of this is Surah Tawbah. And inshallah when we finish the Ghazwa of Tabuk, as is my habit, I want to go back to the Qur'an. You know I've been doing this from the beginning. we go to surah al-imran, surah an-fad we go to various verses, surah al-ahzab we did this, we also when I want to go to surah tawbah, we might spend an entire day just on verses from surah tawbah and when we do that I'll tell you to bring your quran because surah tawbah is long, it is more than a juz, it's one of the longest surahs and it's basically 90% about tabuk and there's so many side points here, so again as a part of our routine in the seerah, we're gonna go back to the quran, but now we just mentioned In some of these verses, so Allah says in the Quran, سَيَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ لَكُمْ إِذَا انْقَلَبْتُمْ إِلَيْهِمْ لَتُعْرِضُ عَنْهُمْ They shall swear to you, who is they? The hypocrites. When you come back, when you came back to Medina, they shall swear to you. What will they swear to you? That they have legitimate excuses. Just so that you may turn away from them. لَتُعْرِضُ عَنْهُمْ Meaning, so that you can move on to the next guy. Right? So Allah says, فَأَعْرِضُ عَنْهُمْ Turn away from them. Notice it's beautiful here. The reason they want you to turn away is so that you move your attention to somebody else. And Allah says you should turn away, meaning turn your mercy, your good attention away from them. Turn away from them. They're not worth your attention. فَأَعْرِضُ عَنْهُمْ Then Allah says, إِنَّهُمْ رِجِسٌ They are filthy. They are filthy. إِنَّهُمْ رِجِسٌ Right? That they are filthy. And وَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ they shall be in the fire of hell جزاء بما كانوا يعملون that as a punishment for what they do and then Allah says إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا إِذَا قُمَ الْفَاسِقِينَ Allah does not guide the fasiq people this is surah at-tawbah verses 95 to 96 so verses 95 to 96 notice once again he's attributing good to Allah by Allah Allah never gave me anything better than Islam other than on the day He protected me from telling a lie notice here the difference between the Muslim and the non-Muslim. The Muslim attributes all good to Allah. And the one who doesn't believe in Allah will attribute good to himself. Okay? So even this good, he says, this is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ka'b says that, we, the three people, the three of us that remain behind, were the ones whom the Prophet ﷺ, the ones who gave the excuse to the Prophet ﷺ, and the rest of the munafiqun he gave them outward forgiveness and left their affair to Allah he left their affair to Allah as for us he told the people to leave us and this is the reference in the Quran now pause here, what is he saying? he's basically explaining the Quran the Quran verse surah tawbah verse 118 surah tawbah verse 118, this is the verse that is about the three. وَعَلَىٰ الثَّلَاثَةِ الَّذِينَ خُلِّفُوا This is the most explicit verse about Ka'bah and his companions. Ka'bah is doing tafsir of the verse. He is saying the word خُلِّفُ is commonly interpreted as for the three who remained behind. And he said, no, that's not what it means. خُلِّفُ here means our verdict from the Prophet ﷺ was disconnected from the verdict of the munafiqun. We three were told to wait. That's khullifu. Do you understand or should I go over this? Some of you understood, some of you didn't understand. Should I go over it? So, wa ala thalathat alladheena khullifu. Now if you look at even most of the Quran translations, you will find they translated as, as for the three who were left behind. And when you look at the story of Tabuk, the first thing that comes to mind, okay the three were left behind and the others went forward, but it says the three were left behind, not the three who remained behind they were cut off that's what the verb is saying so Ka'b is correcting this misunderstanding from the very beginning, no this doesn't mean we remain behind Allah is referencing the three of us our verdict was suspended we were in limbo that's what he is saying As for the munafiqun, they were not in limbo. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ outwardly accepted and he left their inwards to Allah. So they're not in limbo. Right? Is that clear? So, So, The three upon whom no verdict was made. Maybe you can translate it like that. The three who were in suspension. That's the reference here. And then, So Ka'b said, that the reference here is not our remaining behind the ghazwa. Our remaining behind. But rather the fact that the Prophet ﷺ did not make a decision in our case. That's what khullifu means in contrast to those who, the munafiqun, who were outwardly, the Prophet ﷺ asked Allah to forgive them. And Allah says in the Qur'an, after this, we'll talk about this. After this Allah said, don't ever ask forgiveness for them again. This was the last time. Ever. After this, never was he supposed to ask forgiveness for the hypocrites. But we'll get to that when we get to the issue of the hypocrites. Okay, before we move on. This story is really one of my favorite stories from the seerah. It really should be one of the favorite stories of all of us. And it's a beautiful story. And I just wanted to very quickly, in addition to some of the benefits we derived as we went along, wanted to give at least 15-20 benefits that we can derive from the story in other angles and aspects. And Ka'b ibn Malik, by the way, I forgot to mention last time. he was amongst the two or three most famous poets of Medina, Hassan ibn Thabit his poetry was more famous, is more famous to us because Hassan specialized in a genre of poetry that we're more comfortable or we're more happy with and that is attacking the Quraish, we like this back and forth, right? But Ka'b ibn Malik his poetry was not of the attacking type, in Arabic it's called hijab there's genres of poetry we all know that there's different ways of doing poetry so there's different genres and Hassan's genre was attacking or making sarcasm of the opponent and that's why Hassan is defending the Protestantism against the Quraysh Ka'ab's poetry is a different type it's basically inciting the Muslims to be more brave so it's a different type of poetry be steadfast in the battlefield and his poetry is well known so he is amongst the same group of elite poets as Hassan ibn Thabit but because his poetry is not of that genre most of us haven't heard of his name also Ka'b ibn Malik he was the one who on the day of Uhud he substituted his armor for the armor of the Prophet ﷺ if you remember we talked about that when he saw the battle getting tough so he substituted so that people would think that he is the Prophet ﷺ and on the day of Uhud therefore a lot of people of the Mushrikun thought he was the process from the distance he was targeted, he was wounded 11 different times through spears and arrows 11 different wounds came to him this is Ka'b ibn Malik and Ka'b ibn Malik he lived a long life, he lived throughout the period of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and he participated in some of the jihads and eventually he died in the reign of Muawiyah radiallahu ta'ala anhu at the age of 77 and as we know from the books of Sirah and even this book even this hadith that he became blind in his old age Now, this hadith is Mutafak alayh, Bukhari and Muslim It's reported in Ibn Ishaq, it's reported in Ittabari It's a very famous narration of Seerah, and it's interesting Imam Bukhari puts this hadith In the chapter of The battle of Tabuk, which is logical But Imam Muslim places it In a totally different chapter, which is also very logical And that is the chapter of Tawbah And the blessings of Tawbah So this hadith is beautiful because It makes us optimistic about tawbah, that somebody who commits a major sin, and it was a major sin for Ka'b, because it was fard'ain on him to go direct disobeying of the Prophet is a major sin, it was a major sin, it's not a trivial matter, after all he's been boycotted 50 days, no other sahabi other than those two were boycotted that's a major punishment, right? so, the fact that one can be forgiven, after all of this, this is really the main point now, what are some of the benefits in addition to all that we have said of the benefits we derive from the story of Ka'b ibn Malik is the desirability, the permissibility of narrating the stories of the sinners and the repenters. There is a genre that's very popular, still popular and that is we like to hear, oh so and so was a great singer and he then repented, he became a Qari of the Qur'an. So and so was an actress and she repented, she started wearing the hijab. okay, I was in Malaysia recently and there was a, you know these models of the magazine I'm not gonna mention in the masjid but you know this magazine, the famous magazine that has pictures that are not appropriate she was one of those ladies and she repented and she started wearing the hijab so this is front page news in Malaysia we're all happy mashallah that such a lady who had such fame and such what not she repented and now she is now wearing the hijab now the point being some of the stricter scholars they kind of frown on these stories and they say why are you quoting the stories of the sinners and the repenters let's stick with the Quran let's stick with the sunnah and we say the Quran and sunnah nothing can compete with that but the Quran and sunnah allows us to occasionally add some stories of and why do we like these stories, who can tell me why do we like to hear the stories of so and so who was really bad then he was guided it's a lesson it's hope, what else something to relate to these are people that live amongst us when we hear the modern stories right these are people that live amongst us right so it's relatable it gives us hope now some of our stricter scholars have always been like we should just avoid this and they bring a lot of valid points which all can be mitigated with some simple conditions of them is you keep these stories in perspective these stories are not the Quran well this is the seerah that's fine but how about stories of modern repenters that's not the Quran and Sunnah so keep it in perspective don't base all of your hopes on these people because how many of these people they were guided but then not fully guided they still have some sins for example and they are human so the point being the permissibility of narrating the stories of these people in our times who are sinners and then they have repented there is something benefit to gain from that also from this story we learn the permissibility to narrate your achievements without boasting. You narrate the good that has happened to you and you have done without boasting. What is the evidence for this from the story? At the beginning Ka'b lists his CV to his son. I was at Aqaba. I gave the bay'ah. I fought every single battle except for Uhud. So he's telling his son his whole CV. And there's nothing wrong with telling somebody the good that you have done the good that Allah has blessed you as long as your niyyah is not boasting and therefore that's something you have to monitor nobody else can monitor it Allah says in the Quran as for the blessings Allah has given you tell the people of those blessings so you're allowed to tell somebody of a positive you have done in order to encourage them in order to give a point so you can say that for example let's say for example if you're doing this so that he says mashallah tabarakallah then Allah knows your niyyah and your surah baqarah is gone what is the point now but if you're doing it and let's say you're older than the person you're talking to you say son I memorize surah baqarah means if I can do it you can do it so now here you flip the whole perspective around you're saying something to encourage him or whatever the niyyah might be as long as the niyyah is positive you can mention the positives about you we see this in Ka'b story also we have to be careful to be factual and not exaggerate and have humility we see this that when he said I participated in all the battles but he made an exception he could have let it slide because you know it's true that he participated in all the battles Badr wasn't quite a battle he could have just let it slide But we see his humility here. That he wants to make sure that you don't put me above the place I deserve. I did not participate in Badr. One of the benefits we also learn, it's a little bit scary here. But no matter how noble your past, that doesn't dictate and necessarily mean your future will be noble. If you looked at Ka'b's resume before Tabuk, who would have imagined that he would not obey the direct command of the Prophet ﷺ. Participating in Aqaba, what a noble thing. of only 70 sahaba. This is the elite of the Ansar. Having accepted Islam before the procession migrates, right? He is the one who gives his armor to the procession. What an act of bravery. Take 11 different swords and arrows and javelins in his body. What a great sahabi. Who would have imagined that this might happen? And subhanallah, we have in the dua of Ibrahim enough of this warning. Ibrahim, as he's building the Kaaba, he says, Oh Allah, make sure that my children and I never worship idols look at what he's scared of he's scared of not worshipping an idol no matter what your past is your future, nobody knows should always be humble about your future, also notice here, that of the benefits is that it is completely permissible to narrate one's sins to others if it is done with the right niyyah okay, we cover up the sins of other people, as for our own sins, we have the right to narrate them if there's a moral. If there's no moral, then we are bringing Allah's wrath. If we narrate them to boast, we are bringing Allah's wrath. Our Prophet ﷺ said, all of my ummah shall be forgiven, except those who boast of their sins. All of my ummah shall be forgiven, except those who boast of their sins. When you have such little iman, and may Allah protect us, but this is so common in the ummah. So common. They'll boast, I was with so and so, I drank so and so, I did this and that. And they think there's some cool people that have done this. And this is really complete lack of Iman. But suppose somebody narrates that, yes I used to drink alcohol. Yes, I used to take cocaine. I used to, you know, sleep around and do this and that. But then I realized this, Allah guided me. And then he's warning the people. So in this case he's narrating his own sinning state. But the goal is to warn people away. This is Ja'iz, we learned from the hadith of Ka'b, that he tells people about his sin in order that they do not fall into these sins. We also see from this hadith the sacrifice of the Sahaba, the obedience that they had to the Prophet ﷺ. Imagine 10, 20, 30 thousand of the Sahaba obeying the call of the Prophet ﷺ, hearkening to the call of Allah and his Messenger, giving up cultivation and agriculture, walking in the July heat in the desert from Medina all the way to Tabuk imagine and how many people remain behind? three three people of the of course the rest were nafqoon known for their nifaq what is therefore the obedience rate? if we listen to Ibn Ishaq who said there's 30,000 people, three over 30,000 0.01% basically percent was not obeying and they were eventually forgiven those types of statistics Wallahi, you see now why the ummah is in the state that it's in, right? Those types of statistics. When the Prophet ﷺ says, go forth, the whole ummah goes forth. From Mecca they came, from here they came, all over they came, in order to go forth and fight in Tabuk. And this really shows us the love and iman that the Sahaba had. We also see from this incident and from the narration, and of course this is a constant theme of the seerah, that our Prophet ﷺ took adequate precautions. That in the case of Tabuk, because it was such a difficult journey, he did not surprise anybody. He told them exactly where they're going. He told them they'd have to prepare. He told them to make sure that they make their matters, you know, arrange their matters for their family and their agriculture before they go. And this clearly shows us the reality of Tabuk, the reality of the difficulty of Tabuk that it took place in July in agriculture season, and the reality of preparing fee sabirillah. It is foolish to go forth in any endeavor, whether it's a battle, whether it's anything, without any preparation and say, Allah will take care of me. No. Allah will take care of you when you take care of yourself and put your trust in Him. And the sahaba took care of themselves. They had the mount, they had the ride, they had the money, they had the preparation. Then they put their trust in Allah. Putting your trust in Allah doesn't just mean walking on the battlefield field and saying Allah will take care of me. This is foolishness, it is not tawakkul. Also, notice over here, as our Prophet ﷺ said, feeling guilty is the essence of tawbah. This whole hadith, we can sense how guilty Ka'b felt. Even though he's narrating the hadith 30 years later, we can sense how guilty Ka'b felt, and especially the phrase that he says to his son that the next day I woke up and I said I can make it, the next day I woke up I can make it, and then I realized I would not be able to make it oh how I wish that I had prepared and made it with them now notice he is saying this 30-40 years later still in his heart even though he knows what does he know now he knows that he is forgiven well Allah isn't this so beautiful he knows he is forgiven but still 40 years later he is telling his son how I wish I didn't have to go through that and I made it and this shows us this is the sign of genuine tawbah genuine, we commit sins what is the sign that we have genuinely repented, we feel guilty for those sins, no matter 10, 20, 30, 40 years down the line we look back and we feel genuine regret, why did I do that, I wish I didn't do that, even if we know for a fact, and we cannot know for a fact, but Ka'b can even if we know for a fact, Allah has forgiven us, still you feel guilty why did I have to do that, I wish I didn't do that, also realize from this story as well. And I said this last week, but very important. Again, the dangers of procrastination, delaying, being lazy. The mu'min is not lazy. And every time you feel lazy and wanna postpone, remember the story of Ka'b. Every time you wanna postpone something for tomorrow, remember the story of Ka'b. Because weeks went by. And he kept on saying, yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Plenty of time. Until finally the Prophet ﷺ left. And he said, okay, today I'll go do it. Then today also he came back nothing. Then he said, tomorrow I can catch up. And then even the second day. And then it's too late after that. So don't delay, have it done immediately. And of course of the simplest and most profound lessons in the story of Ka'b is the importance of telling the truth. And of course that's a whole khutbah topic in and of itself. But one hadith to remind myself and all of you, our Prophet ﷺ said, عليكم بالصدق I oblige upon you, I put upon you the command of speaking the truth. all the time. Because speaking the truth leads to piety. Bir. And bir leads to Jannah. I command you to speak the truth. The hadith is in Bukhari Muslim. I command you to speak the truth. Because speaking the truth is piety. And piety leads to Jannah. And a man continues to speak the truth. Consciously speak the truth. Until Allah Azza wa Jal writes him as a Siddiq. And Sadiqah is the highest level. And I warn you against lying. Because lying leads to Fujur, which is evil. And Fujur leads to Jahannam. So notice how he linked directly truthfulness to Jannah. Literally, this is our Prophet ﷺ. Speaking the truth gets you to Jannah. Lying gets you straight to Jahannam. And he said, I warn you against lying. Because lying is Fujur, evil. And evil leads to Jahannam. And a person continues to lie until he is written in the eyes of Allah as a kathab, as a liar. So, and this hadith is a very important hadith, just keep this hadith in mind. Every time we open our mouths, make sure that what we speak is the truth. And of course we learn this from the Prophet ﷺ, that even when he was joking, he would speak the truth. Even when he was joking, he would speak the truth. And that is why when he told one of the sahaba, write everything I say. So the sahabi said, but sometimes you joke with us, ya Rasulullah. So he held on to this tongue and he said, اكتب, write, because I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul, is my ruh. Nothing comes from this except the truth. Even in his jokes, our Prophet ﷺ would tell the truth. And there are plenty of jokes that he told the truth. When the old lady came to him and old lady said, make dua, Allah caused me to enter Jannah. And what did the Prophet ﷺ say? Oh my aunt, don't you know that old ladies don't go to Jannah? Right? And she began to wail, and she was like, oh, you know the wailing. And then the Prophet ﷺ smiled and said, Allah will convert you into a young lady, then you will enter Jannah. So, what he said is true. It's not a lie. All ladies will not enter Jannah. Allah will turn you into a shabba, into a young lady, then you will enter Jannah. And there are other hadith as well, where he's joking, but even the joke is the truth. So, the point being that our Prophet ﷺ never ever said a lie. Never. and this is something we know for a fact I mean from our own readings of the seerah throughout this also of the benefits of the story of Ka'b is that making excuses for good deeds is the sign of hypocrisy what did the munafiqun do? the Quran mentions at least half a dozen times يَعْتَذِرُونَ إِلَيْكُمْ يَعْتَذِرُونَ إِلَيْكُمْ يَعْتَذِرُونَ they're just making excuses every time they make an excuse so making excuses for performing good deeds is not a sign of Iman. It's very dangerous. When you find yourself giving a million excuses to perform a good deed, this is not a good sign. Of the things we learn from the story of Ka'b, is that pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will eventually make Allah please mankind about you. And pleasing mankind at the expense of Allah, you will lose both mankind and Allah. because Ka'b said to the Prophet ﷺ that Ya Rasulullah if I wanted to I could earn your happiness but Allah would expose me and then you would hate me or you would have a problem with me and this is demonstrated in a beautiful hadith in Muslimah Muhammad also in Tirmidhi and others that our Prophet ﷺ said مَنْ اِلْتَمَسَ رِضَ اللَّهِ بِسَخَطِ النَّاسِ whoever seeks the pleasure of Allah even if it means getting the people angry at him shall gain both the pleasure of Allah and the pleasure of the people and whoever gains the pleasure of the people by displeasing Allah shall never gain the pleasure of Allah nor the pleasure of the people it's a very beautiful hadith memorize this one because wallahi this is such a difficult hadith there are times when speaking the truth standing up alone and telling a person what needs to be told or taking the stance that needs to be took it's a very difficult thing and it's so much easier to go with the flow what will the people say and here we have whoever seeks the pleasure of Allah even if it comes at the expense of the people will eventually be beloved by Allah and the people and whoever seeks the pleasure of the people by displeasing Allah will neither please Allah nor the people will be pleased with him So here we have this in the story of Ka'b. He became beloved to Allah and His Messenger. And he became beloved. All of us love Ka'b. To this day we love Ka'b. And look at the Munafiqun. They were despised by Allah and His Messenger. And they are despised by us today. Also we have from the benefits of the story of Ka'b. The importance of following righteous people at times of doubt. Look to what righteous people are doing if you're confused. Where do we get this from? the other two sahaba because Ka'ab when his tribesmen came back to him and said why would you embarrass us you're the only one of our tribe who embarrassed us why don't you just go and make an excuse what did he say did anybody else say what I said they said so and so and so and so فَذَكَرُوا لِي رَجُلَيْنِ صَالِحَيْنِ بَدْرِيَّيْنِ they mentioned to me two righteous men who had participated in Badr notice what swayed Ka'b so at times of difficulty and doubt turn to the people of knowledge and ilm and iman and taqwa and see what they're doing and then follow them quality is more important than quantity of the benefits we learn from the story of Ka'b is that it is the sunnah of our Prophet ﷺ and also our sunnah that no matter what it looks like outwardly we judge people by what they say and we leave their inner affairs to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala everybody knows these hypocrites are lying everybody knows it the sahaba know it because what did Ka'b say I was walking around Medina I could only see the bunch of hypocrites everybody knows who they are because you have a resume amongst the people your character is well known to the people your friends your community knows whether you are a righteous man or not yet when these evil people came and they made their excuse. Our Prophet ﷺ accepted it outwardly and he didn't open up their hearts and find out are they telling the truth or not. If this is the case of the Prophet ﷺ, how about us? We leave intentions and final judgment to Allah, but the next point of benefit, yes it is true we leave them to Allah, but it is not un-Islamic to have a perception of a person who has a bad reputation without verbalizing that perception. Because even in these narrations we get the clear verdict. Our Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba knew these people are lying. You sense it yourself when you read the story. But did they say that? No. So, and this is actually very simple. And wallahi we live our lives this way. When you know somebody is a fraud, somebody is a regular liar. When you know somebody has, you know, cheated so many people out of money and what not. And then he comes and he gives you a million excuses about a particular issue and the person that he has stolen money from, you know him to be trustworthy and what not. Whose side are you going to believe? The one who is the proven criminal? Or the one who has proven a track record of being a good Muslim? You see here. So there's nothing wrong in your heart you have an opinion. But unless you're the court of law, in which case you have to say something, then you don't actually pronounce a verdict. and you leave the inner dimension to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you accept somebody at the outer dimension and especially if they swear by Allah there's a famous hadith in Musnad Imam Ahmed so powerful it is one of those few hadith we learn about Jesus Christ in our tradition that it is said our Prophet ﷺ said that Jesus Christ he once saw a man steal so he said to the man why did you steal? So the man said, Wallahi, I didn't steal. So, Isa said, I will believe in Allah, and I will disbelieve in what my eyes saw. Meaning, if you're gonna mention Allah's name, let me take my statement back and leave your affair to Allah. Now what does that show? I mean, Isa saw him steal. Now of course, this is not law. You cannot choose this in a court of law, you understand. This is adab, this is not law. this is just being polite where somebody if he's gonna mention Allah's name so Isa said he said that I will believe in Allah if you're gonna mention Allah's name and I'll say my eyes were wrong now as I said this is something that we don't take it as a rule of law but we take it as adab as etiquette that when somebody is swearing or what not okay khalas it's alright let Allah Azza wa Jal judge right so this is what we learn as well from the hadith of Ka'b. Also, from the hadith of Ka'b, we learn that if you have something in your heart about your fellow brother, you should express it frankly and not leave it in your heart. And we learn this from the Prophet ﷺ himself. That when Ka'b came, firstly, Ka'b knew he was angry because he smiled the smile of an angry person. Then, what did the Prophet ﷺ ask him? Then what? There was something more. Didn't you have a camel? Didn't you have a camel? What does that show you? So the Prophet ﷺ feels in his heart, what is your excuse? And he says it. How could you have an excuse? And this shows us that when you have a tuhma, an accusation, when you have something in your heart, don't leave it in your heart because if you leave it what happens festers you will start forming clouds let it out look man I saw you do this or I heard this about you just say it so that let the person defend himself and how many times have we ourselves in our own lives confronting somebody with a fact only to realize the quote on quote fact we have is only half a fact or a distorted fact and you hear the other side in this case of course the Prophet ﷺ of course he was right Ka'b didn't have the excuse but what do we learn from this incident confront people with what you have show them the evidence and then let them defend themselves because that's the only way you're gonna have a good opinion of them after that that either as in Ka'b's case he'll say I'm sorry you're right you know I don't have an excuse or he will explain to you the other circumstances also of the benefits we learn from this and of course this is a constant throughout the seerah is that the Prophet ﷺ is but a human. He is not God. He does not have ilm al-ghayb. He does not control heaven and hell. He does not forgive. It is Allah Azza wa Jal. And wallahi anybody who reads the seerah really cannot hold the position that the extremist movements do. It's not possible. Anybody who studies the seerah directly from the sources. It is impossible. And that is why the notion of our Prophet ﷺ being some type of conduit or medium to get to Allah, that we go through him in our dua, in our tawassul, the sahaba didn't have it. Because they interacted with him. When you interact with him, they did not put him on that type of semi-divine pedestal that some of our extreme Sufi brethren or the Baili movement they do. This does not happen amongst the early generations. Why? Because they see the process and they're living with him. It's not possible for them to hold these types of views. and we see this in the Ka'b so many times is this from you or from Allah I can convince you I cannot convince Allah you see a clear distinction of La Ilaha Illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah also of the benefits we gain from the story of Ka'b is that eloquence can be very dangerous that eloquence and good speech can turn good into evil and evil into good and there are so many evidences for this, not just what Ka'b said. But our Prophet ﷺ, hadith is in Bukhari, إِنَّ مِنَ الْبَيَانِ لَسِحْرَى Some speech is almost like magic. It's a hadith in Bukhari. Some eloquent speech is almost like magic. What does this mean? It means, just like magic can make things appear and disappear, turn things upside down. Similarly, speech can do the same thing almost. it can turn black into white and white into black it can make the good appear evil, it can make the evil appear good إِنَّ مِنَ الْبَيَانِ لَسِحْرَةً and Ka'b says this, if I wanted to I could do this and our Prophet ﷺ himself also has that hadith in Bukhari as well, that you come to me with your arguments, you come to me with your disputes, so two people are arguing about property, you come to me with your disputes وَلَعَلَّ بَعْضَكُمْ أَلْحَنُ مِمْ في حججه من بعض And perhaps some of you are more persuasive in arguing your case than the other one is. So I find myself towards this person. But he knows that he is lying. So let that person who is lying realize that if I give the verdict to him, let him realize that what I'm giving to him is actually a piece of Jahannam. Meaning? Meaning what? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala obviously knows but you might convince me even the Prophet ﷺ saying this by the way you might convince me but you know that that land doesn't belong to you let's say, and you twist and turn and you make me think that it belongs to you and therefore I'll hand it over to you, but realize if you're lying, what I'm handing you is actually the fire of hell, right? but what does the hadith show? that speech can be very persuasive. And wallahi, it's so true when you look at what's happening in the world today. How each group is justifying what it is doing. Each group. Wallahi, I'm not meaning any one group here. How the extremists amongst the Muslims, how Israel, how this country and its foreign policy. It's so easy to manipulate minds of the people. Every group. That they do this, they do that, they selectively quote. And you're like, if you're not knowledgeable, you start following that line of thought. And that's exactly what our Prophet ﷺ is telling us. Also of the benefits that we learn from the story, is that being harsh is sometimes necessary. And again I brought this up many times in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, that the image that we have of the Prophet ﷺ, that he always forgave, this image is good but it's not true. And when it's not true, then it's gonna be harmful in the long run. You cannot be a leader, you cannot run a civilization, you cannot have a country or a government where everything is always forgiven there has to be the balance there has to be and anybody who says otherwise is not in politics and that's why as I said the religion that preaches forgiveness has never followed it in its own history because you cannot you understand I've said this many times before the religion that preaches turning the other cheek is the last civilization to ever turn the other cheek okay this is the reality because you cannot live like this and our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam demonstrated the ultimate reality which is the general rule is kindness and forgiveness but sometimes you have to take a stand and he takes the stand here that was very difficult for Ka'b and especially put yourself in his shoes he didn't know what's gonna happen he didn't know how many days he didn't know it would be years and that uncertainty and then you know everybody abandoning you everybody I mean you become like a ghost in the whole city, your own wife is leaving you now, your best friend and cousin doesn't even look at you in the face wallahi you think about it, you really get emotional, if somebody were to do that to you, if one person does it to you, it hurts you, imagine if all of humanity but that was their lesson and of the benefits of Ka'b, those lessons, every pain, every suffering, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses it to cleanse us of our sins, and if we have the right attitude, then And insha'Allah ta'ala, every pain and suffering will come to our advantage on the day of judgment. And so every time something happens that's painful, have a positive attitude and think of the story of Ka'b. Of the benefits of the story of Ka'b as well, is that it is of the etiquettes of the Qur'an and Sunnah, and of the etiquettes of good manners, that we indicate activities that are better not mentioned explicitly, we indicate them in implied wording. So for example, when the wives of the three Sahaba were basically told not to come close to them, so explicit language was not used. The Prophet ﷺ said to the wife of Hilal, make sure he doesn't come close to you. لا يقربنك Now, obviously the meaning is not make sure he doesn't come within one foot of you. It's very clear what the meaning is. But there's no need to be explicit when the situation does not call for it. And therefore this is of the etiquette of the Muslim. And it's an etiquette of the Quran Allah says in the Quran that When one of you comes from the restroom Allah doesn't say what you did in the restroom Right? Allah says in the Quran When you touch women لَا مَسْتُمُ النِّسَاءِ And it's not touching women It's understood what is the reference here So even the Quran and Sunnah They teach us this etiquette or adab Now, if the situation is called for Then yes, you are explicit And we have cases in the Quran and Sunnah Especially in the Sunnah where the process was extremely explicit. But that's when the case calls for it. Otherwise the general rule, let him not come close to you. That's what he said, right? To Hilal. And the point is given. Of the benefits that we gain from the story of Ka'b is that the general rule of Allah is that victory comes at the darkest hour. Victory comes at the most lowest point of desperation. if you wait to that point then inshallah victory will come because Ka'b himself says that it was as if as Allah describes in the Quran 50 days have gone by now and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accepted the repentance just like when you feel you cannot take it anymore and so the mu'min is always patient and realizes that the victory is tomorrow it is around the corner there are also some fiqh benefits from the story of Ka'b some very interesting fiqh benefits very quickly we'll go over it of the fiqh benefits from the Australia Ka'b number one the permissibility of non-Muslims entering Mecca and Medina for a legitimate reason and this is in contrast to popular opinion most of us we believe that non-Muslims can never enter Mecca and Medina this is not true the majority opinion and the opinion that has been acted upon for most of Islam's history except now in the modern era and even now in the modern era it happens but they don't tell it's happening when I was in Medina I got accepted in 1995 they had German engineers to design the umbrellas of the haram. Because those umbrellas are feats of engineering. They have won prizes. It's amazing, really. It's amazing. And I mean, sadly, we don't have the technology. So I remember seeing with my own eyes, you know, German engineers walking around, you know, in the haram. And just seeing, I mean, they have to. What are you going to do? And we have this notion that no non-Muslim can ever enter Mecca and Medina. This is wrong. And we learn it from the story of Ka'b. What incident in the story of Ka'b? The Nabati. the Nabatean if you like he was a Christian and he's buying and selling and he has a letter from the Ghassanid so in the time of the Prophet there is this Christian buying and selling in the souq of Medina and therefore another fiqh benefit you can buy and sell from people of other faiths this is common knowledge nobody ever says otherwise you can buy and sell from people of other faiths and of the fiqh benefits as well that we gained from the story of Ka'b the permissibility of entering a semi-private property as long as one is sure that the owner of this property would not mind him entering such an area and of course the reference here is to Ka'b's cousin's garden that what did he say I jumped over the wall and it is now in our current homes this is not common but many of you have homes back home you have memories of childhood and other places there was in many Muslim lands there still is let's say a lawn or an opening or a front room and the door would not be locked and friends and relatives can come in anytime to this front room but they know that they don't go behind the curtain let's say right and there are timings that are well known that okay now you just come in and still to this day there are societies like this. Sadly, this culture is dying out. But there are still societies like this that they have a majlis aam, let's say. Right? And I know of some cultures that after Salatul Asr to Maghrib, it is well known that the veranda is open, let's say. And if you want to walk over to somebody's house, you just literally walk in and there will be tea and there will be people there. And you don't have to announce your visit. You don't have to call beforehand. You just come and walk in. But it's understood this is the open. I see smiles and smirks and childhood memories coming back, right? So, you can resurrect these childhood memories if you want. I'll come to your house, no problem, you know. Just have the biscuits and shine, no problem. We'll come over, inshallah. But my point is that, this is basically that thing, that there are areas that are semi-private. And his garden is one of them. And Ka'b's cousin knows and allows Ka'b to come into the garden. So, Ka'b doesn't knock on the door. So, if somebody says, how could he have done this? We say, because it is understood. this is not the inner house this is a place Ka'b is accustomed to come to his cousin knows he's gonna he comes in this manner and his cousin is not going to mind so this is something that we also gain from the story of Ka'b also of the fiqh benefits of the story of Ka'b and subhanallah I wanted to do another two pages but we just haven't even finished the story of Ka'b of the fiqh benefits of the story of Ka'b is the sajdah to shukr the sajdah to shukr the sajdah to shukr is not explicitly mentioned in a verbal hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. There is no such hadith, when something good happens to you, fall down in sajdah. That type of hadith doesn't exist. But the concept of sajdah al-shukr is mentioned in the Qur'an and in the sunnah. فَخَرَّ رَاكِعًا وَأَنَابًا It mentioned about Dawud ﷺ. And here we have the story of Ka'b, that he's on his rooftop, as soon as he hears the good news, what does he do? Falls into sajda. And therefore this shows us that it is sunnah, and we say it is sunnah. Even though the Prophet ﷺ didn't command, but we learn it from the seerah. It is sunnah, when something good happens to you, you fall down in sajda. And that sajda does not need wudu. because it's not salah that sajda does not need wudu you fall into sajda in any state that you're in because this is the sajda to shukr do you have to say allahu akbar or not minor difference of opinion safer thing is just to say allahu akbar and fall into sajda and of course you have to fall in the direction of the qibla but you don't have to have wudu when you fall into the sajda so we should also revive this habit every time a good news happens to us, we should immediately fall into sajda. And I remember one of our teachers and one of the scholars of the haram of Medina, he was doing his PhD from the University of Medina's defense dissertation. And the audience was jam-packed because he's one of the famous sheikhs of the haram. And he was awarded his PhD with the highest honor, like Sharaf al-Ula, which is like highest honor. And in front of everybody, there's a thousand people in the audience he immediately stood up and he fell down in sajda, he said Allahu Akbar and he fell into sajda, I remember so clearly that was not something we were doing at the time but so sad but subhanallah he was so happy he fell into sajda in front of everybody over there it's something that we should also revive now sajda shukur, of the benefits from the story of Ka'b is that it is permissible to shout out good news to the whole community. Good news is not like bad news. Good news is public. Oh Ka'b, Allah has accepted your repentance. This type of good news, it is permissible. We have the man screaming from the mountain tops. And of the fiqh benefits we derive from the story of Ka'b is that it is permissible to stand up and greet somebody for a legitimate reason as long as it is not a habitual act. And we learn this from? From? Talha. Talha ibn Ubaidullah. He stood up to greet him. And some of our brothers are very strict in this regard because they're overly literalist and they say, I will never stand up for anybody because our Prophet ﷺ said, and the hadith is authentic, whoever loves that people stand up for him, let him be prepared to go to the fire of hell. And this shows us how dangerous a little bit of knowledge is. I say a little bit of knowledge can be a very dangerous thing. You read one hadith and you think, khalas, you know everything. yes that hadith is authentic but so is this hadith so is the hadith of Bukhari that the Prophet ﷺ was in his house when his daughter came in and he stood up to greet her he's coming back after a long time he's so happy to see her he stands up to go and hug her and so many other narrations that when Sa'd was coming after the battle of the Manuqa Raida the Prophet ﷺ said قوموا إلى سيدكم stand up to greet your leader so we have so many references of standing up. So where are we allowed to stand up? Where are we not allowed to stand up? In fact, Ashokani and others have written booklets about this. You're not allowed to stand up when the person has made it a culture or a habit to stand up. Now, in cases in our country where you are forced to stand up by law, such as in a court of law, so we are forced to, we stand up hating it in our hearts that this is not something that our religion encourages, but it is not going to give us any sin because now we're being forced. Because if you don't, you're going to be thrown into jail for contempt. So that's... As well if there's a haraj when you're taking your ceremony or something, as well in this case, right? So we realize that this is a type of pressure and being forced to, but it's not something that we should do voluntarily for a person who takes it a habit to be done in his presence. however, occasionally we're allowed to so you haven't seen somebody for a long time now you see him, you can stand up and greet him he's coming back from a journey stand up and greet him, this is something that is totally halal, and we learned this from the incident of Talha bin Ubaidullah, I had two more pages of moving on to the battle of Tabuk other instances, but subhanallah we have finished time, it is 9 o'clock and the battle of Tabuk is the final battle of the procession, and the fact of the matter is that there's so many incidents in here and so as you know it is my point to not go at a quick pace I want to do everything in as much detail as possible so I don't regret we spent two entire lessons on the story of Ka'b and inshallah we will stay with the story of Tabuk at least three more weeks maybe even four more weeks and then we have a day of just Tafsir of Surah Tawbah just Tafsir of Surah Tawbah so we will be doing Tabuk for quite a while any questions inshallah before we break for Salat al-Isha. there is another aspect that Dr. Bashar is bringing up and that is that the hadith says whoever loves the people stand up for him so the punishment goes to the one who loves the standing up and this is a valid point at the same time we have to be careful not to make it a habit for a particular person because our Prophet ﷺ did not like that the Sahaba stand up for him and he forbade them to do so Anas ibn Malik says and the hadith is in Shamal al-Tirmidhi that we would never stand up when the Prophet ﷺ entered the room because we knew that he disliked that from us. And one time the Prophet ﷺ was sitting down and all of the Sahaba were standing. And he said, why are you doing this? You are imitating the practices of the Romans and Persians. They stand up in the presence of their rulers. And this is true that in those days, if their king was there sitting down, they would all be standing up. So he said, don't do this. you're about to imitate the practices of the Romans and the Persians. So you are correct that the sin is upon the one that wants and craves it. We also have to be careful we don't make it a habit and routine for a particular individual. And Allah knows best. Yes? You mentioned one of the lessons that we should judge people by what they do outwardly. And so when the Prophet ﷺ came to the Prophet ﷺ, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. we will get to this issue of we will get to this issue that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that Allah has forgiven you why did you allow them to go by but in a nutshell it is because the hypocrites had a track record and the Prophet in this particular case everybody knows they are lying and so the requirement was that why didn't you basically get proof for them or what not but Allah says before Allah Azza wa Jalla very mildly chastises before even he does this Allah says you are forgiven but we'll get back to this when we do the tafsir there was a sister in the back go ahead yes a person is speaking without knowledge is that lying so our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said كفى بالمرء كذبا and يحدث بكل ما سمع it is sufficient for a person to lie if he tattletales if he spreads every gossip he hears everything you hear you spread it on then this is a type of lying so you should verify especially when you hear something about another person and you shouldn't just move on what you heard you should verify and even more important you shouldn't be talking about other people anyway none of us should be talking about other people that should not be the purpose of our conversation so yes it is possible to be considered lying if you just simply continue to narrate everything you hear okay yes Was there any instance of Sulaiman being overtly expressing that eloquent surveillance over justice? Who? Sulaiman? Yes. I'm not thinking of what, no incidents coming to me, but maybe if you remember what incident you're talking about. I'll have to go back to the exact story and see what it is nothing is coming to me right now final question the other two sahabas they did not narrate it in the first person so we only know about it from the story we do not know their inner thoughts but the same thing happened they were forgiven because Allah says so all three of them were forgiven inshallah final question yes go ahead is it one of the who chained himself the issue of the chaining I was trying not to get into that now because according to some scholars it appears that these stories are mixed up with other incidents so for example when the Banu Qurayza were told by the Sahabi that what do you think the Prophet ﷺ will say? And he made a motion with his hand that he's going to execute you, right? So apparently, some, there is an opinion out there and maybe we'll talk about this in detail. And I realize my seerah, mashaAllah, alhamdulillah, is very academic but I don't go to that level where I talk about narrations that are not beneficial. So what I'm trying to say is one opinion is that those stories seem to be mixed up with the other incident another opinion is that no that happened twice that two people were two incidents of people chaining up and I'm still debating do we want to go down that route of going into these ikhtilafat Allah knows best we'll see be patient inshallah we'll see inshallah with this we conclude for this seerah inshallah I will see you for next week inshallah Jazakallah khair Thank you.

Seerah 89 - Battle of Tabuk 3 ~ Dr

Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in, amma ba'd. So we were talking about the fiqh benefits of the story of Ka'bah ibn Malik. Okay, so let us now, we finished the story of Ka'bah ibn Malik, we now move on to other incidents. Now again remember, the battle of Tabuk, there is really no battle to discuss. The battle of Tabuk is full of incidents that we derive benefits from. At least a dozen mini incidents. So the interesting point about the battle of Tabuk is that we're spending so many weeks and we haven't even done maybe 50%, 60% by today. We still have many lessons left. But we're not gonna discuss any battle. It's not like Uhud or Badr that we talk about actual fighting. Rather, the battle of Tabuk has so many benefits in these smaller stories. So, today we move on. And because these stories, they kind of go through the entire battle of Tabuk, we're not going completely chronological. So, some things we'll mention are gonna go basically through the entire story of Tabuk. For example, the masjid that the hypocrites built. So, the masjid that the hypocrites built, the story begins at the beginning it continues throughout and it ends at the end we haven't even talked about the actual expedition yet we're gonna have to jump that to talk about the masjid and then we're gonna come back inshallah and then do incident by incident so we begin now, we're still back in Medina and the Prophet ﷺ is calling for sadaqah and there are many stories given about the sahaba who donated their money and the problems and the sufferings and the generosity that was shown and also the sarcasm of the hypocrites And there's benefit to be derived over here. We begin with the very famous incident that we've all heard. And it is a beautiful incident of the competition between Abu Bakr and Umar. We've all heard this story so many times. And it is a story narrated in the Sunan of At-Tirmidhi. And it deals with the battle of Tabuk. That the Prophet ﷺ stood up and he continued to ask for charity until Umar thought to himself, Today is the day that I can beat Abu Bakr. That's what he's thinking. Today is the day I can beat Abu Bakr. And he went back home and he got half of his money. Half of his money. Now realize, I've said this many times before, money back then was a scarce commodity. You didn't know when the next batch of money would come. You're not getting a monthly stipend, a salary. The concept of a salary is very new. And it has changed the world economics. You know how much you're getting. And you get it every month if you're employed, alhamdulillah. You get it. The concept of this salary is very new. For the sahaba, money was very erratic. They might get one dinar today, nothing for many weeks and end. And then maybe in one expedition or one business transaction, they might get a hundred dinars. And then nothing for years. So the fact that Umar ibn al-Khattab goes and he gives half of his money. If we were to give half of our money, we know two weeks from now, I'm gonna get my paycheck, another two weeks, another paycheck. so it's replenishing. For Umar to give half of his money is a very big deal. Even for us to give half, we cannot imagine. Half of our money, imagine. For Umar to give half, that means that he doesn't know when the next batch is gonna come. So Umar ibn al-Khattab said, I'm gonna give half of my sadaqah. And he brought forth half of his money. And when the Prophet ﷺ saw this money, and he knows Umar is not a rich man and he's bringing a bag of money. So he says, Umar, what have you left for your family? And Umar ibn al-Khattab says, I have left a similar amount. Meaning as much as I've given you, I have for my family as well. Then Abu Bakr came and he also has a bag of money. And Abu Bakr is also not a rich man. So the Prophet ﷺ also asks him, what have you left for your family? And he says, I have left them Allah and His Messenger. Meaning I haven't left any money. But I have tawakkul in Allah that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will replenish me. And when Abu Bakr said this, Umar said to himself that, Wallahi I'm never gonna compete with you again I'm always going to end up losing Now this hadith has so many benefits Of the most obvious benefits Is the fact that the sahaba Are competing with one another To do good deeds And this is something that unfortunately By and large has been lost amongst most of the Muslims The sahaba are monitoring How much is somebody praying How much is somebody paying How much is somebody fasting They're monitoring and they're wanting to win the race in the eyes of Allah. That nobody is gonna beat me to that place in Jannah. And this is something we do for the dunya. This is something we do for this world. There's a competition. We're gonna, you know, get into the race and do our best. In our job, in our workforce, in our little niche, we want to be top. We wanna get the promotion. We're gonna bend over backwards, make sure that everybody notices what we're doing and win the promotion. When it comes to Islamic affairs, who's monitoring what the rest of the people are doing for the sake of Allah? The sahaba are monitoring. And this is proven by so many other narrations. We've discussed some of them. That the muhajirun are saying, Ya Rasulallah, the ansar, they fast as we fast. They pray as we pray. But they give sadaqah and we don't have anything to give sadaqah. So notice they're monitoring. The muhajirun are monitoring. They're fasting the same amount. And they're praying the same amount. But they're giving charity. We don't have money to give. So all of this demonstrates that. The sahaba are monitoring each other. And they're wanting to race. And in fact Allah says in the Quran, سارع إلى مغفرة ربكم سابق And the word سابق literally means race. سبق is race. And Allah uses the verb سابق when it comes to good deeds. When it comes to racing to Jannah. And by the way, the Qur'an does not use those verbs when it comes to this world. This world. For example, when it comes to this world, Allah says in the Qur'an, Once صلاة الجمعة is over, فإذا قضيت الصلاة, فانتشيروا Go forth and spread. Don't race. Just walk away gently. and seek Allah's rizq. Right? But when it comes to Jannah, سَارِعُوا سَابِقُوا Race forward to get to Jannah. So here we have Umar saying, today I shall race Abu Bakr and win him in the race. It's a very beautiful mentality. We also have over here the concern of the Prophet ﷺ for the women and children. That they need money desperately. But when Umar brings his money, the Prophet ﷺ said, what did you leave for your family? He's worried about the family. And this shows us we are not asked to donate above our means. That the priority is indeed our family. And Umar ibn Khattab said, I have enough money for my family. Here is for you and this is for my family. And no doubt Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu did something that only Abu Bakr can do. And this is something that goes back to the iman of Abu Bakr. And it is an exception. Even Umar did not get to that level. And it is not something that we encourage. It's an example. It's a mithal that our religion has given us of the generosity of Abu Bakr. But the fact of the matter is that the Qur'an tells us, when we give, then give between the two. Don't be extravagant and don't be miserly and stingy. And this is the general rule. If our iman was to the iman of Abu Bakr, that's a different story. But we are not to that level. So these stories motivate us and these stories incite us to give. But we do need to realize that it is not something our religion tells each and every one of us to do. to give all of our money. Another example given in the books of Sira, Abdurrahman ibn Auf. He gave 200 uqiyah. An uqiyah is an amount of grain. In English it's called a bushel of grain. He gave 200 uqiyahs in sadaqah, in the battle of Tabuk. And this is a very good amount. And what is interesting, who is Abdurrahman ibn Auf? How much money did he come with to Medina? nothing he came with nothing when he came to Medina he just had the clothes on his back and now we have in 8 years 9 years mashallah tabarakallah he has now reached to the level of basically a very rich person and this shows us dedication persistence it shows us that having money in and of itself is a positive if you are somebody like Abdurrahman Ibn Auf having money is a blessing from Allah if you are a generous person. There's nothing wrong in our religion with being a multi-millionaire and what not. If you are a generous person, that is the best thing. You are generous with money. And Abdur Rahman Ibn Auf is the role model for this. How did he get 200 uqiyas? Buying and selling, trading. And we know the story that when he goes from the first day in Medina, he starts buying and selling. He buys and sells until finally he manages to get a small quantity of gold. And then back and forth until finally he now has 200 uqiyas of grain. The story of Uthman of course is narrated at this time in many books of hadith even. This is a hadith from Uthman ibn Affan. That Uthman radiallahu ta'ala anhu, that the battle of Tabuk coincided with the return of one of his caravans from Syria. So he had financed an entire caravan to Syria. And when the battle of Tabuk, the call began for finances, that was the time when his caravan returned from Syria and Uthman ibn Affan he decided to sell the entire caravan lock, stock and barrel everything from the camels to the saddles to the goods on it everything he sold it and he got around a thousand gold coins and that is a fortune at any time especially at that time I mean a thousand gold coins in our time would be... No. No, no, no. Those gold coins in our time, they sell for like 500 to 700 dollars. The gold, just the gold. Right? So imagine now, more than half a million dollars, right? And this is, I mean, this is for one time transaction. You know, and Uthman ibn Affan, he brought, he didn't have, he sold it right then and in the marketplace. As soon as it came back, the caravans, as soon as it came back, Right then and there, he sold everything to all of the buyers in the marketplace. And he didn't have a bag. So he put the gold on his thawb, you know like this. He put it on his thawb and he walks back to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ with his thawb up and the gold coins in that thawb. Those were heavy thawbs back then, made out of real wool, right? If we one of our thawbs did that, Allah is gonna break away. No cotton and polyester, that's the real deal over there. So he takes that thousand coins And he walks back into the masjid And this is Medina You don't need an armed guard You don't need anybody He's gonna do nothing This is Medina of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam And he then pours it in front of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam And he says this is You know For the battle of Tabuk And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam began looking It's literally a pile of gold in front of him Literally imagine a pile of gold And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam began You know Flipping the coins around And he said, wallahi ma dharra ibn Affan ma fa'ala ba'da al-yawm. That wallahi whatever ibn Affan does after today, it will not affect him. He has earned Jannah with this. That whatever he does today, that it will not affect him. And subhanallah, this statement of the Prophet ﷺ, it was used by Uthman ibn Affan. it was used by Uthman ibn Affan 30 years later, around 30, roughly 30 years later when the Neo-Kharijites, we'll call them because they weren't quite Kharijites yet but these people became the Kharijites when the Neo-Kharijites surrounded his house and they had come from all around from all the other outlying Arab regions and they were demanding you know, the most trivial matters why did you appoint Sa'd ibn Abi Waqas as the governor why did you do this, why did you do that very trivial things in the grand scale of things and they're demanding so many conditions and they become harsher and harsher and one of the things that Uthman said to them do you not know that here you are criticizing me over these trivial things do you not know that the Prophet ﷺ himself said when I gave the money for the Jaisal Usra they used to call it Jaisal Usra we talked about that with the names of Tabuk the army of difficulty that he himself said no matter what I do it will not affect him so if he said that basically who are you to criticize these petty things, right? And the Sahaba testified that yes, the Prophet ﷺ had indeed said that. In another version of this incident of Uthman ibn Affan, that we learned that the Prophet ﷺ was giving a khutbah, and he was encouraging people to give. And this was like the fundraiser if you like, that he's encouraging, who's gonna give, who's gonna give? So Uthman stood up and said, I shall give 100 camels, and all that is on them. Then the Prophet ﷺ continued to say, who's gonna give, who's gonna give? Then he stood up and said, I'll give 200 camels. And then the Prophet ﷺ continued exhorting until finally he said, I shall give 300 camels and all that is on them. And that was the quantity of camels that was supposed to come back. So it is as if he had announced this that he was going to give it. I shall give 300 camels with all that is on them. And the Prophet ﷺ then came down from the mimbar and he said that Uthman has no sin after what he has done today. Uthman has no sin after what he has done today. So it appears as if Uthman had announced he would do this before the camels came, before the caravan came. When the caravan came, he then sold it, and he then brought the money to the Prophet ﷺ. So these are examples of the generosity. On the flip side of the coin, we also have examples of the mocking of the hypocrites. How did the hypocrites mock? The munafiqun gave nothing. Nothing at all. not only did they not give anything they also mocked those who gave so not only were they stingy they tried to prevent others from giving to the cause of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and they would mock anything that was given either by publicly saying something or by nudging and winking nudging and winking at each other and they would say oh this guy he gave so much, he's just showing off. He's not doing it, and we still have the same sentiment in our times, that people are judging others when they are giving. And they would ridicule somebody who gave a small amount, saying, what is this amount going to do? What is the purpose of this amount? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed them in the Qur'an, and criticized them severely. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surah At-Tawbah, that, الذين يلمزون المطوعين من المؤمنين في الصدقات These munafiqun are those who make fun of the believers when they give their charity. And they scoff at, they make fun at those who have nothing to give except their hard sweat. They make fun of the people that have nothing to give other than the earnings of their sweat basically. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make fun of them. سخر الله منهم Rather than them making fun of the believers, Allah says, سَخِرَ اللَّهُ مِنْهُمْ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make fun of them. And what an evil and painful punishment. What is the story of this ayah? And this is Surah At-Tawbah, verse 79. Al-Tabari mentions that one of the Ansar, when the command was going, the process was daily asking for money, who's gonna give, who's gonna give. So one of the Ansar, he decided to give something. So he spent the entire night in manual labor, pulling water and giving it and pulling water and then selling it is the cheapest thing you can do you cannot really, that's like a copper penny or something like this, the least you can do so he spent the whole night pulling water and then selling it the next day and he then earned two handfuls of dates with that the whole night's work so he came the next morning and he said, Ya Rasulullah, here is one handful of dates for you and the other handful to feed my family. So I spent the whole night, manual labor, getting water out of the well and here is what I have. One handful of dates that you can take. So one of the munafiqun stood up and he mocked him and he said that, do you think Allah needs this quantity of dates? And the second one stood up and said that you are more in need of this quantity than anybody else. Meaning you're so poor, you need this more than anybody else. Why are you making a mockery by giving this? And of course, the sahabi's feeling was, you can imagine, very hurt. It was very, it was a very painful thing that he spent the whole night and he's giving whatever he has and now the munafiqun in public, in front of the whole crowd, they make fun of him. Who are you? Who needs this? Allah doesn't need this. You're so poor, you should give charity to yourself. That's basically what they're saying. Who do you think you are to give to Allah and his messenger? And so, this is when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed that they think they're making fun of the believers, سَخِرَ اللَّهُ مِنْهُمْ Allah will mock them. وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَلِيمٌ And they shall have a painful punishment. And when the Prophet ﷺ began calling for going out في سبيل الله, so they not only didn't participate in the fundraising, they began to give excuses why they could not go. One after the other, before and after. So some of the munafiqun gave excuses before the battle. and others gave excuses when the procession returned and of the bizarre stories narrated in the seerah which really shows you how the munafiqun were that the Prophet ﷺ asked one of the friends of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul one of the friends of the hypocrites he himself was a hypocrite and his name is Al-Jadid bin Qais and he was one of the elite of the Khazraj and he remained a munafiq his entire life but he was of the circle of Abdullah bin Ubay bin Salul so the Prophet ﷺ said Ya Jed, O Jed are you not interested in going to fight the Romans? come let's go, let's fight we're going to go fight and Jed said O Messenger of Allah can you not excuse me? can you not give me permission? for by Allah, listen to this excuse for by Allah my people know that I have a weakness for women and I am worried if I see the Banat Banu Asfar the women of the Romans that I will not have any patience that I will not be able to live normally after that or whatever he intended Allah knows now what a flimsy excuse that if I'm going to see the women of the Romans the Banat Banu Asfar they would call the Romans the Banu Asfar the tribe of yellow so they would call the Romans yellow people not white because for them white was not what we call white for the Arabs white was fair brownish what we call wheatish complexion that was white what we call white they would call yellow just like Indian American American Indians would say pale face or yellow face or whatever right off white off white yes so they would call the Romans the yellow people Ban al-Asfar and this munafiq said, I cannot go just in case I happen to see a lady on the other side of them. Banat ban al-asfar. Then my life will become difficult. I mean, what a excuse, right? And so the Prophet ﷺ, the riwayat said, a'rad anhu, he turned away from him, and he accepted this. He's like, okay, don't go then. Meaning if you don't want to go, then don't go. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed in the Qur'an that wa minhumu alladhina hafiz sahib help me out there are those who say give me permission and don't test me don't test me it's a big fitna for me to see the banat al-ban al-asfar so Allah says there are those who say give me permission excuse me وَلَا تَفْتِنِّي And don't test and try me. And then Allah says, أَلَا فِي الْفِتْنَةِ سَقَطُوا This is a powerful verse in the Quran. That the munafiqah is saying, لَا تَفْتِنِّي Don't test and try me. And Allah says, أَلَا فِي الْفِتْنَةِ سَقَطُوا They have fallen head first into the fitna. By their lies and by these flimsy excuses, they have fallen head first into the fitna. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed, and Surah At-Tawbah is full of references to the Munafiqun that Allah revealed, فَرِحَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقْعَدِهِمْ خِلَافَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَكَرِهُوا أَن يُجَاهِلُ بِأَمْوَادِ الْمُنْفُوزِ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَقَالُوا لَا تَنْفِرُوا فِي الْحَرْمِ The hypocrites are happy. They're overjoyed that they are not going with the Prophet ﷺ and they're sitting down on their behinds. They're sitting down lazily and they're not going and they're overjoyed. And they're telling one another, لا تنفروا في الحر Don't go in this hot weather. Who's gonna go in this hot weather? Allah says, قُلْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ أَشَدُّ حَرَّةً لَوْ كَانُوا يَفْقَهُونَ The fire of Jahannam is much hotter than this, if you only understood. فَلْ يَضْحَكُوا قَلِيلًا وَلْ يَبْكُوا كَثِيرًا Let them stop their laughing and start crying because of what they have done. Very powerful verses in the Qur'an. And in another verse, Surah At-Tawbah verse 42, Allah says, لَوْ كَانَ عَرَضًا قَرِيبًا وَصَفَرًا قَاصِدًا لَتَّبَعُوكَ If the journey was small and the distance easy and a lot of money would be gained in the battlefield, they would have followed you. وَلَكِنْ بَعُدَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الشُّقَّةَ But they felt uncomfortable at the distance of the journey. So all of them were lying with their excuses. And Allah says, if it was a short journey with a lot of money, all of these excuses would have vanished. They would have come. But because it was a long journey and perhaps facing the Romans, they became panicked and they gave their excuses. Now contrast this, Allah is saying they're overjoyed, they were happy, they're not going, they're consoling one another. Who wants to go in that heat? Contrast this with the story of the sahaba who couldn't afford to go. Who couldn't afford to pay or to go. There were groups of sahaba, they were called the bakka'un, the criers. there are groups of Sahaba called the Bakka'un why? because they did not have neither the means to give money nor the personal possession of a camel to go and the Prophet ﷺ ran out of money to purchase camels for everybody and so groups were left straggling behind without any camels and they kept on waiting to the very end to the very end and some of these were relatives of Abu Yubad al-Sari by the way that from his sub-tribe, most of these relatives from his sub-tribe, they're from the tribe of Muzaynah. And of them also were some of the later muhajirun. Of them is Ibad bin Sariyah as well. The famous Ibad, the one who wore the bracelets of Kisra. Also Ibad bin Sariyah. That there were a group, probably 7, maybe 12 or 13, we don't know exactly how many. There was a group that to the very end, all the money ran out. They were not able to purchase camels. And so when the final day came, and the Prophet ﷺ said, I'm sorry, لا أجد ما أحملكم عليه This is in the Qur'an. In the Qur'an. That when the Prophet ﷺ said, لا أجد ما أحملكم عليه I have no money to give you a camel to ride on. تولوا وأعينهم تفيضوا They turned away, and their eyes were streaming tears. حزناً ألا يجدوا منفقون They were so sorry and grieved that they couldn't find the money to go. contrast this فَرِحَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ and حَزَنًا look at the difference of Iman that some people are overjoyed with a false excuse and others are crying with a legitimate excuse contrast the two والله between the two is the heavens and the earth false excuse lying and they think they're scot-free and on the other hand they are excused they don't need to go after all it's not their fault they can't afford it's not the army's fault it's not the Prophet's fault they have a legitimate excuse. They are forgiven, but they're crying. That how come we missed this great opportunity? And look at the contrast between the two people of Iman. And as well, when Allah revealed in the Qur'an, defending the Sahabi who gave a handful, so defending the Sahabi who gave a handful, so one of the Sahaba stood up, and his name was Ulba. And we don't know anything about him really, other than this one incident. And he was of the poor, he had nothing at all. and he said, Ya Rasulullah, I have no money to give you. I have no money to give you. But I give you my honor, my dignity. That in the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that I will defend against those people who are irritating you. I don't have any money to give you, but I give you my honor. I give you whatever dignity I have, that I will then defend you against these hypocrites. and the Prophet ﷺ said, I have accepted your charity. I've accepted your charity. And this shows us that subhanallah the sahaba were so eager to give the Prophet ﷺ even that which was non-monetary. And with regards to these people, ulba and the bakka'un, with regards to these people, it is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, in the expedition of Tabuk, there are people in Medina, still in Medina, and they were in Tabuk at the time. You have not traveled even a step or gone through any valley except that they have accompanied you and they will get the ajr of you. They said, O Messenger of Allah, even while they're in Medina, they're gonna get our ajr. After all that we've done, they're gonna get our ajr. And the Prophet ﷺ said, even while they're in Medina, because they had a legitimate excuse. حَبِسَهُمُ الْحَبِسِ they had a legitimate excuse they couldn't come with you and this is a beautiful beautiful hadith for the benefits of of what niyyah good niyyah having the intention a sincere intention not just a half-hearted intention a genuine intention if I had a million dollars I would do this if I had this I would do that you don't lose anything by having these positive intentions and in fact according to other narrations we learn that anybody who makes such an intention Allah will give him one hasana just for making the intention one good deed so we have so many missed opportunities every time we should say if I had the means I would do this if I had that I would do that just make the niyyah and subhanallah with regards to these people their niyyah was so strong so powerful that the entire ajr of the whole army that is walking back and forth for one month's journey, they get it while they're sitting at home in Medina. Because they would have come if they had the means to come. There also is the story of Al-Wathil Ibn Al-Asqa' one of the famous Ansar. That he kept on asking and waiting for money until there was no money available. He did not have a camel. So he kept on going every day to the market place saying that, you know, who is going to allow me to, you know, come with him on the expedition. And for whatever reason, he was not chosen. Whoever had a camel, basically they chose other people. So then finally on the last day, on the last day before the expedition departed, he said, who will take me and I will give him my share of the ghanima. I'll give up everything. Now pause here. The rules of fiqh state. I've said this a number of times, but I'm sure most of you have forgotten including those who take notes that the military at the time was voluntary, meaning what do I mean voluntary? It wasn't a paid military it wasn't a paid army and those who participated in battles there are rulings of fiqh for how much ghanima they get and that ghanima was very essential for their livelihood this might be, I mean for some of them for example the battle of Khyber, it made their wealth for the rest of their lives. They had a small portion of land and these people had no money to purchase land. So participating in a battle also had monetary benefits if you won ghanima. And it was definitely an incentive and there's nothing haram with a dual incentive. There's nothing haram with a dual incentive. The dual incentive being, and also some worldly benefit. And this is a fiqh point which I guess I need to explain here because people do get confused. You must have 100% ikhlas when it comes to niyyah for doing an act for the sake of Allah versus the people's praise. You cannot mix the people's praise with ikhlas of Allah. If you mix ikhlas of Allah with the people's praise, it ruins the ikhlas. So if you give a thousand dollars and you want people to praise you for giving a thousand dollars, your thousand dollars has gone to null and void. Because you cannot mix a good deed for the sake of Allah and for the praise of the people. Is that clear? You can mix a good deed for the sake of Allah and for some monetary benefit for yourself. This is not shirk. At all. In fact it is completely halal And there are a million and one examples The Quran teacher Needs a stipend The person cannot teach Quran 10 hours a day Without getting a stipend Right? The Islamic studies teacher The If the masjids that have an imam The Hajj businessman The businessman who's going for Meaning the hajj The businessman who's making a business out of hajj right? now we need people to make businesses out of hajj or else we're not going to be able to go correct? they spend months and years preparing the package, doing this and that of course they need a profit hajj is an act of worship, is it not? so these people are combining an act of worship with with what? worldly monetary niyyah this is 100% halal by unanimous consensus of all the scholars of Islam and Alhamdulillah we thank Allah or else we would not have had much of what we need to have we would not have had anybody who is doing anything that is religious because you need people who is going to do the Hajj who is going to become the Imam who is going to teach the Quran you need this and so this is halal and the Quran explicitly allows it and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself said the best salary anybody can ever take is for teaching the Quran. There's a hadith in Bukhari that people are getting salaries for left, right and center. The best money you can take, the most rightful money is for teaching the Quran. The hadith is in Bukhari. So this shows us that this is completely halal. So, وَاثِلَ when he's looking for a ride, so the rules state that the one who is going on a camel shared by somebody else, he will get one share if you like. And the owner of the animal will get three shares. Or some say two, depends on the fiqh version that you follow or the madhab that you follow. That either he gets double or triple, he gets more. So, wathila is going to get a percentage of all of the share of the army. He's gonna get a percentage. So, he said, who is gonna take me and I will give him my percentage. Whatever I get will all be his. Now the stakes have changed now. And so one of the elder of the Ansar, he said that, you want me to take you on the condition that you will give me your percentage, your share, your seham? He said yes. So the Ansari said, but we will have to take turns writing, meaning I'm not gonna give you the camel. We're gonna have to take turns writing and we'll share the meals together. So, Wathila said, yes, I agree to this. Okay. So they agreed and Wathila said, I travel with my best companion I ever had. Meaning he was the best companion I've ever had in any journey. The most generous and the most kind companion I ever had. Then, when I came back, so, I will explain where they earned this money even though there was no battle but certain Ghanima was in fact won in the battle, in the incident of Tabuk. and so he actually got a number of camels. We don't know how many, he just says a bunch of camels, I got them. And so I came back to Medina and I brought them to the Ansari. And I said, here, this is the share that I promised you. So the Ansari looked at this flock or herd of camels. Is it a flock of camels or herd of camels? Who are the English people here? You've heard of camels? Okay. You've heard of a herd. Okay. Alhamdulillah. So I'll say it's a herd, but I'm not 100% sure. so he sees this even though a herd how much do you need for a herd will four count as a herd or not seven and up mashallah the confidence he has have you ever dealt with camels no okay even though this is not a camel question it's an English question in any case so he has a mini herd of camels and the Ansari says to him show me these camels so he brings them and the Ansari the says he sits down on his the saddle he takes the saddle off He sits down and he says, bring them back and forth. I mean, this is how you examine the camels when you're gonna purchase them, right? Show them to me, bring. So he takes them back and forth. And he is now, you know, subhanallah, mashaAllah, he's really enjoying the beauty of these camels. Then he said, the Ansari said to Wathila, that your camels are very beautiful. Wathila said, these aren't my camels, these are your camels. This is the share that I promised you. And then the old man said, ya bna, akhi, oh my dear nephew, you go and take your camels, for I didn't intend this, I intended something else. Meaning, I didn't mean to take the camels from you, it was just, you know, I saw you giving up the camels, so I decided to take you, it was never my intention to take your camels. And subhanAllah, again this shows us the iman of the sahaba and the ansar. We also have the story of, I mean so many small stories, again this is the whole point of tabuk, all of these small stories build up. We have the story of Abu Khaytham al-Ansari, Abu Khaytham al-Ansari, which shows us Abu Khaytham's story shows us even the Sahaba have to struggle sometimes. Even the Sahaba have to struggle sometimes. And some of them they take more struggling than others. And Ka'b ibn Malik we talked about his story and how he had to struggle and suffer. Abu Khaytham almost got to the level of Ka'b. The very last person to leave Medina. What happened with Abu Khaytham? Same story as Ka'b. Delay, procrastinate, tomorrow I'll do it. And kept on giving some excuse to himself until finally the process and departed. Same story as Ka'b, right? And he then goes back to his home. And Abu Khaytham had a garden outside of Medina. And when he entered his garden, so his wives had prepared a rug for him underneath the shade of the date palms. and they had sprinkled some water on the rug. Why would they sprinkle water on the rug? To cool it down. And they had prepared, some of the brothers are getting jealous here, it's alright. They had prepared some food, okay. So he enters the garden and he sees, you know, his wives have prepared themselves, they prepared the garden, they prepared the food, all of this. And he says to himself that, what am I doing here? What is this? I am here in this pleasure when the Prophet ﷺ is in the desert and in the heat so his guilt caught up to him at the very last minute before it was too late and he said Wallahi I'm not going to even sit down like the luxury of what he saw affected him so much that right then and there he saddled his camel and rushed out to catch up with the Prophet ﷺ. And the next day, when the Prophet ﷺ woke up in the morning, they saw the lone rider coming in the distance, the lone rider racing. And the Prophet ﷺ said, كُنْ أَبَا خَيْثَمَ May it be Abu Khaythamah. And it turned out to be Abu Khaythamah. Because our Prophet ﷺ, he knew Abu Khaythamah is not a munafiq. He knew that Abu Khaythamah had money. And he's now feeling regret. And by the way, the same story, we said in the story of Ka'b, that you know Ka'b he mentioned the story as well that he's mentioned the story and when the lone rider comes the Prophet ﷺ says let it be Abu Khaytham because it was hurting him that Abu Khaytham was not with the army and this shows us so many things of them is that the Prophet ﷺ is monitoring the Sahaba every single Sahabi he knows that he's not here Abu Khaytham is not one of the elite of the Ansar but he's a well known Sahabi and he's monitoring why isn't he here and when Abu Khaytham came the Prophet ﷺ asked him, why were you delayed? What was the issue? I mean, you're supposed to have left with us yesterday. And Abu Khaythamah told him the whole story. And the Prophet ﷺ said, أَوْلَا لَكَ يَا أَبَا خَيْثَمَةٍ يعني, woe to you. وَيْلَ أَوْلَا لَكَ Meaning, you just saved yourself. You know, you just saved yourself, Abu Khaythamah. And this shows us as well, tough love. The Prophet ﷺ gently rebuked him. that you just managed to get out. And this was like, I'm happy you're here, but realize that was very close call basically. And that shows us the fine balance of our Prophet ﷺ. Another famous story in the battle of Tabuk of one of the Sahaba is the story of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari. The story of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari that Abu Dharr al-Ghifari seems to have had an issue with his camel. The story seems to be a little bit muddled that either his camel was on loan to somebody or his camel fell sick, one of the two. That he was supposed to go, but his camel basically was not there for him to go. And it was his niyyah to go, but for whatever reason, his camel basically either it fell sick or somebody had taken it and not returned the camel. Whatever the case was, that Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, this is the famous Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, whose story comes up so many times and he's a famous narrator of hadith, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari. so Abu Dharr then took the stuff that was on the back of his camel was supposed to be his backpack if you like and he put it on his back that was supposed to be carried by the camel he put it on his back and he started walking from Medina all the way trying to catch up non-stop with the Prophet ﷺ so on the second or third day they see the lone figure walking not, this isn't Abu Khaytham on the camel, this is a man walking in the distance. And the Sahaba are astonished. Who is this man coming in the distance walking with his backpack? It's not even a backpack. This is the bags you put on the camel. This is what you're supposed to put on the camel. And he has this on his back. And he's just trudging along. Because as I said, the caravan of 10, 15, 20 thousand people, it's gonna be slow, it's gonna stop at night, spend the whole night. And it is possible for a single man on a camel to catch up in a day for a walking man, maybe two, three days if he's so persistent as Abu Dharr. So Abu Dharr eventually catches up. And they're wondering, who is this man? Who is this man? And the Prophet ﷺ said, كُنْ أَبَا ذَرْ Subhanallah. So yesterday he said, كُنْ أَبَا خَيْثَمَةً It was Abu Khaythamah. And today he says, كُنْ أَبَا ذَرْ And of course, what do you think it's going to be? Of course it is Abu Dharr. Our Prophet ﷺ wanted Abu Dharr to participate in Tabuk. And it turns out to be Abu Dharr. and the Prophet ﷺ said to the Sahaba around him, Abu Dharr did not hear this at the time, the Prophet ﷺ said to him, رَحِمَ اللَّهُ أَبَى ذَرٍ May Allah have mercy upon Abu Dharr. يَمْشِي وَحْدَهُ وَيَمُوتُ وَحْدَهُ That he's walking by himself, he will die by himself, وَيُحْشَرُ وَحْدَهُ He's going to be resurrected by himself. May Allah have mercy on Abu Dharr. He's walking alone, he will die alone and he will be resurrected alone as well and this is exactly what happened this is a prediction this is a prediction about Abu Dharr that Abu Dharr is a very interesting Sahabi maybe one day we'll give a longer lecture about Abu Dharr but what happened Abu Dharr had certain views of economics and of social policy and of politics that were unpalatable to the rest of the Sahaba in fact not just to the rest of the Sahaba even our Prophet ﷺ said to Abu Dharr Ya Abadhar, inni araka da'ifa Oh Abadhar, you are a weak man when it comes to politics. Weak here doesn't mean greedy. It means you are not a politician. You are not capable of being a leader. That's what it means. Weak here doesn't mean that you're gonna be greedy for hungry or power or what not. It means you don't have the capacity to be a leader. That Ya Abadhar, you are a weak man. And being a leader is an amanah. and it will be asked on the day of judgment so never take charge of anybody never be in charge of somebody else and from what we gleaned from Abu Dhar's philosophy of life and social policy and economics so Abu Dhar did not believe in collecting possessions for the next day he did not believe in having money for future events and everything that you have should just be given to others so you understand you can't really run a country or you know it's not something that you can really do very ascetic life very harsh life and he's living a very simple life and when the money began to flow in and the sahabi began building larger buildings let's say Abu Dharr was a very vocal critic and he could not stand this even though it is halal we know it is halal and you know not every and this is the beauty of our religion that not everybody is supposed to live in a very difficult life. People are different. And Allah has allowed this variety. So Abu Dharr was on the austere side and he demanded others to be on that side as well. And this got him into a lot of trouble with a lot of the Sahaba until finally Uthman, he was in the Khilafah of Uthman. Uthman asked him to leave Medina and go somewhere else. Because too many complaints were coming to Uthman because of Abu Dharr. That he said this, he did that, he's doing this. Too much complaints is coming. So Uthman just said, can you live in another city? So Abu Dharr decided to live by himself, not in any city. Just he took his wife and he had an elderly servant, and they just went and lived basically in the desert. How they lived and what, now we have no clue. But that's what he just lived by himself. And Ibn Sa'd reports in the biography of Abu Dharr, Ibn Sa'd from Istabaqat, he reports that when Abu Dharr was on his deathbed, his wife began to cry. And Abu Dharr said, why are you crying? she said I am crying because we don't even have enough cloth for your kafan I don't have cloth to shroud you and we don't have the power to bury you it's just an old lady and a servant we cannot even dig a grave for you so Abu Dharr said do not cry for I heard the Prophet ﷺ say one day when we were sitting with a group of people one of you shall die in the wilderness one of you will die all alone yet a group of believers will pray over him and each and every one of my companions in that gathering has already died and they all died with their families or in cities and I'm the only one left and I'm all alone in the wilderness means that hadith has to come on me and I'm the only one left and I'm all dying in the wilderness. So, when I die, go sit on the path. Now, in those days, they had highways, believe it or not. And those highways were not like our highways, but it was basically, this was the path that you took. They had stones to mark it. They had once in every whatever, they would have water and what not. So, they had these highways basically, the caravan ways you can say. So, Abu Dhar said, when I die, take my body and go sit at the side of the caravan route, somebody will come. His wife said, why would anybody come now? Because this isn't hajj season. So this is not a road that is well traveled. These are gonna be the roads that are gonna be traveled once every year or so. Who's gonna come now? So Abu Dharr said, do as I say. Go on the path. For wallahi, neither am I lying, nor was I lied to. neither am I lying when I told you what the Prophet ﷺ said nor was I lying to him nor did the Prophet ﷺ lie to me I know what he said I'm not lying to you, he didn't lie to me listen to me Allah will basically take some people and bring them to me so he passed away and the old servant and his wife basically moved his body to the pathway and lo and behold out of nowhere almost instantaneously a massive caravan riding their horses with fine garments and large and they almost run over but they see on the side of the road a dead body and an old lady wearing her veil and a servant, a weak servant and the servant stands up and says stop, stop, stop help me bury a Muslim so they say who is this so the servant says this is Abu Dharr, Sahib Rasulullah this is Abu Dharr, the companion of the Prophet and lo and behold Ibn Mas'ud is in this gathering Ammar Ibn Yas is in this gathering so many of the sahaba are in this gathering and Ibn Mas'ud begins to cry and weep because he remembers 20 years ago exactly what the Prophet ﷺ said he says صدق رسول الله ﷺ has spoken the truth that I heard the Prophet ﷺ say may Allah have mercy on Abu Dharr he will walk by himself he will die by himself he will be resurrected by himself and they gave some of their own garments for the kafan of Abu Dharr and they buried Abu Dharr and they pray janazah in the middle of the desert as the Prophet ﷺ had predicted that you will die alone but a group will come and pray over you and that's exactly what happened and this incident took place in the khilafah of Ali and this was when the wars were going on and that's why Ibn Masud and Ammar are going back and forth because of the civil wars and Abu Dharr did not participate in those so this is the incident of Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari and then the final incident that we'll mention for today is the incident of the Masjid Al-Dirar the incident of the hypocrites building the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and inshallah next week we'll actually begin some of the incidents during the battle of Tabu during the traveling of Tabu the hypocrites, back to the munafiqun Remember the munafiqun were giving excuses not to go. They didn't donate even a penny. They're giving all sorts of flimsy excuses. And the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam would accept any excuse. So much so that Allah Himself very mildly, very mildly He chastises the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam. Why are you accepting every excuse? عَفَلْلَهُ عَنْكَ لِمَا أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ Allah has forgiven you, but why are you giving them permission? all the time. And it was the nature of our process and whatever somebody said, he would just accept it. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala himself said, Allah has forgiven you, but why are you giving them permission all the time? So, when the situation became more and more tense and Allah revealed verses telling them not to mock those other believers and what not, they decided to build their own masjid. So that they would have full freedom to do as they please. so that they could speak and preach and say whatever they wanted to say without any harassment from the true believers. And Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul was supposed to be the leader or the sheikh or the one who's leading the masjid. And they had the audacity to collect funds and build a masjid even while the Prophet ﷺ is asking for funds for Ghazwat al-Tabuk. so they did not give a penny for the Ghazwat Tabuk yet they managed to get the funds to build their own false masjid and they're giving excuses to go forth in the battle and they build Masjid Al-Dirar even before the Prophet ﷺ leaves for Tabuk they had finished the construction imagine their enthusiasm and energy was not for Allah and his messenger It was for their own elitism, their own inner circle. They built their own masjid, which was close to masjid Quba in our times. It was walking distance from Quba. And that was another problem. So close to Quba, they're building another masjid. So they built their own masjid where the munafiqun would typically congregate. And there is another reason given as well. And this is a reason that is a very interesting reason. It's found in the books of Tafsir. In the books of Tafsir. Tafseerat Tabari and Ibn Kathir and others they mention this story that there was one final attempt from the hypocrites to try to counter the message of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam this was the final attempt and the leader of it was not Abdullah Ibn Hubayb Ibn Salul but rather it was a friend of Ibn Salul's we have mentioned him before last year I think or even before that and his name was Abu Amir Al-Rahib does anybody remember Abu Amir Al-Rahib and when did we mention Abu Amir Al-Rahib anybody I mentioned the whole story of Abu Amir Al-Rahib in detail, in a lot of detail even what the battle of Uhud the battle of Uhud that I mentioned the story of Abu Amir al-Rahib. Abu Amir al-Rahib was one of the Khazraj, one of the elite of the Khazraj. And he was one of the few elders who was alive after the battle, the civil war between the Aus and the Khazraj. Remember the civil war at least? Remember the civil war? Right? When almost all of the senior members had been killed. And that's one of the reasons why the younger members wanted something new. They didn't like the old ways. They were looking for something new, that's why they embraced Islam that's why they wanted the Prophet ﷺ to become their leader an external figure and Aisha says Allah gifted the Prophet ﷺ with the civil war of the Ahus and Khazraj that prepared them for Islam so this was why they were tired of the old ways and they wanted something new and so they embraced Islam and they became the Ansar but some of the elders some of those who were supposed to become the leaders, they are now taken away And the main person is Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul. And he remained in Medina. The other person that Sira mentions, that was similar to Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, was Abu Amir Al-Rahib. And Al-Rahib means the monk, or the ascetic. And he was called Al-Rahib because he converted to Christianity. And he became a very respected person amongst the... This is pre-Islam. He converted to Christianity, he became an ascetic, and he became a very respected person. the people of Medina at the time Yathrib, they loved him as an elder, wise, religious person of integrity they loved him, when the Prophet came, we saw how much integrity he had, he actually wanted power he loved the fame, it wasn't the actual integrity, so when the Prophet invited him to Islam, he recited Quran to him, Abu Amir rejected Islam, after the battle of Badr, when there were no more pagans and others allowed So Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul Pretended to accept Islam And he became a munafiq Abu Amir fled to Mecca Abu Amir fled to Mecca And in the battle of Uhud And I mentioned this story in detail This is all a repeat by the way This shows you how much you have memorized This is all a repeat And Abu Amir Before the battle of Uhud He told the Quraysh That look, just let me speak Before the battle you will see all now the light bulb was it 3 watts or 5 watts goes off now some basic light bulb goes off right? oh it's an LED one mashallah if it were that bright then we would be if it were that bright mashallah so this is the 9 volt you know the homemade construction kit you put it in and it goes on and on so Abu Amir kept on boasting to the Quraish just wait and see as soon as my people see me you just see how much respect they have I'll get them on your side they'll hand over the process among the silver platter for you that's what he was saying just wait I know my people and I know how much they love me so the Quraysh were so happy okay we have him in our midst he's a secret weapon so right before the battle they allow Abu Amir to go and give his speech and he says to his people Oh my people, it's me Abu Amir Al-Rahim. And come over here and do this and hand over the Prophet ﷺ. And I'll give you this and we'll do that. And when they saw him and he began telling them to hand over the Prophet ﷺ, they began saying the worst things. And they said, you're not Abu Amir Al-Rahim, you're Abu Amir Al-Kafir. And you're this and you're that. And they said the most harsh things against him. Who do you think you are to tell us to hand over the Prophet ﷺ? and he was shocked to see his people so much opposed to him and he turns back to the Quraish he said I don't know what has happened to my people after I left this isn't the people I remember from my days and of course it's not because Islam has changed their loyalties so when he realized that he cannot even be in Mecca he left for Rome this part I did not tell you guys because we stopped the story over there he then left for Rome and he managed to get into the circles of the Caesar because we can imagine that and this is not unrealistic to put yourself in the shoes of you know the Romans here here you have an Arab speaks fluent Arabic now willing to live amongst you and be some type of ambassador at large or tell you the situation of the Arabs we can imagine the Caesar would have plenty of such Persians and Arabs and what not in his court to tell him the inner mechanisms of what's going on in other lands so Abu Amir Al-Rahib makes his way up and he's now you know basically he has access to the Caesar we don't know the details but basically he's now in that circle that he has access to the Caesar. So now Abu Amr writes to his best friend, Abdullah bin Ubay bin Salul. Okay, so now here we get to the story. And he tells him, make for me a base. Make for me a base in Medina, in Yathrib. Make for me a base and allow me access to the people. I.e., this is a revolt. It's an insurrection. now honestly this is bizarre from his perspective to even think about this it's way too late in the game but it's desperation that he wants to regain his power of old so he is saying let's start a revolt basically give me a place and a group of people and we will foment from within and once I have a footing in the city I can then tell the Caesar to send troops in or get a contingent and together we can then overthrow the Muslims. So Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, when he got this letter, that's when he decided to open up a new masjid. That that masjid would be the headquarters if you like, the base of this new revolt. Okay? So because obviously he's not gonna do it in the process of the masjid. So he then built Masjid al-Dirar. Masjid al-Dirar of course is the name the Quran gives, he didn't call it masjid al-dhirar masjid al-dhirar means the destructive masjid, the harmful masjid the evil masjid, right, the masjid of suffering and pain, this is what masjid al-dhirar means, and Allah calls it masjid al-dhirar so, and by the way, our Prophet ﷺ made dua against Abu Amir al-Rahim that may you die a stranger, may you die far away from your family and friends, and Abu Amir died all alone in Rome without a single friend, without a single family person Just a complete stranger in a strange land. And that is a punishment by the way. Which we in our times do not realize. But being a stranger in a strange land is a very difficult thing. Different language, different culture, nobody cares about you. It's a very, very difficult thing which many of us don't realize. But if you ever have the chance to go to another country, and you are nobody in that country, it is a very painful thing to be a stranger. So Abu Amr died that type of death. In any case, back to our story here. So, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul constructs the masjid, walking distance from masjid Quba. And as a token of utmost, if you like, mocking and disrespect. So, Abdullah ibn Ubayy asks the Prophet ﷺ, why don't you come bless our masjid? Come and pray two raka'ah in it so that we can officially open it. This is the cutting the ribbon ceremony, if you like. And the Prophet ﷺ felt very uncomfortable. because the whole now he doesn't know Abu Amir's story obviously he does not know Abu Amir's story right now but the whole point of Abdullah ibn Ubay building a masjid at this time when we need the funds and all of these mocking and what not has been revealed and instead of giving us money they're spending money on a masjid we don't really need which is walking distance from Quba and he asked them why do you need the masjid and they said ya Rasulullah we have weak people they cannot walk and so this masjid will be for the du'afa, for the elderly, if it rains, not to walk in the rain. How many rains in Medina once a year? Once a year the rains come. But this is what they're saying, if it rains, it'll just be right there in our neighborhood. And so, it was the nature of our Prophet ﷺ to just overlook and accept. So, he said to them, that in his gentleness, he didn't wanna say no, but he didn't wanna say yes. So, he said to them, we are busy now preparing for travel. InshaAllah when I come back We're busy now preparing for travel InshaAllah when I come back He didn't say yes He said if Allah wills when I come back He didn't say yes I will come to your masjid He said when I come back If Allah wills then And they built the masjid The masjid was in operation For around a month But the Prophet ﷺ never prayed there They opened it before Tabuk And the Prophet ﷺ did not visit it He did not pray there On the way back, Jibreel came down and Allah revealed in the Quran, Surah At-Tawbah, verse 107 to 108. Surah At-Tawbah, verse 107 to 108. وَالَّذِينَ اتَّقَدُوا مَسْجِدًا ضِرَارًا وَكُفْرًا وَتَفْرِيقًا بَيْنَ مُؤْمِنِينَ وَإِرْصَادًا لِمَنْ حَارَبَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ مِنْ قَبْلٍ That those who have taken a masjid, وَالَّذِينَ اتَّقَدُوا مَسْجِدًا Those who have taken a masjid, ضِرَارًا And dhirar means harmful, painful, suffering. So Allah called the masjid, masjidu dhirar. And that's the name in the books of seerah. This is the masjid of pain and suffering. Those that have taken a masjid of harm, وَالَّنِ تَخَذُوا And there are four reasons given. This is surah Tawbah verse 107 to 109. This is the story here. Surah Tawbah 107 to 109. Those that have taken a masjid, number one, of harm. Masjidan dhiraran. Number two, wa kufran. masjid of kufr they're making this a masjid for disbelieving in Allah not for believing in Allah number three wa tafreeqan bayna al-mu'mineen they're dividing the believers you're not supposed to divide the believers you're supposed to unite the believers one there is masjid quba right there and within walking distance you're making it and there's no need for you to make it so tafreeqan bayna al-mu'mineen they're dividing the believers and then number four وَإِرْصَادًا لِمَنْ حَارَبَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ مِّنْ قَبْلٍ And as an ambush, secret ambush, for someone, لِمَنْ For someone who has already waged war against Allah and His Messenger. What is the reference here? Abu Amir al-Rahib, Abu Amir al-Kafir, Abu Amir. That this is a secret ambush, irsad, for the one who has already declared war against Allah and His Messenger. وَلَيَحْلِفُنَّ And they will swear to you. إِنْ أَرَدْنَا إِلَّا الْحُسْنَا We only want good from the masjid. We're only doing this for the weak and the elderly, for the sick and the poor, to save us from the rain. وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ And Allah is testifying, they are a bunch of liars. They're not doing this for good. Allah is testifying they're a bunch of liars. لَا تَقُمْ فِيهِ أَبَدًا This is verse 108. Never ever go and stand there. Don't go to that masjid. لا تقوم فيه أبدا Don't go to that masjid. لمسجد أسس على التقوى من أول يوم أحق أن تقوم فيه Verily, the masjid that was built from the very first day it was built upon consciousness and taqwa of Allah, that masjid is more befitting that you pray over there. فيه رجال يحبون أن يتطهروا In that masjid are people who want to purify themselves and Allah loves those who purify themselves. So when Jubileel came down with these verses on the way back from Tabuk, the Prophet ﷺ commanded Ammar ibn Yasir and others to go destroy that masjid and burn it to the ground. Because this is a masjid of kufr, masjid of irsad, masjid of tafriq, this is masjid of dharar. so the, and this was one of the final stances between the munafiqun and the Prophet and we're gonna get to the final stance in a few months, when Abdullah bin Ubay dies, that was when Allah revealed in the Quran don't even ask Allah to forgive these people, that was like the final straw, if you like, that was it so, one of the main benefits of tabuk is this is the end now of the munafiqun in terms of their aspirations of course, the munafiqun live to this day, but in terms of their aspirations and what not, khalas, it's over now with the battle of taboo so the masjid was destroyed and what we learn from the story of masjid al-dharar is that even a masjid can potentially become a place of harm if it is built by evil people for an evil purpose Allah calls this a masjid of harm and a masjid built for kufr so even a masjid if it's built by hypocrites for the wrong reasons can become a masjid of evil. And our Prophet ﷺ was prohibited from praying in it. And eventually our Prophet ﷺ was even prohibited for praying for the munafiqun. Don't even ask Allah to forgive them. Don't even stand at their graves. Allah says, we're gonna come to that in a while. What this also shows, by the way, is that the hypocrites were well known. The hypocrites were well known. It's not as if they were unknown to the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba. They want to build their own masjid. And they want to pray in that masjid. It's well known. And the one who says, don't tell me to go to, I'm going to see the Roman women, they're going to drive me crazy. This is well known. These are the hypocrites. Right? So, it's not as if the hypocrites were unknown. They were well known to the sahaba. And the reason why many of us are not familiar with them, is because their names by and large have been ignored and neglected. Right? They didn't do anything. So, the books of seerah don't really mention their names. But they were known from their faces and their actions. Now Allah says in this series of verses, the masjid that was built upon taqwa has more right that you stand in that masjid. So there is another masjid that is opposite of masjid dhirar. A masjid that was built upon taqwa from the very first day, that masjid has more right that you stand over there. In it are people who love to purify themselves. Now, what masjid is that? So, there are three opinions. The first opinion, it is masjid Quba. It is masjid Quba. And this is narrated in a hadith in Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi and others that the people of Quba were asked that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has praised you that you want to clean yourselves, you want to yatataharu. So why did Allah specify you as being people of extra tahara? Yatataharu means they purify themselves extra. Tatahara is more than what is required. So the people of Quba said this hadith is mentioned in the chapter of Istinja. The hadith is mentioned in the chapter of Istinja. It deals with the etiquette of the restroom. And this is what the fiqh is based on. So they said that we have a habit in Quba, in that area, we have a habit that we always use water when we wash ourselves. Now, this goes back to istinja, istinja means to cleanse yourself after you go to the restroom. In our culture, in modern Islamic culture across the world, we are accustomed to using water. And a sign of a Muslim house is the Lota next to the toilet, right? This is the giveaway telltale sign. There's a water bottle or something next to the toilet. and for many of us we cannot imagine using the restroom without the water bottle, there's no water bottle running around, where is that, we go to a stranger's house you know, you're trying to wonder how to get the water bottle inside and that nobody knows so there's a portable lota as well, you can collapse it and put it in your pocket if you're really embarrassed you can pick it out I'm not joking, there's something like this made in China, mashallah okay everything's made in China so we are accustomed to using water and we cannot imagine using nothing not using water but it is surprising for every single Muslim to find out that all of the madahib are in unanimous consensus that you don't have to use water exactly shocking isn't it to learn at this age not that you should stop not that you should stop using water right it's a great habit but do realize that water was scarce back then and not everybody, it was not possible for every single society and household to use water for cleansing. So it is allowed in the sharia to use dry material, i.e. like toilet paper. It is allowed. The sharia allows it. All of the madhab by the way. It allows it. Now please don't go back to that habit because it's a very good habit we have, alhamdulillah. Now, it is allowed but by unanimous consensus, it is better to use water. Clear? It is better to use water. So when the people of Quba were asked, why did Allah describe you, يَتَطَهَّرُ which means extra tahara. So they said, we are a people in our culture, because again, Quba is a different mini city outside of Medina. In our basically culture and what not, we use water all the time. So Allah said, يَتَطَهَّرُ Now this shows the masjid referenced is the masjid of Quba. So we would say, Khalas, clear, explicit. But then there's another hadith in Musnad Ibn Muhammad, where two sahaba were arguing in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. Which masjid is it that Allah has said, Lamasjidun ussasa al-taqwa min awwal yawm. Is it Masjid Quba? Is it Masjid Rasulullah ﷺ? And so they took their matter to the Prophet ﷺ right then and there. He's alive, you're gonna go and ask him. so he swore by Allah he said this is this masjid right here and they were in masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and that hadith is in Musnad Imam Muhammad and it is authentic hadith so he is swearing by Allah it is this masjid so we have one hadith that seems to indicate it's quba another hadith seems to indicate it's masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and then the third opinion is that it is a generic verse every masjid built with taqwa is better than masjid dhirar and this is the correct opinion and it incorporates both of the previous opinions into it that both masjid quba and masjid rasulullah s.a.w are referenced in the verse لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى تَقْوَى مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَن تَقُومَ فِيهِ now by the way just a bit of a tidbit small tidbit here some of the scholars have derived the beginning of the Islamic calendar from this verse how so? so when the sahaba gathered together and they said we need a calendar many of you should be aware, I hope all of you are aware that the Prophet ﷺ did not begin a calendar there was no calendar in his time there was no yearly calendar and the calendar was begun by Umar ibn al-Khattab and Umar ibn Khattab decided we need an annual calendar and they said when should we begin the calendar? When should we begin the calendar? Some said with the death of the Prophet ﷺ others said Isra and Miraj others said Badr so these are like the big things and then majority of the Sahaba said no with the Hijrah and of course that's what stuck we begin the calendar with the Hijrah so later scholars it's not mentioned the Sahaba said this later scholars they kind of read into this verse the masjid that was built on the first day so the first day of the calendar right awwal yawm so the hijrah is the awwal yawm so that's where the calendar begins and that's a bit of a stretch but it's an interesting stretch because it's kind of true if you read it that way in any case that's besides the point here the masjid dhar was destroyed and our prophet never even came close to it he never even entered it, came close to it and this shows us as we said that it is possible even for a masjid to become masjid ud-daraar one final point inshallah and then we break and I have to give some announcements as well today masjid ud-daraar is a reality and we firmly believe it is possible for another masjid to also become a type of masjid ud-daraar if it is an evil place that is meant for this and that but we have a big disclaimer here to make what we have seen happen is that when a community breaks into two and another forms another masjid so the first community then says oh that is masjid al-diraar because they disagreed with us that is masjid al-diraar and this is very very dangerous and very arrogant. Because Masjid al-Dirar broke away not from the community of uncles, but from the Prophet ﷺ. Breaking away from a group of people doesn't make you kafir. Breaking away from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, that is a big deal. So if you disagree with me, that does not hurt you on the Day of Judgment at all if you are sincere. if you disagree with me and you say I don't like his views on x, y and z and you have another scholar that you agree with okay, khalas so much so that you don't even want to pray behind me you want to go and build your own masjid Allah this is your prerogative and right and I should not call you oh you are building masjidul dirar just because you disagreed with me who am I that if you disagree with me your disagreement becomes munafiq and your tafreeq between the mu'minid. Who am I to do this? We have to be very careful in this regard. It is possible that a masjid could be a type of masjid dirar. But let's leave that verdict up to Allah. In this world, if the people that broke away and formed another masjid seem to have a semi-legitimate reason, and wallahi 99.9% of them is a semi-legitimate reason, right? From whatever perspective it could be. That, you know, there are so many, a million and one examples. so they break away and they form another masjid you know somewhere away from the first one okay let them be it's not our business to go labeling other people this is masjid dharar and unfortunately I've seen too many especially in North America way too many cases of the first community labeling the second community this is masjid dharar we need to realize if you're saying that's masjid dharar you should go and torch that masjid down is that what you're saying? I hope not you're implying that that is a masjid of kufr because Allah Azzawajal says in the Quran that it is built upon that's what you're saying are you really gonna accuse them of wanting to do kufr it's quite clear Abu Amir Al-Rahim wanted kufr, it's quite clear Abdullah Bin Ubay wanted kufr are you accusing the guy who disagrees with you of wanting kufr so this is arrogance it's dangerous, it's very un-Islamic and it is possible you might become masjid dharar by raising the bigger commotion. In this world that we live in, live and let live. Let them go and build their masjid and if they're sincere, it will flourish. If they are not sincere, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will expose them in this world before the next. And you do your job and let others do their job. And inshallah with that we conclude. Is there a quick question? Because I have some announcements to make as well. Quick questions before we make the announcements. Yes. the Prophet ﷺ needed everything not just cash dates are used as food you dry the dates and you take them everything wheat, barley, everything you know some people gave butter whatever is food because the army needs to be fed whatever can be done You send it in the expedition. So it's not just cash. It's not just money that is needed. It is every single item that is needed. Armor, weapons, everything is needed. And the Prophet ﷺ requested for all of them. Yes? So when the ayats are revealed about the hypocrites, don't they know that Allah is talking about them? Of course. يَحْذَرُ الْمُنَافِقُونَ أَن تُنَزَّلَ عَلَيْهِمْ سُورَةٌ تُنَبِّيُّ مَا فِي قُلُوبٍ This is in the Qur'an. The munafiqun are scared that Allah will reveal in the Quran something that talks about what is in their hearts. This is in the Quran. So how perverted, I know your two questions, how perverted are you that you know Allah knows what's in your heart, and yet you don't believe in Allah? It's arrogance really what it is, that I'm not going to follow this man ﷺ. I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna stay with the ways of my forefathers, and I'm not going to follow him. So the munafiqun actually knew Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would expose what's in their hearts. And this is an amazing ayah. And again, you are wondering about the munafiqun, never forget Iblis and what he saw and what he became. Just because you know the truth doesn't mean you will follow it. And that is why the worst kufr is the kufr of arrogance. The worst kufr is the kufr of arrogance. You know the truth and you don't follow it. and most of the munafiqun are kafir because of their arrogance they're only muslims for the political stability it gives them that's all ok, sister's question, yes no, Abu Amir never came to Medina after he left after Badr he never came back, he died as we said in Rome he died a stranger in Rome never came back to Medina, yes why were they not punished? why were they not punished we will talk about that next Tuesday and it is also mentioned in many narrations but very briefly our Prophet ﷺ said I don't want the people to say that Muhammad ﷺ kills his own followers there was a greater benefit that the PR spin that would have been given to executing the munafiqun would have been very sinister that people would be told Oh he kills his own followers So don't join him And that's a twist to the reality So how to prevent that reality That would have been more harmful than tolerating them within Okay And there was another reason and that is the hope That they will eventually accept And that was always our Prophet's nature He's always optimistic that people are going to accept Okay Thank you.

Seerah 9 - Zayd ibn Harithah & Beginning of Revelation - Yasir Qadhi _ Sept 2011-nIpG-3Fvk4c

Al-Fatiha. very profound symbolisms in this that we were not able to finish. And so we do need to start from where we left off. And that is we had just mentioned the tangent about the story of the black stone and that it had become fragmented and that the sahaba, or not the sahaba, excuse me, the Abbasids had to put it back in molten rock and molten metal. And then the actual black stone is actually in pieces now. It's not the original stone. Now, some of the symbolisms that we learn from the rebuilding of the Ka'bah, there is clearly the metaphor being given that the Ka'bah has been destroyed before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ. And the Ka'bah is being rebuilt right at his time. And the symbolism is very clear that the religion of Ibrahim had been destroyed, and now our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is coming to rebuild it again. there is a clear symbolism that the Kaaba of course represents the religion of Ibrahim and the Kaaba represents the first house ever built for the worship of Allah as we said before that before the coming of Ibrahim there were no things called mosques or churches or synagogues there was no sacred space and so Allah says in the Quran أَوَّلُ بَيْتٍ وُضِعَ لِلنَّاسِ لَلَّذِي فِي بَكَّةٍ the first house meaning the first place of worship that was set aside for the worship of Allah is Mecca and therefore this house represents the worship of Allah and the symbolism of it being destroyed five years before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ is the symbolism of the religion of Ibrahim has not been preserved by humanity and no one has fulfilled its due so the fact that it's being renewed right now is a sign that just like the Kaaba is being rebuilt similarly the religion of Ibrahim is gonna be rebuilt again And the fact of course is that the Ka'bah was rebuilt upon the foundations of Ibrahim. So the foundations remain the same, but the building is renewed. So therefore the theology remains the same. La ilaha illallah remains the same. The religion remains the same, but it's dressing if you like, or the actual bricks of the Ka'bah, they will be renewed. And obviously the symbolism of the Prophet ﷺ being the arbitrator, being the one who is chosen, and the one whom everybody is happy and rejoicing. and the one who saved them from bloodshed and civil war. Again, there's clear symbolism here. That just like he saved them from civil war, and he saved them from bloodshed, and he exalted the honor of the Quraysh, now he is gonna come as a prophet, and once again exalt their honor. And the fact that the Prophet ﷺ united all of the tribes by holding up the cloth, is a symbol that he will unite all of the tribes under one banner of Islam. That before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ, the Arabs were disparate tribes. And after the coming of the Prophet ﷺ, all of them will be one ummah under the banner of Islam. Another indication, which is not even symbolism, it's quite blatant here, is that as we said last time, when the Prophet ﷺ entered the Ka'bah, all of the tribes said, لَقَدْ جَاءَ الْأَمِينَ All of the tribes were happy. And we said this is amazing, because before the coming of the Prophet ﷺ, the understanding had been that it's gonna be the luck of the draw. It's gonna be just like lottery. And whoever is the first person who comes inside, whatever tribe he belongs to, that tribe will be the one who puts the black stone. This was the understanding. That's what they said, whoever the first person will decide. When the Prophet ﷺ came in, everybody rejoiced. And this here is clearly, it's not just symbolic, it is a reality. that the Prophet ﷺ was such an immense character. His nobility was so recognized that it didn't matter which sub-tribe he belonged to, it didn't matter he's from Banu Hashim. Everybody loves him as one of their own. And this is simply humanly impossible. And today we'll talk about another story that clearly illustrates the status of the Prophet ﷺ. There's one or two interesting bits here as well. That when Abu Jahl stood up to gather funds for the Ka'bah, one of the narrations has it that Abu Jahl said to the people that we are rebuilding the house of Allah so make sure that the money that you give is from your pure earnings make sure that there is no cheating in that money that you give make sure that there is no interest and make sure that there is no evil from prostitution or any other gambling that you do make sure that the money that you give is not from those evil sources. And this is amazing that someone as filthy as Abu Jahl understood that when we donate for the sake of Allah, it's got to be pure. When we donate for the sake of Allah, it has to be untainted. Because we're building the house of Allah, we don't want filthy money. And look, he even knows what is filthy money. Interest, gambling, cheating, prostitute. He knows this. Without any sharia telling him. Because we already said the fitrah or the nature that Allah gives, we already know the indications of good and evil. Now, in the first time from the history of the building of the Kaaba, the Kaaba was built slightly short of the foundations of Ibrahim, as we said and explained, right? And we explained that Abdullah ibn Zubayr rebuilt it back to the normal size, right? And then once again the Umayyads came along and put it back to the size of the Jahili Arabs. and then the Abbasids came and said, why don't we expand it? And Imam Malik said, no, I don't want the Kaaba to become a toy, a plaything, that every time a ruler comes, he's gonna destroy it and rebuild it. Leave it as it is. And so, basically the Kaaba has remained except for five, six years in Abdullah ibn Zubair's time, the Kaaba has been remained upon the structure that the Jahili Arabs built. And there is at least 40% of the Kaaba that was in the time of Ibrahim a.s. that is now open. Now, there is a huge wisdom here. And that is that, we know that praying inside the Kaaba is a very great blessing. And the Prophet ﷺ prayed inside the Kaaba. Inside the actual structure of the Kaaba. Now, if the Kaaba had been built according to the foundations of Ibrahim, then it would be almost impossible for people to pray. Because from the time of the Jahili Arabs, the door has been high. Remember we said they did this, right? And from that time onwards, it's been high. And therefore, it's not been an open structure. Only in Abdullah ibn Zubayr's time, for a few years, it became on the original. How the Prophet ﷺ wanted it. It was returned to a rectangle, the doors were built on the ground level, and it was open. People would come and go. But then when Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Hajjaj killed him as we said, and did that chapter, it was rebuilt the way the Jihili Arabs did it. And from that time up until ours, you really, it's a qadr of Allah. Either you're some high level delegate, or government official, or once a year when they wash the Ka'bah, they open up the Kaaba doors and 10-15 people who just you know they just happen literally to be at that time and place they let them go and pray otherwise it is frankly impossible to pray inside the Kaaba however it's not impossible, it's very easy why? because that portion of the Kaaba is left open and so the blessings of praying inside the Kaaba are open to everybody you don't need to walk inside the doors because that is the original Kaaba of the Prophet Ibrahim A.S. And of course there's great wisdom that Allah Azza wa Jal intentionally chose this. And therefore we find that no matter what Allah does, and I already gave the story last week of all of this grand material coming from the palaces of the Caesar, right? And he wanted to end up somewhere. And of course Allah had a plan. And it ended up financing and building this most sacred spot on earth. And this was something that the Caesar never intended. But Allah Azza wa Jal has an intention, and everything worked out for the best. moving on from there there's one more interesting story before the advent of the actual wahi or revelation and this story once again clearly shows the mannerisms, the character of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and that is the story of Zayd ibn Haritha Zayd ibn Haritha Zayd ibn Haritha is from one of the tribes of Yemen he's from the Qahtani branch of the Arabs not the Adnani branch. We'll go back all the way to the beginning, we said there's two main branches, the Qahtani and the Adnani. The Prophet ﷺ and the others are from the Adnani branch, this is the other, the Qahtani branch. So Zayd is from the Qahtani branch. And to make a long story short, Zayd's mother and Zayd's father were from two different tribes, from the Yemeni tribes. And these two tribes had a love-hate relationship. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. Sometimes they're in a good agreement, and sometimes there's a little bit of a fighting. So one day Zayd's mother took Zayd, her name was Su'dah, took Zayd to her own tribe. And it so happened that a small skirmish broke out right at that time between her husband's tribe and her tribe. So Zayd's extended relatives, some distant uncles and what not, they got so angry that they did something very cruel. they took this child, 7-8 years old they kidnapped him from his own mother and even though she is a part of their own tribe but because in Jahiliyyah and even in Islam the son belongs to the father and the son takes the lineage of the father so to get revenge at that tribe they actually, astaghfirullah stole one of their own sisters relatively speaking sisters' children and that is Zayd and they kidnapped him obviously without the knowledge of his mother and they sold him into slavery, just like the story of Yusuf. They sold him into slavery. And this was to get revenge at the tribe of Zayd's father. Typical Jahili antics. And so, Zayd was sold in the grand fairs of Ukkah. Ukkah, remember, were the largest fairs, the largest suq, the largest marketplace, which took place after the Hajj season. So, Zayd's extended relatives took him and they sold him. and they sold him as a young boy for 400 dirhams. And they sold him to Hakeem ibn Hizam. And Hakeem ibn Hizam is of course the nephew of Khadijah. And Khadijah had given Hakeem money and said, go find a young slave for me, I need a servant at home. And so Hakeem goes to the marketplace, he sees this young Arab child and he is being sold for a hefty price. And so he purchases this child and brings him back to Khadijah's home. And so he becomes Khadijah's servant. This is Zayd ibn Harithah. Now, when Khadijah marries the Prophet ﷺ, Khadijah gifted this servant to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. This is now yours. He is your servant. As part of the marriage gifts and what not. So Khadijah gifted Zayd to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Now all of this is way before Islam obviously, right? This is way before Islam. now, Zayd's father his name is Haritha of course Zayd's father is frantically looking for his son, he's sending cries out, literally just like the story of Yusuf he's going mad with passion, with grief, with anger and he's spreading the news everywhere that there is a boy from our tribe these are his features, this is how he looked like when he was a boy, if anybody hears of him, please come and tell me and it so happened that during one of the Hajj seasons, again this all in the days Jahiliyyah, somebody from that part of the world in Yemen, saw Zayd and recognized that his looks are from the tribe of Zayd's father. He's not a Qurashi and most of the slaves were from Ethiopia or from other lands. So this is an Arab slave from Yemen, so his features are different. And by asking him some questions, he realized this is Zayd. This is the boy that his father is frantically looking for him. And so when they returned from Hajj, they told Zayd's father, we think we found your son. He is in Mecca, the holy city of Mecca, and he is a slave to one of the grandsons of Abdul Muttalib. Everybody knows Abdul Muttalib. He's one of the grandsons of Abdul Muttalib. He's a slave to that grandson, and his name is Muhammad. So the father is overjoyed. He gathers all of the money he possesses. He gets as much money as possible. And the father and the brother, he goes with his brother, they travel to Mecca instantaneously. As soon as they get him out, they travel to Mecca. And they come to Mecca and they ask, where is Muhammad the grandson of Abdul Muttalib? So he is told that he is in the Ka'b or he is in the Haram. He is praying in the Haram area or he is sitting in the Haram area. And so he goes and he approaches the Prophet and he said, Ya Muhammad, Ibn Abdul Muttalib he ascribes him to his grandfather. You are of the most noble lineage and Allah has blessed you and he keeps on praising and praising him. Even though he is not even a prophet yet but still he wants to praise him for another reason, right? And you are people of trustworthiness and Allah has given you so much blessings. Ya Muhammad, we want to take our son back who was unjustly stolen or kidnapped and sold into slavery. So basically the long story short, he says, this is the story of what happened. And Usama is our son, not Usama, sorry, Usama is the son of Zaid, I'm jumping the gun. Usama ibn Zaid, he's gonna come later on. And Zaid is our son and we will give you any ransom you want but please be generous with us because we can only afford so much. Now, these are the days of Jahiliyyah. You cannot take them to court, you cannot, there is no law, there is no order, right? And power belongs to the strongest. And they cannot plead their case in front of any judge, any magistrate. This is the law of Jahiliyyah, that their son was unjustly kidnapped, now they have to deal with it. So they're willing to pay the ransom. They're willing to buy their son back. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, is this what you want from me? That I send Zaid back with you? They said yes. And for whatever price you want, we're prepared to give this price for you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, it is up to him. I will leave the matter to him. And if he chooses you, then I will send him back without any ransom. I don't need your money. But if he chooses me, then I can never turn away from somebody who has turned to me. If he's chosen me, I cannot turn my back to him and tell him he has no place with me. And so of course the father and the uncle were overjoyed because they said, this is, what else do we want? For free we're gonna get our son back. And so they said, O Muhammad, you have done marvelous. You have done more than we could have asked for. This is much more than we expected. And so the Prophet ﷺ called Zayd. And we can imagine Zayd was probably around 25 years old at the time, roughly. So he's grown up. When he was kidnapped, he was 7, 8. He was just a child. Right? And now he's grown up an adult. He's with the Prophet ﷺ for at least 10 years. He's been with the Prophet ﷺ. And before the Prophet ﷺ, he's been with Khadija. So the Prophet ﷺ asked Zaid, Do you recognize these two men? And Zaid said, Yes, I do. This is my father and this is my uncle. I recognize them. So the Prophet ﷺ said, They have come requesting that you go back with them. And I have left the matter to you. So choose between the two of us. if you want you may go back with your father and your uncle and if you want you may remain with me now subhanallah even in this we find that the even though the story is so short but we read in clearly the prophet had a fondness and a paternal love he doesn't want to let go of this child he does not want to let go of this man and he's not he cannot say no because morally they have a point forget the law of jahiliyyah the prophet is above the law of jahiliyyah morally they have a point and that is our son is not a slave and he wasn't born into a slave he should not be a slave so he does the morally correct thing and that is, you know, if that's the case then he's yours for free but then clearly he doesn't want to hand over this person because he has genuine feelings of fatherliness, feelings of love feelings of a paternal type of love for this young man who has been raised in the house of the Prophet ﷺ so he leaves it back to Zaid And he says, if you want, choose them, and if you want, choose me. He allows this option to Zaid. Instantaneously, Zaid says, I can never choose anyone over you. I can never choose anyone over you. And at this point, remember the Prophet ﷺ, not even Rasulullah. He goes, I can never choose anyone over you, for you are to me more than a father and an uncle combined. Subhanallah. You are to me more than a father and an uncle combined. and I want you to think about this wallahi and I'm saying something might sound a bit harsh but listen to me all fully wallahi this is unnatural for a man to say to a person who's not his blood relative that of course I'll choose you over my father I mean biologically the love that you have for your father is there there are cases of people who have never met their fathers until they're 30-40 years old and then they discover who their fathers were and instantaneously there's a love bond isn't that correct? right? automatically in the fitrah there's a bond of love. The fact that Zaid has pure memories, he's grown up, he's 7, 8 years old when he's kidnapped, he knows who his father is. And yet instantaneously he says, how can I choose anybody over you? Wallahi I will say, this is a natural except if this man is a prophet of Allah. Because the bonds of a prophet are gonna be stronger than the bonds of a father. And the love that such a person will put in the hearts of those around him, Wallahi, only somebody who is a prophet or is gonna be a prophet. And that's the case of this man. He's gonna be a prophet. He's not a prophet yet. Only somebody who has that level of spirituality will trump the bonds of fatherhood. Because that's what Zaid did. Zaid said, I can't choose anybody over you, Ya Rasulallah. He didn't say, Ya Rasulallah. And he couldn't call him Muhammad because he was the master. So he's not calling any name. So he says, I cannot choose anybody over you because of what I have seen from you. You are to me more than a father and an uncle combined. Zayd's father stood up and he says, and he says, Oh Zayd, have you gone crazy? Have you gone mad? You will choose to be a slave in a strange land. You're a slave, you're not even free. To a man who's not even your blood. And you refuse to come back with your own father to your own tribe? In other words, again, as a slave you have no rights, right? As a slave you have no izzah, no honor. As a slave you have no protection. As a slave you're a slave. and you choose to be a slave to a stranger rather than come back with me, your father, to your own nation? Have you gone crazy? And Zayd remarks for him, yes, I have made my choice. I know what I have said and I have seen from this man that which I cannot choose anyone over him. The way that this man has treated me and with the love that he has, I cannot choose anybody over him. and when Zayd said this the Prophet ﷺ stood up took him by the hand and went to this Hijr that we just talked about the open part of the Ka'bah and he stood there and he made an announcement that's where you made the announcements and he said O people of Mecca I want you all to testify that from now on Zayd is a free man and I have adopted him as my son so he is now my son and he will inherit from me and I will inherit from him and so he became known as Zayd ibn Muhammad. And he did this in front of the father in order to bring some peace to the father's heart. That look, your son is no longer a slave. And I will adopt him. And I will take care of him and he will inherit from me and I'm the grandson of Abdul Muttalib. And he did it in front of the father and uncle so that they don't go home feeling lost. But rather they go home feeling at ease that okay, at least our son is now a free man and he is adopted by Quraysh and he is now a Quraishi if not in blood, then at least in the same respect. So the same Izzah will be given to him. And therefore he adopted Zayd ibn Harithah. And of course after this time he was called Zayd ibn Muhammad. And ibn Umar said, and ibn Umar is a young man in early Mecca, so he does not know of Zayd as a young man. He knows of Zayd already when Islam has started. Ibn Umar, the son of Abdullah, Ibn Umar is the son of Umar ibn Khattab. Abdullah ibn Umar. Ibn Umar said, we never knew of Zayd by any other name except Zayd ibn Muhammad. That's what I thought he was. That's how the Prophet ﷺ treated him. I never knew that Zayd had any name other than Zayd ibn Muhammad until Allah revealed Surah Ahzab verse 5. And that's way 5th year of Medina. Way later on. 30 years after this incident happened, right? Ibn Umar says, I had no idea that Zayd was anybody other than Zayd ibn Muhammad. Because that's how the relationship was. Until Allah revealed Surah Ahzab and in Surah Ahzab verse 5, what does Allah say? اُدْعُوهُمْ لِآبَائِهِمْ هُوَ أَقْصَطُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ Call children by their fathers. That is what is noble in the eyes of Allah. And so that was when the Prophet s.a.w. rechanged the name of Zayd and he said this is now Zayd ibn Harithah and not Zayd ibn Muhammad. And ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, who's one of the famous scholars of early Islam, according to his opinion, Zaid was the first person to accept Islam. Now this first person to accept Islam has been said of Khadija, has been said of Abu Bakr, has been said of Zaid, has been said of Ali. These are the main people that has been said of. These four people that has been said of. And so Zaid is one of those few people who it has been said were the first to accept Islam. And of course, people have tried to reconcile these narrations by saying that the first Quraishi to accept Islam of the adult males was Abu Bakr. And the first female was Khadija. And the first freed slave or Mawla was Zaid. And the first child was Ali. So they try to reconcile these opinions. But still the point being Zaid is basically one of the first converts to Islam. And Zaid was extremely beloved by the Prophet ﷺ. In the days of Jahiliyyah, Zaid had married Umm Ayman. Umm Ayman was the servant of Amina, the Prophet's mother. And when Amina passed away, Umm Ayman was inherited by the Prophet ﷺ. And so Umm Ayman became the first nurse. She's not a wet nurse, she didn't feed him, she didn't suckle him, but she took care of him. So she became like a foster mother, but she's not foster, meaning she didn't breastfeed. So Umm Ayman is, now we don't know how old she was at the time, but most likely she was a young lady under Aminah. And so she's maybe 15 years older than the Prophet ﷺ or 10 years older. So Umm Ayman is at least we would say 20 years older than Zayd. However, this is when both of them were slaves. So Zayd married Umm Ayman when they're both slaves because as a slave you can marry another slave. And the two of them had a child. And that child was born literally in the house of the Prophet ﷺ. There were no hospitals back then, right? It was literally born in the house of the Prophet ﷺ. And this child is of course none other than Usama ibn Zayd. This is the Usama ibn Zayd, the famous Usama ibn Zayd. The one whom, when the Sahaba wanted something, they would go to Usama and say, why don't you ask the Prophet ﷺ? Because he loves you so much, he can never say no to you. You're the one that, if you go to him, you can never be turned down. And they would call Usama, حِبُّ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم. The Mahbub basically, the حِبُّ النَّبِي the one whom the Prophet ﷺ loves because he loved him and he loved his father. And Usama was like a baby in the house of the Prophet ﷺ raised as a baby, right? Raised as a child. And so Usama has that special status of literally being born in the household of the Prophet ﷺ and being raised in that household. And of course his father's aid was no less. And when the Prophet ﷺ adopted him and freed him, this meant that he would have the same status as the Quraysh. And so the Prophet ﷺ encouraged him to marry his own cousin Zaynab bint Jahsh. And this is of course shows you that he intended to remove all elements of slavery from Zayd. Because as a slave you could not marry a noble lady. So Zayd was a slave. When he's freed and he becomes Zayd ibn Muhammad to solidify this status, the Prophet ﷺ says, marry my own cousin. And that is Zaynab bint Jahsh. and that is his aunt's daughter. So my own cousin Zainab bin Dajjaj. As you know the marriage did not work out, there were tensions there and then this leads to another story in the fifth year of the Hijrah where Allah reveals in the Quran that you will marry Zainab. And this was the only commandment in the Quran where Allah performed the nikah. There was no nikah because Allah performed it. There was no need for witnesses because it's in the Quran. There was no need for any wali because it is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealing. And so as soon as the... And this is of course after they divorced her. by many months after Zayd divorced her. It was a tense issue and we'll talk about that. And we'll talk about the misinterpretation that occur amongst non-Muslims about this story. But this is Zayd's, one of Zayd's wives, and that is Zaynab, whom he eventually divorced. And then eventually he married other Qurashiya. So Zayd married many Qurashiya. And this clearly shows that after he was freed, there was no stigma attached to that. He was a slave anymore. And by the way, an interesting point about Zayd is that any time the Prophet ﷺ sent him somewhere, he was the one in charge, Zaid. Never was anybody put in charge over Zaid. And he was sent on at least 10 expeditions. And in every one of them, Zaid was the commander. And this shows the status that the Prophet ﷺ gave Zaid. And eventually of course Zaid met his martyrdom, his shahada in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. in the battle of Mu'tah. And this was the major battle between the early Muslims and the Romans. The Prophet ﷺ did not participate, but he sent a large contingent, one of the largest armies that the Muslims had ever gathered after the conquest of Mecca. And he put in charge of them, Zayd ibn Harithah. And he said, and this commandment is unprecedented, because he realized it's gonna be a tough battle. Zayd is in charge of you. And if something happens, to him, then my cousin Ja'far Ibn Abi Talib, the brother of Ali. And if something happens to him then Abdullah Ibn Rawaha. He put three people in charge one after the other. And all three of them died in the battle of Mu'tah and there was a vacuum for who would be in charge and that was when Khalid Ibn Al-Walid who was a brand new convert, literally a month before Mu'tah, right? So he's coming as an infantry man. The other people in the army say, Ya Khalid, you are the general well known, you will take charge. And this was when Khalid became who he became, and he returned, and the Prophet ﷺ said, you are Saifullah. The battle of Mu'tah, Zayd died, his own cousin Ja'far died, and Abdullah ibn Rawaha, another beloved companion died. It was one of the most painful episodes in Islamic history for the Prophet ﷺ. When the news of all of these came, it was a very painful episode. Quran was revealed for them, which is no longer recited to this day. It's not recited, it was revealed at the time. And it was, of course, the martyrdom of Zayd, Osama then was given charge. And Osama, even though he was a young lad, probably 16 years old, the Prophet ﷺ appointed him to go and fight the next battle against the Romans. And this is when he ﷺ himself passed away, right? And Osama's army was just leaving Medina. And this was when the crisis happened between Abu Bakr and Umar. That Abu Bakr, Umar said, you can't send Osama, he's just a kid. How can you send Osama? And the Prophet ﷺ said, or sorry Abu Bakr said how can I possibly take somebody whom the Prophet ﷺ appointed and put him out and appoint somebody else have you gone mad? how could I change whom the Prophet ﷺ appointed and of course that's another issue of Usama Ibn Zayd and his own life and story after that and subhanallah it is enough of a blessing for Zayd Ibn Harithah that he is the only companion ever whom Allah mentions by name in the Quran. The only name that we have in the whole Quran. Not even Abu Bakr is mentioned by name, but he is mentioned by inference. ثَانِيَةْ نَيْنِي إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ And this is Abu Bakr is clearly indicated, right? But there is a blessing that even Abu Bakr did not get. And some of the Sahaba said, that had Zayd been alive when the Prophet ﷺ passed away, Zayd would have been the Khalifa. because he was that beloved to the Prophet ﷺ. And of course Allah mentions in Qur'an, فَلَمَّ قَضَ زَيْدٌ مِّنْهَا وَطَرَ The only Sahabi whose name will be recited until the Day of Judgment, the only companion is this companion, Zayd ibn Harithah. Abdullah ibn Umar, the same one who said, I never knew that Zayd ibn Muhammad was anybody other than Zayd ibn Muhammad until Allah revealed Surah Al-Ahzab verse 5 and then his name was changed. This same Abdullah ibn Umar once he went to complain to his father, the khalifa at the time, Umar ibn al-Khattab. And he said that, My dear father, how can you give the salary of Osama ibn Zayd more than my salary? We're both working for the Islamic State, we both have a stipend. How come his salary is more than mine? I mean, you're my father, you're the khalifa. How come his salary is more than mine? And so Umar ibn al-Khattab said, Because he was more beloved to Rasulullah ﷺ than you, and because his father was more beloved to Rasulullah than your father. This is the Khalifa and his own son. Because, and I'm giving him more money than you. Because he was more beloved to Rasulullah than you ever were. And his father was more beloved to Rasulullah than your own father, meaning himself. Look at the honesty of this man, right? Look at the honesty. That I know that the Prophet ﷺ loves Zaid more than he loves me. How can I give his son a salary less than, or less than what I give you. And this one incident, that Zaid choosing the Prophet ﷺ above his own father and his own uncle, wallahi, it is just mind-boggling if you think about it, right? It is simply, it's difficult to just understand. And this is before he was Rasulullah. I mean, at least after he's Rasulullah, you understand there's a religious motivation, right? After he's Rasulullah, you understand psychologically. This is before he's Rasulullah, before Allah's wahi comes down. still Zaid says I can never choose anybody above you you are more than a father and an uncle could ever be wallah it's just amazing how that relationship would have been how the akhlaq of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam would have been it is something that as I said it just silences us we just ponder and contemplate and this one incident wallah he tells us more about the manners and mannerisms of the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam than if we had many particular stories of what he did just this one incident of Zaid choosing the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam above his own biological father it speaks volumes about who this man was. Those stories that we just mentioned are pretty much the only incidents that we know before the coming of the revelation. And as we already said therefore that before the coming of the revelation it is as if the stage has been set. It is as if the character of the Prophet ﷺ has now been established. There are many signs, the rebuilding of the Ka'bah, the unification of the Quraysh under the Prophet ﷺ, the fact that the Ka'bah is saved in the time of Abraha, and the time of Abdul Muttalib. There are also isharat, there are also hints that there is a Prophet coming. I gave you some stories of the Hunafa who had already been told. Salman al-Farisi, we already mentioned his story in a little bit of detail, and we'll come back to later on. There are clear indications that something is about to change. And from here we now begin therefore the actual story of Wahi. And this story, the beginning of Wahi, has been told to us in a lot of detail by Aisha radiallahu anha herself. And Aisha, and Aisha narrator, this hadith is narrated in the sahih of Imam al-Bukhari. Now, interesting point here, Aisha is the main narrator of this hadith, and this hadith is very long, it's two pages long. And it's all about how the wahi began. It's actually the fifth hadith of Bukhari. Open it up, turn the pages, it's the very beginning of the chapter. And by the way, the first chapter of Bukhari is, the very first chapter is, the beginning of the revelation. This is the first chapter of Sahih Bukhari. And therefore you open it up, you come to this hadith. And that is Aisha saying that the beginning of the revelation was, and then she goes on. And in this there is a beautiful nukta or fa'ida, or a little bit of a benefit here. Aisha could never have witnessed this herself. She wasn't even born when the revelation came down. The beginning of the revelation. And yet she's narrating in vivid detail. And what this shows, is that the Prophet ﷺ, just like any loving husband, is having lots of conversations with her about his early life. And so later on she knows exactly what the Prophet ﷺ happened to him in his early life, and therefore she is narrating to it as if she's an eyewitness, even though she is not an eyewitness, she was not even born when this incident happened. So Aisha narrates that the Prophet ﷺ, before the revelation began, before the revelation began, he began to seclude himself in the ghar of Hira. In the ghar of Hira, in the cave of Hira. Now, the cave of Hira, perhaps some of you have been there. It's a very interesting cave. It's on the top of the mountain which is now called Jabal al-Nur. It was not called Jabal al-Nur in the days of Jahiliyyah. It is called Jabal al-Nur because the Nur came down to it. The Quran came down upon it. So the name of the mountain now is Jabal al-Nur. and this cave is an amazing cave in many ways. Firstly, the cave is actually not as much of a cave as it is a crevice, as it is a type of hole if you like. It's not an actual cave as much as it is a type of working in the rock that there's an opening in front and an opening in back and you have to crawl inside and you have to work your way in and then amazingly and I've been there and I've seen this myself, when you sit in that cave, there's only space for one person. And when you sit in that cave, you are forced to face the direction of the Kaaba. There's no other way for you to face. There's only space enough to face the Kaaba. And amazingly, and to this day, you can clearly see the Kaaba visually from that cave. It's a beautiful location. You can literally see the Kaaba. You're facing the Kaaba. There's a beautiful breeze blowing as well at that time. If you go up there, because you're on the mountaintop, It's as if Allah created it really just for this. And it is said that, it is said in Ibn Ishaq and others that, Abdul Muttalib had discovered the cave. Abdul Muttalib had discovered the cave, and that he would also sit there to contemplate and just to meditate. And it was a beautiful place to sit privately. So the Prophet ﷺ would go there and contemplate. And he would take some food and water and spend a number of nights just sitting there. And when he ran out of food and water, he would come back down to Khadija and stay there for a few days, take care of the family affairs, and then go back up again. Around this time, so he's doing this in his 40th year, around this time, other things also started to happen that he himself told us about many years later. In a hadith in Sahih Muslim, he said, that before the revelation came to me, before the revelation came to me I began to hear the rocks and stones greet me in my path this is he himself telling the sahaba that before the revelation began I would hear the rocks and stones saying salam to me and I would look around and not find anybody until I realized it's a rock and stone and then he said this hadith is in muslim and there was a particular rock that always gave salam to me and I recognize it to this day in Mecca. I know exactly which rock that was that would say, Salam to me. Also around this time, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam began having, every single night, he began having a dream about what would happen the next day. What would happen the next day? He's seeing it the night before. As the narration in Aisha hadith goes, that he would get a ru'ya that would be as true as the dawn rising. In other words, as you know, the sun is gonna rise tomorrow. So he began to know that what he is seeing is going to happen tomorrow. And he mentioned this to Khadija, that, oh Khadija, I'm seeing dreams, and every time I see a dream, it comes true the next day. And Khadija consoled him and said that, this is a good sign from Allah. And again this shows us the wisdom of Khadija, the maturity of Khadija, that Khadija knows that something good is happening to the Prophet ﷺ. And it is mentioned in Bukhari as well, that this period of dreams, it lasted six full months. So let's pause here. The revelation of the Qur'an began in Ramadan. We know this for a fact, because that's when the revelation began. إِنَّا زَنَا فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ It began on Laylatul Qadr. So six months before Ramadan will be which month? Rabi' al-Awwal. Rabi' al-Awwal. Rabi' al-Awwal. Six months before Ramadan is Rabi' al-Awwal. So from Rabi' al-Awwal to Ramadan, every single night, the Prophet ﷺ is seeing what's gonna happen the next day. So this is 6 months, correct? How many years did the prophethood last? 23. What is the fraction of 6 months over 23? 1 over 46. Hadith in Tirmidhi the Prophet ﷺ said nothing is left of good dreams sorry, nothing is left of prophethood except good dreams and good dreams are 1 over 46th of prophethood. Exact fraction. This is a very exact fraction in the Arabic. Right? And good dreams are one over 46th of prophethood. Right? And so, down to the dot, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for six months is showing him good dreams. And then, for 23 years, actual wahi is coming down. Now, the concept of dreams I have spoken a lot about in my tafsir Yusuf. Inshallah, no need to repeat now. But just very briefly, because some of you are new, that there are three types of dreams. Number one from Allah, number two from shaitan, number three from your own imagination and psychology. And dreams from Allah are positive and good. They come true. Dreams from Allah bring about a good feeling. They do not terrify. Dreams from Allah could be visions of what's gonna happen. So you see what's gonna happen tomorrow or next year or ten years down the line. Like the Prophet ﷺ saw that he's gonna do tawaf around the Ka'bah. And Allah mentions that you saw in the dream you're gonna do tawaf and you're gonna shave your hair. Right? لَتَدْخُلْنَا لَمَشْهِ الْحَامُ مُحَلِّقِينَ رُوكَوْزُ مَمُقَصِّرِينَ Or in these six months. Or it could be symbolic dreams. So you see symbols, but you don't understand what they are. And these need to be interpreted. So these are from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Dreams from Allah never terrify. Dreams from Allah bring about news of the future, and generally good news of the future. Dreams from shaitan terrify. And these are nightmares. And they are never true, and we're not supposed to act upon them, and it is shaitan's tactic to make us scared. And we're supposed to turn away from shaitan and turn away from these dreams and not tell anybody. And then our own dreams, as we said, are the dreams every night we have them. If we're thinking about a fancy car, we'll dream we're driving that car. This is our own imagination. And the sign of this dream is that it disappears from memory. Every morning we wake up and we remember so vividly we were having a dream, everything is clear, within five minutes we completely forget, right? This is neither from Allah nor from shaitan, this is from our own imagination. Okay, these are the three types of dreams. Point being, the Prophet ﷺ would see, six months he would see, every single day, what's gonna happen the next day. Now why is this happening? The stone saying, Salam, he's seeing these dreams. Two reasons. Number one, to indicate to him, that something momentous is about to happen. This is not normal. And you are undergoing a transformation. So you need to be prepared for a momentous event that's gonna happen. And number two, some scholars have added here, that the institution of prophecy, being a prophet, requires some spiritual, psychological training to get there, that Allah will have to make you go through. And so the prophet system is being upgraded. He's being transformed into Rasulullah. And we're never gonna know the details of how this happens, but this is an indication that things are happening differently. That for six months he's seeing dreams every single night. That he hears stones saying salam to him, and he doesn't understand why, but he knows that there's these creatures and these beings are talking to him. So it is as if the Prophet ﷺ is being psychologically, mentally, spiritually trained to become ready for the big revelation. Now as we said, this lasted for a period of six months. And in this time, basically what the Prophet ﷺ began to do was to cut himself off from society. and to worship Allah more and more. And there's no question that our religion encourages moments of solitude. Our religion encourages that we break away from the world around us and concentrate on ibadat Allah Azza wa Jal, on worshipping Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. However, it is no longer a sunnah to cut yourself off from society and go out of society. This was something the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did before the revelation came down. once the revelation came down he never returned to Hira even once and there are some groups that say that this shows us that we need khalwa and we need to go into caves and we need to go into hidden rooms and there are literally you know there's a group out there I don't want to mention which particular group but the mystical versions of Islam there are literally manifestations of these groups that say just like the Prophet went to cut himself off from society you too need to enter a cave and you take with yourself some dates and some water and you sit there for one month, two months, six months and you do nothing but meditate and you contemplate. Now, it's very easy to correct this misunderstanding. The Prophet ﷺ did this when he didn't have revelation. As soon as revelation came, there was no need for him to do that. So he never returned to Hira to worship there anymore. He never returned to that type of solitude. And if a person truly wants solitude, then the Prophet ﷺ told us the way to do that. وَصَلِّ بِالْلَيْلِ وَالنَّاسُ نِيَامًا Pray at night when everybody is sleeping. And Allah says in the Quran that at night when the tahajjud comes out, when the stars come out, then you will find them. When the stars are out and everybody is asleep, you will find our true servants worshipping. So for those who truly want that type of solitude, the ibadah of tahajjud is open for them. And that is the solitude of our religion. In some narrations, not mentioned in the sahihain, In some narrations it is mentioned that on one of the Sundays of Ramadan, on one of the Sundays of, sorry, on one of the Saturdays of Ramadan, the Prophet ﷺ saw a light and heard a sound. And he looked around and he didn't find anything. And then on Sunday the same thing happened. That he saw a bright light and he heard a sound. And he looked around and he couldn't find anything. And then on Monday was when Jibreel came to him. Because we know for a fact it was Monday when Jibreel came to him. Hadith in Sahih Muslim says that when somebody asked him, why do you fast on Mondays, Ya Rasulullah? So the Prophet ﷺ said, on a Monday I was born. And on a Monday the revelation began. So the revelation began in the last 10 days of Ramadan on a Monday. This is what we know for sure. And that day marks for us Laylatul Qadr. The night before is Laylatul Qadr, right? So the revelation began on one of the last ten days of Ramadan on a Monday. And as I said, there are some riwayat that the Saturday and Sunday he heard something, he saw something, but he could not physically see any being there. He just, something is happening. And the fact that he remains in Hira while this is happening shows his bravery, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. That there's a light, there's a sound, but he still remains there. Then on Monday occurs the famous incident that all of us know, we tell it to our children, that when he was sitting in Ghar-e-Hira, Aisha's narrating of Sahih Bukhari, the Malak, the angel came to him and told him, Iqra. So the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, Ma ana biqari. Ma ana biqari. And so Jibreel took him and squeezed him so tight, the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, Hattabalagh minnil jaad. Yani, I lost all energy. Can you imagine how tight that must have been that you lose energy. You cannot breathe anymore. And the Prophet ﷺ thinks that he might black out or just not be conscious anymore. Then he left me, let me go again. And then he said to me again, اقرأ So I said again, ما أنا بقرء So for the second time he squeezed me so tight that I thought that I wouldn't last until he let go of me. And for the third time, and then for the third time. And then the third time he said, اقرأ بسم ربك الذي خلق خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ اِقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ Now a number of points here before we move on. Firstly, why is Jibreel squeezing him? Why is Jibreel squeezing him so tightly that he thinks that he's not going to last, that it's so tight he can't even breathe? There's really no authoritative answer, but we can venture a guess, we can hazard a guess. And some scholars say to indicate that he is not dreaming. This is a real thing. Because when you think you're dreaming, what do you do? Pinch yourself, right? So this is to indicate this is a real one. You feel physical pain, you are not dreaming. So to indicate this is real. Others say that Jibreel is indicating that you are about to be inspired with this heavy message. إِنَّا سَنُوقِعَ لِكَ قَوْلًا ثَقِيلًا We're going to inspire you with a heavy message. It's not going to be easy. And it was physically painful for the Prophet ﷺ to receive wahi. And we'll talk about that in a while. It was physically painful. It was an energy draining experience. To be inspired by Jibreel was not an easy task. And Allah says, we're going to give you a heavy revelation. So to indicate that there will be heaviness. And some scholars derive, and again Allah knows best, there's no way to verify. Some scholars derive that this was an indication that you're going to face three significant trials that you think will be the end for you. But every time Allah will give you a way out. And these three trials were the boycott where the Muslims for two and a half years literally had almost no food to eat. And the assassination attempt and then the hijrah in which once again the Prophet ﷺ was literally Allah saved him with a number of miracles as you know or else any other person would not have made it through. And then of course the most difficult time for the Prophet ﷺ, that's the battle of Uhud. When he was surrounded by the Quraysh, they were just one step away from finding him. He was already bleeding from three places from his head ﷺ. And it was a very difficult time. The Sahaba did not know where he was. He was only with two or three Sahaba. And they didn't know where the Prophet ﷺ was. So these three times, it is as if he's being indicated. You will have three traumatic experiences, but every time Allah ﷻ will open the way out for you. Once again, Allah knows what is the significance of why these three squeezes occurred. Now, as for the revelation itself, of course, Iqra has two meanings to it. Iqra has two meanings to it in the Arabic language. The first meaning of Iqra is to read from a paper. And the second meaning of Iqra is to recite from memory. Iqra can mean to read, And اقرأ can mean to recite. And to this day we use the same. If you tell a boy, اقرأ القرآن, he will ask you, from my memory or from the Mus'haf? Because the verb encompasses both meanings. So when Jibreel told him اقرأ, the Prophet ﷺ understood to read from a paper. So he responded back, ما أنا بقارئ I don't know how to read. I am unlettered. I haven't been taught how to read. I don't know how to, how can I read? but Jibreel didn't mean iqra from the paper Jibreel meant iqra you know not from a paper iqra and he's gonna move on he's gonna say how should you recite and so again he tells him recite and so the Prophet ﷺ only understands reading so he goes I don't know how to read so for the third time when he says this now Jibreel tells him I'm not asking you to read from a paper no iqra bismi rabbika alladhi khalaq your recitation will come directly from Allah, not from a paper. Your recitation will be in the name of Allah, and with the blessings of Allah, and communicating with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. اقرأ بسم ربك The qira'ah will be, بسم ربك, the باء can mean that when you recite, you say بسم الله, and this is beautiful, that the first verse revealed is not بسم الله, it is اقرأ بسم ربك, which is very profound here. That he is being told that you need to recite in the name of your Lord. When you recite, recite بِسْمِ رَبِّك. It could also mean, اقْرَأْ بِسْمِ رَبِّك. The باء here is, you will recite by Allah. Your recitation will be by Allah. يعني باء السببية as we call it in Arabic. The recitation will come from Allah directly. You don't need to recite from yourself. And then there are other meanings of باء, and of them is that, Allah will help you in this recitation. باء المعية. Allah will help you. That when you recite, you don't need to know, Allah is gonna tell you what to recite. The bottom line, Jubileel is telling him, I'm not asking you to read from a parchment. You will recite directly from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Who is this? The Lord who created. What did He create? Everything. بِسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ It's not finished. The verse is not finished. Because it's not mentioned what Allah created. And there's no need to finish the verse, because there's no conditional clause here. Allah created everything. Allah doesn't need to finish the sentence, created what? Because Allah created everything. So the Prophet shallallahu alaihi wasallam is being told, you are gonna get a revelation directly from the one who created everything around you. And then to emphasize, who is this being? خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانِ He created everything, and then he created man. And now he's communicating with man. And he's chosen you to communicate with man. خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ The being who's communicating with you, He created man from that which clings. Al-alaq, we explained, is that which is suspended, right? So al-alaq is that which is suspended, and most scholars say, this is a reference to the human embryo, the fetus that is clinging, or the embryo that is clinging in the womb of the mother. And so Allah is saying, the one who created man in all of these stages, who took man out of the womb of this mother, this being is now going to inspire to you. That, al-ladi khalaqan saman alaq, iqara' warabbuka al-akram, Go ahead and recite. So iqra is mentioned twice. Iqra in the beginning, and then iqra in the third verse, right? And the reason for this duality, the reason for saying iqra twice, there's many things we can say. Firstly, your job is to recite and keep on reciting. So the dual iqra is for repetition. Iqra and then continue iqra. Iqra and continue iqra. And this is of course proven in the Quran. Your job is to spread the message. Your job is to give the balagh. Your job, قُلْ إِنَّمَا أُنذِرُكُمْ بِالْوَحِي Say, I am warning you by the revelation. وَذَكِّرْ بِالْقُرْآنِ Warn them through the Qur'an. So the Iqra means you need to spread the Qur'an to them over and over again. And some scholars have said that the dual repetition of Iqra here is that the first Iqra is for religious knowledge and the second Iqra is for the knowledge of this world. Why? Because the first Iqra says, Iqra bismi rabbika alladhi khalaq Qalaq al-insan min alaq So recite from Allah directly. And then the second is, اقرأ وربك الأكرم الذي علم بالقلم Read. And your Lord is the most generous. The one who taught by the pen, taught man what he doesn't know. And so it is as if knowledge is being, knowledge is being encouraged. Religious and knowledge of this dunya. And Allah is telling us Muslims, that learn the knowledge of this religion that will come from Allah, and then learn the knowledge of men that comes from the pens. But realize that even that knowledge, I gave it to men. Why? Because, الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ I'm the one who taught you how to write with the pen. عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمُ Allah is the one who taught man what he did not know. If Allah did not teach man, man would never know any of these things. And of course, this is beautiful here, and we already mentioned in a khutbah many months ago that I gave, that even in this verse, subhanallah, such profundity and power that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying that Allah is telling man to go ahead and read what others have written. Allah is encouraging knowledge. Read what others have written. And this command does not apply to the Prophet ﷺ because he is not literate, he is unlettered. So this is a command to the Muslim ummah, that go ahead and read what the others have written. Increase your knowledge. And this verse came down to an unlettered nation, a backward civilization, a group of people who didn't know how to read and write. All of Mecca, there were probably five people that could read and write. A civilization that did not even have a script to write down its language. It didn't even have a developed script. If you try to read Arabic of that era, I guarantee you nobody in this room can understand that script. Because it is a type of script that is no dots, no tashkeel, no nuqat, know nothing. It's a type of script that's closer to holographic than it is to what we understand as Arabic. In that era, Allah is telling them, go read what people have written. Go read and increase your horizons of knowledge. And it is not a coincidence that a hundred years later, the Muslims are already becoming the greatest superpower on earth. Two hundred years later, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, they become the bastion of human civilization. They reach the pinnacles of their period. There are people coming to study medicine science, chemistry, engineering, law in Islamic lands. And then going back to their own lands. And I've already said, there are documented cases. We know the names and the contributions of people who would come from modern day England, modern day Italy, modern day France. They would come to Andalus, they would come to North Africa, and they would study medicine. And then they would go back and teach it to their people. Just like in our times, Muslims come to America and they study medicine, but they don't go back to the people, they stay here. but that's a different point. And they study medicine and engineering. Once upon a time, the exact opposite happened, right? And why did this happen? Because Allah encouraged knowledge from the first revelation. Go ahead and study. Go ahead and learn. Go ahead and broaden your horizons. But as you do this, remember, all of this knowledge comes from me. If I hadn't given it to you, you wouldn't have it. And even the knowledge Allah mentions, one of the knowledges we take for granted. But wallahi, it is such an amazing feat. And that is writing. Allah mentions writing in this verse, الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمُ The whole concept of writing, it is really a miracle that the sounds that come out of my mouth, you can record them by paper and ink, by scribblings. And you can then write down what I have said, and then pass it down to anybody who was not here. And this, if Allah had not taught it to us, we would never know it. And our Prophet ﷺ said, the first person to ever write with the pen was Idris. أَوَّلَ مُنْ خَطَّ بِالْقَلَمِ Idris. Allah taught the Prophet Idris how to write. And if Allah had not taught Idris how to write, we would never have learned how to write. All knowledge of this world goes back to Allah. Subhanallah. Allah taught Adam. What did Allah teach Adam? How to speak. If Allah did not teach Adam how to speak, we would be like the animals grunting and groaning. We would never have learned speech. Allah taught Adam how to speak. Allah taught Idris how to write. Allah taught Nuh how to build a ship. Allah taught Dawud how to build the armor or to make the armor malleable. Allah taught so many prophets so many different things. And from these knowledges all other human knowledge comes forth. And this is why whatever discovery we come across, it's nothing to do with us. Allah gave us the Qudra. Allah gave us the intelligence. Allah gave us everything that we needed to do this. So Allah is saying go ahead and study and read. But as you study, remember, I'm the one who gave all of this to you. Now, the significance of iqra. Why does Allah begin with iqra bismi rabbika alladhi khala? Because what is about to happen is that from now on, man will have a direct communication, a direct book that is coming from Allah. So the first revelation is, recite this book that is coming directly from Allah. Iqra bismi rabbika alladhi khala. This is, and of course what is this book called? Quran. Iqra Quran. Because from this word we get Quran. And the Quran is the recitation. And also there is a connotation here, that Iqra means both the recitation and the reading, both what is written and what is recited, and the Quran has been preserved in the hearts of men's memory, and has been preserved in the writings of men. And this is the only book that is preserved in both. That the Quran is memorized completely, the first meaning of iqra, and the Quran has been written down like no other holy book has been written down, and this is the second meaning of iqra. And all of this talks about some of the wisdoms of the meanings of iqra. A lot of Muslims, they never contemplate what is the significance of the first five verses of iqra? Why would Allah begin the Quran with this? And inshallah if you listen to some of these points, you understand why did Allah begin the revelation of the Quran with these verses. And the primary point is, this is a communication directly from Allah. to all of mankind. Now, getting back to the story, getting back to the story, Aisha's narrating in the hadith in Sahih Bukhari, the Prophet ﷺ returned back to Khadija. He ran back to Khadija, his heart was palpitating, right? تَرْجُفُ فُؤَادُهُ His heart is palpitating. تَرْجُفُ فُؤَادُهُ And he entered in upon Khadija, and he says to her, زَمِّلُونِي زَمِّلُونِي Cover me up, cover me up. This of course clearly shows how unexpected this was for the Prophet ﷺ. He's not expecting something of this nature. To see the figure of Jibreel, that is of course Jibreel was shown in his massive form. And there is nobody that could have climbed up the mountain so quietly. This is a figure that is not human. And squeezed him so tightly. So he is terrified. His heart is palpitating. and when you are that nervous and that anxious, you get cold and he's feeling cold, so he runs back to his wife Khadija, and this wallahi shows the humanity of our Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and it shows that his message was not premeditated, he didn't think one day let me see how I can trick mankind and let me see what I can do to talk to them about a false revelation, if you look at some of the other people who have claimed to be prophets right, I don't want to mention names here but there are people even in America 200 years ago they claim to be prophets. You look at their stories of prophethood, and it's pretty clear that they were premeditated, right? That they have a magnificent story, which sounds so grandiose. Our prophet goes running home to his wife Khadija. And it shows the humanity. He's terrified. And when you're terrified, you go back to your house. And you're scared, you're palpitating. And he says, cover me up, cover me up. Zammiluni, zammiluni. And of course Khadija covers him up, because you're trembling, you're scared. So he covers him up until finally he calmed down. So you can imagine, until finally he calmed down, he's literally palpitating, he's literally, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he's terrified. And this shows us the humanity and the unpreparedness, or the fact that it wasn't premeditated. And then he told Khadijah all that had happened, and wallahi this shows how close the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was to Khadijah. Abu Talib is still alive. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam cousins are all there. but the closeness that a man feels with his wife the closeness that a man feels with the woman whom Allah Azawajal has chosen for the Prophet ﷺ this is simply obviously the man needs the comfort of the woman the man needs the love and the attention of a woman so he goes back to Khadijah and Khadijah calms him down and when she calms him down now he tells her the story that such and such happened to me and I am worried for myself this is the phrase in Bukhari I am scared for myself this phrase has led to a lot of controversy what did he mean by I am scared for myself there is over 12 opinions what did he mean when he said I am scared and there are some really strange opinions that I don't want to mention here but I think the bottom line which is pretty clear one of two or three things seems to be clear either he was scared of dying when Jibreel is hugging him when Jibreel is squeezing him so he goes I got worried for myself or he is scared that he is seeing visions that normal people don't see sane people don't see in other words he is scared of losing his sanity that I am seeing things that other people are not seeing and both of these are I think permissible to say and both of them don't really have any sacrilegious connotations he is worried what is happening to me I am worried what is happening to me so Khadija responded to him the famous statement of Khadija that no by Allah there is no reason for you to be scared no by Allah Allah will never humiliate you Allah will never do anything to cause you harm إِنَّكَ لَتَصِلُ الرَّحِمِ You are good to your kin You are good to your family وَتَحْمِلُ الْكَلِّ And you take on the burdens of other people وَتَكْسِبُ الْمَعْدُومُ And you give money to those who have nothing وَتُقْرِضْ ضَيْفٍ And you are hospitable to the guest وَتُعِينُ عَلَى نَوَائِبِ الْحَقِّ And you do all types of good Khadija summarizes the character of the Prophet ﷺ and she gives us from her fitrah without knowing any Quran without knowing any hadith she gives straight from her pure heart the beautiful rule that when you do good Allah will do good to you simple rule you don't need to memorize the whole Quran to know this basic rule if you do good Allah will show you good and if you are righteous then Allah will bless you and Khadija is certain كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ She's swearing by Allah. It's not possible that you should be worried. There's nothing for you to be worried about. Because you are such a righteous man, that our Lord will never cause you to suffer or be humiliated. And this really shows us why Allah chose Khadijah for the Prophet ﷺ, that she is the one consoling. She is the one calming him down. She is the one telling him, no, no, nothing can be wrong. Everything's got to be right. And according to one book, Khadija immediately went, this is not the famous one that you're aware of, that she immediately went to Adas. And Adas was a Christian slave of one of the uncles of the Prophet. And he was the one who eventually accepted Islam at the incident of Ta'if. When the one who gave the grapes, remember the one who gave the grapes? That is Adas. And he was the only Christian in Mecca, living in Mecca, who was a pure Christian. meaning not a convert. And he was a Roman, or at least he had been lived in Rome, and he had now ended up as a slave in Mecca. According to one version, Khadija first went to him, and asked him if he was familiar with what is going on. Because this is not something they are used to. And when he was told of this, he said, what? The angel of God, or the angel of Allah, in this heathen place of idols of Mecca? How is this possible? Because he understood this as an angel. So when Khadija got the sense that this is something that is related to Judaism and Christianity, then according to the report in Bukhari, she goes to Waraqa ibn Nawfal. So Waraqa ibn Nawfal is of course Khadija's older cousin. Waraqa is Khadija's older cousin. And Waraqa ibn Nawfal was one of the four Hunafa. We talked about them many weeks ago. when we said that four people in the days of Jahiliyyah rejected idolatry. And one of them was Waraqa ibn Nawfal, then there was Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufail, and then there was Amr ibn al-Huwayrit and others. And so Waraqa was the eldest of the four. Zayd ibn Amr had died before Islam. So Waraqa was the oldest of the four. And he had traveled through the lands and adopted some type of religion now the version in Bukhari says and this shows us that his religion is not pure Judaism or pure Christianity the version in Bukhari says that he learned to write the books in Hebrew and he became a Christian now the Christians of the time were writing in Syriac or in Greek right, so the fact that this version is saying he learned the scripture of the Hebrews Al-Ibraniya and he became a tanassari, became a Christian, it is my humble interpretation, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best, that Waraqa embraced a type of Judeo-Christianity. He's not a pure Christian or a pure Jew. He's simply somebody who understands that these were all prophets of Allah. And he accepts them, and he knows their scripture. Because he did not establish Christianity as a religion in Mecca. He did not believe in a trinity. so he is somebody who believes in the prophets of the Jews and the Christians but he's not worshipping openly like a Jew or a Christian and he knows the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians so he is basically a Hanif he is his own character if you like and he is knowledgeable and he is at this time blind he is on the verge of death and so as you all know Khadija takes him to Waraq ibn Nawfal and she asks Waraq what do you think? after the process he describes the story Waraqa becomes enthusiastic he becomes agitated, he becomes eager and he says that Wallahi this is the same keeper of secrets and he calls him An-Namus which is the keeper of secrets this is the holiest of holy this is the major angel that came down to Musa he didn't say Jesus, why? most likely because he understood that the Prophet Muhammad would be resembling Musa more than Jesus and this is true because if you look at it both Musa and our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam they had political battles as well whereas Isa didn't get involved in politics given to Caesar what is Caesar's given to God what is God's he had a very pacifist life whereas Musa and our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam they were both rulers and prophets they were both if you like I don't like to use the word kings but they were basically political figures along with being religious figures so he says this is the same one that has come to Musa. How I wish I were a young man rather than an old man. So that I could help you when your nation ridicules you. And your nation persecutes you. And your nation expels you. Now, ridicule, persecution, bad enough for the Prophet ﷺ didn't say anything. When he said, and your nation expels you, the Prophet ﷺ couldn't keep quiet. And he says, my nation will expel me? Because ridicule is bad. persecution is difficult but then to be expelled from your homeland I mean this is the place you've been born and raised you have an automatic affiliation the house of Allah, Mecca so he said my people will kick me out and says yes because never has any prophet been sent except that his people ridiculed him and persecuted him and expelled him and you're not going to be any different never has any prophet been sent except that these have happened. And how I wish I were a young man to help you instead of an old man. And Aisha says that he only lived a short time until he passed away. This is of course Waraqa ibn Nawfal. And later on, some of the relatives of Waraqa asked the Prophet ﷺ, what is the fate of Waraqa? And the Prophet ﷺ said that he saw Waraqa wearing white robes and having been blessed with gardens in Jannah. And therefore, Waraqa clearly is also one of the earliest converts in Islam, even though he didn't live to really hear other revelations. And perhaps he even died within a few weeks, and perhaps he only heard this story. But he believed in the prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ, and he then passed away. And the final thing that we'll mention, and then shall we open the floor for question, is that the Prophet ﷺ went on in telling his story, because he's the one narrating, and then he says that the Wahy sees, the Wahy stopped to come. I didn't see Jibreel for a while. How long? Some scholars say up to six months. So after iqra, for another six months, nothing was revealed. And we don't know an exact date. Some say three months, some say six months, and even some scholars say even up to a year, but that seems to be a bit ba'id, or a bit not very reliable. But a few months, Jibreel did not come. And so the Prophet ﷺ is resumed a little bit back to normal, and then the Prophet ﷺ is narrating this hadith, it's also in Bukhari, that when I was just walking about my way, I saw or I heard a sound سَمِعْتُ صَوْتًا and I looked up in the heavens and I saw the same angel that had come to me in Hira sitting on a throne or sitting on a kursi that was in the heavens and the earth and once again I trembled and I began to palpitate and I rushed back to Khadija again saying, زَمِّلُونِي زَمِّلُونِي And that was when Jibreel came and revealed the second revelation, يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ According to one report, he said, دَثِّرُونِي دَثِّرُونِي Which means, زَمِّلُونِي زَمِّلُونِي And so Jibreel came and said, يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ O you who is wrapped up in garments, O you who is covered up in a cloak, قُمْ فَأَنذِرْ Stand up and warn. Of course the symbolism here is clear. O you who thinks he is living a comfortable life, get rid of the cloak, stand up and be active go away from this cave you have created of the cloak here right, stand up and be active and what is your activity anzir, so with iqra, they say he became a nabi, with qum fa anzir they say he became a rasul now you need to go and spread the message qum fa anzir, and when you warn the people what should you do, warabbaka fakabbir make sure you glorify your lord throughout this warning you need to pray to him, have strength from him worship him and as you go and tell others to be pure, make sure you yourself are pure and make sure that your clothes are clean of course physically clean is important you don't have nudges, but there is a symbolism here that make sure you are not polluted with sins, as you tell the other people not to be polluted with sins and abandon all false idols and don't be greedy for what is in the hands of men. Don't be greedy for what they have, that they do favors for you. No, do things for the sake of Allah, and expect your reward from Allah. So, these verses are again, clearly munasib, or clearly, if you like, they fit in perfectly with once again, what the Prophet ﷺ is supposed to do, and that is to warn the people, and inshallah ta'ala, next Wednesday, we will continue talking about the types of wahi, and how wahi occurred, and that is an interesting discussion. We have tidbits, that how did the Wahi occur? How did this communication between man and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala occur? Because the only Prophet that we know anything about in detail is the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. So we have a little bit of details about the types of Wahi and how it has been preserved. And what did the Prophet s.a.w. do with this early revelation? InshaAllah all of that will be next Wednesday. Bi'idhnillahi ta'ala. We have a few minutes for questions for today, inshaAllah. So the question first question is about the seal of prophethood on the back of the Prophet ﷺ we know from many narrations that the Prophet ﷺ had a physical mark on his body and this mark was predicted by the previous prophets of the Jewish and Christian nations and it was the mark by which Salman al-Farisi recognized him to be a prophet and others also recognized him to be a prophet and it was a according to one report it was a type of birthmark that a physical protrusion that had hair growing on it of a different color than the rest of the body and one report in Tirmidhi says that it was the size of a pigeon's egg so a pigeon's egg is about that big the size of a pigeon's egg between his shoulder blades perfectly situated it's not a blemish it is actually a beauty sign right between his shoulder blades there is the size of a pigeon's and it had a beautiful color of hair growing on it. So it was a physical sign that the previous prophets had told that the final prophet will come and he will have a khatam al-nubu or he will have the physical seal on his back. As for the monk seeing this, firstly the story of the monk two weeks ago when I mentioned it, three weeks ago, I said that there's a lot of controversy and personally I don't see that the story actually occurred. Even if it did occur, the versions that are found in Tirmidhi and Ibn Ishaq don't mention that the monk saw this on his back. These versions do not mention that the monk saw this on his back. So I would avoid narrating this in the first place. And if you listen to those lectures, and they're online I think by now, you will see why I disagree with this whole story that perhaps it is not an authentic story. The second question that you had about how the Prophet ﷺ worshipped, we do not have, I have looked far and wide, we do not have a single report of what he used to do. Nothing in detail. And perhaps one of the reasons being that nobody saw him. And he is narrating himself to Aisha many years later. Simply saying, I used to worship. And so Aisha then narrates to us that he used to worship. What would have been worship at that time? It would have been dhikrullah. Because the Arabs and the Jahili Arabs would praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They had simple phrases of Allahu Akbar and they had the phrases of La ilaha illallah and others they had these phrases Labayk Allahumma labayk they had these phrases preserved. It would have also been contemplation and thinking. And this is what most of the scholars who interpret hadith they say. That it is contemplation and thinking about what is the right religion about the religion of Ibrahim a.s. about the falseness of idolatry. So the worship would not have been the salah that we know because obviously the salah came down later on. it would have been thinking and praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is what we can surmise, and Allah knows best. Any description of Jibreel? Some reports mention that Jibreel alayhi salam had 600 wings. له ستمئة جناح And that, of course the report in Bukhari says, قد سد الأفق He blocked the entire horizon. So this shows us that Jibreel was bigger than everything around him. And that is the Prophet ﷺ saw Jibreel in his original form. Original form. And this only happened twice. Twice. According to some people and according to some ones, according to some people three times. But most likely it's twice. In this event and then in Al-Isra wal-Mi'raj. He saw Jibreel in the original form of how Allah created Jibreel. Otherwise, whenever Jibreel came to the Prophet ﷺ, he would not see him in the original form. And he would see him in another form. That's all we know about Jibreel. that he is massive and that he had 600 wings. That's all we know. From the sisters, anyone from the sisters? Back to the brothers, yes. Yes, from the statement that you said about Abu Jahl and the raising of funds that the funds should be clean without any tainting. I really assume that Abu Jahl and you said about Wali ibn al-Bayya, Mughal and Maswi, that they also believed in Allah except that they also believed in the intermediaries of the idols and the law of the Lord, things like that. So the question is, did the jahili Arabs believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? The response is, yes, of course they believed in Allah. And Allah mentions this in the Quran, that they had iman. وَمَا يُؤْمِنُ أَكْثَرُهُمْ بِاللَّهِ إِلَّا وَهُمْ مُشْرِكُونَ Surah Yusuf verse 106. Most of them have iman, but they commit shirk. Allah called it iman. وَمَا يُؤْمِنُ أَكْثَرُهُمْ بِاللَّهِ إِلَّا وَهُمْ مُشْرِكُونَ the double negative cancels each other out. Basically, most of them have iman. But they commit shirk along with that iman. And Allah says in the Quran, وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُمَنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ الْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُونَ اللَّهُ If you were going to ask them, who created the heavens and earth? They would say, Allah. And Allah says in the Quran, وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُمَنْ خَلَقَهُمْ لَيَقُولُونَ اللَّهُ If you were to ask, who created you? They would say, Allah. And Allah says, قُلْ مَنْ رَبُّ السَّمَاوَاتِ السَّبِعِ وَرَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ سَيَقُولُونَ لِلَّهِ Say, who is the Rabb of the heavens and earth? they will say Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala they know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created them and they know Allah is the ultimate Rabb but they felt that they're too sinful they're too unholy that they need to go through intermediaries to get to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and so Allah says in the Quran their excuses for worshipping these false gods and this is exactly the same excuses we find among some of the misguided Muslims when they go to their peers and their awliyas and their sheikhs the exact same mentality, that we're too sinful. And we need to go through these beings to get to Allah. Surah Zumrul verse 3 ma na'buduhum illa liyukarribuna ila Allahi zulfa We're only worshipping these gods so that they will bring us closer to Allah. The ultimate goal is Allah, not these gods. And Surah Yunus verse 18 wa ya'buduna min duni lahi ma la infa'um wa la yudhurum wa yaquluna ha'ulai shufa'auna inda Allah. They say these intermediaries will make shafa'a between us and Allah. Shafa'ah. The same word is used to this day. Right? These beings, these holy men, Shafa'ah. They're gonna intercede for us. And so, the Arabs believed Allah is the ultimate Rabb. And that is why they didn't have an idol for Allah. They did not have an idol for Allah. They could not make an idol for Allah. They had an idol for all of their other idols. They would carve something. For Allah, they refused to make an idol because they knew that He is the Lord of all of these other gods. and all of the other gods were subservient. Just like if you know Greek paganism and Roman paganism, there is the one ultimate God, right? Zeus and Jupiter. And even in Hinduism, there is one ultimate God. That's the Vishnu or the Brahma or the Shiva or the Krishna depending on which sect of Hinduism. There is always one God in every person's heart because the fitrah says so. So even the Arabs had one ultimate God. But then they said, we cannot reach that God directly. We need to go indirectly. And the message of Islam was, if you truly believe in one creator, then how could you worship anybody other than that creator? It doesn't make any sense. That if Allah is the all-powerful, why are you going through beings to reach Allah? The majority of contemporary Muslims are in a very dangerous state, because there are so many people who say that they are Muslims, but don't even... I agree with you that there are so many Muslims who are saying the exact same thing as they go to graves and as they go to other beings, and they say the exact same excuse. I agree with you. Our job is to teach them. And Umar ibn al-Khattab, this is beautiful, listen to this. Umar ibn al-Khattab said, I am worried about the later generations of Islam. When people are raised up, i.e. us basically, who have never seen Jahiliyyah. They've never seen Jahiliyyah, that's the time I'm worried about. It's a beautiful statement. They've never seen Jahiliyyah, so, what's gonna happen then? When it smacks them in the face, they won't recognize it. Right? They've never seen Jahiliyyah, and so they're not gonna recognize it when it happens to them. إِذَا نَشَاءَ فَالْإِسْلَامِ مَنْ لَعَرِفُ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ Right? That's what I'm worried about, that when the time will come when people don't know Jahiliyyah. And it is really melodramatic to say this, but it is so true that those people who worship these saints and these awliya and these spears and what not. Wallahi it is exactly the same mentality and the same excuses and the same philosophy of the Jahili Arabs. Exact same. We know Allah created us. Allah is one. But we are sinful people. And these beings are holy and mighty. And Allah loves the Prophet. Allah loves Abdul Qadir Jalil. Allah loves you know, Fulan and Fulan. So we go through them. We make Shafa'ah to them. We make Tawassul through them to get to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Isn't that the same? Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen. Exactly. We thank Allah that He's guided us to La ilaha illallah. And we worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone. Final question inshallah then we need to break for salah. Jibreel squeezed the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Was Jibreel in his original form? The question is, was Jibreel in his original form when he squeezed the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam? this is not mentioned in the Bukhari Hadith so when the Prophet ﷺ initially saw him he was in the original form Allahu A'lam by the time he went into the cave or not these details are not mentioned so we do not know that is a question of Ilm al-Ghaib we are never going to know now whether this is the case inshallah with this we will conclude Thank you.

Seerah 90 - Battle of Tabuk 4 ~ Dr

Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen Wasalatu wasalamu ala sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in amma ba'd my voice is still not fully recovered so I apologize my voice might be more monotone than usual but I have a bit of a sore throat so inshallah ta'ala we're still talking about the battle of Tabuk and as I said the battle of Tabuk is so many lessons and there is no battle we're just talking about various things here and there around and so many incidents and today we will continue talking about a number of incidents that took place during the battle of Tabuk now realize we haven't even left Medina yet like for the last three weeks or four weeks when we're doing the battle of Tabuk we haven't actually left Medina we're talking about things that happen in Medina so today let us alhamdulillah depart from Medina and then we're gonna spend a few more lessons going back and forth in what happened in the journey now the Prophet ﷺ he left behind Muhammad ibn Maslama as the person in charge of the affairs of Medina so whenever he would leave he would appoint a person in charge obviously to run the affairs and he told Ali ibn Abi Talib that you must stay behind you will take charge of my family because Ali is his son-in-law so Ali ibn Abi Talib is the person that will manage the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen his immediate family because after all this journey is going to take more than a month and a half almost two months the whole journey and somebody has to take care of the household affairs so the Prophet ﷺ told Ali ibn Abi Talib you will stay behind to protect my family, to take care of their needs and what not. And when the Prophet ﷺ said this, the munafiqun began mocking Ali ibn Abi Talib, that he is a burden, he's not worthy of fighting, that the Prophet ﷺ doesn't want him to come, because he's not a capable warrior, so he just made this excuse to let him remain behind. And of course Ali is well known for his bravery, his courage, his fighting prowess, and he is a young man, and this type of taunting really affected him. And so he put on his armor and he took his sword in his hand and he caught up with the army of the Prophet ﷺ when they were outside the city. He caught up with them and he said, Ya Rasulullah, are you leaving me with the women and children while the munafiqun are mocking me? And they're saying that, you know, you have only left me behind because I'm not qualified to be fighting in the battlefield. So Ali really felt it's so embarrassing to remain behind with the women and children when everybody is out in the battlefield. So he tried to have one more opportunity to beg the Prophet ﷺ to let him go. And subhanAllah, this is the real iman. That the people of iman wanted to go. So much so they're crying to go. And the munafiqun are mocking them. The munafiqun are mocking Ali. They're the ones remaining behind with false excuses. And they have the audacity to accuse Ali and the others of cowardice. cowardice right and this is the reality that with them when I've gone to this day that they accused their the the other people of the crimes that they themselves are guilty of so the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam consoled Ali ibn Abi Talib and he said are you not content to be with me like Haroon was with Musa this is a very famous hadith that is used by especially the Shia group so we need to really just pause a few minutes to explain this right are you not content and these are in authentic hadiths in our Sunni traditions as well. Are you not content, Ya Ali? Meaning who cares what the munafiqun are saying. Are you not happy that our relationship is like the relationship of Harun and Musa except that there is no Nabi after me. So don't take it like the Harun and Musa literally because Harun was the prophet after Musa. There is no Nabi after me. But you have that close bondness and the bond that I have with Harun that I have with you. And the Prophet ﷺ said, they the munafiqun are liars for I have only left you to be in charge of those whom I have left behind, meaning my family. So don't worry about them. I have left you in charge of my family. Now, this is one of the main evidences that is used by the Shia to say that Ali was intended to be the Khalifa after the Prophet ﷺ. And we as Sunni Muslims, we affirm every single blessing for Ali, including this one. But we also take into account all the other evidences. And this narration does not suggest that Ali was indicated to become the next Khalifa. Rather, even in this incident, Ali was not left in charge of the city. Rather, Muhammad ibn Maslama was left in charge of the city. And Ali was chosen because he is within, we all affirm, Sunni and Shia, that Ali is of the Al-Bayt. We all affirm. Who is gonna take care of the Al-Bayt? The stranger? Of course not. A son-in-law. Somebody that is well aware of, you know, the family circumstances. Somebody who's married to the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ. And that is exactly what our Prophet ﷺ said. I am leaving you to take charge of those whom I have left behind. Meaning my family. And therefore, even the context of the narration does not indicate that what this relationship of Harun and Musa is, is the relationship of political authority. The hadith indicates the closeness. That's how close I am to you. Just like Musa and Harun were so close together, they were almost like brothers. Sorry, they were like brothers, excuse me. We are almost like brothers. That's the point here. That as close as they two were, so too are we. And that is definitely a blessing and a fadila that we affirm to Ali ibn Abi Talib. but that does not mean that the Prophet ﷺ was indicating that he should be the khalifa after me. And there are many evidences that we will come to inshaAllah when we come to it, of the Prophet ﷺ as explicitly as possible indicating that Abu Bakr r.a was supposed to be the next khalifa after him. In any case, so the Prophet ﷺ continued going until he reached a very famous place of Medina, that all of you have heard of but none of you are aware of. All of you have heard the name But very few of you are even aware It is a place And this is the place of Thaniyatul Wada' Thaniyatul Wada' All of you, every one of you Has heard of this location Talaa'al badru alayna min Thaniyatul Wada' This is the place Thaniyatul Wada' Now, what is Thaniyatul Wada' Thaniyatul Wada' Thaniyat is a hill It's a mound and wada' means goodbye and north of Medina north northeast of Medina north of the haram I should say the masjid al nabawi, northerly direction there was a small mound that the people who the family members of any caravan that was going up north would walk with the caravan to wave goodbye to hug, to give the best wishes until they all climbed up to Thaniyatul Wada' then the family would remain and the others would go on and the people would wave goodbye Thaniyatul Wada' the mound of waving goodbye that's what Thaniyatul Wada' means so they went to Thaniyatul Wada' and by the way I'll jump the gun here and tell you a very sad reality, the famous poem that we all love and rejoice and what not, it is not a poem that occurred at the Hijrah. In fact, it is geographically impossible and even content wise it is impossible that it occurred at the Hijrah. Because when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated, the majority of Medina was not even Muslim. Right? And when he emigrated, which direction is he coming from? South. Right? So, we'll come to this. I kind of jumped the gun, but now that we're talking about it, the poem of طَلَعَ الْبَدْرُ عَلَيْنَا Where did this happen and when did it happen? When the Prophet ﷺ came back from Tabuk. This is when it happened. And they went out to ثَنِيَّةُ الْوَدَاء طَلَعَ الْبَدْرُ عَلَيْنَا مِن ثَنِيَّةُ الْوَدَاء So the Badr is coming up, the Prophet ﷺ is now rising from the ثَنِيَّةُ الْوَدَاء وَجَبَ شُكْرُ عَلَيْنَا So now they're all Muslims and now they are rejoicing the return of the Prophet ﷺ in ثَنِيَّةُ الْوَدَاء So after the process and passed by Thaniyatul Wada' in the northern part of the city, then he paused the camp and he rearranged all of the troops. We already mentioned that the number of the people participating in Tabuk is something that is a guesstimate. Nobody counted. And some books say 30,000 of early Islam. So it just stuck. And I said I am somewhat skeptical of this high figure. But even if it's 15,000, it is a large number. it is the largest number ever that went out. So the Prophet ﷺ paused here and reorganized. He assigned battalions, he assigned leaders to the subdivisions and this demonstrates as usual the extreme competence of the Prophet ﷺ, the organizational skills, the management skills, even though he never trained in military academy yet subhanAllah, Allah Azza wa Jal obviously gave him this knowledge and he assigned each battalion a leader, each one had a flag like military commanders do and Al-Waqidi in his Maghazi, the famous book, he goes into pages of details of which tribe had which leader and that's not going to be of much benefit to us at this level. But do realize that as usual our process divided them based upon their tribes. And again and again I bring this point up because to make it relevant and what not, to make it useful in that subhanallah no doubt our religion came to eliminate partisanship and what not. yet it is human nature that birds of a feather flock together that people of one ethnicity people of one region people of one language they'll have some affinity and Islam does not obliterate those ties and that's why even in battle it is convenient to have the people that you know and the people you feel most comfortable in your small group and in our case for example the issues of the nation state that there's nothing wrong with affirming certain ties with the nation state your nationality if you're in a strange land and you meet somebody from your city from your village, from your town, from your country you feel an affinity that is based on nothing other than your nationality and there's nothing wrong with this and I say this because again we have these extremist elements as usual they deny these things and there's nothing wrong with it if it is kept in a healthy check so the Prophet ﷺ then departed out and on the journey a number of things happened today we'll mention one or two and inshallah in the future classes we will continue. And one of the things that happened is actually narrated in the books of hadith. So today I actually brought the book of hadith with me because it's a very beautiful hadith. I found it to be very beneficial. This is a hadith in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad. And I told you the Musnad of Imam Ahmad is a very large book. It is the largest compilation of hadith that is present in our times. And it is now published in 50 volumes. So this is volume number 36 of Musnad Imam Ahmed, hadith number 22,122. And it is a beautiful narration. Now again, the incident of Tabuk, it has miscellaneous incidents like this. So today's hadith, this one, the first one, it's just an incident that took place and it's very beautiful. So we just want to pause here, talk about this hadith and then move on to another hadith. As I said, it's not like one battle like Badr or like Uhud, it's just lots of small things. So this hadith goes back to Mu'adh ibn Jabal r.a. That Imam Ahmad narrates from Abu'l-Nadhar, from Abdul-Hameed, from Shahr, from Ibn Ghunmin, from Mu'adh ibn Jabal. And we all know Mu'adh ibn Jabal. That Mu'adh ibn Jabal narrated, When the Prophet s.a.w. went out towards Tabuk in the battle of Tabuk, that after he had prayed Fajr with the people on the way to Tabuk, one day he's praying Fajr, So the people then went back on their camels. And when the sun began to rise up, the people began falling asleep on their mounts. So they're getting sleepy. They must have had a long night. And even though they're on the camels, but their people are getting sleepy. And Mu'adh radiallahu ta'ala said that he's following the Prophet ﷺ. But as the people fell asleep, their camels began splitting up here and there. And Mu'adh tried to keep up with the camel of the Prophet ﷺ. And Mu'adh's camel almost tripped. So Mu'adh said that, I jerked it back, you know, with the reins. I jerked the camel back. And it went up on its behind, you know, how they rear forward. And it scared the camel of the Prophet ﷺ. So it scared the camel of the Prophet ﷺ and the camel of the Prophet ﷺ ran forward. And the Prophet ﷺ was wearing his turban around his face. So he took it off and he looked that who has done this? So who has irritated the camel? And he saw me, Mu'adh ibn Jabal. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Ya Mu'adh. So Mu'adh said, Labbayka Ya Nabi Allah. and the Prophet ﷺ said أُدْنُ دُونَ come here so Mu'adh said I came close to him until our saddles were touching one another Subhanallah right this is a simple beautiful hadith just like vivid detail that in the middle of the desert they are now walking Mu'adh was on his camel the Prophet ﷺ is on his camel and the Prophet ﷺ said that I didn't realize that the people are so separated from us because everyone is here and there. So Mu'adh said, Ya Nabi Allah, the people became sleepy and their camels took them helter-skelter. So when you're sleeping on the camel, the camel is more interested in food than following a straight path. And it's no big deal. They're all wandering. You know, I mean, you can imagine, you know, how it would have been for many days of walking. Allah knows what day this is. Maybe the 15th day. Allah knows. everybody's tired, they're on the way to Tabuk so the people are just tired after Fajr and some of them are asleep the camels are here and there, so the Prophet ﷺ is saying I didn't realize the people are so far away Mu'adh makes an excuse Ya Rasulullah they fell asleep, they got tired on their camels so the Prophet ﷺ said and I too was sleeping, and when you did this I too was sleeping, so he too was sleeping on the camel so then Mu'adh said when I saw that I am so close to the Prophet ﷺ. And there's nobody else except the two of us, subhanallah. How like they are waiting for this opportunity. They want to be just with the Prophet ﷺ. I said, Ya Rasulallah, give me permission to ask you something. Subhanallah. I mean, it's so much adab, right? So much manners that he is all alone with him. And they are on a long journey. And he's so happy that Mu'adh is saying, I finally have some private time with the Prophet ﷺ. So he's asking permission, Ya Rasulullah, give me, can I ask a question for you? And this question has caused me to think and ponder until I fell sick thinking about it. What a beautiful hadith here. You see why I went into this tangent. Because wallahi it's such a powerful hadith. And I have given an entire khatira just on this hadith in other places. It's a beautiful hadith. But now we link it to tabook. because it happened during Tabuk. So the Prophet ﷺ said, ask whatever you want. Go ahead and ask. So he said, يَا نَبِيَّ اللَّهِ حَدِّثْنِي بِعَمَلٍ يُدْخِلُنُ جَنَّةً لَا أَسْأَلُكَ عَنْ شَيْءٍ غَيْرَهُ What a beautiful hadith. Tell me what I can do to enter Jannah. Something that only you can tell me. I don't have to ask anybody else. So Mu'adh is saying, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ I have a question. Thinking about it made me fall sick. I'm thinking and thinking and thinking and it's driving me crazy. I'm going crazy literally that's what he's saying. I want to know the answer. What do I need to do to enter Jannah? Subhanallah. This is the question he has. What do I need to do to get to Jannah? So the Prophet ﷺ said, بَخٍ بَخٍ بَخٍ بَخٍ And this is not translatable into English. But it's an expression that is used to indicate good fortune. like I don't even know any English equivalent I don't know but it's like great or what a noble thing it is used to indicate like expression of taajub like amazement maybe something like wow but I mean that's not even the meaning here but it doesn't really it's not translatable that the Prophet ﷺ is praising Mu'adh ibn Jabal for what a great question you have asked a great matter you have asked a great matter so he repeated that three times and he said and it is an easy thing if Allah wants good for you and he repeated that three times as well and Mu'adh said he would always repeat the important things three times so he said to him you've asked a big question and he said that three times Then he said, but it is an easy answer for whomever Allah wants to make it easy. And he repeated that three times. So then he said, that the Prophet ﷺ said, that how can you enter Jannah? تُؤْمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ You believe in Allah and the last day. وَتُقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةِ And you offer these salah. This goes back to our yesterday's lecture by the way, about salah being a part of لا إله إلا الله. And you offer your salah. And you worship Allah alone. and you do this until you die upon this. That you believe in Allah in the yawm al-akhir and you are praying your prayers and you do not worship any but Allah. So Mu'adh ibn Jabal said, O Messenger of Allah, repeat this for me. So he repeated it again. Then the Prophet ﷺ said, If you want, O Mu'adh, then I will inform you about رأس هذا الأمر وقوام هذا الأمر وذروة السنام I will tell you about the head of this matter. Now the head means of course the most important part. Waqiwam means the pillar, the backbone. Wa dhirwatus sinam. And dhirwatus sinam means the pinnacle. So there's a head, there's a backbone, and then there is the jewel at the top, the crowns at the top let's say, right? So this is what the Prophet ﷺ is saying. What is the crux of the matter? What is the backbone or the jist? And what is the jewel at the top? He's saying these three things. So Mu'adh ibn Shabal said, Yes, of course, may my mother and father be given in your ransom. بِأَبِي أَنْتَ وَأُمِّي يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ And this is how they would address our Prophet ﷺ, that I will give my mother and father in ransom for you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ رَأْسَ هَذَا الْأَمْرُ The head of all of this, meaning, by head means what? The most important thing. The head is what? The most important thing. The ra'as of this matter is, and tashhada an la ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika la wa anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluh that's really what the head of Islam is the shahada simple enough okay the qiwam the backbone of this whole matter is iqam as-sala wa ita'i zaka praying and giving zaka this is the backbone the qiwam wa thirwatus sanam and the jewels the crown jewels the head that is really the pinnacle is al-jihadu fi sabi'lillah and remember they are on jihad right now they're going to tabuk and they did not know what's going to meet them there they're expecting a roman army they're expecting a large group so there's no doubt this hadith is very pertinent in the battle of tabuk and and then he said and i have been commanded to do qital of the people until they establish the salah and they give the zakah and they testify la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah And if they do that, then their lives and properties are protected in the rights of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now, this hadith, of course, is the famous hadith of, I have been commanded to do khital to the people. And this hadith has been commonly misinterpreted by many of the Islamophobes today to imply that our religion is all about devastation and destruction. Rather, the Prophet ﷺ is telling us, why is he going to tabook? Allah has commanded me to fight these people. and when he says annas so this means the people in the context of what he is talking about and that is why the majority of scholars have held the view that you can that the Islamic state is not obliged to be waging war against everybody until the day of judgment and that's why historically speaking the Abbas's, the Umayyads, the Ottomans they had boundaries and they weren't always at war with everybody outside of those boundaries so we need to understand this hadith in that light and our Prophet ﷺ then goes on, that I swear by the one in whose hands is my soul. No face becomes tired, nor does a foot become dusty in any deed that will raise it higher in Jannah after the fard salah, like jihad in the way of Allah ﷻ. So face becoming tired and the feet becoming dusty. So and again, this is being said in the context of the battle of Tabuk, right? So this is an encouragement for a legitimate jihad fi sabirillah. And the Prophet ﷺ said that nothing makes the mizan, the scales heavier like spending money upon an animal that is in the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or carrying people in the way of Allah. So this beautiful hadith, now you understand the hadith is, it happened in Tabuk, but it's not quite, you know, it's just an incident that happened, that Mu'adh and the Prophet ﷺ were alone, and so it's something beautiful to mention over here. So the Prophet ﷺ continued marching towards Tabuk, and he arrived in Tabuk, we don't have exact dates in the seerah books for when he arrived and what not, but we know that he stayed in Tabuk for 20 days. He stayed in Tabuk for 20 days, and he prayed qasr throughout all of this 20 days. And this issue is narrated in so many books of hadith that for all 20 days, he remained praying qasr, two raka'at. He never prayed the full four raka'at for the prayers. And this of course led to a huge controversy in early Islam that how long can you remain muqim at a location and pray qasr. And the majority of scholars and all of the former dhahib scholars so the Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, Hanbali they all said this hadith only applies to the state of war you cannot extrapolate from this hadith 20 days and it is only legitimate when you do not know how many days you will remain at a location when the enemy might attack at any time then you may do qasr for 20 days or for 6 months if you are literally on the battlefield and you don't know when you're going to come back or when the enemy will attack then there is no time limit because every day is uncertain so the majority of scholars said this narration is irrelevant to the musafir who's going to New York or London or Toronto or Timbuktu and staying there for five days and he knows he's staying for five days you cannot apply this hadith you understand why? you understand or? It's a state of war, so you don't know how long. Every day you wake up and you don't know. Is the enemy going to attack or not? And this is the four madhhab. Other schools, there are, by the way, more than four schools of law. And there were more scholars than just the four scholars. So other scholars, they said, no. This indicates that you may remain up to 20 days as a musafir. If you remain at a place for 20 days, then you may do qasr. And this is an opinion that some of the scholars held that are outside of the four madhhab. and Ibn Taymiyyah and others they held the view that there is no time limit for how long you remain as a traveler as long as you are a legitimate traveler it depends on circumstance and not on time frame and this is the opinion of Al-Awza'i and Ibn Qudama also seems to lean towards this but Ibn Taymiyyah is the one who would champion it but the majority of scholars they say that four days is the time limit and the Hanafi say 15 days is the time limit. So Maliki, Shafi'is and Hanbali say 4 days is the time limit. If you know you're gonna stay more than 4 days or according to one madhab, more than 21 salah. So don't count the days, count the number of salah. If you arrive after Fajr, start counting from Dhuhr and count 20 salah. If you stay 20 salah or less, you can do Qasr. That's the Maliki madhab. They count by salah. If you stay 20 salah or less, you do Qasr. If it's more than 20, you cannot do Qasr. And that's the Maliki, Shafi'i, humbly position. And the Hanafi position says, as all of us Hanafis know, the Hanafi position says what? 15 days. Half a month you may remain as a musafir. And the fact or the correct opinion, and Allah knows best, is that there is no particular number of days. It rather goes back to your circumstance. That if you are a genuine bona fide traveler and you know what is a traveler. You're living out of a suitcase, you're not in, you're in awkward circumstances, you don't have a maskan or a house, then it can prolong for 5, 6, 7 days, no problem and if you are not a traveler, then even if it's 2 days if you go to your parents house let's say, and you're just there for 2 days and you are at home this is your home, you feel at home, then even if it's 2 days then you will not be considered a musafir or it is possible some rich people have 2 houses, they have a summer house or they have some other house, so it is possible that you go to the vacation house you can have that, so it is possible to have multiple houses, and if you go to another house, and you feel that that is your house now, and you that is psychologically your house, then you're not going to do safa there, in any case, that's a fiqh issue here, the point is that the Prophet ﷺ camped for 20 days, and the Prophet ﷺ it is reported in one of the books of hadith, and that is the book of دلائل النبوة والبيحق دلائل النبوة والبيحق he reported a khutbah that the Prophet ﷺ gave the morning that they arrived at Ghazwat-e-Tabuk. And this khutbah is reported with a weak chain. So realize this is a hadith that is not fully authentic. But some wordings of it are reported in authentic chains. And the narration is very beautiful. And it gives us a glimpse into the Prophet ﷺ's khutbahs, how eloquent. So I decided to actually read the entire khutbah for you. He gave a khutbah to the whole army the morning of Tabuk. When they first arrived at Tabuk. I reiterate the isnad or the chain of narrators as is most of the seerah. I have said many times the seerah narrations are not as preserved as the laws of Islam. I've said this many times, right? So this is one of the seerah narrations. And therefore, there's no haraj, there's no harm in narrating it. but do realize that we don't derive our laws from this but it gives us a glimpse and by the way some of the phrases of this hadith are authentic for sure the hadith is very long it's beautiful many paragraphs and some of them are authentic but all put together this is a khutbah of the Prophet ﷺ so it is narrated by Uqba ibn Amir al-Juhani that when they arrived at Tabuk they woke up and after they prayed the salah they spent the night in Tabuk after they prayed the subah prayer, the Prophet ﷺ stood up and praised Allah with what Allah deserves to be praised. And then he said, اَيُّهَا النَّاسُ أَمَّا بَعْدٍ And this is the sunnah of every single khutbah. You begin by praising Allah. You begin by some type of dhikr and hamd and thana. And then he would say, أَمَّا بَعْدٍ And this is to indicate that the praise is now over. Let me now get on to what I want to tell you. So أَمَّا بَعْد is like a فاصلة, is like a marker between the introduction and the actual speech. فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ The most truthful of all speech is the book of Allah. وَأَوْثَقُ الْعُرَى كَلِمَةُ التَّقْوَى And the firmest handhold is the speech of taqwa. Now the kalimatul taqwa could mean لا إله إلا الله and that is one meaning of kalimatul taqwa. And it could also mean any righteous word. Any word that encourages people to be good is the firm handhold. وَخَيْرُ الْمِلَلِ مِلَّةُ إِبْرَاهِيمِ The best of all paths and millas, ways, طَرِيقَة is the path of Ibrahim a.s. And Allah says in the Quran, وَاتَّبِعُوا مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا So the best milla is the milla of Ibrahim. وَخَيْرُ السُّنَنِي سُنَّةُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمُ And the best sunnah is the sunnah of Muhammad ﷺ. وَأَشْرَفُ الْحَدِيثِ ذِكْرُ اللَّهِ Now notice, you already get a taste of the khutbah. Short, sweet, to the point. Every single phrase is profound. And this is the general khutbah of the Prophet ﷺ. That short, the whole khutbah lasted maybe three minutes if you read it in Arabic, right? But each word or each sentence is, In and of itself you can give an entire lecture about the profundity of each of these phrases. So the best hadith is the dhikrullah. The best thing you can say is the dhikr of Allah. وَأَحْسَنُ الْقَصَصِ هَذَا الْقُرْآنِ The best of all stories are those in the Quran. وَخَيْرُ الْأُمُورِ عَوَازِمُهَا وَشَرُّ أُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا The best of all deeds are the ones that are done with the most sincere and the most dedication. and the worst of all deeds are those that are innovations and the best guidance is the guidance of the prophets and the best death is the death of a martyr and the most blind of blindnesses is to be misguided after Allah has guided you so once you are guided how can you basically not be guided after that and the best of deeds is that which benefits you in this world and the next. And the best knowledge is that which is followed. Now look, subhanAllah, each phrase here is just so beautiful, right? And the worst blindness, so the first phrase was the most blindness of the blind. This the worst blindness is the blindness of the qalb. وَشَرُّ الْعَمَى عَمَى الْقَلْبِ The worst blindness is the blindness of the heart. and the higher hand is better than the lower hand. وَالْيَدُ الْعُلْيَا خَيْرٌ مِّنَ الْيَدِ السُّفْلَةِ And of course this is a beautiful metaphor, كِنَاية in Arabic, that the hand that gives money is better than the hand that receives money. وَالْيَدُ الْعُلْيَا خَيْرٌ مِّنَ الْيَدِ السُّفْلَةِ وَمَا قَلَّ وَكَفَى خَيْرٌ مِّمَّا كَثُرٌ And by the way, even the wordings is rhythmic, it's beautiful. And that which is little and suffices you, money wise, is better than that which is a lot and distracts you. So having a little bit which is enough, is better than having a lot which distracts. خَيْرٌ مِمَا كَثْرَ وَأَلْهَا And the worst excuse, is the excuse that you give at the time of death. Subhanallah, how beautiful. The worst excuse, is the one you give at the time of death. Why did I do this? Why did I? You make your excuses at the time of death. and the most evil of regrets is the regret on the day of judgment what use will it be as Allah says in the Quran that يَوْمَئِذِ يَتَذَكَّرُ الْإِنسَانُ وَأَنَّا لَهُ الذِّكْرُ on that day every man will feel but of what use is that feeling on that day and there are those people who don't come to Jumu'ah at all except on rare occasions. So the Prophet ﷺ is criticizing them. And there are those who don't do dhikr of Allah except again, abandonedly or not enthusiastically. And of the worst of all sins is a lying tongue. Of the worst of all sins is اللسان الكذوب The guy who's always lying. This is of the worst people. and the best richness is the richness of the heart وَخَيْرُ الْغِنَىٰ غِنَىٰ النَّفْس if your heart feels rich that's the best richness وَخَيْرُ الزَّادَ التَّقْوَىٰ and the best of all a zad does not have an English word a zad is what a traveler would take for the journey it's the backpack like what you have for the journey there is no one English word some say provisions but the zahd is what you take for your journey. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying, the best baggage is al-taqwa. وَرَأْسُ الْحِكْمَةِ And the pinnacle of wisdom is to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the pinnacle of wisdom, to have the fear of Allah. And the best thing that settles in the heart is yaqeen. To settle in the heart, yaqeen, that is the best thing. and khamr which is alcohol is jima'ul ithim or one can say the mother of all evil or all evil comes through khamr the one who drinks everything else follows after that and wallahi this society knows this and everybody knows this as well the amount of problems and pain and suffering that drinking produces and women are the forebringers of shaitan for men meaning getting involved too much with them will bring shaitan to the men and the worst of all income is the income of riba the worst of all income is the income of riba and the worst thing to eat is the property of an orphan and the lucky person or the fortunate person is the one who learns from the mistakes of others so if somebody does something wrong you should learn from that mistake and the hadith goes on and it's very beautiful here but again so much has to go on but one of the things that I want to mention and he said for example this phrase here to curse a believer is a sin and to fight him is kufr and to eat of his flesh is a ma'usia backbiting and the sanctity of his money is like the sanctity of his blood meaning to steal his property and to take from him is just like killing him and whoever asks for forgiveness Allah will forgive and whoever controls his anger Allah will reward and whoever is patient at a calamity Allah will give him better than what was taken away and whoever wants to show off Allah will show meaning punishment through him whoever wants to show off Allah will show through him and whoever is patient Allah will give him more and then he concluded Allahumma gharfir li wa li ummati O Allah forgive me and my ummah O Allah forgive me and my ummah and then he said astaghfirullah li walakum which is how khutbahs are ended may Allah ask for forgiveness for me and for all of you now it's a beautiful narration which kind of gives us a mini, if you like, highlight into the khutbahs of the Prophet ﷺ. What else happened during those 20 days? So this happened on the first day. What else happened during those 20 days? Lots of incidents, we'll talk about some of them today, and we'll continue later on. Of the things that happened that are of a political nature. He sent Khalid ibn al-Walid with a few hundred of the Sahaba on a mini expedition to one of the neighboring tribes in that region of Tabuk, in a neighboring small area called Dawmat al-Jandal which in our time is in the modern Saudi province of Al-Jawf and there's a city there called Skaka, I know it's a strange name but that's what the name is, Skaka you can look it up on Google Maps this city of Skaka is where this expedition took place of Dawmat al-Jandal it is up north, close to the Syrian border in our time so Saudi Arabia as you know all the way north is connected to Syria so that region of Al-Jawf that is the northern most province of the modern country of Saudi Arabia. One of the most northern cities is the city of Skaaka. So this is where Khalid ibn al-Walid went. And there was a tribe there, a very famous tribe by the name of Kindah. And their name has come up before. It's a very, one of the largest tribes. They originate in Yemen, but one branch of them went up north. And so they're now living next to Syria. And the tribe of Kindah was a Christian Arab tribe. The tribe of Kindah was a Christian Arab tribe, and they were one of the most prestigious tribes, and they had a strong relationship with Heraclius, with the Caesar of Rome. And they were a tribe that were known for their bravery and their warriorship, and also one of the few tribes whose chieftain was called a king, a malik. And this is, as we know in the Arabs, was rare to have a king and a kingdom. But the kindah was one of the few tribes that they would call their chieftain the king. And it would go from father to son. And he was considered to be a king. So the Prophet ﷺ sent Khalid and he said that you will find the chieftain. And the chieftain's name is rather strange for our tongues. It is Ukaydir. Ukaydir. That was his name. King Ukaydir. Al-Malik Ukaydir. So the Prophet ﷺ said to Khalid and Walid, you will find Ukaydir away from his entourage in the midst of some cows like a king away from his army in the midst of some cows like a bizarre scenario and the Prophet ﷺ told Khalid and Walid you will find Ukaydir basically you will be able to capture him away from his army in the midst of he is gonna be with cows and subhanallah the books of seerah mention that it so happened on one evening that Ukaidr was in his palace when his herd of cows and bulls came to the door of the palace and began barging against the door all night long just smacking their heads on the door and his wife got fed up and said you have to stop this commotion and racket how are you going to go to sleep so Ukaidr said okay I will take care of it so he went down with 3 or 4 of the servants and he thought that they must be hungry so in the middle of the night or before fajr he just he himself with some of the servants not his army went to take the cows out to graze in the land and one thing leads to another and lo and behold Khalid ibn al-Walid with 350 sahaba comes upon the king Ukaydir in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of cows and some of his servants that's all it was and so he is captured and he is brought in front of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and Ukaydir agrees to, he doesn't convert at the time. It is said that he converted later on, but at this time he does not convert. He agrees to pay the jizya. He agrees to break off the relationship with the Romans and to pay the jizya to the Prophet ﷺ and to not attack the Muslims. So this was one of the big successes of the battle of Tabuk. And to follow that success up, three, four other such relationships were done with the northernmost tribes of the Arabs. So what in effect happened was, the northern barrier was sealed against the Romans. And perhaps this was the greatest political wisdom for why Allah willed the battle of Tabuk. That there's a huge army sitting in Tabuk, and people like Uqaydar and others cannot fight against it single-handedly. So when they see this massive army, basically all of the northern tribes and the number of, I mentioned we have not heard their names before, and I'm not gonna bore you with the names, but a number of northern tribes basically decided it's in their best interest to break off relationships with Rome, and to pay the jizya to the Prophet ﷺ. And when they were camped at Tabuk, Ukaydir sent a lot of gifts. It is also said by the way that Khalid captured much ghanima when he captured Ukaydir, So he had some small entourage and he had all of the cows and flocks and what not. So it is said that he captured that as ghanima. But then Uqaydar sent some gifts afterwards to show that I am now a loyal, you know, not a servant because he is not a Muslim, but a vassal, like an ally, a loyal ally. And he sent the Prophet ﷺ, they said, a hulla, a shawl, that the likes of which they had never seen. and there was even gold threaded onto the shawl gold threading and the Prophet ﷺ wore this beautiful magnificent shawl and the Sahaba were just amazed at the shawl how beautiful it was according to one narration they're like walking around they haven't seen anything like it and again we need to understand that the poverty of the Arabs at that time especially the Hijaz and he realized they didn't even have water other than zamzam how can they have civilization, right? you need to understand the sahaba are the Arabs at the time, the Hijazi Arabs are importing everything from Yemen and from Syria they don't even, as we have said from the beginning they don't have their own script, they don't have libraries, they don't have two storey buildings they don't have their own currency the currency they're using is Roman currency and they're not Rome or they're using the drachms of the the Kisra, the Persians, right? So they're using Persian and Roman currency. They don't even have their own currency. So you have to understand, they are seeing now, what we would say is, let's say Italian tailor-made suit, right? Coming to some village in the middle of nowhere, they've never, this is amazed. And they're walking around it. So the Prophet ﷺ said, أَتَعْجَبُونَ مِنْ هَذَا You are impressed with this? فَوَاللَّهِ لَمَنْ دِيلُ سَعْدِ بْنِ مُعَادِ فِي الْجَنَّةِ The handkerchief that Sa'd ibn Mu'adh has in Jannah is more precious than this entire shawl that you are seeing. So it is also said that he established a treaty with another king of the Arab tribes there, the king of Ayla. And the king of Ayla also sent him gifts. And many other tribes as well, the local tribes of the province of Tabuk, all basically had peace treaties with the Prophet ﷺ. And the final incident that we'll mention for today is one of my favorite stories of the seerah. And in fact, I have said this story two and a half or three years ago. But mashallah, since all of you take such good notes and since you remember everything, then we might as well just refresh your notes inshallah and redirect you to the story that has already been said. But it is one of my favorite stories really of the seerah. It's such a beautiful story that took place at Tabuk. So the Prophet ﷺ, and this story is found once again in the Musnad books. The books of Sira just reference it. This is one of those things you actually find more of the details in the books of Hadith. So it is actually found in the Musnad Imam Ahmad in volume 24. So we will read it directly. Hadith number 15,655. and this is the famous incident of Heraclius quizzing the Prophet ﷺ through a messenger and let us go straight to the hadith that there was a man from the tribe of At-Tanuk so he's called the Tanuki the one from the tribe of At-Tanuk we don't even know his name that used to live in Hims Hims is of course Syria may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala free that land from the tyrant that is currently occupying it and from the tyrannical forces that are fighting within it there is a tyrant on top and then there are tyrannical extremists on the bottom may Allah azawajal free them insha'Allah ta'ala so Saeed ibn Abi Rashid said I met the the one whom Hiraqil sent to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam in Hims. And he was a neighbor of mine in the vicinity, neighbor of mine, very old, having reached almost a hundred years of age or close to that. So I asked him, can't you tell me, meaning please tell me, of the letter that Hiraqil sent to the Prophet ﷺ. Tell me the story. So this tabi'i, he's not a sahabi, his name is Sa'id ibn Abi Rashid so he said I met this man and in another version he says I met him in the church of him so he went to the church to meet this man this At-Tanukhi and I said can you tell me directly the story of Hiraqil sending you to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam so the Tanukhi said yes I will tell you the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came to Tabuk so he sent Dihya Al-Kalbi to Hiraqil so this is the second letter to Hiraql he's already sent a letter to him before and I have talked about that with Abu Sufyan back and forth with Abu Sufyan that's the first letter then this is a second letter that he sends him right and when the messenger meaning Dihya came to Hiraql Hiraql called the Batariqa and the Qissees of Rum the Batariqa is the patriarchs batariqa, the patriarchs, and the qisis, the priests. So the priests and the patriarchs of Rome, he called them all together. And he locked the door. And he said to, this is now the elite of the religious clergymen. And he said to them, you have seen the status of this man and his affairs, where he has reached. Meaning, since he has sent me the first letter, now he has conquered so much, look at now his affairs. And he has now sent me a letter, inviting me to one of three things. And this shows us it's a second letter because the first letter which is recorded in Bukhari doesn't have this. That's the first letter. This is the second letter. And he's invited me to one of three things. Number one, I either follow his religion. Or number two, what will be the second choice? Give money. Give him money and we keep our land. Or number three, we fight him. These are the standard three choices. and Hiraql says you know from what we have read of our scriptures that he will eventually control what is underneath our feet so why don't we follow him and his religion now so Hiraql is offering to convert or if you refuse this then at least let's have peace with him and give him the money meaning let's not go to war because he is a true prophet so when they heard this they all bolted and they rushed to the door attempting to get out and tell the people that Hiraqil is willing to give up Christianity now remember Hiraqil is supposed to be it's a religious figurehead as well I mean to this day in the Anglican church the king or the queen technically is still the head of the church, right? This is how it was. This is now technically, back then this was like a God-given right. As the head of the political system, you are appointed by God to defend the church. That's what they would understand. So to suggest that I'm gonna become a Muslim, this is too much for them. So they rushed to the door, they found it bolted. So then he said that, and then they said to him, are you telling us to give up Christianity or to become servants to a Bedouin coming from the Hijaz, عَبِيدًا لِأَعْرَابِيَن جَاءَ مِنْ الْحِجَازِ You want us, the Roman civilization, to become servants to the Bedouins from Hijaz? So when he saw that they would not give up their position, he then said to them, this was only a test, I'm trying and testing you to see how firm you are. So he got rid of them. Then Hiraqil called one of the Arabs of his entourage, of the Nassara al-Arab. And he said to me, find for me a man who is عَرَبِيُّ الْلِسَانِ He speaks Arabic and he is a good messenger to memorize what he's gonna say. I want to send a book to or a message or a risalah to this man. So this Arab bought me the Tanukhi to Hiraqil. Clear now, right? So the middle man basically brings the Tanukhi. Here is a guy you can trust. so he brings me to Hiraql and Hiraql gave me a message, a parchment you know the Risala and he said take this to that man and whatever you forget of his speech and conversation just pick and memorize three things the whole conversation you can forget, just memorize for me three things number one number one see or check does he mention the letters that he wrote to me the previous letters does he mention that does he mention the letters that he has written to me number two when he reads this letter of mine see if he will mention anything to do with night and darkness so there's some test question in the letter if he reads the letter just see if he's gonna mention the night or the darkness and number three see on his back is there something that causes you to be alarmed, something different that should not be on the back of any man see on his back so from this we learn that there are three signs that are mentioned in the classical books of our Prophet ﷺ so the Tanukhi said I went to his book with his risalah until I arrived at Tabuk now Tabuk is literally one day's journey from the Syrian border of our times literally I mean in our times it's like an hour's drive in the car of the northern most place so you know the risalah dihya goes up then this man comes down so he comes and he sees the Prophet at Tabuk and he was sitting amongst all of his companions at the well of Tabuk. So that's where they were. They're at the well of Tabuk. So when I saw all of them there, I went up and I said, where is your leader? So they pointed and he said, he is over there. And this demonstrates that the Prophet ﷺ was not wearing garments and clothes that made him stand up from the rest of the crowd. So you cannot be, all of them are dressed similarly. So which one is the leader? So they pointed. So he went, he said, I went walking towards him until I sat down in front of him and I gave him the book. I gave him the book. So he put it aside. He didn't read the book. He didn't read the letter. He put it aside. And he said, where are you from? I said, I am from the tribe of Tanukh. I am from Tanukh. So he said, why don't you embrace Islam, the Hanifiyah, the millah of your father Ibrahim. You're an Arab. Your father is Ibrahim. embrace Islam and that is the way of your father Ibrahim so the Tanukhi said I am an ambassador of a nation right now and my people have their religion he is also a Christian and I will not embrace another religion as an ambassador of mine and I will go back and think about this matter and therefore some people say he embraced Islam later on and some people say he remained a Christian and one version mentions he was in a church another version doesn't mention that, so there's a bit of an ikhtilaf, did the Tanuki embrace Islam or not, there's a bit of a controversy over that, but basically he said, I'm an ambassador, and I represent the Roman Empire right now and it's not appropriate for me to convert as an ambassador some perverted logic he has, right, so the Prophet ﷺ laughed at this, فضحك النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم and he recited Surah Al-Qasas, verse 56 you do not guide those whom you love, but rather Allah guides those whom he pleases Then the Prophet ﷺ said, O you person of Tanukh, he hasn't opened the letter yet, O you person of Tanukh, I wrote a letter to the Kisra of Persia, and he ripped my letter apart, so Allah will rip his kingdom apart. And I wrote my letter to the Najashi, and he ripped it apart, so Allah will rip his kingdom apart. I'll explain this in a while. I know what you're all thinking. And I wrote my letter to your companion. Meaning? Heraclius. So he kept it safe. And so people will continue to see his strength, Heraclius' strength, as long as there is some good to life. Meaning his kingdom will remain for a long time Now pause here We all know the story of Kisra And he tore it up As for the story of Najashi We need to realize that This is not the Najashi That is the first Najashi The first Najashi died And our Prophet ﷺ prayed salah over him Then the Prophet ﷺ sent another letter To his son And his son tore that letter up and the magnificent kingdom of the Abyssinian Habesha dissolved after that point in time. And we still have to this day their remnants and their civilization and their heritage, but the kingdom dissolved. There was a civil war after the death of our Najashi. And the sun basically started the civil war with another faction. And it's as the Prophet ﷺ said, that he tore my letter up, so Allah will tear his kingdom up. and your companion Heraclius preserve my letter so Allah will preserve his kingdom as long as there is good in the people so the Tanukhi said this is the first of the three you understand he mentions later the first of the three and he said I took out an arrow from my swiver what do you call the thing again quiver I call it swiver see shows you have never had some real hunting experience you should take me one day hunting so from my quiver and I carved out on the parchment meaning so I don't forget so they don't have pen and ink so he's actually taking the arrow head and he's carving into leather whatever he wants to carve like the first point is done okay so he did this then the Prophet ﷺ so I said to the Prophet ﷺ Tanukhi is saying I said to him who is your secretary that will read to you. Who reads? Meaning read the letter. So the Prophet ﷺ said, Muawiyah. And Muawiyah is one of the Qutab al-Wahiyah. He's one of the people who would read and write the revelation and be an ambassador or a scribe. So Muawiyah. So Muawiyah was called. Muawiyah then reads the letter. And inside the letter, there was a question Heraclius is sending to the Prophet ﷺ. Clear? Right? So in that letter, Heraclius is saying, you pretend to invite me to a heaven that is as broad as the heaven and the earth. جَنَّةً عَرْضُهَا السَّمَوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ You are saying there is a Jannah that is as big as the heavens and earth that is prepared for the متقين. So, if that is the case that heaven is as big as the heaven and earth, where then is hell? this is the question, the trick question don't look at me, it's Heraclius this is the trick question if heaven is so big that it takes up where is hell? so our Prophet ﷺ said subhanallah where does the night go when the day comes so what just happens here question 2 right so the Tanukhi says this is the second and later on he takes out his arrow and he scribes on his leather parchment what he needs to scribe down that the second thing is done then when he finished reading the letter the Prophet ﷺ said you are an ambassador and you have a right over us as an ambassador and if we had something to give you we would have given you but right now we are in travel and I don't have anything so he's excusing himself that ambassadors deserve gifts you know it is the nature of all you know customs of the world that when the ambassador comes you give the ambassador a gift this is the nature of all political realities and the Prophet ﷺ is conforming to those political customs there's nothing wrong with conforming to political custom but he is saying we are now in a safar and we don't have anything to give you I'm sorry I can't give you a gift because I'm not at home now and this shows us the poverty of the sahaba and of the people that they don't have even these gifts so somebody stood up and said ya Rasulullah I will give him a gift and he went to his tent and he came back and he gave him a yellow garment and he gifted it to me so the narrator says who was the man who gave you the gift? So the Tanukhi says, it was Uthman ibn Affan. It was Uthman ibn Affan. That when the Prophet ﷺ excused himself, I don't have anything. Uthman felt bad, he said, I will give him on your behalf. So Uthman gave one of his own garments to the Tanukhi. So the Prophet ﷺ then said, who amongst you will host this man for the night? So one of the Ansar stood up and he said, I will host him. So I stayed with the man for the night. then when it was time for me to go back because he's a messenger, he's gonna go back the next day so I stood up to leave and I went out from the majlis and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, ta'al ya akha tannuk come here oh man from tannuk come here oh person of tannuk so I came rushing towards him until when I was standing in front of him he pulled back his garment and he said come and look at what your Lord or your master has told you to look at and so the Tanukhi said I went behind him and I saw a Khatam, a seal in between the two shoulder blades like a like a circular you know ball or seal over there and we learn from other traditions that it was a type of hair of an unusual color, we learn from other traditions it was a small as a pigeon's egg, which is literally like this, a pigeon's egg. It's a small thing, and it was perfectly in between the shoulder blades, and it was a physical hair, growth of hair, in a small manner, in a color that is not typical. The color, some say green, some say other colors, it's a hair that is an unusual color, you know, color that is beautiful to look at, and it is in between the katifei, or the shoulder blades of the Prophet ﷺ. so he said I went back having all three of the questions answered and this is a beautiful narration you must admit it's such a one of my favorite stories of the man from Tannuq and what happens to the man of Tannuq and this also occurs in the battle of Tabuk and inshallah ta'ala with that we conclude today's halaqa and before I Thank you.

Seerah 91 - Battle of Tabuk 5 ~ Dr

Alhamdulillah, we are now resuming our seerah. after an interlude of, is it three weeks? Three weeks, right? Inshallah. And we are still on the Battle of Tabuk. Inshallah, I hope today to finish the main events of the Battle of Tabuk. And then next week, inshallah ta'ala, we'll bring the Qur'an. I expect all of you to bring the Qur'an. And we'll go over sections of Surah, which Surah? Surah At-Tawbah. Everybody should know which Surah is of Tabuk. And we cannot go over the whole Surah because it is too long to go over. I want to just highlight and refresh our memory so that the Tawbah will go over almost all of the incidents in the battle of Tabuk so we begin inshallah today we had talked about many miscellaneous incidents and episodes and today we will continue what happened for those 20 days what do we know about and what happened on the way back and as I said the Prophet ﷺ remained in Tabuk for 20 days and we know from the hadith in Bukhari and others that he prayed short the qasr salah for all of those 20 days. And we also mentioned that in the battle of Tabuk, sorry, in the area of Tabuk, there was a small pool of water. And I had mentioned this before, but to refresh our memories, it's been so many weeks that the Prophet ﷺ told the Sahaba, do not touch the water, if you remember. Don't touch the water. And there were, well, how many people were in Tabuk? I'm doing a quiz here. How many people were in Tabuk? How do we know? We don't know. We actually don't know how many people were in Tabuk. There was no register, there was no entire sheet. But the number of people in Tabuk is reported to be 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 30,000. All of these numbers are reported. And the fact of the matter is we do not know. However, of these 20,000, 30,000, one or two of them went to the water of Tabuk and they used it. Before the Prophet ﷺ arrived. And when the Prophet ﷺ arrived, he was very angry at them. and he rebuked them because they had accidentally disobeyed but they had nonetheless disobeyed. Nonetheless, the Prophet ﷺ took some water in his hand and he gargled it and he spit it back in the pool. There was a small amount of water and that was what caused the water to come all the way to the brim and they were able to, the army was able to feed itself and water itself throughout their duration of Tabuk. And it is said, and I'm not sure of this, it is said that there is still a pool to this day in that area outside the city of Tabuk. It is said, I do not know, but I've never been to Tabuk. But it is said that still to this day, they know the exact location where the Prophet ﷺ camped and they built a masjid over there. They called it Masjid At-Tawbah and there is a well over there or there is a small area of water that is the exact same area that the Prophet ﷺ camped in. Now, what are we gonna do today? As I said, there was no battle. So what do we have to give you in the incident of Tabuk? Lots of mini incidents, lots of small things that happened, and a hadith that the Prophet ﷺ said. And for 20 days when he was there, he gave lots of small, if you like, khutbahs or khatiras or mu'idahs, and the books of seerah and hadith have recorded many of them. For example, one of them is that one day the Prophet ﷺ stood after the salah, and he said, Today Allah has given me five things that He has not given anyone before me. Today Allah has given me five things that He has not given anyone before me. Number one, بُعِثْتُ إِلَى النَّاسِ كَافًا I have been sent to all of mankind. And those before me were only sent to their peoples. those before me were only sent to their people this is the first blessing number two he said نُصِرْتُ بِالرُّعْبِ مَسِيرَةَ شَهْرٍ I have been helped by Allah to the distance of one month's journey that the enemy will be frightened of me and what this means is that Tabuk was like a month's journey away from Medina and the people were so terrified that the tribes of Ghassan and the Roman Empire did not show up. Even though it was one month's journey away. And the Prophet ﷺ said, this is Allah's blessing upon me. That one month away, and they were so terrified they fled. So this is the second blessing. نصرت برعب مسيرة شهر. The third blessing he said, is that غنيمة has been made halal for me, and it was not halal for those before me. What is غنيمة? that is what you take after the war this is the war booty and we know from the hadith and the traditions that before the process and what would happen to the ghanima who can tell me, who remembers I said this in the battle of Badr so Allah Azza wa Jal would in front of their eyes basically send a lightning bolt from the heavens and the booty would be disintegrated. Nothing would be left. So it was a sign that they had been accepted. Their deed had been accepted. So the Prophet ﷺ said, no other nation before me, no other qawm, no other prophet was allowed ghanima. I am the first prophet that Allah has allowed ghanima. And the fourth point he said, that, جُعْلَ الْأَرْضُ لِي طَهُورًا وَمَسْجِدًا The whole earth has been made a tahur and a masjid. so whatever person of my ummah happens to have to pray he may do the ablution or the masah and pray wherever he is in the world and he said the previous ummah could only pray in their houses of worship so the yahood in particular for example and to this day they must go to the synagogue and they're not allowed to offer their salawat at least the more orthodox amongst them except in the synagogue. Whereas for us, we may pray anywhere, we don't have to pray only in the masjid. In fact, we may do wudu from anywhere. And the Yahud have much more stricter water purification rules, that the water has to be running, it has to be natural, it has to be this and that. So many requirements that they have for the water. And for us, any water, and if we don't have water, we have masah, tayammum. And that was not allowed for the previous umam. That was not allowed at all. So we're allowed to do masah wherever. And this is a general ruling. Our Prophet ﷺ said, wherever you need to pray, you will have your tahur and masjid. And tahur means what you purify, and masjid means place to pray. So anywhere in the world you are, if you don't have access to water, whatever there is that is natural, whatever there is that is the creation of Allah, you may use it symbolically to do your masah and to pray. Obviously this is only if you don't have water. Otherwise anywhere in the world, you have your tahur and your masjid. And then he said, what is the fifth? He himself is questioning, what is the fifth one? What is the fifth one? He said that Allah told me to ask, what do I want? Sal, ask whatever you want. And I decided to save my request for you, lakum ila yawm al-qiyamah. I decided to save this for you to the day of judgment. and so any of you who says La ilaha illallah will get that fifth one so what is the fifth one? it is called Ash-Shafa'atul-Uthma this is what is called Ash-Shafa'atul-Uthma and I've spoken about that in my Aqidah classes here last year or something where we talked about the intercession of the Prophet ﷺ that the Prophet ﷺ has a Shafa'ah for all of his ummah that believed in him and acted upon what he taught that they will eventually enter Jannah eventually is the point, enter Jannah and so he announced these five things he also announced predictions of what he announced here in Tabuk is that the Muslims shall inherit the treasures and the empires of Rome and Persia and this is exactly what happened because he is now the closest he ever was as a prophet to Rome and Persia he is the closest he ever was and so he announces to them that Allah has promised me the treasures of Rome and Persia. And of the miracles that happened as well in the battle of Tabuk, on multiple occasions in the journey to and at Tabuk and on the way back they ran out of food and water, which is understandable, there are 15-20 thousand people, and there's no way they would have the provisions for that much. And so on multiple occasions, the Prophet ﷺ made dua, here we just have he made dua for the water at Tabuk, he made dua at other places as well, and whatever small amount of food they had lasted all of them or most of them and this same incident of takthir al-ta'am, of increasing food and water it is actually a standard miracle throughout the seerah it happened at least a dozen if not two dozen times and in the battle of Tabuk we have four or five times back and forth that this happened and I don't want to go over each and every narration but you get the point, that the sahaba are complaining that he sees that they are very tired and he makes dua to Allah and in one occasion in Tabuk it is said and this is not just in Tabuk but also in Hudaybiyah the water came right between his fingers so this is narrated in two occasions in Hudaybiyah when they ran out of water and in Tabuk as well it is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ basically dipped his hands in a small amount of water and then lo and behold when he pulled it out it's as if his hand became a fountain and from his hand ﷺ water began pouring and the Sahaba could then use it to drink from so this is all of these miracles are announced or narrated multiple times in the seerah and the battle of tabuk we have the same narrations we also have a narration in the tabakat of ibn saad that in one of the nights of the battle of tabuk some of the sahaba got lost and they could not find their way back and Allah azawajal gave them what is called a karama and a karama is a mini miracle that is given to non-prophets the prophets are given mu'jizat the non-prophets are given karamat and karamat is something we believe in it is a miracle that proves the prophethood of the Prophet ﷺ even though it goes to a follower. And a karamah is a gift that is supernatural that Allah just gives it a one-off gift. And what happened was, the sahabi says, my fingers began to glow in the dark because he's lost, he cannot get back. So all of my five fingers began to glow. And so he used it as a torch to find his way back to the camp. This also occurred in the battle of Tabuk. And the Prophet ﷺ also did other miracles of them is that he predicted not only Kisra and Rum he predicted other things and this is in Sahih Bukhari where Aufi bin Malik says that count six things count six things before the day of judgment and this is a famous hadith he said it at Tabuk many of you have heard this hadith I've even given a khutbah about the day of judgment I mentioned this in that khutbah count six things before the day of judgment number one Mawti my death so the death of the Prophet is the first sign of the day of judgment the coming and the death of the Prophet this is the first sign of the day of judgment so he said before the day of judgment there will be six things, number one, Mawti number two, Fathu Bayt al-Maqdis and this is number this hadith is in Bukhari by the way, this is the most Bukhari Muslim Mutafak alayh, it's the most authentic hadith number two is the conquest of Jerusalem, Bayt al-Maqdis, and this happened literally a year and a half, two years after, less than two years, a year and eight, ten months after the death of the Prophet Jerusalem was conquered, so he says number two, Fathu Bayt al-Maqdis number three two plagues that will eliminate you like and then he mentioned a disease that they knew weird I don't know the English equivalent it is a disease that afflicts camels and if one camel has it the entire pen of camel simply just dies so he said two plagues will come or two diseases will come that will simply eliminate you like that camel that disease does to camels or to sheep and it just eliminates the entire flock or the herd that you have. And subhanAllah, in the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab, there was a serious, if you like, drought and a lot of people died. And there are other commentators mentioned other things that happened in the past. And Allah knows if they happened or they might happen in the future. But there's going to be two major plagues in the world. And Allah knows, did that already happen or is it going to happen? Allah knows best. What number are we on? Number three now, right? Number four now. Number four, تَكْثِيرُ الْمَالِ You will be given lots of money. You will be given lots of money. So much so, that a person will be given 100 dinars and he is going to be vexed and irritated. Why is it only 100? Now 100 dinars for them is quite literally, I would say realistically something like 10,000 dollars for us. Like a good amount of money. It's not a fortune, it's not 100 dinars, it's a good amount of money for them especially. So the Prophet ﷺ said, a time will come when somebody is given 100 dinars and he will be irritated. You're only giving me 100 dinars. And 100 dinars was more than the annual income for most of the Sahaba. More than the annual income. And the Prophet ﷺ predicted, it's only a matter of time. You guys will be so rich, you won't even know what to do with your money. And I definitely believe we're living at that time now compared to the early times of the Ummah. And then he said, a fitna, a trial, that no house of the Arabs will be left unaffected by. And when he's saying Arab here, he means Muslims because at the time, that was what the Muslims were. No house of the Muslims will be left unaffected by. So there's going to be a major calamity that will affect the entire ummah. What is that calamity? There are people in our times that are saying, this is happening now. Allah knows best. We don't, I have said this many times, We do not apply a specific prediction to a specific event because Allah knows best. But we may guess, we may hypothesize, but it is not our right to say, the Prophet ﷺ said, X, Y is happening, X and Y are exactly the same. We can say it appears something like this. And I have heard a number of scholars of our times, they say the current crisis of the ummah is really affecting almost every single household of the bombs and the warfare and the civil war and crisis, Allah knows best if this is referred to or not. This is the fifth one. And then the sixth one, which is one of the most scariest ones, is that our Prophet ﷺ said that you will have a truce, you will have a pact or a treaty between yourselves and the Ban al-Asfar. And who are the Ban al-Asfar? The? In the time it was the Romans and now it's their descendants. You will have a pact or a truce between them. Now other hadith tell us other details, not in this one. That there will be another enemy that is common to the both of you. So you will have to combine to fight that common enemy. Then the hadith goes on. And then the Ban al-Asfar will be treacherous and break the treaty. They will deceive you after you've won the enemy. Then they will deceive you. and then they will come and fight you under 80 flags, 80 banners. They're gonna come to fight you. Under each flag or banner, there will be 12,000 men. In other words, an army, the likes of which the world has not seen. This is going to be at the very end of time. This is what even the Christians predict the Armageddon. We have a similar equivalent in our tradition as well. There are predictions of a worldwide global war. These are predicted in the Hadith, it's predicted in the Bible. and these are things that we try to avoid we're not looking forward to them we try our best to avoid them even though we believe that eventually whatever the Prophet ﷺ said will come to pass so this too occurred this hadith was given in one of the nights of Tabuk another incident that occurred in these 20 nights and again we have no clue of knowing when each of these occurred you can imagine in 20 days lots of things are happening we're just giving you snippets here and there another thing that happened was a great honor for Abdur Rahman ibn Auf and that is that the Prophet ﷺ prayed behind him and he is one of the only two Sahaba whom the Prophet ﷺ prayed behind in his lifetime. What happened was, Al-Mughirah ibn Shu'ba narrates that the Prophet ﷺ woke up to use the restroom, this is before Fajr, so he went out and whenever he would use the restroom, he would go away from the army, go away from the people and I went with him and I took the water and the spear and the spear was sometimes used to provide shelter, like you put your cloak on it, there'll be something. So I took the water and the spear. And so when he came back, I poured the water for him and he washed his face and his hands. Then he tried to wash his sleeves, but the sleeves didn't come to the elbow. So he's wearing what they call the jubba. And the jubba of those days was like maybe like a cloak or something that has big heavy arms. It's cold, it's freezing cold, it's the winter. He couldn't get it up. So he put his hands inside And lifted the jubba up And put them from underneath So imagine a tight thobe That is loose at the bottom Because this is a cloak that's protecting you from the cold So that you couldn't get it up So what did he do? He put his hands inside And then he went underneath, lifted the jubba up Then he could have access And this shows us therefore that We are not allowed to be lazy In doing wudu Each and every limb Each and every point has to be touched by the water Even if it's cold And even if you're wearing tight clothing You need to do that So he washed himself And as for his The masah Mughira said He only put his fingers inside the turban And then wiped over the rest of the turban So masah is allowed for the turban And for the sisters we can make qiyas It is allowed for their hijab As I've said this in the women's class that I give That women are allowed to do masah over their hijab they just put a little bit just symbolically again just like we do over the feet that they just do like this and then they do the rest over the hijab and if a man is wearing a turban not a kufi or topi because you can take that off but the turban that you wear that some people still wear and the sisters have the hijab they may do masah so he did masah over the turban then Mughira said I bent down to take his shoes off and he said da'ahuma leave my shoes on fa inni adkhaltuhuma tahiratain that I wore them while I was upon Tahara. Then he did masah over his khuf, the leather shoes that he was wearing. So this is the famous hadith Bukhari and Muslim. Then they walk back to Tabuk and lo and behold, the Sahaba have begun Salatul Fajr. Because he took some time, they have begun Salatul Fajr. And so the Prophet ﷺ stood at the end of the line and it was dark, but people began to recognize him and the commotion spread. That the Prophet ﷺ is here. Abdur Rahman ibn Auf understood that the Prophet ﷺ is there. He took a step back, but the Prophet ﷺ motioned to him, remain there, stay where you are. And so he completed the salah behind Abdur Rahman ibn Auf. He missed a raka'ah. And so him and Al-Mughira, they stood up to finish the raka'ah. And this is the only time that the Prophet ﷺ prayed behind a sahabi an entire raka'ah. as for Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiallahu ta'ala an now this happened incidentally by the way meaning it wasn't intended meaning they were waiting for the Prophet ﷺ he didn't come and this shows us the salah the Sahaba knew it is so important that you don't even delay it for the Prophet ﷺ and that really underscores for us the status of salah imagine us we are lazy you know we keep on delaying it we seek Allah's refuge the halukh subillah imagine even the Prophet ﷺ and they know he's gonna come, but he's taking his time and the salah time is Fajr is finishing, so they decide to pray, even though the Prophet ﷺ was there, meaning physically in the vicinity, but they didn't know how long he's gonna take, so they began the salah this also shows us the blessings of Abdur Rahman ibn Auf, in the end of the day he is one of the ten promised paradise and he is one of the earliest converts and his maqam, his status is similar to that of Umar and Uthman and Ali, and And so Abdur Rahman ibn Auf was considered to be of that elite circle. And he was nominated to be the imam. And so he was the only person whom the Prophet ﷺ prayed a raka'ah behind. As for Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, as we're gonna come to maybe even later on this year or beginning of next year. When the Prophet ﷺ fell sick, he ordered Abu Bakr to lead. And for around one week, Abu Bakr was leading the salah. One day, the Prophet ﷺ walked out when Abu Bakr was leading the salah. and he sat next to Abu Bakr and Abu Bakr when he saw that the Prophet ﷺ was there so he took a step back took a step back and the Prophet ﷺ motioned to him mechanic stay where you are and Abu Bakr during the salah said Alhamdulillah like this and then he still disobeyed the Prophet ﷺ and took a step back and the Prophet ﷺ then was forced to basically he was praying next to him He was forced to come up. Then he said after the salah, مَا مَنَعَكَ Why did you not obey me? Why did you disobey me? Right? So he said, مَا كَانَ يَنبَغِلِ بْنِ أَبِي قَهَافَة It is not allowed for the son of Abu Qahafa to lead the procession in salah. So the disobedience was out of love and respect. Amazing. It's really amazing. The disobedience was out of love and respect. How can I lead you in salah? So technically he never actually led him in salah. Well, for a millisecond or whatnot, he didn't actually lead the raka'. So, Abdurrahman ibn Auf has the unique honor and privilege of being, as far as we know, the only human being ever who has led a prophet in salah. Because we don't know of this for any other prophet, that somebody else led him in salah. So, as far as we know, Abdurrahman ibn Auf is the only human being that a rak'ah was prayed, and the Prophet ﷺ was behind him. So, this happened in one of the fajr salas of the 20 days of Tabuk. another incident, now again all of these are just incidents and they're just interesting to hear tidbits here and there of what we know another incident, Ibn Mas'ud reports that one night I woke up in the nights of Tabuk and I saw a fire in the distance and I saw around it the process of Abu Bakr and Umar so I went to see what was there and lo and behold Abdullah Dhul Bijadain had died one of the names of the Sahaba, one of the people Abdullah Dhul Bijadain Dhul Bijadain means he of the two coarse garments, he of the two woolen garments. Bijadain, bijad was a cheap sack. And bijadain is two. And dhu means the one who owns. So Dhul Bijadain, the one who owns the two cheap cloths. That was the name of the Sahabi. That's all we know. Abdullah Dhul Bijadain, the one of the two cheap cloths. And his story was that when he converted, his tribe refused to give him anything. no food, no water, no money that he had earned they just kicked him out and so he left only wearing one bijad one of those garments and when he got to Medina he was so embarrassed he tore that into two so that it would seem as if he has two garments, so one he tied and one he wore, so he was called Abdullah the one of the two cheap garments and he happened to die on that night in Tabuk, a natural death and so the Prophet Abu Bakr al-Umar were praying salah over him basically and giving him a funeral and this shows us that it is halal to bury somebody at night it's not the general rule especially when you're muqim it makes no sense but it is halal we see it here and we see it in the lady who used to clean the masjid that she also was just buried at night so it is permissible to bury somebody at night and especially when you're in the war or what not there's no reason to wait until the morning he passed away so they buried him right then and there so Ibn Masud participated and he said that the Prophet ﷺ himself went into the grave. And he said to Abu Bakr and Umar, hand him to me. And so, they handed him Abdullah Dhul Bijadain. And as the Prophet ﷺ is filling the stone, so he's doing it with his own two hands, ﷺ. He said, O Allah, I am pleased with this servant of yours, so you as well be pleased with him. I am happy with this person. All that he's done, you as well be pleased with him. Ibn Mas'ud said, Ya laytani, how I much I wish that I would be the dead person in that grave right now. That I got so jealous of him, I wish that I would be that dead person in the grave. And this shows us as well, the care and concern. This is not one of the elite of the Sahaba. In fact, we don't know anything about him. Nothing about what he's done previously, other than his story of Dhul Bijadain. That's the thing we know. We don't know anything about him. But the fact that the leader of the army, the Prophet ﷺ is waking up at night, he's informed he's dead and he is personally, you know, taking the lead in burying him. What is that gonna do to the morale of the troops as they say, right? What do you think is gonna happen to the morale? That you know that the commander, the Prophet ﷺ himself got into the grave of the Sahabi. He's the one telling Abu Bakr and hand me the body and puts it in and then covers it himself and then makes dua for him. You will get Ibn Mas'ud's Wish, how I wish I had done this, right? So the enthusiasm, the level of obedience, all of this will, it shows us the reality of the رحمة للعالمين of the Prophet ﷺ. And there are many other small hadith given about fiqh issues. We're not gonna go over each and every hadith, but if you read the books of hadith, any book of hadith, you will find so many hadith that in the battle of Tabuk or during Tabuk, because a lot of things happen over there. So very quickly, just so that we get an idea what I'm talking about. For example, one of the sahaba said, I saw the processant perform wudu in the battle of Tabuk only once once. Marra tan marra. Because typically he would do wudu how many times? Three times he would wash the limb. Right? But in the battle of Tabuk, water is scarce. So we learn from this that it is permissible to do it once. We learn this from Tabuk. We also learn from Tabuk that the processant would always pray with a sutra. Because he's in the middle of the desert. there's not in the masjid and he always took a sutra sometimes he would take a spear and shove it in the ground other times he would take the saddle that you put on the camel he would put it and so one of the sahaba asked him ya rasulallah how much should the sutra be and so he said it should be as large as the saddle of the camel which is basically half a foot or a foot so whatever you put on that camel something that is visible that will prevent people from going between you and your place of prayer and we also learned in the battle of Tabuk that he combined all of the salawat on the way to Tabuk and on the way back and that in Tabuk for 20 days he did qasr but he didn't combine he did qasr and qasr means every four is done two but he didn't combine and this shows us that the sunnah and this is a commonly neglected sunnah the sunnah is that you only combine during the actual travel and when you get to your temporary destination you stop combining but you do qasr and he did this at tabuk and he did this in the conquest of mecca the same thing that the way to mecca and on the way back he's combining dhuhr and asr, maghrib and isha but in mecca when he was there for 18-19 days and in tabuk for 20 days He never actually combined. Is that clear? And this is a common mistake that many of us... No, I shouldn't say mistake. Scrap that. It's a common against the sunnah. Misunderstanding, right? It's not wrong. The musafir is allowed to. But the Prophet ﷺ never ever ever combined when he was temporary muqim. Is that clear? This is a temporary muqim. He's neither musafir. He's there for a little while. He only combined during the actual journey. When you are driving, when you're in the plane, when you're literally in the safar, then you should, it's a sunnah to combine. But once you get to your business destination, your tourist destination, your family visit for four days, five days, now obviously how long can you do that? That's a whole different topic and I've written an article, you can find it online. One opinion says 20 days based on tabuk. Based on tabuk, one opinion says 20 days. But the strongest opinion is that there is no set number of days. That it really does go back to your own psychological state of affairs. Are you traveling? Are you there for a temporary period of time? Or are you semi-settled in? You know, you have a long-term place to live and what not. It goes back to your psychological state. Nonetheless, the majority opinion is four days. And if you are confused about that, then just stick with the majority and say four days. That is the majority opinion and there is no problem with that. But the point being that we learned from the battle of Tabuk, the reality of Qasr and Jama'ah. Jama'ah is to combine and Qasr is to shorten. Also, in the battle of Tabuk, he passed by a dead animal. One of the animals had died. So he said, why don't you benefit from the animal? So they said, Ya Rasulullah, the animal is Najis, it's Mayta, it's a dead animal. How can we benefit? So the Prophet ﷺ said that, when you tan the skin, the skin becomes pure. Dibaghuhah, Tuhuruhah. When you tan it, you may use the skin of a dead animal. And so from this, the majority of fuqaha have said that the carcass of an animal, yes it is najis, and the meat is always haram. But you can benefit from the skin of the dead carcass, if you tan it. This is the majority opinion, and the hanbalis have another position. But that is also fiqh we learn from the battle of Tabuk. And other things as well, we will just gloss over them. On the way back, we talked about whatever we know. And by the way, as for the political stuff, that was, I talked about it three weeks ago. Treaties, he sent letters to Heraclius. It's already been done. For those of you that were here, we did that three weeks ago. Now on the way back, what happened? A number of incidents happened on the way back. First and foremost, the Prophet ﷺ passed by Al-Hijr. And Al-Hijr is the place of Thamud and Qawmu Salih. Thamud and Qawmu Salih. and to this day that area is well known and to this day those houses are still there now Thamud dates back thousands of years and their houses and even the well that the camel used is still there to this day why? because their houses were not built of wood nor were they built of any other material their houses were carved into the mountain and we don't know to this day how that was done fully we have theories but we do not know for sure how, what instruments did they use and how could they spend so such a long time carving into the mountains so to this day you will have their houses there it's one of the oldest settlements known in Arabia because this predates Ibrahim a.s. can you imagine this is before even Ibrahim a.s. this is of the ancient ancient civilizations and to this day all of their houses are there because as I said they're carved into the mountain you can walk in and you can see the rooms they're quite literally rooms and chambers and even beds so they carved beds into the wall so there's a bed that's carved in there so you can see the people that used to live there their remnants so they pass by Al-Hijr and the people began remember you have an army of what 10, 15, 20 thousand Some of the people rushed in to go see what's inside. And the Prophet ﷺ called them back, or he commanded them to be called back by saying, الصلاة جامعة And الصلاة جامعة was what the Prophet ﷺ would use other than the adhan to call the people. So even at Salatul Eid, for example, that's what we say. الصلاة جامعة Well, we should say that. That is the sunnah to say. That it is now time to pray, come. You don't give the adhan for Eid, you don't give the adhan now how do you get the people? you make this announcement so the people came back and the Prophet ﷺ said why would you want to enter in upon a people whom Allah's ghadab has come down upon why would you want to go and into their houses when Allah has punished them so they said نَتَعَجَّبُ مِن ذَلِكِ we are amazed at that O Messenger of Allah to which he replied should I not tell you something more amazing than that a man from amongst you who is informing you about what happened and what will happen meaning your profit is more amazing than the places where Allah's azab has come this is more amazing so be firm for Allah Azza wa Jal will not lose anything by punishing you and he also said do not enter in upon a people who have wronged themselves and were punished for fear that you will be punished how they were punished unless you are crying as you go in. Unless you feel that grief or worry. And he himself, he covered his face with his turban and he lowered his head and Asra'af As-Sayyid, he rushed through that valley. And he did not pause in that valley. And as they went through, and again remember they're a huge army, so some of them went to the wells and those wells still had water in them. and they used water and they took the water out. And when the Prophet ﷺ heard of this, he forbade them. And he said, any water you have collected it, give it to the animals, do not drink from that water. And some of them had taken the water and mixed it with dough to make some type of bread. He said, do not eat that bread, give it to the animals. And so from this, the books of fiqh mention, you're not allowed to do wudu from najas water, from this, from that, and from the water of bi'rith. If any of you needs to do wudu from there, you can. Sorry, tough luck. You're not allowed to do wudu from that water. Because of this hadith. It's not najis, but it is punished water. The people were punished and that place is punished. So we do not go over there. And he said to them that do not ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for miracles. Because the people of Salih asked. And they asked for miracles. and they then hamstrung it, meaning they cut off the ligament of the camel. And he told them, the camel would come from there and it would go from there. He pointed. He's telling them, the camel would come from this area and it would walk to that area. And he told them, that the camel would drink their water one day, and this is in the Quran, that, لَهَا شِرْبُ يَوْمًا مَعْلُمٌ that you have the shirb and he has the shirb. The camel, so the entire city, the entire city's water would be drunk by the camel in one day. Because it's, now remember the camel was a massive camel, it was a giant camel. And it was literally carved out of the stone in front of their eyes. That was the miracle. That Allah is showing them, you think you guys are so powerful by carving rooms into mountains, I can create life from a mountain. And in front of their eyes, the camel literally just walked out of one area that was formed from that rock. And it just walked out. and it was a massive giant camel. And so Allah Azza wa Jal showed them basically the sign. And even though they saw that sign, and the hadith says that the camel would drink their water one day and then they could drink its milk the next day. So one camel could feed the entire city. That's how much milk was coming from the camel. But he said they still hamstrung it, they still cut off its ligament. So Allah sent upon them the sayha. and the sayha is the loud sound. The sayha that silenced all of them under the heavens. That silenced all of them under the heavens. So one sound came and it destroyed all of them. And when they passed out of the valley, they had to camp the night. So it was night time. So he said to them, do not leave your tents at night. Do not leave this valley or this tents at night unless you have a companion with you. some reports mention that he predicted that a storm would come or a wind would come two people disobeyed one of them had to go to the restroom and the other one fled after his camel his camel ran away so he ran after it and the both of them afflictions happened to them as for one of them they say he went mad or he went crazy and the Prophet ﷺ made dua for him when he came back and he was found and so he was cured as for the second one they say that the winds took him to a far away mountain literally picked him up and carried him away to a far away mountain and he had to make his own way back to Medina later on according to some books so the point being that he told them do not exit from this valley but two of them out of the army disobeyed and what happened to them happened another incident mentioned this is again after this now it must be after this so they're running out of water now so the water they took from Tabuk is running out the animals are withering and becoming tired. So they began to complain that, O Messenger of Allah, do something, our animals cannot carry us. And he felt pity for them. So he said, bring your animals to me. Bring your animals to me. So they brought him the camels in a line, and he patted the camels, and he made dua for them, Bismillah, that in the name of Allah, O Allah, cause these animals to carry those who are in your path. فِي سَبِيلِكِ For you are the one who carries on animals that are weak and animals that are strong. And on that which is wet and that which is dry, most likely the reference here is to the camels that have water in them and the camels that don't have water in them. And over the land and in the ocean. The narrator of the hadith, his name is Fadala, he said, by the time we got back to Medina, our camels were so strong and energetic that we had to struggle with them to pull them back. That after this dua, they became extremely energetic. And I would say to myself, this is the dua of the Prophet ﷺ. He made it for the wet and the dry. I understand. But how about the land and the ocean? How can he make dua for the ocean? Land and the ocean. And then he said, it came to pass that we conquered Syria. And after we conquered Syria, then we went to conquer Cyprus. Now this was in the time of? Uthman began it and Muawiyah was the one who completed it Uthman began a naval and then Muawiyah completed it so in the time of Muawiyah you know the island of Cyprus the beautiful tourist island for 300 years it was under the time of the Sahaba Tabirun Tabitabirun and then this is very controversial and the people get very irritated from that land the Ottomans reconquered it in the 1400s and then they gained their independence a hundred something years ago, and that was another traumatic time for them. But Cyprus was conquered twice. First time by the Sahaba, and then by the Ottomans later on. And that was recent, relatively recent, and that's why there's a lot of animosity between the Greek Cypriots and the Turk Cypriots. There's a huge amount of animosity. You do not want to start talking about that topic, or else tempers flare, because no doubt massacres occurred on both sides, and there's tension between that, but that's not relevant to us, what's relevant to us Cyprus was conquered in the time of the Sahaba, that's a separate story, there weren't that's not when the massacres happened the Sahaba conquered Cyprus, so Fudala said that I was there meaning the Prophet ﷺ's dua he made in Tabuk, now I was there, and when I saw all of the ships, I realized this is the dua of the Prophet ﷺ because what was the dua? carry the people in your way on the land and in the sea, and I said to myself back then, what does this mean on the sea? and Fudala saw with his own eyes what was the reality of this that this is on the sea also on the way back another incident happened and that is that they ran out of water again and the Prophet ﷺ made dua for rain so that night it rained and it poured and in the morning the Prophet ﷺ after Fajr gave a famous talk and it is recorded in Bukhari and others that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, hadith Qudsi, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, some of my servants woke up this morning believing in me. And some of my servants have rejected me. How so? What happened? So some of the hypocrites had made fun of this, or not made fun of, they had ridiculed, they had said this isn't a miracle. That's what I should say. That the process of making dua, the rain came, they said this is not a miracle. What did they say? They said, oh, this is because of the blessings of such and such a star. Now, they had back then some type of superstitious zodiac type of connection that on this day, this star, on this day, that star. So, they had that type of thing. So, it happened to be on the day of a particular star and they would expect that some good luck would come from that star. You know, so to this day, we have the zodiac signs. They had their version of it. and that version was that if it is a particular time of the month then a star will be able to benefit or something so one of the munafiqun said oh it rained because we're in the time frame of that star muttirna binau'i katha that's what the good luck would have and so he said this to ridicule or to trivialize the fact that it was a miracle and so at salatul fajr the Prophet ﷺ said Allah has told me that he said that today morning some of you woke up believing in me and others woke up rejecting me as for those who said rain has fallen because of Allah they are believers in me and as for those who said rain has fallen because we are in the time or the zodiac sign of this and that then they are believers in the stars rejecters of me and this hadith is a very important hadith of theology we talk about it in theology a lot because this shows us we do not ascribe blessings to other than Allah. And if we ascribe independent blessings to other than Allah, this is major shirk. To believe that a star will give you your rizq, obviously. Or to believe that a stone is good luck. Charm, good luck charm, right? To wear a talisman, an amulet and say, oh, this will protect me. all of this goes under this issue of good luck and bad luck and every culture and society has these types of charms and rituals and symbols and what not and we don't believe in any of that stuff obviously for those who do believe in this stuff this hadith shows us believing in charms and amulets and good luck and bad luck this is disbelieving in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rejecting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and literally the hadith says كَافِرٌ بِمُؤْمِنُ بِالْكَوَاكِبِ If you think the rain has fallen, or if you think this good luck ring or charm has protected you from an accident, what are you doing other than making this rock or stone into a type of idol? This is exactly what it is. And we don't believe in this. Now, I have to just point out here, if what you're wearing is Qur'an, then the scholars have differed about this whether it's jais or not. And it cannot be shirk because the Qur'an is the speech of Allah and it's not separate from Allah. But some of the scholars have simply said it's not appropriate to wear the Qur'an out of respect. But nobody said that it is not allowed theologically. It's a question of respecting the Qur'an. As for seeking refuge in the Qur'an, yes, you may seek refuge in the Qur'an because the Qur'an is the speech of Allah. And the speech of Allah is an attribute of Allah. So, having the Qur'an in the car, in the glove compartment, or dangling ayatul kursi from the back view mirror for example thinking that some barakah will come this is not the same as a good luck charm essentially it is allowed to seek barakah from the Quran but practically speaking some scholars have said you are showing disrespect by just putting in the glove compartment with all of your other things over there right, so the issue is not of theology it is of fiqh in this sense, you see the point here right, the Quran cannot be equated with any other charm because the Quran is the kalamullah it is speech of Allah and therefore those hadith don't apply to the Quran, however in our times you have all of these symbols and icons horseshoe or I mean what is it, rabbits these types of things, you know, that type of stuff this is what would apply to these hadith, in any case, so this hadith also occurs in the incident of Tabuk. On the way back, another incident occurred. So the Munafiqun are getting irritated. There were some hypocrites that took part in Tabuk. After all, there was 15,000, 20,000 people. Not all of them were of the elite of the Sahaba. Some of the Munafiqun did take part and we find some of the stories here and there. So another incident of the Munafiqun took place and that is that on the way back, the Prophet ﷺ's camel was not to be found. His camel disappeared, lost. So he sent the sahaba out to go find his camel. And one of the hypocrites said, when they heard the news that the whole army has been delayed because the camel is lost, one of the munafiqun said, astaghfirullah, that this is a man who thinks he's a prophet and he tells you that revelation comes from the heavens and he doesn't even know where his camel is. Okay So he said this far away from the Prophet And it so happened That One of the people that shared the tent With him Was with the Prophet at the time So you understand what's happening This is the hypocrite far away And obviously people are divided into groups Artilleries, regiments Somebody from his regiment Happens to be with the Prophet at the time So the Prophet ﷺ stands up and he says some of you have said such and such now the man is on the other side of the army nobody has come to the Prophet ﷺ Allah has told him some of you have said such and such and wallahi I am a bashar I am a human and I only know what Allah tells me and Allah has just told me that my camel is stuck in such and such a valley that it's rain it's harness has caught a tree so go get the camel so the sahaba went and they got the camel and they brought him back so this man doesn't know that his regimen guy has said this he comes back amazed and he says you won't believe what just happened basically right and he tells the whole story one of the other people says that was the guy who said it you understand right that was the guy so this sahabi becomes so inflamed that he kicks him out and he says you're not going to accompany me you're not going to have anything to do with us so he expelled him from the camp, from the army and so this is another mini miracle that took place that the Prophet ﷺ and this by the way really shows us does the Prophet ﷺ he himself is telling us I am just a human and I only know what Allah has told me and Allah has just told me that my camel is stuck in such and such a place, go get my camel so this clearly without beyond a shadow of a doubt it shows us our Prophet ﷺ does not know ilm al-ghayb other than what Allah tells him and Allah azza wa jal has told him many things and this is one of them that was mentioned another sad incident of the munafiqun occurred as well so these are three or four incidents of the munafiqun that occurred and the next one I'll mention is even more bizarre after this one is even more bizarre another incident that really shows the reality of the munafiqun and for which Allah revealed verses that we recite to this day is that a group of munafiqun began laughing and joking too much beyond what was required and they said statements that were completely inappropriate. One of them said that here is the Prophet ﷺ telling us we will conquer Rome and Persia. Who does he think he is? We are gonna get to Rome and Persia. And if you really think about it, wallahi this is a miracle the likes of which we cannot understand. The Sahaba compared to the Roman Empire, compared to the Persian Empire, it is truly bizarre. I have said this many times here, that to this day, historians don't quite understand how the Sassanid Empire just disappeared within 5-10 years. I mean they have their theories, but it's amazing. It's just a bizarre reality that after 5, 6, 700 years of being a superpower, within 5 years, the entire empire just fizzles out, and it just disappears, and it becomes an Islamic province. And then as for Rome as well, as we know, the Roman Empire was carved into half, and the better half was handed over, and the better half is basically Damascus, and Jerusalem, and all of these lands, and Alexandria. Do you understand what Alexandria was? this was the capital of learning in the world at the time. The largest library was in Alexandria. And this was the seat of so many Roman theologians and bishops and people of learning. And of course Alexandria is now a part of Egypt. So all of this was literally handed to the Muslims by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's not something that can be imagined by us. We take it for granted. Ahmad ibn al-As with 4,000 people, that's it. conquered the entire strip of northern Africa. It is truly, I mean, it's a miracle on any sense of human experience. So the munafiqun are mocking this. And for those who don't have iman, you understand why they're mocking it. We have iman. They don't have iman. They're like, he is telling us we're gonna conquer Rome and Persia. How is that gonna happen? And another one of them says something even worse. And he says that, look at these people around us. They recite the Quran. But they are, astaghfirullah, cowardly and fat in their bellies. Astaghfirullah, they said something very crude about the sahaba. And this is all lies of course. But they were mocking the sahaba around them. And so, one of the sahaba overheard this bantering going on. And he said, كذبت يا عدو الله You're lying, O enemy of Allah. And I will tell the Prophet ﷺ exactly about this statement of kufr. How dare you say this? so he was at the back of the army so he began galloping to get to the front of the army to tell the Prophet ﷺ that there are people that are saying this and by the time he got to the Prophet ﷺ the Prophet ﷺ was already in wahi that you could see his eyes were down and there was this aura that the Sahaba knew wahi was happening so when he rushed to tell the Prophet ﷺ the Munafiq got terrified and the munafiq began galloping on his camel behind the sahabi to try to make up some excuse before the sahabi got there so can you imagine the scene the both of them are galloping on their camels and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is in the front of the army and the wahi is coming down and before the man could get the sahabi could get to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and explain to him the wahi finished and the Prophet ﷺ began reciting what Allah had revealed. يَحْذَرُ الْمُنَافِقُونَ أَن تُنَزَّلَ عَلَيْهِمْ سُورَةٌ تُنَبِّئُمْ بِمَا فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ That the Munafiqoon are terrified that Allah will reveal something that will expose what is in their heart. So he's reciting the Tilawa. And the people that are running are not hearing what the Prophet ﷺ is saying because they're rushing to get there. The Munafiq jumps off the camel because he wants to show remorse. and he wants to be humble instead of coming on the camel. And he comes running to the Prophet ﷺ. And he thinks the Sahabi has told already. And so he blurts out what he's gonna say. And as he blurts out what he's gonna say, the Prophet ﷺ is reciting the Qur'an and the Qur'an quotes him before he even speaks. Wallahi the most amazing scene, right? وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُمْ لَيَقُولُنَّ وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُمْ لَيَقُولُنَّ إِنَّمَا كُنَّا نَخُوضُ وَنَلْعَبُ If you were to ask them why they are saying this, they would say, we're only laughing and having a good time. Just a joke, Ya Rasulullah. قُلْ أَبِ اللَّهِ وَآيَاتِ وَرَسُولِهِ كُنْتُمْ تَسْتَهْزِئُونَ Say, are you laughing and joking about Allah and His Messenger? You have nothing better to do than make jokes about Allah? This is what you do? So the man, this is a beautiful story, wallahi it's an amazing story, that the man is running to the Prophet ﷺ and he is saying, يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنَّمَا كُنَّ نَخُوضُ وَنَلْعَبُ And as he's saying this, right? the Prophet ﷺ is saying if you were to ask them they would say إِنَّمَا كُنَّ نَخُوضُ وَنَلْعَبُ and without even looking at the man and the Prophet ﷺ goes on and Allah is saying this is in the Qur'an Surah Tawbah verse 66 you can read it up look it up in fact we will look it up next week inshaAllah look it up and we will look it up again that Allah says لَا تَعْتَذِرُوا don't give me your excuses لَا تَعْتَذِرُوا قَدْ كَفَرْتُمْ بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ You have committed kufr after your iman. And the sahabi said, I saw this munafiq running behind the camel, because he's on the camel and now the guy is on his foot, running behind the camel of the Prophet ﷺ, holding on to the stirrup. Now the camel is a tall animal, and to hold on to the stirrup, and he's being dragged by the camel. And the Prophet ﷺ would not even look at him. And he was just keep on repeating, لا تعتذروا قد كفرتم بعد إيمانكم Don't give me your excuse This is in the Quran Don't give me your excuses You have committed kufr After your iman And this is a very Very important Lesson and incident that is Extremely pertinent to the world That we live in that my dear brothers and sisters We believe in something called Decency and sanctity We believe in something called holy yes certain things are off limits of jokes yes contrary to many of the people who think that you can make fun of Allah and his messenger or make fun of their prophets and their God we say no no in fact the Quran says very clearly to not make fun of their false gods this is a verse in the Quran we don't even believe in their gods don't make fun of their gods because what's the point Allah says you're gonna make fun of their gods they're gonna go back and make fun of Allah subhanallah what did you gain so in our sharia in fact it is haram to make fun of the sacredness of the sanctity of even a god we don't even believe in yes you may argue academically yes you may say how can this be a god or what not but to mock or ridicule which is sarcasm no you cannot do that if that's to a false god how about to Allah and his messenger and therefore one of the actions that automatically are considered to be nullifying of one's Islam is to make fun of Allah and His Messenger. It is impossible for a heart of Iman to ridicule Allah and His Messenger. Wallahi, I mean, even to think about it, our skin tingles. Isn't that the case? This is Iman. This is Iman. Even the thought of ridiculing and putting down the Prophet ﷺ, حَوْلَ الْخُسِلَ بِاللَّهِ It's not possible. And therefore, those people in our times who are, and astaghfirullah, doing this, really it is impossible that they have iman. And if they want to be forgiven, they have to re-accept Islam. In other words, you are not a Muslim. You might as well worship an idol. If you make fun of Allah and His Messenger, you are not a Muslim. And if you want to be forgiven, you need to re-embrace Islam. and say the kalima and shahada over again and start with a new clean slate and this is especially important because unfortunately many of our young second generation children being raised here where there is no concept of sanctity there is no concept of the red line that you do not go beyond you find many of our kids they think it's okay to crack a joke demeaning to Allah and his messenger we have to teach them this obviously if they're children we teach them And we say, no, this is not what is to be done. Rather, this incident clearly proves. Allah is saying, لا تعتذروا. Don't give me any excuse. قد كفرتم. This is literally, قد كفرتم بعد إيمانكم. And it's very explicit here. That yes, you might have had iman. But when you make fun of Allah and His Messenger, and you say, astaghfirullah, that they have fat bellies, and they have the... And it goes on, I don't want to mention everything, but you get the point here. When you make fun of Allah and His Messenger, the Prophet ﷺ, and you say, how can he predict Syria and Rome so you're doubting and you're mocking you're laughing, it is even said that they were smacking each other, you know when you get into a funny mood you're smacking and laughing so they're joking, how can he tell us we're gonna get Persia and Rome, that type of attitude so you're making fun of the Prophet ﷺ in this manner don't give me any excuse so Allah Azza wa Jal explicitly says in the Quran to make fun of the religion of Islam to make fun of Allah and His Messenger is something that cannot come from the heart that has iman in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And therefore, a few final points that will conclude inshaAllah ta'ala. One of the most bizarre plots of the munafiqun occurred after these incidents when they made fun of Allah and His Messenger. They did all of this. One of the most bizarre plots of the entire seerah and unfortunately we don't have that much details. We literally just have one or two narrations in Ibn Ishaq and Musnad Ibn Muhammad and others is that some of them, it is said around 14 of them, actually attempted to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. They actually attempted to assassinate him. And it seems to be this was a spur of the moment thing that they tried and it wasn't successful and they just then went on their way. What happened was that the Prophet ﷺ, when they were traveling at night, so obviously there's a lot of people, he seemed to have separated and he went on top of a valley or on top of a cliff if you like. And so his camel along with two or three of the Sahaba was on a precipice, was on a dangerous location. So Ammar ibn Yasir was there and Hudhaifa ibn al-Yaman was there. And so they narrate that in the middle of the night, on one of the nights we saw around 14-15 bandits with their faces covered. We didn't recognize them. They came and they charged the camel of the Prophet ﷺ. And Ammar and Hudhaifa didn't know what's going on. They were protecting and what not And the Prophet ﷺ took some evasive maneuvers And went down quickly into the valley And so they fled away So the Prophet ﷺ said Do you know who they were? To Ammar ibn Yasir And he said no I did not recognize Their faces were covered So he said they were of the munafiqun They wanted to throw me off the edge of the cliff Trying to push the camel Basically into a precarious situation If you fall down then at that stage You are not going to survive And so the Prophet ﷺ was the one whom Allah protected him in this manner, that he recognized what is going on, but it was not known who were these particular people. So apparently no punishment was given, and it was just moved on. Most of the Sahaba did not hear of this event. It happened very quickly, and this is a very bizarre event to be honest. And I wish there was more information, but we only have just brief narrations in the seerah about this. And then the Prophet ﷺ returns back after, we don't know exactly how long but probably around 50 to 60 days he's coming back to Medina 2 to 3 months maybe even 3 months he was gone and here is where in Sahih al-Bukhari we learn that one of the Sahaba said I was one of the children who ran outside to Thaniyat al-Wada' to welcome the Prophet ﷺ this hadith is in Bukhari I was one of the children he remembers this as a child I forgot his name, Alqam I think was his name I was one of the children who ran outside and we welcomed him from thaniyatul wada and thaniyatul wada I have said thaniya was a mound or a hill, that's what a thaniya means thaniya is a mound just an uprising and wada is goodbye and thaniyatul wada was the hill that was located the north of Medina where the travelers would walk with their families for an hour and a half or so when they got to Thaniyatul Wada' that's where they would embrace and say goodbye and then wait on the top of the hill and see the travelers go away right? that's Thaniyatul Wada' the mountain of goodbye or the mound of goodbye and in Sahih al-Bukhari we only hear, we learn that they went to Thaniyat al-Wada' in Al-Bayhaqi's Shama'il in Al-Bayhaqi's not Shama'il in Al-Bayhaqi's Book of Miracles Dalail, Dalail al-Nubuwa in Al-Bayhaqi's Dalail and also in Al-Hakiz Mustadrak we learn that the Sahaba, the women and the children and the people all went outside singing طلع البدر علينا من ثنيات الوداع واجب شكر علينا ما دعا لله دع So this famous poem, it is reported in Al-Bayhaqi. And just FYI, when I was doing my seerah lessons in Medina, this would have been 1997. So how many years ago was that? 1997. 17 years ago. So the paper that I wrote for that class was a discussion of the hadith narrations of Tal'al Badru Alayna. Where do we get this point from? So I did a research about where all of these narrations found. And like most of the seerah, like most of the seerah, there are, you know, missing links and whatnot. But that's not a problem because as we said, most of the seerah, it doesn't have the same rigorous authenticity as the hadith. And so it is reported in Bayhaqi and Al-Hakim and others that this was the poem. and I have said this before the biggest misconception that Muslims have is that this poem was said when the Prophet ﷺ came to Medina as Hijrah and this is completely wrong for multiple reasons the simplest one of them is ثنيية الوداع is up north and the Prophet ﷺ came from Quba which is south and it is therefore not possible that they are saying طَلَعَ الْبَادُرُ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ ثَنِيَّاتِ الْوَدَاعِ And he's coming from Makkah. Right? It's not possible. The sun has come up to us from the ثَنِيَّاتِ الْوَدَاعِ Which means he's coming from up north. Okay? So, this poem was said at the incident of Tabuk. Not at the Hijrah as it is commonly misunderstood. And also another reason is that when the Prophet ﷺ emigrated, most of the city was not Muslim yet. whereas in Tabuk 100% of the city is Muslim big difference between the two so when he comes back after Tabuk then the whole city comes out and that is when the women and children and people were singing Talal Badru Alayna and then the Prophet ﷺ returned to his masjid, he prayed two rakaat and almost immediately he began accepting the delegations of the of the the people who stayed behind including Ka'b and we talked about that story there now very quickly we conclude inshallah what is really the primary benefit of the entire incident of tabuk allahu a'lam and as I said this is really one of the big mysteries why did the Prophet ﷺ go to tabuk we actually do not know and it really seems the only answer is Allah told him as a test and trial there doesn't seem to have been an immediate threat there doesn't seem to have been anything that is tangible, it was Allah told him and this makes sense because in the surah at-tawbah it's very clear infiru khifaf wa thiqala, go ahead and fight oh people what is the matter with you when Allah says go, you don't so Allah commanded them and so the test was for them to see if they did it or not perhaps, and this is the wisdom here to prepare them for the death of the Prophet and then the immediate conquest that would have to come right after and the first conquest was same direction so Allahu'alam it is as if they are being led by the Prophet to the very place and the very land that within a year they're going to be going back up there and they're going to be facing now the real enemy and that is the Byzantine Empire and they're going to eventually conquer Bilad the Shaman, that's why at Tabuk he tells them after my death you will conquer Bayt al-Maghdis so the context of that hadith is not in the Medina in the city, the context is Tabuk. And he's telling them that after my death, you're gonna have to count six things. Right after my death, make sure you have Fath-u-Bayt-ul-Makdis. So Allahu A'lam, what appears to be the most obvious wisdom, our Prophet ﷺ is about to pass away in a year or a year and a half. He's about to leave. This is the final expedition. There's no war. Why? When this is the final expedition? Because this was the most difficult expedition merely to participate in. Just to go at this point in time, leave the crops, leave everything, and give up all of that, and go one month's journey. If you can do that, then the fighting is actually easier. It's easier to actually do the qital than actually go up and come back down and give up your harvest and everything. So it was a test from Allah, and the Sahaba passed the test. And therefore, what the main point was to open up northern Arabia. Now, one can say that the presence of the Prophet ﷺ solidified some of the tribes, which is true. But I don't see this as being the primary reason. Allah is the Greatest. It doesn't make sense. The small tribes of 500 people having a peace treaty, it doesn't make sense to bring 20,000 people up there for something as small as that. Allah is the Greatest. What then is the wisdom? The wisdom is what's gonna happen in a year and a half. When larger armies are gonna go up north, follow the same path, and this time there will actually be qital. this was the preparation the Prophet ﷺ literally led them by the hand and the next time they had to do it on their own and that was the beginning of the conquest of Islam and Allah knows best it was as if he's telling them concentrate on Bilad al-Sham on Fath al-Bayt al-Maqdis and that is exactly what happened because on his deathbed when he is about to die in two or three days what does he do in a week? what does he do? he prepares the army of Usama ibn Zayd to go up north so his mind was on already Bilad al-Sham and that is why we have Tabuk and we have Osama Ibn Zaid and that is why the very first land that was in fact conquered was Bilad al-Sham in the reign of Abu Bakr and the first day of the Khilaf of Umar with that we pretty much finish up the battle of Tabuk inshallah ta'ala next Wednesday please all of you bring a Quran and a translation and we will go over maybe not even the whole because it's too long but I'll just choose some verses from Surah Tawbah and I have done this as you know for Badr and for Uhud and for Ahzab but for Tawbah I mean sorry for Tabuk we have a long Surah Surah Tawbah is literally like a Juz and a half you know it's a huge amount we cannot cover the whole Surah for Badr there's like 5-10 verses for Uhud there's like 15 for Ahzab there's like a page for tabuk we cannot too much but even if we can't do every ayah I just want to illustrate very quickly so that inshallah and why am I doing this by the way two reasons firstly to make the seerah into a Quranic reality we all too often disconnect the Quran from the seerah and then secondly to obtain the khushu' when we listen to those verses to know that this is what is being referred to and to have this the memories of the seerah as we're in taraweeh as our imams are reciting this is a beautiful way to have your khushu in the salah and inshallah with that we will conclude for today and next week inshallah we'll take all the questions for the battle of tabuk assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Thank you.

Seerah 92 - Tafsir of Surat At-Tawbah & Tabuk ~ Dr

Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala Sayyidina Muhammadin, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. amma ba'd. So today inshallah ta'ala we will finish one incident of Tabuk and then I will go over most of Surah At-Tawbah as we had said so that inshallah ta'ala we will have an understanding of the verses that were revealed at the battle of Tabuk so there's one incident left that happened after the return of the Prophet ﷺ and that is the death of the leader of the munafiqun Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul. That probably within a month after the return of the Prophet ﷺ, Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul, he fell sick, and they realized that he was going to die. And he requested the Prophet ﷺ to visit him on his deathbed. Now, who is Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul? Let us quickly remind ourselves, who is Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul? He was going to be not the king, they didn't have a king. he was going to be one of the main leaders of Medina of Yathrib pre-Islam and he was the senior most politician who was alive when the procession emigrated to Yathrib, to Medina and the other politicians the other elders had either been killed in the Buath wars or after the coming of the procession within the year or two they fled and so eventually the only senior leader and he would have been in his 70s he would have been an elderly person the only senior leader left is Abdullah bin Ubay bin Salul and when did he embrace Islam remind me when did he embrace Islam Al-Aqaba was he present at Al-Aqaba obviously not no when did he embrace Islam why after Badr was when the final idolaters had to either leave or embrace Islam. And he was the last batch of people to convert. That after the victory of Badr, you really had no choice. That you either accepted Islam or you left. Paganism was eliminated from Medina after Badr. So he accepted Islam with the last batch of converts. As they say, he didn't want to. He was forced to accept Islam. And he first showed us his true colors in the battle of Uhud. That's when the first incident occurred that really demonstrated that he's not actually serious about his Islam. Because what happened? That he turned back with one third of the army, with 300 of his followers. He turned back and he abandoned the Prophet ﷺ. With what excuse? What did he say? What was his excuse at Uhud? So, he criticized the Prophet ﷺ for not listening to him. Like, you guys didn't listen to me, why should I fight with you? So he really felt himself to be the leader, astaghfirullah, above the Prophet ﷺ. This is kufr in and of itself to feel that. He felt, I am the person, you should have listened to me. And so you didn't listen to me, why should I listen to you, basically. And he then returned back with one third of the army. And what did he do in Ahzab? In the battle of Ahzab, the khandaq, what did he do? Not that explicit. He didn't actually plot with the Yahud. With the Quraish maybe. Not with them. It's gotta be one of the two. No, he didn't actually. If he did, this would have been blatant treason. And he would have been executed. That would have been blatant treason. What did he do? Who can remind me? That's why I do tafsir. That's exactly why I pause and I do the Qur'an Because I want you to be related to the Qur'an It's in the Qur'an Surah Al-Ahzab I shouldn't even have told you But it's obvious Surah Al-Ahzab Surah Al-Ahzab right He tried to terrify the Muslims Or he himself was terrified Let's put it that way He himself was terrified he was genuinely fearful for his life and he wanted somehow to get out to make some type of treaty you know to concede anything away as long as they would let him stay alive so he would go around the sahaba and keep on telling them can't you see the whole of mankind is here aren't you terrified aren't you scared and so he actually went around making the sahaba or trying to make the sahaba scared and what did Allah say in the Quran what did the Sahaba do when they Fazadahum Iman the Iman went up right so here we find again a true coward that he is terrified at the people gathered around had he actually cooperated with the Banu Quraish or with the Quraish then this is clear treason and that would not have been tolerated so he is on the limits that's why he is a Munafiq that his Kufr is inside not outside his Kufr is inside and then what else did he do after this the big incident the slander of Aisha but right before the slander in the incident of Qurayza sorry not Qurayza, Ban al-Mustaliq ok but then on the way back what did you do again this is in the Quran and again we did this subhanallah guys should I have an exam at the end should I have an exam and any comprehensive of the whole seerah. Don't do that, don't do that. Again, this is in the Quran, explicit in the Quran. On the return, what did Abdullah ibn Ubaidu? Sisters, I hear some mumbling. Anybody? No, this was, that was also related. The ifk is ifk, we're gonna get to that. يَقُولُونَ لَإِن رَجَعْنَا إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ layukhrijannal a'azzu minhal adhal right surah al-munafiqun yes now you know where were you two minutes ago it's called surah al-munafiqun it's called the surah of the hypocrites and one of the worst things that he did was that he publicly said in a derogatory manner that when we return back to medina the people of honor will expel the people of unholy or the lowly people. لَيُخْرِجَنَّ الْأَعَزُ مِنْهَا الْأَذَلُ And he meant himself with the أَعَز and he meant استغفر الله the Prophet ﷺ by saying أَذَل. And this type of mockery is clear, blatant كُفْر. And what happened quickly, this is a refresher, I'm trying to, what happened when they returned back? His son, whose name was? His son, whose name was? زَيْد زَيْد زَيْد If it's not Zaid, it's Amr. What's the third most common name then? Abdullah, exactly. He got it. Zaid, Amr, Abdullah. It's Abdullah, yes. Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubay bin Salul. He was a true Muslim. Abdullah ibn Abdullah was a genuine Muslim. And when he heard that his father had said this, so he did not allow his own father to enter back into the city until he said you ask forgiveness and the Prophet ﷺ explicitly allows you to go inside and on more than one occasion Umar ibn al-Khattab had asked permission to execute Abdullah ibn Ubayy more than one occasion and the Prophet ﷺ kept on saying let him be on sometimes he would say Allah did not ask me to open up the hearts of men Sometimes he would say, let not others say that I am killing my own followers. So there's a PR move as well that his Islam, his pretending to be Muslim is less harmful than his execution. So executing will bring about more harm. And so all of these incidents took place. And he was also the one who began the slander of Aisha, which is also one of his worst, if not his worst crime in his entire life. and Allah explicitly again mentions him. Well, not explicitly by name, but I mean, you know, it's understood. Allah explicitly hints at him, let's say, in Surah Al, the slander of Aisha. Come on, guys. Huh? Surah An-Nur. See, do you understand why I'm doing the Quran with you guys, huh? Even though I don't know why I should just skip over it. We did this. Wallahi, we did this. I remember clearly we went over the whole ayah by ayah. Surah An-Nur. Surah An-Nur. Right? And Allah Azza wa Jalla says, وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ مِنْهُمْ لَهُ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ This is Abdullah ibn Ubayy. وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ This is a very harsh word. There is no English translation. تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ The one who took charge, the most arrogant of them. He was the one, maybe we'll say in English, the ringleader. Like it's a derogatory term. The ringleader amongst them. وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ مِنْهُمْ And this is Abdullah ibn Ubayy. The one who began the plot, hatched the plot, and astaghfirullah, verbalized it the first. but there was no witnesses who would testify against him and so he was not punished in this world and Allah said don't worry I'll punish him in the next I'll take care of him, you don't even have to take care of him, so this is Abdullah ibn Ubay ibn Salul and his whole CV, his whole history is nothing but one evil after another and one slander after another and when he was on his death bed he begged the Prophet ﷺ to visit him. And here is where really, wallahi, it is amazing the psychology of the munafiqun, that as we'll talk about even today, and most of today's talk in Surah At-Tawbah will be about the munafiqun, at some level, they believed in Allah. And at another level, they're too arrogant to worship Him. And in this, they have some type of similarity with Iblis, which is why the munafiqun are worse than a regular non-Muslim kafir. That the regular kafir doesn't know Allah, he doesn't know Islam, and in fact, a totally ignorant kafir might even be forgiven on Yawmul Qiyamah. But the Munafiq knows Islam at some level, as we'll even see now, that why is he wanting the Prophet ﷺ to come visit him? When he's about to die, why is he even wanting the Prophet ﷺ to come visit him? He in fact says to him, when they visit him, is that, ask forgiveness for me. Seek istighfar for me. Right? At some level, there is knowledge and recognition that Allah is my creator. And yet at another level, he's too arrogant to actually genuinely submit to Allah and His Messenger. And this is why Allah says in the Qur'an, إِنَّ الْمُنَافِقِينَ فِي الدَّرْكِ الْأَسْفَلِ مِنَ النَّهْرِ That the munafiqeen will occupy the lowest depths of the fire of hell. So when the call came to visit, Umar ibn Khattab said, Ya Rasulullah, will you visit him when he's an enemy of Allah, when he is aduwwallah? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, I hope that through him Allah will cause a thousand of his people to embrace Islam. Now a thousand here is not meant literally, it's just an expression because there were not a thousand followers of Abdullah ibn Ubay. Abdullah ibn Ubay did not have one thousand people under him. It's just simply an expression that by visiting him and showing him some kindness, I hope to get the hearts of those who look up to him and whose iman is still weak. And this shows us again that, yes, Islam does take into account the overall image or having a positive PR campaign or inviting people that you might even disagree with for a greater good. The Prophet ﷺ did not defend Abdullah ibn Ubayy. When Umar ibn al-Khattab said, how can you visit him when he's عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ He didn't say, no, he's not عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ No, he's a nice guy. He didn't say that. Rather he said, I hope by this visit to get the hearts of a thousand men. Meaning there's a greater good to visit. And this shows us over and over again that in these types of situations, you weigh the good and the bad, مصالح and مفاسد. And you look at what is better overall for the ummah. And so the Prophet ﷺ ended up visiting him. And there are two reports, perhaps both can be true, but Allah knows best. The one report says that he himself asked the Prophet ﷺ for his shirt to use as a kafn. And the more authentic report is that after he died, his son Abdullah ibn Abdullah his son Abdullah ibn Abdullah ibn Ubay asked the Prophet ﷺ for his shirt so there are both reports found and it could be both valid as well in that when he was alive he asked and then when he died Abdullah ibn Abdullah then kind of asked him for the actual shirt Allah knows best but there are both reports found did both of them happen or did one of them happen in any case what is clear beyond a shadow of a doubt the Prophet ﷺ gave his own shirt. Like one of his shirts, he basically gave it. And this goes back to my talk yesterday, if you remember, those of you who attended yesterday's talk, we talked about, what did we talk about yesterday? Tabarruq, barakah, right? And this is exactly the example of tabarruq, that the Prophet ﷺ gave his own shirt, then Ibn Abdullah asked the Prophet ﷺ to lead janazah for him. To lead janazah for him. And so the body was brought to the masjid, and when the Prophet ﷺ stood up Umar ibn Khattab held on to his lower garment and he said Ya Rasulallah will you pray for him after he has done such and such and then such and such and he began listing some of what I have listed will you make dua for him after he did this and he did this and a whole long CV is done and then Umar said and even after Allah has prohibited a Jew from praying for them? Isn't it haram to pray for the munafiqun? And this shows us the level of comfort that Umar ibn Khattab felt with the Prophet ﷺ for him to actually remind him of a verse of the Qur'an. That, Ya Rasulullah, isn't it haram to do this, right? And this also shows us not, I don't want to say freedom of speech because that has a different concept, but it clearly shows us that the leader can be politely challenged. And even if that leader is the Rasulullah ﷺ. That Umar ibn Khattab is saying, I don't understand, how can you pray for him? So, didn't he do this? Didn't he do this? Didn't he do this? And didn't Allah say not to pray for the munafiqun? And compare and contrast this to some of our leaders that Allah, if you were to criticize even one one-hundredth of anything, you will not be seen walking on the street after that anymore. And we see this in many countries of our times, but let's not get political right now. The point being that Umar ibn Khattab asked, How can you ask for forgiveness when Allah has said that you should not pray for the hypocrites? And the Prophet ﷺ said, Rather Allah has given me a choice and I have chosen to ask. And then he quoted the verse, استغفر لهم أو لا تستغفر لهم إن تستغفر لهم سبعين مرة فلن يغفر الله لهم So this is Surah At-Tawbah verse 80. and this shows us that when this incident happened much of Surah Tawbah had been revealed and that's what we're going to talk about today Surah Tawbah verse 80 and in it Allah says استغفر لهم أو لا تستغفر لهم seek forgiveness or don't seek forgiveness and this is what is the reference when the Prophet ﷺ said Allah has given me the choice خيرني ربي I have the choice which of the two should I ask forgiveness should I not ask for forgiveness then Allah says if you were to ask 70 times, Allah will not forgive. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, if I knew that 71 times would have forgiven them, I will ask 71 times. So what he derived from the verse, our Prophet ﷺ, is that Allah is not telling him, don't ask for forgiveness. Allah is saying that I'm not going to forgive even if you ask me 70 times. But Allah didn't say, don't ask. So he said to Umar ibn al-Khattab, Allah did not prohibit me. Allah gave me the choice. Istaghfir or not to ask forgiveness. Then he prayed, they accompanied him to the grave. And in Al-Tabari it is even mentioned that he went into the grave himself. And he helped bury this man who was such an enemy. And this shows us, if anything it shows us that you do not want the fire of hell even for your worst worst worst enemy that it is such the Prophet ﷺ did not have any as we say lost love with this man he did not like him at all and in his entire life Abdullah ibn Ubaid did nothing but irritate Rasulullah ﷺ but now that he is dead you do not want the fire of hell for even this type of person and he outwardly died professing Islam So his case is not like the case of those who outwardly die, like Abu Jahl, knowing Islam and having rejected it. There is no, you have clearly rejected. And so, the Prophet ﷺ's tenderness, his rahmah, his mercy, was so much that he even wanted Abdullah ibn Ubayy possibly to be forgiven. And then, after this incident, Allah revealed what is now Surah Tawbah verse 84. Remember, the verse numberings came afterwards. Remember, when the verse came down, it didn't have a number on it. and the Prophet ﷺ put it where it's supposed to be put. So it is now Surah Tawbah verse 84 in which Allah ﷻ says, وَلَا تُصَلِّ عَلَىٰ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ مَاتَ أَبَدًا وَلَا تَقُمْ عَلَىٰ قَبْرِهِ Never pray for any of them who dies and never stand at their grave. Why? Because he stood at the grave of Abdullah ibn Ubay and he made dua for him as was his custom to make a long dua for the deceased. So after he did it for Abdullah ibn Ubay, then Allah Azza wa Jal said that if a known munafiq dies now this no longer applies to us because we don't know any munafiq for sure by its nature nifaq is hidden, that's why it's called nifaq so for us this verse is not applicable, that an outward Muslim dies and we knew him to be publicly saying he's a Muslim then we assume him to be a Muslim right, but for the Prophet ﷺ and Jibreel had told him the names of the hypocrites as we know, right that Jibreel had told him these are the names of the main hypocrites, we should say, in Medina. He knew their names. So after this, the Prophet ﷺ was told, never ever pray for these people. And never stand at their graves. وَلَا تَقُمْ عَلَىٰ قَبْرِهِ إِنَّهُمْ كَفَرُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ They are kuffar. You treat them like kuffar. They are kuffar. Allah told them who they are by name. We, as I said, cannot apply this verse that if you thought somebody is dubious or what not, well that's between him and Allah. if outwardly he's a Muslim we judge him as Islam, we pray janazah for him and we bury him in the graveyard of the Muslim, so with this incident we finalize, we conclude all of the incidents of Tabuk and now we begin talking a little bit about Surah Tawbah and I will try my best to do as many verses as possible but the fact of the matter is that two thirds of the Surah deals with the battle of Tabuk and so probably we cannot do each and every verse and also realize that the first 37 verses were revealed in a few months. And we're gonna come to them later on. The beginning portion of Surah Tawbah was not revealed right now. These portions were revealed in Dhul Qa'dah, excuse me, and the beginning of Dhul Hijjah, of the ninth year. And the rest of the Surah was revealed basically a month before the hajj season. So, now I think we all know that the Qur'an is not arranged chronologically. I think we all know this, right? That the first verse revealed is actually iqra, which is at the end of the Qur'an. And surah Baqarah was revealed around the time of Badr and before Badr and is the first of the Qur'an. So, it's not arranged chronologically. And ayat would come down and the Prophet ﷺ would tell the scribes, put this ayah here, put that ayah there. and that's how the Qur'an was compiled. So, as we read the surah, realize that the first third of the surah was not revealed at this point in time. It was revealed maybe in a month. So, where do we begin? And firstly, very quickly, Surah At-Tawbah is of course the only surah in the Qur'an that does not have the Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. It is the only surah in the Qur'an. And it is also one of the last surahs to be revealed. It is also one of the last revelations of the Qur'an because we're already in the ninth year of the Hijrah. We're already in the ninth year of the Hijrah. There is literally one year left of the Prophet ﷺ's life and then that is it. He will ﷺ move on to the next life. So this is one of the last surahs to be revealed. Now why is there no basmala in surah at-tawbah? There are two opinions narrated from the sahaba and the first of them is a hadith in sunan at-tirmidhi that Uthman ibn Affan, the compiler of the Mus'haf, was asked that, O Khalifa, O Ameer al-Mumineen, why did you not write the Basmala in Surah At-Tawbah? Or why did you put Surah At-Tawbah after Anfal? Why did you put it in its place when Anfal is Makki and Tawbah is Madani? When Anfal is, sorry, not Makki, Anfal is early Madina and Tawbah is late Madina. sorry, take that back. Anfal was revealed at Badr and a Tawbah was revealed at Tabuk and between them is the whole Madani era right? So Uthman was asked why did you place a Tawbah along with Anfal when the two revelations took place so far apart so Uthman ibn Affan said that Tawbah was one of the last surahs revealed and the matter was unclear to us where should it go and therefore we put it with anfaal because the content is the same qital and harb and jihad is the same anfaal and tawbah is primarily about qital and we did not put a basmala not knowing if the two are connected or not basically so this raises a whole bunch of questions and because of this and as you know by now this is an advanced class so we say things that sometimes will confuse you but that's part of advanced knowledge that you learn things that are not known before. Because of this some of the tabi'oon actually said that Tawbah and Anfal are one surah. And that's why there's no basmala between them. Now remember the sahaba did not write the names of the surahs inside the mushaf. and they did not write the ayah numbers inside the mushaf all of this was came after a hundred years, two hundred years so the sahaba did not write the names of the surah they would simply write bismillahirrahmanirrahim and you'd know there's a new surah and they wouldn't write ayah number one, ayah number two, this came later on and therefore some of the tabi'oon understood from this that tawbah and anfal are in fact one surah so there are reports from the earliest of the times that there are 113 surahs in the Quran not because they said the surah is missing but they said 2 becomes 1 and faal and tawbah becomes 1 surah and this was reported by Qatada, the student of Ibn Abbas and other of the tabi'un but this is a position that hardly anybody else agreed with and the bulk of the ummah and this is what has later become we should say ijma' because there is no difference of opinion on this issue now that anfal and tawbah are two different surahs and this also raises the question of who did the ordering of the surahs and I've talked about this a number of times in various lectures from this hadith it appears that the sahaba were the one who ordered the surahs now there's ordering of the chapters and there's ordering of the surahs sorry there's ordering of the verses and there's ordering of the surahs the ordering of the verses everybody agrees the Prophet ﷺ did that and in fact you even just read the surah and you know that the ordering is clearly an internal thing you read any surah then you find there is some type of flow even if the flow is not demonstrated in English but there is a flow there is a rhythm, there is a style and every hafidh knows this that there is something that just connects from one verse to the next and by the way, just to pause here I'm going into a whole different the rest of the today is not seerah by the way it's tafsir mainly but it's linked to the seerah so there's a very famous German orientalist in our times alive her name is Angelica Newworth Angelica Newworth and in fact she was awarded an honorary PhD from Yale the same year that I was awarded mine so she was at the ceremony being awarded the honorary PhD now she of course has a PhD she's an elderly lady she spent her entire life her speciality is the Quran, she's obviously not a Muslim her speciality is the Quran and the Nazm of the Quran or the harmony and the structure of the Quran and she has written many books you will find some of them on Amazon Angelica New Earth in English and much of her work is in German and she actually has some very unique and advanced types of research done where she looks at the consonants and she calls them melodies and rhymes we would not approve of that but she has her way of looking at it where she has analyzed Surah Qaf and other surahs and she's actually shown there's an internal structure that parallels so there's a rhythm going through each surah and just as a side point so one day she came to yell in our class we have a class when I was a student not when I was a worthy student she came and one of my professors is very anti this he believes ideas that are not very good at all about the Quran that it was compiled later on and it wasn't in its original form and so he was saying that it's clear that later scribes changed sections here and there. That was his position. And Angelica, and they're both non-Muslims, said, no, that's clearly false because then she went into her advanced studies of look at this, you know, it rhymes with this and this goes there. And she's proving now there's an internal harmony within each surah that clearly demonstrates that whoever the author was. Now, she does not believe the Qur'an to be divine. But she does believe the Qur'an has been preserved from the Prophet ﷺ's time. and she believes that the Prophet ﷺ I mean this is the way they think that he was some type of genius to put the Qur'an together that's what they believe but what is interesting is that in her analysis she actually finds a synthesis between the surahs and she defends this very passionately and I saw this debate as a student between the two of them so the point being that the arrangement of the verses are clearly from the Prophet ﷺ يعني from Allah ﷻ nobody denies that but then the arrangement of the surahs is something that there's always been a controversy over and Allah knows best but it does appear that it was the sahaba who simply decided to have the surahs arranged in this manner surah Fatiha, Baqarah, Al-Imran, Nisa, Ma'idah and Amin Fa'adah all the way through that they felt that they had their reason for doing it and the evidence for this is that every sahabi who had his own Quran had his own arrangement of the surahs as well. So the arrangement of the surahs was not something that was fully standardized. But once the sahaba have standardized it in the time of Uthman, then it became binding on us to follow it as well. Is that clear? Right? That the sahaba then standardized it. So if anybody wants to print a mushaf, he is obliged to follow these surahs in the order, in order to respect the ijma' of Uthman's compilation. but it was not as if the Prophet ﷺ ordered the arrangement of the surahs and this hadith seems to indicate that as well that Uthman said that we didn't know where it should be placed and so the content was the same so we simply put those two together. Now this is one opinion why there is no basmala. There is another opinion as well and that is narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib that he was asked by one of his sons I think it was, I forgot now the narrator that why don't we have the basmala in surah at-tawbah. And so he said, this is a surah where Allah cuts off his ties from the pagans. It is not befitting. He begins it with his rahmah. It's not befitting that he says, بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّعِيمِ بَرَاءَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ بَرَاءَ means, I have nothing to do with you. Cut off. All cut off ties. So it's not befitting. And then the rest of the surah is very harsh against those who reject Allah as messenger. So it is not befitting that it begins with rahmah. So both of these opinions have a sense of legitimacy to them. Now, as we said, the first 37 verses were revealed right before the Hajj. And in fact, we'll come to them in a while. Maybe even the next one, but maybe in two, three lessons we'll come to these verses. But now, let's move from verse 38. That verse 38 to the end of the surah basically, is what was revealed for the battle of Tabuk. So all of this has to do with the battle of Tabuk. And so, we begin, and I'll just quickly go over as many verses as I can, and link them to the stories that we have done, and also to contextualize these verses that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, يَا أَيُّهُمْ أَنَا أَمَنُوا مَا لَكُمْ إِذَا قِيلَ لَكُمْ فِي رُفِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ اِذْ ثَاقَلْتُمْ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ O you who believe, what is the matter with you? That when you are told to go forth in the way of Allah, you find yourself being drawn to the earth. You find yourself slumping down to the ground. Are you satisfied with the life of this world over the Akhirah? So, here begins the severe warning. And it will be repeated throughout. I'm telling you to go forth. Your command is to go. What is the matter with you? Now that I'm telling you to go, your bodies are being dragged to the ground. And by the way, these verses are very powerful verses of jihad. And we need to put them into context. Unfortunately, we do have some groups out there. They take these verses and they apply them to situations that Allah did not reveal them for. and of course here I refer to the extremist groups out there these verses are valid but it is un-Islamic for any Muslim to take this verse and apply it to his particular cause and say Allah is referring to my cause Allah is referring to the battle of Tabuk and yes every legitimate cause has a share of this verse nobody is denying that but to claim that this verse applies to my particular group and our particular expedition. You are saying that Allah is as if revealing His verse to you and this is very dangerous and this is what leads to extremism. To take this verse and then apply it to oneself. And Allah says, if you do not go forth, إِلَّا تَنْفِرُوا you will be punished a severe punishment and Allah will replace you with a different people and you will not harm Allah at all and Allah is capable of all things. So here we have, الحمد لله, here we have, in my humble opinion, a very explicit reference that the battle of Tabuk was simply a command and a test from Allah. Remember we go back to the first lesson. Why did the battle of Tabuk take place? And we cannot find a legitimate logical excuse. Nothing actually seemed to have happened of substance really when you got there. So what was the purpose then? It's very clear from these verses the purpose was a test. And that test was to raise the bar so that after the death of the Prophet ﷺ the Sahaba would continue doing the jihad to other nations as they did. إِلَّا تَنْصُرُوهُ فَقَدَ نَصَرَهُ اللَّهُ If you will not help him, O Muslims, then remember Allah has already helped him. Allah doesn't need you. There was a time when there was none of you. There was a time when none of you could have helped him. And Allah عز و جل was the one who helped him. When the people who disbelieved expelled him, and he was only two people, him and another person, ثَانِي أَثْنَيْنِي إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ When the both of them were in the cave, when he said to his companion, don't worry, Allah is with us. So Allah is referencing the hijrah. Why? Because now at Tabuk, the quantity of Muslims is more than has ever been. And Allah is saying, do you think I need you? When there was no Muslims to help, when there was nobody and he was alone, except for his companion and friend, I had already helped him. if you're not going to help him I will help him إِلَّا تَنْصُرُوا فَقَدْ نَصَرَهُ اللَّهُ إِذَا خَرَجُوا لِكَرُوا ثَانِيَثْنَا he was the second of two and this is an Arabic expression the second of two does not mean استغفر الله that there's a hierarchy it simply means there are two people he was one of them in English we say he was one of two in Arabic you say the second of two the third of three and it simply means one out of two people that's what it means when he was in the cave when he said to his companion do not worry Allah is with us So Allah sent down his tranquility and supported him with soldiers you do not see. And we talked about the stories of what happened. And some of the ulema say these soldiers were the pigeon and the spider web. And others say these were the angels who diverted away the pagans. And all of these stories have a sense of legitimacy to them. And by the way, this is the verse that explicitly affirms Abu Bakr is a sahabi. إِذْ يَقُولُ لِصَاحِبِهِ And there's no other verse that specifically calls a person sahib other than Abu Bakr. So anybody who denies Abu Bakr is a sahabi has contradicted the Qur'an. And anybody who contradicts the Qur'an is not a believer in the Qur'an. And that we are very clear about this point. Anybody who says Abu Bakr is not a companion of the Prophet ﷺ, he has gone against the testimony of the Qur'an. and that is something that we do not consider to be a part of Islam anymore. إنفروا خفافا وثقالا This is the most powerful verse about Tabuk. Go forth, نفر here, go forth on the way of Allah. خفافا وثقالا literally translates as whether you're light or heavy. And the meaning here, whether you're healthy or sick, or I should say sick or healthy. Whether you're poor or rich. Whether you have the means or don't. go forth whatever your state might be and this shows us the battle of Tabuk was fard'ain unlike Badr that was not fard'ain unlike many other expeditions it was voluntary but the battle of Tabuk every able bodied Muslim had to participate and once again to me this is crystal clear what is the wisdom again the wisdom is to demonstrate who is the real believer to prepare them for the battles that will take place within a year after the death of the Prophet ﷺ. وَجَاهِذُ بِأَمْوَالِمْ وَأَنفُذْكُمْ فِي سَبِلِ اللَّهِ ذَلِكُمْ خَيْلَ لَكُمْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ And strive with your money and with your lives in the way of Allah. That is better for you if you only knew. لَوْ كَانَ عَرَضًا قَرِيبًا Had this been a close gain for money, عَرَض is money to gain. Had this been easy money, وَسَفَرًا قَاصِدًا and a simple journey and travel, They would have followed you. They would have come. But they found it difficult to go so far. بَعُدَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الشُّقَّةَ And they will swear to Allah, if we had the means, we would come out with you. They're swearing to Allah. We just don't have the capability. And Allah says, even as they swear, they are destroying themselves because Allah knows they are lying. So here begins the tirade, the criticism of the munafiqun. That Allah says, you are lying. You swear that you're ready to go, but you're not qualified. And Allah says, you are lying. عَفَى اللَّهُ عَنْكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ Allah has forgiven you. Why did you give them permission? And this is one of the most beautiful verses in the Qur'an in that even before Allah says, why did you do this? Allah says, I've already forgiven you. عَفَى اللَّهُ عَنْكَ لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ And so even, and it's a very mild rebuke, very mild criticism that O Messenger of Allah, Allah has forgiven you. But why did you give them permission? Now what is the reference here? So remember in the beginning, every munafiq would come and give the flimsiest of excuse. And they would just say, Oh, I'm not feeling well, my family is this, this, that, whatever is the excuse. And whatever person came with an excuse, our Prophet ﷺ would accept it. And Allah said, Allah has forgiven you, but why did you accept every excuse? لِمَ أَذِنتَ لَهُمْ حَتَّى يَتَبَيْنَ لَكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَتَعْلَمَ الْكَاذِبِينَ You should not have accepted every excuse so that you can tell which of the excuses is legitimate and which of them are liars. Who is telling the truth and who is lying? Then Allah says, those who believe in Allah and the last day will never ask for excuses. The excuses don't come from those who believe in Allah and the last day. And by the way, for those of us who think, oh yeah, so how does this verse apply to me? Think how many excuses we make for what Allah wants us to do. How many excuses we make for any commandment, obligation of Allah, whether it's salah, whether it's zakah, how many excuses come. And Allah says, those who genuinely believe in Allah in the last day, they will not give you an excuse. إِنَّمَا يَسْتَأْدِنُكَ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ The only people who ask excuses are those who do not believe in Allah in the last day and whose hearts are full of doubt and they are vacillating in their doubt. If they had wanted to go out, لو أرادوا الخروجة they would have prepared for it. لأعدوا له عدة And here the processor is being told, look at those who prepared. Look at the fact they give an excuse and they haven't even checked. They haven't even purchased an animal. They haven't even looked at their gardens and seen what can be done. They haven't done anything. So they are not serious about this excuse. And then Allah says, كَرِحَ اللَّهُمْ بِعَاثَهُمْ Allah Himself did not want their presence in your ranks. Allah did not want them to be with you. And so Allah told them to stay behind. وَقِلَ قَعُدُوا مَعَ الْقَاعِدِينَ Stay back with those who are staying back. And then Allah says, Had they gone forth with you, لَوْ خَرَجُوا فِيكُمْ مَا زَادُوكُمْ إِلَّا خَبَالًا They would have only confused you even more. And they would have spread through your ranks, causing discord. and some of you listen to that discord. Now this is a very powerful verse because in it Allah is saying there's two types of people. Actually there's three types of people. The first, the fitna mongers. The second, those who are not fitna mongers but whose hearts will be swayed by the fitna mongers. And then the third, those who will not be swayed by the fitna mongers. And this shows us that there are people of weak hearts now here's a point and I've said this many times by now you should know this when we think of the sahaba we think of Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Ali and Talha and what not and yes that is elite but let us not forget for every one sahabi whose name we know at least 10,000 his name we do not know for every one sahabi whose battles have been recorded at least a thousand we don't know anything about them not even their names and so and the reason we don't know their names is because they haven't reached the level of Abu Bakr and Umar. So if even in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, there were people who could be persuaded to do evil by evil mongers, then what do you think of our times? What do you think of our times? When somebody comes with bad ideas, bad thoughts, there are those who will not think of those ideas. But when they are spread and told, their hearts will be swayed. So Allah says, وَفِيكُمْ سَمَّعُونَ لَهُمْ There are those in your midst, they will listen to such talk so Allah did not want them to listen so Allah saved them by not having the hypocrites in your ranks and indeed they have already desired fitna from before meaning they have already done plenty of things in the past they have already done this and they have already upset matters for you before and all of this is a reference to the previous things that they have done حَتَّى جَاءَ الْحَقُّ Despite all of their attempts, the truth has still come. And the matter of Allah has become manifest and clear and victorious. Then we have verse number 49. There are those who say, excuse me and let me stay at home and do not put me in a state of fitna. What is the reference here? I can't hear yellow women not yellow women yes ban al asfar translates as yellow we would say white women that's what it means yellow for them means white they're saying the the the roman women are too much of a temptation for me if I see them I'll go crazy basically right, the most flimsiest of excuse, you're fighting you know jihad on the battlefield right and if you see a woman 100 miles or whatever miles away and that's gonna like drive you, but this was the excuse he gave you know one of the hypocrites right, this was the excuse he gave, goes I can't see those women just allow me to stay at home and don't go there and this is what Allah is referencing, mocking them this is mocking them right وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ ذَلِّ وَلَا تَفْتِنِّي أَلَا فِي الْفِتْنَةِ سَقَطُوا Verily, they have fallen into fitna with the excuse of not wanting to see the fitna. They have fallen into the fitna and indeed, Jahannam will be able to encompass all of the disbelievers. If good happens to you, it hurts them. They're so stingy and miserly. If you are blessed, it hurts them. And if a disaster hits you, they will be the first to say, Oh, if you had listened to us, for example, if things had gone the other way. يَقُولُ قَدْ أَخَذْنَا أَمْرَانَ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَيَتَوَلَّوَهُمْ فَرِحُونَ That in other words, if a disaster befalls you, they will dissociate from you. And they will either say, you should have listened to us, or we have nothing to do with you, and they will not associate with you then. So when good happens, they're angry. When disaster happens, they're happy. What type of iman is this? And this shows us as well by the way, that if a Muslim is happy when Islam is smeared, when Islam is subjugated, then this Muslim is not a Muslim. This Muslim is not a Muslim. And if a Muslim feels pain when Islam is being smeared and harmed, then this is a sign of Iman. And this ayah proves this. Say, قُلْ لَن يُصِيبَنَا إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَنَا This is one of the most powerful, most beautiful verses. We all love this verse. that tell them, nothing will happen to us except what Allah has already decreed for us. He is our protector and upon Him will we put our trust and that is whom the believers put their trust in. Say, what are you waiting for? Except one of two things will happen to us, one of two victories. What are the two victories? Either actual victory in this world or martyrdom and victory in the next world. So we are winners in every situation and you are losers in both situations and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that whether you give willingly or unwillingly Allah will not accept it from you because you are an evil nation then we move on to 56 they swear by Allah they are with you their hearts are with you they are one ummah but Allah is saying they are not with you and they are full of terror. If they could only escape from the battlefield, if they could find refuge in a cave, if they could cover themselves up, that is what they would do. And they would not fight an army openly. And Allah says this as well in the other surah as well, in surah Al-Hashr as well, that Allah Azawajal says that they don't have the courage to fight on the battlefield. And there are those amongst them who criticize you concerning charity. if they are given they're happy and if they are not given they are angry this is a reference 58 and 59 it is a reference to not the battle of Tabuk but rather the battle of Hunayn which took place which took place after Fath-e-Makkah and this is the Bedouin leader who came up and he said give me money remember that the leader of the Neo-Kharijites this is a reference to him that there are those and that was also unafiq because he outwardly says he's a muslim there were those who if you give them the money they're happy and if they don't give the money they are not happy rather they should be happy at what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has will them then verse 60 is the primary verse in the Quran about the 8 categories of zakah and I've given a whole lecture here at MIC about these 8 categories of zakah these are the fiqh the main ayah in the Quran that delineates the eight categories of zakah. وَمِنْهُمُ الَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ النَّبِيِّ Verse 61. There are those who harm the Prophet ﷺ. They irritate the Prophet ﷺ. And they say, هُوَ أُذٌ He listens to everything. He listens to everything. أُذٌ from ear. He listens to everything. So, here we find they are making fun of the Prophet ﷺ for being too lenient. You're listening to all of the Sahaba. And what they're basically saying, you're not listening to us. And they're also saying, you're listening to them when they accuse us. You're too lenient, you just listen to everybody. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reverses it back and says, قُلْ أُذُنُ خَيْرٍ لَكُمْ The fact that the Prophet ﷺ only listens, it is better for you. Because if he were to act with you the way you deserve, you would not be alive anymore. It's better that he's only listening. قُلْ أُذُنُ خَيْرٍ لَكُمْ It is better that he's just listening to the complaints rather than acting upon them. So one of the points here being the sahaba are complaining to you about us, the munafiqun are saying. And you're just listening and you're believing them. And Allah Azza wa Jal says the fact that he's listening and not doing anything, it is better for you. That at least you are still in this world and he believes in Allah and he believes the believers. So the fact that he believes the sahaba, Allah praises this. He should believe them rather than you. And he is a mercy for those who believe amongst you. And those who irritate the Prophet ﷺ, for them is a painful torment. So we have clearly respect for Rasulullah ﷺ comes from Iman. And anybody who irritates the Prophet ﷺ, harms the Prophet ﷺ, who makes fun of the Prophet ﷺ, this person is not a Muslim. It is impossible for a Muslim to ridicule, mock, joke, put down, denigrate our Prophet ﷺ. And this is something that every Muslim realizes without knowing any evidence for. You just don't make fun of Rasulullah ﷺ because making fun of somebody means you don't respect that person. Just like we understand, you don't make fun of your mother and father. You don't joke about them. You don't say bad things about them because that is the height of disrespect. And how about Rasulullah ﷺ who deserves a million times more than what our parents deserves. So here we have, whoever irritates the Prophet ﷺ shall have a painful punishment. They swear by Allah to satisfy you. But Allah and His Messenger are more worthy that they be satisfied if you truly believe. Do they not know that whoever opposes Allah and His Messenger, for him will be the fire of hell and that will be a great disgrace. The hypocrites, now this we go back to the point of, the hypocrites at some level believe in Allah. The hypocrites are scared that a surah might be revealed about them, telling you what is in their hearts. Now imagine what type of iman is this then? That the hypocrites know Allah knows what's in their heart. And they're worried that a surah will come down. And the eloquence of the Qur'an, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes that fear which was in their hearts. And Allah azza wa jal describes their innermost thoughts. and exposes them by exposing their fear of being exposed. This is a very profound ayah, if you get what I'm saying here, right? That they were scared of the expose, and Allah Azza wa Jal simply narrated their fear of the expose. And that was enough. That Allah is saying, this is the reality of the hypocrites. Then if you were to ask them, وَلَا إِن سَأَلْتَهُمْ They would say, we were only talking and playing. say is it about Allah and his ayats ayat here means signs not verses ayat and his messenger that you are mocking and playing don't make any excuse you have committed kufr after your iman now what is this a reference to we talked about this these were the multiple jokes that are taking place on the way back from tabuk the multiple jokes that were taking place and these verses were revealed that you have committed kufr after your iman. And then Allah Azza wa Jal threatens them, describes them and threatens them. You can quickly read over yourselves. 67, 68 all the way down to 74 as well. 74 as well. So there is an incident that some scholars say took place in Tabuk and others say took place in before Tabuk. And that is, and I did not actually mention it and I guess I should have mentioned it as one possible incident of Tabuk. I'll mention it now. And that is that another claim that was said on the way back from Tabuk was one of the hypocrites said, if Islam is true, if the process is correct, then this means that we are more misguided than donkeys. Some type of crude statement like this. لَنَحْنُ أَضَلُّ مِنَ الْحَمِيرِ That what a ridiculous faith, we must be as stupid as donkeys if this is true. And so when the news reached That this is what they said They swore by Allah No we didn't say this We swear we didn't say this And so Allah revealed this verse يَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ مَا قَالُوا They swear by Allah They did not say it وَلَقَدَ قَالُوا كَلِمَةُ الْكُفْرِ And they have said the kalimatul kufr And وَكَفَرُوا بَعْدَ إِسْلَامِهِمْ And they have disbelieved after their Islam وَهَمُّوا بِمَا لَمْ يَنَالُوا And they planned that which they could not attain. Now this is a reference according to most of the books of Tafsir, of the failed assassination attempt. Remember we talked about that, that 13 of them, 12 of them, they tried to assassinate. And here, وَهَمُّ بِمَا لَمْ يَنَالُوا They attempted something but they could not reach it. وَهَمُّ بِمَا لَمْ يَنَالُوا So this is a reference to that story that we talked about. Verse number 75, there are those who make a promise to Allah that if you give us from his wealth we will surely be from the most generous but when Allah gives them they become stingy and they turn away and therefore Allah has penalized them with hypocrisy in their hearts until the day of judgment now this is famously attributed this series of verses to one of the sahaba and the story is found in some of the books of hadith that he begged the Prophet ﷺ to ask Allah for more money, more money, more money. And the Prophet ﷺ kept on saying, don't, it's a fitna, do not ask for more money. But he insisted and he said, if I become rich, I will become generous. But then when he became rich, and when the zakat holders or the zakat collectors came, he was stingy, he made fun of them, he didn't want to give them, and he basically turned away. Now the story is very famous and the sahabi's name is mentioned, but the fact of the matter is that this story is problematic on many accounts. The most important one being that even in this story, the Sahabi apparently repents and the Prophet ﷺ refuses to accept his repentance. And this is simply unheard of in the seerah and it goes against everything that the Qur'an itself teaches. If Allah can forgive shirk, then He can forgive stinginess and miserliness as well. so that is why I skipped over the story the story actually has a weakness in its chain it's not an authentic incident and mostly when the seerah has incidents that are not authentic not a problem we gloss over them and narrate them we narrate them, excuse me but when the story contradicts something that is clearly authentic then we should not narrate those stories so this story about the sahabi who allegedly became stingy and then Allah made him into a hypocrite it's very commonly narrated but it actually goes against explicit Quran and that is that Allah says whoever comes to me in forgiveness I will forgive and according to the story the sahabi came wanting to be forgiven and the Prophet ﷺ said I will never forgive you and Allah has revealed he is never going to forgive so that doesn't make sense and that is why we don't believe the story to be true not just because its chain is weak because most of the seerah its chain is weak it's not authentic but because it contradicts a well known principle so then what does this apply to it doesn't apply to the sahabi it applies to some of the hypocrites it applies to some of the hypocrites not to the sahabi and there's a big difference between a hypocrite and a sahabi that some of the hypocrites wanted to be rich and they said if we become rich we will be generous so when Allah gave them the riches they turned out to be the stingiest of people and so they never wanted to be generous they were lying to Allah and his messenger and therefore Allah says when you're lying to Allah and his messenger you will become a hypocrite فَعَقَبَهُمْ نِفَاقًا so Allah resulted Allah caused this to result in hypocrisy until the day that he meets them verse number 79 the hypocrites are those who criticize the charity givers when they give the charity and they criticize the one who has nothing to give other than his sweat and efforts remember the story? remember the sahabi who could not afford anything so he spent the whole night drawing water from a well. And the next morning he came and he gave half, half a handful. And he said, Ya Rasulullah, one half I had to give to my wife and kids and the other half is what I have. And the munafiqun mocked and they said, this guy is only showing off. What does Allah need from half a handful of dates? So this is, الَّذِينَ يَلْمِزُونَ مُطَوِّعِينَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ And then verse 80, we just talked about it. Seek forgiveness or don't seek forgiveness. If you were to seek 70 times forgiveness, Allah will not forgive. So this, we already talked about this. And this clearly therefore, was the first verse revealed. And the Prophet ﷺ thought, I have the choice. Then, verse 83, Allah ﷻ says, that it is haram for the Prophet ﷺ to ever allow the hypocrites to go forth on jihad ever again. Now this is interesting, because what battle took place after Tabuk? what battle took place after Tabuk Tabuk was the last one yet verse number 83 says it didn't actually take place it was sent but it didn't actually take place so the verse 83 is saying you are never gonna go forth in an expedition even if you want to and the fact of the matter is that there was no major expedition Osama's one was a small expedition a voluntary it wasn't like tabook so why then is Allah saying this to humiliate them that even if you want to go Allah will not let you go even if you beg to go you're not going to go it's an honor and you will not get that honor then verse number 84 do not pray over any of them who has died ever وَلَا تُصَلِّي عَلْ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُمَاتَ أَبَدًا So that's an ever And never stand for forgiveness Because they have disbelieved in Allah And his messenger And then You can go on again All of this is self-explanatory 93 إِنَّمَا السَّبِيرُ عَلَى الْإِنسَادِ يُغْرِيَا Is that the blame Will be on those who sought permission for you And they were rich They didn't have an excuse 94 they make excuses when you come back now this is a reference to the morning he came back from Tabuk there was a long line of 85 people remember this this is where that comes when you come back to them they have a long line of excuses that say to them so Allah revealed this verse after the process of accepting all of their excuses Allah says no you tell them Allah will not accept their excuses that Allah knows their affairs and they will go back to the and Allah will tell them what they have done they only swear by Allah to you so that you will leave them alone they just want you to just don't worry about them so Allah says then leave them alone why they are filthy and their place will be Jahannam because of what they have done and then Allah mentions the Bedouins and that is because in the battle of Tabuk if you remember the bulk of the army came from outside of Medina it was everybody in Medina and then also the bulk of the army outside of Medina and Allah Azza wa Jalla criticized that most of these outward converts as of yet Iman has not entered their hearts and they are hypocrites and this is also in the end of Surah Al-Hujurat. And then Allah says, but not all of them, there are some good amongst them, and that is what Allah says in verse 99. And then Allah praises the muhajirun and the ansar, that is verse 100. And then verse 102, وَآخَرُونَ اعْتَرَفُوا بِذْنُولِهِمْ خَلَطُوا عَمَلًا صَالِحًا وَآخَرَ سَيِّئًا There are those who have mixed their good and their bad, and they acknowledge their sins. Who are these people? These are the people who gave no excuse. They said we are wrong. These are the people they admitted we made a mistake. So Allah says they are those اعترفوا بالروبهم. They admitted they're guilty. And خلطوا عملا صالحا. They have some good deeds. There were badris amongst them. There were people in aqaba amongst them. وآخر سيّا. They disobeyed you at tabook. They've mixed the two together. عَسَى اللَّهُ أَن يَتُوبَ عَلَيْهِمْ. Allah might indeed forgive them. For Allah is غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ. And then eventually, verse 106, Allah Azza wa Jal tells them, there will be those who their verdict will be delayed. So this is an implicit command to boycott them. وَآخَرُونَ مُرْجَوْنَ لِأَمْرِ اللَّهِ There are those, their verdict will be delayed. Whether Allah will punish or forgive, Allah knows what to do. So this was the implied commandment. you three cut off Allah will decide your fate so this is verse 106 verse 107 and 108 and 109 and 110 all of this deals with the masjid al-dhrar we talked about this so you can go and link it up to the masjid al-dhrar and then moving on to the hypocrites 117 and 118 this is the announcement of Allah's accepting the repentance And Allah begins by firstly praising the muhajirun and the ansar. And this is an interesting point. That instead of saying they are forgiven, Allah begins by saying, Allah has already forgiven, before getting to those three, Allah has already forgiven the muhajirun and the ansar, all of those who followed the Prophet ﷺ, في ساعة العسرة. This is the battle of Tabuk. ساعة العسرة. This is the battle of Tabuk. that after a party of them had almost inclined to doubt and then he forgave them. Indeed Allah is forgiving and merciful. And he also forgave the three. وَعَلَى الثَّلَاثَ And he forgave the three. So Allah praises the muhajirun and ansar that you are already forgiven. You obeyed. Then he says, and the rest of you, the three of you as well, you are also forgiven. And then Allah concludes by talking about those people who were not able to go those people who were not able to go still they get the reward of those who went because they had the niyyah of going and then Allah concludes the surah by reminding once again of the dangers of the hypocrites they are worried about a surah being revealed and then those two verses that conclude surah at-tawbah لَقَدَ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ that verily a messenger has come to you from amongst yourselves he is one of you عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتْتُمْ He is pained by all that causes you harm. Something that troubles you, troubles him. حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ He is ever concerned for you, and for the believers he is kind and merciful. And we see this even in the case of Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salun, that he was grieved at the possible punishment of Abdullah ibn Ubayy, and he was eager for him, even though he died a hypocrite. And then the Prophet ﷺ is told, that if they turn away, then say, حَسْبِ اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّهُ All I need is Allah, and He is sufficient for me. In Him I put my trust, and He is the Lord of the great throne. So we quickly went over Surah At-Tawbah, and inshallah, for those verses, I didn't go over in this last two thirds. If you read them, inshallah, it will be self-explanatory. I don't think you need any extra, if you like to see it at this basic level. And inshallah, in a few weeks, we'll come back to do the first, actually third of Surah At-Tawbah, because all of this is relevant to the incident of the Hajj. And by the way, we are now close to the end of the seerah. Inshallah, we might even finish 2014, maybe. We might finish 2014, or if not, then the beginning of 2015, inshallah ta'ala, we'll finish the seerah. And then we need to start thinking about what will be the next Wednesday class. From now, start thinking about that. But we are ready. Which month are we in now in the seerah? Which month are we in? where are we now which year everybody should know the year we're in the 9th year we're now in Dhul Qa'dah we're now in Dhul Qa'dah of the 9th year and the next incident is going to be basically the Hajj of Abu Bakr which is the Hajj before the Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ and then we just have one or two incidents and the year of delegations and then we have the final few days of the Prophet ﷺ the bulk of the Qur'an has already been revealed at this time the laws of Islam have pretty much been finalized by this time and the conquests have now been solidified and Mecca is now in Islamic lands and so the rest of Arabia will now be embracing Islam one by one in this final year every single tribe by and large embraced Islam because they realize now that Mecca is gone and Central Arabia is now one united power the rest of the smaller tribes will not fight Islam and so they will embrace it one after the other so we just have a few lessons left inshallah and then we come to an end of mashallah five years really of seerah classes alhamdulillah any yes inshallah any quick questions before we break for salatul isha you tell me do you think she knows Arabic she knows Arabic better than most of us in this room that is the reality of mustashriqeen they know things that most of us would not know and she is still not a Muslim and this is I have met many people like this many people like this there are many people out there they appreciate certain things of Islam but they just they haven't invested emotionally in it, it's just an intellectual exercise, they appreciate it as an intellectual curiosity but their qalb, their heart has nothing to do with it yeah, I mean the reality is all you need to do is look at Iblis but see here's my point though, and this is I know surprising for many of you but there are people out there I have met them I have studied with them who by and large in my estimation interactions don't have an animosity to Islam but they are just not attracted to it either they are genuinely curious and their curiosity is only from the mind not from the heart and so they live their lives agnostics, most of these are agnostics they don't have thought about the akhira and life and what not but something happened in their lives that sparked an interest in the middle east in Arabic and the Quran and one thing led to another they ended up doing a PhD it's a good job for them it's a prestigious job and life goes on and so and here's I know many of you will disagree with this but not everybody who studies Islam and doesn't embrace it is an enemy to Islam there are those who are sympathetic in their own way but they just don't believe and by the way there are many who believe in their hearts but are too embarrassed to publicly say and I have met a number of people like this that they are believers secretly but they fear and now when I say believers I mean linguistically they haven't accepted the shahada publicly they don't pray but they know Islam to be true and it's like Abu Talib it's like Abu Talib that it's too much of a peer pressure for him to give up his prestigious acceptance in society, lifestyle and what not. And then people will make fun of him. Because yes, let's be honest here. Can you imagine somebody who has a reputation and a degree and what not, and then he embraces Islam. People are going to ridicule him. This is especially in the world that we live in. So there are people like that. I have met them. So my point being that obviously for the most Muslims, they really, it's interesting to hear Angelica Nure, but they don't need to read her works. No need for that. I mean, you can trust the Muslim scholarship. But for those who are in academia, we need to distinguish between those who are genuinely haters of Islam. And there are people like that. You know, Bernard Lewis, for example, is a classic example. The classic example, you know, a neocon person who really despises Islam. and he says things about Muslims and Islam that shows the hatred that he has and then versus those who are genuinely sympathetic and feel some type of rapport with the Muslims even though they're not Muslims, right? There are people like that as well. There are many people like that that for some reason they just don't want to embrace but their minds, you know, they have... قُلْ إِنَّ الْهُدَى هُدَى اللَّهِ إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِي مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ and again I have met many people like this yes after 20 days we will assume that the Prophet ﷺ was given permission to go back. It's not explicitly mentioned but we'll assume this because he never did anything without permission. So it is an assumption we make that after 20 days Jibreel allowed or told him it's time to go back. Okay, it's not anything explicit in the text. Yes? There's not much mentioned in the whole seerah about the maternal relatives of the Prophet. There's not much mentioned about the maternal relatives of the Prophet there's not much mentioned about his immediate family believe it or not so Arab society in general and Islam as well kind of conceals the feminine side so like one of the things we're going to do as soon as I finish the seerah inshallah ta'ala the first 4-5 lectures after that will be the family of the Prophet ﷺ we'll do that believe it or not don't get too excited there's not that much. We don't know much about Zainab and Umm Kulthum and Fatima and Ruqayya. We don't know much. Very little, to be honest. Why? Because who interacted with them to tell us? Right? Where are the public? So there's only a handful of things that we know. So it's not surprising that we don't know much about the maternal relatives of the Prophet ﷺ. We don't know much about his own daughters. even the male side of the maternal family I can look that information up for you that information we can look it up the maternal uncles we can look up that should not be a problem but that is a good question where are his cousins from that side I will find that out for you what are his cousins names from that side and did they play a role in the seerah or not I will find that out for you that is a possibility to look up inshallah final question yes we can't say that fully but so he's saying can we say that submitted to Allah but not to the Prophet we cannot say that maybe there's an element of truth there but one thing for sure submitting to the Prophet ﷺ is a necessary requirement to submit to Allah. وَإِن تُطِيعُهُ تَهْتَدُ Only by obeying the Prophet ﷺ will you be guided. So obedience to and allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ is necessary for Iman. You cannot have Iman without Iman in Rasulullah ﷺ. And that is why even though we say La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah in actual fact Muhammadur Rasulullah must occur before La ilaha illallah think about it how do you know La ilaha illallah except through Muhammadur Rasulullah so in way of actually belief you first believe the Prophet then you believe in Allah and the Quran right so for us belief in the Prophet is a necessary It's an integral part of Iman. Without it there is no Iman. And that's why Allah swears by your Lord, Ya Rasulullah. فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ Allah swears by your Lord, Rabbika, لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ They have no Iman. حَتَّى يُحَكِّمُوكَ فِي مَا شَجَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ Until they make you the ultimate judge. And every single thing that happens to them. and and then they find nothing in their heart to listen to you and they submit there is an emphasis right, this is they have an emphasis and they submit a complete submission so taslim, islam is even to the messenger because we only know islam through the messenger right, so even if there's an element of truth here anybody who rejects the messenger has rejected the message and the one who sent the message and cannot be a Muslim and that's a very central point of our religion of Islam inshallah with that Thank you.

Seerah 93 - The Year of Delegations - Part 1 ~ Dr

Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala Sayyida Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. So now we move on after many weeks I think we spent five episodes And because of the delay of Hajj Actually two months on the battle of Tabuk So now we move on actually To the next series of incidents And we are now in the ninth year of the Hijrah In the middle of the ninth year of the Hijrah And this is the And by the way we're coming to the end Subhanallah there's not that much left now It is even possible we only have a few months left Of our series And this year The ninth year is actually called عام الوفود, the year of delegations. And the topic of delegations is one that is typically discussed at this juncture. So we're gonna follow what is customary and talk about the delegations. But there's one number of issues when it comes to the delegations. First and foremost, the delegations didn't just occur in the ninth year after the battle of Tabuk. Rather, the delegations actually began probably around the battle of Ahzab, fifth year of the Hijrah. And they lasted to the very last month of the life of the Prophet ﷺ. So, and there were plenty of delegations. Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, Al-Maghazi of Ibn Sa'd's Tabakat, and then Al-Maghazi of Al-Waqidi. All of these books, they give so many delegations. Some scholars have attempted to gather all of them together. Ibn Kathir as well tried to gather all of them together. And of course, later scholars build from what others have done. So, whatever they finish, we can begin and then move on. So these days we have, mashaAllah, special dissertations and research done. And there's a very famous author, Abu Tarab al-Zahiri, a very great Indian alim actually, well known in the world. He passed away around a decade ago. He actually wrote many books. One of them was the delegations that visited the Prophet ﷺ. 250 page book, which is the standard reference. It is a complete encyclopedia. So these delegations didn't just occur in the ninth year. They began in the fifth and they continued until his death. sallallahu alayhi wasallam and therefore to pause every time and talk about a delegation would have been very repetitive so that is why a lot of scholars they just lump them all over here another issue comes that most of these delegations really we don't know much about them we just have a detail or two and therefore it becomes very tedious and that is why no average book when I say average not average no standard book of tafsir lists these delegations because it would simply get too boring the delegation of this tribe, the delegation of that tribe then how is the average Muslim going to benefit so what happens is that here is where the seerah is simply seerah talks even such as my own will simply gloss over the bulk of those delegations because frankly it is a little bit obscure we don't even know these tribes in our era we've never heard of them and it's not that relevant to us so what happens is, and this is what I will do we illustrate maybe 10% of the delegations give you 10 maybe 15 examples in today and in next lesson and inshallah ta'ala the goal is to illustrate be symptomatic this is some of the examples of the delegations that happened and what was the result of those delegations now why is the 9th year called the delegation year when the delegations began in the 5th year for one simple reason and that is that it was in the 9th year that the frequency of delegations pinnacled, reached the height. Yes, delegations began in the fifth year. What is a delegation? We all know. A tribe sends a representative. A tribe sends two or three people that says, negotiate with the Prophet ﷺ. Delegations doesn't mean they're embracing Islam. Delegations means some negotiation. Yes, they might embrace Islam, definitely. Okay, so that's one category of delegations. But others might hesitate and then eventually embrace Islam, whereas some are willingly coming to embrace Islam. A third group of delegations are actually hypocrites that they're not actually embracing, and they're just pretending to embrace, and we discover this at the death of the Prophet ﷺ that all of these tribes just left Islam, that it was just hypocrisy, they weren't really Muslim. Then there were those categories of people that openly said, we're not gonna be Muslim, but hey, let's have a peace treaty. We're not gonna attack you either, right? So those are another type of delegation. so all of these delegates by the way you also had another extreme and that is delegations of threat delegations of you know I don't want to accept you such as Musaylimah Al-Kathab he's one of the delegates Musaylimah the liar he met the Prophet ﷺ in his lifetime he visited Medina and he was the head of the delegation of his tribe from Yamama he's the one who attempted to negotiate you have half the earth I'll take the other half right this is he is one of the delegation so not every delegation is the same everyone is different but in the 9th year of the Hijrah the sheer quantity of delegations became so much that it is called عام الوفود the year of delegations because after the conquest of Mecca and especially after the success of Tabuk now it appeared to be a success because the Muslims came back unvanquished the Romans didn't appear, the Ghatafan did not appear, so who's technically the winner well the other side doesn't show up you win, the default is you win So the success of Tabuk and especially the conquest of Mecca and after it the conquest of Hunayn. It sealed the fate for the rest of the Arabs. Why? Because if there was any capital of the Arabian Peninsula, it was Mecca. And if there was any primary tribe, it was the Quraysh. So with Mecca conquered and the Quraysh subjugated, the rest of the Arabs have nothing to... They don't have a rallying force. there's no leadership each of the smaller tribes knows that we cannot put on a bulk they tried to under the leadership of the Quraish in Ahzab and other tribes they tried to the Quraish would have been the only tribe they would possibly have united under and that didn't work even at Ahzab so with the conquest of Mecca and the conquest of Hunayn and the battle of Tabuk it's a done deal that the other tribes have to figure out either embrace Islam willingly or unwillingly or declare Allah war which is what Musaylim al-Khazab did or have some type of treaty that I'm not gonna be a Muslim but let's have a peace treaty and by the way at this stage you were allowed to be a pagan in the Arabian Peninsula it was allowed in the early stages 6, 7, 8 year, okay let's have a peace treaty of course after the 9th year as we're gonna come to in 2-3 weeks that's when the announcement came that we cannot have pagans in the Arabian Peninsula Surah Tawbah came down Surah Al-Bara' came down. And Allah Azza wa Jal says that after four months you're gonna have to leave. You can't be around the holy vicinity. And then historically speaking all of the Arabs embraced Islam and paganism was eliminated from Arabia. The point being in this year because of the changes of the political landscape, the surrounding tribes, the Arabian Peninsula had to embrace Islam or at least negotiate. And that is why it is called Aam al-Wufud. and therefore we're going to discuss in today's lecture and in next week's lecture probably around 15 or so or 10 or 15 of these delegations some of them are obviously more important than others some of them are just interesting episodes and we'll mention them and I will personally gloss over any incident that doesn't have even some significance in terms of us to benefit from to mention the tribal names and then these came what has it got to do with us at this level yes indeed this is an advanced seerah class but it is not that advanced that we need to list. And there are lists that are available to us. And if we wanted to, we could list 120 tribes. But what is that going to gain us? So we will begin with one of the earliest delegations. And that is the delegation of Abdel Qais. The tribe of Abdel Qais. The tribe of Abdel Qais was a tribe that lived in the area that was called Bahrain. And by the way, Bahrain back then was not just the island. Bahrain was also what we now call Damman and Dahran all of this was called Bahrain so the island being Bahrain actually when the seerah talks about Bahrain it's not talking about the island it's talking about the land close to the island and that's what we now call the eastern province of Arabia so there was the tribe of Abdul Qays many of these tribes were Christian and some of them were pagan so there's a mixture and the tribe of Abdul Qais sent two delegations the first of them in the fifth year of the Hijrah and this is considered to be perhaps the first delegation to ever come and then they sent a second delegation in the year of Amal Wufud in the year of delegations and it is said that and why is this significant for us it is said that the tribe of Abdul Qais was the first tribe outside of Hijaz to accept Islam voluntarily they actually embraced Islam without any army coming to them without having been invaded and therefore this is a great matter of pride for this tribe that they embraced Islam and what is especially significant for us is that in the fifth year of the Hijrah a tribe literally bordering the Persian Empire knows the details of Islam and no messenger has come to them meaning no messenger from the Prophet ﷺ, no ambassador has come, no sahabi has come but they've heard of Islam and the messes has reached them and they're interested and they send a delegation a group of converts. The whole tribe has not converted. They will convert in the ninth year of the hijrah. Now in the fifth year a small group that converted to Islam arrived in Medina. And it is mentioned in the books of Ibn Ishaq and the seerah and what not that the Prophet ﷺ was once giving the khutbah and he predicted that soon a delegation will come to you. So this is a prediction to the Sahaba. Basically today, tomorrow a delegation will come. They are the best people from the east. Because that is eastern province. From the Medina, that's east. They are the best people in the world from the east. And they would have been because at the time there are no Muslims eastward of them. So they are the best people in the world from the east. So in a day or two, Umar ibn al-Khattab was in the marketplace and he saw a group of delegates arrive. so he jumped up out of happiness he went to embrace them and rejoice and he said give glad tidings I give you the good news the Prophet ﷺ said such and such you are the best people from the east to come and all of them rushed to meet the Prophet ﷺ except for the youngest man amongst them and his nickname was Al-Ashaj ibn Al-Qais and this is a famous Sahabi and the hadith I'm about to narrate to you is a famous hadith and therefore it fits in to the delegation and his name is not Al-Ashaj Al-Ashaj means the one with the wound or the one with the fracture so he had a wound in his head his name is probably Abdullah Ibn Awf or something we don't know his name but he was called Al-Ashaj from the tribe of Qais Al-Ashaj Ibn Qais as for Al-Ashaj he stayed behind the rest of the delegates rushed forward he stayed behind cleansed himself took a bath wore some good garments put on perfume and then went to meet the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam So in other words, he's taking the time to prepare himself. Whereas the rest, they're excited. Can you imagine? New Muslims, they're rushing to see the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Ash'aj ibn al-Qais, he takes his time. And he then comes. And the Prophet ﷺ says, إِنَّ فِيكَ لَخِصْلَتَيْنِ يُحِبُّهُمَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ Ya Ash'aj, you have two characteristics. Allah and His Messenger love them. He said, what is that? So he said, الحِلْمُ وَالْأَنَاتِ الحِلْمُ وَالْأَنَاتِ And this is a famous hadith in many books of hadith. And that's why the hadith is famous. Many people who read the hadith are not aware when it took place. It took place in the delegations in the fifth year. So what does الحلم mean? الحلم means you can control your temper. الحلم means you have forbearance. والانات means you don't act hastily. You think things through and then you act. So you're calm and collected. And hilm and anaat are kind of similar in that you need to both to be there, right? That if you're cool-tempered, then you're not acting in haste. So al-hilm wal-anaat are two characteristics that Allah loves and the Messenger loves. So al-Ashaj said, these two characteristics, have I developed them or did Allah implant them in me? He's a very intelligent man. Look at the question. These two characteristics, did I manage to hone them and fine-tune them? Or did Allah, Jabal al-Illah alayhi, Allah Azza wa Jal implanted them in me? So the Prophet ﷺ said, no, Allah implanted them in you. And this shows us that at some level, and wallahi anybody who has children knows this, right? Your tarbiyah is the same. One of them is quick-tempered, one of them is calm. Not much you can do about it, right? One of them is this, one of them is that. And you know this even since they're babies. The parents know what I'm talking about, right? It's beyond your control. Allah, and there's an element you can control, there's an element beyond your control. So the element that you cannot control, the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah gave it to you. These are خِسْلَتَان جَبَلَكُمُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمَا Allah implanted them in you. So look at his response, and what an intelligent man. الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي جَبَلَنِي All praise be to Allah who has implanted in me characteristics that he loves. So very intelligent man, and you can tell that this man is gonna go far, and that's why Al-Ash'ad ibn al-Qais is a very famous Sahabi because of this. Then they said, O Messenger of Allah, Ya Rasulullah, between us and you is the tribe of Mudar. So the tribe of Mudar occupied a land in between Bahrain and Medina. And Mudar is a pagan tribe. And they are fighting us, so we can only come to you in the sacred months. Ash-hurul-hurm. And this shows us some of the wisdoms of sacred months where the whole land is in peace. And you're not allowed to fight. So we can only come to you in Ash-hurul-hurm, which means after we come back, we will not be able to come for at least one year. so ya Rasulullah tell us something that will cause us to enter Jannah and we can teach our people when we go back so this is a very intelligent tribe they're asking the right questions and they're very eager to learn from the Prophet ﷺ now this hadith is muttafaq ali bukhari al-muslim this hadith is a very famous hadith of the question of sorry of the tribe of the Qais tribe the Qais tribe here what was the question and what was the response of the Prophet ﷺ, this hadith is Bukhari and Muslim, it's a very famous hadith and it has a lot of theological implications that this class does not talk about actually we might talk about this maybe even in the Tuesday Aqidah class next week we'll actually maybe talk about this particular narration, so the Prophet ﷺ responded hadith is Bukhari and Muslim I command you to have Iman in Allah, and do you know what is Iman in Allah? that you say the shahada and you pray the prayers and you fast Ramadan and you pay zakat and he stopped there, he didn't go to the hajj why did he not mention the hajj? it's the fifth year of the hijrah it's the fifth year of the hijrah there is no hajj right now so he mentions the four pillars of Islam now just quickly, why is this a theological hadith? because he said do you know what is iman? then he gave them the pillars of Islam so what is the relationship between Islam and Iman because he said do you know what is Iman then he defined Iman with the same definition that is found for the definition of Islam in the hadith of Jibreel correct? when Jibreel said what is Islam he gives the list now the tribe is asking what is Iman and he gives the same list and he says this is Iman but the list is the list of Islam so that's the theological question now is not the time, this is a seerah class but this is why the hadith is very deeply discussed that what is Iman then and what is Islam and what is the relationship between the two of them and then they mentioned that they were a tribe that lives in cold weather and so they is it allowed for them to drink the sharab, the khamr and so the Prophet ﷺ said no Allah and his messenger have forbidden and he mentioned every single type of sharaab that they have. So in our times it would be whiskey and rum and spirit. So he literally listed the types of sharaab that they had. And this shows us the knowledge that he had of their culture. That these are, you know, الدباء والحنطم He literally listed one by one. He goes, Allah has forbidden this and this and this and this. All of them that they would drink. So that was the primary message that the Prophet ﷺ sent back with them. and it is said that they were the first group to build a masjid outside of the hijaz and they were the first group to have jum'ah outside of medina so they built a masjid on the other side of the arabian peninsula in their region and i have heard i am not positive about this that the location of the masjid is still operating i am not sure about this but this is something that i have heard and i have not been able to verify this is the first delegation the second delegation we'll talk about is the delegation of Banu Sa'ad ibn Bakr Banu Sa'ad ibn Bakr and where is our note taker he's not here today who can tell me who is Banu Sa'ad ibn Bakr this tribe you should know no you're going the wrong direction Banu Sa'ad ibn Bakr you should know this tribe if I give you any hint it's too obvious it's too obvious they are not from Najd they are from the Hijaz they are from the Hijaz they are close to Mecca that Halima Al-Saadiya Al-Saadiya As-Saadiya It's not from Najd Hijaz Hjaz Halima As-Saadiya Banu Bakr Ibn Saad Halima As-Saadiya She is from the tribe of Banu Saad Okay so this is the tribe That Was around Mecca they were around Ta'if To be honest and they would come down to Mecca In the summer months to get the children as we studied how many years ago? Three and a half years ago, mashallah, tabarakallah. And so they would take care of the Quraysh and children. And this is the tribe of Sa'd ibn Bakr. And the tribe of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr, it is one of the sub-tribes of Hawazin. And Hawazin participated in Hunayn. So Hawazin is the large tribe like Quraysh. Under that there's many small tribes. Sa'd ibn Bakr is one of the smaller tribes. And this smaller tribe, Halima, is from that smaller tribe. Now the delegate that was sent at the time was not a Muslim So the tribe was meant to negotiate a treaty So this was not a tribe that's embracing Islam This was a tribe that we just want to negotiate a treaty And this took place before So one of the most important delegations We're not going to talk about this Wednesday It's next Wednesday And that is the delegation of the tribe of Ta'if Which is Taqif Taqif is the big enemy still Remember they haven't won right Hunayn happened and they went back So Thaqif we'll talk about next week They're gonna come So before Thaqif This tribe One of the tribes of Hawazin comes And negotiates a peace treaty Right So they send one of their elders And his name is Dhimam ibn Tha'laba Dhimam ibn Tha'lama And Dhimam ibn Tha'laba Now the tribe of Hawazin Who can remind me Hawazin and Thaqif Were the two tribes of Hunayn If you remember What was the difference between Hawazin and Thaqif the main difference this was just two months ago faqif were residents of ta'if hawazin were the bedouins and that's why halima saadi is from the bedouins because the residents are not going to go take care of the kids it's the bedouin so hawazin and faqif are like distant cousins they go back to the same person one of them his descendants are bedouins the other one they're residents of so they are bedouins and when you're bedouins what does that mean in terms of your manners very rough none none so this is why we need to understand the hadith of the imam is a hadith that tickles people all the time because it's a very blunt hadith it's a very harsh hadith so this Najdi sorry this not Najdi this Hawazini chieftain comes in and he was a crude man extremely hairy and gruff and tough and he actually had two ponytails you know the Bedouins in those days the men would have ponytails the Bedouins and still until recently if you look at pictures of the Saudi Bedouins of 100 years ago, 70 years ago you still find them with ponytails I think now it's almost gone maybe it's still around but the men would have ponytails only the Bedouins so the Imam comes in and he has two like a rasta mashallah he's got the two hanging this way and he brings his camel all the way to the door of the masjid and he parks his camel he sits his camel down right at the door you can see it Then he barges in and he says, where is the son of Abdul Muttalib? And so the Prophet ﷺ said, I am here. Now pause here, subhanAllah. Do we see the wisdom or some of the wisdoms of why Allah chose the Prophet ﷺ's lineage to be the most prestigious lineage? This is a Bedouin, ignorant, uncouth, never literate, yet he knows Abdul Muttalib. And he knows the man who's claiming to be a prophet is his grandson, the son, right? And this no doubt has an impact on their embracing of Islam as well. That look, if I'm going to embrace Islam, let it be from somebody whose lineage we can admire because from them lineage is everything, right? So Abdul Muttalib is so famous that even a chieftain Bedouin, you know, from another tribe, admires him. He goes, where's the son of Abdul Muttalib? That's how he knows. And that's why if you go back to the battle of Hunayn, what was the process I'm saying? I am the true prophet and I am the grandson of Abdul Muttalib because at that time that's the rallying call needed so he says which one of you is Ibn Abdul Muttalib so the Prophet said I am the son and he called himself I am the son of Abdul Muttalib now in Arabic Ibn can mean son and grandson I am the son or the grandson of Abdul Muttalib so the Imam comes up to him he's standing all of the Sahaba are sitting and he says أنت محمد now look at his roughness right you are محمد now he mentions by name you are محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم and the Prophet said نعم أنا محمد yes I am محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم so ضمام says I will ask you and I'm gonna be very tough with you so don't get angry at me so at least he had enough adab to make this excuse okay I will ask you النساء لك فمشد على I'm gonna be very strict with you so make sure you don't get angry at me so the Prophet ﷺ said ask whatever you want go ahead ask you know throw it at me what can you ask me so the man said the man said that your messenger your envoy came to us and he told us that Allah has sent you so the Prophet ﷺ said he has spoken the truth in other words he's saying my messenger is speaking the truth when he says I'm the messenger of Allah he has spoken the truth so the bedouin says, I like this melodrama the bedouin says who created the sama Allah who created the earth, Allah who created the jibal, Allah who put everything here, Allah so then the imam says so I ask you by the one who created the heavens and the one who created the earth and the one who created the mountains and the one who placed everything here I ask you by Allah are you swearing that Allah has sent you to us this is now he's building the melodrama it's such a simple question but he's trying to get the you know the suspense here and also from this simple mind he is feeling that if you're swearing by Allah then you're not gonna be lying here right so the Prophet ﷺ said I swear by Allah I am sent by Allah so the Imam says that and your messenger also your envoy also said that Muslims have to pray or we have to pray five times a day. So I ask you by the one who has sent you, did Allah command you to tell us to pray five times a day? I don't trust the messenger. Did Allah tell you to tell us to pray five times a day? So the Prophet ﷺ said, yes. And then the series of questions goes on. Your messenger said that we're supposed to pay zakat. Did Allah, I ask you by the one who sent you, did Allah ask you to do this? And he said, yes. And then fasting and then hajj. This time hajj is mentioned because this is the ninth year of the hijrah. And by now, the command for Hajj had been revealed, as we will mention in two or three weeks. And so Abu Bakr went for Hajj next month. So we're gonna talk about this soon. So now Hajj is revealed. Now, according to some narrations, this is the same man or the same Bedouin whose hadith we always hear about. That he said, do I have to pray anything more than the Fard five prayers? And the Prophet ﷺ said, no, unless you want to. So then he said, do I have to pay one bit more zakat? No, unless you want to. Do I have to fast one day outside of Ramadan? No, unless you want to. So he finishes the whole hadith. Then he says, I swear by the one who has sent you with the truth that I shall follow this, what you have told me, and not increase one bit or decrease. Not, I'm not gonna do one bit more than this bare minimum skeleton and nothing less. And then just as melodramatically as he came in, he barged out and he went back. Right? And so this is when the Prophet ﷺ said that, if he is true, then he shall enter Jannah. Meaning, this is the bare minimum of Islam. You do the five pillars and you avoid the major sins, then khalas, you have done your job. And it is said that when Dhimmam returned back to his people, he was the one who began preaching to his people. And Ibn Ishaq mentions in the book, Suseera mentioned that, he was so respected by his community that the same day that he returned, the entire tribe eventually embraced Islam. And the same day, the Imam destroyed the idol of the people, of the idol that they worship. And Ibn Ishaq, and I think he mentions this from one of the tabi'un, no delegate, no envoy, was more of a blessing for his community than the Imam was. That even though he was one envoy, and he willingly himself embraced Islam, subhanAllah, the whole tribe embraced Islam because of him. And no doubt, in my humble opinion, this also goes back to the fact that our Prophet ﷺ has some relationship with them as well, that Halima is from them, and that there is some type of barakah, no doubt, that Allah Azza wa Jalla has pushed in this tribe because of this relationship through Halima as-Sa'diyya. Also there's an interesting miracle narrated by another delegation, and that is the tribe of Muzaynah, that the tribe of Muzaynah came, now this tribe, there's a difference, when did it come, 5th year, 6th year, 7th year, but we're going back fifth year maybe Ibn Ishaq, not Ibn Ishaq Waqidi says fifth year and the entire tribe came to embrace Islam so the whole tribe came of 400 people to embrace Islam and they studied with the Prophet and then they wanted to return back and so the Prophet said to Umar ibn Khattab that Ya Umar, go give them the food they need to go back to their to go back to their lands so he has to provide food for 400 people to last them a few weeks so Umar says Ya Rasulullah I only have one bag of dates at home that's not going to be sufficient for these 400 people to go back to their land I only have one bag of dates so the Prophet ﷺ said again Ya Umar go and provide food for them so Umar ibn Khattab said I will do that so he went back to his home and lo and behold his entire room was full of dates to the ceiling when he put his trust in Allah he said khalas I will do that whatever you say Ya Rasul I will do that so he went back and the entire Ibn Ishaq says like a camel in the room like the whole room was full of dates so when he saw this he called the whole tribe all 400 of them came and they filled their sacks because that's how they did it they had a sack and they would just fill it and then, you know, they would literally eat a few dates a day, by the way. This is how they would travel, subhanAllah. That they would have dates and a few other things, and that was their traveling thing. So every one of the 400 came, and the last one who exited said, when I exited, I look back, and I saw the pile is just as it was when we had begun taking our provision. So this is an interesting narration, simply because of the miracle that took place for the tribe of Muzaynah. Not all tribes ended so positively. Some of the tribes had some negative issues as well, even though they embraced Islam. And of them is the tribe of the Banu Asad ibn Khuzaymah. The tribe of the Banu Asad ibn Khuzaymah. And they were 10 in number, 10 people. And they came loudly inside of the masjid. And they said, O Messenger of Allah, we testify to the shahada, and we are Muslims, and we would like you to know that we have come to you without you sending anybody for us. And we have accepted Islam without any of you having to fight us. And so we are not like the other Arabs. And we have had to travel in the darkness and in the cold in order to come to you. So they kept on bragging about what they had done. And Allah Azza wa Jal revealed regarding this tribe, يَمُنُّونَ عَلَيْكَ أَنْ أَسْلَمُوا قُلْ لَا تَمُنُّوا عَلَيَّ إِسْلَامَكُمْ بَلِ اللَّهُ يَمُنُّ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْهَدَاكُمْ لِلْإِيمَانِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ They think they have done you a favor by embracing Islam. So this is this tribe here, and that is the Banu Asad ibn Khuzaym. This is this tribe. They think they're boasting to you that, Oh, we are such good Muslims. You know, you didn't have to fight us, we came to you. You didn't have to send, we were the ones. We had to travel through the darkness and through the cold, and we're doing this. So they're boasting about themselves. We're not like the other Arabs. And Allah Azza wa Jal is saying, they think they're doing you a favor. No, Allah has done them a favor. Now this shows us they were Muslims. So this is a tribe, Islam is, Iman is weak in their hearts but they're still Muslims. So they come and they embrace Islam and they think they've done a big deal. And Allah says, if you are truly Muslims, you should be thankful that Allah has chosen you to be a Muslim. another interesting tribe which also turned out well at least the Banu Asad were Muslim, the tribe we're going to mention now was not even a Muslim tribe and that is the tribe of Banu Amir Ibn Sa'asa'a and I have mentioned this tribe before but I will not quiz you because it is a little bit advanced, this is the tribe that was responsible for the massacre of the well of Ma'una this is that tribe the well of Bi'r Ma'una, this is Bi'r Ma'una this is that tribe, the Banu Amir Ibn Sa'sa and in fact one of the main instigators, Amir Ibn Tufail and we mentioned his name before physically came to Medina as a part of the delegates but he had no intention of embracing Islam and all of the details of this are mentioned in Ibn Ishaq and others that Amir Ibn Tufail said to his henchman by the name of Arbad Ibn Qais that let us get rid of this man so this is an assassination attempt and this is taking place most likely in the 8th or the 9th year we don't know exactly when this is taking place it could be before the battle of Tabuk it is my instinct, it is before the battle of Tabuk but we don't know and this is one of the problems of the delegations obviously we don't have a calendar yet running we don't know, when did this happen I personally find it impossible to visualize an assassination attempt when Mecca has been conquered and most likely this is taking place before the conquest of Mecca because once Mecca is conquered, there's just nothing that, it's a hopeless battle so it seems to be this is taking place maybe 7th year or early 8th year of the Hijrah, that the tribe of Banu Amir ibn Sa'asa'a comes and they have this attempt and what does Amir ibn Tufayl say, and Amir ibn Tufayl was one of the main instigators, his name has come up before that he says to Arbad that come let us get rid of this man assassinate him I will distract him with a series of questions and when I give you the signal you pull out your dagger and stab him most likely would have been a poison dagger or something because usually a dagger will not kill you most likely it's poison those days as you know we've seen in the seerah before they have been poisoned attempts as well against the Prophet ﷺ including the sheep that the Yahudi and all of this So they had poison and they knew how to use it. And also in Ali ibn Abi Talib, how was he killed? So they knew how to put... Now the seerah books don't mention this, but it is again my assumption. This is the point that just one poison and then the deed will be done. So Arba'at agrees that, yes, let us go do this. So when they came in to the Prophet ﷺ, Amir ibn Tufayl said that, give us a private ceremony. Maybe not ceremony, but a private audience. Just us. and the Prophet ﷺ said no, not a private audience until and unless you embrace Islam so conversation went then he tried again, we want a private audience and when he realized it's not going to happen, so then when he realized it's not going to happen he gave him the secret signal, whatever it was it's not mentioned, whatever it was to give this, okay, we're not going to get the private audience let's just do the deed and flee from the scene, he gave him the signal and Arbaad did not do anything so the conversation continues, he gives them the signal again Arbaat doesn't do anything again continues the third time when Arbaat doesn't do anything so he realizes it's not going to happen so to conclude the back and forth, so he says I give you three options, look at his arrogance he's talking in the process, I give you three options, number one if you want you take charge of the people of the cities and I will take charge of the Bedouins, meaning we'll split leadership you will take mastery of Mecca, Medina whatnot, I'll take charge of whatever is in between because he was a Bedouin, he's used to the Bedouin lifestyle so he said we can split it if you don't do this, then the second option, you make me the leader after you and if you refuse the both of these then the third option and that is 1000 male camels and 1000 female camels against you, meaning an army against you from my side so look at the arrogance of this man Amir ibn Tufayl that he's basically telling him either you share your power with me or I'm going to fight you and I have the bigger army and so the Prophet ﷺ refused to accept any of these conditions obviously and then he said that Allah ﷻ will stop you O Allah, Allahumma kufini Amir ibn Tufayl O Allah, I put you in charge of being sufficient for me against Amir ibn Tufayl This is a dua by the way That we should memorize Allahumma kthini sharra fulan Or Allahumma kthini fulan Oh Allah you are sufficient for me Allah kafi Allahumma kthini Oh Allah you are kafi Allahumma kthini Oh Allah you are a sufficient protector You are enough of a resource against me Against so and so So whenever we are in trouble And there is a particular person or an enemy Or something like this We should make this dua That Allahumma kthini sharra Allahumma kufini sharraful an Allahumma kufini And you can even mention the name Just like the Prophet ﷺ said He realized this man is evil So he said O Allah I put you in charge You are enough for me Against Amir ibn Tufail O Allah Take care of him And guide his people Subhanallah You make dua against a person But you make dua for the community And this is the prophetic methodology That yes this man is evil It doesn't mean his whole tribe is evil So Allah Take care of him but guide his people to Islam. So they exited from the Prophet ﷺ and Ahmed became furious with Arbad that what was the problem with you? You're considered to be the most powerful warrior. That's why I chose you out of all of the people and yet you didn't obey what I'm telling you to kill, kill, kill. And he says, don't get angry at me. Listen to my story that when I entered in upon the Prophet ﷺ, it was my niyyah to do as you intended but when I entered in upon him I could only see you and not him and every time you're giving me the signal I can only see you so did you want me to kill you I didn't have any option, I couldn't see him and of course this is not the first time that Allah Azawajal has protected directly the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam وَجَعَلْنَا مِن بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ سَدًّا وَالْخَلْفِ سَدًّا فَأَغْشَيْنَاهُمْ فَهُمْ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ and also Abu Jahl and others, multiple times in the seerah, that simply you just cannot see. So the man could not even see where is the Prophet ﷺ. So how do you expect me to kill him? I don't even know where he was. I could only see you when you're giving me the motions. Go, go. Where? I don't see him. Don't see anybody there. And so this shows us again the miracle of the Prophet ﷺ. And then the both of them suffered a very evil demise. And this is what is to be expected for those who attempt to assassinate the Prophet ﷺ. As for Amir ibn Tufayl, it is said that on the way back, back to his tribe, he stopped at the house of a, how shall we put this, a service lady let's say, right? Of ill repute let us say. And he spent the night in that house, and in the middle of the night, he became afflicted with some type of disease. And the disease spread throughout his body, and when he realized he's about to die, he says, Ahmed ibn Tufayl will die in such a house? like how embarrassing is it that I'm dying here and with this disease like the disease of animals so we can assume something is spreading on his skin something and it was fast it's happening in one night so he mounted his horse in the middle of the night and he fled away in the darkness never to be seen again because he didn't want to die in such a location let's say he didn't want to die in such a location so he just literally fled and khalas his body was never found he's wherever he is Allah Azawajal took care of him and as for the one who actually had the dagger or the knife, Arbad subhanallah what an amazing story and a verse of the Quran was revealed about that and that is, we're gonna come to Surah Ar-Ra'id that as for Arbad so he proceeded onwards his companion, he thought he's just spending the night he'll catch up with me, never caught up with him Arbad returns all the way back to his people and they say what happened, where were you? and so he tells them oh I have just come from the man whatever claims to be a prophet and he said something very bad about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that I'm not going to repeat over here but he basically cursed Allah he was very bad in his he was just in upset about this and so he said something that is not appropriate at all in any sense of the term and lo and behold the next day he went out on his camel and in front of his community lightning came from the heavens and consumed him and his camel right then and there incinerated the both of them and it is said that he is the reference in surah ar-ra'ad verse 11 12 and 13 surah ar-ra'ad verse 11 12 and 13 that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that وَإِذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ سُوءًا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُ وَمَا لَهُ مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ وَالٍ When Allah wants to inflict a punishment on a people, nobody can avert that punishment, and nobody is a protector. هُوَ الَّذِي يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا He is the one who shows you the lightning, and it terrifies you, and it also makes you rejoice that there might be rain. وَيُنشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالَ And he sends the heavy clouds and rains. وَيُسَبِّحُ الرَّعْدُ بِحَمْدِهِ wal malaikatu min khifati and the thunder is praising his praise and the angels out of their fear are also praising him wayursilu sawa'iqa fayusibu biha man yasha'u wahum yujadiruna fillahi wahua shadidul mihal and he sends the thunderbolts this is the guy wayursilu sawa'iqa he sends the thunderbolts and the thunderbolts hit those whom Allah wants even as they fight with Allah or argue with Allah because the man was arguing about Allah and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is strict and severe in punishment. So this ayah and this is surah al-Ra'ad verse 11 to 13 it actually according to the books of tafsir applies to this man Arbad who was literally incinerated by lightning in front of his people after he had said something bad about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. so this is one of the delegations another delegation and with this delegation we will inshallah conclude it's a rather long one and it's interesting one and it brings up a lot of theological points that I will hint at towards the end is the delegation of Tamiman al-Dari and Tamiman al-Dari was a Christian from up north from one of the Christian tribes and he came as a delegate from his tribe embracing Islam and his story is narrated by Fatima binti Qais who is one of the sahabiyat who had emigrated to both Abyssinia and to Medina so she is the sahiba of the hijratain she has both hijras and Fatima binti Qais said and she is mentioning a long story that she was in Huidda and she is waiting in the house of somebody finishing Huidda when she heard a voice say from the masjid or call from the masjid, as-salatu jami'ah and this is how the sahaba would be called outside of the timings of salah, come to the prayer, as-salatu jami'ah, come to the prayer and so she went to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and she said I was in the woman's row closest to the men, so she's in the front of the women's row and when the Prophet ﷺ finished the prayer, he went on to the mimbar and his face was smiling beaming, he was happy and he said let every person stay in your place where you have prayed do you know why I have called you here today they said Allah and his messenger know best he said by Allah I did not call you for any mu'idah any khutbah, any dars I didn't call you for any lecture rather I have called you to hear the story of Tamim al-Daddy Tamim al-Daddy Tamim al-Daddy was a Christian and he has become a Muslim this is a hadith he is saying and he has said something that agrees with what I have been telling you about the Dajjal. Okay, so this is the famous hadith of the Jassasa, the hadith of seeing the Dajjal chained up. This is that hadith. Okay, so we're going to go over it quickly and then talk about some of the issues surrounding this hadith because it is obviously an issue that raises a lot of questions. So the hadith goes as follows. So the hadith we're going to go into now, it's all about the Dajjal. Why are we talking about it right now in the seerah? Because Tamim is one of the delegates. And so the entire story occurs in the ninth year of the Hijrah, in the year of delegations. So Tamim al-Naddari is saying the story, or sorry, the Prophet ﷺ is telling the story of Tamim, that Tamim said that he sailed in a ship with 30 men of the tribes of Luham and Judam, and they were tossed by the waves of the sea, and they got lost for a month until they crashed onto an island at sunset, and they were in a small boat that came onto the island and they met a beast with a great deal of hair. So much so that you could not distinguish the face from the back. So it is nothing but a hairy creature. And they became scared and they said, ويحق, woe to you, what are you? So he said, I am الجصاصة. And this is the name given to the creature of the jaz. I am the jassasa so the creature said that the creature said that what is the sorry Tamim said what is the jassasa what is this we don't know so the creature said that oh people come to the monastery come to the place where the man is waiting to meet you I'm just a messenger come and so when we heard there is a man Tamim is saying we became even more terrified that what is the man that has this creature as his messenger or something. What is this? We feared it might be another devil, but we had no choice. So they went off to this monastery. Then the hadith says, we found the hugest man we had ever seen, like a giant, bound strongly in chains, with his hands tied to his neck, and his legs bound from the knees to the ankles with iron shackles. so they see this giant in some island and he has all of these chains on there and they said wayhak who are you wayhak cannot be translated here but they are terrified and this wayhak is how they are just expressing their terror who are you what is this so he said you will find out about me tell me who are you so they said we are people from Arabia who have embarked on a ship but the sea became wild and we got lost for one month until the ocean brought us to this island of yours and we took our smaller boats and came to this island looking for food and water and we were met by this beast and this beast took us to you after it told us it is the jesasa so jesasa so we came to you and we are wondering what are you are you a devil are you a man so the man said tell me about the date palms of the trees of Baysan. This is a location. Tell me about the date palms. So they said, what do you know? What do you want to know about the date palms of the trees of Baysan? He said, I'm asking you whether these trees are fruitful. They said, yes, they are fruitful. He said, it's only a matter of time they will go barren and dry. He's asked, tell me about the lake of Tabariya. The lake of Tabariya. Tabariya is another land. The lake of Tabariya. they said what do you want to know about it he said is there still water in the lake they said yes there is a lot of water it's a huge lake so he said soon it will dry up there will be no water in Tabariya then he said tell me about Aynu Zughar and Ayn is the spring of Zughar and Zughar is in Syria it's in Sham they said what do you want to know about it he said is there still water in that spring and do the people grow crops with that water they said yes there's plenty of water and the people grow crops with that water. So he said, tell me about النبي الأمي and what he has done. Tell me about the unlettered prophet and what he has done. So Tamim replied, he has left from Mecca and settled in Yathrib. He's now in Yathrib, Medina. So this entity said, have the Arabs fought against him? They said, yes. He said, what was the verdict? What happened? they said we are told that he prevailed over the Arabs in his vicinity and they have all shown obedience to him so Islam is now rising so this entity says has it really happened? has it reached this level? they said yes so this entity said if it is so then it is better for them to show obedience to him now I will tell you about myself I am the Dajjal and soon Allah will give me permission to emerge and I will come traveling in the land and I will not spare any town and I will stay in every town for 40 nights except for Mecca and Tayba except for Mecca and Tayba they are both forbidden for me every time I try to enter one of them I will be met with an angel with a sword in his hand who will bar my way and on every road into these cities there will be angels guarding it. So this is the story of Tamim. The Prophet ﷺ then goes on. Fatima says, the Prophet ﷺ was standing on the minbar with his staff. And he began hitting the pulpit with the staff. And he said, هذه طيبة, هذه طيبة, هذه طيبة. This is طيبة. Because one of the names of Medina is طيبة. This is طيبة, this is طيبة, this is طيبة. didn't I tell you about this before about the Dajjal and about the fact he will not enter Mecca and Medina didn't I tell you this the people said yes so the Prophet said this is why I like the story of Tamim and Ad-Dari because it proved to you what I am telling you about Mecca and Medina and about the Dajjal but he meaning the Dajjal is in the Mediterranean the Syrian sea or in the Yemen Yemeni sea which is the Arabian sea then he paused and he said no, rather he is in the east he is in the east, he is in the east and he pointed with his hands towards the east, Fatima narrates I memorized this hadith from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam end of hadith, now this hadith is narrated in sahih of Imam Muslim and this is why it has caused so many issues because it is in the sahih of Imam Muslim and the fact of the matter is that this hadith is unique in its narration of a number of things. Firstly, the jassasa. Secondly, there's no other hadith that mentions the jassasa. Secondly, that Dajjal is alive right now. And that thirdly, he's chained to some wall in some island somewhere. So, this hadith has caused some controversy and frankly, nobody has really resolved this with other traditions that seem to suggest that Dajjal will be born at a future date and there's none of this mentioned over there and this is why a very small group of scholars has cast doubts on this hadith even if it is in Sahih Muslim because they said it just does not make sense with regards to the other traditions and of the people who did this is Sheikh Rashid Rida Of Egypt the famous Mufti And also in our times my own Sheikh as well Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen Muhammad bin Salih Uthaymeen That they consider this hadith to be Problematic Something is wrong with this hadith And our Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen Would say My heart is just Something is telling me this hadith is wrong And he says now of course You don't judge a hadith because your heart tells you it's wrong Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen said this hadith seems to contradict other hadith that are more authentic than it for example the hadith that every single person on this world will be dead in 100 years this hadith is in Bukhari Muslim that the Prophet ﷺ one night came and he told the people do you see this night of yours do you see the stars do you see this he said not a single soul alive today will still be alive in 100 years meaning he's trying to tell them that look this world is temporary And honestly we can say the same thing But we're not going to say not a single soul But we're going to say the majority of souls Will not be Allah But the Prophet ﷺ made no exceptions That when he spoke Not a single soul will be Allah after 100 years So the Shaykh says How then can the Dajjal be on an island somewhere And there are other issues as well Of them is that the hadith mentioned That Dajjal is actually a short man Stocky Whereas this hadith mentions He's a giant Of them is that other narrations mentioned that Dajjal will be born to a couple that was waiting for a child and what not and it did happen whereas according to this hadith that Dajjal is still alive right now of them is the fact that Dajjal has kafir written that the Muslim and the non-Muslim and the literate and the illiterate will read and Tamim does not mention this at all right of them the single most obvious characteristic of the Dajjal is his eyes one eyed and Tamim has nothing about this at all so based upon all of these things some minority of scholars have said something doesn't seem right about this tradition and our own Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen his students were not very happy with this because it isn't Sahih Muslim and here's the whole can of worms now by the way so Sahih Bukhari is a whole different level above Sahih Muslim and there is no doubt that when a hadith is in Bukhari it has a boost that even Muslim cannot give it and the fact that Bukhari does not have this hadith doesn't mean that it's weak in and of itself but it does mean that Bukhari himself you know did not like it to his standards we can say that the fact that it's only in Muslim and there's no doubt that Muslim is one notch one marked and clear notch underneath Bukhari and I've also done some research on this hadith. By the way, another very interesting thing that does not make sense at all in light of this hadith is the very famous controversy of the person by the name of Ibn As-Sayyad. Ibn As-Sayyad. Now who is Ibn As-Sayyad? That's a whole different topic. Ibn As-Sayyad was a magician from one of the Yehudi tribes in Medina. And at one point, even the Prophet ﷺ was unsure whether this was Dajjal or not at one point and he went, and the hadith is in Islam Muslim as well, that he went to quiz and test him that if he is the Dajjal then he'll know this and if he's not then he won't know this, he went to quiz and test him and Umar ibn al-Khattab until his death Umar ibn al-Khattab, he would swear that Ibn Sayyad is the Dajjal like he was certain this man is the Dajjal so Ibn al-Sayyad you're doubtful, Umar is doubtful he's still the Dajjal yet if the hadith of Fatima is true then what are you worried about? Dajjal is in some island far far away so why are you even thinking that Dajjal might be in Medina when you know that Dajjal is chained up and locked up in some island far away so the point is that this one hadith really gives us the details that seem to conflict with the entire narrative of the Dajjal and therefore based on this a very small group of scholars have said something doesn't make sense about this hadith not because it goes against my mind and your mind but because it contradicts a whole series of other evidences that are stronger than it and in fact I today was doing research on this hadith and I came across a paper by another student of Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen who is a very famous scholar of Kuwait his name is Dr. Hakim Al-Mutayri and he has a website and what not he has an entire research paper about this one hadith that he goes when I heard the Shaykh say Shaykh Ibn Uthaym that this hadith is weak I said let me go research it so he has a whole bath on this and he goes over every single chain and I read through it and it does seem there is some weakness that we can say that you know what when there is this type of weakness and the weakness is not like that clear that you can say the hadith is automatically daif but when you have an isnad problem which it does have and you have the matin that is so bizarre and weird I don't see a problem if we simply say the hadith does not make sense in light of other Quran and hadith now I just want to make clear here that look when we say a hadith doesn't make sense we always have to say in light of other Quran and hadith we should never say the hadith doesn't make sense to me or my understanding or my culture no that's irrelevant what my culture is hadith is not judged based upon my intellect the hadith is judged based upon other authentic evidences from the Quran and sunnah and it appears that the Quran and Sunnah's narrative of a Dajjal is very clearly constructed and this one hadith of the Dajjal being in some island somewhere really just throws a spanner in the entire narrative and it does make sense that and so this author Dr. Hagham Al-Tahiri says that and he goes through the chain that it's Mujalid from Al-Shaabi from Fatima and Al-Shaabi was one of the tabi'oon who would take a lot from the storytellers as well so he says it appears that this is one of those things that maybe a shaabi according to this guy maybe he took it from a story, a fable, a legend and later on people mistook it to be a hadith and Allah knows best Allah knows best but I have to say that I kind of agree with the Shaykh as well in this regard that Allah knows best and nonetheless if the hadith is authentic in the eyes of Allah if it is true then I believe it if the Prophet ﷺ said it then we believe it but the question is did he say it or not and there seems to be a big question mark on it and in my humble opinion this hadith raises more questions than it solves and there are issues with this isnad and there are issues with this matan so we say that Allah knows best but like my sheikh said something doesn't seem right about this hadith and Allah knows best inshallah we are done with today's lecture before we have a actually let's do some questions and I have an announcement on behalf of somebody. Go ahead, Bismillah. Does this mean that Mecca and Medina also not safe? As for Mecca and Medina and Dajjal not entering it, we have many narrations from other than this hadith that Dajjal will not enter Mecca and Medina. So this fact is narrated by at least six sahaba. In multiple narrations we have it. So that's not a problem. So some scholars say that Dajjal will not be able to enter Mecca and Medina when he becomes Dajjal. And Ibn Sayyad at this point in time was obviously not the Dajjal because had he been the Dajjal, you would have seen all the signs. So when the Dajjal will be born, people will not know he's the Dajjal. When he's growing up, he will not be known to be the Dajjal. so at that stage he can enter Mecca and Medina but as Dajjal he cannot enter Mecca and Medina so he will become the Dajjal one day and when that happens he will not be able to enter Mecca and Medina other questions there is no narration about that so it seems to be possible there is no narration about that of course we know that his death will be in that land in the city of Lod or laud, we know that his death will be over there, Dajjal any other question? yes, go ahead so we're not going to the whole issue of Dajjal by the way I gave a whole talk about the signs of the day of judgment I gave multi, I think five weeks lesson, and we went over all of the stories of Dajjal, did you not attend that? I think you did we went over all of the hadith of the signs of the day of judgment and the dajjal so both of his eyes are problematic one of them is not straight it's crooked the other looks like a fermented grape so both of his eyes are horrible to look at but one of them he can see and the other one is completely blind Thank you.

Seerah 94 - The Year of Delegations - Part 2 ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. doing the year of delegations. And who can remind me, when did the year of delegations begin and when did it last until? From what year to what year? So Hijrah 5 through 9, we can say is when all of the delegations arrived. So why do we call the year of delegations only the ninth year then? When the delegations came from the fifth to the ninth. Most of them came in the ninth year of the Hijrah. So that is why the ninth year of the Hijrah is called the year of delegations. and as I said for today's topic last week's maybe even next two weeks I don't know how many incidents I'm going to do myself because again this is the only time to talk about them we skipped over a lot of the delegations in the 5th, 6th, 7th year because we were eager to talk about Khandaq and Hudaybiyah and all of these big juicy things so we didn't talk about the minor delegations and frankly we don't even know the exact date and month of most of them so this is where even Ibn Ishaq and others they actually mentioned a lot of delegations that even came in the seventh year eighth year but they just put them here because it's just convenient because this is when the delegations came so we too have to go a little bit back and forth chronologically uh nonetheless it's uh at least thematic wise it makes sense to talk about all of the delegations uh today so i'm going to begin today with uh the first delegation chronologically that we're going to do so we go back to uh maybe even the seventh or 8th year of the Hijrah, and that is the delegation of the tribe of Daws, the delegation of the tribe of Daws. And this is interesting for a number of reasons. The tribe of Daws is a Yemeni tribe, and the leader of the tribe, the chieftain of the tribe, his name is Tufail ibn Amr al-Dawsi, Tufail ibn Amr al-Dawsi. And the story of Tufail ibn Amr al-Dawsi, I briefly mentioned it maybe three years ago in the Meccan era. So I'll go over it again very quickly and then talk about the delegation. Tufayl ibn Umar al-Dawsi, he is the chieftain, he is the leader of the entire tribe of Dawus. He came to perform Umrah in Mecca when the Prophet ﷺ was still being persecuted. What year is this? Maybe the seventh year of the Dawah, not Hijrah. The seventh year of the Dawah, maybe the eighth, maybe the ninth. We don't know exactly when. Towards the end, when the persecution hadn't reached the level of assassination, but it was very uncomfortable. When the Quraysh had made it a policy that anybody who comes would be warned against the Prophet ﷺ. So, when Tufayl ibn Amr arrived in Mecca, the Quraysh were very happy. He's the leader, he's the chieftain. They greeted him, they welcomed him. And then they said, careful now, one of our nephews, one of our sons, meaning one of our tribesmen, has become a magician. He's a saher. Astaghfirullah. And he is able to break the bonds between father and son, and brother and brother. Simply by listening to his speech, you become mesmerized. And Tufail said, they kept on telling me this until I became terrified of this man. So much so he said that, when I would go to the Ka'bah to present in front of the idols, I would stuff my ears with cotton, so that I don't hear anything from the Prophet ﷺ. And one day he went to present to one of the idols and he had stuffed his ears with cotton. And lo and behold, the Prophet ﷺ was praying a salah. And he was reciting Qur'an. So Tufail said, despite the cotton that doesn't block everything, I could still hear the Prophet ﷺ. And he said, I have never heard anything like this. It had an impact on me. So I began speaking to myself, reprimanding myself, that why can't you listen to him? What's the big deal? You are a smart man, you are an intelligent man, you are a poet, you are a shair. You know truth from falsehood. Listen to the man. See what he has to say. And if there's any good, then accept it. If there's not, then reject it. So he took off the cotton and he went to the Prophet ﷺ and he said, Ya Muhammad ﷺ, your people have come to me warning me against you and so for a few days I have not come to you at all but I heard you recite and I want to hear what you have to say, if it is good then so be it and if it is bad then so be it so he was an intelligent fourth word man and so the Prophet ﷺ sat him down and invited him to Islam told him what Islam is about recited the Quran to him And then after all of this Tufail embraced Islam on the spot. In fact it is said he only recited Surah Falak and Surah Nas and Surah Al-Ikhlas. Just the last three surahs. And Tufail was so mesmerized and impressed he accepted Islam immediately. And so Tufail became a Muslim in middle Mecca. The middle era of Mecca. And he said to the Prophet ﷺ, I will go back to my tribe and invite them to Islam as well. Make dua for me. So the Prophet ﷺ made dua for him and for his tribe. And this hadith is in Bukhari, this portion of it that Tufail said, make dua for my tribe. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, اللهم اهدي دوس اللهم اهدي دوس اللهم اهدي دوس Oh Allah, guide the tribe of Daws. Pause here. Some people say this dua was made in Medina. And some say this dua was made in Mecca. Because Tufail visited in Mecca and in Medina. So Tufail visited the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca. He also visited in Medina. That's why we're talking about him now. because he's gonna come as the delegation. So some historians say this dua was made in Medina. So we don't know when exactly it was made. What dua am I talking about? Allahumma hdi dawus, Allahumma hdi dawus, Allahumma hdi dawus. Three times he made dua that all of those embrace Islam. So he either made it now or he made it 10 years from now. We don't know exactly when. In any case, he did tell Tufayl ibn Amr that go back to your people and be gentle with them. Be gentle with them. Don't be too strict and harsh, be gentle with them, and maybe they will be guided to Islam. So Tufayl went back to his people, and he continued calling to Islam, and it is said that on the same day he returned, his father, his mother, his wife, they all embraced Islam, one by one. He was very beloved to his people, he was the chieftain, so his entire family embraced Islam, and slowly but surely more and more people embraced Islam, until it is said over 80 families had embraced Islam at his hands. 80 families from the tribe of Daws had embraced Islam. And Tufail made an offer to the Prophet ﷺ when he was in Mecca, that, O Messenger of Allah, why don't you come to my protected fortress? Meaning, emigrate to Yemen, emigrate to my land. And it is clear that Allah Azawajal did not give him that permission because we know that the Prophet ﷺ was looking to emigrate. So here was an offer before Medina, and our Prophet ﷺ did not take it. He did not take it because Allah did not give him permission. And Allah did not give him permission because Allah had willed for him to go to Yathrib, to Medina. So he did not go to Tufail's tribe. But still it is very significant that Tufail actually offered protection. So this is the status of Tufail ibn Amr. And then Tufail decided to emigrate to Medina. And so he came to Medina not just as a delegate but actually as an emigrant. so he wasn't just a delegation to what he came and he came back rather he actually decided to give up being the chieftain to leave his tribe and to become a muhajir to emigrate to Medina and it is easy for me to say this but I want you to imagine and visualize what this would have meant for Tufayl ibn Amr that this is not something that he is not being persecuted wherever he is he is the chieftain of his tribe he has the status and the izzah He has lineage and land So to decide to give up And Iman was so strong In the people that embraced Islam with him That many of them decided to come with him To Medina as well And so he arrived in Medina According to some reports He arrived at the battle of Khyber And according to some it was after the battle of Khyber And There was And one of the reasons why this story is so interesting And subhanallah it's really amazing For us to think about this that here is Amr ibn Tufayl having embraced Islam he asks the Prophet ﷺ to bless him to make dua for him he goes back to his people and one person converts at his hand from his tribe who was to become really one of the greatest legacies of our ummah from the tribe of Dawes from the tribe of Dawes Abu Hurairah Abdurrahman ibn Sakhar al-Dawsi so Abu Hurairah converted at his hands in Yemen and when Tufayl ibn Amal emigrated to Medina so Abu Hurairah emigrated with him so Abu Hurairah is a part of this batch that comes towards the very end in fact Abu Hurairah most likely he emigrated in the middle of the 8th year of the Hijrah so he only stayed with the Prophet ﷺ literally two years or so. That's it. But as we know, Abu Hurairah is called the preserver of the sunnah. That nobody narrated the quantity of a hadith that Abu Hurairah narrated, even though he was only with the Prophet ﷺ for around two years. And why is this? He himself explained that I had given up everything, marriage and earning a rizq. I would literally stay in the masjid without any food, without anything, just to be with the Prophet ﷺ and he himself, the story of Abu Hurairah is a very interesting one, I mean we're not gonna talk about it now but he would say that sometimes I'd be so hungry I would just ask a Sahabi a question, walking outside in the masjid having no need of the question or the answer, I know better than him but just hoping that the answer would take me all the way to his house then when I'm at the door he will offer me something, right? So this is Abu Hurairah, Abdurrahman ibn Sakhar al-Dawsi, that he narrated so many ahadith, over 5,500 ahadith are narrated by Abdurrahman ibn Sakhar Abu Hurairah. No other sahabi has that many. A few come close, Aisha, Jabir, they come to 4,000 plus. But Abu Hurairah is basically number one on this list, even though he did not accompany the Prophet ﷺ as much as the other sahaba did. but it is interesting and subhanallah all of the blessings of Abu Hurairah all of them, all of the hasanat he will get the full reward but also who else will get it Tufayl ibn Amr and that's why I keep on saying never trivialize any good deed that you do, you don't know never trivialize Tufayl ibn Amr most people have never heard of him most people have never heard of him but here he is all of the hasanat of Abu Hurairah Tufayl ibn Amr has Has a share in them Because he's the one who is guiding him to Islam So never trivialize any good deed that we do So this is the story of the The delegation of Qayy of Dawus Another very interesting delegation Is the delegation of Wael ibn Hujur And Wael ibn Hujur Now this is happening in the 9th year So chronologically we're fine As for Tufayl ibn Amr most likely is the 7th or 8th year. So it's before the 9th by a year. But Wael ibn Hujar is coming in the 9th year. So chronologically we're fine. Wael ibn Hujar was from the town of Hadramaut. Everybody knows where Hadramaut is. It is in Yemen. And Hadramaut, Yemen, as we have said many times before, Yemen was one of the few places where there were many kingdoms in Arabia. Yemen had small kingdoms, lots of little kingdoms. Maybe it was a remnants from the queen of Sheba's time that Yemen was not as tribal, it was many kingdoms. And Wael ibn Hujar, his great-grandfather was one of those kings. In fact, his grandfather was one of those kings. So he is of royal blood. He is of royal blood. And Wael ibn Hujar, in the ninth year of the Hijrah, before he came to Medina, the Prophet ﷺ announced to the Sahaba that there shall come to you Wa'il ibn Hujur, one of the Ashraf, one of the princes, if you like, of Yemen. One of the noblemen, we can say one of the princes of Yemen. There shall come to you Wa'il ibn Hujur, one of the princes of Yemen, and he is coming wanting to embrace Islam without any pressure being put on him. Meaning, راغباً فالإسلام, nobody fought him, he wants to come and embrace Islam. So this is, he's telling the Sahaba so that they can be honored. That they can honor Wa'il ibn Hujur. And so when Wael came, three days before he came, the Prophet ﷺ predicted he would be coming. And this is another of the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ. And when Wael came, the Prophet ﷺ honored him like he really hardly ever honored anybody else. In fact, it is narrated, he did something, I have not come across this in any other person. Maybe it is narrated, I haven't come across the narration. He actually brought him onto the mimbar with him. That he caused him to come up to the mimbar with him. and this is a very big honor that alongside the Prophet ﷺ there was Wael ibn Hujjah and he made him sit down on his own ridah so this was a custom of the Arabs at the time that you would honor somebody by taking off your cloak and putting it for him and then they would sit on that cloak and it is rare that the Prophet ﷺ did this he did do this for other people it is very rare so he did this for Wael ibn Hujjah and he made dua for Wael and for the children of Wael and Wael said to him He complained that my family have taken away my right from me. Meaning what? Who can tell me? The throne. The throne. This is always the case, right? Royal families, always the case. One prince fights another, and he feels himself qualified. This is the sunnah of Allah in his creation. That all princes always fight over the throne. And he feels himself qualified. And he said, my family have taken my right from me. Meaning some cousin, I don't know the details. maybe the books of history mentioned, but I didn't go down this route of who did what in the tribes of Yemen. So one of his family members has sat on the throne, and he feels, I'm the supposed to be there. So what did our Prophet ﷺ say? He said, I will give you better than that. Meaning what? Jannah through Islam. Jannah through Islam. I will give you better than that. You've given up something, I promise you better than that. Right? And so, subhanAllah, literally we can say, Islam will give you more than a king. Being a Muslim will get you more. And of course, we know this from the explicit hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that the lowest person of Jannah, the lowest person of Jannah, the Prophet ﷺ, Allah Azza wa Jalla will say to him, go ahead and wish and wish and wish and as much as he wishes, then Allah says that you have all of the riches of this world and ten times like it. No king of this world has even one-tenth of the riches. whereas the lowest person of Jannah will have 10 times the blessings of this world so imagine so this is a very beautiful hadith that literally a claimant to the king a claimant to the throne is told by the Prophet ﷺ don't worry I'll give you something better than your kingdom so inshallah every one of us that's our optimism and hope with Allah every one of us we have something better than an entire kingdom if we are faithful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and there's an interesting tidbit mentioned here and another again all of these stories all of these stories I mean if you notice each story just has its own benefit right there's nothing constant in all of these so this is an interesting tidbit that I came across about Waila bin Hujur that so he embraced Islam he accepted Islam and the Prophet ﷺ gave him the governorship of a small area of Yemen so he is of royal blood he deserves to be this so he sent the Prophet ﷺ sent with him Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan as an escort to go to that place and then set things up and then come back. So Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, we all know Muawiyah. He is going to become the Khalifa. But that is after how many years? After 45 years, after 40 years or so. He is going to become the Khalifa. So right now Muawiyah is barely 18 years old. He is a young man, fresh completely. So Muawiyah is sent with the Prophet ﷺ and sorry the procession sends him not with him and Wael is on his camel and Muawiyah is walking so he asks Wael can I ride with you and Wael he's just a brand new convert he's still upon his old ways and he says it is not befitting that someone like you rides with kings so he feels himself kingly even though technically he's not a king but hey this is what happens when you are raised in royal blood you feel this so it's not befitting I can't put you on my camel so then Muawiyah who at the time was dirt poor his shoes were very tattered so he said at least let me wear your shoes as we're walking because it's hot the stones are hot so what do you think he's gonna say it is not befitting that the shoes of the king are given to you so Muawiyah complains he says but the pebbles are hot and so Wael says take comfort from the shadow of my camel just very I mean may Allah forgive them they are sahabi but still you sense that he is now in his kingly phase and this also shows by the way Just because you convert to Islam, you don't instantaneously become mashaAllah tabarak. No, he is a Muslim now, but he's still viewing himself, you know, as... So he doesn't have the akhlaq right now of sharing and whatnot. It's gonna come, by the way, it's going to come. He becomes mashaAllah. But at this stage, now, who does Muawiyah become? The king. The first king of Islam. He is the king. Muawiyah is the king because he starts the dynasty, right? Muawiyah is the king. He's the malik. In the end of the day, you can call him a khalifa, but he is also a king. He starts a dynasty. And قَدَّرَ اللَّهُ وَعِلْ also lives a long life. Okay? You see where this is heading. And وَعِلْ is sent as a delegate to Muawiyah. And so he enters into Muawiyah, and now Muawiyah is on the throne. And وَعِلْ is now the delegate. And so, شُوفْ أُنظُرْ سُنَّةَ اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلْ See how Allah Azza wa Jal changes things around. See how Allah عز و جل this is the hikmah that Allah knows. That Muawiyah now is a 17 year old kid, then he's a 60 year old man. And of course he remembers that day. And he reminds Wael of that day. That do you remember that such and such a day when we were on that journey you didn't even give me your shoes or your camel to ride on. And Wael it says, how I wish I had done that now. The situation has turned now. Now Muawiyah has a favor over him. And he needs that favor because Muawiyah is the king. Right? And this again shows us, not that we should be so selfish, but never underestimate or trivialize who you're doing good to, how that person will turn up and end up, and when you will be able to benefit back from that. Right? You never know. Subhanallah, who could have ever imagined that at that point in time, at that point in time, it was inconceivable that the family of Abu Sufyan would somehow because Abu Sufyan is a late convert he converted grudgingly if you remember conquest of Mecca he was to the last minute not very keen and he was not rich he had blood but he didn't have money he had lineage he didn't have money nobody could ever have imagined that the kings of Yemen their status would become nothing with the establishment of the Islamic caliphate. And Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan would become, mashaAllah, tabarakAllah, who he became. And subhanAllah, look at how things changed. And by the way, so Wael ibn Hujar eventually then, during the civil war, and after this incident of beating Muawiyah, he actually decided to join the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib. And he fought at Sufyan on the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib. So Wael was one of the most significant leaders and noblemen on the side of Ali ibn Abi Talib. And also one of the reasons being that generally speaking the people of Yemen sided with Ali in the civil war. But that's a separate point. In any case, as I said, it's just an interesting point. Be careful who you don't give your favors to. Be careful who you stint you with because in the end of the day it will come back and haunt you. Okay, the big story of today, and I delayed it to the last because inshallah it is the most important story. The big story for today, and it is a story that really is the most significant of the delegations of the ninth year of the Hijrah, is the delegation from the tribe of Thaqif. The delegation from the tribe of Thaqif. We all know the tribe of Thaqif by now. The tribe of Yemen. The tribe of, sorry, Ta'if. The tribe of Ta'if. and it was the tribe that the battle of Hunayn was fought against. The battle of Hunayn and the siege of Hunayn was fought against. This is the same tribe that rejected the Prophet ﷺ. This is the same tribe that rebelled. This is the same tribe that out of the entire province of Hijaz, the only tribe that is still remaining upon paganism is the tribe of Thaqif. So, remember when the Prophet ﷺ left them, he said, let them be, they will come to us. And the Sahaba initially said, no, no, we need to fight again. When they kept on losing, then they listened to the Prophet ﷺ and they let them be. And that's exactly what happened. That eventually they realized that they needed to come back to the Prophet ﷺ and negotiate. And one of the incidents made them very scared to negotiate. And I did not mention this incident before, so we'll mention it now even though it took place in the 8th year. But I didn't mention it then, so we're gonna mention it now. Because it's related to this. their fear of coming to Medina so in the 8th year of the Hijrah when the Prophet ﷺ encircled them and put a siege on them a certain member of them embraced Islam and his story is very interesting and I glossed over it intentionally because it fits in perfectly with this issue of the year of the delegation in fact one of their most respected leaders embraced Islam and he is Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi now, I'm always embarrassed to ask you guys because you embarrass everybody including myself and yourselves when you can't answer the question who is Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi we have discussed him before Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi he has not just Ta'if because now Ta'if we're going to mention he has a central story Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi central story in the seerah one of the most beautiful narrations that when I say it you're all going to smack your head and say no, no, no, no that's Abu Basir and no anybody every one of you knows what he said, every one of you very good mashallah at least one of the sisters has redeemed you exactly, and what did he say that is so famous? Excellent. You have one phrase. Alhamdulillah. There is more. So just to refresh your memory. So Urwa ibn Mas'ud was one of the most senior noblemen of the tribe of Thaqif. And when Hudaybiyyah took place, when the Prophet ﷺ camped outside of Hudaybiyyah, he happened to be in Mecca for umrah, for business. He happened to be in Mecca. And when he saw the anger, the back and forth, he felt grieved that, again from his perspective, this is a tribal warfare between the Quraysh. He's very hurt. How could you do this? He felt grieved. So he said to the Quraysh, don't you trust me? Aren't I a son to you? Aren't I a father to you? Am I not one of you? Didn't I do? And he mentions all of the good. And this is the way that they would emphasize. And the Quraysh knew he's gonna come to the big point. So then he says, if you do this, let me go and bring some reconciliation. And Abu Sufyan and others allowed him to go. Safwan ibn Umayyah, the big guys, they allowed him to go represent the Quraysh. And this is a big deal. And it shows us his status that the Quraysh are allowing a Thaqafi guy to go and represent them. This is before Suhail ibn Amr. This is before anybody. So this is before the Qurayshis themselves come. So the final person from the non-Quraysh to go was Urwa ibn Mas'ud, a Thaqafi. and he was the one who when he was sitting in front of the Prophet ﷺ so he said you have one of two choices either you win over your own tribe and you kill them all and I don't know of any person who has destroyed his own tribe and come out the victor meaning how could you do that or they come and they fight you and then he looked around and he said something that and I don't see anybody here that is worthy of a fight I don't see anybody here whose nasab and sharaf that I know this is a bunch of riffraff hodgepodge that have come together because again from his perspective what is he seeing poor people and slaves and non-Quran different tribes this is the main point slaves is right, poor is right but even more to him is that what's combining all of these people together, nothing nothing from his perspective so he goes as soon as they see the enemy all of them will run away because they have nothing to fight under there's no banner because from his mind the only banner can be Jahiliyyah and that is Asabiya and that is tribalism right and this was when Abu Bakr gave him a very vile vulgar curse which one of the very few things I haven't talked about is that I did not even translate it out of respect one of the few things even though the controversial Shafaa mentioned, but his curse, I did not translate, because it is a vulgar and vile curse, and so I didn't even translate that by the way, I'm still not going to translate it but this is when Abu Bakr became vile with him, used a very vulgar terminology with him, so we said, how surprising is it that Abu Bakr, who is known for his softness, this is Urwa, Ibn Mas'ud Al-Thakafi, what else happened at Hudaybiyah right now, so he was stroking the beard of the Prophet ﷺ this is Urwa Ibn Mas'ud, right and his nephew his nephew Mughira Mughirah ibn Shu'aba took the scabbard and smacked him on the hand and said get your hand away from the beard of the Prophet because the Arabs had the custom of stroking the beard of a peer of a contemporary as a sign of just like relaxing and what not just like friendliness they would stroke the beard of the elders of each other so of course this adab is not befitting with the Prophet so Mughirah smacks him with the back of the sword not the hand, so he says who is that? because Mughira had his turban on and the Prophet ﷺ said don't you know this is your own nephew, Mughira was his nephew literally Mughira was the tribe of Thaqif he had accepted Islam, if you remember he had done a crime and he had murdered before Islam and he had brought the money to the Prophet ﷺ after embracing Islam with that money and the Prophet ﷺ said ask for your Islam, I accept it ask for your money, we cannot accept it because this is you have done something wrong And so his uncle said, which is Urwa said, that, oh traitor, we are still cleansing the filth that you left behind. Meaning, the problems you caused us, I still have to deal with that. Okay, so he's the one who said that. And then he said the famous line when he went back to the Quraish. Then he said that famous paragraph that wallahi is the height of eloquence that he said, I went over all of it. But remember what did he say? That I have visited the kings. I have visited Kisra and Qaisar and Najashi. Now pause here. So the fact that he's visited shows he's not just an average person. He is one of the senior leaders of the tribe of Taqir. He has been on delegations that have gone to these tribes. And I have not seen anybody who was respected more by his people than Ashab-u-Muhammadin. the ashab of Muhammad s.a.w. respected their sahaba wallahi he never spat except that they caught it he never did wudu except that they would fight over his water and they were sitting with as if they have birds on their heads meaning complete respect complete silence with their heads down in awe that when he says something they would race to see who could be the first to fulfill it and this is really interesting because the sahaba never described themselves like this this is an external person describing because they're not going to praise themselves. This is understood for them. So Urwa at the time is not a Muslim. And he is describing what he sees as a non-Muslim. I'm impressed and amazed. And this is Urwa. And by the way, other things about Urwa. So again, this is the time we talk about Urwa. So let me go into a little bit more of his biography. That Urwa is in fact referenced in the Quran directly. Well, not by name obviously, but a specific reference of Urwa. And that is in the Quran, وَقَالَوا لَوْ لَا نُزِّلَ هَذَا الْقُرْآنُ عَلَى رَجُلٍ مِّنَ الْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمٍ They said, why isn't this Qur'an revealed to one of the two great men in the two great cities? Why isn't it revealed to one of the men in the two great cities? The two great cities are Makkah and Ta'if. And the two great men are Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughira, the father of Khalid al-Walid, and our man, Urwa ibn Mas'ud. So, Khalid ibn al-Walid, the tribe of Banu Makhzum, sorry, Walid ibn al-Mughira, the sub-tribe of Banu Makhzum, he was the one who said this, that if Allah was going to reveal the Qur'an, surely He would have revealed it to me or to the other big guy. This is his philosophy. And so Allah quoted him in the Qur'an. وَقَالُوا لَوْ لَا نُزِّلَ هَذَا الْقُرْآنُ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٌ مِنَ الْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمٍ are they the ones who decide where does Allah's mercy go down but the point being that Urwa ibn Mas'ud was the one person that the people of Quraysh said look if they're gonna get the honor then this is the man who should go to so this is Urwa ibn Mas'ud and there is a very high praise for a Qurayshi to say well if the Quraysh were to come down then at least he should get it rather than this young man from his perspective Muhammad, you see the point here, right? Also he's mentioned in a hadith as well, Uro bin Masud al-Thakafi, and that is the famous hadith in Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet ﷺ went on Isra'ul-Mi'raj and he said, I saw all of the prophets, and Musa alayhi salam, I saw Musa and Musa looks like a person from the tribe of Shanu'ah the tribe of Shanu'ah the tribe of Shanu'ah is called Azd Shanu'ah and in our times for those of you familiar with this, the tribe of Ghamidi and Zahrani, this comes from Al-Shanu'a by the way the tribe of Shanu'a so he's saying Musa looks like somebody from Shanu'a what do people of Shanu'a look like? the people of Shanu'a are known for their sharp features, their aquiline nose their noses are very sharp and their skin colors typically are on the darker side I guess something like me, so their skin colors are brownish, so the Prophet ﷺ is saying that Musa resembles somebody from Shanu'a And Shenwa we said they have an aquiline nose And they also are known for their Brownish skin color And so he said Musa looks like that And he said I saw Isa ibn Maryam And the one Who resembles him the most Is Urwa ibn Mas'ud Al-Thakafi And I saw Ibrahim Who resembles him the most And the one who resembles him the most is your own companion. Means he's the carbon copy of Ibrahim a.s. So Ibrahim a.s. looks like the Prophet s.a.w. So Urwa ibn Mas'ud resembles Isa ibn Maryam. So what does Urwa look like? Because if we know what Urwa looks like, we know what Isa looks like. In fact, we know a little bit what Isa ibn Maryam has been described as. So because our Prophet ﷺ described Isa, so it's amazing. He is telling the Sahaba, if you look at Urwa, that's what Isa looks like but for us we don't know what Uru looks like correct? so we know descriptions of Isa in the hadith so by reading descriptions of Isa we can reconstruct Uru it's the opposite for us so our Prophet ﷺ has described Isa as being of broad shoulders and he's described as having glistening hair as if he's come out of a shower like his hair is glistening and he is on the lighter complexion by the way the notion that modern movies and what not have that Isa, Jesus is a western man, it's ridiculous and they know this, right? He's always Anglo-Saxon, you know white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, it's ludicrous Jesus does not look like a European, obviously Isa is a Middle Eastern Isa is Bani Israel, and so if you look at the actors that play him all the time you know, they're gonna be, I mean even they know this, that Isa could not look like this, Isa looks like a Middle Easterner because he is of the children of Ibrahim A.S., he's a Middle Easterner And so the Prophet ﷺ says, عُرْوَىٰ إِبْنِ مَسْعُودِ looks like him. And we know that he has broad shoulders, broad forehead, glistening hair. This is how he describes عِسَىٰ إِبْنِ مَرْيَم. And so عُرْوَىٰ would look something like this. Oh, by the way, in the same hadith, I forgot to mention, he said, And I saw Jibreel, and Jibreel looks the most like Dihya, Dihya al-Kalbi. And Dihya al-Kalbi was another companion who was considered to be the most handsome person in Medina. He was considered to be the most handsome man in Medina. And so he said that basically Jibreel is exceedingly handsome like Dihya al-Kalbi. In any case, this is Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi. What has he got to do with our story? So Urwa ibn Mas'ud al-Thakafi, after the siege of Ta'if and Hunayn, and this is in the Dhul-Qa'dah of the 8th year of the Hijrah. So when the procession returned back, Urwa left the city and caught up with him. Urwa left the city and caught up with him on the way back to Medina and he embraced Islam on route on the way back before even they arrived at the city he embraced Islam and the Prophet ﷺ told him to join them in Medina and he said O Messenger of Allah because at the time when you embraced Islam by and large it was expected you're gonna immigrate especially if your tribe is not a Muslim tribe so he said O Messenger of Allah, no, let me go back to my people. Let me go back to Ta'if. Now Ta'if, they've just fought a battle with them. They've just had a siege, weeks. He goes, let me go back to my Ta'if and let me call them to Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I am scared of the people of Ta'if for you that they may kill you. I mean, if they find out you're a Muslim, they may kill you. And Urwa said, Ya Rasulallah, they love me more than they love their own daughters they love me more than they love their own daughters and if they found me asleep they would not even wake me up meaning this is how much they care and love for me so this is Urwa's and wallahi this was true before Islam this was true they admired Urwa he is their leader and so the Prophet ﷺ gave him permission you wanna go back? go back and he arrived back at around Maghrib time and when his people did not know he had embraced Islam because he had done this without telling them and so when he arrived back they all came to greet him from whatever his journey was I don't know what story he gave them I don't know what he told them but they assumed he had gone on a journey and when he came back they came to greet him and so he tells them the same night that I have embraced Islam and I encourage you to embrace Islam and this is the beauty of Islam now realize this is right after the siege We're still literally in the eighth year After the siege And they flipped immediately And they cursed him And they gave him all of the worst la'nas and everything And he was distressed and distraught But he decided to remain And salatul fajr time He got up And his house was on the I mean ta'if as you know It is on a mountain So his house must have been One of the better houses on the slope of the mountain and so he got on the roof of his house maybe there was a terrace or a veranda again we're assuming all this because why else would he do this and he gave the adhan on the roof of his house to pray fajr and when he reached ash hadu an la ilaha illallah ash hadu anna muhammadur rasulullah an arrow came out of the dark and struck him so his own people executed or killed him his own people killed him and he fell down and injured himself and he was basically fatally wounded. So he's about to die. His immediate family said, what do we do about revenge and blood money? Because this was the way of the Arabs. Like we need, whoever did this will find out. And they had their ways. I mean, at the end of the day, you're gonna count the errors or whatever. They have their ways of doing it. What are we gonna do with the blood money? You tell us, it's your right now. Should we kill? Should we execute? Should we get the blood money on your behalf? And he said, nothing. this is a gift Allah has gifted me I don't want you're not gonna benefit from this Allah has chosen me to be a shaheed and this is a gift that Allah has gifted me Allah has honored me with this so you will do nothing whatsoever and you will bury me with the shaheed of the shahada of Hunayn meaning outside of the family cemetery you're gonna take me to the cemetery of the sahaba outside the city who we killed. Subhanallah, look at the change of loyalties here. He's gonna now not be buried with the family plot, with the local, and he wants to be buried with the shuhada of Hunayn. That is his last wasiyah. No vengeance, no money, and I wanna be with them. This is a blessing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given me. And when the news reached the Prophet ﷺ, he said that famous phrase, that famous phrase that all of us should be aware of. He said, this was a man who with his people was like the person of Yasin with his people. صاحب يسين مع قومه You should all know صاحب يسين. Who is the صاحب يسين in Surah Yasin? In Surah Yasin, the one who came. وَجَاءَ مِنَ الْأَقْصَنَةِ الرَّجُلِ يَسَعَ قَالَ يَقُومَ اتَّبِعُوا مُرْسَنِيَا اتَّبِعُوا مَا لَسَأَجْرُمْهُمْ تَدُونَ So he said, this is صاحب يسين. This is a quiz question you can ask. who did the Prophet ﷺ of his own Sahaba compare to Sahibu Yasin? And the response is, عُرْوَىٰ إِبْنِ مَسْعُودِ أَثَّقَفِي This is Sahibu Yasin in his time. That he invited his people to Islam, and in response his own people killed him. Now, we need to understand that this is something that is very vulgar that they did. Because it goes against every protocol that they believe in. And that is to kill one of their own. Right? this is something that is not just any murder and not just, they didn't just kill one of their own, they killed Urwa ibn Mas'ud who is, before embracing Islam, one of the most if not the most respected leader so in fact, and before we go on Subhanallah, isn't it amazing that the Prophet ﷺ knew better than Urwa even about his own people and this is because firstly, of course he is the Prophet ﷺ but secondly, there is another psychological point here and that is that when you're involved in a situation you're kind of blinded by it you're not seeing like a third party as we say sees right, and Urwa because this is his nation, his people his tribe, he's literally blinded that there's no way they would do this and our Prophet ﷺ not just because he's a surah Allah, because also it's a third party it's a neutral party, he can examine it in a bit more fair manner and he says I'm scared your people will kill you and Urwa thought no way they're gonna kill me I am who I am but subhanallah he was wrong in this regard and he was in fact killed so one needs to realize that the people of Ta'if were in fact terrified that this blood is on their hands, their guilty conscience is eating them up anyway and now they're gonna go to the process and so Ibn Ishaq mentions a long conversation between various people, we're not gonna confuse you with the names but each one of them is saying I'm not gonna go to Medina, I'm not gonna go to Medina, they're scared to go to Medina as the delegation of Taqif. Because they don't know, maybe we're gonna be called to task for the blood of our own relative. Maybe we're gonna have to be executed. Maybe this. So each one is putting it off the other until what did they decide to do? Let's all of the leaders go. Out of cowardice. So six or seven of them went. So they took a delegation. Hence the delegation of Taqif. It wasn't even just the one leader. A delegation went at least six or seven of the seniors along with their entourage, they came to Medina and this took place in Ramadan, in Ramadan of the ninth year of the Hijrah. So in Ramadan of the ninth year of the Hijrah, the tribe of Thaqif arrives and when they reached Medina, either they contacted their relative or their relative just happened to notice them the first doesn't mention. And of course their relative is Mughira. Mughira ibn Shu'ba is from the tribe of Thaqif. Remember he is the nephew of Urwa. So Mughira is rejoicing that my tribe is coming to embrace Islam. So Mughira is overjoyed. Because this is finally his tribe Thaqif coming. And they tell him that we will only embrace with conditions. We come to negotiate. This isn't just a blanket. No, we're gonna make sure we're satisfied. So Mughira is still overjoyed. Whatever, you're gonna embrace. And he rushes back to the masjid. he's literally running, literally running back to the masjid. And on the way Abu Bakr sees him. He says what's going on Mughira? And Mughira says the tribe of Thaqif has come. And I want to give the Bashara to the Prophet ﷺ. And Abu Bakr says I ask you by Allah, let me give the Bashara to the Prophet ﷺ. And so it's Abu Bakr asking. And so Mughira gave it over to him. And this shows us how much the Sahaba were eager to gain the favor of the Prophet ﷺ. Because when you give somebody good news, you bring happiness to the person and they wanted to be the person to bring happiness to the Prophet ﷺ. So Abu Bakr when he heard this, he asks, I'll ask you by Allah, oh Mughirah, please, oh please, let me be the one. And really it's Abu Bakr, what would we say? Because Abu Bakr deserves that respect and everything. So Mughirah gave up that honor and he handed it to Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr rushed back to the masjid and said that, Ya Rasulullah, the tribe of Thaqif is here to embrace Islam. And the Prophet ﷺ was overjoyed and asked that they be brought in. So Mughira went back to give them the news and he taught them the protocol. This is what you do, this is how you say, Assalamu alaikum. You address him by saying, Ya Rasulullah. So he teaches him the proper protocol. And this shows us as well that, you know, just like in any dignitary or whatnot, you are taught. So the Sahaba taught the delegations. But the Saqif completely ignored every protocol. And they treated him according to the manners of Jahiliyyah. They did not say Salam. They addressed him by his name. So basically, you can tell that they are not coming with the submission that, let's say, the others we have just mentioned come with, right? They have in their hearts great reluctance. And so they ignored all of the protocol. And they greeted him with the greeting of Jahiliyyah. And they addressed him by his first name. And all of this demonstrates that as right now, Iman is not yet in their hearts. And the Prophet ﷺ ignored all of this. And wallahi this is of his karam and his akhlaq. That our Prophet ﷺ never took anything personally. Even though it was the height of disrespect. Wallahi the height of disrespect. That they know, you're supposed to say, As-salamu alaykum. And you don't say, what is it? An-im sabahakum. What is it? The jahil. What is it? the jahili greetings this is not anymore Islamic and you don't greet him by his name Allah says in the Quran don't greet the Prophet ﷺ like you greet yourself this is a verse in the Quran yet they ignored all of this and even the protocols and mannerisms of shaking all of this they brought nothing to do with Islam our Prophet ﷺ literally ignored everything and he treated them as if they were honorable guests And he in fact ordered that a special guest tent be built for them inside the masjid. Inside the masjid, they be given, so this double shelter. So typically they would be housed somewhere else. Inside the masjid, a tent is erected for them. And then began a series of negotiations. Lasted many days, at least 10 days. Back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And obviously we don't have all of the details, but what we do have, it's pretty interesting. So, one of the senior members of the Quraysh, a distant cousin of the Prophet ﷺ, his name is Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-'Ath, he's a Qurayshi. He was chosen to be the emissary, because the way that the Jahili Arabs did it, and I'm assuming maybe even to this day it happens, that the two presidents don't actually meet until there's a dialogue at the lower level, right? So Khalid ibn Sa'id is chosen to be the emissary, the one who's going, dialoguing, and coming back and forth. And it is said that, and Khalid ibn Sa'id is from the side of the Quraysh obviously, but he's the one who's the middle man, going back and forth, from the tent to the Prophet ﷺ, back to the tent to the Prophet ﷺ. And it is even said that they were so worried about their situation and status, that they thought their food might be poisoned. And they never ate anything until Khalid ibn Sa'id ate in front of them first. So they're paranoid because this is guilty conscience. After all that they've done, after the siege of Taif, after the killing of their own Urwa ibn Mas'ud, they're feeling so guilty, so they're demanding every meal that was brought to them, Khalid has to eat first in front of them, so he doesn't keel over and die. Then they'll eat from that meal. And the Prophet ﷺ treated them the most generously. So they began the negotiation saying, can we have a treaty or not? Is it possible after all that we've done basically? can we have a treaty or not? and so the Prophet ﷺ said, yes if you embrace Islam, we can have a treaty but if there is no Islam then there is nothing to discuss you are here, you have to understand you have to embrace Islam and then we can discuss treaty if you do not embrace Islam then go back and we will basically fight you so the ultimatum is given that you have to embrace Islam and so back and forth they go and they ask the Prophet ﷺ that we have heard that riba is not allowed. Shoof, they're interested in money, the first and first thing, you know. Like riba, they're worried now. Like if we embrace this religion, we're going to have to give up our money. Right? And the Prophet ﷺ said, Allah Azza wa Jal has forbidden riba. And he quoted them the verse in the Qur'an. So they said, but all of our money is in riba. All we get, all of our profit in riba. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, لَكُمْ رُؤُسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ You get back your principle. you get back the amount that was the original so they talk they discuss and then they send another question they said how about zina we have to travel a lot and we are merchants and we go to cities and we need to do zina so the response comes back that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has forbidden zina right it is a fahisha and a bad thing to do and so they talk, they discuss then the third question, what do you think the third one is gonna be? alcohol, khamr right, that's exactly it they said we have, you have to let us drink khamr we can't give up khamr because, well firstly Ta'if was known for its grapes, right grapes and wines, so he said this is our we are cultured our culture to drink and it's a cold climate I mean you have to make an exception for khamr they're getting desperate now and so Allah the Prophet ﷺ sends back the verse in the Quran يَا يُولَدْنَا إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِ وَالْأَنصَامِ رِجْرُتُ مِنْ عَمَرِ شَيْطَانِ فَاشْتَنِبُوا لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِعُونَ no you can't drink khamr I can't give you an exception to drink khamr so they conferred with one another and one of them said and again all of these names are mentioned but I don't want to confuse with them one of them said that wallahi we will not go back to our people and tell them that riba and zina and khamr has been prohibited and no way they're gonna embrace this from us. There's just no way this is gonna happen. And this is something that it is very difficult to imagine when there is no iman in the heart. How will you give up these things? It is the one thing that prevents you from these things is iman in the heart. So one of their leaders said, there is no way that our people will accept a lifestyle without any khamr and zina and riba. How is that gonna happen? then another one said but what is the alternative for wallahi if we go back and he sends another army we have less than a month and we're gone so in other words they understand so the tribe of taqif did not embrace islam you know how to put this like willingly they kind of sort of they have no option other than to leave arabia i mean they're not being forced by the sword because nobody in the world has ever been by the process and been forced by the sword. But if they don't want to embrace Islam, they're gonna have to leave everything and go find land somewhere else. So the other one says, what's the alternative? And to console them he says, well after all, look at the other people around him. Didn't they give up riba and zina and khamr? i.e. look at the sahaba. And wallahi, isn't this beautiful? That if they can do it, so can we. That really shows us the psychology of having a good ummah. that when a new convert comes he sees you know what all of these people are doing I can do it too so one of them says look we know these people they used to also be involved in riba and khamr and zina now look at them they're living fine so if they can do it then so can we so they negotiate and they say okay I guess we'll have to accept these three things but then they forgot to ask about the biggest matter far more important than khamr and sharab and zina and that is that is they are the people of taqif that is idol worship who is their idol? Allah so then they ask the question after this and look at mankind is so weak the first thing he's worried about is his stomach and his shahawat that's what he's thinking about when they figure out we're gonna have to give that up then they ask the question about but how about our idol and the Prophet ﷺ said it shall be destroyed there's just no question so they said and they understood this, so they said okay, give us three years three years to acclimatize so the Prophet ﷺ said no you don't get three years, go back send the emissary back, okay two years no, go back come back one year, no twelve months, eleven, all the way down to one month, I mean they're negotiating that we want some time this is a very big deal, because for them Allah was the most prestigious Now, Allah was the second most prestigious God in all of Arabia. Right? After Hubal and what not, He's the second most prestigious God. So, and there's a source of pride for them. So, no, you don't get any compromise. It must be destroyed. So then they sent back the emissary that, we cannot destroy it. So the Prophet ﷺ said, you don't have to. We'll take charge of that. Okay? And they agreed to this then. and so later on the Prophet ﷺ sent Al-Mughira who is their own nephew Al-Mughira and Abu Sufyan and we'll get to the story in a while and so they were sent to do that then they were told that they have to pray and what not the arcane of Islam and so they began negotiation with that and they said we cannot believe it or not they said we cannot bow our backs down It's a cold weather and what not We cannot do ruku' So like they don't want anything to do Every single thing So it's difficult for us to bow our backs down And so can you Forgive us for the salah No salah And our Prophet ﷺ said La khayra li deen And la salah tafeehi There is no good in any religion That has no salah in it There is no religion without salah I mean there is no such thing as being a Muslim and not praying and by the way we're having a simultaneous class on Tuesday about we're actually discussing this very issue right now what is the ruling of the status of salah and in fact next Tuesday we'll talk about this very issue so those of you attending the Tuesday class we're doing this example right here what did our Prophet ﷺ say لا خير في دين الله صلاة في there is no خير eliminated there's no good in a person whose religion does not tell him to pray Prayer is the essence of being a Muslim Of being any religion So if you don't have salah You don't have any religion So then they said Okay, forgive us from wudu Because Ta'if gets very cold Very cold So it's through So once again the Prophet did not allow them to do To get out of wudu Now here is where an interesting bit comes And this is a huge fiqh discussion Which unfortunately I'm not going to go into They then said, okay then, forgive us from zakat and jihad. Forgive us from zakat and jihad. And here is where the Prophet ﷺ said, okay, you are forgiven from zakat and jihad. But then when they left a few days later, the Prophet ﷺ said, they shall give zakat and they shall go for jihad. okay now this is a huge discussion now what exactly has happened here because we understand all the other things there is no compromise especially with Tawheed you can't one month one week no there is no compromise but what is the understanding of saying okay no jihad and no zakat and then the Prophet ﷺ saying they shall give zakat and they shall. One of two interpretations. The first interpretation is that the Prophet ﷺ simply said this knowing that when Iman enters their heart, they will automatically do that. Okay? And according to this then, what the Prophet ﷺ is doing is special only to him. No other person or leader can make such a condition. because he knows Allah has told them in the future that go ahead and they'll accept Islam because after all did they not really accept Islam their descendants are mashaAllah tabarak Allah practicing Muslims so they accepted Islam so maybe this was a prediction of the future that it was just an exception given to them simply because Allah knew that Iman would enter their heart and they would then willingly give zakat and willingly go for jihad. This is the first interpretation. In which case, okay, it's a one-off. But the second interpretation is that the imam or the leader, by imam we mean the political leader, has the right to accept incorrect conditions for new Muslims. He has the right to accept these conditions for a temporary period of time and then later on enforce real Islam on them. So, do we understand this particular incident, especially with the zakat and the jihad, as being something theological or something legal? If it's theological, Allah told the Prophet ﷺ, there's nothing we can do, it's something specific to them. If it's legal, if it's a precedent, what this means is, now this does not apply to us here in America, any other land, because the law of the land is not Islam. So that doesn't come. But suppose, in a theoretical, hypothetical Islamic state, A group came and said, we shall embrace Islam, but we have a condition. And that condition goes against Islam. This is the fiqh issue here. Does the leader have the right to accept this condition? Here's what the scholars differ. That's what I'm saying, right? You are saying, no, some scholars have said yes. Based on this. It's okay because in the end of the day, we know historically speaking, and this is true, that eventually everybody who embraces Islam starts living an Islamic lifestyle from the heart. So even if we give them some conditions in the beginning that we wouldn't give to a Muslim, it's okay because we just want to get his heart into Islam. And here's the point. We, from our perspective, Islam of course, because Islam is the truth, it's okay to bribe people with these types of incentives. Because we know that eventually Iman will come into the heart. And I've given many examples of this before. Now this doesn't quite apply to us fiqh wise however. Let me just say on a practical note that in the west, when a non-Muslim comes and expresses an interest in Islam, and he or she is doing things or saying things that are not fully Islamic, we should be ultra lenient. Ultra, ultra, ultra lenient. And emphasize that which is the most important and overlook, don't justify the haram. Don't say, yeah, it's okay to take drugs, let's say. But just cut them a million times more slack than we would cut a Muslim. Why? because iman is still very weak it's just a glimmer it's just faint you want to let iman grow in the heart and by being harsh and strict and being 100% everything sharia enforced you're gonna turn the person away end of story whereas bring them into the fold have them come to the masjid read the quran listen and then when the iman grows in the heart then inshallah ta'ala they themselves will go on and become better Muslims and even if they don't for them to be a Muslim with this sin whatever the sin might be is a million times better than for them to not embrace Islam and there are so many examples a spouse converts and this other spouse does not suppose a female wants to convert and she's married and her husband does not want to convert I mean what are you going to tell her then oh well if you embrace Islam you're going to have to leave your husband I'm sorry I mean she's got three kids it's not going to happen except if her iman was already mashaAllah so strong cut them some slack you don't have to bring up this point use your wisdom and to be honest even in this issue there is even an opinion that says that if a non-Muslim lady converts to Islam and this is different than a Muslim lady marrying a non-Muslim by unanimous consent is never allowed but there is an opinion that if a couple is a non-Muslim couple and the lady, if the man converts it's not a problem because he's allowed to be married to a Christian or Jew If the lady converts, according to one opinion, the marriage is still halal. Because she didn't begin the nikah as a Muslim. And this is different than continuing the nikah as a Muslim. In any case, even if you say that this opinion is not correct, now is not the time to bring it up. Or any other issue. I mean people, they might even have bizarre theological beliefs, let's say. They might not fully have 100% Islamic beliefs. So, might be very common, for example. Oh, the story of Adam and Eve is a fable, he will say. I don't believe in this story. Allah is just telling a fable. That's okay, you know, for Allah, but I don't believe in it. We are, you know, believing in evolution, let's say. Okay, if he believes this at this stage, let him pray, let him understand the sanctity of the Qur'an, let him embrace Islam. Then later on, inshaAllah ta'ala, let him come back to this issue, right? We don't have to be 100% strict. And that is something we can clearly derive from this story. that you know what okay some little bit of compromise let them go ahead and inshallah when Iman comes then they will do it so our Prophet ﷺ said they shall go and do jihad they shall go and give zakah now it is mentioned that oh they stayed here 15 days by the way Ibn Ishaq mentions they stayed in Medina for 15 days and they embraced Islam eventually after all of this probably around the 10th day they embraced Islam when did they come remind me when did they come to Medina Ramadan so what's happening right now fasting and so they actually fasted with the Prophet ﷺ and they had iftar and suhoor with the Muslims so they were iftar and suhoor in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and Bilal would bring them the iftar and their suhoor and interesting it is said that the first day they fasted so they've been told the rulings of fasting so when they brought suhoor they said oh we can't eat the sun has already risen and Bilal says I have just come and the Prophet ﷺ is eating now and then when they brought their iftar they said no not yet the sun has not yet set and Bilal says I have come to you only after the Prophet ﷺ broke his fa'a meaning what our Prophet ﷺ would delay the suhoor and expedite the iftar you could see the redness you could see the brightness and these new Muslims they are trying to be extra cautious that oh but the sun hasn't set but we know that of course in the sharia literally when the disc disappears, that's when we break the fast. And you can still see the brightness of the sun. But when the disc disappears, that's when we break the fast. So they felt that it was too early. Interesting, a first day fast if you like. It is also known that the youngest member of their congregation, his name was Uthman ibn Abil As, the youngest member, that he in fact embraced Islam before the group. And he would spend most of his time outside the tent. the seniors were in the tent he would spend most of his time outside the tent and he would sit with the Prophet ﷺ memorizing the Qur'an and he would sit with Abu Bakr ﷺ studying how to pray and what not so he was the most eager of them for Islam so when they were about to leave Abu Bakr ﷺ suggested to the Prophet ﷺ why don't you make Uthman ﷺ their leader so the Prophet ﷺ agreed to this so the youngest one amongst them he was Uthman ﷺ was made their leader because he was the most eager for the Qur'an and because he was most eager for Islam so this shows us how the Quran he had memorized some surahs in the 15 days he becomes the one who knows some surahs and some fiqh so he is raised to the level of the leader and the final point I know we're running a little bit late but I need to finish off the story of the tribe of Thaqif so the tribe returns back and they basically announced to their people that guys we need to embrace Islam you know there's no option here that was the part of the rules we have to embrace Islam So you can imagine they're not too keen and happy. Our Prophet ﷺ sends al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba and Abu Sufyan to destroy Allah, to destroy the idol. And some of the works of Sira mention a very interesting story that I'm sure will tickle you as it tickled me as well when we first read it. And this story is not mentioned in Ibn Ishaq by the way. mentioned in Ar-Rawda Al-Anf and other later books of Sira, that Al-Mughira seems to be a bit of a jokester, a prankster okay, Al-Mughira is a bit of a, you know, that type of person we all have mashallah, where is our he's not here see, without even mentioning the name you see, automatically so he's one of those types of people and so, he says to Abu Sufyan, do you want me to play a joke on them you want to play a prank, so Abu Sufyan says, yeah of course, go ahead, who doesn't like a joke so now imagine he's going to destroy the idol now what do you think the people are thinking something bad is gonna happen something bad is gonna happen because you're destroying our idol so all the people are gathered around and they're like tense now they know the idol has to be destroyed because the force of the state is with them the Prophet ﷺ basically they cannot do anything this is part of the conditions so they're all tense there's women are crying the elderlies are doing the wailing what not you know and he takes his axe and he smacks it but as soon as he smacks it he yells out loudly and he falls down on his face and the tribe goes wild with what happiness right look what happened didn't we tell you this and that right and when the whole tribe is now like you know saying this and that he then jumps up and he goes you fools and he goes and he starts cursing them and Wadlah goes I did this to show you how foolish you are so he basically is this Islamic or not what not Allah knows but he did this with them and he called them and what not I just wanted to mock you and what not and he destroyed it in front of their eyes one hit after another and the what would you call the priest or the the chief, the shaman, whatever you want to call him. The guy who's in charge of the idol. You don't call him a priest, but I guess the shaman would be the term here, I don't know. The one in charge of the idol got so angry that he said, when you get to the base of the idol, you will see the earth will swallow you up. Because he's now like... These people really believe in the idol. They really believe in the idol. And so he goes, just to show you, I will not stop until I destroy down to the ground. and he continued to do this until there was nothing left absolutely of allat down to nothing was left and the Prophet ﷺ sent a message to Uthman ibn Abil As the leader now he's now the leader of the tribe that you're going to build a masjid where allat stood and so to this day there is a masjid in that place where they would worship allat and all of the treasures of the sanctuary because it was the habit and custom of the Arabs and of all pagans by the way of all pagans their temples are full of exotic items their temples even to this day if you go to India or you know the temples of the Buddhists or the temples of the Hindus their temples the big ones are full of very fancy items that have been donated money I mean what do the pagans do they go to their idols and they leave food of course the food is eaten mashallah by the people who pretend to take care of the idols. But they also leave money and they leave gold and silver. So after a while, every temple becomes like a bank. It's like a fortress, like a multi-million dollar. And this is allat. And so all of that money was taken and given to the Baytul Mal for the Prophet ﷺ who then distributed it to the fuqra and masakin. And so this was the end of the paganism of the tribe of Thaqif. And they eventually accepted Islam wholeheartedly exactly as the Prophet ﷺ said and eventually they gave the zakah and they went for jihad and that is the story of the delegation of Thaqif inshallah we will continue more stories of the delegations next Wednesday bithnillahi ta'ala any quick questions? yes so we cannot so once the temple has been conquered by Daulul Islam the situation is very different this is now literally the temple is now belonging to the Baytul Maal but Islamically speaking if food has been donated to an idol and we have not conquered the temple so that food is haram for us to eat because it is وَمَا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ it has been consecrated and given to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so if we were to come across such food we would give it to the animals that we should not be eating food that has been dedicated to the false gods okay this is what the Quran is very explicit about any animal that has been slaughtered or given to other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala it is haram for us to eat yes no, today I was reading as much as the Karbala Ulwa and I could not find any one cause that caused him to flip but it is obvious that his seeing Hudaybiyah and the Sahaba around the Prophet ﷺ had an impact on him, it's obvious and why didn't he convert at that time I mean, Islam comes slowly. Islam comes slowly. And there must have come a point where he goes, okay, now I know Islam to be true. So I don't know exactly why he came to that. Yes, in the back, go ahead. Go ahead. Surah Az-Zumur, isn't it? Surah Az-Zumur. وَلَوْ لَأَن يَكُونَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً لَجْعَلْنَا Zuhruf. Zuhruf. لَجْعَلْنَا لِمَيَكُمْ رَبَحْنَا لِبُوتِهِمْ Yes, Zuhruf. Surah Zuhruf. Surah Zuhruf. It is on the second page at the bottom right hand side. In the Madani Mus'haf. The third page. The third page on the bottom right hand side. Okay. I don't know the ayah number. I do not know the ayah number. But it is Surah Zuhruf. I will look it up for you right now It is on the second page On the bottom of the right hand side Ayah number 20 Okay InshaAllah with that we will conclude today's Khater or Khulam halaqa We'll continue next week inshaAllah Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Thank you.

Seerah 95 - The Year of Delegations - Part 3 ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. third and final installment of the section about the delegations of the Prophet ﷺ and to be honest I could have done one more section but the fact of the matter is that as you can see these are all small stories put together and each one might have one or two benefits and then if I were to do another one it would really just be a list of tribal names and it's I realize that perhaps it's better that we just mention the most important and that's what I've done the last two and today as well inshallah we'll mention the more important delegations but please be aware that the books of seerah have listed collectively over 110 delegations by name the bulk of them we don't know anything other than this delegation came that's it and then the ones that are more interesting I've given you some stories here and there and today inshallah we'll finish up with another 6 or 7 delegations and we'll begin with one of the more bizarre ones and definitely a unique one in its own case and that is the delegation from the tribe of Banu Hanifa. The delegation from the tribe of Banu Hanifa and the leader of Banu Hanifa was Musaylimah Al-Kadhab. So no doubt this is one of the more bizarre and interesting delegations. Musaylimah Al-Kadhab, his name is actually Musaylimah Ibn Habib and Musaylimah was a relatively old man, maybe in his late 60s, maybe even early 70s. So he was a Christian and his tribe was a Christian tribe. And he had in his younger years gone to Jerusalem to study Christianity. So he had learnt Latin and he had taken on the customs of the Romans. So you can imagine that such a person when he comes back to his people, how will he be viewed? So his people gave him a lot of respect and he continued to rise in power more and more and more. until when Islam came, you can imagine him to be an elderly man who now has the respect of the entire region of Yamama. And Yamama is up north central in Arabia. And as we had said, up north where the Christians typically were. And Musaylim ibn al-Kadhab, Musaylim ibn al-Habib, who is later called Musaylim al-Kadhab, his arrogance got the better of him. After being respected for so long in his tribe, he couldn't imagine now giving that up and becoming subservient to another person. And so when the delegation arrived, and remember the purpose of the delegates was to sometimes negotiate. Not to embrace Islam, but to negotiate. And we mentioned already a few that had negotiated. So the Banu Hanifa did not plan to submit. And by the way, the Banu Hanifa were the largest and the worst of the Murtad tribes in the time of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. The Ahl al-Ridda, the groups that rejected Islam, the largest and the worst and the most problematic were the Banu Hanifa. And they, as we had, gonna mention today, actually had an interaction with the Prophet ﷺ. So, Musaylimah, as he saw his tribe split amongst the lines of Islam, because remember Islam was spreading across Arabia. He felt more and more anger. And one of the noblemen of his tribe converted and his sub-tribe of that converted. We talked about this nobleman. I'm not gonna quiz you, I'm not gonna ask you the name. I'm sure if I were to, then you would not remember immediately. But we discussed his story in a lot of detail. That is Thumama ibn Athal, the chieftain from Najd, who was also from the Banu Hanifa. Remember the one who was tied in the masjid for three days. And he was captured completely accidentally. Completely accidentally. He just happened to be going for Umrah. And when the Prophet ﷺ asked him, what do you have? What is your option? What do you want to do? So he gave that eloquent and tinge of arrogance, but also dignity in his response, that, إِن تَقْتُلْ تَقْتُلْ ذَا دَمٌ If you're gonna kill, you're gonna kill somebody whose blood is very weighty. وَإِن تَعْفُوهُ That if you forgive, then you're gonna forgive somebody who is kareem. and if you want money, ask whatever you want and you will ask the one who has plenty so he said, I have three options you wanna kill me, you wanna free me you wanna ransom me, whatever you want, here I am and then after the third day the Prophet ﷺ said, let him go and in those three days he saw Islam, he saw the Salah the Qur'an, so he embraced Islam and then he went to Mecca and he said that I will never allow the Quraysh wheat and other goods until the Prophet ﷺ allows me, this is Thumama ibn Athal Thumama ibn Athalis from the same tribe Banu Hanifa he was another nobleman and therefore the tribe of the Banu Hanifa like all the other tribes some of them are converting some of them remain upon their religion so Musaylimah said to his people that if the Prophet ﷺ gives me power after his death then I shall follow him otherwise I won't follow this is my condition if he allows me to be the next in charge and he shares with me in prophethood like Musa shared with his brother Harun he has to also make me a prophet then I will become a follower of his and we will embrace the faith and the books of Sira mention his followers brought him into the masjid and they were shielding him with fancy cloths meaning he is entering like a king basically a procession in our times you can imagine they have all of these banners and everything so already Thumama sorry not Thumama, Musaylimah he is being treated with such reverence, we can imagine this got to his head over the course of his lifetime, and wallahi this is one of the biggest problems of power, that once you taste it, really you get a little bit in your head, you know you literally think people owe you something and you think you are all that and this is really what got to Musaylimah, that now that he was so venerated, he couldn't imagine giving that up. So, his point was, only if you share with me what you have, and you claim I'm also a prophet, then we will share this matter with you. So you can see from the very start, even before he declared himself to be a prophet, that in his heart, he already had this in his mind. So, he literally, he had the audacity, and he was the first of the false prophets. He was the first of the false prophets. And our Prophet ﷺ predicted in the famous hadith that after my death you shall see 30 dajjaluna kathabun. 30 dajjals that are liars. And the worst of them will be al-Masih ad-dajjal. Otherwise before them there will be 30 other dajjalun. The first of them was Musaylimah. And he had the audacity right to the face of the Prophet ﷺ to say to him that if you make me, you're in charge after you and you share with me in your prophethood, then I will follow you. And the Prophet ﷺ was amongst the sahaba and he had in his hand a branch from one of the tree. And you know, you just have it in your hand, you just, you know, whatever it's just human nature to hold something. And so, he picked up this branch and he said that, wallahi if you ask me for this stick, I wouldn't even give this to you. You're saying you want to be the command after me? You want this stick which is for free, it's not worth anything I would not give this to you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will deal with you and humiliate you and I am certain that you are what Allah showed me, meaning the dream that Allah showed me, you are the fulfillment of the prophecy that Allah had warned me about Ibn Abbas many years later he asked Abu Hurairah, what was that dream that the Prophet ﷺ referenced, Ibn Abbas at the time was barely 12 years old Ibn Abbas his knowledge came after the death of the Prophet ﷺ that most of his knowledge came second hand even though he was alive but he's not in the thick of things so as an older man he asks Abu Hurairah what was the dream the Prophet ﷺ referenced so the Prophet ﷺ Abu Hurairah said I heard the Prophet ﷺ say that once when I was sleeping this hadith is in Bukhari by the way once when I was sleeping I saw myself wearing two bracelets of gold and of course it's haram to wear bracelets of gold so there's something wrong with what is this. So the Prophet ﷺ is saying that, and I felt disturbed at this. I shouldn't be wearing this. I felt disturbed at this. So it was inspired to me in the dream, blow on these bracelets. So I blew on them, and they broke off and went away from me. So they departed from the Prophet ﷺ. So I interpreted them to be two false liars after me. so each bracelet represents a false slayer, an irritation, a nuisance each one pretending or claiming to be a decoration from me but they are not, they are trying to be a prophet along with me, they are not, and the first of them will be the one who is from the tribe of Anas and Anasi from Sana'a, and this is Talha ibn Ubaidah al-Anasi we maybe talk about it afterwards, so there was one who claimed Talha and the second will be Musaylama from Al-Yamama. So when Al-Musaylama came, so the Prophet ﷺ said, you are the one whom Allah warned me about. That you are the one that I saw in the dream. And his story is well known that after he returned to his community, he wrote a letter to the Prophet ﷺ. And of course I'm quoting the letter and the one who quotes kufr is not kufr. So he said, from Musaylama Rasulullah to Muhammad Rasulullah. look at the arrogance of this man that from Musaylimah Rasulullah to Muhammad Rasulullah that As-Salamu Alaika know that I have been placed in this matter alongside you now if he didn't give it if the Prophet ﷺ didn't give it, it didn't matter I'll place myself alongside you that I have been placed in this matter alongside you and the Quraysh have half of the matter and I have the other half but the Quraish are a people that go beyond transgression they go beyond the bounds and the Prophet ﷺ two of his messengers came to deliver the letter and the Prophet ﷺ said to these two men what do you say about Musaylimah so they said we are upon what the letter says we believe him to be Rasulullah and so the Prophet ﷺ said لَوْلَأَنَّ الرُّسُولَ لَمْ تُقْتَلْ were it not for the fact that ambassadors and envoys are not harmed and killed that I would have executed you because this is riddah, this is kufr this is not, there's two types of kufr there's the kufr that is al-kufr al-asli or the regular kufr and this is the kufr of the kafir you're a non-muslim, you're a kafir then there's the kufr of riddah and beyond the line such as claiming to be a false prophet this is a kufr that the sharia will of course execute in its domain and so the Prophet ﷺ said were it not for the fact that you are an envoy, an ambassador. And the rule is that ambassadors are not executed or killed or harmed. I would have had the two of you executed. And of course this shows us many things. Of them is that, yes there is a protocol that is obeyed in the world. And this protocol transcends any religion. And that protocol is ambassadors. And to this day, what is diplomatic immunity? The UN, every country gives diplomatic immunity to all of the ambassadorial staff, the staff that works on behalf of another country. It is in the mutual benefit. And this shows us that there are laws that yes, even though they don't emanate in the sharia, but the sharia will approve of them. And of these laws is diplomatic immunity. And this is exactly what the Prophet ﷺ said. and Musaylimah to the best of my knowledge he was the first human being ever not only to declare himself to be a prophet but to attempt to imitate the Quranic style and that's a whole different topic altogether that maybe Allah knows it's a little bit advanced topic but he has some bizarre statements and there's no haraj in narrating some of his ridiculous statements that he considered to be the Quran and everything that is narrated from him, he is trying to imitate verses from the Quran. So he hears the Quran, then he tries to embody the language of the Quran. So he has a surah that imitates surah al-kawthar, that, إِنَّ أَعْطِيْنَاكَ الْجَوَاهِرُ فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ وَهَاجِرُ إِنَّ مُغِضَكَ ذَا رَجُلٌ كَافِرٌ That it translates as something that, we have given you decorations, or bangles or something, you know. We've given you, you know, precious pearls, precious materials. إِنَّا أَعْطِنَاكَ الْجَوَاهِرِ فَصَلَبِكَ وَهَاجِرَ Pray to your Lord and pray early especially. Make sure you pray early. Verily the one who hates you, meaning مُسَيْلَمَةً, he is a kafir. So he's taking Surah Al-Kawthar and he twists it around and he tries to make something out of it. And of course, one of his most ridiculous ones, which is narrated by every single book that mentions him Ibn Ishaq and Al-Tabarani and everything Ya Dufda' bintu Dufda'in O toad, daughter of two toads okay, talking about a toad or a frog Ya Dufda' bintu Dufda'in Naqqi kama tunakqeen that continue to purify so they would believe in those days that the toads purify the water this was the custom the belief that they had the myth that toads somehow purify the water So go ahead and continue to purify what you are purifying. لَلْمَاءُ تُكَدِّرِينَ Neither do you make the water dirty. وَلَلشَّارِبُ تَمْنَعِينَ Nor do you prevent the one who drinks to drink. رَأْسَكِ فِي الْمَاءِ وَذَنَبَكِ فِي الطِّينِ Your head is in the water and your tail is in the mud. This is his surah, surah al-dhifda. This is the chapter of the frog. And this is something, again, it's narrated in all the books. And he also has surah al-fil, by the way. which is the most bizarre of all of them. الفيل مالفيل وما أدراك مالفيل له ذنب وبيل وخرطوم طويل And it goes on and on. That الفيل مالفيل وما أدراك مالفيل It has an amazing tail and a long snout. And it just goes on and on. So it is narrated that one of the Arabs that was passing by in his time, passing through his tribe. So he asked Musaylim, are you to our prophet? yes, do you have anything like the other prophet has meaning the Quran, so he said yes I have the Quran so he recited to him alfeelum alfeelum madraakum alfeel so this Arab said that wallahi innaka lata'lamu anni a'lamu annaka kathim that wallahi you know that I know you're a liar, meaning you know that I know, you're convincing somebody that you know that I'm not gonna be convinced and I know that you're a liar in this And this is a testimony of somebody who at the time was not even a Muslim. That you expect me to believe this ridiculousness. And in any case, Musaylimah eventually of course was killed in the wars of Ridda. And of course we should all know who killed Musaylimah Al-Kadhab. This is something all of us should know, I hope. Wahshi. Wahshi was the one who killed Musaylimah Al-Kadhab. Because he wanted to atone for what he had done. And so Wahshi was the one who, he literally took the same javelin and goes, I'm gonna make up for this. And he then executed Musaylimah Al-Kathab. So this is the story of the Banu Hanif, a very interesting, bizarre story. And of course he was the first of many other false prophets. Notice, up until the coming of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the Arabian Peninsula had never heard of a figure who called himself a prophet. It was an unknown phenomenon. and if you remember Heraclius when he was questioning Abu Sufyan one of the questions he asked a list of 20 questions remember one of the questions that is this a common thing you guys have prophets appearing everywhere and they said no we had never heard of this we never heard of a prophet and the Quran says that they ask you what is a prophet right so they said what is a prophet so the concept of a prophet was something not known to the Arabs This is something Judeo-Christian tradition had. But the children of Ismail did not have any tradition of this nature. However, with the coming of the Prophet ﷺ and his success, all the copycats came, right? All of the copycats began after the success of the Prophet ﷺ. There was another interesting story as well. And this is from one of the tribes of Azd. And this is a miracle that happened. again the point is each of these small stories has a little bit of tidbit here and there so one of the tribes of Azd Azd is one of the large tribes of Yemen one of the tribes of Azd came and accepted Islam and the Prophet ﷺ put in charge of them one of the Sahaba his name is As-Surat Ibn Abdullah Al-Azdi and he gave him the task of conquering a neighboring tribe that was still pagan so he said go and conquer this tribe and that tribe was called simplicity is equal just say the tribe of Jura The tribe of Juras. Now, it so happened the tribe of Juras, so don't get confused, there's the tribe of Az, who is now Muslim. Then there's a tribe, we'll call them Juras, even though their name is more complicated. The tribe of Juras sent two envoys to Medina to gauge the pulse of the Prophet ﷺ. Would he accept a truce or not? They're not Muslim. So the tribe of Juras sends two envoys. In the meantime, when the envoys are on the way, has already told the tribe of Uz to attack the tribe of Juras. Clear? Right? So, when the two envoys arrive, it so happened that the day that they arrived, Surah, who's the Muslim commander, had attacked the tribe of Juras. Now, the envoys cannot know this. Because all of this is happening after their departure. And, to make, again, a lot more details here, but the point is that they had put them under siege for a while and then the siege broke and then there was a clash and As-Surah was winning over the tribe of Jorash now the Prophet ﷺ asked these two men which tribe are you from? because every day there's delegations coming so which tribe are you from? they said from the tribe of Jorash from the tribe of Jorash so the Prophet ﷺ said verily Allah's camel is being sacrificed at Jorash as we speak meaning the Nahar is taking place right now the Eid is happening now, the Nahar is taking place now so they didn't understand what is this reference and Abu Bakr and Uthman told them, woe to you don't you realize the Prophet ﷺ is saying the tribe of Juras is being massacred your only hope is to beg him to ask Allah to save them beg him to ask Allah to save the tribe of Juras so they said that can you save the tribe of Juras make dua to Allah to save the tribe of Jorash so the Prophet ﷺ made dua to guide the people of Jorash guide the people of Jorash and the two messengers were in confusion they went back and they figured out that the same day they were in Medina and the same time and the same time they're talking to the Prophet ﷺ the tribe of Azd had actually overcome the tribe of Jorash and there was about to be a massacre but or you know the winning over but Surah decided to forgive. And so there was no bloodshed in the end. And when these two envoys told their tribe what had happened, so the whole tribe took this as a miracle and they embraced Islam. And so the tribe embraced Islam and they sent a delegation back, this time not to negotiate but to embrace Islam. And so this is one of those interesting tidbits from the seerah as well. We also learn a number of tribes came very eager to learn Islam. So a number of delegations came with the sole purpose of learning Islam, spending time to memorize the Qur'an, to study fiqh, and to ask some very interesting questions. And perhaps the most interesting question that was ever asked was from the tribe of the Himyar, the Himyarites. And the Himyar are one of the tribes of Yemen. And it is a very famous hadith narrated in Bukhari and Muslim, which has generated a lot of commentary in the books of theology. And I'm just gonna reference it now without going into the theological tangent. and this is the hadith of Imran ibn Husayn that Imran ibn Husayn radiallahu anhu was saying that when I was sitting in the masjid a delegation came firstly from Najd which is up north before the Himyarites from down south the Banu Tamim or the Tamimis from up north and they came announcing Islam so the Prophet ﷺ said Abshiru I give you good news O people of Tamim meaning you've accepted Islam I give you good news meaning of Jannah give glad tidings the people from up north were considered to be crude and harsh Bedouins this is the up north generally speaking from the Hijaz the Hijaz was considered to be the more cultivated of Arabia and so the people of north were considered to be the more Bedouins and this is where most of the Ahzab also came from and other problems came from up north and so when the Prophet ﷺ said good news rejoice they understood good news means you're giving us something good that's the only reason we'd be happy, giving us money basically, so they said قَدْ بَشَّرْتَنَا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ فَأَعْتِنَا you're giving us good news so give us then the money they only understood good news to be money so the Prophet ﷺ was silent he didn't say anything then as he's waiting there and this shows us his adab as well that when somebody misunderstands and they're being crude, just ignore them Don't have to get down to their level. And as they're waiting there, the Himyarites arrived. The Himyarites from Yemen, down south. And they arrived, and the Prophet ﷺ, and they also announced their Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said that, O people of Himyar, accept the good news since the people of Banu Tamim did not accept it. Right? You get a double good news. Right? Accept the good news since the people of Banu Tamim did not accept it. So they said, we have accepted this news meaning thank you we accept this good news and we have come all the way from Yemen asking you about this creation and how did Allah create it and how did it all begin this is a very deep theological question how did the beginning come about tell us about the beginning of creation so you can tell these people from Himyar are very deep philosophical minds if you like for the time they're wanting to ask of the greatest questions imaginable. And that is, tell us about the beginning. How did it all begin? And Imran ibn Hussain is narrating the hadith. And he said that the Prophet ﷺ said, كان الله ولم يكن قبله شيء There was Allah and there was nothing before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he then created the heavens and the earth while his throne was on the water. Now pause here. So all of this shows, and I said this a few weeks ago as well, that the heavens and the earth are not the only creation of Allah. Because the hadith itself says, He created the heavens and the earth, وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ So there's Arsh and there's Ma. There's things before the creation of this world. And that's the point of many of our scholars, such as Ibn Taymiyyah and others, who said that Allah has created other creations other than this creation. This creation around us is not the only creation. And this hadith is one of the main evidences that is used, and that's a whole different tangent. Now, getting back to this hadith. So the Prophet ﷺ is telling them, Allah did this and Allah did that. Then Imran ibn Hussain said, as I was sitting there, somebody yelled out to me in the masjid, O Imran, your camel has fled. So Imran rushed out of the masjid, because you know your camel, you tie it outside the masjid. He said, I saw my camel fleeing in the desert, and I ran after it. neither did I get the camel nor did I catch the hadith how I wish now I had let the camel go and finished that hadith how we wish as well he had let the camel go and got the hadith because the delegation went back to Yemen and they did not narrate to us they did not become scholars of hadith Imran is a madani, he is an ansari he did not finish the hadith for us for a wisdom known to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and by the way there are other delegations that came from Yemen and subhanallah so many of these hadith praise the people of Yemen that the prophet said hadith is in sahih muslim that the people of Yemen have come to you they are the ones who have the best of souls and the softest of hearts they have the softest of hearts and the best of souls and then he said that famous phrase al iman yamanin wal hikmatu Yemeniyah. That faith is Yemen, Yemeni. And wisdom is also Yemeni. Al-imanu yamanin wal-hikmatu yamaniyah. This is a famous hadith praising the people of Yemen. And of course in Sahih Bukhari as well that the Prophet ﷺ said, Allahumma balik lana fi shamina wa fi yamanina. O Allah bless us in our Sham and in our Yemen. And it's very amazing that when he said this hadith, technically neither Sham nor Yemen was under Muslim control. Neither Sham nor Yemen was under Muslim control. Yet he said, O Allah bless us in our Sham and in our Yemen. And then the fact that he's calling it our Sham and our Yemen means that these are the places of the people of Islam. And he said this and then a man said how about Najd, O Messenger of Allah? And the scholars differ which Najd is referenced here. Is it the Najd of central Arabia or the stronger opinion they would also call up north which is where Iraq and others is now they would also call that Najd that area how about Najd and the Prophet repeated Allahumma barakna fi Shamina wa fi Yemenina so they said for the second time how about our Najd so he repeated again Sham and Yemen then for the third time when he said Najd so then the Prophet pointed towards the Najd and he said from there come the Zalazil and the Fitan and the Mihan from them will come the earthquakes and the problems and the trials and the tribulations will come from that region. And this shows us as well that the people of Sham, and of course Sham includes Palestine and what we call Syria, all of this is a Sham, is also blessed by the Prophet ﷺ. And in a very beautiful hadith as well, our Prophet ﷺ said that, I will be the one who is in charge of my fountain, my haud on the day of judgment, and I will be the one to make sure that people make space for the people of Yemen. And I shall be beating with my stick until space is made for them. Hadith is in Sahih Muslim, which means the people of Yemen will have the first access to the Hawth of the Prophet ﷺ. And the number of hadith about Yemen is indeed many. And by the way, Yemen would include therefore the Ansar. Because the Ansar are Yemeni in their asl. Remember, where did they come from? the Ansar, they are Yemeni in their asr. Right? The Aus and the Khazraj, they go back to Yemen. So all of the praise of Yemen is also a praise for the Ansar. And of course it includes those who converted from the people of Yemen. In Shaykh Hussain bin Taymiyyah, he says that the people of Yemen were the ones who were at the forefront fighting the people of Ridda. And they opened so many lands. And it was through them that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala brought about much good for the believers. Subhanallah, I remember once I was teaching a class, I think it was in Detroit and there was three Yemenis there so as part of my class I go where are you from, so they go from Yemen so I went into a tangent talking about how great Yemen is and what not and I said that wallahi my brother from Yemen, I am jealous in a positive way of the praise that the Prophet ﷺ gave to all of you that al-hikmah yamani wal-imanu yamaniya the news spread in the Yemeni community the next day mashaAllah 50 people show up from the Yemeni community to the class. Like, you know, they wanted to hear it all over again, mashallah. So I became very popular with the Yemeni crowd. I said, this is the barakah of the Prophet ﷺ. This is what he said about you guys. But also in Yemen, what happened, a few months after this, after the hajj of Abu Bakr, that one of the kings of Yemen... So Yemen is an interesting phenomenon, by the way. Yemen was separate from Arabia in many ways. firstly they were majority Christian and also many Jews were there and by the way Jews remained in Yemen up until 1947 some of the largest concentrations of Jews in the world outside of Iraq maybe second would be Yemen I think right I mean I'm not sure of that but before the creation of Israel Yemen had some of the highest concentrations of Jews up until the time of the creation of Israel and this is well known and to this day I myself have met many Israelis who are basically descendants of Yemeni Jews and they still speak Arabic and they consider themselves to be pure Yehud, they don't think the Europeans are as pure as them, they view themselves to be the good lineage and they have different, slightly different customs and culture point being that Yemen was different because there was little paganism there Yemen typically had more Christians than Jews, this is different from the rest of Arabia and also another thing about Yemen was that Yemen was divided into small mini kingdoms and this is also different because Arabia was not divided so there was a little bit more stability and civilization in Yemen than the rest of Arabia so one of the main kings of Yemen from Himyar accepted Islam and the Prophet ﷺ sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal to become not the governor because the king remained the governor but to basically be the deputy and one can say the judge, the qadi. And this is the famous incident that the Prophet ﷺ is walking with Mu'adh ibn Jabal. Right? And he accompanied him. Mu'adh was on the animal, the horse or the camel. And the Prophet ﷺ is the one walking. And this is a great honor for Mu'adh that the Prophet ﷺ is the one walking holding on to it. And he gives him a lot of advice. And he tells him, O Mu'adh, you're gonna go to a group that they are people of Ahl al-Kitab. Make sure you call them to Tawheed. if they listen then tell them to pray if they listen then tell them to give zakah so that famous hadith and also in the end he said ya Mu'adh it is possible I'm not gonna see you after this right and this is the farewell to Mu'adh ibn Jabal and this took place not now but in a few months from now so I'm just lumping it all together this took place after the hajj of Abu Bakr not the hajj of the Prophet ﷺ the hajj of Abu Bakr we will do inshallah next Wednesday and that is the hajj in the ninth year of the hijrah The Prophet ﷺ did hajj in the 10th year. So after Abu Bakr returns within a month or two, he then sends Mu'adh to Yemen. So this is occurring a few months after what we're talking about right now. And he also sent Abu Musa alayhi alayhi alayhi to another province of Yemen. So Yemen is embracing Islam en masse. That large segments of the Yemeni community is embracing Islam. And subhanAllah, the ease with which overall the people of Yemen embraced Islam, it did not happen anywhere else in Central Arabia or in Northern Arabia. So out of all of the Arabian provinces or areas, the people of Yemen were the easiest overall to embrace Islam. And that's why one of the reasons why our Prophet ﷺ said, the people of Yemen are coming to you, they are the best of hearts and the softest of hearts. And that's why he said, Iman is Yemeni and wisdom is Yemenite. Right? Al-imanu yamanir wa hikmatu yamaniya. So all of this is praising the people of Yemen. And as he sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal, the last piece of advice he gave him is, make things easy and don't make things difficult. And give people glad tidings and don't turn people away. And cause people to come together and don't cause people to disunite. This is such a beautiful advice. Don't make Islam difficult. Look at the level of the people and then do what is munasib for them. Right? Yassir. Make it easy. Wala tu'asir. Don't make it difficult for the people. People are at different levels. And your job, O Mu'adh ibn Jabal, when you go there, is you bring people. Bashir wala tunaffiru. Give good news. Bring them closer. And don't turn people away by making things too difficult. And, wallahi, it's sad to say that so many people, they really, so many mashayikh and ulama and du'at, they make Islam so difficult. even if sometimes they say something that's true. They say without wisdom, without the appropriate context, or talking to people that are not ready for it. Look, here is Mu'adh ibn Jabal being sent, and he is who he is. Yet the Prophet ﷺ says, make it easy for the people. Just be gentle with them. If only we also understood these same things. Also another delegation, and again these are small tidbits here. One of the things, very interesting things about all of these delegations, is that we see so many ahadith about fiqh and aqidah narrated from people who are not famous sahabis at all. Rather they're one time sahabi, means the delegates. That some of the standard ahadith about fiqh and even theology are actually narrated from those people who came to these delegations. Which shows they came to study Islam. And they came to study fiqh. So when they go back and they narrate to their people their ahadith become the standard ahadith of fiqh and one of the simple ahadith that in fact I've discussed this in so many of my other fiqh classes is narrated by somebody who came from one of the delegates of Yemen as well his name is Muawiyah ibn Haida that he's asking O Messenger of Allah what is allowed to show of our awrah what is allowed to not show what must we cover what must we not cover so the famous hadith of awrah And there's only one hadith that really is explicit about the awrah. It's narrated by somebody who only saw the Prophet ﷺ once in his whole life. And he's on the delegates. And this shows us that the delegates are wanting to study fiqh and aqidah. They're asking questions of a very, you know, nature that benefits. And of course the Prophet ﷺ, just min babi fa'idah, what did he say? That he said that cover your awrah from everybody other than your spouse. That's the only person, you don't have to have the awrah. So Muawiyah said that, what if I am all alone? What if there's nobody? Do I have to still cover? Then what did the Prophet ﷺ say? اللَّهُ أَحَقُّ أَن يُسْتَحْيَ مِنْ That there is more right upon Allah that you be shy of Him. That don't go walk around naked even if you're alone in the house. Cover yourself up. Allah has more right that you cover yourself. So the hadith shows us about the realities of the awrah. We also learned that many of them came just to get the dua of the Prophet ﷺ. So we have delegates who were murtad, such as Musaylimah. We have delegates who were non-Muslim, they just want peace treaties. We have delegates who were hypocrites, we talked about them last week, right? That Surah Al-Hujurat was revealed. And Allah Azzawajal says, you haven't yet accepted Islam, right? And we have delegates whose iman is weak, they're not too sure. then we have delegates whose iman is so strong the only reason they're coming is they want the Prophet ﷺ to make du'a for them which is beautiful reason to go all the way there and say, Ya Rasulullah, make du'a for me and we have in this one narration from the tribe of the Banqulf that Al-Hakam ibn Hazan and this is again one of the Sahabi we don't have any narration from him other than this that literally one time Sahabi as we would say he just comes once to the Prophet ﷺ that he said, we were around nine people from the tribe who came to the Prophet ﷺ. We entered in upon him and we said, جِئْنَاكَ يَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ We have come to you a messenger of Allah so that you may pray for us for all good. Make dua to Allah for us. That's why we've come, that we want your dua. So the Prophet ﷺ made dua for us and he took care of us and he was hospitable to us and he fed us. And we stayed in Medina for a few days and we prayed Jumu'ah as well. So they got one Jumu'ah with the Prophet ﷺ. And he said, I saw him giving Jumu'ah, holding on to a stick or a bow. So it was the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ that he would have a staff when he's giving. And in fact, it wasn't just his sunnah, it was also very common culture and custom of the time, that when you give a lecture or a sermon, to give that sense of dignity and respect, you will hold on to a staff. And I remember one phrase in the khutbah, so he's narrating now, I remember one phrase in the khutbah that, O people, now pause here. Remember, this is the year of delegations. Every Jumu'ah you have total strangers that are only listening to one khutbah. New Muslims, right? And then they're gonna go back to their people. So he says, I remember one phrase in this khutbah. And this phrase is corroborated in many other hadith. That he said, the Prophet ﷺ said, O people, do what you can and know that you will never be able to do everything that you have been commanded to do. Meaning you're not going to be perfect. You will never be able to do everything you have commanded to. وَلَكِنْ سَدِّدُوا وَقَارِبُوا Right? And this hadith, by the way, the asal of it is in Bukhari. You'll find the original hadith in Bukhari. All of these details, we find them in the tertiary works. But the basic hadith is in Bukhari that the Prophet ﷺ said that you will never be able to do everything that you have been commanded. What does this mean? It means you're not going to be perfect You're going to make mistakes So what should we do? وَلَكِنْ سَدِّدُوا وَقَارِبُوا But rather سَدِّدُوا What does سَدِّدُوا mean? Is to just cover up and come closer Like just fill in the gaps Right? So if you have a gap missing here Fill it up somewhere else If you're not able to do X Do Y وَقَارِبُوا Qaribu means come as close as you can to what you're supposed to do. So if you're supposed to do 100%, you can't do 100, don't give up and say, I'm gonna do 0. At least do the 90, and maybe Allah will forgive the 10. Okay? This is what Qaribu means, is that come as close as you can to the goal, even if you can't reach it. But in the effort, maybe Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will accept from you. So this is a beautiful hadith, and it is narrated by many different sahaba. But in this narration we learn the one who is hearing it is one of the delegates. And he's saying this is what we heard our Prophet ﷺ say. Now the final incident which is a long one is probably one of the more interesting ones. And has much benefit and that is the delegation of the Christians of Najran. The delegation of the Christians of Najran. Najran of course is a very famous province to this day in Arabia. And the people of Najran at that time were almost entirely Christian. And they had strong relationship with the Roman emperor. And the Prophet ﷺ had sent them a letter a few months before this. And he had addressed them in the name of the God of Abraham and Ishaq and Yaqub. In the name of the God of Abraham and Ishaq and Yaqub. And he said to them that he invited them to Islam to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he said if you accept it will be better for you otherwise you pay the jizya and if you refuse to do the both then you must fight the qital these are the three options so they gathered together the people of Najran and they made shura amongst themselves what can we do what should we do which of these three options should we accept one of them said we know that there is a prophet predicted in the bani Ismail how do we know this isn't that one maybe this is the one that we know is coming from the Bani Ismail and this shows us and we know this from so many other narrations they were expecting a prophet and frankly there are clear indications to this day in the Old Testament that there shall come a prophet from the children of Ishmael there are clear indications and the people of Najran are attesting to this that we all know there's gonna be a prophet maybe this is that one, how do we know we should send a delegation and another said, even if he's not a prophet, if he's a king, we should know his strength, to see which of these three options we should follow and so all of them agreed there's only one option, and that is we send a delegation directly to Medina, and figure out, judge for ourselves what is to be done, and so they decided to send a large delegation Ibn Ishaq mentioned 60 people came. So this is one of the largest delegations ever. Typically a delegation will be two men, five men, ten men. This is a delegation of 60 people that had come. And of course the purpose is many. Firstly to impress supposedly the Muslims and the Prophet ﷺ that we are so large and so many. And secondly to gauge and to see what is the reality of the situation. So the Ibn Ishaq and others they mentioned that when they entered upon the Prophet ﷺ, they were all dressed in a very unique garb. So again, these are not the pagans of Arabia. These have a civilization similar to the Romans. So they're dressed more like them, whatever we can imagine. Their culture, their... And of course, Najran is far away from the center of Arabia. And so, when they came in, the Sahaba said, we had never seen any delegation like theirs. Their custom, their manners, their clothing, everything was different. And they arrived at the time of Asr. And it was time for their salah. So they asked permission to pray their salah. And the Sahaba wanted to say no. But the Prophet ﷺ allowed them to pray. He allowed them to pray, so they turned towards the east. Because the Christians of old, I don't know if modern Protestants do that, I don't think they do. But the Christians of all definitely, they would turn towards the east. And still to this day, some Christians, the Syriac Christians and others, they turn towards the east. And they say their prayers, their rituals. So, in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, they offered their salah. And facing east would mean that they are facing not the qibla, and not away from the qibla, but rather they're going to be facing the right if you like. So they would be, I mean, sorry, in the masjid they'll be turning left, excuse me. In the modern masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, they'll be facing left. Right, they'll be facing this way. Okay, so they all turned towards one of the walls and they said their prayer in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. And this is a very interesting and significant point. And then when they had finished their prayer, discussions and dialogue began for Allah knows how many days. Allahu a'lam, I would say maybe three days they remained in Medina, not too long. Three days they remained in Medina, maybe you can say four days, but I don't think more than that we can see from the reports. So on the first day, they asked many questions about Isa ibn Maryam. What do they say about Isa ibn Maryam? And eventually they asked the Prophet ﷺ a question that, if you agree with us, so after a long day of conversation, the final question, if you agree with us that Isa was born of a virgin, then who is his father? Who is the father of Jesus? And our Prophet ﷺ said, I don't have an answer for you now, let Allah answer you. So wait for me and Allah will answer you. So the next day they came and Allah revealed the first 60 verses of Surah Al-Imran. Al-Imran. Now, much of Al-Imran had already been revealed at Uhud. So the middle of Al-Imran was revealed at Uhud. But the beginning of Al-Imran is revealed now. So the beginning of Al-Imran goes to the 9th year of the Hijrah. So in it, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَى عِنْدَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَم خَلَقَهُ مِّن تُرَاب ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونَ You're asking about the father of Jesus. How about Adam? The similitude of Isa in the eyes of Allah is like Adam. He created Adam from dust and said, كُنْ and he was. Meaning Isa doesn't have a father. He doesn't need a father. That Allah simply has to say, كُنْ and he is. and then of what they were saying as well is that is Ibrahim a Christian or a Jew and of course they were saying he is a Christian and it is said that you know some people said no he was actually a Jew in there and Allah revealed in the Quran and it says so all of this comes down in this incident. And in this surah as well, in surah Al-Imran, are the famous verses called ayatul mubahala, or the verse of mutual cursing. Mubahala means, you invoke the curse of Allah. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, فَإِنْ حَاجَّكَ فِيهِمِ بَعْدِ مَا جَاكَ مِنْ عِلْمِي فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَنِسَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ وَأَنفُسَنَا وَأَنفُسَكُمْ ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ فَنَجْعَى اللَّعْنَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَاذِبِينَ that if they're still gonna argue with you after all of this so this is now the second day so the end of the second day of arguments back and forth, back and forth so then the Prophet ﷺ said khalas, this is it if you still believe that you are upon the truth and we're worshipping the same God then there's a simple solution you call your children we call our children you call your women we call our women you bring yourselves we'll bring ourselves then we shall invoke upon whichever of the two of us is lying about Allah may Allah curse that party okay so this is a very big curse because both can't be correct both cannot be correct in this issue either Jesus is the son of God and divine or he's not and if you believe that we are telling a lie about Allah then go ahead and invoke the curse but it has to be upon the one who's telling a lie because we believe you're telling a lie upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you say that he has a son so this was a very big deal and by the way this shows us that mubahala is allowed on rare occasions it's not the asal, it's not the general rule but once you get to the end of argumentation and there's a lot of benefits inshallah we'll come back to this at the end of today but jumping the gun here but once you get to the end of legitimate argumentation there's no problem in saying Okay, khalas, if you are that sincere, then let's do mubahala. And mubahala literally means, may Allah's la'na be upon the party that is lying between the two of us. Okay? This is not how you begin da'wah, this is how you end it. If you want to. It's an option that is there. And by the way, why do you call your children and your wives, then you call yourselves? Because it's much more painful to see Allah's la'na on them than on you. because Allah's za'na means you will see the effect right, so you start with your children and your wives and yourselves and the next day the Prophet ﷺ had readied his family, his daughters and Hasan and Hussein and others and this is Al-Bayt the Shia use this as a very big deal and for us, no, this is Al-Bayt how is that a problem? Yes, that is his Al-Bayt doesn't mean that, you know, Ali was the one entitled the Khalifa, don't mix apples and oranges yes that is Al-Bayt, of course it is who's gonna deny that? so he had the Al-Bayt ready that if they want to do Mubahala we will do Mubahala but in the meantime the Christians of Najran discussed amongst themselves and they said amongst themselves that you know if he is a prophet and we do this curse we shall be annihilated and obliterated from the face of this earth so let's not do this Mubahala so the next day they said we decline the mubahala and we accept the jizya go ahead and give us the jizya we're not gonna leave our religion and we decline the mubahala we will accept the jizya, whatever unconditional basically, jizya and so the Prophet ﷺ put upon them a jizya, which was reasonable a certain amount of cloth every year and a certain amount of silver, the people of Najran because they imported from both Persia and the Roman Empire So cloth, and I said many times, cloth was a commodity. Cloth was not manufactured by the Arabs. And so cloth was a very... The Arabs would export, what would they export? Leather. Hides was the main export. So this was the main export. And they needed cloth. So the Prophet ﷺ said to them, this much cloth per year and this much silver must be given as jizya for as long as Allah wills. Meaning this is not a permanent, it's a negotiable treaty. That anytime we want we can stop this treaty. And this was the wisdom of the Prophet ﷺ that he never made a treaty forever. He had a treaty that has some clause that we have the right to rescind if we want to. And of course by the way later on, 15 years later, Umar ibn al-Khattab said we don't need your money anymore, go to Rome. And so most of them left for the Roman Empire because Umar ibn al-Khattab wanted to make the Arabian Peninsula purely a Muslim region. And because of that, because of the wisdom of Umar, the entire region is a Muslim region. There are no indigenous people who are non-Muslim. Correct? Indigenous. Of course you have laborers and workers, but indigenous people of that entire Arabian Peninsula, all of them are Muslim. because Umar ibn al-Khattab was the one who expelled. There were pockets. There were no pagans after the ninth year. We'll talk about that. But there were still pockets if you like, especially in Central Arabia after Umar ibn al-Khattab. There were small people of the Yahud here and there, but otherwise the entire peninsula was a Muslim peninsula. And the people of Najran said that, can you give us a judge to resolve our internal affairs because we see you to be honest people. So this shows us that they were having internal disputes amongst themselves. And they wanted a neutral party to be some type of a judge. So the Prophet ﷺ sent Abu Ubaidah Amir ibn al-Jarrah for a while to Najran to be their judge. That in case they have some dispute. And Al-Bayhaqi in his Dala' al-Nubuwa, he narrates an interesting story. That on the way back, and by the way, Ibn Ishaq and others, they mentioned that there were 60 in number 24 of them were from their elite or noble, of them were 3 who were some type of clergy or bishops and of them was one who was some type of patriarch, so these are terms that their Christian church had, but they had some very senior officials in the delegation, so Al-Bayhaqi mentions on the way back the patriarch or the senior most figure, one of his younger brothers said something derogatory about the Prophet ﷺ and the patriarch said do not curse him so the brother said why the patriarch said that because he is the prophet meaning this is the one that's been predicted so the patriarch is now admitting he is the prophet so the brother says why didn't you accept him then I mean I thought he's not that's why we're following you so the patriarch says do you wish us to give up all of the honor and all of the wealth and all of the ties that the emperor has given us, which emperor is the Roman emperor, right? That you expect us to now cut that off? I mean, how can we do that? And so when the younger brother heard this, he was so shocked that he actually defected from the tribe and he became a Muslim and came to Medina. So the point being that from Al-Bayhaqi's narration, we learn that indeed the senior amongst them recognized, whereas the middle and most of them they just followed the senior and subhanallah this shows us the importance of the elite that the fact of the matter the bulk of mankind simply follows certain people they look up to them and that's why our Prophet ﷺ emphasized reaching out to those, the higher tabaka the highest group that if they convert and if you look at whenever the chieftain converted whenever one of the noblemen converts then it becomes easier for the rest to convert and this is the reality, the sunnah of Allah amongst his creation. This is the reality. And therefore, people were genuinely following the patriarch. And when the patriarch confessed to his younger brother, this is his brother, when he confessed to him, so then the brother show shock that he actually embraces Islam. And some of these delegations were... So the delegations as we said were different. Some of them were Muslim. Some of them were pagan and wanting to establish treaties. Some of them were Christian. some of them were wondering should we convert or not and there's a beautiful hadith and with this I conclude this is the delegation led by Abdurrahman ibn Abi Aqeel one of the sahaba the only thing we know about him is this one hadith because again if you're a part of the delegates what does that mean you only saw him once you didn't participate in badr or uhud or what not so there's a whole category of sahaba that they are the ones who were the delegates and the delegates are not to the level of the Badriyun or the people who participated in Hudaybiyah or what not the delegates are these one off there are still Sahabi and there are still respected but you cannot compare them to the people who lived with the Prophet so one of them is Abdur Rahman Ibn Aqil that he says I was one of those who went in a delegation of our tribe to the Prophet ﷺ and when we asked permission to enter in upon him there was no one in the world whom we despised more than the one that we were forced to go see he's talking about his tribe they're telling him to go you have to do a negotiation that when we went the most despised person to us was the one that we had gone to see but when we ended up leaving there was no one in the world more beloved to us than the one we were departing from look at how the flip that this is also understandable that some people are coming thinking that they're gonna be humiliated that our tribe has now to give up its freedom, that we are now having to give up idolatry and accept a new faith, they're angry they're hurt, and so they're treating the Prophet as a conqueror, that we don't want this person, but then when they see him and they interact with him, so they said after these few days he becomes the most beloved person to us and then he says, one of our youngsters said O Messenger of Allah, why don't you ask your Lord to give you a kingdom like the kingdom of Sulaiman? So become a king like the king of Sulaiman. So the Prophet ﷺ laughed and said, Maybe your companion has been given a kingdom better than the kingdom of Sulaiman. Meaning what I have is better, don't worry. What I have is better. And the Prophet ﷺ said, That Allah has never sent any prophet except that he has given him one request. and some of those prophets ask for something of this world some of them ask for punishment against their people and as for me Allah has given me a request that I have kept with myself between me and my Lord it shall be my shafa'ah for my ummah on the day of judgment so he said I have the better kingdom than anybody else because my entire people will enter Jannah insha'Allah ta'ala and before I finish off just a few minutes that I mentioned most of the interesting and important delegations. I also have to briefly mention, even though we don't do this for much of the seerah, but sometimes we have to mention bizarre and fabricated and weak narrations. We do this when these narrations are used to embarrass Muslims or they're used by unorthodox groups of Islam. So some of the tertiary books of seerah, not the primary books, some of the more secondary and tertiary books of seerah, they mention some very bizarre stories. And I just mention them now, they are not authentic. I just mention them now so that sometimes you hear them, especially in the books of the extreme mystical Sufis. Sometimes you hear these groups and one of them is actually very funny. the first of these it is narrated in one of the tertiary books of Sirah not Ibn Ishaq, not any of the famous ones I'm not going to mention the name, it's one of the more obscure ones, that the great grandson of Iblis came to accept Islam in the delegation the great grandson of Iblis came to accept Islam and he repented and what not and this is of course not true in the Mustadrak of Al-Hakim which is a famous book of hadith but it has lots of weak and daif and fabricated hadith in the Mustadrak of Al-Hakim, it is mentioned that Ilyas Alayhi Salam the prophet Ilyas came as a delegate and a table from heaven came down and they had dinner together and then when the dinner was finished, Ilyas went up into the heaven where he came from so I mean this is, wallahi you read it and you know something is bizarre fast food? no no, this is up there Ilyas goes there and in the Al-Bayhaq, sorry, Al-Tabarani's Kitab Al-Awsat, and Tabarani's Awsat is a book that he intended to compile the most bizarre hadith, not the most authentic the most obscure and strange hadith, and also Al-Kamil by Ibn Adi and this is a book that is meant to narrate Ta'if hadith, so this is the ridiculous thing that when you read sometimes a book, and it says to you, narrated by Ibn Adi in his kamil. You wonder what this person is doing when he's narrating a hadith from a book that is known to collect fabricated hadith. Like the purpose of the author is to collect fabricated hadith. You understand my point, right? That his purpose is I want you to be aware of these hadith. Then you come across somebody and he's quoting from it as if he's quoting from Bukhari or Muslim. Like I have told you where I got this from. This is my reference, right? So in this narration which is also very long and obscure and bizarre, it is said that one day the stranger came to the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ and he made a beautiful dua اللهم أعني على ما ينجيني مما خوفتني which is very Sufistic language and it's something that is clear there's a fabrication of the Sufis and so the Prophet ﷺ smiled and then added a couplet or added a line why don't you add this to the dua as well and there's a back and forth between the two finally it is discovered who do you think this person is? no Khidr Khidr came as well as the delegate okay Khidr also came as a delegate so all of this is is all fabrication and I just wanted to point out so that we are aware no Ilyas no Khidr no Ibn Ibn Shaytan nobody came this is all from the the fabrications of bizarre groups and not mentioned in the books of Sira so to conclude all of the delegations some of the benefits we gain from this and then inshallah we're done with the delegations. What we see, especially in the 9th year of the Hijrah, how quickly Islam spread amongst the tribes of Arabia. We have delegations coming from the north, from the south, and from the west. East. Sorry, Najran is the east, right? Of course west is the Arabian Peninsula, the Red Sea, there's nothing west. Okay? South. Najran is south, excuse me. Najran is south. South, west. Najran is southwest isn't it yeah but Yemen is direct south Najran is just above that way right isn't it yeah you're right the same road goes exactly so above Yemen would be Najran so we have delegations coming from Najran from Yemen we have delegations that came from Oman We mentioned that last time. We have delegations coming from north, from Najd, right? So all of these delegations coming. And وَرَأَيْتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا So this was the year that without military campaigns, these are small tribes, each one of them is independent. They realize they cannot remain as they are when everybody is embracing. They to either embrace or they enact a treaty to pay jizya. and therefore Islamic state is consolidated. And this is the first time in human history that the Arabian Peninsula was consolidated by one political power. Never before in the history of humanity had all of the Arab tribes been consolidated under one rule. And this shows us that the fruits of patience are always going to be sweet and always going to be Allah fulfilled His promise to the Prophet ﷺ. It also shows us that even in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, people were of different iman. That we have this naive assumption that everybody was like a walking Jibreel on earth. Everybody was like an Abu Bakr and Umar. No. In these narrations, we see munafiqun. We see pagans. Because right up until this point in time, paganism is still allowed. It's gonna become forbidden in a few months, right? We see people of weak iman that are Muslim but not good Muslims. They're boasting that يَمُنُّونَ عَلَيْكَ أَنْ أَسْلَمُوا They're boasting, Yeah, I accepted Islam. We see people, mashaAllah, the strongest iman. We came all the way, Ya Rasulullah, you make dua for us. We see people wanting to study Islam, asking fiqh, asking theology questions. So even in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ, all of this spectrum is there. And of the most amazing things we see. and think about this my dear brothers and sisters many of us assume that Islam is so simple and clear and easy that all I have to do is open my mouth and everybody will embrace it and we forget that that might be true but people's natures are stubborn and here we have the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam dialoguing with the Christians of Najran and many of them sincerely thought that their Christianity is correct yes some of them of course we know some of them saw and they realized but the point here is accepting a new religion is not an easy matter even if the religion is true it's a very very big deal and if the prophet Muhammad and people are talking to him and seeing him these people are not convinced directly and immediately that he is Rasulullah ﷺ then do you think me and you will be able to do a better job when we give da'wah? There will always be people who don't see. And that's between them and Allah, that's it. There will always be people who سُمُّ بُكْمُ عُمْيُن فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُ This is gonna be the way they are. You cannot do anything about it. And therefore this demonstrates for us that truth might indeed be clear and it is clear. but for those who want to see it. If you're gonna cover your own eyes and you don't want to change your culture and custom and your religion, then even the process in front of you will not make you change your mind. And that's something you cannot help. Also we learn from this that the masjid can be used as a place of hospitality for non-Muslims. The tribe of Thaqif, where did they stay? Inside the masjid. The tent was set up for them inside the masjid. And it can be used as a place of worship by people who are not Muslim as an occasional thing. Even this is halal. And it is amazing that some people now are so ultra strict about this. They don't even want non-Muslims to come to the masjid. As if, I mean it's bizarre, wallahi, that some types of rulings that people have. throughout the seerah there are non-muslims walking into the masjid throughout the seerah and here we have christians praying in the holiest masjid in medina and they're facing one of the walls in the corner, the sahaba wanna stop them the prophet says let them pray and there's no doubt that of what they're gonna say is things that we don't consider valid prayer to jesus christ and what not right, but this shows us that look, okay no doubt you don't make a regular prayer you know niche for the other religions but if they come as your guests, their delegates they come to you, okay go ahead offer your prayer, it's not gonna harm me you go ahead and say your prayer on your wall and then you know, you're done with that and this shows us the true spirit of Islam when it comes to tolerating other religions that we are very clear in this regard we don't view the other religions to be valid but we're not gonna force anybody to convert and we will let you worship even in our own place of worship this is wallahi the height of realistic pluralism. Because to say that everybody is okay, it's actually nonsensical. Because each group believes in something the other group believes to be wrong. When Christians say the only way to Jesus Christ, sorry, the only way to God the Father is through Jesus Christ. That He is the door. If somebody says He's not the door, then there is no way to God. And it doesn't make sense for Christians to say to other faiths, it's okay what you believe. And that's why most Christians don't say that. We as well say the same thing. There's only one way to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that is through Islam. Yet, what does that mean? Do we force other people? No, it's up to them. And so the Christians have their religion, we have our religion, the Jews have their religion. Let them worship as they want to worship, and we dialogue. And that dialogue can be firm. That dialogue can even reach the level. What is the max level? We invoke Allah's curse, but we don't get physical with one another. This is our process, salam. That the tribe of Najran, in the end after all of that, they refused. What was done to them? Nothing. Khalas, go back. you have your treaty, you have your religion no problem, you do what you're doing and don't interfere with us we won't interfere with you and this is the height of Islamic tolerance no other civilization in the world was this tolerant up until the advent of quote on quote secularism after modernity which rejected religion in the whole place and that's a whole different tangent here otherwise of course Europe was an extremely intolerant place amongst its own people and we learn from this from the prophet that we tolerate other faiths even if we don't agree with their theology, also this shows us as well that when delegations come, it is the responsibility of the Muslim community to host them because our Prophet ﷺ took charge of feeding them, in fact the books as Sira mentioned there were certain houses that were used to house them, and some of them were pagan some of them were Christian or Jews some of them were Muslim, all of them were taken care of by the Prophet ﷺ so this shows us that guests are treated with honor even if they're non-Muslim. You will treat them with karam and dignity and hospitality. And this shows us that even in Mecca and Medina, and this is a fiqh ikhtilaf, even in Mecca and Medina, non-Muslims can come for a temporary period of time. And this is the majority position and it is the correct position. But some people think it is haram for them to come forever. No. It is haram for them to live in Mecca and Medina. But it is not haram for them to come for a period of time for a greater community good. So, if a group is coming, in this case, to be given da'wah to. In our cases, very common that some technical issue is needed. When the masjid or the process was being built, there were Germans in the masjid. I remember seeing them myself. This is in the mid-90s. And nobody was told about this because the people panic and whatnot. But you need the technology. You know, especially the umbrellas. I remember. the technology firm that did this was a German firm and what did you expect other than the technicians to come and check for themselves what is going on and nobody was told about this but we could see and some of our German students even spoke to them the technicians and the point being that nothing is wrong with this what's wrong with having a non-Muslim come to the city and do what he's supposed to do and then khalas you may leave now so here we have the permissibility even in Mecca and Medina of non-Muslims entering for a period of time for some benefit and then being asked to leave and other benefits as well. And insha'Allah ta'ala in our next class on Wednesday, we'll start with the Hajj of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and then we'll start winding up because after this, the events of the 10th year will zoom by. There's only a few incidents that happened that are in the books of the seerah. And then within a few months, we will come to the end of the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. Two quick announcements. The first announcement is that so next week we will have a seerah class and then the week after that, which is the Thanksgiving, we're going to take a break. The Thanksgiving break, we're going to take a break. I will be going to Houston. So we'll take a break for that and then resume in December, inshallah ta'ala. Also tomorrow, there's a lecture at Rhodes College at 6 p.m. About the conflict in Algeria for the last 15-20 years. And what happened with the rise of the Islamist party in 1991. And then the civil war. A very famous professor is coming from out of state. And he's giving a lecture at Rhodes College. I was asked to make this announcement. So whoever is interested. I forgot which room it is being held. But if any of his interest come to me. And I'll look it up after the salah. But if you are interested at 6 p.m. at Rhodes College. Anybody who's interested in the Algerian situation. In particular, one of the experts from Nebraska, I think, is coming and giving a lecture over there, inshallah. Any other announcements? Yes? Why is it haram? Because our Prophet ﷺ said, أخرج اليهود والنصارى من جزيرة العرب. The hadith is in Bukhari Muslim, and he said this on his deathbed. Expel the Yahud and the Nasara from the jazeera. and most scholars have understood expel those who permanently live not those who are temporary and the Sahaba allowed the temporary coming of Yahud and this is demonstrated by who killed Umar ibn Khattab Abu Lu'lu what was he doing there working he was a hired servant and it is understood that they were allowed to live in Mecca and Medina okay yes so this is not implausible it might be that some surahs were revealed twice which means that it is as if jibreel is saying you already have the answer and this is the answer as for the narration I don't believe it is authentic but it is narrated in some books but I don't believe it's authentic but even if it is not fully authentic but it happened it doesn't change there are numerous reports that we have of the same surah or the same ayah being revealed both in Mecca and in Medina ok yes the practice of Mubahala is not encouraged amongst Muslims it is not something that we should think about doing but it is there if the need arises it is something that is a last resort if the need arises and historically speaking it is not something that it's usually used as a threat rather than actually enacted it's usually used as a threat between two if you like groups or what not that you know one of the groups will say if you really think that you are correct then khalas let us invoke Allah's la'na on the one of the two of us who is lying or what not but this is not something that we play around with but it has been invoked And then of course in our land it was famous for the Qadiani Mubahala that took place With the famous Alim, what is his name? And Mirza Ghulam Ahmed What is his name? 1905 or something The famous Alim No, no, no, Shaulillah is 1700 No, no, not even him I forgot now, but that very famous Alim He made the Mubahala with Mirza Ghulam and others No, no, no That was later as well. They did it by kitabah, by writing. And it was done and enacted. So I mean these are things that there could be maslaha, there could be some good in them. Such as in this particular case. But generally speaking, we should shy away from it. And even historically, it's rarely been done by the Muslim community. InshaAllah. Final question because we're getting late. Yes. do you think they were allowed to pray because they were Ahli Kitab? yes, because we tolerate with the Ahli Kitab what we don't tolerate with paganism and because overall the God of the Christians and Jews is our God even if their conception of God is different but the God of the Christians and Jews is our God and anybody who says otherwise you are not reading the Quran because the Quran says وَإِلَٰهُنَا وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ وَاحِدٌ This is in the Qur'an. And I've had Muslims who debate with me that, no, the God of the Christians is not our God. It's like, subhanAllah, what? I mean, the Qur'an is very clear in this. وَإِلَٰهُنَا وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ وَاحِدٌ Yes, they have a different conception. And yes, they believe three is one and one is three. Yes, but very clearly, they believe that their God is the God of Ibrahim, the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, the Abrahamic God is our God. Even if their conception of him is different than ours. So yes, what was allowed for them was allowed primarily because they were Ahl al-Kitab. Otherwise, our Prophet ﷺ never tolerated. How about Thaqif last week? We talked about them, right? He did not allow even one day's delay about destroying Allah. What does that show? We don't tolerate idolatry. But Judaism and Christianity has always been tolerated. The Qur'an tolerates the existence of Jews and Christians in the Islamic State. No pressure to, no forcing for them at all. They have the right to be who they are. InshaAllah. This is getting late. We will stop for today and continue next Wednesday. InshaAllah ta'ala.

Seerah 96 - Maria the Copt & Death of Ibrahim ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. Sira is going to be a bit of a tangent. We have to catch up with issues in the life of the Prophet ﷺ that we have overlooked. Remember we're talking about the battle of Tabuk for five episodes. We talked about the delegations. And the delegations spanned three and a half to four years, right? We went over all the delegations. So there are things happening in the life of the Prophet ﷺ that we kind of overlooked. So today and maybe even the next Sira, I will shed some light on these incidents. And in order to do so, I'm going to have to once again go non-chronological. Because as we already noticed, if I did the delegations non-chronologically, if I did the delegations chronologically, it would have been too much. Every time I mention delegations, it's rather boring. Whereas if you lump them all together, it actually makes sense, right? So today, we're also going to do one particular issue, but it's going to span the course of around two and a half years. and it is these two and a half years, the 8th, the 9th and the 10th year of the Hijrah and I wanted to begin by talking about the death of the son of the Prophet ﷺ and that is of course Ibrahim. Okay, but in order to talk about Ibrahim, we need to talk about Marya and of course the topic of Marya is a very sensitive one. nonetheless, I would rather you hear these things from me than to be exposed by people who do not believe in Allah and his messenger and I would rather we discuss them frankly in the confines of an Islamic ethos and environment before other people misinterpret and I mean the fact of the matter is that these topics sometimes are glossed over in modern seerah books, right? most modern authors just gloss over them, they don't really delve too deep to them, maybe in a pre-internet world it would have made sense but not anymore not anymore at all there's no point hiding information or pretending it doesn't exist because you're not going to get anywhere and I will tell you from my own experiences as being a da'i a lot of times our young brothers and sisters contact me and they've heard of a verse of the Quran or a hadith or something that they've never been taught in Sunday school and this causes them doubt about Islam and this isn't like people lying about the tradition this is things found in our tradition that are simply glossed over and when this young man or this young woman hears it for the first time he's like I can't believe this you know this can't be true tell me it's not true the hadith is in Bukhari let's say tell me it's not true I'm sorry man I can't tell you it's not true it is true but the problem comes that we assume there's gonna be the sheltered lifestyle right not in accordance with the teachings of our tradition. And so therefore, these types of issues come about. So because of this, I felt that it is imperative that I talk about it from within an Islamic framework as much as possible. And in the end, it is not my job or anybody's job to distort what happened. It is my job to convey and teach. And if people like it, they like it. If people do not like it, that is not a rejection of me. It is a rejection of Allah Azza wa Jal and his messenger. So, Marya, her name was Marya binti Sham'un. And Marya was gifted to the Prophet ﷺ by Jureyh ibn Mina. That's the name given in the books of Sira, Jureyh ibn Mina. And Jureyh was the Muqawqis of Egypt. What is the Muqawqis? The Muqawqis is a title, just like the Caesar, just like the Kisra, it's a title. And it was given to the patriarch of Egypt. now the books of seerah typically say this is the ruler of Egypt but this is simply incorrect because Egypt at the time was not independent Egypt at the time was under Byzantine rule, the Roman Empire so technically it is not correct this is not an independent kingdom rather this is a government appointed this is a person appointed by Rome he might have been Egyptian, maybe but he was not a king He was a patriarch appointed by the Roman Empire. And of course back then they appointed religious people. Because remember there was no separation of church and state. Back in those days that they're appointing religious people. So they're appointing a patriarch. And it looks like this patriarch, if you look at the books of history, is Cyrus of Alexandria. Cyrus has been changed to Jureh. So Cyrus was his actual Latin name. And then the Arabicized version is Jureh. Cyrus of Alexandria. And because the Muslims conquered Egypt within 20 years, it just turned out that this was the final Byzantine prefect, was the title, prefect over Egypt. And this Cyrus, he was a Malachite Christian. And the Malachites were, there were no Catholics or Protestants at the time. We're talking about 620, 610 CE. This is pre-Catholic and pre-Protestant. And they had other, they had Nestorians, they had Malachites, they had Maronites and others. So the Malachites become Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic. So this is pre-Roman Catholic. And to this day the Greek Orthodox Church admires this person Cyrus. The Greek Orthodox is somewhat similar to that tradition. And so they admire this person Cyrus. So the Prophet ﷺ sent him a letter to Islam. and this letter is probably around the 8th year of the Hijrah we talked about him sending letters to so many different people we have no reports from Egypt about him receiving the letter and what his response was unlike the Caesar we know what his response was in Rome we have absolutely no reports however it is not too far fetched to assume that he recognized the Prophet ﷺ as being true and that is why he was so polite to him we don't know this for a fact But it is an assumption to be made. That neither did he tear the letter up, nor did he reject, nor did he ridicule. Rather he gifted expensive gifts. He gave a mini fortune. And he wrote back a very polite letter to the Prophet ﷺ. And therefore, it's not too much of a stretch to make an assumption that this man, and he was a patriarch, which means he was an elder in the church. And he is well known. He actually is a well known theologian. Cyrus of Alexandria. is well known in the Greek Byzantine church as being an alim, if you like, right from their perspective. He wrote books, he wrote about Jesus Christ, and the nature of Jesus Christ. He has his theories, which is a very important topic for Christians. How do you reconcile the nature of the divine with the nature of the human? The point being, he's not a jahil. He's an alim from their tradition, and he responds with a lot of kindness and dignity. Perhaps he recognizes, but as is typical, he doesn't want to convert. And so, what does he do? he sends a mini fortune. He sends a thousand mithqal of gold, like a thousand satchels of gold. That's a fortune. And he sends many fine garments. And he sends a donkey that was called dul-dul. And this is the Prophet ﷺ took this donkey and this is the famous dul-dul that was gifted to him from Egypt. And he sent a servant by the name of Ma'bur. So a servant by the name of Ma'bur. He sent honey and he sent many other gifts And amongst those gifts were two sister slave girls by the name of Maria and Sirin. Maria and Sirin. And these two girls were of course Christians. And some later books they mention that these girls were gifted to the church by their noblemen fathers. Now they had a custom, the church. And we know this even from the story of Mariam and Zakaria, right? They had this custom of gifting to the church. And so the patriarch basically now has control over this. And so the patriarch, the Cyrus, he gives these two. And it is mentioned that these were daughters of a noble family. But now, of course, they are the slaves of the church, right? Because they're gifted to the church. And so the patriarch gives these two to the Prophet ﷺ. And the books of Sira that do mention these things, they mentioned that these two obviously young ladies were exceedingly beautiful. And because they were two sisters, and you cannot have two sisters at one time, so the Prophet ﷺ gifted Sirin to Hassan ibn Thabit, the poet. So Hassan ibn Thabit, and they had a child by the name of Abdulrahman ibn Hassan ibn Thabit. And he kept Marya for himself. and Ibn Sa'ad mentions that when the Prophet ﷺ received the letter from Muqawqis, from Cyrus it was a polite letter, all of these gifts so he said the khabith, this evil person has managed to preserve his kingdom by being polite to me but his kingdom will not last this is the last of his kingdom which means that he will be the last of his dynasty but because he was polite to me he will not be harmed in this world And so he dies a natural death And of course as a prediction He becomes the last prefect Because Amr ibn al-A'ath conquers Egypt So this was a type of prediction For the Prophet ﷺ Now of course the difficult issue for today Is of course the whole concept of gifting Mary and Sirin And the fact of the matter is that In the culture that we have been raised in And I am a part of this culture like everybody else This is a topic that is simply impossible to talk about without some type of bias. And the fact of the matter is that we are all biased in one direction, and that is we believe the process and to be a prophet. That is a legitimate bias, it's not a bad bias, right? And therefore, we will automatically view everything that he has done as being something that is permissible and sanctioned by Allah, at least for the time and place, even if it's not in our times, because there are some things that we can say are permissible back then, but now the ummah has agreed to move on and this is one of those issues as I will come to. So if you believe that the Prophet ﷺ was a prophet and that is our belief, then we accept that these things were morally permissible. And if you don't believe this, then it's not my job to really convince with regards to the story of Mary. And the fact of the matter is that no amount of sugarcoating removes this reality that Mary and her sister Sireen, they were not wives of the Prophet ﷺ. Of course, Sidin is not. She became the servant of the concubine of Hassan. They were not wives, but they were مِلْكُ الْيَمِينَ They were مِلْكُ الْيَمِينَ And it does appear, we know pretty much for a fact that she later on converted to Islam. But she was not a Muslim when she came. And in our sharia, one cannot take a Muslim as مِلْكُ الْيَمِينَ That this is not something that is allowed that a person who is a Muslim, we don't take them as abid or jawadi and then make them milky ameen. So she comes as a Christian and she converts at some later unspecified time. We do not know when that time is. And she is very much what the Bible itself calls a concubine. This is the term that the Bible itself has. Now, we as Muslims like to point out that whenever a Christian or a Jewish person says, Oh, how could your prophet have so many wives and a concubine? immediately our response is what? look at look at Solomon, look at David look at so and so, look at so and so the fact of the matter is that the asal or the basic ruling is that the biblical prophets had multiple wives and most of them had concubines the bible mentions Abraham and Moses, of course David and Solomon I mean David has over 700 Solomon has over a thousand this is according to the bible over a thousand ladies between wives and concubines put together over a thousand so we point out how can you criticize our Prophet for having one for most of his life for more than 25 years of his life he literally had one and then in the last few years he when he was in his 50s and 60s he married 9 how can you compare 9 to 900 or 1000 so we point this out and that's a valid point to make to a Christian or a faithful Christian or Jew. But the problem is in our times, there are few faithful Christians and Jews. And they are also being eliminated from the picture. And more and more people are turning agnostic. And they have no problem criticizing these Biblical figures as well. And so, with them, you really cannot quote the past at all. Because they will say, that's also wrong, what they did. Okay? And to that person, all that we can say, and this is the max, as much as we can say, is that that was a different world and a different time and a different place and a different custom and a different role. And people across the globe had different views about this notion. And while I was doing my research today, I actually came across a Jewish website, Q&A, like we have Islamic Q&A, they have another equivalent. And a questioner is asking the rabbi, that how can I understand that Solomon used hundreds of thousands of slaves to build the temple? doesn't this go against humanism and being nice and what not, now he's not asking about the slave girls, he's asking about slaves because the bible says that he used a hundred thousand slaves to build the grand temple, so this man is saying I feel disgusted and how can I be a Jew after this, how could our prophet have used, he's talking from himself perspective, all of these slaves so this rabbi, his name is rabbi Perry Rank from New York, he responds this is basically a response we can give that the thing about history is it does tend to be brutal. And it strips us about our most cherished illusions about the past. So whenever we delve into history, we have to approach it cautiously, knowing that we might not return the same way we entered it. It's going to change our perception. Solomon was a great builder. And as such, he needed workers whom he secured through the institution of basically slaves or forced labor. This was not an uncommon practice in ancient times. So how shall we read this? Shall we read it as slavery or as employment? He's calling slaves employment because that's... Then he goes on. Has Solomon enslaved the masses or has he provided them jobs? We tend to think of slavery as an ultimate evil of sorts. Here's the point. But the fact is that this was an accepted form of labor for thousands of years. And our disillusionment with it is only recent, 300 years old. and only about 150 years especially here in America. And then he goes on, the Torah has very extensive rules about how to treat slaves, the idea to humanize and to civilize. And so he's basically defending the classical notion of slavery. This is a modern Jewish rabbi in New York, because they have the same problem we do. And that is the tradition clearly mentions slaves being used by the... Now of course we don't have any equivalent of 100,000 slaves being used in mass labor. We have one Maria that was treated very nicely. She has her own house. She's not working in the fields. But in the end of the day, from modern standards, this is not something that most modern humans would find palatable, right? And so we do need to, as much as we can, explain. So he says, this is not a defense of slavery. And I have to agree with everything he says here. I, like you, am a child of the anti-slavery movement of modern times. meaning we're living in modern times where everybody has agreed we should be anti-slavery but let's realize that once upon a time that wasn't the notion in history and to read what goes on in ancient times through our contemporary eyes and then to judge it is really not fair to our ancestors this is what the rabbi is saying you cannot look through the lens of 2014 as you look at 620 CE and then expect them to have everything like we did. The world was a very different place. And everybody accepted it. And this is really harsh to say, but even the slaves of the time accepted it. That was the way that they were. And again, this is not a defense of slavery, but it is what... Now, here's another thing that I have to say here, and that is that the way that the slavery has existed in America in the 1800s is perhaps the most brutal manifestation of this institution in the history of humanity. That realistically speaking, the way that America used slaves, imported them, caught free people and brought them here and used them worse than cattle and animals and mistreated them and considered them to be inhumane. Even the ancient Greeks were better to their slaves than this reality. so one of the byproducts of being so harsh towards slaves was the anti-abolitionist movement came out of that and there's nothing wrong with that but the point is that we need to understand and this is not sugarcoating this is a fact that slavery did not exist in Islamic lands the way that it existed in America that's for sure this is not to sugarcoat there was slaves of course there were slaves and I have a number of quotes but I don't have time to get into them but it is very true historically speaking, and there are quotes that I can bring to you, maybe we'll have another talk about this historically speaking, that the first Europeans that visited Ottoman lands and visited Muslim lands and interacted with basically Muslims, they were amazed at how the slaves were treated in Muslim lands compared to how they're treated in European lands. So they're amazed at how gentle, how kind the slave, one of them marks the slave speaks back to the master that you know, cut back my work or whatever. I mean, he'll actually argue with the master. And we know from our Islamic history that some slaves even became kings. The Mamluk dynasty, which was the most prestigious dynasty that fought against the Mongols, right? Genghis Khan's hordes or the great-great-grandson of Genghis Khan. The Mamluk, what does Mamluk mean? It's called the slave dynasty. Literally Mamluk means slave. And this dynasty was a dynasty of slaves who eventually rose to power and became the Khulafa. And they ruled over the Muslim world for almost 500 years, up until the advent of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1792. I mean, it's really bizarre. Napoleon fought the Mamluks. Napoleon is fighting with guns, the Mamluks are fighting with swords. That's one of the reasons why they lost, okay? And that was the beginning of modernity. Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt came, and then modernization began, because the Mamluks were destroyed. Point being, who were the Mamluks? They were a slave dynasty, okay? So, in the end of the day, yes, we can add all of these points, There's only so much rationalization that I can do, only so much sugarcoating. If somebody wants to find fault with what happened, then honestly this is the perspective of 2014, being back projected onto 610, there's nothing I can do about that. But I as a Muslim who believes this man to be a prophet of Allah, I accept this was acceptable for the time and the place. And we also have to add here this is compounded by the fact that in modern times we have these extremist groups that are now starting this whole notion of entrapping and basically conquering innocent women and then making them into slaves, right? We have the Boko Haram, we have the ISIS, we have all of this. So this obviously complicates it. And you then have people saying, oh look, they're basing this on the process. I mean, this is ludicrous. Because what Boko Haram is doing is haram. Because why is this? Because, well, many reasons. the most obvious one, the sharia completely and uncategorically forbids taking a free person and making them into a slave there is a channel to become a slave and that is prisoners of war who are not ransomed off, okay, it is absolutely uncategorically haram, like what Boko Haram has done is to invade a Christian village and take school girls in broad daylight and then make them into slaves, or what ISIS is doing with the Yazidi families, what wrong have they done, where is the sin or the crime where is the jihad being waged who is the khalifa where are the prison of this is complete haram so we're not even you know there's no comparison at all with what is happening in modern times uh with um uh what happened in the past and also of course there's another point and that is that uh scholars of our era have agreed that slavery is now a thing of the past just like in other faith traditions where yes there were times when slavery was practiced and they justified it. But now, in the era that we live in, I don't know of any scholar of our tradition. I don't know of a single alim that is calling for a return to slavery. Things have moved on. And I'll give you just one example of this that I know for a fact, my own dear teacher, Sheikh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin, Sheikh al-Uthaymin, a very famous alim, of course, He passed away more than a decade and a half ago. But when the Bosnian war was taking place, and this is in the early 90s, he was very much involved with giving advice to the people. And that was a legitimate war, a legitimate jihad. Everybody acknowledges that the Serbs were massacring the Muslims. There was so much bloodshed. The UN, as you know, has done a tribunal and a crimes court against the Serb leaders, right? everybody acknowledges that this was a legitimate jihad that Muslims had to defend themselves I know for a fact that Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen was asked by some of the people on the ground we have prisoners of war we can't ransom them off can we take them as Malkyameen and the Shaykh said no this is not allowed in our times and this is a Shaykh that is generally considered very ultra conservative very hardline what not Of course, that's the way they perceive him. I consider him to be a great alim. But the point being, this is a faqih. He understands you can't do this. This is not something we resurrect from the books of fiqh. So this is something that very clearly our scholars have understood that, no, you don't do this anymore. That's something that, okay, it was permissible for the time. Now, it's not something that we need to resurrect. And so, the point is that our Prophet ﷺ was indeed gifted Marya. Marya was not our mother. she is not of the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen so we do not view her as being of the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen she was Milk Yamin she remained Milk Yamin and she was never a Zawja and if she had become a Zawja she would be of the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen and so our Prophet ﷺ was gifted Marya and of course we know that Marya gave birth to the son of our Prophet ﷺ and that is Ibrahim and there's one story that is also mentioned about Maria and again I mean I've already mentioned to you a big issue about the whole issue of Maria but I would rather you hear these things from me again rather than you hear about them from some other website or other person then you know this causes doubts and again wallahi I'll be honest with you if we lived in a different time and different place not everything needs to be mentioned you know it's not okay some things are healthy some things, there's no need to put the spotlight on them. But I feel very strongly from my own experiences, in the time and place we live in, it is better that we talk about this in a frank manner, because we don't want our youth. Wallahi, even last week I got a call from one of our youngsters, he had literally, he had told me he is not a Muslim anymore. But his parents wanted me to talk to him or whatnot. He's a murtad, he said this, I don't believe anymore. And he's quoting a number of things from the seerah. From the seerah. And these are things that are mentioned in the books. It's not something that you know. Where did he hear about it from? Not from me. Not from. Where did he hear? What do you think? Well, in particular. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know. So he heard it from Islamophobes. He heard it from people that have this agenda. And he's logged on to the websites. And they put all of these narrations. one from this year, one from that year and they ignore so many other stories that are just amazing that form the character of the Prophet ﷺ and they concentrate on these 2, 3, 4 and sometimes they'll bring a little bit exaggeration but they're not lying and that's the point they understand now you can't lie anymore they quote directly from Al-Tabarani or Ibn Ishaq or whatever and they bring 5, 10 incidents and this young kid said I just can't believe that this is this is what he said so you know I'm telling you in all honesty if we live in a different time and place well Allah let's just move on but we don't I would rather we talk about it and clarify so that we understand and then you know whoever wants to then have a different position or what not our job is to convey the message it's up to them to believe what they want so and of course this is not it's scandalous for Mary but not for our Prophet and that is that Mary was not a Muslim at the time and she is of course coming to a strange land and she probably does not speak the language of Arabic and so one can kind of understand that you know she's all alone in a strange land so rumors began to spread that the servant that was gifted along with Maria his name was Ma'bur was visiting Maria okay so rumors began to spread of this nature and you understand what these rumors entail and so some reports also mentioned that this servant was a relative like a distant cousin or something of Maria which would also then you know make it like they have some connection from back as well and so and this hadith is reported in Sahih Muslim by the way so it's clearly it's not something in some obscure the hadith I'm going to mention it's not some obscure book it's mentioned in pretty much every single book you know of the Sunan and what not that the Prophet ﷺ commanded Ali ibn Abi Talib to take his sword and find ma'bur. i.e. deal with the man. Find this person ma'bur. And of course Ali is assigned رضي الله عنه these tasks because anything to do with the personal family of the Prophet ﷺ it's Ali. So anything to do with the personal family of the Prophet ﷺ Ali is the man that is chosen. Because he is آل البيت He is a part of the family of the Prophet ﷺ. So Ali took the sword and he asked a very intelligent question. He said, O Messenger of Allah, should I go as a silent person who just obeys the command? Or should I go as somebody who hears and sees what the person absent will not hear and see? Meaning, do you want me to investigate or you want me to just do? What do you want? So he asked an intelligent question. And so the Prophet ﷺ said, No, go as somebody who hears and sees i.e. find out You do investigation And this, by the way, I'll just jump the gun here So because of this phrase Ibn Al-Qayyim and Ibn Hazm and others They say That the Prophet ﷺ Was not sending Ali to execute Ma'bur He was sending him to frighten him and to find out And the other position Which is the position also found Is that he was being sent to execute ma'bur. So this is a bit of a controversy because you have fiqh points, fiqh ramifications based upon this. Do you understand the fiqh ramifications? The main fiqh ramification ma'bur was not given a trial. Evidence was not presented. Two witnesses were not found. And Ali is being told, here's the knife, go do it. Okay? So one opinion says that the Prophet ﷺ had this right. Of course, they all say, nobody else has this right. I mean, understood. I mean, that's clearly maybe I should mention it. You know, that's something for the Prophet ﷺ. But the other opinion, which is Ibn Qayyim and Ibn Hazm and others, they say, no, this is not judge, jury and executioner. This is the Prophet ﷺ sending Ali to basically frighten and interrogate. And that's why he tells Ali, use your ears and eyes. Figure out what's happening. And so, Ali ibn Abi Talib goes and finds Ma'bur. According to one report, he was in a he was in a date grove collecting dates or perhaps getting water and when Maboor saw him he became terrified and there's again multiple reports over here one report mentions that he attempted to climb up a tree but then fell down another report mentions that he intentionally exposed his awrah in either case his awrah was exposed in either case what happened either he fell down or he intentionally exposed it and lo and behold it was obvious that he had been castrated. In fact, castration is not the word. He had been, how shall we put this, mutilated. That's the best way we can say this, right? He did not have the organ that a man has. So of course, this is what some of the civilizations did to slaves. Of course, in our tradition, this is always prohibited. You cannot do this ever, ever. It's never allowed to do this. Even to a legitimate slave, you cannot do this. But of course, other civilizations didn't have that rule. So it was then clear to Ali that the rumors can't be true that he doesn't even have this so he then returned to the Prophet and informed him that basically this is not something that is the case and as I said Ibn Al-Qayyim and others have mentioned that this is something to frighten him and not as an executioner in any case so that issue was resolved and in Dhul Hijjah of the 8th year of the Hijrah In Dhul Hijjah, Marya gives birth to a son. And of course our Prophet ﷺ was especially happy. Now we don't know when Marya embraced Islam. I tried my best to look up as many books as I could. I could not find the time when Marya embraced Islam. So was it before this? Was it after this? We don't know. Okay. But one can assume that living with the Prophet ﷺ, obviously you will embrace Islam. You will see the Prophet of Allah. you will interact with him, so one can assume that by the time Marya is born so now she is a different person she has now embraced Islam and the Prophet hadith is in Sahih Muslim and others that he came to the masjid beaming with joy the sahaba saw him smiling and he said last night a baby boy was born to me and I shall call him the name of my father Ibrahim father is Ibrahim, I'll call him the name of my father Ibrahim and he said about Marya that her child has freed her her child has freed her and this means that what this means is that this is a ruling that our religion has which is an interesting ruling which again shows you the way that slavery was practiced in Islam is very different than the way it is in any other civilization that in our Sharia if a concubine gives birth well of course the child will be fully legitimate and exactly the same as all other children in inheritance in wiratha in taking the name of the father and taking the status of the father and I should have mentioned most of our khulafa of the umayyads and of the abbases especially and the ottomans almost all of them were sons of slaves so being the son of a slave did not have any type of negative smear at all in fact even Hajar and Ismail this is the same thing so the point being that in our sharia when the slave has a child when such a concubine has a child automatically she gets a free upgrade what is this free upgrade? the sharia calls her Umm Al-Walad and Umm Al-Walad means that she is no longer a concubine she has certain privileges and rights and of them is she cannot be sold she cannot be transferred she cannot be treated like a slave and she will become free as soon as her husband or owner in this case passes away so this is a Umm Al-Walid so we can say this that Islam is coming close to this issue of absolving slavery that every single lady that gives birth you cannot and this is so humane how can you then get rid of the lady who gave birth to your own son or daughter right, it becomes haram to do this and this lady is now upgraded from milkyameen to ummal walad and when you become ummal walad so as soon as the owner dies you become automatically free, nobody can be your owner after that, so our Prophet ﷺ gave the fiqh ruling through Marya a'taqaha waladuha, the fact that she has a child, now she's a free lady now that she's going to become a free lady, and one of the ladies of the Ansar they volunteered to become a foster mother in fact the books of Sira mentioned there was a competition eagerness a lot of women came to want to be a foster mother to the child and this also shows us by the way this is a custom that has almost disappeared from our time but it was very common for ladies to volunteer to help out and to be a foster child to children and every mother knows it's so difficult to raise a newborn an infant and this is what they would do, they would help one another out and they would just take the child and help out in rearing the child so one of the ladies of the Ansar and her name is mentioned in the books, she basically, the process agreed that she should be the wet nurse if you like and so she takes charge of the child for some periods as well and the process gave her some stipend for that as well because this is a paid job that it is done and Ibrahim lived for a year and some reports say a year and four months some reports say a year and six months so basically between this amount to time around 18 months and to the best of my knowledge I don't know of any hadith that mentions any incident within this year and a half I don't know of anything I tried again to look up and to the best of my knowledge I was not able to find any incident about you know something with this young boy Allah knows best most likely you know there's not something that they narrated onwards and again this is one of the sad realities of the seerah we only have what the sahaba told us about and perhaps there was nothing other than the fact that he's a baby boy the Prophet ﷺ is seen with him we don't know much about that and so what we do know is that in the first quarter of the 10th year of the hijrah when the Prophet ﷺ barely has less than a year left to live basically that his son passed away and for those of us who are parents in this room you all know not only that the passing of a son or daughter is the most painful thing, but that the age of a month, a year and a half, is the most tender and the most cute, adorable age, right? The terrible twos haven't begun yet, okay? And it is at that age where there's, the child is walking, laughing, running, waddling around, the child recognizes you, it's grunting and groaning in its own way, I mean, that is the cutest, cutest age. We all know this as parents, okay? Then after that, subhanAllah, it kind of goes downhill, But anyway, alhamdulillah, parents are parents, we have to deal with it as it exists. But at that age, subhanallah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala willed that Ibrahim passed away. And there are many reports in the seerah about his death. There are not that many reports about his life because I'm assuming it was a non-descriptive, what you would expect a child, the Prophet ﷺ with him, what are you gonna report about that, you know? I mean, it's nothing that is above and beyond. but his death of course is something that is reported in every single book of hadith in Bukhari Muslim every book of hadith reports the death of Ibrahim and some of the books mention that the news came that Ibrahim has fallen sick and he's about to die so we can assume you know the doctors of course at the time they knew that symptoms of death have begun so the information is told and conveyed to the Prophet ﷺ the Prophet ﷺ visited Marya And Marya lived in a place in Medina called Al-Awali. And coincidentally, I used to live there as well in that area. It's still called Al-Awali to this day after 14 centuries. It is still called the Medina. By the way, the names of the areas of Medina are pretty much the same. Harra Sharqiyah, Harra Gharbiya, Al-Awali. These are still from the Sira. You still have them. So coincidentally, I didn't know Awali was also where Ali ibn Abi Talib had a house, where Marya had a house. So a number of Sahaba had their houses in that vicinity. And just coincidentally when I came, the apartment I found was actually in Awali. And so Marya was in Awali. And so the Prophet ﷺ visited Marya. And some of the Sahaba went with him to see Ibrahim. And he held Ibrahim in his hand. And Ibrahim was wheezing and coughing. And you could tell that the pangs of death had begun. And the tears began to fall from the face of our Prophet ﷺ. and this was when one of the sahaba said awa tabki ya rasulallah you also cry oh messenger of Allah you also cry so this shows us that he rarely cried in public and that to see him cry was a shock to some of the sahaba they're asking him like are you human as well you can cry as well awa tabki ya rasulallah and so he responded with his famous phrase that the eyes cry and the heart is sad but we only say that which will please our Lord. The eyes cry and the heart is sad but we only say that which will please our Lord and were it not for the decree of Allah to pass and that the latter amongst us shall meet the earlier. Meaning, those who die will meet those who have already died. Okay, so Ibrahim you're dying but I too will die and I'll meet up with you. So he's saying, were it not for the qadr of Allah must take place. and that eventually we'll all be together, we would have been much more grieved at your departure. So this shows us two things to console us when somebody dies. Number one, Qadr Allah. Allah has decreed what can you do. And number two, InshaAllah it's only a matter of time, then all of us will be together in Jannah. Right? So these are the two things that you console yourself with when somebody passes away. That, Qadr Allah, what are you gonna do? Allah's decree. Allah has willed it. and then alhamdulillah death is not something that is permanent departure because you will also die so when your loved one departs there's only a matter of time before you depart as well then when the both of you have departed inshallah you will be together so this is what the Prophet ﷺ is saying and then he reiterated that truly we are sad but we only say that which pleases our Lord so this shows us what does sabr mean sabr means you control your tongue and your actions. Sabr has nothing to do with emotions. You can feel sad, you can cry, this is fine. Sabr has nothing to do with that. Sabr means you control what you say and you control what you do. You don't start wailing and saying, how am I gonna live and why is this happening to me? No, we control our tongue and we control our limbs as well and alhamdulillah by and large most Muslim societies have stopped this practice Unfortunately, still around in some cultures of beating oneself or pulling the hair. But Alhamdulillah, I would say most Muslim societies have kind of eliminated these pre-Islamic jahili practices. And the books of hadith mention that Ibrahim, salat al-janazah was prayed for him. So from this we learn we pray janazah for a young boy. Salat al-janazah was prayed for him. And we learn that the Prophet ﷺ used four takbirat. so from this we learn there's four takbirat in salatul junazah as we know four takbirat and that Ibrahim was buried in baqir in a graveyard that is still known to this day and every time we go to our group goes whenever inshallah this year as well when we go next month for those of you who are going so one of the things we'll do is make a tour of baqir and I'll show you exactly where inshallah one month from now inshallah I'll show you exactly where the grave of Ibrahim is and the other graves as well of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and others in Baqir al-Gharqad. So he was buried in Baqir in a place that is well known to this day. And subhanAllah, look at how many deaths of the family of the Prophet ﷺ that he had to suffer. From the beginning to the end. Ibrahim died less than one year before our Prophet ﷺ died. Literally at 62 years old now. You know, one would think he's gone through so much suffering. His mother, you know, his father has died before he's born. His mother dies. His grandfather Abu Talib, you know his confidant and wife of 25 years Khadija you know passes away everybody is passing every single son of his and daughter of his dies other than Fatima all three of his daughters are already dead by this time so that's why he was extra happy at the birth of Ibrahim that he only has Fatima left everybody has died right so he's extra happy at the birth of Ibrahim and now and now this is Hasan you're talking about and this is Sayyid this is Hassan and Hussain I'll have to look this report up I don't know this report so we're getting there we're getting there so and where was I and so I said that all of his all of his children had passed away other than Fatima at this point in time so all three of his daughters and his son or two sons from the past. We don't know how many Khadijah had, either one or two or three. And of course, Khadijah and others have passed away. So the very last year of his life, Allah Azza wa Jal tests him one more time. All of this is to demonstrate, to raise his ranks in Jannah, for him to be a role model for us. And what is perhaps even more amazing than all of this, is that on the day of the death of Ibrahim, as reported in the Musnad of At-Tayalisi, on the day of the death of Ibrahim, there was a solar eclipse there was a solar eclipse that within a few hours Ibrahim dies in the morning within a few hours there is a solar eclipse and the fact that there is an eclipse is mentioned in Bukhari and Muslim but it's not Ibrahim is not mentioned, the death of Ibrahim other books of hadith mention that took place on the day Ibrahim died and the people began to say that the sun is grieving at the sorrow of the Prophet ﷺ because he was sad because he was crying so even the sun is sad and the sun is shielding itself because it is crying so the news spread in Medina that the sun is crying because of the death of the Prophet ﷺ son and so the Prophet ﷺ gathered all of the people together and he gave a khutbah and this khutbah is recorded in Bukhari and Muslim and he said inna al-shamsa wal-kamara ayatani min ayatillahi ta'ala the sun and the moon are two of the miracles of Allah la yankasifani they don't have an eclipse limawti ahadin walah lihayati when somebody is born or somebody dies so when you see an eclipse then hasten to do dhikr of Allah and perform the salah and this incident is reported in Bukhari Muslim this khutbah is found in Bukhari and Muslim as I said the death of Ibrahim is not linked to the eclipse in Bukhari but it is in the Musnad of Abu Dawud so other books of hadith mention it happened on the same day but the khutbah in Bukhari is very clear that the Prophet ﷺ is saying the sun does not eclipse because of the birth or the death of anybody why would he say that unless there is a birth and a death taking place and of course it was the death of his own son and to me it is incidents like these that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was a sincere Prophet. That he didn't even have to repel against the rumors. He didn't have to negate the rumors. He didn't have to do anything. He could have just been quiet. I mean, what does it lose him if those people say he's a false prophet? How does he lose anything? Let the rumors spread. It's good, let the people say. let the world know that the sun is crying because of my son, the death of my son, right? But subhanallah, he can't because he is Rasulullah, and he has to preach the truth. And so he calls the people together, and he literally says to them, that the moon and the sun don't eclipse because of the birth of anybody, or the death of anybody, even my own son. That's independent of the miracles of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. and to me this clearly demonstrates the sincerity of our Prophet ﷺ. And this is one of millions of evidences that really we have to put into context even if certain incidents like this are difficult to explain. And yes, for our cultural paradigm it is difficult. But wallahi, how do you explain this? How do you explain this? That the miracle of the eclipse is taking place and he says, no, no, it's not a miracle, don't. It's just a coincidence. It's just a complete coincidence. This to me is a clear sign of the sincerity of the Prophet ﷺ. And of course, the fact that Ibrahim could not become a young man and an adult is something that one can say has already been decreed by Allah ﷻ explicitly in the Qur'an. Because Allah says in the Qur'an, مَا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَى أَحَدٍ مِّن رِّجَالِكُمْ وَلَكِ الرَّسُولُ اللَّهِ وَخَاتِمَ النَّبِيِّينَ This verse was revealed before the birth of Ibrahim. this verse of surah al-ahzab was revealed before the birth of Ibrahim and it translates as Muhammad is not the father of any of your men he is not the father of any of your men, now if Ibrahim had become a young man this would have contradicted the verse but Ibrahim and notice here the precision of the Quran Allah didn't say he is not a father he didn't say he's not a father to a child or a boy the word is very clear ma kana muhammadun abahadi mir rijalikum look at how precise the verse is muhammad s.a.w. is not the father of any of your rijal and rijal is by definition a grown man and if Allah a.w. or if the Quran had said he is not a father to any boy, any man meaning a man, meaning a maulud let's say because the Quran also uses the word maulud wa'ala al-mawloodi the word maulud could mean anything boy, girl, baby, anything and that's what you call a baby but Allah didn't say he's not the father of any baby or the father of any child or the father of any offspring rather Allah used a very precise word ma kana muhammadun abahdi min rijalikum and subhanallah Ibrahim was never a rajul Ibrahim was always a walad, he was a maulud, he was a baby, and so Allah Azza wa Jal has already clearly said, your prophet is not going to be the father of any man amongst you and therefore, one could say that theologically or you know, from the Quran, it's impossible then there's another report as well, which is very interesting, and that is a report found in Ibn Majah from Anas ibn Malik that the prophet says, is reported to have said, that when Ibrahim died he said that Allah has given him a wet nurse, a murdi'ah in Jannah so there's somebody to take care of him in Jannah walaw aasha lakana siddiquan nabiyya if Ibrahim had lived he would have been a righteous prophet, now this hadith is reported in Ibn Majah and some of our scholars including Shaykh Khalid Bani have made it hasan but the majority of scholars and this is the position I lean towards as well and Allah knows best it is not a statement of the Prophet ﷺ it's a statement of Anas ibn Malik it's a statement of Anas ibn Malik and this is actually proven in other narrations Musnadim Ahmad and others they mention it upon Anas as a statement from him and this makes more sense that Anas ibn Malik said and other Sahaba said that if Ibrahim had lived he would have been a prophet and this is a statement from them that's an Ijtihad that how could a prophet, how could the son of the Prophet ﷺ not be other than a Prophet. So this is an ijtihad from Anas ibn Malik. It's not the strongest opinion. It is not a hadith. Also, one can also add here that there is a political wisdom in not having male lineage of the Prophet ﷺ because there's no doubt that if there was male lineage, then immediately that would have been the next Khalifa and the next Khalifa and the next Khalifa and what not. As it is, look at the controversies that erupted from the descendants of the Prophet ﷺ through his daughter. Look at how groups formed. Look at how groups exalted the status of the Al-Bayt to above what is even human. And this Al-Bayt, they are Al-Bayt. We respect and admire them. But there's a big difference between us and the Shia. For us, we say the Al-Bayt are special and blessed if they are holy. Whereas the bulk of the Shia say, the Al-Bayt are special and blessed because they are holy. In other words, if you are Al-Bayt, you are automatically blessed and holy. Whereas for us, if you are a descendant of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, that does not make you a righteous man in and of itself. Blood does not make you righteous. Your good deeds will make you righteous. So if you have good deeds, and you are Al-Bayt, then Noorun Ala Noor. You have a double. But if you are not a good person, then your blood will not save you. And if that were the case, then all of us are the children of prophets. We are children of Nuh. We're children of Adam. All of us are children of prophets. Every human being is a son or daughter of Nuh. Directly. Every human being is obviously son or daughter of Adam. So we don't believe that being children of prophets automatically makes you holy. Even if it is the process of man. Frankly, all you need to do is look at historically the descendants of the Prophet ﷺ in the 8th, 10th, 15th generation in our times right, some of the rulers of countries in our times have authentic lineages to the Prophet ﷺ, look at what they or their father or their grandfather, you know what I'm talking about here look at what they have done, sold their countries and what not to, I mean it doesn't matter, wallahi it doesn't matter, if your lineage is holy or blessed but you are an unrighteous man it's not gonna, and this is a hadith of course in Tirmidhi, that مَنْ بَطَّأَ بِهِ عَمَلُهُ لَمْ يُسْرِعُ نَسَبُهُ whosoever's good deeds hold him back, his lineage will not push him forward. Whosoever's good deeds hold him back, his lineage will not push him forward. This is what the Prophet ﷺ is saying. Doesn't matter who your ancestors are. If you don't have the good deeds, you don't have the good deeds. And so, we believe that Ibrahim ﷺ, Allah will that he pass away, he die. And perhaps there is truth in this as well, that if he had lived he would have been a prophet there's one more incident narrated about Mary and then we are done with the story of Mary and this is an incident that the books of Tafsir mention more than the books of Sira because the Quran was revealed for this incident and therefore the books of Tafsir mention this story and once again so with Mary there's all of these mini stories that are problematic from one perspective and this is also one of them. And again I reiterated it, better you hear it from me than from others. And also this is in the Qur'an. So you can't really like this is a verse in the Qur'an. It is reported in Tabari and many other books of Tafsir that one day Hafsa went away and she was not going to be at home. And so the procession called Maria to the house of Hafsa. And it so happened that Hafsa returned earlier than she was supposed to and she saw Marya leaving her house. So she became extremely enraged. And she became irritated with the Prophet ﷺ. And she said that, Ya Rasulallah, is that how much, how do I translate this, respect you have for me, or is that what you think of me, in my house and on my day? And so the Prophet ﷺ continued to placate her and calm her down. And she basically was very emotional. and until eventually she made the Prophet ﷺ promise to never ever see Mary again. And the Prophet ﷺ said, I have made her haram for myself. Okay, okay, khalas, I give up basically. Mary is haram for me. I will never see Mary. I swear to Allah, I'm never going to see Mary again. And he told Hafsa, he made Hafsa basically keep this between the two of them. and he said do not tell Aisha and this shows and this is here's the point here that these types of incidents the image that some Muslims have of our Prophet ﷺ literally makes him superhuman so when they hear these narrations the image they have formed in their minds crumbles and the problem comes that this image should not have been in their minds our Prophet ﷺ was he human or not for sure he was he was the best human he was the perfect human but in the end of the day he is a human being and so yes he wanted Mariah and it is halal for him to have Mariah and he now wants to placate Hafsa so he promises not to see and he does not want Aisha to find out every husband here understands exactly the fear of a wife what it can do right this is the reality as well okay so there's nothing wrong with this image at all but the first time somebody hears it again because of the image that they have constructed something is wrong but in reality this is human nature all of this is completely human and there's nothing haram that he has done there's nothing sinful, our Prophet ﷺ did not commit any sin of this nature so he makes Hafsa promise not to tell Aisha Hafsa of course she goes and tells Aisha she spills the beans why would she tell Aisha? can anybody explain the psychology? why don't you raise your voice no not that why would she tell Aisha then no to make Aisha jealous of her that I caused the Prophet ﷺ to give up to give up Maria. Clear? Right? And of course the two of them they had their spats and they were sometimes the best of friends and sometimes the worst of enemies. Right? So Hafsa and Aisha had a very interesting relationship. Whereas other wives they never got along. Zainab and Aisha never got along. Never. But Hafsa and Aisha at times they were the best of friends and at times they were at each other. And so this is like trying to show Aisha that I was the one who got Marya out of the picture. And the both of them were jealous of Marya. Right? Marya was a beautiful lady and it was because of this as was mentioned, it was because of this that the Prophet ﷺ moved her to Awali. Far away. Otherwise, the otherwise were around the masjid. So, moved her away to far away place that there's no direct interaction. So, she makes, sorry He makes Hafsa promise not to tell Hafsa goes and tells and spills the beans Then what happens? Allah reveals in the Quran Allah reveals in the Quran That's why we're talking about it right here And Allah reveals, what is He revealed? Which surah? Surah Tahreem Ya ayyuhan nabiyyu O Prophet, lima tuharrimu ma ahallallahu lak Why are you making haram What Allah has made halal for you Meaning what? maria you do it in order to please your wife so you make haram what Allah had made halal simply to please your wife and Allah azza wa jalla is forgiving and merciful Allah has obligated on you to get rid of your oath what was the oath never see again so how do you get rid of the oath you fast or you give a basically there is a method in the Quran you feed the poor, you fast, you give a so Allah is saying I have obligated on you now to get rid of this oath don't make haram what Allah has made halal for you qad faradallahu lakum tahillat imanikum wallahu maulakum and Allah is your protector wa huwa al-alimul khabeer wa idh asarra al-nabiyu ila ba'di azwaji haditha and when the process I'm told one of his wives a a secret this is hafsa and he told her it's a secret asarra falamma nabba'aha bihi qalat man anba'aka hadha so there's a missing clause that's understood so she spilled the secret she spilled the beans so when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told her why did you spill the beans why did you tell somebody why did you tell Aisha qalat man anba'aka hadha hafsa says who told you I told Aisha how did you know? now what is Hafsa thinking? Aisha he's stabbing me in the back now Aisha is now coming and telling the whole thing so Hafsa getting jealous now من أنبأك هذا? who told you that I told her? because it's only me and her, nobody else and so قال نبأني العليم الخبير Allah told me إِن تَتُوبَ إِلَى اللَّهِ فَقَدْ صَغَدْ قُلُوبُكُمَا so Allah says the both of you what you did in trying to basically make yourselves better and what not the both of you if you repent to Allah even if you repent your hearts have inclined towards what it doesn't say but meaning to deprive him of the halal and if the two of you dare cooperate against him Allah is his protector and the righteous believers and that's Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman the righteous believers and Ali and after the righteous believers even the angels so this is a verse that is meant to bring some fear to the wives of the Prophet don't conspire against him don't go behind backs and now trying to Allah knows what you are doing and there is no denying that Allah Azza wa Jal is showing the status of our Prophet even to his wives even to his wives he is showing that that he is not like a normal person, of course he's a normal human being but you get my point, he's not the huqooq are much more the huqooq of this husband are much more than the huqooq of any husband so that's why the warning comes down very clearly that even if you repent you have already wanted to commit some crime, right, meaning Allah will forgive you but you shouldn't have done that and if you are gonna continue down this path and conspire against him then Allah Azza wa Jal will protect him and the righteous people and Jibreel and the malaika are behind after that as well. Now, so because of this, Allah revealed the command to break the oath. And so he broke the oath, he gave the kafara. And so Mary returned to him. Now, there is an alternative version. There's two opinions about Surah Al-Tahrim. This opinion of Mary is really the strongest one and the correct one. There is an alternative that some of the sahaba posited. And this is that it involves it involves some honey that was given to him by Saudah and Aisha and Hafsa conspired the fact of the matter, yes the story is mentioned but the fact of the matter is that it doesn't fit and follow all of the verses the secret and the two of you conspiring and what not, it doesn't fit as perfectly as the story of of Marya, and also it doesn't seem that big of a deal if the Prophet says I'm never gonna eat honey again versus the issue of Marya it makes perfect sense why would the wives get so jealous about spending 20 minutes extra because he had honey because the other story goes that he had honey at the house of one of the wives and so they got very jealous that he's having honey and that doesn't it doesn't fit as perfectly as the story of Marya now by the way some scholars say oh these personal issues of the Prophet's house are private matters they should be left alone we shouldn't talk about them but to respond to this we say if Allah had wanted to he could have had kept it private but he revealed surah tahreem because of it so there is a wisdom for us in it and there was much wahi that was private, this wahi is public and also this is not the custom even of the sahaba so we have ibn abbas for example saying that i was waiting for an opportunity from umar ibn khattab for months, for years to ask about surah tahreem until finally one opportunity came he said and i found umar all by myself So I basically jumped on him and said immediately, Ya Amir al-Mu'mineen, who are the two women in Surah Al-Tahrim? So he's asking, who are the two women? And Umar ibn al-Khattab says, Aisha and Hafsa, his own daughter. And look at the honesty, this is his own daughter that Allah is saying, إِن تَتُوبَ لَلَّهِ فَخَصَغَتْ غُلُوبُكُمَا So if he wanted to keep it private, he could have said, none of your business young man, you know, don't ask. Imagine if anybody wants to keep it private, it's Umar. But it's Allah revealing in the Qur'an. and Ibn Abbas is eager to find out remember Ibn Abbas was 12-13 years old he doesn't, he will learn his ilm after the death of the Prophet he will study after that, so this is his eagerness he wants to ask Umar, so Umar tells him this is what happened and so therefore I think that, and if you look at the story of Marya, I mean wallahi there's so much benefit from us to see that even the wives of the Prophet they were, yes they were regular human beings, they felt jealous about their husband like every wife would that our Prophet ﷺ is a human being and here's the whole point is that if we portray him the way that our books of seerah portray him, then everything fits into place, but if we make an imaginary perspective and we formulate a person who never actually existed then when we read the books of seerah or when some person comes and gives us an incident it completely shakes our understanding and I think this is a problem. And I think if you listen and this is one of my goals really of this whole seerah is to increase iman of our young brothers and sisters. To make them realize the true message of our Prophet ﷺ. To not make him into something that he wasn't. He didn't do anything wrong. He's a human being and he has halal access to Mary. Okay, Hafsa has the right to get irritated. Yes, we understand that. It's her house. She has the right to get irritated, right? But technically, he didn't do haram and our Prophet ﷺ did not commit haram, right? He did something that yes Hafsa we can understand 100% sympathize with her but then when she had the sympathy of the Prophet ﷺ what did she do? She took it more than she needed to, right? And she went beyond what would have been appropriate and so when she did this and then she felt she had accomplished something, she goes to Aisha so then Allah ﷻ reveals against the two of them that you went beyond and of course they are forgiven, they are our mothers but to me, to portray this picture and to give the real image wallahi to me, I can love and respect the Prophet ﷺ even more because he is now accessible to me rather than to make him into a superhuman or something that as if he is not from this world, as if he is a walking nude of Allah on earth, no he is a human being and he has desires and those desires he controls them in a halal manner and there's nothing wrong with satisfying one's desires in a halal manner our Prophet ﷺ never committed a sin of that nature and so here he has this he does it and it's understandable Hafsa gets irritated at him but as we said Hafsa took too much advantage and so Allah ﷻ revealed that why would you make haram what Allah ﷻ has made halal and so that is the story of Marya I forgot to mention Maria lived for only 4 years or maybe 5 years after the death of the Prophet ﷺ and so she died relatively early relatively young in the Khilafah of Umar ibn Khattab, maybe the 16th or the 15th year of the Hijrah, she passed away and Umar ibn Khattab prayed janazah for her and they buried her in Baqi'a and therefore this shows us that she clearly converted to Islam, that there's no doubt she converted to Islam, she died a Muslimah, when did she convert? I would assume she converted before the birth of Ibrahim but this is just an assumption Allah knows best we don't know I don't know for sure and if anybody finds any details about this then please benefit me in this regard any quick questions we've gone beyond our mark any quick questions about Maria yes it's not a husband technically you understand you understand you don't understand no so the opposite the husband and the wife form a couple the nikah takes place in this case maria is not a wife maria is a milik yamin ok so we just don't use the term husband ok So when will she become free? At the death of the owner. No, because the nikah, there was no nikah. There was no nikah. It's not a wife. That's why I'm saying your terminology is incorrect. There was, see this is the whole point. This is what you call a concubine, a milky ameen. إِلَّا مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ So ملك يمين has different rulings in Islam. And ماريا was never a wife. No nikah was ever performed. Therefore she is not considered to be a mother of the believers. She becomes free and nobody can marry her. Otherwise if any other ummah was there then somebody could marry. but because it's our process nobody can marry her but she's not a wife okay any other quick questions going once going why did he not make dua for Khadija for Abu Talib he made dua Allah Azza wa Jal did not accept for Abu Talib so with his Qadr Allah just because he's a process he does not snap his fingers and say kun fayakun correct and Allah says in the Quran you're not going to be the father of any man he knew the verse he knew the verse and that's probably what he meant when he said were it not for the qadr of Allah maybe this is what his intention was I knew this would happen this is the qadr of Allah okay inshallah yes just one comment about this image of a prophet I think a lot has to do with our parents, our families, our teachers because a lot of these think they've lost them and we don't come across these until we've entered our health either because we're attacked or we're searching ourselves. And we come across it and then we're shocked by it. It's not an image that we create. It's an image that elders create for us. I agree with you, but don't you agree with me that that's dangerous in modern times? I don't disagree with that. Right? It's not an image, for example, that I create. I see what you're saying. So it is an image that was created for you by your elders, by your Sunday school teachers. Yes. and be very frank here maybe a hundred years ago let it pass by right no big deal but I just think it is very dangerous very dangerous in our times to have this false image because we are being bombarded and nothing is better than the truth nothing is better to defend than the truth sometimes the truth is a bit awkward but honestly all of the incidents today I don't see it as being that awkward, frankly you know, it's something my new shay, things here and there nothing really at the character of the Prophet ﷺ himself, the issue of Jawadi, of Malki Amin, everybody did it, everybody in human history nothing special for the Prophet ﷺ some things Mary did okay she wasn't a Muslim at the time, she was new and it turned out to be false, okay I mean you know, it's not affecting, and then the issue of Hafsa as well I mean, he's a human being it's halal, you know, it's nothing there that's that, so to me, this story is not as problematic as one or two other ones, but nonetheless, people have different issues of what's problematic so, I'd rather you hear it from me and we explain it in the proper manner than gloss over it and then, you know face problems later on, inshallah Thank you.

Seerah 97 - Marital dispute with the Wives ~ Dr

Al-Fatiha. from where we left off and our last lecture was about, what was our last lecture? So Umm Ibrahim, the entire story of Umm Ibrahim. And so based off of that, I thought this would be the good time to also mention another family incident of the Prophet ﷺ. Another incident involving the wives of the Prophet ﷺ. The only issue is we do not know when this incident occurred. So there are a number of opinions when this incident occurred. one scholar, Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, famous scholar of seerah, he says it occurred in the 9th year of the hijrah. If this is the case, we're on perfect timing because we're around the 9th year of the hijrah now. But other scholars say this occurred, some say in the 4th, some say in the 5th, some say in the 6th. So we don't have any exact timing and this is one of the big problems of the seerah that we know an incident, but we don't know when it occurred. And in fact, we can say the same of all of the hadith, whether the Prophet ﷺ said. We don't know, generally speaking, when he said this. So what is the incident we're going to do today? It is the incident of our Prophet ﷺ abstaining from his wives for one month. This is the famous marital dispute that took place and Allah revealed Qur'an because of it. And so we have a number of internal evidences when this took place. And some of these evidences are somewhat contradictory as is typically the case in the seerah. So we know that when this incident took place, he was married to all nine of his wives ﷺ. And therefore this means that Where is that noise coming from? There's a phone back there Okay, I did not know this This is a Huh? This is the first time the phone is ringing from This is not even a phone, this is something else So we know that he was married to all nine of his wives I'm not gonna quiz you on the names of these nine because I know we haven't memorized them yet. Even I have to look them up because you have to think about who they were. So the nine of his wives at this point would be Sauda, Aisha, Hafsa, Umm Salama, and of course Umm Salama is Hind, Juwayriya bint Al-Harith, Zayna bint Jahsh, Umm Habiba Ramla bint Abi Sufyan, Safiya bint Huyay, Maymuna bint Al-Harith, Al-Hilaliya. And inshallah, by the way, when I finish the seerah, which is very soon from now, maybe by the end of January or beginning of February inshaAllah we'll finish we're really at the end now inshaAllah the very next quick series will be the wives of the Prophet ﷺ however many series that we can do about the wives of the Prophet ﷺ so we know that he had all nine of his wives which means what? that this incident took place somewhat late yet we have internal incidents or references as we'll see when we go on one of them it seems to suggest this incident took place before the verses of hijab were revealed. And this is somewhat problematic because he might not have been married to all nine before the verses of hijab were revealed. So this seems to be a little bit of a clash. Another internal incident, the verse that Allah revealed is now Surah Al-Ahzab. And Surah Al-Ahzab was revealed obviously, when was Surah Al-Ahzab revealed? When was Surah Al-Ahzab revealed? Fath-i-Makkah Surah Al-Ahzab Ahzab, what is Ahzab? Uhud, no What is Ahzab? The confederates, so when did that take place? What year? Guys this is embarrassing You know I was attending a conference I was attending a conference and so many brothers and sisters Came up to me and said Your students don't really know much do they? It's like, I'm gonna go tell them that You know, it's like every time you ask a question They can never answer it I said, subhanallah, I had a 10-year-old girl come up to me, and her father said, every single time you ask a question, she answers it, and nobody in your audience can answer it. So I had to take a photograph with her, okay? And you're also famous, by the way, as the notekeeper. Everybody knows you as the notekeeper there. So alhamdulillah. In any case, where was I? Quizzing you. So a battle of Ahzab. When did Ahzab take place? Fifth year of the Hijrah, right? So this would seem to indicate that this incident occurred in the fifth year of the Hijrah. But we can easily dismiss this and say, just because it's found in Surah Al-Hazab doesn't mean it was revealed in the fifth year, because the Qur'an was put together by the Prophet ﷺ at whatever time. The ayahs he would put together at different times. Nonetheless, in order to understand this incident, of course, we need to understand the lifestyle of the Prophet ﷺ, which is well known to us. he never lived a luxurious life never from his birth until his death he had very humble beginnings he was orphaned his father could not provide for him there was no father living at the time as you know he died he was born an orphan his father already died our Prophet ﷺ tells us his first job was a shepherd he would work for qarariyt and qarariyt means for pennies so imagine you're getting pennies for the entire day literally you work the entire day as a shepherd and you get a dime or a quarter this is the wages of the Prophet he would live in the cramped house of Abu Talib with the other children he had a small break with the marriage of Khadija as you know for the first time he could live separately in his own life and that's when a little bit of a little bit of wealth came up but it wasn't any luxurious living, remember he didn't even have a camel he did not even have a transport until the hijrah. He didn't even buy, he couldn't afford to have an animal nor did he have a need to have an animal. But slowly but surely, the wealth began to come in, not to him but to the ummah. And in the battle of Badr, with the ransoming of over 70 of these pagans, each one of them brought thousands of silver coins. Slowly but surely, the tide began to change. After the conquest, one after the other, the big first big break came at Khaybar. That was when the first really big break came That the entire fields of Khyber were handed over And then Fadak was gifted to the Prophet ﷺ And that was his main personal income The plantations of Fadak Which is a sister city to Khyber These were the personal property of the Prophet ﷺ And the riwayah tell us Now remember when did Khyber happen? 7th year of the Hijrah, right? Khyber is very late Seventh year of the hijrah is khaybar. And so our Prophet ﷺ, from the seventh year onwards, he now has one land. And that land we know from the books of seerah and the books of hadith, was the main source of income for feeding his family. That after the battle of khaybar, when he was gifted fadaq, fadaq was a special gift to the Prophet ﷺ. And then of course the largest break that the early ummah got was the battle of Hunayn. This was the largest wealth that was accumulated. But how much of that did the Prophet ﷺ keep? The battle of Hunayn. Absolutely nothing. Not one penny he kept for himself. Even though the sharia allows the leader, the legitimate khalifa to take a share. The one-fifth of the one-fifth they say. And of course our Prophet ﷺ already had a share from Allah ﷻ. And so he gave it all away. And of course it is authentically narrated that he did this by choice. In the Musnad Imam Ahmad, the hadith is famous and you should know it if you don't know it then memorize it now that he was sitting with Jibreel and Jibreel and him were talking and an angel comes down from the heavens and Jibreel says to the Prophet this angel Allah has allowed him to come for the first time since the beginning of the creation he has left wherever he is and he has come down for the first time just to meet you basically and so the angel said Ya Muhammad As-Salamu Alaika, your Lord has sent me to ask you a question. Do you want to be a Nabi, a Malakun Nabi or an Abdu'n Rasul? This is the choice you have. You can be a Malakun Nabi, means a prophet king. You can be a king but a Nabi. Or you want to be an Abdu'n Rasul. so it's beautiful here because the highest position in this world is a Malik and the lowest position is an Abd and if you choose to be Al Malik I said Malik is Malik, Al Malik the king if you choose to be the king then you will be a Nabi and Nabi is lower than Rasul so you can be a Malik but you'll have to become a Nabi or you can humble yourself in this world and be an Abd and you will then be a Rasul which is a higher status of the deen and Jibreel made a motion that go low, humble yourself and in one version he said humble yourself in front of Allah and so the Prophet ﷺ said I choose to be an Abd who is a Rasul I choose to be an Abd and Rasul and the narrator of the Hadith says after this incident he was never seen even eating with his back resting on a wall. Meaning what? So the most simplest sign of luxury is you sit down and you enjoy your meal. It's the simplest sign. Even us mere people of not very great wealth, we can enjoy our meal like this. But after this incident, so he lived a life that was very even more austere and humble because he had asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the choice sorry Allah had asked him excuse me the choice and he chose to be the abd and the abd of course is the lowest of the low you are a slave of Allah you don't own anything in the eyes of Allah so he'll be an abd in order to be a rasul and there's actually another variant of this hadith that I found today it's slightly weak the variant but it has details that inshallah that there's no harm in mentioning. And perhaps he, so this hadith is the same narration, but he's telling Aisha about it. So the first one is the incident, then he tells Aisha about what happened. Perhaps he told Aisha after the incident of today, that after the whole story of wanting more money and whatnot, perhaps he told her this, but he says to Aisha in this other version, and I said it's slightly weak, so keep that in mind. Oh Aisha, he says, if I desired, then all of these mountains would be turned to gold for me. An angel came to me, his buckle, now they would tie their izar and they would put some type of shawka, some type of fastener. When you would tie the izar, you would just fasten it. Of course they don't have a whole buckle, they would just fasten it and put something in like that. So in this narration it says his fastener, his clasp was bigger than the Kaaba itself. This is how big the angel is. And the angel asked me, do you want to be a Malik Nabi or an Abdur Rasul and I chose to be an Abdur Rasul. So this was his lifestyle. And at some point in his life, we don't know when, but Allah knows, one of the reasons that I think it's later on and not early on, Allah knows best, but one of the reasons I think it's maybe 8th, 9th year of the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ's wives would not have asked for a more higher standard of living until they're seeing other people as well their standards rising. when everybody is living at a similar level then there is no need to ask for more when does a person want more when everybody else is increasing and when did that increase happen after the conquest after Khaybar after Fath-e-Makkah so slowly but surely the economic level is rising of course it would rise radically in the time of the Khulafa it would literally go exponential in the time of the Khulafa by the time of the Umayyads the Islamic civilization is now ruling the world. It is the most prestigious civilization in the world. So Allah knows best. But because of this reason, I seem to like the opinion that it's later on. That the wealth is coming in. And so the wives of the Prophet ﷺ began asking for more as well. Now the details of what they asked, I could not find at all. And it is appropriate that these details are not mentioned. That this is an internal matter. that whatever they said to the Prophet ﷺ in the privacy of their homes, it has not been recorded. Who is going to record that? But what appears to have happened is that there was a cooperative effort, a group pressure applied. And this group pressure was led by two of his wives. And of course these are all our mothers and when we say these things, let nobody ever feel any type of astaghfirullah, that I seek Allah's refuge, that we are ever diminishing from their noble status. As I will mention later on, what they asked is halal. And when we mention this, it's not as if we are, la hawla wa quwwata illa billah, diminishing their status. So, let nobody feel this. But two of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ were the ones who coordinated a group effort. Why would they do a group effort? Who can tell me? Why would they do a group effort and not just one? it's more convincing it's like if one person asks the other doesn't then it's a stronger case to be built right it's a stronger case that all of them are demanding a better lifestyle okay as I said what exactly did they demand this is lost and it should be lost like what would it be other than a bigger house or a better furniture whatever it might be this is the reality that everybody wants and it is halal to want it nothing wrong with that so as we say this don't feel anything astaghfirullah diminishing in their character as we're gonna come to and so this incident is reported in a lot of detail in the first person by Umar ibn al-Khattab so we're gonna actually move to Umar ibn al-Khattab's hadith it's a very beautiful and long hadith and it is reported in Sahih Muslim in a number of hadith we'll merge them together and of course Umar ibn Khattab is deeply involved because his daughter so the two women who led this cooperative effort was Hafsa and Aisha these were the two who led the cooperative effort and that's why Umar ibn Khattab is himself personally involved deeply in the story so he himself narrates that Ibn Abbas narrates from him Ibn Abbas is hearing from him so Ibn Abbas said that I was always anxious to ask Umar ibn Khattab about the two ladies whom Allah revealed in the Qur'an that in tatuba illallah faqad saqad gulubukum and now this is about last week's or last month's halaqah when we talked about Umm Ibrahim, Marya. So Ibn Abbas says, I was anxious to ask Umar ibn Khattab for over a year I was looking for an opportunity. And look at his patience, his eagerness, and also his respect for the time of Umar. He doesn't just barge into Umar and say, I wanna know. But rather he is respectful. When is the good time to ask Umar ibn al-Khattab? So he's over a year he was waiting until on one expedition, Umar ibn al-Khattab was by himself. So Ibn Abbas walked next to him and said, O Amir al-Mu'mineen, I have been waiting for an entire year to ask you this question. And he was helping him do wudu at the time. So Umar ibn Khattab, of course he gave the story of Marya, we already talked about that, right? But then Umar goes on, now that I'm telling you about Marya, let me tell you about another story as well, that deals with the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, and so he goes on. We were a people from the Quraysh who would dominate over women, نَغْلِبُ نِسَاءَنَا and yet when we came to Medina we found that the people of Medina were a group whose women dominated them okay so he said when we move from Mecca to Medina our women learned from the women of the Ansar what did they learn? to dominate men okay and so he said I had a house that was situated in Awali, which is a district in Medina. I've said, I already told you, I used to live there myself. And he said, one of my wives lived there. So one day I became angry with my wife and I said something. And she responded back. La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. She responded back. In other words, she's defending whatever is the issue. Okay? And so, I rebuked her, how dare you respond back? Meaning, you're not supposed to be doing this. Right? and so she said to me that you are rebuking me for responding back don't you know that the wives of the Prophet respond back to him meaning who do you think you are oh Umar, you think you're better than the Prophet his own wives respond back to him so much so that sometimes they abandon him in anger meaning if some marital things happen they leave him maybe even for the whole day meaning don't get angry at me if I'm gonna leave you for the day the wives of the Prophet ﷺ do the same thing and subhanallah this shows us so many things it shows us that the Prophet ﷺ wives even though most of them were Quraish most of them still they had learnt the customs of Medina right and this also shows us our Prophet ﷺ is tolerating this that he is not enforcing the customs of Makkah. And it also shows us that how the wives treated the Prophet ﷺ is known to the other women. And that is why, and this isn't Hafsa's mother by the way, this is another wife of Umar. This is not Hafsa's mother, another wife of Umar. She is aware that the wives of the Prophet ﷺ respond back to him. And this is something that is well known that every community, we know overall some of the details of the personal lives of the people, right? so and so is a bit strict, so and so is stingy, so and so is lax, so and so. This is something that kind of is well known in the community. So the wives of the Prophet ﷺ, his situation is known to the other women. So Umar is shocked. So he said, I want to Hafsa immediately. And asked her, do you ever reply back in an argument? Do you ever reply back to the Prophet ﷺ? She said, yes we do. he said do you ever leave him for the day meaning you are angry and quiet and you know the standard thing that happens just don't talk for the day and she said yes we do and so Umar ibn Khattab he and of course by the way subhanallah the whole story here one of the really beautiful things about the story is it really shows us the humanity of everybody involved you know this perception that some of us have and I've said this many many times is a super human perception, it needs to be removed from our minds, okay our Prophet ﷺ is the best human, but he's a human, he is not divine, he's not God, he is a human being, and his wives are the best women, but they are nonetheless wives and women, right, and so we see here that just like every couple has its backs and forths every couple, so here we have the wives of the Prophet ﷺ responding back to him, and in irritation not speaking to him for half the day for the day. Now if anybody else were to do this with the Prophet ﷺ, this is a type of kufr. I'm being very theological here. If anybody else, right, were to be irritated or angry with the Prophet ﷺ, this is kufr. It's impossible. But, things are allowed for his wife, his wives that is not allowed for other than his wives. And this shows us that, yes, in marital issues, it's going to happen. We're gonna come back to this point later on. And so, Umar ibn al-Khattab rebuked Hafsa and he says, whoever does this has indeed lost everything. Are you a fool? The Arabic word khaba wa khasira means, are you a fool? Are you crazy to have done this? Now he is angry at Hafsa. How dare you do this? And he says to her, he says to her, are you not scared of the anger of Allah upon you? If the messenger is angry with you, so he is acting like every Muslim other than the wife should act, right? Meaning the wives have some laxity that no other Muslim has. You understand what I'm saying here, right? Umar ibn Khattab is saying, are you not scared? If the Rasulullah ﷺ is angry with you, how about Allah is he gonna be angry with you? Think about it. This is not just a regular human being. This is Rasulullah ﷺ. So if you're irritated with him, what if Allah becomes irritated with you? And so, and then he says that, and though he commands her, never reply back to the Prophet ﷺ. If he ever gets angry at you, never reply back to the Prophet ﷺ, and never ask him for any of your needs. Come to me, don't irritate him. So Umar wants to now be a mediator that don't bother him for anything. You wanna something extra, I'll give it to you. Even of course Sharia wise, the father doesn't need to give to the daughter who's married. But he's saying to her, you don't get involved with this, I will give you anything extra. And then he says that, let not the status of your companion, deceive you about your status. Meaning he's hinting at Aisha. Right? Don't make qiyas upon Aisha and what she does. For indeed she is more graceful or beautiful and more dearer to the Prophet ﷺ than you are. Meaning put yourself in your place. She will get away with things you will not get away with. Okay? And this shows us again it's human nature that the one whom you love Right? will be able to do more than the one whom you do not love. I mean those of us who are parents, our children get away with everything. And we still give to them. Is that not the case? This is the way Allah ﷻ created us. They can do anything, and we still will forgive and turn the other cheek. This is the reality of being a parent. So the more you love, the more you will forgive. And so Umar ibn al-Khattab is saying, Ya Hafsa, you are not Aisha. He's saying this in a nice way. You are not Aisha. You cannot get away with what? Aisha can get away with and he understands of course as a father-in-law and as a father to Hafsa he's trying to make sure the marriage remains peaceful and good and as we know as well at some time most likely before this incident Hafsa had been divorced once I had mentioned this before right Hafsa had been divorced once and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent Jibreel down to the Prophet ﷺ and told him Allah is commanding you to take Hafsa back because she is صَوَّامَ قَوَّامَ she is a lady who fasts and a lady who prays and she will be your companion in Jannah so overlook I mean she was the daughter of Umar so she must have inherited you know and this is these things are not mentioned in the seerah nor should they be mentioned okay but nonetheless she is the daughter of Umar and so whatever her faults might have been in a personal nature Allah reminded the Prophet ﷺ she is a religious lady she has lots of prayer lots of fasting so overlook this and she will be your companion in Jannah. So he took her back. Umar is not aware what has happened obviously. And he is worried it might happen again. So Umar then continues the story. And he said, I used to have a companion from the Ansar and we would take turns accompanying the Prophet ﷺ. One of us would take care of the cultivation and whatnot and the other would go to the Prophet ﷺ for the day. Meaning what? meaning that Umar and all of the Sahaba they had their lives to live as well they didn't just give up their occupations and sit all day in the masjid they have to work, they have to toil they have to struggle, a lot of times we don't think about this realize that every Sahabi had to earn a living every one of them is going to work 9 to 5, whatever they would be doing so Umar is busy in his life but he wants to benefit, so what do they do? the two of them agree to alternate his neighbor and him, they will alternate one day I'll do the chores for the both of us you go to the Prophet ﷺ the other day you do the chores I go to the Prophet ﷺ look at how much eagerness they have to attend with the Prophet ﷺ so one day and he said as well that during this time we were discussing the ghasanids and how they might attack us now this is why some scholars say this incident occurred basically at the time of Ahzab or something or post Ahzab because that's when they're worried about the ghassanids. The ghassanids were a threat basically up until Tabuk. So after Tabuk they were not a threat. So this phrase here kind of suggests this is before Tabuk. Wallahu'alam. So here as I said, there are multiple things. We don't know exactly when this incident took place. Now one day he said, after I had gone to sleep after Salatul Isha, and of course those days after Isha they would go to sleep immediately. Because there's no light, there's nothing, you go to sleep. my neighbor came running and he's knocking on my door and this is very dangerous or scary I should say in the middle of the night you know to get this so he rushes out, Umar ibn Khattab and he says what is the matter have the Ghassanids attacked so he's thinking the only reason my neighbor would be knocking at 11 o'clock or whatever probably not 11, probably realistically be after Isha so whatever it would be 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night have the Ghassanids attacked so he's only thinking of one thing his neighbor says no something worse has happened the Prophet ﷺ has divorced his wives now this is amazing because the Ghassanids attacking is war and for the Ansari the wives being divorced is worse than war he's saying something worse has happened and that is the Prophet ﷺ divorcing his wives Why? Because a personal tragedy will hurt them more, and especially Umar, than a communal tragedy. And this shows us the love that they had for the Prophet ﷺ, that they're actually saying a personal loss is worse than a communal war. And therefore, Umar ibn al-Khattab says, as soon as the fajr prayer was over, I dressed myself in my garments, and I rushed to the house of the Prophet ﷺ, and of course he was not there. and I went to Hafsa and Hafsa was crying Hafsa was weeping so he says to her that has the processant divorced you all? and Hafsa said I don't know I don't know if I am divorced or not however he has left us and gone to a ante room if you like an attic room or something and in another version also in Sahih Muslim Umar says I rushed to the masjid after Fajr and I found all of the people gathered in the masjid just flipping pebbles and moving pebbles meaning they're waiting, what is happening? The whole community is now in the masjid. They're concerned what is going on and the rumors had spread that the Prophet ﷺ had divorced all of his wives. This is the rumor that had spread that he divorced all of his wives. So he says, I want to Aisha. In this version he goes to Aisha first. I want to Aisha. And by the way, this is the evidence that some used to say, this happened before the verses of hijab came down. Because he would not have gone to Aisha after the verses of hijab. Others will say, well, he visited her and she was behind the curtain, because we don't know if he saw her or not, okay? So Allah knows best. Again, all of these opinions are out there, and we don't know when this incident occurred. Nonetheless, he says, I went to Aisha, and I said to her, O daughter of Abu Bakr, O daughter of Abu Bakr, have you gone to the extreme of troubling the Prophet ﷺ that he is now basically in his room in other words he is rebuking her what have you done that you have done irritated him that he has now left all of you and so Aisha had just as a sharp tongue of a tongue as he did right she is not somebody that is going to accept this from Umar ibn al-Khattab and so she says ya binal khattab back to him because he called her ya bint as-siddiqa bint as-siddiqa or they say binti abibakar the daughter of Abu Bakr. So she goes back, Ya ibn al-Khattab, O son of Khattab, go and take care of your own vessel, meaning Hafsa. You worried about me? Go ask what Hafsa has done. You thinking I'm the culprit? Your daughter is just as much of a culprit as I am, right? Go worry about your own glass vessel. They're calling the wife the vessel here. And so he realizes that my daughter is also guilty because he initially assumed that Aisha would have been the main culprit but then Aisha says, no, I'm not, your daughter is just as guilty. So then he says, the version goes, he goes to Hafsa, and he finds her crying over there. So then he says that, so then he rebuked Hafsa. And he says, didn't I tell you? Meaning the last few, whatever was the first rebuke. Didn't I tell you this would happen? Didn't I tell you not to respond back to him? And then he said something a bit harsh to her. and this was his nature and maybe of course you can say to your children a little bit harshly what others might not say to them so he says to Hafsa that you know that Allah's messenger does not love you and Allah knows if this is true or not I don't think this is true but this is his way of being harsh with his daughter you know that he doesn't love you maybe he meant he doesn't love you as much as he loves Aisha and were it not for the fact that I am your father he would have divorced you long time ago so this is what he's kind of being a little bit harsh And so on hearing this Hafsa, of course what is she going to do? She breaks up into more bitter tears. And so he says, where is the Prophet ﷺ? And she tells him, he is in his anteroom. Now what is this anteroom? What is this attic? The books of Sira really primarily mention this room in this incident. That's when we know it exists. It appears that in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ, there was a small chamber that you would have to climb. There was a ladder there. And it was used by the Prophet ﷺ just to get some privacy. And he would not ever live there. It's just something that is a private room if you like, an office room or something that he would just sit. So this is the main time he actually uses it to sleep. Otherwise, it's not really mentioned that much in the seerah. so what was this room used for Allahu'alam but for sure because of what's inside the room the Prophet ﷺ would use it occasionally because there is a mat in the room and there is a water receptacle in the room so he's using it occasionally when would he use it? Allahu'alam it's in the masjid and it would be some type of connection that you have to climb up the ladder and then go inside and there's a small room over there so Umar is told he is in his attic room if you like so Umar says I went to that room and there was one of the servants or the slaves of the Prophet ﷺ standing there in one version it is Bilal in another version it's another Abyssinian slave and so I said to him ask permission for the Prophet ﷺ that I can enter Umar ibn Khattab I can enter and there's two versions in one version the servant goes in and he comes back and he says I mentioned you're outside but the Prophet ﷺ did not respond so he goes to the minbar and he sits there and everybody is crying and weeping because they're all distressed at the distress of the Prophet ﷺ until he becomes overpowered, how long are you gonna sit? he goes again, he tries again, second time the servant comes back he says he didn't say anything to me, then the third time he comes and he says permission has been given, that's one version, in another version he asks permission and asks permission and then the third time he says that he says it loudly so that the Prophet ﷺ could hear. So he says that, go ask permission for I think that the Prophet ﷺ is thinking that I'm coming for the sake of Hafsa, meaning as a father-in-law, meaning to take her back. No wallahi, that is not the case. For if Allah's Messenger had told me to execute Hafsa, I would obey the commandment of the Prophet ﷺ, meaning I'm not taking Hafsa's side here. I'm not coming to as a father-in-law, as a shafa'ah for Hafsa. I'm basically coming as a friend, as a person to find out what is happening. So when he says this, then he is given permission to come into the room. And of course this is the famous incident of the seerah that all of us have heard since we were children and it is now this incident occurs that Umar ibn al-Khattab looks in this small room and he says, I only found in it some barley, some dried basically wheat or something, not even made bread, equivalent to a handful and a semi-tanned leather bag of water and a chamber pot basically over there. And I began to cry looking at this sparse room. And of course, he was reclining on a fiber mat. And when he turned around to see me, so I could see the marks of the fiber on his shirt. So he's lying down, the upper shirt is not there. And he's wearing the izar, the lower garment. So when he turns around to face, so then all of the mat, it is a fiber mat so it is made out of the leaves, not the leaves, it is the branches or the twigs of the date palm, right, so it's something that we can understand, it's not a mattress, it's not comfortable, so something that's very hard so I asked him that Ya Rasulullah, have you divorced your wives, right then and there was the first question have you divorced your wives atalakta nisa'ak, so you confirming the rumor or dispelling the rumor. So the Prophet ﷺ said, no, I have not. So Umar ﷺ said, Allahu Akbar. And this shows us the common sunnah, when you hear a good news, you're supposed to say Allahu Akbar. This is where the sunnah is common throughout the seerah. When you hear a good news, you say Allahu Akbar. So here is where also Umar ﷺ realized that I need to now alleviate the tension of the Prophet ﷺ. So he tried to have a conversation, soften you know what's happening, so he says Ya Rasulullah, don't you remember the people of the Quraish how we would dominate over our women don't you remember the good old days right, how we would, you know, dominate over the women, but then we came to Medina and lo and behold we found the opposite, that the women were dominating over the men, and our women have learned from their women so he's trying to, you know, lighten the mood, right? How women have learned from their women. And one day I became angry at my wife and lo and behold she replied back to me. And I did not approve that she replied back to me and she told me that who are you to not approve when the wives of the Prophet ﷺ reply back to him. So he's telling him the whole episode and story in order that of course to alleviate this pain. And he tells the whole story that I went to Hafsa and I told her that you know be careful do not reply back to the Prophet ﷺ and he even told the Prophet ﷺ I told her don't be deceived by the status of your companion that you're not equal to her and she'll get away with what you will not get away with so he's telling everything to the Prophet ﷺ and at this the Prophet ﷺ smiled so Umar's alleviating is working here and this shows us that the common thing that is human society. Husbands, every time they come together they crack jokes about their wives. And wives, when you all come together, what do you do other than put your husbands down? This is the reality of men and women. That we find comfort in strength in numbers. When we talk about the domineering attitude of women and we all snicker and giggle amongst ourselves we actually find some comfort that it's not just me. All of our wives are doing this to us, right? And then the women as well, when they make fun of the idiotic nature of their husbands, you know, men are so backward or stupid, whatever they make fun of, I don't know. Of course, I'm not privy to the women's circles back there. But however they make fun of their men, so they find comfort as well, that it's not just my husband who is that stupid. It's not just my husband who is that backward. They're all that stupid, right? So subhanallah, it's common. It's human nature. Here we have Umar ibn al-Khattab in the process, basically talking about women and how they are and how they do this and that. And so they find some comfort and consolation. And we also learn a very basic thing that when somebody is in pain, then bring some lightheartedness. You know the process is hurt. You know it's a very, all of us who are married, we know it's a very painful thing to have a marital dispute. And he is now living alone. So no doubt, and it's painful. So Umar ibn Khattab is just cheering him up, bringing, changing the subject, bringing in a lighter mood. And so when he saw the Prophet ﷺ smile, this made him now encouraged. And he continued talking to the Prophet ﷺ, and he smiled again for a second time. So now Umar al-Khattab feels confident. He says, may I sit down and have a conversation? Meaning he hasn't even sat down yet. He's so tense himself, right? So he said, can we just continue? asta'nis ya Rasulullah, which means can I have a dialogue with ya Rasulullah so then the Prophet ﷺ gave him permission and subhanAllah this also shows us you know the stereotype we have of Umar of being that harsh and what not, here we see the gentler, the wiser size of Umar as well, that he understands look how Prophet ﷺ is going through some issues, we need to now, you know, just see what I can do to cheer him up, right, so we see this other side of Umar ibn Khattab as well and this is when he says, I sat down and I lifted my head now to see what else is in the room and he said by Allah I could not see anything in that room it's a bare room other than some animal hides that were you know just a camel or sheep hide over there and I said oh messenger of Allah why don't you make dua to Allah that he gives you sustenance and your ummah rizq make dua to Allah that we have wealth as he has given wealth to Persia and Rome to Kisra and to the Caesar, even though they don't worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And Umar ibn al-Khattab at this point, he began to cry. And so the Prophet said, يَا أَبْنَ الْخَطَّابِ مَا يُبْكِيبُ Why are you crying, O Ibn al-Khattab? So he says, Ya Rasulullah, why should I not cry? This mat has left its mark on your back. And you are Allah's messenger. And compare this to Caesar. And compare this to Kisra. And here you are. You are the Mustafa and the Habib and the chosen one. How? And you are living like this when they are living like that. So when he said this, our Prophet ﷺ got up from the mat or the thing he was on. He got up, stood up, not stood up, he sat up. And he said, يَبْنَا خَطَّابُ Are you in doubt? Are you in doubt? Means, are you having wrong thoughts right now? Are you not content that Allah has chosen us over them for the next world and given them this world for their pleasure? Aren't you happy we have the better deal? And in another version he said that, that they have been given their good deeds in this world. يعني استعجل means they have been given the good in this so that they have nothing in the next life. And so Umar al-Khattab said, Ya Rasulullah, ask Allah to forgive me. This was a mistake of saying that we should get more money. And of course, this is a very profound and true point of the simplicity of the life of the Prophet ﷺ, the role model that he left us with. And of course, do realize that this was not his house. This was the ante room or the attic room. His house was one notch above this. And it wasn't as if it's luxurious, but it was a little bit better. He had a blanket at least. He had something a little bit better. He had a cot for the bed. Over in this room, he had nothing. that's where this is taking place and also by the way this is a very interesting thing that to judge the success of a person based upon his wealth to judge how good a person is based upon how much material blessings he has is wrong and this is why the Prophet ﷺ said are you in doubt O Umar do you think that just because we don't have and they have that they are somehow better than us this is what he is saying now this doesn't mean that Islam tells us to be unsuccessful but rather true success is what the akhirah and how is that gain true success is living a moral and a virtuous life this is the success Islam came to teach us and of course this is very true especially in our times that our process is questioning Umar do you doubt and that very doubt is what is common in our times amongst our youth especially why are the Muslim nations behind? Why do we have low GDP? Why this? Why is technology Japanese and what not? Where are we in all of this? And this is a question that has deep theological profound responses to it. The simplest one is right here. That okay it is maybe true that people other than believers Allah has blessed them with this world. After all they don't believe in the Akhirah. So of course this world they want to make it into a Jannah. Now this doesn't mean Islam is telling you to not be technological and scientific. We all know that once upon a time our Ummah was indeed the pinnacle. But what we are saying what I am saying, success is not judged based upon GDP and technology. And it is possible that Allah will bless other people with things we are not blessed with. But what we have of correct ethics and morality, the correct virtue, the correct theology this is far more precious than all of this world. And also another point here and that is that perhaps one of the reasons these people are blessed is because their good deeds are being returned to them in this world. That's what our Prophet ﷺ said. Their good deeds are being returned to them in this world. Meaning what? Every time a non-Muslim does a good deed and they all do good deeds, how will they be rewarded? If they don't believe in Allah and the Day of Judgment, they're not gonna get the Day of Judgment reward. So they will be rewarded in this world. So this reward will be extra money, extra prosperity, better life and what not. So this is another theological response to the question, why do some people who are unbelievers seem to live materially better lives than people who are believers. And so Umar ibn al-Khattab found out from the process, back to our story, that the Prophet ﷺ had taken a halaf, an oath, to Allah that he would not come close to his wives for one month. That he would leave them for one month. And at the end of that one month, on the 29th day, Urwa says that, Aisha says that, when 29 days were over, the Prophet ﷺ then returned to us. And I said, O Messenger of Allah, you have taken an oath that you will stay away from us one month, but today is the 29th day, and so the Prophet ﷺ said, the month may be 29 days as well, and this shows us that if somebody makes a promise to Allah, I will not do something for one month then, one month could be either 29 or 30, so one month, if you say one month, it could be either 29 or 30 days, now another point by the way, and this is the end of this version another version will tell us other details that Aisha is counting every single day, she's in distress. And she's literally counting, day number one, day number two. So when the Prophet ﷺ comes back and she knows that he has made a halaf, you all know halaf, an oath to Allah, that I swear by Allah that I will not do such and such. And you're not supposed to break your halaf unless you have a penalty. So Aisha's counting, because she's waiting for 30 days. So when the Prophet ﷺ comes back on the 29th, she's worried, maybe you've mistaken, you're gonna commit a sin by coming on the 29th. So she attempts to correct the Prophet ﷺ, this is the 29th day and the Prophet ﷺ says no 29 days is also one month could be 29 days so what happens after 29 days another version tells us and that is that the Prophet ﷺ said to Aisha and he began with Aisha so after one month staying away the first house he went to was Aisha and he said to her that oh Aisha I'm going to talk to you about a matter and don't be hasty in this decision and go and consult your parents before you come back to me. What is the matter, Ya Rasulullah? So then he recited Surah Al-Ahzab, verses 28 and 29, that Ya Nisa Al-Nabi, O wives of the Prophet, you are not like the other wives, you're not like any other wives. It's a beautiful long passage, I don't have time to quote all of it today, but read it quickly, it's just half a page long. And in that passage, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that, If you want this world and its beauty, then come, I shall give you a beautiful gift and let you go a beautiful letting go. Meaning you want this dunya? Now the Prophet ﷺ had access to wealth, did he not? That's the key point here. he had plenty of access and his wives wanted some of that wealth that he had access to and that belonged to him so they're not asking for things beyond what he had they're asking for a share that they felt was a fair share let us now increase our standard of living so Allah revealed in the Quran and this is in Surah Ahzab to this day that if you want this world and all of its beauty, come I will give you a good amount and then let you go a beautiful letting go meaning a simple divorce not gonna be any harsh you go but if you want Allah and his messenger and the next life then Allah has promised the righteous amongst you a very good reward in the next life it's in the Quran you can read it beautiful simple choice you want this dunya now notice here is the point here what they were wanting was not at all a sin, it's not makrooh, it's not haram. It's allowed. And so Allah says, you want it? Come take it. You will get it, but I cannot live with you after that. But if you continue to live in this lifestyle, and you are righteous, then Allah has promised for you a great reward. Now, of course, and this is the whole point of entire story today. Our Prophet ﷺ was wanted to live that lifestyle, to be the ultimate role model. What the wives wanted was halal. And nothing is diminishing in their character if they want to live a better life. Knowing that they have access to this money. But you see, our Prophet shall not have lived that lifestyle. And it's not appropriate for him to do so. So anybody who wanted him must choose that lifestyle. And this is what the Qur'an came down to say. that if you choose Allah and His messenger you will get your reward in the next life so this was the choice every one of his wives was given this choice beginning with Aisha and the Prophet ﷺ said to Aisha don't be hasty think about it and go ask your mother and father and Aisha is narrating this hadith she is narrating it directly Aisha says that he told me to consult my parents because he knew my parents would never tell me to leave. Meaning, she felt that the Prophet ﷺ maybe assumed she might want to leave. And of course, the Prophet ﷺ did not want her to leave. But he might have been worried that this young girl might want to leave. You see the point, right? So he says to Aisha, don't be hasty. Consult your mother and father. And Aisha seems to be a little bit irritated. I'm not that immature. I know what I want. And so she says back, what is there to consult Ya Rasulullah is this something I need to ask about I have chosen Allah and His messenger and the last world End of story I don't need to consult anybody and this shows us yes Aisha was mature Aisha fully understood that there is no choice here one choice is money and this world and that's it and the next choice is Allah and His messenger and the next life what do I have to consult with and this also shows us that when the choices are so clear, you don't pray istikhara, you don't go and ask people. It's crystal clear what needs to be done. So she didn't even pray istikhara, she didn't even go to her mother and father. She made up her mind right then and there. Is there any need to consult my parents and Rasulullah? I chose Allah and His Messenger. And this shows us not only her maturity, of course it shows us her iman as well. It shows us her iman and her taqwa. And Aisha then says that O Messenger of Allah don't tell your other wives that I have chosen you meaning meaning what she wants the others to to choose something else Ya Rasulullah don't tell your other wives that I have chosen you and our Prophet ﷺ said that Allah has sent me as a muballigh, as a conveyor. And he hasn't sent me as a mutannid, somebody who is harsh or cutting off from others. Meaning this is not your right or your option or your business. That it's not my job to make their lives difficult. Because if they leave, they will not have Allah and his messenger. Right? And in the long run, they will be the ones that will obviously lose. And this really shows us that no doubt, he loved Aisha more than the other wives, we all know this, but his extra love for her did not ever cause him to not be fair with the other Ummahat al-Mu'mineen. And he clearly says, Allah did not send me to make things difficult for anybody, for anybody. And that of course includes his wives as well. And Ibn Abbas, and so by the way, every single wife chose obviously. to stay with him. And this shows us the Iman of the wives as well. None of the wives. And they would have gotten a fortune, because he had access to fortunes. But none of the wives even considered leaving the messenger, and giving up the promise of Allah. And of course, this is exactly what we expect from the Ummahat al-Mu'mineen. And Umar ibn Khattab, by the way, in another version, so there are a number of versions. In another version, he adds a detail, that he says to the Prophet ﷺ that, O Messenger of Allah, if you have any trouble with any of your wives and if you divorce your wives, if you want to divorce them, then know that Allah is with you and His angels and Jibreel and Mikael and I am with you and Abu Bakr is with you and all of the believers are with you. And Umar ibn al-Khattab said that I would always hope that Allah would back me up in things that I say. And three times that happened. That Allah revealed revelation to basically back Umar up. And this is one of those times. That what I said, Allah then revealed. What is the verse that Allah revealed? Hafizab. Where is the other Hafizab? Other Hafizab. Both Hafizabs. any non-hafizab if you divorce them then verily Allah is with you and his angels and Jibreel and Mikael and I am with you and Abu Bakr is with you and the believers are with you louder what's the verse the what what's the verse that's the beginning of the surah what is the verse I'm forgetting it myself no it's more this it's more this no that's not the one the one right before this what is the one right before this? guys, I have three hufadh sitting here and astaghfirullah I'm a hafidh as well this is the problem, I'm going backwards I have to go to Al-Quran on my iPhone may Allah forgive us for this big lapse, big lapse this is a very big lapse وَإِن تَظَاهَرَ عَلَيْهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ مَوْلَاهُ وَجِبْرِيلُ وَصَالِحُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ ظَهِيرٌ This is Surah Al-Tahrim, verse 4. So this phrase, Umar said something similar. فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ مَوْلَاهُ وَجِبْرِيلُ وَصَالِحُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ So Umar said, if you divorce them, then Allah is your protector, Allah is your Mawla. And Jibreel is your Mawla, and Mikael is your Mawla, and I am your Mawla, and Abu Bakr is your Mawla. In other words, he is the father-in-law. This is very powerful. He's saying, Ya Rasulullah, if you divorce your wives, I am on your side. Not on the side of my own daughter. I'm on your side. And Allah is on your side. And Jibreel is on your side. So this is basically telling the Prophet, whatever you decide to do, we will be on your side. And Ibn Abbas, by the way, another incident I quickly found in one of the books of hadith. This is actually in Bukhari. Ibn Abbas, as a young boy, he's probably 11 or 10 years old Ibn Abbas remembers this day as well in just three lines because he's not in the inner circle, Ibn Abbas says one day we woke up and the rumors had spread we heard that all of the wives had been divorced and they were all crying, now this is of course not a true rumor and all of their families were with them, so I went to the masjid, you can imagine the young boy coming to the masjid and it was full of people, so this was now a community event, everybody is now in the masjid, what is happening and Umar came when the Prophet ﷺ was in his private room, so Abbas is, Ibn, sorry, Ibn Abbas is watching what's going on, Umar came when the Prophet ﷺ was in his private room he asked permission to enter for three times notice the same incident Umar is narrating from the first person, now Ibn Abbas is telling us from the third person, and then he entered and asked the Prophet ﷺ have you divorced your wives and the Prophet ﷺ said no, but I have done ilah for one month from them. And Ila, I will get to right now. And so Ibn Abbas said he remained 29 days away from his wives and then he entered upon them. Okay, so this is the famous story. It is called the story of the Prophet's Ila. So what exactly is Ila? Ila is to make an oath, a halaf to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that you will not come close to your wife for a particular period of time. And this is permissible if the period of time is less than, now what is the maximum of four months is what is typically said. And our Prophet ﷺ made ilah for one month. And it is used when marital disputes are going out of hand and the husband wants some time to be away and for both parties to think and to cool down basically. So this is what ilah is. And our Prophet ﷺ did this ilah. And he did it for one month. And we said one month can be 29 days. Now this is the famous story of Ila. Many benefits can be derived from this story. Of those benefits is that and subhanAllah this list is not complete. I mean time is limited and unfortunately wallahi so many benefits maybe I can't give a seerah class about this because I already have but maybe in another khutbah or something this story needs to be elaborated on even more. But of the benefits is that social customs and gender roles vary from society to society. And Islam does not dictate a particular specific gender role as long as the overall guidelines of the sharia are met. And this is very clear that how women interacted with men in Mecca is very different than how women interacted with men in Medina. And Islam did not come saying the Meccan custom is prevalent or the Medinan custom is prevalent. Rather Islam allowed both. And this is something that we see in every single culture of an Islamic society to this day. That the women of one land might be more, whatever you want to call it, timid or whatever. And the women of another land would be more bold or what not. And the sharia does not have a particular you have to do this or that. Rather this goes back to the culture of each of these societies as long as the laws of the sharia are met. And therefore there's no harm in us adopting to our own culture as long as once again there's no explicit sharia commandment that has gone against. And this is something that is very relevant especially to us western Muslims that the fact of the matter is jokes aside in everything our gender interactions and our gender roles are very different than the bulk of the Muslim world. And we have extremes here. Many of us think that the Muslim world, the way that the gender interactions take place is the ideal. And many of us are dismissive of that, whereas others are dismissive of the Western's role. And the fact of the matter is that the sharia allows for a spectrum. And within that spectrum, it is halal. Beyond that spectrum, when it goes beyond that, what is beyond that is beyond the scope of this class. but if the sharia allows it then it is permissible to take it into account as well and there's no doubt that modern western society is far more I don't like using the term progressive but that is the term that is coming to mind now but it is far more modern and I give a sister's halaqah when I explain very clearly that this is a modern phenomenon the third wave of feminism we're living in a post-feminist world this is a very modern phase and it didn't exist 50 years ago, 100 years ago as long as we understand that and we're not saying that is right I'm also not saying that is wrong there are elements of it that are permissible and we can adopt and take it and there are elements that are beyond the scope of Islam and we should stop and draw the line over there so this clearly demonstrates that also of the benefits of this incident and I mentioned this before as well is the humanity of the Prophet ﷺ and even the Prophet ﷺ himself that if Allah had willed our Prophet ﷺ could have had a fairytale marriage. If Allah had willed, we would have not ever heard of any of these things. But these incidents bring to home that even our Prophet ﷺ is having marital spats back and forth. And the wife might say something, the husband might say something, they're not talking to one another. This is life. Now the question arises, why would Allah ﷻ give this to our Prophet ﷺ and not give him something that is a fairytale marriage and the response is that how else would we learn how to cope with our own marital problems and issues our Prophet ﷺ was a human the best human but a human and his wives were human and therefore their problems were resolved in the best manner so we learn from how they resolve their problems and this is shown I mean again so much can be said here but of the most important things is that in this society women were mistreated and abused it was the norm to physically discipline a woman and in fact in some versions Umar ibn Khattab is reported to have hit his wife when she responded back to him in some versions of the hadith that he disciplined his wife. And in a society that accepted physically disciplining a woman, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that our Prophet never once lifted his finger against a woman. In a society that was the norm, it was not just acceptable, it was what happened. Everybody did it. It's something that is standard. And yet our Prophet, as Aisha herself said, Aisha herself said that wallahi she swore by Allah never was the hand of the Prophet ﷺ lifted up against any woman or any servant in a society where everybody hit their women and hit their servants and slaves he never did that so this demonstrates for us the perfect role model of our Prophet ﷺ in the treatment of women however disciplinary action sometimes is required by one or both of the parties so what is that disciplinary action well first and foremost you ask, you tell, you demand what you want. Then after that, if that doesn't work, we have it in the example of the process. Which is what? Leave for a while. Right? Don't be with the person. Leave them for a while. And let things calm down. And Allah says in the Quran, وَهْجُرُهُنَّ فِي الْمَضَاجِعِ Leave them, abandon them in their beds, in their houses. Now notice, inshallah none of you brothers in this audience do this, but unfortunately stories like this do exist, that the man tells his wife to leave. And this is un-Islamic. If this happens, the man leaves, not the woman. The man leaves, not the woman. Where did the wives of the Prophet ﷺ go? Nowhere, they stayed home. If the situation gets so bad, they're shouting, they're yelling, they're screaming, and you don't want to sleep in the same bed or what not, it is the man who either sleeps on the sofa or goes somewhere else, not the woman. And this again shows us the mannerisms of Islam. Our Prophet ﷺ left, not the women. you never kick a woman out of her house unless the divorce takes place that's a separate thing that it's not her house then she goes to her house but otherwise no matter how bad the situation the man leaves and not the woman of the benefits that we gain from all of this is that the news of the marital problems of the Prophet ﷺ spread to the entire city not just that Allah revealed in the Quran verses and this shows us that to have a marital problem is not in and of itself something that is so embarrassing that it is like taboo that nobody can talk about it we have extremes in our societies especially in muslim cultures where it becomes complete taboo to mention marital problems and it's a problem because when you mention to other people solutions can be found when you go to family when you go to friends and you tell them what's happening solutions can be found when our culture tells us that do not talk about any problem, now of course the flip side is you talk about every problem that's the other extreme and as usual Islam is in the middle obviously husbands and wives obviously, I don't need to be you know, but still you don't go and tell every minor argument and he said this and she said that to everybody in the world but on the flip side nor should you think that it is taboo to go and tell major problems in this incident the whole city of Medina knows that the Prophet ﷺ and his wives are having an argument and they're in the masjid crying because they love the Prophet ﷺ they love and they're hurt at his hurt but the Prophet ﷺ is not embarrassed that they know I'm having a marital issue right and this shows us it's not and this is especially a problem with the men especially the men women maybe the opposite problem They talk too much about the problems of the marriage. And that's a problem, right? But men have the exact opposite problem. They don't want to go to counseling. They're embarrassed. In this masjid, we have had so many marital classes, right? Every time we've had a marital class, mashaAllah, sister section full. Brother section, five brothers. Three brothers, ten brothers. That's it. It's as if for the brother to show up, it's something that he's... It's a taboo. It's embarrassing. And this is wrong. We all need help. We all have problems with our wives. Every one of us. If our process had problems, do you think your marriage is not gonna have problems? It's human nature. The good marriage is not the one that doesn't have problems. It's that, inshallah, the problems are trivial compared to the positives. That's the good marriage, right? And there's no doubt our process had the best marriage then, in that case. How often did this happen in his lifetime? Once. Once. In his entire lifetime, once was it so bad that he had to leave? Frankly for most of us, how many times did that happen? Right? Don't answer that question guys. But I'm saying, so this is the perfect marriage. Right? This is the perfect marriage. That one time in his life, it got so bad that, so he demonstrated for us how to, and by the way, I mean this is a marriage class here, time is already over, but subhanAllah, one of the best ways to solve a problem, is to just separate for a while. let both parties cool off calm down this is one of the best ways because the both of them realize you know what I was a little bit too I'm talking about us when we have it as for our Prophet ﷺ of course he did not do anything wrong there's nothing he was quiet of course but he gave them the opportunity to make them realize you know I went too far but in our situation when that happens and we leave the parties leave one another for a day, now obviously one month was a long time and they needed that one month to think these matters through, who should they choose but for us, we leave for a day two days, what not, this gives both parties the time to calm down, to think about what was the problem and then overcome it and this was what our Prophet ﷺ did another benefit is that the in-laws can and should get involved, if the need arises Umar ibn Khattab comes and he gets involved and he tells his daughter don't do this, do that you need something, come to me, whatever and it's positive for the in-laws to get involved if they do so wisely and it's negative if they do so unwisely of the benefits of this story is that, and this is a fiqh benefit the husband has the right to give his wife the option of divorce which is what our Prophet ﷺ did in fiqh this is called ikhtiyar choose so the husband can say to the wife that, so this is not the husband giving divorce because that's divorce this is the husband giving the option of divorce to his wife so he will tell the wife let's say they had a major issue a major problem they cannot resolve it so the husband can say look you have a day think about it and if you want to divorce you may divorce so he gives her the power of divorce clear usually who has the power to divorce the man has the power and that's the meaning of that the man has a degree over the woman meaning the power of divorce but it is halal and it is in some occasions wise because in this case did our Prophet ﷺ divorce? no, he did not want divorce but what is he going to do? so he tells his wives, if you want then it is your choice and this is called ikhtiyar and most of the fuqaha and it is inshallah the correct opinion they allow it, in other words the husband has the right to delegate divorce to his wife, but most of the fuqaha say a time period should be given, and some of the fuqaha say no, you may give it unlimited, and from this and in particular the Hanfi madhab says this I think in the Pakistani courts isn't it the case that when you get married, you put the permanent is that correct? those who got married in Pakistan Isn't there a permanent clause? There's a clause, right? In the contract, I've been told about this. And this is the Hanafi madhab. The other madhab don't allow a permanent clause. The other madhab say you have up to one month or one week. So you give them a time. Because they say, the other madhab, if you give the wife the right to divorce, then Allah's statement, وَلِلِّجَالِ عَلَيْهِنَ دَرَجًا will not apply. That they both have the same right. So the other madhab say, you put a time clause in. But the Hanafi madhab says, The time clause is eternal. You have that right. And Allah knows which fiqh position is right, but the husband should think as well, if they give this right to their wives, then this means at any time the wife can divorce. And there's a wisdom why Allah Azawajal has not given this unconditionally to the woman. Nonetheless, it is allowed to give her the choice of divorce for a time period. This is pretty much all of the middahib, allowed for a time period. And if she chooses divorce, then a talaq takes place at her saying it and this is in contrast to to the usual you understand right you understand what is happening here that if suppose the husband says you know after have a major fight they can't resolve it the husband does not want to budge but he understands his wife has a position so you know what it's up to you if you want to leave I give you 24 hours the choice is yours now this is a khityar he's giving her the choice and he's very clear that he understands fiqh. He understands what he's talking about and he tells her, it's up to you if you want to leave, you know you have until tomorrow night or whatever, think about it. So if in that 24 hours, she says, I've chosen that I want to end, I've chosen the hour because I chose myself, meaning I chose to leave basically. Then a talaq takes place at her saying it. And this is never the case except in ikhtiyar. Right? Otherwise the talaq takes place when he says it. But in this case, It's a talaq takes place when she says it because the husband has delegated that to her. And this is the issue of ikhtiyar. And if the wife chooses herself, then according to the majority of scholars, one divorce will take place. One divorce will take place if she chooses herself. And the final point and of course really the main point of this entire episode or incident today is the simplicity of the lifestyle of the Prophet ﷺ that truly this is a sign that he's a prophet. Why else would he choose to live in this manner and to cause the people whom he loves to also live in a very simple manner. You know it's one thing you sacrifice for yourself, we can all do that. But to sacrifice for your loved ones, for your wives, for your children, that is really you are setting a standard for society. And Allah Azza wa Jal did not want our Prophet ﷺ to live like a king. so he chose a very simple lifestyle and all of his wives were given this option you wanna live like this? go ahead if not then have your share of money and salamu alaykum we will do that and none of them chose that and so the final point this also shows us the status of the mothers of the believers ummahat al mu'mineen and with that inshallah ta'ala we conclude Thank you.

Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 100 - The farewell Hajj - Sh

Al-Fatiha. alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. Today is the second to last seerah that we have and all things must come to an end. So today will be our last Wednesday seerah. Our final seerah will be on Saturday, this Saturday insha'Allah ta'ala. And so today we discuss the incident of the hajjat al-wada' or the farewell pilgrimage of the Prophet ﷺ. And there's quite a lot of material to discuss in this particular section. So let us begin immediately. When did Allah reveal the obligation for Hajj? When did Allah reveal the obligation for Hajj? This is actually a very difficult question. And it has a fiqhi analogous, if you like, problem or scenario. And that is, can a person delay Hajj once they're qualified to go? Can they delay it for a few years? This is a classical controversy. So if you say that you can delay it for a few years, so of the evidences that group uses is that hajj was revealed a few years before the Prophet ﷺ went for hajj. So he delayed it a few years. And the other opinion is that no, hajj was revealed, the ayah of hajj came down basically in the 9th year of the hijrah. And so the Prophet ﷺ could, in the early part of the 10th year or the later 9th year, and so the Prophet ﷺ only went as soon as Allah revealed the obligation for hajj. So you understand there's a bit of a controversy, and this controversy lingers on to the four madhahib. Must you go for hajj as soon as you're financially capable? Or are you allowed to wait for a future year of your life thinking that inshallah I'll be alive next year, the year after that. This is a classic controversy from the beginning of time, and this goes back to as well, when did Allah reveal the obligation for hajj? and Ibn Al-Qayyim and many of the scholars they follow the opinion that it is not allowed to delay the Hajj once you have the means to do so so they also then say when was Hajj, the ayah of Hajj when did it come down? in the beginning of the 10th year so as soon as the ayah came down according to them the Prophet ﷺ then went for Hajj in the same year and the fact of the matter is we really don't know for sure when the ayah came down and also historically speaking the bulk of the Muslim world has not gone for hajj the same year that they get their means to do so. So inshaAllah, as long as you have a reasonable niyyah, a legitimate niyyah, that inshaAllah I'm going for hajj soon inshaAllah. And you don't delay it forever and ever, that when I'm 78 years old, when you have a legitimate niyyah, then inshaAllah it is permissible to delay the hajj, even though it is better not to delay the hajj. Nonetheless, there is an ikhtilaf, when did Allah reveal the verse of hajj? And what is the verse of hajj? Surah Al-Imran verse 97. Surah Ali Imran verse 97 وَلِلَّهِ عَلَى النَّاسِ حِجُّ الْبَيْتِ مَنْ اسْتَطَاعَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلًا That mankind owes to Allah the pilgrimage to the house whoever is able to do so. So as we said some ulama say this ayah came down in the 10th year of the hijrah even though it's part of Ali Imran. And Ali Imran was revealed. When was Ali Imran revealed? Oh not at all. when in Medina we've talked about this all over the seerah guys we've talked about this when was Ali Imran revealed Uhud at the time of Uhud so Jabir narrates that the Prophet ﷺ spent 9 years not performing Hajj and then in the 10th year of the Hijrah he announced he would be going for Hajj so multitudes of people came to Medina all of them wanting to do Hajj with the Prophet ﷺ and follow his actions. And therefore, the Prophet ﷺ announced a few months before or maybe even a month and a half before that he's going for hajj. So let the people who want to come, come to do hajj with him. So from across the country, from across the lands, people flocked to Medina. And the city swelled up. Tens of thousands of people continued to come. And even by the way, along the way, the entire journey, tens of thousands of people continued to flock. A number of hadith report that the sahaba said as far as the eye could see, we could see flocks of humanity. We looked in front, we could see nothing but men. We look behind, we look to the right, we look to the left. Never in the seerah of our Prophet ﷺ did he have a larger audience, did he have a larger group of people. And as well he began telling them, خُذُ عَنِّي مَنَاسِكَكُمْ خُذُ عَنِّي مَنَاسِكَكُمْ Take your rights of hajj from me because he only did one hajj. He only did one hajj and therefore all of the fiqh of hajj comes from this one hajj. All of the controversies, all of the madhahib they come from, basically what did the Prophet ﷺ do, how did he do it, is it obligatory or is it sunnah or is it wajib or is it rukun, all of the controversy over one hajj of the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Ishaq and others, they tell us that the Prophet ﷺ left for hajj on the 25th of Dhul Qa'dah in the 10th year of the Hijrah and of course he is going to pass away on the 12th of Riyalaw in the 11th year of the Hijrah so it's just a few months before he ﷺ passes away and he prayed Dhuhr in the masjid and he then left Medina on the 25th of Dhul Qa'dah in the 10th year of the Hijrah and he made his way to Dhul Hulayfa which is right outside Medina and he prayed two raka'ah and entered the state of ihram. Entered the state of ihram. And the people from the time of the Prophet ﷺ began calling this hajj, hajjatul wada'ah. The name hajjatul wada'ah, the farewell hajj, was given even in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ. And where did this name come from? We learn in a hadith in Sahih Muslim that Ibn Umar says that the Prophet ﷺ stood on the day of sacrifice, يوم النحر, on the day of sacrifice, which is of course, what is the day of sacrifice? The 10th of Dhul Hijjah. And he said, This is هذا يوم الحج الأكبر. This is the day of the big hajj, الحج الأكبر. And he kept on saying, Oh Allah, bear witness, اللهم فاشهد وودع الناس. and he was bidding farewell to the people, saying goodbye to the people. So the people began calling it, this must be the hajjatul wada'a. This is the hajj that he's bidding farewell. And Ibn Umar said, we did not understand the implication. They're calling it hajjatul wada'a, and they're not understanding what does wada'a mean over here. Which is that, what does it mean? The Prophet ﷺ is going to pass away. it didn't click in their minds and they're calling hajatul wada hajatul wada and they don't understand that this means that the Prophet ﷺ is going to literally be bidding farewell so the term hajatul wada comes from the seerah from the sunnah from the actions of the sahaba while the Prophet ﷺ was still alive and of course as we shall discuss in our actual final seerah our Prophet ﷺ had a premonition he knew that this was the end. That is why he's bidding farewell to the people, the tens of thousands of people. And by the way, we don't know how many people perform hajj. So our early scholars just like to give a nice round number, 100,000. The fact of the matter is, nobody knows. Absolutely. It is just a complete guesstimation. There is no way of actually estimating how many tens of thousands of people flocked from all over Arabia, from all the tribes. and this was the largest gathering of sahaba and the bulk of the sahaba we don't even know their names because they became sahaba simply by performing hajj with the Prophet ﷺ they became sahaba and they saw him and we have plenty of narrations of anonymous people that we find them in the books of hadith that someone who heard the khutbah of the Prophet ﷺ in hajj says this and he becomes a sahabi and we don't care that he's unknown because if he heard it from the Prophet ﷺ he is a reliable narrator someone who heard or someone who saw the Prophet ﷺ it's narrated in the books of hadith so there are tens of thousands of people a hundred thousand, a hundred fifty thousand we do not know how many people performed the hajj so he left on the 25th of Dhul Qa'dah and he arrived in Mecca on the 4th of Dhul Hijjah on the 4th of Dhul Hijjah and this is 10 days exact and it would take 10 days on average for a large caravan that is going at an average speed. Not too slow, not too fast. It would take 10 days from Medina to Mecca or from Mecca to Medina. And so our Prophet ﷺ camped outside of Mecca. He arrived at night. He camped outside of Mecca. It was not his sunnah to enter any city at night. We've discussed this before. And also for adab for the Ka'bah as he did not want to enter it in a tired state. He rested, he woke up in the morning, prayed Fajr and then took a ghusl in the state of Ihram. So this shows us that in the state of Ihram, you're allowed to take a ghusl. Obviously this is well known, there's no ikhtilaf over here. And he then entered Mecca in the daytime, early morning he entered Mecca on the morning of the Sunday. On the morning of the Sunday. and he performed the tawaf the first three of them quickly and then the rest of the four slowly and of course the people performed with him and then he announced a change or a twist in the plans and he said if I had known then at the beginning of my journey what I know now I would not have made the niyyah of combining the hajj and umrah and I would have made the niyyah of separating the hajj and umrah, and I would not have brought my animals with me. In other words, he has now changed his mind, but he cannot act upon that change of mind. Now what is this little bit of fiqh here? If you have your animals with you, in the sharia, those animals are sacred animals in hajj. Now this is very rare in our times, who brings animals with them, right? This is very rare to bring animals with you. So when you enter ihram, you will then consecrate your animals. This is basically, you put some decorations and something on it, and those animals, you don't ride them, and you basically treat them as gifts for the hujjaj, and you take them with you, and you then distribute to the poor. You must remain in ihram until those animals are distributed. Okay? So, our Prophet ﷺ had told Ali to bring 100 camels from Yemen. So this also shows you don't have to physically bring the animal, but your niyyah is this is the animal with me so he when he got to Mecca said you know if I had knew then what I know now which is an Arabic expression basically if I knew better if I thought about this more I would have actually done something else and what would he have done? Hajj Tamattu what is Hajj Tamattu? you do the Umrah then you get out of Ihram then you remain in Mecca without Ihram until the 8th then you re-enter Ihram and then you do a hajj. So he announced to the people everybody who came without their animals get out of your ihram and become halal again. i.e. ihram and halal are two different things, the opposite. Get out of your ihram and become halal again. Now this was unique and new. This is not something pre-Islam had allowed. And this was new. And some of the sahaba said, Ya Rasulullah, how can we become halal again? Do you expect us to even be intimate with our families, they had brought their families with them and the Prophet ﷺ said, yes, everything is halal everything is halal, so this was they couldn't imagine basically getting out of ihram in between hajj and umrah this was, I'm sorry, umrah and hajj because that was not something that pre-Islam had done, and this is something Islam came with, and Aisha narrated that, so therefore some people made the intention for both hajj and umrah together this is Quran, and some people made it only for Umrah at that time meaning Umrah and then Hajj and some people made it only for the Hajj and this is Ifrad and this Hadith is in Bukhari and from this we get the famous everybody who's been for Hajj and those of you who haven't you should know this by now because this is common knowledge there are three types of Hajj Hajj-i-Qiran, Hajj-i-Ifrad, Hajj-i-Tamattur all three types pretty much are Ja'iz and there's a controversy which one is better but all three are Ja'iz our Prophet ﷺ performed Qiraan. But he clearly told the Sahaba to do Tamattu. And some of them also did Ifrad. So very briefly, Tamattu, you do the Umrah, you get out of Ihram, then you enter Ihram and you do Hajj. Umrah and Hajj, two separate acts, one journey. Qiraan, Umrah and Hajj, two acts, one journey, one Ihram. You don't get out. So you stay in Ihram for all of those days. Which is what our Prophet ﷺ did. And then ifrad, you don't do umrah, you just go straight to the hajj. And that's also allowed. So all of these three, some of the sahaba did some of them. And as I had said, Ali was in Yemen. I already talked about Ali being in Yemen a few lessons ago. Ali had been sent to Yemen to be a judge, a arbitrator, a dispute settler amongst them. And he then sent word to Ali, bring 100 camels from Yemen and meet me in Mecca for the hajj. And so Ali arrived with an entourage, he came with a group of people, and he came with the 100 camels, and he immediately entered into the tent of Fatima radiallahu anha, because he had not been with Fatima for a long time, to say salam to her. Now Ali is in ihram, so if they're in ihram obviously, then everything is not allowed. But then he sees Fatima, and she's wearing normal clothes, and she's perfumed, and she has kuhl in her eyes. and he gets angry at her he says what are you doing? we're doing hajj how can you be dressed normally? so she says my father, the Prophet ﷺ told me to get out of ihram and this is news to him so he marches to the Prophet ﷺ and he says ya Rasulullah Fatima is dressed with this and this and she said you told her to do this and so he's confused like what is going on here? I thought we're doing hajj so the Prophet ﷺ said yes she has spoken the truth I commanded them to get out of ihram and you as well, you can get out of ihram, which niyyah did you come with? because if you came with the niyyah of doing hajj with the niyyah of basically only doing hajj, it's okay your niyyah for only doing hajj can then be become tamattu' so you can get out of ihram so Ali said, ya Rasulullah when I came from Yemen I said, labbayk upon the niyyah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Wallahi this shows us really the status of Ali ibn Abi Talib That he didn't know what to say So he said whatever the process I'm doing I'm doing it So that basically meant Quran he's gonna stay in ihram He's gonna stay in ihram because he said I'm upon your niyyah ya Rasulullah And so Ali also stayed in ihram Throughout that time And the bulk of the sahaba Ended up doing tamattu' Some of them did ifrah those that came later especially they just did a farad. And a very small few, those that had brought their animals with them, they ended up doing Qiraan. And amongst them was our Prophet ﷺ. So our Prophet ﷺ entered Mecca. So, sorry, I made a mistake. He camped outside of Mecca on the Saturday. He entered Mecca on the Sunday. I said he camped on Sunday. No, he camped Saturday. He entered Mecca Sunday morning. And he did tawaf Sunday morning. And he stayed in Mecca Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, four full days he stayed in Mecca and then on the morning of Thursday which was the 8th of Dhul Hijjah he prayed Fajr in the Ka'bah and he then made his way towards Mina and from here the books of Sira and the books of Hadith all mention hundreds of narrations of he did this in Hajj he did that in Hajj and that is more befitting of a Fiqh class every single Hadith of Fiqh pertaining to Hajj takes place now You can imagine all of the hadith of the fiqh of hajj takes place now. We have literally hundreds, entire books in the collections of hadith. And the bulk of them deal with fiqh. There's one hadith that is considered to be the mother of all hadith when it comes to the hajj of the Prophet ﷺ. And that is the hadith of Jabir. That is the hadith of Jabir. Why? Because it is the longest. It is actually three, four pages long. And I'm just gonna quickly go over it just to be thorough. most of this is more fiqh related so I'm not going to unpack it because it really deals with the fiqh of the hajj we are more concerned with the spiritual and the moral aspects of the seerah of the Prophet in this regard so this is the hadith of Jabir from Sahih Muslim in Sahih Muslim, in the hadith of Jabir it is reported by Ja'far ibn Muhammad and Ja'far ibn Muhammad from the Al-Bayt, the famous Ja'far ibn Muhammad from his father that we went to Jabir ibn Abdullah. And he began asking about who all of us were until it was my turn. So this is Muhammad, Ja'far ibn Muhammad is reporting from his father, Muhammad. And this is, who is this Muhammad? This is Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Hussain ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib. This is the Al-Bayt. Okay? This is Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Hussain ibn... Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Husayn ibn Ali Husayn's father is Ali and Husayn's son is Ali and of course for the 12 Rashi'as these are their Imams all of these are their Imams Ja'far al-Sadiq and Muhammad al-Baqir and Ali Zain al-Abideen these are the same people and from our perspective they are extremely righteous people and of the best people on earth alive at their time but they don't have powers and attributes that other groups give them so this is Muhammad that is called Muhammad al-Baqir Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Hussein so I was a young man at the time this is the great great great grandson of the Prophet ﷺ and Jabir ibn Abdullah was one of the last Sahaba to die Subhanallah I should know his date I forgot his date now 76 or something around that time 70 something for sure Jabir ibn Abdullah was one of the last of the Sahaba to die and at this point in time he was a blind old man he was a blind old man so when I said I am Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Hussain what not so he stood up he placed his hand on my head and he opened up he's blind he opened up my shirt and he touched me like he wants to touch the great great grandson of the Prophet ﷺ like he wants to feel and also to bless him and to get blessings from him so and he touched me and he then said ask what you want you are welcome my nephew so he's showing respect to the Al-Bayt and it is a part of Sunni Islam, as I have said throughout, to respect the Al-Bayt, those who are righteous amongst them. Ask whatever you want. And the hadith goes on, and eventually he says, tell me about the Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ. So this is the great-great-grandson of the Prophet ﷺ asking Jabir ibn Abdullah, tell me about the Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ. So Jabir begins his long hadith. I'm gonna quickly go over it. So Jabir pointed out with nine fingers, he's blind, he put up nine fingers. And he said, for nine years the Prophet ﷺ did not perform the Hajj. Then he made an announcement in the tenth year that he was about to perform the Hajj. So large numbers of people came to Medina, all of them eager to follow the Prophet ﷺ and to be behind him as he did the Hajj. Can you imagine the excitement that who is going to lead the caravan? It is none other than Rasulullah ﷺ. So we reached Dhul Hulayfa and Asma binti Umayis gave birth to Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. So Abu Bakr had married Asma and Asma, we talked about Asma by the way many many seers ago. She was married to so many sahaba. So she gives birth to the final son of Abu Bakr. This is Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. Okay, so she gives birth, and she sends a message to the Prophet ﷺ, what should I do? I just given birth, basically I'm bleeding. So the Prophet ﷺ said, take a bath, bandage your private parts, and put on ihram. So you can enter ihram. Women can enter ihram in their monthly cycle, and in their postpartum bleeding, they can enter ihram. Okay, so when they pass the miqat, they still enter ihram, even though they cannot pray, and they cannot do tawaf, but they still enter ihram. So again, all of this is fiqh. So the Prophet ﷺ then prayed in Dhul Hulayfa, then mountain on Qaswa, and it stood with him with its back to Al-Bayda, which is one of the valleys. And I saw as far as I could see in front of me, nothing but riders and pedestrians. And to my right, nothing but riders and pedestrians. And to my left, nothing but riders and pedestrians. And behind me as well, the same. and the Prophet ﷺ was prominent amongst us meaning he was the middle he was in the middle on his camel he was the prominent amongst us and he's reminiscing and he must feel all of the memories coming back so he says and the Qur'an was still coming down so he's telling this is now 70 years afterwards right so he's saying the Qur'an was still being revealed at that time so he himself is getting excited that those days are bringing him nostalgic memories that the Qur'an was still being revealed and he was the most knowledgeable of the Quran meaning I wish he was still here we could ask him questions and whatever he did we followed him in all that he did and when he got on his camel he said Allahu Akbar La ilaha illallah Labbayka Allahumma labbayk Labbayka la sharika laka labbayk Innal hamda wal ni'mata laka wal mulk and he said other people also pronounced it other talbiyas and the Prophet ﷺ did not say anything to them So they had slight variations as well. And all of this was praise of Allah. And these are mentioned in the books of sunnah. And that is all fine. And he said, We did not have any niyyah other than the hajj. We weren't knowledgeable of doing umrah and hajj. So he didn't understand tamattur. But when we came with him to the house, to the Ka'bah, he touched the black stone and made seven tawafs, three of them running and four of them walking. then he prayed behind Maqam Ibrahim now all of these you have heard my fiqh of Umrah and fiqh of Hajj, these are now from that, like you literally the same phrases you find it, right this is where it's coming from Jabir ibn Abdullah gave the long hadith and he prayed behind Maqam Ibrahim and he recited the verse in the Quran wa'takhidhu min Maqam Ibrahim musalla and he took the Maqam between him and the Kaaba, so he prayed the Maqam and the Kaaba he prayed in the maqam and the ka'bah and he recited surah al-kafirun and surah al-ikhlas in the first and the second rak'ah then he returned once again to the pillar, the hajar, al-aswad and he kissed it he then went out of the gate to as-safa and when he reached it he recited the quran inna as-safa wal-marwata min sha'airillah faman hajja al-bayta aw i'tamara falajuna halehi an yattawafa bihima that safa and marwa or from the signs of Allah. I shall begin with what Allah has began with, which is Safa. And he climbed up a Safa until he could see the Kaaba and he turned around and he faced the Kaaba and he said, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. La ilaha illallah wahda. Sadaqa wahda. Wa nasara abda. Wa a'azza junda. Wa hazama al-ahzaba wahda. La ilaha illallah. Wa la na'budu illa iya. Mukhlisina lahuddina. وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ This is the famous dua that is said or it is sunnah to say when you are doing tawaf or doing sa'i and it translates as or the phrase that is especially interesting for us that he says in this that Allah has fulfilled his promise and Allah has spoken the truth and Allah has aided his servant and Allah has destroyed all of the armies by himself and what a perfect thing to say when Mecca is now returned to him. And he has not had to fight any battle to conquer Mecca because Allah blessed him with Mecca without a battle. That he took an army but there was no war. And Allah averted battle. And we talked about the conquest of Mecca. So he is now praising Allah for having given him Mecca. He has fulfilled the promise. And he has spoken the truth. And so he then stood a long time making dua. And he repeated these words three times. then he descended and walked towards Marwah then when his feet came to the bottom of the valley he ran in our times it is now the green posts in the time of the Prophet ﷺ it was still the valley it was still actually two mountains that you would literally go down under and those green lights, those green posts are meant to indicate when you would dip under where our mother Hajar when she went under she couldn't see Ismail that is why she ran to get to the other side so she could see Ismail and so up until the day of the process and it was still down of course later on it was changed and now of course it is completely flat and he did the same at Marwah then when he finished he said if I had known now what I know if I had known before what I know now I would not have brought my sacrificial animals and I would have only performed an Umrah now whoever amongst you does not have his animals should only perform an Umrah and get out of the ihram. This is tamattu. So, Suraqa ibn Malik stood up. This is the same Suraqa ibn Malik we read about so many years ago. Now he's come back to Medina just to do the hajj. Just to be with the Prophet ﷺ one more time. Suraqa ibn Malik stood up and he said, Ya Rasulullah, is this rule only for this year or is it for every year? Meaning this is a new thing we've heard. That you can come for hajj and then get out of ihram before you do the hajj. And this is tamattu. So our Prophet ﷺ intertwined the fingers of his hand. شَبَّكَ بَيْنَ أَصَابِعِهِ And he said, حَجْ and عُمْرَ has been combined together until the day of judgment. Meaning this now law of being able to do an عُمْرَ and a حَجْ in one journey, while getting out of Ihram, this is إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ It's not something that is only for this year. And then Ali came back from Yemen. with the hadith from the Prophet ﷺ and found Fatima to be there amongst those who had taken the ihram off. And she was wearing colorful clothing and she had applied kuhl. Now of course Fatima is the great-great-grandmother of the person in front of him. So he is now bringing this in to give him a family anecdote. Even though he is not Al-Bayt, he is Jabir. But he knows this detail and he is telling something to the great-great-grandson of Fatima herself. and Ali became irritated that how come you dress like this she said my father told me to do so we talked about this phrase so I'll jump over it and then Ali said that Jabir said the total number of animals brought by Ali from Yemen was 100 100 camels our process them had ordered from Yemen of course this is a fortune this is a massive amount this is a large amount of wealth and our Prophet ﷺ had purchased 100 camels from the people of Yemen. And on the day of Tarwiyah, which is the 8th of Dhul Hijjah, the rest of the Sahaba clipped their nails, they entered into the state of Ihram and went to Mina. And the Prophet ﷺ led the way and he prayed in Mina, Dhuhar and Asr and then Maghrib and Isha and then Fajr. So he's telling us what we do in Mina. Dhuhar al-Asr and Maghrib al-Isha and then Fajr he prayed in Mina. He then waited till the sun rose a little. So this is on what day now? 9th. The 9th of Dhul Hijjah. This is on the 9th of Dhul Hijjah. He waits till the sun rose a little. And commanded that a tent be pitched for him at Namira. Namira is the land right outside of Arafah. it's literally connected to Arafah it's like the one stop before Arafah is Namirah so he told the people get my tent ready at Namirah so the Prophet ﷺ then set out towards Namirah and the Quraysh did not doubt that he would stop at Al-Masha'al Al-Haram the sacred site now pause here one needs to understand something about the Quraysh and their rituals of Hajj So Al-Mash'al al-Haram Which is Muzdalifah Is and Mina Muzdalifah and Mina Is inside the Haram area of Mecca Clear? There is a Haram area The sacred area of Mecca Where all the rules of Fiqh apply You cannot hunt animals You cannot pluck trees You cannot carry weapons That is the Haram area And it is defined by Classical Islam By the Seerah By the Prophet ﷺ So So Mina and Muzdalifah, they come inside the Haram. Arafah is sacred land but it is not inside the Haram. Arafah is holy for the Hajj. Okay, we go there, we stand there. But Arafah is not inside the Haram. So the Quraysh invented a new doctrine. And the Quraysh said, we are the people of the Haram. how can we leave the haram in hajj and stand at arafat that's for the rest of you guys we will stay at the very boundary of the haram which is muzdalifah at a place called al mash'al al haram which is also a particular jabl, a particular mountain, is that clear? right, so they reinvented the rules of hajj to make it elitist for themselves we're too holy for you guys you guys go to arafat So the Quraysh would not stand at Arafat. Believe it or not. The Quraysh would not stand at Arafah. They would not go to the pillar of Hajj thinking they're too holy to leave the Haram. You measly mortals go. We are the elite of the Quraysh. So when the Prophet ﷺ said, sent my tent at Namirah, the Quraysh who are new Muslims assumed, okay, he's gonna stick with our tradition. Because Namirah is right outside of Arafah. It's not inside Arafah. So they thought that the Prophet ﷺ would stop at al-Mash'ad al-Haram. The Prophet ﷺ however, passed on al-Mash'ad al-Haram. He continued going until he came to Arafah and he camped at Namirah. And Namirah as we said, literally Namirah finishes and Arafah begins literally like this room and that hall in the back. Literally, there's a line. And if you go there, you will see that the Masjid of Arafah, the Masjid of Arafah, which is called Masjid Namirah, a little bit of it is outside and most of it is inside. and there's a line inside the masjid if you go inside the masjid you will see this is where Arafah begins literally there's a line so our Prophet ﷺ camped a stone's throw away, 10 feet away from the line like he literally is at Namirah which is right outside the plains of Arafah and he camped at Namirah then he got down until the sun had passed the meridian so the sun now the zawal begins and as soon as the Zawal begins then he commanded bring my camel to me and he continued going inside Arafah in other words he waited till right at the beginning of Dhuhr then he entered Arafah clear? he literally camped waiting for the millisecond after Dhuhr begins then he enters Arafah which was new for the Quraysh he enters Arafah and he made his way to Batn al-Wadi and this is the valley of Arana which is there inside of Arafat. And he addressed the people over there. So he gave them a khutbah. We're gonna come back to this khutbah. By the way, a common misconception is that he gave one khutbah. No, he gave at least three khutbahs. He gave at least three khutbahs. And inshallah that's what's gonna be after I finish the hadith of Jabir. I will go back and talk about those khutbahs. He gave a khutbah on the day of Arafah right now. And this was the most important because this is the day of Arafah. And it is established the sunnah that every single year the khatib or the imam gives a khutbah on Arafah. Okay, this is the khutbah of Arafah. And he also gave khutbahs in Mina as well. Not to the level, smaller khutbahs, but he gave khutbah on the 10th and khutbah on the 11th, maybe even on the 12th. And these are recorded in the various books. So, of course, there's 100, 150,000 people and he's getting multiple opportunities to speak to the masses. So, he takes advantage of conveying different information to the masses. And we're gonna come back to this khutbah, what he said. And then the Prophet ﷺ asked Bilal to make the iqamah. And so the Prophet ﷺ then led them in dhuhr and asr. And he did not pray anything in between. Just dhuhr and then just asr, two and two. As we all know in hajj, when you get to Arafah, you pray dhuhr and asr together. then the Prophet ﷺ after he gave the khutbah he then mounted his camel again and made his way to where the rocks are which is what we now call Jabal al-Rahma he made his way to Jabal al-Rahma so from the masjid which is now the masjid because these masjids have been built afterwards obviously to commemorate where he's doing these things from the masjid he gives the khutbah and then he goes to what is now Jabal al-Rahma and in all likelihood he did not climb the mountain or if he climbed it, he only went a little bit. Nothing is mentioned that says that he climbed to the top of the mountain. And in any case, what he said there was, وَقَفْتُهَا هُنَا وَعَرَفَتُ كُلُّهَا مَوْقِفْ I have happened to stand here, but all of Arafah is a place of standing. Wherever you are, it's fine. So he's literally saying there's nothing special about coming to Jabal Rahmah. And that's something very important to know because a lot of people get lost and go to great lengths to go to Jabal Rahmah and there's no need to do that. Anywhere in Arafah is exactly the same. And he said the same in Mina by the way. I happen to camp here but all of Mina is a camping ground. And he said the same in Muzdalifah. I spend the night here but all of Muzdalifah is a spending night ground. And wallahi this shows us the fiqh of the Prophet ﷺ, his care and concern that he fully understands that people might somehow think this one area. No, all of Arafah, all of Mina, all of Muzdalifah is the same when we go there for Hajj. Back to the hadith of Jabir. Back to the hadith of Jabir. And he continued to stand there at the bottom of Jabir Rahma from after Dhuhr basically until sunset. And he continued to make dua. Muballahi, you read this and your mind just boggles. Like anybody who's been for Hajj, You cannot, more than 20-30 minutes, then you just get tired, you need to freshen up, go, you know, it's hot, what not. Non-stop, from the time he gets to Jabal Rahma until Maghrib, he's standing there with his hands raised. Making dua, making dua, making dua. Hours go by and he is making dua and of course that is the essence of hajj. Al-Hajju Arafah, as our Prophet ﷺ said, until the sun had set, and the yellow light had disappeared in the sky, and the disc of the sun had completely gone below. He then put Usama ibn Zayd, Zayd of course was his quote-unquote adopted son, as you know the Zayd ibn Khalid, this is Usama ibn Zayd, on the camel besides him, behind him, and he pulled the nose string of Qaswa, Qaswa is of course his camel, until it almost touched his saddle. Meaning he's holding the camel back. He's not rushing it forward. Meaning he's taking the camel very slow. And he continued to go towards Muzdalifah telling the people with his hands, slow down, slow down. If only the drivers of our times followed this slow down command, right? But subhanAllah he's understanding there will be people, this gonna happen. So he himself from Arafat to Muzdalifah, and of course all of us that have been for Hajj, they know this is the most chaotic time. The most chaotic time. And our Prophet ﷺ, even though nobody is gonna block him. Correct? Nobody is gonna... Still, what does he wanna do? He wants to set the example for us. He wants to show us. And with his hands he's telling the people, slow down, slow down. No need to hurry. you'll get there and he proceeded this way until he reached Muzdalifah somebody asked him Ya Rasulullah As-Salaah how about Maghrib what are we gonna do and he pointed forward he said As-Salaah to Amamak the Salah is in front of you in other words we're gonna pray Maghrib and Isha in Muzdalifah we're not supposed to pray Maghrib now we pray it in Muzdalifah and so he continued until he reached Muzdalifah there he led them in Maghrib and Isha with one adhan and two iqamas. So again shortened end, three and two, maghrib and isha, you pray one adhan and two iqamas. And the Prophet ﷺ then laid down and rested until he offered the dawn prayer. This is in Muzdalifah. And he then made dua in Muzdalifah. This is a sunnah that most people don't do, to stay in Muzdalifah and make dua until the sun had become bright. until the sun had become bright and then he made his way to al-Mash'al al-Haram and he faced the Qibla and supplicated to Allah and glorified him until the sun was bright I already mentioned this this is in Muzdalifah he then hastened before the sun rose up he hastened back to basically go to the Ka'bah and to go to excuse me to Mina and he followed the middle road which comes out at the great Jamrah and there he threw his seven pebbles saying Allahu Akbar which each of these pebbles and he threw from the bottom of the valley so from the side now subhanallah if you're facing Mecca it's gonna be on the right hand side but again all of it is fine if you throw from the other side that's fine as well but he threw from the bottom of the valley and he said Allahu Akbar in each of these Ramiz and then he went to the place of sacrifice and sacrificed 63 camels with his own hand. 63 camels of the hundreds, hundred camels that Ali had brought him. Now Jabir's report does not mention this. Another hadith mentions that when our Prophet ﷺ took the knife to the herd of camels, they all were rushing to see which one would be the first. And they were racing to be slaughtered at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ, one by one. We know that's not what animals do. Rather when they see the knife, they turn and flee. But in this case, the animals were racing to see which one would be the one that slaughters with the hands of the Prophet ﷺ. He then gave the remaining to Ali to slaughter, 37 basically, to make it a total of 100. So he slaughtered one camel for every year of his life. 63 years old now. He slaughtered one camel for every year of his life. And the remainder he gave to Ali to slaughter. He then commanded that a piece of flesh be taken from each of those animals. So all of those 100 animals, just take a little bit and then put it in a pot to cook. And this is of course to feed the poor and also to eat yourself. And when it was cooked, he took some meat out and he ate and he drank of its soup. So this is again, one of the sunnahs that he had done is that yes, you cook the meat you eat it, you give it to others and this is a sunnah we all do to this day alhamdulillah the meat of the udhiyah is halal for us and we also distribute it to the poor and the fuqara and then our Prophet ﷺ then rode again and went to the Ka'bah so he's done what he needs to do at Mina now he goes to the Ka'bah and he prayed the dhuhr prayer in the haram he then went to the Banu Abdul Muttalib and they were the ones in charge of taking the water of Zamzam out and he asked them, draw water out. Ya Bani Abdul Muttalib. And were it not for the fact that the people would take this right away, if I were to do it, I would have helped along with you. Meaning, and wallahi this is amazing, our Prophet ﷺ understands, if I draw water, everybody will want to take this right because I did it. So in order to save the ummah that, I'm not gonna do it. And you go ahead and do it and I'll just drink from what you give me. This is what he is saying. That if I were to draw the water out, then others would take it away from you because I did it. So they want to follow my sunnah. And he understands therefore that people are so eager to follow him, that they're gonna do everything he has done. And so he says, because of this, I'm not gonna draw water, you draw water out, and I'll just basically drink from your water. And then they handed him a cup, and he drank from the water. This is the hadith of Jabir ibn Abdullah. And as I said, quite literally without exaggeration, there are hundreds of a hadith about the hajj of the Prophet ﷺ. Each one of which gives primarily fiqh rulings. We're not really that concerned in the seerah class about those fiqh rulings. Most important for us for this seerah episode is the khutbahs of our Prophet ﷺ. And as I said, he actually gave multiple khutbahs. One in Arafat and two or maybe even three in Mina One in Arafat and two or maybe three in Mina And on the day of Arafah of that year It happened to be a Friday as well And this is from where the notion comes from There are prophecies called that Hajj This is the day of Al-Hajj Al-Akbar Al-Hajj Al-Akbar Now, number of points here Al-Hajj Al-Akbar is the ninth of Dhul Hijjah and every hajj that we go to is hajj akbar and if there's anything called hajj asghar it is umrah if there's anything called hajj asghar it is umrah but unfortunately what has happened is there's this cultural notion that if arafah falls on a friday then it becomes hajj akbar and this is a misunderstanding of what the Prophet ﷺ is saying that's not what he is saying however if Arafah does fall on Hajj and this last year actually that happened when we were there for Hajj it did happen so when it does happen no doubt there's some extra blessings and we thank Allah for that Friday is blessed and the 9th is blessed so blessing upon blessing but if it doesn't fall on a Friday the Hajj is no lesser of a Hajj it's not Hajj Asghar versus Hajj Akbar no all Hajj that we go to is Hajj Akbar and in particular the 9th of Dhul Hijjah is the day of Al-Hajj Al-Akbar so this is a misunderstanding however in the time the process it so happened coincidence that or Allah's Qadr that Arafah fell on a Friday so the 9th of Dhul Hijjah came on a Friday and it was on the 9th of Dhul Hijjah standing on the plains of Arafah that Allah revealed Wahi to him so the Wahi of the Quran came down on this auspicious occasion and this is now the famous verse in the Quran اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم وأتممت عليكم نعمتي ورضيت لكم الإسلام دينا that today I have completed your religion for you and perfected my blessings upon you and chosen Islam as your way of life this was the verse revealed it is not the last verse of the Quran because there's still three months left of the life of the Prophet ﷺ other verses will be revealed, perhaps Surah Al-Nasr came down after this as well for sure, some verses of Surah Baqarah came down as well as we'll talk about in our next class inshaAllah, so this is not the last verse revealed but it is one of the last verses and what a beautiful verse, one of the Yahud came to Umar ibn Khattab and he said, O Amir al-Mu'mineen you have a verse in your Quran if we had its equivalent, we would have taken that day as a day of Eid celebration. Umar said what verse? So the Yahudi recited اليوم أكملت لكم دينكم وأزممت عليكم نعمتي ورضيت لكم الإسلام دينه. Umar said I know exactly when this verse was revealed. Our Prophet ﷺ was standing in Arafah on the day of Hajj al-Akbar and Allah revealed this verse. So it was already, it's already a day of celebration for us. And what a fitting ayah to come down. When Islam is at its glorious peak, when 150,000 maybe or 100,000 people are doing hajj, when the entire Arabian peninsula is now upon Islam, when there's not a single idol that is worshipped in the entire peninsula, when all of the Arabs have embraced, وَرَأِتَ النَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا so this verse came down and it was here that our Prophet ﷺ stood up, and some said he was on his camel, some said he stood on his camel, and he gave a sermon and he told Al-Abbas and Ali to quieten the crowd and he told Abbas to repeat after him and in another version this is an interesting point that not many people know in the sunan of Abu Dawud it says that one of the sahaba said that we listen to the Prophet ﷺ khutbah and we could hear it even from our tents so what appears to be the case then is that yes indeed some people did repeat but also somehow the voice of the Prophet ﷺ was amplified it was a miracle basically because the Sahabi is saying we could hear his voice from our tents and that's not something that is normally he's saying from the furthest tents we could hear the voice so from this we get a miracle of the Prophet ﷺ that somehow Allah Azawajal blessed his voice so that the people of Arafah could hear his voice directly and he said so this is the khutbah of Arafah and this is the important khutbah that we know of. And in all likelihood, probably other sentences, he must have said them, but we only get this one paragraph, which is the gist of it. He said, O people, listen to me, for I know not whether I shall meet you again after this year. So he clearly has a premonition. I don't know if I'm gonna be with you next year. Your blood and your money are haram for you, meaning you cannot kill each other, you cannot steal each other's money, Just like this day has its hurmah, its sanctity. In this month, in this land. So he abolishes the law of the jungle, which was rampant in Arabia. The survival of the fittest is gone. Nobody can steal or rape or plunder or kill other people anymore. The law of the jungle is gone. Just like today, now the Arabs, all of them, despite their paganism they upheld the sanctity of the haram we talked about this many times they respected the haram they respected the Ka'bah they respected the Hajj they respected Dhul Hijjah they respected the 9th of Dhul Hijjah and no war was, no blood was shed so our Prophet ﷺ was saying you understand how sacred this land is how holy this place is how blessed this day is each one of you's lives and properties is just as sacred as the Ka'bah. Is just as sacred as the 9th of Dhul Hijjah. Is just as sacred as Ash'al al-Hurm. So he is striking the point home, that all of this is gone. Then he said, Verily, everything from the time of Jahiliyyah, تَحْتَ قَدَمِي مَوْضُوعٍ Which is beautiful. تَحْتَ قَدَمِي Under my foot. And it's a very harsh way of saying, a very clear way of saying, It's gone. it's obliterated, it's something of the past under my foot means what? it's trampled over, it's gone تَحْتَ قَدَمِ مَوْضُور eliminated all of the ways of jahiliyyah, everything your cultural ways, your rituals your idol worship, your this and that all of jahiliyyah is gone now this is such a comprehensive and powerful statement your way of life that was jahiliyyah is now gone, islam has come with something new. And then he says, all of the blood feuds from the days of Jahiliyyah are gone. All of your tribal warfare is now, every tribe had a long list of enemies and a long list of allies written in blood. Every tribe had its feuds. Every tribe has its grievances. And this was what was preventing the tribes from uniting. What did our Prophet ﷺ say? All of these blood feuds are under my foot obliterated. Meaning, khalas, gone. No other feud is gonna be there. And he says, the first blood money that I obliterate is the blood money from my own family. The son of Rabi'ah ibn al-Harith. Rabi'ah ibn al-Harith ibn Abdul Muttalib. Al-Harith is the uncle of the Prophet ﷺ. Rabi'ah is his cousin, the son of Rabi'ah. Al-Harith was the oldest of Abdul Muttalib. Abdullah was one of the youngest. So, story here, very brief footnote. one of the sons of Rabi'ah was killed in a war between two tribes, between the Banu Sa'ad and the Hudhayl. And he was being raised by the Banu Sa'ad, just like the Prophet was raised by the Banu Sa'ad, Halima Sa'diyya. So they were raised by the Banu Sa'ad. This boy was caught in the battle. He's an innocent boy, young boy, and he was killed by the tribe of Hudhayl. So the Quraysh had a long feud against the Hudhayl because of this. Okay, blood money, 100 camels hadn't been paid, and they're willing to go to war. So this is something owed to the Quraysh. What does the Prophet ﷺ say? The first blood money that I obliterate is my own family's. He's being the role model here. This is money owed to him. What does he say? I'm not gonna take that money. Okay? Then he says, Verily, Verily, the riba from the days of Jahiliyyah is under my foot abolished. It's all gone. And the first riba that I abolish is the riba of my uncle, Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib. Abbas was a wealthy man by now. And he was well known for giving lots of loans on riba. And when Islam came, riba was prohibited. But this was old news. So he was due lots of interest. Clear? He was due lots of interest. So the Prophet ﷺ said, the first money that I obliterate from riba is the money of my uncle Abbas you pay him back what you got not a penny more subhanallah this is being the role model the leader by example the leader by example my family is gonna benefit from this blood money from this riba but no more so subhanallah what wisdom, what leadership that I'm showing you I'm serious about this my own family will not benefit from riba, my own family will not benefit from the blood feud and the blood money. Then he said, and اتق الله في النساء Fear Allah, be conscious of Allah with regards to women and the rights of women. For you have taken them with the protection of Allah and made them permissible with the name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So in a society where women had no rights whatsoever and this is something so important brothers and sisters that there was no reason for Islam to come and talk about women there was no reason for our Prophet to mention women in the farewell pilgrimage on the day of Arafah in the most important khutbah he ever gave in his life the most important khutbah he ever gave and he has a paragraph about women think about that why? Because no society can flourish if its women are mistreated. No ummah can rise if its women are not treated with dignity and respect. So he said, fear Allah with regards to your women. اتقوا الله Fear Allah with regards to your women. For basically Allah has given them to you, you have used his name to make them halal. So he's reminding them, the nikah contract has in the name of Allah. and you are now they are now with you under the protection of Allah and nobody is watching you other than Allah so fear Allah with regards to those women with regards to those women and their right upon you is that they do not allow anyone to step on your bed for that you would hate meaning their right is that they must be faithful and loyal to you that's what the point is right and he's using Arabic expression stepping on their bed you understand doing things that would not be like flirtatious and what not and he said if they do something meaning disobey you you have the right to discipline them in a manner that is not painful now pause here no doubt this phrase is problematic for some people of our time and that's a separate tangent the fact of the matter in this society in this society when it was the norm that men would beat their wives without any question this was the normal rule and we learned this from so many narrations what did our Prophet ﷺ say if they do something of a serious consequence then you may discipline them without any pain without any injury now whether this should be done in our times or not and what not that's a separate discussion and that's beyond the scope of my seerah lesson I've given talks about that as well and in our times any type of discipline to be honest is something that is going to break a marriage rather than save a marriage and this is something that I have talked about in other classes the point is our Prophet ﷺ set guidelines Those guidelines might not be palatable to some people in the 21st century. But one needs to realize when this was said, Wallahi, this is groundbreaking. This is something that is leaps and bounds above what the people are doing with their women and their wives. So if, sorry, and they have a right on you. So all of this is about women. They have a right on you. Sorry, they have a right over you. that you give them their rizq and their nafqa, their sustenance, in a manner that is suitable to you. Meaning, you are obliged to take care of them financially, and all of their needs in a manner that is in accordance. Bilma'roof. Bilma'roof means, according to what you have, your wife and family shall live. So, he stresses family rights in the khutbat al-wata'a. and he talks about your money needs to be used upon your wife and your children in a manner that is equitable to you. Then he said, and I have left amongst you something that as long as you hold it, you will never go astray, the Kitabullah, the book of Allah, Jalaluhu. So this was the khutbat al-wada' that is in Arafah. We're gonna get to another one tomorrow. And he said, you shall soon be asked about me, so what shall you say? So they replied, we will testify in front of Allah that you have conveyed the message and done your duty and that you were sincere. So he wants to be a clean conscious in front of Allah that, oh Allah, I have done my job. I have conveyed the message of Islam and I have done what you wanted me to do. And when they said this, he raised his hands to the sky, his fingers to the sky, and he said, Allahumma fashhad. Allahumma fashhad. Allahumma fasha, three times. Oh Allah, bear witness that they have said, they have heard me, they've understood. So oh Allah, bear witness. And why? Because Allah says in the Qur'an, that on that day, you will be a witness, and on that day, every ummah will be asked about its witness, or its messenger. So the messengers will be asked, and the ummah will be asked. فَلَنَسْأَلَنَّ الَّذِينَ أُرْسِلَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَنَسْأَلَنَّ الْمُرْسَلِينَ we shall ask the people who had the prophet we shall ask the prophets both will be asked so our Prophet ﷺ wanted the ummah to respond on the day of judgment that oh Allah our Prophet ﷺ has done the job so he's making them testify and they all testified to this and on the next day on the day of an-nahr on the day of sacrifice the 10th of Dhul Hijjah he gave another khutbah on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah and he said that verily time has returned to its rightful place as it was on the day that Allah created the heavens and the earth. A year is 12 months, four of which are sacred, three of them are consecutive, Dhul Qa'ada, Dhul Hijjah and Muharram and the Rajab of Mudar which is between Jum'at and Sha'ban. Pause here. What is he talking about? What he is saying is the following. The Quraysh had this weird custom of changing the years around whenever they wanted to. So if they wanted to go to war, and it happened to be one of the sacred months, they would say, you know what, let's just swap. So in our English calendar, because we'll understand, suppose January is sacred, February is not. They wanted to go to war in January, they'll say, okay, let's all pretend it's February now, and we'll do January next month. Okay? That's literally what they would do. I'm not exaggerating this. They would just swap the month. Now obviously after a few years, all the months are jumbled up. It's confused. after a few years of doing what what so now it gets a little bit confused so this year the year that the Prophet ﷺ did hajj he said it is the qadr of Allah it so happened, coincidence, Allah's qadr that this year's calendar was exactly the way that it should be just like according to the nizam, the tartib the day that Allah created the heavens and the earth those same 12 months in the right order were in this year as well. In other words, keep the calendar. Which is what the Muslims have done. Keep the calendar. They have kept the same calendar. So time has returned to the original as it was the day Allah created the heavens and the earth. These four months are sacred. Keep those four months there. Don't mess them around. So that's what that is about. Then he paused. Then he said, what month is this? And the people were shocked because that's such an obvious question. So they were too embarrassed to answer. So then he said, Isn't this the month of Dhul Hijjah? And they said yes. Then he was quiet. Then he said, what day is this? They were again like, this is such an obvious question. Maybe he's gonna change the day. They didn't know what to answer. So he said, isn't this the day of An-Nahar? They said yes. They said, what place is this? Again, they were like, this is too embarrassing. This is such an obvious question. So he said, this is Mina. This is the area of the Haram. So then he said, and again the point being, all of the Arabs understood the sanctity of the Ka'bah, Mina, the day, the time they all understood how holy this was so then he said the same message again but in a different way by asking them these questions to make them realize and think how holy is Mecca how holy is Dhul Hijjah how holy is the day of An-Nahr so he said verily your lives and your money now he added and your honor A'rad you don't slander other people you don't speak about other people's integrity they are haram upon you just as sacred as this month is upon you and this day is upon you and this place is upon you now what is he doing in all of this subhanallah he is uniting the ummah this is what he is doing here making the ummah one forget everything you must all be one ummah under Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then he said so waylakum woe to you do not return to being kuffar killing one another so don't return to that don't become kuffar after me don't become kuffar after me so he is saying those were such ridiculous pagan evil ways, don't go back to that and astaghfirullah but look at the Muslim ummah now and what it is doing and our Prophet ﷺ the last point he is saying don't kill one another this is the ways of the kuffar is not the ways of the Muslims. And he said, let the one who is present go and inform the one who is absent. Go and tell people about this khutbah. So perhaps the one who hears understands better than the one who heard it for the first time. And in one version in Tirmidhi, he said, إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ قَدْ يَأِسَ أَنْ يُعْبَدَ فِي هَذِهِ الْجَزِيرَةِ Shaytan has given up hope of being worshipped in this peninsula, in this land. Arabia will not return to idolatry pause here footnote until the days of Dajjal that is another thing the very last generations after Dajjal yes but in the middle interim Arabia will not return to idolatry it's not gonna find those idols being resurrected Shaytan has given up hope of being worshipped in your land He is still worshipped in other lands. But not in this land. But what is he hoping now? But he is hopeful in you obeying him in matters that you consider trivial. Sins and other things. That's what his hope is. That you're gonna obey him on other things. And in one version he said, فِالتَّحْرِيشِ بَيْنَكُمْ What he's hoping for is to rile you up so that you fight one another. This is what shaitan wants. Disunity. To fight one another. that's where he's optimistic and he might get you guys he's not gonna get you from an idol anymore you're not gonna be worshipping an idol as an ummah now this doesn't mean no Muslim will ever become an idol worshipper it means the ummah as a whole will not return to idolatry which is the case alhamdulillah the bulk of the ummah is not worshipping idols and it will not worship idols until the day of judgement and he said the famous hadith as well that the Muslim the real Muslim is the one from whose hands and tongue other Muslims are safe from and the mu'min is the one whom the people aminu, trust with their money and their property and the muhajir is the one who has left the sins committing from Allah and the mujahid is the one who is striving in the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and in a hadith in Tidmidi we learn from all of these are different hadith by the way that one sahabi is hearing something, he reports it. From the khutbah, hajatul wada' and the khutbah on minna. And in Tirmidhi, the hadith says, the famous hadith, which we say all the time, it was actually said in hajatul wada' that fear Allah and pray your five prayers and fast your month of Ramadan and give your zakah and obey your rulers and you shall enter the Jannah of your Lord. Meaning, concentrate on the arkan of Islam. Be good Muslims, you will enter Jannah. and in the mustadab imam ahmad in the famous hadith as well that all of us have memorized and have heard since we were children and it is an authentic hadith that our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said all of you are from one and your father is one la fadla li arabiyyan ala ajamiyin wala ajamiyin ala arabi wala li ahmara ala aswada wala aswada ala ahmara illa bittakwa this is an authentic hadith in muslim imam ahmad from the hajjat al-wada'a. And this is completely revolutionary. As I have said many times before, no philosopher, thinker, intellectual leader in the history of humanity had ever said, all humans are equal. Nobody. Every society thought, we are better. Whether it was ethnicity, whether it was race, they always thought we are better. And the first person to say this, and clearly this is from the divine, because this is not something that the son of Abdul Muttalib would want to say, if he were simply the son of Abdul Muttalib. The person who has the most noble lineage amongst all of the Arabs, he is the one saying, it doesn't matter whether you're Arab or Ajam, whether you're white or black, it's all irrelevant except with taqwa. That is revolutionary for humanity and now we are still struggling with this concept, but we know it's right in our world, we know it's right, but we're still struggling with this concept. 14 centuries ago, the first human to ever say it so bluntly was our Prophet ﷺ. So all of these are various narrations. So by the way, when we see that big poster about Hajjatul Wada' realize that that poster is a conglomeration of all of these lectures. And the fact of the matter is he gave a khutbah in Arafah, he gave a khutbah on the 12th, he gave a khutbah on the 11th, he gave a khutbah on the 10th, and all of them put together we get the big poster that we see. And there's nothing wrong with that, just realized that's not one khutbah he actually gave many smaller khutbahs so we now conclude and we say that the Prophet ﷺ spent three nights in Mina typically we spend two we leave on the twelfth but it is allowed to spend on the thirteenth our Prophet ﷺ spent the thirteenth in Mina and at night he went to perform tawaf al-wada' at night and he then returned on his journey to Medina Aisha narrates that when they first arrived in Mecca this is the fourth of Dhul Hijjah when they first arrived in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ entered in her tent and she was crying so we go back a bit the fourth, and the Prophet ﷺ said, Malaki Anafisti what is the matter have you started your menses and by the way this shows us so many things firstly our Prophet ﷺ intuitively subhanallah he's in tune why would she be crying, and immediately also our sisters are always irritated when they get that cycle in the last 10 days of Ramadan or for Hajj and Umrah or whatever, you're not the first. Your mother Aisha was crying when she started her menses. She was crying because the menses have begun and she's literally outside of Mecca. So she's very sad. Now what am I gonna do? So the Prophet ﷺ said, don't worry. This is something كَتَبَهُ اللَّهُ عَلَى بَنَاتِ آدَمِ Allah has written it on all of the daughters of Adam all women get this don't cry do everything that the Hujjaj do except tawaf so you will go to Arafah, you will go to Muzdalifah you will go to Mina, you will do the Rami you will do your dua all that the Hujjaj do except tawaf and then on the day of the 13th she finished the menses and, or sorry, before the 13th sorry she finished her mences some days on Mina we don't know exactly when so she went and she did the the tawaf of ifadah which is the tawaf of hajj now on the 13th when they're gonna come back to Mina to sorry to Medina Aisha says ya Rasulullah are all of your wives going to go back having performed an umrah and a hajj and I only have hajj it's not fair so the Prophet ﷺ said Ya Aisha, it's sufficient that you did the tawaf, you did everything you have it, meaning ifrah, it's fine, no big deal but Aisha said your wives will have double and I'll have one no that's not gonna happen so she insisted and as all good husbands do when your wife insists you give up so our Prophet ﷺ then told Abdur Rahman her brother, Ibn Abi Bakr, to take her to... Where did he take her? Was it called Masjid Aisha back then? Obviously not. Tan'im. Tan'im is the closest place to Mecca outside of its haram. So the haram of Mecca, call it a circle or whatever, so the smallest distance from the Ka'bah to the circle of Mecca, the circle of the haram, excuse me, will be Tan'im, clear? Right? So it's not a full circle, it's more of an oblong thing. So the smallest distance would be Tan'im. so he told Abdurrahman ibn al-Bakr take her to Tan'eem put her in a haram and do the umrah with her sorry let her do the umrah Abdurrahman himself did not do umrah by the way this is interesting he's accompanying Aisha but he does not do umrah you may listen to my lecture online about the fiqh of umrah I go into all of the madahib about should you do multiple umrahs when you're inside of Mecca and I go into all of this and you know it's clear in my humble opinion it's permissible but it's not the encouraged thing to do it's permissible Aisha did it, she insisted so she did it but her own brother and none of the sahaba repeated the umrah but it shows it's halal it's nothing wrong so the one who wants to do it, let him do it don't make a big deal Aisha insisted, khalas let her go so she does her umrah and they then go back to and they meet up, the process is already left by the way So they meet him back on the journey and they make their way back to Medina. One very important final incident which we have to discuss just briefly. And that is the incident that is a very big source of controversy between the Sunni and the Shia schools of thought. It is very important for the Shia this incident. And for us this incident really is an innocent story. It's a very simple explanation. but for the Shia this story becomes the basis of Ali being the next Khalifa for us the story is so innocent that Ibn Hisham and others they mention it just like almost in passing it's not anything of that significance it's a context, you understand the context, it's pretty clear no big deal, but for the Shia this story becomes the basis really of Ali being the Khalifa so in the books of seerah in the books of hadith this is well known the sunnis do not change history the sunnis are not embarrassed about anything there's this charge that always comes that the sunnis hide the blessings of Ali no wallahi Ali radiallahu anhu is of the best of the sahaba and his blessings are more than can be narrated and he was the son-in-law and the cousin and the al-bayt and his blessings are on and on and on but Abu Bakr and Uman and Uthman are also blessed and Abu Bakr deserved to be the khalifa before him. His time came when he was worthy of it and he was worthy of it. But Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman رضي الله عنهم أجمعين they are also righteous people and we don't compete between them. Ali deserved to be the khalifa and he became the khalifa when he deserved to be the khalifa. In any case, that's not the point right now. What is this incident? It is the incident that is called غدير خم the well of خم غدير خم the well of خم and it occurred the next day outside of Mecca and it's a very innocent story from the Sunni perspective. What happened? So, where did Ali come from? Remind me. Yemen. He's coming from Yemen. And as he's coming from Yemen, obviously he has his entourage with him. He has his people under him. And he has the wealth of Yemen, the zakat, the sadaqah, all of this he has. And he has 100 camels for the Prophet ﷺ. Now, he arrives in Mecca. He's very excited. He rushes to meet the Prophet ﷺ. He leaves somebody in charge of his entourage. the person he leaves in charge his name is mentioned he decides to distribute new clothes to the entire entourage from the treasury from the sadaqah like we deserve this basically this is our pay so he takes new clothes and he gives it to all of them and Yemen was known for his good clothes by the way Yemeni clothes were very good clothes and cloth was good cloth and he basically made his own ishtihad that we deserve this and we're supposed to look good now we're coming to the people. Now this was technically what? It's not allowed. Ali comes back and he is incensed. How could you do this? Take the clothes off your backs and put them back in the sadaqah. And so how do you think they're gonna feel? Not too happy. They're grumbling, they're mumbling, they're angry and as soon as they get the opportunity right after hajj they complain to the Prophet ﷺ. Not in hajj, hajj is going on, let's finish up hajj. Soon as hajj finishes, They complained to the Prophet ﷺ. So the Prophet ﷺ then gives that paragraph that is known as the Sermon of Ghadir Khum. And in it he says that, he praises Ali رضي الله عنه. And he says that, whoever is the Mawla of Ali, then I am the Mawla of Ali. And Ali is to me like Harun and Musa. So he praises him in a very, very high manner. And there's no denying this. and he rebukes those people for criticizing Ali and they deserved to be rebuked who are you to take these garments out of the box out of the charity and what not and distribute it's not yours to do and he says that Ali is indeed the Mawla Allah has protected Ali and Allah loves Ali so stop complaining to me about Ali stop complaining to me about Ali and he says that and this is where he also says that I'm leaving behind me two things. As for the first of them, hold on to it, it is the book of Allah. And as for the second, fear Allah with regards to my family, fear Allah with regards to my family. Now it's very important here. He did not say, hold on to my family. He said, fear Allah with regards to my family, meaning, make sure you treat them well. Make sure you treat them well, and you are hurting Ali and hurting Ali is hurting me and all of this is legitimate and valid and we have no problems affirming all of these blessings, but the context is clear, the context is crystal clear and that is why, simple point when our procession passes away four months later and the sahaba are gathered together none of them, including the supporters of Ali mention Ghadir Khum it wasn't in their minds that Ghadir Khum is about the Khilafah. It wasn't in their minds that Ghadir Khum is about who's gonna be the next person in charge. It was simply in the context of what's going on, stop irritating me about Ali. He is of my family. And he's done the right decision and you guys are wrong. And that's absolutely valid. Nothing there to basically read into. So this is the incident of Ghadir Khum. And as I said from our perspective, it's all valid. It completely happened. But we don't read in, what don't we read in? politics we don't read in politics and the sahaba did not read in politics either and this is of the blessings of Ali so the final point we conclude with this inshallah ta'ala of the main benefits of the sermon of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam obliterating all of the customs of jahiliyyah obliterating the ways of jahiliyyah and beginning with his own family to demonstrate the reality of what he is preaching this is a new beginning for the rest of the ummah all old laws are gone under my foot and new laws of Islam will come our Prophet ﷺ stressed the rights of the Muslims amongst each other strengthening the ties of the ummah that was of paramount importance if the ummah was not united then the Persian empire would not be conquered in a few years and the Roman empire would not be carved into half and the Muslims would not conquer half of the known world that wouldn't happen so he is preparing the foundation for the expansion of the Ummah. He is obliterating Jahili tribes and Jahili racism. These are the two main things that divide the Ummah to this day. We don't have tribes anymore, we have nation states and we still have racism. Skin color, ethnicity, nation states, all of these, what are they? Figments of the imagination. إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عَنْدَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ He emphasized the rights of women and most importantly, he left them with the primary source of law. He said, hold on to it, And that is the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Insha'Allah ta'ala, with that we have gone very long today. But as you know, we are finishing up, so you're gonna have to bear with me. And our last seerah will be insha'Allah ta'ala this Saturday, 7 p.m. sharp. 7 p.m. sharp will be this Saturday insha'Allah ta'ala. So it will be an extra long. We'll be finishing up the episodes of the seerah with the final sickness and then the death of our Prophet ﷺ. And I will see you then. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.